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MatthewDVM's Fluval Edge - Happy Birth-tank-day


Matthewdvm

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So I'm a long time fresh water guy (I have a 30 gallon, heavily planted fresh water tank right now). I have long lusted after a saltwater tank, but never took the plunge, due to time, cost and space constraints. It was my 8 year old son's birthday last week, and he really wanted an aquarium in his room, so I looked on Kijiji for a small Fluvial tank, and came across an ad for a 6 gallon Fluvial edge that had been used as a nano reef, and was being sold with most of the supplies (powerhead, additional LEDs suitable for growing corals and live sand). Nano Reef was a new term to me, but as soon as I started reading about it, I was hooked. My wife pointed out that a Nano Reef would be for me, not my son, and I realized she was right. So I bought the tank for my home office and started reading as much as I could about nano reefs (a lot of it on this awesome site - thanks for all the advice you have all given people in the past).

 

In the past week, I've mixed my first salt water, bought live rock, and have done more water tests than I have in the past 5 years on my freshwater tank. And now, I begin the long wait for the tank to cycle. The ammonia is climbing slowly. This is going to be a long month of waiting, I fear. Oh well, I guess while I wait for the tank to cycle, I can battle the dreaded Green Water bloom in my other tank, and read, read, read so I am ready to begin populating my new project!

 

Anyway, here's a picture of my Nano as it stands now:

 

 

Oh, and my 8 year old has a neat little Fluvial Chi with a few Cardinal Tetras in it right now (he is learning the patience of a cycling tank, too)

 

 

 

Current FTS:

 

DSC03040.jpg

 

And the Side View:

 

 

 

And the even rarer other side view (never before seen!)

 

 

 

and here are the details of the tank, since I never posted them:

 

Fluval Edge 6g

Koralia Nano 240 pump

Stock HOB filter

 

Filtration:

LR (random assortment from a few different sources)

Live Sand (not sure the source, came from the previous owner)

 

Lighting:

Stock lights, plus:

TrueLumen LED Strips 2X12,00K White, 1x453nm Actinic, 1x50:50 Actinic:White

Cree 36 W Ultra-Brite lighting

 

Stock:

3x Cerith Snail

2X trochus Snail

1x Nassarius snal

1x Sexy Shrimp (started with 4)

1x Psychadelic Mandarin (Jimi)

1x Green Clown Goby (Clive)

1x Pom-Pom Shrimp (Buffy)

1x Purple Firefirsh (Sonya 7)

 

4x Green Hairy Mushroom

1x Sunny D Yuma

1x Green and Purple Yuma

1x Orange and Purple Yuma

4xRicordea florida (New!)

1x Leopard Discosoma

1x Blue and Teal Discosoma

 

1x Green Star Polyp

1x Hammer Coral

1x Duncan Coral

1x Red Metallic Flower Pot Goniopora

1x Acan (not sure which type)

 

1x Milky Way Zoa

1x Supernova Zoa

1x unknown Zoa

1x Tubb's Blue Zoas (not dead yet, but shrivelled and not looking so hot)

1x Arctic Ice Palys (with either some Medusa or or Nebula Palys)

1x Nuclear Green Palys

1xStardust People Eater (New!)

1xGreen People Eater (New!)

1xPurple Death Paly (New!)

1XCaribbean Checker Zoa (New!)

1x Chocolate Chip Mint Sunflower Zoa

3x Bird's Nest Coral (not sure of the individual types)

1x Bird's Nest

2x Forest Fire Digitata

1x Ponape Bird's Nest

1x Acropora tenuis

1x Red Monti Cap
1xMicromusa (New!)

post-86686-0-79307300-1419039732_thumb.jpg

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Thats what we like to call a pest...its an aiptasia which if I am correct, is a type of anemone, but its a pest because it grows very quickly and out competes other corals and its pretty ugly...destroy it at all costs

 

 

I haven't ever dealt with them before but I would take that rock out of the tank since it doesn't have any other corals on it, and read up on how to get rid of those buggers.

