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

[teenyreef]

A few pictures tonight of the less stellar, but beginning to improve stuff I mentioned earlier.

 

A long while ago (8 months?) I bought a nice fat happy frag of Tubb's Blues. I liked it a lot, but didn't know where to put it, and could never find somewhere happy for it. For some reason, I kept thinking it was getting too much light, so I moved it and moved it and it went to darker and darker places and began to close up and stay closed and then it shrank. Finally, I decided last week to move it to the bottom from, where all my other zoas and palys are thriving. And tonight I noticed the first couple of open polyps on it in months!

 

 

It has some bugs crawling on it (see left side of the picture), but they don't seem to be bothering other corals, so hopefully these guys won't be bothered either:

 

 

My one and only Acan was doing great until I moved it and something stung it. It never really did too well after that, but I think it is now in a good spot, too, and the flesh is coming back. This is not that good a picture of it, but it is in a bit of a tricky spot for photos.

 

I knocked a 1.5 inch semi circle out of the front edge of the monti cap, and the Zoa is soaking up the sun in its absence. The inadvertent frags have been crazy glued to the back of the tank - we'll see if they take off there:

 

And, finally, my latest attempt at SPS - I got this birds nest frag about 10 days ago. Good polyp extension, but no growth yet, that I can see. Here's hoping it does better than the ones I bought 9 months ago!

Looks like great progress! Have you tried target feeding your acans? They will bounce back really quick once you can get them to eat.

Do you have a FW tank thread somewhere? I don't (one active forum is about all I can handle)

That's me! No FW thread, I can't even keep up on NR

[Matthewdvm]

Thanks for the suggestion re: the acans. My feeding regime fell off a lot in the summer, when Jimi died and there was less incentive to feed daily. Now that I have Sonya 7, I am being far more diligent about daily feeding. I'll make sure some cyclops makes its way into the acans mouths every day.

[Matthewdvm]

It's been about 9 months since I first added corals to my tank, so here's a video to celebrate! Sonya 9 got a little too close to Buffy the POm-Pom Crab, I think, and has a sting on the side...

 

[Cameron6796]

what are the little "bugs" on toadstool

[neuf]

I'm not the best with IDs, but maybe Red Planaria? They are considered a pest http://www.melevsreef.com/node/651

 

Everything looks great! I love the red Goniopora. I bought some once and it died immediately.

[Matthewdvm]

what are the little "bugs" on toadstool

I'm not the best with IDs, but maybe Red Planaria? They are considered a pest http://www.melevsreef.com/node/651

 

Everything looks great! I love the red Goniopora. I bought some once and it died immediately.

Thanks, Neuf! You are spot on with the ID. Red Planarian they are. I missed out on the last batch of Blue Velvet Budibranchs that one of the lfs had, but they are supposed to be ordering one for me. I' hoping to avoid the chemical method, and the design of the edge tank makes it pretty difficult to siphon them out. I do try with every water change, but they just keep coming back. So far they aren't shading anyone out, but they are unsightly.

The goniopora is pretty cool, and seems to like that location. I might pick up a couple of different ones and make a little multi-coloured goniopora garden at the back. Sorry yours didn't make it - you should try again!

[brandon429]

amazing coral quality

 

Dr. M can you give us algae updates been a good few mos now and one of the greatest challenges regarding direct kill is that it will grow back so fast the direct kill won't help...not the case for my tank but for others the initial kill was used to initially clean and then po4 controls were used afterwards, your updates will be helpful. clearly you sustained no algae up through present time, what was the main way of attaining this

[Matthewdvm]

amazing coral quality

Dr. M can you give us algae updates been a good few mos now and one of the greatest challenges regarding direct kill is that it will grow back so fast the direct kill won't help...not the case for my tank but for others the initial kill was used to initially clean and then po4 controls were used afterwards, your updates will be helpful. clearly you sustained no algae up through present time, what was the main way of attaining this

Funny that you should ask. Definitely have some updates in that regard! I'll start with the salt water tank. During the initial cycle, way back when, I had an algae bloom. The worst couple of rocks I removed from the tank, doused the algae with standard (4%) H2O2, and never saw any more come back on those rocks. In the past couple of months, I noticed a little hair algae growing off the front of the power head. I was too lazy to deal with it, because it wasn't too bad, and getting the power head out is a bit of a hassle (and getting it directed back in the same place is a bigger hassle. But then the algae spread to the top of a forest fire digitata growing nearby. I tried plucking it off, with no success (or, rather, moderate success, but it kept growin back). So about a week ago I removed the power head and stuck it in H2O2 for a good long while, plucked off the majority o ft he hair algae from the digitata, then syringed about 1/2 ml of H2O2 right on the base of the algae (still under water). I saw the little white bubble of oxidation, and after about 5 minutes, I rinsed the power head, put it back in place and fired the power head and filter up. So far, I have not seen any more hair algae, and the coral did not suffer AT ALL!

