miniwhinny Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 I have a 20L that just finished cycling a few weeks ago. My diatoms were so bad that the water was brown ! I didn't think it would ever clear. When the water params were good enough I added 12 astras, 5 nerites, 2 ceriths and a bunch of stomatellas....they'd removed it all within 3 days. Link to comment
anemone fan Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 Look into reefcleaners.org. I'm not a fan of hermits myself. My suggestion is if you get the quick pack for 20L add 5 more nassarius. Now that I have cerith snails, I regret purchasing trochus and turbos. For the amount of snails you get, it is a great deal. For the 20L quick pack I received 200 dwarfs, well over the amount I ordered. BTW wait out the diatom bloom and let your tank get algaed up some so the CUC you purchase has something to eat. Link to comment
james.tsai Posted February 8, 2011 Author Share Posted February 8, 2011 I have a 20L that just finished cycling a few weeks ago. My diatoms were so bad that the water was brown ! I didn't think it would ever clear. When the water params were good enough I added 12 astras, 5 nerites, 2 ceriths and a bunch of stomatellas....they'd removed it all within 3 days. Do they still have enough to eat or are you feeding them too now? Does the brown go away or will it stain the rocks with that color? I want to get some rock with coraline on it so I can start growing more of that I think... thanks for the advice! Look into reefcleaners.org. I'm not a fan of hermits myself. My suggestion is if you get the quick pack for 20L add 5 more nassarius. Now that I have cerith snails, I regret purchasing trochus and turbos. For the amount of snails you get, it is a great deal. For the 20L quick pack I received 200 dwarfs, well over the amount I ordered. BTW wait out the diatom bloom and let your tank get algaed up some so the CUC you purchase has something to eat. Thanks for the advice! Why do you not like hermits? I like my two left handed Zebras but I haven't seen them do much except walk around. They pick up any food my Bangaii misses and seem to eat some algae though I haven't seen many pods in a while - think they ate them too?? Link to comment
Rubrisparsa Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 the diatoms will go away and you can get some gold tip scarlets or some snails. it just takes some time for everthing! but you will learn and hope you have fun doing it! Link to comment
james.tsai Posted March 4, 2011 Author Share Posted March 4, 2011 Latest Updates... Picked up a cleanup crew, got rid of pretty much all the algae, have had steady parameters for a few weeks now. Picked up a pistol / black ray goby pair (bought together but not as a pair - paired up during acclimation). The shrimp has dug out a set of tunnels under my rock (on the glass thankfully). They have a few doors but I am hoping they keep using the front one. I feed them there so I hope that does it. Pic of the pair in the front entrance (I need a real camera) I also picked up some rics: Oh, and one hermit was evicted from his shell by some Nassarius snails - I caught a video of him retaking his shell... check it out here: http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=265075 Link to comment
james.tsai Posted March 17, 2011 Author Share Posted March 17, 2011 New semi-FTS pics: New pistol / goby pair shot: Link to comment
nebthet Posted March 17, 2011 Share Posted March 17, 2011 Nice rics.. and love the goby/pistol pair.. I must say though, your gravel is large... what did you use? Link to comment
james.tsai Posted March 18, 2011 Author Share Posted March 18, 2011 Nice rics.. and love the goby/pistol pair.. I must say though, your gravel is large... what did you use? My birdsnest is dying and my Duncan isn't happy either but the other corals are good, not sure whats up... params all good but not super stable (I know, not terrible helpful description). Need to work on it a bit more I think. The duncan was fine until the birdsnest moved in next to it and fell on it one day, then both started dying... Anyway, its Carib Sea Indo-Pacific or Hawaiin or something - yea its really big but I think the pistol finds the big ones to line this burrow with. Its an amazing little combo, so interesting! Link to comment
irondragon013 Posted March 18, 2011 Share Posted March 18, 2011 You might want to get a frag from your birdsnest. If the tissue is dying it may spread to the rest of the coral. Tank looks good. The pistol goby pair are nice. Link to comment
james.tsai Posted April 21, 2011 Author Share Posted April 21, 2011 Left for a long weekend and came back to an overflowing skimmer and a plastered over goby hole. Fixed the skimmer but the goby and pistol decided to dig a new entrance at the backside of the tank so I can't see them anymore... guess my luck ran out. Any ideas how to get them to use the front side again? My LFS was also able to snag me a pair of Rod's Onxy, they just arrived this week! They are misbarred which I kind of like. Pretty small still, will be a while till they color out. Active little guys though! Picked up a bunch new corals too, some from liveaquaria.com. Great corals, way overpriced. New pics: Bam Bams, Red Hornets, and some new Acans: Liveaquaria grabs: Acan Lord and Zoos (think joker or Orange Delight): New Rod's Misbarred Onyx: I need to invest in a real camera... Link to comment
james.tsai Posted November 9, 2011 Author Share Posted November 9, 2011 Been a long time since I posted... where to start. Added a custom self-designed fuge and got rid of my AC200. This is my tank aroud June before the fuge... Note the plump Acans, large zoa colony, etc. It was looking pretty good... A Pic of the fuge. I got it made at Zero Edge Aquariums which was not exactly a pleasant experience. If you have a massive tank, go to them.. if you have a small project like this it will take forever to get any attention... nonetheless, they made a great product. The fuge has a sump chamber for a heater and my tunze 9002 nano skimmer. I originally designed it to have a media tray in the first chamber but it didn't work so well (more on that later). The fuge volume is about 8 gallons total, most of which is in the fuge chamber itself with the mud, rock, and chaeto and a TON of pods, stars, etc... sounds great right? Well it was great... but I started having chemistry issues... I started dosing high amounts of Kent Tech M to kill off some bryopsis that popped up and the switch to a fuge was accompanied by a spike in PO (measured as high as .20). Not sure, but I think I did a few too many things at once like a typical newb and have since lost all my Acans (REALLY depressing - like $250 worth), and my brain frag. My birdnest is still growing like crazy despite the Mg dosing and PO issues... I have been keeping up with weekly 20% water changes (probably a waste of water I know) more or less but I still can't get things to balance out. I added a Phosban reactor, which in combination with just normal aging has lead to lowered alk levels (7 at last testing) but also lower PO levels (.04 at last testing). I am dosing Alk buffer to get the alk back up and I am going to disband with the Mg treatments since I still have the bryopsis, though the Kent Tech M helped a bit. Not sure what to do about the bryopsis though... we will see, it hasn't spread too much but I have gotten advice to take all the infected rock out and replace it or cook it... not my idea of fun. Needless to say I dont have stable water, and again like a newb really don't know what I am doing. I have stopped buying corals until I get it all straightened out, no use in just wasting money... I have a fair amount of bubble and hair algae growing as a result of the high PO levels but I am hoping this goes away between the fuge, the reactor, and the CUC. We will see.... That being said, the tank still looks alright, here are two FTSs... A close up of the birdsnest: and some of my clowns hosting in my duncan - they love this coral now... play in it all day! Camera phones suck... will replace these pics with better ones one day... Link to comment
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