Jenna Posted January 31, 2009 Author Share Posted January 31, 2009 Thanks for the suggestion and the compliment. I was keeping the powerstrip mounted with industrial strength hook and loop but it never holds it up for long so most of the time it sits on the floor off to one side. However, I will take your advice and not bother trying to keep it up there. After reading about the fires this strip has caused, I'm going to be replacing it within the next couple of weeks. When I do, I'm be certain not to mount it upside down like that. I really love that everyone is so helpful! That is what makes NR so great! Just a side note on the mounting of your outlet strip. It's not a good idea to mount it upside down, the plugs will eventually work themselves out. Mounting it vertically on the wall is your best option, IMO. OH...The tank looks great.. I love AOI's.... Link to comment
Jenna Posted February 6, 2009 Author Share Posted February 6, 2009 My tank is 1 month old today. The parameters all look great with the exception of a wee little rise in nitrates due to the death of a snail. However, he has been removed and I did a water change to bring the nitrates back to zero. The rest of the cuc is doing fabulous and the algae is nearly gone. I found a group of hitchiker polyps. They are orangish-brown with bright green mouths. I'll try to get a pic of them later today. Now that my tank is getting more stable, I'm beginning to think of what corals to add to begin with. It will be another week or so before I add anything but I want to start searching now. Perhaps a Xenia. They have a lovely one at the LFS that hubby and I have been eyeballing for awhile now. I know they grow like weeds but they are so pretty! Link to comment
bonsai reefer Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Glad to hear the algae is residing. Another thing that can cause algae it excessive silacates in the tank from sand, salt mix, and chemicals in the water . Chemipure elite will help with that as well. Link to comment
Jenna Posted February 7, 2009 Author Share Posted February 7, 2009 Excellent! Thank you for putting my mind at ease about that. I'm thinking of keeping a bag of Chemi-pure elite in my make up water as well so I can take out the phosphates BEFORE it goes in the tank and still keep the bag in the tank as well. Boy I can't wait to buy and RO unit! Glad to hear the algae is residing. Another thing that can cause algae it excessive silacates in the tank from sand, salt mix, and chemicals in the water . Chemipure elite will help with that as well. Link to comment
Jenna Posted February 14, 2009 Author Share Posted February 14, 2009 This is the hitchhiker corals. They aren't fully opened since the lights are off. I had to use the flash. Strange bedfellows I also discovered an Asterina Starfish today but wasn't able to get a photo. Link to comment
Jeffry83 Posted February 14, 2009 Share Posted February 14, 2009 I happen to have bought the same shrimp today,but i haven't seen it yet since i threw it in the tank,probably pissed because i moved him from his cozy home in the shop. Link to comment
arty77 Posted February 15, 2009 Share Posted February 15, 2009 The corals might be Zoanthus, are pretty nice. As for the bedfellows, the shrimp looks like a Peppermint one (the aiptasia eaters), which is very cool. The other two, maybe an "hermit snail" and a crab... I happen to have bought the same shrimp today,but i haven't seen it yet since i threw it in the tank,probably pissed because i moved him from his cozy home in the shop. They must be peppermint shrimp (aiptasia eaters)! I have two and in the first days couldn't see them. They like to hide in the live rock and don't like light, so you see them mostly after light is off and with the moonlight. Link to comment
justdewitt Posted February 19, 2009 Share Posted February 19, 2009 Are you running any filter floss or chemi-pure in your chambers? If so, where are you putting it? Could you throw up a quick diagram of the layout of your chambers. Thanks! Link to comment
Jenna Posted February 19, 2009 Author Share Posted February 19, 2009 Are you running any filter floss or chemi-pure in your chambers? If so, where are you putting it? Could you throw up a quick diagram of the layout of your chambers. Thanks! I run floss and Chemi-pure Elite. I'm including a drawing but be advised my drafting skills are sorely inadequate. If my 14 year old were awake, she could do it real justice. LOL There are more overflow slots and I had to put in some holes under that. But you get the idea of how the chambers are laid out and what I'm running where. You can buy the black acrylic at www.estreetplastics.com . They ship fast and aren't expensive. Or, you can paint your acrylic with Krylon Fusion, which many do successfully. Just be sure to let it dry/cure for quite a bit before you add water. Also, I found a Dremel, or other rotary tool, is invaluable when working with acrylic. I hope that helps! Link to comment
justdewitt Posted February 19, 2009 Share Posted February 19, 2009 Thanks! That is exactly what I'm looking for. I'm working on a similar design for my 5.5G for my office (wish I would have found this design before I set up my 10G...) and I'd like to run Chemi_pure and Filter floss in the chamber with the power head. It's just going to be a PITA to remove the power head to pull out the filter floss and chemipure to change it regularly. I'm planning on making a little media holder out of some egg crate. Hopefully it works well. Link to comment
Jenna Posted February 21, 2009 Author Share Posted February 21, 2009 I have new coral!!!!!! $25 for this shell. It has Silver Pulsing Xenia, Wood polyps and some reddish button polyps. The shop had Rics for $11 each. Hubby picked this one. Its splitting 3 ways but they only charged for a single polyp since it hasn't fully split yet. I paid $11 for this tiny one but the color is awesome! The picture isn't that great though. Link to comment
weeber Posted February 21, 2009 Share Posted February 21, 2009 Nice rics i got 2 like the last one from petco for only 9 bucs and there duing great one of them was splitting when i got it to. Link to comment
EnjoiFish Posted February 22, 2009 Share Posted February 22, 2009 3 rics for the price of one, sweet deal! Link to comment
arty77 Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 Hi Jenna, how's the tank doing? Link to comment
