It's Aliiiiive!

Today I added live rock. Lots of beautiful coralline algae and what look to my newbie, untrained eye like three worms. I'm now the proud owner of a Fiji biotope picoreef. You can see the rock and critters either by clicking the nanoreef link in my sig or going here: "It's Aliiiiiive!" where I've just finished posting the pics.

I know, I know I should upload the pictures here, but I've just finished resizing and uploading on my site and I need a break. Besides...these are some seriously unattractive creatures. They would be very outclassed in the company of the photos I've browsed here. Do you have a gallery here for "Ugly & Ichy"?

Oh, btw, if you can identify my hitchhikers I'd really appreciate it if you left a note in the comments there (as well as here) so that other people who surf into the site will get the ID. (I'd also really like to know what is that appendage on Hitchhiker #2?)

[mps9506]

Looks good. did you take the little airpowered filter out?
The airstone by itself looks as it might put out an excessive amount of bubbles for that sized aquarium.

Yes, I went back to the airstone. I'd like to try to run the tank without any filtration, just aeration, if possible. I'm curious about whether the bacteria in the live rock will be sufficient to maintain low nitrites/nitrates if the bioload on the tank is low.

I've read that lots of bubbles can mean lots of nuisance algae, so I may have to back it down a bit...see if I can find a less powerful small pump among my cast-offs. OTOH, strong current and turbulence is good in a reef tank, right? Is it just the bubbles that may be the problem or the current itself?

Oh, btw, I've been searching marine worm databases and have yet to find anything that matches---or even comes close to matching my critters. Is it possible they aren't worms? (But what else looks that wormy??) Some marine worms eat with a probosis...which might account for the disgusting-looking appendage on Hitchhiker #2. I'm going to post the photos over in the hitchhikers forum.

I'd appreciate it if you could illuminate further on the whole bubbles/current thing. Thanks!

[hooterhead]

if i were you, i'd ditch the bubbles altogether. you'll get a ton of salt creep cause of the bubbles popping. i'd get one of these small power heads: http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewIt...product=MZ3151 i had one in my 2 gallon and it worked quite nicely. i like that it's so small and you can adjust the flow. tank's lookin good!

[KimPossible]

Whoa, we've definately seen/heard about some different type of hitchhickers lately! PM Boomer, have him take a gander.

Well, this thread may be turning out not to be so aptly named. The worms---ID'ed as a type of peanut worm over in the other forum---are in decline. HH#1 is coming out of his hole, HH#2 started shrivelling up overnight and HH#3 has been drooping since yesterday.

I'd really appreciate it if someone could look back over my journal entries (see nanoreef link in sig) for the past few days and see if they can pinpoint the problem now that we know what sort of critters we are dealing with. (Is it possible that I'm over-reacting and these changes I see in the worms is part of their natural (healthy) behavior?)

I'd like to keep them alive, if possible.

Thanks!

[cheeks69]

What are your parameters ? Are you getting any ammonia readings ? During shipping of LR there's usually alot of die-off especially rock from indo-pacific, causing an ammonia spike.

I've been logging my water readings on the site (click Waterlogged category to see just the readings) ever since I set up the tank. The rock was cured and the water--which had good readings to begin with---has only improved since adding the rock. No ammonia.

Everything about the set up of the tank and the water, everything I've done, I've logged from the very beginning. I'm hoping there are clues in there that might mean something to someone, something that didn't strike me as significant.

Maybe the worms were compromised before I even bought the rock--part of that "die off" that hadn't died off yet. One thing that puzzled me is that two worms never extended a probosis and one never retracted it. (It fell off--rotted off---this afternoon.)

A friend of mine suggested they might be stressed simply because my water is much cleaner than what they came out of, that they suffer from too much of a good thing and overextended themselves in the new environment.

But what I'm wondering is whether this is indicative of a problem I'm not aware of with the water. Something I'm not testing for or something I'm testing for, but not interpreting correctly. Do any of my water test numbers look bad/odd to you ---anyone?

The last hitchhiking peanut worm has died. My live rock is still "live" though: the coralline algae on the front side of the rock has really colored up within the last week. It was very brightly colored on the back side of the rock, but sort of dull-looking on the front side when I got the rock.

It's goin' crazy now.

You can see a pic of my picoreef rock by clicking the nanoreef link in my sig.
Something I'm wondering about...I've seen this stuff called "Purple Up" which is supposed to encourage the growth of coralline algae. My algae is gorgeous (the pic doesn't do it justice!), so I'm wondering if I should get some to "feed" the coralline algae. Since my little biotope is basically just a "pet rock" now that the hitchhikers are gone, the brilliantly colored rock is the star of the tank. :-)