Seadragon's Simple & Easy 10g Reef 💦

January 24, 2020

1 minute ago, Tamberav said:

Inconsistency as well as storage, one of the more annoying problems I see people have with bottle bacteria is bacterial blooms. I have never had such an issue in over the 10 years I have been in the hobby by letting my tank establish with time.

Yeah, both of my systems went through a couple of blooms, nothing major though, definitely far-less annoying than the chrysophytes, fungi, and dinos...

January 25, 2020

7 hours ago, Tamberav said:

Inconsistency as well as storage, one of the more annoying problems I see some people have with bottle bacteria is bacterial blooms. I have never had such an issue in over the 10 years I have been in the hobby by letting my tank establish with time.

Oh Boy! I hope it doesn't cause me bacterial blooms. You know I added it almost month into cycle, so It didnt do a thing, but now I am hoping I dont get those blooms over using something that had no benefit and was doing the sit and wait method, the majority seems to do in here. So should have just followed that through! Did you catch a lot of flack for that method? You know whats been going on with me and people calling me impatient and argumentative and downright nasty names like an idiot, its nuts. I feel If I would have done that method in the beginning I would have gotten pounced! My plan was to do that but you know what happened with my son, not to mention my health as well, so I dint get a chance to. One minute I regret that I didnt get to then the next I think, maybe I will benefit from waiting but I ended up adding it anyway, so maybe I won't benefit because IT's in the tank! I did do a water change when my dumb ass overdosed the amonia (haha) but then I added a little more bacuse beacuse i realized I didnt shake it up and all the bacteria was more than likely at the bottom so I added what was left. You would think it would make my nitrites go down but maybe it was a bad batch like you said. How are things with your watchman goby, you have one right?

January 25, 2020

3 minutes ago, karen nation said:

Oh Boy! I hope it doesn't cause me bacterial blooms. You know I added it almost month into cycle, so It didnt do a thing, but now I am hoping I dont get those blooms over using something that had no benefit and was doing the sit and wait method, the majority seems to do in here. So should have just followed that through! Did you catch a lot of flack for that method? You know whats been going on with me and people calling me impatient and argumentative and downright nasty names like an idiot, its nuts. I feel If I would have done that method in the beginning I would have gotten pounced! My plan was to do that but you know what happened with my son, not to mention my health as well, so I dint get a chance to. One minute I regret that I didnt get to then the next I think, maybe I will benefit from waiting but I ended up adding it anyway, so maybe I won't benefit because IT's in the tank! I did do a water change when my dumb ass overdosed the amonia (haha) but then I added a little more bacuse beacuse i realized I didnt shake it up and all the bacteria was more than likely at the bottom so I added what was left. You would think it would make my nitrites go down but maybe it was a bad batch like you said. How are things with your watchman goby, you have one right?

I think it is more to do with people who rush stocking then the product itself. Perhaps because people are still learning and when they rush they don't have enough time to get a grasp on this hobby and bacterial products have made it so easy to rush.

People repeat patience because it is the easiest way to be successful in the hobby.

January 25, 2020

3 hours ago, Tamberav said:

I think it is more to do with people who rush stocking then the product itself. Perhaps because people are still learning and when they rush they don't have enough time to get a grasp on this hobby and bacterial products have made it so easy to rush.

People repeat patience because it is the easiest way to be successful in the hobby.

I realize that. I have come to a halt...haha but you know these people have got a chat thread going about me! Its crazy. Now a bunch of people are in on this! I cant believe they are being so hostile. Now I know why everyone was saying so much shit on my post, and leaving memes or whatever they are called. I was called all kinds of names by one of them, now they are all in on it like 7 or more and now they are insulting others that were nice to me in that chat, calling people ugly and dumb. This person put a comment on my post wall that I was cycling with a fish! He said I had a fish ordered so I guess people got mad. He fabricated the whole thing. I asked about fish on a new post that would be good when my tank cycled so somewhere in his sick mind he put together, since I used biospira that I am going to put a fish in there. Then he said I was wanting to put a lionfish and a puffer! haha. He twisted that one, I said I loved puffers and wish I had a big enough tank for one. I mean how absurb is that? People are actually buying his lies and I would actually put a puffer in a ten gallon (oops sorry I found out he was a she and she was a he) I cant believe this is going on and they put a pic of biospira on it! . No wonder all these people were leaving mean comments on my post about cycling, thats why i was so defensive. Looks like I am doomed in here and that was his angle he, said He would turn everyone against me, then he said in the chat I messed with the wrong person! Actually he is a she and she is a he. Its Dirte Sanchez and Stinky Bunny, but they have lots of others in it now and talking shit! Spectra, DS saltwater, and some others! It seemed he was letting it go but I I did stir the pot I guess a few hours ago after I saw the post about the fish I am supposedly cycling with, then they started all this just for pure evilness. I hope they are having fun!

