the 1700g stingray reef

[jnarowe]

Great thread guys!

A little more info. on the foam: Great Stuff that you get at HD or Lowes works fine but is yellow and a bit spongy when cured. It also expands out-of-control sometimes. When you see it after an hour it looks fine, and then 2 hours later it could be quite a bit larger.

I have experimented with it and the Handi-Foam you can get from FosterSmith. The Handi-Foam is black and comes in a much larger canister. It goes a long way. Much more than the Great Stuff, and has a more controlled applicator. I would recommend the Handi-Foam with the exception that Great Stuff is available locally.

Word of caution!!! Not only are they VERY boiyant(sp?) but they also will release from glass. Even though the instructions say it would have to be mechanically removed from any surface, that is not entirely correct. This caused a problem in my glass FW Planted tank since I coated the back and applied sand & rock. It adhered to the plastic rim quite well but released from the glass bowing up and into the tank. I will have to cut it out and use egg crate to re-attach it. Using the resin coat is an outstanding idea and I will try this myself!!!

This was an experiment to see about using it in my reef. I am still not convinced that I should coat the inside of the reef with it. I will note though that algae loves the foam/sand combo which was the initial intent to make the FWP look more natural and hide most of the airlines, heater, power cords.

Now don't LAUGH!! I have been busy with the reef so this tank is not too well maintained right now.

This is a shot of the left side back showing the area where the foam released (left) and the PVC half-tube used to hide airline, wires, etc. The tube has notches and is glued o the glass down the other side to form a hinge of sorts. If the foam was still attached, to the glass, you would not be able to see this pipe at all.

This shows the top and back. Doesn't look too bad for a first time try.

Here's one of the gourami very at home in this jungle of a tank.

And this one show the bottom. This is a 70g Tall and believe it or not, there is an extensive cave built behind this foliage made entirely out of egg crate and handi foam. The fish LOVE it, especially the Pleco.

I have posted phots of building the cave in my gallery.

 

[Carman34L]

I am pretty sure that Energy covered all of the foam with fiberglass resin after it was dried, it looks alot differant than the plain foam. I am no expert on his tank, but i think that is what he told me.

 

[Earl87gta]

If you guys have some time to kill check out this post it will answer every question you havce on using foam for the rock work.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=447292

 

[jnarowe]

Carman34L Yeah, as I stated, the resin idea is excellent and I will try it myself.

Earl87gta Thanks for the link. I remember seeing that way back in my research and I need to read it again.

 

[Herbert T. Kornfeld]

Ick, blech, cough, sneeze, choke, wheeze, gasp....FRESHWATER PICTURES!?!?! Im feeling light headed

 

[jnarowe]

LOL! HTK, you find everything don't you?

Hey, it's just an example of testing I have done in preparation for my reef. Give me a break already

BTW, what do you think of the sponge tank filtration? Any comments?

 

[jnarowe]

And another question: where can I buy sponges? I don't see them offered by any reef suppliers I know of. thatfishplace has one but I don't like it. Any tips??

 

[Carman34L]

Reefarmers Farmed Sponges

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Natural Filtration Cryptic Sponge Seed Packs
Seed Pack Types Description Items Price
Starter Seed Cryptic Sponge Pack Small seed rocks with more than one sponge. Also have other cryptic fauna. Used to seed a cryptic zone, area or filter system. Helps to jump start the cryptic biodiversity. 3 5
total
items
for
$50
Tiny Bi-Valves. Actively filter water within the cryptic and semi-cryptic zones. They require absolutely no light. 2
Standard Seed Cryptic Sponge Pack Small seed rocks with more than one sponge. Also have other cryptic fauna. Used to seed a cryptic zone, area or filter system. Helps to jump start the cryptic biodiversity. 6 12
total
items
for
$100
Premium Cryptic Rocks. Have been cryptic for at least 1 year. They typically contain numerous organisms. 2
Tiny Bi-Valves. Actively filter water within the cryptic and semi-cryptic zones. They require absolutely no light. 4
Premium Seed Cryptic Sponge Pack Small seed rocks with more than one sponge. Also have other cryptic fauna. Used to seed a cryptic zone, area or filter system. Helps to jump start the cryptic biodiversity. 10 21
total
items
for
$150
Premium Cryptic Rocks. Have been cryptic for at least 1 year. They typically contain numerous organisms. 4
Tiny Bi-Valves. Actively filter water within the cryptic and semi-cryptic zones. They require absolutely no light. 6
Sea Squirts. Actively filter water within the cryptic zone and semi-cryptic zones. They require absolutely no light. 1


all available from www.reeffarmers.com

 

[jnarowe]

Sweet mother! Carman34L shows another reason why I like RC so much. Thank you for your quick and informative reply.

