Red Sea S-650 - Dave's marine adventure

[mtsully71]

I've been nursing a sickly clam now for a couple of weeks (see clam thread) and as of tonight things are not looking good. I gave her a freshwater bath last night as per various advice on the net to treat pinched mantle syndrome. On returning from work she does not look good with the mantle well retracted into the shell and little reaction to changes in light. I think I may have left the treatment too late. I guess I will see how she is over the weekend. I also had to banish the big cleaner shrimp to the sump last night. The big shrimp has always been a bit of a jerk. It is very greedy and will steal food from corals, hermits and snails and as soon as the clam was back in the tank the shrimp was picking at the clam's mantle. The last thing the clam needed.....

On a lighter note the macro-algae that had been spreading around a pink Seriatopora and a 'blue' Monti is back in check. I cut some big chunks away a couple of weeks ago but the yellow tang is now mowing it like a lawn. I think prior to the Ich outbreak the tangs must have been keeping it cropped but it got growing when they went into the hospital tank. There are still a few bits in amongst the Seriatopora where the yellow tang cannot pick them out but it not something I'm worrying about now.



Here are a couple of other corals I've had for a while. First a plating Monti which I've had since the middle of July. It came with free Zoanthids and was a mail order purchase. It is spreading slowly but the new growth if frustratingly towards the back of the tank where it is difficult to photograph. Annoyingly the new growth is a really bright purple with reddish polyps and looks fabulous!



The next is also a mail order frag from October sold as Montipora orientalis. This is just starting to spread and I love the way the polyps swish in the current when they get a bit of flow from the nearby spinstream. I've found mail order corals here in the UK a bit hit and miss. Not in terms of health - everything shipped well. No in terms of what corals look like on the website and what they look like in reality. I bought a 'metallic' Xenia that looked fantastic on the web and has been drab (and tiny) in the tank. I think the LED lighting can be quite deceiving, especially when you have T5s. I suppose it is the same in an LFS but at least there you know what lighting they are using.



Anyway I've saved my favourite mail order coral until last. I seem to remember buying this one to make up the order. I had a couple of corals I really wanted and this one looked OK so as I was paying for the postage I added it to the order. Really pleased with this - advertised as Porites cylindrica. I just wish I had placed it more towards the front of the tank!



Finally another shot of the odd couple Clint and Mr Grumpy together. They have become firm favourites with me!



Happy reefing,

Dave

awesome Dave , you take great photos

 

[DaveR11]

Love the shots mate! They look fantastic SPS are looking great, happy and healthy so keep up the good work!

Thanks Dom, that means a lot coming from someone with such awesome corals.

 

[DaveR11]

awesome Dave , you take great photos

Cheers Sully.

 

[Wrangy]

Thanks Dom, that means a lot coming from someone with such awesome corals.

Time and patience and you'll get there in no time at all Dave It really helps your corals to be healthy when you take lots of those gorgeous pics for us

 

[DaddyTLi]

...It really helps your corals to be healthy when you take lots of those gorgeous pics for us

In many ways that's true. There'll be motivation to keep it healthy. Also pride.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[suspiria2]

Glad to see the looking so good, the corals look so healthy

I have a kole tang in quarantine and want to add some additional tang in the near future. Based on your experience would it be better to add any additional tangs into quarantine with the kole or can they be added later when the kole is already in the display tank?

 

[DaveR11]

Glad to see the looking so good, the corals look so healthy

I have a kole tang in quarantine and want to add some additional tang in the near future. Based on your experience would it be better to add any additional tangs into quarantine with the kole or can they be added later when the kole is already in the display tank?

I'm only a beginner at this @suspiria2, my marine tank has been running 8 months now so it is worth posting your question on the fish forum for those much more experienced than I. Until my Ich outbreak I had 2 tangs - a yellow (still have him/her) and a kole (which I lost to Ich). I added them at the same time. The yellow came from a tank containing maybe 10 other yellow tangs so seemed used to being in a shoal. The kole was on its own. On adding them to the tank they bonded straight away and explored together and until the Ich outbreak were best buddies.

