Nowell's Reef Savvy Pastel Peninsula/Black Widow factory

Nowell · Jul 12, 2018

My T. crocea has withered away to nothing over the last few weeks. I thought it was the age of the bulbs. They were replaced. I thought it was the water. A sample was sent to ATI and the results are pending. I thought my water was too low in nutrients so I increased feeding. Montipora setosa inches from it has been growing fine. Three days ago the clam could no longer close and the urchin began to eat it, sadly. This morning I saw a new guest on the glass and it all made sense. Looks to be a Pyramid snail. Several smaller ones were on the glass too. Strangely, I haven't seen any on the clam and we have been staring at it regularly. I had been waiting to add a micro predator such as a dragonette until the tank became established. Well, microfauna including isopods, copepods, small worms and now snails are out and about. Will madarins eat small snails?

ETA: Bingo. The result of not quarantining.

najer · Jul 13, 2018

Ouch!

Monkeynaut · Jul 13, 2018

Do you have cerith snails in your tank?

Nowell · Jul 13, 2018

No cerith so these are not cerith babies. Probably a half dozen astrea and a trochus. I added a cowrie about six weeks ago. I suspect the pyramids came in on Chaeto. My Chaeto had a bunch of buoyant dinos on it and I swapped it out end of May-ish. It came from a system which I suspect receives prequarantined aquacultured stuff from Indo Pacific.

Question: how long can pyramids survive without a mollusk host (are they obligate molluskivores)?

Nowell · Jul 13, 2018

ATI analysis. Nitrate is ridiculously low at 0.01 despite heavy feeding. That's 5 months without a water change and NO3 at 0.01!!! My Chaeto reactor is too efficient. I plan on just letting it fill to capacity and let it slow it’s own growth. The regular pruning has clearly been exporting too much N. I want to keep the reactor running to moderate pH change and to serve as a refugium. Iodine is expectedly low with a soft coral focused reef. Started dosing iodine today. Ordered manganese, lithium, bromide, vanadium and ATI's iodine solution. I'm going to see how long I can go without a water change.

hatfielj · Jul 13, 2018

Gorgeous build. I am super jealous of your woodworking skills.
Those snails are a real pain. I had them in my old tank. There are wrasses that will specifically target those. The melanurus wrasse and others like it will go after them. You'd need a screen on that tank for a wrasse though. Since I'm a fan of wrasses that's certainly what I'd do, but you may not want a screen.

Nowell · Jul 13, 2018

@hatfielj thanks for the wrasse tips. I lost a few six lines years back to jumping and I don’t want to lose another. Regarding the woodworking, I probably built the stand three times until it was perfect!

I’ve placed my eight snails in a mesh container near the surface for pyramid snail quarantine. I’ll feed them nori sheet. Will the pyramid snails die off without a mollusk host? Are they obligate molluskivores?

Monkeynaut · Jul 13, 2018

My Melanarus will eat any shrimp that isn’t a cleaner shrimp... (he even ate a couple cleaners when they molted). He also will pick at some snails on occasion. Not alot, but don’t be surprised to see a melanarus pick at big snails on a rare occasion. Of course if that is truly pyramid snails then that is a problem too. How big was that snail and do pyramid snails get that large?

There are good and bad snails identified on this site that look enough like that one for me to not know. https://www.lionfishlair.com/hitchhikers-guide/
This a picture I found on the internet that is an adult pyramid snail next to a tooth brush. It looked to me like your snail was bigger than this?
http://i271.photobucket.com/albums/jj132/skinz78/Clams/DSCN3052.jpg

If it isn’t this small then it doesn’t mean it is good or bad. Just means it probably isn’t pyramidal

Nowell · Jul 14, 2018

@Monkeynaut they are tiny—check out the dozen or so around the abyssal opening of that small clam shell. The iPhone 7 Plus camera is baller. The particular snail on my finger was twice the length of the sizes I shot on the shell. Beyond the size, they just ate a Tridacna clam from underneath, coming up through the substrate. That behavior, the snail appearance, and the lack of adult cerith strongly suggest these are pyramid snails.

I killed several pyramids last night. A fire fish picked one off of the glass. The pyramids were out and looking for a new target like the torpedo from Hunt for Red October. I have a combination of 10 astrea and trochus sequestered in a suspended basket, clipped to the rim of the tank with an acrylic spacer above the waterline. The only way a pyramid could get to these snails is if they had a free swimming larval stage (yikes...). I inspected each snail under bright light with a magnifying visor this morning. They were clean. Not sure where my cowrie is...

Monkeynaut · Jul 14, 2018

Oh wow, I missed the picture with them on the clam.

I like my melanarus. Just know you may not be able to keep shrimp and should add snails at night after it has gone to bed.

Nowell · Jul 16, 2018

Four days later, snails in a basket continue to have no pyramid snails. Their shells have never been cleaner. I saw only one pyramid on the glass last night. Haven’t seen the cowrie, but I usually only see him about once a week.

