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blange3's 180 upgrade

W

williah

I'll say again, awesome tank. It's the model to aim for.

Bill, I see you have a flowerpot in the tank, and it looks Very Happy. Do you do something special to feed it and keep it healthy?

I've had 2, both of which I lost. For me part of it was lighting, but I've also read they have a high mortality rate because of the difficulty in feeding them.

Any secrets you'd care to share?
 
blange3

blange3

Thanks Willah,

I got the flowerpot before the 180 upgrade. At the time the tank was 3 years old, so I felt a mature tank was necessary. I did target feed in the beginning, but now I just feed the fish and tank in general on a daily basis.

I felt the combination on VHO's and low to moderate flow would suit it well. It's over a year old and doing well so far.
 
blange3

blange3

So I've been talking about how I use to target feed various LPS a lot lately. I began to feel a little guilty for neglecting things so I went out and got some frozen whole krill tonight.

Everybody enjoyed the snack. It was the first time I fed the elegance. I'm going to watch that one closely to see if it makes a noticeable difference.
 
Baxreefs

Baxreefs

I do enjoy target feeding those critters that seem to repond to it. I just try not to do it too often. But then I don't have all the beautiful LPS that you have ;D
 
JRWOHLER

JRWOHLER

blange3 said:
So I've been talking about how I use to target feed various LPS a lot lately. I began to feel a little guilty for neglecting things so I went out and got some frozen whole krill tonight.

Everybody enjoyed the snack. It was the first time I fed the elegance. I'm going to watch that one closely to see if it makes a noticeable difference.
Click to expand...

How much did you feed them? Those colonies use up the whole bag? I try to feed them once in a while, I end up rotating which organism gets feed. With the mysis I go with the shotgun approach, which is more or less random except I noticed the bubble is right in a feeding current which makes it happy. Do you squirt or place directly?
 
blange3

blange3

Bax, I think there is such a thing as feeding them too much. Both from a work effort standpoint and how much they can process in a given time frame. Thats why I was using krll instead of the silversides I already had. Smaller portions until i get them use to target feeding again.

James, with the krill and silversides I place directly. When I feed the whole tank they get lots sprayed on them the way the flow works.

Keeping track of feeding 200+ heads of frogspawn and hammers is impossible, so I'll randomly feed some heads on every colony every couple of days and hope everyone is happy.
 
Baxreefs

Baxreefs

I used to feed my tank in the same corner that my frog spawn was in. I'd turn off the Tunze and all would come running and the FS was underneath sucking up all the exess it could. It got Huge! Quick! I had to pull it out as it was destroying my SPS.


Not to worry, if I can get the 375 in the office, there will be a LPS island for the frogs and hammer!
 
blange3

blange3

Hey Paul,

I got the PM on RC. Thanks for the advice.

I've been wanting to boost the diversity in my system so I'm going to try some NSW and mud/sand from the scenic Jersey shore.

I like your emphasis on feeding as well and have been planning on culturing phyto/rotifers/brine shrimp to supplement my ususal stuff. I read your posts on the ich thread over on RC and the whole live worms/oil/healthy liver thing has me thinking of more live food. I feed fairly heavy and use selcon, but it was 9 years before my ocellaris started to spawn and the female died within a year.

If you back track this thread a few pages, I just battled my first ich case with food and have successfully added another fish since. I think blackworms are in my future!

Thanks again for the advice over on RC.
 
blange3

blange3

OK, so The Great Blackworm Experiment is about to begin!

PaulB must think I'm some sort of crazy groupie-stalker by now; but I like a lot of his ideas on running a tank. ;D

I'm going to start feeding blackworms and watch the changes in behavior of 3 pairs of fish I have; ocellaris clowns, pj cardinals and filamented fairy wrasses.

The clowns are an 11 year old male and a 6 year old female who have been together for about a year.

The PJ's have been with me over 3 years.

The fairy wrasses have been in the 180 for 3 or 4 months.

Aquatic Obsessions brought the worms in for me. They have a few extra portions if anyone else is interested. Pics of the happy couples to follow! ;)
 
Hawkeye

Hawkeye

ok - can someone fill me in on what a blackworm is - are those tubifex worms? or are these worms for saltwater??? ???
 
Paul B

Paul B

NJRC Member
California Blackworms are not tubifex. Tubifex are thinner and are collected in drainage ditches, Blackworms are raised in ponds. I have been using them since the sixtees. A few weeks of feeding these and if all else is well, your fish should get into spawning condidtin, but only use them as a suppliment not as a staple food. They are rich and if you feed too much, the fish may not eat anything else. I feed them after I give the fish something else. You need to target feed as they only live about 10 seconds in saltwater
 
Paul B

Paul B

NJRC Member
I use this to feed blackworms and everything else. I don't know how you guys run a reef without one. I use it every day, many times a day for cleaning, feeding, blowing things, etc ;)

plasticbulb.jpg
 
blange3

blange3

They also come in handy for chasing cleaner shrimp away from that chunk of silverside you just gave to the elegance coral. ;)
 
Hawkeye

Hawkeye

Paul B said:
California Blackworms are not tubifex. Tubifex are thinner and are collected in drainage ditches, Blackworms are raised in ponds. I have been using them since the sixtees. A few weeks of feeding these and if all else is well, your fish should get into spawning condidtin, but only use them as a suppliment not as a staple food. They are rich and if you feed too much, the fish may not eat anything else. I feed them after I give the fish something else. You need to target feed as they only live about 10 seconds in saltwater
Click to expand...

Thanks - and that turkeybaster thing will be on my list of items to shop for. Sorry blange for the detour.
 
Paul B

Paul B

NJRC Member
PaulB must think I'm some sort of crazy groupie-stalker by now; but I like a lot of his ideas on running a tank.
Click to expand...

So does that mean you will be putting bottles, chains, and cans in your tank with asphalt rocks, NYC water with associated mud and an occasional baby flounder?
 
blange3

blange3

Water and mud are a possibility.

Cans, chains and bottles; I'll pass! ;D

But maybe an old Penn Plax ornamement or two might be nice. ;)
 
blange3

blange3

I just noticed something very disturbing!

When the post padders work their way down the Tale of the Tank Forum with their insightful "Nice Tank" posts; they always skip me! :eek:

I'm crushed. ;D
 
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