34gal Solana pipefish, goby cube

Sweet, well after almost two weeks this is what the stock skimmer is pulling without mods and not being messed with much. i dump this much stuff out every other day or so



WOOOO DIATOMS!!! this is the first picture of the tank with the Halide light, though i am not going to use it until i start adding things that require it.. (trying to keep the first algae bloom to a minimum)

oh yeah this is my Dinosaur that now lives behind the reef. =)








i love my little Varanus Melinus (Quince Monitor) she thinks shes a raptor.

Looks good with that light Keith

ooh yeah ignore the random ball of cheato, it is in there just for now to transfer amphipods and copeopods and such from the ball to the tank, then i may toss it in the back compartment and put a small light back there. or i may fill the back loosely with LR chunks and ditch the cheato, havent decided yet

The compartment in the middle is the one i was talking about..




i may try to make a V shaped reflector that goes vertically up the tank and put one T-5 going up the middle chamber and grow cheato in it.

or i could just loosely fill it with Live rock..

EDIT: im not sure a T-5 would even be needed, maybe just a regular screw in flourescent spiral light

I wouldn't do the live rock, just another place to trap detritus. Just put the Chaeto back there and a std light and you will be all set.

I would take those bio balls out too.

the bio balls never went into the tank, that picture is from when i was just pulling it out of the box (hence no water and facing backward on a desk thats in a completely different position)


yeah i guess your right about the detritus trap, though the cheato will do the same, but be a snap to clean.


(hey skinz did you see the monitor? i posted it a few posts back, it may have gotten burried lol)

I would just put the cheato in the middle. You dont have to light it from above, you can place a bulb in back of the tank and that will probably work better

Lookin pretty good

Yeah I saw the dinosaur, them things are scary.

Originally Posted by chris&barb

You dont have to light it from above, you can place a bulb in back of the tank and that will probably work better

yeah that was the way i was trying to explain... i guess great minds do sometimes think alike


anyhoo with a little boredom (ok a lot of boredom i havent worked in 4 days and still have 5 to go before im scheduled again -_- ) and some creativity i chucked the cheato in the middle chamber, and used a clamp lights clamp to hold an old flourescent aquarium hood light on the back of the tank for now. i will probally build some hooks into the light so it can hang off the tank so i can get rid of the clamp as its ugly.


but it works well, completely contains the light so my room will still be a cave at night and is more than enough light for the cheato to grow



awesome... that wasted all of 3 minutes....













....... so......um.....





















Bored again!!!!!

Oh yeah.......





























NO ONE EXCAPES BRYOPSIS!!! NO ONE!!









even starting entirely dead you cant excape it...

New tank and still it blooms ,almost time for snails and hermits

that reminds me.. ive been testing the water every other day and it has actually been stable at 0 for the last 4 days so i think i am going to go ahead and get some hermits and snails tomorrow (if they have them)

Well there ya go.

LOL, my only worry is the light being too close and causing more heat?

i am unsure about heat being an issue yet.. i think getting to cold actually is a bigger problem.. i was testing the heat issue today and turned the halide on at 6 am and left it running until 11pm and had that second light hanging off the back since around 5pm ish and with both those lights the pumps and the heater the tank still toped out at 81.2f the halides at 9 inches above the water right now too.

my room is 73f right now and last winter it got down to 64-65 at night during the coldest time of year (i love living underground theres not to much temp change) and i had dart frogs down there so i had to rig up some space heaters near the frogs to keep them warm, but this year i am going to insulate the room better starting with the window-well so i hope between the monitor, the frilled lizards, the other reptiles/amphibians and the reef tank i can keep the room temp up without adding extra heaters

Hey when i go into the LFS tomorrow(uh... later on today actually) to get some hermets how can i check to make sure the guy there wont charge me the price of a scarlet reef hermit for a red leg hermit? is there a distinctive way to tell them apart without side by side comparason in case they only have one or the other?

(every time i go in the dumb employees seem to track me down and i know that they cant tell the hermets appart)

no body knows?? alighty then if i cant figgure it out on my own will just confuse the heck out of the LFS employee by talking about the various hermits using their scientific names cause im absolutely 100% sure they wont have a clue what fish/squid/rock i am talking about should be fun