JLynn's Softy Reef

[ReefWeeds]

And... the problem was not solved, after all. I woke up this morning to the exact same issue with the pump. I checked those acrylic walls and they were still in place; and since I'd just replaced the filter floss the day before, I wasn't about to do it again. If pushing the acrylic wall back down yesterday didn't fix the problem, why on earth did it work all day long???

 

I'm beginning to get really frustrated with this pump. So I've decided that I'm going to remove part of the black backing on the tank, so that I can at least get a good look at the rear compartment to try and figure out what the deal is. It's very hard to fix a problem you can't see, after all.

 

If I can't see any problems, I don't know what I'll do. Get in touch with Innovative Marine, I suppose. I might end up having the replace the pump or something.

Are you topping off with rodi to account for evaporation? It sounds like your water level is low. Need to keep the pump chamber stable otherwise it will burn out if it runs dry. Also, you probably already know this, but top off with rodi, not salt water as salt doesn't evaporate and if you top off with salt, your salinity levels will rise

Thanks!

 

I need some advice here: two of my three astraea snails are doing fine; I've seen them move around a bit and can confirm that they are alive. The third one, however, I'm not sure about. It has not moved at all or come out of it's shell to attach to the rock during the whole time I've had it. And I made sure to set them all on patches of algae, so that should have tempted it out of hiding long ago. More worrying is the fact that I have found some mini brittle stars (they hitchhiked in on the rock) getting inside it's shell. Now at first I though this was the reason that it wasn't coming out of its shell. After a few more times, with the starfish continuing to come back to the snail, I'm wondering if it's dead and the brittle stars can tell and are trying to eat it. So my dilemma is that if the snail isn't dead, I don't want to just throw it out; that would be cruel. But if it is, I certainly don't want to leave it in the tank to foul up my water. Is there any way I can tell for sure whether or not it's dead?

Take the shell out and smell it. If it stinks, it's dead. If bristleworms or brittle stars are going in, it most likely is toast. But take it out. If it doesn't smell, look inside and see if you can see the snail. Could just be an empty shell by now.

[JLynn]

Are you topping off with rodi to account for evaporation? It sounds like your water level is low. Need to keep the pump chamber stable otherwise it will burn out if it runs dry. Also, you probably already know this, but top off with rodi, not salt water as salt doesn't evaporate and if you top off with salt, your salinity levels will rise

 

Take the shell out and smell it. If it stinks, it's dead. If bristleworms or brittle stars are going in, it most likely is toast. But take it out. If it doesn't smell, look inside and see if you can see the snail. Could just be an empty shell by now.

Oh, I fixed the pump issue a long time ago. I thought I'd posted about that but maybe I forgot? Anyways, the issue was twofold: first, that I just didn't put quite enough water in to begin with, and second, that I unknowingly put my ATO sensor in the secondary filtration chamber, where the water level stays pretty much constant. So when over time some of the water evaporated, the ATO was barely putting any new water in at all, and when I was able to look at the rear chambers, I could see that by then the pump intake was only partly submerged. I fixed all that, now that I was able to see what was going on back there.

 

The snail, well. I smelled it; it smelled, but I wouldn't characterize it as a stink. It smelled a bit like seafood, but not strongly. But I found another starfish worming it's way in, and when I prodded at the exposed flesh of the snail with a finger, it didn't react at all. So I went ahead, cut my losses, and threw it out. Anyways, thanks for the advice.

[JLynn]

An unforseen consequence of boarding my rock at the LFS: hitchhikers. The very thing I wanted to avoid by ordering dry rock. Most of them are just the little mini brittle stars and the asterina stars. I'm fine with those. And I just spotted a pair of stomatella snails on one of my rocks - those are supposed to be great algae eaters, right? So I can't complain about that. Plus I can now confirm that there are at least 2 mysis shrimp that survived the journey from the LFS (I'm hoping that they will breed a fair bit over the course of the next week so that whichever fish I get next weekend will have some live prey to munch on).

