My Orca Diary

[xhale2007]

After finally getting my water temp to settle nicely, my sg is at about 1.020, is this ok to leave and then top up with a small amount of saltwater to get spot on?

I went to my LFS and picked up 6 1/2 kgs of eco friendly live rock and added that to the tank. When i got this the guy gave me a small frag to try see how it gets on. As soon as i put it in, it began opening, and it opened up fully within about 20mins. i guess this is a good sign.

I noticed after i put the frag in that there was a tiny star fish of some sort, has bristley legs, so i assume its a bristlestar is it? will this be ok for now? As within 5mins it was hidden under the rocks.

ive also found about 3 tiny snails without a shell, and 1 smallish one with a shell. Not really seen much else, apart from some grass looking bits in both red and green, and some clear sort of grass stuff with small black bits on??

water stats:

SG: 1.020
ph: 8.2-8.4
ammonia: 0.25ppm
nitrite: 0ppm
nitrate: 0pmm
temp: 25.3c

And this is the clear grass like stuff??

Dan

 

[gigmeyer]

I'm new to this game too, but I'd suggest topping off for evaporation with salt water at normal salinity. This should bring it up to normal range slowly. Once you get the salinity up, start topping off with regular water (RO preferred of course).

The star fish sounds like a brittle star. I've been watching 2 that came with my live rock. They're pretty cool but very shy. I can't wait until they grow enough to come out of their hiding places.

You're tiny snails w/o shells might be stomatella varia. They're a common (and good) hitchiker that actually have a shell, but it is sometimes difficult to see.

It's fun to watch what starts crawling out of the LR, Enjoy the show!

 

[steelhealr]

Do you have room on the sides for a magfloat to get in there to clean the glass? SH

 

[xhale2007]

yea, i have plenty of room around the sides, even though it doesnt look like it

the snails r so tiny, id never see a shell, i havent seen the star fish since he went it really. on the piece of frag we got, there is a small piece thats like loads of tentecals and this has moved sides on the rock overnight, i have no idea what it is

not really noticed much else still

 

[xhale2007]

the tentical type thing looks like this, which is trumpet anenome - aiptasia somthing. do i need to do summit?

 

[xhale2007]

After finally getting my water to settle out and cycle, i decided it was time to take a trip down atlantis and get a clean up crew. i picked up 5 turbos and 4 red legged hermits. they have made a big dent in the diatoms id suffered already. gonna pop down there again during the week and pick up a few more frags

 

[SkiFletch]

Sounds like you're off to a good start. Those anemones (if they are aiptasia) are bad-news longterm to the tank. I'd look into removal methods. Things like adding peppermint shrimp, berghia nudibranchs, manual killing by injection with jojes juice/kalwasser/lime juice, or scaring them off the rock with rapid lowering of temperature.

 

[xhale2007]

Thanks for the reply, yea i demolished the aiptasia with some joes juice. worked for a few days and it was back lol. done it again and havent seen ne more life from it since. probably dint get it right 1st time.

what sort of corals do u think would be good for the tank, being a beginner and having the orca 12g?

dan

 

[sianeds]

You quite often need a couple of doses of JJ to completely kill off aiptasia, so don't be surprised if it comes back yet again.

Good starter corals for your tank would be some nice mushrooms Ricordea/Discosoma both come with some lovely colours and patterns if you shop around, don't go for the boring brown ones, you will find real pretty blues and reds with some patience.

Another good starter is Xenia sp. which in good conditions will grow like a weed, but it adds some nice movement and you can also get some nice pink or white specimens.

Leather corals Lobophytum spp.are also a good place to start. I probably wouldn't go for Sarcophyton spp. as they can get quite big and grow real fast in good conditions. Definately don't go for an elephants ear Amplexidiscus fenestrafer as it will fill your tank.

Green Star Polyps Pachyclavularia spp.would also add some colour and movement to your display.

 

[xhale2007]

well i made yet another trip to atlantis today

i picked up a cleaner shrimp (is this a pepermint shrimp?)

i also got some more coral bits, i got a pulsing xenia, a feather duster and a small mushroom.

got them all in the tank, and they seem to be settling in well.

I also noticed a huge bristleworm coming out of the piece of live rock, much to my horror, they seem to freak me out a bit. i take it there fine and wont do no harm??

Cheers

Dan

 

[gigmeyer]

Unfortunately cleaner shrimp and peppermint shrimp are not the same. The good news is they can live in the same tank if you want to go back and add a peppermint shrimp too. I added a peppermint the minute I saw aiptasia and have not had any problems since, so hopefully you can be lucky as well and not have to resort to spot feeding them with joe's juice or some other concoction.

Bristle worms are generally good hitchhikers as long as you don't touch them

 

[Miss Wiggle]

well i made yet another trip to atlantis today

i picked up a cleaner shrimp (is this a pepermint shrimp?)

i also got some more coral bits, i got a pulsing xenia, a feather duster and a small mushroom.

got them all in the tank, and they seem to be settling in well.

I also noticed a huge bristleworm coming out of the piece of live rock, much to my horror, they seem to freak me out a bit. i take it there fine and wont do no harm??

Cheers

Dan

your adding all those corals to a new tank??

the trick with marines is to go slow, don't add more than 1 coral at any time and you need to leave the tank a good few months before adding corals really.

and no a cleaner shrimp is not a peppermint shrimp