Tank Journal Archive

[jashay]

awesome bro :D

yea been into bonsai for around 6-7 years give or take, am starting to build up a few nice trees, might open up a topic in the off topic section to show some to the rest of the forum :D
your lucky to be in bris, there is some good nurseries down there, best would prob be australia bonsai grower out the south east side of bris, he has massive amounts of stock!
I got a lot of seedlings that I am growing from young to, you can control every aspect of it and i like that. even as tube stock is good, especially for wild shohin juni. that shore juni is different! never really been a big fan of the shore juni as the foliage is coarse and I am really only into shohin trees because of my bloody back, I moved on all my larger trees bar a couple when I did it.
I have been wanting to get into pottery too but would want to do it right with a kiln, I have seen some pots made without firing and it can be good, but mostly never as clean. are they your pots in the pics? that cascade pot is different!
your fig is different too, the only thing I would recommend if you dont mind, would be to lower the height of the main trunk and bring it down into the twin with the smaller. just a tad tall, but would airlayer the top as it looks like it has a fair bit of time in it!

 

[noah]

ok so been a few days... ive been moving all week and have had no internet till tuesday+. tank update is ive got some live rock rubble about 10-15 kg so far and put in about 15 kg of dry rock rubble to start seeding. also a dead prawn to kick of the ammonia cycle. and continuing to get my plumbing worked out so off to bunnies this arvo after work. still need a proper sump tank as at the moment im using an old 2 footer i had lying around will work for now for cycle but gonna have to get that sorted. weir works great silent syphon but thinking about back up now as ive reduced the 32 mm to to 20 and that means greater chance of blockage. anyways will do some pics when i get internet.
oh and yes jas they are my own pots . the cascade pot i decide to try a bamboo look pot hadn't see it before and thought id do something different. as for the fig i let it grow a bit wild and as you mentioned ive started pulling down the top branches to get the canopy lower. the smaller fig is a seperate fig i found growing in a crack in concrete and thought it may offset the long trunk of the main. id be up for an off topic if you get on going

 

[jashay]

sounds like ya tank is moving along well :D I still gotta build my sumps, but will be using your build as a referance as it is so similar it should work, I think I have it all worked out, just need to make the tanks, have the glass. it will be a double sump so gotta get it sorted. how high is your return pump pushing? at a guess 4-5 foot? is the 6500lph working well for this? I spose you have it tuned to suit.

will get an off topic thread going soon as I find my SD card for the camera. bloody kids!

 

[noah]

things are moving on ok now that i got me cycle going . picking up some live rock tomorrow . 5 ft head height and pump is a winner even have to trim down flow a little and the big bonus is that i dont need to have the pump in sump which keeps things cooler.
bonding pvc this morning as im happy where things are. geting internet turned on tomorrow hopfully so more pics and propper update than.

 

[noah]

Ok so an update
House move went well tank setup has been frustration on many levels but things have settled down now.What I look like in a cycle stage not so pretty

Pick up live rock and got plenty of snails and bristle worms some softies and a coupe of crabs I've seen come out at night only bad thing was apistasia and plenty of them. I've found a needle syringe with some vinagar melts them to the point that some fall off the rock and I can net em

Plumbing is not yet completely permanent and sump is just a temp as I've not yet made the final sump yet but will work for now

Also got my first micro algae from lfs for free ... Amazing a free product from a fish shop.Have it in net under light in main tank.
[Broken External Image]:http://i1107.photobucket.com/albums/h387/Rivertribe/658f8b71.jpg

Thats about it for now started dozing with calcium and alkalinity and salinity is spot on bit concerned about temps and thinking about chiller soon.
Ph good and small spike in ammonia but this is expected as I've been killing lots of apistasia
Still not sure weather to go bere bottom or CC

 

[MagicJ]

Looking good. Any reason why you are dosing calc and alk during the cycle?? What are you test results??

 

[jashay]

getting there bro!

