Forstral's Red Sea Max Adventures

[forstral]

I checked the nitrates today and they appear to be zero but the diatom is in full bloom, my snails and crabs can't keep up. I have lost 1 blue leg and 1 scarlet but everything else is accounted for, my coralline algae is turing white. What am I doing wrong? Shouldn't I be getting more purple covering the rock instead of white? Thanks, dKH was 10 and ph was 8.2. I think calcium was between 360 and 400, still trying to learn how to read the test. Seems a little tricky to determine if the color is purple or blue, it is supposed to be blue; correct? Anyway, I added a 1/4 teaspoon of Kent turbo calcium; not sure if that was enough to bring the calcium level up to 500ppm.

Is there anything else I need to do???? Trying not to mess up.

 

[forstral]

I just saw an inhabitant that I didn't add to the tank. I told you 1 scarlet and 1 blue leg seem to be missing. I just saw a crab, it was not red and too big to be a blue leg, hiding on my biggest piece of l/r and from what I could see did not posses a shell so I am thinking not a hermit but I couldn't see the color to determine what kind of crab. It looked like a full grown emerald, but how would that end up in there?

 

[jnohs]

lets see some pics.
and i would like to say that if you are gettin a bloom. that is a good sign. during the cycle you sould go through at least one bloom but i went through 2 bloom. first diatoms(brown) then cyano (hair red)

 

[forstral]

I found the last scarlet. It was under an old empty snail shell which was partially under another scarlet. Still can't get a good look at the stowaway crab but if I do and can get a pic then I will post it.

 

[goldenmean]

LR often comes with HH (hitch hickers)
Here is a great crab id site
Crabs

 

[BigAl07]

Woa slow down there buddy. If you're already looking for purple/pink coralline already you may have a VERY long wait ahead of you. Granted some people get some rather quickly but it takes a while usually for your tank to settle down and grow coralline. Remember NOTHING GOOD happens fast in the reef. A true reef takes MANY years to grow and develop. Give you tank time to "develop" and mature. Take this time to learn as much about your tank and how it reacts to things you do and DON'T do to it. Read, take notes and develop a relationship with it so that you know what it's going to do before it happens. The more you learn before hand the better off you and your tank will be.

To put it into perspective, my work tank is now 4 months old and I am just now starting to see new coralline algae growth and a good deal of the original coralline that was on the LR when I bought it bleached for many weeks. But now it's starting to come into it's own.

Good luck and enjoy the process. Reefing isn't something where you enjoy the end product... enjoy the trip or you'll miss a LOT of the joy.

Allen

I checked the nitrates today and they appear to be zero but the diatom is in full bloom, my snails and crabs can't keep up. I have lost 1 blue leg and 1 scarlet but everything else is accounted for, my coralline algae is turing white. What am I doing wrong? Shouldn't I be getting more purple covering the rock instead of white? Thanks, dKH was 10 and ph was 8.2. I think calcium was between 360 and 400, still trying to learn how to read the test. Seems a little tricky to determine if the color is purple or blue, it is supposed to be blue; correct? Anyway, I added a 1/4 teaspoon of Kent turbo calcium; not sure if that was enough to bring the calcium level up to 500ppm.

Is there anything else I need to do???? Trying not to mess up.

 

[forstral]

I don't know how well it will work but I have my webcam up and running. I have it streaming through yahoo messenger. My messenger name is the same as my profile name so if you want to give it a try and view the aquarium. Not much action going on with just some snails and hermit crabs but it is up and I have checked the option to allow anyone to view my webcam.

 

[lcstorc]

What I cool idea. I may have to try it. I think I have a yahoo messenger account. Can you watch it yourself while at work or whatever? That would be super cool to be able to watch my tank from my office.

 

[forstral]

You may have to create a second yahoo messenger account and setup the option on to allow all to view your webcam; I think that way it would be able to work.

 

[forstral]

Here are today's test results. I cannot get my calcium up, I have added a total of 1 tsp of Kent Turbo Calcium in the past 2 days and I am still at 380. Is there another param I need to check or do I just need to add a larger amount of calcium?

 

[forstral]

I have been kind of keeping a lookout to see if anyone is viewing and I have not noticed anyone. I will keep the webcam up a few more days. From noon until 8pm the main lights are on and you should be able to see pretty well.

I have a new HH. I don't have a clue what it is. It is hiding in a cave between a rock and the sub. It is white to translucent, the way it moves it reminds me of a spider. It is very quick, if I can get a picture I will post it; like I said very quick and I think it can see me from about 3 feet away. Everytime I got within that distance from the tank with my camera it shot back into the cave. I guess it could be a shrimp or some sort of crab but what kind of crab is that color and moves that fast? Anyway, if I can catch a pic I will post for all to see. Remember the webcam is streaming through yahoo messenger under the yim name forstral.

Thanks again.

 

[forstral]

Doing first water change this evening. When I do a water change, do I turn off the skimmer and pumps? Also, my pumps are blowing a tremendous amount of very tiny bubbles into the tank, does the mean I need to open the door on the skimmer comb more? How do I make the pumps stop putting the bubbles into the tank?

 

[forstral]

The tank seems to be holding up well. Timer still works, skimmer still pumping a lot of bubbles into it's chamber, water pumps still pumping micro bubbles into the tank. Amm is 0, trites are 0, and trates are 0; salinity is a little low at 1.021. Was using a hydrometer but went and bought a refractometer today because couldn't get the same reading twice from the hydrometer. :cry1: Alas, there is sadness today; 3 deaths have occured with possibly a 4th on the way. I have lost an astrea, another is not moving much, and a cerith snail but the real sadness is the Royal Gramma. I was thinking of naming him Skiddish, because he always dove back into a cave when I would come around the tank. I got him on Wednesday afternoon and this afternoon upon returning from getting a few more astreas, ceriths, a nassarius, and the refrac he was stiff as a board in a different location of the tank from where I had seen him before. I saw him there this morning around 1 am and was thinking he was trying out a new hiding place. I guess he died somewhere between 8 pm and 1 am. The lights go out at 8 and I saw him in his normal cave using a flashlight last night but not sure what time. I was looking at the 2 snails to see if they were moving. Since everything that would kill a fish chemically is normal I don't know why he died. :tears:

 

[lcstorc]

Since he was a new addition it could have been most anything. Shipping stress, cyanide poisoning, not eating, almost anything.
Sorry for your loss.