Recent content by johng1

My tank is a little noisy AND I had a minor flood of a couple gallons about a week ago, so I've decided to drill the tank and install a bean animal setup. Since I've got to take everything out of the tank, what do I need to do on the sand bed? It varies, but on average it is probably 3 or 4...

Hey folks, About a week ago I got a tiger mantis shrimp. For the first couple days he hid out most of the time. I put a few snails in the fuge with him and he ignored those. Dropped in some ghost shrimp, don't know if he ate them or not. Yesterday I dropped a hermit crab in there and a...

I'm new too (my tank's only been up a little over 2 months also), but from what I've heard, HOB skimmers aren't as effective as the others. I'd look on craigslist and pick up a cheap tank to use as a sump and get one of these depending on how big your tank is: Amazon.com: Protein Skimmer...

I'm running an Eshoppe 100 in my sump. Since the water level in the sump changes a little, I notice that I have to keep it at a pretty consistent level to keep the skimmer dialed in. I just changed the layout a little in there and am making the water level quite a bit deeper so I'll have to...

Hey folks, My mantis is arriving Thursday morning by fedex. It's coming from Calif overnight to Lubbock, TX, so it shouldn't be in the packaging for too long. He's coming from bluezooaquatics and they recommend drip acclimation. This is my first mail order livestock so I'm a little nervous...

My crays had babies a couple of months ago and I kept the parents in with the babies. They were in a 20 gallon breeder tank. I didn't notice any of the babies getting eaten and ended up getting rid of nearly 100 of them. For me, I think the secret was keeping everyone fed so that there...

It's out. I just had it in there for a day or so to get the water super aerated. I learned the lesson about the crazy salt creep from the air stone. I had it in there for a while when I first set up the tank. LOL John

Tank's been moved to the other room (my son wanted to trade rooms -my office and his bedroom while we were doing the carpet). Tank's moving along with no problems. I also used the move as an excuse to redo the rock work and add some more. I'm guessing there is probably 80-90 pounds of rock in...

Ya know, he said something about his tank being down for a while. I bet that he had cycled, but his rock wasn't alive again. After I read Lord's comment I looked back at his pics and it looks like he has a decent amount of rock in there. probably just dead rock though. I'll tell him about...

Hey folks, A guy in the local club has lost most of his fish (a tomato clown, an angler, and a naso tang). His yellow tang is still kicking, so it's not a total loss. As near as we can figure, it's because he added all of these too fast and didn't let his tank catch up. He's running a 75g...

Since we're on this, are there any snails and hermits that I can put in with a puffer and a snow flake eel? I'm pretty sure the eel is going to eat my blue leg hermits that I have in there now. Would any of those bigger hermits be ok with the eel? John

You'll probably need that many once you have all of your other livestock in there. I'm kinda new to the hobby, so I might be wrong. I'm adding my clean up crew as I go. I started with about the same number that you have (with no fish) and am planning to add more as I add more fish. The way I...

Wow, he was a super devil fish! You should have stuck him in a separate tank and charged other reefers in the neighborhood "protection" money. hahaha Fish mafia! John

Glad to see you found him a place. I was going to suggest putting him in a fuge if you have one. I put a fuge in my sump in the hopes of finding a mantis shrimp eventually. Other than the mantis being cool, I also have the option to threaten bad fish with banishment to the netherworld! LOL...

Got a whole pile of the stuff: haha John