lol!
thanks, that's what I thought... not sure if it's bc they were captive bred but my clowns never showed interest in the anemone. Instead they'd hang out by the corner overflow wall. Any idea how to make them swim in the anemone?
ReefWreak's 29g SPS Biocube Adventure!
- Thread starter ReefWreak
- Start date
There's no surefire way. My friend/neighbor just bought a second pair of clowns, and they took to the anemone after a while.
Sometimes it just takes time for them to get established with the tank and with each other, and then eventually the anemone. I think he kept trying for 6+ months before they finally took to the anemone. It drove him nuts that they were just swimming at the top of his tank and not paying any attention to the anemone. Now that I'm thinking about it, I forget whether they ended up taking up residence in his GIGANTIC goniopora, or the anemones. He has like 3 anemones now too, because he bought one, it disappeared, the second sat for a long time, but then started splitting, and I think he had a third split. 75ish gallon tank though, so it can handle it.
Apparently that's common, a local NJ guy said the same thing. In fact his clowns r so active that they're killing his torch coral.
One more quick update
1. Friends, I'm sorry to say, but I will not be attending Reefapalooza this year. We have to go to Florida for a family event, so I won't be available those days for the event.
2. I have been toying with the idea of just hiring someone to do a tank teardown and scrubbing and re-scaping, and my wife is 100% on board for this. Time is tight these days, and partly I'm just too frustrated with the algae to spend a day doing all of that. My hope is that someone can take the rocks out, scrape off the bubble algae, toss any dead coral skeletons, and maybe slightly rearrange the tank to distribute the corals that survived. I'm looking into local stores or people who like to do that stuff now (let me know if you have any recommendations!)
1. Friends, I'm sorry to say, but I will not be attending Reefapalooza this year. We have to go to Florida for a family event, so I won't be available those days for the event.
2. I have been toying with the idea of just hiring someone to do a tank teardown and scrubbing and re-scaping, and my wife is 100% on board for this. Time is tight these days, and partly I'm just too frustrated with the algae to spend a day doing all of that. My hope is that someone can take the rocks out, scrape off the bubble algae, toss any dead coral skeletons, and maybe slightly rearrange the tank to distribute the corals that survived. I'm looking into local stores or people who like to do that stuff now (let me know if you have any recommendations!)
soulpatch
New member
Mine are always in and on my torch but no damage to late. If anything it is more then triple the size since getting the clowns...
Reef - Sorry to hear about reefapalooza. See what having children does to plans. HAHA
As for the tank how much you paying LOL. Perhaps Homer and I can come do it for a decent sum. LOL
Children do a lot to a lot of things... My wife asked me to throw her my shirt because the baby threw up on it this morning. I wiped it off and didn't even think about it and have been working in it since then... Don't even notice that stuff anymore.....
Lord, I hope the sum isn't nearly enough to justify having you two come by to do it... If it is that much, I'll just plan on doing nothing until I have a new tank set up if/when that day comes, and whatever survives until then survives, and whatever doesn't.... doesn't....
I think I used too many ellipses. My apologies... :strooper:
homer1475
New member
I think a 30 rack would suffice. :beer:
Oh and gas money and tolls!
Driving down to Ocean City, between the PA turnpike, and Jersey turnpike I used up my ezpass allotment of 25$.
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homer1475
New member
PFFT!!!
LPS are the only corals. All those little sticks you guys think are corals are just broken tree branches waiting to die when one little thing goes wrong in your tank. :uzi:
In all seriousness though, LPS and SPS are only names given by hobbyists. Their all technically corals.
homer1475
New member
If mine did, i would probably be right there with you. Or just go FOWLR.
Thanks for all the encouragement of that everyone else would pull the plug 
I'm going to be reaching out this week to see what I can find for someone to clean up (and what it'll cost).
I basically run my tank like a FOWLR. My coral dosing is mostly automated at this point, and there's almost no manual intervention other than feeding the fishes, cleaning the skimmer, and vodka dosing.
I test on very rare occasion. I guess that's why I get crashes, but generally speaking that's the maintenance schedule that works for me, and has worked for me. I should do something like set calendar reminders with lists of things to check, so I know when 2 part is about to run out, or to just do a monthly water test or something.
Either way, I appreciate the support, and we'll see what my tank looks like after I've been out of town for 10 days and had a non-reefer feed the tank and empty the skimmer.
I'm going to be reaching out this week to see what I can find for someone to clean up (and what it'll cost).
I basically run my tank like a FOWLR. My coral dosing is mostly automated at this point, and there's almost no manual intervention other than feeding the fishes, cleaning the skimmer, and vodka dosing.
