Snow's 60G Secret Predatory Sanctum 🐲🐉 - Shutting Down

[Snow_Phoenix]

Hmm. I woke up to a dead molly being finished off by nass. snails today morning. I noticed 2 of my lead male mollies (both which are black in color) have been flaring, posturing and nipping each other lately. I'm not exactly surprised this happened, because mollies = damsels in terms of behavior, based on what I've observed for this past few months.

 

Plus, my male : female ratio is quite unbalanced in this tank - when these guys were significantly smaller and most of them lacked the fancy lyretails/sailfins, I presumed I had *slightly more males than females. Now that all of them are fully grown (except the orange one, which was added as a feeder, and for some reason completely ignored by my lions and hawk), I appear to have only one female, and the rest were males.

 

Now that I'm down to 5 mollies, I'm thinking of removing 2 males to reduce the aggression between the group, but they're almost impossible to net. I don't wish to tear down my scape just to remove a group of feeders (which hopefully will all get eaten once they can fit into my lions' mouths), so right now, I'm leaving them be. Things seem calmer too, now that I only have 1 lead male left and not 2. 🤔

I think I'll minimize the addition of any feeder mollies to the tank in the future. My lions seem to prefer live ghost shrimp anyway. I've tried my best to wean them onto frozen, but they're still quite stubborn. Luckily most of the other fish are fine on a steady diet of prepared food (except Cleo the copperband, who still prefers live pods and worms).

 

I'm having difficulty tackling the vermetid outbreak currently going in the tank. I'm trying my best to manually clip and crush them using my coral cutters, but I'm in favor of biological control as well. There are scattered reports of success using bumblebee snails, emerald crabs and yellow coris wrasses from various sources online. But most of these cases seem like a 50/50, although many have reported success using bumblebee snails.

 

I'm unsure if bumblebee snails are available here, but I guess there's no harm in *trying to order a pair or trio of them. They mostly feed on biological matter though - kind of like a nass. snail itself, but a striped version that relegates itself to the rocks rather than the sandbed. It's worth a shot, I guess. 🤔

I wouldn't mind a yellow coris, but they usually come in small sizes here, so they'll end up as lunch for the bigger fish in this tank. Plus, I'm 110% sure either my hawk or clown will harass them. There's also the issue of going through ~2 strenuous weeks of hybrid-TTM, which *might see to the premature demise of a potentially unhealthy fish, since it's wild-caught. A lot of elements to consider, basically. Hmm. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Finally arrived! My fish love these & the NLS pellets:

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

The polyps are very long now! 👀

 

 

 

Shorter polyps: 😅

 

 

Becoming one of my favorite pieces in the tank:

 

 

Absolutely loving the PE on the pineapple tree! 🥰

[Tamberav]

I always wondered if urchins ever destroy the vermetid snails? I mean they have such scraping power you would think some snails would get in the way. 
 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

25 minutes ago, Tamberav said:

I always wondered if urchins ever destroy the vermetid snails? I mean they have such scraping power you would think some snails would get in the way. 
 

 

Apparently they do to a certain extent. I've observed my halloween urchin leave behind a solid trail of white on the rocks when it passes through - absolutely no algae, no coralline and no vermetids left behind. Someone on another forum a very long time ago corroborated the same thing, and suggested adding more urchins to destroy vermetids.

 

I actually do need to beef up my CUC and was planning on picking up some snails the next time I hit the store, but I guess I'll try to see if I can pick up a pair of urchins as well. Only issue I can foresee is the pricing - everything has gone up, and urchins can be anywhere between double to triple of their original prices. If it's too expensive, I'll just try to get *one extra urchin at least. I think halloweens are more effective than tuxedos when it comes to scraping the rock surface clean. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Time to prune the chaeto. 🌱

 

 

Also, I'll be re-setting this tank. Completely new rocks and new sand. Hate to say it, but the vermetids won. 😔

 

I've already started to siphon some sand out from the DT, but I'll do it over the course of few weeks. Fully new setup should be up and running by October. New rock will be cycled separately before old rock is thrown out and the new one is swapped in. 

 

I'll be trading some of the fish back to the store as well. 👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

My cynarinas are coloring back up after I had to add 20G of SW to the DT few days ago. The inadvertent WC was because a lot of water was displaced while I siphoned out some sand. 

 

Turns out it was a good thing - because the corals look much happier, although my joints and muscles are still aching from the exertion (might take a full week to recover). I purchased more rigid tubing online to ease up the siphoning process in the future. It should arrive some time next week. 👍

 

Back to my cynarinas, I'm finally seeing some hints of orange returning on the older coral, although the flesh remains retracted at the base due to a vermetid at the rim:

 

 

Even the rainbow one is redeveloping a stronger hint of red:

 

 

And my softies are very happy:

 

 

 

Rainbow yuma looks much more vivid:

 

 

And the forest fire sticks are now slowly growing at the tips, while some of the fraglets have begun encrusting at the LR below:

 

 

The tank is still riddled with fuzzy green algae and a lot of vermetids however. The algae is a bit unsightly, but the vermetids have become quite a big issue. 

