Pete's 110 build

[psteeleb]

it's beautiful....

Thanks SJ

That tube anemone is the most gorgeous one I have ever seen! I used to have one in my very first 38 gallon tank, but ended up selling it because I was too worried about it eating my fish... I might be rethinking that position now.

Thanks Alex
I had (and still have) the same concern, but after some additional reading and talking to some of the fish stores locally I decided to give them a try.

 

[psteeleb]

A couple odd happenings last weekend

First off: I bought a couple chocolate chip stars to feed the harliquen shrimps one arm at a time. One of them decided to wander too close to the rerurn pump and must have been chewed into little pieces as I found out about it in the early morning seeing small chucks of fleashy looking material being pumped into the tank. There never were any issues with tank water from the ordeal but now I'm having nightmares of a reef tank over taken by chocolate chip chips. :spin3:

Second:my alk tested in the mid 6 range and I noticed ther was no flow coming out of the reactor. After checking several things I found that the supply line was clogged with detritus & calcerious growth. I ened up replacing the line and dosed Alc and calc to bring it bak up to around 8.5ish. Checking the reactor pH solinoid on/off graph on the APEX it appears the line clogged about 4 days before I found it.

Does anyone have any suggestions for feeding harliquen shrimp?

I bought another chocolate chip star but they are small and the legs don't look like they will last more then a few days each. They already devistated my asteria star population in the 110g and my wife will star pulling ten or so a day from my smaller tank. Right now I'm thinking abouting picking up a couple more chocolate chips (not reef safe) and keep them all in my sump for an arm donor program but I'm also considering buying a couple Linkas (reef safe) and just letting them have at one or two of them untill they are gone and replacing.

thanks in adavance for any tips

 

[psteeleb]

I bit the bullet and decided to get 3 blue linkas for the harlequins to feast on

I went with BlueZoo Aquatics on that last order and was very pleased with their customer support, shipping, livestock health, care and instructions, so decided to go with them again. To fill out an order for free shiping (right now $140) I'm also getting 3 female lyretail anthias and 10 more small green chromis. Shipment is scheduled for a Friday delivery.

 

[psteeleb]

I found a video of my last tank, a 300g so thought I'd post it

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[psteeleb]

and here is my second salt tank back from 1975

system:
55g
Under gravel filter
4 T12's (not even VHO's back then) DIY inside home built stand / canopy
Activated Carbon in a old nylon stocking
a skimmer that was about the size of a large shot glass
hob filter, I also ran UV for a while but don't know if it was installed at the time of this picture
water changes using Instant Ocean salt and tap water

this view shows a salt tank on the top with fish, nems and some other inverts
on the bottom there is a terrarium that was later changed to a local tide pool salt tank then a trigger tank

 

[Taqpol]

Its crazy to see how far we've come. I do like that over under aquarium/terrarium setup though!

 

[RVANANO]

Great pics!!! I had two of those harlequins as well but they are so hard to keep and I had the same problem with stars. I had always been told to let them eat a leg then throw the star back in the fuge etc and let it re-generate.

 

[Brey]

I need someone's help! Ok so I have about 27 pounds of live rock and 40 pounds of dead rock...I want to make that dead rock live rock again is there any bacteria additives at the pet stores to make it a quicker process or do I just seed it and wait weeks or months

 

[SDguy]

The tank really looks amazing! Nice job. A couple things...

Don't worry about the tube nem eating fish...I've seen my wrasses chase each other into mine, and it never did anything to them. Maybe something super slow moving like a scooter blenny or cardinal fish would have issues? Even then, not sure...

Be prepared to buy lots of starfish for those harlequins. When I had mine they ate a startling amount!!

 

[psteeleb]

Its crazy to see how far we've come. I do like that over under aquarium/terrarium setup though!

thanks - it's funny thinking back on it; back then if someone told me I'd eventually own a tank with holes drilled in it I would have said they were nuts.
I hauled that tank combo around with me for several years, I think I moved it about 5 times before selling it.

Great pics!!! I had two of those harlequins as well but they are so hard to keep and I had the same problem with stars. I had always been told to let them eat a leg then throw the star back in the fuge etc and let it re-generate.

