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Newbie looking for a mentor and ID
Hi all
I am just starting out my reefing experience and would like to find someone in the SW (Shawnessey) area that would be willing to pop over and look at my tank and tell me what I am doing right and wrong, give advice and generally slap me upside the head when I need it. Rigth now I am listening to the LFS's advice which generally contradicts every other LFS's advice. After going to ALL?? the LFS I have found that the only one that hasn't steered me in the wrong direction (or recommended "bad" beginner things) is Albert @ Gold's. But trying to get him slowed down enough is pretty tough :biggrin: because he seems to be sooooooooo busy. Anyway I am just looking for general advice. Here is my setup: 8 month old 29 Gallon aprox. 35 lbs of live rock( doesn't look like that much). 4 - T5 6500K 24W 1 - T5 Actinic Seio Super flow 820 pump (was an Eheim 1224, but was told that it didn't have enough water flow.Looks much better now.) HOB Coral life 65 Super Skimmer 2 inch Sand bed All tests seem to be in proper range. Now for livestock (of course I forgot to write down what they were so ID would be great): 1 fish ?????? 3 coral frags that were recommended as easy keeping(true so far). 1 bigger coral(easy keeping too). 1 Bristle Star I have pictures but the kids seem to have misplaced the cable to upload them. Thanks in Advance Glenn |
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I'm surprised you haven't had a response yet, I know a few reefers in that neck of the woods. After my wedding and holiday's (back Aug. 23rd) I'd be happy to help out anyway I can.
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Glenn,
I am Shawnessy and would be pleased to come and look over your tank for you. I am currently in the process of setting up my new 350 Gallon system and building a fish room so you are welcome to stop by as well. Shoot me a PM and lets get together. Keith |
You can find me here pretty easy Glenn.
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Thanks to all that replied. Albert you have been a great help to me so far and I appreciate your patience and truthfullness. I will continue to pick your brain in the future.
Danny and Andrew thanks for the offers. Andrew pm'd you. Albert: Do you happen to remember what I got from you? I forgot to write them down. PS. you were right on the flame scallop. I think it made it a whole day. Glenn |
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Can I come by Kieth!:mrgreen:
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Sure, you are more than welcome to come over actually. We are waiting for our Serra Stone floor to go into the basement next week (I even convinced my wife to let them put in a cool shark logo in the stone like at west edmonton mall!!!) before I get the sump installed and everything set up for viewing. I think we should do a few informal visits to each others house/tanks actually. It would be great to chat about out tanks in person for a change. |
You can post any questions on here too, the board seems to have slowed a bit during the vacation summer months, but there are lots of good folks here to give you their thoughts.
And you will always get different advice from different people, but you are correct, LFS can not usually be trusted, you have to do your own research, and don't buy anything impulsively. So you have had a 28g for 8 months, I assume you have an upgrade planned? :) Maybe a larger tank with a sumpe, halides? You know you waaaaaana. Find that cable to upload pics! If it is lost, get a card reader, they are cheap. |
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Just over in Acadia, where BA's used to be.
Do you have a thread in the tank specs forum for this monster build up of yours? |
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Camera cable found(1)
Here are some pics
Before adding the actinic and removing the eheim http://www.warops.com/aquarium/DSC00883.JPG http://www.warops.com/aquarium/DSC00884.JPG http://www.warops.com/aquarium/DSC00885.JPG http://www.warops.com/aquarium/DSC00908.JPG http://www.warops.com/aquarium/DSC00909.JPG http://www.warops.com/aquarium/DSC00910.JPG fishie http://www.warops.com/aquarium/DSC00911.JPG |
Hey Glenn, I see a couple of problems with your tank ATM:
The rock-rubble placement encourages accumulation of detritus. With the sandbed and all, you're already going to have a hard time keeping the tank clean. The low number of access points under your rock will only compound that problem. Bringing the rock structure higher will also allow you to bring the corals closer to the surface and to the light, which is a problem here. Next, take out the dead scallop as soon as you get a chance, it's only going to trap more detritus. Last, you gotta pull the man-eating shark outta there. Those things get HUGE! I don't think you have a properly sized tank for it. It would be cruel of you to leave it in there. Edit: Next time you're by, ask me and I'll show you some hand pointers on stacking rock. Edit #2: Watch out for those green serpent stars! They are notorious fish eaters. |
I was just about to post something similar to Albert about the rocks-sand.
I think you said your sand bed is 2" right. A shallow sand bed should really only be about a 1/2" of sand that you can clean with a siphon to remove any detrious on a regular basis. A deep sand bed should be 4 - 8 inches deep to get any of the benefits of the nitrifying bacteria. Since you are in the middle, you get none of the benefits and all of the problems. As for the rocks, I would check with albert and take his advise on stacking them. If you went with a deep sand bed, it would not be as big of a problem though. Anyway. My 2 cents. :) |
Oh, one more thing. Have you tried this website:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ Simply the best resource on the net. |
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Here is my thread: http://216.187.96.54/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=25427 I have a big update to go up tonight I hope as I now have the live rock semi placed and water in as well. |
changes have been made
Was 2 inches. Did a 30% water change last night and cleaned out a lot of the sand on one side. It s down to about 1/2 inch on that side. Plan on changing the other side in the next day or two.
