500G (84X48X30)- NOW REAL !
- Thread starter Sanjay
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TropTrea
New member
First off
I would recommend a CO2 detector in the area of your furnace and water heater. Even though our hous has just been rebuilt with new furnaces we had them put in near each of our furnaces.
As far as back drafts are concerned this depends a lot on the type of water heater, and furnace you have. The water heaters are usually the easiest to check as there is usually a flue pipe just above the heater. Simply put a thin peice of paper near or under the pipe and it should not be pushed by a draft comming out oof the pipe. Idealy when the water is being heated the heat rises into the pipe carring the bad gasses with it.
Now our furnaces would be another isue to check. They have both an inlet and outlet pipe that is basicly PVC that runs right into the fire box. I would imagine that the only way to check these for back drafts would be at the outside end ofg the pipes. But then that is were the CO2 detectors come in.
Dennis
I would recommend a CO2 detector in the area of your furnace and water heater. Even though our hous has just been rebuilt with new furnaces we had them put in near each of our furnaces.
As far as back drafts are concerned this depends a lot on the type of water heater, and furnace you have. The water heaters are usually the easiest to check as there is usually a flue pipe just above the heater. Simply put a thin peice of paper near or under the pipe and it should not be pushed by a draft comming out oof the pipe. Idealy when the water is being heated the heat rises into the pipe carring the bad gasses with it.
Now our furnaces would be another isue to check. They have both an inlet and outlet pipe that is basicly PVC that runs right into the fire box. I would imagine that the only way to check these for back drafts would be at the outside end ofg the pipes. But then that is were the CO2 detectors come in.
Dennis
stlouisguy
Registered Member
Sanjay, first let me say I have read more than a couple articles from you and I respect your opinion very highly. Your tanks are amazing.
I am setting up a comparable size tank right now, how are you setting up your cleaner crew? Just curious what you think will do the job best
thanks!
I am setting up a comparable size tank right now, how are you setting up your cleaner crew? Just curious what you think will do the job best
thanks!
hahnmeister
In Memoriam
Hes just going to vacuum the sand every week like a freshwater tank... no cleanup needed.
stlouisguy
Registered Member
Just curious what he used and in what numbers
Reefski's
Active member
a few posts back. i think the leak detector you are talking about is for carbon monoxide, CO, not carbon dioxide, CO2. these are the detectors that you buy in the hardware store as the CO is the lethal one. much like H2S is for our fish. binds irreversibly to the RBC.
Carl
Carl
LIReefer
Member
Sanjay,
Give me a little bit of info on what type of equipment you use to heat your home and the water heater? Are you using oil or natural gas as the fuel? The flue pipe on each of these typically exit the appliance(s) at the top and then enter the chimney at the base. If you want to e-mail me a photo of the water heater and boiler/furnance I can provide you with the exact instructions on how to check for flue spillage. It's a very simple process. Also, as suggested above a CO (Carbon Monoxide) Detector is a very good idea to have on every floor of your home.
Ed
Sanjay
Premium Member
Right now I have in there 15 mexican turbo snails, 5 astrea snails, and about 50-60 snails (possibly nassarius) that we picked up on a collecting trip to LI. They have done a good job eliminating most of the brown film algae on the rocks. I am sure the tangs are helping there too. I also have 3 serpent stars in there, and will add 3 more of them.
I was planning on adding 4 sand sea cucumbers, but have not found them yet. I was going to add the blue legged hermits, but was quickly reminded that they have a bad habit of killing off the snails.
anyone have any other suggestions ? I don't usually keep up with details of these "little" guys so I am not sure what else works well. to me they are just snails and crabs.,and cleaning critters..
sanjay.
Sanjay
Premium Member
Here are some of the corals that I added to the tank. Now these are what I call frags 
. Thanks to my friend RichK and PSU tank, i got some decent size frags so I could avoid having the tank look empty for a long time.
Here you can see one of the vortech pumps blowing right through the channel.
sanjay.
. Thanks to my friend RichK and PSU tank, i got some decent size frags so I could avoid having the tank look empty for a long time.
