tarajean0627 Posted June 19, 2008 Author Share Posted June 19, 2008 Okay so I know I promised pictures last night but when I got home I found that my brand new silver branch xenia was partially stuck in the intake of the filter! So I had to do some emergency rearanging and get things back to happy land. The xenia still looks a little sad but was better than yesterday as of this morning. I also had to move a small rock of zoas but I didn't have any more glue so I used a twist tie for now. It is very ugly in my tank right now so I want to get some more glue to fix that issue before taking more pictures. I will be doing a water change, cleaning, and will have the glue to fix the aqua scape, and hopefully the xenia will look a bit better tomorrow too. So I will try to take some pics on Saturday morning before I head off to work and post them Saturday afternoon. Sorry about the delay in pictures but you all know how it can be sometimes. Sarah Link to comment
spanko Posted June 19, 2008 Share Posted June 19, 2008 Hope the twist tie is not the kind with metal inside. Link to comment
seagul Posted June 20, 2008 Share Posted June 20, 2008 i recommend an ATO.. i put mine together for $8.25 shipped.(float switch price on ebay) since i had a pump and random extesnion cord laying around. will do wonders for such a small tank. topping off every other day is just an overall pain in the rear. wasting the good time you could use starring at the tank!! looks good so far! keep it up. Link to comment
tarajean0627 Posted June 20, 2008 Author Share Posted June 20, 2008 Hope the twist tie is not the kind with metal inside. It was, but my loving husband remembered that I needed more glue yesterday when he was out and about running around so it isn't in the tank anymore. Thanks i recommend an ATO.. i put mine together for $8.25 shipped.(float switch price on ebay) since i had a pump and random extesnion cord laying around. will do wonders for such a small tank. topping off every other day is just an overall pain in the rear. wasting the good time you could use starring at the tank!! looks good so far! keep it up. Thanks for the advice seagul. I actually am not going to get an ATO. I see no need for it. I never go anywhere for more than a day and if I do my husband is home to do the top offs. I have a gallon jug with RO water in it and I just have to top off a cup or so every morning after I feed them. It really isn't that big of a deal and doesn't take long at all. Trying to keep the equipment on this tank down to a bare minimum but thanks again for the advice. I will definately keep it in mind if I ever get tired of topping off. Thanks Sarah Link to comment
dtfleming Posted June 20, 2008 Share Posted June 20, 2008 OMG there's a rat in front of the 46. i keez keedz. Looking good. Link to comment
Symbiotic Posted June 21, 2008 Share Posted June 21, 2008 Is your goby hosting any of your corals? I have a toadie and one rather large mushroom and the gobe loves to hang out on them - I plan on posting a picture later if I can ever get a good one with my cheap little point and shoot - hah! Your Tank Is Looking Sweet! Always Symbiotic... BTW, I hope you are a Seminole Fan !? (I went to FSU - Go Noles!). Link to comment
OceanNano Posted August 25, 2008 Share Posted August 25, 2008 Any new Photos? ...Updates? Link to comment
Symbiotic Posted August 25, 2008 Share Posted August 25, 2008 Yes, it has been 2 months now - we want pictures! Your tank should be well seasoned by now :-) Link to comment
tarajean0627 Posted October 19, 2008 Author Share Posted October 19, 2008 Okay all I know it has been a really long time since I have been on here so please bare with me. First I want to answer the question about my Green Clown Goby hosting anything. No he hasn't hosted anything he just perches where ever he wants. I think this is because he is the only fish in the tank and doesn't really have to fight for territory so it is all his territory. LOL Next I guess I will catch everyone up on what has been going on with the tank. Well since the last time I posted I have had a few things die off for no apparent reason and a few things that have just flourished really well. As for livestock in the tank I still have the GCG and my Porcelian Crab and my CUC has all survived. But as for the Emerald Crab he has passed on. I got another one a few months ago and he also died but for no particular reason. I also went through 2 more Peppermint shrimp but they both disappeared within a few days of putting them in the tank. My parameters are good and what is really wierd is that they completely disappeared! I find that hard to believe because it is only a 4 gal tank but it is true none the less. If anyone has any pointers or suggestions that may help to keep another peppermint shrimp alive please let me know because I am again having a really big problem with apstasia in my tank (I hope I spelled that right) and while the first