chvynva916 Posted April 8, 2003 Share Posted April 8, 2003 Sedentary worms have spawned in my tank! They're everywhere now, rocks, glass, powerhead etc. Good sign my tank is healthy. Note to any water buyers: after switching from Distilled to RO water (both from Giant the RO labeled under filtered drinking water) the health of my tank improved dramatically. I could never figure out why I never had that much coralline and stuff never looked that great, but ever since the switch almost everything is on the up and up. Only bad thing, my fairly new hairy acro frag is not fully extended. For two weeks the polyps were fully out all of the time. For the past three days (not sure what changed) they suddenly are almost completely retracted. Everything else seems fine (xenia look great so I imagine water quality is good). The only guess I have is that the xenia which are quite close are waging war on the acro as other acros farther away from the xenia seem fine. But why wouldn't this have happened in the first two weeks? Any ideas? Link to comment
tinyreef Posted April 9, 2003 Share Posted April 9, 2003 are you talking about vermetid snails? i've been experiencing a friggin plague of these. i've been trying to find something that would eat them but not kill everything else. (i use distilled btw but no wc's) the water quality doesn't necessarily have to be pristine for the xenia but they are good indicators as you noted. when did you change your water? Link to comment
chvynva916 Posted April 9, 2003 Author Share Posted April 9, 2003 I made the water switch about 4 weeks ago. They're definately not snails, they're feather duster type polychaetes. Link to comment
tinyreef Posted April 9, 2003 Share Posted April 9, 2003 sorry, the 'sedentary' part threw me. btw vermetid snails don't look like snails (to me). http://home.attbi.com/~tdse/Vermetid.htm nasty little things imo. they starved out my cuke. are you running a skimmer? the acro may not like what you may have dissolved in your water column, whereas those mini-dusters do. Link to comment
kennerd Posted April 10, 2003 Share Posted April 10, 2003 I've never had a problem with my vermetid snails, and it seems a little strange that they starved out your cuke! If you want to get rid of them (and most of your tube worms and other fine critters, and maybe aiptasia) a peppermint shrimp did a great job of wiping out my aiptasia and then decimated my tube worms/snails in the 12 gal within a few days: reached right in an ripped 'em out. I've avoided cukes in small systems, due to the toxins they puke out when stressed and die. IMO: I'd prefer the snails! Link to comment
tinyreef Posted April 10, 2003 Share Posted April 10, 2003 the cuke was a filter feeding pink hawaiian. it was doing ok (not growing but also not shrinking) until the vermetids started spawning like crazy netting all the plankton. i have them in my refugium too where i have a couple of peps and recently added a cowfish (letting it get bigger before main tank intro). this is my display tank, not nano btw. i was sure one or the other would take a whack at the snails but they both leave them alone. yeah, i agree, cukes and small systems don't mate very well. can be done but a lotta work imo. i prefer the LAB method (lazy @ss bastage). Link to comment
kennerd Posted April 10, 2003 Share Posted April 10, 2003 Yep, I think I change my title to LRB. Yep, my pep played little Hitler in my 12. ####ed me off. Link to comment
chvynva916 Posted April 10, 2003 Author Share Posted April 10, 2003 To answer your question, I am running a prizm skimmer and my other healthy acro looks great (I have one that seems gradually bleaching but it is bleaching from an area that was decaying when I put it in so that's not the best example coral). I don't know why this particular hairy acro frag has stopped extending. Link to comment
kennerd Posted April 10, 2003 Share Posted April 10, 2003 If the acro was decaying, it may now be affecting the coral as a whole. Is the decayed tissue near a tip? It's advisable to place the acro in an area of good water flow to keep it flushed of contaminants. If the bleaching/decay continues to spread, you should frag off the bad tip to prevent the entire piece from RTN'ing (Rapid Tissue Necrosis). Link to comment
flaunt Posted April 11, 2003 Share Posted April 11, 2003 so you're blaming the poor health of your tank on distilled water? i used to get water for 25 cents a gallon from the Glacier water machines but there was a discussion on here about how there could be trace amounts of copper in it so i switched to distilled about 3 months ago... anyone know what might be wrong with using it? Link to comment
chvynva916 Posted April 11, 2003 Author Share Posted April 11, 2003 I'm not sure what kind of water glacier puts out, but distilled water is often contaminated with copper. I believe the copper is used as a surface for the water to condense on, but that part is just a guess. What I do know is that the health of my tank over the period of a week (and continuing) is remarkably different. Nothing else changed but my switch to RO water. I never did test the distilled water so I don't know. I would test any distilled water for copper if I ever wanted to use it again. Link to comment
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