Tank of the Month - May 2005

[maxvan1]

I have a RBTA, I brush by it all the time, nothing ever happends. (or at least I cant feel it.)

another question (sorry lol) when you say a temp. spike caused a split, did it split durring the spike, or after?

 

[george_grat]

Nice work!!!

 

[dc]

Gee my anemone looks just like yours! I love that tank, hope mine will do the same thing.

 

[Dino]

Amazing tank, I just keep going back to it and thinking "Wow!". I would really love to get a bta sometime, and I'm sure I will...just those first time jitters . Don't want it to kill over on me, the family would never let me live it down!

 

[Anemone]

Have the anemones ever stung you?

Actually, yes. When I clean the acrylic, the top of my forearm brushes against several of the clones. I usually start to get a burning/itchy sensation that takes 10-15 minutes after I wash my hands/arm to subside. Nothing unbearabale, just about at the level of a mild sunburn, pain-wise.

And as far as the splits after a temp spike, it's usually within 24 hours of the spike, but sometimes (like this time) can occur during the spike - this "spike" was more of a low level one, but went on longer than the times my temp has spiked up to 86-87 degrees. It took me a couple of days to figure out the problem, so my temp was riding up for a couple of days.

Kevin

 

[reefofart]

Have the anemones ever stung you?

I also was wondering about this since in the article you said you used your thumbnail to pry them off the aquarium sides. Wouldn't it be hard not to get stung, or is it pretty mild with brief contact?

 

[maxvan1]

Actually, yes. When I clean the acrylic, the top of my forearm brushes against several of the clones. I usually start to get a burning/itchy sensation that takes 10-15 minutes after I wash my hands/arm to subside. Nothing unbearabale, just about at the level of a mild sunburn, pain-wise.

And as far as the splits after a temp spike, it's usually within 24 hours of the spike, but sometimes (like this time) can occur during the spike - this "spike" was more of a low level one, but went on longer than the times my temp has spiked up to 86-87 degrees. It took me a couple of days to figure out the problem, so my temp was riding up for a couple of days.

Kevin

Really? does the stinging become less as they clone? like a wild one would hurt more then a second or thrid generation?

 

[OceanproAquatics]

Nice thread. I'm going to read it all to see if I can get some help on a topic I by coincidence asked about. I think my Roses are spawning and I'm not sure but another RC member was nice enough to refer me here.

If you wouldn't mind taking a look at this link http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=4913418#post4913418 I posted about what appears to be milt or a large cloud bloom my rose's are shooting all over, I'd appreciate any advice.

Thanks!
Mike

 

[Anemone]

Really? does the stinging become less as they clone? like a wild one would hurt more then a second or thrid generation?

Not that I've noticed. My clones have actually gotten more "sticky" since I've had them... plus, I may be bulding up an allergic reaction to the stings as well.

Kevin

 

[kaweahnet]

OK, Anemone, you definitely got my attention here. Not because you have done so good with Anemone's (although I have mad respect for that also) ... but what interests me is what you have done with your SeaClear System II. I too have one that I continue to use for a FO tank with one BTA. I was convinced about 10 years ago to purchase one of these and was told that if I ever wanted to keep inverts it would be perfect. Well, 10 years ago there was not as much widespread knowledge as there is today with respect to nitrate reduction ... so I'll give the guy at PetCo a break. I got the information that I would expect to get from a minimum wage employee at a chain fish store.

We all know that the 'ole wet/dry systems are not condusive to low nitrate levels ... and you mentioned that you removed your bioballs and replaced them with a fuge. That's cool! I have thought about doing something similar. I have toyed with many ideas of getting a real skimmer on the back of it also.

I have managed to get nitrates down to about 25-40PPM by utilizing the installed Protein Skimmer (junk) with the bioballs. Currently, I have it setup as an aggressive tank (humu trigger & dragon wrasse) with the BTA hosting a maroon clown. The BTA has lived in 100+PPM nitrates before I got the skimmer working efficiently, so its very successful right now with 25PPM.

I'd be anxious to see how yours is setup (pictures or diagrams would be wonderful). I would also like to learn a little more in detail about what you did with different skimmer options. Eventually I am going to sell this tank when we start building our 200+ tank ... but I would like to sell it as something that could support <5PPM Nitrates.

Thanks in advance, Dave

 

[Anemone]

Dave,

"Uniquarium" makes a skimmer that is a round acrylic tube with a collection cup on one end. It is made to be powered by a Rio 600 venturi that injects the water/air mixture through a hole in the side. This acrylic tube fits into the space for the SeaClear airstone skimmer. It takes some work, but it fits. The rio 600 goes on the bottom of the skimmer area, pointed upward into the bottom of the skimmer tube. You'll need additional airline tubing, as the tubing included with the Rio isn't long enough to reach from the bottom of the skimmer area to the top (ie, to the air). I attached a tetra luft airpump to give some additional airpower to the skimmer, and it worked better than the the airstone skimmer that SeaClear sells (and I didn't have to change the wood airstones every month). The downside is that it's hard to get to the rio to clean it or perform other maintenance. The skimmer area is tough for even someone with small arms like me to reach to the bottom of...

I'll try to diagram the bioball area that I've turned into a 'fuge...not sure if this will work...



