My First Marine Aquarium (BC 14)

[cota472]

was just curious how the temps are doing in your tank now that you changed the setup

[Lear]

The temperature is a lot more stable! But still not perfect. It's hovering around 78, but my heater is set to 81. I think I need to adjust the setup of LR rubble in chamber 2. I've also had the lights off since the day before yesterday, to keep the dino outbreak in check; that will help stabilize the temperature all on it's own!

 

My favorite part about adjusting the chamber organization: there's enough flow in the back that evaporation doesn't make my pump spit air!

 

I'm about to test my nitrogen levels again, and if they're still good, I'm gonna go get a few snails, for my dark, sad, dinoflagellate-smothered biocube. I hope my hermit doesn't eat them.

[cota472]

The temperature is a lot more stable! But still not perfect. It's hovering around 78, but my heater is set to 81.

 

remember the thermostat on the heater may not be accurate, also with it being in the back you may have to turn it up a little more then if it were in the display area

 

EDIT: base your temp adjustments off of your thermometer rather then the dial on the heater

[Djbacon]

Another 14g ownewr here - welcome to nano-reef :-) looks like you are off to a good start

[Lear]

Hi, Djbacon!

 

Today I bought my first saltwater critters! I got 4 snails: 2 cerith, and 2 nassarius. They're all very tiny, so it's a very light load to add (unless they die). The LFS also gave me a bunch of empty shells for my hermit crab; hopefully if he has plenty of low-hassle new homes, he won't attack my snails! Of course, he's at least four times as big as the snails --there's no way he could fit into their shells!

 

I finally did a pH test -- it's a little low, 7.8, but the Noob thread claims that's okay, so I'm not freaking. I still need to get a phosphate test kit, to help find the root of my dino issues.

 

My next planned purchase is an emerald crab, but it'll be at least a week before I get another critter.

 

The LFS has lettuce nudibranchs; they're really cool looking. They eat the same stuff as the emerald crab though, and I hear they don't last very long.

[Lear]

Day 7:

 

After 3 days of dark, I'll be turning the lights on again when I go to work.

 

I've been battling salinity issues, after stupidly doing a water change without properly checking the salinity of the new water on Saturday; my salinity crashed to below 1.020, and I've had trouble getting it stabilized at 1.024. This was hard on my new snails. Three are doing fine; they hide during the day and were out browsing around at night. The fourth, a nassarius, is ... not so good. It's not quite dead yet, but I don't expect it to pull through. I've definitely learned a good lesson. NH₄ & NO₂ still at 0; NO₃ still about 10.

 

My Neomeris macro algae seems to be disintegrating. I don't know if it isn't getting enough calcium, or it's just died from all the changes in the past week.

 

My pump (MJ900) isn't working very well. This morning, I could hardly even feel the flow. I cleaned the propeller housing and adjusted it's position a little, and it's working better, but still not great. When I first got it, if it pointed at the sand, it'd blow the sand around. Now it barely stirs the sand. It's still a little more effective than the stock pump (I tried switching).

[Lear]

Day 9:

 

The dying snail finally died. This morning, it was still dark-ish, and I saw a small (<2mm wide) grey bristleworm protruding from a hole in a rock, and chowing down on the dead snail. Having read some horror stories about bristleworms, I read up on them on wetwebmedia... sounds like I should leave him alone unless he starts clearly doing some harm. When I turned on the Sunpod, he vanished.

 

I'm starting to notice new things in the LR... for one, there's a smooth, round, grey-brown, small wormy thing that pokes out of a hole in the LR in the dark, or even just the shade sometimes; my guess is it's a small peanut worm.

 

While the other 3 snails seem to be fine, I think they're too small to really make much of a dent in the algae. From what I'm reading, I might later regret getting an emerald crab -- some people have no trouble with them, others have trouble -- in my experience, everything that can possibly go wrong will- so maybe I should avoid them...

 

I'm thinking my next purchase will be a couple of astrea snails. Maybe on Saturday, assuming no negaive nitrogen status change.

