Fry and Leela's Adventures - Moving tanks.

[Steelen]

Dankjewel!

 

The only saltwater LFS in Amsterdam (that we could find) is called 'Aquarium Holgen', I believe they have a shop in the Hague too. The people are very friendly and their RODI water is very cheap, but like we said before, not getting the best advice/service there as it turns out.

We bought our LR from Holgen, it was also from Indonesia and packed with life. Hitchhikers such as a ton of worms, macroalgae, some kind of coral (Xenia I believe), an anemone crab and a hairy crab. In the end we didn't have a cycle, so I think the rock had been there for a while.

 

We mix the SW at home. As far as the RODI water is concerned, we are looking at some RO units because cycling back and forth to Holgen with four jerry cans is already really annoying. We are car-less students

 

How big is your tank going to be?

 

~ Hester

Awesome thanks. I have WaterWeelde here in the Hague. My reefer friend recommended them to me. So I will be going there soon to start my tank. I visited the store not long ago and was happy with what I saw. Healthy fish, clean tanks where the coral is stored in same for LR. I think they get their LR from Indonesia. All I need to go is either buy a RO system and get approval for that from my stepdad or have him drive me to the store one time and get like 50L in one go and then over the months get 25L on my own with a jerrycan. Really debating on which option to go since I will be moving to Florida end of 2014 so trying to keep it budget-tight.

 

Have you figured out what kind of LED's you are going? And where you are getting them?

 

Cannot wait to get started in the hobby end of January!

[FishFrog]

We have lift off! CUC is in the tank. Astraea #1 went straight to cleaning up. #2 seems less happy, but it's moving a little. The Cerith is super tiny and just sitting there doing nothing. Hope will see some life out of him soon. The Nassarius' are also lying around, although we have seen some movement from them.

The hermits are like two little brothers running in to each other & falling over each other all the time. Also really small so we don't think they'll be eating our snails anytime soon. Also have some extra shells for them, just a little too big for them now.

[Snowgrrl83]

YAY!!! Congrats My ceriths tend to be a little lazier. They may take a day or 2 to start moving, don't worry too much.

[Chew_Magna]

I just realized you were from the Netherlands. I actually play Guild Wars 2 with a bunch of people from around that part of the world (I think one or two are from Amsterdam as well).

[FishFrog]

Astraea number 1 is clearly in heaven. Hasn't stopped eating the algae. Number two moved a little bit, then stopped.

The cerith also started to do it's thing.

First nassarius is on the move also and has an enormous long 'mouth'thing. Number two barely moved. Guess they are a little shocked from transport and all, the others seem to be fine.

The hermits are real climbers. Not even the glass is safe! Hilarious to see them go. Will post pictures soon.

[FishFrog]

I just realized you were from the Netherlands. I actually play Guild Wars 2 with a bunch of people from around that part of the world (I think one or two are from Amsterdam as well).

I played Guild Wars too, part one, after it was released. For about a year I think.

 

 

Astraea #1 cleaning the glass:

 

Nassarius #1 was also on the glass this morning:

 

Nass #2 woke up too!:

 

Tiny, tiny Cerith:

 

The two hermits snuggled up together this night and are sleeping well into this rainy morning!:

 

Now we're just waiting for Astraea #2 to truly 'wake up'.

 

~Robbert

[Steelen]

YAY! Grats. Soon stuff can be added :-)

[Chew_Magna]

I played Guild Wars too, part one, after it was released. For about a year I think.

I played the first one off and on for six years. The second one just didn't do it for me, they took out everything that made the game unique and (to me) enjoyable.

[FishFrog]

Update: all the snails and the hermits seem to be doing fine. The hermits keep fighting with each other, no casualties yet though. The astraea that didn't move from day one seemed to have passed on to the green algae pastures in heaven. He was constantly lying on his back, it's body half out of the shell, the operculum somewhere in between. The last two days it stopped moving completely, so we decided to bury the sucker. Poked it a few times first, to make sure it was dead and no response. We gave it a proper burial .

 

Tank is getting cleaner everyday, thanks to the CUC. We will get another astraea soon, and maybe a extra cerith since it is so tiny.

