rdck99's 16g Nuvo Reef (Now w/NanoBox Duo + 1st SPS!)

[rdck99]

 

thanks for the tip about the bubble popper, but where exactly did you put it? btw im not using the media rack on mine.

There's a link on my opening page (page #1), but my skimmer experiences are all in post #64 (page #3).

 

Media rack? Did you mean media reactor? Sorry if this is something that I asked you about, but I'm drawing a blank...

[rdck99]

• Aiptasia: I posted a picture of what I thought was aiptasia way back when (post #54 on page #3). It was extremely tiny and appeared to be attached to a shell. Not really thinking, I used tongs to pickup and remove the shell, taking it right through the current of the MP10. I was certain the aiptasia (or whatever it was) remained in the tank, and today I spotted a very similar looking creature, only bigger. This is aiptasia...right? I turned off the pumps, and using a ziploc bag to protect my hand, went in to grab him but I couldn't get a hold of him. He's under an overhang and he's able to shrink or hide somewhere every time I get nearby. Given his position, I don't think I could baste him directly with boiling water either. I was thinking about adding a shrimp (Fire) anyway, as my tank will be fishless for another 2 months, so perhaps I get a peppermint? They're kind of ugly and not my first choice, but is this what you all would do? Or is one tiny aiptasia nothing to be concerned about?

• Bristle Worm Infestation: I've been plucking bristle worms out of my tank every chance I get. I've probably nabbed 4-5 to date. I'd bet that I have around 15 or so and a couple are getting uncomfortably too big...like this guy! I don't want to rid my tank completely, but it'd be nice if I only saw 2-3 at feeding time, as opposed to over 10.

[x3thelast]

yea the media rack. i dont have those anymore, instead i run two media reactors (carbon & zeolites)

[rdck99]

yea the media rack. i dont have those anymore, instead i run two media reactors (carbon & zeolites)

Ah, media basket = media rack. Now I'm with ya! Yeah, I'm waiting to see more about JayWee's experiences with the InTank fuge, but it's looking like I'll get an IM reactor with biopellets...I'm ready to get the last stock basket outta my tank!

[rdck99]

Aiptasia Update: I rigged up the below using airline tubing and pipe cleaners. This allowed me to get the "U" shape I need to reach the aiptasia under the arch/cave. I heated lemon juice in the microwave and pumped it into the syringe. I got the end of the tubing about 1/2" from the aiptasia and blasted him. He quickly receded, but it's been almost 24 hours and I haven't seen him return...fingers crossed.

[treedog5]

What type of actinics are you running over your tank? Your blue is a lot deeper looking than my stock lights.

[rdck99]

What type of actinics are you running over your tank? Your blue is a lot deeper looking than my stock lights.

I'm actually using the stock lighting myself - just the two lights that came with the 16g. Was there a particular picture you were looking at? I haven't doctored many of my photos, but maybe there was one that I made look extra blue? Or maybe it was just a particular coral that was popping more than usual?

[treedog5]

Yeah, post #124 the pic of the bam bams looks really deep blue. My lights never gave me that deep of a blue look. Your thread is the first one that i have came across were someone kept the stock lighting and still has a awesome looking tank. Great work my friend.

[rdck99]

Yeah, post #124 the pic of the bam bams looks really deep blue. My lights never gave me that deep of a blue look. Your thread is the first one that i have came across were someone kept the stock lighting and still has a awesome looking tank. Great work my friend.

Well, thank you kindly - that's very much appreciated! I'm still learning how to best photograph my tank and macro shots of the corals, and I'm far from mastering it. Everything looks so much better in person and compared to other pictures posted on these forums (though I wonder how many are Photoshop'd). I've been considering an upgrade to my lighting for even more color pop and increased growth (I've seen very little growth to date, but I plan on switching to Coral Frenzy, which may help), but your comment makes me think the investment may not be necessary. Thanks again!

[treedog5]

Well, thank you kindly - that's very much appreciated! I'm still learning how to best photograph my tank and macro shots of the corals, and I'm far from mastering it. Everything looks so much better in person and compared to other pictures posted on these forums (though I wonder how many are Photoshop'd). I've been considering an upgrade to my lighting for even more color pop and increased growth (I've seen very little growth to date, but I plan on switching to Coral Frenzy, which may help), but your comment makes me think the investment may not be necessary. Thanks again!

