Dawn's pony garden.

[vlangel]

2 hours ago, teenyreef said:

I just love love love this tank! The pictures with the new phone are fantastic, too. Sorry about Whiplash, but how is little Jammies? Recovering? 

Wow teeny, I am truly honored.  Whiplash has gone to a really good home and I bet he has already forgotten me ?.  Jammies is fine and his lower fins are healing.

[teenyreef]

Yay for Jammies!

[vlangel]

I am going to watch grandchildren next week and so today will be a deep clean on the pony tank.  I will take a pic when I am done.

[vlangel]

I added tank water into 5 gallon bucket.  Then I moved all the coral and macro algae into that bucket, except the retaining wall.  Then I could syphon the surface of the sandbed for detritus/debris that was in and under the coral and macros.  I did this while the return pump was on so detritus/debris was also removed by the skimmer.  After I finished I replaced the coral and macro algae.

 

Then I headed to the basement to syphon out the sump chambers.  I run the seahorse tank without filter socks so about every 2 months I syphon out the sump chambers.  They were not too bad but I cleaned the skimmer cup and cleaned the glass.

 

 

The sand is still rust colored but I believe it just needs to run its course and eventually it will right itself as more pods, worms and stars work on it.  A few more snails might not hurt either.

[vlangel]

There is an endearing part where Samson swims over and embraces Delilah.

[fishfreak0114]

Absolutely serene!  This is one of my favorite tanks on NR. That embrace was so cute!  

[teenyreef]

Awwww 

[vlangel]

15 hours ago, fishfreak0114 said:

Absolutely serene!  This is one of my favorite tanks on NR. That embrace was so cute!  

 

14 hours ago, teenyreef said:

Awwww 

I know, aren't adorable?  Whenever I begin to think that they are a lot of work and trouble during vacations, they do those sorts of things and I know that I am hooked, ha ha!

[vlangel]

Poor Dave, he is holding down the home front including the tanks.  The seahorses tank is going well but I moved the coral rock from the creative contest jar into the air 5.5 gallon and put a smaller rock full of macro algae into the shrimp chalet.  I had ordered 250 shrimp and let them acclimate in a 5 gallon bucket a day or so but on Easter moved them into the shrimp chalet.  They looked good Monday morning when I left but 5 or 6 died last night. I asked Dave if the rio pump was rippling the surface and he said no so I had him add an airline tube and air pump.  Today I hope to hear that they look good. ?

[Christopher Marks]

How nice to have eyes and hands on it while you're away! Hopefully it's just a circulation issue.

 

I had a chance to watch your latest video, wow! I'm glad you decided to take the leap with the multi-level sand bed aquascape, it has really transformed the tank.

 

2 minutes 30 seconds in  

[vlangel]

8 hours ago, Christopher Marks said:

How nice to have eyes and hands on it while you're away! Hopefully it's just a circulation issue.

 

I had a chance to watch your latest video, wow! I'm glad you decided to take the leap with the multi-level sand bed aquascape, it has really transformed the tank.

 

2 minutes 30 seconds in  

O wow, thanks Christopher.  That really means a lot.  So far so good with the seahorses too.  It is more maintenance with vacuming the SSB but I think the tank looks more like a piece of the ocean now.

 

I am watching grandchildren but my hubby Dave told me the shrimp looked better today.  He's the best!!! He moved the light farther away from the shrimp chalet because he wondered if they were getting too hot.  

[Subsea]

Shrimp chalet?  Sorry, I have been distracted from following NR.  What kind of shrimp?

[vlangel]

13 hours ago, Subsea said:

Shrimp chalet?  Sorry, I have been distracted from following NR.  What kind of shrimp?

Yes, I wanted an attractive container to keep my feeder shrimp (for the seahorses) in rather than just a utilitarian 5.5 gallon. That was my entry in the pico creative container contest.

 

O yeah, they are ghost shrimp.

[Subsea]

https://www.livebrineshrimp.com/ShrimpJanitor.htm

 

Yes.  I call them grass shrimp.  When I went to school in Galveston, I maintained a Galveston Bay biotheme as my first marine tank in 1972.  Collecting ghost/grass shrimp and green mollies was a fun part of the experience.  

[vlangel]

On 4/5/2018 at 11:15 PM, Subsea said:

https://www.livebrineshrimp.com/ShrimpJanitor.htm

 

Yes.  I call them grass shrimp.  When I went to school in Galveston, I maintained a Galveston Bay biotheme as my first marine tank in 1972.  Collecting ghost/grass shrimp and green mollies was a fun part of the experience.  

