My Underwater Adventure Continues

[xxBarneyxx]

Cool as I said I'm no expert on starfish but thought I would bring it up. You obviously know what your doing though so this is a good thing

Good job on the glass, I have fallen into the trap of putting rock near the glass more than once and its a right PITA which is why I brought it up again

For the green algae I would pull out as much by hand as you can. IME most snails and hermits wont really touch it and it can grow out of control quickly during the early stages of setting up a tank.

 

[sorgan]

lol, my LFS has got my algae eating blennie waiting for me and i have these 2 hitchhiker crabs that have been grazing it. i would hardly say i know what i am doing but i have spent alooooong time researching what will go into the tank.

my only concern is that my LR didnt seem so stable as i was positioning the corals but i suppose nothing is heavy enough in there to move any of it

oh and my clownfish seems to just hover abouve my powerhead by the filter intake, is he hosting the powerhead or is there a reason he doesnt swim about the tank? he has used the whole tank so i know he can, maybe he likes the powerhead.

 

[seffieuk]

He is hosting the powerhead, good sign for when you get a nice coral in there - he will probably move over to that, so choose wisely

Seffie x

 

[sorgan]

Well today has seen a few changes, my lawn mower blenny is in and is busy mowing my lawn.

I replaced my lights with new bulbs as mine where old as time.

I've started a brine shrimp colony inside my refugium ( the large dead area that was the filteration system that I didn't use)
it wasn't supposed to be s colony just a tasty treat but a few got away and are hiding in the back so I presume they will provide future tasty treats

the one thing I would like to ask is this, my LMB came with a stowaway feeder shrimp in the bag, said shrimp is now happily cleaning my tank.
The LFS said that he will be eaten by my fish but he is almost as big as my clown and the blenny, well being an algae eater, doesn't seem intrested.
Will the shrimp do any harm if I leave him alone? I'm not to concerned if it gets eaten in the future but don't won't it messing my tank up. Thoughts?

 

[seffieuk]

He will be fine, Trod has had some in her tank for months, she bought them for the lionfish

Seffie x

ps oh you might not know, it died

 

[sorgan]

Ah, he would have trouble eating shrimp if he is dead, poor blighter, I love lion fish but don't fancy trying to keep one.
I gotta say I love this blenny, how any one can say they are boring and drab I will never know.

 

[sorgan]

Well this weekend saw the addition of 3 cleaner shrimp, another clown and £100 worth of LED lights.

The LED light has made the tank so much brighter and the flicker that is created is amazing, it's like being underwater!

the cleaner shrimp had me cursing as when I begun acclaimitising them they decided enough was enough, climbed out of the bag and jumped straight into the tank. They seem happy enough so i am resigned to beliving that they knew best.

They new clown has taken to the tank like a fish to water (hahaha, ok sorry) and seems to be showing none of the timidness of his tank mate. Me and my partner have named them terry (or terri if nature swirls it that way) and tony (same applies)

LMB is super happy and I have noticed he has these amazing flashes of color down his sides, he almost seems to change color and has so much character, sadly he hasn't made much of a dent in the hair algae but while it isn't hurting anything I am happy to let it stay, it does after all provide hiding places for live food (a bag of brineshrimp has taken up residence on my refugium and there is a few that dart in and out of the algae forest)

my stowaway crabs are getting less shy and very occasionally tip out of rocks to grab any food that makes it past my hungry tankmates, they are also attempting to eat the forest, usually when blenny isn't looking.

My sand sifting star seems to be flourishing, his night time forays are very amusing to watch and I often see him clung to the glass on the morning just after the twilight phase starts. We named him patrick as he isn't to bright (he can totally miss the food I bury for him 3-4 times before he grasps the fact it's edible)

we have seen many new things pop into the tank, a small muscle that seems to Houdini from one place to another, a brittle star that i belive may of become sand sifer fodder and a gazzilion worms, pods and wriggly things to boot.

My leather toadstool seems ok but has a few bald patches (LFS belives this to be growth related) and the green star coral is thriving to the extent that it's trying to spread off it's home rock.

It's becoming the little Eco system I had hoped for

 

[sorgan]

Had a bit of a re-aquascape, moved the leather toad up

close up

the clowns

and the blenny

got a fair bit to do, I want to build a new hood with LED lighting built in, luckily my brother in law is an eletronics wizard so he has been called up to serve the family

dunno if I should go all LED or have my T5's and and LED hybrid (like I have ATM but brighter) it's food for thought I suppose.

 

[razer121]

nice i really like marine tanks yours is looking real good

 

[sorgan]

Today saw the 2nd to last fish go into the tank, that said my nitrate levels always seem so low so I may be able to house some more friends
anyway back to the recent addition, my newest friend is a coral beauty, risk I know but after some research I am sure it will be ok.

They have a bad rep as coral nippers but if it has enough variety of diet I am sure it will leave my corals alone.

I was very tempted to get a flame angel but the LFS talked me out of it (price/fatality issues) and after a long chat I decided on the CB.
No pics yet as it's a wee bit shy but under blue light the extreme ends of it's fins glow with an almost electric blue color.

 

[sorgan]

It's taken me 3 hours So here is my coral beauty

 

[sorgan]

Righty today I decided that I am going to make use of the 40litre dead space that should be my tanks filter.
As I use LR, skimmer and power heads I have 3 chambers that are empty except fir water flow.

My plan is to dump some lava rock In the bottom of each chamber (water will pass through said rock and in time it will build up friendly bacteria) and then fill each chamber with an algae if some variety, I will also remove all filter pads as I don't like them.

My theory is that this 'wanted' algae will use up all the nutrients any hair algae is relying on so the hair algae should dissapear.
I may also put a hermit or two in this algae patch to eat any muck that builds up.

I also hope to start a few cultures of pod and artemia in these algae patches to provide random treats.

So can anyone reccomend some algae? I was leaning towards caulerpa as it will be contained to prevent an outbreak.

 

[sorgan]

Today I decided to spend the day browsing mys LFS's as Monday is my day off I feel I deserved it

came home with 2 corals, I know I am weak.
After much chin wagging with one of the guys I picked out a torch coral,

whilst looking I saw this

yes I am aware it looks like a poo but it's actually a tongue or slipper coral and a coral that I really love, best thing is it had been in LFS for a few months (no one seemed to want a poo it seems) so the manager let me have it for a tenner

BTW the pics are of the corals 30 mins after they where placed they are now pretty much fully extended.

Yesterday saw the addition of a mithrax crab to help control algae, ge is doing a sterling job and is named gnome as he has taken up residence under my toadstool.

 

[Morri]

Nice buy on the Slipper same family as the Fungia`s very impressed with mine apart from it having a load of space yet it keeps moving to the glass the colour looks a little unusual but it also looks a little small I would not be surprised if the colour started to change as it settles in

 

[sorgan]

Update time, I have spent 2 hours 'weeding' my tank of green algae, what fun.

The slipper coral looks great and seems happy, my lawn mower blenny likes to sit on it but the coral seems not to mind.

The torch on the other hand doesn't seem as happy as it was in the LFS, do they take a while to acclaimatize or something? It's not like it's dying it's just bit as perky as it was in LFS. Oh and ATM it's perched on a rock, do you guys glue them down or just leave them?