The Great Aquapod Adventure

[modularduck]

glad to see everything is getting happier. new plate looks awesome. happy early bday too.

[seahorsejl]

glad to see everything is getting happier. new plate looks awesome. happy early bday too.

 

Thanks! I am bad around b-day's, can never wait for presents

 

Here is a better picture of the plate (click for big picture):

 

Now I have to start planning on where the new corals will be going ... gonna be be tough as I got a huge variety of corals.

[seahorsejl]

Got my SeaCrop order in today

 

First off, let me say how well packed the package was. It was almost like breaking into Fort Knox to open the thing.

 

I have to say, even though almost everything I got was rescue frags, they are very generously sized frags for the price. And a credit to their shipping and care, almost all of them opened up nicely within an hour of being put in the tank after aclimation.

So overall great price for great corals! Would highly recommend them.

 

Well before I get to the pictures (and there are plenty), gotta put in the story about the Heliofungia shrimp I have so been waiting for. It was pretty cool looking. Small and mostly clear. After acclimation, I tried placing him right next to the Heliofungia.

 

Well no sooner than he set down on the sand, I saw a purple flash, and BAM!, he was gone! ohmy.gif

 

My stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid strawberry basslet snatched him up! Needless to say I was not happy.

 

Anywho, enough chatter, on with the show! All pictures are click-able for larger versions. I should also note that all pictures are taken under my stock PC lights (actinic and daylight), no camera flash.

 

All the new goodies temperature acclimating.

 

Regular frogspawn.

 

Purple/pink frogspawn.

 

Green tipped torch.

 

Orange Bullseye Mushrooms.

 

Pipe Organ.

 

Green daisy polyps (these looked like they took the shipping the hardest).

 

Clove polyps (also slow to open).

 

More pictures in next reply....

 

The rest of the pictures...

 

Green/Brown Candy Cane (these thing inflated like crazy!).

 

Burn your eyes out Electric Green Candy Canes.

 

Same electric green candy, but messed with the camera to show there is actual flesh there.

 

Green Galaxia (notice the small polyp forming on the lower left).

 

The Orange Grove (Sun Coral and frag of green slipper from SeaCrop, orange plate is recovering nicely).

 

No set of pictures would be complete without a close-up my my awesome long tentacle plate.

 

And lastly, the full tank shot (I still need to work on taking these ....)

 

I have a green hairy mushroom floating around the tank somewhere that came off it's rock. It was pretty small, so not sure if I will ever see it again.

 

So that should be the last big addition of corals (hopefully ).

[HotRodScamp]

Your new corals look fantastic! And it's very nice to see how well the orange plate has recovered. It's an inspiration to see the progress of a "crashed" tank going through recovery.

 

Now listen up everyone: A crash is NO reason to quit! It's merely a reason to clean up, re-aquascape, get stable and BUY NEW STUFF!

 

So, congrats on the recovery, congrats on the new livestock and happy b-day!

 

 

(sorry to hear about that shrimp though)

 

- Mike

[seahorsejl]

Your new corals look fantastic! And it's very nice to see how well the orange plate has recovered. It's an inspiration to see the progress of a "crashed" tank going through recovery.

 

So, congrats on the recovery, congrats on the new livestock and happy b-day!

(sorry to hear about that shrimp though)

 

Thanks on all accounts. It is a good feeling to finally see the tank back in good shape.

 

Now listen up everyone: A crash is NO reason to quit! It's merely a reason to clean up, re-aquascape, get stable and BUY NEW STUFF!

 

Amen!

[Derby Reefer]

Great looking tank. I love the long tentacle plate. I think that I will need one in my tank (when it gets up).

[seahorsejl]

Great looking tank. I love the long tentacle plate. I think that I will need one in my tank (when it gets up).

 

I am still loving it too ... Even after all the corals I got, it is the coolest. I got some krill yesterday to try and varying it's diet.

 

So update on the tank... another fish took a ride to the LFS. I caught the strawberry basslet Saturday (using the 20 oz soda bottle method, it was a sucker for mysid) ... the eating the Heliofungia shrimp was the last straw. Plus it had been bullying around other fish. So I got some credit, and bought two yellow clown gobies and a hi-fin striped shrimp goby. Sad to say one of the clown gobies did not make it through the night. I woke up this morning to my sally light foot crab munching away on it. Not sure if stress killed it or the crab. The other one is happily swimming around and perching in the toadstool coral:

 

 

I would like to remove the sally light foot, as it doesn't seem to have a taste for algae... but catching the thing would not be as easy as the fish.

 

On a side note, for some reason my snails have gone haywire on eating the hair algae! In the past week they have cleaned off the entire right-side of the back wall, then another night they cleaned off the mag-float. And last night they cleaned half of the let-side of the back wall. Can't really explain why now they decided it tasted good

[quy_nquyen]

tank recovery is coming along very nicely

[seahorsejl]

tank recovery is coming along very nicely

 

Thanks, it is indeed. Last night I did a water change ... was almost a week since the last one which was good. Because before this I was changing water about every 3 days (5 gallons) trying to get the tank back in order. When I did tests Monday night, everything was OK, though Nitrates were up around 20 ppm, but mostly likely due to me feeding the new corals.

