Marine Depot Forums / TEAM Marine Depot / Marine Systems and Husbandry – by Anthony Calfo

Welcome back

xroads — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 07:07:51 GMT

Hey old friend nice to see you active on the boards again.

I hear you are getting active in aquaculture again. We are all anxious to hear what is going on & see some pics.

Craig

Potassium

Reefski — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 04:55:15 GMT

how important is it?

should we be testing for it? How?

mine was low with a recent test from AWT.

i got my water tested with aquariumwatertesting.com
Ammonia (NH3-4) ........................Good ......................................... 0.006
Nitrite (NO2)................................Good ......................................... 0.017
Nitrate (NO3)...............................Good .............................................7.5
Phosphate (PO4) ..........................Good ........................................... 0.09
Silica (SiO2-3) .............................Good .............................................0.3
Potassium (K) ...............................Low............................................. 302
Calcium (Ca)................................Good ............................................ 401
Boron (B) ....................................Good .............................................5.2
Molybdenum (Mo).........................Good .............................................0.1
Strontium (Sr) .............................Good .............................................7.8
Magnesium (Mg) ..........................Good .......................................... 1251
Iodine (I¯)....................................Low............................................ 0.02
Copper (Cu++) ............................Good ........................................... 0.00
Alkalinity (meq/L).........................Good ........................................... 4.31

what kind of things would i see from low potassium?

how best to correct it?

i bought some Potassium Chloride.

Issue with fragged BTA

stvjohnsn — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:27:07 GMT

Here's my situation. I've owned the same healthy rose BTA for 5 years, and fragged it into two halves with a razor blade about a month ago. I fed it almost daily for a few weeks up to the fragging and the operation seemed to go well. I tried to make sure and start at the mouth. I placed both halves back in the tank and within an hour or so, one of the halves was inflating and starting to look pretty good. The other lagged behind quite a bit in appearance though. The healthy half healed up as expected and is now starting to eat. The other half is behaving as follows:

After finally inflating and looking somewhat normal, it excretes a black substance from its mouth and shrinks down to completely deflated (that part I'm used to). But it stays deflated for a period of 2-3 days, maybe inflating one or 3 tentacles slightly every so often. After that period of time, it slowly inflates back to looking healthy, stays that way for one or two days, then repeats the whole cycle. Its completed that cycle 4 or 5 times now.

Its color is good (rose w/ green bases), its mouth is not gaping, and it remains attached under a rock ledge. Lighting is T5, water conditions are good, and there are no fish in the tank....just a few other corals....which are doing fine.

Any idea what could be the cause?

Thanks.

fragging scolymia australis

pebbles — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:19:46 GMT

I'd really like to hear from anyone who has done this successfully.

I did do a search, but could only find a thread suggesting I run it through a wet tile saw.

If I try this I was thinking of leaving a larger part of the coral with an intact mouth, and a smaller part without. This is because although I'd like to frag some of my scolys, I don't want to lose the original coral. My thinking is the piece with the intact mouth is unlikely to die - unless its from infection? Should I also dip it after fragging in an antibacterial solution???

So provided the coral is healthy initially, is this method pretty successful?

Thanks for your time!

Need Help with Zoanthids

fkbsar — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:05:11 GMT

I've seen so many beautiful tanks with the zoas all spread out and intermingled throughout the tanks. Not mine. My frags seem to stay 4-5 polyp frags. How do you make them multiple. I have super glued rock rubble under the plugs, placed rocks adjacent, I feed DTs, cyclopeeze, etc. and nothing seems to work for me. Is it just the luck of the draw - sort of like growing plants and having a green thumb? Any help or suggestions are appreciated.

Information about imports of coral?

reefer31 — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:35:14 GMT

I was wondering if anyone looking on this forum has had any success obtaining information concerning coral importation to the US or any country for that matter. I am looking for this info to incorporate it into a research paper and also for future use in a business plan. Any information would be appreciated. I have been looking at the CITES website but its a little confusing.

Coralline algae remover invention?

Caspo — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 07:29:04 GMT

Well guys,
I've been doing this reef thing for almost 20 years now.
My a_ _ as well as elbows are getting tired of scraping coralline off my 150 acrylic tank.
You know the pink stuff!
Now, the stuff on the back is fine with me. Although I do like to keep some areas clean for depth perception.
I have the dark blue background.
But my weekly front work out is getting me ready to hire someone to do it for me.
Trouble is, I can't afford that. And what fun would that be.
Anybody invent something new?
I've tried all the scrapers and magnets.

