Back in the game! RSR 250!

[Flameback Pair]

That's impressive for Petco - good looking fish you got there!

@Sink_or_Swim @NanoSteam speaking of Petco not being so great, you should hear what I learned about their filtration first hand. I heard it sucked but wanted to find out for myself. Well I was hanging around their saltwater section and waited until no one was in sight. I lifted the flap door up on the bottom of the middle column of display tanks and all that was there was a simple sump about 40 gallons with several drains coming in. And a dinky little skimmer sitting in the middle. The body was only about 3 inches in diameter and about 16 inches tall. Talk about a shock. That skimmer could probably only handle a bioload for a tank up to 50 gallons heavily stocked. And with a total display tank volume of several hundred gallons !!! I imagine those fish were literally swimming in a sea of nitrate.

 

[Flameback Pair]

@NanoSteam have you checked out Tropic Eden sand?

 

[NanoSteam]

@Sink_or_Swim @NanoSteam speaking of Petco not being so great, you should hear what I learned about their filtration first hand. I heard it sucked but wanted to find out for myself. Well I was hanging around their saltwater section and waited until no one was in sight. I lifted the flap door up on the bottom of the middle column of display tanks and all that was there was a simple sump about 40 gallons with several drains coming in. And a dinky little skimmer sitting in the middle. The body was only about 3 inches in diameter and about 16 inches tall. Talk about a shock. That skimmer could probably only handle a bioload for a tank up to 50 gallons heavily stocked. And with a total display tank volume of several hundred gallons !!! I imagine those fish were literally swimming in a sea of nitrate.

Oh I don't doubt it, every Petco with the exception of this new one I found has extremely dirty tanks. I'm wondering if they just stuck one of those old Coralife skimmers in there that they sell. Thankfully the 4 fish I purchased from my local store have all been doing great so far, no signs of illness.

@NanoSteam have you checked out Tropic Eden sand?

I haven't heard of it, Any good?

 

[Flameback Pair]

I haven't heard of it, Any good?

@NanoSteam I believe Premium Aquatics sells it. Really great stuff. Unusual grain shapes.

 

[Sink_or_Swim]

@NanoSteam I believe Premium Aquatics sells it. Really great stuff. Unusual grain shapes.

I ran across the Tropic Eden when researching sand - it looks really cool!

 

[Sink_or_Swim]

@Sink_or_Swim @NanoSteam speaking of Petco not being so great, you should hear what I learned about their filtration first hand. I heard it sucked but wanted to find out for myself. Well I was hanging around their saltwater section and waited until no one was in sight. I lifted the flap door up on the bottom of the middle column of display tanks and all that was there was a simple sump about 40 gallons with several drains coming in. And a dinky little skimmer sitting in the middle. The body was only about 3 inches in diameter and about 16 inches tall. Talk about a shock. That skimmer could probably only handle a bioload for a tank up to 50 gallons heavily stocked. And with a total display tank volume of several hundred gallons !!! I imagine those fish were literally swimming in a sea of nitrate.

Yuck! No bueno, poor fish.

 

[Flameback Pair]

Yuck! No bueno, poor fish.

@Sink_or_Swim yes you take those fish out of poor water parameters and put them in good, they get a big positive rebound and immediately start getting healthy. Your fish will thank you !!!

 

[NanoSteam]

Well... I did what I was trying to refrain from doing and that's ordering corals online during the holidays. After spending every day for 2 weeks making a new shopping cart I finally caved in and ordered a few things from Cultivated Reef. Supposed to be delivered Thursday 12/30. Fingers crossed there are no delays or issues. ;Nailbiting

Ordered:
-Bali Green Slimer
-ORA Green Birdsnest
-ORA Bird of Paradise
-WWC Purple Monster Zoa's
-Tyree Pot of Gold Favia

SPS is new to me, in my many years of reefing I haven't bothered, so starting off with the easy stuff. Also ordered a frag rack to use to light acclimate them.

 

[Sink_or_Swim]

@Sink_or_Swim yes you take those fish out of poor water parameters and put them in good, they get a big positive rebound and immediately start getting healthy. Your fish will thank you !!!

