lotofish

See my latest video of the Corynactus

My Temperate Marine tank has been running for 9 months so I thought it a good idea to do an update. What better way to do an update than with pictures. As they say a picture is worth a thousand words.

The next Auckland Fishkeepers Association meeting as follows: When: 31st May 2014 Times: Start time - 12pm Speaker presents - 12:15pm to 1pm Light lunch - 1:15pm to 2pm Social - 2pm to 4pm Where: 22 Ganymede Place, Half Moon Bay, Auckland Presentation Topic: "Disease Management" Basic understanding of diseases Causes Treatment Managing disease Presenter - Raymond Klein Cost: AFA Paid Club Members - Free Guests - $5 or join for $20 Please RSVP by private message before 26th May so we can prepare seating and food Please come and join us for an informative social afternoon and a tour of my fish room :f77: :f77: :f77: :f77: :f77: :f77: :f77: :f77: :f77: :f77: :f77: :f77: :f77:

Oh I know what moves my jewels and I am pretty sure I know what is moving the ones in my tank too :slfg:

I have been keeping an eye or two on a colony of pink Jewels in my local temperate marine aquarium. I noticed something unusual a couple of days after I placed them in the tank. First I saw a conical tube extending out between some of the corallimorphs which had a small opening at the top. Out of curiosity I touched it with my feeding tube and it retreated. Not only did the tube retreat but a whole bunch of the corallimorphs subsided too. The corallimorphs themselves were still open and extended but what ever they were on moved. For 2 weeks I continued to observe this and noticed that the opening would remain extended and open for long periods of time. After chatting to LA and doing some of my own research I have reason to believe that this camouflaged creature is a type of tunicate hiding under the pink corallimorphs. I noticed from the pictures I took over the weekend that it has two openings/siphons, one branchial siphon and one atrial siphon. Love to here some opinions.

I am thinking of adding sand to the tank now but not sure if it should be deep or shallow and what grain size. I like the look of the 0.2mm - 1mm aragonite and I am favouring a shallow sand bed. The tank is running well so I do not think I need the extra bio filtration from a deep sand bed. Question is how shallow is shallow? 20mm maybe?

Received some more stock over the last 2 weeks and have re-arranged things to cater for the new rocks. Also have a double helix fan worm, thanks LA. I have removed most of the brown sea weed as it started to take over some of the rocks so you could not see the jewels. After calibrationg my salinity probe it turns out that the SG did not drop as I thought it did. SG=34.7 :slfg:

Thought I would share the test results from the last month while the aquarium has been cycling Looks like the cycling process is near complete. The problem I have now is that the salinity has taken a sharp drop after a 40% water change with NSW.

the more the merrier :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

Any to spare

These are from my Temperate Marine tank. I need some help identifying these sea weed and algae and deciding if I should remove it or allow it to grow. Picture A - this one has grown more than 4 times in size in the last 3 weeks. Picture B - this one has doubled in size in the last 3 weeks Picture C - this looks like green hair algae and there are patches of it on half the corallimorphs rocks Picture D - This looks like strap weed

Did not like the flavour :sick:

More pictures of the Corallimorphs.

Finally after 4 weeks and some fine tuning the Curve 7 skimmer is running in nicely so it is time to build a proper stand for it out of acrylic. Step 1 - Cut the acrylic pieces from some left over 10mm black acrylic Step 2 - Make the legs by glueing 2 pieces together at right angles. Step 3 - Glue the legs onto the base Step 4 - Done

binu you need trace elements (copper, zinc, boron, molybdenum, iron, manganese and magnesium), Magnesium Sulphate, Potassium Sulphate and Potassium Nitrate. You will need to do some research about dosing your specific tank.

