29gal Upgrade Update

[LeopardWolf]

It's been a little over a month since I posted, so I figured I was due for an update. You'll all be proud of me.

After having the 13gal saltwater nano set up for only about a week, I came to the conclusion that I like saltwater a ton more than I do freshwater. So I decided to get rid of both 13gal tanks and trade them in for a 29gal to make into my saltwater nano reef.





I simply moved everything over from the 13gal ( since it was cycling ) into the 29gal and added enough liverock, sand, and water to make up the difference in size. Everything fit into it with plenty of room to spare all around and gave me a chance to improve the aquascape and have room for changes later.

Along with my little Pseudocorynactis, I ended up with some Spionid worms, spahgetti worms, a mini brittle star, and what appears to be a tiny asterina starfish. I even have two tiny feather duster type worms! There are also some vermetid snails, and while their behavior is fascinating to watch when they toss out their strands to get food, I found there are a lot more of them than I thought ( some shells I thought were empty where not ) and I can see how they can easily choke out cora with the mucus nets they make. I'll probably be cracking them open to let the hermit crabs have their way with them at some point soon.

With the tank fully cycled and diatom bloom underway, I added 5 tiny blue leg hermits ( down to 4 because the largest decided one of the smallest was dinner even after I fed them. :| Typical hermits. )

I also added 2 nassarius snails and two astrea snails, but had to remove one of the astrea because it kept going straight for my coralline covered stuff even when I gave it marine algae sheets and set the two on top of it. One would feast happily and the other went right back to my coralline. Since I am trying to encourage the coralline to grow, the snail had to go. The asterina starfish will probably be leaving soon too for similar reasons, before it decides to split and make more starfish.

I even started a copepod culture and it is growing well. The copepods are multiplying like crazy in my main tank and are rather amusing to watch. The crabs and snails are too.

Since my last weekly water change there has been a bloom/dusting of what I think are diatoms, or could be detritus maybe ( though I am only feeding small amounts for crabs since there is nothing else in tank to feed, maybe every 3 days if even )? It's darker than the sand substrate, but more of a gray tone than the brownish I have seen for most diatom example images. There are a few patches that are a brownish rusty color which do look like diatoms mixed in with it.

It's settled all over surfaces in the tank, on liverock and even on my heater. Any movement directly toward it will disturb it and make it float up and I am concerned there is too much of it. **Please note I am only running a HOB filter right now and no extra powerheads because I don't yet have tank inhabitants that need the extra flow. I wanted to try and clean it up using a turkey baster but keep sucking up too many of my pods, and it also hurts to try and keep reaching in to get it over and over ( Fibromyalgia and other health quirks ).

I thought maybe I could use Seachem Clarity to remove the particles after I stirred them up, but then I wondered if it would actually bind the smallest copepods too? I know it's supposed to be reef safe, but wanted to ask others who may have used it in their tanks. My water column has a lot of pods in it swimming around ( all over glass and rock too! ) and I don't want to lose them.

I'll try and post more pictures later. Happy reefing to everyone!

 

[CronicReefer]

Great setup so far. I really wouldn't be all too worried about the dust for right now, your tank just finished cycling so it is/was very high in nutrients which can cause all sorts of algae/bacterial blooms. Just make sure you clean well when it comes time for a water change and you can probably just blast water at the rocks with the turkey baster if you are trying to clean them off, let the HOB suck all debris up and then you can just clean the filter instead.

[LeopardWolf]

Great setup so far. I really wouldn't be all too worried about the dust for right now, your tank just finished cycling so it is/was very high in nutrients which can cause all sorts of algae/bacterial blooms. Just make sure you clean well when it comes time for a water change and you can probably just blast water at the rocks with the turkey baster if you are trying to clean them off, let the HOB suck all debris up and then you can just clean the filter instead.