Yeah, the one comment i kept hearing about the stock light was you would never get much growth while using them. I'm still debating on what new light I want to go with. Like always money is a big factor, but I really like the maxspect razor nano and the ai sol nano. I have seen both of these lights over a few tanks and they look great. Also you can't go wrong using the coral frenzy food, that's some awesome stuff!!

[rdck99]

• Red Arrow: This afternoon, I noticed my Bam Bam zoas weren't opening up. I looked closely and spotted what's being pointed out by the red arrow. It's a very tiny dark red/maroon thing with small curly tentacles. At the time it was on the right side of the frag and after about an hour it had moved to the left side, so I'm assuming it's an anenome of some sort, but the tentacles appear to be way too thick and curly for aiptasia (at least the pictures I've seen). I poked it with a plastic fork and it responded by closing up slightly. I tried scraping it off the frag and it came apart into 3-4 pieces and flowed off into the tank. Any ideas?
• Blue Arrow: This little white "C" shape was on the same frag (not sure if it's in anyway related to the other creature). You can't tell in the picture, but it doesn't appear to be a solid line, as it was made up of a bunch of tiny white dots (eggs?). I scraped it off the zoa as well. Any ideas?

 

Well, apparently you're looking at a nudibranch and its eggs. I've dipped every coral I've ever put in, so this is a real bummer. Apparently, the preferred eradication method is removing the frag from the tank and plucking the nudi and eggs off with tweezers. As this thing was moving, I didn't want to let it get away before I got a response/ID, so I scraped them both off the zoa colony and they're now floating around my tank. Damn.

 

I managed to get my 6 zoa frags out of the tank and into a CoralRx dip. It's unreal how much life is on these suckers. I've posted a video below - towards the end of the video there's some sort of small .25-.5" shrimp-looking thing...any idea what that is?

 

During the dip, I did notice another nudibranch worm...picked him off right quick. On a separate zoa frag I noticed two sets of eggs, so I also got them off. Guess I'll just have to continue repeating this procedure until I no longer see my zoas stressing out.

 

[rdck99]

Cleaner Shrimp: as I hinted at earlier, last Sunday I decided to add a Skunk Cleaner Shrimp to my DT. As my fish are still in the QT and I was looking for something to supplement the two clowns + goby anyway, this is what I went with. I thought about the Peppermint Shrimp as I've seen aiptasia in my tank before, but heard they can be shy and I absolutely wanted something that'd be visible all the time. The cleaner was just the ticket for the first 6 days, but he strangely disappeared about 3 days ago. I'm stumped.

 

I've heard they may go into hiding when they molt, but it's been 3 days and I shook the LR during today's water change - nothing.

 

I've heard they can jump out of the tank, but he's not in the sump and there was no water on the floor or carcass. My cat certainly may have found him first, but I would be astonished if my cat ate him...he's the play with stuff until it dies then lose all interest type, not the eating type. Maybe he just batted him around and I can't find the body, but I'm using the lid on the tank and it just seems far fetched.

 

I've not seen a nitrate spike, so I don't think it died and is rotting away in the tank.

 

I read that if something would have eaten him, I'd likely see remnants (antennae, etc.), but I've seen nothing. Plus, I've had my tank for nearly 4 months and have had no other unusual disappearances (I have a pistol shrimp, mithrax crab, and up until 3 weeks ago, 2 clowns and a goby) and the cleaner shrimp was pretty darn fast.

 

In my mind, this leaves only one explanation...the shrimp apparated or is there an explanation I'm missing?

[rdck99]

Here's a video of my pistol shrimp building an addition to his home underneath a nearby ricordea frag...

 

[rdck99]

It's been about 10 days since I last saw the Cleaner Shrimp, so it's probably safe to say he's gone for good.

 

I've read through all the typical explanations for vanishings, but none seem to make sense. I guess he somehow jumped out of my tank, lid in tact, and my non-killing cat either ate him whole and/or hid the body.

 

Sooo strange.

[jack1978]

10 days....I'd say he's gone. Mine would hide for a day or two after a molt. Then back front and center, total ham.

Maybe your CUC took care of the carcass.

[CrazyCarl]

I'm not sure what species of pistol shrimp you have, but some actually prey on other shrimp. I had a carribbean tiger pistol, yours looks different. Theres a chance he popped him and dragged his body into his lair. My pistol was a complete a$$hole. I'm sure he would grab any shrimp in a second, he used to grab my snails and hermits if they came by his cave. I had to replace snails constantly. He also ripped 2 ricordea frags off the rocks they were attached to and buried them. It was fun to watch him hang out with the goby and make his lair but I had to get rid of him, he was costing me money.