peppermint shrimp I had seemed to take care of this problem the other two, I don't believe to have been alive long enough to really get to the problem. This problem also seems to be getting worse. As for corals mainly it has been good but within the time from the last post I haven't seen much growth on the zoas and some have actually melted and shriveled away completely. I don't know why this is and again if anyone has suggestions please feel free to inform me. I hadn't added any new corals in a while but I went out on Friday this week and my LFS had some good $10 frags and I got 5 new frags so we can move on to pictures. I would like to post some comparison pics first then on to the new corals and then he FTS. I hope you all enjoy and I look forward to updating more often again. LOL Please forgive me for the terrible pics. I have a really great camera but alas I still don't know how to use it properly. LOL First is my GSP when I bought it and what it looks like now. It has grown very well and to tell you the truth I didn't realize how well it had actually done till looking at these pics. LOL Next is my orange ric. I had a blue one too but it keep moving to a dark spot in my rock and when ever I would move it back it would look small and sick but wouldn't stay in the light. Eventually it shrunk and disappeared. ? Before After This is the Mushrooms that I started with and boy that bumpy one has just taking off like crazy and left little babies all over the place. The red one is doing well with babies also. The little green striped one in the front is the same size as when I got him and with no babies which I find to be odd. The are all in the same general area and get the same amount of light so I don't know why it hasn't grown. before After This is my brown zoas that I got a while ago and while I had to move them because they kept getting knocked over they still haven't really grown or spread much. I don't have a before pic but here is what they look like now. (a couple are closed because my GCG was just sitting on them LOL). These next ones are the multi colored zoas that I got a while back but as you can see they are not growing but actually disappearing. No slime or melting just shrinking and disappearing. before after My candy cane is looking the same as it did when I bought it mostly. My pink zoas don't look as pink as they did when I first got them. They are more of a dirty pink now. And are not growing/spreading at all. before after The one coral that I am very mad about is my Silver Branch Zenia. When I got it, it had 3 strong seperate branches. One moved to the front of a rock and the others stayed in the back. Then when I was trying to get rid of some apstasia (again spelling??) I guess it got some of the chemicals and 2 of those 3 branches died. But here is a pic of the one I still have. This is also the reason I need to get a peppermint shrimp to live for me cuz I now refuse to use and chemical to get rid of the apstasia. These next pictures are of all the new things I got on Friday. These Polyps are attached to a good size clam. I haven't seen it open at all yet so I don't know if it is alive but it is however very heavy so I think it is. New Redish pink centered zoas New Green zoas New multi colored zoas. New hammer Here is a before and after FTS too Before And finally the new FTS I hope you all like. I am still having fun with this hobby and I hope to continue once I get a few problems worked out. LOL After Thanks all Sarah Link to comment
clownfish1124 Posted October 19, 2008 Share Posted October 19, 2008 nice! it's amazing what a few months of growth can do to a tank! Link to comment
tarajean0627 Posted October 20, 2008 Author Share Posted October 20, 2008 Well all you may have noticed from the pics or you may not have that I am having an aptasia problem from hell!! I didn't know what to do because I thought I had taken care of this problem a while ago. Aparently not. I had this problem from the beginning with the live rock I got, so I took care of it before adding any corals with some aptasia control chemical. Well then I put in corals and a fish and it came back, so because I didn't want to chance it with chemicals again I got a peppermint shrimp hoping that it would take care of it and I "thought" it did. But alas it came back with a vengence after the peppermint shrimp died. So I think to myself hey I'll just get me another one of those and it will be all good right? WRONG!! I went through 2 of those little guys that just disappeared on me! I have NO earthly idea of what happened to them. So when I went out this weekend to get more coral and was placing it in my tank I started to look really closely at my rocks. This problem is way larger than what I thought it was. Hopefully my next plan of attack will work. I have just ordered 3 Berghia Nudibranches from www.berghia.net These little guys have only one diet...aptasia!! I really hope this works and it is also my first time ordering anything from online so I hope they make it okay. They should be here tomorrow so keep your fingers crossed for me and my aptasia invested tank. Link to comment
