da1001's dead tank update

[da1001]

Meh, I seem to have lost my gd mind...I just remembered the LFS got in a shipment of green mandarins...and I want to get one and try to wean it onto capelin roe like some people have had success with...then I remember that I live smack dab in the middle of the country and there is not a "real" seafood market within 90 miles of me that I could get it at, so I would have to order it. If I ordered it, I only have 2 choices: 3 oz. or 2 kg. 3 oz. would last about a month, and costs $9 plus shipping. 2 kg would last a year and cost $33 plus shipping. But it would possibly go bad in a few months, too. Ah, why cant I have an established 40B with a 20L sump and a pod population stuck in some chaeto in the sump that would rival the population of China? -.- I would only ever buy one if the LFS told me it was accepting normal fish food and I saw them feed it and watched it eat in front of me, I'm not a fish murderer if I can help it. -.- But I can dream!! (these are the rants and ravings of a man who has been stuck inside for the past 3 days freezing his ass off because of snow and ice and being too stingy to turn the heater up past 68, please do not take them too seriously)

 

P.S. I need a beer, stat,

[kimberbee]

I came home with a mandarin the other day.

 

Now I'm freaking out on what I'm gonna feed it. It's happily eating pods from the rocks, but what if he eats all of themmmmm???

 

This is why I should not be allowed to go shopping alone.

[teenyreef]

There's a big difference in the pod population between a 10g tank and and 29g tank, too

 

I'd love to get a mandarin but it's on my list for the "big" nano tank I'm gonna get some day

[da1001]

_{Corals first, then a fish. Got to keep my priorities in order.}

[da1001]

So I went to the LFS tonight since we have another storm rolling in late tomorrow night that's going to dump a crapton more snow and ice. It was now or never! No frogspawn. No yellow clown goby. No nano sized fish of any kind other than a few retarded looking clownfish left. Picked up a montipora digitata instead. It's sort of green branched/orangish-red polyp'd digi, absolutely beautiful! (I seem to have a lot of oranges and greens in my tank now lawl) The LFS guy says it was growing like a weed in his tank so I am looking forward to that. I am going to gently snap the super glue off of the frag and reef putty it on to the very tip of my rock so it can get a crapton of light and be a happy little digi. I will slap up some pics once its had time to soak up some rays (the light's off for the night) and come out of its shell a bit. Right now I just have it leaning up against a hole in the rockwork to get used to things. I'm excited, gotta aim to have a tank as cool as teeny's.

[Matthewdvm]

I am going to gently snap the super glue off of the frag and reef putty it on to the very tip of my rock so it can get a crapton of light and be a happy little digi. I will slap up some pics once its had time to soak up some rays (the light's off for the night) and come out of its shell a bit. Right now I just have it leaning up against a hole in the rockwork to get used to things. I'm excited, gotta aim to have a tank as cool as teeny's.

This is generally my approach to frags. Sometimes it works, sometimes, not so much. But we can all aspire to a TeenyTank!

[da1001]

Quick update: Got the digitata stuck in place on top of the rock, hoping I used enough reef putty to keep it there, I went light on it since its so noticeable being at the top. It slimed at me a bit but is starting to stick its polyps out again. Will take pics if it looks good enough tonight to be picture worthy, otherwise it will need to wait until tomorrow.

 

I cleaned up some of the rock that the acan was sitting on so that it can lay a little easier.

 

I woke up this morning and my Ric had finally detached from the fragplug, even though it left a tiny portion of itself behind in doing so. I gently laid it on the sandbed next to the Acan to recover. It has not lost any of its coloration, but it is also not inflated to its normal size either though. Will keep a watch on it. Anyone had a Ric get slightly hurt and how well did it bounce back?

[Slowtwitch]

If you don't mess with the frag plug, that little piece of tissue may grow into a new polyp. Seen it happen a few times.

[da1001]

If you don't mess with the frag plug, that little piece of tissue may grow into a new polyp. Seen it happen a few times.

 

I don't see the tissue on it anymore, maybe one of the crabs ate it or something? I don't know. The Ric is on the sandbed but has curled all in on itself so I don't know if it is going to make it or not. It's little adventure off the frag plug might have been a successful suicide attempt. If only I had listened!! -.- I will keep a watch on it to see if it bounces back, it aint totally dead yet.

[Slowtwitch]

Try covering it with the bottom of a water bottle that you cut some holes in to allow for flow. This will help keep it place and prevent other critters from messing with it. There is another thread on here that discusses this. Just can't remember which one it is right now.

[da1001]

Try covering it with the bottom of a water bottle that you cut some holes in to allow for flow. This will help keep it place and prevent other critters from messing with it. There is another thread on here that discusses this. Just can't remember which one it is right now.

Damn, that's a good idea! I will see about finding something to cover it with for the time being. I flipped it upright and although it is closed up, it is still colorful and hasn't lost any coloration that I can see. I will be uploading the pic of that digi soon!