January 25, 2020

On the morning of Saturday, January 25th, 2020, Alpha crab finally molted... here is what his old shell looked like:

Alpha crab reborn!

I'm noticing a few new heads on my Red Blastomussa finally!

And that's all of the updates I have except that the Pom Pom Xenia is now growing in 5 places throughout the tank and are huge in 2 of the spots... I'll save those pics for a future update. 🙂

I wanted to give some advice to Karen before I leave for today.

@karen nation: I've been reading your posts since the very first wall of text. I have a few words of wisdom that may help you on your journey here and through life.

1. Hakuna Matata. It means no worries till the end of your days. There will always be people out there that are either obnoxious to you or have something negative to say. I would either ignore them or take the high road and not stoop down to their level. Life is so short and there's no need to waste time on getting upset or worrying about anything. It's better to relax and enjoy life.

2. Less is more. It's better to write in small paragraphs, proof read, and to get straight to your point in a concise manner. I would try to avoid copying and pasting things that you've said before. Also avoid walls of text or multiple walls of text. People in general will not read what you write if its too long or too repetitive.

3. Experience things for yourself. Personally, I've never had a bacterial bloom in any of my current 5 tanks. I believe it could happen with adding starter bacteria, but I do not think it's the norm for most people. The only thing I've ever had was an algae bloom in this very tank and I believe the cause was from a combination of too much blue light spectrum, too long of a photoperiod, and dosing phytoplankton.

January 25, 2020

How to Induce a Bacterial Bloom

Over the course of the day, the past few posts has got me thinking about how hobbyists usually get a bacterial bloom. And here is what I usually see happen.

A (usually new) hobbyist establishes beneficial bacteria in their tank either over time naturally or with starter bacteria.
Then, a very large bio-load is added to the tank, usually in the form of too many fish in too small of a tank.
Ammonia starts building up due to too high of a bio-load and not enough beneficial bacteria to convert it on the spot.
It gets to the point where the toxic ammonia rises and eventually kills some or all of the inhabitants, and the dead corpses then increase the ammonia level even higher.
The nitrifying bacteria starts to populate exponentially due to the massive increase in ammonia. So much so that the water becomes cloudy and thus a visual bacterial bloom is seen.

So in my humble opinion, I believe Bacterial Blooms is the cause of adding too much too fast and thus giving the beneficial bacteria a huge source of food (ammonia) all of a sudden which causes them to explode in population. This could easily be interpreted as starter bacteria causing this effect, but I believe even if you cycled the tank naturally and slowly without starter bacteria, you can still create a bacterial bloom by adding too much too fast where the ammonia eventually kills the tank inhabitants. Especially if you do not remove the dead fish or invertebrates and do not do a massive water change.

This is why it's highly advised to be patient and go slowly in this hobby. Going too fast and adding too much bio-load can lead to deaths as well as potential bacterial blooms.

January 27, 2020

On 1/25/2020 at 11:34 AM, Seadragon said:

On the morning of Saturday, January 25th, 2020, Alpha crab finally molted... here is what his old shell looked like:

Alpha crab reborn!

I'm noticing a few new heads on my Red Blastomussa finally!

And that's all of the updates I have except that the Pom Pom Xenia is now growing in 5 places throughout the tank and are huge in 2 of the spots... I'll save those pics for a future update. 🙂

I wanted to give some advice to Karen before I leave for today.

@karen nation: I've been reading your posts since the very first wall of text. I have a few words of wisdom that may help you on your journey here and through life.

1. Hakuna Matata. It means no worries till the end of your days. There will always be people out there that are either obnoxious to you or have something negative to say. I would either ignore them or take the high road and not stoop down to their level. Life is so short and there's no need to waste time on getting upset or worrying about anything. It's better to relax and enjoy life.

2. Less is more. It's better to write in small paragraphs, proof read, and to get straight to your point in a concise manner. I would try to avoid copying and pasting things that you've said before. Also avoid walls of text or multiple walls of text. People in general will not read what you write if its too long or too repetitive.