 

My closest LFS has chaeto -- extremely expensive chaeto, $15/bunch. I'm wondering if it's worth it.

[Rocket]

Well now, seems you have had some "fun" experiences with your new tank. They should start to level out soon. You just have to get the system running first.

 

About your Maxijet not working: After cleaning it still didn't flow like it used to could be a warning sign, just watch your tank temperatures, when a pump fails it normally heats up.

 

Salinity issue: Don't just dump salt into the tank, mix it before hand in a container, heating it is also a good thing to do.

 

Astrea Snails: Great CUC. But once algae gets too hard they can't clean it off the glass, I recommend a scraper, not the magnetic kind (you should already have that). It has a metal(glass)/plastic(acrylic) blade to "scrape" the algae off the glass. Mine has a long handle and I custom fit a curved blade onto it to scrape the bow front I have.

 

Chaeto: Easy to get!!! Just post a WTB (wanting to buy) post in the market place section. Most likely get a bunch of it for extremely cheap. Just include your ZIP code, people don't like to ship far.

 

Did you end up getting the Emerald crab? or did you go with the lettuce nudibranchs?

[Lear]

Hi Rocket!

 

Well now, seems you have had some "fun" experiences with your new tank. They should start to level out soon.

Yeah. So far it's been an average of about 2hrs/day of work (not counting day 1 of transport, assembly, & setup; that took all day but was a lot of fun), and an extra $100 in equipment I didn't expect to need anytime soon! I expect it to get better though. I hope. I do enjoy watching my snails, hermit crab, and the weird things that poke out of my grungy, fuzzy live rock... but my freshwater aquariums are dirt cheap, easy, and are full of colorful happy breeding fish...

 

About your Maxijet not working: After cleaning it still didn't flow like it used to could be a warning sign, just watch your tank temperatures, when a pump fails it normally heats up.

No heat problems yet (that is, no new ones). It's slowed down again though; I think I might need to replace it.

 

Salinity issue: Don't just dump salt into the tank, mix it before hand in a container, heating it is also a good thing to do.

I do know that much, at least ! But I made the mistake of not checking the salinity of the salt water I'd had mixing (~20 hrs), and it was too low... so I had to mix up some more fast, because I'd just added the snails and I didn't want to kill them with a sudden drop in salinity, and then add it as quickly as I could without overshooting. Tricky, and I learned my lesson (1, check salinity of mixed water; 2, don't do a water change right after adding new critters) at the expense of the life of a poor innocent snail. Everyone else survived the experience fine, at least!

 

Astrea Snails: Great CUC. But once algae gets too hard they can't clean it off the glass

I don't have any coraline on the glass yet; just soft diatoms & dinoflagellates. My new snails munch it at night, but they're tiny and can't keep up with just 1 day's worth of growth!

 

I recommend a scraper, not the magnetic kind (you should already have that)...

I've got a scraper, and a scrub pad. My local stores keep being out of the small magnet scrapers, so I don't have one of those yet. Right now all my algae is diatoms, dinos, and some GHA...

 

Chaeto: Easy to get!!!

Good to know! $15/bunch seemed pretty expensive to me, especially for a plant that looks like a plastic scrub pad.

 

Did you end up getting the Emerald crab? or did you go with the lettuce nudibranchs?

I only got the 3 tiny snails (well, 4 really, but now there's 3). I'm afraid that a lettuce nudibranch would have a hard time in my unstable tank? I thought they were kind of delicate. At least the lettuce ones aren't poisonous when they die. I still haven't decided what to get next, aside from the Astrea snails.

[Lear]

Day 10: Bristleworm takeover!

 

I peered through the semi-dark after "lights out" (room lighting still in effect), and found that my rocks are covered in bristleworms! The one that was eating the dead snail has lots of company. I saw at least 10, just from looking in the front of the glass. They're all fairly small, grey-bodied with reddish heads, poking out of holes in the rock. They look a lot like this one. I've read that this is a sign of an overabundance of detritus in my tank. Not that I really need any "signs" of that... there's grunge everywhere.

 

My first fish may need to be a six-line wrasse....

