Melev's new 280g Starfire tank thread - Page 11

Micki · #**251** 11/24/2007, 08:14 PM

Awww, I just saw about your CBB. I'm sorry.

spleen93 · #**252** 11/25/2007, 02:31 AM

Me too. Sorry, Marc.

Spleen

melev · #**253** 11/25/2007, 02:38 AM

Had I not forgotten to turn my pumps back on in 2005, I'd probably still have that gorgeous CBB to this day. I knew when I lost that one that it would be a nightmare to replace it.

I called my LFS to let him know what happened. I think we're going to feed the hawkfish to his shark, then get a new CBB.

Just kidding.

Sort of.

melev · #**254** 11/25/2007, 03:53 AM

Micki · #**255** 11/25/2007, 07:24 AM

Question is will the longnose go in??? I bet he read what you said a few posts ago!

unicornis · #**256** 11/25/2007, 08:33 AM

Nice tank

That purple tang is grogeous... So deep in purple

invincible569 · #**257** 11/25/2007, 09:24 AM

Hey Marc.. just browsed around through your BLOG. Loved the photos and experiences you shared.

Dudester · #**258** 11/25/2007, 11:48 AM

Sorry about your CBB Marc. You should have waited for the fish whisperer to come through for you. I hope the capture of the longnose goes well.

drstupid · #**259** 11/25/2007, 11:59 AM

i had a hard time getting a CBB to live, went through about three trying different degrees of quarantine, coaxing to eat, etc. i finally had success with a mulleri, a friend had been on a waiting list at liveaquaria for about a year and i got in on the order with him. it was much larger than the CBB's at the local stores, in much better condition, and started feeding in just a couple of days.

it may be that i just got that 1 in 100 early on, but that friend's fish is still around too, and he's had his share of bad luck with livestock over the years. i think a lot of success with these guys comes with getting them eating and getting them acclimated when they come off the reef, and the folks at liveaquaria are very good with their husbandry.

jnarowe · #**260** 11/25/2007, 12:05 PM

I hear so much about getting them to eat and I actually starved mine (in a way). I QT'd mine in a tank with nothing but system rock with aiptasia on it. I never fed it while it was in QT, and it was in there for about a month.

Goodwin9 · #**261** 11/25/2007, 12:14 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by jnarowe
I hear so much about getting them to eat and I actually starved mine (in a way). I QT'd mine in a tank with nothing but system rock with aiptasia on it. I never fed it while it was in QT, and it was in there for about a month.

then what happened???

jnarowe · #**262** 11/25/2007, 12:30 PM

Once I was thoroughly satisfied that it was eating aiptasia, I put it in the display. It has been fine ever since. My situation is a bit different in that because of the size of my reef, there may be enough food for it being generated. It does come up to the glass to check me out, and it hangs with the rest of the fish just fine. No aggression against it at all.

I have not seen it eat any food that I feed the tank though, even though it is out and about at feeding time. The way it moves and eats is in very quick bursts, so I could be missing it eating the food.

It is a beautiful fish, and I was inspired to get it because of Marc, and a crushing aiptasia problem. I had thousands of the buggers in my tank and nothing was working to get rid of them. Once I put the CBB in the tank, the aiptasia were gone within a week or two. I never saw it eat one either. And I had some extremely large ones that were in the 3 - 4" diameter range. I have no idea how that little fish ate them all.

jimmyPx · #**263** 11/25/2007, 01:01 PM

Hello,

I bought a CBB from liveaquaria.com about a month ago. He is doing very well and while I have never seen him eat any aptasia, they are all mysteriously disappearing (and I dont have any shrimp in the tank).

I have found that the main food that he likes to eat is the Hikari brand of frozen mysis shrimp. He will eat one or two of those cubes all by himself.

Now maybe this is what liveaquaria feeds their CBBs or not, but if you have a CBB, try that food and see if they will eat it.

melev · #**264** 11/26/2007, 12:05 AM

Spock swam into and out of the Tucker Trapper II today.

My RO/DI system has been running for over 5 years now. And in all those years, I've never cleaned it out 100%. However, I recently had to change the membrane, and when I did I created a webpage how to do so as well.

That would have been a great time to clean the membrane housing in a mild bleach-water solution, but I didn't.

However, today (a few days later) I decided to change all my filters and when I did that, I proceeded to soak the housings in bleach water. Using a 6g empty salt bucket, I filled it up with 5g of hot water and a few ounces of bleach, mixing it up well. Each acrylic housing was then placed in the solution after I'd removed the large black O-ring. After 10 minutes, each housing was rinsed and then hand washed with soapy water, and rinsed again under hot water. Once they were completely dried off, I reinstalled the cleaned O-rings and replaced each cartridge in their proper position.