3. Experience things for yourself. Personally, I've never had a bacterial bloom in any of my current 5 tanks. I believe it could happen with adding starter bacteria, but I do not think it's the norm for most people. The only thing I've ever had was an algae bloom in this very tank and I believe the cause was from a combination of too much blue light spectrum, too long of a photo period, and dosing phytoplankton.

Thank you so much for this advice and I am learning these things now, and definitely implementing them BUT I have to explain reason so this will be long. I did get attacked by a select few, I wont mention names but initials are DS and SB haha but they hang out in a chat entitled the Bad news bar and spirit lounge! . They came on my post and started with name calling and memes and all. I now realize why. DS had posted, on my post that I was cycling with a fish! (I discovered that post after all this craziness) transpired. Wish I would have seen it earlier because I could have posted that I wasnt and maybe that would have put an end to it. I guess she came up with this conclusion because I decided to use the biospira I had bought to use from the beginning but didn't get to because of hospital ect and it started doing its thing. By then it was to late! That has so much to do with my frustration with this cycle, I could have had a fish in there long ago and my infamous quote that has been thrown in my face "In 2020 it shouldn't take over a month to cycle" maybe I used the wrong word "cycle" but add a fish was what I meant so there is a lot of misinterpretation going on. Anyway Hakuna matata and If I dont take that approach I will go insane LOL. If it was only one person that was giving me shit, wouldn't let it bother me but it was many!

Friday until 5 am or so they were bashing me in their chat OMG! It was insane and telling everyone about my post and directing them to it. Then all of them in that room proceeded with the meme's, name calling and saying vulgar stuff like "come to Texas and ride my hmmm well, you can imagine the rest" They are a group of trouble makers, they were talking about others as well. A person who recommended a certain fish. Saying childish shit like how ugly he was and he was also an idiot! I mean it was just nuts. Its basically a chat to bash people! I came in this forum to make friends and it got off on the wrong foot because of this one person, who is a liar and trouble maker. He (she) was telling them I wanted to put a puffer in my ten gallon. Cycling with fish! Just made up lies in order to turn them all against me and have fun in their chat. I know that kind of behavior isnt allowed and I should report them. I did report one of them early on, but later there were so many involved I decided to let it go. I started the "tit for tat' with them in their chat so maybe they will accept me now, haha. I would never stoop to their level but I was just saying "come to fl , we have some nice corals you can steal from the ocean" They were talking about getting a boat and coming here and doing that anyway! "I wont come a knocking when your trailers rocking", throwing it back at them, but not in a vulgar way, when he was saying he was going to F$#% the other one when her hubby left and trash talk like that! They got a big kick of of the fact that I got their sex wrong, So they started going back and forth saying shit like "can I borrow your dildo so I can try out my new vavajay" She might be ugly but takes it up the *&^ and can suck some mean D*&^, Some of it was so bad I wont repeat and what i have said is pretty bad! It went on for hours with all of them and they wont let it go. They bring it back up in there and attached me with a bottle of biopia, I bet it is still happening today! I am staying clear from that room, I want this all to end and want to make friends! If they keep on with it on my posts, people will start to notice and I will then let everyone know whats up! I wish I could now but It will just backfire and make me look bad since I am the newbie and not following advice and being argumentative and have no patience.

Sorry, this is long but just wanted to let ya know and maybe vent a little over those troublemakers! LOL If people knew the whole story they would understand my frustration and the reason for that long post about me and my family and adding the attachments. DS said I went about things all wrong, not introducing myself and I should have stalked the room for months getting advice and all like others do so thats why, I was trying to do it right and all I did was make a fool of myself! I was also letting people know that I do know the nitrogen cycle (I also have another freshwater tank) and that there are many ways to cycle with ammonia, not just the "sit and wait method" I seemed thats why everyone got upset that I dint follow the advise and added it anyway. Actually knowing what I know now it was that group that got so upset with me , but at that time I didn't know they had that chat and I was the topic! First it was DS calling me mrs google and mrs youtube then SB calling me an idiot, falling of spaceship dumb ass or something. I had no idea this was all connected to that chatroom and thats why I became so defensive.

My tank might be ready. Havnt checked yet but yesterday nitrites fell drastically and my ammonia is somewhere between 0 and 0.25. have had nitrates forever it seems. I think adding the ammonia helped. Didnt hurt thats for sure! I want to post that I am almost cycled but fearful, because of them. I am literally scared to post at all.

