"OverKill" Reef - My Project

Pods and many types of fauna can survive quite well going through an impeller.
It's not much of a concern for many species.

Ed
 
Hmm, if that is the case then my setup will be a lot easier. However, http://www.wetwebmedia.com/mandfdgfaqs.htm and various other Mandarin care sites repeat and repeat the need for gravity-based refugiums for the pods to stay alive.

My question is, do you have any links to studies or reports which lend reason to believe contrary to all the other sites I'm reading? Thanks!
 
Pods will survive going through a pump easily. The water rushes them through the pump very fast and is nothing like how a fan chops air.

As for the Mandarin, I had 80lbs of LR in a 55g and my small Mandarin completely destroyed the 2 year old pod population in 2-4 weeks. The pods population looked like an ant hill in the daytime and night since they had no predator in the tank. Even that many was not enough to sustain him. He ended up lasting only 2 months. Just having a fuge is not enough to keep one healthy.
 
Thanks for the input guys.


Tek said:
Just having a fuge is not enough to keep one healthy.


Ok, first off, I realize there is no real defense to my having bought the madarin. It was not the smartest move and I can't blame a newbie mistake since I knew the issues. The good news is that this guy seems to enjoy the frozen thawed mysis and brine shrimp that I feed the tank regularly and forget about the wrasse, it eats any food that I feed. Also, besides the fuge (with macro and rubble) I have about 40 lbs of LR in my sump both of which are teaming with life. So I am hoping for sucess here.

But to Tek's point: is there more I could be doing to ensure sucess with the manadrin in my small environment????

Thanks,
Jeff
 
Just curious where you got your light from? I'm looking to put a 2x150 setup over my 55g to replace my PC lights. Yours looks good. Does your temps go up sitting over the top of it like that? That's my biggest fear, I don't want a chiller on my tank, at all.

My bi-color is a great fish in my 55, he'll eat out my hand along with my maroon's. and loves to sit inside the return for my refuguim with his head popped out, he's a fish filled wth lots of character, if there is such a thing.
 
Your very lucky to have one that eats frozen. The guy should be fine if he continues to do so. I still have hopes of keeping a pair one day and maybe will try to wean them on live food in a small tank first.
 
Well at this point I am keeping a very close eye on the mandarin at every feeding to make sure that it continues to partake of the frozen thawed.


@Reef This: I bought the light hood from Tom @ aquatinics. He set this up so that seeminglyno heat gets exchanged with the tank and my temp did not move even one degree. I would highly recommend his product for quality and value.


Jeff
 
Week #20 (mostly pics)

Week #20 (mostly pics)

Yikes! I can't believe how long it's been since I last posted to this thread but here it goes....

In the last few weeks I have been adding a few items and enjoying the tank as it matures some what. All traces of the original cyno that had appreared in the 'fuge are gone and all stats are stable with 17-20 gal water changes every 2 weeks. My biggest issue now is a slight outbreak of a fuzzy algae (hair?)along the upper layer of LR due to the intense lights but I think the clean-up will take of soon enough.

I need to work on my photography skills but here are some very recent shots:

sw_we20_01.jpg


zoos, monti frag and candy cane:
sw_we20_03.jpg


star polyps, porites with xmas tree worms and hermit (my favorite piece):
sw_we20_04.jpg


RBTA, zoos, hammer:
sw_we20_05.jpg


1 1/4" T maxima:
sw_we20_06.jpg


RBTA:
sw_we20_08.jpg


Red and green ricordia (i have a small blue one too):
sw_we20_09.jpg



Hopefully my mated pair of ORA ocellaris come in soon (and hopefully they like the RBTA).


More to come soon and I hunt for frags :)


Jeff
 
Assuming you mean the Rubbermaid stock tanks...I got them for approx $80 from Agway. I figured 2 of them were a lot cheaper (and larger) than any prefab sump/fuge on the market.


Jeff
 
Last edited:
Tank looks great Jeff.

My O. clowns won't even look at my RBTA. I think they normally only host in carpet anemones and maybe one other type of anemone. But I have also read that any clown will host any anaemon if it want's to so ... who knows, you may luck out.
 
Dang...How did I mess that up? I would have sworn that the ocellaris was known to host in BTAs but now I realize that at first I wasn't going to get a BTA but a carpet. I guess I took my eye off the ball. I might need to change that order and get a more compatible clownfish that will fit my tank.

Thanks for the heads up.

Jeff
 
Gold Striped Maroon Clownfish (The one in my avatar) They get to about 6", but I've seen some bigger (@ shedd's in Chicago)
 
Back
Top