Greetings one and all. I am a new member, only my second post. I have become obsessed with my tank which is doing quite nicely. I have been slowly putting a few items in over the last two weeks. The tank has only been up and running about 5 weeks now and all the inhabitants seem to be doing well and quite happy. I made the September meeting and met a few of you which I have to say was overwhelming at how much you guys know about this. I was just cruising this site and saw and ad/mention of a place in San Diego where you apparently order frags. I was given 4 frags at the last meeting by I believe his name was Greg? Sorry if that is incorrect I am horrible with names. I have added a Yellow Tang from Fish Tank and this weekend added a black clownfish. My question is this, how many of you buy online as opposed to the local shops. I only know of two, The Fish Tank, and Northside Aquatics. I am explaining to the people I am buying from I want the hearty, easy to take care of (less chance of killing) specimens. How do you determine how much you put in the tank when you start with frags. I don't want to cover all my rock and have no room for them to grow. I have not seen any growth of any kind. All species appear to be healthy and thats about it. At what point do you actually start to see growth in polyps and coral? Just a general question, not specific to any particular type. thanks in advance for any tips, advice. Good to be here! Jerry
Welcome Jerryla, tell us a little about your setup and we'll be able to help a little more. What size tank, filtration, lighting...etc.
I have a 75 gallon glass tank, with a 20 gallon sump. An AS 180 gallon Protein Skimmer. 45 lbs of cured live rock and 30 lbs of dried Fuji live rock. The tank has been up and running for 5 weeks. As far as I can tell with tests, the tank has gone through cycling. I have one Yellow Tang, 1 black clownfish, 2 medium size turbo snails, 15 very small crabs, 1 cleaner shrimp, 4 pieces of frag I received and purchased at the last meeting of the club and one torch coral. My lighting is on timers with 4 actinic bulbs, and two metal halide, with 6 led moonlights. My salinity is setting at 1.025 with temperature at 79. One magnetic pump mounted by magnet to one in to increase wave motion and two adjustable inlet tubes in the top of the tank. The tank is Oceanic and has an overflow into a sock. I have two fans mounted in the hood and one underneath in the sump area. The temperature and salinity seem very constant. I bought this tank used and have added some of the pieces. Also two Fluval 300 watt heaters. One in each end of the tank. As far as the type of frags, I'm afraid that is my weekeness, I have not been in this long enough to have learned the names of the specimens. I have been adding two or three pieces a week since week 3.
I tend to buy most of my aquarium supplies from the local shops. However, I tend to buy frags online as they have much rarer frags available compared to the local fish shops. With limited space in my tank, 30 gallon, I prefer really nice, rarer colors and morphs of corals which the local shops tend not to carry. If they had rarer frags, I'd buy from them consistently as I can observe for pests before buying.
I tend to buy from other hobbyists but like most of us, i would guess there's also that one piece that catches your eye in the lfs when you go. I'll give you a couple of the zoas I've been growing that are healthy if you like theres always a growing number of kinds I have it seems like.