I test on very rare occasion. I guess that's why I get crashes, but generally speaking that's the maintenance schedule that works for me, and has worked for me. I should do something like set calendar reminders with lists of things to check, so I know when 2 part is about to run out, or to just do a monthly water test or something.
Either way, I appreciate the support, and we'll see what my tank looks like after I've been out of town for 10 days and had a non-reefer feed the tank and empty the skimmer.
So, still working on getting someone to come by and clean io my mess, bit I found the person and the price is very reasonable (it's all relative, right? It's less than I know some of you have spent on a single coral). I'll try to get that going in the next week or two.
Something to add, I found the ultimate nano skimmer (though this will come as no surprise to Soulpatch): the AquaMaxx WS-1. As serendipity would have it, I was puttering around trying to find an alternative skimmer for me, found that skimmer, and then a week before this search, someone posted a thread on that other forum about nano-reefs, with the subject "looking to trade Aquamaxx WS-1 for Tunze 9001. We'll, thanks to Soulpatch, I just so happened to have a 9001 available!
So we swapped skimmers, and man,this thing produces! I know a few of you with open tops used the AquaMaxx HOB, bit I've always wanted to keep the hood on. Since I've been leaving the back chamber open anyway, I don't kind the skimmer sticking out the top. The skimmer just fit width-wise into the back chamber. I have it in chamber 2.
The reason I knew it worked, and worked well, was because when I emptied it the first time, it smelled like a skimmer. Other than when watching my friend's tank, I hadn't smelled that smell in a loooong time. But you never forget the smrkk if some good skimmer nog. It smelled like a skimmer! And it fit in a nano tank!
So I'm pretty happy now. I do think I'll either have to start dosing nitrate or add gfo to get this bubble algae down. And I'm also still struggling with high salinity (1.030 even after removing a gallon and a half over the last week!). But the tank carries on, and though I'm still barely paying it any attention, in seeing a bit of resilient coral starting to grow back again.
Hope everyone enjoyed their holiday weekend, and are enjoying the warm weather. I might have to hook up the chiller this year!
Something to add, I found the ultimate nano skimmer (though this will come as no surprise to Soulpatch): the AquaMaxx WS-1. As serendipity would have it, I was puttering around trying to find an alternative skimmer for me, found that skimmer, and then a week before this search, someone posted a thread on that other forum about nano-reefs, with the subject "looking to trade Aquamaxx WS-1 for Tunze 9001. We'll, thanks to Soulpatch, I just so happened to have a 9001 available!
So we swapped skimmers, and man,this thing produces! I know a few of you with open tops used the AquaMaxx HOB, bit I've always wanted to keep the hood on. Since I've been leaving the back chamber open anyway, I don't kind the skimmer sticking out the top. The skimmer just fit width-wise into the back chamber. I have it in chamber 2.
The reason I knew it worked, and worked well, was because when I emptied it the first time, it smelled like a skimmer. Other than when watching my friend's tank, I hadn't smelled that smell in a loooong time. But you never forget the smrkk if some good skimmer nog. It smelled like a skimmer! And it fit in a nano tank!
So I'm pretty happy now. I do think I'll either have to start dosing nitrate or add gfo to get this bubble algae down. And I'm also still struggling with high salinity (1.030 even after removing a gallon and a half over the last week!). But the tank carries on, and though I'm still barely paying it any attention, in seeing a bit of resilient coral starting to grow back again.
Hope everyone enjoyed their holiday weekend, and are enjoying the warm weather. I might have to hook up the chiller this year!
homer1475
New member
Warm weather? Whatch you talkin bout willis?
It's been cold and very wet so far this year. Heck I still have my pellet stove running and its the second of june!!!
Anyways, glad you finally got a decent skimmer and it's working. As you stated, you know when a skimmer is actually working well by the foul smell it contains. :lolspin:
FWIW, GFO will not help with bubble algae.
It's been cold and very wet so far this year. Heck I still have my pellet stove running and its the second of june!!!
Anyways, glad you finally got a decent skimmer and it's working. As you stated, you know when a skimmer is actually working well by the foul smell it contains. :lolspin:
FWIW, GFO will not help with bubble algae.
I forgot you live in the far, far away north (of the same state). Down here the last week or two it has been dramatically warmer (though we did have a week that was cold again). What weird weather....
Good to know on the bubble algae. I've heard from a few people that bubble algae is particularly good at hanging on with only some phosphate and little to no nitrates. Every time I test, whether it is API or Salifert, I get 0 nitrates, and on the Hanna low-range phosphorous test, I get >0.018ppm of phosphate (converted from phosphorous to phosphate), which is still plenty low. But there's still the whole thing of the algae can be using the nutrients which would "hide" them from tests if they're using them up as quickly as it hits the water column.
