My 20 Gallon Nano Reef Journal

[Chris_A]

Just a suggestion, if the gobies are the type I think they are, they will be much happier if they can live in Acropora type corals... Now I'm not suggesting you rush out and buy those though . There are quite a few artificial ones on the market that would do the trick. These guys have even been known to breed in aquaria if they feel comfortable. Not saying they are easy to raise ('cause they aren't lol) but nothing says "your doing things right" better than breeding fish .

 

[DarthPadre]

4/19/09

No change in water parameters other than the fact that the tank is getting to 84 deg. by mid afternoon. I'm only using the actinic bulb and letting natural daylight hit the tank as the window is open directly over it to keep a breeze over the surface. I'm still doing PWC of 20% every 5 days. Nitrates around 20 before PWC and around 5 after. Both gobies are doing well. (Chris - Those may be the gobies. I was told Sarcophyton coral was what they liked, though. That is why I was planning on getting a tiny frag of zoa's for myself and a brown or green leather toadstool for the gobies. I'll research more.) After watching the tank for over an hour last night I have noticed a few new life forms. There is some kind of slug which is about 1/4" long, light purple, almost white, with three tiny "branches" growing out of its front. I have also notice long-hair green algae, which I don't think is good from what I've briefly read.

 

[Lotus]

A fan blowing over the water should help. Our tank hit 84 this afternoon, so we hooked the chiller up again. Up to around 83 or so should be OK. I start worrying about the corals when it hits 84. Also, pointing a powerhead toward the surface will help with evaporative cooling. Just make sure you're topping off as necessary.

The slug-like thing sounds like a nudibranch. Some are good, some are bad, but they're almost impossible to identify (there are thousands of species). Usually, they look like what they eat, so if you have any purple/white corals in there, it may be munching on them.

The hermits and snails may take care of the algae, but it's a good idea to remove as much as you can when you see it. I have a long stringy type algae in one of my tanks. It's sort of the texture of human hair and mostly grows on the tank walls. I'm not really sure what it is or exactly how to get rid of it, but it doesn't seem to spread too fast in my tank.

 

[DarthPadre]

4/26/09

The fan worked great, but no kidding about evaporation and topping off the tank. I easily added a gallon of fresh over a 12 hour period. Speaking of which, I had the "bright" idea to add the freshwater to the HOB thinking that it would mix a bit with the saltwater before going into the tank. This stirred up debris at the bottom of the HOB and dumped it all in my tank. Crap. This actually caused an ammonia and nitrite spike. 36 hours later both ammonia and nitrites were gone but nitrates were over 40. I performed a 20% PWC and nitrates have been high, but under control. Whew. No other updates. I wanted coral this weekend, but with the screw-up that has been pushed back a week or so. As for the nudibranch, kinda sounds cool but I haven't seen it since that one time. Both gobies are getting along and have found multiple places to rest or hide.

(Advice - Goes without saying but if you're using LR in your HOB remember to dump the crap out of it during PWC's.)

 

[DarthPadre]

4/30/09

It's been almost 8 weeks since I put in the LR and I'm getting very close to coral. Nitrates have been a bit higher ever since the tank had that mini-cycle. My newest activity is to use a flashlight in the middle of the night to "catch" critters. There's a lot going on at night. I often see the crab, which I now believe is a small emerald crab, and always see a bunch of bugs. I've actually decided to feed every other day now as the gobies can easily eat the pods and other bugs. There's a good deal of brown on the sand, too much for my comfort. The conch is either on or off, meaning it either eats like crazy for a week, or doesn't do a damn thing for a week. One of my nasarrius is on its way out, so they don't do too much sand stirring. So, I have manually stirred the sand a few times. This works okay, but I really need more inverts to do this for me. Though I hear brittle stars are good, I also hear they will eat anything it can corner, and in a smaller tank it will be able to corner things much easier, including the gobies. So, I got 5 cerith snails. I hear they are slow, but clean the glass and sift sand, and actually clean the glass underneath the sand. Cool. I also have a friend that is setting up a new 10 gallon nano. Since she is going to cure some LR I decided to pick up a couple of pieces for my tank for aquascaping. She got 20 lbs. of Caribbean, which was basically one 17 lb. rock and another smaller, 3 lb., rock. It actually looks kinda cool. There is a tiny bit of coral on the big piece. Green zoa looking things. I bought 3 lbs. of Fiji branches, including one with a soft white tree looking coral. I also picked up about a fist full of pebbles to add to the HOB. My plan is now to wait for the new LR to cure, then aquascape the tank and add coral. Fingers crossed.

 

[Joeyb1731]

hey darth...long time no talk. I kinda fell off the map for a little. Some work and personal issues, but things are fixed now and im back. I have made some changes bigtime on my eclipse 12. Since i added the real live rock I got a skimmer and a different HOB and cut my whole hood up to put the stuff on the back. I added my lighting 96 watt 50/50 quad bulb but I didnt even go put the fish in for this whole time I still have my 1 turbo snail, 1 nassarius and 3 hermits (they actually survived changing the LR and the re cycle!! how crazy is that) I just checked my water for the first time in about a month and I have no ammonia no nitrites and between 10-20 on my nitrates. Im thinking because the hermits and snails produce such a small bioload I might have lost most of my bacteria, so I dropped in an algae pellet to see if my tank breaks it down if not I might have to figure something out. But anyways its good to be back and see ur tank is going well.

