My first - 20L

[nebthet]

Clowns will use just about anything as a host.. my own juvi clown likes to sleep upside down on the water's surface at night. It is kinda creepy to watch.

[irondragon013]

Clowns will use just about anything as a host.. my own juvi clown likes to sleep upside down on the water's surface at night. It is kinda creepy to watch.

 

I swear my clown has hosted the silicon in one corner of my tank and tends to sleep like yours does, nebthet. I need to get a good size frogspawn or hammer coral for it.

[latteslave]

Great pic of the clowns next to each other on the sand! The yellow polyps and xenia will spread fast... Best if kept isolated. Those acans are great - you might want to move them to the sand for better extension and color. They don't tend to like a lot of light.

 

Looking good!

[nebthet]

I swear my clown has hosted the silicon in one corner of my tank and tends to sleep like yours does, nebthet. I need to get a good size frogspawn or hammer coral for it.

 

LOL.. no kidding.. clowns are soo funny. my smallest one I call a vampire clown.. as soon as the lights come on he goes into hiding, and within seconds of the lights going off - even the actinics - he comes out of hiding.. it's too funny. It is going to be hard to get him out when it comes time to transfer him to the other tank.

 

+1 to Latteslave in regards to the acans.. keep them on the bottom as much as you can, they will really puff up nice and healthy.. they like lower lights.

[Wilioli]

my clowns haven't hosted my frogspawn or xenia (might be too small) -- instead they're all up on the intake of my filter... so weird..

[tundrashaul]

Some nighttime shots.

Cool shot. Looking good so far!.

[.reefdude]

GOD THATS UGLY..... wheres all the pretty tetras and guppies

[JulieR]

GOD THATS UGLY..... wheres all the pretty tetras and guppies

Freshwater tanks are so complicated I don't think I'd be able to keep guppies alive.

 

I have a few more pictures. Lots of action in the tank tonight. I went out and bought some raw shrimp to feed some corals. The frogspawn didn't really grab onto it, I was disappointed. The yellow polyps just closed up when I put a bit over them (I used tongs for the shrimp bits). The acans however, LOVED it. I was very excited. Very neat to watch. Those guys totally latched right onto the bits like "MINE, THIS IS MINE. I'M EATING IT." In fact, I kind of felt like I fed them a little too much, and when I tried to tweeze a chunk out, it was already attached to someone's mouth. Besides feeding, all four nassarius snails were out and about. So I got a few good pictures of them. One of the hermits was out and slightly interested in the shrimp strings waving around, so he grabbed at it a few times. But didn't really disturb the corals.

 

On to picturessss:

 

One nassarius

 

Two nassarius

 

Two nassarius and three corals (actually, four really, if you differentiate between the two different xenia). I did move the acans back down to the bottom which will be seen in a later photo. It had been getting some sand kicked up onto it when I would clean algae off the front glass. I didn't think that was too great for it, which is why I moved it. But now it's wedged between some rocks, so I think it should be good. Oh, closed yellow polyps in this shot, too.

 

I think this is a neat picture.

 

This one is hilarious. You snails, get away from that coral! They were literally piggybacking trying to reach the shrimp strings.

 

Here's the new positioning. There's the hermit that was slightly interested in the shrimp strings. And at the bottom you can see that dark vertical line, that's one of the nassarius snails dug into the sand

 

edit: I scrolled down to the lounge tonight for the first time Suffice to say that it's 4:30 am and I'm not asleep yet. As if the actual fishy sections of nr didn't soak up enough of my time already.

[JulieR]

Just a few pictures.

 

 

 

I moved the acan ONE LAST TIME (hopefully the last time) because it seemed like it was getting too much current, the powerhead was smushing it all against the rock that was in front of it. Then I moved the yellow polyps over to the far right side because I didn't want them too close to the acan. Plus I wanted all the corals spread out fairly evenly for aesthetics anyway. Frogspawn and xenia haven't moved.

