Jump to content
Coral Vue Hydros

Elmar's Red Sea Max


elmar

Recommended Posts

Hi All -

 

As of this evening, I manage to take a few shots of some new life. I need some help in identifying them. Sorry about them being blurry. I am in the learning process of taking aquarium pictures.

post-31243-1195710147_thumb.jpg

post-31243-1195710259_thumb.jpg

post-31243-1195710269_thumb.jpg

post-31243-1195710328_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
  • Replies 105
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Your friend sold you some diseased rock, you're screwed!!!

 

na... most of that is aptasia, a very common rock anemone that is hardy. You can rid it with a few methods. one being a pepermint shirmp after you get going. The other is best for now. I hear lemon juice works, or a product called joe's juice (online stores have it) or there are other products that will only kill the aptasia and won't hurt anything else. Your LFS may have a product as well, like I said this is very very common, very

 

best to do a search here, there are billons of posts about aptasia and what to do about it. For me, i have had a few spots, pepermint shrimp nuked them for me.

Link to comment
Your friend sold you some diseased rock, you're screwed!!!

 

na... most of that is aptasia, a very common rock anemone that is hardy. You can rid it with a few methods. one being a pepermint shirmp after you get going. The other is best for now. I hear lemon juice works, or a product called joe's juice (online stores have it) or there are other products that will only kill the aptasia and won't hurt anything else. Your LFS may have a product as well, like I said this is very very common, very

 

best to do a search here, there are billons of posts about aptasia and what to do about it. For me, i have had a few spots, pepermint shrimp nuked them for me.

 

Ugh! Thats what I feared. So it is aipatsia eh? Well, I guess the good thing is that I don't have any corals or livestock, so if I have to, I will take them pieces out and deal with them outside of the water. For now, I will try the lemon juice. I will order some Joe's Juice as well, just in case the lemon does not work.

 

Thanks for your quick replies!

Link to comment

Yep aipatsia, who can learn how to spell these funky names. do a search for joes juice, like I said some memembers don't like it, say it doesn't work and actually makes it spread more. Dealing with it out of the water is best. Good luck

Link to comment

The first pic may be aiptasia (hard to tell) but the rest look like small tube worms which are common and completely safe. Have a close look to see if they look like a mini feather duster sticking out of a tube.

Link to comment
The first pic may be aiptasia (hard to tell) but the rest look like small tube worms which are common and completely safe. Have a close look to see if they look like a mini feather duster sticking out of a tube.

 

Hey Hodge -

 

I think that I am convinced the firs pic is aiptasia, however, the others look different, and yes, one of the critters definitely looks like it has a feather on one of the tentacles/tubes. The other small bunches though, pics 3a & 3b don't look like aiptasia, but don't have an idea what they could be.

Link to comment

1 is aiptasia, pest get rid of it. 2 is some kind of tube worm, good. 3a looks like a hydriod colony. Some claim to be bad. Said to sting corals. I have them in my 135gal tank but they have never caused a problem for me.

 

Sorry 3b looks like more aiptasia. OK change my mind may be hydriods as well. If they are in hard tube then they are most likely hydriods if they retract into the rock (no hard tube) to hide then they are most likely aiptasia.

Link to comment

Hi All -

 

Well, figuring the first pic was indeed aiptasia, I went ahead and injected with lemon juice. It immediately retracted and did not get a chance to inject all of the 3ml of the syringe. I know those are very hardy and I am anticipating for it to come out again in the next day or so. I will persist in injecting it again and if it still does not work, I might just get Joe's Juice. I'd hate to get a peppermint shrimp cause I know they eat other corals and polyps. Also, I guess they are known to hide and I am sure it would be tough to get it out later. The good thing is, I have nothing in the tank and getting rid of this pest at this stage is my main priority.

Link to comment

Day 10

 

After injecting some concentrated lemon juice into the aiptasia, I believe it is now gone. However, I am crossing my fingers for it not to come back. It has been 3 days after I injected and thus far no signs of it coming back. Also, I've got some brown algae on my sand bed and some rock as well as green algae on the glass. Could this be the beginning of the end of the cycle?