How about someone invent a coralline dissolver?

Tell me what I want to here.
And not, "You should have gone with glass."

Tom

bamboo shark in culturing pool?

badguitarist — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:44:48 GMT

I have a good feeling I already know what the answer is but I'm going to ask anyway! I have the "opportunity" to take a bamboo shark off of someones hands who doesn't have room for it anymore (its only about a foot now.) I have a 250 gallon round culturing vessel that I could put him in.

Would the shark be too much of a nuisance, knocking all of my corals over? Would he cause too much strain on a systems filtration (deep sand bed and approprietelly sized skimmer) designed for growing corals? Will this tank even be big enough?

In another post you had mentioned large carnivores make good culture pool fish as they create waste which turns into coral food, If all else works out this may be an interesting fish to do just that with!

I know its probably a bad idea but it would be neet to keep one of these unique creatures and this might be a good opportunity to do it!

Thanks for any input,

Kyle

AC coming to Oz

Tone — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 20:03:23 GMT

Hi Anthony, did you get my message via Reading Trees?

Tone

your thoughts on glass as green house material?

Ste Hughes — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 04:55:13 GMT

hi Anthony

i recently started a post about lights for fragging - after giving it some thought i think i found a spot in my garden for a GH

but it would have to be a lean too against my garage

so that really gives me 2 options - poly carbonate or glass

which would you go for? are there any big differences in there ability to let UV through?

cheers

Steve

Hi Anhony...

Tower — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:37:19 GMT

Well this is just great... I'm a UK reefer and have read and re-read Coral Propogation several times now and here I am messaging you! The world of technology... brilliant!

I'm a novice reefer with bags of enthusiasm despite several annoyances with my tank over the last 2 years. I've defeated cyano (hooray) done away with diatoms (woo hoo) and now I'm battling green hair! (Booooo) TBH it's beating me hands down at the moment but I remain positive and determined.

My tank is 250l 48x15x18 with only 4 small non-messy fish + cuc. I don't have a sump and do have a Deltec PO4 reactor which I use constantly. My PO4 readings are zero which is maybe due to the hair sucking it out of the water. All other readings are great and importantly consistently stable.

I know my problem (as you no doubt already do too from likely answering thousands of simillar cries for help! ) - nutrient export! Waste/detritus is simply not kept in suspension and so whilst my skimmer is reasonable for my tank (I think? - MCE600) it's just not getting chance to do it's job properly. I DO clean it every other day! I can see the dead spots in my tank and despite re-positioning my Tunze's several times (3 of them) I just cant quite get the flow right. The answer to this I'm hoping will be my Polario which I hope to have by Christmas time.

My question is this - how do I (as you advise in BOCP) get my PH to 8.6 and keep it there? Such is my inexperience that though to many this may seem a very obvious answer I simply don't know. My skimmer air inlet is routed to the outside of my house and weather permitting I keep the place aerated to cut down on CO2 build up. The only thing I dose is buffer for DKH which keeps my PH at 8.1-8.2.

Any help you can offer will be greatly appreciated. Furthermore It's quite likely if you do I may have to show off a little at my next reef meet!!!

Kind regards and endless amounts of admiration... Barry

Greenhouse Questions with 2 years under our belts

bcolvin — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:35:26 GMT

Hi Anthony,
I have appreciated all of the information you have given to greenhouse coral propagation it has helped me immensely in my greenhouse build. A little background on my system and history:

My greenhouse is 25' X 50ft with close to 12,000 gallons of water that is used for coral propagation. THere are 10 different systems with variables such as deep sand bed, no sand bed, aragonite sand, silica sand, counter current skimmers, becket skimmers, maxi mod flow, air driven flow, closed loop gyres. Along with many system variables tested we have tried mono culture and polyculture. As of now we have narrowed what is working best for our systems and growth is at an all time high.

A couple questions that I hoped could be addressed

I have been having a lot of trouble selling "bread and butter" corals to local shops as well as to the large wholesalers in California. I am able to offer lots of anthelia in quantities as large as 200 2" discs with consistency, candy canes in similar quantities 3-5 heads, and zoonathids as well. When contacting these places I have found little to no interest in any of these corals or any other bread and butter corals addressed in our conversations. Is there someone else I should be talking to?