 

I'm just waiting to pick up the new rockscape from the LFS in ~3 weeks, then I'll cycle it separately in a tub outside the house. Once the rock is cycled, I'll swap out the old rocks in the tank for the new one. 

 

During the cycling interim, I'll clean the sump but retain the fuge. The sand will be siphoned out bit by bit over the weeks. The corals will be temporarily placed in the 10G AIO nanotank downstairs a few days before the reboot. Then I'll swap out the old stuff, drain the tank as much as possible, add new sand & the cycled new rock. 

 

I'll net out the mollies and cardinal, & trade them in at the store - the mollies aren't worth anything, but the cardinal can be negotiated for a very small frag of beginner-level coral, I *think. 🤔

 

I'm not moving my other fish out of the tank during the reboot because it will stress them out further. I've listed out all the steps already; just need to follow through with it. And yep, a *lot of salt will be needed for upcoming WCs in this tank. I have both IO & Fritz stocked.👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

Took a few more pics just now. 👍

 

Cynarinas:

 

 

 

Pineapple tree softie:

 

 

PJ: 

 

 

Just some lions. 🥰

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

So glad this finally arrived today! 

 

 

More sand-siphoning set out for some time next week. 👍

[Tamberav]

Hope it works good! 

[Snow_Phoenix]

29 minutes ago, Tamberav said:

Hope it works good! 

I hope so too! It's quite thick and sturdy, but flexible enough. I ordered the same size which can fit over the tiny outlet/inlet notches of my FW canister filter. So that once I'm done with the whole sand-siphoning thing in this tank, I can clean it and then re-use it for my filter for the discus tank downstairs. 🙂 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Took a few pics of the fish and corals today. Puffy cynarinas:

 

 

 

Orange cloves:

 

 

Lady flaring her fins:

 

 

 

Forest fire garden-to-come:

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Some shots of my various leathers. 🥰

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Also, some FTSes of the 60G, in all its algae & vermetid-infested glory:

 

 

 

 

 

I have a mix of good & bad news. 

 

Good news: Sally the molly is finally pregnant! (Not sure who's kids she's carrying, but the fry will most likely wind up as lunch for the bigger fish anyway. 😅)

 

Bad news: Woke up to a dead halloween urchin. Most of his spines had fallen off, and he wasn't moving (I checked). He has been faring poorly for the past 3 weeks. I thought the large WC would have helped, but I guess not. 😔

 

Not entirely sure what the cause of death is, given that this tank is packed with algae so I doubt he starved (plus, I did watch him scrape the rock clean wherever he went). He was an unusually large urchin from the get-go, so I'm unsure how old he truly was. 

 

I think I'll purchase smaller-sized urchins in the future. 🤔

 

Right now the tank is down to 1 banded trochus snail, 2 nassarius snails, and Mr. Prickles the purple rock urchin, which I believe is already 7.5-years-old (not 8 (!) - sorry for the earlier mix up), for CUC. I'll replenish the CUC after the reboot. 

 

I'm sure the addition of new rock and sand will spawn all sorts of algae blooms. 👍

 

I've tentatively set Monday as sand-siphoning day. Will prepare 10G of new SW in a pail the day before the siphoning. I'm not sure how much sand I'll be able to siphon out this time, but I'll try not to displace more than 20G of SW if possible. 👍

 

If I'm too drained on Monday, then I'll push it back to Tuesday and so on. I need to clean Sir Twinkie Cottonpuff's cage first. 🤐

 

[debbeach13]

How are you feeling today?

[Snow_Phoenix]

21 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

How are you feeling today?

A bit drained. I did go out for some exercise in the evening though. But still tired for some reason. The sand-siphoning will be a  physically demanding thing because I have to hold on to the hose and make sure water doesn't spill over the rim of the pail, while bending my back to see which parts of sand I'm siphoning because the tank is too deep for me to look at it properly from above. 

It'll be a bit of a strain, but I'm hoping to remove 2kg of sand at least. I'll need to go through a few rounds before I can truly remove most of it, and the sand trapped under the rocks will most likely only be removed on the day I'm swapping out the old scape for a new one. 