Now the yellow is a bit skittish and I wonder if this is because it is on its own. I'm planning to add another kole so it will be interesting to see what happens adding a new fish. My yellow has always ignored the other fish in the tank. The kole used to chase off the dwarf angels I had.

I'd done some reading on tangs and some advice seemed to suggest mixing those species with different feeding habits is more likely to result in harmony in the tank. So one Zebrasoma species, one bristle tooth Ctenochaetus and one Acanthurus can work. But I have personal experience of this. There are lots of tanks on here with multiple tangs that get on. Ultimately animals, like people, have a range of behaviours and some are jerks! I know my big cleaner shrimp is a jerk compared to the small one....

Have you seen this.... Koles and yellows in the wild! I think some tangs shoal in the wild and others defend a patch of reef but again others will know better.

http://solent.photoshelter.com/image/I00007Zi6wT_O3xs

 

[suspiria2]

Thanks for the response. The kole was in a tank with many others of its own so it should be used to being in a shoal as well.
That was quite an impressive picture with the tangs and the turtle

 

[NickF]

Amazing shots as always Dave.



This one is muy bueno, definitely deserves some sort of award. Maybe we should start doing picture of the month

 

[DaveR11]

First the sad news. My lovely clam didn't make it. She never recovered from the freshwater bath. I think she was too far gone with the pinched mantle disease. Here is a shot of her in her prime. At least I know some of the things to look for affecting clams in the future.



Back in the tank the big cleaner shrimp is out of the sump sin bin. It was bothering the sickly clam (just what she didn't need) so got banished. Whilst in the sump it shed its skin and got worried I had lost it too as I couldn't see it. However offering it a little food and it soon came out to investigate. It is one greedy shrimp.

I'm happy that Clint and Mr Grumpy seem to have settled in nicely. Both are feeding well and enjoy the sinking pellets I have. They have to argue with the yellow tang over the pellets but Mr Grumpy is getting used to the tang hanging around and is now less inclined to dive for cover. My bristle worms also love the sinking pellets and the really big fire worm usually comes out when it tastes them in the water. I often hear gunfire from Clint when he get a pellet and takes it into his burrows to eat. I guess the worms are trying to take the pellet away from Clint. It is quite a crack when he fires the pistol. I would love to see the worms reaction!

My hermits also like the sinking pellets as do the Nassarius snails. I've not seen any evidence of the crabs going after the snails to eat them and they are such lovely little characters. A couple of the hermits have traded up shells are using old CUC snail shells (Ceriths) but I think these snails died of natural causes and were not crab induced fatalities.



I also noticed that two of my Acro crabs are now co-habiting. I've have picked up a couple more small Acro frags recently as much for the crabs as the corals (though they were nice). On checking the tank tonight I see two of the little chaps are both in the same frag. It will be interesting to see what happens next!

This has turned into a bit of a crab heavy post so I might as well complete the picture. I have a mystery crab. I spotted it one evening last week. I decided to check the tank after lights out with a torch whilst the clam was ill. I spotted a small (4cm wide) crab with dark claws hiding under a rock. I've tried tempting it out with bits of prawn on a skewer following advice from @Oxylebius. It has got quite grip but not been able to get a good look, or more importantly a photo. It also had a fight with my fire worm over the prawn. I think I need a couple more arms to do the job - one to hold the skewer, one to direct the torch and the other two to work the camera..... Once I get a picture I will be clogging up the HH thread again!

Finally a visit to the regular LFS resulted in purchasing a lovely Chalice. I needed to get a new bucket of salt and couldn't resist. Any thoughts on which species welcomed...?



Close up


I hope it keeps this colour as it looks like some sort of alien from another world.

Happy reefing,

Dave

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

Love chalice corals - that is a beautiful one with great color - very nice addition !

 

[DaddyTLi]

What camera do you use? My samsung galaxy 4 took better pictures than my iPhone 6s. It seems clearer. But maybe it is because my tank was newer then; so everything is clearer.

