New nano reef diary

Right on SF, now you've got a critter to watch! CBS are very cool, inverts are so much fun - sometimes I like them even better than my fish :D

Did a 25% water change tonight, as NO2 is still registering (0.1ppm). NH3 is at 0, no one looks stressed, I'm so glad I didn't crash the tank. No more big crabs for me, I've learned my lesson! I saw Hercules (the EC) at work today, he looks quite happy in his new *ahem* coral-free tank.

Since I'm getting the hang of taking pictures with my hubby's camera, thought I'd post another. The more astute among you may notice something different... I brought home a little colony of 12 mushrooms. They're not aquacultured, I feel bad about that, but I couldn't pass them up - my boss gave me $10 for my EC trade-in, plus the mushrooms at 50% of retail - I got them for an absolute steal, and they're so gorgeous (to me, anyway) I couldn't resist. *Holding right hand in the air* I promise, as a responsible reefer, once they start to grow and spread I will pass polyps on to as many other people as I can :)

New_shroom.jpg
 
I like the mushrooms and some of them are really amazing to look at. The one you have is one that caught my eye also. I thought they were all aquacultured since they are easy to raise in captivity, they should be.

OH ya and I'll take on of those mushrooms, ya know, just so ya feel better, of course...I'd be happy to help. :joe:
 
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SF, I'd be happy to trade frags with you once we both get going :) I've been told my Xenia will take over the tank if I'm not careful (though right now at ~1" x 2" it sure doesn't look like much of a threat, lol), so I'll need to find homes for Xenia frags as well as the zoas and shrooms - there's not a lot of space in there!

Random updates:
Moving the rock around was stressful for both me and the inhabitants, but I have to say that after a day or two I'm really happy with the current arrangement. The zoas are starting to creep onto the rock surrounding the original piece of coral skeleton they were attached to, and the Xenia looks very happy today. The star polyps are out, waving in the current and the shrooms seem to be adjusting to their new home, though I don't think they're fully relaxed yet - they're a little wrinkly around the edges.

The wrasse is happy to take the new RedSea pellets I bought, but the little clown goby is having none of it. He's hooked on frozen squid and still takes brine, but won't take much else unless he's really hungry. I'm hoping eventually he'll figure the pellets out, but he doesn't even seem to grasp that they're food - at least with things like Mysis he tries to eat and then spits it out, this morning he just serenely watched pellets go by and probably wondered why the wrasse was zipping around like crazy!

There are new and wonderful types of algae growing, oh boy. There's something red that seems to really like areas of high current; I thought it might be cyano :eek:, but it's not forming slimy sheets and is growing much more slowly than cyano is reputed to. I can scrape it easily with a fingernail, so it's not corraline. It forms in spots and spreads. One small patch of red algae is taking on a stringier look, with bits waving in the current. There's not much of it and it's mostly on the skimmer outflow; snails seem to like that spot so they'll probably take care of it. There's some in the refugium, as well as some hair algae, but it doesn't seem to really be growing quickly or hurting anything so I'm leaving it - I figure it's more places for the pods to hide and stuff for them to munch on.

Oh, and I'm very excited... I think I have my first ever patch of corraline algae forming on the back glass! The pink corraline seems to really be taking off on the rocks, and there's some purple starting to grow as well. It's white around the edges, which I understand means it's actively growing. There's a tiny, tiny bit on the back glass and I think some is starting to form on the PH, I can't wait for it to spread a bit :D

PhosGuard seems to be doing its job, PO4 is undetectable now. NO2 is still registering at the lowest level on my kit but nothing seems stressed.

[edit] SF, you might want to take a look at this thread - not sure if you know, but CBS are apparantly not really reef-safe; they'll eat corals, small fish, other shrimp and anything else they can get those gorgeous claws around. [/edit]
 
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It seems to be non-conclusive. Some haven't had probs, others haven't. I read that they will try to open some corals in search of food, but usually it means they're starving. Mine doesn't seem to bother or be bothered by the hermies (so far), and I'm prepared to return her/him should the day come. :)
I won't be keeping corals until I can get decent lighting so, to keep the tank cycled at the moment she works fine. I wouldn't keep one in a 12 gallon however, I don't think suitable for smaller than a twenty, a fifty gallon might be best tho. Thanks for the link.
 
