The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread

[OLS]

Originally Posted by shilala

I've been busting my ass to try to curb the astrea starfish issue with little to no results.

Hahahaha, I told you beyotch, lol....day 1. My deal now is aiptasia. I have pulled out several formerly nice
zoanthid rocks because they get down in the cracks and there is just nothing you can do. I took the rocks out
and let em dry for a day, then scrubbed em with a soft toohbrush and rinsed them in salt water. The Zoos close
up once they realize they are going to dry out, but the aiptasia are not hardy enough on the exterior to just go dry,
and you can get em like that, but they just keep coming back after a few weeks. And their tentacles keep the zo's
closed up, so their life enjoyment is over. So I just tossed the rocks out finally. I am winding this down, it is in a room
I don't frequent and I am a terrible husband to the critters. It sucks power and I am no good at it anymore. When I BUY
my own house, I will crank it back up, til then Time to give up.

[Jefft72]

Wow! I didn't realize that there was a reef tank thread on CA! Reef tanks are my main obsession, while cigars are a new found hobby. I have had my 55g mixed reef tank for about 2 years now and am currently waiting while my 150g system cycles.
I believe it is just about complete on the cycle and now I need to scape the rock work. Once that is complete then I can move my 55g inhabitants into their new home.

Here is a shot of my 55g mixed reef tank before I moved from Austin to Houston.

[billyrayvalentin]

I have a protein skimmer on the way which is why i removed the hob filter. Thanks for the advice. I think I'll add a couple of clown fish, or a clown and something else, and a couple turbo snails to start and see how things go. I think I'm going to wait a good while before adding any corals.

I see there are several reef centered boards out there. Is there any one in particular you would recommend?

[Jefft72]

Originally Posted by billyrayvalentin

I have a protein skimmer on the way which is why i removed the hob filter. Thanks for the advice. I think I'll add a couple of clown fish, or a clown and something else, and a couple turbo snails to start and see how things go. I think I'm going to wait a good while before adding any corals.

I see there are several reef centered boards out there. Is there any one in particular you would recommend?

Just a note on damsels, in general they do get territorial and can be a pain to remove later on once you have other fish in there that are more desirable. Chromis are a type of damsel that are typically less territorial.

With regards to the question of your tank cycle, you have added live rock and may have had enough die off to start a cycle, but if you have not been testing the water and been able to see ammonia increase, followed by nitrites and nitrates, then the cycle may or may not have happened.

You can toss a piece of raw shrimp into your tank to fuel the cycle, without risking live fish.

Reefcentral.com is an excellent source of information. You may have a local reef club around you as well.

Good luck and go slow.

The tank this morning:


And the clowns don't wait even one day after the previous eggs hatch to lay a new batch:

[OLS]

Originally Posted by billyrayvalentin

I have a protein skimmer on the way which is why i removed the hob filter. Thanks for the advice. I think I'll add a couple of clown fish, or a clown and something else, and a couple turbo snails to start and see how things go. I think I'm going to wait a good while before adding any corals.

I see there are several reef centered boards out there. Is there any one in particular you would recommend?

It is likely too late now, but you should not remove the HOB filter for awhile. It is generating stuff that you want
by nature of it's bacterial cultures it tends to casue to flourish and grow in it's filters, floss, balls, etc. The skimmer
is nice to have running too, but I wouldn't pull my HOB filter until I was a couple of weeks into my cycled tank. It is
creating nitrates, but you kind of want that in the beginning. But I am no expert, god you should see my
tank's current state.

I redesigned the positive (graphite) electrode on my zapper.


It is platinum wire wound around a ceramic rod and bound with epoxy. The shrink tube is for protection. I tested this at work. With the SS welding wire for the negative electrode there was no erosion on either electrode. Less resistance than graphite too.

I find the zapper works best on Majano while Joe's Juice or Kalkwasser works best on Aiptasia.

[shilala]

I called the reefer outfit in Mogadore to see about Harlequin Shrimp to go after this astrea problem. I backed that up with an email, so hopefully I'll have some hel;p in the next week or two.
The dirty bastards are crawling around everywhere like fishtank lice. They're in the Gonpora and irritating it, which super triple pisses me off.
A pair of these Harlequins and some patience should yield results pretty quickly. I'll get back to tweezer picking them, too.

It's tough to keep a reef hospital clean. I wish I could be more like Brad and let it look like a gas station terlit.

Something must be keeping my astrea in check. I have them but they have never got out of control.
I think the clown eggs will hatch tonight. The fry have less than zero chance of surviving but I would like to catch some just to check them out. They might be able to survive in the refugium. I would think by now some of the past hatches would have made it there and got bigger. I never see them.
Brad, show your tank. We want to see how bad they can get and still survive.

[4WheelVFR]

Hopefully I'll be able to contribute to this thread very soon. I've got a 250 gallon acrylic tank that I'll be turning into a mixed reef or fowlr. I've got 850 gallon freshwater tank that is undergoing some plumbing changes though and that's gotta get done first.

[shilala]

I have a pair of Harlequin Shrimp coming today via Fedex. I also got Weeze a new Turquoise Maxima clam, and threw in an electric blue hermit to dig around in my substrate.