Since the demand is not what I had anticipated I have branched out into many other varieties of coral and anemone to target the smaller markets of LFS. I am selling corals with success to the LFS but it is really not the target market I was hoping. Are there online stores or wholesalers that would be interested in what I am selling? I have probably 10-12 different types of corals that could produce 25-50 marketable corals a month.

I appreciate your time and what you have done for the hobby.

Bennett

Sponge filters?

reefer31 — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 11:27:55 GMT

Anthony,

I would first like to say that I am glad you are back online and are able to answer questions. I appreciate your openness and willingness to help us fledglings, and the time it takes to read so many posts and respond. I also wanted to say that I really enjoyed your book and look back on it often for information. Since your book I have been obsessed with trying get into aquaculture. I am going to try my hand at some anemone culture in my garage for the moment. I am trying to get some funds going and have been researching from your site list for over a year now and have just a question on the filtration aspect, the sponge filters to be precise. I have never used sponge filters in any of my aquariums growing up or now and so I have no experience with them. I have a spare 30 gallon in the garage and I will be doing the same exact thing that you have said to others. I have looked at lowes for those fluorescent fixtures and have one in mind, also I work at a lfs so I have access to some already cloned rbta anemones, looking into buying 3-4 to start me off, and will be using airlifts for circulation. Anyways, Ill stop rambling. I just had a question on the type of sponges you use, how you use them (they just sitting in tank or pass water through them) etc. This will be a simple set up so I can get my hands wet, literally.

Oh yes, I live in Utah so the temps fluctuate a bit during summer and winter and I have been testing the temps out in the tank full of water and they seem to be relatively stable at around 70. With a heater in the tank I think it should be fine for the winter months to come. For the summer I will employ fans to keep the tank cool, I imagine with the fluorescent lights it does not give too much heat to the tank.

Thanks again for all your hard work! Ian

if you had no option to frag in a GH...

Ste Hughes — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:21:39 GMT

what lights would you use anothony

i want to start mid sized frag system

i am thinking 3 100gal systems

1 anemone (had a love for them since i started and have good experience of them - i aint going in blind )

1 Soft corals - capnella - xenia (elongeta - red sea and pom pom - toadstools and colt)

1 zoathid

nothings for profit - end goal is break even

as you see i dont think its worth going to the extream of a green house for 3 tanks - i just done have time to make it any more than this

the tanks are all 4x2x2 - all will have a rack in so depth will be what ever is best

what lights would you go with on each system

thanks very much

ste

Reef System not looking so good

eholceker — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:47:15 GMT

Anthony

I am hoping you can shed some light on the situation I am going through. Let's just say it's been a tough go on the reef. First my Wrasse took a floor dive and then my Blenny got stung by a bristleworm and eventually gave way to what I believe was an infection that became serious. Well anyways my tank has been running for 5 years. In the last 3 months or so my leather corals have been shrinking in size and not fully extending their polyps. At first I just thought this was shedding but they still have not shed and continue to shrink on a daily basis. There is no die off and am not sure what is going on. I also had a very large Pocilopora colony which bleached from the bottom only leaving the tips alive. About 5 months ago I switched my lights from Ushio 10k bulbs to the AirWaterIce 12k bulbs. I do not know if this is the cause but I know the PAR can be less with the higher temperature halides. Do you think this is possible? The bulbs were running for a few months before this started so I am kind of reluctant to pin it on this and spend the money on new bulbs. I have tired increasing the flow in my tank by adding another Koralia 1 thinking it was a flow problem. Still no improvement. I now have 4 in my tank in each corner along with my mag 12 on the return (90 Gallon). Allelopathy can also be an issue, I suppose, but I do bi-weekly water changes, skim heavy, and use carbon. My parameters all check out as well, PH- 8.3, DKH - 9, Cal- 375, SG - 35ppt. I know the calcium is a little low but my tank seems to saturate calcium at a high rate. I am sure this is related to my magnesium levels as I use instant ocean salt, but wouldn't think this is the problem. Do you have any ideas what I can look for? Should I try moving things around? Change the bulbs? I am a little at lost as to what is going on. I have attached the before and after pics.

Thanks,
Eric

Red Ogo

subsea — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 05:44:31 GMT

Anthony,

During my greenhouse propagation of Gracilaria parvispora with a co-culture of Large Saltwater Sailfin Mollies, I was encouraged to get through the hot humid summer time in Southwest Louisiana.

