My 48g Fowlr Journey. 13 Months On...

[sparklefuzz]

have fun sparkle you will be amazed what comes out of the rock

I know, I should probably try to act cool about it, but I am fascinated!! lol

Can't find an ID for that snail anywhere, and of course it went back into the rock so... bye bye for now, mr mystery snail.

 

[sparklefuzz]

have fun sparkle you will be amazed what comes out of the rock

I know, I should probably try to act cool about it, but I am fascinated!! lol

Can't find an ID for that snail anywhere, and of course it went back into the rock so... bye bye for now, mr mystery snail.

OK, plenty of research later, the snail was a Nassarius Snail, by the looks of it. And I found that the grassy stuff was Bryopsis. It so happens that ALL of the bubbles are amongst this stuff... maybe connected? I've taken out a huge piece of LR that was COVERED in 'grass' and bubbles... which I suppose leaves me a little bit short on LR.. argh! I'm a little but peeved to be honest, because the guy at the LFS picked that particular piece of LR up to show me and I asked what the grassy stuff was and he told me seaweed. I wish I had known before I went... cos now I have 2 algaes in the tank. HMPH. Ah well.

 

[SkiFletch]

Well, lets clear some stuff up here. The bubbles are Valonia (aka bubble algae). Here's what I'd do. Get two buckets of saltwater. Take the piece of rock out and pull the bubbles off gently with your finger. You might need to use a knife to assist, but be careful not to pop bubbles. Then, toss the bubbles in the trash. Once the rock is clean of bubbles, dip it in the first bucket, and roll it around to remove spores. Then take the rock and soak it in the second "clean" bucket to remove any spores that remain. You may have to do this a couple times, but it should work well. I'd get a mythrax crab (emerald crab) just in case.

The other stuff looks more like a type of "seaweed" or macro algae. That is NOT byropsis, so dont fret. You might want to keep it around cause it looks pretty cool to me. If you dont like it, it will probably pull off the live rock pretty easily.

You were right thats deffinitely a sponge and the other one is a type of tunicate. They will grow underneath your rocks eventually and are good filter feeders. Most wrasses and clownfish will nip at any that they see out in the open so they tend to grow in dark areas under rocks.

 

[sparklefuzz]

Well, lets clear some stuff up here. The bubbles are Valonia (aka bubble algae). Here's what I'd do. Get two buckets of saltwater. Take the piece of rock out and pull the bubbles off gently with your finger. You might need to use a knife to assist, but be careful not to pop bubbles. Then, toss the bubbles in the trash. Once the rock is clean of bubbles, dip it in the first bucket, and roll it around to remove spores. Then take the rock and soak it in the second "clean" bucket to remove any spores that remain. You may have to do this a couple times, but it should work well. I'd get a mythrax crab (emerald crab) just in case.

The other stuff looks more like a type of "seaweed" or macro algae. That is NOT byropsis, so dont fret. You might want to keep it around cause it looks pretty cool to me. If you dont like it, it will probably pull off the live rock pretty easily.

You were right thats deffinitely a sponge and the other one is a type of tunicate. They will grow underneath your rocks eventually and are good filter feeders. Most wrasses and clownfish will nip at any that they see out in the open so they tend to grow in dark areas under rocks.

The only thing is, that bypropsis is (so I've read) really hard to pull off, as it in kinda embeds itself in the rock? and this stuff is just like that. Can't pull it off for the life of me - just snaps... and not easily either. Are you absolutely sure it is ok? Not doubting you oh wise one, but just being a nervous wreck over here! LOL

I'll do that with the rocks affected by bubble algae tomorrow - thanks for the tip. Oooh isn't it exciting?! LOL

 

[SkiFletch]

Yeah its exceptionally exciting. Hell, I'm sitting here excited for you

I'm absoloutely SURE thats not byropsis. Byropsis is WAY thinner and has MANY strands.

 

[sparklefuzz]

Yeah its exceptionally exciting. Hell, I'm sitting here excited for you

I'm absoloutely SURE thats not byropsis. Byropsis is WAY thinner and has MANY strands.

Thanks Ski I'll leave it then, gives it a bit of interest - as you say.

So, this morning we tested the water ... ammonia 0, nitrite 0, PH 8.2. Same as 6pm yesterday. Which is great, half expected an ammonia spike... I suppose it could still happen so I won't count my chickens just yet.

I need to check Nitrate, hate that test, such a fanny on. LOL But looking good, seen some baby snails this morning, tiny pink things, and the snail last night went for a good wander around at about 3am, just as hubby was coming in from work. The crab is obviously shy, no sign of him... some little bugs, amphipods I think crawling on the rocks. LOL Mum rang last night "Hi, what you up to?" me - "watching the rock". mum - "oh, well... er, I guess I'll talk to you later" I could just SEE the look on her face as she tried to figure out if I'd gone mental.

Off to aquascape and add water! bfn

 

[sparklefuzz]

OK, I did the bubble algae thing, took a while, but managed to get the vast majority of bubbles off unpopped. Then arranged the LR into 2 islands, and tried to make it look cool... as you do. Not easy I must say. Then I added sand and we got cloud.. major cloud. LOL.