I didn't realise you were setting it up under your house. do you get direct sun light on the tank? I can see that under the house is slatted but looks like ya get some sun? just curious as to how this would be with algae control.
bugger about the aiptasia, is that an Auriga butterfly in the tank thats on the right in that pic? if so when the tank has stabalised you could whip him in there and he should knock of any of the aiptasia that you cant get to or find. the bloody things can suck themselves down so little it is nearly impossible to see them. the butterfly though, should be able to find and get them. peppermint shrimp will also eat them I beleive.

if it gets to out of control there is meds/additives you can get that will do the job but be careful with this side of things, I would use it as a last resort as I am now very wary of dosing products. but thats me.

 

[noah]

Looking good. Any reason why you are dosing calc and alk during the cycle?? What are you test results??

Not truly dosing just added a little as it was only 60% nsw and the rest ro with Salt addition so I don't have alk and calcium test kits yet but I assume that it wouldnt hurt to add a little to bump it up a little .

I didn't realise you were setting it up under your house. do you get direct sun light on the tank

Ya we raising and restumping to build in underneath in about 2 months so tank is gonna gonna have to move. So ATM it's all temporary and really just getting in a good cycle. I'll move tank to the shed out back in a couple of months where it will stay for up to 6 more months b4 it moves to the new build downstairs maybe sooner hard to say.

Gets a little it of morning sunlight for about 1 hour. Too early in process to notice any algae. Water peramaters are under .25 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 0 nitrates, ph 8.2, salinity 26, temp 27.

Not to many apistasia left only very small ones but too early on cycle to risk shrimp would cost 20$ each from shop and any fish. Although I do have a bullrout in a freshy tank that I hear can survive fine in marine. So gonna try him in there for a few hours at a time.

 

[jashay]

bullrouts will survive salt water no problems. my brother caught one when he was fishing and it went through all the cycling stages of the marine setup. he put it in after about a week of cycling, tough as buggery they are. it didn't do to much even after the whole cycle, dont know if it was unhappy or of thats just what they did, was always virtical in the corner of the tank.

 

[noah]

Ya my bullrout don't do much just sit somewhere and wait in ambush mode. I've put I'm in a holding container in main salt tank he got real active for a few miniutes than settled down . I'll keep him in Salt for short periods of time and slowly increase his exposure to the salt water tank. Hopefully this will acclimatize him slowly. Maybe this is not the way to go as the back and forth may be more stressful but like you said he is a tough little bugger. I would be stoked if he takes to the marine as he is possibly my favorite fish I've had for almost 6months now.

 

[jashay]

the one we had was caught out of the mary river which is considered brackish but where it was caught would of been more like fresh water. my brother didn't do any acclimatizing, moreso because I wasnt there to make him do it, just went straight into salt water. BUT! personally I would do some acclimatisation.

I was talking to one of the blokes down as the LFS, he is an older fella and has a great knowledge base when it comes to fish and reef. he has told me the best way to acclimatise fish from fresh to salt is to do it over the course of a day. this is how a lot of the breeders do certain fish species like the mollies, they are considered freshwater but can be marine aswell, some breeders actually get them to salt water to breed, this supposedly helps in there colourations, aswell as growth rates. then once to size they acclimatize them back to freshwater over the course of a day, after that they send them on the way for sales.

 

[noah]

That make me feel like I got a good shot. I just hope he don't freak out due to the cycle conditions.
He was also cought out of the creek which I think is more fresh than brackish.

Will see how we go here's a pic.

 

[jashay]

keep us informed of how he goes, like I said they are tough buggers so he should be sweet. they are tough looking arent they. I am pretty sure they are also known as a fresh water stone fish.

as I said before we used one to help cycle the tank. he didn't skip a beat really.

 

[noah]

Ok so today after deciding to not go bare bottom but either black or white sub . Realized I need to prep for such a time. So moved all coral rubble into top sump and all the larger coral peices into bottom temp sump. Leaving only the 37kg of cured live rock in main. Filled both sumps up to max.

