AGA92 Corner Reef Tank Build
- Thread starter HumanIMDB
- Start date
timschmidt
Premium Member
Nice! For mandarins my wife and I have sucessfully gotten both of our mandarins to take mysis. Took three bottles of tigger pods, brine shrimp, and chopped up mysis. Start by making sure they are eating (duh) and then start dosing the tank with pods and brine. After you see it take a brine introduce the chopped mysis and back off the brine shrimp. eventually just send in the mysis. I don't know if it was dumb luck but over the course of two weeks we got the mandarins to eat prepared foods. I hope this works for you as it's nice to know you can supplement they pod hunting with high protein mysis.
HumanIMDB
Premium Member
Updates (8/25/08)
Updates (8/25/08)
We received the order on Saturday, everything but the Emerald Crabs came in.
I love the box J&L Aquatics has for shipping live animals.
<a href="http://www.omnipresence.ca/images/blog/AGA92/BOX.JPG" target=_blank><img src="http://www.omnipresence.ca/images/blog/AGA92/BOX-TN.JPG" border=0><a>
I acclimated everyone using the <a href="http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/store_pages/acclimation.php" target=_blank>drip/preferred method</a> while I installed the Koralia Nano in the fuge.
<a href="http://www.omnipresence.ca/images/blog/AGA92/CREW.JPG" target=_blank><img src="http://www.omnipresence.ca/images/blog/AGA92/CREW-TN.JPG" border=0><a>
I checked the Nassarius snails over as best I could for whelks, I'm pretty sure they are all nassarius snails.
<a href="http://www.omnipresence.ca/images/blog/AGA92/NASS.JPG" target=_blank><img src="http://www.omnipresence.ca/images/blog/AGA92/NASS-TN.JPG" border=0><a>
I also opened the Tigger Pods per Reef Nutrition's <a href="http://reefnutrition.com/tiggerpods/more_about_tp.htm" target=_blank>instruction</a>.
<a href="http://www.omnipresence.ca/images/blog/AGA92/PODS.JPG" target=_blank><img src="http://www.omnipresence.ca/images/blog/AGA92/PODS-TN.JPG" border=0><a>
Two hours or so later, I added everyone to the various tanks.
Everyone seemed to be doing fine when we went to bed, we had to right a few snails that had fallen but that was it.
The next morning we couldn't find either Cleaner Shrimp. A thorough search of the tank revealed that one of them was dead in a cave; perfectly intact. No sign of the other shrimp. All the snails seemed to be trucking along just fine.
I e-mailed J&L notifying them of the loss and bagged up the corpse with a sample of water ready to be shipped back to them if they so desire.
Kara did the tests on the tank. Our last water change was shortly after the cycle started so we were a bit worried about our levels:
Temp - 81.5°F <i>More on this later...</i>
Sg - 1.026
pH - 7.9
NH4 - <0.25 (lowest reading on Salifert)
NO3 - 2
PO4 - 0
Ca - 420
Alk - 10.8
Mg - 1425
We were planning to do a 30% water change anyway, so we did that following the tests. We're going to do another set of tests tonight.
As I stated earlier, I am not too impressed with the American Marine Temperature Probes. We have three sensors and they each measure a different temperature. At least they are consistent.
I put all three in the mixing container while I was making up the water for the water change:
First readings:
Probe 1 - 79.0°F
Probe 2 - 74.7°F
Probe 3 - 74.5°F
Second readings:
Probe 1 - 84.7°F
Probe 2 - 80.6°F
Probe 3 - 80.4°F
Third readings:
Probe 1 - 86.0°F
Probe 2 - 81.7°F
Probe 3 - 81.5°F
Fourth readings:
Probe 1 - 86.2°F
Probe 2 - 82.0°F
Probe 3 - 81.9°F
Probe 1 is usually in the AGA92, Probe 2 is in the refugium, and Probe 3 is in the 10g Nano.
When I took the reading for the AGA92 I averaged out the difference between the readings from Probes 1 and 2 in my tests (4.2°F) and subtracted that from the reading on Probe 1 (85.6°F) and then took the average of that and the reading on Probe 2 (81.5°F) to get the 81.5°F temperature of the system.
I'm going to have to get a "trustworthy" thermometer to verify the actual temperature of the tank.