Tom

 

[Oxylebius]

There are all kinds of posts on other forums of people saying that their leopards ate pyramid snails. But, this might be something that is hit or miss depending on the type of leopard species you get.

Liveaquaria has a post here that states this: Natural predators of Pyramid snails include several species of wrasse within the genus of Halichoeres and Pseudocheilinus. A few of the more popular species that are reportedly very efficient at controlling these snails are; Six and Eight Lined Wrasse (P. hexataenia and P. octotaenia), and the Green Wrasse (H. chloropterus).

Based on the liveaquaria link above, Macropharyngodon Wrasse such as the numerous Leopard Wrasses, eat flatworms, which is what I have experienced with mine.

But, that does not mean that there isn't a chance that the leopard won't go for the pyramid snails, as I mentioned before, there are many posts on forums of people seeing their leopards eating the pyramid snails.

I've had a sixline wrasse (Pseudocheilinus spp.) and a lunar wrasse (Thalassom spp.) before, both have attitudes. What I love about the leopard wrasse (Macropharyngodon spp.) is that is doesn't come with an attitude.

 

[DaveR11]

What camera do you use? My samsung galaxy 4 took better pictures than my iPhone 6s. It seems clearer. But maybe it is because my tank was newer then; so everything is clearer.

Tom

Hi Tom,

My photographs are taken on a Nikon D810, the close up shots using a 105mm Nikkor macro lens and the full tank shots with a 17-35mm Nikkor zoom lens. Processing is done in Adobe Lightroom.

Dave

 

[DaveR11]

It has been two weeks since I posted - an unpleasant stomach bug followed by a pulled back muscle have kept me away from both the keyboard and the tank. Apart from feeding the fish and supervising my uncle adding water to the ATO the tank has had no maintenance until I cleaned the glass last night. It doesn't look too bad but I need to check the parameters.... A decent water change is also required!

Photobucket also seems to be down here in the UK so I can't post any pictures.

So what has happened in the last 2 weeks. Well I tried a couple of new fish. Before getting the stomach bug I took the long drive to my distant good LFS as they were holding a coral beauty for me. I picked up that fish and it seems to have settled well into my QT and is feeding and behaving nicely.

They also had a great selection of Macropharyngodon leopard wrasses. I spent over an hour looking at the different fish in the shop. They had 2 geoffroyi but these would not come out of the sand so I couldn't get a good look at their mouths and general condition so I discounted them. They had lots of meleagris and bipartitus but the males in particular didn't look too well. They also had 2 choati. I had read that these were the most difficult to keep but they were swimming actively around the tank, had good mouths and were searching for food. I had read the pros and cons of quarantining leopards or not so I took the plunge and got the remaining choati (another customer got the other one whilst I agonised over what to do....) with the intention of putting her straight into the DT. She seemed to ship home fine and on release into the tank dived straight into the sand as expected. I saw nothing of her until the Wednesday when she was lying on the sand being eaten by my big cleaner shrimp and one of my hermits. Distressing to lose such a beautiful fish and they really don't seem to ship well. I think I will try again with a leopard but probably a bipartitus or geoffroyi next time.

In the DT two of my Acro crabs have definitely decided to live together. As I said in the last post one has moved over from it's (smaller) frag and is now living happily with another crab in a bigger frag. I've not managed to get a good photo yet of the two of them together. I wonder if they will spawn?

Mr Grumpy my shrimp goby has got more adventurous in the last week. He now often sits out on the sand or up on the rocks away from the shrimps burrows. The Clint shrimp has also been busy and has been ploughing out furrows in the sand out from his cave network, but only when he has Mr Grumpy for company. This has meant that some small frags I had on the sand awaiting moving up onto the rock work got tipped over. Now my back is a bit better I can move them out of his way.

Last night I also spotted some more of the Zoanthid eating nudibrachs. After 2 weeks of not being able to sit properly to tank watch I'd neglected looking for bad guys. Anyway I removed 6 slugs last night and will need to stay vigilant from now on....

