da1001 Posted February 9, 2015 Author Share Posted February 9, 2015 Hmmm, my Acan is semi bleached and not really recovering from the trip over to my tank as well as I thought it would. I think my lighting is a lot stronger than what they had it under at the LFS. When I get home from work tonight if it is still not looking any better, I will try to find a spot under a rocky overhang or something to give it a break to acclimate to my lighting schedule. The LFS uses Radeon lighting if I remember right, but its also about 12 inches higher off the water than my Kessil is. We shall see, maybe Acans just hate my tank? Link to comment
CronicReefer Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 If it's bleaching it is just too much light which is easily solved. The color should come back once you put it in a shadier spot so don't worry too much. Link to comment
da1001 Posted February 9, 2015 Author Share Posted February 9, 2015 If it's bleaching it is just too much light which is easily solved. The color should come back once you put it in a shadier spot so don't worry too much. Well, I aint happy unless im worrying about something. I am trying to think of a good spot to put it but I don't know if it will fit under any of the spots I currently have in the tank, the rocks I have are really flat on the bottom so I cant thing of anything tall enough to slide it under. I might have to prop the small rock onto the larger rock to make a spot for it. Link to comment
markalot Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 In a new tank I think you are going to have to hand feed the acan. Mine never did well until the tank was older, around 6 months, unless I fed the things once or twice a week. Mine still aren't happy but now there's enough crap in the water that they survive. Link to comment
Slowtwitch Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 Well, I aint happy unless im worrying about something. I am trying to think of a good spot to put it but I don't know if it will fit under any of the spots I currently have in the tank, the rocks I have are really flat on the bottom so I cant thing of anything tall enough to slide it under. I might have to prop the small rock onto the larger rock to make a spot for it. You could make a temporary shady spot with a piece of window screen over the top of the tank. Not the prettiest solution, but it is only temorary. Link to comment
da1001 Posted February 10, 2015 Author Share Posted February 10, 2015 In a new tank I think you are going to have to hand feed the acan. Mine never did well until the tank was older, around 6 months, unless I fed the things once or twice a week. Mine still aren't happy but now there's enough crap in the water that they survive. That sounds like a plan, mark. I am going to the LFS again this Friday to see what they have, I will pick up some cyclopeeze or something with tiny bits of shrimp in it I can feed to the Acan and see how she does. You could make a temporary shady spot with a piece of window screen over the top of the tank. Not the prettiest solution, but it is only temorary. Nice one slowtwitch, but I managed to slide up my small rock just a tiny bit in the front and it created a perfect little shady spot for my Acan to go, disaster averted. As for everything else: When I got home tonight I went ahead and moved the Acan to the shady spot, then I went and peeked at my Sunny D's because they looked weird. I nearly freaked out of my skin, they looked PISSED and all covered up and hidden and crap, im like: what the hell happened?!?! Apparently a snail happened, I saw it crawling away at top speed. 5 mins later, the polyps were opening up again, none the worse for wear and I was breathing a huge sigh of relief. Checked my parameters, they are staying about where they always have been the last few days, the ammonia is close to 0, but not zero yet, I would say about .1 maybe, which is too high so I am going to be doing a water change soon. Nitrates about 20, pH about 8.0, temp 80.5, salinity 1.023. No matter how much I try to increase the salinity to 1.025 it doesn't want to. Anyone have that sort of trouble using reef crystals? More pics soon, just got lots of stuff to do on my plate tonight like homework for work etc. Blah Link to comment
Slowtwitch Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 I have been hand feeding my new acans mysis and brine shrimp. I place the mysis on each head with a small forcep and they suck them right down. The brine, I use a turkey baster and try to get a few on each head. They are all responding very well to this. The feeding response has been really cool to watch. Feeder tentacles out as soon as the first piece of shrimp is in their mouth wanting more. Link to comment
da1001 Posted February 10, 2015 Author Share Posted February 10, 2015 I have been hand feeding my new acans mysis and brine shrimp. I place the mysis on each head with a small forcep and they suck them right down. The brine, I use a turkey baster and try to get a few on each head. They are all responding very well to this. The feeding response has been really cool to watch. Feeder tentacles out as soon as the first piece of shrimp is in their mouth wanting more. I can totally pick up some bring shrimp and use the ole turkey baster on that bad boy Pico Skim update: Shipped today, hopefully have it by Friday? Coming from Ohio or Illinois or something, that's not too far away. Link to comment
