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MedRed's 60 Gal Solana XL: The End of an Era


MedRed

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So... Earlier last week I seed my tank with copepods.

These and these....

 

I'm already able to see pods on the glass! My glass was like a large expansive desert before. I've decided not to see amphipods. I will go ahead with the mysis though. My Astraea snails are eating up the diatoms. They move so slowly though. I'm amazed at how much they poop though. I'm always seeing their poops blowing by in the current. One of them didn't make the acclimation. The nassarius were all over it.

 

Does anybody know if 2 fighting conchs will be too much for this tank? I don't want them to starve or fight!

 

I've also noticed a few small spots of coralline. By small I mean minute. This is a good sign as it means it is doing the same on the rocks.

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My six line wrasse ate all of my pods! I'm waiting to buy an in tank refugium. Thanks for posting a link p for the pods. I'll definitely be buying one of those bottles after o get my fuge.

 

 

Anyways, looking good.

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My six line wrasse ate all of my pods! I'm waiting to buy an in tank refugium. Thanks for posting a link p for the pods. I'll definitely be buying one of those bottles after o get my fuge.

 

 

Anyways, looking good.

 

Thanks Mitch. I'm more concerned about pods than I am about coralline. Now it's time to flesh out my CuC

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Hey med one thing to keep in mind is mysis are natural predators of copepods.

 

I was thinking... what do mysis eat... Thanks for the heads up. I may wait and seed them in January. My tank should still be fallow for the month of January if I buy my first fish then.

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NirvanaandTool

Looking good med!

 

Question on your qt tank, isn't it a little small for an extended qt period? I think you might benefit from a 10 or 20g

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phi delt reefer

Medred - have you thought about using a cheapo UV sterilizer when QT'ing fish? I see some people running them on large FOWLR systems. On ebay the Jebo ones run for about $50 shipped.

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I had my clowns, tailspot, and jawfish in it last year and it worked out just fine. I shouldn't have more than 2 fish in it at the max this go around.

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Medred - have you thought about using a cheapo UV sterilizer when QT'ing fish? I see some people running them on large FOWLR systems. On ebay the Jebo ones run for about $50 shipped.

 

I actually have a couple of the petco (or are they petsmart) ones. I normally just observe during QT and treat if necessary. I might just give it a shot.

 

Aquascaping looks amazing!!!!!

 

Thanks krisko!

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I've begun stocking a few inverts. Besides the astraeas and nassarius, I've added 2 sexy shrimp, 1 cleaner shrimp, 1 fighting conch, and 3 ricordeas.

 

I'm getting a secondary bacterial bloom for some reason (hence the hazy look to the tank) Most of the diatoms have been eaten or subsided. My glass is also NASTY. I don't want to scrape/wipe it until the end of the month to let the pods keep doing their thing. Cheato is growing like crazy, I may have to put the lid on the container to keep it in.

 

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Here are my new ricordeas. So far they like the LED's

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Cleaner shrimp

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Fighting conch... I love this guy!

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I see you Nassarius!

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Pods and my dirty glass

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What are these called?

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With the naked eye, I thought these guys were coralline popping up on the glass. Upon closer inspection, they turned out to be something else. Identification?

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I'll have to get pictures of the sexy shrimp later. Speaking of them, I noticed predatory behavior from one of nassarius snails. It's a Tongan and definitely not a welk. Several hours after I'd introduced the sexy shrimp to the tank, I had one sitting about 2 inches above the sand on the glass. A nassarius came sniffing around for him. He was waving his nose back and forth like a blind man with a walking cane. The sexy shrimp hopped away when the snout came too close, the nassarius went up the glass and over towards the sexy shrimp. The shrimp hopped onto the sand and the nassarius still went after him. The sexy shrimp went over to the overflow and the nassarius still chased him. The nassarius wasn't moving super fast, but it was obvious what was happening. Finally, the sexy shrimp jumped onto the nassarius's back. The nassarius then stopped and was trying to reach the sexy shrimp with his snout while the shrimp was on his shell. He finally gave up and dug himself into the sand.

 

When I introduced the cleaner shrimp the next day. What I believe to be the same Nassarius came alive and headed around that side of the tank before burying himself in the sand below the shrimp. I'm not liking this behavior at all. There are 5 nassarius in the tank and I think one may be rogue. With all of the sexy shrimp drama, there was another nassarius buried right there in the sand that didn't care at all about the sexy shrimp. hmmm...

 

Now I just need some coralline.

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ID #1 is hydroids.

ID #2 is snails.

 

 

Isn't #2 Sporidia worms?

 

Oh also... Love the scape :D I am loving these minimalistic tanks. I am hoping to have a similar style with mine.

 

 

Look like baby snails to me. I have them all over my tank especially at night.

 

Thanks for the ID's guys... and thanks for the compliment ScubaJ! These snailes look like they are stuck to the glass... and one of them appeared to have little filaments waving in the water.

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+1 to sporidia on the glass. They'll go bananas. Everyone says that they're a sign of a healthy tank (like a precursor to coraline later?)

 

Tank looks great. Awesome rics and conchs are awesome!

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Thanks d9hp!

 

I know I said I wasn't going to clean my glass... but I lied. It was bugging the crap out of me.

So now I have clean glass!

 

I found one of the sexy shrimp... why he's on the back glass instead of the rocks, I don't know.

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Stomatella cleaning around the vortech...

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Astraea cleaning below the sand line

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This week should be a big beef up in invert population.

I just ordered:

4 pom pom crabs

2 Anemone Porcelain crabs

4 Porcelain crabs

10 mini ceriths

5 Carribean Ceriths

5 Mexican Ceriths

5 Banded Trochus ( to replace the Astraea since they can't right themselves if they get knocked over)

4 Sexy Shrimp

5 Nassarius Vibex

 

 

I'm trying to do my clean up crew slowly so that they don't starve. I'm sure my tank can support 2 fighting conchs and possibly 3 after the tank matures. The one I have seems to love the left hand side of the tank and the front of the tank. He doesn't venture towards the back of the tank at all, even on the sides. That's where most of the detritus and diatoms are. I don't know if it he avoids it because of the flow or the lower light levels. Kind of odd.

 

So for clean up, I'd still like to add 5 of the star Astraeas, 1 Tongan Fighting Conch, a fuzzy chiton, and maybe a nerite or two. I HATE the eggs nerites lay. If I can be assured of males I'd jump all over them. I love them for being the best eater of pest algae I've seen, I hate them for laying those freaking hard to scrape off eggs!

 

It's a good beefing up. I'll give my system until after the 1st of the year to catch up to the increase in bio load. I really want to make sure everything is perfect before introducing some of the expensive fish I'm planning.

 

On a side note:

I've adjusted my process for mixing saltwater. I was getting quite a bit of precipitate. According to Seachem, a lower temperature like 72 degrees and a slower addition of the salt will help reduce precipitate and alkalinity drops. I now heat to 72 degrees and I'm mixing a LOT slower. I'm mixing 2 cups every 2 hours for 30 gallons of water. I'm also peppering the salt into the water which takes several minutes to do. My current batch has zero precipitate.

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I ordered from live aquaria. They had a decent price on the pom poms and a really good price on the sexy shrimp. I would have ordered from my LFS, but the owner didn't seem interested in my money this weekend. Oh well.

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