Silver97's Official tank chronicle

[silver97]

Update
Tank has had a bit of an odd problem with the ph lately. It was low, in between 7.4 and 7.8 on my test kit, after my last water change. I added buffer 2 days in a row just to try and get it to even out. I didn't pay it much attention after that, because the corals all looked fine, and I know when my gorgonian looks a certain way the ph is off. It didn't have that, but apparently the ph was pretty low. It killed my emerald crab. After I saw the emerald crab dead, I looked into it more and the ph was now down to 7.4. so I got it back up to 7.8 now and everything is alive, but it was a very frustrating experience because the dang ph wouldn't balance!
I let the nassassarius snails eat the crab instead of taking him out, figured they would get more use out of it anyway than my trash can would. In 2 days he was meatless. Pretty cool to see them at work eating an actual dead sea creature. If one of my fish die I may do the same thing. And don't worry, the entire 2 days he was being eaten I was monitoring for a spike in ammonia, but no such spike occured. Just in case it did I threw a little Amquel in there to detoxify it.
I'm going to wait until after Chritsmas to get my new fish now. I may get some Petco giftcards, and with those Ill have more time to decide on which fish I'm going to get. Depending on what Petco has I guess. I might just use it as a store where I buy all of my supplies, but buy my fish at a specialty store. Whatever happens happens I guess
I realize I haven''t done any full tank shots in a while, but thats mostly because nothing new has happened in the tank. Next time I update, regardless if I have a new fish or not, I'll throw a few in

 

[silver97]

Update
In the last month, a few notable things have happened, but overall nothing much.
I did get Petco gift cards for Christmas, and I may use that money to buy hermit crabs and other crustaceans. I figure they are as good there as they are anywhere else and I need to 'restock' my supply now. One more of them died just this week, so now I'm down to 2 from 6. I am also planning on getting some sort of cleaner shrimp in the future, not sure on a species yet. Deciding between a peppermint shrimp or a coral banded shrimp.
Fish are doing fine as always, no diseases or fights, they all seem to respect and generally like each other enough to know when to give each other their space.
Still Indecisive about my next fish. I'm leaning towards a six line wrasse if I can find one near me. May just get a few chromis and see how they hold up. I went to my new favorite pet store where I got my black clown and they still had some beautiful fish. Nothing much that I was able to keep in my tank, but still. I could spend hours in there. It's like a professional aquarium, but they let you buy the fish. Too cool.

As far as how my corals are doing, they are generally good. My xenia is just getting more expansive at the top, and is still not spreading. The GSP is spreading nicely over the rock I put it on, and I'm liking it more every day. Gorgonian is growing strong, way bigger compared to the last pic I took of it. My single paly sprouted a friend behind it, so maybe it will grow more? Zoas are spreading nicely, other than a few bubble algae I can see growing in between the heads. The one patch of palys in the back is being slowly killed by increasing growth of hair algae. Mushrooms are growing strong, just seem to be getting bigger.

Yeah the hair algae is becoming my least favorite thing about my tank. Starting to spread to a bunch of different rocks. Not as bad as the original spot but still a pain. There has even been a bit growing on the sandbed in small patches. I may have to resort to lettuce nudibranchs or a sea hare soon. I have enough to feed it for a while. I actually saw a sea hare at the store today, and it was around $30, so if I get more annoyed with it I may go for it. I'm doing 20% water changes every 2 weeks, and I also pull off as much as I can get with a siphon. There are 2 types in the tank currently. One is looser but more bushy and easier to get off, but it grows back in those 2 weeks. The other is like very fine hair and is ridiculously hard to pull of rocks. Its just a pain to look at. My blenny picks at it rarely but even then its only for like 2 seconds then he is done.
Crazy deal on frozen food at the pet store, just wanted to throw this in here. I usually get the 24 cube 4 variety pack of frozen food from the other store or petco for $20. I went to my new one and found the same pack doubled (48 cubes) for $12 only! I'm only buying from there from now on.