[da1001]

 

Please ignore the salt creep on my glass, I forgot to clean it up. And all the pods on my glass, I didn't think to knock them away pre-shot, and the damn snail coming in to the pic to try to ruin it lol. That thing is only about 1.5" tall but that pic gives you a sense of how beautiful it is. The colors don't show well in the pic, its almost like a basketball orangish color if you dipped a basketball in super-fluorescent paint or something. Freaking awesome!

 

Did I mention I just found polyp #14 & 15 forming on my Sunny D's?

[Matthewdvm]

 

Please ignore the salt creep on my glass, I forgot to clean it up. And all the pods on my glass, I didn't think to knock them away pre-shot, and the damn snail coming in to the pic to try to ruin it lol. That thing is only about 1.5" tall but that pic gives you a sense of how beautiful it is. The colors don't show well in the pic, its almost like a basketball orangish color if you dipped a basketball in super-fluorescent paint or something. Freaking awesome!

 

Did I mention I just found polyp #14 & 15 forming on my Sunny D's?

Love the shape of that digi! Looks like someone reaching for the sky

[da1001]

^{Le sigh. Found a little Apstasia starting up on my big rock. That's on top of the gd flatworms popping up everywhere and the diatom that isn't going away even though I have a skimmer running 24/7, change 2 gallons weekly with distilled water and don't even have anything in there to feed other than corals which I only remember to do about once a week anyway. I will try the hot water injection method tomorrow when I do my weekly water change. At least it doesn't seem to be bothering any of the corals at the moment so I know my water cant be too f***ed yet.}

 

^{Straight from the BRS website where I got my rock: "BRS Dry rock is 100% free of nuisance algae and pest organisms." ....ugh, I call B.S.?}

[da1001]

Did a water change, cleaned the filter floss, moved the Acan a bit, unrolled the Ric, it still looks ok, moved the Zoa rock so they would all open again it was a little too low before, cleaned up some mung on the sand, cleaned the glass, nuked the hell out of the Apstasia with some near-boiling water, fed everything some Mysis and calling it a night.

[da1001]

_{Little Turd v2.0 going into the tank shortly!!}

 

_{Acan isn't looking too happy lately, sorta receding a bit it looks like, but the Ric has slowly unfolded and is looking better after all the wear and tear.}

[da1001]

^{Meh, tired of diatoms because the sand is still going crazy releasing silicates, Phosguard & media bags, Kent Steel Algae Scraper and Berlin Wooden Airstones for my skimmer on the way from Marine Depot!}

[da1001]

Ugh, I got diatoms out the ass currently, my sand must be shooting silicates out the ass! I cant wait for my Phosguard to arrive from marine depot, I want this crap gone. If I do a 20% water change weekly with light sand siphoning and run a skimmer 24/7 and lightly feed and daily scrub my glass, my tank should be spotless dangit! Bit of green hair algae on the sand bed to boot, I guess the CUC is being lazy as frak, I don't see them doing much cleaning on the ground. The snails are always on the glass and the crabs are always on the rockwork dicking around. Geez, sometimes I want to give them all marching orders and kick them in the heiney if they fail to live up to my expectations. My kicking foot would be awful sore right now....

 

My corals look great other than the Acan, though. It cant seem to make up its mind on being big, small, colorful or not. But it eats and it always has feeder tentacles out looking for more so I haven't given up on it yet! Maybe Acan's are one of those corals that just doesn't like growing in my tank, we all have one of those corals that doesn't do good no matter how we baby it, right? I saw a nice one that's blue and orange at the LFS Sunday, maybe next time I get paid I will have to pick it up and see how it does instead of the little cheapo one I have now that was half dead when I got it. If it starts looking miserable I will take them both back for store credit and snatch up a nice Ric instead. Not that the Ric I have now is bad, it is relatively flat and gaining back its size from before the frag plug disentanglement fiasco of a week ago. Didn't lose an ounce of coloration either. Maybe grab a frogspawn if they have it finally too.

 

I cant seem to get a decent pic of Little Turd v.2.0 but I will keep trying!! Super busy, its my last week of this work class before I finish but the final exam is going to be a PITA so I need to study my heiney off to make sure I do well. Then I only have one more class and a webinar after that and I can hang another diploma on the wall.

[da1001]

^{OK, ok, here's some pics you grubby buggers.}

 

^{I know you all haven't seen the Sunny D's in awhile!}

 

^{And here is Little Turd v.20. It was actually the first of 35 shots I took that came out the best lol.}

 

^{My camera is acting weird. I think I hit a button and messed my settings up. I might have to fiddle with it when I have some more time but for now its back to studying, hope you all like the eye candy!}

[teenyreef]

Awww, LT 2.0 is very cute

On the algae, you probably just need to wait it out. It seems to take forever, but as long as you don't let it get too bad, it will go away as the tank matures. Just need all the microscopic critters to multiply and they'll eventually take care of it. The main thing is to regularly stir up the sand bed and try to vacuum sections of it during water changes.