You know what else? I found out yesterday I basically let a 1,000 torch coral get by me that I won! Its like a holy grail! They finally posted pics of this so called Torch of the gods! I am hoping since they still have my money and havt responded to my email to cancel order that I can still get it! My LFS said she would hold my corals, as long as I need her to but of course didnt find this out until after I canceled! My son was sick so my life was on hold for weeks! I guess at that time I didnt realize the complexity of this. I just read you could go corals first, and got so stoked on watching you tubes of fish and corals. Its been a lot of dumb moves on my part but I have learned so much more since setting up the tank, and still sooo much more to learn. Hopefully I havt pissed everyone off thats been trying to help! Its a damn shame those trouble makers read my post because that was my downfall letting them get to me!

I hope you read this, much longer than I intended! I know I am repeating myself but need to explain reasons. There is so much more but this would be way to long. Like how he put a nice post..sort of...just so others could see it, makes me look like the bad guy then attack me in the chat and everyone who goes in there starts on me.. what a wimp! I should have to be fearful to make posts now or ask for advice. My hubbys say find another forum, but I like this is a nano room and there are some very nice and helpful people like you that are here! Some really bad apples though! Rotten to the core! I am in reef2reef and no problems there! I dont use it much though. My post about asking on fish recommendations got taken wrong and I am scared to even check it. I know I only saw one response and it was so negative immediately, saying I coulnt put four fish in there but I guess they didnt read the part saying they were babies, and I would add one at a time and I was upgrading to a 45 gallon in 3 months or so that I already have. Tthe clowns I want are less than an inch the yellow clown goby I asked about is an inch full grown so unless the clowns have an insanely fast growth rate than whats the problem? My initial idea was just 2 fish!

I am so sorry this is so long! I could have left out the part about the coral I won, just venting! It sucks because its taken away my excitement of being able to get my fish soon! I guess I will check my levels now..maybe I will post them. Damn, this sucks worrying about those troublemakers!

Thanks for the helpful advise and I promise my posts will be small, one reason I dont want to leave a post about the coral I won is there is no way to make that a short post! LOL Anyway, I sure hope I can turn to you for more knowledge. I am sure you know your stuff having so many tanks! Tell me more about your blenny! I am interested in the tailspot, so cute, small and look like they have lots of personalty! I like fish with that are interesting and dont just swim around and ingore you! My beta is like that, he always come and greets me!

January 27, 2020

A hell of a lot of the bacterial blooms early on in a system's life are due to an over abundance of bacteria looking for a place to settle. I can set up 2 of my 700g racks at the same time, using the same water and 1 will have a bloom and the other one won't. I add the bacteria out of the same bottle and the same amount of ammonia. If I slow down the fluidized bed, the cloudiness is gone in 8 hours.

January 27, 2020

On 1/9/2020 at 6:53 PM, Tamberav said:

He can be cute... but I think he is an evil Eriphia spp.

Side note, I bought some live blue crabs to cook and man those guys are AGGRESSIVE! One ran across the table and tried to jump at me... if a crab could jump...it was more like a hop with arms reaching to get me. One did manage to get me and made me bleed. I guess I would make someone bleed too if they were going to eat me.

Blue crabs are #2 in my aggressive crabs list, Calico crabs are #1. They will chase you when they're on land, they're miserable SOB's. I don't think I'd be too happy if someone grabbed me with metal tongs, threw me in a basket with 100 other miserable, mean crabs pinching the hell out of me trying to tear legs off. The ONLY place to grab a Blue crab is by their back swimming fins. I see people grab them on the top and bottom of their shells. The first time one reaches under and grabs you with their tearing claw will remind you how to grab one, been there, done that.

January 27, 2020

On 1/23/2020 at 1:09 PM, Snow_Phoenix said:

It doesn't matter if they are babies or not. The issue you'll face are fish fighting for territory in a tank that small. That, and bioload + instability because the tank is too young.

8 hours ago, karen nation said:

...My post about asking on fish recommendations got taken wrong and I am scared to even check it. I know I only saw one response and it was so negative immediately, saying I coulnt put four fish in there but I guess they didnt read the part saying they were babies, and I would add one at a time and I was upgrading to a 45 gallon in 3 months or so that I already have. Tthe clowns I want are less than an inch the yellow clown goby I asked about is an inch full grown so unless the clowns have an insanely fast growth rate than whats the problem? My initial idea was just 2 fish!

^I really didn't want to get in this, but I won't stand for you twisting my words/advice to gain sympathy from the forum.