 

Phosphates were still reading 1 ppm, even though the algae has rapidly been disappearing (makes me wonder about the test kit).

 

Speaking of algae, when I peaked in the tank this morning, all of the hair algae has been eaten off the back walls!! And now the algae-crazed snails have started attacking the rocks. The feather duster tube (which I think is dead now) was totally cleaned off, and I could only see scant traces of hair algae on some rocks. Just spooky how quickly the snails decided hair algae was like crack

 

So I think it is time for a live stock update ... haven't done on in ages. With out further delay, here it is:

 

Fish:

- Yellow Clown Goby

- Hi-Fin Striped Shrimp Goby

- Yellow Watchman Goby

 

Inverts:

- Striped Pistol Shrimp

- Sally Light Foot Crab

- Emerald Crab

- Porcelain Crab

- Blue/Red/Zebra Hermit Crabs

- Astrea Snails

- Turbo Snail

- Cerith Snails

- Narsarrius Snails

 

Corals:

- Long Tentacle Plate

- Orange Short Tentacle Plate

- Sun Coral

- Orange Ricordias

- Blue/Green Ricordias

- Blue.Green Mushrooms

- Orange Bullseye Mushrooms

- Green Tongue

- Green Candy Cane

- Brown/Green Candy Cane

- Galaxia

- Brown Frogspawn

- Pink/Green Frogspawn

- Green Tipped Torch

- Clove Polyps

- Green Daisy Polyps

- Pipe Orgran

- Toadstool Leather

- Xenia

- Green Star Polyps

- Green Zoanthids

- Blue Zoanthids

- Fire and Ice Zoanthids

- Red Zoanthidsa

- Cream/Brown Zoanthids

- Brown/Green Zoanthids

 

Phew .. I think that is it.

[MarvinsReef]

All the new goodies temperature acclimating.

somebody went shopping..

 

looking good..

[modularduck]

NICE man really looking great. so glad all is coming along so well!!!

[seahorsejl]

looking good..

 

 

NICE man really looking great. so glad all is coming along so well!!!

 

Thank you both. I am impressed on how well the tank has recovered. It seems to just get better each day. Today's miracle is that the whole back wall of the tank, and part of the rock work, is free of hair algae. Go snails go!

 

Picture time (as usual, click for bigger pictures):

 

Clown Goby sitting in his protective toadstool leather coral.

 

Torch Coral can expand out pretty big.

 

Clove Polyps.

 

Hard to believe that on January 30th, 2007 the tank looked like this:

 

Then on March 1st, 2007:

 

And today, A 99% Hair Algae Free and Healthy Tank!

[Izzue]

Very Nice!!! YOur hard work payed off with great tank.

Man sory bout the shrimp... sounds like a basslet is like a southern fw bass.

FYI watch that galaxy...looks like you placed it in a good area...once those things start growing...they will produce 6 to 8 inch feeders that Have a powerful sting for

unsuspecting neighbors.

 

Izzue

[seahorsejl]

Very Nice!!! YOur hard work payed off with great tank.

Man sory bout the shrimp... sounds like a basslet is like a southern fw bass.

FYI watch that galaxy...looks like you placed it in a good area...once those things start growing...they will produce 6 to 8 inch feeders that Have a powerful sting for

unsuspecting neighbors.

 

Izzue

 

Thanks! Yeah, I have read about how long the sweepers on the Galaxia coral can get. I will keep an eye on it. I also need to keep an eye on my long tentacle plate, as it is getting huge!

 

Not much new to update ... everything is doing fine. I moved some Zoa's around to be better in the light. The green ones are fully open, and the blues are slowly re-opening (still recovering from the tank crash).

 

The pistol shrimp as been out in the open a lot more now that it paired up with the hi-fin goby. Very cool to watch him maintain the cave entrances.

 

Ok, I must admit a problem I have ... I like feeding my tank too much! I don't know why, but I just enjoy watching the corals eat. I gotta watch this addiction, as it could lead to high nitrates.

[PieNinja]

Holy cow, what a dramatic change over a month and a half.

 

Looking good! Too bad that the heliofungia shrimp didn't make it for more than a couple seconds in your tank

[HotRodScamp]

This should be one of the hottest topics on N-R!!! Too many people get discouraged too easily by algae problems, and you just don't see enough success stories. We can ALL learn a valuable lesson here; persistance, diligence and patience WILL win the battle against algae! And this may be the best example of that I have ever seen documented.

 

What a fantastic job, congratulations!!!

 

- Mike

[sashafay]

seahorsejl -- What is your current parameters: PH, Ammonium, Nitrate, Nitrite, Salinity, etc.?