I have moved to Austin. Texas March 09. I went from 20 acres and a 3000 square foot house to 1.5 acres and 1500 square foot house. Grandchildren are the "fountain of youth" for grandparents. For me in particular, I get to be silly and it is ok. Unfortunately, I lost the strain of Gracilaria parvispora, that lended itself to greenhouse production. At $60/pound I do not want to start over with that strain. What is you opinion of D:\Gracilaria tikvahiae McLachlan 1987.htm. Red Ogo is so cheap in Asian food market, I attempted to outcompet with the more people desirable Gracilaria parvispora instead of Gracilaria tikvahiae. As with ornamental aquacultured fish, people use the"money card" on you. So much for "Enviromental Stewardship" being profitable.

Your Cajun friend, Pat

Farming and keeping the cash flowing

fazgood — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 08:21:34 GMT

To all,

First off I want to thank everyone I have chat with so far in regard to farming operations. I have yet to be scared off but I see some holes in my early planning stages that need to get filled before I move forward much further.

Some of the upfront costs I discovered are more than expected. My partner and I have a diverse skill set but some of the CPA/Tax issues seem to be our “strongest weakness” so outsourcing will be required here.

To look at this in a really general fashion, the growing seems to be the “easy” part. To be successful you will need a good product of medium size (not frags), lots of it and most of the easy stuff but a decent percentage of unique items to drive customers to your products. Having a flexible plan is also important as well as understanding the customer base.

I am working through many of these questions to get answers and plan for them but I have a major problem that I can’t get past that will be a show stopper unless I can resolve it. This issue is getting some method of a cash flow a lot sooner than the 12 to 14 months after the launch of the commercial phase. I believe I will need to sell something during the 3 to 12 month timeframe to be able to keep from getting in a cash flow hole.

Here is a thought but please remember, I am early in the planning phase and I have not posted all of the work that I have done so far. I was considering making a few large purchases of uncured live rock from some collectors like W. Smith and curing the live rock at the facility then selling that to retail outlets in the region. Large tanks are not too expensive and I thought that the water from water changes could be used to clean and age the rock to maximize the use or raw materials. I was thinking in the neighborhood of a couple thousand pounds to start then see how it goes from there. I just need to find out some of the costs associated with shipping a large order like that. My longer term plan included manufactured live rock but that would be in the 2^nd or 3^rd year.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Faz

Starting to propagate anemones

NirvanaFan — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 09:41:09 GMT

Welcome back to the forum Anthony!

I've been collecting equipment and planning an anemone farm for over a year now. I finally found an affordable anemone locally to try out too. Someone locally to me sold me two bubble tip anemones. They are purple/pinkish/redish with green tips. They are unique. He had two small clones that recently split and sold them to me for $40 each. Right now they are about 2" wide. They have been in his system for over a year and he got his from a split from another aquarist. So this anemone has been around.

Anyways, I just wanted to start a "build" thread for my anemone project. The tank is a custom built plywood look-down tank that is 4' long by 2' wide by 12" high. The tank is lined with pond liner. The water depth is about 10". The tank is plumbed into a standard 55 gallon sump with a softball sized chunk of chaeto, an Octopus NW-200 skimmer, and about 60 pounds of live rock. I've got the space, so I plan on incorporating two 5 gallon RDSB powered by 2 maxi-jet 900. There is a maxi-jet 1200 in the "display" with a cutout sponge filter covering the intake.

I got the two anemones on Sunday, Aug 23. I let them settle in that night with just the ambient light from the basement. Monday afternoon the lights kicked on for 5 hours. The lights are some I had laying around, so I thought I would make use of them. They are four 4' VHO bulbs (3 daylight and 1 actinic) driven by an IceCap 660 suspended about 16" off the water surface. Every 3 days I will move them down about 2" until they reach 8" off the surface. The lighting period will be slowly increased (10 minutes per day) until a period of 8 hours is achieved.

I want to wait two months until I cut one (depending on their size). I don't know if I'll be able to wait that long though. I know it's important to make sure they're very healthy, but I'm excited to start.

I'll take some pictures and post them up tonight if I remember.

Outrageous amounts of two part needed. Where's it going?

