Quick post

Got a nice shot of the Pom Pom Crab hanging out with the Hammer Coral but the Hammer wasn't too happy about his presence. 

Pom Pom Crab with the Hammer Coral

Also, my team at work and I have decided to name the Clown Fish "Gumdrop" because he looks kind of like a gummi snack. I'm glad to see him starting to explore the tank more but he still hasn't eaten... even though I've attempted to feed him a couple times, now. I've read online that liquid garlic extract works to stimulate their appetite so I may have to give that a go tomorrow. I really don't want to pollute my tank with all the uneaten food so I hope the CUC are up on their game.

Sharkbait, some new pictures and a video!

So I picked myself up a baby Sharkbait last night (read: clownfish) and he seems to be adapting well to the environment. I attempted to feed him some flake and pellet food while I was acclimating him and he didn't seem to care for it. I fed the tank some frozen Mysis Shrimp today and he didn't eat any of it either. I'm hoping he just isn't hungry and/or is just adjusting to the tank. Otherwise, I'm going to have to find something he will eat.

Sharkbait

Plate Coral Feeding

I also finally managed to get some pictures of the Zoa colony I have. I'm still not too happy with how they turn out (taken from my phone) but they are currently the best I have. The colony looks SO much more gorgeous in real life, especially under the blue LEDs!

Zoa's under Full Spectrum LEDs

Zoa's under Blue LEDs

Full Tank Capture

More Livestock Freebies and Pom Pom Crab video

Stomatella Snail?

I was inspecting my tank last night and found a very small snail hiding behind my Zoas that I've never seen before. Thankfully, it turns out he's a beneficial snail and isn't predatory to any of my corals. I wasn't able to get a great shot of him but I believe he is a Stomatella Snail because he has a really long tail that extends out of his shell. I could very well be wrong but he looks like other images I've seen of these snails, albeit he's quite small at the moment :P

I also have been wondering what this "thing" under my Zoa rock was for awhile and finally decided to really look at it. Turns out, it wasn't just a piece of rock but rather a shell of some sort. Since I was unable to identify it and it had been sitting there for weeks, I decided to try and remove it from the rock with a tool. It "held on" to the rock but not like a snail would so it didn't feel like it was working against me. It felt more like it was "attached" as I could move the shell but a piece was staying on. I was finally able to work it free and began to wonder if the critter was actually alive since it wasn't easy (but also not too difficult) to remove. Instead of just throwing it out, I placed it in a new area on the sand. If it hadn't moved by the end of the following day, I would discard it. However, I came in this morning and the shell is nowhere to be found. I decided to try and find what kind of hitchhiker I could have gotten. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of him as I was pretty sure it wasn't alive but I found this image online and it looks pretty darn close to the little guy. At the very least, I'm pretty sure that I have some sort of bivalve...

Anyways, onto the more interesting part! Check out the video I took of the Pom Pom Crab dancing around and eating some foods! I'll have to get a video of me actually feeding him because he goes haywire for mysis shrimp!

So confused...

Came in this morning and the Spiny Star Astraea hasn't moved since Friday. Not sure what's going on but he's definitely alive. I thought he might have been dead so I attempted to remove him but he reflexed and held firm to the rock. The turbo snail hasn't moved far from where he was on Friday, either. All of the other inhabitants seem to be moving fine, though.

I noticed my filter was overflowing back into the tank from the intake side of the filter. I attempted to move the Algone media to the basket side and a bunch of white, cheese-like substance came of and spilled into the tank. Well, crap. I can't seem to find any information regarding whatever it is so hopefully I didn't just contaminate my tank. I took the media to the sink and rinsed it off and more of that stuff came off. Seriously, it looks like a thin layer of sour cream. Smells like cheese, too. No idea what it is. So, again, hopefully I didn't just hurt my tank by rinsing it off if it was beneficial for the aquarium. Either decision I made is sure to have an impact on the tank. I'll have to keep a close eye on it...

There's also long, stiff, hair-like growth coming off the rock and glass which I can't determine what they are but they are not Dinoflagellates (as far as I can tell). 

