uglyfish 65g sps tank

[heifinator]

What fish are you keeping in it and have you had any carpet surfers? =) just curious.

[uglyfish]

What fish are you keeping in it and have you had any carpet surfers? =) just curious.

 

Yeah, I had a clown jump last week, first time, survived. It was actually stuck dry to the hardwood floor - when I put it back in, it sank to the bottom. Within a few days it was back to normal.

 

I had an anthia jump into my overflow and I couldn't get it out with a net... it eventually jumped back into the main on its own.

 

Open top is a risk for sure- I may have to add some corner covers or strips along the top edge.

[uglyfish]

 

I added an emerald crab to help with the algae. I added this guy a few days ago - today I see he's missing a claw and 3 legs on one side. I have another big nasty black clawed crab in there somewhere. The emerald crab is eating the fluffy pink algae.

[disaster999]

i had an emerald crab before to take care of bubble algae, it did absolutely nothing to get rid of them. not sure what happened to it since i havent seen it in forever, i assumed it died

[uglyfish]

i had an emerald crab before to take care of bubble algae, it did absolutely nothing to get rid of them. not sure what happened to it since i havent seen it in forever, i assumed it died

 

This one is eating algae - though I don't think he'll last too long with the other crab around.

[FishBrawler]

UPDATES PRONTO!

[uglyfish]

UPDATES PRONTO!

 

Thanks for checking my thread.

 

No new pics. I've been busy and the tank was a bit neglected. I hadn't calibrated my refractometer for a while and I was running 1.032 for a few weeks (maybe longer?)... ahh! Many acros started to STN at the base - took me a while to pinpoint salinity as a problem. I won't make that mistake again. For now - just changing water, checking parameters and hoping for recovery.

 

Emerald crab - gone. (a $10 feast for my pest crab)

 

I've identified my pest crab as a red eyed crab - Eriphia sebana. This bastard crab has been in my tank since day 1. I've made numerous attempts to get it but the closest I've gotten is to pull a claw off. I'm ripping out all the rockwork over the holidays until I get it. (Picture Bill Murray in Caddyshack)

[Sahin]

I caught one of them a few years ago in my tank. I took out the rock he was in, left it in a bucket and figured out roughly where he was by placing a piece of shrimp in the bucket. Sure enough, many hours later he came almost out, I then used a screwdriver to break break open that part of the rock and took him out.

[login]

When you catch him, be sure to take some photos.

[uglyfish]

Snazzy new look to the website!

 

Here's a shot of the pest crab - finally out. I pulled the rock he was hiding in and poked him out. I don't have the heart to kill it... so it's making a home in the sump.

 

 

[Asureef]

Uglyfish, how are your SPS doing since the removal of the bio-pellets? I'm dealing with a lot of "STN" myself and find your opinion of causes quite plausible.

[uglyfish]

Immediately after removing biopellets, STN stopped cold, sps started to regrow quickly. I switched to nopox, was better for a few months, then stn again. I have let my basic parameters go out of whack - so I can't fully blame the nopox. But I have stopped daily nopox dosing. I started getting some algae, so I bought more snails and emerald crab (of which most were eaten by my pest crab). I am just changing water and watching parameters closely. I'm not dosing nopox daily - maybe once a week, sometimes I don't dose for weeks. no3 is around 0.2-0.5, po4 is around 0.02, sometimes I get a 0 reading... the algae is in check for the most part, except for some bryopsis and pink fluff which I'm going to spot treat with peroxide. I'm taking jediBen's advice on larger CUC - and relying less on carbon dosing.

 

Biopellets didn't work for me - yet some people experience success... look to the tanks where they do work, typically larger setups, po4 isn't a problem, no3 is high, bioload is high - these tanks seem to do well with biopellets.

[metrokat]

Nasty gorilla crab.

[FishBrawler]

What paints did you use on your stand?

[uglyfish]

What paints did you use on your stand?

 

Stained then a clear polyurethane finish.

[FishBrawler]

It looks good. Im going to try the polyurathane with a rustolium paint instead of staining

[Paleoreef103]

I'm taking jediBen's advice on larger CUC - and relying less on carbon dosing.

 

Biopellets didn't work for me - yet some people experience success... look to the tanks where they do work, typically larger setups, po4 isn't a problem, no3 is high, bioload is high - these tanks seem to do well with biopellets.

I had a similar experience. While I never had a full bacterial bloom like I have had with straight vodka dosing while using biopellets, I think that biopellets is completely unnecessary on mid-sized tanks. Honestly, I've always had the best luck with low to moderate stocking levels, a good sized refugium/cryptic zone, and a large skimmer (I haven't tried an ATS yet, but I'm happy with my current set up..

[uglyfish]

I had a similar experience. While I never had a full bacterial bloom like I have had with straight vodka dosing while using biopellets, I think that biopellets is completely unnecessary on mid-sized tanks. Honestly, I've always had the best luck with low to moderate stocking levels, a good sized refugium/cryptic zone, and a large skimmer (I haven't tried an ATS yet, but I'm happy with my current set up..

 

Every tank is different. Too many variables to say absolutely that anything works or doesn't work. I think we try this and that until we find what work for our specific tank... And that can be a slow process.

 

I tried the bigger clean up crew only to have most die and foul the tank. I added about 20 snails and only a handful have survived - certainly not from lack of food. I've been plucking the empty shells as I saw them, but all the rotting snail meat has fouled the tank a bit. I've got cyano and nuisance algae starting up again. I fighting it with more aggressive water changes and gravel vacuuming. The fish are happy, lps are happy, sps isn't doing so well.

 

 

 

[Psychosis]

All right, I'm going to need a full update here pal. I see a kick ass FTS, skip to the last page, and see it hasn't been bumped since February. Some times, this site just isn't fair.

[GTi]

+1 ^

[uglyfish]

Thanks for checking in. Lots of mini-disasters with the tank over the last few months...

 

Crazy alk spike in January - rushing out the door, I plugged the dosing pump into wrong outlet and dumped a half a gallon of alk solution into the tank... got home to discover a full snow storm. Lots of water changes - some loss, mildly catastrophic.

 

Protein skimmer pump leaking electricity - apparently for months... I kept getting zapped when I touched the lights. I figured the electricity was coming from the lights - no big deal - just don't touch the lights. In fact - they were grounded and that's why I felt the zap - from the water in the tank to the grounded lights. I tested my water and measured 60V to ground! STN all over the place. Pulling my hair out over this. The skimmer pump has been gone a week and I'm seeing a HUGE improvement - coraline growing again, acro's sprouting new branches, regrowing skin.

 

Algae outbreak... probably because of electric leak or die off from alk spike, no big deal - snails happy.

 

Currently dealing with acro eating pests, frustrating to say the least. The pest pods seem to restrict to certain acros only. Very tiny... very very tiny (not red bugs). Dipping does nothing.

 

On the bright side: Coloration is better than it's ever been, growth (recovery) is excellent. Learned alot about electricity and STN.

 

 

 

 

Very pleased with colour - badly damaged, but recovering.

Will update FTS this weekend.

[GTi]

You have some beautiful colours there! Definitely heading in the right direction - keep it up!