kudoras 84 gallon thread

[kudora]

Thats a good idea, i have a piece that would be perfect to hold the rock in the sand, it looks like an old clam mantle and its not tooo big.

[2frosty4u]

Originally posted by kudora


i am taking advantage of the small water changes and siphoning the fuge out, i have alot of rubble and silt from the GSM moving the sand around over the last year.

Depending on the size of the particles of the crud I want to remove I have two tools I use. The first is a mini hand held shop vac I bought for $18 that is strictly for saltwater use and is used for things like sucking the large crud out of the sump. the second is a cheap small maxijet powerhead which I attached really flexible vinyl hoses to both sides of and sometimes use it as a vacuum cleaner. I suspend one of the many filter socks I have above the sump or the fuge depending which one is getting the attention, and then use the inlet side hose to suck up the crud and the outlet end goes into the sock and drains back into that tank. when I'm done the sock goes in the washing machine. This works great for fine sized particles that wont damage the impeller in the maxijet and lets me clean as long as I want.

[kudora]

i used a gravel syphon last night it did well with the smaller stuff but it did leave the bigger stuff behind. the water i took out was nasty. i do like the maxi jet idea tho might have to try that.

i ordered a jbj ATO unit and should get it here sooner or later, it was a great deal so i couldnt pass it up.

[kudora]

well everything is going well with the water changes, i have changed out 16 gallons so far and i will change another 4 tonight.

moved some of my corals around last night since the acro verde and my purple cap were almost touching. also moved my birds nest higher up on the rock.

i will check all the levels(ph, alk ect) tonight and see how they are doing.

oh the pep shrimp are doing a decent job of taking out the small aiptasia, i only had a couple of big ones left and i went after them with joes juice again. the fuge is another story tho i used joes last night but i bet i still have over a dozen i didnt get.

[kudora]

well i bought some livestock on sat/sunday. against my better judgement i bought a red seastar. it is very small 1.5" star so i am excited and worried how it will do(i have read all the lit. but many people have had success i hope i am one of those, so wish me luck so far so good.)

i bought a 1.5"(everything is small) tux urchin to start taking some of the coraline off the glass plus i have been wanting to add one in the tank for months.

Finally i bought a female mandarin, she looked great at the LFS and was very active. i turned off the day lights early and left the attinics on for awhile. turned off the pump and tried a couple of different foods but she didnt look at it. I turned off the tank lights and left the living room lights on so she could roam around. after a couple of min they found eachother he chased her and it was the standard for the next couple of days. She has not really been eating and hiding more so on Tues i decided to hatch my own brine shrimp following melevs recipie.

It takes 48 hours so tonight i will be feeding them to both tanks. well now for the bad news, i found her covered with hermits this morning when adding the 2 part. this is the second fish i lose in the last couple of weeks. My firefish has not been seen for 3 weeks, it was being spooked by my tangs everytime they swam near him lately and i was not able to catch him. So now i am down to 5 fish in my DT, 2 tangs, a cardinal, blenny and mandarin.

[HumanIMDB]

Sorry to hear about your losses.

[2frosty4u]

I purchased a mandarin last month and lost it within 3 days also. It really sucks losing such beautiful fish, I feel for you.

[kudora]

yeah it was the first fish my wife picked out too, so she was kinda bummed about it. they have a couple more females at that LFS but i am going to hold off for a different shipment and try again. will be ready with live baby brine the day i pick the mandarin up.

[kudora]

well i fed the live brine shrimp to both tanks last night. the 30 gallon was the most active since it has all little fish in there. the firefish and the hifin goby were going to town eating. The butterfly fish came out later and took care of anything left. the DT could care less about the baby brine i put in there glad i only put a small amount. i had already started a smaller batch so that will go in tonight but only in the 30 gallon.

current 30 gallon inhabitants:
tangora hifin goby
diamond goby
clown goby
firefish
saddled butterfly fish.

[kudora]

pic time

first up is my bottle brush



birds nest
its growning very well and you can see all the new little points it has gotten in the last week and a half.


next up is a before and after of my fuzzy green acro
before(its the little guy on the right)


mounted


after(took awhile to get any growth)


took forever to encrust but now its growning well.

