Today's Experiment

[MrAnderson]

time for update pics... tank is about 2 months old.

 

the tank is starting to take on that covered-with-life look that i originally wanted. some of the stuff, i don't even know what it is. but other things, like branching or plating coralline, odd little macroalgae, sponges, lotsa pods, etc. are really thriving. i'm curious to see what successfully competes; as i mentioned, the pink macroalgae didn't make it, but other things have replaced it.

 

so here's a little spot of Dictyota. The dark red coralline has taken on a gold hue at certain angles, and strangely, pods are constantly "grazing" on it (you can see them at the upper right), and grazing on that only. it's really weird. i also have these golden trumpet/mushroom type growths, an example of something growing out which i am completely clueless about. i don't know if they're the ends of noctrnal tubeworms, sponges, corals, i just don't know:

 

 

this next one has a lot of variety as well. to the far left is a very dark red, velvety form of macroalgae which has luckily survived. it's actually growing very slowly and is very beautiful. above and to the left the Sinularia is some nice scrolling, plate coralline, and to the right of that is some nice branching coralline which is growing rather rapidly - it's breaking off every now and then and spreading around the tank. the Sinularia is growing really nicely as well, and the polyps extend so far that it has a very bushy appearance, waving in the current. Also, the much discussed Dictyota:

 

 

the M. spumosa. it has grown to attach to the rock at lower right, and is growing nicely. i hope it's happy:

 

 

the "before" shot from a few weeks ago, to see three weeks of growth:

 

 

just a general shot. there's a funny little macroalgae that looks like a head of lettuce, and another which is a very hard mass of tangled wires (closeup in the first photo):

 

 

fts:

 

 

i hope none of the macroalgae gets TOO happy in there. for now i'm keeping a close eye on it.

 

also, have begun dosing Seachem Reef complete and Seachem Reef Carbonate liquid. I chose these over the common 2-part types because Seachem gives the exact composition of each solution along with concentration, and i can calculate exactly how much i need to dose to get my Ca up to X or my alk up to Y. I'll post dosages in my dosing thread in advanced one of these days...

 

thanks for looking!

[Hinecken]

Love that last shot, makes the tank look huge.

[Caesar777]

Tank's looking good! Watch out for that gold "trumpet-looking" algae, which can grow kind of insanely, covering corals and rock. That's in tanks with nutrient problems, though; I'd bet it'd be fair to say that in a well-skimmed, well-kept tank, nothing should really run wild.

 

I LOVE the pods picking through the algae--CUTE and fascinating!

 

Now.... FOODZ?

[MrAnderson]

whoops - sorry.

 

i dose phyto max from kent every 2-3 days.

[Caesar777]

Watch our for long-term ills from such a product. Is it a warm, on-the-shelf kind of thing? You ought to use DT's Phytoplankton or another live-type product. Unless you have a good bit of info about why it wouldn't matter.

[c est ma]

Those pics are just fantastic! What amazing progress. I had to go back to page one and read all over again about where you got your rock, how you treated it, what it looked like then, etc. I can't believe you've gotten this far in only 2 months.

 

I SO want to do something like this...

 

--Diane

[Caesar777]

OT: OH WHAT?!

 

[spanko]

What a beautiful aquascape. Looks so realistic. A small chunk of the reef. Great job so far Mr. A congrats to you.

[Greenstar]

That sinularia might be alcyonium based on how feathery the polyps are. Sinularia seem to have more blunt and stubbly polyps. I am no ID expert but just my opinion. Tank is looking great btw. Hows the nudi doing? Any stars or other odd life forms make it?

[MrAnderson]

That sinularia might be alcyonium based on how feathery the polyps are. Sinularia seem to have more blunt and stubbly polyps. I am no ID expert but just my opinion. Tank is looking great btw. Hows the nudi doing? Any stars or other odd life forms make it?

 

Just spotted the nudi today, and i guess it's doing ok, it seems to have grown a bit.

 

I also reviewed my Aquarium Corals book, and might agree with you on the coral id. When the tank first started the hitchiker coral had very stubby polyps and i based my id on that. Now that it has grown out, and the end polyps look like little Xenia stalks, I think I agree with you. According to the book, it's really hard to tell the difference between Alcyonium and Cladiella, both can be commonly called Colt coral. But Alcyonium is typically attached to the rock by a stalk, rather than encrusting, and that is what this specimen looks like, along with the characteristic feathery polyps as you pointed out. I don't think it's Sinularia anymore!

 

Thank you very much for the input!

[Greenstar]

Just spotted the nudi today, and i guess it's doing ok, it seems to have grown a bit.

