| 3-30-05
The clams currently look fine. I did give them a 45 minute RO/DI bath two days ago. They opened up shortly after being placed back in the tank. The lab that Barry has sent the clams to studied has reported back that it is indeed caused by a protozoan. An exact ID wont be done due to the increased expense this would cause. The lab did determine that a freshwater bath of 5 minutes was all that was necessary to kill the protozoan. They are also working on finding something to dose which would kill the protozoan. This is needed because the clams close up during the RO dip which convienantly protects the protozoan from the hyposaline treatment. Right now its looking like the drug used to treat the protozoan infestation would also wipe out the bacterial population of the tank so in all likelihood, a seperate tank will be required to treat them in...I'll let folks know more when updates become available.
As far as my tank goes....today was a fairly productive day of maintenance. I cleaned the skimmer out yesterday, (happens at least once a week, sometimes twice), did an 18 gallon water change, (only the 2nd since setting up the system...need to be more regular with them...), hooked up two of the B-11 battery back up airpumps, (Power goes out, airpump kicks on until power is restored or battery dies...5 days later) and did some plumbing mods.
The plumbing mods were to the chiller return. I removed the loc-line returns and hard plumbed two new ones that are not going to cause micro bubbles. I didnt realize when I first started plumbing this that Loc-line isnt air tight. Mojo told me, but I didnt quite get what he was saying...until I saw them all. The loc-line joints will pull air in with the water generating micro bubbles.
For some reason, the locline returns from the chiller and the sump return were generating more bubbles when I ran the Mag 7 along with the Iwaki 40 that feeds the chiller. Running just the Iwaki (which is horribly choked down by the chiller's internal heat exchange coil) slows the flow through my sump down to about 4 times total turnover, with the Mag 7 running also, I'm getting the total system turnover up to about 8 times.
The main reason to run both pumps simultaneously is to move more water through the system, which kicks up more stuff and , (hopefully), puts it in the water column where the skimmer can get to it. I have a new return dry fitted up to replace the single return from the Mag 7. I want to be able to blow the gap between the rear glass and the cuttingboard clean on both sides, and prevent detritus from building up there.
And speaking of detritus...I removed the chaetomorphia algae today...the amount of funk that came flying out when I disturbed it was NASTY.....ewwwwww.....
While attempting to rescue as many chaeto dwelling critters as possible, I saw something kinda cool...a micro brittle star fell onto the platygyra brain, and was eaten.
I used a label maker to put today's date on the case of one of the airpumps...this way I know how long the batteries have been in it. I plan on replacing the batteries on daylight saving time in the fall...same as the smoke detectors in the house.
Thats the extent of the positives... two of the last three frags from the purple tipped acro are showing RTN...
I have one frag of the coral left from when I first mounted it on te left side of the tank...it fell over and broke off a small tip, which I epoxied to the rockwork on the other side of the tank. Hopefully, that one survives. Otherwise its a total loss.
I moved the acro crab to the blue tipped table...didnt realize it was too large to fit between the branches of that one. It moved when the lights went out to the brown table it originally came in on. That acro now has two crabs in it. They dont exactly interact...but they dont fight either. Its kinda like the odd couple there...or maybe those two grumpy old guys in the balcony from The Muppet Show.
Nick |