Breakfast with Cora

Here's a pic of Cora (shrimp) having breakfast with the hermies and duster :OT: :) Notice the hermit crab getting up close and personal. He/she's clutching a piece of botom feeder tab.
Why doesn't that image link work? D'oh!

cora shrimp.JPG
 
She's a cutie! Love those arms :)

Update...
Things seem back to normal for the most part, but I'm having an awful time with PO4 - I've tested the water and the salt, no PO4, so I know it's something I'm doing.
I'm feeding much less, using PhosGuard, skimming, stirring the sand and cleaning floss daily, doing my darndest to keep it down. Looks like maybe cyano is trying to get a hold - I see a red haze on parts of the sand by the end of the day, it gets plowed under when I stir up the sand. I'm not sure that's a good idea, but I don't want to let it grow. I'm not even positive it's cyano (not really enough to ID it), but that's what it seems like. The green dust algae and hair algae are 99% gone now, there's some very hard green algae on the glass - not corraline, but just as hard. Pink corraline is going crazy on the rocks, finally an algae I want! :D

The plan now (as per advice from nano-reef.com members) is to ditch the bumblebees and 10 hermits (keeping the two scarlets). This should reduce the bio-load a bit and stop the constant bickering too. I'll keep doing twice weekly water changes and all the above maintenance, and will only use chemical means of eradicating cyano if I absolutely have to (if what I'm seeing is infact cyano and it gets a hold despite trying everything else).

Discovered isopods last night, fortunately they're harmless grazers - I was worried for a minute! They're rectangular, cream with red/brown spots and seem concentrated on the new mushroom rock so I figure it's the source.

[Add]

Looking at the tank by red flashlight I found yet another hitchhiker... I think there are spaghetti worms (either that or a bright yellow, very tiny starfish) in one of the rocks - I see something stringy and bright yellow extending and retracting from holes in the rock... it's a little creepy!

There are also some very small (~1-2mm) critters, not sure what they are. They're round, symmetrical, look almost like a miniature circular saw blade or a wheel with spokes. They're white in colour, feathery around the edges and flat - I've seen them attach and then detach from the glass in several places, they're pretty but I have no idea what they are!

The tank is crawling with amphipods now, they're everywhere! I watched my wrasse hunting tonight during the 'dusk' period when just the actinics are on. I'm not sure if she's catching anything but she sure is trying :D
 
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Oh my goodness, so many things to update - lots happened in my tiny ocean while AC was down.
Let's see...

I've notice SO much life coming out of the rock lately. I try to identify everything, it's fascinating to me that these creatures just hitchhiked in. I've found sponges (little guys that look like the ends of Q-Tips), spaghetti worms, something that may be an encrusting sponge (thought it was a patch of algae, but it's decidedly thicker. I'm afraid to touch it in case it's a little sponge, so I'm just watching it for now), loads of baby bristleworms (and at least one larger one), different kinds of feather dusters, ispods, copepods, amphipods, the dreaded Apitasia, and there may be a tunicate behind one of my zoa polyps. Neato!

The clown goby has a strange condition, he appears healthy but has recurring bouts of spots - I've talked to other people with happy gobies that also have spots that come and go, mustn't be serious but it's sure odd to see him with bumps/raised scales one day and fine the next. He never appears uncomfortable or behaves any differently, so I'm not to worried.

I removed some of the sand to make the sandbed shallow enough to stir thoroughly. Cyano is trying to take hold (seems it's just bloom after bloom of algae, can't wait until the tank 'matures' and this slows down) and I'm keeping it at bay by keeping the tank as clean as possible - this includes daily stirring of the sand and blowing the poop off the rocks. When the tank clears, I rinse the gunk from the floss in the HOB to get the nutrients out. PhosGuard has really helped keep the PO4 down and keep algae in check, and the snails are doing a wonderful job at getting anything that pops up.

