New pics (lots of pics) and a couple questions

[eva]

hey guys sorry for the slow reply...i've had the flu but i've had to work as well so i am pooped!

Lorna, thanks for the compliment on the sebae, i am very proud of how much color he's regained....a few times i thought he was a goner. i target fed him about 2-4 times a week in the beginning with mysis and a bit of zooplankton. for the last month, i target feed him about once, maybe twice a week at the most, with mysis and krill and a bit of cyclopeeze as well.

he has the porcelain crab titus living in him at all times so i think that might have helped him as well...but probably not lol. i think he provides protection for titus more but titus does clean the mucus and poo out of the sebae.

as for the red macroalgae, i turned the rock it's on around so the flow keeps it out of the way of the tree coral. the tree coral looks so much better and grows higher each day than it was doing before.

 

[eva]

Joefish here is your picture of the pipe in the skimmer...is it supposed to be only half-filled like that?

Also titus molted after our last water change last week and it was his first molting with us! here are a couple of pictures...

AND i found a little hitchhiker friend the other day!!

It looks like a type of hermit shell crab to me but my dad thinks its a snail...any ideas anyone? It moves pretty fast!

 

[Lorna]

It is a type of snail....you should check ona few sites as some snails are not friendly... The crab is probably beneficial to the anemone....and it does look good. If you can get them try feeding it a silverside minnow.....they are also called lancefish.......I get them at the pet store frozen and thaw one and give my bta one once every couple of weeks.......she gobbles them up in a second.

 

[TRe]

It is a type of snail....you should check ona few sites as some snails are not friendly...

well i have these same snails ive noticed a few of them in my 55.... any one know if these are not friendly???

 

[cinlnk]

I have ALOT of snails in my SW tank.... I noticed that they only come out when the lights are off....Should I remove these or what? They are small white snails that cling to the sides.

 

[Lorna]

some small snails are pyramid?? snails that like to eat clams.....not good. Some also eat corals so you should try to id the ones you have

 

[cinlnk]

Been searching the Web to see if I can ID these snails. NO LUCK... I will try and get a pic of these tonight. There are ALOT of them, come out only at night. They are small ( about the size of a pencil eraser) and white. their shell is very hard.

EVA,
YOUR TANK IS ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS!!!!! I love it!!!!! I have the same skimmer, Love it. I left the media in my skimmer to reduce the bubbles in the tank.

 

[eva]

Lorna, yes I've heard about silversides for a while now and just recently found a LFS that sells them because Big Al's around here stopped carrying it. I went to J&L Aquatics for the first time a couple weeks ago and I was hooked! Our location here in Burnaby is absolutely gorgeous, they have approx. 30-40 tanks that look to be around 55 gallons for anemones, corals and inverts alone!! All specimens looked to be in great shape as well and I can't wait to purchase something from there!

I am thinking about starting a small tank of my own with the boyfriend...we were thinking an Aquapod with HQI but that is only 24 gallons so we are going to price out a 30 gallon cube and see how much that will run us. Anyhoo, I will try to stop into J&L to grab some silversides. I don't know if you have heard Lorna, but it is freaking snowing here once again!! Its driving me insane...my car stalled on the Knight Street bridge today for an hour and a half during rushhour while it was snowing...I was that annoying person with their emergency lights on blocking traffic

And cinlnk, thank you for the compliment! We had a death in the tank family recently, one of the orange spotted gobies just disappeared! We even took apart the rockwork and sifted through the sand but his body is nowhere to be found! So strange...he was only missing for about 3-4 days before we decided to investigate. Do you have any pictures of your tank? I would love to see!

 

[cinlnk]

Eva,

My Tank is NOWHERE near as beautiful as yours, but I am proud of it. It is an Oceanic 30 gal cube that has been running for a year. This is my first SW tank, I am still hooked. Still need to upgrade the lights. The holidays and my kids wiped out my funding for that. Even with my small tank, it still is alot of $$$ to set it up. So far, I have spent about 1200, The Lighting is going to be another 300. Then my little tank will be set!! Then it is time to buy the corals.....lol
Here is a pic of my little piece of the Ocean:

 

[eva]

Ah very interesting! I was looking into a 30 gallon cube myself...what type of equipment do you have in there and any livestock? I see you have a false perc up in the corner there, anything else? It looks like you are off to a great start!