This is my 500 litre planted aquarium I set up some 12 months ago with all the extra plants I had in order to test my LED lights (two Key K4-80-D units) I can definitely say they have been a success and as you can see I have an extensive jungle that needs a trim. During the 12 months I have had to build a frame to suspend and raise the lights as they were too bright. I have also reduced the peek intensity to 80% across all channels. No special substrate used but I have pushed fertiliser sticks into the gravel for the heavily rooted plants. I dose with a DIY fertiliser mix 3 times a week and I dose CO2 at 2-3 bubbles per second. Fish include: 3 largish Angelfish, 4 SAE's, 5 dwarf chain loach 2 Bristlenose 5 neon tetra 12 rummy nose tetra 5 red lione rasbora 8 emerald eye rasbora 6 cherry barbs 3 otocinclus Plants include: Barclaya longifolia Cardamine lyrata Cryptocoryne undulata Echinodorus amazonicus Heteranthera zosterifolia Hydrocotyle verticillata Hygrophila corymbosa stricta Hygrophila corymbosa v. 'Angustifolia' Hygrophila dafformis Hygrophila polysperma Hygrophila polysperma 'Rosanervig' Limnophila sessiliflora Ludwigia arcuata Microsorium pteropus Microsorum pteropus Narrow Microsorum pteropus 'Windeløv' Rotala macrandra Rotala rotundifolia Rotala sp "Colorata" Sagittaria subulata And some other I can't remember as the moment Under the hood Canister filter is plumbed into RX low density fittings and ball valves so I can redirect some of the water through an in-line atomizer connected to the CO2 regulator. Regulator solenoid is connected to a timer which switches it on for 8 hours a day. Using a Sodastream cylinder and adapter to supply the CO2. Key LED-80-D Controlers.

I loved the messy jungle look from the first set up :cophot:

Looks great :cophot:

30 January 2014 Today 99% of the little Corallimorphs are extended and seem to like the changes I made in flow rate and flow direction. They have had a target feed today using the feeding tube. click on the link below to watch the video.

Diary of the first 6 weeks..... After I had completed the basic build and got the systems running it was time to be patient, allow equipment to run in and the tank to cycle. During the first 3 weeks I noticed the ammonia increase to 0.50 and the nitrites increased to 0.25 during the second week. Within the third week Nitrates increased to 5.0, nitrites decreased slightly and ammonia kind of stayed the same. After 3 weeks things were going well and then it happened. After a long day at work I came home to find a pool of water on the floor, not a big one, probably only 1 litre. After 30 minutes of searching I found a problem, a leak from one of the bulk heads on the tank but that was very small and was dripping into the sump. Well that's a benefit of having such a large sump but still something I need to fix. So if that was not leaking onto the floor then it must be the sump. After another 15 minutes I found it. A small leak between the back glass and the right side. Bother I should have resealed the sides of the sump :oops: :oops: Switch everything off in the sump, drain the sump, remove everything, clean with fresh water and dry thoroughly. At least there was no leak from the bottom, touch wood. Cut all the old silicone out from the 4 corners, cleaned with clinical alcohol and re-sealed. 3 days of curing and then a rinse out. Filled the sump on the 4th day with NSW. All systems are a go ....... phew. Oh and I did tighten the leaky bulk head. Now I had to start again although the coral rock was cycling away in a 250 litre plastic tank so that may help some. Next problem is that I had to be ready for some corallimorphs arriving in less than 2 weeks and the tank had not properly cycled yet. :shock: To try and speed things up I placed some volcanic rock from Musick Point in the sump that I collected below low tide and I was doing 10% water changes every 3 days. After a week I noticed a substantial decline in the nitrites and ammonia, both almost 0 and I measured phosphates which was around 0.03. Nitrates were between 0 and 5.0. The day arrived and I received the corallimorphs. Before placing them in the tank I did a 50% water change. I also made sure I had a backup supply of 400 litres of NSW just in case. A week later and my new inhabitants are doing ok including the 20 cats eye snails and 5 glass shrimp. I am testing the water every 2 days and keep up with regular water changes. Any sign of a problem and I hope the 400 litres of NSW will resolve it. See link to a quick video of the tank

Love my new Aulonocara

Time for aquascaping with coral rock Tools; hacksaw, wood chisel, hammer and reef safe epoxy I used the hacksaw to cut the bottom of pieces so they would stand safely in the aquarium. In some cases a epoxied small pieces to the bottom to increase stability. I used the chisel to shape the coral rock so that several pieces could fit together and look like one larger piece. Finally I can get this aquarium running. Equipment : Return Pump - Jebao DC-6000 Chiller - Resun CL-650 Chiller pump - Jebao DC-3000 Protein Skimmer - Bubble Magus Curve 7 Wave pumps - Jebao WP-40 and WP-25 Lights - 2 x Green Element MHX24 LED with timers Salinity & pH monitor - Water Quality Instrument 2771 Aquarium and sump was filled with natural salt water collected 1 hour after high tide from Bucklands Beach. Just over 500 litres was pumped in through a pre-filter packed with Synfil water polisher. Sea water measurements were as follows Salinity - 34.4 ppt or 1.026 sg pH - 7.97 Phosphates PO4 - 0.03 to 0.1 ppm Nitrite NO2 - 0 ppm Nitrate NO3 - 0 ppm