.|..|..............................|
.|..|..............................|
.|..|..|...........................|
.|..|..|...........................|
.|..|..|.........|........|.......|
.|1|2.|..3 ....|..4 . ..|..5 ..|
.|..|..|.........|........|.......|
.......|............................|

Okay, 1 is the skimmer chamber - water flows across the bottom of that chamber and up and over chamber 2 into chamber 3. There used to be a drip plate across the top of 3 and 4, and the water overflowing from 2 dripped down into bioballs in 3 and 4. Water flows along the bottom of 3 and 4 into 5, where the main system pump pumps the water back into the tank.

I took a piece of acrylic and glued it over the opening at the bottom of 4, between 4 and 5. This allowed me to put 3-4" of sand in the bioball area. I drilled 1" holes in the dividers between 3 and 4, and 4 and 5, about an inch from the top. This lowers the water level in this refugium area slightly, but helps keep stuff from running across the top of the water from 2 and overflowing into 5... it helps keep stuff in the refugium. I put a 15 watt NO fluorescent Tr-phosphor bulb directly above this refugium area, and there is some spill over of light from the VHO bulbs.

Now, to see if it gets all messed up when I post...

Kevin

 

[kaweahnet]

Thank you very much, Kevin. Excellent description of what you did - it makes perfectly good sense. I figured I was going to have to plug up the pump inlet (bottom of divider between 4 & 5), and you confirmed that - although I've been thinking about building a chamber around it, so that it still sucks from the bottom so that if the water level dropped I wouldn't be sucking air.

I just picked up a Coralife Protein skimmer for my frag tank (20 gallon) and it works fantastic. For a HOB deal it really does good, I highly recommend it for someone on a budget that doesn't want to do a sump. My idea is that I'm going to pull it off of my frag tank and try to cram the pump from it down into the skimmer chamber, if that works then I can effectively have a HOB skimmer for it. We'll see. The biggest problem is that I don't have live rock in the tank - so I have to have some type of biological flitration if some type, so removing the bioballs ot cram the skimmer pump down there really isn't feasible.

Therefore, I'm looking at doing something similar to what you have done, but rather than a fuge it would be a 4" sand bed and a bunch of small pieces of live rock all the way up to the top. It won't be quite 1lb/gallon, but it should provide enough filtration for the bioload in the tank.

Love that Coralife skimmer - only $99 with the pump at Aquacon.com

 

[LUIZ LÃœBBE]

Congrats! It's nice one. Getting momment could you tell me about the lighting used in this? Are you using T5 bulbs, what version of watting used, is it 54 version, like tank of the month, on march 2005?
In positive case, could help about where buy this lighting?
May you order an e-mail, getting me to write for?
Thanks,
LÃÅ"œBBE

 

[zenya]

Congrats,Kevin!

Well deserved and I'm glad to see that a species tank was recognized as TOTM. Being RBTA keeper myself it makes me feel very good.
I was lucky enough not to loose any of my fish when all my clones spawned(males, as you know ) I can;t thank you enough for providing all the information I needed at the time.

 

[Anemone]

Congrats! It's nice one. Getting momment could you tell me about the lighting used in this? Are you using T5 bulbs, what version of watting used, is it 54 version, like tank of the month, on march 2005?
In positive case, could help about where buy this lighting?
May you order an e-mail, getting me to write for?
Thanks,
LÃÅ"œBBE

No, not T-5, VHO. I have an Icecap 660 ballast. From the article:

Now the tank is lit by 295 watts of VHO lighting (a 46.5" Actinic Blue bulb, a 46.5" Actinic White bulb and a 24" Actinic White bulb) for 11 hours daily, plus two 15 watt NO bulbs (one actinic and one triphosphor) that run for 12 hours and are used for dawn/dusk simulation and refugium lighting.

The ballast I got from IceCap, and the bulbs I got from Premium Aquatics, both ReefCentral Sponsors.

Kevin

 

[BrianD]

Attaboy, Kevin

 

[LUIZ LÃœBBE]

THANKS. VERY MUCH! IT'S AN IMPORTANT INFORMATION. IN THE PRESENT MOMMENT EXPECTED TO RECEIVE MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE LAST EQUIPMENTS USED IN THE USA AND IN THE EUROPE. IF SOMEONE HERE COULD SEND ANYTHING ABOUT THE ENIVATION DEVELOPED THERE, PELASE SEND TO: luizcl@w3tech.com.bnr

 

[Nem0]

I have a RBTA when fully extended can reach the size of a tyre. It has been with me for about a year now. Doesn't move around, but the tenticle is always distrubing its neighbor.

Do you know if a RBTA gets too big, it will split by itself?

Thanks.

 

[JHReef]

I had a huge green BTA finally split that was doing the same as yours. I kept having to move stuff around so it could have enough space. I think a steady diet of silversides did the trick for me and I got a ton of real estate back as a result.

 

[Fergy]

Kevin: did you receive the E quad from Sanjay as a clone out of the Penn State tank? If that's the case, it was probably a clone of one of mine, and I can tell you that it was collected in Guam, in 10' of water, off Padi Point. Just to give you a little "chain of custody" info about it. ;-)

BRIAN