The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread

Won some corals this weekend in lansing! A Texas Junk Zoa, and a devils hand. Now I just gotta get my tank balanced... and find a spot for the corals so i dont kill them

[Blueface]

Coming along nicely there.

Spent four hours this Saturday cleaning mine.
That is what stinks about the type of corals I have.
They get filthy and are a pain to pull out, bleach, dechlorinate and put back in.
Did a 50% water change.
Dropped the temperature 6 degrees in one shot.
Nobody felt a thing.
Took a couple of photos of Mr. Eel to post but from inside his "man cave".
Will try to get some when I feed him later this week.

Bleach! I was wondering why they didn't get overgrown.

Originally Posted by Blueface

Coming along nicely there.

Spent four hours this Saturday cleaning mine.
That is what stinks about the type of corals I have.
They get filthy and are a pain to pull out, bleach, dechlorinate and put back in.
Did a 50% water change.
Dropped the temperature 6 degrees in one shot.
Nobody felt a thing.
Took a couple of photos of Mr. Eel to post but from inside his "man cave".
Will try to get some when I feed him later this week.

your tank is awesome Carlos, Id love to do that as well as a reef tank, Both have thier ups and downs but both are uniquely suited for what you want to do!

Brad

[fissure]

Originally Posted by darb85

aquascaped today, but its too cloudy to see in there, pics when it settles, which it should be by tonight!

Big cave in the middle, looks nifty. Got my refactometer today as well. sweet.

I have some calabration fluid for it, Pinpoint Salinity Monitor, 53.0ms Calibration Fluid,+-1%@77*/25*C

What should i be setting my refratometer to when i use that to calibrate?

Brad

Looks like the 53.0ms is 1.0259 so basically 1.026

Great looking rock work. Wish I would have know you were going to the swap, I may have went to it then. Anytime you come down to the 'south' let me know. I'll get you some frags and we can maybe we can light one up.

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by darb85

your tank is awesome Carlos, Id love to do that as well as a reef tank, Both have thier ups and downs but both are uniquely suited for what you want to do!

Brad

Yeah, but you didn't feel my pain in that post.
That was four hours I will never get back, multiplied by monthly.
That type of decorating is a popular thing in Florida but what a pain it is.
I wish sometimes I had just live rock but don't want to deal with the parasites.
Parasites prevention on such expensive fish is the only reason I have it set up that way.

Originally Posted by fissure

Looks like the 53.0ms is 1.0259 so basically 1.026

Great looking rock work. Wish I would have know you were going to the swap, I may have went to it then. Anytime you come down to the 'south' let me know. I'll get you some frags and we can maybe we can light one up.

I actually went down to spend time with Kasha but she wanted to go to pruess and i talked her into spending time at the swap. shes pretty dandy, but next time im in the area ill let you know tho for sure!

Brad

Originally Posted by Blueface

Yeah, but you didn't feel my pain in that post.
That was four hours I will never get back, multiplied by monthly.

I feel your pain, really, pain. It takes me four hours to do a proper cleaning in my tank, too. That involves a lot of scraping coraline off the sides, picking anemones, cleaning filters and skimmers...all while leaning over the tank with one arm in. I pinched a nerve in my neck or back yesterday doing this. Pain.
My wife was at the LFS Sat. and she picked up a little Dottyback, put it in the tank and it seemed to be all right, but the next morning it was totally gone without a trace. ??? I never saw it. I still keep looking but this is the second day with no sign. Tough little fish. I don't think it died from being introduced to my tank. Maybe it found a one way hiding place. I lost a fish that way once.

cave collapesed. Rebuilt it, lot more stable now, but looks different. Added one of those wave things too. Tank gets better flow. Pics of new aquascape soon

Brad

readings at 0s for the last 4 days! if still there monday putting in a green chamois or what ever its called, or some other hardy fish. Clean up crew went in today

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by darb85

readings at 0s for the last 4 days! if still there monday putting in a green chamois or what ever its called, or some other hardy fish. Clean up crew went in today

Coming along there.

I finally go some shots of Mr. Eel to upload.

[Wolfgang]

Well Where are they!!

My missing fish is in there, just afraid to come out. The hawkfish chases it. I have been basting food into it's hiding place in hope that it will survive long enough for it's tankmates to accept it.

[Gargoyle]

Some very sweet looking setups there! I would absolutely LOVE to get a reef tank going someday (on my list of "50 things to do before I die"). I need to get a little more disciplined and experienced with my fresh water tank first, as the reef tanks are so much more delicate... and mistakes less forgiving than fresh water.

Originally Posted by Gargoyle

Some very sweet looking setups there! I would absolutely LOVE to get a reef tank going someday (on my list of "50 things to do before I die"). I need to get a little more disciplined and experienced with my fresh water tank first, as the reef tanks are so much more delicate
not once they get going
... and mistakes less forgiving
and more expensive
than fresh water.

I started with a 7 gallon nano-reef. Much more difficult to get going than a big tank, IMHO. $20 rock here, $30 coral there, $20 fish, ka-ching.

[Blueface]

Say hello to my little friend, Mr. Eel.

Carlos, do you feed your pets live stuff or frozen or what? Beautiful eel, looks capable of taking off a fingertip.

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by BC-Axeman

Carlos, do you feed your pets live stuff or frozen or what? Beautiful eel, looks capable of taking off a fingertip.

You won't believe it if I told you.
I only feed them one thing mainly, which is Spectrum granules.
I met the guy that invented that stuff many years ago and got to know him via my son's place of work (large exotic importer where my fish came from).
We all began at that time to use his food exclusively and quickly learned how all fish, even finicky eaters took to it right away.
Since then, that is the only processed food I buy for them.
Even the eel loves that stuff.
He goes nuts every night when I feed the tank.

About three times a week, I feed the eel fresh shrimp and also shred some for the rest of the tank as a treat.

[shilala]

Yesterday I took my daughter to the doctor, and on the way home discovered a new fish store down in Reynoldsville.
The discovery cost me 100 bucks.
I picked up a harlequin sweetlips, 3 banghai cardinals and a big purple feather.
My daughter picked out the cardinal. After I got one she said "Dad, you gotta get at least two more so they stick together like that. (pointing at the shoaling cardinals)"
So we got two more.
She's really good at this fish thing.