gena Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 New green shroom on a broken piece of rock. Want! 1 Quote Link to comment
kismetsh Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 Glad to see everything is coming around! 1 Quote Link to comment
NanoTopia Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 Wow, how come I missed this. Glad to see everything is recovering...slowly. Have you determined what caused the mini cycle, sorry if I missed that as well? Christine 1 Quote Link to comment
markalot Posted March 5, 2013 Author Share Posted March 5, 2013 Wow, how come I missed this. Glad to see everything is recovering...slowly. Have you determined what caused the mini cycle, sorry if I missed that as well? Christine Hi, thanks all for visiting. I had clipped the impeller blades on my AC110 to slow the flow and it was too slow. After every water change it would take a day for the filter to properly prime, and until then the flow was really really low. I should have reacted to the problem right at that point but I didn't. During the last change before the mini-cycle I removed a bag of carbon and purigen, replaced with new bags, then had the pump priming issue and left it to fix itself. Not enough flow plus removing what may have been the majority of the bio-filter almost certainly caused the crash, in my mind. Now I have an extra pump in the display plus I rescaped so there is plenty of flow around the rocks. 1 Quote Link to comment
markalot Posted March 16, 2013 Author Share Posted March 16, 2013 Well, I lost my first Alveopora two days ago. The tank was cloudy Wednesday morning and when looking in the afternoon I noticed the Alveopora rock was nothing but skeleton, so it must have bailed. In addition, the pipe organ did not survive, what was left of the rainbow monti RTN'ed finally, and I think that's the end of the losses. The corals not damage look really good, and I've added some new members, but I'm experiencing a huge hair algae outbreak the likes I have never seen before. Even the emerald crab is getting frustrated, he can;t remove it fast enough. No measurable phosphates and nitrates, but those results are meaningless. I've been doing two water changes a week, 5 gallons each, and Wednesday I added more Phosguard and matrix carbon to the filter in response to the cloudiness and algae outbreak. First a shot of the left side of the tank showing what is now algae mountain, and then a couple of fish shots. The Rainford is loving the extra algae and the bugs that come with it. Yo! 1 Quote Link to comment
gena Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 Fishies sure look healthy...love the shot of the neon. That IS a HA explosion. I guess that is to be expected with the losses and resulting extra nutrients. You'll beat it. It will just take some time. 1 Quote Link to comment
NanoTopia Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 Is that a shark nose ORA Goby? You need a tuxedo urchin for that HA. Hope things are turning around now for you. Christine Quote Link to comment
markalot Posted March 18, 2013 Author Share Posted March 18, 2013 Is that a shark nose ORA Goby? You need a tuxedo urchin for that HA. Hope things are turning around now for you. Christine The neon goby was locally bread by the same store I got my clownfish from. It may be originally an ORA fish, not sure. I moved my Turbo snail from the 40 into here and he's chowing down on the hair algae. The emerald crab is being a tad lazy ... maybe he's just stuffed? Fishies sure look healthy...love the shot of the neon. That IS a HA explosion. I guess that is to be expected with the losses and resulting extra nutrients. You'll beat it. It will just take some time. Thanks Gena. Did you see my little Rusty Goby in my 40? I wish I could have added him to this tank, and I'm second guessing my decision, but I think that might be too many similar fish. Quote Link to comment
eitallent Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 Hmmm.... For some reason the notifications for this thread were not coming in, so I just unsubscribed and re-subscribed. So sorry for all the losses! I am glad it has all settled down and getting back to normal. You would have thought you had enough bacteria in the sand bed!! ? Weird. Quote Link to comment
markalot Posted March 18, 2013 Author Share Posted March 18, 2013 Hmmm.... For some reason the notifications for this thread were not coming in, so I just unsubscribed and re-subscribed. So sorry for all the losses! I am glad it has all settled down and getting back to normal. You would have thought you had enough bacteria in the sand bed!! ? Weird. Thanks for checking in. I think it will all be back in time, at least I did not lose any fish or shrimp. Quote Link to comment
Spirofucci Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 Glad to hear things are getting better!!! Quote Link to comment
PiscesBoy Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 Glad things are going okay. That's a lot of algae! You should join me and upgrading our 20 longs to 29 gallons. I'm thinking about doing it whenever I have some free time. I'll stick to the same scape. Quote Link to comment
markalot Posted March 18, 2013 Author Share Posted March 18, 2013 Glad things are going okay. That's a lot of algae! You should join me and upgrading our 20 longs to 29 gallons. I'm thinking about doing it whenever I have some free time. I'll stick to the same scape. I completely agree, with all the same equipment. I really like the 20 long footprint but it's very very hard to do with a reef. I need height! I don't have enough time to upgrade, though, so for now I'm making the best of what I have. Quote Link to comment
metrokat Posted March 20, 2013 Share Posted March 20, 2013 You know Mark, if you had enough new water on hand for a large water change, what you might want to try is draining the tank till that GHA mountain is exposed to air. Then dribble straight peroxide directly on the rock, pre-measure the maximum dosage in a cup and use a dropper/pipette to dispense from there. Let it soak the mountain for at least 3-5 minutes before you fill the tank back up with the water you just took out. The extra water is on hand for emergencies. Remove the cleaner shrimp before this treatment as they are known to die from peroxide. Within 3 days that algae should be significantly gone. The CUC will also be more inclined to eat it. 1 Quote Link to comment
