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180g In-Wall Reef

I have a hana ph meter you can borrow if you want to make the trip. What algae do you have growing in your fuge? You may want to try a better nutrient exporting/faster growing variety. I have plenty of free cheato to go with the meter if you want. What do you have living in your tank and how often do you feed it? If it is only fish and clean up crew then I might suggest a few days if not weeks of dark days with little to no light and minimum feeding to feed the growth. This will result in the death of most photosynthetic life but the majority of what you want on the rock is not. PM me if you want.
Randy
 
If you are in North Jersey, I have wad of chateo I could split. I found the calupra difficut when I started my fuge, I changed to chateo and found it easier to work with.

Still had hair algae as that's a seperate issue.

pH, Alk and neutrient export (and import) are key to controlling the HA. So far all three of my tanks have gone through an ugly stage at about 3-4 months after start up that has required a lot of effort to turn around and get beyond the algae. Programming light naps into your lighting as Octavious Monk mentioned has worked for some, but you still have to watch the other important parameters.

Good Luck, it can be a tough fight in a new tank IME.
 
thanks guys. it is mexican calupera (spelling?) in my DT that came on the LR. I have some bubble macro algae in my fuge.

as far as animals go, i dont have any fish or corals yet. just LR and the hitch hickers that came with it (some snails & a few crabs).

so i should get rid of the bubble algae and try chaeto?

as far as the lighting goes, i cut back the time of my MH's to 1 hour a day now, will slowy bring it back up.

i am going to get a phosphate test this weekend, and maybe use phosban in my canister filter. although the kent phospate sponge is only a few weeks only. i have ran a lot of water through RODI unit, maybe it is time to change the filters?
 
So any pics of the mantis interloper? Have you caught it yet or given up?

Also any idea when richard is getting your part 2? Or have you not given him the ok because the mantis is displaying incredible intelligence with regards to eluding capture? ;)
 
i have caught two mantis' so far. the first one i caught by taking the rock out and giving him a dose of RODI. the second i caught with the X-Terminator trap. it took about 10 days of setting the trap each night for him to finally go see what was going on. i did not take pics sorry. the 2nd shipment is coming in tomorrow! hopefully the second shipment will be mantis free! really looking forward to the clean up crew as i am battling some serious green hair algae right now.
 
nice...I dunno about you but I was like a kid at the candy store when I was opening up part 2. Weird part for me was part one had zero mantis but a few pistols and part 2 I had five mantis - which I sold off to the local reef club in ny (where I lived at the time). Be sure to post pics!
 
how much did you get from the mantis'? geez i really hope i dont get any more of those buggers! i will post tank pics once my gha is under control.
 
how did you end up catching your mantis shrimp?

i cannot figure out why i am getting such bad green hair algae. nitrates, amonia, & phosphate are testing 0. Ph is 8.2

my RODI water is testing 0 for phosphates

i cut back on my lighting. only running my MH's for about 3 hrs a day now, and T5's for about 6.

hopefully the clean up crew that i am getting tomorrow will take care of it. my caulerpa in my fuge is doing well, but the mexican caulerpa that comes on the LR in the main tank is not really doing too well.
 
Looks good so far. I read alot of the thread not all of it though.

Where did you get the rock from ?
Where in NJ are you ?

If you want to swing by my place I have a hanna PO4 test kit. When testkits read 0 this will read over 1.0 sometimes. Regular testkits suck for PO4

I am in a upgrade myself and I went with Marcorocks for the simple fact of not wanting any alages on it and hitch hickers like the manthis's you guys are talking about.
 
nyfireman3097 said:
Where did you get the rock from ?
I am in a upgrade myself and I went with Marcorocks for the simple fact of not wanting any alages on it and hitch hickers like the manthis's you guys are talking about.

TampaBaySaltwater - gulf of mexico LR.

TBS has some amazing coloration and while there are some non-desires hitchers, there are usually a ton of beneficial ones as well. It's a personal preference.

Patriot76 said:
how much did you get from the mantis'? geez i really hope i dont get any more of those buggers! i will post tank pics once my gha is under control.

I wasn't looking to make a profit so I sold them $5 a pop to the brooklyn aquarium society...which raffled them off. I had no place to keep them from fighting one another in the sump and I didn't want them to die either. The nice thing was all the xanthid crabs and black whelks from part 2 became lunch/dinner for them. I had two colorations - red and green - they were really neat critters and I wish in retrospect I set up a 5g mantis tank.

With part 2 I opened my boxes and swished the LR in a fresh bucket of SW. Put off the lights and looked very very carefully for life/movement. Taking a plastic straw and sticking it into the requisite holes helped me locate some. At that point you use the requisite RO water response. But unfortunately most were located after introduction into the tank - which required me to take apart the aquascape and use the RO bucket approach on the LR. Basically this was hours and hours of sitting in the dark with a red flashlight! It sounds like work but I loved every minute of it - each night something different/new would be seen.

I did not have any HA in my tank - probably because at that time I was setup on a bank of VHOS with limited light duration. But I do recall I had diatoms galore waiting for part 2 (which was delayed constantly due to high demand and bad weather). I got to know Mary and richard on first name basis from calling so often...LOL. I also lost track of all the freebies they gave me in the CUC. I'm also pretty sure there was a lot more LR than I had ordered.

One thing about the phosphates - I did notice some in my tank and I always wondered if it's just a result of the rock used in TBS. Not sure but something to consider.
 
nyfireman3097 said:
Looks good so far. I read alot of the thread not all of it though.

Where did you get the rock from ?
Where in NJ are you ?

If you want to swing by my place I have a hanna PO4 test kit. When testkits read 0 this will read over 1.0 sometimes. Regular testkits suck for PO4

I am in a upgrade myself and I went with Marcorocks for the simple fact of not wanting any alages on it and hitch hickers like the manthis's you guys are talking about.


i am in sayreville. i am using a Red Sea PO4 test kit and getting a reading of 0. i am using Kent Phosphate sponge in my canister. but i am also getting a reading of 0 for my RODI before mixing it with salt.

i really didnt know about macro rock till after i ordered my TBS LR, but i certainly do not regret getting my LR from them. Richard really hooked me up. i am sure it is more LR then i ordered, i have a lot in my fuge, couldnt fit it all in my DT. and he trhough in a bunch of nems, corals, & inverts too! plus you get so much free stuff just on the rock itself.

pictures to be posted tomorrow!
 
I am not an expert in clown/anemone relationships...but regarding your other question - I did have my female p. biaculeatus rip off dozens of condy tentacles (from tbs as well) until finally the anemone allowed the fish to swim in it (notice the nubs on the right on the first pic). Typically Maroons stay in e. quadricolor aka the BTA.

marooncondi4.jpg

marooncondi.jpg


I should point out I only allowed this relationship to stay for a few months. The condy apparently didn't appreciate the hosting duties and kept moving around...I had to go on a long vaca and to make a long story short decided to send the condy to the LFS before it got shred by a pump.
 
Yes, several Sea Cucumbers.

Aso- Porcelin Crabs, Decorator Crabs, several kinds of sponges,Mithrax Crabs, Turbo Snails, Blue Leg Hermits, Gorilla Crabs (removed three), Keyhole Limpets, Peppermint Shrimp, tunicates, Mantis Shrimp (removed three also), Sally Lightfoot Crab, Brittle Starfish, Orange Starfish, Serpent Starfish, Black Urchin, Gorgonians, tons of fan worms / feather dusters

thats about all i can think of right now.

Nitrates and Amonia are at zero.

PH is at 8.1

Going to wait about a month or so before adding the first fish, really want to take things slow.
 
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