I'm interested to know also what kind of lights you have in there and what kind of lights you are looking to purchase. My dad received an amazing deal on our tank, he got a 48 gallon tank, stand, salt mix, skimmer, powerheads, live rock, test kits and supplements all for $250 CDN....it's really skewed my perception of how much money I want to spend on my own tank lol.

 

[CoolWaters]

all that for $250 where did u get it? i bet it was used? or made from pure scratch...

 

[eva]

Oh yeah it was definately used...the guy was moving and I think he wanted about 5 to 6 hundred originally but my dad broke him down lol.

What do you mean by pure scratch? If you mean what I think you mean, then wouldn't starting a tank from scratch cost so much more money?

 

[eva]

BTW kinda off topic but what is a mininum recommended size tank for a flame angel? It is a dwarf angel correct? On liveaquaria, it says 30 gallons mininum but I was wondering if I ever got rid of the two damsels if I could get a flame angel. I never saw the appeal of them until last week at Big Al's...they just got a few in and their colors are absolutely gorgeous!

 

[Lorna]

You would be fine with a flame in your 48 or even a 30 if you got one...though that is the smallest tank I would consider one in......I have a pygmy angel in my 20 as they are probably the smallest of the dwarf angels......

I just hate damsels and they limit what else you can put in there as they are so territorial.

WOW you guys have been hammered by the weirdest weather this past winter. Storm after storm...I can only imagine being stuck on the knight st bridge in rush hour.......My sister lives out in the valley and they had a horrible couple of weeks before christmas......cold blowing snow you name it all without any electricity for about a week. My Mom lives in Victoria and she was saying they got hammered again the other night with another bad storm. one after another......good luck....


That 48 was a great scoop by your dad, tell him to find you one of those....

 

[cinlnk]

The stock I have in my Cube are :
1 Clown
1 Yellow watchman goby
1 Coral beauty Angel
1 fairy basslet
1 Yellow tail damsel
1 Scooter blenny
1 fire shrimp
1 arrow crab1
1 porcelain crab
approx. 15 hermit crabs
35 lbs LR
20 lbs LS
CPR Bak Pak Skimmer
AC 30 HOB
3 Rio 600 power heads
Visitherm 200 W heater
and 3 crappy lights...1 50/50, 1 actinic, 1 daylight... totaling 45 watts. I am saving up for this:AQUALIGHT ADVANCED - HANG-ON TANK MOUNT
Tank has been setup for a year, and doing great. I do regular weekly WC with RO water ( approx. 7 to 10 gallons) and vacuuming.

 

[eva]

Yes our weather has been crap but there's only sun and clouds forecasted for the next week so that is good. We are just left with tons of ice covering the roads...yay.

I am also beginning to hate my damsels. They were the first fish in the tank and I think it was a big mistake. They get along just fine with my clowns, one of the clowns actually will harass the damsel but that damsel was also harassing my goby during its first week in the tank. Things are fine now because that goby is quite feisty and will fight back lol. I need to rid my tank of the damsels (do you think a LFS will take them?) and look into getting a flame angel!

Cinlnk I am also interesting in a yellow watchman goby for my future tank. How do you find yours to be? Also what is the AC 30 HOB? Can you take any pictures of it for me? Thanks!

 

[eva]

I spoke too soon I just checked the weather and they are now forecasting rain/SNOW for thursday and friday....GOD

 

[Lorna]

You will no doubt have a horrible time trying to catch those damnsels....I had to buy a fish trap to catch my chromis that were harassing everything in the tank....took a couple of days but got them all. It is almost impossible to catch them with a net especially when you have lots of live rock in your tank....

 

[eva]

Oh i don't doubt that they will be hard to fish out. We tried to catch the one that was harassing the goby to put him into solitary confinement to teach him a lesson, lol, and we couldn't do it. He knew that net was coming for him the second he saw it.

We had a firefish before and we had to move all the rockwork and set up two dividers in order to get this fish out. It was a pain in the ***.

What do you think are the chances that a LFS would want to take two damsels? lol

 

[Lorna]

I am positive that they will take them......though they probably won't give you anything for them....I had to give my chromis to the lfs which in my mind is
better by far than what my husband planned to do. This is a suggestion and don't laugh I have read of people trying it....go to a sports store and buy tiny small barbless hooks and go fishing for your damsels with baited hooks. Apparently it works and the hook is barbless it won't hurt them too much and may save you tearing down your tank