90g up and Running

[rykna]

Hi all. I've been out of the loop since the mycobacterium disaster in my 38g. I had to tear down the 38g and sterilize everything. I boiled all rocks with out corals for 45 minutes each and bleach the LS. I lost most of my coral due to stress; the most painful losses were my two favorites~ the two electric flame scallops, and my gorgornians . The only coral that survived are my zoos, my cup coral, and strangely enough, my pipe organs.
After much consideration I decided to set up my favorite tank, my 90. It's been cycling for a month now. It just started growing maiden hair.
Currently I have 200lbs of LS and 45-55 lbs of LR. To speed up the cycling I was able to use LS and LR from storage that was not contaminated by the mycobacterium .I'm using my outer orbit MH(needs actinic lights replaced), and my T-5 to make up for the actinic missing in the outer orbit.
I anticipate that the tank will be ready by September. The 90g will then become a pony tank. Yes, a Dwarf Seahorse tank. I have many projects to complete over the next coming months.
~building 3-4 PVC towers of LR with several different levels. These towers will allow me to position my coral according to their lighting needs. Most of these towers will be home to gorgonians(the main hitching posts). The rest will house my zoos, and possibly the cup corals. The other benefit of the towers is keeping the sand bed open so that the ponies will have 100% access to pods, I will have 100% viewing of the substrate, and no dead spots.
~I am also exploring ways to incorporate in tank bbs breeding tubes. So far this is the only unit I found in stores.

After reviewing all the tanks I have set up I thinking I might have to start assigning numbers/names to them to keep tract of all the different experiences, and the results there of.
So here's to tank....um..ah...hmmm.....
PonyOcean 6/09,90g

~Rykna

 

[teresaq]

Wow, this will be interesting. How are you going to control hydroids??
Are you going to set up a feeding station?? thats a huge tank for such tiny horses.
T

 

[rykna]

The "maiden hair" stage is in full bloom now, so any body have hungry snails? I wish there was a market for the stringy stuff.
The tank should be due for another spike soon, the pipe organs aren't looking very happy. They haven't fully opened in two days. I am guessing I'll be mixing saltwater tomorrow. Except for the two large hermit crabs the 90g is very empty.
One big ticket item I purchased(which I've been putting off for far to long) was the complete master test kit, including KH, calcium, etc. I found one HUGE surprise when I tested the PH in my 90g. It was only 7!

It took all day to slowly raise it up to 8.2. I almost used up all the "PH up" powder! I didn't anticipate having to use so much!
Does any one have info about breeding bbs in the DT?
~Rykna

 

[teresaq]

I have seen a few posts about it, and that it isnt recommended because the dirty water from hatching can get into the tank.
Do you use decapped brine??

 

[rykna]

Originally Posted by TeresaQ
http:///forum/post/3071186
Wow, this will be interesting. How are you going to control hydroids??
Are you going to set up a feeding station?? thats a huge tank for such tiny horses.
T
Well, for starters, I broke my "piggy bank" open and got a real test kit, it includes every basic test there is. No more test strips.I confess that I have never thought test kits were a must have, but I do now, especially now that I know that chemical levels in the tank, even the smallest fluctuations, can mean the difference between no hydroids V.S` a hydroid invasion. Before I never felt that having the liquid test chem set was an absolute, not any more.
To further combat water quality, and be able to keep tract of my tiny herd, I am going to build hitching post towers made of PVC. They will look kind of like a christmas tree. Ech level of LR will be attached to the PVC making a "reef ledge". This will allow me to grow gorgornian hitching posts at each level. This also gives me multiple lighting levels to chose from for my corals, most of them will be zoos. The other benefit of these towers is that the rest of the substrate will be void of rock, so no dead spots, and it will make locating all my ponies easier, and also allow 100% access to pods.
As for food, I am working on developing in tank hatcheries. I like the one I found above, but I am worried that it will release the newly hatched brine before I have time to gut load them. I am also thinking, along with the hatchery, to breed BBS in the DT possibly live mysis too.
I talked to the place were I order my ponies from. They were confident that housing ponies in the 90g was fine. The one thing they commented on was the importance of feeding at least twice a day. My current idea is, first thing in the morning, get coffee going, turn off pumps and feed bbs, let the ponies graze for at least 20-30 minutes before turning the pumps back on. I might consider saving some bbs from the morning batch to feed at lunch time, and then feed the tank in the same way at night, minus the coffee

.
I have been researching feeding stations. On idea I like is the upside down gold fish bowl used for new born baby seahorse fry that can't hitch. Fill it with bbs instead. Or perhaps use a light source at meal times to draw the bbs in.
I will also try feeding them a new type of flash frozen gut loaded cyclopeeze I found. Everything in my tank loves it. Especially the gorgs and the cup corals.
Any ideas or suggestions would be much appreciated