markalot Posted March 20, 2013 Author Share Posted March 20, 2013 You know Mark, if you had enough new water on hand for a large water change, what you might want to try is draining the tank till that GHA mountain is exposed to air. Then dribble straight peroxide directly on the rock, pre-measure the maximum dosage in a cup and use a dropper/pipette to dispense from there. Let it soak the mountain for at least 3-5 minutes before you fill the tank back up with the water you just took out. The extra water is on hand for emergencies. Remove the cleaner shrimp before this treatment as they are known to die from peroxide. Within 3 days that algae should be significantly gone. The CUC will also be more inclined to eat it. I did not know about the cleaner shrimp being sensitive, good to know! I have cleaned a couple of other things in the tank with peroxide, including the Blasto m. rock, without any adverse effects. That big rock can still be removed, nothing attached to it, so tonight I'm taking it out and pour the bubbly on it, then I'll rinse with RO/DI since I now know the shrimp is sensitive to it. Thanks again. 1 Quote Link to comment
markalot Posted March 24, 2013 Author Share Posted March 24, 2013 Update and a picture dump. I took the big white rock out, it had nothing but algae on it. Soaked it in peroxide, rinsed it, put back in tank. BIG MISTAKE. Apparently some peroxide remained somewhere in the rock because as soon as it hit water all hell broke loose. Everything closed up or drooped over. I was certain I had crashed the tank, it was sudden and shocking. The cleaner shrimp froze up almost immediately and was dead by morning. Everything else not only survived but has more color now than before treatment. Most of the algae in the tank is turning white, so a happy accident except for my shrimp. I wish I had taken him out just to be safe. Latest FTS with dead algae mountain. The Acans have never looked so good. A new shroom rock I picked up at the local fish store. There are 3 on this, one in the back is a speckled green. Some Zoanthid rocks. I got these over a week ago and when I dipped in Flatworm Exit one of the biggest and prettiest zoanthid eating nudibranches fell off. These are near the front of the tank where I can keep a close watch on them. There is some kind of red/blue macro growing on this one. It does not look blue here for some reason. Probably invasive, but I'm hoping for something neat. 2 Quote Link to comment
eitallent Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 Love the pics. There are a lot of peroxide horror stories in the forums lately! Scary stuff. Sorry about the shrimp. It is crazy how sensitive they are to peroxide. Love the new Zoas. Pretty orange ones! BTW keep an eye out for the nudi's babies. FW Exit does not affect the eggs according to the folks on this forum. If there were any eggs they are sure to hatch. I squashed mine with cotton swabs b/c the fibers trapped them and they could not float away. 1 Quote Link to comment
gena Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 Good thinking about watching for nudi egg hatchlings! I'm glad the happy accident worked out well, for the most part When I saw that fuzzy rock I thought of a type of chicken called a Silkie...you'll have to google "silkie chicken" images and you'll see what I mean 1 Quote Link to comment
markalot Posted March 27, 2013 Author Share Posted March 27, 2013 well, this tank will soon be no more as I switch my 46 bowfront to sw and then move everything from here into it. I doubt I will add any additional fish and instead run it like a 20 with 26 extra gallons of buffer. I have an extra t5ho light fixture so the 46 will have plenty of light for low to mod light corals. I'm excited to gain more space, but bye bye to my only true nano tank 1 Quote Link to comment
markalot Posted March 28, 2013 Author Share Posted March 28, 2013 My back hurts. 20 is dry, everything transferred to the 46, and appears to be happy. So in 17 hours of work I tore down the planted, cleaned the tank and one of the marineland filters, filled with ro/di, mixed in salt, let run for 8 hours. Today I checked temp, adjusted salinity, then moved the AC110 from the 20 to this, moved aprox 50% of the sand, placed on top of new sand, moved the rocks, corals, and fish. Break for lunch, empty and clean 20. Now to arrange the rocks. Apologies for crappy tablet pic. 1 Quote Link to comment
PiscesBoy Posted March 28, 2013 Share Posted March 28, 2013 Ah welcome to the bigger side. What made you ultimately change it? I'm changing my tank pretty soon to the 29. Debating what color I should spray paint the back with... Quote Link to comment
markalot Posted March 28, 2013 Author Share Posted March 28, 2013 The 20 long was just too shallow and I wanted more water volume. Now I have light on top and plenty of dark areas on the sandbed, since the tank is so deep. Already some of my shrooms are opening more. 2 Quote Link to comment
eitallent Posted March 29, 2013 Share Posted March 29, 2013 Woah! That is a lot of work in a short amount of time! WTG! Are you concerned at all about a mini-cycle? Quote Link to comment
metrokat Posted March 29, 2013 Share Posted March 29, 2013 Shrimp died? YUNOLISTEN?! 1 Quote Link to comment
markalot Posted March 29, 2013 Author Share Posted March 29, 2013 Woah! That is a lot of work in a short amount of time! WTG! Are you concerned at all about a mini-cycle? Yes and no. Sand, rocks, and filter all in New tank, plus 26 extra gallons of water. I'm dosing stability just in case, bytes hopefully no mini cycle. Shrimp died? YUNOLISTEN?! Yep, stupid mistake. Quote Link to comment
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