Turtle's Fairy Tale

[SashimiTurtle]

Changed up my display lights. I was following the WWC schedule of white and T5 for the first half of the day and blue for the second. It never grew on me. It just seemed odd.

New schedule is 20% color and 100% intensity from the Kessils from 1130-2230 with a 30 minute ramp up and down in both color and intensity, so my LEDs are on for a total of 12 hours with 11 hours at peak. The T5 are on from 1400 to 2000, for a total of 6 hours of T5 suppliment lighting in the middle of the Kessil's time.

Also, we have acros on rock. Seriously aggravated acros, but they are on the rock regardless.
Bonsai, broke in two while I was cutting into new tissue on the base. Hopefully it starts encrusting now that it's got clean tissue close to the rock. It should grow together.

Unknown, possible a tri color that has better color than the rest.

Tri color, the healthiest of the 6, and the most encrusted. Was able to pop the whole thing off the plug without breaking any of the encrusted part.

Was told granulosa. It's an olive base with blue tips.

Possible tort... not sure. Deep purple color. This is the one that was a bunch of tips glued close together. I tried to get it off the plug whole, but it broke into pieces. It'll encrust back together in time.

Suharsonoi. Hasn't grown much if at all, but it hasn't died either. Yay for not killing things.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

FTS, scrubbed the rocks. Everything is ticked off. Except the fish, they didnt really care. The melanarus has been chasing me around like a tomahawk missile. Not attacking me but attacking pods I'm stirring up. The acans are sending out feeders catching bits of GHA, so I guess they arent ticked at all...

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Last post... lost my conch. I had a hunch when I noticed it hadn't moved in a while. Just havent had to time to dig in the tank. Likely had some part in extra nutrients added to the tank, and a HUGE(yuge if you will) loss in detritus and algae removal. I dont suspect anything caused it other than it was just time. He was quite large.



Mighty conqueror of algae and detritus, trampler of all things on the sand. May you rest easy in the reef tank in the clouds.

 

[Scurvy]

Very big, wow!

 

[Fudsey]

Sorry to hear you lost him, he was HUGE ! ! !

 

[siggy]

I see you been busy, Tanks & inhabitants are looking good. In the old days I just had turquoise discus if they were more red it was a candy apple. This go round I almost went that way knowing the cost and work ahead but recklessness won out.
I used to feed those things live tubafex worms and they got huge.

 

[Katrina71]

I'm sorry about your big guy

 

[Katrina71]

I can send you a very naughty decorator crab if you start missing your tank menace.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Sorry about your big guy, Turtle.

I can send you a very naughty decorator crab if you start missing your tank menace.

LOL!

 

[SashimiTurtle]

I can send you a very naughty decorator crab if you start missing your tank menace.

Ugh... the emeralds are enough menace. I can handle them hanging on corals. When I had an urchin it used to pull things loose and carry them around the tank, only to drop it for the next thing it wanted to pull loose and carry around.

I need to reorder some CUC next year (more like just beef up, nerites are great but stay on the glass mostly). I'll look at a new conch then. Maybe one that doesn't get so big. Any suggesting for algae destroying snails that stay on rocks are welcome.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Ugh... the emeralds are enough menace. I can handle them hanging on corals. When I had an urchin it used to pull things loose and carry them around the tank, only to drop it for the next thing it wanted to pull loose and carry around.

I need to reorder some CUC next year (more like just beef up, nerites are great but stay on the glass mostly). I'll look at a new conch then. Maybe one that doesn't get so big. Any suggesting for algae destroying snails that stay on rocks are welcome.

Nerites are good for film algae and detrititus. I have a couple tiny ones to get into tight spots. My suggestion would be a mix of Trochus and Cerith. They cover pretty much everything and can both right themselves. I have those and Turbos too. The Turbos are powerhouses (and can right themselves) but they also get huge. The ones I have are too big for my tank, but they do such a good job I keep them.

