The start of it all

[Rispa]

10 years ago I set up a 55g seahorse tank as a birthday present for my mom. The seahorses died over the years along with the other few fish and it lay almost fallow except an ancient yellow watchman goby and critters like amphipods and bristle worms Even the calurpa died due to color shifted lights.

Fast forward a couple of years and I'm bringing this tank back to life. I was going to do seahorses again for my mom, but Harvey happened, she hired someone to take care of the tank and he took out all the old rich and put in new stuff that looks more reef friendly, and I realized that unless I got potbellies my mom couldn't see the seahorses anyhow. So I scratched that plan and planned for some pretty coral and vibrant fish like flame angel, flame hawkish, yellow wrasse, etc. She suggested that I just bring the tank to my house because she already has enough on her plate.

I've now had far too much fun adding corals, but things are relatively stable. This thread will be here for me to document my trials, tribulations, and knowingly being naughty and impatient because the room this tank is supposed to go in should have been finished months ago, but things keep getting in the way.

 

[Rispa]

This is where I started documenting at and this thread will in essence be a continuation thread.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/ugh-unprepared-and-tank-problems.389817/

 

[Rispa]

Most things in the tank look good I'm just having a few problems and will likely move a few coral pieces into my 15g Galveston tank at my house. When I added softies the elegance got angry I thought I might have injured it, but no sign of injury and am iodine dip did not help. Additionally the toadstool are not happy. I had a rainbow anemone that did well for over a week. When I went to check things day Tuesday and add some new corals I discovered it missing and a lot of algae. Yesterday I spotted some tentacles and a blob on the back glass. Hopefully he recovered In the meantime I'm frustrated because I can't watch what's happening in the tank daily. Additionally I decided to risk an acro from AcanLord, but I suspect since they have mostly lps it was used to darker light that on top of my tallest rock The top bleached some, but the rest looks good. I've moved it down a bit and will see how it looks today.

Everything else looks good. Some have grown, some haven't noticeably done so, but there is tentacle extension and the colors look good.
I'll probably have another update today with water parameters and more pics.

Edit: also the zoas still don't like my tank and won't fully open. I'm not sure what that's about.

 

[Rispa]

A little salty today, but I don't use a top of system. I managed to find my other refractometer and both agree it's 1.028 in there.

pH 8.2
Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate 0 (and I have confirmed that the Ammonia test becomes more green after about 15 minutes.
Calcium 500
9dKH (161.1 ppm KH)
Phosphate 0.25ppm

I moved the toadstools in the shade because I noticed some polyp extension on the under side and am wondering if my tank is too bright. Acro had a apistia, so I put glue under it what I saw it. Hopefully I didn't use a bad glue My superglue was out. Moved clove polyps farther down and they already seem happier. Moved zoas in the shade because I haven't tried that yet. All and all not terrible report. I definitely need more cuc to clean the front glass. Part of me wants another lawnmower blenny. Part of me just wants to get a few astrea snails. The snails might get killed by the hermit crabs, but the lawnmower blenny may knock things around. I see some new growth here and there, so some things are happy for the time being.

Also I stopped dipping for the time being, just visual inspection. I'm planning to do several dips and quarantine when the move happens. The coral rx really stressed out some of the coral and I want to be around to watch recovery.

 

[Rispa]

Pics now that I can upload the faster. This should be all corals except some clove polyps with pulsing xenia that got tucked away and were angry when I pulled them out. Some you can't see well because of the algae, but they are alive and the algae isn't bothering the living tissue.

 

[Rispa]

More pics

 

[Rispa]

I've got some new pics. I added the dead plate to see if it will produce zombie babies. I finally got around to adding the cynarina and it has bubbled up bigger than in my holding tank or the previous owner's tank . The birdsnest that bleached is new, but I think it changed between too many different tanks and wasn't doing well in its last one. I'm leaving it on incase a few polyps survived. My others are showing growth! All of them including a few that went down to almost nothing! ;Happy

I've got to get to soaking some frags I have in baeyer. They have flat worms, so I was going to just leave them in baeyer for a week, then leave them in clean water with changes for a week then put them in this tank.

Oh the Engineer Goby is new too Someone locally gave it away. Their wife bought it due to a misunderstanding. When I get there he was in time out in a mixing bowl So far he's better than the watchman goby who i finally got a pic of. He likes to kick up and on a few corals, but they seem to get it off themselves fine. Part of the anemone showed up and I have pic of that. I gave away a Kenya tree and one of the other leathers. I finally see some polyps on one toadstool. So yeah things look good. Heck one of the corals from Wwc finally colored up the way it looked in the pic.

