Crakeur Posted January 22, 2003 Share Posted January 22, 2003 Last night I get home to start putting satchmo's coral frags and the order I received from coralsandbar.com into my tank and I immediately get to work on removing the main colony of xenia that has produced evil offspring everywhere. Being the complete moron that I am, I cannot figure out how to work the scalpel that was included in my medical supply kit. So, I take the forceps and tear the bastard right off the rock. I let the colony go and set to work gluing an orange (bright orange at that) monti frag that was part of SPSfrag.com's replacement order (see vendor section for the reasons) and I glue it right over the area where the xenia was. Perfect! No more monstor xenia blocking the view of 50% of the tank. The colony has already resettled and taken hold near the back of the tank. I also took Satch's advice and positioned the gsp frag right up on the glass. No point letting another monster run rampant. Everything looks great, including the bright breen tree I picked up thru coralsandbar. Rob, over at coralsandbar thru in about 1000 tiny blue legs and a ton of snails and shrimp of all sorts for my fuge and my main tank. this morning the crabs were everywhere. That algae issue should be taken care of in no time flat. No, if I could just figure out how to work that scalpel I would be able to remove some more xenia. Once everything settles in, I will be posting some shots. Might even bring the camera to work and post some pics of the large office tank since Satchmo got to see it and it will be worth viewing in another day due to a large order coming in. Ok, done! Link to comment
Satchmo Posted January 22, 2003 Share Posted January 22, 2003 Cool. The scalpel's got a safety dohickey on it. Just slide the plastic guard back over the handle. The orange Monti is actually a frag of my colony. The other SPS (Millepora) is the one from Patrick. Give credit where credit is due, dammit. If you end up leaving a scrap of that xenia behind, smear some really thick kalk paste on it so it won't regrow. Definitely get some pics up of that office tank... very sweet. Crak's got a tridacnid clam shell in there that could double as a snack bowl. Link to comment
Crakeur Posted January 22, 2003 Author Share Posted January 22, 2003 I spent a solid twenty minutes over the sink with the blade, just in case I accidentally fragged my finger. As for the leftover xenia on the rock, it ain't growing through the spsfrag.com glue I used to get the monti frag to adhere. I will take pics of the shell/bowl and one of the living clam downtown which is as big, if not bigger. That one could feed a small village for a week. By the way, your "clear" shrooms are extremely bright green already and getting more colorful as I type this. Sadly, the only place left in the nano for livestock is on the front of the tank so I will have to let those shrooms stay in the big tank. If you thought this one was nice, the one downtown is a 72 gallon bow with some insane stuff in it. Colonies of hand sized ricordia, a colt coral that might be a foot or two tall, with several branches (total width about 8 inches), hairy green shrooms, all kinds of polyps and shrooms, all growing up the glass, over the eachother etc. Dead Center - One Massive Clam! I will get pics of both because they are worth seeing. Satch, thanks again for the stuff. About to listen to the first Billy CD. Nice and loud, as it should be played. Link to comment
Satchmo Posted January 22, 2003 Share Posted January 22, 2003 I figured the shrooms would come around, they've made it this long. I hated to put them in a cycling tank, but I had no other room for them. They got almost clear as my levels spiked, but the cycle's nearing an end and they seem to be holding their own. Tough buggers to kill. I have a few of those same shrooms in my nano, one of them is about 4" when opened. They're an electric green color when not being tortured with ammonia and nitrite. Next trip in, I should have a nice purple sea whip frag that grows fast and would be a great addition to help fill-out that office tank. I'm trading off one of the squamosas that Tinyreef gave me to Kennerd because I can't keep up with their appetite for calcium anymore, hence the sea whip. Tiny, I know you declined, but I'll say it again... you're entitled to whatever I get for that clam. Link to comment
tinyreef Posted January 22, 2003 Share Posted January 22, 2003 fergetaboutit! heck, you can have this @#%&! sea urchin too! it's a good boy just likes coralline too much. X) Link to comment
Crakeur Posted January 22, 2003 Author Share Posted January 22, 2003 dammit man, I think that xenia grew back already. Might have to prune another two stalks and plop them in the office. On the bright side, I have a gazillion little hermits chowing on algae and the green tree is starting to open up and show off it's purty colors. Oh and the two sps frags (your clip and Patrick's) are fully opened and looking great. If only the xenia would back off a bit. Satch, no more frags for me - ever. I might have some for you and will contact you within a week if I do. also, if the shrooms you put in the office continue to do as well as they have overnight, I will definitely let you come and get them (or some of them) for your tank. They are gorgeous! Link to comment
ross76053 Posted January 23, 2003 Share Posted January 23, 2003 heck, you can have this @#%&! sea urchin too! Laffs - Tiny, you haven't been able to dump your urchin yet?? Rob, over at coralsandbar thru in about 1000 tiny blue legs and a ton of snails and shrimp of all sorts for my fuge and my main tank. ====>>>> Ross darts to coralsandbar.com to get more crabs..... By the way, so far I'm not too impressed with this PO4-minus stuff yet (after two days). I'll give it a couple of weeks then post a report. Link to comment
