SubZero Posted November 30, 2002 Share Posted November 30, 2002 Greetings, I wanted to post info on my system here, along with some pics. As a long time wann be reefer, I started out just about 6 weeks ago. I already had an Eclipse 6 so I decided to make it a nano. I got an Ebo Jager 50W heater, a Power Sweep (maintenance pig), and I custom fit a CSL 32W smartlite 50/50 into the hood. I added some aragonite, bringing the depth of the bed up to about 2.5 inches and salt water. I let the system run for a couple of days, bringing the temp up to 80 and checking the SG to make sure everything was right. Then I bought 1lb of LS and about 7 pounds on LR from the LFS. The rock spent about 10 minutes out of water from the LFS to my tank and it spent quite a bit off time in the same tank at the LFS, so it was cured. Monitoring my water parameters, I never saw a spike in any levels. Perhaps I should have done something to cause a spike, I am really not sure still. After a week, I noticed so diatom bloom and I added a small clean up crew. The 2 blue-legged hermits and the 2 Astrea snails went right to work as soon as they were acclimated. About 2 weeks later I added 3 more of each. Since then, 1 blue-legged as dissappeared shell and all!!! I haven't seen him for a long time. The others are still working hard, I just wished my snails would work a little more on the glass. I have noticed that I have a thriving population of bristle worms. At night I have seen a long, thick, tentacle like mouth that comes out of a rock and buries itself in the sand while the body of whatever it is stays in a rock. There are lots of pods on my glass and bigger ones that swim around the rocks that are more visible at night. Problems I am having: I know it’s a new tank, but the red slime / hair algae on my sand is making me nervous. I pulled some by hand, but it comes right back. I don't have a phos. test kit so I am not sure what the levels are. I use bottled water from the store, however the last batch I found that didn't have minerals added for taste was: Processed by carbon filtration and ozonation. Could this be the problem? Also, I have lots of detritus building up on the sand (see snail poo). Is there a particular creature I could add to my tank that would help with this. Nassarius snail? Bumble bee Snails? Any others? What would be the best choice... Lastly I got a small piece of Sea-Mat (see photos later). I talked the guy at the LFS to letting me have this little snip of Sea-mat as it had grown over the big rock that was for sale. There were no polyps open when I bought it and it has one tiny rock stuck on the bottom. The problem is I can't get it anchored down, the current pushes it off of where I want it and it eventually lands upside down somewhere at the bottom of my tank. Since I got it, some of the polyps have opened, but when it looses footing, they all disappear. I don't want to kill it by constant agitation, what can I do to secure it to the bigger rock? Whew, sorry about the long post...thanks for reading it...please comment good or bad if you feel like it....here are the pics. The red arrow indicates the piece of Seamat I want to anchor down... Link to comment
SubZero Posted November 30, 2002 Author Share Posted November 30, 2002 Here is the Sea-Mat with Polyps open... Link to comment
SubZero Posted November 30, 2002 Author Share Posted November 30, 2002 Some button polyps attached to my original LR... Link to comment
SubZero Posted November 30, 2002 Author Share Posted November 30, 2002 I had such good luck with those button polyps that I bought a tiny little rock that had some more polyps on it...these polyps looked even healthier than the one originaly on my rock. Link to comment
SubZero Posted November 30, 2002 Author Share Posted November 30, 2002 I did buy a bigger rock that had 5 small mushrooms on it...this one is the best for now... Link to comment
tgrupert Posted November 30, 2002 Share Posted November 30, 2002 do you have coraline algae growing on your sand? Link to comment
tgrupert Posted December 1, 2002 Share Posted December 1, 2002 well you learn somthing every day. unless you are in a coma. Link to comment
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