 

[DarthPadre]

5/6/09

Hey Joey. Welcome back. What's your next step? Fish?

Everything in my tanks has been pretty good except the yellow goby died. The green is just going to have to be on his own for a while now. I've been trying to stabilize the temp. in the tank to a range of 78-80. I have been successful, but only with a fan on for 10 hours a day which requires about 1/2 a gallon of top off. Nitrates have been under 20. The new LR's have already cured and I added them to the tank. There is some new life I'm trying to identify on it. I also added two pieces of coral. YEAH! One very small frag of zoa's and a green leather toadstool. The zoa's are dark purple with a florescent (in actinic) red speckles inside. I dripped acclimated both for 2 1/2 hours and left the lights off for the day. I'm running the lights sparingly right now as to not burn the toadstool. I also got a dwarf feather duster. He's out already also. I've also been cataloging the creatures in my tank with the saltwater ID sites. Here's some of what I've found (most at night with flashlight):

Bristle worm - I have a very bright purple/red guy. I hear they are reef safe, but will kill snails. They also sting so I think I'm just going to leave him in for now.

Many many Isopods. The little harmless guys, not the big ugly ones. Plenty of food for my Goby (I think?).

Phyllochaetopterus - Well I haven't actually seen these worms, but I do see their sand tubes around my LR.

Spirobid Worms are all over one rock and are slowly moving to other rocks and glass.

I did find a tiny Whelk Snail and removed him.

Tube Anemone on a shell. It is very tiny right now.

Maidens Hair Algae. These sprout out in little patches around the power heads.

Red Slime Algae - Crap! I siphoned it all off and am keeping a close eye on new outbreaks, but so far so good.

 

[DarthPadre]

5/11/09

To make a long story short, I adopted a few more pieces of coral yesterday. Two rocks covered with Devil's Hand Leather. One colony of Green Button Polyps. One rock half covered in Green Colony Polyps. One rock with a single Green Colony Polyp and a tiny growth that may be more Button Polyps, or a Toadstool? One Green Tree Coral. I know this is a lot of coral (especially with the Zoas and Toadstool already in there) and that I'm taking a moderate risk. I will monitor very closely, once again. I've also found that the new piece of LR has what looks like an Aiptasia Anemone, but I'm not quite sure. It is always open and has never moved and is completely clear with a bluish tint. I've also seen a bunch of Scypha Sponges that just kinda appeared out of nowhere. I originally saw two on one of the new pieces of LR. Then two days later there were six more throughout the tank. They seem to reproduce very fast. The conch is active again (I guess he's done growing for now), so he stirs up the sand now, but the new cerith snails seem to prefer the rocks and front/side glass rather than the sand. Red Slime Algae is still there, but much more under control and only on the sand. The RSA will actually change color, or hide, in the afternoon to where you can't really see it in either daylight or actinic.

 

[DarthPadre]

5/13/09

Everything still pretty good in the tanks so far. Nitrates still under 20. All of the coral have opened up. When I feed the tank the Button and Green Colony Polyps will catch the shrimp or zooplankton like a fly trap, which is cool. The Tree Coral had a branch cut clean off. I suspect the non-hermit crab that I've seen. I've started to run the lights at normal schedule (10 hrs. of each daylight/actinic with an 8 hour overlap - 14 total hrs.). A couple of the Button's have already been bleached out, but I figured they can always hide if they are getting too much light. I will move the coral off the sand in the next couple of days so long as they accept the new light schedule. I also aerate the water for two hours a day. The coral seem to love it. It seems the tube anemone on the shell is more likely to be a feather duster, but it's still so tiny. There are also other flower like growths in the tank.

 

[DarthPadre]

5/18/09

Everything is doing surprisingly well. Nitrates currently around 10 after PWC yesterday. The Devil's Hand is completely out with the "hands" protruding over 1/2" out of the leather. The Zoa's and Polyps are also all very open. Even the Feather Duster is at full bloom, even though it sucks back in its tube every time I turn the lights on or off. I am now on a regular light cycle, but I seem to have bleached out three of the Buttons. When I moved the Leather Toadstool I unfortunately realized that its base was actually attached to two small rocks the hard way. I actually felt flesh rip off of one rock as I tried to secure it to an alcove, even through my gloves (which I have been warring each time I stick my hand into the tank). I was able to gently get the Toadstool into the alcove and it has opened up. I'm just worried about a deep wound. Another Nasarrius also died. And the Cerith just aren't sifting the sand as much as I had hoped (they clean the glass and rocks mostly). I adjusted the positions of the powerheads to stir up some sand. The red slime algae is still there, but much more under control (only in two small spots, currently being sifted by the water currents after the repositioning of the powerheads). I don't want to add more snails at this point, so I'll manually sift and move powerheads for the time being. I've been testing pH twice a day, at different times, for the past week just to see if/when there is any variation (determining if I should get an Alkalinity test). 8.2 in the morning, 8.1 in the afternoon, 8.2 in the evening, 7.9 at night. And even these readings aren't always exact, but they have all been between 7.9 - 8.2, which I'm happy about and contributing to the fact that I've been performing consistent PWC's therefore keeping the water well buffered (not specifically by the API buffer as I don't use that as much, simply by the IO salt mix). Last note/question. I have never tested Phosphates. The only algae problem I’ve had (its only been 3 months) is the green slime, which isn’t bad. Coral seem to be okay for the time being. Should I be testing for Phosphates, or am I okay waiting for a reason to test for it (algae outbreaks or coral “hiding”)?