(My apologies in advance to SeaDragon, for mucking up your thread).

But I wanted to clarify this because you kept harping on this one point across several threads repeatedly on-and-off.

I was not negative to you in any way. You asked a question, of whether you could stock 4 fish in a 10G.

I told you very politely:

'Since you are just starting the hobby, I think it would be best to do no more than 2 fish. Even a pair of clownfish can get pretty cramped in a 10G.'

Then you told me you were planning on doing FOUR fish for SIX MONTHS in a 10G while you set your 45G up, with the excuse they'll all be baby fish.

I gave you a reality-check and told you, again very politely:

'It doesn't matter if they are babies or not. The issue you'll face are fish fighting for territory in a tank that small. That, and bioload + instability because the tank is too young.'

(Check quote-shot copy-pasted earlier).

Do you want to know why I even gave you that advice, Karen? Or why I even cared?

Because I own a 10G, and this years marks the 4th year it has been running as a SW nanotank. I had 3 fish in it and I faced issues with them battling each other for territory. So much so that I lost my hawkfish and now have two fish left - two juvi fish, I might add (that's on par with 'baby' fish) and they still face-off in that tank.

I did NOT want you making the same mistake that I did. So I offered you advice based on my personal experience, so that you could learn from it and make your own conclusions.

But what did you do?

You created a ruckus on a forum, dragging out members names in the muck, turning your nose down at any good advice that was given, blame-shifting rather than accepting help, played the victim card and now you're back-tracking, trying to gain sympathy from as many people as you want on NR to clear your name. :angry:

You know what? I hate online bullying. I don't like trolling either. But you're just...not a very nice person. And deep down inside, you know it.

I wanted to help you - and I even gave you the benefit of the doubt initially. Especially when you said you were disabled, because I'm disabled too, and I know how hard it is to complete any simple tasks on a daily basis - what more reefing, with disabilities. But I'm done. I'm very angry at you. And if I could reach out through my computer screen to shake some sense into you, I totally would.

You want to make friends on this forum and start over with a clean slate? Start by researching this hobby properly before you dive too deep into it and lose all your money/animals, learn to accept advice and the possibility that you may/can be wrong, and others might be/are right, and stop trash-talking. It doesn't matter who did what at when, just adopt a better attitude, and maybe - just maybe you *can make some good friends here on NR,

Just my two cents.

(Sorry again SeaDragon).

January 27, 2020

For the record, when I saw the very long post last night after I just said "Less is more", I just let out a sigh. 😄 But, I do love questions about my tank and fishkeeping in general and I'm willing to help out anyone that asks, so let's get right down to business:

12 hours ago, karen nation said:

If it was only one person that was giving me shit, wouldn't let it bother me but it was many!

I'm going through your post, and I did want to point out one thing though (to help you and anyone that is upset over this)... I'm pretty sure why certain people are upset with you is because you came here to the forums to ask for advice, and it may have felt that not only did you not follow the advice, but when you said at one point that you were given bad advice, it felt like you were referring to the people trying to help you from these forums. I believe later you said you were referring to the LFS or something. But either way, always try to be respectful, clear, and concise in what you write just so you don't accidentally say something you did not mean to and cause unnecessary drama.

12 hours ago, karen nation said:

My tank might be ready. Havnt checked yet but yesterday nitrites fell drastically and my ammonia is somewhere between 0 and 0.25. have had nitrates forever it seems. I think adding the ammonia helped. Didnt hurt thats for sure! I want to post that I am almost cycled but fearful, because of them. I am literally scared to post at all.

I would wait until Ammonia is definitely showing 0 PPM and Nitrites is showing 0 PPM on your test kits before declaring it is cycled. 😉

12 hours ago, karen nation said:

You know what else? I found out yesterday I basically let a 1,000 torch coral get by me that I won! Its like a holy grail! They finally posted pics of this so called Torch of the gods! I am hoping since they still have my money and havt responded to my email to cancel order that I can still get it! My LFS said she would hold my corals, as long as I need her to but of course didnt find this out until after I canceled! My son was sick so my life was on hold for weeks!

As you know, family always comes first before the hobby. It's easy to put the tank on hold and just let it cycle in the background while you're taking care of the family. Let us all know if you end up getting the expensive coral, but I wouldn't get too excited yet until you have it physically in your hands. You do not want to set yourself up for disappointment.

12 hours ago, karen nation said:

My initial idea was just 2 fish!

