Fry Tank Lighting

I've been having difficulty perfecting my fry tank lighting. Any suggestions. Here is what I have now. 1 pane of black acrylic(closest to the light) then a second pane (furthest way from the light, then white printer paper over the top to diffuse the light.

I find it hard to put light in the tank without showing the fry the source of the light.
What does it mean when the fry stay near the top few inches of the tank - not gulping for air.

What kind of fry? I just use a clamp light above my tanks with no problems.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

I am unsure what you mean by "showing them the source" but if you mean them seeing the bulb I don't know that it would be a problem. Me personally I used 24" fluorescent fixtures off of an old 55g (plastic housing one that used to come as part of generic tank kits). I placed a large piece of egg crate over my BRT and just sat the light on that.

I would say if they are in the top few inches that would be fine, perhaps worse case indicating that your lighting is a bit low.

I thought they were attracted to light and it killed them....you know how they die when you hit them with a flash light. So what you are saying is that I can put regular light right over the tank with nothing protecting them from the light?

These are Picasso(percula) fry.

I've never seen fry die due to lighting. If you shine a flashlight for a while on eggs that are about to hatch that can cause them not to hatch on time.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

I can kill fry with a flashlight for sure. They swim in a circle and die. Possibly the sudden fright syndrome?

 
SFS is caused by imbalance in fatty acids - usually from exclusive feeding of BBS.  My larvae do not die from using a flashlight.  I assume they are on rotifers at this point?  If so, what are you feeding/enriching rotifers with?
 
I find my Clownfish larvae do best with dim lighting.  My fish room has overhead fluorescent which I find is too bright for them.  If it's too bright they cling to the sides of the tank.  I have some black acrylic I use to cover half the tank and make sure there is enough greenwater in the tank to diffuse the light too.  They can choose to go in the darker area or the brighter area.

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

If the larvae are at the top of the tank, it usually means there is not enough light. They need to see the rotifers.  reference Wilkerson. Too much light and they will avoid it by swimming nose down on the bottom of the tank.  Just move the light up or down to get them to swim in the middle.  Greenwater is a must.  It helps them see the rotifers by the contrast. If the larvae are sucking at the meniscus of the water, adding phytoplankton usually gets them to swim in the open water again, although I have raised batches and batches of clownfish successfully where some of the group sit at the meniscus until metamorphosis, despite appropriate green water maintenance, and then become normal fish.

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

I've never fed baby brine shrimp. This is the first time I've made it to day 4 post hatch with this many survivors, so it's quite possible I was killing them with the flashlight on day 1. I have a clamp-on worklight clamped directly on the tank, so I'm surprised I don't have enough light. I'll put a higher wattage bulb in and see how they react.
 
Question on greenwater because I've been having trouble with this. I use a wine glass with no stem to view my rotifers. Whenever I look at my fry water, it appears clear even though I've put some bottled phytoplankton concentrate. Is this an inaccurate way to gauge water color?

Also, I just read a post that rotigrow + is not for greenwater. Is this true?

and all my fry but 3 are dead overnight. Sigh. Not blaming light, but this sucks. I had 50+ at 3AM. It's 10 AM now. It must be using the wrong greenwater.

I used RG+ as greenwater for clownfish and it worked fine. When I added it I swished my dropper in the water to help mix better and I didn't see the oil slick that some people have experienced with it. It is a dead algae though so more frequent water changes and bottom siphoning in particular will be necessary.

Now they are all dead. I don't understand what happened. The only thing I did was drip some new saltwater with matching salinities. The temp has been constant. I have some hatching tonight, so I guess I'll try try again.

Don't give up you will figure it out. My first ever batches were some of my best and then I went into a funk and couldn't raise a fish for the life of me. Review Matt's experience with the Lightnings and you will see even he had struggles at times.

If you are getting a lot of early pre-meta mortality I would review your broodstock nutrition, broodstock water quality, and your capture/transfer methods.

Broodstock diet is probably 80% tdo, and the rest frozen. Maybe I can try doing more frozen. The water quality could use some work. My nitrates are usually around 20 which I didn't think was bad.

I'd add more to the broodstock diet and get away from so much TDO.  Flip it 80 / 20 TDO and you should see much better results.  As for frozen types, Rods, Roggers, or LFS are all good quality stuff.  The LFS in particular (Larry's Reef Services) is a really good food, not only for broodstock but also for Reef Tanks.

RotiGreen is formulated for Greenwater applications. RotiGrow is formulated for "growing" rots.

http://www.fishtalpropagations.com/#!home/mainPage
"Making captive breeding easier."

You cannot kill clownfish with a flashlight unless you beat them over the head with it. They died for some other reason.

check out Kathy's Clowns, llc website:
http://kathysclowns.com
Captive bred clownfish and more
(Wholesale to the trade.)

 
What kind of frozen food?  Mysis or Brine Shrimp?  If so, that's not going to do it.  You need a complete diet.  20 ppm NO3 is fine IME.
 

 
Agreed.

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]

Homemade recipe, formula 1, formula 2, cyclopeeze, marine cuisine, carnivore recipe (picked it up by accident), bloodworms. What I usually do is take two varities, defrost in water, add some reeds fish eggs, mix up, and use a turkey baster to distribute.
 
I'm going to try Rods and LFS. My fish don't really like the homemade recipe. I think it has too much shrimp tail in it. It was something I bought off a fellow reefer.

My fish seem to like Larrys Reef Services. Couldn't find RODS locally.
I hatched 5 new larvae - I know normally I would never bother, but I'm just trying to practice. I'm on 3 PDH. I thought I lost all 5 as I couldn't see any of them the two times I looked yesterday. I turned the light off in disbelief, and came back today, and saw all 5. They must have been hiding under the heater. This time I'm using RG + and chloromax. I need to siphon off the bottom, and then drip in some NSW. My next batch is due to hatch on Saturday (this pair doesn't eat it's eggs).
My topics always go way off topic. Kathy, you were right. I can't kill these guys with a flashlight. Perhaps my previous experience was occurring because of improper nutrition.

Fry disappeared again. LOL.

LRS is good stuff, probably take a couple weeks before the benefits to the broodstock kick in.

I am doing 24/7 lighting through meta. Any one else have experience with this and how your broodstock react to not having complete darkness? Their spawning appears to have been delayed.

 
I accidentally did this to a batch of larvae.  I'll report back.  my broodstock aren't close enough to be bothered much by the light.  My broodstock have a small single LED nightlight, so they are never in complete darkness.

Don't let fear and common sense stop you! =]