I may have convinced my uncle to get a tank for their new house they're moving into. They visited us over the break and loved my tank.
OH, and the snails are ever growing in numbers. I just witnessed a mass nassasarius spawning event last week, so I might see some more mini nass snails soon. I haven't seen any egg masses yet, but I don't usually see the nass ones. I think they bury them in the sand.
My anemone is also perking up slowly but surely. It is still bleached looking, but it's tentacles are getting longer and is a bit more vibrant nowadays. I still haven't seen anything get eaten by it, but I think it might be picking up nutrients from the vita chem I throw in every day. I think if its held on since the beginning, it can get even more well adjusted to my tank and maybe move out of its spot.

The photos that follow were taken during a feeding about 2 weeks ago. I'll do a few before and after shots of the corals

 

[silver97]

This is my most recent full tank shot. I know its not straight on but it captures more if I take an angle shot
This is the gorgonian september 30 2015
And this is it today. I'd say its grown a good quarter inch or so on both stalks, plus the base has gotten bigger
These zoas have grown a LOT since I got them. I also took this pic to show how I have crazy coraline algae growing all over every rock now.
This was a shot of my clowns, but also of my hair algae. This is the type that is like fine hair. Sorry for the resolution, my hands weren't to steady in most of these and my iPads camera distorts a bit through glass.
This is the other rock where it's really bad. It doesn't look that bad right now and the light is low, but this was a day after I cleaned it. This is the bushier variety. You can also see the palys that are being chocked by it. There is a clear difference in color from the left side than the right, where the hair algae is growing.
This is the famous xenia that won't spread like wildfire! It is complately healthy, just doesn't want to spread. I'm not complaining.
This is GSP on September 24, 2015, sorry about the algae semi-blocking the view
And this is it today. Way healthier and starting to spread rapidly. I notice a few new heads every week or so
And to finish, a picture of my radioactive dragon eyed zoas. Closed up a bit due to the hermit crawling on them. I wish I could get a clear shot of the back to show how well its spreading, but the camera distorts too much to make anything out.
That's it for a while, I will hopefully update next when I get my new fish!

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

Great update ! If you have never had an urchin, checkout a Blue Tux - great member of the cuc

 

[NickF]

+1 on the Tux for your algae.
Your tank is looking great, love the pic of the gorgonian

 

[silver97]

I've read a bit about the blue tux urchin, but haven't seen much on it eating hair algae, only coralline, some types of macro and filamentous algae. I don't mind if it eats those kinds also, enough is growing to support it, but does it eat hair algae? And if I do end up getting a nudibranch ( which is extremely possible) would they eat it all too quick?
Maybe I'll look for one, see how it does and if its not managing the problem fast enough get the other.
Surprisingly there are a few long spine sea urchins at a petco near me, are they just as good or do they have a completely different set of skills?

 

[silver97]

I've been doing a lot of thinking over the past few days about which fish I want to get, but also about the rest of the crew for my tank. I was not going to remember all of this, so I'm going to write it down on here so I can remember it and have your insight's as to whether or not most of these are a good idea.

First of all for fish I think I might just settle for a few chromis. Blue green are the cheapest and most available to me so it is very possible that they may be joining my tank soon. I think I'll get 3- if that is a bad number and I should add or subtract one please let me know, keep in mind the limited space I have with my 2 clowns and a blenny. I want to have multiple but not at a number where it would cause aggressive consequences (If that's even possible with these fish)
Those might throw some much needed movement in the tank. BUT:
If I find a 6 line wrasse I will get that the second I see it. I may still get some chromis after that but again I have to think about variety, and they are too cool.
Oh yeah, also fell in love with the anthias species today. Yet ANOTHER fish I cant hold in my current tank...

Inverts
Definitely hooked on a blue tuxedo urchin. It seems that they would help immensely with my hair algae problem. Only con that I see to it is it messing with some corals, in particular picking them up for camo. If I get one I might throw a few more shells in there just so it isn't going to screw around with the layout I have (and so it doesn't inadvertently kill them!)
I also want a shrimp, coral banded shrimp is at the top of my list. Not too big, peaceful to everything (mostly) and they look beautiful. I think one could find a few very cool spots for it to hide around.
Want a brittle sea star also. I have suspicions that I already have one in my tank, but I have only seen one 'arm', so it could still possibly be a bristle worm. But the way I saw it moving it seemed more intelligent than a worm. Either way it depends on availability (as do most things on this list)
I am now down to only 2 hermit crabs, so I might get 4 more to get to my original total of 6. Speaking of crabs, may get another emerald crab. Or a pompom crab, which I have seen at local stores. But no crabs are high on my list of priorities.