Since I haven't added any phytoplankton since the first bottle ran out, I only added 15ml to the refugium on Saturday while I had the skimmer turned off. I'm going to dose 15ml every other day for the next week, then 15ml a day for another week, then 15ml one day and 30ml another for another week, finally up to 30ml a day.
While I was waiting for the CUC to acclimate, I finally got around to doing the cord management in the stand; no more cords hanging everywhere.
That's it for today...more updates to come.
Updates (8/25/08)
We received the order on Saturday, everything but the Emerald Crabs came in.
I love the box J&L Aquatics has for shipping live animals.
<a href="http://www.omnipresence.ca/images/blog/AGA92/BOX.JPG" target=_blank><img src="http://www.omnipresence.ca/images/blog/AGA92/BOX-TN.JPG" border=0><a>
I acclimated everyone using the <a href="http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/store_pages/acclimation.php" target=_blank>drip/preferred method</a> while I installed the Koralia Nano in the fuge.
<a href="http://www.omnipresence.ca/images/blog/AGA92/CREW.JPG" target=_blank><img src="http://www.omnipresence.ca/images/blog/AGA92/CREW-TN.JPG" border=0><a>
I checked the Nassarius snails over as best I could for whelks, I'm pretty sure they are all nassarius snails.
<a href="http://www.omnipresence.ca/images/blog/AGA92/NASS.JPG" target=_blank><img src="http://www.omnipresence.ca/images/blog/AGA92/NASS-TN.JPG" border=0><a>
I also opened the Tigger Pods per Reef Nutrition's <a href="http://reefnutrition.com/tiggerpods/more_about_tp.htm" target=_blank>instruction</a>.
<a href="http://www.omnipresence.ca/images/blog/AGA92/PODS.JPG" target=_blank><img src="http://www.omnipresence.ca/images/blog/AGA92/PODS-TN.JPG" border=0><a>
Two hours or so later, I added everyone to the various tanks.
Everyone seemed to be doing fine when we went to bed, we had to right a few snails that had fallen but that was it.
The next morning we couldn't find either Cleaner Shrimp. A thorough search of the tank revealed that one of them was dead in a cave; perfectly intact. No sign of the other shrimp. All the snails seemed to be trucking along just fine.
I e-mailed J&L notifying them of the loss and bagged up the corpse with a sample of water ready to be shipped back to them if they so desire.
Kara did the tests on the tank. Our last water change was shortly after the cycle started so we were a bit worried about our levels:
Temp - 81.5°F <i>More on this later...</i>
Sg - 1.026
pH - 7.9
NH4 - <0.25 (lowest reading on Salifert)
NO3 - 2
PO4 - 0
Ca - 420
Alk - 10.8
Mg - 1425
We were planning to do a 30% water change anyway, so we did that following the tests. We're going to do another set of tests tonight.
As I stated earlier, I am not too impressed with the American Marine Temperature Probes. We have three sensors and they each measure a different temperature. At least they are consistent.
I put all three in the mixing container while I was making up the water for the water change:
First readings:
Probe 1 - 79.0°F
Probe 2 - 74.7°F
Probe 3 - 74.5°F
Second readings:
Probe 1 - 84.7°F
Probe 2 - 80.6°F
Probe 3 - 80.4°F
Third readings:
Probe 1 - 86.0°F
Probe 2 - 81.7°F
Probe 3 - 81.5°F
Fourth readings:
Probe 1 - 86.2°F
Probe 2 - 82.0°F
Probe 3 - 81.9°F
Probe 1 is usually in the AGA92, Probe 2 is in the refugium, and Probe 3 is in the 10g Nano.
When I took the reading for the AGA92 I averaged out the difference between the readings from Probes 1 and 2 in my tests (4.2°F) and subtracted that from the reading on Probe 1 (85.6°F) and then took the average of that and the reading on Probe 2 (81.5°F) to get the 81.5°F temperature of the system.
I'm going to have to get a "trustworthy" thermometer to verify the actual temperature of the tank.
Since I haven't added any phytoplankton since the first bottle ran out, I only added 15ml to the refugium on Saturday while I had the skimmer turned off. I'm going to dose 15ml every other day for the next week, then 15ml a day for another week, then 15ml one day and 30ml another for another week, finally up to 30ml a day.
