Upgrade to RSM 250

[eguld]

PICTURES!!!

 

Tank Pic

 

Male Mandarin Pics

 

Female Mandarin Pics

 

Ranfordi Goby Pics

 

Watchman Goby Pics

 

Kenya Tree Coral

 

Candy Cane Coral

 

Mini Anemone

 

Waving Hand

 

Aiptasia Infested Powerhead

 

Aiptasia Pics

[Rocket]

no pictures...

 

reload,

 

It works!!!

 

SUCCESS

[Rocket]

HOLY Aiptasia

 

Also, how do you tell the mandarins sex? I've had one for a year and still have no idea. I need more pod eaters, like a night hunter. At night the whole sandbed moves. It's a scary place and they crawl all over and annoy my snails.

[MedRed]

I have never seen so many aiptasia. ANy shots of your Berghai?

[PIPS]

Holy ####!!

Have the peppermint's made a dent on the Aiptasia ?

[eguld]

HOLY Aiptasia

 

Also, how do you tell the mandarins sex? I've had one for a year and still have no idea.

 

Male mandarins have a elongated spine on the front like this:

 

Whereas, females do not like this:

 

Male mandarins have a brighter coloration and are generally sold more often at LFS's.

 

I have never seen so many aiptasia. ANy shots of your Berghai?

 

Nope, saw one Berghia when I moved some small rock around but I had my hands busy at the time (that was like 1-2 weeks ago though).

 

Holy ####!!

Have the peppermint's made a dent on the Aiptasia ?

 

Either the Berghia or Peppermint have started making a dent hard to tell but I think it is the Berghia mostly because the spots that are thinning are surrounded by giant Aiptasia that would likely sting the Peppermints.

[Rocket]

wow, really that simple, Guess I didn't research enough. I have a male.

[kayl]

I would not be happy if my live rock showed up with that much aiptasia...

[eguld]

I would not be happy if my live rock showed up with that much aiptasia...

 

The guy warned me before I bought it. I got about 80 lbs for $115 plus candy cane coral, waving hand, mini anemone, some green polyps and a pistol shrimp. and a crap load of stomatella snails...

[MedRed]

once project berghia finishes, you'll be set. I'd be fascinated to watch all of that aiptasia slowly disappear.

[eguld]

local person was selling cheap sps frags today so I grabbed a bunch. I figure they might suffer from the aiptasia but they were pretty cheap.... I also managed to shift the rock work and had to rearrange stuff around mainly my polyps and my mini anemone.

 

I also picked up a live brine shrimp grow kit to attempt to switch my mandarins onto something much cheaper and maybe one day get them onto pellets. I would also like to see my Ranfordi eat some live brine just to make sure I have a fall back plan if it ever looks skinny.

 

So here are more pics!!!

 

[eguld]

Operation San Fransisco Bay Brine Shrimp Hatching begins tomorrow at 7am. This is phase 1 of getting my mandarins to eat something besides copepods.

[MedRed]

updates?

[eguld]

updates?

Coming soon... They are long over due but here is a quick update:

-accessory fan failed and temp spiked to 86 for a few days

-watchman, rainfordi, female mandarin all gone

- Sps are hurting

- aiptasia is in more areas but net less of it

-installed 1/13 hp chiller temp is stable between 79-82

-bought replacement mandarin turned out to be male... See this video of ordeal:

-moved new mandarin to another hobbyists tank

- bought orange dotted sleeper goby and I now hear my pistol shrimp shooting about once an hour...

- last 2 mornings I have found the goby in the back chamber

- got a new female mandarin seems to get along with current mandarin (thank goodness!)

- bought 2 new berghia for fear that the original berghia did not do well at 86

 

 

In my Biocube my Clownfish are laying eggs and on Saturday night they hatch. I am trying to arrange to get live rotifers in time. I might end up doing a tank with lots of Clownfish for my rsm (just toting with the idea).

[eguld]

Last night my Clownfish hatched!

 

At the same time my two mandarins were swimming side by side near the surface of the water! It looks like they have taken to each other.

 

Yesterday I bought a filefish to help with eating the aiptasia and he is but he is slow. He is a very interesting fish to watch always adjusting his color to camouflage himself!

[MedRed]

Awesome! where are the update pics?