Corals
I am happy with my selection of corals for the time being, I would now like to see them cover the rocks they are growing on. Of all the things on this 'list' this is the one thing I am most certain about buying. Some sort of phytoplankton. I have not seen the apparently popular 'marine snow' at any stores near me surprisingly. I have seen Kent Marine products, and they have a Phytoplex formula that has very good reviews online. Next time I head to Petco it is going to BE MINE!
Along with this supplement I will buy a spot feeder of some sort, because I do NOT want an excess of this flowing around and feeding the already extensive bryopsis hair algae population (or any other kind of pest algae for that matter)
I may spot feed my anemone too when I get this stuff. I know it shouldn't necessarily be fed plankton, but if it gets healthier because of it I would be so happy.

Ok, that's my rant for the day. I really wrote this because I was kind of depressed at my tanks current state, and want to give myself some sort of checklist to motivate me to stay interested and invested
in the tank. Not that anything is wrong with it right now, but I just thought that by now I would have most of this stuff. At the 7 month mark already and can't believe it really. I can't remember what my room looked like before I had the tank in it.
As usual, I would like insight on to whether or not I would be able to keep most of these things together. Yes I do my own research, but I think hearing from others' experience on here would be better in some cases.
Thanks

 

[rostervandross]

Hey silver I think you've got good goals / progress going. What do you think about trying some of this phytoplankton powder I've got too much of? It's called nutricell by that Thera a fish food company. I've got a container that expires at the end of the year and there's no way I'll be able to use even half of it- I'd be happy to fill up a little Baggie and send it in an envelope , it would just cost a stamp.. Lmk if you'd like me to fix you up

since everything costs $10 at least I wish I had more people to share supplies with. Also I know what you mean about slow progress. See Glenn f's tank- he said it grew in a year! It will be 10 years before my tank looks like that. I'm at six months and my frags are bigger but I can't wait till they really start to snowball and grow

 

[silver97]

@rostervandross thank you for the offer but I am already heading to the pet store this weekend to pick up some other supplies, so I think I'm going to get the Kent marine or Seachem brand then just because they are cheapest. I am curious tho, how do your corals seem to respond to the brand you use?
I'm open to suggestions about brands also, again listing the ones above due to price. The coral frenzy I use is more of a nutrient unloader that causes cyano outbreaks more than feed the corals, so that's why I'm switching
I know what you mean about finding people to share supplies with, my one friend who is into fish only has freshwater and none of my other friends who are interested have either the time or money to start their own tank. Needless to say we can't necessarily help each other out much in that sense. It's a pain

 

[silver97]

So after a week I finally got out to Petco and they had nothing good (what else is new).
I got the Kent Marine Microvert coral supplement due to it being the only one there and am going to try it out for a while. I also got a syringe/spot feeder thing that was meant for dogs but it serves the same purpose as any other.
A little hard to control the flow underwater but I'll get the hang of it after a few times i think. I looked and it said it was also good for anemone's so I gave mine a good portion and it reacted by retracing a bit. Hopefully it will help it out. Along with helping all the other corals
I hopefully will get out to the other store soon to look for my other inhabitants

 

[silver97]

A bit of good news
My anemone started to eat again! I fed it half a shrimp and it actually took it and consumed the whole thing. It was one of those freeze dried brine shrimp, i know its not that good for them, but really the only feasible thing I have that I can feed it right now. I did soak it in freshwater for a while to get the salt out, and then i put some of my vita-chem on it so I could get it the most nutrients as I could. I really hope it can rebound from this and grow to a good size. I haven't tried feeding it like that in a while, but after it seemed to respond to the new coral food I got I figured I should try something. Glad I did. I will start to feed it regularly now, maybe 2-3 times a week, but I don't want to overfeed it right away and have it start rejecting food again. I think I might try to get my frozen mysis shrimp fed directly to i. I don't think there are silversides or any other feeder fish I can feed to it that are available to me at local stores.
Is it cruel to buy a goldfish just for feeding it? I know the answer is yes, but would it be better than nothing?
And now a bit of potentially bad news
On the one rock there is an excessive amount of bubble algae growing under the hair algae. I don't know how this is working, honestly, but the bubble algae seems to be weeding out the hair algae. There are patches where hair algae used to be where there isn't any more and almost a ring of bubble clusters surrounding the patch. I don't know if that area just isnt fertile, if the bubble algae actually is helping with the hair algae or if the cerith snails are actually starting to make a difference. The baby ceriths are on it all the time but are not big enough to do enough damage before it has a chance to grow back. Either way I need to find my algae destroyers soon.
Still having a bit of trouble with the spot feeder, It's a little hard to aim and to control my rate of flow. I might look for a better one next time I'm out
I may have a job in a very short amount of time too, so I can finally start to think about even bigger upgrades I could make to the tank.
Thats all for now