I also believe I have a bunch of snail eggs attached to the back glass of the aquarium. Bunch of small, flat, white circles back there but nowhere else and the cleanup crew is ignoring them. I'm unsure what to do about these. One one hand - yay, free snails. On the other hand - crap, free snails! I suppose it's a good sign that my tank is healthy that the snails are reproducing (also, I found a bunch of amphipods the other day scuttering about!) but I'm not quite sure what I should do about them just yet. If I let them hatch, I know many of them will end up dying because of the lack of food for them to eat and that will just add a bunch of bad chemicals to the environment from the decaying matter... And they'd probably be really hard to remove from the tank once they hatch...

With the weirdnesses I've seen today, I decided to do a full water parameters check and everything seems normal; better even! The params are the best they've been in a long while.

Parameter

Value

Salinity

1.025

pH

8.4

Ammonia

.25 ppm

Nitrite

0 ppm

Nitrate

2.5 ppm

Phosphate

0 ppm

Calcium

560 ppm

Carbonate Harness

125.3 ppm

I'm thinking I should get a Magnesium test kit. Maybe the Mg levels are low and the snails are angry about that?...

Tank Updates

Went to Petco and picked up a Scarlet Reef Hermit to help combat the hair algae I have going on. Apparently, these guys a little lawn mowers and don't kill other snails for their shells. So win-win.

I also picked up some Frozen Mysis Shrimp for the Pom Pom crab and the coral. Gave the crab a lil feeding and he went nuts. He literally leaped from his cave and pounced the shrimp. He even started to climb on the tool I was using to feed him and was trying to grab the shrimp from within it. Had to shake him off a little and he grabbed the shrimp that landed on the sand bed. 

Maybe my corals were a little hungry. Once I tried to spot feed the Hammer Coral he began to open up. Strange.

Also, minor panic moment. I just learned about Palytoxin Poisoning which the Zoas I have can exhibit. Apparently it is the second most toxic chemical found in nature. Great, right? Freaked. Me. Out. Using gloves whenever I have to handle these guys now. I bite my nails and always have small cuts on my hands so I do not wanna run into this lil issue...

Tank is angry - no idea why...

I came in yesterday and my salinity was a little low: 1.020. Brought it back up to 1.023 by adding a little salt. This usually really angers the Hammer Coral and the Duncan will usually close one or 2 heads. A few hours later and the Duncan is fully open again the the hammer is beginning to open. I checked all my water parameters and they were all perfect (except the Nitrates were ~40ppm).

But yesterday the Hammer stayed closed all day after the salt addition. This morning, the Hammer is pretty closed up but the polyps are visible. One of the Duncan heads is partially closed. No idea why the tank is angry today. The Zoa is about 3/4 open now so he seems to be progressing. Not sure why everyone else is unhappy and I'm kind of worried... especially since I have tomorrow off. I may have to make a trip to the office tomorrow just to make sure everything is on the up-and-up.

First casualty :(

I came in this morning to my first casualty: the Peppermint Shrimp seemed to have met his demise sometime over the weekend. I had come in Saturday night to check on the tank and he was out near the plate coral. Maybe the plate stung him and killed him?

The Pom Pom crab has now taken up residence in the save the Peppermint Shrimp was inhabiting. Maybe they had a turf war scuffle; the crab is now missing one of his anemones... But I was finally able to snap a quick picture of him when he was out and about!

Pom Pom Crab

The Zoa colony is still in the process of opening up (about half way) and I believe I found a happy place for the Sarlacc Leptastrea. All the information regarding their parameters seems to differ.

I'll have to contact LiveAquaria today for a replacement Shrimp as they have a 14 day guarantee.

New Livestock and Light Controller Update

I left my light controller unplugged all night so as not to exacerbate any particular issues with the water in the controller. I figured I'd give it a full nights time to dry up and it seems to have done the trick! I plugged in the controller when I came in this morning and all the lights are powering on properly. Sa-weet!

But seriously, so many thanks to the guy that built the unit for his quick replies and service. I left him a review on Amazon and would highly recommend his unit to anyone wanting to start up a Fluval Edge Nano Reef.

Anyways, on to the livestock!