I'll hopefully post some new pictures soon.

Happy reefing,

Dave

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

Great update Dave -

Looks like Photobucket is down worldwide... hope it's fixed soon !

It's Back Up

 

[Wrangy]

Good to hear an update Dave Sorry to hear about all the troubles though! I'm sure you'll sort those nudi's out quickly!

 

[DaveR11]

Good to hear an update Dave Sorry to hear about all the troubles though! I'm sure you'll sort those nudi's out quickly!

Cheers Dom, I caught another big one and 2 medium sized ones last night as well as an egg mass. I'm not seeing any really tiny ones like I did last time...

 

[Wrangy]

Cheers Dom, I caught another big one and 2 medium sized ones last night as well as an egg mass. I'm not seeing any really tiny ones like I did last time...

Keep diligent and you'll have them defeated keep a really close eye out for eggs though as they're always the downfall! Even once you think you've defeated them

 

[DaveR11]

With my back still giving me pain I haven't managed a water change, though I'm planning to do one tomorrow. I tested my parameters last weekend and the carbonate/bicarbonate was really low (91ppm or 5.1dkh) and the calcium was 390 which provided me with the best reason yet to finally get my dosing pump working. So last Saturday I calculated the dose to raise the levels and started on 14ml of Ca per day and 45ml of bicarb. These were quite conservative figures and I was aiming for a Calcium target of 410 after 7 days and a carbonate of 125ppm or 7dkh. My Magnesium has always been on the high side so I'm just dosing two part at the moment. After a couple of days the carbonate was up 97ppm / 5.4dkh and today the Ca was 400 and the alk was 102ppm or 5.7dkh. So despite 3 weeks of no water changes my numbers today are as follows:

Salinity: 35ppt
pH: 8.31
Temp: 27 oC
Ca: 400ppm
Carbonate: 102ppm / 5.7dkh
Mg: 1410ppm
Nitrate: 0.2ppm

Many of the corals, particularly the Acans and Euphyllias were not looking good with the carbonate down at 5.1dkh but have perked up now. I think I will give it another week at the current dosing levels with some monitoring every few days and try to get the alk up a bit more. The water change tomorrow should boost the numbers. I'm also pleased that despite no water change in 3 weeks my nitrates are remaining low. I've been getting good Caulerpa and Chaeto growth in the sump and I presume the bio-pellet reactor must be doing its thing too. In fact I probably need to thin out the algae so may be able to trade in some at my LFS.....

In the tank the big news is my coral beauty is out of the QT and into the DT. There has been some agro from the yellow tang and the angel is still finding out where to go but so far nothing too serious. Here is the new addition.... Lets hope it is not a coral eater!



Lets see how they settle down. I had been thinking about replacing some of the fish I lost to Ich. Getting another clown and another kole tang. I guess if I get a small clown, which is likely to be male, smaller at least than the one I have, there is a good chance then of a pair? I have bought a small fish trap for when I try this. When I added the tangs before both the yellow and the kole went in together and were immediately best buddies. Seeing the yellow being aggressive to the coral beauty today I wonder if I add a kole now will the yellow go bananas?

There are plenty of little jobs to do in the tank tomorrow. Lots of things need tidying up and I really need to clean all the pumps as they need maintenance. The odd couple continue to keep me amused. Clint never seems to stop burrowing - he is always on the go moving sand and gravel. I have been wondering about getting another shrimp and goby to make a pair of each but don't know what sex the two I have are?



On the coral front things are a mixed bag. The tiny Acan frag I picked up cheap in my LFS has really perked up and has a new developing polyp.



Some of my SPS look good - the Montis, Stylos and yellow Porites have spread well. Some of my Acros are growing well though lack the spectacular colours that @Wrangy manages. However I have a couple of Acros and a Pocillopora that are not looking so good. I will try moving a few around tomorrow to see if a different location will help.

Happy reefing,

Dave