[VWD]

When it comes to fish I’ve always been a large fish person, I love the large Angels, triggers, tangs and puffers. Also love lion fish. I just no long have big enough tanks to suit most.

 

[Paul b]

Maybe amphipods do eat copepods. It's a little hard to see what they are eating and I can't even see their lips moving.

 

[Tinsnips]

Apparently an Emerald crab will eat a feather duster. I can tell ya that for free. He is my prime suspect at the moment.

 

[VWD]

I stopped using crabs of any kind for the clean up crew years ago. I only like snails .
crabs , I guess I pick that up from seahorses. No crabs in my seahorse tanks bleed over to my reefs. The best clean up crew are my tangs and snails and they do the job. I will say I never had an emerald crabs harm anything. But they do irritate stuff . Same with urchins, they knock stuff over.

 

[Tinsnips]

I think the duster is going in the 10 gallon temporarily for safe keeping until I catch the crab out in the open and can move him.

 

[Paul b]

I stopped using crabs of any kind for the clean up crew years ago.

So is this bad? He looks like he only eats carrots.

 

[Tinsnips]

So is this bad? He looks like he only eats carrots.

Holy mackerel. He is a big boy!

 

[VWD]

What’s for dinner

 

[Paul b]

What’s for dinner

 

[Tinsnips]

Wow. Big boy. How old is he Paul?

 

[Tinsnips]

Made the weekly trip to the LFS this morning and hung out there for a bit. The tank has been pretty stable at 80F, 8.0 PH, 0 amm, 0 Nitrites, 10 Nitrates. Moving the lights up 6” made all the difference in getting down to a 1 degree temp swing.

I added a starfish and a Toadstool Leather. First coral. We will see how it goes. It is about 2” across and I paid $40.00 for it. There is a small off shoot on the base so hopefully it will grow a second head.

My little Pearl butterfly is eating like a champ and fattening up nicely. The clowns are goofballs.

 

[Paul b]

Wow. Big boy. How old is he Paul?

I don't know, I ate that one.

But I have kept baby blue claw crabs and they get that size in about 2 years.

 

[Tinsnips]

OK, we’ll I learned something today. Pro tip: check your mixed saltwater supply BEFORE you start a water change.

I did’nt do a water change last weekend as planned. I wanted to see if the bio I had built up was substantiak. Ammonia and Nitrites were 0 and nitrates were low.

I think a combination of too much light (14 to 16 hours) and some nitrates caused some green algae. Over the span of 24 hours it bloomed and covered 75% of the glass.

No problem. I will scrub and do a 50% water change. Clean it up and stick in the siphon & get out half the water.

Time to carry some Paul’s from the basement. Stick my hand in to do a salinity test before o add it to the tank and it is stone cold. Heater failed. At this point the aquarium was 80.8 and the mix tank is 67. I am adding a pitcher at a time dropping a degree then waiting for it to come back up. Gonna be a long night I think. Heater and wave maker are running and I could run filter if needed later.

How many hours is a guess for me? 6 T5 bulbs and a 75 gallon tank. One toadstool leather.

 

[VWD]

I’m have never heated water when mixing. I still don’t. The only heat it gets is from the pump circulating. Even when doing tank maintenance I would carry water in 5 gallon buckets in the bed of my truck winter and summer. Never has any adverse effects. I do prefer colder over warmer.

 

[Tinsnips]

I am still at the “don’t let anything change” stage. Dropping the temp one degree in 5 minutes is freaking me out. Takes an hour to raise a degree with my heater and I figure I have three more of those cycles to fill the tank.

 

[jerryclunsford]

If all you have is the one coral put it in the other tank and change the water then wait until the tank heats up

 

[hackshobby]

Set a gallon jug of boiling water in the pals......has worked for me.
Jerry has a pretty groovy idea as well.
Hack

 

[hackshobby]

I am still at the “don’t let anything change” stage. Dropping the temp one degree in 5 minutes is freaking me out.

Didn't take me long at all to get past THAT stage.
Do what's RIGHT......ALWAYS! Unless it doesn't work out that way, then no whoop.
Hack

 

[Tinsnips]

I managed to get it full and only dropped to 78.9. I heated a pot of that water and dumped it in the mix tank. Worked out.

 

[VWD]

I only run a heater in my reef. It’s set to come on at 77 degrees. By morning the temperature drop to around that from cooler night hours and no lights. Then peak of day it will go to near 82 . No harm .
Seahorses have no heaters. They drop to 75 or 76 and may get up to 78 max. No chillers or heaters.