Link to comment

My understanding is not to worry about water change until the cycle is complete. Changing water can prolong the cycle. What are your test numbers looking like??

 

I never had much of a spike on anything other than a small blip in nitrates after 3 weeks, mainly because of the well cured LR I got from my lfs. Once my nitrates dropped I did a 3 gal water change and added my CUC. I did some biweekly 3 gal changes for awhile (mainly cleaning algae) and now do a weekly 5 gal change.

Link to comment

NO WATER CHANGE!!!! 11 days is WAY too soon. Wait 2 more weeks, then do a 4-5 gallon water change. After that stick to a weekly 10% change.

Link to comment
supreme_spork
NO WATER CHANGE!!!! 11 days is WAY too soon. Wait 2 more weeks, then do a 4-5 gallon water change. After that stick to a weekly 10% change.

 

or, contrary to popular wisdom, you can soft cycle and do a water change right now and keep more stuff alive. :)

 

either way is fine -- changing your water while you're cycling can help keep more things alive through the cycle but will generally make it take a bit longer, while not changing water will make your cycle go faster but will kill more things in the process. i'm a bigger fan of keeping stuff alive than i am of finishing the cycle as quickly as possible.

Link to comment

Here's the pic of the skimmer noise reduction mod I told you about. Just have to pull the hose out when cleaning the cup. I've also found now, not to shut off the skimmer when cleaning the cup. I found if I turned the skimmer off I get nasty MB for a couple hrs after turning it back on.

Picture208.jpg

Link to comment

Thanks Phixion!

 

Day 14

 

Lots of new life in my tank. For the last 2 days I have seen an increase of snails popping up on my rock and on my glass. I am beginning to think I am getting an infestation. I am thinking of getting a coral banded shrimp to control this, but I am afraid it will go after the hermit crabs which I have added as part of my CUC. I also have introduce a couple of turbo snails and a starfish who spends his time buried in the sand. I have also introduced a small peppermint shrimp as an alternative to controlling the aiptasia. I have read that they are a hit and miss, but I have definitely have gotten a few hits. It immediately has taken care 2 of them that were apparent. I have noticed another one of these pests on another rock so hopefully the peppermint will go after it sooner than later. As a back-up though, I have prepared my arsenal with some Joe's Juice.

 

I have also seen a few bristleworms. The first time I saw the first one, I caught him peeking out from one of the rocks right after I had turned on the lights before one last look in going to bed. So far I've seen 2 of them. One of them is roughly about 2 inches. The other is around 1/2 an inch. After reading mixed reviews on these, I've decided to just leave them in there - for now. Because of these guys, I am going to have to buy some marine gloves. I definitely do not want to get stung by them or my latest discovery which I have yet identified.

 

I also saw a creepy critter through one of my bigger rocks which has lots of caves/holes. I could see it crawling inside the rock and it seemed to have multiple legs. One of the legs had a red claw on the end which lead me to believe it is some sort of crab. But really, it looked like a creepy spider. I did not have my camera on hand to take a pic, plus after seeing this critter, I did not want to leave. I have seen it only twice, but definitely a nocturnal creature.

 

I am also convinced that the small colonies on the previous pictures posted are indeed hydroids. I have tried squirting them with lemon juice and Joe's Juice, but they are way too hardy for that. Do I have to manually remove them?

Link to comment
supreme_spork

Sounds to me like you're showing signs of an early-onset excessive intervention syndrome. ;-)

 

"Snail infestation"? What makes you think a lot of snails are an infestation? Generally speaking that's a really good thing to have and you don't want to get rid of them... especially since you're only on day 14 of your tank and not yet finished cycling, you really don't want to do anything about these guys. Populations of these critters self-regulate over time -- they increase as food is present and decrease as it becomes scarce.

 

Bristle worms -- where did you read "mixed reviews" of these critters? The common pink bristleworms that come on live rock are beneficial detrivores -- the bad worms that harass your other critters are much more rare. Although marine gloves are always a good idea, for reference I have dozens of bristle worms in my 34g up to 5" long and I've never been stung. :P They're ubiquitous and a sign of a healthy system.

