Tank Journal Archive

[Brekel]

Good meeting you too Shane. Always handy having a fellow enthusiast close by, and if I can return any favours let me know.
The snails have been busily moving around the tank. The largest one has set to work on an area of the back glass that's hardest to reach for cleaning :). If only I could teach him to take a more systematic approach rather than the random overlapping paths he's travelling...

 

[Brekel]

I've found a bunch of these tonight on one rock, keep poking their heads/feeding tubes/whatever out and grabbing stuff (sometimes visible, sometimes too small to see). Anyone know what they are?
Edit: The first one is an animated gif comprised of several photos. I've just become aware that some mobile browsers only show the first frame, but on a pc/laptop you'll see the full sequence.

 

[firebird]

I think they're worms of some sort-have these as well=look on Chuck's addiction
http://www.chucksaddiction.com/hitchhikers.html

 

[Brekel]

Tank update:
Had quite a bit of hair algae spreading over a lot of the rock and a bit of bryopsis, but it's getting under control now.
Some of the coralline algae looks like it's bleached where exposed to the LEDs, but it's continuing to grow and is still a deep purple/red colour where the light isn't so bright. I've only been running the LEDs at about 50-75%,but maybe I should have started lower.

I moved the power heads a bit to get less dead areas. The green star polyps are now getting more flow, and are already starting to spread. They seem to be fully open during the lights out period, and partially retracted when lights are on. The impression I got from the reading I'd done was that they were more likely to be open during the day. Is this maybe a light intensity/acclimation issue?

The Salifert test kits I ordered arrived (cheaper than buying API locally).
PO4 - 0
NO3 - 0
Ca - 440
Mg - 1365
Alkalinity - 7.5
Ammonia and nitrite 0
( the last 3 aren't Salifert)

Added a a pair of juvenile occelaris last Saturday, and they seem to have settled in well.

 

[MagicJ]

The GSP can take a while to settle in so just give them some time - mine are fully expanded during the day and partially retracted during the night :)

 

[Brekel]

New addition yesterday - Fire Goby:

 

[chimaera]

Beautiful fish! Hope its tail is okay =0/

 

[Joshwaaaa]

New addition yesterday - Fire Goby:

View attachment 5469

View attachment 5470

Sent from my GT-I9300T using Tapatalk 2

 

[Priscacara]

Beautiful looking fish, top of my list to get eventually hope I can get one as nice.

 

[Brekel]

My candycane frag from MagicJ is doing well. I've target fed it a few times and the large polyp with two mouths looks like it is starting to split into two, and it looks like there's new mouths starting to develop.

One issue though: there's a small hole in the tissue near where the small polyp joins. You don't really notice it during the day with the way the tissue sits, but it becomes more obvious at night. And when you look in at night, there appears to be a very small crab sitting in the hole. Given the hole, I assume this is more harmful rather than being a beneficial relationship. The first night that the candy cane was in the tank, my strombus decided to climb up the rocks and knocked it over, so I suspect that may be when it got in there.

Any suggestions on the easiest/least stressfull way to remove him?

 

[Buddy]

Maybe bait the crab out at night or maybe an RO dip would flush it out?

 

[Brekel]

Would the coral be ok with an RO dip?

On another note, the live food population is has been building up nicely the last week ready for future inhabitants. Pulled the camera out last night and captured these guys sitting in a group on the glass, and there were HEAPS more.

Next thing to do is set up the overflow and sump, and hopefully create a little safe haven down there for the copepods to keep breeding away.

 

[chimaera]

It would sulk for a while but be okay, just leave it in a minute or two.

Copepods, nice! Funnily enough since I lost my fish, the population of white dots on teh glass has multiplied like crazy.

 

[Priscacara]

"captured these guys sitting in a group on the glass" pod union meeting? :D

 

[Brekel]

Picked up a heliofungia on the weekend:

The morning after placing in tank, just after light on, after he'd wandered to an area with slightly lower flow:

And a few hours later:

It's got a few slightly odd tentacles - tip missing, vertry small tip, bent tentacles - as you can see in the following.
Is this likely to just be minor damage that comes right?

 

[Joshwaaaa]

Mine did similar when it got stung by my hammer, it will right itself though

 

[Priscacara]

Looks great in all 3 shots! I'd like something like this eventually for my tank.

 

[firebird]

That first shot is just beautiful

 

[chimaera]

nice colours on that!

 

[Brekel]

Thanks for the comments guys.

The pelvic fins of my smaller occelaris are looking a little tattered. The orange sections are ok, but the black margins aren't looking too good. However there is no redness around the area, no white film, or any other signs of bacterial/fungal infection that I can see.

After watching closely for some time tonight, I did see the slightly larger one bang into it from below a couple of times, possibly taking a little nip at the fins in the process. They have both been a bit more animated tonight than usual, darting around more rapidly.

Both were bought at the same time from the same tank, from a group of around 20 or so juveniles. I've had them for about two and a half weeks, and deliberately picked one to be a little larger than the other, on the assumption that this would minimize any dominance struggles. They hang around together more than they're apart, and sleep laying side by side against each other on the substrate in the corner of the tank.

Is this likely to be just the result of one exerting it's dominance? I guess after the firefish issue I'm wary of fin damage, but in that case there was a white film and it progressed really quick (24 hours from nothing 'till dead) whereas this has been a gradual thing over a couple of weeks and there's no film.

I'll try and post a pic later, but for now I've got sick kids to attend to. And given the way they're currently darting around, I doubt I'd get a good shot at present anyway.