Opinions Please... (i havnt heard enough yet)

[thincat]

He is correct you don't need one and water changes is the way to do it. I looked at your tank setup and all you have to do is remove the rock and use a ligher and just burn them (aiptasia) -0ff.

 

[Grug]

Thanks thin cat.. i might get the smaller ones with a generalised toasting of the rock.. will try and get as many with the aptasia x since ive paid for it now..

didnt turn up today .. crossing fingers for tomorrow.

 

[thincat]

I've used aiptasia x for a while now and I have found that you have to feed it slowly to the aip and let it eat the stuff. They normally implode. I then cover it again with it. Be sure to turn off anything that moves water.

 

[thincat]

I was looking at your pictures again and saw a floating hydometer. Be careful with it. I broke one like that a while back and it almost wiped me out.

 

[Grug]

Yeah.. not happy about the hydrometer there.. but will do for the moment and i will be getting a digital temp gauge and proper refractometer when i have the $$$ but for a cycling tank this will do.. i take it out when i work on it so i think its safe enuff..

just did my first tests and im confused for a 2 week old tank.

ammonia 0-0.25ppm
PH 8.2
Nitrite 0ppm
nitrate 0ppm..

it cant have finnished already???? mind you this is pre aptasia x spree so might do another round 24 hrs after adding all this ap x into my tank.

 

[dannyb]

You still have ammonia present, That will turn to Nitrite, Then that'll turn to Nitrate.

Once you have 0 Ammonia and 0 Nitrite and a little reading of Nitrate, Time for a decent water change then you can go adding fish, Slowly and carefully.

 

[Grug]

yeah.. not ready for fish yet.. still have to add more rock (mainly base but a little live.. ) so fully expecting to see another medium cycle to happen..

That aptasia x stuff works great.. although they seem to not like the outcome very much.. kinda feel sorry for the lil buggers.. but still .. gone now!

 

[mdaniel2882]

The good thing is there is nothing in the tank. Just get very liberal with some kalk paste and that should handle it. pepermint shrimp took care of my problem once it was cycled but yours is not. just mix up some kalkwasser like paste and spackle those bas___ds to the rocks.

 

[capj64]

the store has a beautiful 3ft tall reef setup that states it doesnt have a Proteine skimmer in it. (on the info sheet on the wall)

after nearly every LFS that "stocks" skimmers has told me not to bother without one.. i asked him how they had such a beautiful reef without one..

his reply " oh you dont need a skimmer.. especially in a 130L tank where water changes are only about 20-30 L a week to fortnight".. !!!

i asked him "why then does everyone tell me not to bother without one?"
he told me "its because LFS's love selling them"

I'm sorry, but... How many of us Americans read this with an aussie accent? lol

 

[Grug]

HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHA! just as long as you didnt use "the crocodile hunters" accent.. CRIKEY!

Were not all as excited as he was down here.

 

[capj64]

LOL, wish we had audio

 

[Grug]

hahahahaha.. be careful what you wish for..

 

[capj64]

I probably sound like a cross between a Louisiana Cajun and a West Virginia Hillbilly so yeah, good thing we don't have audio

 

[Jimbo7]

LOL.
Ah look at this tank! ain't she a beut! ah its just gooorjuss! ...its alright tank, your alright, youuur alright mate.

 

[cabezon]

lols.

on the aptasia front, I have one big one that I covered with Kalk paste. Emptied and moved the tank. Lost most of my coral and pow there he is poking out from under the GSP where he lives. Now I have a rock that looks like it has dozens of little ones making the side of the rock all hairy.

 

[Grug]

UPDATE TIME!
good and bad things.. the 3 aptasia that i dosed with aptasia x are back.. smaller and looking unwell.. but growing.. so when they get their fingers back and i can locate their disc's ill dose em again.

Got lots of base rock.. tank looks great.. also got a wavemaker/powerhead and getting good movement thru the body of water now..

Digital thermometer is scary.. i can see a 2 degree celsius movemet througout the day.. so should i aim for 24degrees to 26 or 23-25 degrees C????

(just remembered your mostly american... so
24 = 75.2 F
25 = 77
26 = 78.8
There you go.. oh and im running a 32 ish Gal tank with about 13 lb live rock and 22lb base rock and about 18lb of "coral sand")

Brown stuff growing on the glass.. looks like mould.. going to buy glass scraper/cleaner tomorrow..

once again.. CRIKEY! all this help.. its JUST what we need! thanks heaps "y'all"

 

[thincat]

As far as the Aiptasia, you should feed it to them slowly and you will get better luck. If you are keeping tropical animals you should shoot of a min. of 79 degrees and a max of 82 degrees.
The brown algae growing on your glass and sand are "Diatoms" and will go away as fast as they came. Get a clean up crew (CUC) to help you get through this faze of the cycle.

 

[Grug]

Im assuming a clean up crew is a group of animals that eat mess?

if so .. can i walk into my LFS and ask for a "clean up crew"

and im going to have to scrape it for now.. as im still about 2 weeks away from any form of livestock.. (except for the strange and wonderful things im finding on my live rock)

and ill give the aptasia another slower feed and see how that goes.

 

[thincat]

Yes, snails, hermit crabs, mini starfish etc. and your lfs should know what CUC stands for...

 

[Grug]

yeah.. the LFS was helpful there.. but didnt have anything that i was really interested in.. (huge pointy snails, hermits.. but didnt mention starfish)

got to do another aptasia x dose and then a water test and see how things are going.