The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread

[Smoking Dragon]

I know that it's not a reef tank (yet), but it's a start for me. I just set up this 75 gal tank for fred, my 2+ ft giraffe moray eel. Below are some of the first pics from Fred in his new home.

[Wolfgang]

He looks beautiful........ erm..... hansom? Anyways it is a Tessalata Eel. Very cool my friend!

More info can be found here.
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...133&pcatid=133

Wow!

[Smoking Dragon]

A water quality question:

I set the above mentioned tank up on 2 May 09. On 12 May I did my water test and they were all within limits. I just tested the water again last night, and the water quality was better. The nitrates went down. Is that common?

Here are the stats:

76 degrees
1.020
ammonia 0 ppm
PH 7.8
Nitrate 5.0 ppm
nitrogen 0 ppm


I read that salt water tanks like to be a high PH level, like 8.0 - 8.2. If Freds is happy it's at, do I really need to change it?

Sarge

[Wolfgang]

You should. It isnt that hard to raise PH just do it gradually over a day or two. Nitrate tests are often misleading. Are you using a dip stick or the liquid kits? If the liquid kits make sure you shake the second bottle very good. 30+ seconds should do it.

[Smoking Dragon]

I use the liquid test kit. I follow the directions on the test kit as far as shaking and waiting the times indicated. Are the dipstrips better?

[Wolfgang]

nope the dip sticks suck. They will giove you a ball park idea of where your tests are

[sikk50]

I have a question. I've looked around a lot but I have yet to find an affermitive answer.

My Royal Tang has HORRIBLE HLLE. To the point where I've often looked at the most humane way to put her to sleep, even though she seems very happy and has a normal or even above normal appatite. I bought her when she was about the size of a quarter and she is now about half the size of a dollar bill. When I brought her home she was perfectly fine.

So does anybody know how to fix her to look pretty again?

[shilala]

Originally Posted by sikk50

I have a question. I've looked around a lot but I have yet to find an affermitive answer.

My Royal Tang has HORRIBLE HLLE. To the point where I've often looked at the most humane way to put her to sleep, even though she seems very happy and has a normal or even above normal appatite. I bought her when she was about the size of a quarter and she is now about half the size of a dollar bill. When I brought her home she was perfectly fine.

So does anybody know how to fix her to look pretty again?

I just did a quick look and they say it's caused by stray voltage. Here's how to check.
You can clear it up with a new diet.
Here's how one guy did it.
I'd check for stray voltage then go get her some new food. Some frozen stuff and some dried brown algae.
I feed my fish tank about 7 different things. I use brown algae, pellets, a tri-flake mix, brine shrimp flakes, frozen brine shrimp, formula one frozen marine food and hikari frozen marine food.
My tang mostly just picks food from cracks and stuff. She eats mostly the pellets I think.

[Savvy]

I really dislike this thread... I'm getting the feeling that I want to set one of these up, of course I got the feeling back in the Jungle's version of this thread as well... Maybe I can make it a while longer. I'm in a dorm in the military, so I couldn't afford anything very big, and I know that a 12-24g tank would possibly be more trouble than its worth. But I definitely have the itch right now...



Thanks a lot guys...

[shilala]

Originally Posted by Savvy

I really dislike this thread... I'm getting the feeling that I want to set one of these up, of course I got the feeling back in the Jungle's version of this thread as well... Maybe I can make it a while longer. I'm in a dorm in the military, so I couldn't afford anything very big, and I know that a 12-24g tank would possibly be more trouble than its worth. But I definitely have the itch right now...



Thanks a lot guys...

One of those 10 gallon nano-reefs would be in my office if I had an office.
You can put so much cool stuff in such a small space, it's relatively cheap, and super cool.
I have been growing my environment for 15 years now and it's just starting to get cool.
Nowadays you can get everything and you can get it anywhere.
I love my fish, but I enjoy all the critters in my live rock even more.

[shilala]

Oh yeah, by the way...
I have a line on a lobster tank. If I can get that, I will have the coolest touch pool anyone has ever created. I'm still trying to wiggle it out of the guy that has it.

[Wolfgang]

Just upgraded my lights yesterday form 250 watt compact flourescents to 350watts of T-5 and the difference is amazing!!!

Before



After



And Today i finally got around to tearing down that algae infested aquapod. Here it is with fresh rocks and new sand. Still a little cloudy but im looking forward to starting over.

Set this up In december, and heres what she looks like now! Lots of life, Cool little stuff popping up all over the place. Texas trash needs to be cultivated, its starting to take over any ideas here?

Full tank shot. Have to develop some close ups.

[shilala]

Some of my corals are dying while others are thriving.
I'm clueless.
I think it's time for new lightbulbs.

[Wolfgang]

I agree scott. Bulbs will make a HUGE difference. if anything you really like has gone the way of the gorilla let me know Im getting ready for some fragging.

[shilala]

Originally Posted by Wolfgang

I agree scott. Bulbs will make a HUGE difference. if anything you really like has gone the way of the gorilla let me know Im getting ready for some fragging.

I gotta see when I last replaced my bulbs. It wasn't long ago.
If you get to fragging, let me know. I'm willing to kill anything.

[Ahbroody]

Originally Posted by shilala

Some of my corals are dying while others are thriving.
I'm clueless.
I think it's time for new lightbulbs.

scott whats dying. my buddy and family owns dolphin pet village in campbell ca. he has many prop tanks and been reefing since childhood. by buddy i mean known for years have his cell phone and going to play hockey with him in the fall. He really knows what hes doing.

[shilala]

Originally Posted by Ahbroody

scott whats dying. my buddy and family owns dolphin pet village in campbell ca. he has many prop tanks and been reefing since childhood. by buddy i mean known for years have his cell phone and going to play hockey with him in the fall. He really knows what hes doing.

Green stuff, blue stuff and green blobby stuff.
The red stuff is doing great and the green wiggly stuff is doing okay too.
I doubt he can work with that, but it's the best I can do.

[Ahbroody]

can you snap a picture of the different corals?
You may need to target feed some of them specificaly.
Do you know if they are LPS or SPS?