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Ugh. Thanks for letting me know. Despite being a noob, I have read up on those and know enough to know I don't want it. It shall be killed...



It's on one of the smaller live rocks I have, so I guess I will pluck it out of the tank, treat it with boiling water, and then put it back (coz I like the rock itself).

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Yeah I would make extra sure you have gotten rid of it before putting it back in the tank...also just read that boiling rocks and putting them back in your tank is bad, so maybe look into a different method of getting rid of it. I've heard fire works, not sure if that was a joke somewhere but I assume you could just hold a lighter to it until its totally destroyed and then maybe put the rock back in the tank? But apparently boiling the rock is no good.

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Unfortunately with aiptisa where there's one there's normally more. Look at getting a true peppermint shrimp or something that will pick at them. Once they get big there's not much that will bother them.
They sort of took over my edge 46 (the bigger one) as it was to difficult with the scape I made to get them with any chemical killers or vinegar.

However now I've got my upgrade to a 75g they should provide something nice to nibble on for todays new addition a copperband butterfly fish who I'm hoping will munch the buggers while picking over the rocks.



Boiling rock is very bad. One, rock can explode (makes a mess/bloody dangerous if your stood close) two lots of nasty bacteria come away in the steam, you don't want to inhale that rubbish.

Windproof lighters seem effective, but you have to remember where on the rock the blighter is as they can retract fully into the hole they're footed in.

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Thanks for the advice, guys! This is why I joined this forum. I'm going to tackle him with a creme brule torch, and see what happens. As the tank cycles, I'll be flipping over the rocks, looking for more.

 

I wasn't going to add anything to the tank as it cycled, but if I have the risk of Aiptasia, should I get a true peppermint shrimp to nibble it, or just rotate and inspect the rocks every day or two to find them when they are young, then burn the suckers? At least the latter will give me something to do in the month or so that it cycles...

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On the plus side, when I pulled that rock out to blast the Aiptasia, I realized that what had been the back side of the rock had some lovely purple coraline algae on it, so I have flipped it around to show its better side! I saw no more aiptasia, but I'll be on the lookout, torch in hand, to burn the bastards!

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Kill them! Kill them with fire!

 

lol yeah that little torch thing will work wonders.

Shrimp are quite sensitive to water quality and should be one of your last clean up crew added. A watchful eye will be your best solution for now, aiptasia start microscopically small so spotting them all will be impossible. But once you have coral etc in the tank removing rock to torch the buggers (especially from an edge) becomes difficult, so that's when having something that can control the issues comes into play.

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Thanks for the advice Benny! That's what I was planning on doing. Watching, torching, and going slow. It gives me more time to research and plot what I will spend my $$ on.



Maybe I'll post pictures of the wreckage of the aiptasia tomorrow when the water clears...

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That's the way to go, don't want to put anything in an edge you'll need to get out in a hurry. Fish are a sod to catch in them, specially if you have a fancy rock scape or delicate corals all over the place lol.

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I just killed one on a plug for a mushroom frag and I used a thick slurry of super buffer. Use a syringe and squirt the super buffer down the aiptasia's mouth. Most of the time that will kill a small aiptasia. Big ones might need more than one treatment.

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In a small aquarium you have to be careful of throwing your parameters. Even using lemon juice or vinegar can throw your PH and killing a lot at once can cause an ammonia spike. 6g is not a lot of water volume to handle extra buffer etc.

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Buy either aiptasia x which is 100% reef safe or take boiling water in a syringe and inject it directly in the aiptasias mouth. Both of these methods will work effectively with minimal impact on your tank.

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One, a fluval edge is a pain to get into and move around in to inject aiptaisa. Two in a 6g (23l) tank, anything, even some boiling water will make the salinity fluctuate and the die off from what you kill will also risk throwing an ammonia spike.

Aiptaisa have a habit of springing up faster than you can get them with aip X in the first place and only being able to kill 3 or 4 in a session will allow the buggers to go wild.

