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Monks 20g Sad Little Macro Tank


drunkenmonk21

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I've only had trouble with amphipods devouring my Ulva, so I try to keep a good supply of it growing to keep them away from the pretty stuff. The snails only seem to be interested in decaying plant material, so I seldom see them on the good stuff. They will typically clean up the decaying part and leave the healthy growth alone. It could be your hitchhiker macros were starting to fade, thus triggering the CUC into action.

 

Also depends on what your CuC consists of. Small nerites and dwarf ceriths will only take care of the above mentioned decay and dying parts, with the exception of Ulva I've found. If you have Turbo Snails, emerald crabs, or urchins then they will demolish soft macros.

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Bad molt perhaps? I know that's known to happen. If they aren't able to go through their molt they die.

 

Tanks looking good man. I'm jealous. Lol, I'm going through my diatom phase so things are lookin poopy, but it should pass in a week or two. In a month or two your tank will look awesome when everything fills out.

 

Thanks Ninja, I cant wait for it to be grown out everywhere! I still need more macros, I cant stop lol.

The Cleaner actually just molted about a week earlier though so not sure.

 

Sorry for asking a stupid question, but have you had any problems with your CUC eating your macros? I had a few hitchhiking macros I wanted to keep but they ended up getting demolished by my CUC.

 

Like ninja said turbos, emerald crabs, and urchins, are bad for a macro tank, Ive also seen Scarlet hermits tearing up my scroll algae.

 

The cuc I do have is on the front page and aside from the scarlets nothing touches the macros

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looks awesome! The red grape really looks nice. And that caulerpa serrulata's growth is crazy, and I like how it's growing with the blades all horizontal.

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Hey, thanks Key the grape is growing nice!! No joke on the serrulata, seems to be growing faster and faster over an inch a day every direction. It seems that the father you get it from the light the flatter the blades grow. My guess would be that they where growing straight at the top to avoid the light burning them. They dont seem to need much light at all.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The C. Serrulata is growing like crazy. Faster then anything else in the tank. Im thinking of removing it completely, or else its going to take over the tank.

 

Here are a couple updated pics of the C. Serrulata. First one is from the 9th and the next 2 are from today.

 

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9-25-11

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This came in on my LR was very small and has grown alot too. I think it may be Gracilaria Hayi, Im not sure any ideas?

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Also I put my 6 line wrasse and Blue devil damsel into the tank a week ago out of quarantine. Pictures kept coming out blurred so I took a video of the tank with the new fish, may be a bit long. And yes my tank is kinda dirty and yes their are scratches on the tank :P I have my 40b almost ready and I hope to transfer over everything in a couple weeks. The 55 long is just to hard to clean due to the rocks being up against the glass.

 

The fish get along really great, I was surprised how well they got along. The swim together and most times sleep in the same rock together! I have not witnessed any aggressiveness during feeding either. One thing I noticed is the population of pods has vanished of the glass. They were both munching them down for the first two days.

 

Anyways here is the vid.

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Does anyone know how to determine the sex of the 6line? I know the Damsel is female, but not sure on the wrasse.

 

Thanks for looking!

 

Josh

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  • 1 month later...
drunkenmonk21

Lots and lots of growth since I last posted. Not sure on the ID of some of them but ill just post the pics and not ramble on :P

 

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Side shot

 

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Full tank shot

 

Full tank shot on first post along with a shot a couple months ago to show the difference. Thanks for looking :D

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drunkenmonk21
Dang man, coming along really nicely!

 

What lights are you running over it?

 

Thanks Ninja, I have 2 HO 10k 54w bulbs and 2 HO actinic 54w bulbs Its an Odyssea fixture haven't had a problem with it at all.

 

Im planning to switch to a 40b with LEDs soon but not sure on how well the Algae will do.

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Thanks Ninja, I have 2 HO 10k 54w bulbs and 2 HO actinic 54w bulbs Its an Odyssea fixture haven't had a problem with it at all.

 

Im planning to switch to a 40b with LEDs soon but not sure on how well the Algae will do.

 

I'm jealous lol. What do you keep your nutrients at? I have hair algae all over so I am having to baseline my nutrients which is slowing down growth on everything. I have the same fixture and added a second one because the back half of my tank wasn't getting much light.

