Yes, shrimp molt. Even amiphods molt.
Sounds like a scypha sponge, harmless if so.
Sounds like hydroids to me.
Sounds like a scypha sponge, harmless if so.
Sounds like hydroids to me.
29g Marine Log
- Thread starter wcolwell88
- Start date
Digitate Hydroids
I'm still tring to get rid of these digitate hydroids, the stringy ones. I bought some pepperment shrimp to try to kill them but they don't seem to be helping. Would an ozinizer or uv sterilizer help? I wasn't planning on an ozonizer cause they sound a little tricky to use and are expensive, but I am planning on eventually getting an 8 watt uv sterilizer. I'm thinking about this:
http://www.fishtothenth.com/Hydroxs.htm
Any suggestions?
I'm still tring to get rid of these digitate hydroids, the stringy ones. I bought some pepperment shrimp to try to kill them but they don't seem to be helping. Would an ozinizer or uv sterilizer help? I wasn't planning on an ozonizer cause they sound a little tricky to use and are expensive, but I am planning on eventually getting an 8 watt uv sterilizer. I'm thinking about this:
http://www.fishtothenth.com/Hydroxs.htm
Any suggestions?
I don't think a UV or anything else like that would work.. These are part of the jellyfish family. What I have read is that the best thing to do would make a contraption that you can suck them out of the tank as you scrape them off the glass.. Also have read that you should take out whatever rock they are on and scrub it really well and replace the rock.. I guess I'd just brew up some saltwater with the same parameters as the tank and do it that way and then have a second bucket and rince it really well.
Red Slime Algae
After I added 6 or 7 peppermint shrimp to the tank, all of the hydroids disappeared. I don't know if they got rid of them or if its just coincidence. Right now the only problem I seem to have thats bugging me is some red slime algae thats spreading pretty rapidly. I've been using PhosGuard, Kent marine Nitrate Sponge, and Chemi-Pure Elite in my filter to help get rid of the phosphates and Nitrates. The water I get from the Culligan machine at Wal-Mart has 0.5 ppm Phosphates and 2.5 ppm Nitrates. The machine claims to use Reverse Osmosis Filtration along with other filters, but according to the inspection paper on it, it only gets checked once a year. That water is a lot better than my tap water though which has much higher levels of Phos. and Nitrates, along with some copper. I normally don't over feed with the fish flakes, but once every other week I put in one of those frozen cubes which in the tank looks like its probably way too much. Other than that, I don't really see any source for nutrient build up. Any ideas on how to get rid of the slime algae? I also have very little hair algae, 2 small pieces of bubble algae, and some algae on the glass now and then.
After I added 6 or 7 peppermint shrimp to the tank, all of the hydroids disappeared. I don't know if they got rid of them or if its just coincidence. Right now the only problem I seem to have thats bugging me is some red slime algae thats spreading pretty rapidly. I've been using PhosGuard, Kent marine Nitrate Sponge, and Chemi-Pure Elite in my filter to help get rid of the phosphates and Nitrates. The water I get from the Culligan machine at Wal-Mart has 0.5 ppm Phosphates and 2.5 ppm Nitrates. The machine claims to use Reverse Osmosis Filtration along with other filters, but according to the inspection paper on it, it only gets checked once a year. That water is a lot better than my tap water though which has much higher levels of Phos. and Nitrates, along with some copper. I normally don't over feed with the fish flakes, but once every other week I put in one of those frozen cubes which in the tank looks like its probably way too much. Other than that, I don't really see any source for nutrient build up. Any ideas on how to get rid of the slime algae? I also have very little hair algae, 2 small pieces of bubble algae, and some algae on the glass now and then.
.5ppm phosphate is quite a bit... Thats not good. But that sounds like your best option...
As far as the feeding. I get a pack of the frozen cubes and then spend like 5 minutes cutting them all in half, and then freezing them again. That way I never really over feed them, and there is no waste.
As far as the feeding. I get a pack of the frozen cubes and then spend like 5 minutes cutting them all in half, and then freezing them again. That way I never really over feed them, and there is no waste.
If you need a way to lower extra nutrients you can always find a competing source like chaeto or some other type of recommended macro algae. They won't get rid of your current slim algae (you will have to manually remove it) but it might be a nice way to prevent more or possible growth.
I have a little bit of Chaeto in the tank now. I'm planning on getting a small AquaFuge 2 to put on the back so I will be getting more Macro to put in there. What is the best way to remove slime algae? Also, thanks for the advise on the frozen food, I will do that to the rest of them and refreeze them in a zip-lok bag. Furthermore, I think I have found another source of the problem. I was looking around in the tank and I found a good bit of blue leg hermit crab parts scattered here and there in the sand. The hermits were eating my Nassarious snails (4 left out of 12), which try not to go near the sand, but I'm not sure what could be killing the hermits. I've found hermit body parts in the tank before that my shrimp were carrying around, but I haven't noticed any since then until now. I've heard blue legs can be tough so I'm not sure what could be killing them. There are only a few things I can see as possibilities but even those I'm doubtful about. I have a 4" serpent star which I've seen eat some pretty big pieces of food(he's ate a whole one of those frozen cubes before by his self). I have 1 skunker cleaner shrimp, but I don't think he would do it. I also have 6 or 7 pepperment shrimp, I don't know if they could do it or not. Other than that, I have a cleaner clam(which stays buried under the sand), a 1" fighting conch, 4 nassarious snails, 2 turbo snails, 1 astrea snail, and 1 false percula clownfish. Maybe they just don't live very long. Any Ideas?
So far today, I don't see any dead hermits or body parts, but my sand does have a whole lot of debris on it from fish poop, and whatever else might be on it. I think in my next order, I'm going to get one of those battery powered gravel vacs to use across the surface of the sand. Could this debris be a possible source of the nutrients. I haven't checked my parems this week but will post when I check them.
I just ordered the rest of my live rock and sand from Premium Aquatics.com. I have 20lb. of fine araganite sand, 29lb. of Fiji live rock, and 2lb. of LR rubble along with some macro algae coming Friday. I'm very excited, the Live Rock I've got in the tank not was sitting in a tank at Petco for a good while and I haven't seen much different things on it other than lots of types of algae, mini stars, and pink and blue bristle worms. I've heard that the Premium Aquatics rock has a lot of life and usually has a lot of different surprises inside. I originally wanted Marshall Island, but that has become very hard to get so hopefully the Premium Aquatics Fiji will be good. To help stabilize the live rock, I ordered some 1/4" and 1/2" acrylic rods on amazon.com. I don't really wanna glue the rock together, in case I need to remove a piece or something in the future, so hopefully these acrylic rods will help out a lot. VERY EXCITED!! Can't wait til Friday, will post pics.
The media you listed sounds good, the phosguard, chemi-pure elite, etc. One thing I learned recently is those dispensers really suck for aquarium water. Besides the phosphates being high, a bad RO unit lets silicates through which is terrible for things like cyano and diatoms. The phosguard should help remove silicates, but if you read the bottle, phosguard only lasts a few days before it is "full". It is good for a quick fix but not good for a long term solution. You have to find and eliminate the source of the problem, which is probably the RO dispenser itself, or else you will be spending a small fortune on media to remove the bad stuff.