The main thing is, wait until your tank has finished cycling and then add livestock slowly for what is appropriate for your tank.

12 hours ago, karen nation said:

Thanks for the helpful advise and I promise my posts will be small, one reason I dont want to leave a post about the coral I won is there is no way to make that a short post! LOL Anyway, I sure hope I can turn to you for more knowledge. I am sure you know your stuff having so many tanks!

You're welcome! For future posts, I would leave out any of the drama and any mention of negativity either directed towards you or from you to others. In my own life, I find that when I embrace positivity, good things always seem to happen. I believe when you do good things for others, that karma comes back to you tenfold. If you have any future questions, feel free to ask!

12 hours ago, karen nation said:

Tell me more about your blenny! I am interested in the tailspot, so cute, small and look like they have lots of personalty! I like fish with that are interesting and dont just swim around and ingore you! My beta is like that, he always come and greets me!

My family loves Blenny (the Tailspot Blenny). If I could only have one fish, it would definitely be the Tailspot Blenny because it makes me smile every time I turn to look at my tank and Blenny is right there staring back at me or doing something cute like biting the algae off of a snail shell which causes it to fall off the rocks. Yeah, Blenny seems to be smarter than the average fish that is unaware of the outside world. Even as I write this post, I turn to my left and I see Blenny staring right back at me as if he is curious as to what I am doing.

January 27, 2020

Torch corals are finicky and it may not do well in a newly established tank. Especially gold torches.

Beginners say they are upgrading all the time. Most of them do not even if their intentions are good because they learn just how much work and money this hobby can be.

With a 45g you probably are going to want a RODI machine to filter your own water FYI. It gets old very fast hauling water for larger tanks every week and it's not great on the back either.

January 27, 2020

On 1/25/2020 at 11:34 AM, Seadragon said:

I'm noticing a few new heads on my Red Blastomussa finally!

forget the blasto, that feather is a beauty!!

I haven't been following/paying much attention, but do you monitor or dose any Ca&alk to allow your stony corals to flourish? With the tank title being "simple. no water change", you'll need to replenish those skeleton building component somehow.

and, watch out for those bubble algae.

Edited January 27, 2020 by mitten_reef
I'm an idiot, should have looked at your first post.

January 27, 2020

3 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

forget the blasto, that feather is a beauty!!

I haven't been following/paying much attention, but do you monitor or dose any Ca&alk to allow your stony corals to flourish? With the tank title being "simple. no water change", you'll need to replenish those skeleton building component somehow.

and, watch out for those bubble algae.

Thank you, yeah that cute tiny feather duster has been with us since the beginning. Here's what it looked like on Day 42:

And you can see in the previous post what it has become today (that previous image was Day 137). 🙂 I like to show it off like a proud grandparent shows off their grandchild. 😉

I dose on a daily basis and I try to keep the Ca around 420 PPM and the Alk around 188 PPM.

You know, I did an experiment with that Bubble Algae. I popped them all to see what would happen a month or so ago and tried to remove the "deflated skin" of the BA as best I could. What I found out was, there must have been some remnants of the BA still on the Blastomussa because that's the only place I've seen it regrow. At this time, I'm thinking about just letting it grow and see what happens... Do you think the BA will interfere with the Blastomussa coral? Will it prevent the Blastomussa from continuing to grow in that area or will the Blastomussa outcompete the BA?

January 27, 2020

29 minutes ago, Seadragon said:

You know, I did an experiment with that Bubble Algae. I popped them all to see what would happen a month or so ago and tried to remove the "deflated skin" of the BA as best I could. What I found out was, there must have been some remnants of the BA still on the Blastomussa because that's the only place I've seen it regrow. At this time, I'm thinking about just letting it grow and see what happens... Do you think the BA will interfere with the Blastomussa coral? Will it prevent the Blastomussa from continuing to grow in that area or will the Blastomussa outcompete the BA?

Conventionally, people say don’t pop them. But I know you as the not-so-conventional guy, 😄. The spore is likely the main concern, but no one knows when the sack will be filled with them, ie when is it produced in the algae life cycle? Of course if you leave tissue intact, I can bet it’ll comeback just like any algae would regrow from remnants.

I’ve done manual removal of bubbles before, and it took multiple attempts at the same location to completely “root” it out. First I pick/flick the bubble with a tooth pick to dislodge it - still inflated-from the substrate. then if possible, I scrape the area where I just dislodged the bubbles. Rinse with tank water in to a bowl, discard the water (again, fear of spore contamination). And i then check back a few weeks later to see if what I missed grew up. Repeat if necessary.

oh and no, I won’t impact coral growth but it can become invasive if not kept in check.