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drunkenmonk21
Beautiful!

Thanks Grmoore

 

I'm jealous lol. What do you keep your nutrients at? I have hair algae all over so I am having to baseline my nutrients which is slowing down growth on everything. I have the same fixture and added a second one because the back half of my tank wasn't getting much light.

 

Ninja I haven't dosed anything in over a month, im having a cyano and diatoms problem atm and they arent going away, but everything keeps growing strong. I top off with tap water must be were all the nutrients are comming from. Even though ive tested the tap water and am getting a 0 nitrate reading and very little phosphates, maybe my tester is wrong. Or im over feeding lol The blue devil just always looks so damn hungry, It picks up my dwarf ceriths and carries them around the tank and drops them way up. Crazy devil.

 

Anyways, Im about to do some trimming, my red grape and blue ochtodes are over grown badly so if anyone wants to do some trading :D

 

Thanks

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Thanks Grmoore

 

 

 

Ninja I haven't dosed anything in over a month, im having a cyano and diatoms problem atm and they arent going away, but everything keeps growing strong. I top off with tap water must be were all the nutrients are comming from. Even though ive tested the tap water and am getting a 0 nitrate reading and very little phosphates, maybe my tester is wrong. Or im over feeding lol The blue devil just always looks so damn hungry, It picks up my dwarf ceriths and carries them around the tank and drops them way up. Crazy devil.

 

Anyways, Im about to do some trimming, my red grape and blue ochtodes are over grown badly so if anyone wants to do some trading :D

 

Thanks

 

I'll buy ochtodes from you if you are getting rid of a decent amount hehe. I have diatoms+hair. My tap water reads zero NO3 as well, and it has no PO4 that I can tell. I am pretty sure there are silicates in it which is driving my diatom issue. I had a bad cyano issue, but dosed red slime remover and it made them disappear. No ill effects. This is the second time I've used that stuff since I've been into saltwater tanks and it worked great both times. In a reef tank I may have tried something else, but I really don't have an option to reduce nutrients all that much.

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drunkenmonk21

Yea im in the same boat it seems. I dont see the need to use anything other than tap on a macro tank, I have to top off about 1 gallon a day.

 

I have a huge mess of ochtodes. Where are ya located?

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Yeah, if I turn the ceiling fan on during the day it's at least a gallon and a half. Without the fan it's about 3/4 a gallon. I try to keep the temp between 74 and 78. Usually starts at the first and ends up the latter by the end of the day. I hate going to the LFS to get RO water, especially since lots of days they don't even have any.

 

I'm in western Georgia on the border with Alabama.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Do you prepare your SW with dechlorinated tap? Or are you using RO/DI? I would imagine using tap water would help the macros grow really well. Your tank is looking great, not very many people are doing this. It's an inspiration for me! Best of luck.

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  • 1 month later...
drunkenmonk21

Hey, Its been a while since ive last updated this thread: thought I would add a few new pics as well!

 

A month or two ago I had a large plant of grape caulerpa go sexual. :( As a result my tank went threw a pretty good cycle and nearly killed off my hammer coral and my rics were very upset. Everything else seemed to do ok had a bit of dieback on a couple different plants. Fish, snails, and hermits seemed to be un-bothered by the cycle luckily. Anyways everything is growing back in nicely, the blue ochtodes especially being invasive atm lol. And a new development of pink cotton macro everywhere.

 

Ok Enough of me babbling on! Here are some pics!!

 

First some shots of my rics and yuma:

 

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Purple mushroom:

 

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Mini mini

 

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Some Macro shots:

 

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Full tank shot as of 1/3/12

 

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Thanks for looking:I hope to get more macro pics up here in the next few days!

 

Happy Reefing!

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drunkenmonk21

Thanks yoshii, yea it was a set back but its growing back in fine. The right side seemed to lose the most I might have to move some macros over to balance it out :D

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drunkenmonk21

Bought a new Orange Spot Goby today :D Here is the pic of the little guy in his bag!

 

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Im hoping that Him and the Candy stripe pistol will find each other (fingers Crossed) lol

 

Here He is in the tank.

 

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drunkenmonk21

Did some re-arranging of my live rock and took a bunch of new pics.

 

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Full tank shot: also on first page for comparison.

 

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