The Great Aquapod Adventure

[plyman44]

what happened for the tank to become like this?

 

Read whole forum post... it's all in there.

[seahorsejl]

I hope I don't spawn a big discussion about carbons. I try to read as much as I can and just haven’t read too much about carbon. Thanks for the info Seahorse… I feel smarter already.

 

Yes, the results are very evident. Goes to show that this sport is not for impatient people who need results NOW and don’t bother to research!

 

Make sure your CUC hasn’t formed a union. That would explain sporadic performance and laziness. Hopefully they won’t strike on you again and will maintain.

 

I guess a RO/DI will pay off in the long run… even for something under 30g (carrying those distilled water containers could get old… not to mention buying them week in and week out). I have nightmares because I flooded the house once attaching a water supply to a refrigerator. Damn compression fittings where wrong that came with the supply lines. So, an RO/DI system scares me.

 

Advice - Never leave the house after plumbing work!

 

Heh .. union .. I like that I think the hermits have definitely gone on strike. I don't see them doing much anymore other than scaling the back wall from time to time.

 

RO/DI is the way to go. After the crash, I purchased a RO/DI from ebay. For a small tank, it is great. It makes about 3 gallons (and stores in a pressurized canister) in a few hours, which works fine for me. I have had mini-flood in my old house from a different ROP/DI in the past from turning it on and then forgetting about it ...

 

And the carbon thing, I don't think it hurts to have it in all the time, but as your pointed out, you have to watch and replace it often enough not to get stuff leaching back into the water.

 

what happened for the tank to become like this?

 

Were you using tapwater for water changes? Were you doing water changes?

 

I was wondering what you did to turn your tank around because ive never seen that drastic of a change from filth to crisp water.

 

Yes, I was using tap water ... but basically a major rock re-arrangement kicked up so much organic junk, that all the oxygen in the tank was used up in the night... thus it killed most of my fish and inverts, and "re-started" the tank. I have learned my lesson

[plyman44]

Do you regenerate your Purigen, or just buy new? How much do you use on your 29g? How long does it last before it exhausts in your setup?

 

Sorry... 24g?

[seahorsejl]

Yes, it is a 24 gallon tank.

 

The past time I just bought new purigen after the tank crash. I have regenerated purigen before ... it is not that hard, just a little scary about getting all of the bleach out afterwards.

[seahorsejl]

So for the past few days, one of my large blue/green mushrooms has been shriveled up ... and tonight it looks like it is totally gone. But in it's place is a teeny tiny little one. Is this common for mushrooms? Kinda sad, as this was one of the troopers that made it through the tank crash ... in fact, it was one of the first on-line corals I got.

 

Oh, and I noticed the other night that the green/brown candy cane coral has a bunch of itsy-bitsy Astipia on it ... time to invest in a peppermint shrimp. Was nice not having to worry about shrimp stealing food from corals at feeding time

 

Here is what the mushroom looked like before (on the right):

 

And here is all that is left of it tonight (kinda hard to take a picture .. definitely look at the larger picture):

 

Other random pictures I took tonight.

 

Clove polyps .. notice the little ones at the lower left.

 

Orange ricordias.

 

Frogspawn ... man does this coral love to eat!

[plyman44]

Nice looking stuff! That frogspawn is cool!

[Joefish]

That long tentacle plate coral is sweet. Very nice tank.

[seahorsejl]

Nice looking stuff! That frogspawn is cool!

 

Both of them are really cool ... the brown one continues to be a pig at feeding time. And the green one has started taking food now.

 

That long tentacle plate coral is sweet. Very nice tank.

 

It is very cool .. and it is getting huge! (See the full tank shot below).

 

I haven't had much time to spend with the tank as I was busy all weekend helping out with the 10th Annual Wiener Dog Races here in Buda, Texas. I tell you, what a funny sight to see all those little dogs racing

 

But everything continues to do great in the tank. I was able to get some pictures yesterday. The hi-fin and pistol shrimp where especially active yesterday.

 

Click on any picture for a larger version.

