180g Starphire A.G.E on its way!

[tbone28]

cool. good to know. What do mangroves do? And can I/should I place that in the fuge along with the chaeto?

 

[melev]

Mangroves need to put their roots into sand. I've seen people float them in a small piece of styrofoam, but that didn't work for me other than keeping the leaves out of the water. I just took a small container, filled it with sand and inserted the mangroves in, and placed that in my refugium. They are really there just for fun, rather than to expect them to do anything significant for my system.

 

[tbone28]

Thanks for explaining. I'll stick with the chaeto for now, since it's more functional.

I'm leaving my fuge lights on 12 hrs/night, and starting to get some brown algae on the sand bed. Is it OK to stick some Astreas in there?

 

[melev]

Sure, you can do that. They'll prefer to be on the glass and rock more than the sand. If they are upside down, you have to flip them right side up.

 

[tbone28]

What's good for the sandbed?

 

[melev]

Nassarius snails, cucumbers, a handful of hermit crabs...

 

[tbone28]

How much can the sandbed be disturbed w/o releasing bad stuff back into the system?

 

[melev]

Your cleanup crew won't cause any problems.

If you have a powerhead fall and blow half your sand to the other end of the tank, that is an issue worth being concerned about.

 

[tbone28]

OK, I got the picture now!

 

[Dudester]

You can avoid the buildup of harmful degradation products in the sandbed almost entirely by regularly siphoning and/or stirring the sand. This has the added benefit of keeping the sand nice and white along the front edge of the tank where it will be viewed, instead of allowing it to become encrusted with coralline algae and detritus. The downside to this approach is that it may require a little more time in maintenance, but I do it about every other week with water changes and it's really not so time consuming. I never siphoned or stirred the sand in my first tank and although looking at the evolution of the sandbed was interesting, it really wasn't very pretty, IMO.

 

[tbone28]

I lost my Sailfin this morning She was my 1st fish. Not sure what happened. She looked good, ate like a pig, water parameter are all WNL (nitrates a bit high at 20), but stopped eating yesterday and was breathing rapidly. Woke up this morning and she was gone.

Can't figure out the sudden crash in health.

The only changes I've made to the system recently:

1) add chaeto to the refugium
2) fire up my (2) phosbans (Rowaphos in each)

I'm thinking the phosbans may have released some media back into the system? Would that harm the livestock? I did run the phosbans into a bucket until the effluant was clear though.

Sad day, she was beautiful.

 

[tbone28]

I made a screen to prevent fish from jumping out. It was simple and cheap to make - made with garden netting and framing for window screens.

Pics:

 

[invincible569]

Sorry to hear about the fish tbone. Those types of surprises always happen, but we just have to move on.

As for the screen, did it affect your lighting intensity into the tank? I like the idea

 

[tbone28]

Edward: Yes, we have to move on. I called the owner of the LFS I bought it from, and he said it may have been a parasite on the gills; hence the rapid breathing. I've bought fish from him for many years, and they have always been healthy. I've never lost a fish from him after only a few weeks. He says he will give me a nice discount when his next Desjardini comes in

Regarding the screen, I can't notice any visible difference in intensity. I placed it over half of the tank and looked for shadows and darkness - looked like the other half of the tank.

I asked GrimReefer over on the T5 thread, and he says it shouldn't block any significant amounts of light or PAR. I'd think that using actual window screen would block out some of the intensity, as those holes are quite small.

It was very easy and quick to put together. You should give it a try. It won't look nice over your tank during the day, but you could put it on when the lights go out. My screen will be hidden behind my panelling, so I will leave it on 24/7

 

[Dudester]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11185856#post11185856 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tbone28
It won't look nice over your tank during the day, but you could put it on when the lights go out.

That's a fantastic idea! I absolutely love wrasses, firefish and bluespot jawfish, but I've been reluctant to add them to my tank due to the risk of jumping. This just may be the solution I'm looking for, as I also have a rimless open-top tank. How did you attach the netting to the screen frame?

 

[tbone28]

It's very easy.

Check out this link for a pic:

http://www.apexproducts.com/ccp0-prodshow/312X_Screen_Frame.html

You lay the screen over the frame, and push the rubber strip into the groove with the screen spline tool. Took me about 15 minutes

Edit: Ignore the price you see in the link. Not sure why it's so expensive there It cost me $16 for the framing/rubber strip, $6 for the screen, and $2 for the tool at Lowes

 

[Dudester]

Thanks for the rapid reply. I'll pick up the necessary supplies this weekend. Actually, since I'll only be using it at night, I could just use a regular window screen, since fish could possibly jump through the holes in the garden netting.

 

[tbone28]

Great Idea. You don't have to worry about light penetration. It might be tough to find the right size for your tank though? The framing can be cut to size.

 

[invincible569]

Terry, how is that screen working out for you? are you still satisfied?

 

[hahnmeister]

I was looking back through this thread, and its sort of interesting. My stand was through Tom Hudson as well, its a rare one according to him because I wanted to span a full 47" w/o the need for a center brace, and I know & you know the stands would be fine for this (esp considering my tank is only 21" tall), but he has engineering/libility requirements which require him to have a post every 43" otherwise. So he used a custom steel... 3.5"x1.5" square stock... just in case. It looks like you got this as well on yours... is that what he did?

I love the AGE stand... could park a car on it, and its good enough to be on display itself.