have you taken a look at the sapphire aquatics skimmers made for specific AIO's?

Yes...so funny you ask because I just ordered one from Ottawa Inverts :lol:

After all the reading I have done over the past few days, it is the only one that seems to have everything I want. Its small and fits IN the back completely and is not seen. Reviews are good that it skims well...a little wet but good enough. And its silent.

Plus it's cheaper than the Tunze even with shipping.

Oh and being a recirc skimmer is kind of cool for such a small model.

You will have to let us know how much it "sucks"(skimate):mrgreen:

I will...I hope it really sucks! :lol:

Haven't been able to find a heck of a lot of info on them since this newer generation of Sapphire Skimmers hasn't been out too long but the people I talked to that do have seem to love them.

We'll see.

I guess it depends on your definition of skimming huh?.... I had an aquac remora on my 20g and I thought I was skimming:hat:...then, when I fired up the euro-reef....I found out I wasnt skimming jack!:lol:

Well yeah...I can't compare this to the last skimmer I used!

That was a $1000 skimmer and this is a $200 skimmer. Not going to compare but I think this will do for what I need. I only have 4 small fish.

Turns out the shipping on that Sapphire is ridiculous and makes it not really worth the price. I didn't quite go through with the order so I might just be back to the Tunze. LOL. At this point I think I will just stick with what I can get locally! I will see if I can negotiate a better shipping price though since I know it can't cost that much to ship across Canada.

Other than the Euro Reef, I have a feeling they are all going to preform about the same. I can't find the nano Euro Reef in Canada though and I am not interested in shipping from the States.

So many words. So few pictures of green carpet. <cough cough> <subtle hint> <cough cough> <ok maybe not so subtle> <cough cough>

Well...Your in luck.

I took some today of my clowns and carpet, I was going to post them tomorrow but if your going to be up and have a need for anemone pictures I could post a few tonight. You might like them...most are close ups :lol:

PICS! Did you say... pics? I think we all need to see them... well, maybe just one? :biggrin:

Ok...here's ONE...

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...h/_MG_6814.jpg

Nah...kidding, I have more. But they really didn't turn out great. Most were way out of focus. Just when I thought I was getting the hang of this camera, I screw up some nice shots!

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...h/_MG_6827.jpg

Anemone Diving!

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...h/_MG_6818.jpg

Wish this one was in proper focus

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...h/_MG_6803.jpg

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...h/_MG_6801.jpg


And a dead Emerald crab :( This was before lights on. Was checking things out and he was laying on his back, dead. A few hours earlier he was eating hair algae :neutral: Don't know why a crab would just die like this...

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...h/IMG_6833.jpg

:yell: So...Tony...I posted these pictures tonight for you and I am assuming you went to sleep already :frusty:

I do have a question for you though whenever you do check them out.

If you go back to the FTS at the beginning you will notice the anemone is a very bright green but also smaller. In these pictures, it is not nearly as bright but the anemone is also much bigger (expanded) and has its tentacles extended much longer. The pics are a little dull but probably close to the true color.

It makes sense that as the anemone expands and extends out its tentacles, it gets a little less vibrant. But do they tend to get more and more dull as they actually grow? I have seen large green ones that are more of an olive green and not the bright green you see in my first pictures. Have you (being an anemone fanatic) ever seen large gigantea carpets (let's say 10" plus) that are bright green still?

I am just curious about what to expect.

Thats to bad. I was looking forward to your reviews on the Sapphire. I had the same problem finding a Solana. To much to ship one and they dont ship good. You figure to much shipping costs also, to bring the Euroreef across? {besides it sticking out on you}.

Yeah kind of too bad about the Sapphire but I am also not sure I wanted to give it a shot anyways. I would prefer to go with something I know is going to work well and I have spoken to enough people now who like the Tunze. Especially if you have an ATO. I think it will work just fine for my lightly stocked tank.

The EuroReef was actually cheaper to ship here from the US than the Sapphire would be across Canada! Todd from Global got a quote at $29. Said it could be a bit more in the end but wouldn't charge more than $32 with insurance.