 

Here is the hi-fin goby on the look-out for food:

 

Here is a blurry picture of the pistol shrimp out in the open:

 

Green/Purple Frogspawn:

 

Green Zoanthids I got from Ebin on this forum:

 

Blue Zoanthids that are finally recovering from the tank crash:

 

And finally, a full tank shot:

[modularduck]

Looking super sweet JL!!! the highfin is really cool looking!

[seahorsejl]

Ok, saw the oddest thing today ... not once, but twice, I saw my yellow clown goby inside the long tentacle plate!

 

And not inside like in being eaten, but inside just swimming around and chilling. This is the oddest thing ever. The second time when he was in there, I noticed him rubbing against the tentacles like a clownfish would. I tried getting some pictures, but couldn't get a clear shot ....

 

Has anyone ever heard of this?

[seahorsejl]

Well, not much to report on the tank as it continues to do well. It is at the point now where I almost don't have to scrape algae off the glass in-between weekly water changes.

 

A few updates....

 

I purchased a peppermint shrimp yesterday to take care of some Aistipa anemones I have on a candy cane frag.

 

Broke my plastic hydrometer last week during a water change ... moved up to the "big-boys" club and have a refractometer on order from Marine Depot (eta Thursday).

 

Some of my coraline algae has started to bleach, so I have been dosing with Purple Up again .. I think parts are starting to recover.

 

And that's it ...

[seahorsejl]

Gotta love reef tanks ... right when you think something has disappeared for good, BAM!, it shows up.

 

This morning before I left for work, I noticed one of the CUC knocked over a ricordia. So I turned on the tank lights and flipped it back over. Lo-and-behold what else do I see? One of my two Black Scutus snails I got from SeaCrop! I had ordered two a month ago (with the large coral order) and thought they both perished ... I saw the evil Eunicid worm had nabbed one.

 

Here is a picture from SeaCrop, as when I turned on the lights, the Scutus retreated back into the rock work:

[seahorsejl]

Last Thursday I got my Marine Depot refractometer in in the mail and man-on-man, how did I ever measure salinity before?!?! This thing is niiiiiiiiiiiiiiice. Much, much, much simpler than the swing arm hydrometer ... so well worth the money.

 

Even though the swing arm hydrometer was a pain, it looks to have been accurate. My tried-and-true method of mixing salt still came out to 1.025 with the new refractometer.

 

I also got a bag of the new Chemi-Pure Elite to try out. Replaced my other bag of plain Chemi-pure during the water change last Thursday.

 

Not much going on in the tank. Frogspawns are growing very nicely.

 

One concern I do have is my candy canes have been looking "off" the past few days, especially my bright green one. The darker green one has finally started inflating more , bu one of the heads on the bright green looks to be showing a bit of skeleton. I will try taking a picture later this week.

 

Speaking of picture taking, I have a new zoom lens (70mm-300mm) on it's way! I can't wait to get it. Should make for some great macro photo's of the tank inhabitants, along with capturing some of wildlife in our back yard. So stay tuned for new pictures later this week

[seahorsejl]

I got my new zoom (70mm-300mm) lens today! Man, oh, man is taking close up pictures a lot harder. Especially outside where a tripod is not practical. Out of over 350+ pictures, only a handful came out in focus, not blurry, and decent. I guess I gave a lot of practice and learning to do

 

Here are a two from the fish tank that came out good (click on them for larger pictures):

 

Clove Polyps

 

Frogspawn

 

Edit: Adding a picture of the sun coral now that the tank lights have been off for a while.

[seahorsejl]

I just don't seem to have luck at keeping candy cane (trumpet) corals. My bright green ones are fading away ever so slowly. I am not sure the reason why,a s most other corals are doing great. The other candy canes (darker green/brown) are doing ok, but they don't seem to put out their feeder tentacles.

 

Also, my pipe organs are not their fullest any more, but I have read (after I got them of course) that they can be a difficult coral to keep.

 

On the plus side, my long tentacle plate continues to look great. Also, my clove polyps are glowing quite a lot and starting to spread across the live rock.

