Tank of the Month - October 2007 - Page 10

SCIFI_3D_zoo · #**226** 12/04/2007, 09:31 AM

THat's nice to know that brown-out can change. I just put my new 14K HQI's in last night and altho nice it didn't alter the color much on my sps's. The Diver's Den pics had all these nice colors... now they're brown. So... what do you mean by nutrients.. specific stuff (food, Ca+, trace elements?).. or just in general?

What do you use for sps glue? Do you use anything to stick rock together?

By 3:1 do you mean wattage or just the # of bulbs?

pwhitby · #**227** 12/04/2007, 10:31 AM

Reefs:

There was a table in that room:
heres a pic from before I added the false wall:

and this was the room before I added the tank.

The room itself has yet to be furnished. I intend to make a bar the same as the cabinetry of the tank to fit into a bay window. Add some book cases and a large (LARGE) leather couch.....what more could a guy ask for.

pwhitby · #**228** 12/04/2007, 10:32 AM

AS far as snails and hermits go....I do not have any. I dont have a clean up crew at all. The only things that could be considered as such would be the two conchs, the cucumber and a red serpent star.

Paul.

pwhitby · #**229** 12/04/2007, 10:51 AM

wattage, or number...its the same.

I use superglue gel glue.

As for nutrients, any protein, phosphate or nitrate in the water can lead to loss of color. --as can too low Ca or Alk.

Paul.

Zoom · #**230** 12/04/2007, 07:41 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by pwhitby
AS far as snails and hermits go....I do not have any. I don't have a clean up crew at all. The only things that could be considered as such would be the two conchs, the cucumber and a red serpent star.

Paul.

Same here.....I don't think after all this years i find snails /hermits to be a necessity in my reef tank .

SCIFI_3D_zoo · #**231** 12/04/2007, 07:59 PM

I'm sure all the people who sell this stuff would be very unhappy to hear that. I hardly have had any in my tank for a few years now. Maybe it's mostly b/c we're talking about really well established tanks. But I also had some crabs eating some of my yellow colonial polyps. Probably another sign that I didn't need them since there wasn't much for them to eat. I also read that crabs wait for you to put fresh food in and don't take care of much waste. Some snails are good... never had a conch. Right now I have a few sandsifting snails, sand star, and a big black cucumber. They all clean the sand for me well.

reefsahoy · #**232** 12/04/2007, 08:06 PM

how do you keep the sand clean?

SCIFI_3D_zoo · #**233** 12/04/2007, 08:20 PM

Clean from what? Algae, detrius, excess food? Algae is always a constant fight.. off and on. Clean the sand to get rid of the rest. Keep nutrients down, run a refugium to combat algae. The cucumber I have cleans the sand all day. Sand sifting snails comes up out of the sand everytime I feed to clean up. I just put some new sand in so right now it's ultra white and clean. I'm still working on how to keep it that way myself. But over time it does seem to accumulate too much for the tank to get rid of. I cleaned it up, took out some, put in a small bag of live sand.. good as new. My old sand was about 3-4 years old.

pwhitby · #**234** 12/04/2007, 08:46 PM

i really dont do anything to keep the sand clean.

Remember I have a pretty good skimmer, so Im guessing it removes most of the nutrients before they have time to settle and cause algal blooms.

The conchs stire the sand I guess, but that is it.

Paul.

SCIFI_3D_zoo · #**235** 12/06/2007, 12:42 PM

Do you do 100 hour burn-ins when you get new bulbs? Sorta like QT'n your lighting.

I was also wondering when I changed my HQI bulbs out... I didn't have any new actinics on me.. should I change the actinics too? I've read about how 20K bulbs aren't really useful to corals much. Is the main reason we use 20K actinics is just to simulate dawn/dush.. or do clams or something really use it? I also wondered if I'm reading about how sps's don't really use 20K bulbs of any type for growth then why are they all over frag tanks? THat's what I remember reading. Maybe they are useful but you just get more growth with 10K.

pwhitby · #**236** 12/06/2007, 01:00 PM

i dont use MH, so there is no requirement for a burn in.

actinics do provide a useful color spectrum for growth. I have seen many tanks with just 20K bulbs that have great growth.

Rickyrooz1 · #**237** 12/06/2007, 02:55 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by pwhitby
i dont use MH, so there is no requirement for a burn in.

actinics do provide a useful color spectrum for growth. I have seen many tanks with just 20K bulbs that have great growth.

What Giesemann T-5 bulb are you using the Aqua Blue+ and the Actinic+?

pwhitby · #**238** 12/06/2007, 04:14 PM

RR.
yes, both of those.

SCIFI_3D_zoo · #**239** 12/08/2007, 11:15 PM

What do you use to glue your corals to rock? Hopefully it's an underwater solution. Did you use anything to glue rock together too?

SCIFI_3D_zoo · #**240** 12/16/2007, 09:36 AM

I keep reading about S.G. levels should ideally be 1.026 but you say yours is 1.024. What's your opinion about S.G.

SCIFI_3D_zoo · #**241** 12/16/2007, 01:03 PM

One more question Paul. I noticed.. you have the mix of Tangs and Wrasses. Some are herbivores, some carnivores. But you only use "green" TherA pellets? If I remember right you do put in other meaty items once a week or so. But still, you use green pellets mostly? I was looking at the package on the pellets I have and it does list some stuff like squid, and some other meaty stuff but it is a "green" pellet for herbivores. All my fish are eating this stuff but I wonder how healty it is for the meat eaters.. if it's giving them what they need. Once a week I do a frozen meat cube.

That trigger you have is so beautiful but ... it's a trigger. I can't find specific info on it but I think you said you keep it well fed and watch it all the time to see if it's causing problems... but triggers can mess up rock, eat corals, be aggressive, etc.? .. or is the pink tail different? Probably nothing I could mess with in a 90 gal anyway.. but curious.