Torching them is by far the best and most effective method at the minute while it's easy to do.

If he's lucky he'll get them all before they can spore and pop up everywhere, after that all you can do is get something to control them naturally in the tank. Berghia nudibranches for instance. But they're a pain to source and once they've eaten everything they die off and aiptaisa could get reintroduced on a new coral and you'd have to get some more. Pepper mint shrimp are hit and miss as to whether they eat aips, but if you get one that does then they will help keep on top of the issue.

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One, a fluval edge is a pain to get into and move around in to inject aiptaisa. Two in a 6g (23l) tank, anything, even some boiling water will make the salinity fluctuate and the die off from what you kill will also risk throwing an ammonia spike.

Aiptaisa have a habit of springing up faster than you can get them with aip X in the first place and only being able to kill 3 or 4 in a session will allow the buggers to go wild.

Torching them is by far the best and most effective method at the minute while it's easy to do.

If he's lucky he'll get them all before they can spore and pop up everywhere, after that all you can do is get something to control them naturally in the tank. Berghia nudibranches for instance. But they're a pain to source and once they've eaten everything they die off and aiptaisa could get reintroduced on a new coral and you'd have to get some more. Pepper mint shrimp are hit and miss as to whether they eat aips, but if you get one that does then they will help keep on top of the issue.

I do not understand how 2mL or less of boiling water is going to affect salinity or how killing one aiptasia is going to cause an ammonia spike. And aiptasia x is extremely effective but I feel many people do not follow the instructions as it is very important to inject into the mouth so the aiptasia does not release spores.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So waiting for the tank to cycle really is an exercise in patience... It's been 2 weeks since I set it up, and so far, the ammonia has stayed pretty low, and no nitrates or nitrites at all. Because I couldn't add anything else yet, I picked up some extra live rock the other day, couldn't pass up the amount of coraline algae on it. Now I think I might have too much LR, but don't know which pieces to get rid of. Any thoughts? How long does it take for the Ammonia to spike, usually?

 

Here's the current FTS (new LR are the ones in the front, just to the right of centre and the one to the left, just in behind it):

 

20141230-203354.jpg



Oh, and so far, no more aiptasia after I torched the first one! Thanks for all the advice on how to deal with it. As the tank gets going, I'm sure pulling out the rock and torching the offender will become less feasible, so it is always good to have other options.

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Slightly off topic, but since there is not much going on yet with the reef tank, I have been channeling my tank energies into the other tanks in the house. Current FTS of the other tanks:

 

My 30 gallon planted tank. All small fish (I have an obsession with hard to find Rasboras, and just yesterday got some Blue Rasboras, to go along with the Copper Rasboras, Chili Rasboras and Red-Tailed Rasboras. I used to have some Galaxy Rasboras (my favourites), but they didn't survive my move last summer).

 

http://s1247.photobucket.com/user/Matthewdvm/media/20141230-203445.jpg.html'>20141230-203445.jpg

 

My middle son's (age 8) Fluvial Chi, which we have just been getting up and running. It only had a few fish in it, which died suddenly overnight, so we took the opportunity to do a full restart on it, cleaned the whole thing, added some driftwood and a Java Fern, and hopefully the stock LEDs will provide enough lighting for the Java.

 

http://s1247.photobucket.com/user/Matthewdvm/media/20141230-201456.jpg.html'>20141230-201456.jpg

 

And my youngest son's Betta tank (Betta's name is Fishy). Fishy got a Betta Hammock for Christmas, which he took to like a champ so we decided to give him even more environmental enrichment, with a floating Betta log, a moss ball, and a Java fern on some driftwood. Not sure what this tank is - just a small inexpensive all-in-one jobbie from PetSmart:

 

http://s1247.photobucket.com/user/Matthewdvm/media/20141230-201322.jpg.html'>20141230-201322.jpg

