Marika's hobby nano tank

[minisea]

Try and get 2-3 Mexican turbo snails. They are very good at eating a wide variety of algaes and films, and won’t cause any harm. Also a couple nassarius snails will help keep the sandbed clean and they will eat leftover food that lands on the bottom.

How’s the full tank looking at the moment? I feel tour scape kept getting better and better, more interesting and natural. I like it!

Thanks for the suggestions, I may go with them. I was hesitating to get Mexican Turbos fearing that they bulldoze over the tank and get too big then starve to death. But I may try them now, as I'm weeding the algae regularly for 4-5 weeks now. Time to try something different... I didn't think about the Nassarius before the fish because I didn't feed the tank (apart from some phyto occasionally). I also read that they may strip the sand from its pod population. Now that I feed the fish and some food may land on the bottom, I may try the Nassarius too. I haven't changed the rockscape recently, but I'll do some FTS soon.

 

[minisea]

Here's some FTS from a few days ago. Since then, the BTA has wandered to the other side of the aquascape.

Front view:

Right side (view from kitchen):

Left side (view from living room):

Latest coral additions (small blasto head and small Clavularia frag. added 3 weeks ago):

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Here's some FTS from a few days ago. Since then, the BTA has wandered to the other side of the aquascape.

Front view:

Right side (view from kitchen):

Left side (view from living room):

Latest coral additions (small blasto head and small Clavularia frag. added 3 weeks ago):

Sounds like our BTA, haha

 

[minisea]

Finally! It took a month, but the two clownfish are finally at peace. They no longer pick at each other, and they regularly swim together (not all the time, though). The whitish coloration around the mouth of the smaller one (possibly due to the picking) is gone. Added a Turbo snail, but it seems like a lazy dude. Only comes out of hiding for an hour or two after lights out. So I continue to manually weed the hair algae once a week. Urchin next?

 

[minisea]

Last night the BTA split into 3.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Last night the BTA split into 3.

Congrats on it splitting!

 

[minisea]

Congrats on it splitting!

Thanks! I'm not sure if it's a good sign, though. The BTA deflated a week after I brought it home, and it has stayed like that ever since (i.e., the last three weeks). The color is nice, though.

 

[minisea]

Long time no post. Basically, I'm fighting dinos since last summer. Now I can see some light at the end of the tunnel. A quick recap: I had 0,0 nitrates and phosphates for about 2-3 months, due to a lot of various types of algae. Silly me, I thought the ecosystem would sort itself out. It didn't, but dinos appeared. A brown, slimy layer on the sand, with long, sticky threads waving on the algae. The Trochus snails and the Turbo snails died first. Then most of the algae... Then some corals (the sinularia, for example). Once, returning from a holiday, it started to look better. Then I did water changes, and the dinos returned. What seemed to help is to bring the nutrient levels up (first by dosing, later by feeding more), decreasing the illumination (both the intensity and the duration, and blues only), adding phyto and bacteria, and stopping any cleaning (including the glass). Also, time to time, blowing everything with a turkey blaster and afterwards running a filter stuffed with filter wool seemed to be beneficial too (remember, this is a filterness tank by default). Running UV didn't seem to matter. The clownfish and the mushrooms are fine, other corals suffered. Now I'm beginning to think about increasing the light (and adding some whites), and getting some Trochus snails. Hope for the best....

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Long time no post. Basically, I'm fighting dinos since last summer. Now I can see some light at the end of the tunnel. A quick recap: I had 0,0 nitrates and phosphates for about 2-3 months, due to a lot of various types of algae. Silly me, I thought the ecosystem would sort itself out. It didn't, but dinos appeared. A brown, slimy layer on the sand, with long, sticky threads waving on the algae. The Trochus snails and the Turbo snails died first. Then most of the algae... Then some corals (the sinularia, for example). Once, returning from a holiday, it started to look better. Then I did water changes, and the dinos returned. What seemed to help is to bring the nutrient levels up (first by dosing, later by feeding more), decreasing the illumination (both the intensity and the duration, and blues only), adding phyto and bacteria, and stopping any cleaning (including the glass). Also, time to time, blowing everything with a turkey blaster and afterwards running a filter stuffed with filter wool seemed to be beneficial too (remember, this is a filterness tank by default). Running UV didn't seem to matter. The clownfish and the mushrooms are fine, other corals suffered. Now I'm beginning to think about increasing the light (and adding some whites), and getting some Trochus snails. Hope for the best....

Best of luck on finally beating dinos!