Here We Go Again!

[Melanie]

Originally Posted by cynicechoes

That is a great idea of doing the recap like that! I think that once my tank gets going that I will steal your idea, if that's ok!? I love seeing your tank grow, it is so awesome!

You have my permission to steal away!

[Melanie]

My lawnmower blenny has not shown the slightest interest in food yet. I have mixed emotions about keeping him in the QT for two+ weeks. On the one hand, I QT all my fish and it saved me when the neon goby had ich. On the other hand, that tank has ZERO algae of any kind. He was grazing like crazy at the LFS and now he's in a barren environment. I bought two kinds of frozen algae eater food and I soaked a small portion of one cube and I've fed him three times now. No response. Thank goodness there is a shrimp, sea star, snail, and two blue legged hermits in there to partake. He DOES get interested when I feed. He comes out of his "burrow" in the rocks and perks up, but doesn't bother to eat. I will try the other food tonight. It may take some time for him to adjust. I'll keep you guys posted.

[DrHank]

My algae blenny will not eat anything other than what he can scrape from the rocks and glass (his favorite). I'm afraid that if you keep yours in your QT, you may starve him to death. If I'm not mistaken, they are very low call for Ick anyway.

[cynicechoes]

Eck! Good luck with the little guy! He seems like a very cool fish, I hope he eats soon!

[DrHank]

These blennies graze a good part of the day. As long as you see him working the rocks, and he's not getting thinner, you may be fine. He's probably never going to take offered food. Look for circular lip marks on the glass. That is a sure sign that he's eating. They are fun fish and as I said before very hardy and not prone to Ick.

[AQTCJAK]

I ave had serval lawnmowers in various tanks that never eat prepared foods the only graze the rocks

[goldenmean]

Hey Melanie!
I love the tank progression shots.
Your tank has come a long way in 3 months.

If you decide to keep the blenny in qt you could alway roatate a rock from the display tank so he has fresh food - As long as you are not medicating in the qt. btw that is one adorable blenny. He is sooooooooo cute!

[lcstorc]

I love the progress shots. You are rapidly getting to a beautiful full reef.
I guess my lawnmower is the odd one. He eats my regular fish mush ext. Gets right in there with the big guys at feeding time. I also see him grazing but he does eat frozen as well. You could try wrapping a small rock with nori and see if he will eat that. It may be a bit more familiar for him.

[Melanie]

There is not one tiny speck of algae in the QT Tank. Even the rocks are barren. I have not had lights on in there in a month so the glass and bottom are pristine.

I'm putting him in the DT tomorrow if he doesn't eat tonight or tomorrow morning.

I'd rather risk the illness (which is remote) than starve a perfectly healthy fish to death.

If by some stroke of bad luck, he is carrying a disease, I will leave my QT empty and use it as a HT to treat my fish later.

[GeeWizzItsMe]

Good choice! He is really cute! and definitely DORKY!

[Melanie]

Another weird thing happening. You know how I mentioned I had a little bit of cyano? Well, I decided to make some changes in the hopes of preventing it from spreading. I added another hydor koralia, I replaced 2 of my 4 bulbs (the other two will soon be replaced as well). I added Phosguard in my Phosban reactor. I already use RO water and do weekly water changes with syphoning of all detritus.

Well guess what? I had a HUGE outbreak of cyano all over my sand! This is really insane. Nearly all my sand is orange and it has never been like this before!

I'm about 2 seconds away from taking AQTCJAK's advice about one of the products he uses. I normally avoid medicating the tank and really try to go the most natural route. But seriously, this stuff could get all over my corals and smother them. Not to mention, it looks like crapola.

What's even weirder? It is most dense near the hydor koralia's...where there is the most flow!

And, I know this question is next...."What are your test results?"

So here you go!

Temp 78
pH 8.4
Sg 1.025
Ammon. 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Phos. 0
Ca 410
dKH 8
Mg 1200*
*supplemented 20 g. Mg

Nex thing is probably "What are you feeding? and how much?"

Well, in the morning, I give 1/8 of a cube of frozen mysis and in the evening I give 1/8 - 1/16 a cube of cyclops. I put one drop of Vitachem on the food on weekdays.

Now, I DO have a fuge, but I unhooked it. I didn't really like it for many many reasons. The reasons I didn't like it, I will save for another post. It hasn't been delegated to the garage yet, there is still hope I may reinstitute it one day.

[DrHank]

Are you rinsing your frozen food in RO water before you feed? Have you gotten a DI yet? Turn your tank lights off for the next 2-3 days. It won't hurt anything but the cyano.

[nasek718]

Originally Posted by AQTCJAK

I ave had serval lawnmowers in various tanks that never eat prepared foods the only graze the rocks

One of my maintenance account has the fattest Lawnmower I've ever seen. It eats mysis and when not eating mysis It is scraping the rocks for algae. It was not eating when it first got placed in there but after 3 weeks and some garlic soaked mysis all it does is eat.

[nasek718]

Originally Posted by DrHank

Turn your tank lights off for the next 2-3 days. It won't hurt anything but the cyano.

The safest way to get rid of it is right there. EM tabs work too until the cyno becomes resistant to it, but thats chemical warfare.

[Melanie]

So, turning the lights off for 2 or 3 days won't hurt my corals? I love them too.