Current parameters are sitting at:
NH3/NO2 0
NO3 0-5
PO4 0 (using PhosGuard)
Ca 400
KH 8dKH
pH 8.1-8.3

Yesterday I removed the cluster of green zoas from the centre of a group of purple/brown zoas that are very fast growing. The green ones hadn't even attempted to spread, they were being choked out. Now there's a tiny cluster of six polyps superglued to a fist-sized rock, my husband thought it was pretty funny looking. I'm hoping within a few months they'll start to spread into a nice little colony, they're really quite pretty (mint green mouths/faces with burgundy skirts).
It's interesting to me that the others look more purple without the green bunch in the middle - I thought before they were brown all over, but after taking a good look and without the contrast of the brighter green, they're actually pretty, if plain: pink mouths, purple faces with grey dots around the outside and long brown skirts. Even if they were incredibly ugly I'd still like them - they were my very first coral! :D

I did return the bumblebee snails (though I think there may be a tiny baby in the tank, I keep seeing a little striped snail about 2mm long every once in a while). My friend at work snapped them up, very happy to have them. He also took a few of my hermits, and the store sold the rest faster than I could say 'ahh... that's better!'. I grabbed another few Astraeas and now have a tank full of snails with just the two scarlet hermits. Things are peaceful, and they are all doing a great job cleaning up.

Last bit of exciting news, the Prizm has been driving me nutso - works well and then for some reason just doesn't, then starts working again. I am no good at 'tweaking' things, so I give up. I bought an AquaC Remora with the MaxiJet 1200 pump on eBay, it should arrive within a month (my husband is VERY understanding, he was a little shocked at the price of the Prizm and wondered why we needed another, more expensive skimmer!). These things have a great reputation and I think that it will not only work better but also look nicer - the amount of visible equipment in the tank looks to be much less than with the Prizm.

That's it for now, I'll post some updated pics tomorrow :)
 
Question - when you tried to catch your emerald crab did you try to use any kind of trap? I've got an unwanted hitchhiker in my 55g and I can't get anywhere near it. I'm not sure what kind of crab it is but it is starting to cause some damage to my snails. I hate the thought of taking out all the live rock and disturbing the tank.
 
I know some people have had success this way:
Take a plastic water bottle, cut just below the 'shoulder' area, turn the top around and insert it into the bottom. Now you've got a funnel leading into the bottom of the bottle. You can cut the neck of the bottle off to make the opening larger if need be. Then just bait the bottle with a shrimp, some pellets, etc. and wait. The hitchhiker should crawl in and then not be able to get out. Other people use a tall drinking glass set at an angle - crabs slide in when they investigate the bait, but can't climb up the smooth surface of the glass to get out.
I tried both, had no luck. I caught all my hermits, lol, but the EC just looked at it, seemed to realize it wasn't safe, and went back to munching on my GSP. I ended up tearing all the rockwork apart (it's a small tank, but this still wasn't fun) to get him.
 
Arrrgh!
Today the Xenia looked punky, the stems were pinched and looked deflated, and the pulsing was sort of halfhearted. Looked like my little guys were on their way out :(
I didn't know what to do, parameters looked fine (pH 8.3, NH3/NO2 0, NO3 ~2, PO4 0, Ca 400, KH 7dKH, SG 1.026). I have read that Xenia need iodide (and seen this debated as well), so I figured a half dose wouldn't hurt. Looking into the tank tonight through a red lens (I've been watching the Xenia all day, actually pretty worried about it), I found a teeny 1/4" Aiptasia about 1/2" or so away from the Xenia and I wonder if it may have stung the coral. I nuked the evil little beast with Kalk paste; the Xenia is the only thing in any of my tanks that my husband takes a real interest in, so it's pretty special to me.
Whether it's recovering from a sting, enjoying the iodide, or just getting over a bad day, it's perking up now so I think it's safe to go to bed ;)
On a side note, I think I may have found an interesting sponge between a couple of the rocks - looks like half a sphere with a hole in the centre. Can't wait to see it by daylight and try to ID it :D
 
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