New nano reef diary

Heya pl*co, thanks for the link! I had seen it before, great site; lots of interesting information and tidbits.

While I'm here, might as well update...
Diatoms are s l o w i n g d o w n but haven't stopped, I expect it may take weeks to see them gone. The Trochus is making a valiant effort, what a hardworking little snail s/he is! There's a crazy mat of thick, short, green algae on the powerhead. Doesn't seem to be spreading, and I kinda like the way it waves around. The goby occasionally perches on the PH, doesn't seem to mind sharing his space with the algae monster.

The emerald seems insatiably hungry, he attacks the pipette when I try to target feed other critters in the tank! Believe me, he's getting enough to eat, he's just a piggy. Last time he moulted he literally doubled in size; if he does that again he's gonna be a monster!

Bought some more shells for the hermits, they were fighting - one actually forced another out of his shell yesterday and the poor guy walked around naked for a minute while I frantically searched for an empty shell for him. Glad I was home, or he would surely have become a snack for the emerald. Some have moved into new shells, the pistol has also stolen a few for building materials. He stopped digging for a bit, now he seems bent on making an entirely new network of tunnels, the crazy little guy.

I'm not holding my breath, but I think the skimmer might be starting to figure out its purpose in life...

WOW, just went to rinse out the HOB sponge, and as I lifted it out (with gloves on this time) a huge amount of what look like shrimp larvae fell into the tank! This is the second time these little critters have appeared, so there must be some mysis or other shrimp that are happy enough to breed.
I guess the larvae were sucked into the HOB and living safely in the sponge - now there are a few left in the fuge, along with a growing pod population, and the tank looks like it's snowing! The goby woke up and is madly dashing around trying to eat them all at once :D
 
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It's been a while, time for an update!

Shrimp (?) larvae seem to be arriving en masse every few days or so now, the fish love their free buffet.

Unfortunately, the goby has decided that my Alveopora is a fun place to perch, much to the Alveopora's discomfort. I think I'm going to return it to the store tomorrow if they'll take it (even for free) so it doesn't end up dying in my tank.

I have been battling several types of algae at once, PO4 keeps bouncing up and down. Finally had enough tonight, cleaned the front and sides, blew off the rocks, filtered through 50 micron floss for a few hours and then threw the floss out (it was stuffed with gunk). Once the tank was clear, I changed 4g of water, rinsed the HOB sponge in tank water, and placed a new Phos-X insert in the outflow chamber of the skimmer. Hopefully this will help, I'm so tired of looking at furry rocks and equipment through green dust-covered glass.

Yesterdays' test results:
salinity 1.0245
pH 8.3
Ca 500
NO3 0
PO4 0.1
NH3 0
NO2 0
KH 7.6
temp 85 (ouch, heatwave)

The wrasse and goby look great, play together and eat like piggies (though it's hard to get the goby to take anything but brine, lacing all foods with garlic seems to help).

The hermits spend more time squabbling than anything else, but several seem to be hunkering down and getting to work on the algae. The emerald is laaaazy these days, though his skill in hermit tossing is increasing ;)

I've just ordered some more zoanthids from a fellow hobbyist, pink with green skirts. I think zoos are so beautiful, I could keep fifty varieties; I'm going to have to be careful to leave room for other corals!
 
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Today at work I picked up 3 'Indo-Pacific turbo' snails along with two Astraeas to help out with the algae. They're doing a great job so far, I just hope they can keep up with the algae's growth rate until the tank balances out a little more.
I also grabbed one large piece and some smaller pieces of Kaelini LR ($6CD/lb, not bad), a total of 5lbs in all. It's been curing for about a thousand years in the back, so I don't anticipate much of a spike, but I'll be watching the parameters carefully for the next few days just in case. The aquascaping doesn't look as attractive to me as it did before, but I think it will provide more ledges to mount corals and look better in the long run. The tank is full of nooks and crannies, the wrasse seems to be enjoying the caves :)
There were some bits and pieces in the big reef tank at work that I couldn't resist - a little colony of GSP ($3CD) and a single riccordia mushroom ($7CD) - which I superglued to the LR. The mushroom popped open straight away, the polyps are still closed up but I'm hoping to see them in the morning.
 