IPT — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 00:53:33 GMT

Anthony, or anyone with more experience than me -

I am using an un-Godly amount of two part additive (from two Part Solutions, similar to Randy's recipe one). It's a 20L with a 15 gal sump (the new stand and overflow silicone are drying for the 50 breeder it's all going into and the clam is going to a much larger tank). It's cramed with SPS (none over 4 1/2 inches yet, most much smaller), an 8" Derasa, Galexia, and Favia (lots of this is being split up to two different tanks - I do not like the over crowded look - though I have it in spades right now). I am using 280+ml a day to keep things level. Additionally I need to add Turbo Ca on top of that (yikes!). That is what it is taking to keep things stable at around 400 Ca, 9.3-9.6 dkh, and mg of 1240 (a tad low - I'm working on it)

I started at 200ml but levels were dropping. It's been stable here for 5 days now at, yes, 280ml via a LM3 and some Turbo Ca! The Alk is added in the sump drectly over the outlet from the tank drain (3/4" PVC. Return pump is a Mag3 so the flow is decent if not good there). The Ca is added to the tank and I do not see it go white at all. I do see the water get distorted and it lasts maybe a second (it's dosed right over a Koralla 2). I also add top off via an Osmolator with about 1 and 3/4 tsp of kalk per gallon)

There is visible growth on nearly all the species regularly. I used to get a lot of precip when dosing manually (C balance, and I would dose in 20ml increments but was well over a 140ML a day then too). I have since switched to the Litermeter 3 for more even, frequent, and smaller volumes of dosing throughout the day (looking for that stability and to minimize any precipitation).

Several ideas have been presented. Precipitation being suspected, or that all the SPS, an 8" clam, and the others just consume that much. That still leaves the imbalance between the Ca and Alkalinity though. I thought they were generally consumed equally if mg was properly balanced.

I need some help trouble shooting this from someone with a lot more experience and knowledge than I have. Where do I even start to figure this out? Is there a way to test the potency of the two part (I am sure there is, I just don't have a reference value to compare my result too)?

When do I have to change my t5ho bulbs

retromkt — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:13:56 GMT

Hi I have a Current t5ho lamp but I want to know how many hours have to pass to change the bulbs
2 of them have been on for 1000 hours and 4 of them for 1500 hours

ID this Algae

Mr. Tang — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 09:36:37 GMT

Can someone ID this algae? It is very coarse and does not lose it's color when it drys out. Very dense and grows like a weed. I do no think it consumes a lot of nutrients since my NO3 is like 15. Have to trim it back once a week or it blocks the overflow.

I have several maricultured sps colonies in my frag tank. I'm wondering if this weed came from there and if it's "turf algae"

Please advise

Thanks

Mike

A couple of questions about a Anemone set up

Saldarya — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 20:37:00 GMT

Hello Anthony and All!!

I have spent the past week or so reviewing all of the posts in your stickies concerning Anemone Propagation, specifically RBTA, and I find it something that I would like to pursue iin addition to my current tanks.

That being said, I wanted to share what equipment I currently have to confirm that it woudl be useful, as well as ask a couple questions I am unclear about.

Current on hand equip is as follows: 150g Rubbermaid tub for prop system, 250w MH set up, 2-1200 maxijet mods, heater. Octopus Recirc skimmer.

I assume the 150g will be fine, and the light set up I have extra, I thought I woudl use the MJ mods for flow if I build some kind of cage around them to protect the 'nems.

Questions:

I would like to use a sump, mainly because it allows me to have a easy place for Top off as well as to place the skimmer, and besides, the tub is already drilled and has a strainer for the overflow (fine, nems couldnt fit through it).

To that point, what woudl be the best type of bio filter? Large sponge filter? In the sump ok? My understanding is that LR is not a great idea due to the potential contamination it would bring into an otherwise mono-culture situation.

Secondly, concerning the use of astroturf as a place for the news to attach. I have read that it is bes tto line the tub with it. That being said, what is the best way to fix it in place. It seems that short of siliconing it in place, crud would get underneath it, as well as it flowing loose in some areas in the flow.

I am very excited about this. I have been keeping marine tanks for a bit over 20 years now, and have always wanted to go a bit beyond my normal monthly fragging of the display tank. I also have a source for some great quality RBTA that have been acclimated and feeding for months.

ANyhow, thanks in advance, and once I get some clarity, I will move forward and share pics of the set up.

