They are looking a little pouty, but I'm sure they'll come around; sometimes it takes a while. Then you can sit back and watch them grow. :biggrin:

So I had an order for 33 fish... but I only got 12... I was supposed to get 10 hermits but only got 5. Now my tank has too much yellow/orange/red compared to blue/purple/black/green Of the fish that were supposed to come I have 1 black and a school of 15 blue... oh well here is what I got. (so far I haven't had any fish DOA and no acclimation problems)

The hermits (got 5 of 10)
http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/x...Newfish003.jpg
The Dispar Anthis (got 10 out of 15)
http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/x...Newfish013.jpg
http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/x...Newfish027.jpg
http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/x...Newfish024.jpg
http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/x...Newfish020.jpg
Hawaii Flame Wrasse (got both Male and Female)
http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/x...Newfish030.jpg
http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/x...Newfish029.jpg
http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/x...Newfish035.jpg

Beautiful looking fish. Wow are you ever populating the tank at epic pace...

Ya imagine if I had gotten all 33 of my fish.

Wow, what an interesting thread! Glad I found it. :cool: :pop2: :pop2: :pop2: Hi neighbor. :wave:

Hello... If you ever want to take a look at the tank in person let me know :)

I was thinking the same thing........

you got some cajones my friend......30+ fish in a month in a tank that has no "real" live rock?.......hope things do well for you......

Thanks Greenmaster--one of these days!

I have a question....don't you need at least a little live rock to seed the rest of your rock? I mean otherwise it will never come alive, no? And how much how often are you changing water......because you said you're not running filters or skimmers, right?

So far so good...

I added bottled bacteria... also the bacteria is everywhere it just takes a long time to reproduce so if you don't add it to the tank, either with LR or with an additive, it takes months to get going.
And about the filters/skimmers right I only have biological... if you look at the title of the post... 320g build/journey/experiment DIY :-)... I built it... definitely been a journey... lots of DIY... the experiment thing is what I am working on... I have yet to do a water change.

No offense but I have a bad feeling for your fish, I can't imagine running that large of a system without filtration or doing a water change with that many fish in a new system :neutral:

I don't take offense... I hope that people don't start hating on me because of my "experiment" cause I think that this can be good for people to see... but as with any experiment, failure would not be a surprise. I hope your feelings are wrong... On a side note I'm not going to just let my fish die... if I need to I can do a 50% water change within 3 hours.

Ya it came in on my first SPS frag plug... I saw it but didn't do anything about it... besides my tangs were getting tired of just eating the brown stuff. I thought they might want some color in their diet. I'll be getting some green soon enough but I need to get some sodium silicate.

Greenmaster, are you testing to see how the water is doing as time goes by?

That is good to know, hopefully it wont be to late.....I kinda of have issues with "experimenting" when it involves live fish and corals. However I understand many people do different things with their systems and it will be interesting to see how yours turns out. I guess you wont know until you try, so I have to say I also hope my feelings are wrong. Best of luck to you.

Yup... at one point I saw .05 nitrites (smallest hint of pink) and nitrates got up to 20.... I dosed some vodka sodium carbonate and splash of bacteria... was kinda scary cause I spilled too much vodka so I had a bacterial bloom and it got a little cloudy, and required a drip of sodium carbonate and to be checked on every couple hours but in the end it went to all 0's so I'm happy.

Thanks, Some items of note. I do have an aqua controller I also have someone in my house at all times that can "take a pulse" on my tank. I get updates from them about twice while I am at work. I also work in delivery so if I had to I could be home within 15 min of an alarm or a phone call. I understand that many people have issues with "experimenting" with live anything... but where would we be if people didn't try experimenting? I don't have the funds (not sure if you even can) to replicate fish and their reaction to my water chemistry so the only way for me to find out if it can be done this way is to try it... I have some more eccentric things I will be trying with my tank... but that is years away and only if my tank can stay stable and thriving. You know those first two fish I had that died... I almost gave up at that point... It made me very sad. I get that feeling in the pit of my stomach when I think about it... If all of my fish die... maybe I'll just do some brackish water something for a while... something with no experimentation.

+1. This is how I feel too.

I'm also interested to watch how yours does. I applaud your creativity and enthusiasm....it just makes me nervous.....but I do hope it turns out well. I think everyone has the right to run their tank the way they want, and there are lots of ways to achieve good results. I can think of several parts of saltwater aquarium keeping that are controversial with experts having strong opinions that are in direct conflict with one another.

I won't be getting any fish for a month or so...
My sister had a house fire and I'm giving my "fish money" for the next little while to her to help her get back on her feet.
I don't know if this is against the rules but if it is please delete this post.

David and Marion Preece had a house fire and lost almost everything. I hope that some how we can rebuild her life close to what it was before the fire. Although there are many things you can't replace, (photos, souvenirs, and sentimental items) they are in great need of normal every day things like a broom, underwear, and a couple pairs of shoes. It is hard to imagine what it would be like to have nothing except a little dept on some items that you no longer have.
If you wish to donate please log into PayPal and make a payment to marion.david@homtail.ca
Even a couple dollars would help. Thanks.
http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/x...ndstuff015.jpg

My heart goes out to the family. How devastating. Thankful there were no injuries. God Bless.

***Correction***
marion.david@hotmail.ca

:sad:

Alright enough of this doom and gloom. I have made good use of the de-stressing that my tank provides :-)
Here is a lousy FTS
This is the start of my Cano bloom... after just 5 days it has really taken off... I believe it is one of those stages all tanks go through. I will be monitoring the situation but I will give the tank some time to balance out. My zebras continue to school nicely... the Anthias suck.. They some times are in two groups but usually they are all over the place.
http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/x...ndstuff025.jpg

I still thoroughly enjoy watching everyone get cleaned by my shrimp... the clowns and the zebras don't use the shrimp, but everyone else does.

