Mine also caught rust. You can use sand paper or something rough to clean the rust.

well I tried sanding it! didnt work so I am too scared to put them in the water. hahaha but never fear live stock came in yay!! a pom pom without his pompoms :( I hope he wont starve ?? any suggestions or comments? I also got some small RBTA attached to a piece of kenya tree, I have no frag poxy so I am not sure how I will root it, again comments and suggestions?

but the sexy shrimp are doing well :)and so is the hermit!

I have read somewhere that poppoms can survive with the nems. They will just use their feet to search for food. Btw you did not PM me the price that you got the pompoms for :P I will get one or maybe more depending on the price tag. And from where did you get it?

Hahahah sorry about that they cost me around 15 $ with my discount so I may be able to get one for you abour 17-20$ :) and my tank is doing perfect checking the levels tomorrow to see where I stand as well as feeding them tomorrow too.. will blood worms work? or do i Need mysis shrimp and brine?

That sounds reasonable :D I will give you a knock once I come back to Calgary on 30th.

I am not sure what you should feed them but as far as I remember, they would practically eat anything. Maybe using the power of google will hatch some more info :D

My Pompom lost his nems within the first few months I put him in the tank...he then picked up two small mushrooms and has been doing fine with them since.

thats good to know, at the moment I dont have anything small enough for him to grab :( I sure hope he will be alright. perhaps on pay day Ill have to look into getting some small hairymushrooms or something fun

Day 17 and the tank is still going strong! ha all the shrimps are doing well the pom pom is good the RTBA is perfect and the hermit is well fed! pics posted soon!

I do have one question about how to stablize temp swing and if 81-82 degrees Ferinheit is too high to keep fish and inverts and corals?

feather caulerpa good or bad?
 

Day 23 and all is well temp as come down since we are getting colder in Calgary! Parametes are all perfect! diatoms are starting in abundence! one question has come across my mind though, I modded my Ac 30 into a makeshift fuge not glued or anything. I got some strange plant for the back of it and found out that it was feather caulerpa. Should I continue to use this for my fuge or should I get soemthing less invasive, from what I have been reading is that it can take over your tank quite fast ? any ideas?

Get Cheato....avoid Caulerpa.

I think Caulerpa for a 2.5g would be a very bad idea since it can easily take over the aquarium or kill the system if it becomes angry. Cheato would be the best option.

Thanks! Ill make sure to dump it asap

NO NO NO! Don't just dump it. Leave it outside your house in sun for a day or two for it to dry out and die and then wrap it up in a tight bag or something and then dump it.

hahaha well I was just gonna leave it in the alley way in the sun lol But come to mention it I did read up on the feather caulerpa and I guess it can live in cold water as well so Ill make sure to discard of it properly

Phew you just saved Calgary from a caulerpa infestation :P Jk :mrgreen:

hahah funny guy :P
I was curious should I even be using macro in my tank
Cause I have heard that possibly all I need is carbon and gfo and filter floss. I would like to run macro so I can have a base for my bigger start up but if it would be better not too I can always get some chemi pure some purigen and filter floss. any suggestions?

Well I don't think GFO and filter floss would be much of use for such a small system. Carbon would be an important thing since softies like to do funny things in the water and carbon is really helpful to suck those out.

For my 20 gallon, I use a HOB skimmer, 2 aqueon 20 filters (one filled with LR rubbles + carbon + phospad and the other one has two chemi-pure elite and I will be adding purigen at the end of this month) and till now, I have not done any WC for the last two months other than top-off and dilution of salinity. On 8th, when I left the country for vacation, my nitrate was undetectable (was running for more than a month) and hopefully after coming back to Calgary, I am expecting to see very small (maybe 5ppm) or undetectable nitrate. If undetectable, they I will consider my filtration to be perfect for my tank :D

cool cool, thats good to know. Yah I just have purigen in there LR and that feather crap. So if I take the algae out you dont think my Nitrites and nitrates will spike do you. I am only concerned because I am getting some frags today and I dont want the system to have any issues, cause so far everything is perfect
NH4- 0
No2 - 0
No3 - 0
Ph - 8-8.2 (little low but meh)

Hard to say. Maybe a more experienced member can answer this (I am newby but I did my homework well that's all :D). Get a thread open. That way, you should be able to get your answer.

About the pH, I think mine is even low (prolly close to 7.9 or something) so I have ordered a digital meter for $10 from ebay and should be getting it soon. Better to get accurate reading for pH since the decimal values matter :P

haha this is very true! I may have to look into that as well dont want my tank to get all goofy on me :P

The tank has new lights and new frags!!!!! sweet dealio!
heres what she looks like now
So stoked on the lighting system its a freaking blast!

http://i1174.photobucket.com/albums/...9/6a21a752.jpg

Star polyp help !!
 

As you know my tank has been going for about a month now, perfect parameters, brilliant salinity, temp swings are down a bit :) my only concern is; I bought a feather duster the other day and placed it inside the tank, when I did so My green star poylps closed up, they have been closed for about 2-3 days now and am a little worried considering before the featherduster intro they were fine! any ideas?

gsp does that from time to time, the feather duster would have no affect on the star polyps, i would be happy personally if my green star polyps died in a tank that small;)

hahah well thats good to know, the GSp will be going into the 18 Gallon eventually :)