Bobby

Anthony Calfo - back on MD forums

Anthony Calfo — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 20:57:31 GMT

cheers, my friends

I must say it has been a pleasure knowing, reading, and sharing so much information with you. I am moving on now from formal duties running this forum... but you will still see me on occasion and I can be called back to visit/help most any time!

My departure is for many good/blessed reasons... but partly to pursue other wonderful hobby/science activities. It is an "opportunity cost" reckoning of sorts.

Time is so precious for all of us, and two of my great passions call me every day: my fishroom/greenhouse cultures, and pursuit of images, articles and stories for my magazine (and other writings). The online community is still a very important part of the education process for me (both learning and mentoring).

I wish you all the very best and look forward to seeing you around... online here, elsewhere, or in any country that our paths cross.

With kindest regards,

Anth-

www.ReadingTrees.com

cut anemones

Matias Ilhabela — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 09:27:54 GMT

which anemones that can be played through court?
Thank you for your attention

Well, well,well!

Eric Borneman — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 06:02:20 GMT

Two big smiles on my face in two weeks? Sup?

Busy later to chat? I have a big tree that fell on the patio last night so I have to whip out my manly chainsaw and get to work, but my favorite enigma is calling! Welcome back wouldn't be a strong enough word.

Call ya later.

Strontium salt?

Superman — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 08:47:33 GMT

Anthony, you mentioned in your book that you can use strontium salt for strontium suppliment instead of the liquid form like Kent Marine makes (and is expensive for a dilluted solution!) Who makes a strontium salt that one could use in a marine aquarium? Thanks for your help!

Propagation demo, Raleigh NC

redsonja — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 06:58:27 GMT

The Raleigh Aquarium Society will hold its 24th Annual Workshop and Auction Feb 29th-March 2nd at the NC State University Centennial Campus, Engineering Building 1, 911 Partners Way, Raleigh, NC 27606. Further details may be found at http://raleighaquariumsociety.com/main.html

I'm honored to have been asked to demonstrate E. quadricolor propagation, to be held on Saturday, March 1 at 2:30pm. RAS is a wonderful group and the workshop is always fun and informative. I highly recommend attending for anyone that can make it.

Thanks!

-Sonja

Closed Loop vs. Powerheads

Mr. Tang — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 06:59:37 GMT

Just trying to come up with new ideas for flow!!!

Humidity control fish room

120gallons — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 05:42:21 GMT

Any advice on humidity control in a fish room. I've got approximately 450-500 g in a basement fish room. Most tanks are covered (though not sealed) yet humidity is high as expected (60% or so). I tried a bathroom fan on a humidistat and it just runs and doesn't seem to help.

I'm exploring an ERV or HRV, but just wondering others ideas.

Ugh, red cottony algae!

MeNoNemo — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 22:30:44 GMT

HI Anthony. I have a coral farm in Orlando (we've met and spoken a few times at conferences) that's been very sucessful until I recently had to stop production due to an outbreak of red algae that kinda resembles cotton candy. It's very invasive and I've tried just about everything to get rid of it. I've used a syringe to blast it with alkalinity...this seems to work for a day or two...turning it very white, but it just comes back several days later. I've raised the alk in the entire tank to about 14..this caused a major "snowstorm" which also looked to have killed it off, but again, it came back. I've scrubbed it off, cursed it out and now have the entire farm in a black out for the past 5 days....the corals are losing some color, but not the algae. It's still quite pink/red and seems to be doing well. I've stopped all feeding, done massive water changes (up to 75%) and still no go...just keeps coming back. I use Tropic Marin Salt, my RO/DI system is changed out regularly and I also run catalytic carbon. Any other thoughts? It's growing in several different systems under T-5's and MH. I've never met an algae I couldn't beat in the past. Even sea hares won't touch it! This stuff seems indestructible!

How to get rid of vermetid snails?

xroads — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 10:58:14 GMT

I dont mind them too much other then they throw out their spider webs making a mess of everything. Do they have a natural predator?

