Randy's 180G Reef-Photo Journal

Status
Not open for further replies.
BTW my wife just emailed me to say that the new wrasse has risen from it's sandy sanctuary and is swimming around right above it. She said it doesn't venture away from that spot :lol:
 
Well still no pictures but an update on the new critters...

The yellow wrasse was out and about for the whole afternoon yesterday, but sometime in the evening buried itself again. I'm paranoid that it is going to jump out of the tank. I'm "pretty sure" it has buried itself as opposed to jumping out.


I have had to net the mandarin out of the overflow TWICE so far. Very annoying. I think I'm going to have to put some sort of screen around the edge or over the top. Right now it is just a glass overflow. Snails regularly go into that area and back out again, which I like. The drain is screened so no issues there...


The queen conch seems to be doing well. This is a very strange animal. I thought it would be a lot more like a snail, but it isn't much like a snail at all!


I haven't even come close to catching the sally lightfoots. They are not tempted by my glass with silverside chunks in the bottom...
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7059200#post7059200 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rdmpe

I have had to net the mandarin out of the overflow TWICE so far. Very annoying. I think I'm going to have to put some sort of screen around the edge or over the top. Right now it is just a glass overflow. Snails regularly go into that area and back out again, which I like. The drain is screened so no issues there...

Not sure what you are using now, but you could look into some Gutterguard...

Gutter%20Guard%20with%20fittings.JPG


Gutter%20Guard%20vs%20Strainer.JPG
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7059200#post7059200 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rdmpe
Well still no pictures but an update on the new critters...

The yellow wrasse was out and about for the whole afternoon yesterday, but sometime in the evening buried itself again. I'm paranoid that it is going to jump out of the tank. I'm "pretty sure" it has buried itself as opposed to jumping out.


I have had to net the mandarin out of the overflow TWICE so far. Very annoying. I think I'm going to have to put some sort of screen around the edge or over the top. Right now it is just a glass overflow. Snails regularly go into that area and back out again, which I like. The drain is screened so no issues there...


The queen conch seems to be doing well. This is a very strange animal. I thought it would be a lot more like a snail, but it isn't much like a snail at all!


I haven't even come close to catching the sally lightfoots. They are not tempted by my glass with silverside chunks in the bottom...

Many people seen to use gutter guard along the top of the overflow. I'm not sure how you'd fasten it on though..
You could also use black eggcrate, but again I'm not sure how you'd attach that....

The conch is sure a strange animal to watch... I love how it kinda hops itself along the sand. I'm not sure what the queen conch looks like but my strawberry is almost goofy looking with it's eyes poking out of it's shell asymetrically..

Tyler
 
Yeah I have some gutterguard, I was looking at the overflow last night trying to figure out how I might attach it. Other than silicone, I don't see an easy way to attach it to glass. I am trying to think of some sort of plastic or pvc clip. I have some ideas that may work out, if so I'll post some pics...
 
Marc, I know that super glue is reef safe, but I am not sure that I have ever read anything on hot glue; I have wondered this in the past but never really looked into it... Since you brought it up I will ask now... Hot glue would be reef safe ?? There has been time I would have used hot glue over super glue if I would have took the time to inquire about it...
 
I doubt it would be an issue at all. Since you are gluing on the overflow, that area would need to be dry. Apply the hot glue to the gutter guard, let it cool for a few minutes, then restart the pumps.

I know some have used hot glue to mount glass beads to a feeding dome, which was lowered over some corals. In that situation, it worked fine. You aren't going to use tons of the stuff, just in a few key locations to affix the screen material.
 
Another idea would be to glue eggcrate to the top of the overflow; again it'd have to be dry.

Tyler
 
I don't know exactly how hot glue is made, I always thought of it as plastic that melts a a pretty low temperature. I definitely need to do something, the mandarin is in the overflow again !!!!! So annoying! I'm going to leave him in there, it is a huge PITA right now to get him out because my light is sitting on wood that is partially blocking the overflow. I have to move it all out of the way... It will be better some day when I hang the light. I don't know why he is going up there where the water pours over.

I'm not sure if the yellow coris and the eight line will be a problem or not. Right now, I don't even have the eight line. It is back at the LFS, it was having some health issues.

Well, hopefully I'll have a chance to figure some sort of guard out that does not disrupt the flow too bad. It is very quiet the way I have it set up, and if there is too much bulk to the screen, it will end up making the overflow louder.
 
The mandarin is small enough that it could possibly go right through the eggcrate I think. I'll probably have to go with gutter guard type material.
 
I'm not going to leave the mandarin in the overflow for more than a day or so :) I just realized that in my earlier post it sounded like he was going to live there for a long time... He should be fine in there for a day, I'll probably get him out tomorrow after work.. Not sure how many pods he'll find to eat, maybe a few...
 
Speaking of overflows, I was looking in mine and I have all sorts of algae and gunk growing in there.

Can I cover them to keep the light out?
 
Sure can. I put black acrylic over mine, but you can use coroplast instead as it is cheaper. Anything to shade that area.
 
Toss some snails in there?

Snails crawl in and out of mine all the time, so it is really clean in there.
 
Someone should start a "what's in your overflow" thread. :) Mine has some detritus on the bottom; been meaning to siphon it up; but otherwise it's loaded with tube worms, bristle worms, etc. Kinda neat to see what's growing in there.

Tyler
 
Wow, tube worms and bristle worms? That is cool. I'm not sure exactly what is in mine. The snails keep it pretty clean I think. I also had a bunch of green stripe hermit crabs living in there for a while (gone now). There is a light dusting of sand that doesn't cover the whole bottom. I just can't see in there very well. I need to take a flashlight and look up from the bottom. I'd probably be able to see things better that way.

Although I have a ton of pods, I placed an order from www.oceanpods.com just for the helk of it (to use Tyler's term :) ). I figured it should at least increase the diversity a little bit. I'm going to dump almost all of them into the refugium, maybe putting some into the main display tank after lights out...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top