Tori's First Marine Expedition!! nano style!

[goldenmean]

I dont think that most of us clean the back wall of our tank. We just let the coraline algae grow there. However it is good to have a little space between the back wall and the rock so you can get good water flow back there. You just dont necessarily need enough room for your hand to clean the back.

[leahski]

well, today i picked up my clean up crew!
2 blue leg hermits, 2 red legs, 4 snails, and a peppermint shrimp!

also got a pound of LR rubble for the filter. what doesn't fit i'll put on display. some of its pretty cool looking!

my LFS guy is going to make it hard to be patient, though. he was already talking to me about a couple cheap zoa frags to get!
i still want to get one more rock, maybe two pounds. but i decided against getting it today.

[Dentoid]

[leahski]

another lb of LRR in the 2nd chamber - that makes a little over 2lbs now. i've raised the water level back there so that it's fully submerged and put filter floss on my drip tray as an experiment. it seems to be working well, so i'm thinking of doing away with the stock filter, placing maybe half of the LRR in the 1st chamber w/ a bag of activated carbon, then putting a ball of cheato in 2nd chamber w/a submersible light and keeping the drip tray covered w/ filter floss. this is of course pending on ordering the light and finding the cheato...
it's okay to put a light in with LR in the filter, right? i remember reading somewhere about LRR in the filter not needing light, but is there any reason why it shouldn't have any? i could always put all of the LRR in the 1st (take out the cool pieces for display to make room for the carbon...)
and i haven't done away with the sponge in the bottom of chamber 3 yet, i'm a little concerned about pieces from the LRR going through and messing up the pump. is that a logical concern?

pics tomorrow, i promise! curse this 2 week 8-4 class!

[jsindorf]

Pictures... we want pictures!

I also was wondering about light in the fuge -- if there is live rock and cheato in the second chamber under some floss, does light do bad things for the lr?

[leahski]

well the brown is gone and green has replaced it! good sign, i think!

hold your horses, pics took me longer than expected. but they'll be here SOON!

[leahski]

so, finally i have some pictures!

My rock new:
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/j...f/DSCN1166.jpg

My rock with diatoms:
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/j...f/DSCN1203.jpg

thus, the clean up crew. and some LRR:


My cats enjoyed watching it drip aclimate!


Mushroom growth! (all the same shroom)




new rock formation. has been shifted and will be shifted more probably!

[leahski]

kinda bad quality pics, sorry.
Good news! went to my LFS today and i'm getting a xenia frag free from one of the guys that works there! then i'm thinking of putting in some more shrooms and some fun feather dusters and zoos.
water tests today showed a small amount of ammonia, 0 nitrite, low (about 10ppm) nitrate. so i did my first water change today!

[lcstorc]

Looks good.
You need to slow down until the amonia goes back to 0. With each addition you are likely to get a small spike and it is important that you let the bacteria keep up with new additions.
If you keep the sponge you need to clean it frequently to avoid becoming a detrius trap and nitrate factory. Twice a week is the frequency I hear most. I removed mine entirely and never ran into a problem.
There is no reason why you can't have light over the rubble it just doesn't need the light. The cheato will need light so if you have both you will want a light.

[leahski]

well, a couple of new points of interest. i'll tell them as i found them.
1) my peppermint shrimp molted! i found his little old shell lying next to a rock (my sister's friends actually thought that THAT was the shrimp! haha)
question: the shell is in kind of an inaccessable area. should i try and pull it out (will it produce too much ammonia?) or just leave it? (will someone eat it?)

2) i have small invertabrate bugs hopping all over my glass and i think they're the bigger specks in my water column. copeopods? i think i've heard that they're good...but why? are they just a good food source? my tubeworms and brittle stars have been going crazy on them!
On this topic, i have many other invert looking bug type things crawling around my rocks...i'm assuming they're good...right?

3) i found flatworms. two (so far) tiny white flatworms cruising their way across my liverock. so i captured them and put them into a plastic baggy for inspection. are all flatworms harmful to a tank? (i kinda think that they're being shot out of my LR filter. did they like hatch or something and are now going to infest my tank? i sure hope not. will someone eat those?

tests still show low levels of nitrate. still in the safe range, but not ideal. this probably means that i also have ammonia present, although i don't have a test for ammonia yet so i don't know levels.

[leahski]

well, i never saw the flatworms again, so it's kind of a non-issue i guess.
but the molting has me wondering. hermits and the shrimp are all going to be molting (and have) do i have to find their shells and pick them out every time? it seems like they'll make alot of excess ammonia, which can't be good.

we're getting ready for the big 20 min. move to my dorm room on fri, so not much exciting has been happening. i've been holding off on introducing anything new until the move stress has passed. 2nd water change today. things are looking good.
i haven't seen my asteria stars in quite some time...weird....

oh! and i've decided that i really want a firefish in my tank! he'll be fine in an 8g, right? and would it be too much to put a black ocealaris clown with him? i think they occupy different regions, and both are peaceful and small, so i wouldn't think it'd be a problem, but i know almost everyone here has more experience and knowlege than i do, so i thought i should ask!

i'll get more pics up after we complete the great move of 2008!

[althea2you]

i think 2 fish is pushing the bio load of a 8g... i would pick one you really like of the 2 and go with it... the rocks look great!!! nice scaping!

oh, and no, you dont need to pick out the shells...

as for the copepods.. yes they are good... just signs of LR starting to come alive...usually they maintain their own balance, some fish eat them as their sole food

good luck with the move to your dorm!

[leahski]

okay, thanks. that's good to know. hmm...it'll be hard to decide!

[leahski]

I took some more pics of the new aquascaping (so that when i move it i can know where everything goes!) and here they are! no real critter shots right now, i just wanted to make sure i could get my rockwork back in order.
EDIT: i appologize for the pods, etc. on the glass!
Full Tank Shot

Corner Shot

Close up of a LR/shell piece that i put in

close up of the new rock i added and shell. i love the old coral skeleton on it!

This is a shot from the right looking at the left side of my rocks.


that's all for now. i think the big move happens tonight! i'm planning on putting everything/one in a bucket and just leaving a little water in the LS while we move it. eek.

[Dentoid]

Looking good!