EDIT: The Trochus and Turbos stay on the rocks IF there is food for them. The Nerites and Cerith go everywhere.

 

[Katrina71]

Bumble bee snails. Mine are pretty much only on my rock. They are small and fit into areas that others cannot.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Nerites are good for film algae and detrititus. I have a couple tiny ones to get into tight spots. My suggestion would be a mix of Trochus and Cerith. They cover pretty much everything and can both right themselves. I have those and Turbos too. The Turbos are powerhouses (and can right themselves) but they also get huge. The ones I have are too big for my tank, but they do such a good job I keep them.

EDIT: The Trochus and Turbos stay on the rocks IF there is food for them. The Nerites and Cerith go everywhere.

Bumble bee snails. Mine are pretty much only on my rock. They are small and fit into areas that others cannot.

I like cerith already and was planning on ordering more. I've had astreas in the past and they usually do a great job but are useless for more than hermit food on their backs. I'll look into the trochus, self righting is a plus. Bumble bee snails are so cute and I've heard they eat vermetids. I don't have any of those but maybe they'll put a dent in these spirorbis worms....

 

[Bayareareefer18]

Tested nutrients last night.
NO3 8ppm
PO4 0.13ppm

Both need to come down by about half or a little more than half of what they are now. I'd like 2-4ppm NO3 and 0.04-0.08ppm PO4. I also understand that some "invisible" nutrients are in the algae.

Still fighting GHA. Changed up the H80 fuge light a bit. I dropped it to 6" instead of 8", increased the time to 24 hours instead of 18 and changed to the "bloom" spectrum instead of the "grow." It was suggested to me because of how much blue the H80 has in the grow spectrum. The bloom is supposed to be better for growth than grow. We shall see.

After the holidays I need to order ROX carbon, GFO and I'm gonna get some Blue + bulbs for the T5, the Actinic are nice for the UV spectrum the Kessils are weak in, but I think I want to mix it up with a bit more blue from the T5s.

My plan is I have able 6 months of use on my Actinics. From a little research on T5 bulbs, optimum life from an open uncooled fixture is in about 67°F ambient temperature. This cool room temp keeps up with the forced cooling fixtures for maintaining proper bulb temp for extended life.They last about 18 months or so this way. Since I keep my house at 70° year round, I'm going to run T5s for 12 months. All that explaining, I have 6 months on the actinic bulbs. I'll swap in 2 Blue + and run them for 6 months at which point I'll change out the Actinic that are still in the fixture for the Actinics I pulled out and run another 6 months. I will then have 12 months on all bulbs, and I'll replace them all at that point. Since my T5 are only 4 bulbs and used for supplemental lighting instead of the main punch, I should be ok changing them all at once.

My chaeto started exploding after adding the H80

I've found rowaphos to be super efficient at dropping po4. Have to be cautious.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

I'm going to add cerith, trochus and a few money cowries... those cowrie snails should destroy my hair algae.

That still leaves a sand dwelling spot open tho. Hmmm... probably just get another fighting conch. Hard to beat that guy for keeping the sand clean and stirred up.

 

[najer]

Sorry for your loss, I love my creatures and was going to suggest money cowries, my favourites.

 

[Katrina71]

Robin, my little bumble bees are constantly having babies. I really am happy with how they get into places my ninja star can't.

 

[Brew12]

Robin, my little bumble bees are constantly having babies. I really am happy with how they get into places my ninja star can't.

I've heard they will eat other snails. Have you seen that?

 

[Katrina71]

I've heard they will eat other snails. Have you seen that?

Not at all

 

[Bayareareefer18]

I'm going to add cerith, trochus and a few money cowries... those cowrie snails should destroy my hair algae.

That still leaves a sand dwelling spot open tho. Hmmm... probably just get another fighting conch. Hard to beat that guy for keeping the sand clean and stirred up.

I love the ceriths and trochus. Definitely active members of the cuc although my ceriths seem to prefer the rock (or my urchins back)

I have two fighting conches in my 75 as well.