[Lawnman]

Basically you have thrown your Berghias in a gun battle with a plastic butter knife. Peppermint shrimp eat small aiptasia first then usually won't touch large ones. Those large Aiptasia would be easy to kill.Help your peps and berghia get a really good start with some hand injections. Use some Aiptasia x,joe's juice,Kalkwaser or if you don't have any of that use lemon juice. Those large ones will melt fast. I personally think if you don't start hand injecting them you will be battling aiptasia FOREVER. Trust me I have had a few aiptasia outbreaks and your best friend will be peppermint shrimp.I am surprised your Peppermints haven't ate your Berghias.

 

Also if you start to see your pod population go down mandarins usually will eat black worms.

[eguld]

Basically you have thrown your Berghias in a gun battle with a plastic butter knife. Peppermint shrimp eat small aiptasia first then usually won't touch large ones. Those large Aiptasia would be easy to kill.Help your peps and berghia get a really good start with some hand injections. Use some Aiptasia x,joe's juice,Kalkwaser or if you don't have any of that use lemon juice. Those large ones will melt fast. I personally think if you don't start hand injecting them you will be battling aiptasia FOREVER. Trust me I have had a few aiptasia outbreaks and your best friend will be peppermint shrimp.I am surprised your Peppermints haven't ate your Berghias.

 

Also if you start to see your pod population go down mandarins usually will eat black worms.

 

I think you are right that I will need to do some manual aiptasia removal. I have some needles and there are lemons in the house, so I will try the lemon juice approach on the largest aiptasia's.

 

Right now I am supplementing the mandarins with baby brine shrimp and they love it. I am trying to get them onto artic pods to fatten them up.

[eguld]

Awesome! where are the update pics?

 

Here!...

 

Just a heads up my male mandarin is a total photo hog, he likes to get in front of the camera and show me how tough he is. It is very funny.

 

I also grabbed another Matted Filefish and a cardinal that looks like a shark (I would have used a picture but he has been hiding all day...).

 

Matted Filefish A

Matted Filefish B (I picked up a second one today)

[eguld]

I bought some Aiptasia-x today and nuked the crap out of my Aiptasia!

 

I reminded me of a nuclear winter after. hehe

 

I am very pleased with the efficacy of Aiptasia-x the Aiptasia's were literally blowing up in front of me, it will be interesting to see how many survived and if my tank will go through a cycle from all the dead.

 

I also have started using a feeding station it worked well the first day but days 2 and 3 did not get any visitors.

 

Pictures of tank after with pumps on:

 

Picture of my mystery Cardinal

[eguld]

Update: something went wrong, possible ammonia spike...

 

Mandarin male (i suspect also the female but have not seen its body) and sand sifter goby died and give to the porcelain god.

 

Oddly enough both filefishes and my cardinal are completely fine and eating lots. On Monday I am buying 4 more peppermints (I have at least two peppermints left) to finish off the aiptasia and I am tempted to pick up two circus goby's (similar personality to mandarins yet easy to feed).

[l3lumarlin]

Your poor livestock. Really should have cycled and taken care of all the aptaisa before adding fish or coral.

[racerfreak]

It could be from killing all that Aiptasia. Did you do a 50% water change after and then a 20% every couple of days after for a week? I mean that's what I would do If I killed that much stuff in my tank. Good luck and remember water changes are a life saver.

[eguld]

It could be from killing all that Aiptasia. Did you do a 50% water change after and then a 20% every couple of days after for a week? I mean that's what I would do If I killed that much stuff in my tank. Good luck and remember water changes are a life saver.

I put the skimmer on and set to wet skim a little, cleaned sponge filters, replaced water polisher (aka filter floss) a bunch of times and I did a 15% water change.

 

50% and then a bunch of 20% water changes, brilliant! I should have been doing that right from the beginning. I will start a 20% change on alternating days: today.

 

I am still getting used to the bigger tank, in my 14g I never really did less than ~30% water changes so I must have avoided issues like this.

[eguld]

picked up the two circus gobies and 4 peppermint shrimp a few days ago.

 

I am using 5 ml of aiptasia-x each day to work the aiptasia down slowly.

 

I have removed ~40 lbs of live rock and I am considering removing more (there were too many blind spots in my tank).

 

Pics coming soon.