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If you've got green algae, it's likely that your cycle is already nearing it's end. The ammonia will spike pretty much immediately after you put "live rock" into a new tank. A lot of the live stuff will die in the immature water, and cause the ammonia to spike. Bacteria will populate to convert the ammonia to nitrite. You'll usually see brownish or reddish junk at this point (diatoms). Then different bacteria will populate to convert the nitrite to nitrate. Once the nitrite has converted, you'll start seeing the blooms of green algae, which feeds off the nitrates. If you have a significant amount of green hair algae in the tank, your tests won't show much of anything (ammonia, nitrite OR nitrate) as it's all being consumed. You're safe to add cleanup crew at this point. Probably good to get a nice variety of snails and hermits. I would personally stay away from shrimp at this point, but some people jump right in.

 

This is the best time to be patient. If you don't add anything that will produce waste (i.e. fish/food/etc.), the green algae will deplete the nutrients in the tank and slowly die off (assisted by your cleanup crew). You can add livestock now if you'd like, but I think it's best to wait until the green algae is gone, and start with a clean slate.

 

Hope this helps... good luck!

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You will have quite a variety of aquatic eco-systems going there! I got 1 of our 3 boys into aquariums also. He started in FW then moved to SW...had a mantis shrimp. When he got married he got into corals and pretty soon knew more than I did. Now he is talking about doing a large planted discus tank! I guess I passed on my addiction, ha ha!

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If you've got green algae, it's likely that your cycle is already nearing it's end. The ammonia will spike pretty much immediately after you put "live rock" into a new tank. A lot of the live stuff will die in the immature water, and cause the ammonia to spike. Bacteria will populate to convert the ammonia to nitrite. You'll usually see brownish or reddish junk at this point (diatoms). Then different bacteria will populate to convert the nitrite to nitrate. Once the nitrite has converted, you'll start seeing the blooms of green algae, which feeds off the nitrates. If you have a significant amount of green hair algae in the tank, your tests won't show much of anything (ammonia, nitrite OR nitrate) as it's all being consumed. You're safe to add cleanup crew at this point. Probably good to get a nice variety of snails and hermits. I would personally stay away from shrimp at this point, but some people jump right in.

 

Thanks for the input cnseekatz! I have been tracking all three of the baddies (ammonia, nitrites and nitrates) every couple of days since the start. The ammonia slowly climbed, but didn't get very high and has stayed at that point and I have seen no nitrates or nitrites. Granted, I am using about a 10 year old test kit for the ammonia and nitrites, but a new kit for the other parameters. ;-)

 

I'm a bit skeptical about the quality of the LR I bought at the start of the process (part of the reason I bought the additional LR earlier this week - that and the coraline algae), so I don't know how quickly the cycle started.

 

The LFS I went to said that the algae would turn white and die as the ammonia climbed. Or maybe as they consume the nutrients.

 

 

This is the best time to be patient. If you don't add anything that will produce waste (i.e. fish/food/etc.), the green algae will deplete the nutrients in the tank and slowly die off (assisted by your cleanup crew). You can add livestock now if you'd like, but I think it's best to wait until the green algae is gone, and start with a clean slate.

 

Hope this helps... good luck!

 

I guess I'll just watch it for a few more weeks and see what happens.
On the plus side, I rearranged the LR today, and removed some of the initial rock. I wanted to make a little more room up top for corals. The rock LR I removed smelled a lot like the ocean, which I think is a promising sign.
Here's a FTS with the rearranged rock:
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You will have quite a variety of aquatic eco-systems going there! I got 1 of our 3 boys into aquariums also. He started in FW then moved to SW...had a mantis shrimp. When he got married he got into corals and pretty soon knew more than I did. Now he is talking about doing a large planted discus tank! I guess I passed on my addiction, ha ha!

 

I was telling my boys the other day that at the age of 42, I can only remember 5 years when I didn't have an aquarium... the eldest (the only one without a tank in his room), now wants his own tank. (and the wife wants birds). I have a hard time saying no, since I'm a vet!

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