Thx

Craig

Tank disaster x 10

chessmanmark — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 20:17:06 GMT

Hey Anthony, I'm a beaten man and thought I'd come here as a last try. You see my tank has crashed in the last few days and everything is dying. I have a 90 gallon tank that is three years old and it was mostly SPS dominant. I started having problems a few months ago with cyano and my zoas all closed up. They barely opened but only a few died. The blue zoas went first. Then my acros started to STN one by one. I would remove them and dip them in TM PCC and never found any pests. My skimmer was filling up every four days, I run a phosban reactor and a UV. When the problem first started I siphoned the sandbed and changed 25-50 gallons of water a week, but just couldn't get my tank under control. Then this week I treated my tank with red slime remover and my tank just crashed. First it was the acros, then the montis, birdsnest, pocis. Now my fish aren't looking too good and my hammers and frogspawn are even retracted. Amazingly one little 1/2 inch frag of an Oregon tort is holding on. My cyphastreas look ok as well as my echinophyllias. What frustrates me the most is I can't fire up my skimmer as all it does is overflow. I keep changing out carbon and doing water changes as fast as I can make up water, but 10-15 gallons a day doesn't seem to be making a difference.

My tank in better days

Sump design

Safedad — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 11:00:31 GMT

Attached find my latest sump design. Any suggestions would be appreciated. It will be supporting a 90 gal mixed reef with tangs, clowns, etc.

Is anyone going to IMAC?

fazgood — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 20:39:53 GMT

I would like to meet a few of you folks that have been so helpful. I hope to have my plan in full gear by then.

Anthony, what is going on at your workshop?

Faz

"Bleached" RBTAs

radiata — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 21:51:36 GMT

Over the past years I have have had a few "bleached" RBTAs. My hypothesis is that the smaller of a split RBTA anemone winds up in a rock crevice with no light and that it looses all the Zooxanthella in their tissues. After month or two, the result is a small white anemone with "neon pink" coloration at the tentacle tips.

My question is... what can I do to facilitate this bleached anemone capturing and retaining new Zooxanthella to get a better coloration?

Thanks,
Bob D.

Ailing hammer

Sherri — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 13:52:25 GMT

Hi Anthony --

Chuck recommended that I ask you how to frag my hammer. I have read some stuff that basically says dremel the skeleton and cut the flesh. I am scared but this guy is sick. Can you look at the picture and tell me what you would do? It has been in a QT for three days getting 20 minute daily soaks in betadine 3 ml to a litre of tank water. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

DSB Help

Jane — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 14:25:46 GMT

My 75 gal bowfront with 6" argonite DSB is 7 years old. I have a terrible HA problem that I have been battling for 6 months. Water params are in order but I have not had proper flow. I have added a phosban reactor and upped the flow greatly to correct my error. My main question is for my DSB. I need to know if I should replace it completely or in part or just try to reseed it. I have been doing many water changes and recently moved my live rock to do a really good cleaning. In doing this and the amount of sediment I am pulling out I feel I have too much detritus built up in the DSB. What is the best course of action?

Size of Berghia Larva?

radiata — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 19:01:21 GMT

Berghia larva are apparently too small to be seen by the naked eye. Does anyone know the micron size of Berghia larva when they hatch?

Thanks in advance...

KH high and pH low?

Geoffkx250 — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 22:47:31 GMT

Hey everyone-

Two of my tanks (90 ga and a 6,000 ga) currently have a pH of 7.8 with a high KH. I thought this problem would be easy to investigate, but it turned out not to be. Luckly they are both fish only, containing species of fish native to long island sound that can easily tolerate a pH this low. My main concern is for the 6,000 ga because the pH has dropped as low as 7.6. I was using an alkaline buffer to raise the pH, but the pH would soon drop. Both tanks have a crushed coral substrate, have sumps and are well aerated, and I dont beleive I over feed (I use clam, squid, silversides, sand eels). - I measure the amount of food I put in the tanks so nothing has changed in the feeding department. I perform 25% biweekly changes with RO/DI water. I have used a pH monitor as well as a chemical test just to make sure one wasnt off - and I used two different KH tests which both came up with similar results. The parameters of both tanks are below:

6,000 gallon - pH 7.8

KH 12 dKH

SG 1.022

90 gallon - pH 7.8

KH 17 dKH

SG 1.022

Thanks alot everyone!

-Geoff

Another source of Phosphates & Silica?

90overflow — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 20:11:13 GMT

When I spray paint something of importance I hold off using antiperspirant/deodorants till I'm done. I can get "fish eyes" in the paint, and the only way I can undo the damage is to go down to the bare metal, and start over. Got me thinking, what does this do to my aquarium when I have my short sleeves rolled up, and past elbow deep in the aquarium. Looked up antiperpirants/deodorants, common ingredients listed are Phosphates and Silica. I'm not a chemist, but it got me wondering.