 

My fresh water tank had been sadly neglected recently due to my focus on the reef tank, but a few weeks ago I was fed up with the hair algae running from my filter, the full 3 foot length of the tank, through live plants and all through the moss. When I went to trim the moss, I realized it was the main problem. Hair algae throughout, and it was about 6-8 inches thick in some places, with the bottom half decaying from lack of light. So I made and executive decision, and removed all the moss I could easily remove (the big thick mats growing on the wood and the mesh on the back wall of the tank; I didn't worry about the occasional floating strands of moss). I also removed both the uv filter and the regular filter, removed the media, and peroxided them to remove the hair algae on them. Then a pretty good siphoning of the substrate, repeated a week later, with 30% water changes, and getting back into the habit of daily dosing with 5 ml of Excel (30 gallon tank). I got a few new plants, cut down and replanted some that were scraggly looking. I never resorted to dosing the whole tank (was worried about killing my shrimp and more delicate fish), but it is looking great. Even got rid of the black algae!

 

So success with small peoxide dosing. Which makes me ask: has anyone had success with peroxide and bubble algae? I presume it would not be good because all the spores would get released, but I thought I would ask...

PS. Sorry I don't have any pictures to post of befores and afters. I'll look through my photos and see if I can find evidence of what I am talking about, although it won't be the focus of the pictures...

[brandon429]

That follow up = post gold thanks tons

 

updating my r2r peroxide thread and the one here now with this link, eagerly awaited follow ups solely to track growback, was aiming for close to 6 mos follow up mark.

 

Your tank clearly was going to be ok it was always in top cleanliness shape and the invading genus was not holdfast driven like bryopsis, nor exceptionally reproductive like valonia it was a little gha and nobody had to alter major course to disallow it, excellence.

 

peroxide will surely kill valonia from the locally treated areas but its not imo ranked high on efficacy against tankwide cures for valonia, that genus adapted a dispersal method that makes it hard to contain when set.

 

it ranks very high among invaders that deserve universal exclusion upon first visual id, and peroxide is ideal against it when doing external treats, but very poor as an internal treatment method for valonia. Given that your tank scape is permanently accessible I predict nothing will take it over, and natural prevention methods can continue to be tried but the ole bubbly is the bouncer at the door heh

 

I snapped this guy doing his adapted duties at my lfs when I was frag shopping, caught in the act-

[brandon429]

I'm trying to remember this one small fish everyone was raving about for target picking of the planaria

 

Its rainfordi goby or a small six line wrasse

[Matthewdvm]

I'm trying to remember this one small fish everyone was raving about for target picking of the planaria

 

Its rainfordi goby or a small six line wrasse

The rainfordi goby looks cool, and I will keep my eye out for one, but I am wary of getting a fish to eat pests after I was convinced by a LFS to buy a Mandarin, and he lasted for about 2 months before I never saw him again. Every 6 line wrasse I have seen looks too big for my little tank, too, and if he outgrew it I don't know how I would be able to get him out of a tank like this...

That follow up = post gold thanks tons

 

updating my r2r peroxide thread and the one here now with this link, eagerly awaited follow ups solely to track growback, was aiming for close to 6 mos follow up mark.

 

Your tank clearly was going to be ok it was always in top cleanliness shape and the invading genus was not holdfast driven like bryopsis, nor exceptionally reproductive like valonia it was a little gha and nobody had to alter major course to disallow it, excellence.

 

peroxide will surely kill valonia from the locally treated areas but its not imo ranked high on efficacy against tankwide cures for valonia, that genus adapted a dispersal method that makes it hard to contain when set.

 

it ranks very high among invaders that deserve universal exclusion upon first visual id, and peroxide is ideal against it when doing external treats, but very poor as an internal treatment method for valonia. Given that your tank scape is permanently accessible I predict nothing will take it over, and natural prevention methods can continue to be tried but the ole bubbly is the bouncer at the door heh

 

I snapped this guy doing his adapted duties at my lfs when I was frag shopping, caught in the act-

You're welcome - a good detailed reply is the least I could do after all your advice. I don't think I will try the peroxide on the Valonia. I'll keep doing the manual removal - I am pretty good at popping them off the rocks - just requires patience and a steady hand (sort of like extracting a cat's infected, diseased teeth!)

[Matthewdvm]

Sad news. I was away over the weekend and came home to find Sonya 7 missing. I only missed 2 days of feeding, so not sure what happened. I've looked to see if she jumped, and haven't found a body, but 2 days of feeding later, she has yet to come out and attack the feeding pipettes the way she used too.

[Sk8n Reefer]

Sorry man, that's tough when you don't know what happened. My mandarin just never showed one morning at that was it- no sign of anything.

[Matthewdvm]

Sorry man, that's tough when you don't know what happened. My mandarin just never showed one morning at that was it- no sign of anything.