January 27, 2020

On 1/27/2020 at 5:24 PM, mitten_reef said:

Conventionally, people say don’t pop them. But I know you as the not-so-conventional guy, 😄.

After much research, I came across a few hobbyists out there that were able to eradicate their BA problem by either using Emerald crabs or just removing the BA themselves. And the ones that used Emerald crabs only had a 50% success rate since not all Emerald crabs will eat BA, but from the ones that did, all the Emerald crab does is pop the BA and eat the skin. So... I'll just skip the middleman and do that myself. 😉 The only problem is, the Emerald crab will spend all day picking at the BA skin and searching for it, while I will only spend a couple minutes at most and will likely miss some here or there, especially if it's hiding in-between the calcified tube of that tiny fan worm and the Blastomussa coral. I didn't want to damage the calcified tube by picking at it too hard.

As far as the spore issue, the only mention of that was there "may" be spores in the really huge BA, but even then, there was no consensus. There was more of a fear of the unknown and from those that actually manually popped the BA stated no such issues.

January 27, 2020

1 hour ago, Seadragon said:

Thank you, yeah that cute tiny feather duster has been with us since the beginning. Here's what it looked like on Day 42:

And you can see in the previous post what it has become today (that previous image was Day 137). 🙂 I like to show it off like a proud grandparent shows off their grandchild. 😉

I dose on a daily basis and I try to keep the Ca around 420 PPM and the Alk around 188 PPM.

You know, I did an experiment with that Bubble Algae. I popped them all to see what would happen a month or so ago and tried to remove the "deflated skin" of the BA as best I could. What I found out was, there must have been some remnants of the BA still on the Blastomussa because that's the only place I've seen it regrow. At this time, I'm thinking about just letting it grow and see what happens... Do you think the BA will interfere with the Blastomussa coral? Will it prevent the Blastomussa from continuing to grow in that area or will the Blastomussa outcompete the BA?

Some bubble algae regrow, some can spread by popping them.

It depends on the kind you have.

I lucked out that the ones I got didn't spread upon popping.

I just manually removed them. My emerald crab didn't eat them.

February 3, 2020

Showing off my Pests...?

Since the tiny fan worm got much love the last time it was shown from it's backside in a macroshot,

I figured I'd turn that frag around and take a few more shots of it head on so we can get a better view of it.

This free pest is more colorful than the purchased brown feather duster! (By the way, my large feather duster lost its crown the other day probably due to too many things nibbling at it or near it. The worm is still alive so the crown should grow back within a few weeks.)

A Pineapple Sponge hitchhiked onto the Chaeto that I purchased off eBay before. Now, there's hundreds of Pineapple Sponges all over my tank where the light doesn't shine.

Filter, my minions!

All kinds of nuisance algae and whatnot grows on the backs of my snails including this Banded Trochus Snail shown above.

It kind of reminds you of a Christmas tree, doesn't it?

My Pom Pom Xenia has been growing fairly fast in the past few months.

Once it covers all of the rocks, I'll take a video tour of my tank so we can enjoy the pulsing effect of a ton of Xenia.

Thanks for visiting!

February 3, 2020

Looks gorgeous! Excellent pictures as always. I love the snail covered in algae - it's kind of like a fighter ace with the silhouettes of all the enemy planes he's downed painted on his fuselage. 😄

February 4, 2020

9 hours ago, billygoat said:

I love the snail covered in algae - it's kind of like a fighter ace with the silhouettes of all the enemy planes he's downed painted on his fuselage. 😄

Heh, that or it's dressed in a Ghillie Suit stalking the next patch of algae that it finds.. 🙂

February 4, 2020

Looks good! When I see diversity of algae and sponges ..I think it is a good sign of a healthy reef.

February 18, 2020

Embracing Biodiversity and Natural Pest Control

I've noticed in all of my years of fishkeeping that I had the most success with using natural pest control compared to using chemicals and other various methods. I also believe that it is good to be open minded and to try new approaches to solving problems -- you might be surprised on what you find out.

For example, in the past, you may have heard me mention that I use Tiger Sand Conchs to effectively control and eliminate any visible cyanobacteria in my reef tank (currently only the Office NR). I still have the original conchs today and I'm amazed how it went from red slime covering all of the sandbed to the clean-looking, white sand that I see today and it only took a week or two to make that happen. Knowing how effective they are, I am going to transfer the larger of the two Tiger Sand Conchs to the School NR next weekend so that more food is available to them and to increase their chances of survivability in the long run.