 

[Oxylebius]

A bit of good news
My anemone started to eat again! I fed it half a shrimp and it actually took it and consumed the whole thing. It was one of those freeze dried brine shrimp, i know its not that good for them, but really the only feasible thing I have that I can feed it right now. I did soak it in freshwater for a while to get the salt out, and then i put some of my vita-chem on it so I could get it the most nutrients as I could.

I wouldn't soak in freshwater at all. The salt won't hurt anything. Since it is freeze dried, I would just add vita-chem directly to it, it will absorb it since it is dried. By soaking in fresh water first, it absorbed the water and not the vita-chem.

Still having a bit of trouble with the spot feeder, It's a little hard to aim and to control my rate of flow.

If you turn off your pumps it would be easier target feeding with the spot feeder.

 

[silver97]

So a lot of good has happened in the past few weeks.
I found a coral banded shrimp! First inhabitant added to the tank in a while, and my fish were not happy at first. They went to go check him out and he made a bunch of quick movements and they backed off. Got him on a Friday, I had to leave on a trip over the weekend, and when I came back he was still alive and well. Yesterday he gave me a bit of a scare when he flipped over on his back and couldn't get back up. I used a plastic fork to help him up and he got up and started to scamper around the tank again. I haven't seen him eating necessarily, but he does pick at a few things every now and then. I think he hunts the bristle worms at night, I've seen him hanging around where I've seen them.

I finally found a ph booster that works better than the old stuff I had. I think it had expired so it wasn't really doing what it needed to do. I got the Instant Ocean brand and it got me leveled out to 8.0 after 1 day. I only need it because every time after I do a water change it dips down below 7.8. No idea why, but at least I can fix it now.
Anemone has been eating a few times a week. I am still feeding it those shrimp and it eats them every time. It hasn't eaten in the last few days tho because it has been a little closed up, but I figure it is just digesting all of what is left after the last few times. And maybe it's actually trying to grow. Either way it's looking good. I feed it almost every other day, never back to back days.
Spot feeding has gotten easier with the corals, and wow do I notice a difference. Looking at photos from January of my corals and comparing them to now they seem to have a bunch of new polyps. A lot of good growth there.
Hair algae has diminished somewhat. It is still everywhere but it seems to be thinning out a bit. Still going to look for that blue tux urchin and a few other things just to get rid of it all, but it''s not horrible right now. Bubble algae just pops up anywhere the hair algae is, so I might need to find another emerald crab to try and get those bits I miss.
Next on my list is a few more hermits. I am down to one. And every time I go into a store they don't seem to have very many, which I find a bit odd. I did get that job, so now that I have some more money flowing I can start to think about adding things more frequently. I am thinking of heading out to that faraway pet store in the next few weeks, I recently got a $20 voucher to there, so if I could find my 6 line wrasse, or a blue tux urchin I'd be happy. If not it's always good for stocking up on supplies like food and filter media.
That's all for now.

