Magik's 75 gal upgrade!

[asylumdown]

wow, instant gratification! Beautiful tank, the stand looks great. I love the idea of magnetic doors that just come off.

Can I ask how you trained your mandarin to eat prepared foods (if he does eat prepared foods that is). I picked one up yesterday and I have it down in QT, but it's completely ignoring all dozen foods.

[magikof7]

Thank you I dunno about instant gratification though it has taken forever to get running

I didn't do anything to get my mandarin to eat frozen,(not intentionally anyway.) I don't feed frozen often nor did I need to because I had a crazy pod population in my fuge and DT of my other tank.

I can tell you what I think got him eating frozen...I turn off all flow, power heads and return pump. I fed the carnivore frozen cubes, brine shrimp and or blood worms Mixed together. I also fed frozen mysis shrimp. Because there was no flow the food sat on rocks, substrate, and Corals when the mandarin was over the food his fins would stir up the food and he would eat it when he saw it move. It also has to be very small pieces.
They are such slow hunters, I think the flow is just too much but you turn it off and he can hunt all he wants and his own fins make it move. It has to move and catch his attention but not so fast he can't "hunt" it.
I have seen others use a petrie dish with holes in it filled with store bought pods or frozen foods. Another method I have seen is a baby food jar with frozen food and small pellets, the mandarin can get in the jar but bigger fish can't.

Good Luck with yours I hope you can use something in that novel I wrote

[magikof7]

Picked up a few fish from Concept. They are in QT for the next little while.

2 Yellow Candy Hog fish, a Carpenters Flasher Wrasse and a cleaner shrimp.

[magikof7]

Things in the tank are finally settling down. I have been having a few problems with algea but it is getting much better. I'm just waiting for my reactors to come in so I can runn GFO and Carbon.

Sometimes at night the overflow gets messed up. the return outpumps the overflow. It takes several restarts to get it right again. I'm not sure if there are power issues or what. (maybe at night the power flickers)

Bought a few more corals. I took back the Hog Fish, they were becomming bullies. I had a really neat Goby that is hard to get in and of course it jumped out of the QT between the glass and the filter. Ugh I think the big dog got a fishy treat.









Some of my older corals. they have improved under the T5's

[magikof7]

Well, turns out it is my Pump that is failing. It has only been running for a couple of months.
I can not use my Skimmer or ATO because of the water level getting to high in the sump, the skimmer just overflows and the ATO is screamin in the middle of the night.

I'm rather ****ed off because there is no warranty available unless I go directly to the manufacturer and my emails to them are not getting through.

My tank was just starting to look great and now I'm back to cyano, hair algea and bubble algea. I've been waiting weeks for reactors and supplies to come in. I'm almost ready to quit.

any recommendations for a GOOD return pump please! let me hear it. Speedwave is NOT it!

[WarDog]

Sorry to hear about your troubles, but OMG, don't quit, your tank looks amazing!! Been following from the beginning and just love your rock work!
Not a lot of experience with all the pumps yet, but I thought Mag Drives and Eheims were pretty much both proven staples of our hobby.
Good luck!

[riceboy]

I would go with the ehiem 1262 reliable and good flow for your system oh ya and ultra quiet, and parts a readily available at the local fish store.