YHSublime's Living Room Nano Peninsulla

[najer]

Looking very nice.

 

[YHSublime]

Here's a better shot of the Orange Passion that's not taken with a cell phone:


Shaggy Stuffz:


ASD Rainbow starting to bring that fire:

 

[lbacha]

So I notice you have zoas right at the base of your acro’s. I’m going for the same thing do you see any issues with the zoas restricting the growth of the acro’s or do they keep them at bay

Len

 

[YHSublime]

So I notice you have zoas right at the base of your acro’s. I’m going for the same thing do you see any issues with the zoas restricting the growth of the acro’s or do they keep them at bay

Len

Hey Len, the zoas actually grow faster than my acro's. Usually they cover up the base of my SPS and the SPS will bleach or discolor, but if I trim the zoas back, will bounce right back in less than a few weeks. This is just my experience, YMMV.

I have also taken SPS plugs and glued them down right over zoanthids because I didn't want them taking over, and it was a good way to temporarily keep them at bay. I started this tank with the intention of keeping a zoanthid dominated display, go figure. As they have spread and grown, I have removed plugs and placed them elsewhere.

 

[Wrangy]

The tank looks so nice and bright and colourful and happy and healthy and fantastic and I want to live in there haha

 

[YHSublime]

The tank looks so nice and bright and colourful and happy and healthy and fantastic and I want to live in there haha

A whole new meaning to "Wild Caught Aussie!"

 

[Wrangy]

A whole new meaning to "Wild Caught Aussie!"

I'm a rare specimen too hahaha

 

[YHSublime]

What a difference a year makes!

Here is a shot of the tank 8/26/18


And here is a shot of the tank 8/8/19


It does not feel like a year has gone by since I took the first photo, but I'm happy that things are still alive!

I have been getting better about doing water changes, that got put on hold for a while, and I'm holding myself more accountable. Something that is really blowing my mind is these dove snails or collumbellid snails. They are naturally reproducing, and have been going gangbusters in the tank. Just to give an idea of how much they are reproducing, I cleaned my glass yesterday. There were a ton of little white baby snails that I scraped off while cleaning the glass. I also scrapped the egg sacs off the glass yesterday afternoon. I was worried about them blowing all over the tank, or killing them, but here is a picture from this afternoon:



Check out this FTS I took this afternoon as well, you can see they have already laid the egg sacs all over the glass again:



I am not complaining though! They are small, but mighty. They are very good algae grazers, so I will take what I can get, especially when that means I don't have to restock my CUC as frequently!

My skimmer pump has stopped working for the past few days. I don't really mind, and my corals don't seem to either. If I wasn't keeping up on the water changes it might be a different story. I plan on servicing all my pumps and wavemakers this weekend, so it'll get back online then.

 

[Wrangy]

Bit of a difference in a year!! Such a fantastic looking nano man

 

[Janci]

Still in wow with this tank.
And even more after that year-comparison.

 

[YHSublime]

Still in wow with this tank.
And even more after that year-comparison.

Thanks Janci! It's crazy to look back and see the growth. Just this past weekend I cleaned the skimmer pumps and power heads, and tested, had to up the ESV 2 part, consumption is starting to creep up.

 

[Janci]

Hi @YHSublime , are you still keeping a refugium with macro algae in the sump?
Or do you keep it just simple with filter socks, skimmer and some live rock?

 

[YHSublime]

Hi @YHSublime , are you still keeping a refugium with macro algae in the sump?
Or do you keep it just simple with filter socks, skimmer and some live rock?

I’m still keeping a fuge with macro. It doesn’t grow at a rapid rate for me by any means. I’m growing a ton of hair algae in it though, the ways I see it is it’s more a “turf scrubber” than anything else. I weekly pull the hair algae off the sides of the sump, and recently chucked half the cheato. I need to vac out the detritus and put a small pump for gentle tumbling.

I pulled the filter socks because I’m lazy. There is also a bit of live rock stuffed in my return chamber, with a few choice pieces of LR in the fuge.

I have been water changing once a week, and although I frequently think about restocking a CUC, have breeding snails overtaking my glass.

 

[YHSublime]

Here is a quick cell photo I nabbed at lights on. These snails are out of control:

There are little white dots all over, fresh calcified white baby shells with little baby snails. This one in the picture is planting the egg sacs. I counted 30 snails on one side of glass alone. If I scrape the glass, they are all back grazing within 24 hours. They are also in the rocks, and cleaning all over, just easy to spot on the glass. It’s mind blowing the sheer number of them, but they are good algae grazers, so what is there to complain about?! Nothing I guess, it’s just weird!

 

[Wrangy]

That's so cool!!

 

[Janci]

Here is a quick cell photo I nabbed at lights on. These snails are out of control:

There are little white dots all over, fresh calcified white baby shells with little baby snails. This one in the picture is planting the egg sacs. I counted 30 snails on one side of glass alone. If I scrape the glass, they are all back grazing within 24 hours. They are also in the rocks, and cleaning all over, just easy to spot on the glass. It’s mind blowing the sheer number of them, but they are good algae grazers, so what is there to complain about?! Nothing I guess, it’s just weird!

Soon you will have to grow hair algae to get this extra CUC sufficient food.

 

[samnaz]

Those are some very interesting looking egg sacs. How long after they are laid do the snails emerge, I wonder? Also wonder if there is enough food/nutrient to sustain their rapidly growing population. Very interesting. Don’t believe I have heard of or seen these species of snail.

 

[YHSublime]

Those are some very interesting looking egg sacs. How long after they are laid do the snails emerge, I wonder? Also wonder if there is enough food/nutrient to sustain their rapidly growing population. Very interesting. Don’t believe I have heard of or seen these species of snail.

So from my observations, the snails emerge after about 2-3 weeks. They like to lay on the glass, and you can see in the cluster sometimes a torn sac with no more 'dots' in the middle. I usually scrape them off the glass if they are in the way, but if they are down in the corner or out of the way, I let them ride. Even if I scrape them, the sacs remain intact, and usually settle somewhere in the tank unless they go through a power head.

The species is a columbellid snail, you can read a little bit about them at the end of this article here.

I'm sure like ever thing in our reefs, it will ebb and flow, but there seems to be more than enough for them to keep up with at the moment, they are very small. I bought 5 of them for $20 two or so years ago from a local reefer, so they have been around for a long time.

 

[Leishman]

Got home from a week in FL to find those egg sacks all over the glass. I stopped counting after knocking 80 adults off the front glass to clean it. I have only ever found the eggs on the bottom of frag plugs or on the frag racks. The glass is new for me.

 

[YHSublime]

Got home from a week in FL to find those egg sacks all over the glass. I stopped counting after knocking 80 adults off the front glass to clean it. I have only ever found the eggs on the bottom of frag plugs or on the frag racks. The glass is new for me.

I wonder if it’s a time of year or something? They are laying them everywhere!