First things first......... Tank you livingart and coldmarineguy for the inspiration and support in this build. Time to shut down the planted aquarium and removed all the freshwater inhabitants. Next to plan the build: Need a sump, the bigger the better. Overflow system Plumbing Equipment e.g. pumps, protein skimmer, lights and chiller Coral rock Arogonite / coral sand New testing kits Found a very cheap 320 litre tank with a cracked bottom some time ago and thought it would be great for a sump on my 660 litre aquarium. After measuring it again I found it would just fit with 2mm to spare on each end under my 350 litre cold water marine aquarium, perfect I repaired the bottom with 6mm glass pieces cut to fit the full area of the bottom, left it to cure for 5 days and then filled it and left it standing for a week. No leaks :thup: After emptying the tank I removed the centre brace to improve access into the sump. Then I cut 4 pieces of 10mm acrylic for the baffles and proceeded to glue them in with aquarium safe silicone glue. I them painted the stand while the glue was setting and allowed paint and glue to dry for 24 hours Next was hole drilling time for the sump and the aquarium....... I drilled holes in the sump for the return plumbing and the drain plumbing and the same for the aquarium. Now the large holes in the top of the stand so I can fit the bulk heads Next with the help of my son we move the sump into place Plumbing time.... Bulk heads and durso standpipes (40mm fittings). These are installed at different heights so the lower one takes most the overflow water and the higher one takes the leftover and acts as a backup. Underside drain pipes with ball valves (40mm fittings) Return plumbing, Jebao DC6000 pump with 32mm tee split into two 20mm lines for both ends of the aquarium. Connected to bulk heads, swing check valves and ball valves Lastly black spiral hose up to the return nozzles. The sump filter stack experiment Other than the coral rock I wanted to create a large biological filtration area in the sump and an easy to maintain mechanical filter. I designed a stacking system that allowed me to use bio balls, Poret foam and Synfil water polisher. In order to increase the biological area and make efficient use of the foam I made spacers out of 4mm acrylic to keep the foam pieces apart. I filled the gaps in between the foam with bio balls. Bio balls 45ppi Poret foam Acrylic spacer (60mm high) Bio balls 20ppi foam Spacer Bio Balls Synfil water polisher 10ppi foam Now the overflow box :think: :think: :think: Need 4mm black acrylic, sharp power saw blade, router with 45 degree bit and a bending machine. Only thing I do not have is acrylic bending machine so I had to make that with the help of Google. First to cut a piece of acrylic 600mm long 480mm high to make a 300 x 150 box to cover the Durso standpipes. Next to cut the slots for the overflow combs but first I had to make a jig to hold the pies upright while I cut the slots. Then to cut a groove line for the bend Now to bend the acrylic Mechanics of the bending machine was easy to make but the electrics was another story as I was not able to find the correct gauge Nicrome wire for the length of the machine and voltage. I did not want to spend $280 on a variac transformer and my home made variable voltage device kept on over heating the thin nicrome wire I had. Time for plan B, a temporary fix so I could bend this one piece. I used an old aquarium heater and stripped out the nicrome wire. I then shortened the coil of nicrome wire until it glowed a nice red when power was applied. Because the coil expanded significantly when it was hot I had to insulated the area between the wood so it did not burn the wood or have anything conductive against the coil. I glued strips of glass into the gap and set up the machine. It worked :-D :happy1: :happy1: Lastly glue the overflow box into the aquarium to cover the standpipes.

Ah I remember that build! It has been a long time since I have updated this post so here is a quick update. RO/DI unit - arrived today, very excited :dnc1: :happy1: :happy2: 6 stage deluxe unit from Bulk Reef Supplies Features: Oil-filled Pressure Gauge Membrane Flush Kit HM Digital Deluxe Dual Inline TDS (total dissolved solids) Meter Float Valve Filter Monitor with Volumizer Dual Deionization (DI) Cartridges 6 Stages of filtration are: Purtrex 5 Micron Sediment Filter MATRIKX CTO 5 Micron Carbon Block MATRIKX CTO 0.6 Micron Carbon Block 75 GPD Dow Filmtec Membrane Dual DI Refillable Cartridge Thanks to inorganics I have the basis of a 350L sump. A good scrub and repairs to the bottom crack will see it right. 3 Bags of coral rock and one very nice find

So far the plants are growing very well. the E. osiris is producing redder leaves and the E. "kleiner bar" is producing new orange leaves whereas before they were only green new leaves. This is a good sign as the E. "kleiner bar" is a hybrid from E. osiris and E. uraguayensis. I am waiting to see what the E. amazonicus does after the trimming.