 

[DarthPadre]

5/23/09

I have a few updates. I purchased an API Reef Test Kit and tested Phosphate (0 ) and Calcium (380). I'll add the buffer to my next water batch to raise the Calcium. Nitrates continue to be around 10 - 20. I still have a problem with Red Slime. With no Phosphates and a medium level of Nitrates I suspect that the sand is still not getting sifted enough. I have started treatment with API Algaefix (I guess I'm and API junkie) and plan to purchase some sand sifting stars or more nassarius snails. I also got a Bicolor Pseudochromis. It has adjusted very well and leaves the Goby alone. Last, finally, a camera. I'm still getting used to the camera and, yes, I know I need to scrape the coralline off of the glass. Check out the pics.

 

[DarthPadre]

The last pic of the above I believe are Green Star Polyps (please correct me if I'm wrong about any of these).

Button Polyps in full light and actinic
Featherduster
My hurt Soft Coral Tree (there's a bastard crab that's clipping it)
Leather Toadstool

 

[DarthPadre]

Devil's Hand
Unknown Polyps (sorry for the crappy pic - any idea on these?)
Aiptaisa??? with Scypha
Bicolor Pseudo

 

[DarthPadre]

A Chaetopterid and an unknown coral or anemone
Unknown - maybe hard coral?

 

[Lotus]

Looking nice! That does look like an aptaisia.

The things you think are green star polyps look like button polyps to me. The green stuff that's on your tree coral needs to come off. I have that junk all over my tank, and nothing seems to kill it.

The star polyps look like Braerium sp., which grow fast, and can take over rock if you're not careful. If possible, put the rocks they're on away from other rock.

The pseudochromis looks cute!

 

[DarthPadre]

Thanks Lotus. Still lots more work to be done over the next few months, but I think everything's doing okay so far. I got the Buttons, but I'll check out Braerium. I see Zoalover has some of the same things and he said they grow fast too. I'll keep them segregated. I've clipped the long green algae around the tree, and some next to the devil's hand. As for the Aiptasia, I know they reproduce rapidly, but it's when they move around, right? This one hasn't ever moved, so is it safe to assume that it won't multiply? It is getting bigger, and looks very cool (eats shrimp), but I don't want 50 of them. Should I take care of it now (if so - peppermint shrimp, or inject chemicals/lemon juice in it's base?), or is it safe to "watch and wait"?

 

[Lotus]

I'd take care of it now. They reproduce when they want to. I have a 15g tank covered in them, because I didn't take care of it quickly and thoroughly enough.

 

[rdreed]

Looks Great!!
Giving me alot to look forward to with my nano tanks!!
And please, keep taking pics!!

 

[DarthPadre]

5/31/09

Red slime is still a nuisance. My Nitrates stay less than 20 (5 - 15) and my Phosphates have been at 0 every day this week. I have moved the powerheads multiple times to stir up more sand, and aerate every day. I siphon out the slime every 3 days, but it's back by the third day every time. I will be on my third dose of Algaefix tomorrow and have limited my lighting to 9 hours a day. I will continue my routine for the next few weeks and if the red slime continues I will take more drastic steps. I bought a peppermint shrimp with the hopes it would eat the aiptasias, so I'm only feeding the tank once a day again (trying to make him hungry while still feeding the coral and fish). Speaking of which, the pseudo has eaten all of my pods. I don't see any on the glass, ever, and only a few at night with the flashlight running away and hiding on the LR. I'll post some more pictures of the red slime and the goby tomorrow.

 

[DarthPadre]

6/1/09

Unfortunately no new pictures yet, but I wanted to post a quick update. The peppermint shrimp already ate one of the aiptasias (I forgot to mention that I found a possible total of 5 of them). I know I'm lucky as it's a crap shoot with the shrimp eating them, so I'll enjoy my luck. The red slime is totally out of control. It's been 3 days since I siphoned off 80% of it and now it's completely covering most of my sand. I haven't noticed it creep up to my coral yet, but I'm sure if it's not close it will be in days. My soft tree finally died. Between the crab that's been eating it and (my assumption) the toxins from the cryno it just couldn't survive. It did leave two heads of something to grow. Probably those green polyps. I also noticed a pure white shell that I have never seen. It's as big as an astera shell, but completely smooth. Almost like a common garden snail, but pure white. Nothing inside it, but WTF? I've never seen anything like that in the tank until now. Even at night with the flashlight. So some strange albino snail the size of a quarter hitchhiked into my tank and hid for weeks or months until it died.