The shipping for the EuroReef was good but its just the size for me. I am convinced though that its the best nano skimmer out there...but that's just based on reading and reviews :lol:

Thanks for the pics! They look awesome. Yeah, sorry, I went to bed. I'm an hour ahead and not a morning person at the best of times and I've been staying up too late and dragging my butt into work far too late lately so at the early tender hour of midnight last night I actually hit the hay. My strategy backfired BTW, I still had trouble getting up and I still got into work late. AND I forgot my laptop at home, so yeah, I'm totally on fire today! Whoowee! My horoscope said to expect good things today.

Anyhow, they look good, they look really good. Thanks for the pics. :)

I think for the most part, colour is dependent on lighting and they do sorta change in intensity over time sometimes but it's a give and take sort of thing. My green guy is probably around 12" in diameter and it's still fairly bright green, he was tiny when I got him maybe 4"-5". So anyhow no real reason to expect that it will dullen up over time.

Do you think that the 250 is enough with it being on the bottom? I notice it tends to 'reach' up sometimes, kind of extending towards the light maybe? Starts to look like a toadstool coral when that happens. It really stretches its foot a long way. When it does this, its tentacles are the longest and also most extended they ever get.

Really too bad but I think I am going to have to redo the rockwork to keep the nem happy. And soon. I have noticed its already starting to get shaded a bit by some overhanging rocks and corals :(

I bet it would be happier if I gave it more room and light.

But I will wait to get a skimmer running on the tank for a few weeks I think before I start to move/remove some LR.

Got the Tunze 9002 a few days ago and after modding it to fit in the back, modding the tank to get it to fit and building a riser stand for it, its in the tank and working...well!

I am pretty impressed with how well this thing is preforming already. Nothing like some of the big skimmers I have used over the years but I didn't have high expectations. It has exceeded my expectations for sure.

Also glad I added it because the amount of crap it pulled out in the first night was kind of scary. Never going skimmerless again!

How's the carpet doing now? Still reaching up?

Missed this...a few weeks ago now.

The anemone is driving me crazy. I think its just a really bad idea for the size tank. Unless I get rid of everything else and only keep the nem lol.

I removed about half the LR from the tank (only about 10 lbs. now) and also removed many corals but I still don't think there is enough room. I moved the anemone off the glass and put it down on the bottom. It has stayed there overnight but who knows...the thing loves to move.

I am on my blackberry now but when I get home, I will take some pictures of the tank as it is now.

I've actually thought about finding a Solana and having it for just a blue carpet & a pair of black percs. I think it'd be neat.

Yeah I think that would be really awesome. I just don't want to do that with this one and I don't want a second tank. I am seriously thinking about selling the anemone and getting some kind of soft coral for the clowns instead.

Since this is my only tank now, I don't want to dedicate it to just the carpet anemone.

For now I think I will just see how things go. As long as the carpet stays where its at now, it's got lots of room and can't harm anything. But if it starts to move, I will probably sell it.

Your Solana is looking pretty sweet man. Great job man!
D

Some pictures from a few hours ago. The anemone is still not so happy and pretty deflated (after I moved it yesterday) but I think its going to be fine.

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...h/IMG_6996.jpg

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...h/IMG_6977.jpg

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...h/_MG_7003.jpg

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...h/_MG_7009.jpg

The only thing I really dislike about the Solana is that the false wall is textured and not smooth. Its almost impossible to scrap clean and unfortunately coraline is starting to grow over it. I need to figure out some way to keep it clean.

coralline terminater
 

go for a tuxedo urchin. one i have literally chomped through every bit of coralline growth that i had, much to my dismay.

Well I guess that would work but I don't really want it to eat coraline off the rocks. The main problem with an urchin though is that it will end up in the anemone I think.

Tuxedo urchin - may not be spotless clean but at least they munch coraline so might be better than nothing and you don't have to do any of the work...

What about the anemone though? Would the urchin stay away?

Once the anemone expands, it takes up much of that sandy area you see on the right.

I have a blue tuxedo in with my 2 - no issues with the anemone. Now, dressing itself with zoanthid frags or GSP - that's a different issue. Actually, right now, the only GSP I have left is what grows on the blue tuxedo. It's been wearing the GSP for 2 months solid and I swear it's just growing on him (they're all out and everything). I don't have the heart to pull the stuff off him since it seems to be a rather symbiotic relationship..