[Lear]

Day 12:

 

I spend a lot of time looking at my very expensive box of grungy marine rock. I've found a few more life forms: a small (~3mm diameter fan) fan worm of some kind, a yellow/white/clear -ish sponge (at least, I think it's a sponge; it's got "that look" about it, and it has a hole), and there was a stripy round worm that I poked its little head out briefly; I'm assuming it's another peanut worm.

 

This is day 2 of the second 3-day lights-out to fight dinoflagellate bloom. I continue to see bristleworms everywhere. I saw a 12g NanoCube at a fish store (not my normal LFSs) that had a ton of corals in it -- kind of a mess, but awesome anyways -- and it had a few bristleworms that looked just like mine -- only quite a bit bigger (I'd guestimate 5" long based on the width of their heads). They were actually kinda cool looking.

 

My rocks are looking less fuzzy. I'm assuming the bristleworms are taking the role of "cleanup crew"... The

tank still looks pretty grungy, though; I need to go on another siphon/water change adventure...

 

I'm planning a pilgramage to what I hear is the awesome-est aquarium shop in the "Bay Area": Aquarium Concepts, in Dublin, CA. I hope to get a few more CUC members, and to remind myself that all this fuss isn't just for the sake of watching bristleworms chow on marine gunk... there's a brighter future ahead...

[Rocket]

haha I like how you have a way with words.

 

 

Keep it up! Don't worry about your money bit, you don't even have Corals. You should scout out coral prices to start to get an idea so you dont' get ripped off

[Lear]

Day 15:

 

This weekend I went to Aquarium Concepts in Dublin. They've got a ton of coral, including a box of "coral bits" that run from $1-$10. This will probably be my first source of coral ... might as well make sure coral will survive in my tank, before I start spending lots of money.

 

I tried to buy an emerald crab, but my LFS was out of them. A girl there sold me on a "giant nassarius", which was really cool; I brought it home and watched it root around in the sand, then went online to look it up... only to find out it was really a Babylonia whelk. Very cool snail... he looked just like this, and was amazing at stirring the sand... but liable to eat my other snails. I was terrified when I saw my little, real Nassarius cruzing around towards his big snout... I moved him into "snail quarantine" in a sand-filled plastic tub, and then took him back this morning -- the store wouldn't give me any credit back for him. Edit: I went back a week later, and they'd listened to me -- the snails were no longer considered "Nassarius"!

 

I did get an Astrea snail, which has a penchant for climbing the rocks, then falling off upside-down so it gets stuck, and I have to find it and put it right-side-up again... I also got 3 Margarita snails, which are browsing around.

 

I soaked my MJ900 in vinegar overnight, and messed around with where it's placed in the 3rd compartment, and it's working much better now. As a result, I'm having temperature issues again. Not as bad as the first time, but I worry about it more now that I've got critters.

 

I also rearranged the rockscape today. I'm not sure what I think of it, really, but there are a lot more holes, so there should be better flow. I can also get the magnet glass scraper around the whole tank now. All my critters seemed to survive the process. Even my long-lost cerith snail showed up tonight!

[Lear]

Day 16:

 

I found a limpet! He was hanging out on a cerith snail shell (one I got for my hermit crab), and blended in perfectly, except he was lifted off a little, and sticking out his antenna and a dark grey "trunk", rasping away at the shell surface. He looks a little like this (without the hole)... and exactly like a cerith snail shell! He's a little smaller than a dime.

 

My astrea snail fell one too many times; I don't think it's going to make it. One of the little nassarius snails was nosing around it earlier... "is it dead yet? can I eat it?" The margarita snails are awesome. I might get more of them.

 

With my Sunpod on, water temps range from 81.2-82. With the light off, the heater keeps the tank between 80.2 and 80.7 (average of about 80.6). Seems like a decent range to me. I'd like to keep it cooler, but it's not possible with the Sunpod and no chiller.... 80-82 it will have to be.

[Lear]

Day 16, continued:

 

I just learned that the Margarita snails are really temperate critters, that want to be in cool water.