~Rykna

 

[teresaq]

not sure about the intank bbs hatchery, but I was thinking with such a big tank, that a feeding area with a light may be a must.
hook a light to the side of the tank. turn on light, feed the bbs. The bbs will be drawn to the light. Have hitches all around the light source.
T

 

[rykna]

Originally Posted by TeresaQ
http:///forum/post/3071218
not sure about the intank bbs hatchery, but I was thinking with such a big tank, that a feeding area with a light may be a must.
hook a light to the side of the tank. turn on light, feed the bbs. The bbs will be drawn to the light. Have hitches all around the light source.
T
Thank you Teresa, I think that would be one of the best and easiest choices. I have a small submersible crystal light that I think wold work just fine for that. Maybe even setting up two or even three feeding areas?
~Rykna

 

[rykna]

I am still at a loss to understand the use of test kits. In all the years of building, cycling, and keeping tanks. I have never chemically(w/ number result) witnessed a tank cycle. By sight and smell I can tell with in a 80% certainty what stage the tank is in, describe the phase, and identify the problems if any are present.
But when I use the test kit I get near perfect levels across the board. After a month of cycling the 90g I have witnessed the red algae phase 1 and the maiden hair phase 2. I just took tank levels and here are the results:
6-25-2009
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 0ppm
PH: 8.2
KH: 20 drops/ 20dKH/ 358 ppmKH
Phosphate: 0ppm
Calcium: 35 drops/ 700ppm
Salinity: 1.025-.026
Temp: 78.3
The only thing that has changed since 31 days have passed in the salinity and the temp.
Salinity then: 1.022 Salinity now: 1.025-.026(top off needed)
Temp then: 74.0 Temp now: 78.3(added MH lights)
No spikes,no changes. I have two big hermit crabs that I feed every day, and I feed phyto feast every other day to all the corals. I did use some LS from storage, but still some cycling should occur. The only signs of cycling I have witnessed is the visual changing of the tank environment. Red algae to maiden hair, sand bed goes through same cycles and then clears into a beautiful golden color and I can see hundreds of pods emerging from the sand bed going about they daily cleaning routines.
I certainly can't complain, but I would feel a lot better if I could see the changes recorded by the test kits results.
~Rykna

 

[teresaq]

when you started, did you use dead rock and dead sand??
if so, did you use a dead shrimp or other source of ammonia.
Spounds like you are cycled, especially if you have crabs in there.
You arent planning on leaving them are you??

 

[rykna]

Originally Posted by TeresaQ
http:///forum/post/3071884
when you started, did you use dead rock and dead sand??
if so, did you use a dead shrimp or other source of ammonia.
Spounds like you are cycled, especially if you have crabs in there.
You arent planning on leaving them are you??
Everything that I am using, excluding the sand I added when I transferred everything to the 90g has be part of the 55g I started last September(I transferred everything from the 55g to the 38g). The only big change is that when I had the mycobacterium in the 38g I boiled all the LR with out coral frags on them for 45 minutes each(which was the curing instructions I got from Dan and Abby).
Hmm, I wonder if it had to do with my leaving the tank fallow. Dan said to basically set up the new tank, rinse the sand, don't bother with the dechlorinator, keep the salinity low( 1.019), wait for 2-3 weeks, and then set the tank up at normal levels. He said to do big water changes to keep the tank levels from spiking too high, which I did. Silly me, I bet that is why I haven't seen any level changes. There would have been tons of dead pods and who knows what else. I just remembered that I also added a small bottle of cycle booster, don't remember which kind, but I bet that is why the tank cycled so quickly.
And no, I am definitely not keeping the crabs. They already got kicked out of my friend's tank due to their size! I happy to house them to keep the tank clean until I get ready to order the ponies. Once the ponies are ordered I will switch over to narsisus snails. Then I will have to find them a new home. It's kinda a shame, they are very healthy, beautiful crabs too.
Is there any other reason I keep missing the level changes? This is not the first tank to cycle with out any signs of level changes. Most of the tanks I have set up have cycled with out any tests reporting water quality changes. This is why I gave up buying the test kits in the first place.
~Rykna

 

[rykna]

Originally Posted by TeresaQ
http:///forum/post/3071201
I have seen a few posts about it, and that it isnt recommended because the dirty water from hatching can get into the tank.
Do you use decapped brine??
Yes I do. This is the kind I like:

I hatched the non-decapped just to see the difference. It was really bad. I'd say only half of the eggs actually hatched, and the waste left over from the egg shells and unhatched eggs covered the bottom of the container with a gray-brown sludge.
~Rykna