[rdck99]

I haven't posted in awhile, because not much new has happened, but I thought I'd give some status updates nonetheless.

• Missing Cleaner Shrimp: still "missing" and definitely gone. Debating on replacing him, getting a peppermint (still having Aiptasia issues), or perhaps a 4th fish.
  
• Fish w/Ich: the two clowns and goby are still doing good in the QT. I have about 4 weeks left before I reach 12 weeks of total QT for the sick fish and more importantly the DT will have been fish-less for 12 weeks as well.
  
• New Equipment: I bought the IM Desktop MiniMax reactor along with some biopellets (AquaMaxx's BioMaxx). Even though I'm hardly feeding my DT a thing as it has been fish-less, I continue to get green and red algae on the front of my glass, beneath the sand bed (like you can see in post #124). Algae slowly grows on the glass in general as well, more so than it has in the past. Hopefully this reactor will help.
  
• Skimmer Issues: same 'ol, same 'ol. Finding a sweet spot where the skimmer produces good skimmate, but doesn't mysteriously overflow every week or so has been next to impossible. Considering I'm adding the reactor/biopellets and the fish will be coming home soon, I suspect I'll have a whole new round of fits - I've just accepted that I'll have to deal with a finicky device...sh*tty as it is. In the future, I plan on being more careful with how I run it - turning it off when I'm away, leaving it off for longer periods after feeding/media replacement/water changes, etc.
  
• Stand: my fish tank stand has rubber cushions on the bottom of the legs, which allows it to slide on my hardwood floors fairly easily, should I need to get behind the stand/tank for any reason. HOWEVER, when I was pushing it the other day, the top half of the stand gave in and leaned a few inches, while the legs didn't move at all (if that paints a picture?)...scary! So, I'm going to tighten all the screws/bolts and hopefully that helps, but I probably won't be moving my stand anymore.
  

[rdck99]

• Fish w/Ich: About two weeks ago, I lost my goby in the QT. Not sure what happened to him - I hadn't recently dosed any additional cupramine, I was feeding normally, and only nitrates were a bit high (20ish). Pretty sad, as he was so close to moving back in the DT. However, on a positive note, the two clowns made the move back to the DT and are doing just fine.

• New Fish: I purchased a new fish (small fairy wrasse) to replace the goby and he's currently in the QT with cupramine, where he'll reside for another 3 weeks. Hopefully, this third fish will be more active and visible, and I'll no longer feel the need for something else to complement my lively clowns.

• Reactor Update: I dialed it in and had the biopellets bouncing around very nicely, but noticed a couple days ago that for whatever reason the pellets stopped getting good agitation (I don't know what would have changed), so I cranked it up again. It may be placebo at this point, because I hear there's a break-in period with biopellets before any results are to be expected, but I feel like my nitrates are less than normal and that my glass isn't requiring cleaning as much as before.

• Skimmer: You guessed it - I still hate it.

• Mithrax Crab: Found the skeleton beneath some LR about a week ago. I was feeding a couple times per week and pistol shrimp is a-okay, but my guess is he wasn't getting enough food in the fish-less DT. He was fun to watch but was sort of a pain in the butt too, so I don't think I'll be replacing him.

• Coral Growth: My bam bam zoas have gone from 7 heads to nearly 20 and my torch/toadstool have nearly doubled (almost too big, but very pretty...if only my clowns would show some interest!).

Pictures to come very soon!

[Super CatPig]

AAAHHHH! I been away for forever your tanks lookin nice! Wish your FTS was bigger tho ;D I skimmed through your stuff ill have to read more about it later. Oh if you still have bristle worm infestations I'll gladly take some. I believe my shrimp/hermits ate them all along with a lot of my other detrivores.. I'm all snails now!

[rdck99]

AAAHHHH! I been away for forever your tanks lookin nice! Wish your FTS was bigger tho ;D I skimmed through your stuff ill have to read more about it later. Oh if you still have bristle worm infestations I'll gladly take some. I believe my shrimp/hermits ate them all along with a lot of my other detrivores.. I'm all snails now!

Hey - good to hear from ya! I haven't done a thing in terms of new photos, because my tank has been in a state of repair (mostly due to the ich). But once I get my wrasse out of the QT in a couple weeks, I'll update with all new pictures, including a new FTS - the current one does suck.