teenyreef Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 I have been hand feeding my new acans mysis and brine shrimp. I place the mysis on each head with a small forcep and they suck them right down. The brine, I use a turkey baster and try to get a few on each head. They are all responding very well to this. The feeding response has been really cool to watch. Feeder tentacles out as soon as the first piece of shrimp is in their mouth wanting more. That's exactly what I do. And they don't have to be very big to eat mysis whole. If they have to they'll slurp it like spaghetti over twenty minutes or so Now I have some that I'm afraid to feed anymore I can totally pick up some bring shrimp and use the ole turkey baster on that bad boy Pico Skim update: Shipped today, hopefully have it by Friday? Coming from Ohio or Illinois or something, that's not too far away. Go for it! It's fun and your acans will love you for it! Yay for the Pico Skim Link to comment
da1001 Posted February 10, 2015 Author Share Posted February 10, 2015 Crab People, Crab People, Crab People!! Ive been practicing trying to catch up to Teeny Poor little semi-bleached Acan, looking all beat up but in his new place under the rock ledge so he can color up again. Link to comment
teenyreef Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 The acan looks like he's doing OK now. He's got feeding tentacles out which is a good sign Nice pics! Link to comment
da1001 Posted February 10, 2015 Author Share Posted February 10, 2015 The acan looks like he's doing OK now. He's got feeding tentacles out which is a good sign Nice pics! Thanks teeny. The only problem is that when I first got it, it was almost totally orange. -.- Oh well, I will keep trying things until its happy. Like feed it lol Link to comment
da1001 Posted February 10, 2015 Author Share Posted February 10, 2015 I got a look at my first hitchhiker last night. A little .25" across sea star was crawling across the back of my glass next to a snail. Maybe its just me dreaming but it looked like a small version of a chocolate sea star. At first I thought it was a piece of mung because it had been sitting right on top of my return nozzle in the display but after I picked it up I realized what it was and quickly stuck it back in haha. If I happen to see it while lights are on, I will snap a pic for you all to check out. Link to comment
da1001 Posted February 11, 2015 Author Share Posted February 11, 2015 Daily update time!!! Ammonia is at zero. If it stays that way until Saturday, I will load the kiddies up in the car and go pick up a YWG if my LFS has any in stock. Might have to get the one from their show tank if they are sold out. Fed the Acan. It wasn't looking any better....but it wasn't looking any worse, either. Once I fed it, I thought it was going to jump out of the tank and come at my throat, that poor bugger was HUNGRY. I gave him some New Life Spectrum food I have ready for the goby on a little pipette with the water turned off, gave him 5 mins to get it in him before I turned the pumps back on. He must have eaten like 5-6 per head and 5 mins after that he had all his feeder tentacles out and his mouth was like GIMME GIMME. Hold on, Killer. Every few days. Still haven't tracked down that little starfish, might only come out at night. If I see him again I will flip the lights on really quick and get a pic of him, the cute little bugger. Pico skim is in Illinois, about 8 hours away by truck. No eta listed on the ups tracking page yet though, hopefully tomorrow or Thursday since that's the normal times UPS delivers here. I honestly cant wait to get it and set it up, im almost more excited about that then getting my fish! I also see another 2 heads forming on the Sunny D's, that will bring it to 10 heads total. One of the hermits is chilling right in the middle of them, not bothering them at all, sort of nestled right in there between the heads, its sort of cool but I cant get a pic of his face through the polyps Link to comment
Slowtwitch Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 Keep an eye on the hermit to make sure he isn't munching those polyps. Most likely not, but you can't be too careful. Good to hear the acan is taking food. I would prolly feed him again tomorrow. Then start with every other day. Mix it up with some frozen foods to balance out the diet. Link to comment
da1001 Posted February 11, 2015 Author Share Posted February 11, 2015 Keep an eye on the hermit to make sure he isn't munching those polyps. Most likely not, but you can't be too careful. Good to hear the acan is taking food. I would prolly feed him again tomorrow. Then start with every other day. Mix it up with some frozen foods to balance out the diet. Yeah, good idea on both points, Slow. I have been watching the crab the entire time but he is just chilling there, I think he was asleep actually. Every single polyp was up and happy looking so I feel ok about that after watching him for several hours. Good idea on feeding the Acan again tomorrow. Now that I know exactly how to get the pipette under the little rock overhang, I will be able to get him alot more food to make him super happy and hopefully get his color back up. I will also keep the pump off just a little bit longer this time, I think they would have been able to eat just a little bit more if I had kept it off just a bit longer. But no more than 10-15 mins max, I start worrying about lack of oxygen etc. I will pick up some frozen brysis shrimp this weekend when I hit up the LFS, they have a whole freezer full of assorted foods. So what do you all think? I should have about $180 in my pocket to spend. 10 from the $10 and $20 rack? Or like 4-5 from the $30-40 rack? Frogspawn for sure if they have any, that's $30 usually. Then coral food. $5 more gone. Down to $145. Damn my money goes fast lol. I was consdering one prime piece of SPS....too soon? I tend to get excited too quickly. I could buy a 4" long clam for $150 if I wanted to. Damn, I can never decide lol. We shall see what they have in stock once we get there but let me know if you prefer more cheaper corals or a select few higher priced ones. (p.s. im not rich like teenyreef, LOL this will be it for a few weeks/months) Link to comment