And here I have them in 80-82o water.

They were my favorites so far, too!

 

I really wish I could trust my LFS! I could probably trust the manager, but he's only there during weekdays, when I have to work...

[Lear]

Photos!

 

The whole setup:

 

The new rockscape (note all the holes, this time!):

 

The crab (cleverly disguised in a dinoflagellate suit):

 

The limpet (cleverly disguised as a cerith snail shell):

 

The great crab -vs- limpet battle (it was a draw):

 

The great feast of dead Astrea snail:

 

My 2 Nassarius snails took turns feasting (one has a dark snout, the other a white one):

 

Can you spot at least five bristle worms in this photo? (No points for finding the Margarita snail.)

[Rocket]

Yay !!! Photos!

 

Nice cabinet, hides everything.

 

Nassarius snails are like the Grim Reaper.

 

*White Balance*

[Lear]

*White Balance*

?

 

 

Day 23:

 

My crab molted! He'd been hiding for the past couple of days; I thought maybe he was just finding tasty stuff in the dark crevices, but today when I got home, there was a crab suit on the "ground", looking an awful lot like a dead crab... but my newly-molted crab was just fine, happily munching away on the top rocks again (in the same old shell).

 

I guess that means my Ca/Mg/alk levels are okay? Do they molt when they're stressed?

 

My limpet is keeping his shell very clean. I'm not sure if I should put the shell on a rock; maybe he'd move onto the rock from the shell? I'm afraid he'll starve where he is.

[Lear]

Day 24:

 

I have a monster in my tank... a genuine Eunice Worm!

 

So, tonight when I got home, I saw these white antennae waving out of a hole in the rock. I shone a flashlight in the hole, to see what it was... and damn. It's an Eunicid worm. It's a sort of tan color, with hints of opalescent red glistening if I hit it with a flashlight; it's got 5 fairly large antennae, that hideous head, and is about half a centimeter wide. It's got to be at least 5" long, but I've only seen about 2". It looks a lot like this (but with longer antennae), and is only a little smaller... it's quite large. It lives in the top rock of the "pile".

 

How do I trap it?

[Lear]

I've mostly been posting on the NCNRS website lately, but I thought I'd update here, too...

 

I finally got coral! I went to an NCNRS frag swap, and met a lot of awesome people who gave and/or sold me lots of neat stuff. I got:

 

* blue clove anthelia

* pulsing xenia

* 2 small mushrooms (bought at the store)

* neon green frogspawn (2-head)

* neon green hammer (5-head)

* green torch (2-head)

* green star polyps

* Joker zoas

* pink palys

* Radioactive Dragon Eye zoas

* Chaeto

 

I still haven't caught my eunice worm... I named him Leto. He's very fond of chaeto, and is making a significant dent in my stash.

 

I am also having temperature issues again, as the weather gets warmer... I'm going to have to get a chiller, I think, before the summer hits.

 

Quicky photo with bad contrast & color:

(green star polyps and zoas weren't open yet in this photo, but they are now)

The ball of chaeto up at the top is where Leto the eunice worm put it... it's right on top of his hole.

[pattykat99]

You're off to a great start Chica!! Keep up the good work I love the rockwork and i cant wait to see it all filled up with goodies!!

[Lear]

You're off to a great start Chica!! Keep up the good work I love the rockwork and i cant wait to see it all filled up with goodies!!

Hi! Thanks! Your blue clove anthelia is doing well!

[Lear]

New photo: now with better color, and worse focus!

[JULIES]

New photo: now with better color, and worse focus!

 

 

Love your Setup!!

[Lear]

My little biocube has been in my possession for 2.5months now! I have a fairly good idea of how to maintain it now (although I still have to figure out how I want to plumb the chiller) and my coral has been happy for over a month, so... I finally bought a fish! A young (and tiny) ocellaris clownfish. I also got a small cleaner shrimp (who hides whenever he sees a camera). The clownfish has taken an interest in my torch coral, but hasn't actually hosted it so far.

 

Cute baby clownfish hanging out with the torch coral

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