40 Gallon Breeder Project

[dwilliams87]

He's occasionally swimming out now. But not 6" away from the box and only a few seconds at a time.

 

[Volitans67]

Hope he starts venturing out more for ya!

 

[Dowtish]

You might need to add a few chromis or something that will swim in the open water of the tank to make this lil guy believe it is okay to come out.

 

[dwilliams87]

Dowtish - Thats actually what I was thinking. I thought about buying the four at my LFS down here. They are pretty!

 

[poolkeeper1]

Dowtish - Thats actually what I was thinking. I thought about buying the four at my LFS down here. They are pretty!

Just curious where is there a Fish store down there ? I was just by Greg's house on Sunday and would have stopped in if i knew. Are you getting everything back under control now ? Sorry i have not chimed in as was busy setting up another one! And a little company never hurts to make fish at home....
Bill

 

[greg0385]

Its in columbia on highland drive just off james campbell. Just down the hill from the red light where the verizon store is at.

 

[poolkeeper1]

Its in columbia on highland drive just off james campbell. Just down the hill from the red light where the verizon store is at.

OK I didn't know that store kept much saltwater fish, last time i was there he didn't have very much selection and tanks looked pretty unkept..
Bill

 

[lanaandjim]

Special thanks to lanaandjim for coming over Friday and helping me hand pick algae out of the tank. I cut my hand really deep last week and was a little concerned about infection with a larger opened wound. So they came over and helped me. Its been a fight, but its gradually looking better.

No problem. We had a good time. Thank you for the piece of coral. It looks great.

 

[dwilliams87]

I have an extra large CPR HOB Refugium laying around the house and I think I want to add it to my 40. My plan is to hang it on the front of my sump and make it a displayed refugium with several different macros. This should not only help me with my algae isue but also help to stabalize my pH a little better. I have a few questions though that I would like some opinions on.

1) My total system volume is 55 gallons inlcuding the sump, the CPR is a total of about 5 gallons. Will I need to allow the refugium to go through a cycle on it's own before connecting it to my system?

2) What substrate would you do? Live sand or miracle mud? I have live sand in the one on my 20 gallon and have no complaints, but was curious as to the added benefits of the miracle mud.

3) What, besides chaetomorphia, would you consider to be a "for sure" macro for a refugium?

 

[Dowtish]

Adding the fuge and whatever you put in it will not cause any type of cycle. For the other questions, I would say that something that small you really arent going to get much benefit from mud or sand or macros for that matter when it comes to nutrient reduction. But it mat help you ph and will be a great place for pods and other diversity of life to thrive which is always good.

 

[dwilliams87]

Well, my wife wants a mandarin. It's the only fish she ever shows interest in at the fish stores. So, I'm planning on getting her one. How do you know when the pod population is good enough to support one? Also, do you dump the pods in the sump/refugium or the display? How many bottles would you get to help the time frame along?

 

[Dowtish]

I would let the fuge be set up for at least 3-4 weeks, just add one bottle of pods, but they need some chaeto and maybe some sort of substrate to be happy and breed. They will make it from the fuge to the tank.

 

[jmann124]

If possible, find one that is eating prepared foods as well. My son got one that was eating frozen brine shrimp. It was the first fish he added. So while his pods were getting established, he just fed the cubes.

 

[schooleyosis]

I got plenty of chaeto for ya if ya need any. Give ya an excuse to come see the tank as well... And have a beer!

 

[dwilliams87]

Tell me when! Im all about a beer!

 

[schooleyosis]

Sunday afternoon or Monday I should be home.

 

[dwilliams87]

I'll see if I can't make that work.

 

[dwilliams87]

Because of the acans in the tank, I want to add some t5's the the light setup. I will be removing the Metal Halide tonight and adding a 4 bulb 24" T5 fixture in its place. So the new light rig will be the 4 t5's, 36 blue LED's and 24 white LED's.

 

[Dowtish]

I'll see if I can't make that work.

If you make that work, you can swing by obviously for the CAR

 

[dwilliams87]

Yeah, I was thinking that. Lol