Fishfreak's foxy BC29: Brine Shrimp!

[fishfreak0114]

8 hours ago, Lula_Mae said:

Tank looks great!  Only fw plants I really mess with are java fern and anubias haha.

Thanks Lula  I can barely keep java ferns alive

[Lula_Mae]

1 hour ago, fishfreak0114 said:

Thanks Lula  I can barely keep java ferns alive

Haha!  I bought one or two from Petsmart for a little 2.5 bowfront betta tank years ago (one of my most successful tanks ever lol) and still have remnants of them floating about in my tanks despite a bajillion moves and about 10 years' time passed.

[fishfreak0114]

19 minutes ago, Lula_Mae said:

Haha!  I bought one or two from Petsmart for a little 2.5 bowfront betta tank years ago (one of my most successful tanks ever lol) and still have remnants of them floating about in my tanks despite a bajillion moves and about 10 years' time passed.

Wow!  I highly doubt any of mine will make it that long. 

[Lula_Mae]

On 7/20/2017 at 8:48 PM, fishfreak0114 said:

Wow!  I highly doubt any of mine will make it that long. 

Well, they reproduce so it's probably grandbabies or more by now lol.

[fishfreak0114]

I'm very happy to say that the pink bar goby ate today!  And the other two finally nibbled at the flake food.   They're all right on track to go in on Wednesday!

[fishfreak0114]

I did a water change today, and it was a long one.  The sand was so nasty, I hadn't cleaned it in over a month because of all the baby plates!  I broke off more, and I'm pretty sure the new total is 26.  I REALLY need to start getting rid of frags.  Not only those, but I have the colt coral to rehome, 5 GSP frags, 3 finger leather frags, and two watermelon favia frags (made today).  My uncle walked in while I was hacking at the favia, and he was like "what are you doing to that animal?!?!" 

 

I may end up keeping the favia frags, it all depends on whether or not I'm getting another tank.  The ultimate decision rests with my mom, and currently it's in the "I'm considering it" stage.  I'm 92% sure I want another reef.  With mostly just softies, and a bunch of shrimp.  For the table next to where I sit on the couch.  I priced it all out in a nice table format in case my mom has questions.  I should make a brochure, that's how I convinced the parents to let me get a 26g and a gecko.  Right now I should focus on getting the betta tank up though.

 

I went to remove the floss, and swimming around in the back was the ghost anemone shrimp!  I netted him out and returned him to the DT.  I also caught my big stomatella, which was a lengthy process involving me directing him up the glass up to the water's edge, then onto my hand.  And it wasn't easy to get him off my hand after I'd caught him, either.  I also saw the baby stoma that came with the macro I bought.  I was worried it wouldn't make it because it was in the coral dip for a minute before I noticed it, but it seems totally ok cruising around.  Lets hope they make babies!

P7212279 by orb1915, on Flickr

 

The shrimp swam straight to the macro.  Queen Bee chased him

P7222290 by orb1915, on Flickr

 

Om nom nom!

P7212280 by orb1915, on Flickr

P7212281 by orb1915, on Flickr

 

And I couldn't resist snapping pics of Draco and Dumbledore (respectively).  Excuse the crappy vase living arrangements, I'm waiting for my mom to order what I need to set up a divided tank.  She keeps forgetting

 

P7212288 by orb1915, on Flickr

P7212284 by orb1915, on Flickr

 

I could use some opinions here.  I visited a flea market, and I thought, "You know what, I'm going to buy some random stuff and throw it in my cichlid tank".  It cost all of $2.  I don't know if I love it or absolutely hate it.  If it's horrible, please tell me!  The fish seem to enjoy it, Marble-y was hanging out in the gravy thing.  And I'm happy to say that my largest lab is holding, and if I notice any babies this time around I'm going to pull them out and raise them in a separate tank 

P7222292 by orb1915, on Flickr

[fishfreak0114]

I must have some very resilient corals.  The don't seem to care what alk is at, nor do they appear to be affected by swings.  I mean, my alk used to be at 5.1.  Yesterday my alk was at 6, so I dosed throughout the day and got it to 7.1.  Post-water change, my alk is resting at 8.8.  And everything looks as good as usual.  I would like to minimize swings as much as possible though.  What I've noticed, and it might just be a coincidence, is that when alk is higher, it is consumed quicker.