 

After that we are thinking of getting a false perc as our first fish. Cheap, hardy (especially the tank bred), beautiful and fun to watch.

[FishFrog]

Happy New Year everyone!

Great news to start 2014! I just spotted the porcelain crab again and he has doubled in size! We thought he had died because we haven't seen him for ages. So happy!

I'm wondering now what we should do with it. Reading very different things about whether these crabs can be fed, or whether they survive just by filtering. Would be great to see it more often. Will have to do some more reading...

~ Hester

[FishFrog]

This popped out of our rock yesterday and hasn't moved since. Anyone have any ideas what it might be? Looks a bit like a bristleworm, but it seems too white, almost see-through. Plus the fact that it stays exactly still...

 

~ Hester

[Pinner Reef]

It is a bristle of some type... Can't ID it from the pic. Might try and grab it out of there if you can. Usually they're good cleaners and no big issue, sometimes not. I just hate bristle worms as I'm highly reactive to their sting.

[Steelen]

Btw, speaking of CUC, what is in yours? I need to make a list soon for mine and trying to figure out what to put in it. As its more expensive here in the Netherlands compared to the USA...

[FishFrog]

It is a bristle of some type... Can't ID it from the pic. Might try and grab it out of there if you can. Usually they're good cleaners and no big issue, sometimes not. I just hate bristle worms as I'm highly reactive to their sting.

Wow I do not want to get stung by any of those things! It is definitely alive as it has just started moving very slowly. Seems to be a short, white, bristly, almost see-though worm thingy.

 

We are doing a WC tomorrow and cleaning up a bit, I'll try and catch it then.

 

Obviously I suck at taking pictures with my smartphone, in the dark, while holding a flashlight between my teeth.

 

~ Hester

 

Btw, speaking of CUC, what is in yours? I need to make a list soon for mine and trying to figure out what to put in it. As its more expensive here in the Netherlands compared to the USA...

We got two blue-legged dwarf hermits, which turned out to be super small. Two astreas, one died. Two nassarius snails, which are doing great. And one cerith, which also turned out to be super small. I have to say though, they are doing a seriously good job of cleaning up. There is almost no algae anymore and the astrea is really fast, he also keeps the glass very clean.

 

~ Hester

[Pinner Reef]

Wow I do not want to get stung by any of those things! It is definitely alive as it has just started moving very slowly. Seems to be a short, white, bristly, almost see-though worm thingy.

 

We are doing a WC tomorrow and cleaning up a bit, I'll try and catch it then.

 

Obviously I suck at taking pictures with my smartphone, in the dark, while holding a flashlight between my teeth.

 

~ Hester

 

The bristles come out and get stuck in your skin like old school insulation. The hand gets numb, burny, itchy, swollen... Might suggest tweezers is all I'm saying. Then again I might be a bit allergic.

But yeah I've been there with the phone.lol

[FishFrog]

The bristles come out and get stuck in your skin like old school insulation. The hand gets numb, burny, itchy, swollen... Might suggest tweezers is all I'm saying. Then again I might be a bit allergic.

But yeah I've been there with the phone.lol

Yuck. I'm going to continue using gloves and tweezers then. Sounds nasty.

Some people on here seem to have some seriously nice cameras - I think I'll just stick to trying to be artistic with my phone.

~ Hester

[Chew_Magna]

Yuck. I'm going to continue using gloves and tweezers then. Sounds nasty.

Some people on here seem to have some seriously nice cameras - I think I'll just stick to trying to be artistic with my phone.

~ Hester

All my tank pics have been taken with my phone. Just experiment and see what works best with yours.

[FishFrog]

All my tank pics have been taken with my phone. Just experiment and see what works best with yours.

Seriously?! I was just looking at your pictures and thinking "well, he must have a nice camera too". Tank looks really great btw. I wish I could do a floating rock

~ Hester

[Chew_Magna]

Seriously?! I was just looking at your pictures and thinking "well, he must have a nice camera too". Tank looks really great btw. I wish I could do a floating rock

~ Hester

It's all phone lol. Granted it's hacked to hell and highly customized with things like a better camera. But still a phone. And a two year old one at that. I do have a camera coming, I bought one with the xmas money I received. I'm just waiting for it to come in. Delivery is supposed to be Wed.

