Jocco's Tank Phase 2

[cuttlegirl]

Here's what I did, but it is just what worked for me. I had an extra sink in my laundry room, so I bought a reverse osmosis/de-ionization system off ebay ($120-$150). I used rubbermaid totes and 5 gallon buckets for water changes. I always pre-made water in case of emergency (and it WILL happen). I figured out how much 10 and 20 gallons was and drew a line with sharpie on the outside of the tote.

I did water changes with 5 gallon buckets and then carried and dumped the bucket. I'm not sure how 20 feet of hose would work to siphon water... it is downhill from the tank?

Just me, but I never added chemicals to the water, always figured it was better to filter out toxins/impurities instead of try to mask/deactivate them.

 

[ekocak]

When I first kept SW tanks and didn't know any better, around 1999, I used tap water. The main thing that happens (assuming you do not have any copper pipes) is that you will get a LOT of nuisance algae feeding off the phosphates and stuff. Some people have great luck despite this, but since water quality varies a ton based on location, it's a huge risk. Buying water from the LFS is expensive. It's what I've been doing, and I'm already at the point where I could've paid for an RO/DI system. In a pinch, top off water can be bottled RO water from the store if needed, but basically, buying your own system, even a used one and replacing the membranes, is the way to go. It's what I'm planning on doing shortly.

 

[DWhatley]

I'll voice a third agreement. RO/DI ONLY, no chemicals, making your own is so much easier. You will need to keep extra not only for saltwater but for freshwater top off so a large, new plastic trash can is suggested for keeping fresh with a second bucket for mixing the fresh with the salt (24 hours in advance with a pump is recommended even though it says you can use it immediately). A simple refractor (about $15.00), kept ALWAYS rinsed with freshwater (tap is OK) and placed upside down to dry after each use is quite acceptable for gauging your salt content, a floating hydrometer is not.

 

[Jocco]

We ended up doing another water change with the LFS, ordered a Protein Skimmer with them too (back ordered almost 2 weeks now...gr). I'm not ready to have garbage pails of water in our little apartment. We need to make a little more room in here. :/

Does a pencil urchin need anything special upon being introduced to a tank? I like to ask ya'll before I google. There is so much info out there... oi.

How is everyone's summer going?
Happy Pride to anyone celebrating!

 

[DWhatley]

No special care for the pencil. They do need algae and will eat coraline (the hard purple stuff) and ours eat a little meat from time to time (chopped shrimp). As long as there is plenty of algae and a little meat, they tend to leave the other corals alone but IF they don't find enough food, they will start chewing on other corals (they have been known to chew on wood!). If you see on on a coral, move it away (careful of not hurting the coral). If it comes back quickly, you may want to find it another tank but most of the time, they don't seem to find their way back or find other food.

You could decorate the garbage pail?

 

[ekocak]

My only advice to add after D's: Be very careful when acclimating urchins or starfish. Even when you take your time and do it right, they sometimes seem to have a hard time. Drip acclimate and take your time and pencil urchins are pretty solid.

 

[Jocco]

No special care for the pencil. They do need algae and will eat coraline (the hard purple stuff) and ours eat a little meat from time to time (chopped shrimp). As long as there is plenty of algae and a little meat, they tend to leave the other corals alone but IF they don't find enough food, they will start chewing on other corals (they have been known to chew on wood!). If you see on on a coral, move it away (careful of not hurting the coral). If it comes back quickly, you may want to find it another tank but most of the time, they don't seem to find their way back or find other food.

You could decorate the garbage pail?

Hahaha, decorating a garbage pail. Well, there's a first time for everything. I'm thinking about ditching the lamp that is next the tank and moving the tank away from the wall, that would create a spot in the corner. Next to the couch (we move it for major tank work anyway) wedged next to the tank. We're working on different storage for books/dvds/xbox games too. Trying to open the room up a bit more.
We have good space... but didn't realize just how much room this hobby takes up. I'm sure you all are laughing along with this

Drip acclimate the urchin for 10? 20? 30? mins

 

[Jocco]

My only advice to add after D's: Be very careful when acclimating urchins or starfish. Even when you take your time and do it right, they sometimes seem to have a hard time. Drip acclimate and take your time and pencil urchins are pretty solid.

