**Brian and Stacy's Reef Experience**

[AQTCJAK]

The chromis sounds like it was pop eye which is a kidney diease which unfortunantley to most fish it is deadly if water changes are done in rapid succession they can snap out of it.

 

[brikeibur]

Thanks for your kind thoughts about our chromis....:tears:

I think it is time for an update however. We have a couple of new additions to the tank that I want to share with you guys!! :bouncer:

Here is a nice little candy coral we picked up today:

A cute little blue and pink striped mushroom:

and here is a nice little red mushroom that I just couldn't get a good angle on:

 

[brikeibur]

I also have one more interesting addition to the tank....a Snowflake Moray Eel named Elmer (in honor of our past Zebra Moray who died in the 100g during the fire - he was HUGE!!). AND I already know what you guys are thinking, and believe me I understand your concern......we know that they eat fish, crabs, and even snails. Elmer is EXTREMELY small however. He cannot at this time eat any of our tank inhabitants, they are too big for him. He is the most docile of all the eels and possibly the smallest (we read this on SEVERAL sites), so we loved our last one so much (especially Brian) that we had to have him when we saw him. SO, our plan is to make sure he gets plenty of shrimp to eat (which we feed him with a small feeding prong) so that he does not feel the need to 'hunt' our other inhabitants. We are also going to keep a VERY close eye on him and monitor his behavior in case we need to pull him out when he gets a little larger. We also know he will eventually outgrow the tank, but we plan on upgrading in about a year, which should be in plenty of time (we successfully kept several damsels, baby groupers, and puffers and many other smaller fish in our tank with our very large Zebra Moray, and never had one loss to him).

So.....here is Elmer!!!! :whstlr:

...which also leads me to ask you about another problem I have....The BRISTLE WORM in the picture!!! I have heard some bw are harmless and some are not...does anyone know which this is?? There are actually two of these guys in my tank. One is larger than this one. What should I do??? Here is another pic of Elmer and the worm for you to see (this worm is pretty small in diameter, about the size of a piece of spaghetti). This pic also kinda gives you an idea of how big Elmer is (pretty small...in front is a Nassarius snail and in the pic above there is a MINI feather duster above Elmer's head):

I'm not sure what to do about the bristle worms.......I would like to get a yellow clown goby to add to the tank eventually.....so If it is a fish I need to get to help control the worms, then he needs to get along with a clown goby, a false percula clown, and a green chromis. THANKS!!!

 

[brikeibur]

OH, I almost forgot, I wanted to update you guys on my Xenias. They are both doing great (the first one I got looks a LOT better). Here are some pics for you to see and compare:

Xenia #1:
Day One:

A few days later:

Today (and yes, I had to move him AGAIN because my crabs knocked him loose):

Xenia #2:
Day One:

Next Day:

Today (and I moved him as well to make room for the candy coral):

.....and here is a full view of it!!

Oh, and please someone tell me about those bristleworms....and is that red algae at the bottom right of my tank (in the sand) something to be concerned with? And, do you think my yellow clown goby I plan to get later on will be a decent algae eater??
THANKS all!!! Hope you enjoy the pics, and I look forward to hearing from ya!!!

 

[Anselth]

New additions look great! I've heard (no experience with them) that snowflake eels are generally fine within a reef tank, although any fish may develop a "non-community" personality.

 

[brikeibur]

Thanks Anselth,
He is super cute, so we are hoping it all goes smoothly so we don't have to take him back, but we do understand that we may have to!!

 

[Frankie]

Good luck with the eel! ME, i like my little fish.. I have a buddy that is always asking me to get a snowflake and im like "you better not bring one over here man!" LOL . He is a snake breeder. I think thee cool but not reef safe. One day it's going to see that $30 cleaner shrimp as a meal.

 

[brikeibur]

LOL, yeah!! I don't have any shrimp in there, just some hermits and nassarius snails, so hopefully even when he does get large enough, the shells will turn him off to them. We are going to try and make sure he stays fed well so he isn't tempted to eat the tankmates and just keep a close eye on him. If we have to we will take him back or possibly set up an aggressive tank for him (non-reef...fish-only)....that would be cool anyways because we used to have one. We have a 30G high tank not being used right now.....we could go with a couple of aggressive fish in there and put Elmer in eventually if needed......but hopefully it won't come to that. As for our fish, at this time there is NO WAY he can eat either of them....he is WAY too small!! So cute!!

 

[Dentoid]

Elmer is as cute as a bug in a rug! You know his acquisition is your subconscious wanting a bigger tank! I wouldn't worry about those bristle worms. They are great for cleaning up detritus and are small enough to behave.

The red on your sand bed looks to be cyano. It's common with newer tanks and is part of the initiation process. The best way to control it is to starve it to death by eliminating phosphate and nitrate from the tank. Also increasing flow goes a long way to keeping it from growing, as well.

I'm impressed with the Little Nano from Louisiana!

