got ethical husbandry?

Hi all!

goldielocke76

goldielocke76

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Hey there!

I was looking around for a reef forum that was also local to me. Looks like I have found the right place! Little bit about me: I am an avid puffer keeper, I have three puffers as of right now, and 5 tanks total. I am just starting the process of an upgrade for my Green Spotted Puffer. Just picked up a brand new 90 gallon, reef ready tank off CL that I hope to set up in the future. It's going to be a bit of a process however, as I have decided to try my hand at making some LR. I will use my current LR to seed the new stuff. Anyways.

I am here to learn. There is so much more to SW aquariums than what I currently "know." I have tons of questions, just not sure of where to start yet, haha. I am sure that I will start a post where it should be and will be asking away in no time.

Just so everyone knows-- I am very new to the forum world. If I breach any kind of etiquette, or step on toes, I assure you, it's not intentional in the slightest =) please let me know and I will make sure I take steps to correct what ever it is that I did. Again, I am here to learn! Thank you so much, I look forward to chatting with everyone!
 
Welcome! Sounds like you'll be able to take all the proliferating snails from everyone's freshwater tanks. There are many here who dabble in both salty and fresh. :bigsmile:

If you are just setting up the 90g, it may be beneficial to come to the rockscaping seminar on April 14th.
http://www.bareefers.org/home/node/14459
 
lattehiatus said:
Welcome! Sounds like you'll be able to take all the proliferating snails from everyone's freshwater tanks. There are many here who dabble in both salty and fresh. :bigsmile:

If you are just setting up the 90g, it may be beneficial to come to the rockscaping seminar on April 14th.
http://www.bareefers.org/home/node/14459
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Oh man, I hope someone records it. =( I have to go out of town that weekend for work!! Darnit! That is such a great opportunity too. Is there going to be anyone there that will make DVDs? Because I will totally buy one.

And snails?? Haha, if you guys have them, I may have to take you all up on that. I have had a horrible time getting my snail tank to tank off and give me tons of snails. It's a 5.5 bare bottomed aquarium and the snails just die left and right. It's been running for months too. The other 5.5 however, the one strictly for RCS and Ramshorns, have somehow mysteriously gotten a pond snail in there (I set that aquarium up myself and it started out with 25 RCS and three Rams, no ponds to speak of) and they have taken off like crazy. It's weird, I'll give you that. So now I am going to be making the 5.5 a planted betta tank. One project at a time though haha.

Is there anyone that can give me a "list" of what to expect when buying a "reef ready" tank? My coworker picked up the tank from Antioch tonight (she lives there, and I am in SJ), and the people told her that they had more parts for me, they just had to find them..... = / now, they seem like nice enough people, but still, I don't want to be screwed. (Pardon the language). If you have a pic of what's supposed to come with it, that would be even better because I am still learning the lingo.

Few quick questions, since I was kindly told to ask away, in a FOWLR tank, is it better to have a sump or a refugium or both? What size should it be for a 90 gallon, and lastly, can my CPR dual Bak Pak HOB Protein skimmer, hang on the back of the sump/refugium? My ultimate goal of the tank: to have everything set up the way it should be, so I don't have to do HUGE water changes every month. Also, not sure about corals since the lighting is prohibitively expensive, being a college student and all still.

And lastly, but sure not the least, thank you, thank you times a million, for a warm welcome! ^.^ I can't wait to start this project, and I can't wait to add a few more fish. I guess I should start a tank journal. =D
 
Welcome!

I believe jestersix said he would be ok with recording, but I don't know if anyone plans on doing so.

"Reef ready" can mean many things depending on the manufacturer. Usually it means there are one or two tall black overflows with holes drilled into the bottom. They also usually come with a durso standpipe to "quietly" drain water into a sump. The most common off the self brand of glass aquarium is aqueon, so here's a link to their site showing what comes with their pre-drilled (same as reef ready) tanks.

http://www.aqueonproducts.com/products/predrilled-aquariums.htm#

Since your tank will probably be pre-drilled, it does make sense to have a sump. Generally people go for the largest sump they can possibly fit under their stand, or if there is a dedicated fish room, whatever they can fit in there. I have about 40ish gallons of system water in my sump/refugium. The most important thing is to make sure your sump has room for any water that will drain from the display tank in the event of a power outage. No reason a HOB skimmer can't be used with a sump.

If you want to grow some corals without promising your first born child to cover lighting costs, many soft corals such as leathers, can manage with much lower lighting intensity.
 
If you're going FOWRL, throw a sump underneath and get rolling. Pop your skimmer on the back, and you're all set.

To answer your question though:
Sump over fuge (plus you can often times make your sump your fuge as well). Pound on build threads for inspiration.
Most of us just throw the skimmer into the sump for convenience.

Now that you're getting into the SW world. I want to be the first to welcome you to the pitfalls of disease, death, and hard times. I (we) definitely recommend reading up on the quarantine process.

Depending on what you want, you might be able to procure CB (captive bred) fish right from the start, eliminating the disease introduction.

What kind of fish do you like?
 
Thanks guys! Good to hear that my CPR can be used. It was almost more than the tank xD

I actually have a ~60 gallon FOWLR going right now. SG is at 1.022, and I guess I better tell you what it houses since it keeps getting cut off of my signature, and I just now realized that.