I tried like hell to find DT's Oyster eggs and DT's Phytoplankton from the same place and couldn't do it. I paid like $150 for a 32 ounce bottle and a 100ml jar of eggs overnighted. I damn near puked but I've literally put in hours searching over the last two weeks and just couldn't find both from the same place.
The two should last me a good, long time.
It's all Brad's fault. He put a curse on my Goniopora and it's slipping, so I need to feed it oyster eggs and make sure my iron is okay. When I bring it back from death's door I'm going to get a Red Birdsnest Goniopora. The stuff is gorgeous.
I feed ten or twelve different foods, but apparently goniopora needs tiny, tiny food to survive. A phytoplankton/oyster egg isolated feeding will do the trick according to all the reading I've done.
I'll probably feed her in a big bowl for a few hours a day for the next couple weeks. That should do the trick.

I've heard tell that turning off your skimmer can help Gonis. Mine lasted a couple of years then suddenly faded. Mostly I've just read not to buy these.

[shilala]

Originally Posted by BC-Axeman

I've heard tell that turning off your skimmer can help Gonis. Mine lasted a couple of years then suddenly faded. Mostly I've just read not to buy these.

Brad told me the same thing after I already got it.
I read up real good yesterday and I think I have it all under control now. Once I get the right food and target feed and put the skimmers and stuff on a timer and feed at the right time, I'll be golden.
It's not rocket surgery, they just need some special care that they weren't getting.
And yes, the skimmers are what starves them out. But they can still starve unless there's plenty of stuff that's small enough for them to eat. They need things in the 40-50 micron range. That's about 1/20th the size of Cyclopeeze.
1ml will feed a 50 gallon tank. There's literally millions of eggs in 1ml (1/30th of an ounce). I got a 100ml jar. It's frozen. That'll easily last me well over a year.

What I'll do is set the skimmers, canister filter, over the back filter, and powerheads on a timer. They're already all on one plug bar that I use to power the wavemaker and Koralia powerheads. I can move stuff around so the wavemaker doesn't need reset every time the timer interupts everything. I'll actually probably need two timers, but that's fine, too. It's just that every time the power gets cut to the wavemaker it needs to be reset. I want this to all work automatically.

I'll set everything up to shut off an hour or so before my lights, then start back up a few hours after the lights have been off.
Now that I've typed this I rethunk what I'll do, but you get the idea.
I have two small Koralia's way down in the back bottom of the tank and I might want to leave them on. I can also set a feding time on the wavemaker, so I may do that.
The main thing is that the skimmers and filters need to cut off for about 4 hours a day so my stuff can eat.

[shilala]

The harlequin shrimp arrived. Just for fun, I thought I'd see if they'd eat the Astraea starfish. I picked a couple with tweezers and threw them in their bags while they were floating, still being acclimated. Both shrimp ate them immediately. I was shocked, thrilled, happy, and hollered for Weeze to watch me feed them another and they gobbled them up instantly.

The pair were shipped in separate bags so I was afraid they weren't mated. As soon as I put them together it was like brand new lovers who hadn't seen each other for a week. They hugged and kissed and intertwined themselves like they were one shrimp.

After about a half hour they started hunting together. They worked together to pull a starfish off the glass and the male gobbled it up in one bite. Five minutes later they went to work again. The male and female both had to pry that star from the glass. I thought the male ate it, but then watched him pass it to the female.
Bellies full they backed up near a little ledge and just kicked back, never letting go of each other.

I havent seen them today, they apparently found their home and settled in among the rocks. I am totally in love with these things and I'm planning on a couple more pairs if I find in my reading that they'll live peacefully.
Once the Andreas are cleaned up, I can start feeding them chocolate chip stars.
This has been some serious fun. I can't wait to watch them work again, they're the coolest reef critters I've ever owned.

[shilala]

My new buddies are doing great. They moved out front cause they wanted to be on the intersne, so here they are. Mind ya, they're hanging upside down.

[shilala]

And here's a pic of the turquoise crocea...

[LostAbbott]

Wow Scott, you have some seriously impressive stuff in your tank! Thanks for sharing!

Feeding a Pooffer fish...
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=525_1322507658

[shilala]

Never imagined feeding mice to my fish. lol

My new harlequin shrimp are going crazy eating those astrea stars. They're definately giving me my money's worth.

I culled out a giant wad of pulsing xenia a couple days ago. It just grows so fast I can't keep it culled back fast enough. I need a lawn mower for it.

I zapped a few anemone's between last night and today. I can't find any more so I'll just wait another month and see what happens.

I got the DT's frozen oyster eggs and a new quart DT's phyto. I'm spot feeding the goniopora and it's coming back already. There's a drastic improvement after just one feeding. They were just starving to death is all. There wasn't any food in the tank small enough to sustain them.

Last, but not least, I put my skimmers, OTB and cannister filter on a timer plug-bar. It shuts them off every night from 8 to midnight. I set an alarm on my phone so I remember to feed at 8. That'll allow all the corals to eat for 4 solid hours before skimmers kick back in. I'm going to feed every other day, using the spot feeder and oyster eggs for the Goni while I feed the other end of the tank with a variety of foods.
I'm super excited about getting this Goniopora to come back because I'd love to get the red bird's nest Goni. It's gorgeous.