Land Shark · Jul 16, 2018

Nowell said:
My T. crocea has withered away to nothing over the last few weeks. I thought it was the age of the bulbs. They were replaced. I thought it was the water. A sample was sent to ATI and the results are pending. I thought my water was too low in nutrients so I increased feeding. Montipora setosa inches from it has been growing fine. Three days ago the clam could no longer close and the urchin began to eat it, sadly. This morning I saw a new guest on the glass and it all made sense. Looks to be a Pyramid snail. Several smaller ones were on the glass too. Strangely, I haven't seen any on the clam and we have been staring at it regularly. I had been waiting to add a micro predator such as a dragonette until the tank became established. Well, microfauna including isopods, copepods, small worms and now snails are out and about. Will madarins eat small snails?

ETA: Bingo. The result of not quarantining.

Very nice and clean looking peninsula reef!

This Pyramid snail pest you ran into makes me step back. How long would one have to QT in order for snail eggs to hatch and grow to the point that you start to see them I wonder?

Nowell · Jul 16, 2018

@Land Shark I’m clearly no expert, but having seen snails reproduce and grow in my reefs I would think they would be visible within three weeks. There is much conflicting info on these parasites. Some sources say the pyramids target specific mollusks and not all reef mollusks. I tend to believe the former as I didn’t see a single pyramid on my snails. The other question is do they only eat mollusks or are they also detritivores. If they’re no longer seen in the reef weeks from now I think we’ll know the answer.

I suspect my pyramids came in on some Chaeto I bought from my LRS which was on a greenhouse system filtering a vat where livestock from the Indo Pacific are placed. Prior to that the clam was looking great. My ignorance chocked up the decline to lighting or water quality. Now I know better and hopefully others reading this will also learn. What angers my the most is that I moved the clam a few inches two weeks ago and I could have looked at the base at that time and saved the clam.

In other news, I raised the ATI T5s to 9.5” from about 8.5” above the waterline. I’ve got some more algae in the tank than the lawnmower and Chaeto can compete with since putting in fresh bulbs. Plus the snails are sequestered. Refugium light cycle bumped to 18 hours until things settle.

Land Shark · Jul 16, 2018

Nowell said:
@Land Shark I’m clearly no expert, but having seen snails reproduce and grow in my reefs I would think they would be visible within three weeks. There is much conflicting info on these parasites. Some sources say the pyramids target specific mollusks and not all reef mollusks. I tend to believe the former as I didn’t see a single pyramid on my snails. The other question is do they only eat mollusks or are they also detritivores. If they’re no longer seen in the reef weeks from now I think we’ll know the answer.

I suspect my pyramids came in on some Chaeto I bought from my LRS which was on a greenhouse system filtering a vat where livestock from the Indo Pacific are placed. Prior to that the clam was looking great. My ignorance chocked up the decline to lighting or water quality. Now I know better and hopefully others reading this will also learn. What angers my the most is that I moved the clam a few inches two weeks ago and I could have looked at the base at that time and saved the clam.

I will keep your experience in mind the next time I bring home anything from my LRS. Funny thing is that up until now I was more concerned about bringing in a pest on a new fish and didn't think as much about inverts since they are kept in invert only tanks. The thing is, who knows where those inverts have been before I saw them in a particular display. I know better now. Thanks!

Nowell · Jul 16, 2018

My OCD kicked in today and I began to worry about the front panel sump seams. The assembly order was messed up and I left the right and left front panel seams for last when that panel was already anchored on the bottom. I was unable to pin separate the panel and there’s a worrisome area at the top left where I saw some salt creep. It’s above the waterline but I’m worried about it. I’m off for four days so I’m going to crank out a replacement sump and do a heart transplant. Then I won’t lose sleep over the sump coming apart during vacation.

najer · Jul 16, 2018

That sucks, good luck!

Nowell · Jul 17, 2018

Day is starting out well. Trim bit ball bearing decided it wanted to retire suddenly and catastrophically. Trim bit gouged left front edge of sump. Deep enough. Well, only had 4 of 6 pieces welded. Off to Home Depot and acrylic place. A few weeks ago, before the clam was eaten and before I discovered a failing dry seam on the sump, I told my wife things were going too smoothly with the reef.

Nowell · Jul 18, 2018

New sump just about finished—attached the top today. Seams are solid. Just have to route the edges. I dropped the new sump refugium depth 1/4” and adding a 4th dosing bulkhead. Made lids from 3/8” to reduce the warping I saw with the 1/4” lids. All other dimensions were as close to identical as I could make them. I made the bulkhead holes generous so I should be able to plug and play tomorrow.

When solvent welding I separated the panels by 0.020” with pins and let the Weldon #4 soak for about a minute. The seams are nearly perfect with a tiny bubble here and there. Several are flawless. I didn’t plan on having to do this but the experience has improved my acrylic skills. Plus, a day reefing is a day well spent.

Here’s a perfect seam. To the bottom you can see one with a few small bubbles: