A very large aquarium in a very small condo!
- Thread starter captngreg
- Start date
Newbie Aquarist
Reefing is my middle name
Glad to see you back.
dave.m
Active member
Everything's looking good. It's great that you have been able to keep not one but TWO Moorish Idols where so many others have failed. For the sand bed you might want to consider getting some conchs to clean and stir the surface and some nassarius snails to clean underneath.
Dave.M
Dave.M
captngreg
New member
I believe The problem with Moorish Idols is they have a very fast metabolism. They eat a lot of everything. If you look at them when they finally get to the fish store there stomachs caved in. Even if they eat well at this point they are done for. I had 4 directly shipped to me. Even cutting out many middle men, two of the fish came in with sunken stomach, which died a week later, and only one of the two is putting on weight.
Snails if you look under 5th photo you will see a couple of conchs. there are also hundreds sand burring snails that only come out of the sand at night. You can not see it but that sand bed is over 4 inch deep.
Newbie Aquarist
Reefing is my middle name
Glad to see you back Capt. Tank is looking good and I can see it maturing as well.
invertedgc
New member
Just discovered this thread this morning and read all the way through. Your tank is stunning. I loved seeing it come through from conception to completion. Thank you for sharing!
Just devoured this whole thread. However you mentioned some concerns at the beginning that you never followed up on...
* Have you had any earthquakes since you set the tank up, if so how did it do?
* How has the flow worked out in your tank with the left right switching you set up?
* Have you had any earthquakes since you set the tank up, if so how did it do?
* How has the flow worked out in your tank with the left right switching you set up?
captngreg
New member
risk1994
Luckily we have had no major quakes since the tank has been up & running!
We have had many small tremors and two small quakes which didn't even topple any rocks. The last big quake was an 8.0 in August 5 years ago! I hope I never have to test the tank against that strong of a quake!!! But I still believe that the tank should stand up as long as the house does.
Water flow!!!! Having 6,000 gallons per/hour of water entering the tank through two sets of 8, induction nozzles, which can increases the flow up to 5x & have all that water change direction in less the 30 second is fantastic. It keep diatom & food from settling into the rockwork and keeps it suspended till the filtration system can remove it or the coral eat it.
I was originally going to have the water flow switch direction every few minuets, but found that switching the flow every 15 minuets worked just a well.
Luckily we have had no major quakes since the tank has been up & running!
We have had many small tremors and two small quakes which didn't even topple any rocks. The last big quake was an 8.0 in August 5 years ago! I hope I never have to test the tank against that strong of a quake!!! But I still believe that the tank should stand up as long as the house does.
Water flow!!!! Having 6,000 gallons per/hour of water entering the tank through two sets of 8, induction nozzles, which can increases the flow up to 5x & have all that water change direction in less the 30 second is fantastic. It keep diatom & food from settling into the rockwork and keeps it suspended till the filtration system can remove it or the coral eat it.
I was originally going to have the water flow switch direction every few minuets, but found that switching the flow every 15 minuets worked just a well.
captngreg
New member
MikeL1987
Every morning, I'm home, I do the few maintenance tasks the aquarium requires like clean the skimmers & then I feed the dogs while the coffee is brewing. After that, I just sit down and for the next hour drink my coffee & just watch as the lights slowly come on and the tanks wakes up. That's what keeps me sane for the two month I have to spend at sea!
Every morning, I'm home, I do the few maintenance tasks the aquarium requires like clean the skimmers & then I feed the dogs while the coffee is brewing. After that, I just sit down and for the next hour drink my coffee & just watch as the lights slowly come on and the tanks wakes up. That's what keeps me sane for the two month I have to spend at sea!
captngreg
New member
Fish update;
Unhappily the Moorish Idols are headed to a Chinese restaurant. We had no choice but to remove the Idols from the tank. We increased feeding to six heavy feedings spread out over the day, but they still would nip at every coral and zero in on one for consumption. They could completely consume a coral in a matter of hours once they made their choice. I still wanted to try and keep them but due to the heavy feeding we had an outbreak of cryno bacatiearm. I had no choice but to find them a new home. The Chinese restaurant assured me they won't eat them! They have a large FOLR tank & we can visit them whenever we want to so long as we order something!
They where able to eat this plate in less than a couple of hours!!!
Happily the three ribbon eels are doing fine. They have been weaned off of freshwater guppies and are now accepting a verity of saltwater shrimp, fish & clam. Two of the eels have taken up resident in the same cave! We just might have a pair! One of the two eels appears to be changing colors morph to the blue verity. I do not know if this is a sexual thing or is he or she just maturing.
The eels spend 98% of their time in their caves, occasionally one will come out for a swim.
Unhappily the Moorish Idols are headed to a Chinese restaurant. We had no choice but to remove the Idols from the tank. We increased feeding to six heavy feedings spread out over the day, but they still would nip at every coral and zero in on one for consumption. They could completely consume a coral in a matter of hours once they made their choice. I still wanted to try and keep them but due to the heavy feeding we had an outbreak of cryno bacatiearm. I had no choice but to find them a new home. The Chinese restaurant assured me they won't eat them! They have a large FOLR tank & we can visit them whenever we want to so long as we order something!
They where able to eat this plate in less than a couple of hours!!!
Happily the three ribbon eels are doing fine. They have been weaned off of freshwater guppies and are now accepting a verity of saltwater shrimp, fish & clam. Two of the eels have taken up resident in the same cave! We just might have a pair! One of the two eels appears to be changing colors morph to the blue verity. I do not know if this is a sexual thing or is he or she just maturing.
The eels spend 98% of their time in their caves, occasionally one will come out for a swim.
Hello captain, first, sorry for the Moorish Idols. I did not know they could become nippers...
Second, ribbon eels are actually known to change sex across their life. They start black and male, then as they grow older they become blue and stay male, and finally become greenish and female.
Love the pictures, it looks like the SPS's are really happy!
Second, ribbon eels are actually known to change sex across their life. They start black and male, then as they grow older they become blue and stay male, and finally become greenish and female.
Love the pictures, it looks like the SPS's are really happy!
captngreg
New member
Geraud
Moorish Idols nippers!!! they have the Metabolism from hell!!! We just could not feed them enough!!! We even started feeding at night! They never sleep they just eat!
I think this is why most people have a problem with them. There Metabolism is so high that they suffer internal damage from the time spent in transit without food.
The ones we acquired where shipped directly from Hawaii.
Thanks for the info on the eels never new or read that!!!
Seem like the experts just recently figured out that black & blue ribbon eels where the same species
Will do an update on the coral soon. It still amazes me how fast acros can grow!
Moorish Idols nippers!!! they have the Metabolism from hell!!! We just could not feed them enough!!! We even started feeding at night! They never sleep they just eat!
I think this is why most people have a problem with them. There Metabolism is so high that they suffer internal damage from the time spent in transit without food.
The ones we acquired where shipped directly from Hawaii.
Thanks for the info on the eels never new or read that!!!
Seem like the experts just recently figured out that black & blue ribbon eels where the same species
Will do an update on the coral soon. It still amazes me how fast acros can grow!
