Mantis Murder Manor

[aclman88]

[Ratvan]

So was looking at the tank last night and realised that in a week the hermits and nassarius snail have done a great job at removing the algae on the sandbed, the tank looks a lot cleaner, still have some algae on the sandbed but its much smaller and less noticeable than previously.

 

compared to Friday last week

Please excuse the demised Damsel. 

 

However while the sand and the corals are looking good the Chondria is not, have tested water today and barely registering either Nitrates or Phosphates at the minute so its looking like i need to remove this algae or i will be inviting Dinos and other issues to the tank which i dont really want to deal with right now. 

 

Will see if i can get some rock to make a Damsel cave on the backwall and possibly try again, hopefully this one wont stick its nose into the Mantis home rock and get one punched. Need to bring nutrients up ideally but cant really just increase feeding to do so and not really interested in dosing to raise these levels with prices at the moment

[Ratvan]

Had a quick look on amazon, not sure how these would work in a reef but thinking of gluing on of these to the backwall for a damsel cave as the mantis doesnt really take a swim too often

 

[M. Tournesol]

Why not a seashell?

[Ratvan]

7 minutes ago, M. Tournesol said:

Why not a seashell?

Not a bad idea but i would like something like that to be the main feature or one of them and i think it would look odd fixed to the backwall, it was one of my original ideas for a jawfish tank, ideally i would buy some flat rock or make my own but the smaller is £7 and the larger £11. Unless i can find some barnacles then might give that a go 

[Murphs_Reef]

3 hours ago, Ratvan said:

Had a quick look on amazon, not sure how these would work in a reef but thinking of gluing on of these to the backwall for a damsel cave as the mantis doesnt really take a swim too often

 

Can't you make one from smashed up base rock? 

[A.m.P]

25 minutes ago, Murphych said:

Can't you make one from smashed up base rock? 

It's allot harder to make a small cave which won't look fugly from the stuff than you'd think.

[Ratvan]

2 hours ago, Murphych said:

Can't you make one from smashed up base rock? 

 

1 hour ago, A.m.P said:

It's allot harder to make a small cave which won't look fugly from the stuff than you'd think.

Pretty much the above, plus this thing weighs 290g so i can superglue it to the back on a water change day, then add putty and any corals on plugs or rubble

[Murphs_Reef]

20 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

 

Pretty much the above, plus this thing weighs 290g so i can superglue it to the back on a water change day, then add putty and any corals on plugs or rubble

Consider using magnet's mate.. 

[Ratvan]

Decided that i would order some more Blue light for the tank, I do like how the corals look under the blue light but honestly hate the all blue look, i much prefer a whiter warmer reef tank. So some supplemental lighting has been ordered

 

[Ratvan]

Also update on the mantis, while i havent seen her out and about much (more feeder shrimp would help i think) she has definately grown as i can now hear the smacks over my TV. Might see if i can find a red spectrum version for Mantis watch , or see how the moonlight version works 🤷‍♂️

[Ratvan]

So the Uglies seemed to have caught up with me. Forgot to change the timer in line with daylight savings so only really noticed tonight

 

Ammonia 0

Nitrates are 5. 

Phosphates 0.03 so down a bit

 

So yeah bit ugly but pods are swarming the algae on the glass. Need to pull out the stray Chondria strands but its taken to the rock so i have a nutrient export that i like the look of while it grows

 

Speaking of invasive, between the Mantis regularly inspecting the Xenia, the Hermits and the coral itself few stray clumps floating around the tank

Hopefully i can get a shell under it this weekend and send it in the direction of @Murphych . 

 

So ummm thats an interesting green colour

Could it be?🤔

Edited November 10, 2021 by Ratvan
Photo order in text🙄

[ａｗａｋｅｄॢ]

according to last Ur pics, it looks like still ‘cycling of water’,,,not finished or recycling for some reasons,,? 🤷🏻‍♀️

anyway,,,keeping it on well~☺️

[Ratvan]

13 hours ago, ａｗａｋｅｄॢ said:

according to last Ur pics, it looks like still ‘cycling of water’,,,not finished or recycling for some reasons,,? 🤷🏻‍♀️

anyway,,,keeping it on well~☺️

Its just Cyano where i have added rock to the tank and caused dead spots in the flow, upgrading the return pump would more then likely sort the situation out as well as maybe some Cerith snails. Just part of the maturing process for the reef so nothing untoward just a little ugly 

[Ratvan]

Okay so I have a lighting upgrade question that might be a bit different to the normal for this tank. I need to change the light BUT to something with less white. 

I've noticed that I see Virgis less and less on a night, on friday (so 3 days ago on writing this) i switched the lights from blues and whites to blues only and she has been out and active for hours each night....... you see where this is going right?

