So I went to my LFS...

[TL1000RSquid]

I'm not a fan of peppermint shrimp, in my experience they didn't eat aiptasia and were troublemakers disturbing and trying to steal food from corals. They weren't that visible either mostly coming out after lights out.

Berghia Nudibranch's are the best thing for eating aiptasia but they end up starving after eradicating it. So in the end its best to try to eradicate them by hand.

 

[the wizard]

personally, I like peppermint shrimp. It is hit or miss with them eating aptaisia, so I would assume it is hit or miss with them causing problems with stealing food from corals. we tended to use the dropper to target feed the shrimp at the same time we fed corals which might be why we didn't have a problem.

 

[greech]

I just learned a trick and a friend of mine tried it and it actually worked! The trick was to find out where the shrimp's cave is and locate a nearby aptasia. I can't believe I am going to say this, but the idea is to feed the aptasia so the peppermint can see you do it. This causes the shrimp to try and steal the food from the nem and in turn puts aptasia on menu. Now, I cannot say for certain this will work for everyone but it did work and my friends tank was free of any visible aptasia after a few days. Would I try this, heck no!!!! But I thought the results were interesting nonetheless .

Also, don't get a serpent star (or any sand sifting star) for a 90. They will decimate your sandbed of valauable life and they are exceptionally capable of catching and eating small fish (especially those that hide amongst the rocks at night). These stars are deceptively fast.

 

[GBBryant]

:thm: :thm: :thm:

:woot: :woot: :woot:

Thanks a lot guys! All this info helps a lot.

 

[GBBryant]

went back to the LFS again and surprise, surprise they had most of the fish I had picked out in the display tanks so I got a good look at them in real life instead of just pics online. The main guy there actually recognized me as the chick who would come in, drool at the fish, ask a couple questions about them, and then leave... they actually had a purple firefish in one of the QTs! It looked so cool. Usually I just see the regular firefish...

Started sketching out scape ideas and I got a couple more n00b questions. The tank I'm looking at is 48" long. should I go with one or two LR towers? I got an idea where, if it's two, I have one much taller than the other so to keep it from looking too perfectly planned. then, as I get some corals, they ones that get pretty tall can go on top of the short stack... If you can't picture it, I'll upload a couple of my sketches so yall can see.

 

[greech]

If you have 4-ft to work with, I would definitely go with two. Are you epoxying and/or using acrylic rods to make the towers/pillars? Keep in mind that the corals you place on top of the pillars will eventually shade the corals below. Incorporating some sort of a slope to each one might be of benefit.

 

[GBBryant]

I was planning on epoxying them together.... don't really trust my plainstacking skills. I was definitly thinking slopes... like a tall, skinny triangular prism with one of the points pointing directly out towards the front and one of the flatish sides in the back. I thought it would add more depth to the scape.

 

[Ptrick125]

Btw you know that's going to cost a lot.


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