My 10 gallon xenia forest

[philipchan]

yes you do but how often you change your water and by how much? Do you run skimmer or carbon or GFO?

the way I look at it, as long as the fishes get along and healthy, it's fine.....and no I don't really want to get into that bioload debate.

I change my water around once in 3~4 days,
About 10 G water change in a whole week, I have 18G main tank and 10G sump, I'm running Skimmer, UV, Carbon,
I Also use the NeoZeo,MicroBacter7,Reef BioFuel, And I put them in a reactor to run it. I also has Chaetos in my sump.

you need better lighting for a clam...i would also pass

I'm using 150W Metal Halide + Blue Strong LEDs for 18G, still not enough? @_@

 

[Orochimaru]

well, that explains why the tank is so awsome! Thanks.

 

[nanchil]

what is the depth of your tank? But looks like it is enough...

I change my water around once in 3~4 days,
About 10 G water change in a whole week, I have 18G main tank and 10G sump, I'm running Skimmer, UV, Carbon,
I Also use the NeoZeo,MicroBacter7,Reef BioFuel, And I put them in a reactor to run it. I also has Chaetos in my sump.




I'm using 150W Metal Halide + Blue Strong LEDs for 18G, still not enough? @_@

 

[philipchan]

what is the depth of your tank? But looks like it is enough...

Is about 20 inches tall:bounce3:

 

[Just2Many]

Wow nice thread

 

[slurik]

FINALLY. i cant believe it took so long for you to buy one!

clam - sure, you could have kept it in a small tank with that kind of lighting maybe, BUT what your not thinking about is that it will not consume the algae faster than it can grow. not possible. also your forgetting the calcium requirement, clams are calcium sponges!

brine shrimp - hahaha. first of all, your filter is killing the brine shrimp within 24 hours of them hatching. second, they also can not keep up with the growth rate of phytoplankton, reguardless of how many brine shrimp are in the tank. i used to co-culture brine shrimp in my phytoplankton bottles, never affected phytoplankton growth, if not improved it.

rotifers - yeah, these can easily eat the phytoplankton faster than it can grow, but only because the rotifers reproduce crazy fast. however what your not realizing is that again, your filter is removing them from the water.

in the end, to resolve your phytoplankton issue, you have probably spent more than 40$ on a clam, brine shrimp, and the rotifers. yet complaining in one of your post that a uv sterilizer is to expensive. finally you bought one from petsmart, which brings your total above 80$ possibly, which could have been spent on a sweet H.O.T. magnum diatom filter that would have cleared that water within 10 minutes.

I appreciate what you're saying here about the cost of the solution outweighing the recommendation which saved the day. Its wonderful also to have people with the knowledge on hand to remedy these incidents rapidly with little frustration. However on the other side of the coin, i think the extra cost was far more valuable than 2nd hand knowledge. For myself, learning first hand brings forth understanding over success. I feel bad for the mistake with the clam, but if you weigh this beside how many clams go out to people who not only cannot provide for the animal, but have no clue how to provide for the animal, in the long run it wasnt a great miscarriage of justice; there's a lot worse he could have done.

Myself not being involved with this in any shape or form, by his spending an extra 40 dollars has given myself insight to many solutions for simple problems that will, will not, can or cannot work. I am not one who would readily compromise the life of an animal, nor do I think he did. I congratulate him for his perseverance and methods of investigation. The fruits of his labor are far greater than simply fixing some green water.

 

[Joe Pusdesris]

Wahelllll.... We just had a 48 hour power outage here, soooo.... It is going to be significantly longer on those pictures... I am consolidating my 2 large tanks into one now and buying a UPS while I am at it this time...

 

[Crustman]

Wow, I am sorry for your loss. I had a Coral Beauty kill just a single xenia and it is a great loss. I have the base of it in a refugium now.

 

[tanan]

Well dont wanna sound like tang police but isn't an 18 G way to small for a tang let alone two tangs ?
Plus 3 clowns aren't a good thing in a small tank.

 

[Joe Pusdesris]

Since my last post a lot of things have changed. After a major power outage (another one) I decided to consolidate all my tanks into just two. A 60display/34 sump and a 29 display.

I don't have the "forest" since I decided to not have a tank at school this year. I still have the xenia growing in the two tanks, but I no longer have a xenia only tank.

I am slowly trying to phase out the xenia in my 29 in favor of a mushroom dominated reef.

 

[Jack01]

why pool sand? it looks terrible

 

[SCUBASTEVE3610]

I like your tank – I’ve been thinking about doing something very similar with an extra 29 gallon tank I have.

 

[Joe Pusdesris]

I'm going to try to replicate this tank again with a few changes:
10g -> 5.5g
CFLs -> LEDs
Skimmer -> HOB
I don't have any of the old livestock or equipment since moving to texas, so this is a totally new start. I got a single $5 xenia frag at a local shop.

<img src="https://ziw2ea.dm1.livefilestore.com/y2mESZjkju2xivYhr0l0nHs6_6F1XADGnOpoU-TLDRo72U3Vr0gX08qtqr1lx_pXoCgyat7qD-HGaTDpfz_mF3_Utvqs_bShDHand5JNYziHQclS02zGzc7PWI1vewRDFiC/WP_20140620_007.jpg" width="800px">

 

[Amoo]

Following, this thread was a lot of fun, Good luck Joe. What are you running for lighting this time? Also did your two clowns ever pair up?

 

[Joe Pusdesris]

Thanks!

This is the lighting I am trying:
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Val...e-Daylight-LED-Light-Bulb-Soft-White/25524372
I am quite happy with it so far, it seems to be just the right amount of lighting for a 5.5g.

Those two clowns never paired so I put the naked clown in my 60g cube. I ended up getting the black one to pair with a standard colored clown and moved those two into a 70g tank eventually. The clowns ended up dying in 2012 when I moved my tanks into a new apartment and was too hasty with mixing 100+ gallons of saltwater. I sold the 70g when I moved to Texas in January and my dad still has the 60g at his house, not sure what condition it is in though. When I go to visit my family during the holidays I plan to sell all the livestock left in that tank and put it in storage until I buy a house in 2015.

I know it's a bit confusing. Since I last posted in this thread I have lived in 7 different places and had 6 different aquariums.