 

But I also spotted a crab in my rockwork. I'm not sure what kind. It was very small, maybe half an inch across, and I think it was beige (the lights were transitioning from evening to night, though, so my perception of the color is probably skewed by that). The claws were small and smooth, but I think the legs were a bit hairy. So I'm a bit anxious about whether or not it is reef safe. I don't know if I'll ever get a good enough look to ID it, but I also don't want to find out the hard way. There's a worm (I think it's a bristle worm and not a fireworm, but I'm not 100% sure), too, which sucks. Reef safe or not, I really really dislike worms of all kinds. So I was not pleased to spot that.

 

On the bright side, today, two of the polyps on the pretty red-and-purple zoanthid opened up for me! The third one remains stubbornly shut. I wonder if there's some kind of pest bothering it?

[JLynn]

Well it turns out that the issue with my toadstool is that it was getting ready to shed a slime coat. That makes sense - when I put the corals in the tank the sand had not fully settled; some of those fine particles would have settled on the toadstool overnight, leading it to produce a coat of mucus. I've put the powerhead pretty much directly on it now, and I think all of the coat has been shed. The polyps aren't fully extended, but even a partial extension is a victory! Hopefully by tomorrow I'll get to see it in all its glory.

 

Sadly, my blood red fire shrimp has decided to hide in the rockwork today. It's a bit frustrating, but there's nothing I can do about it.

[JLynn]

Nothing much has changed. More algae is growing (I think I might have a little bit of coraline algae starting to appear). My nice zoa still has one stubborn polyp that has not opened at all in the past four days. But it has two polyps that have been opening consistently, so I'm not too concerned. The leather has been give me full polyp extension lately, which is great.

 

And I have news! I've had the stand on the folding table I mentioned in the beginning, and it's holding up, but a few days ago I noticed some bowing in the plastic top (when I ordered it I thought it was all steel, or I would have kept looking, but oh well...). Anyways, that has me super anxious, so I've called a local carpenter and he'll be stopping by next Wednesday to take a look and give me a quote on a stand. Since I'm not looking for anything remotely fancy, I expect it will be about half the cost of the Innovative Marine stands, if that. I mean I've seen a few DIY stands for this same tank, and the cost of materials was just $50-$70, and labor shouldn't be a whole ton more, for such a small project. Anyways, I'll let y'all know how that goes.

[JLynn]

It took me a while, but I finally got around to taking a picture for y'all!

 

...yes. Sadly, the brown on the sandbed is all dinos, not the result of bad photo editing...

Suggestions for a critter to keep it clean? I have a nassarius snail, but it stays buried in the sand at all times, rather than spending any time munching things on top of the sand.

 

Because my iPhone keeps giving me pretty blurry pictures of the tank, I decided to indicate the points of interest for you guys (except the toadstool. that one is pretty obvious).

(To clarify, the shrimp arrow is pointing to the place in the rocks he has been hiding himself for the past few days - unfortunately he's not actually visible. Sadly, he refuses to venture out of his little cave.)

[JLynn]

YAY! My shrimp emerged!

 

I just noticed some pyramid snails on my poor Astraea snails, and while I was gently pulling on one of them to get it to release the rock so I could remove the little buggers, my beautiful little shrimp came out of hiding and crawled around on my fingers a bit!

 

Maybe this weekend I'll grab some mysis or something and try hand-feeding him!

 

Of course, after I pulled my hand back out he immediately went back into his crevice.

 

In the meantime, the pyramid snails met a prompt end via tap water. Serves 'em right.

[vlangel]

Maybe some small red legged crabs would help with your algae. Are you sure its not diatoms? They are rust colored and almost all new tanks go through that ugly stage where they are every where.

[JLynn]

Maybe some small red legged crabs would help with your algae. Are you sure its not diatoms? They are rust colored and almost all new tanks go through that ugly stage where they are every where.

Oh! Did I says dinos? I totally meant diatoms lol. My bad.

[vlangel]

Oh! Did I says dinos? I totally meant diatoms lol. My bad.

 

hey its ok, they both begin with D. Ha ha!

[JLynn]

I just got the ORA purple devils hand leather frag I ordered off of Diver's Den! It's currently acclimating; I'll try to post a picture of it soon. It's weird, though. There are two things in the bag, but I only ordered one frag! I wonder what the other thing is? Did they accidentally send me two?

