Friar's 4 gallon Finnex - R.I.P.

[friar1]

do they look like mine?(in my picotope)

 

The hydroids? I don't know, do you have a picture of them?

[.Newman.]

yes, on the HH showcase page in my thread. there are some fluorescent green ones and regular white/tan ones that you might have.

[friar1]

Hi Newman,

thanks for that. I actually have thePhotosynthetic thecate hydroids that you mentioned, although right now there is only one, very pretty.

 

The others that I suspect are hydroids have a light green stalk with a tuft of what looks like algae at the end. But when they get older, they produce an inverted umbrella shape at the end of the stalk, and then out of that inverted umbrella shape comes more of what looks like algae. Very curious, I am going to try to get pictures before I burn them off. Most of these are on rock not inhabited by other animals. And most of them are growing in the same place as a bloom of algae.

 

Brian

[.Newman.]

the flourescent thecate hydroids are real nice, i agree. though they are still nuisance as they encroach on corals, so try to keep them in check.

[friar1]

Ok, so I wanted to show, how snails are cleaning my Astrea snail and the long GHA on it, here is the first pic:

 

 

And while being cleaned:

 

And all Clean! Notice the red arrow? It is pointing to a little tube worm or fan worm, it is tiny and red. Now I see them all over my tank.

 

Here is the new Ric

 

Here is another shot with Coralline encrusted rock to the right.

 

FTS later on.

 

Brian

[brandon429]

hows new tank doin buddy

[friar1]

Hi Brandon,

It is still alive, no GHA problems, but there is something in the water making my Zoas stressed. I have to see if I can hook up the Canister filter with some Chemi_Pure Elite to see what happens.

 

Also have a problem with vermetid snails stressing the corals.

 

I have a HOB filter that has a filter pad in it. It has also become an algae scrubber of sorts. It is full of GHA, but there is virtually none in the tank.

 

Which is cool.

 

Thanks for asking about the tank. I need to see if i can get some more growth while taking care of the vermetid snails. I had some Hydroids that were multiplying, but I burned most of them out.

 

 

Brian

[brandon429]

sounds great its amazing how many different ways a 4 gallon can be ran successfully nice going.

[friar1]

So yeah, although the tank doe snot have nuisance algae it does have some kind of problem. All the animals are doing great. Brittle star is great (And Growing!) CandyCanes are fine, Rics, great. Snails awesome, I have three stomatellas, don't know where they came from, they are growing big too!

the usual crew of Nas, Cerith and a small Turbo.

 

But the zoas are not happy. They aren't closed all the way, but they aren't open all the way either. This just began with the last water change, so I am suspicious of the water I used. Did a 50% change tonight with a new batch of water and we will see if there is a change from there. However, I am a little concerned. Before this happened, my Duncan began to be irritated, Though it was the vermetids, and I got rid of most. Got the last big one tonight. It may be it was irritating the zoas, but idk??

 

I will be doing some water testing here in the next few days to see if there is an issue with excess nutrients.

 

That is all for now.

B

[friar1]

Just thought I would post an update.

 

I took the HOB filter off the tank. added my Canister filter from before. It is actually made for turtle aquariums, hehe. It is running Chemi-Pure Elite and Purigen. Still have the Nano powerhead. I replaced my old Theo 25watt with a new Theo 50 watt heater. I saw a lot of voltage leakage (Not that that means anything) with that old heater in there. My corals and Brittle star were all beginning to look sickly, closing up, especially the Duncan. After changing the Heater, taking out the HOB and then doing a bunch of water changes, everything began to recover. I think I just really had some polluted water. I was caught off guard because I couldn't do any water testing other than for salinity. Duh.

 

Anyway, the Miami Vice Zoas I got a while ago and have not reproduced at all are now beginning to reproduce, although slowly, they look nicer too, not so washed out. The Red People eater is now about 17 polyps, that is up from one polyp when I started it in the Tetra 1.5 Gallon 17 months ago. It is spreading out along the top rocks in the tank.

 

The new Orange Ric I got this last summer now has two mouths. The Duncan is growing again too.

The Candy Cane corals we got about 5 months ago are now growing new mouths, hope to see some splitting soon.

 

I am now feeding the tank again, occasionally, about every three days, I put in some freeze dried Cyclop-eeze or freeze dried mysis shrimp. Whoever catches some gets to eat. The brittle star always seems to do well.

 

The Mini-Mini is going ok, but doesn't get very big, still only less than Half Dollar size, but nice colors.

 

I have some bubble algae, which I am keeping an eye on. Some hydroids also, but not yet taking over the tank, no GHA to speak of, so I think stability is right on now.

