Melev's new 280g Starfire tank thread

[GregM779]

Definitely start taking out the stars. Trust me I'm probably the worst lucked person when it comes to reef safe fish not being reef safe. You probably read about my blasto eating blonde naso tang. You should hook up a camera and record it when you're not around, you'll be amazed at how they act differently. Do you have any dwarf angels in there?? My flame angel loved my digitatas.

[melev]

I have a flame angel and a coral beauty. Maybe they are the problem. However, some of my surviving orange digitatas are doing well and look fine (although what is left is merely 5% of what I had originally).

[IBASSFSH]

I don't think you can calibrate the probe. I have three Red Sea Aqua-Zones and they have a cleaning solution for the probe and another chemical that when you put the probe in it will read like 400. If the probe reads more than 15 numbers different after cleaning, they say to replace the probe. I also recommend getting the lab grade models over the standard Pin Point. Other than that I have never seen a calibration fluid for an orp probe.
You can probably calibrate your Aqua controller to read what the probe sees in the test chemical, but someone correct me if I am wrong that orp probes read what they read?
I have seen my readings fluctuate when the probe was placed in high flow areas.
For what its worth my orp stays around 330. I will see if I can find a link for the chemicals that Red sea sells for their unit. Yours may work completly different.

[IBASSFSH]

Here is a packet of solution.
http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merch..._Code=Pinpoint

I believe even though it says calibration fluid, all it does is make your probe and controller read 400. If it doesn't then they will probably tell you to replace it.

You may be able to call them or shoot an e-mail to see what they say about the solution.

I could be way off base, but thats how I understand it to work.

[melev]

Thanks for your input.

Last night when I fed the suncorals, I had the pumps off. ORP was measured in the sump and had dropped to 443. An hour later, the pumps resumed power. Current reading is 482. Remember, it is a brand new probe.

[mcdonaldtj]

Time to get a Harlequin shrimp I think Melev. You will have to put any starfish that you want in the sump for a while but a buddy of mine got one to get rid of the asternia's and they were gone in a week with just one shrimp. They wont survive without a food source though so you will have to trade it off after the asternia's are gone.

[melev]

As many asterinas as I see, I could probably put in a few Harlequins. Getting the serpent starfish and the one brittle starfish out will be tough because I never see them. Then again, would I miss them later? Just kidding! I even have to find that hitchhiker starfish I posted in this thread a few months ago. I never see it either. I wonder where they are all hiding?!

[Travis]

Marc, could you post a pic of the starfish in question? Have you actually seen them eating your sps? I've seen the link on Garf and used to have a tank loaded with starfish that looked the exact same but they never touched my corals.

For some reason, I have not had the best luck with the blue-polyped digitata either. I can keep it alive and growing but I can't get the nice blue to come out on the polyps like when I first got it. I had it bleach out at one point and it took almost 3 months to recover. Shortly after I first got it it got one of those "gashes" you just mentioned. It looked like the flesh on the coral had cracked open from the base to about 2" up the branch. It continued to spread slowly so I dipped in reefdip and fragged off the good parts and threw out the infected part and everything has been fine since. Pretty sure the gash on mine was caused by the coral itself or an infection and not a predator in the tank.

Actually, I have not had luck with any montis in my tank except for caps. I've tried a blue with red polyp digi and a purple with green polyp digi and both died within a couple months. I also have a LE monasteriata that I can't get to do a thing. It has been dormant for like 6 months now. Not sure what my problem is. I used to not be able to clean all the digitatas out of my tank without removing the rock completely as it literally grew like a weed.

[melev]

Actually, I do have a picture of them. Let me find it.



Of course in this image, they look different. The bluish ones are the ones that need to go apparently. Although at this point if I had none, I'd sleep better.

If I have a fish eating the digitatas, at least I could understand it. The idea that a dwarf angel is nipping is plausible. That coral in my tank is virtually bone white now. I hate that. Okay, $80 wasted over two separate pieces, months apart. The only other option I have is to get one more and put it in the prop zone of my tank and see if it lives there with no fish to affect it at all. Hmm.

[Frontier]

I see lots of the little brown ones in my tank, and they have never touched my corals. I've never seen the bluish ones though.

[melev]

And in this picture, none of them look blue, right? Sorry, I'll see what I can do in the future to get a decent picture of them. There are thousands of tiny pieces of them in my tank, and they look blue in there.

My LFS is going to order in a couple of Harlequins for me. In the meantime I need to see if I can start pulling the bigger starfish out of the tank.

How do the Harlequins get the many starfish up on the glass? Do they just swim up there and pull them off?

[Travis]

Marc, mine were brown or white with green so the blue ones may be the bad ones. The ones I had that were brown look exactly like your brown ones. I still have the brown ones in my tank today and they don't seem to bother anything. I'm not sure I would even bother with manual removal, unless you are really bored. The harlequins should do the job, given enough time.

[melev]

Guess what? I just caught Fang doing the unthinkable. I believe my Asterinas are going to get a reprieve. Fang was up there chewing on my acropora frag that I got from Zenya at MACNA.

I didn't quite get photographic proof, but I saw him eating my SPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Frontier]

Bad fish! Bad!

[weatherson]

Marc,
Quinhydrone powder is used to calibrate an ORP probe. Fairly dangerous stuff so use with caution. Here's some links:

Supplies from Reef Splendor

Somewhat generic instructions.

Joseph

[melev]

GOT GOBY?





That was it. Fang was up in this coral repeatedly, making sure nothing else was left to live. I grabbed 10' of flexible 1" tubing, and a bucket. Within 4 gallons, it was out.





Casper has a new tank mate. Forget acclimation; Fang was on his own. (2.5 F degree drop)

[krajacich]

Hope Fang behaves himself in his new home and gets along with his roommate

[Bomber]

Originally posted by melev
Fang was up in this coral repeatedly, making sure nothing else was left to live.

DANG

From the looks of that picture, he about cleaned it off!!

[melev]

He did that in less than 40 hours. That piece is a goner.

[Randall_James]

Guess this means he is not "Reef Safe" ?

[Randall_James]

Interesting double post. (sure wish we could delete our own, sorry)

[melev]

Not Melev's Reef safe.

[melev]

Or maybe I'd be better to state, not SPS-safe. Dang fish.

[Hop]

He's just such a lil guy. Maybe there is hope and you can use some shock therapy as negative reinforcement...
-Or-


Works fine too

[melev]

If he was larger like Tucker, I'd grab him by the gills and have a chat with him....