Skimmerless 40G Breeder ~ Specs & Pics. - Page 5

TRITON1 · #**101** 05/06/2007, 11:57 PM

The pictures seem to show that you have no algae (nuissance type) issues. Am I right in saying that the macro algae and the cleanup crew take care of that (and the yellow tang that snuck in those last pics

)? Or do you have some other advice?

As a side note, concerning the tang (no sirens) - does he not produce too much waste or is it easily consumed? I always thought of tangs as messy fish (feces-wise, although ive read most of it is undigested plant material)

firstimereefer · #**102** 05/08/2007, 04:06 PM

Hello from down in Racine, I just wanted to say your tank is awesome, and I can only hope my new 60G looks just as clean as yours. How is the tang doing? I am new to the hobby, but I thought they needed a bigger tank. I also love your yellow stripped cardinals and I want a school in the new bigger tank, but I ma worried that they will pick on my shrimp. Can you tell me more about them?

Aquabucket · #**103** 05/09/2007, 10:36 AM

TRITON1 ~ I don't have any issues with algae mainly because the chaeto was established from day one. My clean-up crew mostly consists of hermit crabs and a single turbo snail. The waste from the YT is quickly cleaned up by the hermits.

firstimereefer ~ The tang will need a larger tank probably by the end of the summer. Since I work at a fish store I have the luxury of swapping out fish when I want. The tang I have now was in pretty bad shape with torn fins as a small juvi. I also had a red lettuce macro that was getting out of control. The macro was key in nursing the tang back to health and the tang was key in illuminating the macro algae.

The cardinals schooled up nice for about 6 months then a quest for domination set-in. The biggest one ended up killing the 2 smaller ones in a matter of days. This can sometimes happen with striped cardinals. You may have better success in a larger tank. They may harass and try to eat your shrimp and their mouths are quite big for their size.

firstimereefer · #**104** 05/09/2007, 03:33 PM

Thanks for the info I appreciate.

guntercb · #**105** 05/10/2007, 11:41 AM

First off sweet tank!!! I like it.

Quote:

I utilize wads of Chaetomorphia algae that is hidden behind the back rock wall for orthophosphate removal

Can you post a picture or explain how you hide the Chaeto?

Thanks,
Chris

pbukow · #**106** 05/11/2007, 01:19 AM

Beautiful tank,love the bubble and hammer corals.

Do they ever extend their tentacles when u feed them? . . . do you feed them? My hammer has never extended his yet

SLODEN53 · #**107** 05/12/2007, 11:07 AM

This is one gorgeous softie tank! Very nice photographs too. Your lights out for 3 days is something I have done on my 50 gallon softie tank to get rid of a green alga growth. I also covered the tank with a large towel for these 3 days and only turned on the actinic lights when I fed the fish. And on the 4th. day I only ran the actinic lights. After the 4 days the water was crystal clear and the substrate a pristine white, just like yours.

I also have a 30 gallon softie tank and have a problem with green fern type alga growth and green bubble algae. I wonder if the 3 days lights out would get rid of the bubble algae?

Like your beautiful tank, my 30 gallon (9 months young) is also packed with softies, many of the same as you have. I do not have the VHO lights on it but rather a 65 watt PC light with a white and blue bulb. On my 50 gallon I do have the VHO lighting and things in there are thriving! It is 5 months young.

I do run a skimmer on both of my tanks though and am amazed that you don't have one on yours and it is thriving and gorgeous!

After seeing yours and how stunningly beautiful it is, I now am going to add the VHO lighting on the 30 gallon and do the 3 day lights out beginning tommorrow as I just finished doing some "re-decorating" due to to much water flow on my pink bubble coral and the stirring of the sand bed and blowing off the live rock of sediment with a turkey baster. I do this on a weekly basis and everthing in the tanks love this and begin feeding on the nutrients that settle to the substrate.

Once again, absolutely gorgeous softie tank and photos!

Kudos to your husbandry skills!

Susie

Aquabucket · #**108** 05/14/2007, 01:14 PM

guntercb ~ I'll try to post a picture next time I get a camera. Basically my rock wall is 3-4" from the back glass and there is plenty of room there for the chaeto.

pbukow ~ My bubble coral extends its tentacles during dusk mode everyday like clockwork. My hammers like yours never do. I don't feed the bubble because I don't want it to grow anymore but I do feed the hammers minced shrimp once and awhile.

SLODEN53 ~ Thank you Susie for the very kind words and comments! I don't think a 3 day black-out will cure your algae problems but in conjunction with manual removal it can help. Basting is also a key part of my regimen and I recommend it to all hobbyists. What kind of lighting are you going to get? Good luck and feel free to post a pic of your tank if you like.

2farNorth · #**109** 05/14/2007, 08:49 PM

Awesome tank Aquabucket!!! Those tank room photos with the projector are just wild!!

guntercb · #**110** 05/15/2007, 07:17 AM

Aquabucket,

So you can just stuff chaeto behind the rock and it grows well? I have never had chaeto, but I thought it had to tumble. I guess not?

On my next small tank I am going to consider trying the chaeto behind the rock work too.

Cheers,
Chris

Aquabucket · #**111** 05/15/2007, 09:11 AM

It grows very well with-out tumbling. Tumbling will make it grow even faster though. Definitely put some in your tank. It is a very good at removing orthophosphate.

