eschaton
Fishaholic
Now that the kinks are getting worked out of my plumbing, within the next two weeks I'll affix the glass panels into my sump, my RO system will come, and I'll be able to begin the cycling process anew. Meaning, within the next month or so, I'll need to figure out what to do with my current, battered 20-gallon tank.
While I've had a good deal of luck with my freshwater tank, my initial saltwater nano tank wasn't so lucky. My fish small fish stocking (4) went down due marine ich being introduced by two purportedly "captive-bred" yellow clown gobies, along with a fangblenny who decided to jump before I could treat. The tank thrived as an invert-only tank for quite awhile, except for having to be moved twice. When the tank was moved to my girlfriend's apartment, the heater was switched out with another set at 82, which in combination with the light, cooked the tank a fair amount, killing my shrimp, and some snails and corals.
That said, the tank has recovered, and been stable for six months now, save for the weird die-off of all the stomatela snails fairly recently. I still have several astrea, nerites, and nassarius in there, along with yellow polyps, brown sand polyps, clove polyps, some red mushrooms, a ricordea, and a frag of xenia. I also have mature live rock with nice coraline, a huge number of pods, algae-eating asterina, at least two different species of brittle stars, some nice sponges, worms, and other various critters. I've ignored the tank, not introducing anything despite the temptation because I knew the tear down was coming, but I don't want to just chuck the stuff I have in there.
The problem is, of course, what else is on the rock and in the sand. Thankfully, I have no aiptasia, regular hydroids have kept to a minimum, and the digitate hydroids, though common, don't seem to grow near the light or hurt the polyps. But my tank is infested - totally infested - with the "red planaria" (actually yellowish brown). I siphon them out, they always come back. I dose with salifert, and it seems to stun them, but doesn't kill them - they just sink to the tank bottom and come back again. It's highly frustrating, and I'm terrified of setting them lose into my main tank.
My planned course of action is to get a temporary 10-gallon tank, fill it with salt water with the proper temperature and salinity, dose the tank with a mega - dose of salifert, and dunk each rock in turn. Then give each rock a generous spray with a power-head to shake loose any flatworms clinging on. Then introduce the rocks into my tank, one by one.
The harder thing to decide is what to do with my mature sand bed. I screwed up when I started, and got a large-grain bed, but I'd like to save as much of the life living in the bed as possible. My hope is I can just stick the sand into my fuge. I know flatworms don't like high flow, so they'll probably get gunked by the powerhead before getting sucked into the main tank. Add to that eventually getting a pseudochromis or a six-line, and I hope I will be set.
Thoughts?
While I've had a good deal of luck with my freshwater tank, my initial saltwater nano tank wasn't so lucky. My fish small fish stocking (4) went down due marine ich being introduced by two purportedly "captive-bred" yellow clown gobies, along with a fangblenny who decided to jump before I could treat. The tank thrived as an invert-only tank for quite awhile, except for having to be moved twice. When the tank was moved to my girlfriend's apartment, the heater was switched out with another set at 82, which in combination with the light, cooked the tank a fair amount, killing my shrimp, and some snails and corals.
That said, the tank has recovered, and been stable for six months now, save for the weird die-off of all the stomatela snails fairly recently. I still have several astrea, nerites, and nassarius in there, along with yellow polyps, brown sand polyps, clove polyps, some red mushrooms, a ricordea, and a frag of xenia. I also have mature live rock with nice coraline, a huge number of pods, algae-eating asterina, at least two different species of brittle stars, some nice sponges, worms, and other various critters. I've ignored the tank, not introducing anything despite the temptation because I knew the tear down was coming, but I don't want to just chuck the stuff I have in there.
The problem is, of course, what else is on the rock and in the sand. Thankfully, I have no aiptasia, regular hydroids have kept to a minimum, and the digitate hydroids, though common, don't seem to grow near the light or hurt the polyps. But my tank is infested - totally infested - with the "red planaria" (actually yellowish brown). I siphon them out, they always come back. I dose with salifert, and it seems to stun them, but doesn't kill them - they just sink to the tank bottom and come back again. It's highly frustrating, and I'm terrified of setting them lose into my main tank.
My planned course of action is to get a temporary 10-gallon tank, fill it with salt water with the proper temperature and salinity, dose the tank with a mega - dose of salifert, and dunk each rock in turn. Then give each rock a generous spray with a power-head to shake loose any flatworms clinging on. Then introduce the rocks into my tank, one by one.
The harder thing to decide is what to do with my mature sand bed. I screwed up when I started, and got a large-grain bed, but I'd like to save as much of the life living in the bed as possible. My hope is I can just stick the sand into my fuge. I know flatworms don't like high flow, so they'll probably get gunked by the powerhead before getting sucked into the main tank. Add to that eventually getting a pseudochromis or a six-line, and I hope I will be set.
Thoughts?
