Hannah’s tank journal

[Hannahhhh]

3 hours ago, Poison Dart Frog said:

That's a great location for your tank. I set up a 20 gallon on my nightstand in the bedroom. I love laying there watching it with the blue light on. So relaxing before going to sleep.

 

I agree, I totally love it. When I get in bed my fish all hangout right by the edge of the tank in hopes that I’ll feed them! The only down side is the trickling water sounds sometimes make it hard for me to fall asleep, but I’m getting better at it. 

[WindyCityReefer.]

Hard to believe that I missed this build thread for over a year. Tank looks great! I just spent the last hour or so going through the entire 30 pages. Sorry to hear about the job loss. The world is a crazy place right now. I am a resident at one of the hospitals in Michigan and we have seen a huge influx of patients with flu-like symptoms. It is a good time to kick back and watch the tank during this quarantine! 

 

My tank is right by the bed as well. You get used to the water sounds after a while and now it seems weird when I do not hear them!

[Hannahhhh]

Frogspawn and red goni 

[Hannahhhh]

On 3/31/2020 at 10:38 AM, WindyCityReefer. said:

Hard to believe that I missed this build thread for over a year. Tank looks great! I just spent the last hour or so going through the entire 30 pages. Sorry to hear about the job loss. The world is a crazy place right now. I am a resident at one of the hospitals in Michigan and we have seen a huge influx of patients with flu-like symptoms. It is a good time to kick back and watch the tank during this quarantine! 

 

My tank is right by the bed as well. You get used to the water sounds after a while and now it seems weird when I do not hear them!

Thanks so much for taking the time to read my thread! I’m pretty much ok without my job for now. I live with my parents and they have been able to pay for food etc. I’m very lucky in that regard.

 What a crazy time to be working at a hospital! My mom is a doctor (works at a college health center, but the school is shut down right now). I’m really afraid she will have to start working at a hospital. She’s over 60 and has problems with her immune system, so I think she would be a last resort for the hospital, but still. Thank you so much for all the work you’re doing, you’re a hero! I wish there was more I could do to help healthcare workers, I’ve been sewing masks this week. 

[Hannahhhh]

On 3/30/2020 at 9:20 PM, Poison Dart Frog said:

That's a great location for your tank. I set up a 20 gallon on my nightstand in the bedroom. I love laying there watching it with the blue light on. So relaxing before going to sleep.

 

I love having mine near my bed. I agree, it’s so soothing. 

[Hannahhhh]

So I posted this in the fish forum but didn’t get much of a response. Hopefully someone here might be able to help me out with this. 
 

I received a red rooster wasp fish todat. I asked live aquaria what he has been eating and they said Live ghost shrimp and sinking pellets. If I put him into my 30 gallon display tank, how on earth do I feed him live shrimp?? Won’t they just swim off before he even sees them? Should I injure them so that he has a better chance of finding them? Or do I just put a few in the tank and hope he finds them? I have some saltwater ghost shrimp left over from my octopus. 

[jservedio]

1 hour ago, Hannahhhh said:

So I posted this in the fish forum but didn’t get much of a response. Hopefully someone here might be able to help me out with this. 
 

I received a red rooster wasp fish todat. I asked live aquaria what he has been eating and they said Live ghost shrimp and sinking pellets. If I put him into my 30 gallon display tank, how on earth do I feed him live shrimp?? Won’t they just swim off before he even sees them? Should I injure them so that he has a better chance of finding them? Or do I just put a few in the tank and hope he finds them? I have some saltwater ghost shrimp left over from my octopus. 

When I had a mandarin and was feeding live foods, I made a feeder. Basically, it was just a standpipe made from 1/4" acrylic tube that was about 1" taller than my tank and at one end I put a petri dish (though any small and flat container would work) that was glued together and had a small 1" hole in it and buried the petri dish in the sand in the corner of the tank. I would suck up live food with a big syringe and shoot the food down the tube into the petri dish. It makes the shrimp/live food be in the same exact place every single time.

