Wingy's "Old School Pico Reef" now a 5 gallon rimless

[Wingy]

Everything is still chugging along but something isn't  right.  Almost everything is shrinking and I have some kind of dusty brown algae thing going on that is trying to cover everything.  The astrea snail kept falling so I bought another and a cerith.  Both astrea snails parished and I never see the cerith.  I thought ceriths were supposed to keep the top of the sand bed clean.  If so it is either dead or a slacker.  I am battling the brown dust, and gha and all the lfs are closed so I can't  get any new snails.  Online vendors that have snails in stock don't  have any small inexpensive corals left to make ordering online worth while.  I am not paying $40 shipping for a few $2.00 snails and I can't  see adding an expensive coral while things are out of whack. I also noticed several dozen of those little jelly fish again.  I don't  know where they come from.  

[William]

Can you post pics of it 

[Wingy]

I can try to get pics tomorrow.

[Wingy]

I can't get pictures that really show what is going on.  My other half reminded me that. I bumped the light period down when I first started noticing problems.  That combined with little feeding because the only inverts are the cerith snail and single sexy shrimp could be why my zoas have shrunk.  I am bumping up the light period and going to try feeding more and see what happens.  I have been using Reef Roids because the Duncan loves it but is there another small food that might be better?  

[Wingy]

Did you know bristle worms climb tank walls scooch around above the waterline?  Did you also know that little baby bristle worms fly around in the current, wiggling like they are swimming.  I did not know this until tonight.  I wish I had not learned this.  

[Ratvan]

7 hours ago, Wingy said:

Did you know bristle worms climb tank walls scooch around above the waterline?  Did you also know that little baby bristle worms fly around in the current, wiggling like they are swimming.  I did not know this until tonight.  I wish I had not learned this.  

Yes its freaky isn't it? Especially the epitokes

[debbeach13]

No I had no idea. Although I have always thought that it is a very different world in the night tank. A little creepy.

[SeaFurn]

How's the dusty brown algae now?  Have you tested the water recently?   Results?

[Wingy]

I recently started doing a 25% water change every day so I haven't bothered testing  this week except for salinity.  I use boxed saltwater from Petco and top off with distilled.  I haven't  noticed much change in the dusty algae but feeding the corals more hasn't made it worse.  Still brown dust every day but I have no cleanup crew now, except for the useless cerith.  The gsp and knopia are growing well, the duncan is still fully open and I see one of the feather duster worms moved and attached itself to the base plug the duncan is on.  

[Wingy]

I went to change out the filter material and thankfully took the entire media basket into the kitchen instead of dumping it into a container I keep in the stand.  The bag of carbon I had between the layers of filter material had baby bristle worms stuck to it.  I wasn't  wearing gloves since i wasn't  putting my hands in the tank.  I was very lucky.  

[SvenB]

On 6/10/2019 at 9:55 PM, Wingy said:

I like the Pixie but I will probably like it more on a larger tank.  It doesn't have a gooseneck which limits where I can put it without hanging or building a bracket.  It's like the Asta with multiple channels.  I saw talk of a controller but I am not sure if it is available and for which lights/models.

Do you still like the pixie? Or are there better alternatives?

[Wingy]

I don't know.   Its the only light I have ever had so I have nothing to compare it to.  

[Wingy]

On 4/17/2020 at 9:23 AM, SeaFurn said:

How's the dusty brown algae now?  Have you tested the water recently?   Results?

I only have the API saltwater kit.  At lights on the pH was 7.8 to 8 ish, ammonia was 0, nitrite was 0 and nitrate  was more than 0 but less than 5.0.  

[Wingy]

I stopped by a lfs that was recommended by a co-worker.  Their selection isn't huge but their prices are good.  I picked up an astraea snail, a blue leg hermit, a emerald crab, a neon candy cane trumpet with 2 heads, a frogspawn and a red cyphstrea.  $130 isn't bad.  My usual lfs doesn't have any euphyllia for less than $150 for a single head.  This new to me place had clean corals too.  I dipped and only saw a few pods in the bowl.  2 hours in the tank and everything looked happy and the new cuc was hard at work.  The lone sexy shrimp jumped into the frogspawn as soon as it went into the tank.  She has claimed it as her own and is snuggled in the tentacles.  Thankfully it didn't seem to mind.  

[debbeach13]

Sounds like a place that you might visit again. Good luck with all your new livestock.

[Wingy]

Yesterday I did a water change and today before lights on I found a strange clump of stringy snot.  After a search of the forum did the coffee filter test and I now have a cup full of stringy snot.  ☹️   I had dipped some stuff in hydrogen peroxide yesterday to get rid of some algae so I may have made it worse.  I am now reading through @Clown79 journal to come up with a game plan to beat back dino's.  

