35G Saltwater Reef Journal

[crazyforcordoras]

Awesome shrimp. Mine just died rcently. Want a blood shrimp now.

 

[kyle sicard]

Great news. The tank is almost done cycling and brown algae is starting to take over the tank. Might be picking up some snails and when tank is finished cycling I'm gonna bring home my eel that i've been wanting. I have the LFS holding the smallest eel they can get for me. Very excited. Will probably pickup snails when I pick up eel tho to save gas =)

And yes quite a wonderful shrimp they are. I love sticking my hand in and watching the shrimp jump on me and clean my hand haha.

 

[crazyforcordoras]

Mine would never do that, he was quite skittish.

 

[kyle sicard]

Mine would never do that, he was quite skittish.

ours are quite the opposite i have hard time getting him off me sometimes. Hes very outgoing. hopefully the eel doesn't eat him haha. I plan to keep the eel well fed and small to avoid that.

BTW not a single loss in the tank all 3 damsels shrimp and 6 crabs are accounted for and healthy.

 

[kyle sicard]

Due to the algae bloom I think it's time to stock my cleaner crew. Today I went to the store and picked up 3 astera snails, 4 more red legged crabs, a serpent star, and 5 nassarius snails. The eel will be added in about a week due to the cycle almost being over. Tanks gonna be awesome with corals and what not. I'm super excited! Cheers from a happy fish keeper.

My current stocking list is:
10 red legged crabs
6 nassarius snails
3 astera snails
1 serpent starfish
1 cleaner shrim
3 striped damsels

No losses

 

[crazyforcordoras]

Cool new stuff! Serpent stars are really cool, i should get one.

 

[Xraymark]

My heads spinning with this journal. Keep the pics coming.


Must look up serpent starfish now.

 

[lljdma06]

I would not add an eel in a week, but this is your tank and you've done reefs before.

Serpent stars are cool. I had a Caribbean something or other, I don't remember. Very interesting animal. When my 36g is mature (again), I'll consider a smaller species that looks kinda similar. Perhaps that little Caribbean one again.

L

 

[kyle sicard]

Snow flake eels happen to be among one of the hardiest eel's you could possibly have they are very tough and hardy. As long as he's well fed and water quality is looking good and I do regular water changes until my tank can handle the bio load without 2-3 water changes a week he will fit right in and hopefully be happy.

 

[kyle sicard]

Rather bummed out. I woke up this am around 6 am est and it turns out I have an ich breakout. The ich would wait for me to add new inhabitants to the tank before rearing its ugly head. Looks like the eel is gonna be put on hold for two weeks to three weeks to ensure there's not another ich breakout. I'm taking the necessary steps to rid of the ich. Increasing temp to 86 degrees SLOWLY. Raising and maintaining a high salinity level and doing a 50% water change asap. This will continue on a daily basis for about 5-7 days. Then it's just a waiting game to see if the ich hatch up once again. Trying to save the critters, could care less about the damsels. I also dont wanna use medication so please don't suggest that.

 

[lljdma06]

Ich stinks. I have quarantine for ich outbreaks and general observation. Treated an ocellaris there. Right now, there's a wee perchelet in there. I haven't seen any symptoms yet, though. I'll check on him again today.

L

 

[kyle sicard]

Sad part is that I just found my old 10g tank to turn into a quarantine tank last night. oh the irony. I still need to purchase a filter for it. I already have extra heaters, things that make bubbles (forgive me), and a MH from my 300g tank to hook up for it. That way I can buy two pieces of live rock and throw it in there and over time put small frags in their and some live sand and see what happens and also serving as a q tank. Just did water change and have been raising temp periodically and the water i did a change with had a high salt content so we'll see who lives and who dies. might be doing another water change around 3am est. The astera's aren't looking to good. perfectly healthy up until 4 am then I wake up and ich arrives and they stopped eating and moving around.

I hate ich. Wouldn't have purchased the cleaning crew if it would of appeared 1 day earlier. Oh well dead organisms= lots of bacteria. Only the astera's are looking unhealthy currently. Also the water started smelling bad as soon as the ich arrived yet the ammonia remains at 0.
Any thoughts?

Did a 20% water change and in 12 hours i'm going to do another 20% water change.

 

[lljdma06]

Just keep up the water changes. The astraeas may not be liking the temp hike.

Remove dead organisms as you see them quickly and the solution to pollution is always dilution. Nothing much you can do is ride it out and see.

 

[kyle sicard]

I'm not gonna reduce the temp. Ich isn't able to reproduce at temps 85 degrees and higher, so they say. (i'm not arguing just voicing my thoughts and plans, I plan to use journal on next tank for a resource.) But basically your thinking its the dieing astera's stinking up the water? And also do you think the ich came with the damsels or the new crabs/snails/star? I was thinking the damsels and then the ich went into swim mode and reproduced and thus why it showed up later on.

 

[lljdma06]

I'm not gonna reduce the temp. Ich isn't able to reproduce at temps 85 degrees and higher, so they say. (i'm not arguing just voicing my thoughts and plans, I plan to use journal on next tank for a resource.) But basically your thinking its the dieing astera's stinking up the water? And also do you think the ich came with the damsels or the new crabs/snails/star? I was thinking the damsels and then the ich went into swim mode and reproduced and thus why it showed up later on.

I'm pretty sure it came with the damsels. That sounds correct.

You gotta do what you gotta do. I understand why you're raising the temp. It's certainly a method to use when dealing with it.

L