[seahorsejl]

Phew .. avoided a coral war this weekend. While walking by the tank I noticed my Galaxia coral had a sweeper tentacle touching one of my orange ricordias! So I put the Galaxia coral to the back right of the tank where it can grow for quite a long time and not bother anything. In it's place, I moved my CPR tongue coral up to the front left. This I got from SeaCrop and it has continues to heal and grow very nicely.

 

I added two white porcelain crabs this weekend. They are not too adventurous, as they have both pretty much stayed around the leather coral where I first put them in at.

 

Been playing around with the new zoom lens some more, and here are a few new pictures (click on any for a larger view).

 

The two new residents.

 

Finally a good shot of my yellow watchman goby. He likes to sit between those two ricordias.

 

The two frogspawn.

 

Best close-up picture I could get of one of the new porcelain crabs.

 

Green Zoanthids (originally from Ebin)

 

Fire and Ice Zoanthids (also originally from Ebin)

 

Latest full tank shot.

[alexmurovec]

awesome looking tank

[sashafay]

Great job seahorsejl!!! I lost track of your fishes. How many currently you have?

[eklikewhoa]

Tank is looking really good now after all the TLC!

[seahorsejl]

awesome looking tank

 

Tank is looking really good now after all the TLC!

 

Great job seahorsejl!!!

 

Thanks! Yes, I am very pleased at how well the tank bounced back from the crash earlier this year. Right now it is in "no-touchy" mode (well, except for re-arranging some easily movable corals as they grow).

 

My only concern right now is my GSP seems to be covering up some zoanthid polyps. Gonna have to keep an eye on that.

 

I lost track of your fishes. How many currently you have?

 

Right now there are three fish in there ... all gobies! There is a yellow clown goby, yellow watchman goby, and a hi-fin striped goby. I would like to add a mid-water column swimming fish, but haven't found one yet. I have been thinking about maybe a six-line wrasse. My only fear is that the sally light foot might hunt it down at night, as they like to find a nook in the rock work to sleep. Another possibility might be some banjaii (spelling?) cardinals.

[spanko]

I have just read through your whole thread. I am impressed by your intestinal fortitude. Nice comeback. My only questions are how do you clean the glass wher the long tent. plate is? And how do you keep the sand off of both plates with three goby's running around?

[modularduck]

damn JL looking really nice. glad to see everything is going so well!

[seahorsejl]

damn JL looking really nice. glad to see everything is going so well!

 

Thanks! Most everything is ... the pipe organ is still doing so-so ... might have to consider relocating it. When I first got it, the info I read said it likes lots-of light. But other people on this board have placed theirs in the sand bed and said it is happy. Might have to try that.

 

I have just read through your whole thread. I am impressed by your intestinal fortitude. Nice comeback. My only questions are how do you clean the glass where the long tent. plate is? And how do you keep the sand off of both plates with three goby's running around?

 

I clean the glass around the long tentacle plate with a razor blade every week when I do my water change. And truthfully I haven't had too much trouble with sand on the plates with all the gobies. I have the plates far enough away from my hi-fin/pistol shrimp that their excavations don't bother anything (though they did start burying a frogspawn once, had to do some relocating). The only coral right now that gets any sand is the orange ricordias, because my yellow watchman likes to sit by them munching on mouthfulls of sand (some sand can be seen in the above picture). The clown goby is harmless, though he likes to sit on all the corals. I have seen him on the orange plate, in the long tentacle plate, on the toadstool, and on the frogspawns.

[ezcompany]

tank is looking swell

[seahorsejl]

Few updates. Moved some corals around for better placement. My green zoa's got moved to prevent the GSP from overtaking them. Moved the sun coral off the sand bed and epoxied it to a rock. And moved the pipe organ up near the top.

 

The sun coral loves it's new spot. And what is cool, after I feed pellets for the fish, it opens up huge! Must love the "smell" of the pellets.

 

Man, I saw a 6 inch sweeper on my galaxia coral the other day! Good thing it was moved to the back corner of the tank.

 

Oh, and the stupid sally lightfoot caught one of my white porcilean crabs right after it molted and ate it

 

Here is a current full tank shot (of course the toadstool was not co-operating )