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  1. murph

    Can i keep a mandarin?

    If you really want a mandarin you will need to food train it and then have a tank where it will receive little compatition for food. Once the mandarin is taking frozen mysis, which is just a larger cousin of pods, you can place it in any size tank with appropriate tank mates. The usual pat...
  2. murph

    blue hippo vs. damsel

    simple answer is remove the damsel. Easier said than done I know. Take him to any pet store that carries SW fish and drop him off free of charge. Never seen an lfs that dos not have a tank of damsels.
  3. murph

    Salinity Hydrometer screwups

    For the short term and if you can find an LFS or hobbyist with a refractometer you can recalibrate the hydrometer by compareing the results between the two. I used a recalibrated hydrometer for months prior to purchaseing a refractometer. I checked with LFS results from refractometer every few...
  4. murph

    Out of ideas

    How much ambient light from the room is the tank receiving. If tank is in a room that gets a lot of light from outside source (windows) you probably need to cut that source of light off or at the vary least correspond your tank lights to daylight hours. Even if tank is not receiving direct...
  5. murph

    new tomini one spot of ich

    Hypo is probably your best bet and has been effective for me 100 percent. You will have to check at least twice a day to maintain proper low salinity and as was said treat all fish. its an obligate parsite and will stay in the DT as long as it can find a host. In some cases I have rounded out...
  6. murph

    Moving Long Distance

    if it were me I would sell the set up or trade everything in at the LFS for dry goods and or future equipment needs for your upgrade when you get settled in to your new location. This type situation is always a good excuse for a upgrade and with some experience under your belt those initial...
  7. murph

    Plumbing out MJ power head.

    Originally Posted by TX Reef You should get something a lot stronger than a MJ 1200 for any kind of closed loop..... Got any pics? Agreed; this is for supplemental circulation only and distribute flow better. Return is drilled 3 quarter with mag 9.5. I have extended my return out to the front...
  8. murph

    Plumbing out MJ power head.

    Been playing around with equipment ideas with a spar 75 gal tank I picked up. Thanks to signguy I believe it was that advised the use of a cheap dremel to drill out holes for plumbing. Worked well. no crack, no runs, no drips, thank god. Began playing around with circulation ideas. We all...
  9. murph

    Problems,problems..help

    do some water changes with a quality salt mix and stop adding purple up. Everything you need will be in a quality brand salt mix; reef crystals, red sea coral pro etc. With the proper water change routine additives really wont be necessary. For corline algae growth all you have to do is wait...
  10. murph

    HELP!Tank crash!

    Originally Posted by caribbeannie Had to laugh about your fish comment: how true! I'll do as you advise...may have to trade off the CBS though. I watched him carefully this morning: that guy is a chow hound! I'm wondering if he ate so much that the fish starved or intimidated them. He can scour...
  11. murph

    HELP!Tank crash!

    Originally Posted by caribbeannie There are no nitrates or nitrites.......I checked again! I'm not going to add any fish for about 6+ weeks, if ever. The store said they would take the CBS in a trade-in: don't want a trouble-maker, but he seems happy and healthy, more than I can say for the...
  12. murph

    Good Butterflies for a 90 gallon butterfly aquarium

    Having a certain amount of live rock and or age of the tank will not guarantee the dietary needs of any species. Period. Just as we acclimate our new arrivals to water conditions, lighting conditions, communities that include species they would never encounter in there indigenous waters etc...
  13. murph

    Good Butterflies for a 90 gallon butterfly aquarium

    Good grief guys the poor guy wants a butterfly themed tank and there is no reason he cant have it. This magical statistic of a hundred pounds of live rock and a hundred gallon tank that continually gets regurgitated around here is about as misleading as the watts per gallon rule with lighting...
  14. murph

    What is the best way to gut load brine shrimp?

    This is excellent supplement for small mandarins. Try to find a ball of cheato to add to the tank and just pore the whole bag in at night so the pods have a chance to establish prior to being hunted down. The cheato ball will soon become infested with pods. you should even be able to make out...
  15. murph

    *****

    IMO there is a pretty much tried and true method of bring down holding tank losses and disease problems for any lfs. The primary problem is parasites (ich). Infected fish are then venerable to secondary infections. Result is large holding tank losses and poor presentation of product. Sick...
  16. murph

    what type of heater is good?

    I don't trust any of them to work properly long term and in most cases short term. Depending on the size of the room the tank is in IMO its easier and safer (for the tank) to get a quality room heater with a thermostat and heat the room. If you keep the room temp around 76 your return pump...
  17. murph

    Studies on blue hippos

    good info beth; would also be interested in what qualifies as additional husbandry for this fish. dietary needs? Pristine water quality? I am able to maintain nitrates, phosphates etc at zero in my system. My corals thrive. I would assume this would be good enough for this fish also as long...
  18. murph

    What is the best way to gut load brine shrimp?

    Originally Posted by SJgsm I have a small mandarin (1 inch) that I am indeed trying to train. it is in a 30 gal. with 2 occ. clowns who aren't aggressive to her. So basically are you saying I should be feeding small amounts of live brine and frozen mysis shrimp together as much as possible...
  19. murph

    POLL: What will you be doing in regards to your tank today?

    Taring the whole thing down and selling it to some unknowing sucker. Like boats there are only two happy days with fish tanks. The day you get it and the day you get rid of it. . . . . . . . Just kidding; I figure that might make the worry worts feel a bit better, or perhaps worse.
  20. murph

    *****

    it probably already is not profitable for them and is considered a loss lead to get people into the stores to buy the dry goods that are marked up a hundred percent or more. This is also why they refuse to spend more money in regards to QT systems. Many LFS loss lead or sell at cost fish and or...
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