 

In other news, the third zoa polyp FINALLY opened up! It's mouth is white right now which is super weird, because it should be royal purple, like the others are. But still, it's alive, so I'm counting that as a victory!

 

The toadstool has been moving itself around, trying to settle on a place to rest its overly heavy top half. Hopefully it settles on front-facing position that looks nice. Right now it's bent over to the left; I'm really not liking the look of all the exposed, beige stalk. Nothing I can do about it, though, without seriously pissing the coral off.

[JLynn]

My new frag's polyps opened up nice and quick. It seems to have settled in just fine despite the fact that I feel like I skimped a bit on the acclimation process.

 

And I spotted the crab again! It's carapace is probably 3/4" across. It's white with brown blotches (so it blends in extremely well with my white-with-diatom-blotches rockwork), and it's legs are either striped, or have a few stiff little hairs scattered about, or both. It's claws are really very small, relative to it's size, so I'm thinking it may be okay to leave it in there. This time, I observed it eating algae off my rocks, and when an amphipod darted it's way, it backed up instead of trying to eat it, so I may have gotten lucky and obtained an herbivorously inclined crab. Or maybe the amphipod was just too big for it. It is a very small little critter. Either way, hopeful signs.

 

I thought about trying to grab it with my new tweezers from DFS and putting it in my acclimation box for closer inspection, just in case it is something bad, but I missed my chance. Oh well. Maybe next time.

[vlangel]

It sounds like a benevolent crab if it was grazing on algae.

[JLynn]

That's my hope. I really like crabs, actually; I think they're cute, and they're often entertaining to watch, unlike snails! I'd be sad if I had to get rid of this one.

[vlangel]

The only thing that worries me is if it really does have hairy legs. I have heard that is usually an indication of a bad crab.

[JLynn]

It really does have hairy legs. After a few more sightings I'm sure of that. Jury's out on the stripes. But after looking at pictures of hairy-legged crabs on google, I found this picture of Mithrax sculptus... It does look similar to my guy.

I haven't noticed any... antennas I guess on the front of the head of my crab, and my crab's carapace is quite a bit more ovular than this crab's one. But they both have small, dark-colored pincers, a white body with brown blotches, and about the same amount of hair on their legs. They may also share the striping on the legs.

 

So if my crab is the same species as this one, is that a good thing or a bad thing? All the posts I've seen are about emerald mithrax crabs, which mine is definitely not.

[Funkateer_1]

Good build. Have the same tank myself and do nothing but softies. It's nice to see so much thought put into it. Happy reefing. Also IME C. argi shouldn't chew on the softies. Atlantic Fish don't seem to know what to do with the indo/pacific coral we keep. He might have an attitude to newcomers so add him last.

[JLynn]

Thanks! I've ruled out C. argi due to seeing multiple reports of them bullying clownfish in tanks as large as 75g - they're beautiful, but if they'll bully clownfish in a tank that big they'll definitely do it in a tank this small. And at the end of the day, I just think that would be one too many fish. On the other hand, I have changed my plans for getting a neon goby - instead I think I'll get an orchid dottyback. I love their color, and the reports on their attitude are all very positive. Another thing I've changed my mind about is the Pederson's Anemone shrimp. Instead I think I'll go for a Caribbean Porcelain Crab. They can host on Rock Flower Anemones (I'll be ordering a 5 pack from VIP Reefs, probably during the summer), so that'll be another fun symbiotic relationship to watch.

 

But enough about future fish plans - I've got current fish and coral news! I just picked up my very first fish! It's a tailspot blenny. He's very small, and currently hiding in the corner of the acclimation box in full stress coloration, the poor thing. He was just getting settled into the LFS when I got there to take him home, so he's had a very stressful, tumultuous day. While I was there I also picked up a Kenya Tree Coral frag. I was planning on a colt coral, but if there's a difference between the two, I can't tell. Anyways, I've got that glued into place (I'll post a picture tomorrow), and it gave me an opportunity to try out the bone cutters I got from DFS to cut off most of the stem of the frag plug. They worked just as well as I hoped they would.