Blinky,
I came to this site for some info on how to set up a small tank. Thanks so much for your postings. They have been so helpful to someone with no experience with at all with a marine tank!! I look forward to your next post!!
Jenni
 
That's so nice to hear, I was wondering if anyone was still following along :)

The new snails are doing a great job, but it's an uphill battle to say the least. One has stationed itself on the heater and is slooowly munching through the hair algae, two more are working on/beside the PH.

The new star polyps are making themselves at home, and it looks like the emerald wasn't munching on the polyps, so much as the cyanoacrylate (sp?) glue I used to attach them to the rock! Hey - no one ever said these guys were brilliant ;)

Unfortunately, the little Ricordia is a rebel. I tried to superglue it to a piece of rock, and it didn't seem impressed - each time over a period of hours, it worked its way free and then lay on its face at the bottom. I finally gave up and placed it in a hole in the rock, cut the bottom off a water bottle and used it as a little cover to prevent it from being blown around in the current or being eaten by the crab until it attaches.

Here are some current pics, things are looking pretty dreadful ATM!

My PH looks like a muppet! You can see the Trochus, a tiny limpet-like critter and an Indy snail working on the problem.

HA_PH.jpg


My little mushroom with his space suit on:

Riccordia.jpg


The new rock in place. The wrasse seems to love all the caves, and I think it will look good once it's covered in corals.

New_rock.jpg


Last one, here are the new star polyps and 'Bert' the goby. In the centre is one of the new snails doing its best to mow down the algae :D

Goby_polyps.jpg
 
Looking sweet, I always come back to this thread after hours of research just to check if there are more updates. Its always fun to see a tank in progress :D
 
Okay, did some more research and came across some pics of yellow-finned fairy wrasses... turns out the store's label and my fish don't match! All along I thought she was Cirrhilabrus flavidorsalis, she's really Cirrhilabrus lubbocki, Lubbock's fairy wrasse. I didn't know they could change sex, so it appears I've got two hermaphroditic fish. Let me see if I have this right... fairy wrasses are protogynous hermaphrodites - female by default, but may change to male when the right conditions present themselves. Clown gobies are bi-directional protogynous hermaphrodites, meaning they can switch from and to either sex. Bizarre.
 
when you crushed the polyp and it released toxins into the water, do those toxins dissapate after time of filtration and water changes or is it just temporary? so to be safer than sorry just use gloves anyway?
 
I've been reading our thread Blinky too jfyi. My tank has been setup since june 26th., still waiting for algae, although I only have a single flourescent 50/50 bulb so I guess that explains why there's none.
I dread what will happen when I change lighting. Right now its fowlr (for awhile).
Have you thought about just cleaning the powerhead yourself so the snails can go to work elswhere? ;) Just a thought lol.
 
Look ma, I can answer two questions at once!

WBFG, I'm very sensitive to something (I assume the zoas) in my tank, I react strongly any time I touch the tank water. I don't know if the toxin will disappate, but I imagine my sensitivity will increase as I add corals (simply because there will be more stuff to be sensitive to). I wear gloves for everything, even rinsing sponges, wiping salt creep, cleaning covers etc. just to be safe.

SF, because I'm so sensitive I've been staying out of the tank as much as I can. I know it would be much better to shave the PH, skimmer intake and the heater, and I will if the snails can't keep up, but I thought I'd leave it for now. It's really only those places that are covered (there's just a bit of algae on the rocks and glass) and I'm afraid that if I start removing it pieces will fly around and take root elsewhere. Of course, if things get worse, I'll go in and get it. It seems to give pods a hideout as well, a little added bonus :)
 
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