Another issue you may have heard me complain about in the past was BBA (Black Beard Algae) that dominates my two freshwater tanks at home. I, unfortunately, got this extremely horrible nuisance algae from Anubias plants that I purchased from Petco, a lesson that I will never forget. I've tried using Seachem Flourish Excel to spot treat the massive amounts of BBA and although that does tend to kill specific spots after multiple treatments, it would be a never-ending battle that would end up costing me money and time to deal with the problem, not a great solution in my book. I also tried dosing the entire tank with hydrogen peroxide which basically had no effect on the BBA and thankfully it didn't kill any of my Dream Blue Velvet shrimp or Bamboo shrimp. And then it hit me, let's try Black Mollies. Black Mollies are the best known type of molly that eats nuisance algae such as BBA and it's one of the very few fish that actually eats BBA at all and they do not seem to be that aggressive compared to other fish. So I got four of them, and not only did they start eating the BBA in my tank, but they leave my shrimp alone! Amazing!

So just from these two examples, I have Tiger Sand Conchs working for me 24/7 keeping the sandbed clean and free of cyanobacteria, and now four Black Mollies that are removing the BBA from my freshwater tanks! So onto the true purpose of this post...

I've noticed in the past few weeks, the Bubble Algae in my tank returned after attempting to pop them all manually months before in which I tried to remove the leftover skin of any BA that I could. The problem is, that BA skin can hide in the nooks and crannies of places that I'm unable to get to with my large tweezers.

Not only that, but I bet some of that skin free-floated around the tank and landed in-between my big patch of Pom Pom Xenia on the larger rock because the other day I noticed a "surprise" lurking within the Xenia when it bunched up probably due to Shrimpy touching it. I've read before that smaller Emerald Crabs tend to eat the BA more readily than larger Emerald Crabs... and a small Emerald Crab is exactly what I would like to try now, now that I'm fully embracing pest control the natural way. Not only does this seem like a cool experiment that I've never tried before, but it does add more excitement to my reef tank because it gives me something new to look at and learn from.

While we're on the subject of pests, there was something really scary that I noticed the other day and now again today. The other day, I noticed Aiptasia in the same spot that I squirted lemon juice on before and dug out any remnants that I could find. Well, it somehow came back after a couple months.

Not only that, but I noticed it's in a second place as well, and who knows where else it may be hiding.

After seeing the second Aiptasia today, it prompted me to call my LFS and see if they had any Peppermint Shrimp in stock. I've read that a single Peppermint Shrimp will not always eat Aiptasia, but if you get a few, you might have better chances. I only wanted two and that was exactly how many the LFS had in stock -- it felt like destiny! And while I was there, I decided to get a tiny Emerald Crab so I had the LFS pick out the prettiest one that was also small that they could find, and he found a small "reddish" one for me. Has anyone seen an Emerald crab that wasn't green? (I want to make sure they're not pulling a fast one on me, lol.)

I've been acclimating my new pest control enforcers for over an hour now and I'll be adding them to my tank shortly. I'll give future updates on whether they were able to eliminate the BA and Aiptasia in the coming weeks.

February 18, 2020

5 minutes ago, Seadragon said:

Has anyone seen an Emerald crab that wasn't green? (I want to make sure they're not pulling a fast one on me, lol.)

Mithraculus spp. crabs come in a variety of colors, and all of them eat bubble algae. KP Aquatics used to list red and green "emerald" crabs under separate headings, just in case customers were interested in red ones. So I wouldn't worry - you haven't been scammed!

Three cheers for natural pest control! Here's hoping the peppermint shrimp get to work right away. Bubble algae are kind of obnoxious, but Aiptasia is the real terror. 😰

February 18, 2020

9 minutes ago, Seadragon said:

I've tried using Excel to spot treat the massive amounts of BBA and although that does tend to kill specific spots after multiple treatments, it would be a never-ending battle that would end up costing me money and time to deal with the problem, not a great solution in my book.

Really thought you meant Microsoft Excel 🥴

I've never heard of a red emerald crab.... perhaps a ruby crab?

Edit: hahaha ignore me, @billygoat knows what he's talking about

February 19, 2020

Yeah, that's what people call a ruby crab. Similar crab, probably the same species in fact, just red.

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