It would have been smart to clean the membrane housing as well, but I didn't feel like breaking the unit down to that point today, as I needed to start collecting water for a 55g water change.

I let the unit run for about 10 minutes to flush out anything that might be in the lines, tested the TDS and it was 2. Then I inserted the new DI cartridge and let it run for another 5 minutes. TDS was 0.

Making sure your RO/DI system is running properly, and limiting the risk of bacterial growth within the unit, is very important. For this first barrel of RO/DI water, I'm going to pour in a capful of Prime in case any chlorine managed to pass through from my cleaning.

Now the RO system looks sparkling clean and I feel confident in it for another 5 years.

zibba · #**265** 11/26/2007, 01:08 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by jimmyPx
Hello,

I bought a CBB from liveaquaria.com about a month ago. He is doing very well and while I have never seen him eat any aptasia, they are all mysteriously disappearing (and I dont have any shrimp in the tank).

I have found that the main food that he likes to eat is the Hikari brand of frozen mysis shrimp. He will eat one or two of those cubes all by himself.

Now maybe this is what liveaquaria feeds their CBBs or not, but if you have a CBB, try that food and see if they will eat it.

I know that you like to support your LFS especially for livestock, but I have had the same experience as jimmyPx. I knew that I wanted a CBB long before my tank was set up (remember that old desktop background for windows with the yellow tangs following the CBB? - yeah that was my inspiration) but knew that they were difficult. None of the LFS had a health looking CBB, so I gave liveaquaria a shot after 24 hours it was eating Hikari mysis. I offered PE mysis, Hikari mysis and Brine Shrimp together and it definitely preferred mysis over the brine. I've never seen mine eat aptasia, but there is none to be found in my tank (and I don't have pepperments). I got the CBB in early September and it has been doing really well for the past 3 months (knock on wood).

I'm sorry for your loss and I certainly don't mean to rub this in after your loss, but figured that if you were still determined, this might be another route. At least there are two people who can attest to healthy/successful CBBs from liveaquaria.

HTH,
- Z

melev · #**266** 11/26/2007, 01:22 AM

That is a good point and I had an excellent experience with my order from them (the Lyretail Anthias), so I may end up going that route.

jnarowe · #**267** 11/26/2007, 01:26 AM

That's cool about Spock...I still remember the Tucker flick. My 3 heps are starting to get rambunctious. I hope I don't have to pull them. I know something has started annoying my clams, but i haven't caught the bugger in action yet.

Micki · #**268** 11/26/2007, 05:46 AM

My blue hep tang ate almost all of my zoas and I couldn't catch him. He wouldn't go near the fish trap even after only feeding the tank from the trap for 4 days! Now the zoas are growing back and I haven't seen him touch them. I'm hoping he will leave them alone now.

jnarowe · #**269** 11/26/2007, 10:06 AM

he probably got sick to his stomach after eating them.

Micki · #**270** 11/26/2007, 11:11 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by jnarowe
he probably got sick to his stomach after eating them.

He must be a slow learner then he did it for several months!

jnarowe · #**271** 11/26/2007, 11:43 AM

or have a short memory!

raddogz · #**272** 11/26/2007, 12:37 PM

I purchased a Mueller's from the Marine Center - very healthy when I received it, but it wouldn't eat anything in my tank at the time and wasted away along with ich.

It would pick at my LPS namely Caulestra when it's feeding tentacles would come out and then proceeded to nip at all the sps.

Lesson learned.

Micki · #**273** 11/26/2007, 09:26 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by jnarowe
or have a short memory!

Nice...

That was a pretty good one!

melev · #**274** 11/29/2007, 03:30 PM

Two nights ago, I added a full container of Chemi-Clean to my system and took the skimmer offline. And today I have beautiful white sand. Ah. I can finally enjoy looking at my tank again.

I picked up some muriatic acid last night so I can get my skimmer clean, as coralline inside of it was getting pretty thick. While the skimmer is out, I'll clean out all the stuff I can out of the sump, the overflows, and maybe the prop section. I've had new water mixed up for several days ready to for a water change.

TRITON1 · #**275** 11/29/2007, 06:36 PM

I just used some chemi-clean on a friends tank and it works miracles. Its a good idea to alternate chemi-clean with another product (like Red Slime remover) since cyano is a bacteria and could gain immunity to one brand.