I think I will stay away from the urchin because whenever I see them, they are always covered in corals. I would prefer just to figure out a way to do it by hand than have an urchin pulling up all my zoanthids.

I really wish I had put a black acrylic sheet over it when the tank was empty like some other Solana owners have done. I could try now but it would be kind of hard and I couldn't glue it down.

Hahah, yeah, I hear ya. Although, FWIW, it bears mention that there is a simple solution, and that's glue stuff down that you don't want relocated on you. I find with zoanthids and zoanthid frag in particular that are always glued onto the most ridiculous of small rubble (my personal favourite is snail shells ... if you ask me, it's not just drinking and driving: friends don't let friends glue frags onto dead snails!!!!), if it's not an urchin that picks them up, something else will in the dead of night and one day you'll be wondering "Hey didn't I have some zoanthid frags there? Aw man."

Yeah that's a good point. Most of my zoas are actually growing on large rocks now. I thought maybe the urchin could actually rip chunks of zoas off of the rocks. Is this not the case?

Do they bother SPS? I have (as you can see) quite a bit of SPS relatively close together on top of that island and I wonder how gently the urchin can move around them? I just don't want to put something in the tank that I regret...I seem to do that with every tank but so far I haven't with this one. I have been very careful about what goes into this tank. Especially since its so small.

I finally figured out how to adjust the whitebalance in photoshop with RAW files and I think my pictures are finally getting a more accurate color to them. I had been trying to figure out how to get all the blue out of the photos (that isn't seen in real life) for months and I never realized its as easy as using an eye dropper in the whitebalance editor in photoshop to select something white (sand) and it will adjust everything else accordingly.

Here are some shots after whitebalance adjustment. I tried to get some top down shots but it was impossible so this is as close as I could get. They get a tiny bit distorted because of the angle I shot from but still kind of cool.

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...h/_MG_7022.jpg

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...h/_MG_7034.jpg

Not feeling so great tonight, so home taking camera phone pics. Not the best quality but decent. They uploaded kind of small too.

I found some Zoa eating Nudibranches the other day. Got the few I saw out and haven't found many yet but I am sure they are there, so I picked up a Sixline wrasse hoping he may eat them. As soon as he acclimated, I blew the zoas off and one nudibranch came off...he ate it right away! I found one more after that and he ended up eating it too. So far all my zoas look fine and are growing still. Pretty easy to tell when the nudi's are on them since they close up.

Anyways, the wrasse (hes tiny):

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...mith/6Line.jpg

Some random shots:

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...90619-2152.jpg

This is my favorite coral. Just so tiny still!

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...90619-2155.jpg

Picked up 3 small Tuxedo Urchins for some of the hair algae I have and to hopefully keep the back wall a little cleaner. I hope they eat coraline!

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r...90619-2155.jpg

Carpet anemone just ate my Fang Blenny infront of me and there was nothing I could do :sad:

Watched him slowly get pulled in as the blenny struggled to get free and got more and more stuck as he did. The blenny eventually gave up and just kind of looked around and he was engulfed. Very sad. The clowns were also biting the blennies head as he got eaten. Not a nice way to go!

I think the anemone is making my decision on whether to keep it or not easier though. The stupid thing has limited what I can keep in the tank and now its eaten my favorite fish...

Ohhhh man! that's rotten... Nem comes OUT!

Sorry to hear :( I've never lost a fish to a gigantea so I'm surprised to hear it .. maybe the fact that it's a smaller tank is a concern when attempting a mixed setup. Yeah, sounds like you'd be happier finding the 'nem a new home. Good luck. :neutral:

Anyone have any ideas of what I could replace the anemone with?

I have a Toadstool leather that 2 clowns host in, thats an option. My Long tenacle Anemone in the other tank has made snacks of a Tuxedo Urchin(maybe) and Sea hare(for sure). But left my Goby, Blenny, and other fish alone.

If I get rid of the anemone, I might just try something like a Colt coral and see if they like it.

I don't know though...as sad as I feel about the blenny and mad, I don't want to get rid of the anemone! If I keep it then I will never add more fish while it's in there. I don't think that would be very responsible. I might even try to get the new sixline out if I keep the anemone. Just keep the clowns since they won't get eaten.