Ak77's Nano Journal

[AK77]

Hi KJ,

Thank you for the kind words. Yes, its sad and annoying too that they keep dying. The blue knuckles came from my LFS and the reds from an online retailer. They did fine and then they all just seemed to become very sluggish and didn't move for hours. It just does not make sense, as the peppermint shrimp, snails, conch and corals are all fine.

One crab was still alive in its shell, so I put it in the back section where there is a lot of waste for it to eat. Hopefully it is just a case of them cleaning the rocks and there being insufficient food for them and not something more sinister.

 

[Buddyboy67]

Mate as I said our nano's exactly the same and it still baffles me...tried various species and sizes and the same happens..2 days and they're feet up !!
Everything thing else in it thrives so i'm totally baffled

 

[AK77]

Some good news. One of the Mexican red legs is still alive and has even swapped its shell with one that the blue knuckles was using. I've also seen the mithrax and it looks ok, so hopefully the unexplained deaths may stop. I also think I have a sea hare. Looks like a trochus snail without a shell?

 

[Buddyboy67]

Any pics mate..could be a nudi...

 

[seffieuk]

Any pics mate..could be a nudi...

or a stometella

Seffie x

 

[bollands]

i love what you have done with that sump! i really want to do that to my orca tl550. if i could find a cabinet like yours big enough! any ideas?

 

[AK77]

Any pics mate..could be a nudi...

Hi Buddy,

I managed to grab a picture of it. Its hard to do as it actually moves quite fast and it blends in pretty well with the rocks. Anyway, here it is (10 o'clock 1" away from the mexican red).

I saw the mithrax and decided to grab a couple of pictures before it disappeared for another few days.

Also a picture of "Smudge" my new clownfish. He's finally settling down. At first he was scared of the flake food on the surface of the water lol.

i love what you have done with that sump! i really want to do that to my orca tl550. if i could find a cabinet like yours big enough! any ideas?

Hi Bollands,

Thanks for the kind words. There are a few options that I can think of.

#1 - Getting a black ash cabinet and some black ash board and edging. Reinforce the cabinet with some baton, as the chipboard furniture is usually pretty naff. Also, seal the inside of the cabinet with varnish. You could then use a router with a profiling cutter to cut a new top to the same shape as the base of your Orca. You could then fit the sump in the cabinet like I have.

#2 - You could get a wooden cabinet, do the same as above and then spray it black with a matt black paint and varnish.

#3 - Use the base and top of your existing cabinet and make a new cabinet to replace the existing one.

I think the last option is probably the best one. It wouldn't be that hard to make a 3 sided cabinet with hinged door. You could also reinforce the sides with 2"x1" internally. Just make sure you plan what you want to do before you assemble it and fill with water. Think about pipe positions, protein skimmer, light positioning for refugium etc. If you need any ideas or help, just give me a shout and I'll see if I can be of any use

Cheers,

AK

 

[Buddyboy67]

Love the misbar mate..nice clown..
think seffie had it mate..see a tiny shell there so may be a young stomatella..great freebie algae munchers..will often spawn and breed when about an inch as well..hermaph radites so one will soon be many,,,come in all colours too from white, to striped, to spotted right thru to jet black

 

[AK77]

Hi mate,

Yeah I think its kinda cool. It really stood out from all the others they had there, so I got him.

I'm glad I got a good freebie algae muncher. It was about 3/4" long, so it might not be too long until it starts reproducing. Smudge is looking a bit lonely in there, so I might see about getting another clown for the quarantine tank soon. I keep hoping they'll have a nice bright goby at the LFS but no joy so far. I'd love a yellow watchman with randall's pistol!

 

[AK77]

On a side note, I just realised that I do not in fact have a peppermint shrimp. I have a camel shrimp! It ate the aiptasia and I also saw it run off with a bit of my kenya tree the other day!!

 

[Buddyboy67]

lol...best get that little tear away out mate before you add any more corals....they will rip them to shreds on you..seen one clear a zoa patch overnight once

 

[AK77]

Ugh!! Typical. I asked for a peppermint shrimp too, and they gave me a camel. Marvelous!

Just to p!$$ me off further, I got woken up this morning by a powercut. A snail had worked its way over the front of the down pipe and restricted its flow. The tank overflowed onto the bedroom floor. Luckily it wicked down the equipment leads into the plugs and tripped the power out, thereby stopping the pump before any damage was done. I think only about 1-2 litres of water was spilled. I need to stop them getting into that back section.

If its not one thing going wrong... its another

 

[seffieuk]

eeek that was lucky


Seffie x

 

[AK77]

eeek that was lucky


Seffie x

Hi Seffie. Indeed it was!! I've taken to unplugging the sump pump at night. I hooked up the other outlet to another pump that sits in the back section of the tank. I've put the chaetomorpha in the grills to stop the snails. I will see how successful this is lol.

I managed to get a better picture of that creature for a more positive ID.

Any ideas?

 

[seffieuk]

Yep, i'm sticking with stomatella

seffie x