[da1001]

Awww, LT 2.0 is very cute

On the algae, you probably just need to wait it out. It seems to take forever, but as long as you don't let it get too bad, it will go away as the tank matures. Just need all the microscopic critters to multiply and they'll eventually take care of it. The main thing is to regularly stir up the sand bed and try to vacuum sections of it during water changes.

 

Yeah the little bugger is doing great! Swimming "normally" for a clownfish. Which is to say not 100mph 24/7, more like 100mph 5% of the time, and the other 95% chilling and slowly drifting around the tank looking for some action.

 

Here is the weird thing. Since I got LT 2.0, I have not had any flatworms or pods on my glass. I think LT 2.0 is going around and knocking them all off which is fine by me because I scraped the algae away today and it was like looking into my tank again on day one, so pretty and clean. Other than the micro bubbles my pump seems to love shooting out lately, its almost like polished clean water.

 

I think the Apstasia did not succumb to the boiling water method, and I found one more hiding among my Sunny D's (probably where the second one came from tbh, this is what you get when you go cheap and don't dip your new frags). No more of this, as soon as I have a spare second I will order some Joe's Juice Apstasia killer or whatever its called and give them both a nice quirt right in the kisser.

 

The flatworms are not as prolific as they were a week ago, no idea where the went but whatever. As long as they leave my corals alone I will let them live since its too much of a PITA to flatworm-x them and them run a big ass bag of fresh charcoal and constant heavy water changes etc. In the end I might end up doing that but for now I will leave them be.

 

I pulled out 90% of the hair algae from the tank today, it was coating my sand and getting long as fudge. In the process I stirred the sand bed up a bit but I will have to remember to do so more often from now on since I haven't been doing it much. Maybe I can get everything nasty out of the sand all at once and then the algae will poof. Regardless, I will still be tossing a baggie of Phosguard in there for peace of mind, it arrives Friday along with a better algae scraper that will clean my glass 10x better.

 

The Acan is receding at an alarming rate and not getting any better. -.- On the other hand the Ric is back to full size again with no coloration lost...now if only I can get him to lay flat on the sand...

 

Future plans: Joe's Juice, possible flatworm killer, more corals, coral dip.

 

In 13 weeks I get my bonus paycheck...can we say...Nanobox? And more corals?

 

That will be the next huge update, until then you have to deal with slow grow-out pics of what I currently have and the occasional new frag I toss in when I have spare change in my pocket.

Just realized I just went past the $1250 mark on getting this tank from nothing until now. That's not counting the Nikon D90 and the 100mm macro lens I bought just to take pics of it.

 

Oh what an expensive hobby it is!!

[teenyreef]

The unique thing about this hobby is not how much we spend, but how painless it is. You never seem to really notice until you add it all up - death by a thousand cuts

 

Be careful with the Phosguard, especially in a small tank. It's great stuff but several of us have killed corals by using too much too fast. A sudden drop in phosphates can shock corals. 1/3 cup per 50 gallons works out (I think) to about 3 teaspoons in a 10 gal tank, which is probably quite a bit less than a baggie.

 

My hair algae in my 10g was crazy for the first couple months. Then the snails and crabs ate it after I removed the worst of it by hand, and I haven't had any since. Pods come and go too It's all part of the cycles the tank goes through as it matures. The hard part is not over-reacting and doing to much to fix it, which then can cause more problems

[da1001]

The unique thing about this hobby is not how much we spend, but how painless it is. You never seem to really notice until you add it all up - death by a thousand cuts

 

Be careful with the Phosguard, especially in a small tank. It's great stuff but several of us have killed corals by using too much too fast. A sudden drop in phosphates can shock corals. 1/3 cup per 50 gallons works out (I think) to about 3 teaspoons in a 10 gal tank, which is probably quite a bit less than a baggie.

 

My hair algae in my 10g was crazy for the first couple months. Then the snails and crabs ate it after I removed the worst of it by hand, and I haven't had any since. Pods come and go too It's all part of the cycles the tank goes through as it matures. The hard part is not over-reacting and doing to much to fix it, which then can cause more problems

 

Good words to live by, teeny. I wasn't planning on putting much in there to begin with, the smallest media bag I could find was 4"x8", damn that's big. I got the 250ml size tub of Phosguard and I only plan on putting in a tiny amount to see how it works first, then add slowly if needed, im becoming my normal penny pincher self again when it comes to the amount of stuff I put in there, other than corals obviously. You hit the nail on the head about feeling no pain in shelling out the bling in that department.

[teenyreef]

I recycled an old bag that used to hold Chemipure. I use plastic zip ties to close i up. It's nice and small

[da1001]

I recycled an old bag that used to hold Chemipure. I use plastic zip ties to close i up. It's nice and small

I have been thinking about doing something similar, just too lazy to try to play doctor on something, I tend to kill the patient by accident.