Starting a new reef tank....

well it has media and some tech filter so maby i'll rinse that out and see but the glairty is getting better i can actually sorta see my back drop through a 14'' wide tank lol

LiveRock wrote:thanks a ton! i will see what i can do to add a sump to this system only problem being that the stand that i have seems to be fairly limited for space.. if i do go with an external overflow system, what size of tak would you suggest for me? and somehow i dont think i can fit 120 pounds of live rock lol and to be honest i dont want to spend 1000 bucks on rock then have it not fit lol

1 lb per gallon is ok aswell if you do 10% weekly water change and keep a small fish load with lot's of scavenger's it will be a good place to start

i went with 75 pounds of live tonga rock and the tank is doing great

great did you add any hermit's? maybe in a few week's or so you can slowly add a little food to feed any thing that came on the live rock along with hermit's

well as far as it goes i have 2 shrooms some type of coral growing 2 aeneomes and like 2 star fish! but as far as crabs and such im picking up a few tomorrow

LiveRock wrote:well as far as it goes i have 2 shrooms some type of coral growing 2 aeneomes and like 2 star fish! but as far as crabs and such im picking up a few tomorrow

Hi Liverock. When you say "coral growing 2 anemones" did you buy these anemones or did they come as hitchhikers?
Do a google search on aptasia and majo anemones. If it is either one of these get rid of them as soon as possible as they multiply quickly and take over your tank.

uh oh.. it is an aiptasia so i just pull it out then? and yes they are hitchers

LiveRock wrote:uh oh.. it is an aiptasia so i just pull it out then? and yes they are hitchers

Good luck trying to pull it out! They are super fast slimey little buggers that disappear at the slightest touch!

There are a few ways to get rid of them
1. a product called aiptasia-X. This has always worked well for me. Make sure you apply liberally or the aiptasia will be back worse than ever.
2. peppermint shrimp have been known to eat aiptasia but in my opinion this option is hit and miss as not all peppermints will eat the aiptasia
3. apply kalk paste to the site of the aiptasia. Make sure the area is completely covered

HTH
Matt

true get on them right away I fought them for year's if not they will spread like crazy when you start feeding and stocking your tank more

paring knife and carve them bugger's off also extreme drying the rock

syringe preferably something that will get right inside their mouth's pump them up with kalk as thick as toothpaste

rock's with lot's of hole's for them to hide imo are not the right rock's if your starting out but i'm sure you have ton's of them all i can say is examine and make you rock's easy to access to periodicaly get rid of these types of thing's

alway's imo examine everything about your rock thing's can be come a problem in no time after 7 year's I can say life is easy because of removel and prevention and practice every coral and rock that enter's your system need's to be looked at for irratater's/pest's there are a number of them

I use to run a fluval 405 on my 75G and decided to take out all media and use it as extra flow and oxygen only one thing I found to be helpful is a phosban reactor filled with a cup of carbon this usualy took out almost all the detritus and left a crystal clean clear tank

sponge's media etc that are usualy found in a canister are sometime nitrate factories unless you plan on changing every 2 week's

phosban can become simular but you can clearly see when it's time to change every 2 week's to 1 month depending on how much detritus is in the clear reactor's carbon/sponge

A friend of mine called me the other day and said why dont you pop by for a visit, I have a few nice frags to give you. WooHoo...free frags. When I got to his house he took me into the basement where he had a 35g frag tank and said here are the three frags I want to give you.....What? those corals with all that aiptasia attached to them. Thanks but no thanks. He couldn't understand that I refuse to buy or accept any corals with aiptasia visible. I've been running my tank for 2.5 yrs and have never had a single stalk of aiptasia in my DT and want to keep it that way. He didn't think the aiptasia was an issue and I wasn't in the mood to set up my QT tank to deal with the pest covered corals.

alot of people can have aptasia while being able to control them

just not me I find them to be ugly and compete for food with coral's they also sting other coral's slowly until they die they can become a problem in no time