 

I have a strip of Blue LEDs that i was going to supplement the "full Spectrum" with but now i am thinking of doing something different.

 

So Red spectrum would allow me to observe her at night correct? and most likely not irritate her as much as the white spectrum does 

 

Which leaves me looking to perhaps add white but not as many as the Fluval LED currently. 

 

FFS.

 

Thoughts?

[Kindanewtothis]

25 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

Okay so I have a lighting upgrade question that might be a bit different to the normal for this tank. I need to change the light BUT to something with less white. 

I've noticed that I see Virgis less and less on a night, on friday (so 3 days ago on writing this) i switched the lights from blues and whites to blues only and she has been out and active for hours each night....... you see where this is going right?

 

I have a strip of Blue LEDs that i was going to supplement the "full Spectrum" with but now i am thinking of doing something different.

 

So Red spectrum would allow me to observe her at night correct? and most likely not irritate her as much as the white spectrum does 

 

Which leaves me looking to perhaps add white but not as many as the Fluval LED currently. 

 

FFS.

 

Thoughts?

Step 1: go to the store and get an Ai prime

Step 2: run

Step 3: hide in the woods for weeks

Step 4: put the Ai prime on your tank

[Ratvan]

5 minutes ago, Kindanewtothis said:

Step 1: go to the store and get an Ai prime

Step 2: run

Step 3: hide in the woods for weeks

Step 4: put the Ai prime on your tank

Love the enthusiasm, and the controllability of the light however. I like the AIO look of the tank and in regards to power going the wrong way.

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Aquarium-Extendable-Bluetooth-Controller-Automated/dp/B08JCP5QYW/ref=asc_df_B08JCP5QYW/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=499221532757&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15018752109468269526&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9046699&hvtargid=pla-1216034713644&psc=1

 

These are my thoughts lately, controllability on more then on/off and two channels  

[A.m.P]

If I knew your market better I'd have suggestions past "that big strip full of RGB LED's might not put out much Par", then again the Maxspect Ethereals used RGB's for color balance tweaking (But I think those were either Cobs or 5-12W Tri-pucks).

[M. Tournesol]

10 hours ago, Ratvan said:

I see Virgis less and less on a night

1. Is Virgis the name of your stomatopods?
2. If yes, your stomatopods isn't a diurnal animal?

[Ratvan]

4 hours ago, M. Tournesol said:

1. Is Virgis the name of your stomatopods?
2. If yes, your stomatopods isn't a diurnal animal?

Yes Virgis is the Mantis Shrimps name, i always thought that they were nocturnal and not diurnal 🤷‍♂️

either way she comes out when the tank is blues only hence my current predicament 

[Ratvan]

12 hours ago, A.m.P said:

If I knew your market better I'd have suggestions past "that big strip full of RGB LED's might not put out much Par", then again the Maxspect Ethereals used RGB's for color balance tweaking (But I think those were either Cobs or 5-12W Tri-pucks).

I have been eyeing up the Fluval Marine 3.0, would have to order in from Germany but I think is probably my best option for a straight swap while being able to maintain the lidded look as well as have some spectrum control...... or carry on with my plans and run a shortened white light period and have the extra blue strips as an extended moonlight period, might be the easiest option  

[M. Tournesol]

On 10/1/2021 at 10:03 AM, Ratvan said:

fairly certain that this is a female (99% certain) G. Viridis

In this case, it is diurnal.

Quote

Activity: Diurnal; closes at night(link)

Since it lives in : 

Quote

 Low intertidal to 2 m, usually very shallow

A white light shouldn't be a problem.

[Ratvan]

39 minutes ago, M. Tournesol said:

In this case, it is diurnal.

Since it lives in : 

A white light shouldn't be a problem.

I'd say based on activity more Crepuscular, but does take herself to bed at roughly the same time each night, so diurnal activity?

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CWT64ZzMj0k/?utm_medium=copy_link

 

Phone hates the blues almost as much as me 

[Ratvan]

Right so I have a plan for the lighting for this tank after having a little chat with @DevilDuck, i will add the blue LED Strips this weekend and also place an order for a dimmer/timer switch for the stock fluval lights. 

 

 

Give one of these a chance since its only a cheeky £10 on amazon at the moment. 

 

Algae bloom seems to be abating after repositioning the outlet nozzles, i must have knocked one out of postion while i was faffing in the tank

 

 

Looks like I have some maintenance to do on the rocks this weekend.

[aclman88]

That is a nice timer, I had it before for the lights in one of my planted tanks.  It takes a little faffing around to get it to work, but once you set it up it worked well, especially for dimming and creating a basic sunrise/sunset.

 

PS.  Did I use faffing correctly?  Just a cheeky yank here trying out some biritishisms.  😅