5 gallon opae ulas journal

[eklikewhoa]

You could try and go to your closest LFS and pick up a piece of live rock, most have been sitting in water long enough to build benificial bacteria so it'll help with your cycle. Just make sure the rock stays damp.

[Ca Nguyen]

I've got extra live rocks in my reef. Will they make the brackish convertion?

[eklikewhoa]

Yeah they should

[R_sustaita]

Update?

[Ca Nguyen]

i contacted a few sellers. they said ammonia shouldn't be a problem for these guys. so i decided to do a 60% water change every 3 days instead. after 2 days, i notice a major decline in population. that was really heart breaking.

today, i decided to do my water change. once that fresh water was in, they all came out of the lava rocks. not a single dead one. all 30 were accounted for. the one that i've thought would've die didn't die. it was just molting that's why it had difficulty swimming and moving.

there is now 2 females with saddles. they are hardy indeed.

on other news, my ammonia seem to be at 1.5, considerably lower.

[R_sustaita]

Well good thing no deaths and everyone is heatly.

[R_sustaita]

so any updates man. pics vids?

[Ca Nguyen]

will get a video up toward sunday when i feed them powder spirulina.

i fed them a spec of hikari algae wafer today, and i counted 22 of the 30ish. either some die or in hiding real well.

[Ca Nguyen]

thought i'd share some of my other tanks with you guys.

[eklikewhoa]

Just some advice... get a AquaClear filter and mod it into a HOB fuge and have it on a reverse photo-period. That will solve your worries with any problems with water quality and be beneficial too.

Find some Chaeto/macro algae for sw. just a little bit will do.

[Ca Nguyen]

for the opae ula tank right? what should i put in it? spaghetti macro algae, live rock, and what?

Just some advice... get a AquaClear filter and mod it into a HOB fuge and have it on a reverse photo-period. That will solve your worries with any problems with water quality and be beneficial too.

Find some Chaeto/macro algae for sw. just a little bit will do.

[eklikewhoa]

Yeah them, I wouldn't bother with LR rubble unless you get the big AC filter, just a bit of the chaeto or spaghetti algae as you said and a cheap little light over it. every month of so tear it in half and throw some away.

I was gonna suggest you use some nice LiveRock for your tank cause that would have cycled your tank instantly and the color contrast would have been nice.

[Ca Nguyen]

if it's not too much trouble, can you explain how a refugium work? from what i think, the macro algae absorb all the excess nutrient right?

currently there is a tiny piece of live rock in my opae tank, and it did help cycle. right now i have a few small rocks in the nano reef, trying to get some good coraline algae on it before i transfer it over. i love the purple.

[Ca Nguyen]

actually, i've found an article on reef central explaining it. look like i'll have to set up a fuge for my nano reef too

[eklikewhoa]

if it's not too much trouble, can you explain how a refugium work? from what i think, the macro algae absorb all the excess nutrient right?

currently there is a tiny piece of live rock in my opae tank, and it did help cycle. right now i have a few small rocks in the nano reef, trying to get some good coraline algae on it before i transfer it over. i love the purple.

Here's a Link that takes you through the nitty gritty of it.

The fuge just houses macro algae which absorbs any nutrients in the water column just as a plant in a planted aquarium. This includes Nitrates/Ammonia/etc. and once and a while you throw some of the macro algae away to allow for the speedy growth spurt once again(like most living things they grow to their surroundings). Now another thing that most fail to acknowledge is that plants provide oxygen during the photo period, but at night they perspire co2 which in turn effects your pH and so on. So having a fuge on a reverse photo-period helps with all that even though it could be minimal it still helps.



Now with your idea of growing the coraline out to use in your brackish tank you might be in for some disappointment cause coraline requires good amounts of calcium/light/etc to maintain that color.