[Wingy]

@Clown79 What pods and phyto did you use, did you continue to run carbon and if yes how often did you change it?  Oh and since I am being a pain in the rear what vac do you have?  I use a manual siphon type vac now but trying to attach a bag of floss on the end to recycle the water will be a real pain.  

[Wingy]

So I lowered the light period, lowered the light intensity a bit, am feeding every other day, and am slowly raising the temperature.  The duncan is not liking the change in temperature, not at all, hopefully it can adjust.   I can report that I have seen no other snot patches and the substrate is looking clean in a few small spots.  I am encouraged by what I see so far and best of all the cuc is still alive.  

[Wingy]

The additional feeding and raised temperature has led to an explosion of bristle worms.  So much so that I am going to start hunting them again.  I have let the film algae grow on the glass to help feed the pods because the LFS still hasn't placed an order.  I am not digging the slimy haze but sometimes you just have to work with what you've got. 

 

The CUC is still alive and has been feasting.  I do wish the emerald crab and hermit were out more during the day.  I would love to watch them.  Of the newest corals the frogspawn has already grown so that I needed to move the zoa rock. The red cyphstrea hasn't changed but the candy cane is shrinking.  Of the older corals the gsp has started to branch which is really cool, but the acan and Xenia are wasting away.  Neither the candy cane or acan show any feeding response.  

[Wingy]

I am seeing patches of clean substrate.  Yeah.

 

Something interesting.  I grabbed a clump of substrate and put it in with the opae ula.  They ran over and had a feast, even turning the pieces over to clean them off.  That has me wondering about using them to clean things up by transferring scoops of substrate between the tank and the opae jar.  

[Wingy]

The sandbed is looking pretty good, just a few patches of yuck now.  I am happy to report that the snail, hermit crab and emerald crab are still alive.  The zoas are still small but are starting to color back up. The Duncan is still very pissy and hasn't opened fully in 2 weeks. I don't know if it is the lack of water changes, the higher temperature,  the reduced photo period or a combination.   Unfortunately something is picking at the red cyphstrea and it has ever expanding white patches.  I am going to try dipping it in lugols and make a stand for it out of a shot glass.  Hopefully that will help keep the critters from picking at it.

 

@Clown79  Once the substrate is clears up what change do I make first?  Water change, increase light intensity/photo period, turn the heat down? Does it matter?

[Wingy]

I think the snail has eaten itself into a coma.  It ate 3 weeks worth of algae growth on the 1/2 of the front glass and now it is closed up tight.  The pods keep going over to the clean part and are like what the heck.  They are much happier in the furry part.  I on the other hand prefer the clean part.  The usually vibrant gsp is starting to lose its color.  I have to increase the light time some and dinos be darned.  I will go bare bottom if I have to.  On a positive note the acan is puffy.  It has shrunk so much that is it the size of a corn kernel but tonight it is puffed up like a hot shot. Small but mighty.  

[yoshii]

What's your current photoperiod with the dinos?

If you aren't already, maybe you could target feed the gsp and acan to help with reduces light?

[debbeach13]

What temperature is the tank running at? How long are the lights on now and at what intensity? I would make any changes slowly.  Without knowing the actual temp I would still think bringing it down a degree or two is where I would start. Corals seem to not like a warm tank.

[Wingy]

The tank is at 82F, the photo period is 6 hours of blue only. I am using a glass top.   I am feeding Reef-roids every other day and a splash of Seachem Phytoplankton every other feeding.  I throw in a few Hikari algae pellets for the crabs and a shrimp pellet every day.  

 

The acan is still looking fat and might have even grown a little.  I think the red cyphstrea is a goner but I am going to leave the skeleton.    The duncan isn't thrilled but the frogspawn is growing nicely.  The candy cane is doing better since I moved it.  The flow is much less where it is now.  The GSP is now a yellowish green instead of the bright neon green it was.  It is going through some changes and is branching which will look great eventually.  It is finally starting to spread to the rock I placed on the edge of it.  Oh and the snail is still alive.  It woke up from it's pigout and has gone back to work.  It has grown by a third in the past few weeks.  I can see the new ring around it.  The algae on the glass now sways and there is all kinds of critters in it.  Big pods, tiny pods, smallish worm looking things, hydroids.  I am not lacking in diversity.  Lol.

 

I had a scare the other night.  I couldn't find the hermit crab, it wasn't a feeding night, and the frogspawn looked like it had swallowed a marble.  Finally the hermit crab came out of hiding and I never did find out what the frogspawn ate but it hasn't done it again.  I have no clue what big thing it could have eaten unless they eat bristle worms.