 

[asnatlas]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6313550#post6313550 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Carman34L
Reefarmers Farmed Sponges

all available from www.reeffarmers.com

Cool, thanks for the link Carman34L...

 

[cougaran]

Thanks for the post and the info. My eyes hurt from the 4 hours of reading this entire post. Great tank!

 

[zemuron114]

well, this tank never stops amazing me.. lol..

Have you thought of maybe barletts anthias or bicolor? They are more hardy then the rest, and are very beautiful.!
Also, i just brought home a pair of flame wrasses from Hawaii. And they ate right away! I was so pumped!!!. But they acclimated so fast and got use to the tank in less then a day. The male and female have already started hanging out together readily and they are sooo bright colored. Ill try to get a pic!

congrats on the beautiful set-up

Z

 

[Energy]

Hi everyone. I just set up some T-5 supplemental lighting over the tank. For 10-11 k bulbs t-5's are definately the way to go in comparison to vho aquasun or actinic whites. I'm really pleased with the spectrums from the t-5's. I have not quarantined anything as of yet butI am in the planning stages for a quarantine tank. I think this is very important. I have lost to many fish due to improper quarantine practices and learned some very expensive lessons. Believe it or not but I have no room for a quarantine tank in the fish room. So this will have to be a seperate system in another part of the house which is excatly what I don't want to do. Leopard wrasses are especially notible for carrying internal infections which can spread. I have fought LRB and acro eating flatworms on the corals. I have found an iodine dip kills the acro eating flatworms and have had another reefer tell me flatworm exit worked for him. So far the iodine dip is my main cure for the flatworms. I will not do an interceptor treatment against the Lrbs because this would kill all my other pods and starve my wrasses. Currently I'm at the their mercy. I use dragon faced pipefish, leopard wrasses and a six line wrasses to keep them tame. I'm sure my tank has both LRB and acro flatworms but with my natural controls and occasional dips it is mostly(not 100%) tolerable.
Schooling fish- I have about 40-50 fish in the tank and I'm already feeling like this is getting to be much. I will probably remove some fish before attempting a school of any sort. At feeding time the whole tank school's and swarms. They especially like to follow the stingray since he has the best food of all. The purple tangs definately school which is really neat but beyond that I just like the fact that all of the fish are peaceful with little to no squabbling. I have noticed that sometimes the supposed peaceful leapord wrasses will flash each other in a hiearchial display. Furthermore they will squabble across species boundaries. A divided leopard will take after an ornate and a regular leopard may go after the black spotted and so on and so forth. It is usually limited to a quick chase but that is enough to stress out a fish and lead to death so i try to limit this. Whenever I introduce a new wrasse I always try to do it in pairs or more. This will divide the unwanted attention among the new fish.

 

[melev]

Interesting. I just brought home three new fish. So releasing them at once should help confuse the reeflings.

Good informative post.

 

[jnarowe]

usually that keeps the odds a bit more even. Speaking of schools, my LFS just had a sale this weekend on Hippo Tangs. He had a couple dozen for $10 each. They were so cool all playing tag around the rocks. They were about the size of a dime, which was a new thing for me to see. I wish my tank was ready!

 

[Travis]

Energy, do a search on levamisole. It is a new treatment for the FW's. It is also effective against the monti eating nudis. I think the best way to quarantine corals now days is to first treat them with interceptor and then treat them with levamisole. The ideal way to do it would be to keep the corals in quarantine for 4 weeks doing one treatment per week in case there are any eggs that hatch out. But I think even a single treatment of each right before adding any coral should give a pretty good buffer against adding any nasties.

 

[prostaff]

Welcome back Energy
Are you ready to show the construction of the pvc racks yet? did you use eggcrate as a shelf? Can't wait to see these pics. I am about to try that idea on my new tank and I can't wait for some ideas. Happy Holidays

 

[jnarowe]

Ditto! I will be building mine in about 2 weeks.

 

[Energy]

Soon enough. Holidays are busy times. Maybe January or February I can post them. In the mean time I would be happy to answer any questions. Egg crate was used for the shelves to allow water circulation. 3/4 inch pipe was used for the actual supports. The structure was dry fitted only-not glued. Holes were drilled in the pipe to allow access for cryptic organisms and refuge for pods.

 

[jnarowe]

I saw a post somewhere about a reefer that had one heck of a time removing a giant bristle worm from his system because it took up residence inside the PVC pipe rock support system. He had to take apart the entire reef to get it out, and it was HUGE!!