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Wanna give me some pointers on here tonight? I have a post into the guy in Dewinton selling some rock for about another 15 lbs. he has some live mushrooms on his that go with the rock @ $4/lb.
Lee-Anne wants to know if you wanna buy a "slightly used" flame scallop LOL. Is it safe to move the rock while the critters are still in or should I try to get them out? She says the shark stays. He has been in there and happy for 1 year now. I was told the green serpent was a bristle star and was safe and friendly?? Thanks |
Awesome looking so far........ Wish I had that much room..
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Good work.
That will help reduce the nutrients in your tank quaite a bit. You will need to keep it clean. I actually have a good LONG vaccum you can have. It does an amazing job of washing the gravel. I chose to go Bare Bottom with my new tank and already see the advantage of grabbing a powerhead and just blowing all of the crap out from under the rocks. |
That would be great. Thanks
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My only advise would be to quarantine that rock for a few weeks minimum before it goes in your tank. Rock should be fine with the critters on it if you keep it in water for the trip. If you see any sign of Aptasia on the rock, take a pass. |
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LOLOLOLOLOL, anyway, without actually showing you how to stack rock, here's some pointers: Get a good diamond drill bit. You'll need it. Drilling rock gives you so many advantages over just trying to stack it. Get some long nylon zip ties. Get a length of 3/4" pvc pipe and a bunch of elbows and T's. Make a frame out of the pvc. Drill holes in rocks. Zip tie rocks to frame. Once you have partial rockwork on the frame, you can just fill in the gaps with rubble and coral. Great way to get a lot of volume filled in with minimal rock. |
You can also drill holes in the rock the same size as the PVC, and use short lenths to connect the rock, without building a whole PVC frame.
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I can't imagine someone giving me eroneous information......:lol:
Anybody got some pictures of a frame that I can get some hints from? And here I was thinking that my rock work looked pretty good.:cry: I take it you make a frame to sort of fit the back tank wall and just keep filling it in then lean it all up against the back wall? Glenn Quote:
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Wow, PVC frames, Zip ties, drill bits! :redface:
Seems a bit unatural Albert, Whatever happend to spending hours if not days trying to jigsaw puzzle your rockwork together? And then selling off all of the frags you've created in the process! Oh ya, that'll be me this weekend.:mrgreen: |
There is definately merit to jisawing your rockwork together, but there are also some sweet looking formations you cannot create without a little help to defy gravity.
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Hahah, I've gotten pretty good with rockscaping either way. I just find the end result, when using PVC frames, to be a lot more dramatic when done properly. |
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Glenn |
Its pretty basic.
Buy a length of 1/2" PVC, they are usually 8 feet long. Also buy some 90's and 45's, and if they have some 3-ways that will be helpfull too. Now you have to decide what you want your final aquascaping to look like, then you build the framd out of the above mentioned pieces. You probably dont even have to glue the PVC if you dont want to. As you are building the frame, you need to attache your rockwork one of two ways. 1. Drill through the rock so that the PVC can pass through the rock 2. Zip-tie the rock to the PVC. You will probably use both methods. As I mentioned earlier you can also get pieces of rock to "stick" together by drilling a few inches into each piece, and using a single pieces of PVC to connect them. |
There is some info here
http://wetwebmedia.com/lrplacingfaqs.htm and here http://www.wetwebmedia.com/lrplacingfaq2.htm THis is a good one, he mentions hammering stuff together instead of glueing http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium_..._2.asp?CartId= |
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More articles on this would be great! |
You guys rock...... Thanks for all your help. This is getting to be fun now
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Here's a pic not the greatest but you can get the idea. Also the New Marine Aquarium by Mike Paletta has some info. The Reef Aquarium books by Sprung has more ideas. I'm in MacKenzie Towne if you want to have a look or check out some books send me a PM
http://members.shaw.ca/btooms/IMG_1956.JPG |
Brian thanks for the pic.
What I am referring to (not sure about Albert) is a bit different though. In your pic, you basically have a PVC support structure so that you can get a larger reef wall without needing as much rock. What I am referring to is drilling out the rock, and putting PVC inside the rocks, and connecting the PVC so that you can get rock to connect and be supported in ways you couldn't otherwise. There was a great example of some rockwork done on RC but I can't find it right now. WIth a PVC sub-structure as pictured above you want to be carefully to have good water flow through the substructure or you will get detrius build-up. |
Brian, what is this in your pic?
http://www.thereefgeek.com/personal/Temp/Orange.jpg http://www.thereefgeek/personal/temp/Orange.jpg |
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