While I was waiting for the CUC to acclimate, I finally got around to doing the cord management in the stand; no more cords hanging everywhere.
That's it for today...more updates to come.
Tswifty
New member
A glass thermometer is always nice to have on hand to spot check your readings, and verify their accuracy.
I don't drip acclimate anything... here's what I do:
- Test SG of water in the bag
- Turn off daylights on main tank
- Float bag for 30 minutes for temp
- Add 1/2 to 1 cup (depending on how off the starting SG was) of water every 10-15 minutes.
- Repeat for 1 hour
- FW dip if necessary
- In the tank it goes!
I don't drip acclimate anything... here's what I do:
- Test SG of water in the bag
- Turn off daylights on main tank
- Float bag for 30 minutes for temp
- Add 1/2 to 1 cup (depending on how off the starting SG was) of water every 10-15 minutes.
- Repeat for 1 hour
- FW dip if necessary
- In the tank it goes!
HumanIMDB
Premium Member
I used to have a floating glass thermometer but I can't seem to find it anymore. I'm sure I will be able to find another one though.
We used to do something similar; except no testing of the SG in the bag and didn't do any fresh water dips.
I figured since they sent me a nice styrofoam cooler, I might as well use it...
I'll have to get one of <a href="http://www.jlaquatics.com/phpstore/store_pages/product-info.php?product_ID=mc-adhose" target=_blank>these</a> with my next order though.
Tswifty
New member
Well obviously you don't want to FW dip an invert 
Yeah if you order from BlueZooAquatics they include one... Apparently the free fancy drip cord makes up for the whelks they send you. :rolleye1:
I've just never been a fan of the drip method... no particular reason... just preference.
Yeah if you order from BlueZooAquatics they include one... Apparently the free fancy drip cord makes up for the whelks they send you. :rolleye1:
I've just never been a fan of the drip method... no particular reason... just preference.
HumanIMDB
Premium Member
Hehe, nope...all the inverts in the 10g nano were just dropped it after coming up to temperature for an hour...no (direct) losses. But as we are trying to do things "better" this time around, I figured, "What the heck!"<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13224869#post13224869 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Tswifty8
Well obviously you don't want to FW dip an invert
Yeah if you order from BlueZooAquatics they include one... Apparently the free fancy drip cord makes up for the whelks they send you. :rolleye1:
I've just never been a fan of the drip method... no particular reason... just preference.
Hehe, I guess...how about the clam that the whelks ate?
Aquarist007
New member
Re: Re: Updates (8/25/08)
Re: Re: Updates (8/25/08)
Nice build thread--time for some pictures???
What does J and L charge for shipping?
Re: Re: Updates (8/25/08)
Nice build thread--time for some pictures???
What does J and L charge for shipping?
timschmidt
Premium Member
16 CDN for a drip line???? BAH! Give me your address and I'll mail you one FREE! I had a buddy who's wife is a nurse and she gave me a set or two of hosing that can be used to drip.
Tswifty
New member
Dude what?!?!?!?!
Blood Red Fire Shrimp ($17.99)
http://www.reefhotspot.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=1086
Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp ($23.99)... and that's actually a high price for this site.
http://www.reefhotspot.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=51_65_90&products_id=1079
Blood Red Fire Shrimp ($17.99)
http://www.reefhotspot.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=1086
Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp ($23.99)... and that's actually a high price for this site.
http://www.reefhotspot.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=51_65_90&products_id=1079
timschmidt
Premium Member
The scarlet skunk doesn't ALWAYS hide. I've had three (long story, for whatever reason my iodide levels were REALLY low even with 20% biweekly water changes) and only one hid. So I guess it's not a guarantee.
HumanIMDB
Premium Member
Thanks. Really not much to see but I'll see if I can't get some shots tonight.
They have a deal on right now that shipping is free for orders over $200. Live shipments range but are reasonable.
I think it would cost $16 to ship it here from the US. I'll ask the wife of one of the guys I work with who is a nurse to see if she can hook me up.
$40!?!? Where are you buying your shrimp? J&L sells them for $14.95. The LFS we buy things from charges $20-$25.<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13229729#post13229729 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by raen
Good luck with he CUC. I needto get another cleaner, I just hate the thought of 40 bones for a shrimp that hides most of the day.
The one we have in the nano is out all the time. So was the one before it (RIP after bad molt).