Here you can see one of the vortech pumps blowing right through the channel.
sanjay.
hahnmeister
In Memoriam
Im anti-crab, and Im boardering anti-shrimp for larger tanks... its just a matter of time before a fish snacks on them. I dont like crabs much... a fellow vetran reefer told me how he didnt have hermits anymore because they dont live long, and they end up being the reason you keep buying more snails. I liked the idea, so I started running w/o hermits too... and I couldnt be happier. Now, my astrae snails last long... very long. I do keep the occasional decorative hermit crab to clean up any dead/dying snails, but as of yet, Im going on 2 years w/o losing any snails, NOT A ONE... something unheard of before with hermits. They dont do much anyways besides pick at the rock a little... Ive never seen them really get rid of algae or anything. I think they are an industry scam like bumblebee snails (actually predatory whelks, not detrivores), margarita snails (temperate), or those bad nassarius buggers. And now the reefers are saying sand sifting starfish are bad, and I know I have lost fish/crabs before to brittle starfish... so who knows. Emeralds crabs dont seem to last long, or they get sooo big and turn into terrors.
Id go with something like this, but this is just me....
-200 astrae snails Astraea tecta
-50 Turban snails Trochus sp.
-20 mexican turbo snails Turbo fluctuosa
-60 Nerite snails (Caribbean) Nerita sp.
-50 Cerith Snails Cerithium sp.)
-40 super tongan nassarius snails Nassarius distortus (larger snails are easier to see in a larger tank, and these guys are just soo much cooler than ther regular ones)
-3 Tuxedo Urchins Mespilia globulus
-2 Linckia Starfish Linckia sp.
-10 Sea Hares Aplysia sp.
If you like, I could also send you 'cultures' of 3 snail species that I have reproducing in my tanks as well... a colonista snail species(good for keeping algae from even getting a hold on a rock), a cerith snail species, and a nassarius snail species. Between the 3 of them, they are the complete cleaning crew for one of my tanks... and they reproduce like mad.
Serpent Stars are optional too for me.. I do like those red fancy ones... but thats it. They really dont do that much it seems. I do keep a few scarlett hermits around to clean up if any of the snails die, but they are among the most timid of the hermits so they dont do as much harm. I like to keep marshall island and electric orange ones too, but I never keep them with mexican turbos... they really go after the mexican turbos.
Id go with something like this, but this is just me....
-200 astrae snails Astraea tecta
-50 Turban snails Trochus sp.
-20 mexican turbo snails Turbo fluctuosa
-60 Nerite snails (Caribbean) Nerita sp.
-50 Cerith Snails Cerithium sp.)
-40 super tongan nassarius snails Nassarius distortus (larger snails are easier to see in a larger tank, and these guys are just soo much cooler than ther regular ones)
-3 Tuxedo Urchins Mespilia globulus
-2 Linckia Starfish Linckia sp.
-10 Sea Hares Aplysia sp.
If you like, I could also send you 'cultures' of 3 snail species that I have reproducing in my tanks as well... a colonista snail species(good for keeping algae from even getting a hold on a rock), a cerith snail species, and a nassarius snail species. Between the 3 of them, they are the complete cleaning crew for one of my tanks... and they reproduce like mad.
Serpent Stars are optional too for me.. I do like those red fancy ones... but thats it. They really dont do that much it seems. I do keep a few scarlett hermits around to clean up if any of the snails die, but they are among the most timid of the hermits so they dont do as much harm. I like to keep marshall island and electric orange ones too, but I never keep them with mexican turbos... they really go after the mexican turbos.
TropTrea
New member
I must agree there is a lot of debate about hermits. It does seem though that the industry is a big pusher of the blue leg hermits.
In my past experience the blue legs are always looking for a bigger shell. In there search they seem to want to try out ever snail shell the get near regardless if there is a loving snail in it or not
I have had scarlets in the past they are my personal preference. As the "Meister" said they are much more timid. Personaly I have never seen them bother a snail that was smaller than the shell they were occuppying and even at that they would use empty shells around the tank rather than killing for a new shell.