Jenna Posted April 30, 2009 Author Share Posted April 30, 2009 Hi Jenna, how's the tank doing? All's well! I had a wee cyano outbreak recently but its good now. Currently I still only have the wood polyps, pulsing Xenia and two rics. The orange ric is splitting again. The little blue-green one seems to be happy but its not really growing much. Still just that one tiny little polyp. My snails seem to be multiplying just fine though. I've found baby Nerite and Cerith snails in the tank recently. One thing I've been wondering about is that one rock has this white fuzz on it. You really can't see it unless you are looking at the rock from the side and the light hits it just right. Its in the highest flow area of the tank too. Any thoughts? Jenna Link to comment
arty77 Posted May 5, 2009 Share Posted May 5, 2009 All's well! I had a wee cyano outbreak recently but its good now. Currently I still only have the wood polyps, pulsing Xenia and two rics. The orange ric is splitting again. The little blue-green one seems to be happy but its not really growing much. Still just that one tiny little polyp. My snails seem to be multiplying just fine though. I've found baby Nerite and Cerith snails in the tank recently. One thing I've been wondering about is that one rock has this white fuzz on it. You really can't see it unless you are looking at the rock from the side and the light hits it just right. Its in the highest flow area of the tank too. Any thoughts? Jenna Glad to know it's going good. I've had the cyano problem too and a friend shopkeeper told me it can be easily solved with Erythromycin. He was kind to offer me one tablet to fix the problem (this medication is prescription only). About three days later the cyanos were gone. As for the live rock turning white, not sure about the causes... but a quick google search, found that might have to do with calcium/trace elements low levels or too strong light... maybe? Link to comment
Jenna Posted June 10, 2009 Author Share Posted June 10, 2009 I haven't posted an update in forever. I'll get some pics soon but the tank is still doing good. We recently moved and the tank had a GHA outbreak from the move. So I'm working on knocking that out. I found a local water store that sells RO water but before I put any in my tank I ran some tests. The pH was 8.8 and it had high nitrates and high phosphates. Needless to say I'll be sticking with the distilled water for now. I can't wait until I've saved enough for my own RO unit! Short of removing them entirely, how in the world do you get Cerith snails to stop breeding? I swear they are going to take over my tank! I started out with 2 and now there are dozens! They're only about 1/4" long but there are so many! I bought a clam shell that had multiple heads of Pulsing Xenia on it and some wood polyps. I specifically wanted it to get the Xenia to cover the back wall. So far one head has fully attached and separated itself from the shell. Another head has now attached and growing onto the wall and there are a ton of wood polyps on the wall. After this other Xenia attaches itself, I'll be getting rid of the rest of the Xenia because I don't want it anywhere else in the tank. I may get rid of my Emerald Crab. He's keeping one rock immaculately clean. There is nothing on it. He won't allow algae, or corralline or coral. Also, I have this weird stuff growing. Its a maroonish-brown stuff growing on the rocks. Its not hard like coralline but its not any sort of slime. It doesn't come off easily. The emerald crab does keep it cleaned off his rock but I tried cleaning it off the other rocks but even scrubbing it doesn't remove it easily. Maybe some sort of encrusting sponge? Well, pictures will show it better so I'll get them posted later today. So, that's the latest! Sorry I've been AWOL but I'm back now and have been enjoying reading on everyone else's tanks and how they've come along. Link to comment
Weetabix7 Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 I thought we'd lost you, nice to see you back! Toss a FTS in there when you post a pic of your weird brown stuff. Don't worry if it doesn't look perfect, my FTS's haven't looked that great lately either. Link to comment
Jenna Posted June 10, 2009 Author Share Posted June 10, 2009 Obligatory FTS Icky brown stuff Link to comment
Weetabix7 Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 Tank looks good. Brown stuff just looks like a form of coralline to me. Are you really using the area behind the false wall as a refugium, or are you just using it as a built-in sump? Link to comment
Jenna Posted June 10, 2009 Author Share Posted June 10, 2009 The back is being used as a refugium/sump. It has 2 chambers. One has the heater and powerhead. The other is full of Chaeto. Soon I'll be buying more corals. I haven't added any in over a month. Link to comment
arty77 Posted June 12, 2009 Share Posted June 12, 2009 In the 4th and 5th photos in the last post, could it be pink sponges taking control of the live rock? Link to comment
knoxvegas Posted June 12, 2009 Share Posted June 12, 2009 I'm curiously watching this 'brown stuff' you have in your tank. I have a very similar looking 'stuff' in my tank, but mine's very dark green, or bluish, but most of it is black. Very hard to remove and very dense. Also slippery and spongy to the touch. It takes over quite a bit and very hard if not impossible to brush/scrub off. I sent John Maloney some pics and he thought perhaps it was a form of blue/green cyano, but honestly I'm inclined to think it's some sort of encrusting sponge. Who knows.....I can pm pics if you'ld like to compare, but didn't want to clutter your thread. Link to comment
Jenna Posted June 12, 2009 Author Share Posted June 12, 2009 I have some black "stuff" too. It does almost seem spongy in nature. Please feel free to post your comparison photos here. I'm curiously watching this 'brown stuff' you have in your tank. I have a very similar looking 'stuff' in my tank, but mine's very dark green, or bluish, but most of it is black. Very hard to remove and very dense. Also slippery and spongy to the touch. It takes over quite a bit and very hard if not impossible to brush/scrub off. I sent John Maloney some pics and he thought perhaps it was a form of blue/green cyano, but honestly I'm inclined to think it's some sort of encrusting sponge. Who knows.....I can pm pics if you'ld like to compare, but didn't want to clutter your thread. Link to comment
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