 

I also reviewed my Aquarium Corals book, and might agree with you on the coral id. When the tank first started the hitchiker coral had very stubby polyps and i based my id on that. Now that it has grown out, and the end polyps look like little Xenia stalks, I think I agree with you. According to the book, it's really hard to tell the difference between Alcyonium and Cladiella, both can be commonly called Colt coral. But Alcyonium is typically attached to the rock by a stalk, rather than encrusting, and that is what this specimen looks like, along with the characteristic feathery polyps as you pointed out. I don't think it's Sinularia anymore!

 

Thank you very much for the input!

I would be really curious if he makes it long term. Its really hard to tell when slugs/cukes/worms are growing cause a 1" nudi can become a 2" nudi once it stretches out. Width is a good indicator thought again not positive. I would love to see more picture of him when you get a chance. Hopefully he is munching on some of those crazy macros and you can have him for a good while longer. Tank looks awesome BTW.

 

Danny

[MrAnderson]

a few shots of him running around near one of the mussels:

 

 

 

 

he's a fast little bugger, constantly sniffing around. really friggin cute for a slug.

[c est ma]

He is adorable! Lucky you!

 

--Diane

[Caesar777]

I WANNA EAT HIM

 

He must have come in on whatever macro he normally eats; just watch where he hangs out and that's the one he likes. Such a lucky find to have a slug that eats macro and not some very specific flesh!

[Greenstar]

Just curious, if someone wanted to replicate your "soft cycle" by getting super fresh LR (day it lands) and doing the daily 75% WC for the first week, do you think they have a good chance of repeating the success you have been having?

[spanko]

What's new and exciting Mr. A?

[travisurfer]

looks nice

[MrAnderson]

oh hey! i forgot anything besides the lounge exists, i was surprised to see this thread on the first page.

 

not much going on, the M. spumosa is growing nicely, and the M. peltiformis as well, it took a while for it to start encrusting the rock i placed it on, but it's spreading nicely now. Both have browned a bit, but the polyps on the M. peltiformis are still bright purple.

 

i've been doing weekly 60% water changes and that's pretty much it. i've been keeping my hands outta the tank and not rearranging anything, i find corals seem to be happiest when left alone for a few months. i have a coraline algae problem on the glass, and it's getting out of hand, i need to fabricate a plastic scraper, all commercial scrapers are too big for my tiny, packed tank.

 

i tried dosing for about 2 weeks, i was adding Seachem Reef Complete and Reef Carbonate to get my calcium up, because with wcs it was hovering at around 380ppm, with dKH at around 6-7. once i got my consumption determined and started scheduled dosing things seemed okay for about a week, and i had the tank at 410ppm, dKH 8. then one day the corals looked DEAD. no polyps, pale, just bad. coraline pale too. i tested everything, no ammonia or rites, rates, phates, etc. i got to carbonate... dKH 4.5!!! So I did a 100% wc and the next day everything looked fine.

 

i assume i had an abiotic precipitation event, but i couldn't see where and honestly, I don't care enough to investigate because wcs alone seem to keep everything fine, and the corals look happy with great extension and decent growth, i figure don't fix it if it ain't broke.

 

"the thing" is still alive, but i haven't seen the nudibranch in a while. it's kinda hard to see in there with all the coraline to be honest.

[BustytheSnowMaam]

We just had Andersen (ha) windows put on our house, and the guy gave me some plastic razor blades to use to get things like bird crap off. They look just like real razor blades except they're plastic. They work great to remove coralline.

[Greenstar]

PICTURES

[Caesar777]

Kent makes a plastic razor blade scraper thing. Holds a plastic razor blade which I'd have to assume they carry replacement blades like with their Pro-Scraper, although you can also put an actual razor blade in it if your tank is glass and not acrylic.

[c est ma]

I'm curious as to why the 60% water changes now? I understand how large H2O changes are good during soft cycling, but wonder why you change so much ATM. (Though I know from experience that it's relatively easy w/ a small tank!)

 

--Diane

[MrAnderson]

I do large frequent water changes to keep ahead of Ca and alk depletion, rather than dosing. Those two parameters illustrate what I was saying about keeping things near a chemical "baseline" of freshly mixed water. if rapidly depleted components like Ca and carbonate are kept adequate by these wcs, then everything else should be as well, in addition to keeping any funky stuff secreted by my soft coral in check as well. I gotta say, stuff looks happy and is growing fairly well.

 

I'll post pics as soon as i sort out scraping. maybe i'll just use a credit card on the front to clear things up enough for some pics...

[supernip]

HAVE YOU SCRATCHED THE TANK YET?

[Hinecken]

I agree with C7 on the Kent Marine scrapers. I have several with different sized handles and they work quite well.

 

I'm also a member of the don't disturb the tank club so the long handled scraper works beautifully. When I'm in there with it the corals are barely annoyed.