220 Reef system Diary

[fish_keeper2]

got any recent pics nav..........how about any new full tank shots.

Mate I think this weekend he will post some pics

Also some of his wife's nano

cool. cant wait.

*in the back ground you hear an angry mob screaming " we want pic!" we want pics!"..........lmao*

 

[Navarre]

OK this is an earlier than promised update.
Here you can see the damage these blasted majano and aiptasia pests can do toa perfectly healthy coral reef system

OK this is a piccy of my pagoda and maze coral when they first entered the tank.

And the same maze now....

And the Pagoda.. Iactually think its a gonner

This is a brain.. or was.. All that is left now is 2 seperate parts in the upper area of the skeleton. The good news however is that it is revovering slowly and with any luck and nno further attack it will regrow back to its former glory.

This is a small group of majano on the rock bottom center. If you check the other photso you will probably see the amount of majano and aips i have inthe system

And here is one hiding among the orange zoos i have.

And thisis to help combat my pests. (Yep its not reef safe but so far its not targetted the corals.. its not targetted the majano and aip either though

Tiger Cowrie.

Another combatant.. A long nosed yellow butterfly.. Again not reef safe but its left my corals alone.. Err and my pests too

My malu anenome.

And lastly an up to date tank shot.

I will post more at the weekend after the Southwest meeting.

 

[SkiFletch]

wow, even with the pests it still looks awesome Navarre

 

[marto]

Well if you can take any heart from this it's knowing it still looks great even when it's down!!!

Im sure it wont take you to long before it all come's back !!!

Good luck mate

 

[Aquascaper]

Looks a hell of a lot different since I last saw it back in summer '05

Looking good mate (even with the pests)

 

[Mr Miagi]

Whoa! The picture of your Pagoda SPS is clear evidence of the amount of majano and aip pests in your tank! Man, I now have a clearer picture of what your facing!

Your tank still looks good though. I love the green zoas and that red macro is delightful! What lights are you running?

 

[Matthew5664]

Don't feel to bad Navarre I went to the london aquarium yesterday and Man..Oh...Man do they have aiptasia problem or what!

And there supposed to be the pros???

Nice spotted jellyfish and a HUGE copperband butterfly probley fat off all the aiptasia

 

[Navarre]

Im not one for giving up on a problem so im determined to get the better of this. It might be a long drawn out battle but i think its possible to win and get the tank into a hospitable place for corals.

As for lighting.. I have a central 400w 10K Halide and 1 x 150w halide 20k each side of the center halide.

I seriously considered a copperband again even though i know they are notoriously hard ot keep. I decided on the long nosed however purely becuase they are hardier and easier to get feeding. Of course this fish is not as prominant aiptasia eater and at the moent this shows )

 

[Opcn]

while they do nothing to mejano berghia nudis are by far and away the best way to wipe out aptasia, get 5-6 of them to start with and they will breed and they are obligate aptasia eaters.

 

[atmmachine816]

just out or curiosity i havent read your whole post as its huge but how do you clean your tank and whats the maintenence

 

[Aquascaper]

while they do nothing to mejano berghia nudis are by far and away the best way to wipe out aptasia, get 5-6 of them to start with and they will breed and they are obligate aptasia eaters.

Unfortunately Berghia Nudibranches are extremely hard to get hold of and impossible to find in quantities. Due to their rarity they are also very expensive and this will put most people off. Add to this that fact that once they have munched through your aptasia they will starve and, if not removed in time, nuke your whole tank.

A lovely biological method of aptasia removal but not really a practical one (certainly not in the UK anyway).

 

[Opcn]

The UK/US thing is big, in the US they come along fairly frequently, but you have alot of damn cool stuff in the UK that are near imposible to find in the US, like Mbu puffers, and blue Squamosas, and cuttle fish. The thing is once you do get ahold of them (with the price and all) you sell them to other aquarists when they breed and make back your investment and help solve the problem of berghia scarcety and the death of wild harvested corals due to aptasia.

 

[Aquascaper]

Very good point and hopefully now that the popularity of these Nudi's is growing worldwide more and more will become available and at better prices.

I still wouldn't go down this route myself as I have suffered a tank nuke'ing from a Nudi in the past and feel its a little risky to have Nudi's in the tank that have a specialist diet as you will need to remove them and re-home them as soon as their prey has been eradicated from the tank, otherwise you can potentially kiss the tank goodbye

 

[Navarre]

Berghia nudi is my preferred appraoch but they are impossible to get hold of. I have had some of the top marine outlets in the UK looking for me with no sucess.

Whilst its true that once the aips are eaten they will starve, I am prepared to organise a sort of lending service for them if i was lucky enough to get one. WHen the nudi has fisniehd its work in my tank i would happily move it to another members system and let its do its wwork there.. when thismember is clear the nudi moves on if you get my meaning. Not an ideal situation and of course if they preed durin gthis tiem then even better but the hardest part if obtaining one

As for cleaning the tank...

I scrap the front glass every couple of days to keep this clean but that is about it as the cleanup crew trake care of the rest. Im a little short on hermits at the moment (could do with another 10 or so ) but snails are in good supply and stomatella snaiols are breeding in the tank all the time.
I top up fresh RO water at about 10 gallons per week (Evaporation is high) and i do a 20% water change roughly every 8 - 10 weeks (its a mixture of NSW and Artificial salt that is used now as i cannot collect enough sea water for the topup.

 

[Opcn]

The nuke would probably be no different than if you went throught and used joes juice on all the aptasia in one day.

Nav, you don't use sea water for Topup