I caved in and bought 3 linkas, 2 are in the sump and the 3rd is lunch, it will be interesting to see how long it lasts

I need someone's help! Ok so I have about 27 pounds of live rock and 40 pounds of dead rock...I want to make that dead rock live rock again is there any bacteria additives at the pet stores to make it a quicker process or do I just seed it and wait weeks or months

If you have live rock seeding it with that will be better then any additive bacterias you can buy. I'd just make sure you rinse and scrub it well before using. I set up my 300 with a mix of dead and live rock and never had any real issues with it. Just understand even with 100% live rock you will still get some cycle.

The tank really looks amazing! Nice job. A couple things...

Don't worry about the tube nem eating fish...I've seen my wrasses chase each other into mine, and it never did anything to them. Maybe something super slow moving like a scooter blenny or cardinal fish would have issues? Even then, not sure...

Be prepared to buy lots of starfish for those harlequins. When I had mine they ate a startling amount!!

Thanks for the information Peter, they already devastated my asterina population. I tried a CC leg the other day it lasted about 2 days so I decided to see how long a full linka would last.

 

[psteeleb]

I changed out a couple of my T5s from UV 454's to a Korallen-zucht Fiji Purple and a Giesemann Powerchrome Actinic Plus +, it is a nice upgrade as it helps bring more of the color spectrum in the reds, pinks and purples.

here is a video of the harlequin shrimp wrestling the blue linka star
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so you can get an idea about the flow in my thank here is a video of my millepora
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[ludiNano]

Wow Pete those are some great pics and video's. And thankyouverymuch for the help on my build.

 

[feh]

I found the pictures on the debubbler in my 280g (not this build)

here it is as first installed - the inner 4" was taller then the outer 6". My thought was to let the water over flow from the 4" into the 6" but this cleary was not going to work.

after cutting the 4" shorter then the 6" allowing the water more room to exit the 4"

Got any better pics of this?

 

[psteeleb]

Wow Pete those are some great pics and video's. And thankyouverymuch for the help on my build.

thanks and anytime Josh

Got any better pics of this?

here is one of before I installed it the first time. I had planned for the water to flow out the slots on the top of inner pipe into the outer pipe and finally out the slots in the bottom of the outer pipe. There was so much flow I ened up just cutting the smaller pipe shorte ( no slots) and added 2 more slots to the outer pipe and it worked great.

I know I made a sketch of it but I'll have to dig around my old photobucket account to see if I can find it.

 

[psteeleb]

this is about the best picture yet of the orange line cloves under just the royal blue leds - still not as vibrant as they are in real life

 

[aquaph8]

Cool video's Pete. I gotta get me a camera, maybe for Christmas. Harlequin Shrimp have gotta be some of the most interesting looking creatures ever. They gotta be a lot of fun to watch.

 

[psteeleb]

Cool video's Pete. I gotta get me a camera, maybe for Christmas. Harlequin Shrimp have gotta be some of the most interesting looking creatures ever. They gotta be a lot of fun to watch.

thanks Brett and hope you get that camera for Christmas

I got my first pair of harlequin shrimp back in the late seventies and kept them in a species only tank. I could hardly afford feeding them back then but they were probably my favorite thing I had at the time.

I got a single one for my 300g but it only lasted a couple days. We think the banded coral shrimp got him at night. This tank I decided not to get the banded coral shrimp with hopes to eventually get a pair of harlequins. My wife alos loves them but she has a hard time with feeding them live stars.

 

[psteeleb]

Just a note for everyone that may happen to read this thread; the keyhole limpets will chew on the underside and base of acroporas. I seen them do this to at least three of mine (millepora, chips and pearlberry) and seen damage on a couple others. They don't do much harm but do suck or chew the skin off the base leaving scars that look like AEFW but more broad base then in splotches. They only seem to hit the base area and so the dammage is limited and seems to recover over time.

 

[psteeleb]

my meteor shower is starting to look pale on the sides, at first I thought it was a low Mg reading. I even checked Po4 and No2, but tonight I saw a limpet munching on the side. I have now seen the limpets munching on my chips acro, the pearlberry, the mille and now the meteor shower. It may be time to ban them to the sump (at least the ones I find muching on corals)

alk=7.5 (I adjusted the Ca reactor to increase output)
Mg=1425
P04=undectable
N02=at most 0.2

 

[frankpayne32]

I only ever had one harlequin, but when I did I fed him one chocolate chip starfish arm once a week. This seemed to keep him healthy. I had him for about six months but he died during a tank transfer .