New Reefer Rant - Two months in

here's some info on setting up a suitable tank for scooters

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2446049



:debi:

I'm gonna check out of the thread now. It's bizarre that people would take any pleasure from removing a wild animal from its habitat, shipping it halfway round the world, and trapping it in a box so they can watch it helplessly starve to death. Losing that $ is a fair consequence for the mistake of buying the fish, I don't see why you would be entitled to any store credit at all. The scam with the skimmer is shady but it's only money, killing the fish for no reason is cruel. I mean, you still won't have your cash back, but the fish will be dead. It doesn't make any sense and I don't understand why that would be a fun thing to do.



I'm really glad I had the good kind of parents that taught me a little bit about stewardship.


Calm down a little bit man. Everyone here made mistakes before. I highly doubt you never had a fish die on you. Overall he is doing pretty well to take advice and make the needed changes. Better than many. Being this aggressive towards him doesn't help much. I've seen comments on other boards about the poor attitude of reef central members, and while I don't agree with that, comments like yours only add to that narrative.


Chanceafrance pull the gravel and add the sand, that should be job one. Then set up that fuge. If you really want the dragonnets then I'd put algae in right away, some small rubble rock mounds and probably seed with some more pods. Also look up PaulBs tank. He built a feeder for his dragonnets to get them eating frozen food.
 
I am skeptical that this is even a true story. Just re-read the first post. They hit on pretty much every hot button like they had a checklist.
 
I used LR incorrectly I think. I bought $1.50 a lb of dead rock. All I meant by liverock was that it's a nice porous rock for bacteria to grow on.

And thanks for the link! I'm checking it out now.

I am so determined to prove you all wrong and keep them alive. And I still have an insane amount of pods plus I flood the tank with hatched baby brine shrimp every day. So I guess my question is why are they starving if I still have pods?

But thanks again guys, I'll probably be proven wrong, crushed by their death, and make the same comments you are now on some thread someday.
 
Also I do have a small handful of different kinds of macroalgae in my refugium, how much should I have?

I'm going to ditch the river rocks slowly. I don't want a sand bed so I'm going to put all the sand in my refugium. This will work if I'm not mistaken?

Also I've heard a lot of people say dosing Seachem Phyto helps,and a lot of people say I should stop. Not sure what to believe.

Thanks!
 
I am so determined to prove you all wrong and keep them alive. And I still have an insane amount of pods plus I flood the tank with hatched baby brine shrimp every day. So I guess my question is why are they starving if I still have pods?

But thanks again guys, I'll probably be proven wrong, crushed by their death, and make the same comments you are now on some thread someday.

Look, I do wish you luck and I'm not trying to bash on you - but why is being right more important than doing the right thing by these fish?
 
Still not sure if the Reef Octopus BH1000 is the right skimmer for my tank?

A LFS (Sea Level) has tigger pods for sale that I put in my refugium. I was thinking do this every two weeks? Or weekly? It might get expensive but so are the fish, and I love them.
 
Just to update the thread.

The dragonets are doing swimmingly. My local fish store sells a jug of rotifers for $5 so I've been adding that weekly. But the pods are still flourishing, and my dragonets have plump bellies where jthe LFS's have concave bellies.

I ditched the refugium, but keep a handful of chaeto in the main display for pod production.

I'm up to about 60 lbs of live rock now, and bought a 212 watt T5HO flourescent ballast. My LFS has saltwater for a dolar a gallon which is just easier than getting an RO/DI and buying my own salt.

I only bought two oscellaris clownfish since I last posted, it was hard to resist temptation. They've been in QT for about a week.

I hid the pumps and heater behind fake LR (pvc pipe with Great Stuff foam).

Not that anyone will go back and read this, but if you do I was wondering how much food I should be feeding the Banggai's and the Clownfish? My uncle says once every two days, but from what I've read the modern philosophy seems to be feed more frequently in smaller quantities?

Also, now that I have lights, what would some good hardy light dependent corals be that I could try?

Thanks again for everyone's help. I wouldn't have an aquarium without this forum.


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I only have four fish in the tank still, and they were all hiding. It's hard not to buy more fish when I can't see any of them!

And yeah some thread described how to make fake LR by spraying pvc pipe with great stuff foam. Then epoxy and sand were mixed together and painted over the top of the foam. The photo below is the finished product. I was actually super nervous this thing would leak toxins and kill my fish, but nothing seems worse for wear so far.

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I have some great stuff in my tank too.
Just a word of caution, when I got an urchin I started seeing nibble marks in it that expose the foam. It doesn't seem to hurt him, but it can't be good.

Yours looks great, I made such a mess with that stuff! I even got some in my hair, I don't recommend doing that lol
 
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