 

I've removed 6-8 bristle worms over the past couple months, including two 6"+ ones. I still have quite a few left, but they never venture far from their caves. I'll PM you should I capture anymore, but once I got the last (I hope) big one out, I plan on my hunting days to be over for awhile.

[Super CatPig]

Wow you been through a lot in the past two months. Good job with the Nudis and Aiptasia though I had both too but found once I removed all traces - they freakin stayed gone. Much easier than my bubble algae fight. Sorry about the Ich though thats no fun I totally understand about photos. I do the same thing and no problem with the worms. I'm probably going to go out and get some new live rock today to satisfy my disgusting worm loving ways. Then I can show my girlfriend my worm collection. Still not sure why she puts up with me.

[TheDeltaFlight]

So I know you have the IM Skimmer and had a few problems with it. Do you still recommend the skimmer or would you get a different one if you were to go back in time so to speak?

[rdck99]

Wow you been through a lot in the past two months. Good job with the Nudis and Aiptasia though I had both too but found once I removed all traces - they freakin stayed gone. Much easier than my bubble algae fight. Sorry about the Ich though thats no fun I totally understand about photos. I do the same thing and no problem with the worms. I'm probably going to go out and get some new live rock today to satisfy my disgusting worm loving ways. Then I can show my girlfriend my worm collection. Still not sure why she puts up with me.

Still dealing with a bit of aiptasia, but most of my other issues seem to have stayed away...knock on wood!

[rdck99]

So I know you have the IM Skimmer and had a few problems with it. Do you still recommend the skimmer or would you get a different one if you were to go back in time so to speak?

GREAT question, and I honestly don't know. Supposedly the Aqua C Remora HOB is a very good skimmer, but it's HUGE and expensive. I'd probably rather deal with my issues than have this skimmer. I've also heard good things about the Tunze 9002, but if I understand correctly, you'd have to put it in the middle/rear sump chamber which could be a real pain in the a** considering the "Y" tubing of the return pump that you'd have to work around. I honestly can't picture how it'd work at all, but I hear it's possible. If you could figure out a way to make it work, that's probably the path I'd take. This would also allow you to keep a more even spread of lighting (assuming you're using the stock IM lights) - using the IM skimmer in one of the side/column chambers means that you have to have both lights positioned in the middle, which hurts the lighting on the sides. Not sure if that makes any sense, but if the lines below are the rear wall of the tank where the lights clip to, the o's are the skimmers, and x's are the two lights, I think you'll see what I mean

 

___x__o__x___ = GOOD (tunze skimmer can be placed in the middle)

 

___o_x__x____ = BAD (IM skimmer must be placed on the side, where you'd ideally have a light mounted, so you then have to move the lights into the middle, hurting the spread of the lights to the sides of the tank)

[rdck99]

• Skimmer Update: GOOD NEWS...It has been over a month since my last overflow. Perhaps adding the fish back to my DT from the QT did the trick? Perhaps it's something to do with my reactor + biopellets having an effect? Those are the only two things that have changed, so I'm guessing one if not both, had an effect. Either way, I couldn't be happier...knock on wood. I have the skimmer as high in the chamber as it'll go and I also have the air valve open as much as possible...even with all that air, I'm emptying the skimmer probably twice per week. I'm not seeing much debris in the collection cup, but definitely tea-like brown water. As mentioned previously, I'm also turning my skimmer off when I'm away from the house for 24+ hours or after media/water changes...I think that's helping too.

Reactor Update: A 1/4 of the biopellets tend to get stuck at the top of the reactor, while the other 3/4 bounce around the chamber just fine. When I notice this happening, I turn the reactor off, take out the canister, and let the biopellets fall back down, then readjust so they're all bouncing around nicely, but after a few days, more will be wedged into the top of the reactor. Anyone else having this issue...any solutions?

Fairy Wrasse: My new fairy wrasse left the QT about three weeks ago (I quarantined him for 4 weeks before that - using both Cupramine the entire time and Prazipro for a week) and acclimated to the DT very quickly. 24 hours after moving him in, he was out swimming around with the two clowns and eating (pellets and mysis). He's made a home in one of the LR and as soon as the lights go out in the tank, he immediately retires for the night, not to be seen until early morning...his routine is strict, which is fun to watch.

Torch Coral Damaged: quick story...I accidentally siphoned some of my torch coral tentacles during a water change. Even had a couple get ripped out, but he seems to be recovering just a day afterward.