this drives me nuts

[ladyfsu]

I don't know which smiley I should be putting up.

:mad2: :eek1:

My dad knows nothing about salt water tanks and/or corals (or didn't know). I made him a cute little 10 gallon with some neat critters and a couple frags back in June. He loved it and upgraded to a 40. He has no skimmer, no powerheads, no sump, and only 2 little whisper filters...he hardly uses any liverock. He DOES change out 2-4 gallons of water every week. His corals freaking grow like weeds!!! ...I'm happy for him...but it's P!$$!^G ME OFF!!!!!!! arhjasekdrjahglkasdg Why can't I grow them like him. Here's his tank. The corals he has bought pretty darn cheap. I want to say "more live rock" "aquascape" "skim" etc but his is the tank working best...not mine. I'm very happy for him but NOT FAIR, lol! I love my daddy! ...and if you remember....this is the guy who bought a mandarin 2 weeks into a new tank and the freaking fish ATE FLAKE!!!!

[/IMG]

This elegance he bought at Aquatic Visions ($55) and a few of us thought he was insane...but now it is double the size. He wants to frag it and give me 2/3 of it but how???

This thing he bought online/ebay from someone (he thinks she's cute)...$20

 

[ladyfsu]

This thing was almost dead we thought after 7 days but now 2 months later, is kicking butt and happy. Aquatic Visions.

All 4 of these online (I think) from 2 different ebay-ers ... one the same as mentioned before.

EVEN THE CUP CORALS are kicking butt!

.....side view with Mollie the cat watching for that yellow tang

He's willing to give me a bit...especially the elegance that everyone stayed away from...but we don't know how to frag it!!

 

[h2joe]

to be honest when me and my friend set a 10g nano up at our school last year we only ran 2 over the back filters and a 96watt quad over the tank and our coral growth was off the charts. we were fragging a lot by the end of 18weeks and we only changed 1gallon of water a week. no skimmer, power heads, or live sand. went with play sand and something like 8lbs of rock. we only had 1 fish which was a Royal Gramma and that was it. we managed to keep blastos, xenia, rics, zoos, and a small piece of sps.

good luck

Mark

and i would go with the and be happy thats hes willing to frag stuff for you.

 

[guntercb]

Yeah, the tank does look nice!!

Tell your Dad he is doing great.

I don't think you can frag elegance. )-: But if you can let us know how.

Cheers,
Chris

 

[o2zen]

Are the clowns playing in the bubbles?

 

[alizarin]

I bet the lack of skimmer is why - as I understand it corals take in food in three ways depending on the species

* Light
* Particulate food
* Nutritious stuff directly from the water.

Skimming takes away some of that good with the bad... mostly the nutritious stuff in the water.

I've started feeding my tank allot more than I used to and doing fairly big water changes and I've noticed MUCH more growth and I think it's the same reason. I'm hoping to add a DSB and a better fuge in a month or two so I don't have to do so many water changes.

I also have a 10g in my bedroom with no skimmer and the little hammer frag in there is growing like crazy.

Looks really nice by the way =)

 

[ladyfsu]

I think skimmerless helps with the corals he has. Tedmonds from this site has a tank I saw last month. It is gorgeous. All LPS and softies with nothing but a fuge/sump. He doesn't even supplement anything...lights are VHO's. It's amazing how some tanks thrive in the not-so-popular method.

The only way I think a reef tank will survive in my house is if I drop my house on the Great Barrier Reef...of course global warming will kill the GBR in another few years and I'll be back at square 1 !!!!

I'll tell my dad the compliments. I'm proud of him

 

[playa0069u]

up until tommarrow my tank has been doing great with 65 watts of pc, no supplements, and no skimmer. only a fuge. i got a 196 watt now xenia frags to lady soon ;-)

 

[wsurf4me]

Great tank, his success makes you wonder if we've all gone a little equipment crazy. BTW nice clowns

 

[markandkristen]

yeah this kinds annoys me too LOL. did he take out the bio wheel and filter media or ? what is his lighting schedule? thanks

 

[shibumi]

That is an awesome tank. Thanks for the pictures they are amazing. But how he does it. does he talk to his corals, and what about those nice fish all looking healthy.....

Maybe we get to crazy about equipment .... how many fish does he have?
Are those bubbles from the filter?

 

[Sailor_jon]

Im sure it has everything to do with bio-load. In the natural world - the bio-load from fish is very very small compared to phytoplankton and fauna-plankton (is that a word?). When we put fish in that glass box and feed them, it produces a lovely waste that grows algae and creates nitrates...etc..etc. We skim to remove it with a skimmer and filter...and then remove all the good nutrients and planktonic goodies. The secret is the low fish bio-load and wanter changes. It could on forever that way, with minimal fish..and no skimming, and water changes.

If you do some quick math on a reef system thers probably 100:1 coral to fish ratio...not to mention a constant flow of planktonic-enriched water. Less technology-more biology! Problem is we get locked into thinking we need to buy stuff to fix it, when all we really need to do is buy less gear..and have less fish. It's hard to overcome that desire to have more fish. Im guilty!

 

[ladyfsu]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9177098#post9177098 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by wsurf4me
BTW nice clowns

THOSE AREN'T YOURS!!! lol, these were bought at Bob's Feathered Friends in New Port Richey along with 4 he bought my daughter for my 30 gallon. Yours are bigger and have a different type of stripes. Yours are all very happy and healthy though (well, you gave us 21, and I think I did something that ended the life of 1 but I hope he's just hiding)!!!!

He has 7 clown fish (yes they are playing in the filters bubbles), 1 damsel and a yellow tang. He's also got 2 porcelain crabs, 2 mithrax, TONS of snails, and a cucumber and serpent.

I'd have to say it's the water changes.

...or the cat slapping the tank to get the fish makes the coral happy....

or he has a magic genie....

...or, I don't know.

The killer is this...when I say, "DAD, don't buy that without reading about it first" he says "what's the worst that'll happen...they die in a week? I might be dead in the morning!"

I hate when he says stuff like that!