Makes me want to go scout the local Petco and Petsmart for fish to rescue... though I do prefer to support my LFS. Maybe a little of both.

 

[Sink_or_Swim]

Well... I did what I was trying to refrain from doing and that's ordering corals online during the holidays. After spending every day for 2 weeks making a new shopping cart I finally caved in and ordered a few things from Cultivated Reef. Supposed to be delivered Thursday 12/30. Fingers crossed there are no delays or issues. ;Nailbiting

Ordered:
-Bali Green Slimer
-ORA Green Birdsnest
-ORA Bird of Paradise
-WWC Purple Monster Zoa's
-Tyree Pot of Gold Favia

SPS is new to me, in my many years of reefing I haven't bothered, so starting off with the easy stuff. Also ordered a frag rack to use to light acclimate them.

Wishing you lots of luck!

 

[ffmurray]

My Clearviewlids Tsunami lid arrived today, very nice fit, some manufacturing shavings stuck on all the edges I had to pick out but no complaints, it's a sleek seamless cover and the EZ lids offering was very quick from ordering to arrival.

All the tank inhabitants are doing very well so far, nothing to report. Surprisingly no sign of diatoms anywhere so far. I usually have something on the sand bed by now.

How do you like that lid? I’m setting up a RSR250

 

[NanoSteam]

How do you like that lid? I’m setting up a RSR250

I like it, 3.5 months later it's still perfect. My only two grips are it's hard to keep the acrylic clean without scratching it since it get's dirty quick. I also wish the feed door had some sort of acrylic or plastic hinge to it, my clumsy self have dropped it into the tank a few times now.

 

[ffmurray]

Well got tired of dosing nitrates by hand, added it to the doser at 2ml a day to maintain 2.5ppm.

took some random photos too testing out the orphek iPhone filter lenses. macro lens is pretty fun.

That’s awesome, just ordered the lenses!

 

[ffmurray]

I like it, 3.5 months later it's still perfect. My only two grips are it's hard to keep the acrylic clean without scratching it since it get's dirty quick. I also wish the feed door had some sort of acrylic or plastic hinge to it, my clumsy self have dropped it into the tank a few times now.

Great! Tap Plastics sells small acrylic hinges that are super easy to glue on. Maybe I’ll add one. Did you go with one small feed door?

 

[NanoSteam]

Great! Tap Plastics sells small acrylic hinges that are super easy to glue on. Maybe I’ll add one. Did you go with one small feed door?

Oh nice, i'm going to look into that, shouldn't be difficult to install. I actually went for one of their "EZ order lids" which are non configurable and have one small feed door but are basically ready to ship.

 

[NanoSteam]

Everything arrived alive and well from Cultivated Reef in less than 24hrs. Heating pack was still toasty.

frag rack from Amazon hasn’t arrived yet so on the sand they’ll live for a few hours.

 

[Lavey29]

Depending on the age and stability of your tank SPS will be challenging. I got a free purple stylo frag at 7 months and 2 months later its surviving but not really thriving. I question if my tank is ready at 9 months to support SPS? I am getting decent coraline on my rocks now and LPS seem to be doing much better though. I will probably wait a few months to try more SPS frags and want to have a doser in place. Hopefully yours will thrive.

 

[NanoSteam]

Depending on the age and stability of your tank SPS will be challenging. I got a free purple stylo frag at 7 months and 2 months later its surviving but not really thriving. I question if my tank is ready at 9 months to support SPS? I am getting decent coraline on my rocks now and LPS seem to be doing much better though. I will probably wait a few months to try more SPS frags and want to have a doser in place. Hopefully yours will thrive.

I guess we’ll see how it goes since I don’t have much experience with it. My parameters are fairly stable now since dosing nitrates & phosphates.

I did go with the known “easy” SPS to start with to give myself a fighting chance.

 

[NanoSteam]

Picked this mini blasto colony from the LFS. I count 11 heads, not bad for $100. Now there’s a problem, a good one. This thing has some crazy bright colors. Makes everything else in the tank look dull. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. Pic was a couple hours after introduction.

 

[Lavey29]

How's your damsel do with your other fish?