 

Lastly, while brainstorming names for my new blenny, I finally came up with a good naming theme for the tank (LifeAfterCollege is the first person I saw do this, and I thought it would be a good idea to help me come up with names). I've decided to name all my fish and shrimp (and possibly crabs/urchins?) after Disney characters! (Don't worry, though, I most definitely will NOT be naming any of my clownfish Nemo.)

 

So, a tentative naming list:

Clownfish pair - Simba and Nala (Lion King)

Tailspot Blenny - Flynn (Tangled)

Blood Red Fire Shrimp - Sebastian (Ariel)

Yellow Clown Goby - Rapunzel (Tangled)

Randall's Shrimp Goby - Moana (Moana)

Randall's Pistol Shrimp - Maui (Moana)

Orchid Dottyback - Jasmine (Aladdin)

Tuxedo Urchin (?) - Stitch (Lilo & Stitch)

Porcelain Crab - Hercules (Hercules)

 

Lastly, some photos of poor little Flynn, huddled up in his corner.

 

[JLynn]

Picture time!

 

^My newest frags: the devil's leather hand coral (which is a nice sedate lavender, though you can't really tell in this picture) and my new Kenya Tree Coral.

 

^For comparison, Sebastian.

 

^The cave Flynn has chosen to hide in. I tried putting frozen BBS in the tank to lure him out from under there, but he actually retreated further back instead. Oh well. At least he is no longer in his stress coloration. Maybe later today I'll try to track down some freshly hatched brine shrimp to lure him out.

 

To top it off, some more Sebastian!

[vlangel]

Nice pics. I hope Flynn settles down soon for you. That is very stressful seeing them act like that.

[JLynn]

Nice pics. I hope Flynn settles down soon for you. That is very stressful seeing them act like that.

It is pretty stressful. I did a little research on the topic and found a number of people saying it took their tailspot anywhere from several days to a week to settle down and start taking food. So I guess this is normal. It seems that tailspot blennies can be really shy for the first few weeks.

 

Still, even just a few hours after my last post I spotted Flynn picking at some sand for algae to eat and he even poked his little head slightly out from under his cave ledge. Hopeful signs.

 

I'm really infatuated with my toadstool leather right now. It's not as colorful as it was when I first got it, but it's just so big and fluffy and nice! I can't wait to have a pair of clownfish to (hopefully) host in it!

[JLynn]

Something is definitely up with the zoas. The stubborn third polyp that refused to open for like a week still has a white mouth when it should be purple. Polyp #2 has this weird thing where the purple part of the polyp around the mouth (they look like Kedd's Reds, to give you an idea of what I mean) gets all puffy, like a nipple (weird comparison, I know, but it's apt). And now polyp #1 is all... choked up? I don't even really know how to describe it. Its like there's this line down by the base of it where the tissue goes from being normal to being shriveled (or maybe dented is a better word? scrawny?), and then the head of the polyp - it's open, but it's contracted in on itself and it's also kind of closed up. Just not. I don't even know. I'm starting to be concerned that they won't make it, which is a shame, because they're gorgeous, and they're also superglued down on my rocks, so trying to pry the corpse off before it rots and releases crap into the system would be a total pain. But at least if it does go I'll have room for all 5 of the RFAs I want to get from VIP Reefs.

 

Anyone got any ideas on what this could be?

[vlangel]

I have found zoas to be hit or miss. Sometimes they do great for me, and sometimes not. Sometimes they do great for awhile and then for no reason they decline. Or the opposite, they stay closed up for a long time and then one day - kapow! they just open up and look great. I do not understand zoas. :-(

[JLynn]

Oh well. I guess I'll just have to wait and see, then.

[JLynn]

Some good news: I bought Sally's Reef Plankton and tried it out this afternoon, and Flynn ate some! (He spit most of it out, but I think he kept down one or two pieces.) Even if he didn't end up digesting any of it, the fact that he showed enough interest in a food to try eating it is cause for celebration!

 

Unfortunately the plankton is larger than I anticipated, and while Sebastian loved it, my duncan was the only coral able to eat it, and about half of it went to waste because of that. So while I will definitely be using this food for fish and LPS (I bet anthias and other planktonivores would be all over it) when I have more of them, for the time being I'll probably hold off.