 

[silver97]

Of course I can never catch a break with this stuff
So my coral banded shrimp died......... I'm not necessarily mad, but just frustrated.
I barely had it for 2 weeks. And it just up and dies on me. The worst part was how I found it, covered by a ridiculous amount of nass snails eating it's flesh. I'm going to start to call them zombie snails just because they only eat flesh.
Now there is just a hollowed out carcass, and bristle worms writhing around inside it. Oh well. Win some you lose some.
I'm going to check my levels to see if they had anything to do with it. I know nitrates were kind of high last I checked, but I dont think they were bad enough to be at a bad level. And I kept putting in Amquel to help get rid of it. I am doing a water change later this week, so hopefully then I can get them down to a better level.
The shrimp might have also just died from stress, it was always looking like it was just out of place. It had it's spots where it could chill and nothing would disturb it, but he just looked....different I guess? dont really know how to describe it. Something was off.
I was heading out to the one store to look for my 6 line wrasse this weekend, but when I got there they had already been closed for an hour. Heading out in the next week or so to the same store when they are open so I can look for it.
Oh well...

 

[silver97]

So good luck has finally come my way! Found both a six line wrasse AND a tuxedo urchin!
This one store that I haven't been to since I bought the bulk of my live rock finally had a sale and I thought I would have good luck there. I expected them to have one or the other, but they had both so I got both. Acclimated them and they are getting used to the tank quite nicely.
The blue tux is so cool! It's only about an inch in diameter, so it has room to grow. I even picked him up to see what he feels like and the spines aren't as sharp as you think they would be. It feels like a bunch of teeth from a very fine tooth comb bunched together. He didn't move for a while after I put him in, but about an hour in he started cruising around the rock work. Needless to say I am pleased and I hope he doesn't die as fast as my last invert. My levels are all balanced and with a water change tomorrow I think it should be better than ever.
The 6 line wrasse was a little skittish at first. One of the first things my orange clown did when it saw it was nip at its tail. It did that a few more times but no damage was done. The wrasse just kind of stayed in a cave for an hour before really exploring cautiously, it seems smart. Then it started to slowly pick at the snails and different rocks and things in the aquarium. It is still pretty skittish and found this little under-hang to hide under, but it doesn't show any signs of sickness so I think it should be well as long as nothing spikes.
I also got some granular ferric oxide, the BRS brand. I think if I have hair algae problems then this is one of the best things to get to help diminish it. Take it out at its source. Plus I read somewhere that high phosphates are the reason some corals don't open up and/or grow while they are present, so if that also solves that problem I'm all in. Not that its been a huge problem, but my gorgonian has only been partially opening up the past few months, and I thought I would have way more growth by now on all my corals.
No I don't have a reactor or whatever is the preferred method, but I got a new media bag and an extra slot in my filter that will fit it. I figure doing that is better than nothing.
So on that checklist I made back in January I kind of completed it!
Pics to follow

 

[silver97]

 

[silver97]

So this is the urchin if you couldn't tell. Second pic is a bit blurry. It's pretty much done a lap around one side of the tank.
This is the 6 line wrasse acclimating in the bucket


These are the best pics I could get of it. As you can see in the second pic the clowns are also doing pretty well.

 

[Oxylebius]

Keeping water quality parameters stable, without fluctuation, goes a long way in keeping mobile invertebrates alive. I hope that the urchin does well for you. If it isn't eating the hair algae, don't be discouraged, as some tuxedos prefer other types of algae over hair algae.

 

[silver97]

I've already seen it eat a good bit that was on those barnacles I found a while back.
The blue tux can really move when it wants to! Way faster than I thought it would be. It has been exploring everything it can climb onto. It hasn't hit any of the major patches of hair algae yet, but the little bit it did get off the barnacles was spotless when it left. I have a reallllly good feeling about this one. I know it's gotten used to the tank a bit more now also, because it started to pick up snails for camo on its back! pretty funny.
The 6 line wrasse has definitely been accepted by the other fish, I've seen it multiple times swimming in unison with my clowns, and it hangs out with the blenny too.
I'm in the end stages of a water change right now so I have to get back to it. I put in the GFO and I know it isn't necessarily supposed to clear the water but it seems to have made the tank brighter for some reason? I don't think it could work that fast really but I hope it starts working soon.
Are there any good phosphate testers I can purchase that are relatively cheap and accurate? I know there is one of those Hanna checkers, but I want something a little cheaper.

 

[Oxylebius]

The problem with phosphate testers is that the algae is quick to uptake any phosphorus in the tank and thus the tests usually say zero, even though you may be having a phosphate issue. Plus the test kits only pick up one of three forms of phosphate in the tank... so, I'd suggest passing on it. Better to spend you $$ on other test kits or gfo. My two cents