this company does some amazing work. very big
and extravagant but defiantly looks worth it. check it out!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-n2U1mJIWQ&feature=g-vrec
This blog is about my custom built aquarium from the ground up and any obstacles I encounter along the way. It is very informative and I will even take a lot of the ideas from my viewers.
Friday, April 27, 2012
Controversy over bio balls and refugiums.
I have been doing a lot of research on the benefits and the negatives of having bio-balls in a salt water aquarium and what I am finding isnt what I expected. From what I am finding is that the bio-balls are good and even essential in a fish only aquarium. But when adding the benefits of live rock and live sand then the bio-balls serve only as another element contaminating the water with nitrates. When having a lot of live rock and live sand that add to the naturally accruing beneficial bacteria you should lean more towards a refugium with a deep sand bed for a filter component.
For my aquarium, sence I have only about 50 lbs of live rock in a 125 gal aquarium i made a refugium that utilizes both bio-balls and a live refiguim. so far so good. no problems with it and all of my fish are thriving perfectly.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Protein Skimmers VS Refugiums
This Video I found on YouTube Helped me out A LOT for my ideas for my salt water aquarium.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccyJXNkRVQc&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccyJXNkRVQc&feature=related
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Powder blue Tangs and Ick
Powder blue Tangs and Ick
So when I bought this nice 3 inch Powder Blue Tang the guy
told me that they were sucseptibal to Ick. As with a lot of stories in the
trade, I like to see for myself the ones that are true and which ones are fiction.
Now I have had this
tang for a few months and it has caught ick a few times but none of my other
fish in my aquarium have gotten it. I don’t have a UV sterolizer and I have not
treated the water since i don’t like putting chemicals in my salt water aquarium
that could potentially have a bad affect on other organisiums in my
aquarium.
There was a few
articles that I have read that said by placing a salt water fish in fresh water
for about 5 to 10 minutes will cause the ick to die off. Now If you know about
ick then you will know that it is a fungis that grows on fish when they get
stressed and have losed their protective coating. So by putting salt water fish
in fresh water I thought wouldn’t be such a good idea since that is one of the
most stressfull things for a fish. But I figured I should give it a shot
anyway. This did work, and I started to see the ick redeuce in size after a day
or so. Now its been 3 or 4 days since I have diped my Powder Blue Tang in fresh
water to get rid of the ick and it is completely back all over the tang. So in
my opinion this fresh water dip to get rid of the ick is a bad Idea. It will
kill off the ick but since it doesn’t fix the reason it started in the first
place it is not a good solution.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Fast Algae growth
About a month ago I went to this
aquarium store called Matts Coral Connection ( http://www.mattscoralconnection.com/
) to get algae for my refugium. I picked up
Spaghetti Algae mixed with Caulerpa, only about a hand full but it was very cheap. The algae
help to keep your water conditions where you need them by removing harmfull
bacteria from the water that the fish put into it. The handfull they gave me
had a few copepods in it as free bees. Since then the ball of algae has more
than doubled in size along with a lot more copepods all over the place which
are good for some types of fish to feed off of. This was deffinatly a great
investment.
In my photo of my refugium you can sort of see
the algae at right about a month in the refugium. It’s helped so much that my
125 gallon salt water aquarium has yet to need a water change.
Monday, April 16, 2012
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Working my way up
Today I figured that I would start building on a small scale
and work my way up. Granted I have about a year before I get out of the
military and really get this buisness up and running. So for starters I will
make a sump completely out of acrylic that I will buy from lows. This job im
estimating will cost me about as much as it would cost to buy one yourself
already made but its for the cause so I don’t mind. I just hope that it will
come out just as good. I mean I have built a sump/ Refugium before but it was
out of an exsisting 29 gallon fish tank and it didn’t come out perfect and that’s
what Im going for. With this company I don’t want any corners being cut. I want
perfection all the way. The picture I have
attatched is the sump I made prior to this before I had it up and running. I will
take a new pic of how its doing now since it has been in use on my 125 gal
aquarium for about 2 months now.
Monday, April 9, 2012
Current Project
This is the aquarium I currently have. It’s a 125 gallon tank filtered by a sump/refugium
I made out of an old 29 gallon tank and an overflow I got off of www.drsfostersmith.com since this tank
was not predrilled. I realize that trying to drill an overflow in a glass
aquarium is not wise since the glass is tempered and will shatter very easily
when trying to drill through it. There is still much work to be done and will
be done when money permits. At the moment there are a few tangs along with two black and white clownfish and a few chromis. I have rebuilt the canopy since the hinges, brakets
and even the balesk for the lighting were all rusted out when I bought the used
aquarium. Since the brackets I swoped out were replaced by metal ones I know
that they will eventually rust also. Maybe I need to find some kind of spray to
cover metal components to prevent rusting.
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Insperation
Theres this show on The Animal Planet called "Tanked" this show is prety much the reason I have decided to finish out my Military enlistment and start a buisness building custom aquariums in Florida.
I have been amazed by aquariums for as long as I can remember. I had my first salt water aquarium in grade school and was very successful. This is why I know that this is the only thing i would truly be happy doing.
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