How often to feed Acans?

[George Lopez]

Maybe you should pull out your rocks and do a super scrub. Can you get the affected rocks without affecting your corals? Basically what im thinking is qt your algea and starve it. Do a massive water change and try to refresh the tank.

 

[Oldsalt01]

How long has your tank been set up and what fish do you have?

2 years . 14 g Biocube. Pretty much stock filtration with some modifications... No bioballs ( they were the first to go), stock carbon insert, 2 chamber has floss over ceramic balls, upgraded pump to mj900. 2 ocallaris, one Tail-spot Blenny. 4 hermits, one Mithrax, 2 Trochus, a few dwarf cerith's. My Toadstool is doing great, but they're pretty much bulletproof. I do 15% weekly water changes and floss replacement. Much to my chagrin I haven't siphoned the sand in a while, bit it's pretty much a bare-bottom anyway. I do have a lovely growth of turf algae there and as I said my GHA and bubble algae are doing well. I will be siphoning the sand this weekend and starting to add more sand, a bit at a time.

 

[MermaidTail]

FWIW: I've had my nano tank running for over a year now and my acans are my pride and joy; they're doing great and are very happy. I spot feed Reef Roids by baster three times a week. I have also, if they seem unhappy or deflated for more than a day or two, taken them out and done a quick dip in Melafix and this ALWAYS helps them puff back up.

 

[Oldsalt01]

Lost all the Acans. My BA is OUTTA CONTROL! We lost power due to Irma and once it's back I'm gonna trash all my rock and what little sand I have, sterilize the tank, probably get rid of my snails and crabs, bioload new dry rock and start all over. Or maybe go to guppies!!!

 

[George Lopez]

Lost all the Acans. My BA is OUTTA CONTROL! We lost power due to Irma and once it's back I'm gonna trash all my rock and what little sand I have, sterilize the tank, probably get rid of my snails and crabs, bioload new dry rock and start all over. Or maybe go to guppies!!!

Sorry for your loss :/

 

[Oldsalt01]

Sorry for your loss :/

Thanks. I'm not new to saltwater tanks... had my first one in 1970, but this was to be my first reef. I'm a bit bummed, but also recognize things like this happen and it has been a learning experience for me. Other than the Toadstool, I think I'll just keep it as a FOWLR for a while. Thanks to everyone who has given me input and support, and I'll keep you updated as I go along, including pics. BTW, I was only kidding about the guppies

 

[George Lopez]

Hey i know mollies can be trained for saly lol they are brackish fish after all lol

 

[George Lopez]

Hey yourself some battery powered bubblers just in case for the future. I was able to sustain my tank with one and then put a power inverter on my wave pump and cooling fan for the long term till we got power back

 

[Oldsalt01]

Years ago, when I had a set-up and maintenance business, we used Mollies to cycle the tanks. That was before we knew how to do it without fish and WAY before anything like Dr Tim's, etc. Tough little fish. We lost surprisingly few to ammonia poisoning. I was able to run my DT off my generator and although it was 13 hours without circulation,before I could set it up, everything seems to have done OK. My QT was without circulation but with a battery powered air pump for 5 days, and also seems OK. Will check all levels tonight.

 

[roberthu526]

I keep...
10-15 Nitrate
0.02 to 0.05 Phosphate
450-500 calc
8.5-9 Alk
~1300 Mg
1.026-1.027 salinity

As for lighting mine are under an AI Prime HD fixture.

Thank you! I think my nitrate is too low at below 1 testing with Red Sea nitrate pro kit. Phosphate on the other hand is a bit high at 0.3

Running GFO and carbon right now to get the phosphate down. I will give it a shot after I get the water stable again.

 

[Oldsalt01]

I finally had enough of the Bubble Algae literally taking over my tank, so I tore it down and sterilized it this weekend, swapped out my contaminated LR with cycled base rock from my LFS, added sand and put the new rock back in. Right now, my clowns, blenny, crabs and snails are residing in my 5.5 QT until I can determine if there will be a mini-cycle due to new sand (Carib Aragonite Live). A bit crowded but am hoping to be able to put the Blenny back in in a couple of days if no cycle and then slowly add everyone back shortly after. I'll post pics as I go along. My wife loves the new setup, especially since I reconfigured the light levels lower and with less blues.

 

[Oldsalt01]

The tank's been up a week and it looks like I skipped the cycle. Consistent "zero's" w/ammonia and nitrate. Phosphate's running a little high at .5 so tomorrow I'm starting Phosguard to see if I can get it down. The mushroom rock, Toadstool and People Eater zoas, along with some of the CUC went in yesterday, and seem fine. Looks as though the last Armegeddon head didn't make the transition to the QT for the week , but if that's all I lose I'll count myself lucky. It was slowly fading anyway. The Tailspot Blenny went in today and he's already staked a claim to a tube in the mushroom rock. I'll give it a few days and if everything looks fine I'm going to add my bonded clowns back in. Still on the fence as to whether to keep my Mithrax or swap him out for a porcelain crab. Pic is from early last week before anything went in. I'll update as I go along.

 

[Ibn]

I've never bothered feeding mine. Sits on the bottom of my SPS dominant tank.

Single polyp frag acquired on 1/16/17.

As of today.

 

[Oldsalt01]

Unfortunately, mine didn't make it. Partly due to a shrimp attack and partly because I didn't have an appropriate low-range phosphate test kit and my Po4 went through the roof. Live and learn.

 

[Heibel]

Just a little pic of the tank.

33 gallon tank, have 115 small colonies or frags in it, almost 50 of these are acans, I feed every other day most of the time, sometimes every 3 days. Do 5 gallon water change maybe every 3 weeks or month. Have 2 clowns in there, actually still use bio-balls in my sump, have probably 75 lbs of rock in the tank and sump. Honestly, I check my water like every 2 weeks or so, I have been terrible for years at checking water. (As I am starting to get my 90 setup for SPS, I will be keeping better tabs on water parameters) I believe keeping things the same and not making huge changes to water parameters is the most important thing. My lighting is nothing real special. My goal is to get everything out of the tank but acans.

 

[Oldsalt01]

Just a little pic of the tank.

33 gallon tank, have 115 small colonies or frags in it, almost 50 of these are acans, I feed every other day most of the time, sometimes every 3 days. Do 5 gallon water change maybe every 3 weeks or month. Have 2 clowns in there, actually still use bio-balls in my sump, have probably 75 lbs of rock in the tank and sump. Honestly, I check my water like every 2 weeks or so, I have been terrible for years at checking water. (As I am starting to get my 90 setup for SPS, I will be keeping better tabs on water parameters) I believe keeping things the same and not making huge changes to water parameters is the most important thing. My lighting is nothing real special. My goal is to get everything out of the tank but acans.

Very nice.

 

[John Minnix]

I spot feed mine twice a week with coral frenzy 1mill pellets. They love it

Nice looking tank!

 

[Kgtrains2]

3x a week with reef roids and frozen mix