Then, hubby went to work.... and I thought I'd have some fun, well, ok, I didn't intend to... but, what resulted was a flood. *sigh* my fault... I pumped some mixed saltwater into the tank, then wrapped the hose up and kinda tucked it into the water vessel, so it didn't drip onto the floor... then went into the kitchen to bring one of the buckets of RO to top it up, poured it in... then turned the pump back on.... hose still connected. ARGH! pumped saltwater all up the living room wall... down the back of the tank, down the edge of our new laminate floor... by the time I unplugged it, half the floor was covered. PANIC!

Anyway, I'm mopped up, except for the unknown amount that ran straight down the edge of the floor. OOPS. I am convincing myself it'll be fine, and it is down the back of the tank, so... whatever. LOL.

I'll take full tank shots when the dust settles... I've turned one of the powerheads off and put a filter sock with floss over the other one, which is clearing it quite quickly.

Don't know if I dare touch the water again.

 

[SkiFletch]

Ah the trials and tribulations. I wouldn't worry about the water. Saltwater is actually less damaging to walls and foundations since it will NOT promote rot and mildew as it dries (the salt kills those nasty fungi ). Large freshwater spills are actually more dangerous

 

[robbhp]

you got to love the first flood, i had mine the other night, not fun at all

Rob

 

[Miss Wiggle]

sounds like you've had fun!

i know exactly the look you meant from your mum..... your doing what??? it's also accompanied by the look of horror at.... that cost you how much

even my dad thinks we're mental and he's a fishkeeper too.

we're hopefully getting some new LR soon, I want cool critters!!

and don't worry over the flood, Ian's flooded our house so many times now, i don't even get upset any more

 

[sparklefuzz]

sounds like you've had fun!

i know exactly the look you meant from your mum..... your doing what??? it's also accompanied by the look of horror at.... that cost you how much

even my dad thinks we're mental and he's a fishkeeper too.

we're hopefully getting some new LR soon, I want cool critters!!

and don't worry over the flood, Ian's flooded our house so many times now, i don't even get upset any more

I divided the cost by 3 and told her that. LOL She was probably still horrified.

So, more disasters today. I've been struggling with my temperature... I bought a digital thermometer and it was fluctuating between 25.0 and as high as 27 at times. Damn near threw the heater, thinking it was that. Anyway, this morning I put in 2 suction cupped glass thermometers, only to find them both stable at 26 whilst the digital went up and down. So, that is going in the bin.

Then, I checked my salinity on my refractometer, 1.018!! panic... so I decided to calibrate it with RO to be sure it was accurate, and when doing so, the line between the blue and white tilted... so, I went online, and found a troubleshooting guide... and while I was turning the barrel... to straighten the line, everything fell apart on me.

So! Sent hubby in his lunch hour to buy a new one.. £40 from LFS *shock horror* (I paid £28 for the first one on ebay) but once I'd got it, and calibrated it, it read beautifully at 1.022 and was much much easier to see. Always struggled with the other. So, a blessing in disguise I think.

Ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are 0, PH is 8.2. I've ordered a phosphate test kit... should come tomorrow.

Does anyone have any ideas how I can run phosphate remover with no external filter and no sump??

Posting tank pics in a few minutes, just gotta go download them to my pc then transfer them... never simple is it?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah sometimes i find with the new technology it can be a right pain in the posterior, back to the old skool!

do you have an internal filter of any sort in there?

you could get a small internal remove the sponge, sit the phosphate remover in it's place and use it as another powerhead

 

[sparklefuzz]

yeah sometimes i find with the new technology it can be a right pain in the posterior, back to the old skool!

do you have an internal filter of any sort in there?

you could get a small internal remove the sponge, sit the phosphate remover in it's place and use it as another powerhead

No internal in there at the moment... but I've got a fluval 1... would that work? oooh another plughole to find yay! LOL

 

[JaminRat]

yeah sometimes i find with the new technology it can be a right pain in the posterior, back to the old skool!

do you have an internal filter of any sort in there?

you could get a small internal remove the sponge, sit the phosphate remover in it's place and use it as another powerhead

No internal in there at the moment... but I've got a fluval 1... would that work? oooh another plughole to find yay! LOL

I'm using one of those at the moment with filter floss to give the water a bit of a polish with no problems so far and I think you can buy rowaphos as a sponge which would fit nicely in the fluval (I may be wrong though). I'm looking at HOB style filters at the moment for the same purpose as you and they are quite cheap around £15 delivered. It has the advantage of being out of the display unlike the internal.

Just checked and they do make a sponge that also contains carbon. Bonus.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah sometimes i find with the new technology it can be a right pain in the posterior, back to the old skool!

do you have an internal filter of any sort in there?

you could get a small internal remove the sponge, sit the phosphate remover in it's place and use it as another powerhead

No internal in there at the moment... but I've got a fluval 1... would that work? oooh another plughole to find yay! LOL

think so, not sure on that exact model but it'll probably be OK!

Ian's put an extra ring of sockets downstairs to handle the extra load from fishtanks