[poccoe61]

i recently transferred most of my 10gallon tank to a larger 20 gallon. not much of an increase, but as a highschool student, 20 gallons about the largest i can afford, at least until my incomes steady .

anyway, on to my question. in my aquarium, the transfer of all livestock was successful. i used 6 month old live sand mixed with a new bag of live sand (40 pounds all together) so i should have quite a population of little worms and various other little 'animals'. my question is how can i aquascape without having to silicone everything? my live rock is rather porous so i considered running a wire (a steel framing wire or something, not copper) through them just so they stay together.

also, i have one large (5 pound) live rock chunk still in the 10 gallon. it has a bit of an aiptasia problem and i'm trying to keep it from spreading to the new tank. is there anyway i can dip the rock in a solution to kill them all at once as opposed to spotting (with joes juice or something) for a week? peppermint shrimp are kind of hit or miss and i think the aiptasia are a bit too large anyway. any suggestions are fine. i'm not in a life or death struggle so just a comment or two would be fine. the fish seem content with more space, my cleaner shrimp seems to enjoy the larger area as well.


p.s is 96watt ok for 20 gallon reef, or should i go 130 watt?

[NATIVEVAMAN]

If its a 20 gallon long you will be fine. If its a 20 gallon high you might want to take it to the next level.Water depth is the key here.About that aptasia problem,keep after it with loes juice. You could take it out of the tank and scrub it but if you miss one little speck it will be back. And maybe worse.You can use marine epoxy for the rock,just use a little bit and it will come apart without to much force.If you do use silicone make sure its for aquariums as some of that stuff has bio active chemicals in it.

[e_baer]

for the aptasia, you can also get a suringe and fill it ewiht lemon juice, stick the needle in the aptasia and squirt a little juice in there, it will be dead in a day or 2.

[reefdaddy725]

You can purchase a putty to form your rocks I get it at the lfs some use it to stick corals to rock rubble. The rock you can dip in strong salt water and that will kill the aptasia or even hot water will kill it good.

[kolokefalo]

If you can leave the rock with the aiptasia in the 10 gallon tank with the peppermints. Do not feed the shrimp anything. Most of the time when they don't eat aiptasia is because they are getting all kinds of other feedings in the main tank. Why eat aiptasia when you can dine on shrimp and nice flakes...know wha I mean?

Do not use a steel wire to hold rock in place. Home Depot or Lowes sell 1/2" PVS for about $5 for 10ft. Get some and a few fittings. Design a shape and either drill the rock and put the PVC through the hole or use cable ties to secure the rock on to the PVC. Forget about metal or any other types of rods.