tarajean0627 Posted October 26, 2008 Author Share Posted October 26, 2008 I got my nudibranches finally on Friday. The people I ordered them from where great. They emailed me and called me often to make sure that the little guys got here safe and sound. All 3 of them arrived on Friday in great condition and after acclimating them over an hour I finally got them into my tank. I will say they are so small and it was totally nerve racking to get them from the bag to my tank but it went well. I meant to take some pics of them while they were still in the bag but I forgot in all the craziness. LOL I did how ever snap a few not so great photos right after they were put into the tank. I can no longer find them and I hope they are still ok. But the people I got them from said they would be very elusive once in the tank. LOL Lets see if they take care of the nasty aptasia problem I have. Sarah PS Photobucket is the worst and slowest website I have ever used!! Does anyone know of a better photosharing website that I can use for my pics? Link to comment
masterbuilder Posted October 28, 2008 Share Posted October 28, 2008 I use a site called myfishingpictures.com , no ads, no emails, no spam. Its fairly fast and has been around for a long time. Photobucket for storage and sharing with friends, but use myfishingpictures.com for a place to upload/link unimportant pictures for the web. Mark p.s. I added that side shot you wanted. Link to comment
tarajean0627 Posted October 28, 2008 Author Share Posted October 28, 2008 Thanks masterbuilder:) I will have to check it out. I think I may switch over. LOL Here at work I can't see anything from photobucket anyway so it is kind of annoying but I can see your pics. Yesterday I went to the petstore to get nothing related to saltwater but I saw a white pom pom xenia that was a very small frag and only $10 so I just couldn't pass it up. Usually my LFS never has frags of xenia that small so I didn't waste time. LOL It hadn't opened all the way yet when I got up this morning but the lights in my tank had only come on maybe 1/2 hour earlier. I also don't know if it is going to stay where I put it or not. I am working out an idea for rescaping to allow for more room to grow and put corals. But with this small of a tank it is hard to do. I have been looking into getting a larger tank after xmas but I still have to get the husband on board. I would like to get the 12 gallon cadlights and then maybe in a couple of years after that one is full I can move up to the 39 gal signature series with the cherry stand that I am in LOVE with. I will try to get some pics of my new xenia tonight when I get home. Hopefully it will be open. Maybe it will hop onto my glass and then I won't have to worry about where I should put it. LOL Sarah Link to comment
debbeach13 Posted October 28, 2008 Share Posted October 28, 2008 Full tank shot looks great. It is funny how some times two corals that are the same species and almost side by side in a tank do not have the same growth. Looks like you have more that are growing than not so thats good. Good luck with the nudies hopefully they are up to the challenge. Already planning the next two upgrades, thats funny! Link to comment
tarajean0627 Posted November 28, 2008 Author Share Posted November 28, 2008 Well just a quick update. The nudibranches have done really really well and my tank it doing great!! In fact the nudibranches have done so well that my GSP is growing at a very rapid rate again. Before it seem to slow down to a crawl. Now that the aptasia isn't bugging it anymore it is very happy. The only problem I seem to be having at this point is my one huge mushroom keeps getting sucked into the intake of my filter. I tryed to cover it with a piece of panty hose but that made my flow so low that the filter didn't seem to be working at all. LOL I have tried to move the filter more to the right of the tank but it then hits the hammer and other corals with too much flow. I was thinking about rescaping but that will be such a chore and I really like the scape I have right now so I don't want to do that. Does anyone have any ideas on how to move a mushroom without rescaping? Hope everyone had a good Turkey day yesterday!! Sarah Link to comment
JonathanS Posted November 28, 2008 Share Posted November 28, 2008 hmm, nice, not to brag but in my tank everything is growin fast and I just recently got it running. You know you dont haveto feed the tank every morning? it will lead to the possible slowered growth due to bad water quality and I also see this as the reason zoas dissaper. You have the option to feed less or get a protein skimmer and if the tank were bigger one thats ozone safe with an ozonizer. This is why bigger tanks are so stable (easier to control). Take care and good luck. Link to comment