 

 

Thank you. That's what I have been doing so far and I told myself the exact same thing, it just looked bad because it was a brand new tank and like you said, the nutrients would cause blooms of goodness knows what. I didn't know if the HOB was doing good enough on its own before the stuff had a chance to slowly settle back on the rocks and all after I blasted/stirred it up. Which is why I thought maybe a single shot of the Clarity might help.

 

Thanks for the feedback.

By the way, checked your link and love your "lobster shack". I had to laugh ( morbid sense of humor sometimes ) when I saw mention of your poor blenny that jumped out and became sushi for your cat. I could totally see that happening with one of my cats in particular who loves to watch my tanks.

 

Also, your glow rock is amazing! Do you still have it, and did you ever find out what caused it? If you could get me several closer images specifically of it during daylight, I might be able to help figure out what causes it. Thoughts toward natural bioluminescence it could be any number of things. Or if just the rock itself, certain compositions could possibly create phosphorescence but that's just amazing looking. I want one! I absolutely love things that glow ( I make glowing jewelry and other things ), so when I saw that I had to ask about it. Does your LFS have any more or is there any way you might be willing to split a small piece of your rock off for some form of compensation in return? I figured it couldn't hurt to ask and add to my collection of glowing things.

[CronicReefer]

Thank you. That's what I have been doing so far and I told myself the exact same thing, it just looked bad because it was a brand new tank and like you said, the nutrients would cause blooms of goodness knows what. I didn't know if the HOB was doing good enough on its own before the stuff had a chance to slowly settle back on the rocks and all after I blasted/stirred it up. Which is why I thought maybe a single shot of the Clarity might help.

 

Thanks for the feedback.

 

By the way, checked your link and love your "lobster shack". I had to laugh ( morbid sense of humor sometimes ) when I saw mention of your poor blenny that jumped out and became sushi for your cat. I could totally see that happening with one of my cats in particular who loves to watch my tanks.

 

Also, your glow rock is amazing! Do you still have it, and did you ever find out what caused it? If you could get me several closer images specifically of it during daylight, I might be able to help figure out what causes it. Thoughts toward natural bioluminescence it could be any number of things. Or if just the rock itself, certain compositions could possibly create phosphorescence but that's just amazing looking. I want one! I absolutely love things that glow ( I make glowing jewelry and other things ), so when I saw that I had to ask about it. Does your LFS have any more or is there any way you might be willing to split a small piece of your rock off for some form of compensation in return? I figured it couldn't hurt to ask and add to my collection of glowing things.

I still have the rock. My best guess is that it is some rare form of calcite but I have never heard of this forming from reef rock. The phosphoresence can last up to 5hours and does not require any special lighting like UV to cause the effect (yet another strange feature). My only guess is it contains some element composition outside the norm for calcium carbonate rocks that allows it to phosphoresce for so long. I wouldn't mind selling you a piece if it wasn't the home of my lobster. He literally lives right underneath it. I'll get a daylight picture for you to help with identification as I am not the best when it comes to identifying mineral rock.

[LeopardWolf]

I still have the rock. My best guess is that it is some rare form of calcite but I have never heard of this forming from reef rock. The phosphoresence can last up to 5hours and does not require any special lighting like UV to cause the effect (yet another strange feature). My only guess is it contains some element composition outside the norm for calcium carbonate rocks that allows it to phosphoresce for so long. I wouldn't mind selling you a piece if it wasn't the home of my lobster. He literally lives right underneath it. I'll get a daylight picture for you to help with identification as I am not the best when it comes to identifying mineral rock.

 

 

It sounds like you are on the right track with calcite being a possibility if there is crystal structure. I actually got lucky and got several pieces rich in calcite crystals in the base rock I got. It is possible to get it in reef rock, but it is typically ancient reef rock. Higher content calcium carbonate rocks where the mineral transformed into calcite over time. I have a hunch on what could be causing the phosphorescence. I'll send you some images of mine too.

 

I'm patient. If your lobster happens to move out because nicer real estate becomes available to him, I'll gladly pay/trade for a nice little chunk.