 

I would blast some thawed mysis down into the feeder quickly followed by the live food to get him to associate the smell of the mysis with feeding time and eat both the live food and mysis, slowly weaning him off the live. If you don't understand my description of the feeder, I could make a sweet MS Paint illustration for you.

[Hannahhhh]

On 4/1/2020 at 12:57 PM, jservedio said:

When I had a mandarin and was feeding live foods, I made a feeder. Basically, it was just a standpipe made from 1/4" acrylic tube that was about 1" taller than my tank and at one end I put a petri dish (though any small and flat container would work) that was glued together and had a small 1" hole in it and buried the petri dish in the sand in the corner of the tank. I would suck up live food with a big syringe and shoot the food down the tube into the petri dish. It makes the shrimp/live food be in the same exact place every single time.

 

I would blast some thawed mysis down into the feeder quickly followed by the live food to get him to associate the smell of the mysis with feeding time and eat both the live food and mysis, slowly weaning him off the live. If you don't understand my description of the feeder, I could make a sweet MS Paint illustration for you.

That sounds like a great idea! The only thing is how do I convince a cryptic fish to come over to the feeder?

[jservedio]

5 minutes ago, Hannahhhh said:

That sounds like a great idea! The only thing is how do I convince a cryptic fish to come over to the feeder?

With the mandarin I put it in the back corner of the tank where it's hidden so he never had to come out into the light. You can also feed sinking pellets through it as long as the hole is big enough for the waspfish to fit his head. You want to teach him it's his feeding spot. If there is a single spot in the tank where ghost shrimp keep popping out of, he'll get the idea. You can use a feeding stick with a ghost shrimp on the end and lead him over to it as well before you let him take it. The idea is for him to learn that food always comes from the feeder and nowhere else.

 

Eventually, you can start slowly moving the feeder to somewhere more visible and out in the open. Once it's out in the open, you can slowly start dropping sinking pellets nearby the feeder in addition to the food inside it. Eventually, once he's picking up sinking pellets dropped from the surface and not in the feeder, you can remove the feeder entirely.

[Hannahhhh]

10 hours ago, jservedio said:

With the mandarin I put it in the back corner of the tank where it's hidden so he never had to come out into the light. You can also feed sinking pellets through it as long as the hole is big enough for the waspfish to fit his head. You want to teach him it's his feeding spot. If there is a single spot in the tank where ghost shrimp keep popping out of, he'll get the idea. You can use a feeding stick with a ghost shrimp on the end and lead him over to it as well before you let him take it. The idea is for him to learn that food always comes from the feeder and nowhere else.

 

Eventually, you can start slowly moving the feeder to somewhere more visible and out in the open. Once it's out in the open, you can slowly start dropping sinking pellets nearby the feeder in addition to the food inside it. Eventually, once he's picking up sinking pellets dropped from the surface and not in the feeder, you can remove the feeder entirely.

Thank you so much for taking the time to write all this out! Sounds like a good idea, I will get started on building a feeder. The only problem now is I can’t find the waspfish anywhere... I’m really hoping he’s not dead and hidden. Aside from the obvious problem for my tank, I’ve also just wanted one of these guys for ages and I finally went for it. The last two fish I got from live aquaria died in the first few days so I’m a bit nervous for him... prior to those two, I had pretty good luck with their fish. 

[Hannahhhh]

Added this rooster last week and this week we got some (very baby) hens! 

 

 

[Hannahhhh]

I found my rooster Wasp fish today and he’s still alive! I hadn’t seen him in over a week and I was sure he was a goner. To be honest, I have no idea what he’s eating in my tank. Live aquaria said he was eating shrimp and veg pellets and ghost shrimp. My ghost shrimp are way to big for him to eat. Every time I see him I put some pellets in front of him, but he shows no interest and the snails and bristle worms always grab them. I’m wondering if he’s eating pods. I was thinking of placing an order online for some large sized pods. Anyone have any thoughts?

[TatorTaco]

I understood they're picky eaters.  What about frozen mysis?  Seems like that'd be a safe/easy bet. 