I've been bouncing around the idea of dosing nitrates with my vodka to hopefully help pull the phosphates down, or just running GFO for a bit. Whatever it is, I don't think I'll do anything until I have the guy come by and help re-sort out the tank. I think it's helpful to have an experienced pro that does this for a living come by. Hopefully he will have some good ideas on better placement of corals too, so that when we put it back together it'll "make sense", something I'm spectacularly bad at for the most part.
Good to know on the bubble algae. I've heard from a few people that bubble algae is particularly good at hanging on with only some phosphate and little to no nitrates. Every time I test, whether it is API or Salifert, I get 0 nitrates, and on the Hanna low-range phosphorous test, I get >0.018ppm of phosphate (converted from phosphorous to phosphate), which is still plenty low. But there's still the whole thing of the algae can be using the nutrients which would "hide" them from tests if they're using them up as quickly as it hits the water column.
I've been bouncing around the idea of dosing nitrates with my vodka to hopefully help pull the phosphates down, or just running GFO for a bit. Whatever it is, I don't think I'll do anything until I have the guy come by and help re-sort out the tank. I think it's helpful to have an experienced pro that does this for a living come by. Hopefully he will have some good ideas on better placement of corals too, so that when we put it back together it'll "make sense", something I'm spectacularly bad at for the most part.
Tank is doing better and looking a lot better after I had the maintenance guy come by and help out. Here is what he did to scrape away the bubble algae (cross-posted from Bagabaga's thread):
For my bubble algae, he ended up using the rigid tubing from my JBJ chiller tubing kit (which I haven't been using), cutting it to make a 12" section of hard rigid tubing, then sticking that into my normal waterchange hose. He then put a fine filter bag in a bucket, scraped and siphoned all of the bubble algae off of the rocks and into the bag in the bucket, and then once the bucket was filling up, he'd take the bag out, pour the bucket water back into the tank, and then start over. I think he did that 4-5 times. There was a lot of bubble algae.
Since he got rid of much of the bubble algae, I've felt more emboldened to feed the tank more. I've been feeding about as much as a frozen cube every other day now. The corals look SPECACULAR. The color coming out of the ORA Hawkins and Pink Lemonade are AMAZING. Many of the corals look like crap still, and will likely take a while to recover, but some look very very good, better than I've ever seen them.
So no more carbon dosing/vodka, only skimming at night/morning, and back to regular feeding. My salinity is still around 1.030, it just won't go lower. For almost 2 weeks now about every other day I'm taking out 32oz of water from the tank and letting the ATO top back off again. Almost no movement on the salinity. Crazy.
Also oddly enough, I've had one emerald crab die (it looked like he got stuck in/on the birdsnest coral and got stuck and died? or something?), and then my cleaner shrimp died too. I have no idea why for either death, the cleaner shrimp might have been old age if they really only live 3-5 years, since I've had it 3 years now? Seems unlikely, but I don't have another explanation. I know they're sensitive to salinity swings, but the salinity doesn't want to move, and he was fine for the last week and a half, just yesterday I found him in the pump. Maybe it's the hawkfish finally? Who knows.
For my bubble algae, he ended up using the rigid tubing from my JBJ chiller tubing kit (which I haven't been using), cutting it to make a 12" section of hard rigid tubing, then sticking that into my normal waterchange hose. He then put a fine filter bag in a bucket, scraped and siphoned all of the bubble algae off of the rocks and into the bag in the bucket, and then once the bucket was filling up, he'd take the bag out, pour the bucket water back into the tank, and then start over. I think he did that 4-5 times. There was a lot of bubble algae.
Since he got rid of much of the bubble algae, I've felt more emboldened to feed the tank more. I've been feeding about as much as a frozen cube every other day now. The corals look SPECACULAR. The color coming out of the ORA Hawkins and Pink Lemonade are AMAZING. Many of the corals look like crap still, and will likely take a while to recover, but some look very very good, better than I've ever seen them.
So no more carbon dosing/vodka, only skimming at night/morning, and back to regular feeding. My salinity is still around 1.030, it just won't go lower. For almost 2 weeks now about every other day I'm taking out 32oz of water from the tank and letting the ATO top back off again. Almost no movement on the salinity. Crazy.
Also oddly enough, I've had one emerald crab die (it looked like he got stuck in/on the birdsnest coral and got stuck and died? or something?), and then my cleaner shrimp died too. I have no idea why for either death, the cleaner shrimp might have been old age if they really only live 3-5 years, since I've had it 3 years now? Seems unlikely, but I don't have another explanation. I know they're sensitive to salinity swings, but the salinity doesn't want to move, and he was fine for the last week and a half, just yesterday I found him in the pump. Maybe it's the hawkfish finally? Who knows.
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