[kudora]

i cant find a pic of my pearl berry i got 2 months ago, but it was a small branch frag. well its been doing great



acro verde(had burned tips for a week after i moved it up to it current spot a couple of weeks ago.)



new coral
it has a greenish base, dark blue tips and offwhite/gold polyps


FTS



here are some fragged zoas i sold this weekend




i got my JBJ ATO this weekend, it was a easy install took about 10 min to hook everything up. i am using a aqualifter and a redsea salt bucket atm but i found a clear container i will swap it out for. i was going to use an extra 10 gallon i had but the door opening is 10" and the tank is 10 1/2"

my mandarin isnt looking very hot, he has been hiding and breathing heavy. He is looking better today but is not really hunting at all. The other fish look fine but i have cleaned out a 29 gallon and have everything ready for a Qtank just incase. the mandarin looks fine, i cant see any signs of ich or velvet he is just sitting on a rock instead of moving around, the female i brought in last sunday did the same thing before she passed so it might just be a mandarin thing. if i loose him i can only blame myself. i gave her a FW dip and mandarins are very disease resistant but i guess i just picked the wrong one.

will post more pics tomorrow night now that i got a decent camera again.

[ackerman]

Nice pics, looks like everythings growin good

[kudora]

thx i am very glad that i am finally seeing a good amount of growth on my sps. woke up this morning and the first thing i did was not add a small container of ro/di water to the tank. ATO rocks.

[kudora]

I picked up a couple of items last week i wish i would have picked up awhile ago.
First was some large plastic gloves used by ranchers for calfing. 10 for 2.99 at TSC they go to the top of my arm and i can reach in quickly with out worrying about washing my hands.

The second is the ATO, wow what a diff, it cut my daily maint by half. i wish i would have picked one up months ago. best 70 i have spent in awhile lol

[HumanIMDB]

I have a resevoir for our ATO (<$10 @ Wal-mart) but need to order all the rest of the equipment...JBJ ATO Controller, Pump, tubing, etc.

Gotta order the light before I worry about ATO...

[kudora]

i have a salt bucket for the resevior atm but i will be modding another bucket i have that is clear so i can see the water lvls in it.

but your right light before ATO lol

[HumanIMDB]

Because we have limited room I wanted something that would fit behind the stand, so when I saw this container at Wally World, I bought it in case they were a one time deal...



Ordering the light today...canopy will be delivered tomorrow.

[kudora]

oh nice getting lights is always fun, congrats

i will post pics of what i come up with after i visit the hardware store.

[Aquarist007]

Just dropped in and I'm glad I did--your tank and corals are looking great

[kudora]

thx capn i will try to post more pics in the comming days.
will get a pic of my tux urchin since it is awesome. He is really cleaning the back glass and my wife and daughter love him.


mandarin update:
i gave my mandarin a FW dip yesterday, he did fine and looked a little better in the evening. will go home again today and see if he needs another FW dip.

[kudora]

well after several FW dips my mandarin did not make it. he was not moving around anymore, became blind and was breathing really heavy. the flow in the tank started moving him from place to place. was kinda sad to see him like that since he was so nice and round a week before that.

so i am down to 4 fish in the DT, PBT, kole tang, pajama cardinal and the algae blenny. i dont think i will add any fish for awhile since i am going to be redoing part of the tank late summer.

[Aquarist007]

Originally posted by kudora
well after several FW dips my mandarin did not make it. he was not moving around anymore, became blind and was breathing really heavy. the flow in the tank started moving him from place to place. was kinda sad to see him like that since he was so nice and round a week before that.

so i am down to 4 fish in the DT, PBT, kole tang, pajama cardinal and the algae blenny. i dont think i will add any fish for awhile since i am going to be redoing part of the tank late summer.

sorry for your loss. How long did you have the mandarine?

[Tswifty]

Originally posted by kudora
The second is the ATO, wow what a diff, it cut my daily maint by half. i wish i would have picked one up months ago. best 70 i have spent in awhile lol

Now all you need to do is start mixing some kalk in that ATO reservoir, and let the dosing part go away as well.

[kudora]

Originally posted by capn_hylinur
sorry for your loss. How long did you have the mandarine?

10 months, he was a fat little fellow, i will eventually pick up a pair

[kudora]

Originally posted by Tswifty
Now all you need to do is start mixing some kalk in that ATO reservoir, and let the dosing part go away as well.

its something i have been considering now that i see the jbj in action.