tinyreef Posted January 23, 2003 Share Posted January 23, 2003 i'm not desperate yet but he's still free to whomever wants the guy. he's really for a 40g minimum imo tho. he doesn't bother me just annoying that i never see him (other than his tracks thru the coralline). definitely nocturnal, like a college student. i saw that you were trying the 'PO4 minus', was the phosguard not cutting it? how high is your phosphate anyway? Link to comment
Crakeur Posted January 23, 2003 Author Share Posted January 23, 2003 I actually have noticed a decrease in my hair algae in the 24 hours that the crabs and snails etc. have been working away in my tank. Sadly, I don't think they will touch the halimeda so I have been yanking it out whenever I get the chance. Last night, in the algae yank mode, I knocked over three sps frags, and might have damaged one of them. I need to have my hands removed so I don't have the ability to fugg up my tank. I think tonight I will do a water change and use Satchmo's tools to extract some more xenia and replace the algone pouch that is buried in a chamber of my fuge. So sad how easy it is for me to find something exciting to do. Link to comment
Satchmo Posted January 23, 2003 Share Posted January 23, 2003 No need, Crak, those shrooms are yours. I have more of them in clear-mode waiting out the cycle. No more frags ever? I find that hard to believe. Tiny, I'd take that urchin, but I value the purple stuff too much. Link to comment
ross76053 Posted January 24, 2003 Share Posted January 24, 2003 Phosguard didn't do jack for me. Tried it for a solid month, changing it out every few days. The PO4 level in the tank now is around .1 ppm. My algae loves me for it. After reading this article: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/sep...pt2002/chem.htm ...it's becoming clear that I might need to remove all my substrate. I'm pretty sure it's phosphate-ridden. I'll give it a couple more weeks with the PO4-minus & see what happens. Link to comment
tinyreef Posted January 24, 2003 Share Posted January 24, 2003 ross, have you tried some experimenting? i'm assuming everything is zero. (i.e. ro/di & salt) set aside a bucket of new saltwater (zero PO4) and then pour in a little of your substrate (previously rinsed out with some of the same saltwater). wait overnite and test. should still be zero. repeat with one or two chunks of your LR. and so on until you locate the PO4 emissions. i agree with you assessment tho. i was thinking that before that some organism may be liberating the bonded PO4 thru enzymatic action or something similar. (normally not accessible) edit: just read that article, it is sometimes enzymatically broken down. lucky guess from me! shooting bull's eyes from my butt! Link to comment
Crakeur Posted January 24, 2003 Author Share Posted January 24, 2003 ross, have you tried algone? that works wonders, if you keep changing the bag every three to four weeks. I can send ya some for a small fee (cost plus shipping) as I have a ton of the stuff. Try cutting the lighting way down for longer dark periods, at least until the algae recedes. Just a few of the things that worked for me. Link to comment
ross76053 Posted January 25, 2003 Share Posted January 25, 2003 Ah.... I'll try both your suggestions asap. Thanks! Link to comment
printerdown01 Posted January 26, 2003 Share Posted January 26, 2003 Also keep in mind that your test kit will only show ONE type of phosphate (organic or inorganic) it is possible that it is even higher than you are aware. Although I can tell you that if your test even remotely changes color you have a phosphate problem. It takes VERY little to spark the growth of hair -LUCKY YOU, EH? Ever consider taking Tiny's urchin? They are killer for hair algae blooms, LOL? A lawn-mower blenny will also much on short tufts. But your best bet is simply to get rid of your phosphates. You might also want to test your salt water you may find that either your RO/DI or your salt mix contains phosphates . Link to comment
ross76053 Posted January 26, 2003 Share Posted January 26, 2003 Printer, Man, I've tried it all. I use perfect RO/DI (tested), have tried a Blenny (don't get me started on Blennies, the ones that actually eat hair are very hard to identify & many will starve in captivity), have tried phophate sponges, granules, Poly filters, Carbon, heavy W/Cs, PO4-minus (worthless product, IMO), shorter light cycle, longer light cycle, scrubbing, harvesting....I've done it all. All except for Algone and Tiny's suggestion. Working on that now. Any more suggestions...please let me know! I suspect that I've slowly polluted my sand bed from months of using phophate-water. I used RO only and didn't know to check for phosphates. I think I'm headed for a new sandbed. Speaking of which....if I DO have to go that route, what effect will sandbed removal have on my reef? Anyone know? Link to comment
tinyreef Posted January 26, 2003 Share Posted January 26, 2003 it'd be like removing a majority of your bio-filter (imo sand is more efficient than LR). i'd still do it anyway if it's the culprit tho. suck it out during a wc like a vacuum. you may want to introduce a new bed quick to try and offset the filtration loss but i'd wait a while to see if that really was the issue. try the old school berlin-style! i'm actually thinking of that for my new 1g (maybe just a whisper of sand). btw do you have hermits? just wondering if your cleanup crew might've missed something within the rocks that might be feeding the hair. just a wild thought. Link to comment
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