Had a horrible time with lots of overflowing and flavorful words.trying to get overflow and return to matchup.

Here's what it looks like now still not so pretty.

Think bullrout will be fine it's been 2 days back and forth for longer periods of time in salt. Think tomorrow will go in permantally.

Also pulled out return pump so it wouldn't heat up tank as I had a max temp of 28.1c way too high for my liking .
[Broken External Image]:http://i1107.photobucket.com/albums/h387/Rivertribe/29b41a8c.jpg

That's it for now.

 

[noah]

My water per are
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 10
Ph 8.2
Salinity 26

 

[MTG]

i had one of those fish. he is a type of stone fish, poisonous spinal fins as far as i was aware. do not put him in your system unless you are going predator. mine turned really aggressive

 

[noah]

Yup that was my plan to go predator. Lion, bullrout, eels, mabye mantis and perhaps a wrasse. I've heard o predator tanks even holding a couple of larger clowns with good success and as I discoveredin fresh water you can break all sorts of comparability rules if your a good observer of fish behaviors and temperament .

On a nother topic I've been cycling my tank for about 2 weeks now and my peramaters are lookin like the tank is cycled. Could this be possible so quickly. I did start with a bucket of cured live rock rubble and 40kg of some very decent cured live rock. Have heaps of live in the tank with little to no die off.
Did have a small ammonia spike and didn't even catch the nitrite spike and now have normal nitrate levels.

Anyways the build so far has been pretty good no real suprises and things seem to be moving in a good direction gonna go with my black substrate will keep costs down and will look good even if I have to weed it regularly.

 

[jashay]

i had one of those fish. he is a type of stone fish, poisonous spinal fins as far as i was aware. do not put him in your system unless you are going predator. mine turned really aggressive

yep, the bulrout is known as a freshwater stone fish, mostly found around estuaries and brackish type rivers. from what I remember anyways.

as for being poisonous I am not sure how strong they are as I had to handle the bulrout my brother had a fair bit. (dont ask why, he had a very bad setup at his shop, tank were getting broken left right and centre.).

other wise I didn't have any stings or the likes. the lionfish he had though...

 

[noah]

ok so sorry about poor quality images i got a killer camera but its just easier to take pics and upload via ipad. so untill i got something i wanna showoff it will have to do so my commentary will have to make up for poor imagery.

pic of top sump loaded with my cured live rock rubble.have now put this on a timer for 15 min every hour to cut down on heat transfer till i get me a chiller.

[Broken External Image]:http://i1107.photobucket.com/albums/h387/Rivertribe/b7d30803.jpg

the little trooper. stuggles with the high current a little as he would prefer to to expend much energy if he dont have to kinda sound like me.

lifted up light with dense foam to reduce heat from light. and have painted back of glass black.
[Broken External Image]:http://i1107.photobucket.com/albums/h387/Rivertribe/74ad6c61.jpg

my awesome spray can job. i knew spray painting the streets when i was a teen would come in useful at some point.

still not sure what these little fellas are called but they seem to be growing and multiplying and the one on the far left moved overnight about 10cm from further around the rock .... i think he was lonley.
[Broken External Image]:http://i1107.photobucket.com/albums/h387/Rivertribe/6e4084f6.jpg

also dont know what these are called but were receded for a few days after i moved out all the rubble from tank and created a bit of a debris storm but starting to come back out again. im assuming they are a little bleached if i understand the term correctly.

so things are stablising agin after rubble move and temps came down to 27C overnight and with a fan on top and light of and powerheads on timers and a couple of ice bricks if things get bad i sould beable to keep temps in a safe range.
Apistasia seem to be doing well despite my culling attempts and i keep finding babies poping up everywhere.
im thinking a pep shrimp may fix it bit as i feed my bullrout with live cherry shrimp he may see it as a fun challenge and sneek himself a $20 meal. i could quarantine him too while shrimp does its thing.

question at what point in its life and size does it spoore. apistasia not the shrimp.

 

[MTG]

off topic question how did you upload pictures via ipad?