 

For many years, I truly dreamt of keeping a large reef with a nice purple tang and flame angel - like a 4'ft long (?), at least. But I'm barely holding this one together. 😕

 

I think I'm more suited to maintaining and running nanos - like my current 10G. It's packed, but it's a full-blown reef. WCs are much easier to manage, and so is maintenance. The size is ideal for my capabilities too. Only downside is that I'm very limited when it comes to fish & invert choices. The max. my nano can handle is 3 fish, but 2 is the best combination so far. 

 

In the future, I think I'll just stick to a 10G, and have *1 marine tank. A lot easier to maintain & manage, more budget-friendly and less to worry/think about, actually. 

32 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

How are you feeling today?

Also, thanks for asking, Deb. 🌺

[debbeach13]

You do have a lot of critters in your care. Stay well.

[Snow_Phoenix]

Some fins 💦 for all of you today. 😊

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Some corals - taken at 2 different times (morning & early evening), hence the differences in hues:

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Ended up displacing roughly ~30G of SW in the tank during the removal of 3.5kg++ of sand today. So yep, 30G WC done! 😅

 

 

 

Not too bad, although it was still very tedious and the clean up afterwards took roughly ~1 hour. Definitely exhausting, but the larger tube did siphon out sand more efficiently and quickly. Only downside is that getting the siphon started was a bit difficult because the tubing was too long. 

 

I can cut off 1m of tubing, but I wish to re-use this tubing for my canister filter to supplement my discus tank in the future. If I cut off the tubing now, it won't be long enough for the filter, which will make this a total waste since I can't use it for anything else. 

 

I estimate I'll need 3x or 4x more sand-siphoning sessions to get most of it out. I'll wait another 1.5 to 2 weeks before I try again. My back is killing me. 😕

[Tamberav]

phew! I have siphoned out sand many times and can only imagine how much more difficult it is on a taller tank!

[Snow_Phoenix]

10 minutes ago, Tamberav said:

phew! I have siphoned out sand many times and can only imagine how much more difficult it is on a taller tank!

The first time was easy (did catch a mouthful of SW, and had to spit that out into the pail) and everything went by smoothly. The second time onwards was harder. Every time the water level in the DT dropped, getting the siphon started before letting gravity do its thing took more time & energy. It was frustrating a bit because apparently tasting SW was inevitable. Ew.

 

I think most of the issues stemmed from the length of the tubing + height of the aquarium itself. From what I discovered during these past 2 siphoning sessions, I *think it's best to drain up to 20G of SW, and not go beyond that at a time - I pushed for 30G today, and it was too difficult - I ended up getting SW and sand all over my floor mat and on some of the tiles. Urgh.

 

20G of siphoning seems ideal, then stop, re-fill tank - then rinse & repeat next week/2 weeks later. 

 

Have to say - I'm really using up a lot of salt though to make up new batches of SW each time I drain the tank. And I still need to do this siphoning at least 2x to 3x more to get *most of the sand out (the sand under the rocks will be left untouched until the day I swap out the old rocks for the new ones). 

 

Just hoping I won't get sick from whatever crap I tasted today. 😞 

[Tamberav]

I have tasted saltwater too many times haha.. it never has made me sick though so hopefully not! 

 

I think they make those little barbed fitting where you could join hose back together and use pipe clamps to make sure they don't come off.

 

Not sure if you have a hardware store nearby but just an idea if it becomes too much. You could just bring the shorter hose with you trimmed off and test the fit. 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

21 minutes ago, Tamberav said:

I have tasted saltwater too many times haha.. it never has made me sick though so hopefully not! 

 

I think they make those little barbed fitting where you could join hose back together and use pipe clamps to make sure they don't come off.

 

Not sure if you have a hardware store nearby but just an idea if it becomes too much. You could just bring the shorter hose with you trimmed off and test the fit. 

 

 

They do have those, but for the standard orange hoses here which have much, much smaller diameters. The current tubing I'm using has a wider diameter (it's silicon canister tubing) - so if I get one of these fittings, I'll have to make sure the measurements are correct. (Unsure if these fittings even come in the size of the tubing, but I guess I could scope it out online)

 

Definitely didn't fancy the SW-tasting! So...salty!!! 🤢

(I was also half-afraid I'd accidently suck up a molly while starting the siphon - thank God that didn't happen or else I'd have given up on this whole sand-siphoning thingy altogether)

[Tamberav]

4 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

They do have those, but for the standard orange hoses here which have much, much smaller diameters. The current tubing I'm using has a wider diameter (it's silicon canister tubing) - so if I get one of these fittings, I'll have to make sure the measurements are correct. (Unsure if these fittings even come in the size of the tubing, but I guess I could scope it out online)

 

Definitely didn't fancy the SW-tasting! So...salty!!! 🤢

(I was also half-afraid I'd accidently suck up a molly while starting the siphon - thank God that didn't happen or else I'd have given up on this whole sand-siphoning thingy altogether)