I have called them grass shrimp too but the lfs that I used to work at called them ghost shrimp so I use that term more often.

[vlangel]

I arrived home Saturday evening and was too tired to do much with the tanks.  The seahorses looked great under Dave's care but the tank definitely needed some TLC.  The sand went from having a slight rust color in some places to having a thick layer of rust everywhere on the sand.  Fortunately there was nothing anywhere else.  I probably should have taken a pic.  Anyway much to my surprise it cleaned up very nicely just from vacuming the sand and now the tank looks back to normal.  

 

Even though I try to minimize the amount of sand that leaves the tank I always end up with some in the bucket.  Does anyone else wash the sand out well and return it to the tank?  I expect that the sand is going to have diatomous algae for a while until all the silicate is used up and it gets fully colonized with life.  I don't want to have to buy more sand and go through this stage all over.

[fishfreak0114]

I’ve rinsed it before and put it back in  

[gena]

On 3/30/2018 at 4:21 PM, vlangel said:

There is an endearing part where Samson swims over and embraces Delilah.

Everything looks wonderful!  I didn't know you had a mandarin .  He/she is perfect in there!

[vlangel]

2 hours ago, fishfreak0114 said:

I’ve rinsed it before and put it back in  

Thanks fishfreak.  That is what I did this morning and what I put back looks very clean.

[vlangel]

1 hour ago, gena said:

Everything looks wonderful!  I didn't know you had a mandarin .  He/she is perfect in there!

Thanks Gena.  I love the mandarin too but he is not getting enough pods.  I am hatching nauphii but I don't know if its going to be enough.  Supposedly he is captive bred but he wont touch mysis. ?

[Subsea]

15 hours ago, vlangel said:

I arrived home Saturday evening and was too tired to do much with the tanks.  The seahorses looked great under Dave's care but the tank definitely needed some TLC.  The sand went from having a slight rust color in some places to having a thick layer of rust everywhere on the sand.  Fortunately there was nothing anywhere else.  I probably should have taken a pic.  Anyway much to my surprise it cleaned up very nicely just from vacuming the sand and now the tank looks back to normal.  

 

Even though I try to minimize the amount of sand that leaves the tank I always end up with some in the bucket.  Does anyone else wash the sand out well and return it to the tank?  I expect that the sand is going to have diatomous algae for a while until all the silicate is used up and it gets fully colonized with life.  I don't want to have to buy more sand and go through this stage all over.

I don’t think rinsing is enough.  IMO, I think other algae spores are likely to be in the vacumed sand.  I suggest a bath in 10% hydrogen peroxide & water.

[Felicia]

I love the video, Dawn!  Seahorse are just so darn cute when they interact with one another.  They're so goofy, but graceful and beautiful at the same time!  The cardinals are funny because they're just so chill, just hanging out in the water column.  Loving the group of fish in there!

[dpoltsdsu]

If a store near you has it, try Nutramar OVA for the Mandarin. I have gotten a few to eat it

 

 

Tank looks great by the way!! 

[vlangel]

7 hours ago, Subsea said:

I don’t think rinsing is enough.  IMO, I think other algae spores are likely to be in the vacumed sand.  I suggest a bath in 10% hydrogen peroxide & water.

Thanks Subsea, I had not thought of that.  Next time that is what I will do. 

[vlangel]

5 hours ago, Felicia said:

I love the video, Dawn!  Seahorse are just so darn cute when they interact with one another.  They're so goofy, but graceful and beautiful at the same time!  The cardinals are funny because they're just so chill, just hanging out in the water column.  Loving the group of fish in there!

Thanks Felicia.  Its is so true, its their interactions with each other and with me that makes them so endearing.  When I think about not getting any more after these 3, then I think about missing their tender little antics with one another and I can't imagine a fish tank without them.  Yesterday Eve was first to the food bowl (as she always is) and Samson swam up and snicked the mysis right out of her mouth!  There was a whole bowl of mysis but he had to have what was in her mouth.  She was like, "thats ok, I will just get some more".  It was hilarious.

 

I love that the pajama cardinals are so chill.  I like that I have a big one and a little one too.  Jammies chases PJ but PJ is totally unaffected by it.  PJ will swim right into the ponies' food bowl and help himself if not enough mysis is floating around in the water.