1 GSP: Her name is Yoshi and she's about 2 inches long (don't laugh guys, yes, I name my fish. LoL, I read up on the 450 gallon post and some of what I saw had me rolling with laughter)
1 starry blenny: Got him because he wasn't afraid to tell Yoshi to leave him alone. His name is laughingly Perches
1 left clawed hermit named Snaps. I watched him snap in half the other hermit I had. He was the smaller hermit of the two.
2 emerald crabs
2 turbo snails
7 astea snails (turbos just weren't keeping up with the algea and the first two I had the hermit wanted their shells even though I have about 30 other shells in there)
1 unknown little red crab. He was a hitchhiker on some LR pieces, or dead coral
3 little clown gobies (I felt really bad for them at Petco, they looked miserable, turns out, they were perfect additions because of their small size)
1 diamondback goby: he's the newest addition. I have a medium grained substrate (d'oh!) so I needed a sand sifter with a huge mouth-- he fit the bill
1 firefish goby: I was looking for color for the tank without taking too much swimming space away from the puffer.

All of the fish were chosen because of their lack of swimming room (except for the firefish). I didn't want to take too much away from the puffer, because as of right now, she's not aggressive at all. Right now, if it has eyes, it's not considered food. I am really careful as to what I do feed her, because I don't want her thinking it's ok to eat the hermit and or the emeralds. She does get the RCS though, so unfortunately, I am too afraid to try and kind of shrimp in there. The purpose of getting the 90 is to hopefully ward off any aggression issues as Yoshi gets bigger. I definitely want to add more LR and try some tougher corals, but until we move in to an actual house, the GSP shares the tank. If I try to add any more tanks in this tiny apartment, I don't think there will be a wedding to speak of....

Just because I am curious: what do you all do in an earthquake??? Does it involve tons of water on the floor? (this is way off topic, but it's something I have been wanting to know for forever! I just didn't have anyone to ask.
 
Naming fish is fun. I used to have a six-line wrasse named Stewie, because their eyes look like angry Stewie form Family Guy. If you start naming your snails, we may need an intervention.

Keep an eye on that red crab, the best of crabs can't really be trusted, an unknown species, even less so. If it has blue eyes, watch out! It will try to eat your corals. When I used to have more hermits, I would add snails, and shortly there after, the hermits would have nice new hats. They seem to love living in cerith shells. I still have some hermits I don't plan on taking out, but I certainly won't be adding anymore.
 
Not_Now_John said:
Naming fish is fun. I used to have a six-line wrasse named Stewie, because their eyes look like angry Stewie form Family Guy. If you start naming your snails, we may need an intervention.

Keep an eye on that red crab, the best of crabs can't really be trusted, an unknown species, even less so. If it has blue eyes, watch out! It will try to eat your corals. When I used to have more hermits, I would add snails, and shortly there after, the hermits would have nice new hats. They seem to love living in cerith shells. I still have some hermits I don't plan on taking out, but I certainly won't be adding anymore.
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LoL well, I most definitely will probably just have the one hermit. After I watched this quarter sized hermit pull out a roughly silver dollar sized hermit and pull/clip him into two, I realized how mean they were haha. He is the rule of the roost as far as hermits go. He's just too nasty to put anything else in there with. Two turbos gone in less than 8 hours O.O

And as for the crab, since he came on the Pocillipora sp coral skeleton, I assume (this is what he looks like) that he's potentially a Trapezia serenei (http://www.chucksaddiction.com/coral_crabs-8.html). I rarely see him on any other piece of rock besides the two skeletons that I have of that coral. Hopefully he doesn't get too big or mean.


Sorry, all the posts I write are novels = / I'll try to work on that. Here's a link to smugmug with tank pictures. http://denzil.smugmug.com/Pets/Puffers/19065431_rPsSCp#!i=1645578842&k=WwBC56r
that's not what the SW tank looks like now, so I will have to get better pics up. Disclaimer: not a photographer, so pictures may not be beautiful, but they show my tanks and puffers.
 
Link to smugmug is dead, site might be down. Seems those crabs may actually be good for the coral for various reasons, including detritus removal and fending off predators. Like this guy http://www.bareefers.org/home/node/14494

Don't censor yourself.

Edit: Site worked, puffer looks pretty awesome.
 
Not_Now_John said:
Link to smugmug is dead, site might be down. Seems those crabs may actually be good for the coral for various reasons, including detritus removal and fending off predators. Like this guy http://www.bareefers.org/home/node/14494

Don't censor yourself.

Edit: Site worked, puffer looks pretty awesome.
Click to expand...


Thank you much! She's pretty entertaining. Very personable fish. =)

Any good ideas as to where to get a sump at a good buy? I guess I could buy a new one, but I would love to save that option as a last resort. Stand will be here next Thursday. =D

Also, do you guys put any thing under live rock? Like egg crate (for lights) or something like that so the rock isn't sitting on the glass? Then if you do that, will my diamondback goby have enough room between the bottom of the rock and whatever it is that I put to sit the rock on top of to make tunnels underneath? Sorry, might have to articulate that question better. Hopefully that makes some sort of sense, LOL
 
Kensington Reefer said:
Welcome to our dance! If you love us, then splurge the $20 and become a card carrying member. ;)
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LoL, when do I get my card and access to the rest of the forum?? It took me a little bit to catch on, but once I realized how to get there and donate, donate I did. (Good thing it was just payday lmao).

I'm excited to be here! Thank you all much again!
 
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