 

I found one of my red tip hermits dead yesterday :/ I don't know what happened to it. Water is testing 0 across the board, SG is good, temperature is fine. All the other inhabitants in the tank look fine. I just found it laying on the sand without its shell. The back half of it was all melty and gross looking. It took me a while to actually find the shell. It's wedged in a crevice in the rock. Is it possible that it got stuck there and couldn't get out? Could the other hermit possibly have bullied it for its shell? Can a frogspawn do any harm to a hermit? The rock I found it by was the one that the frogspawn is on.

 

Ugh, it had to die in the least accessible part of the tank. I couldn't get a net wedged in between the rock and glass with the powerhead in the way too. I had to use a little wooden stick (think chopstick but narrower) to kind of flick it out into the open. And in that process, its legs detached from its body and it was just a gross mess. I have no plans on running out and getting a new hermit to replace it.

[JBM]

tank looks good.

 

stock slowly & research everything you buy before you buy it.

[irondragon013]

I found one of my red tip hermits dead yesterday :/ I don't know what happened to it. Water is testing 0 across the board, SG is good, temperature is fine. All the other inhabitants in the tank look fine. I just found it laying on the sand without its shell. The back half of it was all melty and gross looking. It took me a while to actually find the shell. It's wedged in a crevice in the rock. Is it possible that it got stuck there and couldn't get out? Could the other hermit possibly have bullied it for its shell? Can a frogspawn do any harm to a hermit? The rock I found it by was the one that the frogspawn is on.

 

Ugh, it had to die in the least accessible part of the tank. I couldn't get a net wedged in between the rock and glass with the powerhead in the way too. I had to use a little wooden stick (think chopstick but narrower) to kind of flick it out into the open. And in that process, its legs detached from its body and it was just a gross mess. I have no plans on running out and getting a new hermit to replace it.

 

Are you sure it didn't molt? I thought one of mine had died but had instead molted. My hermits have done this several times. The back would look all "melty" because they literally take their skeleton off like a T-shirt. It's kind of creepy, but cool at the same time.

[JulieR]

I didn't even think of that. I just saw this melty looking thing that hadn't moved since the night before (couple nights ago I looked into the tank with just a single LED style light, and saw the general shape of the crab but I didn't have enough light to see what it really was). So I just thought it was dead. Especially since it didn't move when I tried to get the net near it.

 

Now I feel horrible

[Wilioli]

yea this keeps happening to me -- my crabs molt, i find the 'carcass' and assume I killed another crab.. only to see the my total of 4 crabs out and about a couple days later... lol -- do you have extra empty shells in the tank?

[JulieR]

Ohhh I don't know why I was thinking the part I scooped out was the hermit itself without its shell. Having a moment. I was thinking it had outgrown its shell and was searching for a new one, while being shell-less. But that wouldn't be very safe.

 

Both hermits were just spotted alive and well. That thing I scooped out was just the shed skin. I do need to go out and get some empty shells.

[irondragon013]

Small shells are hard to find. I ended ordering a batch of 50+ on ebay and split them with a buddy. I have a ton of shells hidden behind my rocks. I figure 40+ between the small ones and larger ones lol. All this for 6 hermit crabs. It is over kill to say the least. I just don't want to loose any snails and they are adding to the live rock lol.

[Wilioli]

i got a bag of 100+ shells for 4 bucks at walmart.. the arts and krafts aisle. Some of them were pretty useless, but others have been great

[JulieR]

I wonder if I'd be able to find any of the right shaped and sized shells on the beach (boiling them for any ickies). I live about 5 minutes from the ocean One of the local beaches is usually COVERED in shells and stones. Great for collecting interesting things, not so great for trick kite flying.

[irondragon013]

Pretty much you just want a snail shells and a good range of sizes. Two of my hermits are in shells I would have thought were too large for them, but they seem to like them. Finding them yourself would be pretty cool.

[JulieR]

Tank is bombing. It was fine until I did a water change recently. Then both clowns died. Corals aren't looking too good at all. I though it must have been a salinity problem because of the water change, but I measured the salt and water out the same way as I have before. Anyway, refractometer is on its way in the mail. Then I was reading that disturbing the sand bed can cause problems? I definitely did disturb the sand a lot when I changed the water. I got carried away with the turkey baster.