Slowtwitch Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 Way too soon for sps or a clam. Don't buy just to fill up the tank. If there are quality pieces in the $10 rack get a few. Let them grow. Don't add too much too fast and overload the system. Quality over quantity. Patience young padawan. ;-) Link to comment
da1001 Posted February 11, 2015 Author Share Posted February 11, 2015 Way too soon for sps or a clam. Don't buy just to fill up the tank. If there are quality pieces in the $10 rack get a few. Let them grow. Don't add too much too fast and overload the system. Quality over quantity. Patience young padawan. ;-) FYI the claim and SPS were 99% jokes lol. I can still 1% dream about having them tho haha! I'll probably go with 3-4 $20 and $30 pieces, frogspawn included. They look alot better than 9/10 of the $10 pieces usually. Link to comment
teenyreef Posted February 11, 2015 Share Posted February 11, 2015 Cindyp and I were comparing thoughts on her thread, and one thing we've both learned about these small tanks is that in the long run it's not worth buying any corals that you don't really and completely love. You'll run out of room before you know it, and you don't want to look at something take over your tank that's just "meh". And yes, you definitely need to let your tank mature. There's all kinds of stuff that needs to start growing in and on your rocks and sand that's needed to improve your biodiversity and stability. If you like SPS and/or clams, then you need to plan to leave room for them now, and make sure that what you've already got is able to thrive for a while You can always experiment with a fish or two, and look at cool inverts like nano-friendly starfish, sexy shrimp, pom pom crabs, etc. Then spend a couple months looking at your rocks with a magnifying glass or a macro lens. It's amazing what shows up out of nowhere - good and bad! PS: I'm not saying to not get anything! Just be really selective. If they don't have that frogspawn you want, don't get something that you don't want as much instead. Just wait until they get it in, or ask them to order one. And like Slowtwitch said, if you see something really cool in that $10 rack, go for it. Get one polyp of something beautiful instead of 10 polyps of something boring. Link to comment
da1001 Posted February 11, 2015 Author Share Posted February 11, 2015 True that, teeny. That was the plan all along, you just picked it out of my head and put it into words after I had time to sleep on it. Link to comment
da1001 Posted February 12, 2015 Author Share Posted February 12, 2015 Well, I have flatworms. I saw 4 on the glass, too small to identify yet. Sucked them out with the turkey baster. So many conflicting stories, some think they are good, some think they are bad. They were too small to get a good macro pic of for identification purposes, manual focus kept going right past focusing on that little turd if I even so much as breathed on the focus. Tried to feed the Acan, but a crab walked by and knocked them all off it, he didn't even eat any of it. I will try again tonight when the light goes off and they really throw their feeder tentacles out. UPS says skimmer comes Friday. That's it for now. Link to comment
da1001 Posted February 12, 2015 Author Share Posted February 12, 2015 Got about a dozen pieces of my fish food into each Acan head, they closed up and are nom nom'ing with the pump back on again. Here's hoping that makes them happier! If they keep losing color I might try to slide them just slightly into the light to see what happens. Link to comment
WickedReef Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Jesus, I didnt know Sunny D's were going for an avg of $25 dollars a head now!! I got one with 6 full heads and 2 baby heads for $20. Makes me want to sell it for $150 and buy that Acan the size of my fist at the LFS I saw last night. Nice, I Love Sunny D's Link to comment
da1001 Posted February 13, 2015 Author Share Posted February 13, 2015 Nice, I Love Sunny D's That is an awesome colony! Mine is still growing but I hope its that big someday too. Running a little behind tonight but I will add my daily update shortly. Link to comment
da1001 Posted February 13, 2015 Author Share Posted February 13, 2015 Heres the update!! Parameters: Temp: 79.3 F Salinity: 1.024 pH: 8.0 Ammonia: 0 Nitrates: 10 And now pics: Crab peeking out from within my Zoa polyps, they don't seem to mind when he chills in there Semi-bleached Acan recovering in the shade Potential Flatworm, already sucked out. I see no more atm 24 hrs later. Hitchhiker starfish, about .5" across chilling on my glass this morning, couldn't get a better pic he was in a bad spot haha Slightly crooked FTS from a few minutes ago Testing Apertures: More Tests: Testing!! That's it for now. Link to comment
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