Friar's 4 gallon Finnex - R.I.P.

[friar1]

Hi racechase,

 

The only thing I have to add is that I am dosing in the morning before the lights come on to avoid a PH spike.

 

brandon, I am using LED's, 4 royal blue crees, four Cool white Crees, one regular blue cree. The RBs are on a dimmable driver, I can change color temp pretty easy this way. Mostly they run at full blast. I also have a switch wired in to shut off the white driver and just leave the blues running, just to see the rad colors, lol!

[racechase]

why would the pH spike? (not doubting, just curious ) and what power are you running the LED's at?

[friar1]

just going by brandon's recommendations. I think it has something to do with the ph being higher naturally in the afternoon anyway, but there is probably more to it than that. yes yes, I know that I am going more by feel than science, but it worked for me last time. We will see if it plays out in this tank also.

 

Comments welcome

[friar1]

Just when I think everything is going nicely, I find hydroids on my rocks.

[Zoafreak]

hey fyi i would remove your beautiful orange zoanthids off your candy cane coral, because they will dominate it

[friar1]

hey fyi i would remove your beautiful orange zoanthids off your candy cane coral, because they will dominate it

 

 

Thanks, I didn't think of that (still a newbie) I will need a scalpel I believe...

 

 

In the meantime, a shot of the Mini Mini trying for another snail ...

 

 

It looks like it's halfway in there!

[friar1]

PH - 8.4

Ammonia - 0

Nitrite - 0

Nitrate - 0

Calcium - 500

 

To be clear. There is some bryopsis. Strands appear and then are gone in a few days or a week.

 

I have less hydroids than I thought, so I will watch and see what happens with them.

 

other localized algae blooms. Comes and goes.

 

I am enjoying caring for this tank so far.

 

Dosing 5ml each part C-Balance every day before my lights come on, sometimes skipping a day, but not often.

 

Feeding corals occasionally, mostly spot feeding freeze dried mysis to the LPS, sometimes spot feeding all with freeze dried cyclopeze. Very occasionally supplementing with either zooplex or phytoplex.

 

There are an abundance of pods on the glass, larger ones on the rock. I am hoping the animals that are not getting enough food otherwise are chowing down on those, and of course the mini mini keeps trying to eat a snail. But it spit it out and then drew it back in again, so I think it is not having success. The last time it tried this, it did not succeed.

[friar1]

So the snail vs Mini Mini saga continues. The nem pushes the snail out part-way and then sucks it back in again. I have seen the snail almost completely disappear, and then there it is again! I even wanted to see if the nem would eat some mysis while it was working on the snail. Turns out it did! Snail still caught.

 

It seems that the nem is spending a lot of energy to get this snail snack!

[racechase]

hahah that poor snail. awesome picture

[friar1]

Although I feel for the snail, you can't feel bad really, 'cause it's a snail! Snails were the bane of our garden when I lived in Saratoga. When I was growing up we did not like snails. Or slugs. We had these giant yellow slugs up in the mountains. They were Banana slugs. I remember going camping in the Santa Cruz mountains and waking up with them all over our sleeping bags and stuff! Haven't liked them since! LOL

 

Of course the CUC is different. But still, it's a snail.

[friar1]

WC 25%

[Greyman]

those orange Zoa's "mutant candycane ones" any ID on those, I have some but can't find any info online as to what they're called.

 

Cheers

[friar1]

You know Greyman, I really have no idea. Because I see so many names of Zoa morphs, I really have not paid too much attention. I will post the name if I find out though!

 

Looks like this from CoralPedia. They call them Bam Bam Orange

 

http://www.coralpedia.com/gallery2/main.ph..._serialNumber=4

[friar1]

I now have Coralline Algae growing on places other than the rock. This is what I was waiting for.

 

Dosing is 5.5 ml each part C-Balance Daily (or almost daily) in the mornings before lights on.

 

SG is normally 1.025

 

Water change 25% weekly

 

Top off with Distilled water every day.

 

Pura Filtration Pad change out at Water Change weekly.

 

Bryopsis remains minimal, Hydroids also remain low, not multiplying as far as I can see.

 

GHA bloom on Astrea snail is usually taken care of by the Ceriths, even when it grows long. There is a spot on the rock right underneath the k-Nano that is partially shaded that has some GHA, the rest of the rock is GHA free.

 

Feeding is roughly once per week, but it is hit and miss. I spot feed the LPS, I try on the Zoas and palys, but that does not work too well. Once in a while I will feed the Rics.

 

I have tentative plans to add another small pump and alternate between it and the K Nano, I already have a timer that will do that, and take that big heater out and partially hide a 50 watt Theo behind the rock.

[Greyman]

just curious if you ever feed phytoplankton, I've been feeding phyto and cyclop-eeze 2 times a week for the last year and have been getting tones of growth.

[friar1]

I have used Phytoplex, just once so far.

 

Cyclop-eeze is what I have used mostly, along with mysis shrimp for the LPS. The Duncan grew like crazy once I started feeding it Mysis everyday. It is pretty large now, so I cut back on feeding it. Once or twice a week. I am trying to keep my tank from major algae problems like I had with the last one, soooooo, tempting though it is to feed a lot, I am only feeding a little.

[friar1]

Snail Won! Mini Mini gave up after many days and spit the snail out. Snail has moved on

 

HEHE

[friar1]

Yaaaaayyy! I got coralline on the glass!

:happydance:

 

I Know, you might think Coralline on the glass is a hassle, yes it is, but I just really like to see it grow like this. Last tank began doing better after good coralline growth, not that you need that for a healthy tank, IDK, it's what I like to see.

[sean.e]

what do you feed your candy canes

[friar1]

sean.e

 

I feed them freeze-dried mysis, once a week or so.

[sean.e]

thanks im setting up a tetra wonders frag tank just like your last tank

[friar1]

Cool!

 

Good luck with that tank! I moved to the new one because of serious Coralline issues haha. But anything will work if you keep up on water changes and watch your bio-load. Of course, I did add a small canister filter with Chemi-pure and purigen to the Tetra, that seemed ot reduce GHA a lot!

 

Anyway, I will be watching the progress of your Tetra.

 

Don't forget to post pics!

[sean.e]

Cool!

 

Good luck with that tank! I moved to the new one because of serious Coralline issues haha. But anything will work if you keep up on water changes and watch your bio-load. Of course, I did add a small canister filter with Chemi-pure and purigen to the Tetra, that seemed ot reduce GHA a lot!

 

Anyway, I will be watching the progress of your Tetra.

 

Don't forget to post pics!

which canister filter

[friar1]

Zoo Med 501 Turtle Canister Filter

 

Yes, it says turtle, but I used this for a number of months with no failures. I just used Chemi-Pure Elite, Purigen and Pura Filter pads were also used to take up extra space. I did notice that my RPE's were looking rather anemic beforre I took them out, it is ppossible, they did not like the clean water I had. I also noticed EXTREME water clarity when I used that filter. I might hook it up to the finnex tank, but I don't know. I like the finnex the way it is right now, soooooooo.

[friar1]

posted this in the ID forum, anyone here know what it is?

 

Thanks,

 

Found this little guy in the tank, very small, maybe 2 or 3 mm

 

Any idea what it is? It has no markings to speak of and is basically white in color. Long foot that sticks out the back of it and the foot is slightly speckled.