Now as far as the usefulness of crabs. Well I'll disagree here as I think they do a much better job on some algeas then any of the snails. My 75 was plagued with bubble algea for over a year and a half. Everything I tried did not seen to help untill I upooed the crab plopulation. By adding 50 scarlet hermits and three emeralds in took about a month and I started seeing the a drastic reduction in the bubble algea.
Another thing several individuals told me when your starting a new tank you will always get a period of algea bloom between 6 and 12 weeks after starting everything out. Hermits are suposedly the best way of keeping this algea bloom under control untill all your natural biological controls have completly stabilized your chemestry.
Starfish. Well I never had any because I have heard to many nightmare stories on these. However I do believe there are some sandshifting varieties that are safe. Myself being a believer in the DSB I realy think getting some forms of sand shifter in the aquarium is important.
Dennis
In my past experience the blue legs are always looking for a bigger shell. In there search they seem to want to try out ever snail shell the get near regardless if there is a loving snail in it or not
I have had scarlets in the past they are my personal preference. As the "Meister" said they are much more timid. Personaly I have never seen them bother a snail that was smaller than the shell they were occuppying and even at that they would use empty shells around the tank rather than killing for a new shell.
Now as far as the usefulness of crabs. Well I'll disagree here as I think they do a much better job on some algeas then any of the snails. My 75 was plagued with bubble algea for over a year and a half. Everything I tried did not seen to help untill I upooed the crab plopulation. By adding 50 scarlet hermits and three emeralds in took about a month and I started seeing the a drastic reduction in the bubble algea.
Another thing several individuals told me when your starting a new tank you will always get a period of algea bloom between 6 and 12 weeks after starting everything out. Hermits are suposedly the best way of keeping this algea bloom under control untill all your natural biological controls have completly stabilized your chemestry.
Starfish. Well I never had any because I have heard to many nightmare stories on these. However I do believe there are some sandshifting varieties that are safe. Myself being a believer in the DSB I realy think getting some forms of sand shifter in the aquarium is important.
Dennis
cyberdude47
New member
Sanjay
you spoke before when you were constructing your stand about steel deflection, where can a person find any information about this? I have some 4" I beam for the stand for my 450 and want to know if it will be ok to span 7' without center support. your tank is sweet still waiting to see what your new skimmer plans.
thanks
you spoke before when you were constructing your stand about steel deflection, where can a person find any information about this? I have some 4" I beam for the stand for my 450 and want to know if it will be ok to span 7' without center support. your tank is sweet still waiting to see what your new skimmer plans.
thanks
hahnmeister
In Memoriam
Dennis, there is no algae that a crab can get to that a snail cant take care of faster...but thats where our opinions vary. Emeralds, Sally light-foot, and the rest just seem to do more damage than good. The few types that snails wont touch... well... thats why I mentioned tuxedo urchins. I love those little buggers. They wont go after the calcareous algae and polyps like longspines do, and when they clean a rock, it looks like it was nuked clean. Some people say that they go after zoas, but I have never seen this. I cant imagine they would anyways since zoas have such toxins, and I have had urchins die from eating caulerpa taxifolia before... Some small tubeworms, micro-dusters, bryzoans, sponges etc might be fair game... but in a larger tank... who cares...these things will keep up on their own. Nothing takes care of cyano and other types that nothing else will touch like a tuxedo though. I once had a fuge that went through a cyano outbreak... everything was covered, including a layer across the whole bottom. I put the tuxedu in, and within a couple days all the cyano was gone.
hahnmeister
In Memoriam
nah... the longspines and others do, but tuxedos dont.
Sanjay
Premium Member
All urchins will eat coraline... good thing is that they will spread the coraline around when they chew it up and get rid of it.
They all eat by scraping off the rocks, so they have the potential to scratch acrylic. I do not have any personal experience with them in an acrylic tank.
The tuxedo are the best ones for a reef. They do a good job with a lot of different algae.
sanjay.
They all eat by scraping off the rocks, so they have the potential to scratch acrylic. I do not have any personal experience with them in an acrylic tank.
The tuxedo are the best ones for a reef. They do a good job with a lot of different algae.
sanjay.
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