[alexmurovec]

This should be one of the hottest topics on N-R!!! Too many people get discouraged too easily by algae problems, and you just don't see enough success stories. We can ALL learn a valuable lesson here; persistance, diligence and patience WILL win the battle against algae! And this may be the best example of that I have ever seen documented.

 

What a fantastic job, congratulations!!!

 

- Mike

 

no kidding, your tank looked horrid there for a month, and then bang! it looks so nice now, congratulations.

[seahorsejl]

Off the top of my head from my last test right before a water change last week:

 

pH: 8.2

Ammonia: 0 ppm

Nitrite: 0 ppm

Nitrate: 20 ppm

Salinity: 1.025

Phosphates: 1 ppm

Calcium: 330 ppm

Alkalinity: 125

 

I need to test again tonight and start mixing up a new batch of salt water for a water change. I am back to doing about a 5 gallon per-week water change schedule.

[sashafay]

Off the top of my head from my last test right before a water change last week:

 

pH: 8.2

Ammonia: 0 ppm

Nitrite: 0 ppm

Nitrate: 20 ppm

Salinity: 1.025

Phosphates: 1 ppm

Calcium: 330 ppm

Alkalinity: 125

 

I need to test again tonight and start mixing up a new batch of salt water for a water change. I am back to doing about a 5 gallon per-week water change schedule.

 

Thanks! How did you change you water before planned 5g weekly?

[seahorsejl]

Thanks! How did you change you water before planned 5g weekly?

 

While the tank was going through the horrible brown algae/diatom phase, I was changing water every 3 days. I did this for a couple weeks. This went through a lot of salt, but ended up being worth it.

[plyman44]

This is my first post to the forum - in process of setting up my first SW tank so please excuse any ignorance.

 

Hello Everyone and Congratz to Seahorse on the recovery! Way to stick to your guns… it definitely is paying off. Your new corals are SWEET too!

 

If algae blooms can be caused by phosphates, and carbons can leach phosphates (small amounts), is it possible that the carbons you used may have aided or caused the bloom? Are there any anomalies with carbon that can cause spikes (like carbon that hasn’t been processed correctly)? Can someone explain when a good instance would be to use carbon?

 

And, Seahorse, do you run carbon all of the time? What other type of filter media do you use?

 

Could you be leaving your lights on a little too long as well (aiding the blooms)?

 

Sorry for all of the questions.

[seahorsejl]

This is my first post to the forum - in process of setting up my first SW tank so please excuse any ignorance.

 

Hello Everyone and Congratz to Seahorse on the recovery! Way to stick to your guns… it definitely is paying off. Your new corals are SWEET too!

 

If algae blooms can be caused by phosphates, and carbons can leach phosphates (small amounts), is it possible that the carbons you used may have aided or caused the bloom? Are there any anomalies with carbon that can cause spikes (like carbon that hasn’t been processed correctly)? Can someone explain when a good instance would be to use carbon?

 

And, Seahorse, do you run carbon all of the time? What other type of filter media do you use?

 

Could you be leaving your lights on a little too long as well (aiding the blooms)?

 

Sorry for all of the questions.

 

First, to Nano-Reef. I feel honored that you bestowed your first post here

 

In regards to your carbon question .. it is true that carbon (and any other absorbing material) can re-leach what it absorbs once it is saturated. This very much could be what helped fuel the algae growth. Also, we moved houses in November, and the new house gets a lot more natural light, thus that also could have added to the equation. And the last component was I was using tap water, so who knows what was in there. All of those things probably fed into the hair algae tacking off.

 

My solution tackled each of these ... I now only use RO/DI water, I have since replaced the carbon, and I have reduced the amount of time my main tank lights are on. I think the results are evident

 

When to use a carbon is a highly debated thing. Some only use it when something dies that might release poisonous chemicals (i.e. an anemone, sea hare, cucumber, etc). Others use it all the time. I am in that second camp.

 

Right now I use a bag of Chemi-Pure and a bag of Purigen in my tank. Only other filtration is done with a Skimmer which I run at night.

 

Hope this helps ... and feel free to ask as many questions!

[plyman44]

I hope I don't spawn a big discussion about carbons. I try to read as much as I can and just haven’t read too much about carbon. Thanks for the info Seahorse… I feel smarter already.

 

Yes, the results are very evident. Goes to show that this sport is not for impatient people who need results NOW and don’t bother to research!

 

Make sure your CUC hasn’t formed a union. That would explain sporadic performance and laziness. Hopefully they won’t strike on you again and will maintain.

 

I guess a RO/DI will pay off in the long run… even for something under 30g (carrying those distilled water containers could get old… not to mention buying them week in and week out). I have nightmares because I flooded the house once attaching a water supply to a refrigerator. Damn compression fittings where wrong that came with the supply lines. So, an RO/DI system scares me.

 

Advice - Never leave the house after plumbing work!

[Diskusting]

what happened for the tank to become like this?

 

 

Were you using tapwater for water changes? Were you doing water changes?

 

I was wondering what you did to turn your tank around because ive never seen that drastic of a change from filth to crisp water.