Coraline & Purple up

[Aquarist007]

Originally posted by suzimcmullen
I don't think I could. I can barely fit the rock I have in the 14 gallon now. If I try and put it in the 10 there wouldn't be any place left for the fish to swim. I think I'll just have to go ahead with my switch on the 14 gallon. I'm not using any filter media in the 14 gallon. With the rock being fully matured, not just cured but matured, I don't think I'll have enough of a cycle to bother anything. Anyway, that's how I did it when I got the tank if you remember. It all came from the LFS's tank. I just won't put any fish in the new 14 gallon until the levels have proven stable.

As for the quarantine, I really can't imagine any of that medicine is still there. I didn't use copper of course and I ran carbon the whole time I used the medicine. I guess I'll see. I added 2 snails to it yesterday. So I'll give them some time and see how they do. I might just set up another little copepod station like my new brine shrimp station. I wonder if copepods and brine shrimp would get a long? They eat the same things LOL!

Suzi

I have read posts very copper medications have gone right into the silicone on the sides of the tank---but that is few and far between. In that amt of water I would still be cautious and change it out--but you seem on top of things.
good luck and keep me posted how the change works out

[suzimcmullen]

But that's just it. I didn't use copper for this very reason. I used quickcure which is malachite green and formalin.

But like I said. I'll see if these snails get sick or die. So far they are eating my algae and pottying up a storm. These snails are the biggest I've EVER seen! They are golfball size!

Suzi

[Aquarist007]

Originally posted by suzimcmullen
But that's just it. I didn't use copper for this very reason. I used quickcure which is malachite green and formalin.

But like I said. I'll see if these snails get sick or die. So far they are eating my algae and pottying up a storm. These snails are the biggest I've EVER seen! They are golfball size!

Suzi

that's make sense--

[wiscsaltwater]

The scooter blenny is also one of my favorite fish on my wish list. So I need to learn how to get tons of them and keep them.

most scooters will eat frozen or prepared foods, copepods are helpful but not necessary for scooters, mandarins on the other hand feed almost exclusively on copepods

[redline]

Based on my own experience and wasting money on Purple Up...
First your tank must be cycled, all parameters within acceptable readings (I never had mine reading zeros)
Then you must test for Calcium >400 readings and Magnesium should be 3X the reading of Calcium (please correct me if wrong)
I got tired of the Purple-up "Miracle" additives are just a way of making money for some companies.
Stick to Kalkwasser and dose it slowly if you don't have a Calcium Reactor.
I tried P-up then two part Alk/Calcium but did not see any improvements then i had a pack of Kalkwasser just sitting in the closet so I started using it and then BOOM !
coralline algae started to grow. I also added Magnesium sice one depends on the other for the coralline to grow

I just like the purple to be growing in my tank the only pane I would clear it off is the front, the rest of the glass fine with me if taken over by coralline

[suzimcmullen]

The whole copepods thing is crazy to me. I did some calculating this morning. First of all I couldn't find more than a small handful of places selling them. Then they are outrageously expensive. I looked at some websites telling how to culture them. Then I figured out how many "servings" would be in 2.5 gallons based on keeping a small tank of it culturing. If all the potential servings were put into containers and sent around the USA in little shipments, that would be 1200 dollars worth of product! OK that's just nuts.

I'm just trying to process all this new information. One of the mandarin fishes was one of the first I ever saw in a book and part of what drew me to the business. Now I find out that LFS's and OFS's sell them to people and they may or may not let them know that unless they have several hundred pounds of live rock their system will become depleted of copepods before they have a chance to repopulate. So these great fishes are dying all over the USA of starvation before people even know. That in and of itself is hard to grasp. There are a LOT of people still not online and those that are don't always frequent groups like this and ask questions.

So it seems to me that there is an AMAZING potential for breeding these fish, educating the public and selling the food to feed them.

I have a 3-5 year plan of turning my grow room into a small but thriving home based business of selling fresh herbs, vegetables and teaching and training others to set up similar operations. I'm in the learning and experimenting phase and I believe that I could combine a mail-order business selling live fish foods as well as maybe even breeding some of these amazing animals.

I'm also in the process of experimenting with making my own hydroponic nutrients and testing them. So someday I'll be able to run my mostly mail order and consultation type business in the country which has been a life long dream of mine too. Call me a nature girl.

Suzi