 

Everything is piling up all at one on me right now and honestly I feel like throwing my arms up in defeat. My laptop's hard drive just fried beyond affordable repair and my senior cat has become very ill in the past few weeks. He's lost a whole pound in two weeks and right now he's my main concern.

 

If the tank's problem is a mini cycle from disturbing the sand, it should help that I just changed out 6 gallons. If it's a salinity problem and I can't tell because hydrometers are garbage, then there isn't really anything I can do until the refractometer arrives in the mail. If the corals live, then that's great. If they die, then whatever, everything else is already falling apart. To make things even more complicated, my family has planned a week long trip to visit relatives in two weeks so I'll be away for that time. If everything ends up dying, I guess I could start it over maybe as a FOWLR tank.

 

Sorry for the negativity

[Wilioli]

hey im sorry to hear about your obstacles... Did you get a chance to measure water levels for the ammonia, nitrites, nitrates? You could also check to see if ur hydrometer is accurate or not by just measuring distilled water and seeing if it measures as 0. Hope it works out...

[JulieR]

Actually, the first thing I did with the tank today was dose some Amquel+ as a kind of half hearted attempt to get things back in order. Then a bit later I decided to actually test the water to see where things were at. While I was doing that, it occured to me that the Amquel would have just binded everything anyway. Durr. So those readings all came up zero. After awhile I decided to put in some more effort and I did the 6G water change. That's had some time to settle and I just tested the water again. Looks like ammonia is at .25, nitrite is 0, and nitrate is at 0 as well. I guess I have my answer for why things went south.

 

The reason I had gotten so carried away with the turkey baster when cleaning was an algae outbreak (this is after diatoms had shown up and died out). It looks like bubble algae? Lots of bubbles will form on the rocks, as well as smaller bubbles rising up from the algae on the sand. It seems like the bubbles only appear after the lights have been on for awhile, so I'm guessing it's gasses that the algae is producing?

 

The acan looks notably better now after the water change. It actually looks like an acan again instead of how it had looked before, like some fuzzy shredded mess. The other three still have some improving to do. Yellow polyps are still closed, frogspawn is shrunken down, and xenia is kind of shrunken.

 

Some good news is that what appears to be a baby stomatella has popped up out of nowhere. Some of my live rock came with two good sized stomatellas (two that I know of). I wonder if this one was born in the tank or if it came on the rock and has just been hiding all this time. I like the little guys.

[Wilioli]

good to hear that things are looking well -- you are right about the bubbles... gas production from 'algae respiration'.

 

I hate to be 'that guy', but it seems like ur tank is still young. I'd wait a while before restocking, replacing, or just stocking more livestock. Especially after that 'mini crash'.

 

Your ratio of live rock to base rock is similar to mine -- I have more base rock than I do live rock. This impedes the filtration process and won't support a heavy bioload. I've just 'realized' that, and am trying to replace some of my base rock with cured liverock that has more surface area and obviously a better bacterial flora for the filtration. I'm not saying chuck ur rocks and get new ones, but maybe slow things down and wait it out a bit.

 

Technically speaking, a disturbance of the sand bed should not raise ammonia that much. This is just my opinion, and the other experienced veterans here might tell you different.

[JulieR]

Oh definitely. I have no plans on adding any new livestock for at the very least a month, if not longer. Having so many bad things happen lately has left me disheartened and disinterested :/ I haven't known what to do with myself lately, just antsy about my cat. But that's good for the tank in terms of no excitement about adding anything new.

[Wilioli]

well don't be too disheartened.... -- this things have to happen to make our tanks that much more 'invinsible'. Basically, its a learning experience... a horrible one at that.. It's been almost 3 months with my 20L -- plus it was a transfer -- and I've both bought and lost a goby and 6line...!!! I know the feeling..

 

hope the cat gets better!

[irondragon013]

Hang in there. I have lost two fish in my tank. One jumped and the other didn't acclimate/over stressed itself. Sadly set backs like this are part of this hobby. I'm rooting for ya.