[fishfreak0114]

There are several things that I'm not happy with right now that are kind of getting me down. 

 

First of all, the lobo has continued to decline even though it's still eating well, and changing the amount of light it received had no effect, nor did iodine dips.  It's heart breaking to watch this slow horrible decline, and I feel like I'm just failing it so badly  If there was another reefer near me I'd give it to them to see if it would do better in a different tank, but alas, I don't think there is anyone local on the fb reef group.

 

The mint green trumpet has almost has no tissue .  The head that didn't get stung started to rapidly decline yesterday/today, so I just did an iodine dip.  The neon trumpet I bought also isn't doing well, with a little patch of tissue loss.  I dipped it as well.

 

The pink Duncan has been upset most of the time for a few weeks.  I've crushed several vermetids on/near it, but there must be more that I can't find.  My green Duncan is experiencing similar issues.

 

A couple heads of my splatter hammer are gone, it was being stung by the finger leather and I didn't catch it soon enough.  I fragged that piece of the finger leather yesterday, so it is royally pissed off.

 

The corky finger never bounced back after being stung, and only has the odd polyp partially extended.  It has been like that quite some time, and I'm just waiting for to start losing tissue.  The other small gorg also is doing horribly

 

All but one acan has died, and I think the last one may be on the way out

 

Oh god, writing out everything that's doing poorly made me realize that there is so much wrong in there.  Well enough negativity, I just wanted to get it all out.  Whenever my animals are doing poorly, it makes me question my competence as a reefer, which is really not a good thing to be questioning when considering a second tank.

 

On the upside, the blastos (My favorites!) are all doing well, and the radiant red has recovered well.  What a great $50 freebie!  The zoas are also doing well, except the ones on the backside of the island who are being irritated by the feather caulerpa (which I'll move), the anemone is happy, as are all the leathers except the one I just fragged.  The new red macro appears to be growing (lighter branching ends).  The GSP is growing insanely fast, the dendro is almost back to its former glory, and my other lobo fine.  Frank (the green hammer) is puffy, except a few lower heads, probably due to shading.  I now have 26 baby plate corals growing

 

Well, I'm off to right what I can (AKA crush those mother effing vermetids!!!!!!!!)

[fishfreak0114]

Oh god. 

 

I was crushing vermetids a minute ago wearing a dish glove and I pulled my hand out of the water and water went all over my power bar. I unplugged it immediately but I'm so scared I might have electrocuted my reef or fried my equipment. I'm too scared to check right now so I'm just sitting outside crying.  I'll go in in a minute I think. 

[fishfreak0114]

My mom said everything looks alright. I haven't plugged things back in yet.  That freaked me out so much. 

[ReefWeeds]

Saw you're having some problems with LPS. My first thought with the dendro issues a couple months back was low alkalinity. I would suspect that's the problem with your lps you mention above as well. A lot of LPS will get pretty upset with low alk especially. So, you might want to keep it at around 8-9 and see if things impeove for you. 

[fishfreak0114]

Well I'm happy to say all equipment is alright.  I'm just a little shaken up.  Time to get the powerbar off the floor next to the tank.

 

13 minutes ago, stellablue said:

Saw you're having some problems with LPS. My first thought with the dendro issues a couple months back was low alkalinity. I would suspect that's the problem with your lps you mention above as well. A lot of LPS will get pretty upset with low alk especially. So, you might want to keep it at around 8-9 and see if things impeove for you. 

 

Thanks for the advice   I have begun dosing to try and keep it higher, but I was aiming for 7.  I will try to keep it at the levels you mentioned.  I'm still getting the hang of the whole dosing thing.  Alk makes sense as the source of the dendro troubles, I couldn't find anything else that could be bothering it.  Maybe alk is part of the Duncan irritation as well (Though vermetids are definitely a contributing factor, smooshed several more nearby). 

