OK! Enough chat...Starting a 1000g+ Reef

[erics3000]

Originally posted by jnarowe
yeah that was a little weird over in the Vortech thread. I would hate to think I caused the lock, but it seems I had something to do with it. oh well. The Eco-Tech guys mean well.

Are you guys talking about the diy thread that was shut down?

[melev]

The DIY thread isn't shut down. I just got a notification to it seconds ago. http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...4#post10740364

[mrcrab]

Originally posted by melev
Would it make a difference if you use brown sugar or confectioners sugar, instead of raw sugar?

Looks like white granulated sugar Marc.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=898931&highlight=sugar

[melev]

I've been avoiding that thread for some time now. Man has it grown! I need the cliff notes version. Or maybe some Algone.

EDIT: I read page 1 and page 23. Seems some suffer from dinoflagellates after using sugar. That isn't something I'd want to deal with in my tank.

[dhnguyen]

Speaking of DIY
Have you guys seen this? http://video.google.fr/videoplay?doc...46981957490829
http://video.google.fr/videoplay?doc...73818229&hl=fr

Kinda loud but it has potential

[erics3000]

Thanks Marc I will check that thread out..

Dhnguyen..What the hell was that thing it sounded like an outboard motor.

[melev]

Originally posted by dhnguyen
Speaking of DIY
Have you guys seen this? http://video.google.fr/videoplay?doc...46981957490829
http://video.google.fr/videoplay?doc...73818229&hl=fr

Kinda loud but it has potential

I like your first link, as it had no sound. Did you see the motor moving all over the glass? I'm sure glad my VorTech doesn't do that!

This one made me laugh at the very end.
http://video.google.fr/videoplay?doc...19460495300543

[jnarowe]

Originally posted by erics3000
Are you guys talking about the diy thread that was shut down?

No, just one of the threads about the WWD.

[jnarowe]

great vids guys. I needed a good laugh this morning!

[jnarowe]

And imagine how RANDOM the flow would be if the Vortechs moved all over the glass!!

[dhnguyen]

[thedude15810]

Ok Jonathan sent me a PM about some schooling fish so lets get a discussion going (your PM box if full FYI );

"My basic needs are:

1. fish that do not exceed 3" (I would prefer < 2.5") but not too small so that they do not get snatched and fed to the anemones.

2. A true reef-safe fish;

3. A true schooling cardinalfish.

Some cardinals are very shy and like to hide, and I am looking for serious shoaling energy. My target is 30 - 40 fish and I understand that many of them don't ship well.

If you thumb through my thread on RF, you will see pictures and links.

Species:

Apogon parvulus
Apogon dispar"

So on to my thoughts... first off, I think pajama cardinals are ugly and gross. I can't justify that feeling or find a reason for it but I just do SO I explore some weird cardinals.

First thing to note, is that cardinals are often as finicky as green chromis for a LFS ie: if they're poorly collected, they will all die no matter what you do. I've had batches of 10-20 cardinals eat and drop off day by day, I've had them dead in bag ALOT, and I've had entire groups survive. They are a delicate fish that I believe need to be in bag for as little time as possible. That being said, they normally eat frozen food readily and try to get them eating some kind of fat and vitamin supplement as quickly as possible.

My personal experience has been limited to the common cardinals (pajama, bangaii) and a couple of the not so common (Flame, orange striped, black striped, blue eye or glass or longfin). Looking at a wholesale list, they have black striped and flame cardinals available today but in small quantities, so getting large cardinal schools is hard.

Further looking into the cardinals that have come through this particular wholesaler, I see 4 species;

Apogon, Pempheris, Pterapogon, and Sphaeramia.

For the sake of this discussion, the cardinals we're focusing on are in the Apogon species. Now my experience says that any apogon cardinalfish will not attack another member of its genus (ie: I've mixed flames, blacks, and oranges in a holding tank with no fighting).

I don't see parvulus or dispar having ever come through here and I imagine that they come from somewhere near Japan (ie: we don't get that many in America). I also see two different examples of cardinals coming in as Apogon sp. (which is REALLY helpful when looking for a specific fish )

The varietals I do see are (again no idea on how many they collect at a time or anything really except the few species fore mentioned):

Flame Apogon maculatus
Longspine Apogon leptacanthus
Orange Lined Apogon sp.
Striped Apogon sp.
Black Striped Apogon nigrofasciatus
Red Stop Lite Apogon crassiceps
Orange Lined Apogon cyanosoma
Apogon, Bandtail, Black Spot Apogon taeniatus
Yellow Tail Apogon sp Philippines
Red Tail Apogon sp Philippines


So I guess with my limited experience with Apogon cardinals, I would suggest that you either get a large school combining the different species or go with the more common but incredibly powerful school of glass cardinals. Glass cardinals (leptacanthus) always stick close to each other and are a really great addition for some serious schooling fish.

Hope that helps,

John

[jnarowe]

cleaned the box out John, sorry about that!

Anyway, so how about the glass cardinalfish? How many can you get together?

[melev]

Jonathan, be sure to clear out your SENT folder as well.

[thedude15810]

I've seen glass cardinals come in with much large numbers before, but again I'm always weary ordering 100 fish that might really suck. I'll speak to a couple people this week and see what they think.

John

[jnarowe]

yeah yeah, Marc! Got it covered. I wish I could just set it to auto dump the sent file. I also wish there was some visual gauge so I would know when I need to clean out the box... Maybe you can put in a word at HQ?

Thanks John!

[melev]

If you look at the main page with all the forums, scroll down to the bottom and it will tell you how many PMs you have. Or if you click on "Show Left Column" (also on the main forums page), you'll see it listed on the left.

Whenever I send a PM, I always uncheck the "Save Copy". I think I've saved 3 PMs sent on RC in all the years I've been here. I only keep them if it might be a legal matter.

[buttons buster]

If a fish were to hit the propeller in the video, if would be sushi

[jnarowe]

uh, good tip on unchecking "save copy"...

[jnarowe]

So I lost a third coral in as many weeks. I guess I could call this a slow-burn crash. Although the tank looks better, I still see corals slowly suffering, while others seem unphased.

I vacuum out some more sand and will change the Rowa and carbon tomorrow.

On a more positive note, I forgot to turn off the water flow when I opened my skimmer for cleaning today...I took Marc's advice and figured out the movie maker...

[mrcrab]

You're an evil, sick and twisted man!


Sorry to hear about the corals.

[jnarowe]

Thank you. I resemble that. Good jokes you sent too!

[Hop]

That is a very interesting video... I'm still trying to decide if it was art or a documentary

[jnarowe]

You guys should all be in bed. seriously. My videos should only be veiwed by people that are too drunk to go to sleep and have nothing better to do.

[Hop]

Well I don't drink alcohol anymore. Have not had a sip since march. So I get jacked up on coffee and surf the net late