They seem to be hardy lil fellows. My LFS hasn't had one in for a while, they do have different stars and very very long pointy urchins, but that isn't what we want. How long do we drip acclimate?

My LFS has said all sorts of things about acclimating. One of them doesn't acclimate at all, they just toss stuff in their tanks. Another said not to do it in the bag, in the tank. Another said 15mins tops for all animals. And this is all from ONE store. ugh.

 

[Jocco]

Put in the protein skimmer yesterday! Its the Coralife Super Skimmer 65g.

So far, so good. Anyone else use this skimmer?

 

[DWhatley]

I have owned only low to medium priced skimmers. Now I will only buy the Coralife. They have very low cup removal clearance, work better than any others I have tried for even twice the price and stay adjusted relatively well. Not having owned the high end models ($600 +) I can't speak to comparison there but can say that you will not likely beat it for the price.

We have good space... but didn't realize just how much room this hobby takes up. I'm sure you all are laughing along with this

only with empathy

As you are finding with your LSF advice, acclimation thoughts vary widely so I will present mine and invite others to do likewise. My method is to use test strips (using a reagent kit takes too long and, in spite of many people suggesting otherwise, my side by side comparisons have shown the same results). I test the salinity of my tank vs the bag water with a refractometer and the PH with the strips. I put the bag in a bucket of tank water or float it (with a clip to keep it from sinking) in the tank and wait 10 minutes or so before starting for temperature match (15 minutes is the normal recommendation and a good idea if the temp difference is excessive). Using a turkey baster dedicated for this purpose (so not drip acclimation) I add a full baster every 5 minutes, remove half the water when the bag is full and then test again, repeating until I get a salinity and PH match. Since most of my animals come through shipping, it will usually take longer to get a PH match than animals transported from a local source, salinity is not normally off by much to start.

This has worked well for most animals but starfish are an exception and even with very slow drip lines, often do not survive. I have found that Caribbean stars live much longer than Indonesian in my tanks. Brittles do fine with the above method as do pencil urchins (some of the shorter spined urchins, like the tuxedo, should be processed more slowly by either halving the amount of water added or doubling the new water time.

I use the same method with octopuses but add water more slowly and watch for signs of stress (heavy breathing, inactivity, flattened against the acclimation chamber wall). I also like to offer food before releasing and it usually takes about 3 hours. You can expect 30 - 60 minutes for the hardier animals depending on the initial differences in the water. I never go with the no acclimation methods.

 

[ekocak]

I have always dripped seastars, usually for about 2.5 to 3 hours, depending on what test results for salinity and pH I get. As @DWhatley said, they can be very finicky, even when you do it cautiously and carefully. I have not tried the turkey baster approach, but thats a great idea, and will have to try it.

 

[Jocco]

Thanks everyone!

The Pencil Urchin came yesterday and we acclimated for about a 30 minutes, we used a small glass cup to slowly add water to bag in the tank. I thought I had a baster, but I guess I tossed it.
4 hours later it crawled under a rock and into a cave we hope the octopus uses as a den. Whiskers the blood shrimp lives in there now.
We look forward to it coming out and getting to work

 

[DWhatley]

They are not nocturnal and slowly wander the tank so spotting it is not usually a problem unless they are feasting on the back side of a rock.

 

[Jocco]

Ahhh... ok. The urchin is still under the rock in the den, but has moved around a few inches each day under there. Plenty of algae ON TOP OF THE ROCKS. I honestly thought I had more patience than this.

Of the snails that died, we left them outside in a baggie to rot, we soaked/cleaned them for 2 days and dropped them in the tank today.

Then played "screw with the tiger shrimp". We move things over an inch in the area it has been working on, once a month or so... hehehe.

My boss at work offered to buy the octopus, my mother asks every time we see her "did you get the creature yet". And I tell them "patience, patience..." Laughing at myself for days and days.

 

[Jocco]

We added 2 scarlet skunk shrimp today. I'm on shrimp duty, they're eyeing up the overflow box...gr.

Aaaaaaaannnnddd we ordered an octopus from the LFS.

Ahh!!