Yeah. All three fish I have tried in the tank (Jimi the psychedelic mandarin, Clive the green goby and now Sonya 7) have disappeared without a trace. Jimi lasted the longest, despite never really taking to the eating tfrozen foods thing that much. Clive disappeared soon after he was introduced. I just had high hopes for Sonya 7, since she was active and feeding well.

 

To top it all off, I found Buffy the Pom-Pom crab dead on the sand yesterday morning. That leaves me with a single sexy shrimp and my snails. At least the corals are doing really well. Oh, and the Planaria are thriving!

 

Actually I have decided that since I am down to just a few non-sessile organisms, and my lfs has not yet got me a blue velvet nudibranch, it is time to try to nuke the Planaria with Flatworm eXit. Wish me luck!

[HarryPotter]

Could there be a mantis shrimp in there or something similar?

[Matthewdvm]

Could there be a mantis shrimp in there or something similar?

I can't imagine so, but I did start from live rock I bought from a few different sources on Craigslist. I have never seen a mantis shrimp or anything else like that. I have the usual brittle stars and bristle worms and feather dusters as hitchhikers. I am going to test water parameters when I get home from work (though the corals look good, and I don't have an algae bloom going on, so I can't believe things are too out of whack).

[Sk8n Reefer]

Could there be a mantis shrimp in there or something similar?

I am with Harry on this one- larger pistol or maybe mantis? That's too many fish without seeing a body. Do you ever search around late at night with a pin light - something that doesn't shine light everywhere. Might be time to go on a hunt and maybe lay some food out just before dark

[Matthewdvm]

I am with Harry on this one- larger pistol or maybe mantis? That's too many fish without seeing a body. Do you ever search around late at night with a pin light - something that doesn't shine light everywhere. Might be time to go on a hunt and maybe lay some food out just before dark

Interesting thought, guys. Maybe I'll drop a hunk of shrimp in the tank during lights out time and see what happens. I figured they had died somewhere in the cracks and crevices of the live rock and the bodies never surfaced. But I agree that would be odd for all of them, and they had all appeared quite healthy, then gone (unlike my FW fish, where I usually know when they are sick and about to die).

 

I'll keep you updated on my hunting!

[HarryPotter]

Interesting thought, guys. Maybe I'll drop a hunk of shrimp in the tank during lights out time and see what happens. I figured they had died somewhere in the cracks and crevices of the live rock and the bodies never surfaced. But I agree that would be odd for all of them, and they had all appeared quite healthy, then gone (unlike my FW fish, where I usually know when they are sick and about to die).

 

I'll keep you updated on my hunting!

 

Good luck!!!!!

 

I would suspect a pest, a healthy fish shouldn't just disappear and die.

[Slowtwitch]

I have a very reclusive mantis in my tank. He's a basher so I hear him occasionally but rarely see him. If you have a spearer rather than a basher, they are more likely to harm fish and you'll never hear them as they don't bang on the rocks.

[Matthewdvm]

I have a very reclusive mantis in my tank. He's a basher so I hear him occasionally but rarely see him. If you have a spearer rather than a basher, they are more likely to harm fish and you'll never hear them as they don't bang on the rocks.

I've never heard any bashing. How big are mantis shrimp?

[Matthewdvm]

Buffy lives again! Like her namesake she's been thought dead and come back to life! I was hunting around in the nooks and crannies today (looking for a fish eating pistol shrimp/mantis shrimp) and there she was, in her usual spot.

 

 

So I went digging through the compost to make sure I wasn't crazy ( ) and I found the carcass I threw out yesterday morning. Sure enough, it was a real, bonafide pom-pom crab, not just a moulted shell that I put in the compost. So now I'm totally confused. I only ever bought one pom-pom crab. I have only ever seen the one pom-pom crab. Where did this mystery, unnamed pom-pom crab come from? Was it a hitch-hiker that I never knew I had? Did Buffy lay eggs that developed? I don't see how that would be possible, since I don't have a male to fertilize them. I am left scratching my head (relax, I washed my hands after digging through the compost).

 

I did some googling as well, looking for any information on mantis shrimp injuries to fish, and found this (very poor quality) image of a fire fish that had apparently been injured by a pistol shrimp, and it looked no dissimilar to the injury that Sonya 7 had:

 

http://0.tqn.com/w/experts/Saltwater-Aquarium-3215/2011/02/Firefish_1.jpg

[Slowtwitch]

My mantis is about two inches long. They get bigger than that depending on species. Mine never bothers my fish, my cerith snails however are pretty much an all you can eat buffet if I don't remember to put some shrimp near his burrow.

[Matthewdvm]

Here's a screen grab from my 9 month view showing the wound on Sonya 7's side. Does that help anyone with what kind of hitchhiking, fish-killing beastie I should be looking for?

 

[Slowtwitch]

I'd almost bet it's a mantis. Any luck seeing anything after dark?