cuboy Posted November 28, 2008 Share Posted November 28, 2008 tank looks great. Where did you get those nudibranches from? They look pretty cool Link to comment
tarajean0627 Posted November 29, 2008 Author Share Posted November 29, 2008 Thanks all. I do feed everyday but maybe I will cut down to once every other day or doing more water changes during the week. I have noticed that everything is alway much happier after I do a water change. But I may just wait a little longer because they seem to be doing better already with the aptasia all gone. cuboy, I got the nudi branches from this website http://www.berghia.net/ Let me tell you that they are well worth it if you have a problem with aptasia and you can't/won't use chemicals or can't find a peppermint shrimp that will eat it. Plus I found the peppermints to be a bit of messy eaters so it will spread the aptasia more than help it. But that is just my experience (what little I have). Link to comment
tarajean0627 Posted November 30, 2008 Author Share Posted November 30, 2008 Hey all! I was just looking at my tank again now that my aptasia is wonderfully undercontrol and I happen to notice that I seem to have a whole TON of bristleworms. Now I know that they are good for moving the sand around and all but now that I don't have the awful aptasia to look at my eye is now looking to the worms. So my question is how many is too many? Again my tank is only 4 gallons but there really are a lot of them. Also what if any suggestions would you have to get rid of the little buggers? Do the traps like this one really work? http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod...amp;pcatid=3960 Or should I just try the tweezer method after the lights go out? Any help with this would be greatly appriciated. I am really try to get this tank growing like crazy! (That way I may be able to convince my hubby to get a bigger one) LOL Thanks in advance Sarah Link to comment
thesmallerthebetter Posted December 1, 2008 Share Posted December 1, 2008 i really wouldnt worry about the birstles, they are basically just CUC. but if u must remove them then rather than buy a trap. just put a small bottle (like a figi water bottle) in with a chunk of shrimp inside. if they are anything like the ones ive had in the past then they will jsut swarm the thing after dark. Link to comment
tarajean0627 Posted January 5, 2009 Author Share Posted January 5, 2009 i really wouldnt worry about the birstles, they are basically just CUC. but if u must remove them then rather than buy a trap. just put a small bottle (like a figi water bottle) in with a chunk of shrimp inside. if they are anything like the ones ive had in the past then they will jsut swarm the thing after dark. Thanks for the tips. I actually haven't done anything about them so far. I did however have to rescape my tank because I got a new filter from Dr. Foster and Smith and it wouldn't fit with the way the rock work was. So I spent a good amount of time reworking it and got it where things are looking good. Also since I have moved everything around it all seems to be much happier! I did this a few weeks ago and I am just now posting pics of it because I also got a new light and it just arrived today. I wanted to wait and get all the pics up at once. So the following pics are the new aqua scape that I did about 2 or 3 weeks ago and the new light that I got today! Enjoy Thats it folks my tank is doing really well I think now that everything seems to be under control. I am anxious to see what this new light will do and how it will change the growth rates of my corals. It is almost twice as much as the stock light that I had. I guess we will definately see won't we? Sarah Link to comment
SaltCreep Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 YOu're going to love the new light. These tanks are great. I used to have one with a 70 watt 20k halide in a custom reflector/pendant with a AC300 refugium. I miss it! I'll be watching how yours progress's. Link to comment
tarajean0627 Posted January 11, 2009 Author Share Posted January 11, 2009 YOu're going to love the new light. These tanks are great. I used to have one with a 70 watt 20k halide in a custom reflector/pendant with a AC300 refugium. I miss it! I'll be watching how yours progress's. Love your set up on your 4 gallon. Why don't you have it anymore? upgraded? I know I keep telling my husband that I want to upgrade to a bigger tank, but what he doesn't know is that when we upgrade I will probably still keep this tank running. LOL I just love it too much and I think if I was to move my green clown goby over to a bigger tank I would prob never seen him/her. Thanks for following along. Just for s&g's here is some comparison pics of before and after the new light and new aquascape. Before After Sarah Link to comment
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