Our Tbs

[techreef]

Radioheed, I'd suggest that while it's still manageable, you pull off all of your Caulerpa now. I know it looks cool. I thought so too, and left mine in there, and 3 weeks later it has taken off. The vines are a bear to pull off the rocks. And Caulerpa periodically "goes sexual" and releases a bunch of stored phosphates and nitrates back into the water column, thereby seriously damaging your tank. Save yourself some future pain and take it out now. If you like plants in the tank, you could get Halimeda or Shaving Brush plants. (although something in my tank has now devoured two entire shaving brush plants in my tank. grrr.)

 

[bobt2]

just a quick note, 1 1/2 yrs later my cup and tube corals are still with me/ i feed dt,s, oyster eggs ,cyclopeeze, reef chili, and baby brine.

 

[skippy2]

Bobt2, have you talked to Pat at all. I hope she is doing alright. I know her comp. crashed but I would have thought she would be back on by now

 

[bobt2]

i havn't herd from her in months. i suspect she lost interest. i keep an eye on this list, but i,ve moved on to more advanced topics, plus i,ve started fragging for a little side $. my 3 tbs tanks are all doing fantastic. but i still find a gorilla now and then!

 

[techreef]

AAAHHHH!!! Cirolanids!

AAAHHHH!!! Cirolanids!

So after catching one .5" cirolanid at the very beginning of setting up my tank, I let it sit fallow for nearly 2 months, with only the two tiger gobies in there. (one a hitchhiker, one thrown in for free by TBS) I never saw another cirolanid on either goby, and they're out and about pretty frequently now. sooooo, last week i pulled the trigger and bought my first 2 fish; a carpenter's flasher wrasse and a midas blenny. the first day after introduction into the tank, I spot the midas blenny (by now dubbed Baxter) in the front corner of the tank, looking very sluggish. At first I figured he was simply adjusting to the new tank and recovering from the shipping, but when I looked closer, yikes!, there were two tiny cirolanids sucking on his body. After failing to net Baxter twice in an effort to pull the bugs off w/ tweezers, Baxter went into hiding for a day. Two nights ago we saw him rubbing his body against a hole in the rock, and since yesterday the cirolanids aren't on him anymore. I'm scared now though, because 1) i had no idea the tank had any more cirolanids in it, 2) the two cirolanids probably just detached because they were full, and will be back for a second meal later. ARGH. And of course, they picked the cutest fish in the tank to chew on.

I am without a hospital/QT tank right now, because my wife refuses to return the FW guppies that we have had in a 20G tank for years. So even if I lived in the twilight zone and COULD catch the four fish now in my tank in an effort to make the tank fishless and starve out the cirolanids for 3 months, I have nowhere to keep the fish once I catch them. I'm hoping beyond hope that I'll see both bugs back on the only fish slow enough for me to catch, Baxter, and net him so that I can pull them off of him. What a sick feeling in my stomach. Literally hours before I spotted the bugs, I was finally feeling like the tank was looking awesome and all the work was paying off. :rolleye1: nuts.

Brian, does the dirty water trap work for cirolanids? I would love to trap them!

 

[BrianPlankis]

Radiohead,

I still have many of my cup corals and some of them have grown and or reproduced. I've found they accept almost any kind of food, but prefer meaty foods such as mysis or krill.

techreef,

I'm sorry to hear about the Cirolanids. Unfortunately with fish in the tank and no QT tank permissible then you are facing an uphill battle.

I would definitely at least try the stinky water trap and see what happens. But if the Cirolanids are feeding on the fish they might not be interested in the trap when they have full bellies

My article for tips on the trap:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/bp/index.php

Brian

 

[jezzeaepi]

I have one last group of pests in the tank right now. I have these keyhole limpets all over. Probably close to 15 of them. How do you recomend removing/killing them? I cant rip them off the rock, they are too strong. Concievably I could use a wrench and squish them, but that will be messy, and Ill have to buy a wrench seeing as I dont trust any of my current ones in my tank.


Keeping tube corals alive:
They love flow. They are prone too having algae grow in between thier tubes and killing them off. Make sure you are "basting" your rocks every day to try to skim out the junk, and keep the algae from growing.
They are pretty fond of mysis I have found. I target fed mine every few days for a long time and they were doing great, but my nutrient levels were too high. Now I am target feeding twice a week and just letting them grab what they can when I feed the fish.
They also do not like high light(so acclimate slowly), or higher heat. I keep my tank at about 77.5. During the summer my tank heated up to 82 and 25% of my tubes bleached.

Good hunting,

Jesse

 

[BrianPlankis]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8264646#post8264646 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jezzeaepi
I have one last group of pests in the tank right now. I have these keyhole limpets all over. Probably close to 15 of them. How do you recomend removing/killing them? I cant rip them off the rock, they are too strong. Concievably I could use a wrench and squish them, but that will be messy, and Ill have to buy a wrench seeing as I dont trust any of my current ones in my tank.

Are the limpets causing problems in your tank? If you ever see them on the glass you can try sticking a very thin credit card under the front near the head and sometimes that gets them off the glass without injurying them.

Brian

 

[jezzeaepi]

Aye =\ When they find a sponge or tunicate, they come up to it and stick their mouth in it and suck out the insides. I also had one that ate some poylps off of a sps.

 

[patsan]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8232121#post8232121 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bobt2
i havn't herd from her in months. i suspect she lost interest. i keep an eye on this list, but i,ve moved on to more advanced topics, plus i,ve started fragging for a little side $. my 3 tbs tanks are all doing fantastic. but i still find a gorilla now and then!

I haven't lost interest. I just don't have anything to say.

 

[liverock]

Yo!

Yo!

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8266066#post8266066 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by patsan
I haven't lost interest. I just don't have anything to say.

Well hello there stranger!!
nice to see you back.....

Richard TBS

 

[H2OLUVSME]

you can say "hi" every now and then Pat! i dont have a tank and i still do that :lol:

good to see you are ok and "still interested".

 

[drk70]

Hi Pat!

 

[krajacich]

Hi Pat! We've missed you!

 

[patsan]

Hi everyone!

 

[skippy2]

Glad to see you back Pat How's about a pic of your tank?

 

[krajacich]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8267113#post8267113 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by skippy2
Glad to see you back Pat How's about a pic of your tank?

See Pat we haven't changed at all! You're back two seconds and we already want a picture from you.

 

[krajacich]

Good to see you put in an appearance too Landon. Have you been able to fix most of the damage from the fire?

 

[patsan]

I don't have a current picture of the entire tank. I got this one in July though.

 

[krajacich]

Great pic Pat! How big do you think your pistol is?

I think mine's about two inches long now. He keeps covering my sun coral and brain with sand....we're currently having a sand war. He pushes it out from under the rock, I push it back. Kind of humiliating to be losing an argument with a shrimp.