[Sharbuckle]

Happy all your equipment is safe and sound. 

[Lula_Mae]

Whew that's scary!  Glad everything seems to be ok.  Hopefully you can figure out the alk issue and get it bumped up to a good level soon.

[Christopher Marks]

That's good everything is alright, both livestock and equipment! Sometimes we need a little scare to get us to spend the time/effort/money to correct things, it's human nature! Fortunately it's an easy thing for you to correct, most power strips have mounting tabs on the sides or round keyholes on the backside, so you can easily mount or hang it on the stand, wall, etc.

 

I think in the end only your equipment might have been at risk from the splash, electricity would have to make contact with the water in the tank itself to risk electrocution (or run through you if your hand was still in the tank ) . Definitely a good opportunity to make sure you have a high quality surge protector, and check that the outlet it is plugged into is on a GFCI circuit. Your parents should be able to help check that, it's a good precaution since you're working with water.

[fishfreak0114]

2 minutes ago, Christopher Marks said:

That's good everything is alright, both livestock and equipment! Sometimes we need a little scare to get us to spend the time/effort/money to correct things, it's human nature! Fortunately it's an easy thing for you to correct, most power strips have mounting tabs on the sides or round keyholes on the backside, so you can easily mount or hang it on the stand, wall, etc.

 

I think in the end only your equipment might have been at risk from the splash, electricity would have to make contact with the water in the tank itself to risk electrocution (or run through you if your hand was still in the tank ) . Definitely a good opportunity to make sure you have a high quality surge protector, and check that the outlet it is plugged into is on a GCFI circuit. Your parents should be able to help check that, it's a good precaution since you're working with water.

 

Thanks for dropping in!  I've been meaning to hang it on the wall since I set up the tank nearly 2.5 years ago.  As of this morning it's off the ground!  I was mostly worried about damaging the powerhead, because when I unplugged it last night there was some sizzling kind of noises.  I left the power bar upside down and unplugged over night because there was water in the sockets

 

It does a have a surge protector and GCFI  Now to check if all my other tanks do as well...

[fishfreak0114]

Alk is at 8.6, going to dose and try for 9.

[fishfreak0114]

Well I just recalculated my dosing amount because it seems like the corals are consuming closer to 0.4dkh per day.  That leaves me dosing 8.3 ml (that should be fun) a day.  I mixed 30g of reef builder into 250ml of water, and if my math is right (which I'm questioning) that would last me 30 days.  I don't even know if that's how I'm supposed to do it, but I thought so.  I just dosed and I'll check in a while to see if alk is up to 9.

 

I'm sad to say that I just tossed my mint trumpet.  There was barely any tissue left, and none of it was the right color.  And now my red lobo is receding and getting pale patches  I hope I can turn this all around.  My blastos continue be unaffected (thank god!). 

 

I'm really worried about the whole dosing thing.  I'm only with the tank half the time, and as much as I'd like to stop by everyday to check on things and dose, I know my dad would get very irritated (I don't know why going to my other house for 20 minutes day is a problem, it really shouldn't be, but it is).  I may have to ask my mom to dose when I'm not there, and I can look into investing in a automatic doser in the fall when I'm working again.

 

Ugh, if my 2nd tank idea is approved, it'll be put on hold.  And I would make it softy dominated to avoid a repeat of this whole dosing debacle.

 

One more note, I epoxied around the pink Duncan because there were a couple deep holes that I thought vermetids might be hiding in.  I'll try to get a couple pics up later.  Not great ones, but they'll get the point across.

[ReefWeeds]

Bring your alk up slowly - no more than .25 - .5 per day otherwise the increase may bother corals. Sorry for your trumpet and lobo  it's so frustrating at times. 

[fishfreak0114]

5 minutes ago, stellablue said:

Bring your alk up slowly - no more than .25 - .5 per day otherwise the increase may bother corals. Sorry for your trumpet and lobo  it's so frustrating at times. 

