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dbacksrat

dbacksrat

Superstar Fish
#121
Jun 3, 2003
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Glendale, AZ
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#121
well...the larger one is huge (probably two inches across), but it appears to be turning brown, which i believe is a sign of too much light...the other is the size of dime and shriveling
the leather coral turned a shade purpler (if thats a word), but i fear it is receding...doing tests at the moment to see problem, probably alkalinity or something like that
 

dbacksrat

dbacksrat

Superstar Fish
#122
Jun 3, 2003
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Glendale, AZ
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#122
an update (because i am sitting here, bored, on a friday night):
i am still unsure of whether my leather is going to make it...a couple days ago, it shriveled and turned purple, but it was just shedding (scared the hell outta me though) for the 2nd or 3rd time in a month
it seems that my tank has gone through a second cycling process since upgrading the lighting--not so much chemical fluctuations, but a huge growth of cyanobacteria and hair algae...the red slime has since died off, and the hair seems to be taking over everything --you know you have an algae problem when your hermit crabs can climb the glass
 

A

aresgod

Superstar Fish
#123
Jan 14, 2004
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#123
haha, have you tried cutting down feeding? that should help with the algae problem, when you added the new lights did you do it gradually? starting with 6 hours of light/day and add an hour every 4 days or so, that will help the tank and its inhabitants acclimate to the increased light levels
 

dbacksrat

dbacksrat

Superstar Fish
#124
Jun 3, 2003
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Glendale, AZ
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#124
the hair algae is having the time of its exponentially increasing life :)
went to my lfs--an employeed suggested i bring some water in so we can test the PO4 levels...i also added ~14 cerith snails, ~15 blue leg hermits, and 1 sweet emerald crab
the guy only charged me for 5 ceriths (at $.95 each) and 10 hermits (as well as the crab)...sweet! i also bought some joe's juice and slaughtered 4 aiptasia anemones (you should have seen the evil and malicious look on my face)--i highly recommend that stuff
 

dbacksrat

dbacksrat

Superstar Fish
#127
Jun 3, 2003
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Glendale, AZ
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#127
today i used a brand new cheapo tooth brush to scrub the hair algae off some of the rock and discovered beautiful pink and purple coralline algae (not as good as 1979camaro's, but beautiful nonetheless)
but now the tank looks like pea soup--so i'm not gonna take a pic until later
 

dbacksrat

dbacksrat

Superstar Fish
#128
Jun 3, 2003
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#128
discovered a stomatellid (maybe a stomatella) snail today cruising along the rocks--then it hit me that i didn't remember adding one it--what a cool little hitchhiker :)
btw, the name might be a little off--I don't have my invert book w/ me by Calfo and Fenner
 

dbacksrat

dbacksrat

Superstar Fish
#130
Jun 3, 2003
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Glendale, AZ
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#130
1979camaro said:
i think you've got a right name...whether it matches your snail or not who knows ;)

its amazing the stuff that you start seeing after a few months isnt it? :)
Click to expand...
yeah its definetly a stomatellid snail--it has an interesting gray/silver shell with grey flesh--pretty cool looking...this guy is sooo fast too--pretty sweet

i can't wait to see what comes next--for my bday, i'm going to get a bit more lr or coral attached to some very nice LR from my lfs--its gonna be sweet
 

dbacksrat

dbacksrat

Superstar Fish
#132
Jun 3, 2003
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Glendale, AZ
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#132
i think i wanna get some shrooms and zoos--still getting the hang of keeping corals

today, i had early release at 10:30, so i come home and the light is still off in my tank--i get a flashlight, and to my surprise i find a small brittlestar in my sandbed (up against the glass) and a pod (all of which i thought had been slaughtered by my fish) crawling through the sandbed too--i was thinking of discarding all or a majority of my sand until today...hmm, a complication
 

dbacksrat

dbacksrat

Superstar Fish
#134
Jun 3, 2003
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Glendale, AZ
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#134
i noticed a couple more pods and a tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny one messing around under the crushed coral line the other day
i haven't added a fish in awhile, and i was considering a six line wrasse (current contents: 1 perc and 1 YWG), then maybe a coral beauty angelfish if there is still enough room
any problems with 6 lines? any suggestions? thanx
 

dbacksrat

dbacksrat

Superstar Fish
#137
Jun 3, 2003
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Glendale, AZ
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#137
thanks for the feedback :)
time seems to have slowed down as my birthday approaches...still waiting patiently for it to come until i have some money
the hair algae is definetly going down--slowly though--i can see bigger patches of coralline peeking through the green monster....i am now facing the main problems from hair algae creating huge mats that incorporate the top layer of crushed coral into them: i'm sure that's not good
 

dbacksrat

dbacksrat

Superstar Fish
#139
Jun 3, 2003
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Glendale, AZ
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#139
no, if i used water from the tap, my whole tank would be dead by now
i use water i buy outside of supermarkets in those water vending machine things (where you can fill your own waterbottles) and occassionally at the Water-n-Ice store (we need those out here)
possible contributors to algae problem:
-water
-feeding (my fault mostly :) )
-inadequate nutrient export (substrate traps crud)
-salt mix? (i use the defaulto IO)
 

dbacksrat

dbacksrat

Superstar Fish
#140
Jun 3, 2003
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Glendale, AZ
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#140
instead of getting a gift certificate to my favorite lfs for my bday, i got a kodak easy share camera w/ printer dock (yessss!!!!) and a bit of money from relatives and friends
soooo....i bought a Pachyclavularia sp. coral (commonly known as ???)---as soon as i added it, it got smothered by hermit crabs and snails, so it has just begun to open a bit today
i've noticed that the pods have multiplied in my tank--and there are worms at night too
things are definetly looking up :)
 

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