SLODEN53 · #**112** 05/16/2007, 12:11 AM

Aquabucket,
You mention manually removing the algae, the bubble algae too? I have taken a soft bristle toothbrush and lightly scrubbed the algae off of the live rock before a routine water change. But I have been told that I should not attempt to remove the bubble algae as it will only cause it to spread.

Interestingly enough, I have noticed that in many of the photos I see of really nice tanks, there is bubble algae lurking in the background. Is there any specific type of fish, crab, etc., that will eat this bubble algae?

I put some peppermint shrimp in the 30 gallon reef tank and they have done a nice job on eradicating most of the aiptasia (sp?).

I hope to be able to add a Corallife light that has a 150 watt Metal Halide along with the actinic lights sometime in the near future. I have had the 65 watt PC lights off for 2 days now and when I turn them on to feed, it appears that the fern like algae is taking a nose dive. But the green bubble algae is still thriving.

MrSpiffy · #**113** 05/16/2007, 08:16 AM

I hear emerald crabs eat bubble algae. Might be worth a shot. I have a couple little bubbles sprouting up, too. If you can remove it without breaking the bubbles, you're fine. But I'm thinking that's not exactly easy to do.

getsteppin · #**114** 05/16/2007, 10:58 AM

For a tank to have such water great turn over/O2 and be so healthy, without a skimmer, what does the sump look like?

I stated my set up, from the sump, Up.

Aquabucket · #**115** 05/16/2007, 11:26 AM

Susie ~ The best way to remove bubble algae I have found is to manually remove them with a tweezers and a syphon. I use standard airline tubing and a water jug. You will find that the airline tubing with give you plenty of time to tweeze and siphon before the gallon jug fills up. Its important to attack the bubble algae as soon as it appears.

getsteppin ~ I don't have a sump. I have 4 powerheads in each corner and an HOB filter for flow. Flow is important in a tank like mine as you want to keep organics in suspension so they can be filtered out or passed through the corals and other organisms that may consume them.

Snowboarda42 · #**116** 05/16/2007, 11:52 PM

Very Nice!! I hope mine looks like yours one day!

I used the Chaeto in Soap-Dish Method and it works awesome! Grows like crazy too!

Keep up the great work!

rob28 · #**117** 05/23/2007, 01:37 PM

WOW>>>>>WOW......Awsome tank.I have direction now...>Thanks for sharing your tank

pbukow · #**118** 05/23/2007, 06:37 PM

How hard is it to keep your gorgonian, there is a red one with white polyps at my lfs and had read that they can be difficult to maintain

Aquabucket · #**119** 05/23/2007, 07:48 PM

Thanks for the kind words!

Quote:

Originally posted by pbukow
How hard is it to keep your gorgonian, there is a red one with white polyps at my lfs and had read that they can be difficult to maintain

I have had good luck with them in the past. Unfortunately my bubble coral stung the heck out of my last one and there was not much left to save. I ended up trading what was left for some zoos.

pbukow · #**120** 05/24/2007, 12:52 AM

Thats too bad, it was very beautiful. Thanks for the response

SLODEN53 · #**121** 05/24/2007, 02:23 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by MrSpiffy
I hear emerald crabs eat bubble algae. Might be worth a shot. I have a couple little bubbles sprouting up, too. If you can remove it without breaking the bubbles, you're fine. But I'm thinking that's not exactly easy to do.

Well, I had an emerald crab and it never touched the bubble algae, but instead I caught it nibbling on one of my frogspawns late one night! And then I noticed little chunks bitten out of some of my green striped mushrooms. Needless to say, the emerald crab was booted out of the tank!

SLODEN53 · #**122** 05/24/2007, 02:34 AM

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Aquabucket
[B]Susie ~ The best way to remove bubble algae I have found is to manually remove them with a tweezers and a syphon. I use standard airline tubing and a water jug. You will find that the airline tubing with give you plenty of time to tweeze and siphon before the gallon jug fills up. Its important to attack the bubble algae as soon as it appears.

Now this a very good idea. I have made attempts at removing the bubble algae with a pair of tweezers to only watch it float away to probably like a dandelion! Some of these growths of bubble algae are extremly hard and I could not get the tweezers to break through the outer "shell" or whatever it is called.

I think I might try with a single edged razor blade using the siphon method and water jug.

Very good method you shared! Thanks.

SLODEN53 · #**123** 05/24/2007, 02:46 AM

Quote:

[i]

Can you post a picture or explain how you hide the Chaeto?

Thanks,
Chris [/B]

Pardon my ignorance, but what is this Chaeto stuff?

pbukow · #**124** 05/24/2007, 04:45 PM

Cheato is short for "cheatomorphia" which is a type of macroalgae that is used in aquariums as a means of nutrient export from the water, as homes for microfauna such as copepods/amphipods/etc, as a natural environment for seahorse tanks or fry setups, or is fed as food to your fish. It is usually kept in refugiums but Aquabucket has his/hers behind his rockwork. It is very popular because it doesn't attach itself to anything, it grows in almost any light, and it doesn't go "sexual" like some of the other species do.

Other macroalgaes used for the same purposes are the caulerpa species and some of the calcifying species like Halimeda (although not as fast growing as some of the other non-calcifying types, i personally have it in my tank for its asthetic purposes).

Hoped this answered your question, and sorry if the information was seemed overkill, i was bored.

If i missed anything or had some misinformation in there anyone, please feel free to chime in and correct me

Aquabucket · #**125** 05/24/2007, 05:47 PM

^ What he said! ^

Good luck with your bubble algae!