 

Hypothetical hydroid colonies -- again, you're only at 2 weeks and you don't really know what these things are. Why try to kill them until you know they're going to be a pest?

 

Coral banded shrimp -- it's a good idea to avoid these guys, they're very aggressive and tend to kill lots of things... they also get a bit large for an RSM.

 

Just my 2-cents. B)

Link to comment

Ive had 2 peppermint shrimp from the start, they are good scavengers of left over fish food if nothing else. I also have a yellow coral banded shrimp (impulse buy- no research) was worried it may cause problems but has been good so far. I got a pistol shrimp along with my hi-fin shrimp goby but it disappeared the day I put in the tank and haven't seen it since??

 

I haven't seen any problems with the bristle worms that showed up with my LR...only see em when the lights are out.

Critter watching is awesome with a new tank, especially for a sw newb. I'm still finding new critters..probably coming in with corals, I have a lil star fish on my glass this week. Unfortunately you'll probably get a pest or two along the way. I've had some flatworms, which I've siphoned out instead of going with chemical attack...so far so good. And found a couple lil slugs after doing a dip on a coral...not sure if they were bad or not but didn't take a chance.

Link to comment
Sounds to me like you're showing signs of an early-onset excessive intervention syndrome. ;-)

 

LOL definitely - I guess I am having this syndrome. I will have to just chill out.

 

"Snail infestation"? What makes you think a lot of snails are an infestation? Generally speaking that's a really good thing to have and you don't want to get rid of them... especially since you're only on day 14 of your tank and not yet finished cycling, you really don't want to do anything about these guys. Populations of these critters self-regulate over time -- they increase as food is present and decrease as it becomes scarce.

 

Ok - Part of my excessiveness...lol I will just let them be.

 

Bristle worms -- where did you read "mixed reviews" of these critters? The common pink bristleworms that come on live rock are beneficial detrivores -- the bad worms that harass your other critters are much more rare. Although marine gloves are always a good idea, for reference I have dozens of bristle worms in my 34g up to 5" long and I've never been stung. :P They're ubiquitous and a sign of a healthy system.

 

I have been enjoying watching these worms when they are visible and as I mentioned, I have been reading in many threads here and there about them being good as well as bad. No harm, no foul - I will let them be.

 

I will hold off on the coral banded shrimp, but thinking of picking up a few more of the turbo snails. The first 2 that I already have in there are doing a great job in controlling the green algae on some of the rock, but they seem to just hang around on the initial rock only. Is this a good idea, or should I stick with just them 2 turbos?

Link to comment
supreme_spork
I will hold off on the coral banded shrimp, but thinking of picking up a few more of the turbo snails. The first 2 that I already have in there are doing a great job in controlling the green algae on some of the rock, but they seem to just hang around on the initial rock only. Is this a good idea, or should I stick with just them 2 turbos?

 

A good approach is to add one or two snails at a time over a period of weeks until you hit the right balance for your tank -- that is, they're effective at keeping things clean but your tank is still providing enough algae/detrius to keep them happy. Since you already have a couple of turbos, it might be a good idea to focus on diversity -- add a few nerites, astraeas, nassarius and/or ceriths, as each of these critters has a unique preference for where they like to hang-out (rocks, glass, substrate) and what kinds of things they like to eat.

Link to comment

This evening, I noticed what looked like a gray/transparent critter on a LR. At first, I thought it was another hitchhiker. I got closer and I noticed the tentacles with a form of a shrimp. The tentacles where moving, but because of the water movement. I grabbed my camera, took some shots from every angle I could. Put my camera down and noticed the thing wasn't moving from its place. So, I went in and tried to move it with some tweezers. As I tried to move, it went inside the rock cave. I waited a few minutes and it came back out, only this time, it was all the way out and floating. Turns out, it was the remains of my PEPPERMINT SHRIMP. :angry:

 

It lasted 2 days. It did eat the aiptasia, so I thank him for that, but could it had starved to death since he ate all of it? Or perhaps, the mystery critter (crab of some sort) hunted him down. The remains was just the outer shell and almost jellyfish type, transluscent.

Link to comment

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recommended Discussions


×
×
  • Create New...