Oh yes abs I might have something that eats zoanthids and pulsing xenia. One set of zoanthids were eaten, the other I have away. In a week or less I had a whole rock of pulsing xenia wiped out. No traces or algae boom to indicate a nutrient surge. I'm just not sure.

So without further ado.

 

[Subsea]

@Rispa
I enjoyed reading your thread. While algae is important for biofiltration, your tank needs some help with gha. More janitors in your CUC to start with. With respect to plugs with hair algae, I suggest a 10 minute dip in 10% hydrogen peroxide. Also, use a toothbrush to work on biggest rocks that can’t be removed from the tank. I soak toothbrush in h202 the brush algae off. Resoak toothbrush every 60 seconds.

Where are you located in Texas. My first marine tank was a Galveston Bay EcoSystem, while I attended The Texas Maritime Academy. I have been reefing for 50 years. I find the hobby fascinating.

Laissez les bonne temps roulee,
Patrick



https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/wet-salty-for-christmas-2017.428100/

 

[Rispa]

@Rispa
I enjoyed reading your thread. While algae is important for biofiltration, your tank needs some help with gha. More janitors in your CUC to start with. With respect to plugs with hair algae, I suggest a 10 minute dip in 10% hydrogen peroxide. Also, use a toothbrush to work on biggest rocks that can’t be removed from the tank. I soak toothbrush in h202 the brush algae off. Resoak toothbrush every 60 seconds.

Where are you located in Texas. My first marine tank was a Galveston Bay EcoSystem, while I attended The Texas Maritime Academy. I have been reefing for 50 years. I find the hobby fascinating.

Laissez les bonne temps roulee,
Patrick



https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/wet-salty-for-christmas-2017.428100/

I tried some turbo snails and my bristleworm and/or hermit crabs decided that they were in the mood for escargot. I don't want to put a lawnmower blenny or anything that will knock things over since nothing is glued and I can't monitor regularly I have enough trouble with things getting knocked over from what I have in there. For the time being I'm manually removing algae. As such I'll be trying your peroxide trick. Is it safe for Birdsnest?

I haven't taken pics, but one filter on the right side is not working. I brought it home and cleaned it and it started working again, then I brought it back and once again the motor isn't turning. I'm going to replace it with another filter when I get a chance. I have not been going over there regularly because I haven't had the time, so things are overgrown at the moment and the last water change was quite full of algae. The algae is not however overgrowing the coral and the coral have been getting bigger and growing.

I've had a few losses. The Rock flower anemone decided to unbury its foot from the sand and climb on top of an acan. The acan sad toast next time I saw it. I also had a coral recovering that got buried and killed by an engineer goby I added One of the plate corals fell and got buried, but it was either recent or it was a lot healthier, so it survived. Haven't seen any anemones lately, but who knows if they are alive. I think the big acro croaked sadly. It is what it is. I think that's all the news on that tank.

I had a decent sized coral order and they showed up with flatworms which made me nervous, so I took another expensive order and instead of adding it directly to the tank I quarantined it. I've lost most of both orders. As such a been cooling my spending sprees and I have been trying to be patient. The room where all these aquariums are going is tiled and crowded, but I have to wait a month before the grout is properly set.

I've got some corals that will be coming from Cherry and we'll be trying to figure out exactly where I'm going to put them because I want to put them directly into the 55 gallon tank. They will be goniopora and a bullet proof elegance. Oh I also added a cynarina and dead plate to the tank Hopefully the plate has babies The cynarina has been bubbles really big and happy so far. I accidentally tore some bubbles picking it up to make sure it wasn't covered in sand.

Several corals have gained more color lately. It's been really pretty too see.

That's it for now.

(whoops, some of what I said was redundant)

 

[Subsea]

After 48 years of reefing, I no longer allow hermit crabs in any of my systems. Bristle worms are excellent substrate janitors. They are detrivores, omnivores and carnivores. However, Hermits more likely killed snail with bristle worms coming out for the meal.

Go easy on the time of peroxide soak for more sensitive corals. In a seperate test with ornamental macro having nuisance algae grow at surface I tried to find the lowest survival threasehold of good algae while killing nuisance algae using a 5% solution of peroxide for 90 second soak duration. In that case study, the ornamental macr9 was Halymenia dilatata (Dragons Tongue). Halymenia died while gha survived. When using such a light dose, gha required tooth brushing. I suggest 10% for < 5 minutes.