[FishFrog]

It's all phone lol. Granted it's hacked to hell and highly customized with things like a better camera. But still a phone. And a two year old one at that. I do have a camera coming, I bought one with the xmas money I received. I'm just waiting for it to come in. Delivery is supposed to be Wed.

Aha! The monkey comes out of the sleeve, to use a bad literal English translation of a Dutch saying

 

Presents are the best. I got a 5kilo Nutella jar and a sewing machine this year. My mother offered to buy us a puffer fish but we declined haha

 

Looking forward to the pics with the new camera.

~ Hester

[FishFrog]

So we finally decided to buy some fish.

 

We first wanted to get a false percula and a YCG. However, after spending quite a bit of time looking at baby percs we decided our tank was going to be a clownfish pair tank for the rest of this year. It is still early days but we are seriously considering buying a 20g tank if this one goes according to plan for about a year.

 

Both fish are still very small, just over an inch, one a bit larger than the other. They're eating well and not showing any signs of illness or anything to worry about, so I hope they are happy. We haven't named them yet. They are very cute and a lot of fun to watch, surfing and messing about.

 

Our next plans are to slowly try some easy corals. The hitchhiker polyps which came on the LR are doing well, growing every week.

The CUC is also doing well, one of the hermits molted, which was very weird to watch.

Water parameters are also still good.

 

Not having great success with the photography thing yet, but here are some pictures!

 

~ Hester

[FishFrog]

Oh and our first DIY project is also completed. I made a 'venturi-silencer' for our skimmer.

 

Didn't really silence the skimmer, but the main thing was for the air inlet to not be stuck in the tank anymore. This way it get's in more fresh air, we were hoping to raise our PH a bit. Didn't seem to raise it, but then again, PH testing with a kit is kinda hard. And we read here on the forum that PH fluctuates throughout the day, is hard to test, etc. So nothing to really worry about, right?
It's around 7.8 - 8 every time I test it. So at least it's stable and our KH is also pretty stable. We dose a very small amount once every 1 or 2 weeks to keep it stable around 9-10 (calcium is also stable around ~400 and magnesium around ~1250).

Now we just have to watch our feeding. First time we dropped in way too much (it doesn't look like much when you hold it in your hand!), but now we know to drop in way less and they eat it all very quickly. So we figured it is better to feed a small amount twice a day so that everything gets eaten, instead of a large amount once.
First day the small perc was being dominated by the bigger one (they did the stroke thing also) and didn't get to eat, but the second day he did get some food. So I guess he know his place now.
We got pellets, some live food and frozen food. The pellets they share, but the life food is only being eaten by the bigger perc. I guess as the dominate one she (or soon to be she) claims the good stuff for herself.

~Robbert

[Snow_Phoenix]

Strange. Your Percs look like regular Occys to me. Well, whatever they may be, they're certainly cute pair.

[FishFrog]

Strange. Your Percs look like regular Occys to me. Well, whatever they may be, they're certainly cute pair.

From what we've read there is 3 main differences between true and false: dorsal fins (usually true 9, false 10), the black stripes (true has thicker) and eye color (true has some orange, false black). Haven't been able to properly count the fins, black stripes (from what I've read) can vary a lot. That leaves us with the color of the eyes and they are black as can be.

 

But thanks a lot for the compliment! And if they do turn out to be true perc's, will just have to get that 20G a lot quicker . We're just glad that they didn't fight for too long and started eating healthy straight away.

 

Edit:

best shot I could get of the little one:

 

 

I count at least 10 fins. And the eyes look all black to me on this picture. Awesome photoshop skills by the way ;-).

[FishFrog]

Not only did the hermit molt a few days ago, it finally switched into a bigger empty shell! No snails were harmed during this process ;-). Now we are just waiting for the other one to 'wake up' again, but we read on nano reef that it is common for hermits that are about to molt to be pretty inactive for some days. It sits in the same spot every day, only comes out a little at night, but goes back to his spot quickly.

 

The clowns have also found a sleeping spot at the top of the tank, above the powerhead. As soon as the lights go out they both go up, and 'sleep' there whilst swimming on their sides. Pretty fun to watch.