 

[brikeibur]

LOL!! Why thanks Dentoid! ...and thanks about the advice on the worms and cyano. So, what is the best way to eliminate the phosphate and nitrate from the tank? Doing frequent water changes?

OH, and you are right about the tank.....we are already discussing what kind of tank we want to get when we do upgrade.....its amazing how fast these little tanks fill up. We want MORE fishes!!!!

 

[Dentoid]

I don't have a nano and my understanding is that they are different, but I would think that in that volumn of water you could control the nitrates with water changes. Nitrates are the end process of nitrification, but the phosphate is different story. Phosphates find their way into the tank via the foods we feed, the water we use to mix with salt even some additives have phosphate. The best way to control phosphate is to not let it get into your tank in the first place. However, that is almost impossible. Then the other way to remove it is by using a phosphate removal media like Phosban or RowaPhos in a filter bag.

Of course, before you do any of the above you should be testing your water for these substances and acting appropriately in removing or contolling them.

 

[brikeibur]

Thanks Dentoid, again!! Are there any fish that just loves cyano?? Or would that be too simple.......:invisible

 

[Dentoid]

I don't know of any fish that will eat cyano, but ceirth snails are known to eat it. However, it has been my experience that even though they are known to consume cyano, it doesn't mean that they will scour your sandbed. However, they are not bad to have in the reef.

Try increasing the flow to that side of the tank and see if that doesn't help.

 

[brikeibur]

Heya,
I was wondering if anyone knows anything about HOLDFAST by Marineland. It bonds live rock, slate, plants and coral.....the only thing is that it says in the directions to dry the area to be bonded......
If I am bonding say a Xenia on a rock to another rock, then I can't dry the surface of both and leave them out of the water to 'set'. I need my mushrooms to 'stick' so my crabs don't constantly move them about while they are trying to grow onto the rock....they have a small piece of rock on the base, but they are being tossed around in my tank.
Has anyone else used this stuff and can you use it on wet surfaces????:help1: If no, then does anyone know what I should get to be able to do this?

 

[rebekwl]

I have heard that if you glue mushrooms they will usually slime and detatch from the glue if they don't like where they are. Then you end up with a bunch of glue spots on your rocks. You can get some pond netting or nylon mesh and tie it around the rock with the mushrooms inside it. They will usually attach within a few days because they have no where else to go. I have also heard that you can use a rubber band to attach Xenia, or place the base between 2 rocks and it will eventually attach to one of them.

Sorry, I am no help with the glue, I've only glued once and it was a disaster!!

Good luck!

 

[caitrina]

I dont like doing the glue thing, although I have used superglue gel. I had a bright bright neon lime green mushroom that I glued and it didn't stay and because it was so tiny it just kind of disintegrated. Really upset me because I had never seen a mushroom this bright neon green and "poof" it is gone. Now I use a piece of pvc pipe and push into my sand bed, leaving a small portion sticking out. I put a few little pieces of rock in it and the mushrooms and let them attach in there. That way they aren't getting blown around, pushed around and lost in my tank. I like Rebekah's suggestion of putting the Xenia between two rocks.

 

[Dentoid]

I have used Holdfast. It's a two part, putty epoxy. If the surface is wet the epoxy will not adhere to it, however, there is no possible way to have two dry surfaces. The advantage of this epoxy is that it sets underwater, it sets fast and hard.

The best method is to mould the epoxy around the edges of the rock, coral etc and then mould the other end to the rock in the tank using its undercuts and holes as to create mechanical retention when the epoxy sets.

Here is a picture of one that I did.

 

[brikeibur]

Ok, it has been a week or so, so time for an update.
I used the 'Holdfast' and it seemed to work underwater just fine. I used it on a new piece of frogspawn I got. Also, we used some chemiclean redslime remover and got rid of the nasty cyano we had (well, we used that and some water changes...and it worked beautifully!!).
So far the eel is doing great....he has tried to eat a snail once or twice, but they are simply too big for him, other than that, no problems. :bugout:
We purchased our last fish, a yellow clown goby named Gizmo. He is so little and cute!!!! We also have a new frag of cauliflower colt coral (a free one our LFS gave us...or at least that's what I think it is). We also have added a few new mushrooms. I will post the new pics for you guys!!!

Here is the Cauliflower Colt Coral (I think...):

Our new piece of Frogspawn:

Here is our Candy Coral with its feeding tentacles out:

A couple of pics of Gizmo, our new yellow clown goby (soooo cute!!):

Some of our new mushrooms:

Here is a recent pics of the Xenias (as you can see they are both doing much better!!):

Hope you guys enjoy the pics, let me know what you think!!
And thanks for the advice on holdfast and glue and stuff....really appreciated the input from ya!!!

 

[brikeibur]

Wanted to add a few full tank shots so you could see how the overall tank is looking and coming along!!
Thanks everyone!!!!

 

[Dentoid]

That Gizmo is as cute as a bugs ear. Is he big enough top fit in the mouth of your eel?:bouncebox