 

I am trying to think of good livestock additions, would like something that moved, but don't want to add to bio load. Probably get some more rics and maybe some zoas, but really want something else, something new and interesting, and of course colorful. Can't find much in the way of Maxi-Minis or shrimp online. We don't have a saltwater LFS here so everything I buy has to be online. However, i just can't stand the thought of paying $40 shipping for over night, so so far I have only done USPS Priority. Right now is the perfect time for me to get stuff, since the weather is really mild right now (Except for back east hehe) So, anybody have suggestions for a mobile, colorful livestock addition that can ship two day priority? I know, wishful thinking right? OR just Colorful? I am thinking about Acans too, I have a corner that can handle some sweepers. I was also thinking about a torch or hammer coral, but I am afraid what those sweepers might do in such a tight space.

 

Suggestions?

 

I will post some shots later today.

 

That's all for now.

[brandon429]

I say an expensive acan colony and a juvenile coral banded shrimp, the yellow ones stay small a very long time and they have long lives inside a pico. mines 4+ years in a vase, in a 4 gallon it would be a mansion lol.

[friar1]

Well, I was thinking about a Coral Banded, but Hard for me to come by. And.. Acan Colony too expensive for my taste, however, i might just go for a one polyp Acan

 

Here are some shots...

 

 

 

 

Here are more pics...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kylebeano]

you can add some nice cloves, im suggesting them to everybody nowadays. oh, and if you dont have anything that needs to eat in there, I wouldnt be feeding the tank too much!

[friar1]

Not feeding too much. The bristle worms and amphipods clean up the leftovers, when there are some.

 

Really want some pulsing Xenia, but can't find any online.

[.Newman.]

find someone local near you who is selling coral in general,. they might have some. you can start by checking the classified section on this forum. most people are from CA, i noticed...

[friar1]

Nobody nearby, not that I know of. I think I am the only hobbyist within a hundred miles (Driving) that has a saltwater tank. As far as I know. There is a store, but I do not trust their livestock, the one tank they have looks ill kept. People there know little about Reefing.

 

I should go back there to check it out though, maybe they have changed

[friar1]

"Scurry, Scurry, i want movement!"

 

--Jack Sparrow

 

-- "Captain" Jack Sparrow

[friar1]

Oh yes, I forgot to mention, I am no longer dosing C-Balance. Coraline is growing fine on the glass, all corals happy. Just need to make sure I do water changes weekly or twice weekly.

 

 

Brian

[friar1]

Well,

I got an emerald crab to hopefully work on the bubble algae I have, but he instead went to work on my Zoas! Started tearing them from their rock, and I lost the Miami Vice zoas that were finally beginning to reproduce! Banished! Crab goes away!

 

Purchased some zoas and Rics from Sealife Inc. great specimens! Pics later.

 

Tank very stable except for that crab. Still have the brittle star and the new zoas replaced the miami vice zoas. Some of the zoas are a very deep purple color with green rings around their mouths, look pretty cool.

 

I need some red or pink coral to balance the color out some in the tank.

 

The Duncan is now growing new heads again. Candy canes are slowly reproducing.

 

I also did some work on the light stand I built when I began this tank. I used paneling paint black and magnets to hold the pieces so now all you see is the tank, not the stuff in the back or the hoses. I will send pics later on how this works. Only thing left is to trim the acrylic lid I have, so it doesn't stick out on the sides so much. It is not a full lid, but it keeps salt spray from getting on everything and reduces creep.

[.Newman.]

bad luck with the crab Some times they do that.

[friar1]

Oh yeah,

I forgot to mention, the crab took care of the hydroids that were beginning to colonize, weird huh?

 

All in all I am very happy with the tank. Now, i need to figure out a way to scrape coralline off the sides of the tank at the bottom edge next to the sand. I have not found a good scraper that will be small enough and still give me the force I need to scrape coralline. I need a 14 inch long (or so), thin-handle, hard edged scraper so I can get down to the sand. I don't like using the magnetic ones that low because they stir up sand and the sand gets caught in the velcro and then scratches the glass, or, that is what I am afraid of. Anyone have suggestions for cleaning the glass down by the edge of the sand?

[friar1]

HEre are pictures

FTS

Wait!? What's that in the corner?! Why, it appears to be a damsel!

 

[friar1]

And now for the shots of the tank.

 

New Rics and Zoas from SeaLife Inc

 

 

RPE's at the top and Duncan and Zoas underneath

 

 

Orange Ric from Sea Life Inc I got last summer

 

[friar1]

Now, here is what I did for covering the mess behind the tank.

 

I took some paneling and cut it to fit the sides and front of my light stand that I made to hold the LED fixture I built at the beginning of this tank. Painted them black and attached them to the sides and front by strong magnets. Looks wonderful.

 

Here it is with all the panels on

 

 

Here with the front panel off

 

 

Here with the front and side panels off, and then with both on seen from the side corner. I really like the effect, as if I have an all in one! Makes it easy to do maintenance, all I have to do is take off the panels, they just slide off.

 

 

[.Newman.]

you're going to have to DIY a scraper involving a razor blade. I'm probably going to build one myself for the same purpose - my sand line is lame and is blocking my zoas in my FTSs.

 

The hood build is great, I will have to think up of a similar way to make my picotope look better from the outside like yours!

 

And I do not normally like rics, but when I do, I like the orange ric you have.