[Hannahhhh]

On 4/15/2020 at 12:39 PM, TatorTaco said:

I understood they're picky eaters.  What about frozen mysis?  Seems like that'd be a safe/easy bet. 

I think he’s eating frozen mysis and brine. That being said, I’ve never actually seen him eat, but that’s what I’m feeding, and he isn’t dying. 

[Hannahhhh]

Does anyone have opinions on a three day black out to address algae growth? I’m losing the algae battle. I don’t want to massively freak out my fish so I was thinking of shutting the lights off for three days but allowing the indirect sunlight in my room to reach the tank so that it’s not a three day night for them. Thoughts?

[A.m.P]

Depends on the type of algae, and might not work at all if you don't wrap things up. It could just be the uglies.

[jservedio]

14 hours ago, Hannahhhh said:

but allowing the indirect sunlight in my room to reach the tank so that it’s not a three day night for them. Thoughts?

How much sunlight are we talking about here? Sunlights spectrum is really good at growing green algae - much better than our blue heavy reef lights. If you've got a lot, that may be a contributing source.

 

If I leave the blinds open in my office for a few days, I have noticeable more green algae from all the sunlight.

[IHaveADegreeInMarineBioBut]

How's the tank doing!!

[Hannahhhh]

I'm back!! It's been a wild few months, I started grad school and I'm soooo busy. In terms of the tank, it's really struggling right now. I knew it wasn't doing great but I didn't really realize how much it had declined until I looked at some old tank photos yesterday. I lost a few of my favorite corals, the saddest loss for me was my weeping willow leather. It just sorta withered away. All my other leather corals are fine. Additionally I've lost a lot of zoas, some from asterina starfish, some from overgrown cyanobacteria. My protein skimmer stopped worked two weeks ago, but it took me a week or so to figure out it wasn't running. In that time, the cyanobacteria exploded. I've cut back feedings and red, green, and white light, but I'm still really struggling. I can't seem to get it under control. My nitrates were around 5 last time I checked, and I've been dosing NoPox daily. My euphyllia are all fine, as are my leathers, my oyster, and my rainbow montipora. Ill post some pictures later on, although the tank doesn't look super hot right now.

[ef4life]

Always sad when you lose your favorites, just keep at it with regular maintenance and it will bounce back. 

[Hannahhhh]

On 11/15/2020 at 2:10 PM, ef4life said:

Always sad when you lose your favorites, just keep at it with regular maintenance and it will bounce back. 

Yeah it was a bummer, but you're right about keeping at it.

 

I ordered a new weeping willow from AquaCorals. Its my first order from them, and so far I think they are fantastic! The corals are still adjusting, I will post pics once they settle in. The parent leather coral looks unreal, I'm super hopeful my frag will look this cool eventually. I included a link, check out the video! Penny who runs the store has been SO responsive, and she even sent me some free snails! I also got a stag horn sinularia because I have a coral addiction and can't help myself. 

https://www.aquacorals.com/~aquacorals/index.php/corals/soft-corals/toadstools/product/153-weeping-willow-toadstool

[Hannahhhh]

Does anyone have any suggestions on reshaping/fragging a leather coral that has grown very tall but not very wide? 

[A.m.P]

Might have to wait on it, looks like it may prefer a higher light area.

[Hannahhhh]

36 minutes ago, A.m.P said:

Might have to wait on it, looks like it may prefer a higher light area.

Thats what I was thinking, but now I can't really move it up, since its so tall.

[Hannahhhh]

I added a second wave maker this week hygger mini waver maker and I think I hate it. Firstly, it is SO powerful. The lowest I can set it is 40% power, but that is still almost too much. Also it is loud! It wasn't too bad at first, but it has been getting progressively louder. I am wondering if I got a bad one or if its just poorly designed. I took it out and looked to see if anything was misaligned but it doesn't look like it. I ordered it through amazon and they have a return policy. Im thinking I will send it back. Can anyone recommend a nice (SMALL) wave maker that doesn't break the bank? I need to place it on the right side of my tank, which is directly in my view from bed. I would like to find one that isn't too bulky or ugly looking.