Hello everyone. I've been reading for a month or so now. There are some interesting people here *twirlysmi. A little background. Back in the day I actually put myself through college at Auburn University by caring for saltwater tanks. I worked in the business office of the local hospital, which paid the bills. In the hospital we had 7 tanks ranging from 20 to 250 gallons (containing 2 spotted grouper approx 1 foot long each). Outside of the hospital I had a couple bars with tanks also, and of course I had a couple tanks at home. Well, I graduated college so the additional income and head ache was not needed so I dropped all the "pay" tanks and then came the kids so I dropped my tanks at home as well.
A couple years ago I decided the kids were old enough to enjoy the hobby so Santa brought a 10 gallon tank for christmas, freshwater. That later turned into a 14 gallon Nano Cube (great tank). Recently I built a bar in my basement and thought the cube would look great sitting on it as a SW tank. Boy does it!
Currently I have one piece of live rock and a few bio-balls and spong as my bio system (I know I'm gonna hear about that). I have some dead coral (kinda like an elk horn but blue) as structure with the LR and fine white sand as my substrate. I have three blue damsels (as you can tell I'm old school) that will be returned once I start stocking my tank for the long haul. I have been cycling about a month, everything is running smoothly so far. I have some brown and now starting to develope a little green hair-like algea.
Anyway, that's me. I look forward to talking with you about fish, football, golf, whatever.
I do have a couple statement/ questions. These damsels are destroying my tank. I smooth out my sand and within a couple hours they have dug holes down to the glass again. Do they always do this? I can understand under the rock and such but they do this against the outside wall.
My other question is: May of you harp on getting rid of the bio-balls. I understand your reasons why but I don't understand what is the difference between the bacteria the bio-ball grows and the bacteria thee LR grows. They are both surface area and they both grow bacteria. Is the bacteria in teh LR different/ more efficient?
I appologize for such a long first post but I like to talk. I look forward to your comments. By the way yall have some beautiful tanks and I will post some pics as I progress back into the SW world.
A couple years ago I decided the kids were old enough to enjoy the hobby so Santa brought a 10 gallon tank for christmas, freshwater. That later turned into a 14 gallon Nano Cube (great tank). Recently I built a bar in my basement and thought the cube would look great sitting on it as a SW tank. Boy does it!
Currently I have one piece of live rock and a few bio-balls and spong as my bio system (I know I'm gonna hear about that). I have some dead coral (kinda like an elk horn but blue) as structure with the LR and fine white sand as my substrate. I have three blue damsels (as you can tell I'm old school) that will be returned once I start stocking my tank for the long haul. I have been cycling about a month, everything is running smoothly so far. I have some brown and now starting to develope a little green hair-like algea.
Anyway, that's me. I look forward to talking with you about fish, football, golf, whatever.
I do have a couple statement/ questions. These damsels are destroying my tank. I smooth out my sand and within a couple hours they have dug holes down to the glass again. Do they always do this? I can understand under the rock and such but they do this against the outside wall.
My other question is: May of you harp on getting rid of the bio-balls. I understand your reasons why but I don't understand what is the difference between the bacteria the bio-ball grows and the bacteria thee LR grows. They are both surface area and they both grow bacteria. Is the bacteria in teh LR different/ more efficient?
I appologize for such a long first post but I like to talk. I look forward to your comments. By the way yall have some beautiful tanks and I will post some pics as I progress back into the SW world.
Mine seem to do it all the time, and keep getting larger in gallonage.
