500G (84X48X30)- NOW REAL !

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Sanjay, this is from my memory, but I remember something about tuxedos not having the same type of teeth as other urchins, so thats why they arent supposed to scratch acrylic... Ill double check.

FWIW, I have had one for over a year now in an acrylic fuge I built... there arent any scratches.
 
Just a few comments on a few things posted here.

Yes, there are some algaes that crabs will do a better job on. They are also more suited for getting into crevices that snails cannot reach. Its just that I am not a big fan of crabs. The hermit crabs are too agressive with snails trying to get the shells, the sally lightfoot get too big for my taste, and the mithirax crabs may eat bubble aglae they are also know to chew off tips of sps. Like with any life form in your reef, your mileage may vary and its hard to predict with certainity all the behaviour of critters. I have seen tangs rip into fleshy LPS like trachyphyllia and destroy them. !!

As for serpent stars, I like them (not the brittle stars with the spines on the legs). They do not catch and trap fish like the green brittle stars, and are very good at scavenging dead stuff and left over food.

Sea Hares - I would avoid. While they may eat certain kinds of algae, their lifespan is relatively short. They are known to die after spawning. Also, some of them will release a purple dye when stressed. They are also stupid enough to get sucked into pump intakes.

Astrea snails have a hard time flipping themselves back up once they fall into sand. Mexican turbos have less of a problem with this.

Some snails will propogate to the point of becomming a nuisance getting into pump intakes, blocking the beckett injectors, etc.


sanjay.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8559482#post8559482 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by hahnmeister
Sanjay, this is from my memory, but I remember something about tuxedos not having the same type of teeth as other urchins, so thats why they arent supposed to scratch acrylic... Ill double check.

FWIW, I have had one for over a year now in an acrylic fuge I built... there arent any scratches.
Click to expand...

You may be right.. like I said I do not have any experience with them in an acrylic tank. But I do know they will eat coraline algae.

sanjay.
 
You are right. I was incorrect in saying that the tuxedos dont go after coralline... they do, but they dont seem as interested in it as other species (diadema mostly). The ones I had never seemed interested in the stuff as long as plenty of other algaes were around. I remember when I introduced a diadema to the 20g fuge... whoah... the coralline was like peanut-butter to that thing, but it seemed like thetuxedos didnt bother as much as long as there was other, softer stuff to munch on.

Im checking with Shimek on the 'teeth/acrylic' thing.

You are right on the sea-hares. They arent long lived, but I do like them anyways, esp when setting up a tank, because they are like little lawn mowers for when you have an algae outbreak. Then they die as the algae dies back... but its kind of a 'one shot' thing. I just mentioned them because you mention you are having some algae problems... and they are cheap enough for what they do.

Lol... emeralds snipping off tips of SPS... I forgot that one. Esp in such a large tank, you would end up with some monster size ones. I had one that used to eat grape caulerpa (the bug variety) by the bushel. It would break off a whole stalk of grapes at a time and feed it into its face like a wood chipper. After it was done clearing the whole tank of caulerpa, my acros started losing polyps. Luckily it died soon after this started.

Astraes are a PITA when they fall off rocks. One of my daily chores is to check the sand to see if there are any I have to flip over... but for the most part, they stay attached to the rocks/glass that they are on. The only times that they werent as good at this is when a crab came after them and would tear them off a rock or something... causing them to fall. If there is no reason for them to fall... they seem to do fine. Besides, they are cheap and can live pretty long. But, FWIW, if they just dont do it for ya, there are those nice little nerite snails... I just cant stand too many mexican turbos though... they get too big and knock everyting around.
 
Sanjay,
Did you add any rock from your old system to your new one? I only ask because by my understanding you added sand on 10-28-06, fish were added 11-12-06, and corals were added 11-16-06.

I realize this is a much larger system than most hobbyists have and the live stock you've added is pretty minimal in terms of total system capacity. But how are planning on dealing with the inevitable cycle?

I'm in the process of setting up a new 120 (total volume projected at 150 gallons) to replace my 58 (total system volume 75 gallons), and would love to be able to move my livestock over to the new tank faster than the three months I had been planning on....

Nick
 
Nick:

The rock was curing for a while in a separate container. I got the rock Sept 10th, so it was curing for a while before going into the tank. Secondly, I added the "live" caribsea sand, so it already has some bacteria in there. Although, i am sure the bacteria goes through some die off.

yes, I did things a little quickly... my patience was running out :D . The tank will still go through the initial phases of growing out the various algae - diatom, cyano, green stuff etc. I am already seeing some of it. But its a lot better than my previosu systems where I cured the rock in the main tank with lights on, and used dead sand.

A couple of days ago I was going through this really strange algae bloom in the water column.. made the whole tank murky with a browish algae suspended in the water. The front glass was getting covered with algae growth if a few hours after getting cleaned. Its under control now and the water is clearing up now. This very well could have been a reaction to my fast stocking and overfeeding trying to get the venustus angels to eat and get healthier. I think the denitirifying bacterial population did not have time to catch up to the bio load.

sanjay.
 
On the cycling topic:

I'm also in the process of restarting a new system. However I'm aproaching it in a different way mainly because of time constraints on my part plus the fact that I'm doing a lot of this system on a build it myself bases which takes a lot of my times.

The total system will be 120 gallon show tank, 1-40 gallon breeder show tank 4 30 gallon breeder grow out tanks, 75 gallun refudium, 40 gallon sump, plus the skimmer system.

I'm bringing the tanks or systems on line one at a time with the actual grow out tank going to be last phase. Presently I have 2 -30 gallon breeders and the sump working. with live rock and a 2" sand base curing in the two 30 gaool tanks. The next phase is to get the refudium on line followed by my 40 gallon show tank once I gat my custom stand completed.

My thoughts is that with the system slowly growing I can get through that cycle before the main tank in on line and then basicly be able to slowly add livestock without woring about a big spike in the nitrogen cycling.

Any thoughts on how my ideas will work out?

Dennis
 
Sanjay,
Thanks for answering my question. I read all 32 pages of this thread yesterday and somehow missed the part that your rock was cycling in a different container for a month prior.

Nick
 
Yeah, I guess that title could be changed now. But it will only get real for me once the corals fill up the tank and reach giagantic proportions. :D :D

sanjay
 
Hey Sanjay,

The tank is looking great so far. I am going to have to take a trip down to see it again in about 3 months. I would love to see it again, filled this time.
 
Added some captive raised ORA fish on Tuesday:

2 - canary Blenny
2 - picasso clownfish
2 - yellow assesors
2 - neon gobies

10 - fighting conchs

and got a few more "frags" from my friends.:D

What I am seeing right now, is that the rocks have all pretty much turned greenish with algae growth. Its stays quite short and the fish seem to be liking it especially the tangs and the venustus angels (lost one of them, have 2 left and are eating algae off the tank walls, rocks and pipes). The one bad thing about the algae is that is that the algae releases a lot of tiny bubbles of O2 that then get all chopped up into tinier bubbles and they stay suspended in the water column, leaving the tank looking cloudy.

Just waiting for coraline to start growing and displacing this algae. Will post a few pics this weekend.

sanjay.
 
I can't remember if you're dripping Kalk Sanjay, I have found that if you want coraline algae, a nice steady Kalk drip is the fastest way to get it.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8615060#post8615060 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by hahnmeister
You could dose iron to speed up the coralline process... it really works well.
Click to expand...

The iron may speed up the growth of the green algae too.

sanjay.
 
do you seperate the frag from the base and then attach it to your rock or do you attach the whole thing? what have you found to be most effective for attaching the frags to your liverock
 
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