A little clip of my cleaner shrimp...

Nice to see you back
 

I have enjoyed this thread. Lost it and found it again today ! Two things come to mind.

"you've come a long way baby"
"if you didn't have bad luck you wouldn't have any luck at all"

All the best to your family and your new family of fishes.

I only have one concern that has already been covered I think. Keep those tests going for water quality. That is already a high bio load. I too love your fish choices. To see fish school in a tank must be really a joy.

Well I thought I should update my tanks current situation :D
I'm now at the Cyano stage.... I'm waiting for some sodium silicate and some scarlet hermits (can't get them right now... still on waiting list for a few weeks)

FTS
http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/x...s/Cyano020.jpg

Some other nasties on a free coral, I'm still happy I got the coral and I gave them a drink... I heard they like lemonade... So far it looks like they liked it so much they thought they would go to the store and buy some more... I haven't seen them since :p

http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/x...s/Cyano017.jpg

Personally, I wouldn't mess with aptasia. I'd pull the coral out. It's not worth it IMO.

The project is really coming along. It was a little touch and go for a while with your pH problems and the LED episode. I'm glad you stuck it out. I'm still enjoying the thread.

They are gone... for now :p
I'll be watching it closer for a week or so. If I see anything I'll get a few peppermint shrimp.

If only it were that easy :smile:

I agree. You're Aiptasia-free now and keep it that way or you'll regret it later.

They are the devil's minions of this hobby! But that algae would drive me nuts! Takes alot of patience and persistance to get through that crap, good luck man

aptasia isn't bad, just inject them with a kalk slurry while you don't have many.

Steve

They hitchhiked in on a free coral, being a generous host I fed them some lemonade and they haven't been seen since... I hope that clears up the original post.

Silica is found in the oceans anywhere up to 10 ppm and it is removed from our salts and our additives. Silicates help to produce some types of algae, that are more readily eaten by our pods, and other things in our tank (ie tangs and regular hermits).

I read about it in this article By Randy Holmes-farley

Between work and sick kids I haven't been able to put the time into monitoring and dosing the sodium silicate and since I want to do it properly I'll wait till I have the time and energy. On a side note I got quite the ich outbrake and have started a "Natural" ich treatment/experiment that I think will work. The experiment started on Tuesday afternoon and I have seen major reductions of ich on my tangs (may just be falling off to breed so we will wait and see on that one)... The flame wrasses still have a fair amount of ich on their front 1/4 (I think it's cause the shrimp are scared to get near their mouths) But overall I have seen a reduction. It will take 10 days before I will say if my experiment is being successful or not.

I noticed the Ich on my tangs Monday afternoon and proceeded to monitor my tank. I couldn't see Ich on any of my other fish. My tangs didn't stay still enough for me to get a good picture of them, mostly the Ich was on their fins and face. But two of the less dominant ones had Ich all over. I watched closely all afternoon until lights out. When all that was left was the blue LED's I saw more Ich. My wrasses were covered in it. I couldn't see the Ich under normal light but under the blues was a different story.
http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/x...landIch032.jpg

Adding to the saga of trials and "FUN"
Well something has happened that I wasn't expecting... I'm having massive Cyano die off and some type of green algae (that I have wanted to grow) has started growing. But today it was huge the amount of Cyano that was lifting off the rocks or just decomposing where it was. There is still lots there but I would say close to 20% is dead or dieing within just a couple days... I was not expecting this and I don't finish work till later tomorrow so I hope that there are no deaths while it goes through this transition. All of the die off of Cyano is creating an ammonia spike and it's at .5, Nitrites are at .3, and nitrates are at almost 0. I was not expecting the die off to happen so quickly so I don't have any bottled bacteria on hand to help to jump start the populations in the tank... I'll keep you updated over the next 2 days (I have Tuesday off so I'll post Tuesday night if not sooner)

So after 10 days there is no sign of Ich... I believe that a combination of three things saved my fish and put the Ich into remission.

1. Lots of Skunk cleaners... I have six or seven Skunk cleaners in my tank and they service most of my fish well, some of them are very bold, jumping onto a fish in open water and cleaning a fair distance from their post. (I also have two Fire cleaners but they don't like to clean.)
2. I added Brine shrimp cysts to my tank... lots every day, I would say that there wasn't one cubic inch in the tank that didn't have hatched brine shrimp filtering the water. Also I don't have a skimmer, UV, or anything else that can kill/remove stuff from the water, so they stay in the water column. Brine shrimp may or may not filter the Ich out of the water, but I felt it may help so I tried.
3. I fed garlic in my food. Not a huge contributor but I feel like it could have made a difference.

glad to hear your fish are doing well.

I wish you continued good luck with the Ich outbreak. I was wondering what the justification was for the brine shrimp, do you see it as a food source to keep the fish healthy enough to fight of the Ich or does it in some way attract or break the Ich cycle?

I'm not sure if the brine shrimp would eat them or not, but brine shrimp are filter feeders and they filter out usually phytoplankton. Phytoplankton ranges in size from 50µm to several feet in size. Ich in the Theront stage are between 40-69µm. I'm hoping that the brine shrimp will filter out and eat the Theronts thus braking the Ich cycle. If this works or not or even had any effect is unknown... the only way to do it would be to experiment with them and do several studies. But I know that if I ever get Ich again, I will be "saturating" the water with brine shrimp.