Well alk is now at 9ish.  So my math was right.  Now to just maintain the same dose for a while and see if it keeps alk where it needs to be.  It is frustrating, especially since it seems that my attempts to right the alk over the last two weeks or so has done more harm than good.  But stability is key, so that is my goal for now. 

[Weetabix7]

I'm sorry for all the stress. 

In the middle of things like this it can be so easy to get "lost" in all that is going wrong. 

However, I'd like to point out (again) that over the several months I have been following this thread it is extremely obvious that you know how to do the right things for a healthy reef tank, and you do them. 

Not knowing everything and still being in the learning process does not negate what I just said. 

I don't know everything and am constantly learning new things, and I've been doing this since 1994. 

So, whether you can see it or not, you're doing the right things and you're on the right path and I, for one, have a great deal of confidence in you. 

[fishfreak0114]

42 minutes ago, Weetabix7 said:

I'm sorry for all the stress. 

In the middle of things like this it can be so easy to get "lost" in all that is going wrong. 

However, I'd like to point out (again) that over the several months I have been following this thread it is extremely obvious that you know how to do the right things for a healthy reef tank, and you do them. 

Not knowing everything and still being in the learning process does not negate what I just said. 

I don't know everything and am constantly learning new things, and I've been doing this since 1994. 

So, whether you can see it or not, you're doing the right things and you're on the right path and I, for one, have a great deal of confidence in you. 

 

Thanks Weetie, that means a lot coming from you  I definitely have more to learn about lots of things, dosing in particular.  And I'm trying, but sometimes the only way we learn is through our own mistakes.  I just hate seeing my animals doing poorly.  I think I have been getting lost in everything that isn't going the way it should, it's so easy to look into the tank and only see the bad.  So I'm going to try and focus on the good things happening.  The baby plates are all growing, the St. Thomas mushie is happy, and grape caulerpa is growing like a weed

 

Pics may not happen until tomorrow, I'm playing Baldurs Gate on PS2 with my mom  No matter how many times I beat the game, it's always as fun as the first.

[fishfreak0114]

Alk was at 8.5 this morning.  Dosed the 8.3ml.  Going to test alk again in a minute.  I'm going to need another test kit soon at the rate I'm using it!

 

Today I cleaned salt creep and wiped down the hood of the tank for the first time in 6 months.  It made quite a difference in the appearance of the tank as a whole!  I really should do it more often, but I don't even think about it.

 

I think I found the source of Frank's recent irritation on the lower left and back heads (that's 3-4).  A vermetid!!!!  It was so hard to see, and at first I thought it was just a baby hammer head or something, but upon further inspection at a really awkward angle I deduced its true identity.  I couldn't get the tweezers in to smoosh it, so for the first time ever I used glue underwater.  How messy!  But it's covered  I need to keep my eye out for more in that area.

[fishfreak0114]

Oops I forgot to post what alk got up to, and now I can't remember!  It was alright though.  So stoked for the fish and pistol to go into the tank tomorrow!!!!

[fishfreak0114]

Well here's the pics, nothing too great, they're more so I can point things out.

 

First off a quick and dirty FTS.  Amazingly, my glass is often dirtier than this

edited by orb1915, on Flickr

 

For whatever reason, Frank has a kajillion tiny heads growing.  The don't really grow past this point, they have no room to grow!

P7242306 by orb1915, on Flickr

 

Happy dendro

P7242311 by orb1915, on Flickr

 

I epoxied all around the Duncan, which as you can see made it super pissed

P7242314 by orb1915, on Flickr

 

The watermelon favia frags have had feeders out a lot.  It's nice to know that being chopped apart with scissors doesn't bother it

P7242315 by orb1915, on Flickr

 

Unhappy lobo

P7242316 by orb1915, on Flickr

 

I said I would be more positive.  Happy St.Thomas!!!

P7242317 by orb1915, on Flickr

 

Jim may also be a source of recent irritation.  I've caught him perching on Frank several times now

P7242318 by orb1915, on Flickr

 

The tissue loss on the neon trumpet.  It hasn't progressed, so I'm hopeful

P7242319 by orb1915, on Flickr

 

And a happy cabbage leather

P7242320 by orb1915, on Flickr