The Nassarius Snail is much smaller than I was expecting. LiveAquaria stated its' shipping size would be between .5" and .75" and he's barely .25". Not really a big deal but I'm sure he won't be able to clean up the substrate very efficiently until he gets much bigger. I can be patient though. I'll also probably never see him until he gets bigger and I can see his siphon sticking out of the sand bed somewhere.

Super Tongan Nassarius Snail

The Peppermint Shrimp is pretty neat; he sways around like he's mimicking the current even though he is surround by rock. It kinda looks like he's dancing. I fed him some sinking pellets when I was getting him acclimated to my tank water and he gobbled them down quickly. He's fun to watch eat. He found a nice, deep cave in the rock and dug out some sand around it to make it deeper to make his home.

Peppermint Shrimp

Unfortunately, I deleted the picture I had of the Pom Pom Crab because it wasn't in very good lighting and I forgot to get a new one before placing him in the tank. He scuttled down and found himself a really deep crevice in the rock yesterday and I haven't seen him at all today. Poor guy, he's missing 2 of his left legs. They weren't in the shipping bag that he came in so he probably lost them in the facility before being shipped. They can grow back once he molts but they'll be a little smaller than his normal legs. I'm thinking of calling him "Lefty". I hope he comes out sometime so I can get a nice picture of him... and so I can feed him...

The Zoanthus colony hasn't really opened up yet so I'll get a picture once he gets a little more happy. I may have to secure the colony rock to another rock as a snail literally just knocked it over as I am typing this blog...

I haven't secured the Sarlacc Leptastrea just yet because I want to be sure he'll be happy where I place him so I don't have any good pictures of him yet either. 

The Aussie Plate Coral: Stunned. I am blown away by this little guy. Since the lights came on he really started to open up and is twice the size as he was when he first got put in the tank! Immediate favorite. He looks so cool and I love to just sit and watch his tentacles sway in the current. Love this guy.

Aussie Short Tentacle Plate Coral

I hope to get these remaining pictures and a tank shot soon once everyone gets all happy again.

Light Controller Update

I've contacted the guy that built the unit and he has helped me diagnose some of the issue. It seems the LEDs themselves are fine as connecting them directly to power turn them on (phew!) but they do not turn on with their normal cycle. I'm waiting to hear back again but if I were to garner a guess I would say the controller is shot. If it is, they are only ~$30-$50 which is much cheaper than replacing the lighting unit itself.

Still, it would be great it it was just in need of a software reset or something. Hopefully he gets to me soon so I can determine what I need to do to get the lights back up. I'm sure the new coral are not going to be happy adjusting to their new home without light...

I'll be posting pictures of the new livestock soon (probably after I figure out some lighting alternative). I may bring in the stock lighting unit in the interim. It does not provide nearly enough lighting for a marine reef but something is better than nothing.

ShitShitShitShitShitShit!

I got my new livestock in today and while I was picking up one of the bags that had a coral in it I accidentally spilled water all over my light controller... Now most of the whites don't turn on and the blues are super dim. Shit! I unplugged the controller immediately and contacted the guy that built it. I'm hoping there's just a temporary short in the controller and will resolve itself once it dries. It is saltwater, however, and saltwater is super conductive. I hope I didn't short out the LEDS >.<

*So much swearing*

Light timer not set properly and hair algae?

So I popped in over the weekend after halloween to put some Purple Tech into the tank since it's supposed to be supplemented at night and discovered my light timer had my lights compeltely off. I assumed that not having a time set would use the last used settings until a new time and setting got set. Nope, you have to explicitly set all time and settings for a 24hr period to have lights be on. So, for a period of a couple months, my tank had no lights from 8pm to 4am each day. Whoops! I quickly rectified the situation and now my tank has low blues on from that time period. I'm thinking of dropping the percentage a little more as 5% is still kind of bright... I may have to set up the webcam overnight to see if the corals respond appropriately to the low light. 

I also upped the white's during the day by 5% to provide a little more day light to the tank. We'll see how it goes.

Came in this morning and there are long, slimy looking strands waving about in the current. I'm not sure if this is from the snails or if it is hair algae as it is quite long (upwards of 3" in some areas). It isn't too bad; it's more of an aesthetic annoyance at this point but I'll have to keep a close eye on it. If the algae continues to be an issue, I may pick up a Hermit Crab to help combat the population.