N3Ont3Tra's 37G Reef Tank Journal

[littleme1969]

Well that all looks pretty normal to me, nothing of the ordinary. Blue legged hermits are more active and tend to eat more rubbish and clean up faster. Spiny Astralium or plain Astralium are fantastic eaters of all different types of algae. I got 2 and between them they keep my tank spotless Another good snail is Vibex Nass they hang out under your sand and all you see is their snorkle..lol Mumching away on all the dead stuff in your sand, they also do a bit of cleaning on the glass and rocks too. I also have bubble snails that clean the rock and glass. between all my snails and hermits my rock and tank sparkle and I have no alge issues what so ever to date

 

[n3ont3tra]

Oh yeah... I have 5 nassarius snails too. I'll try to get astraeas, but they don't have them in stock online and my mom hates shopping so it's tough to get her to take me to the fish store.

 

[n3ont3tra]

The algae is almost totally gone, which is weird because I didn't add any snails or anything. I did buy a cleaner shrimp though. And he's awesome, I stick my hand in and he comes over and cleans it. I also found a ton of feather dusters and a little aiptasia and a coral. It's one of those polyp ones and it's green. And I rearranged the tank. Pics coming as soon as I get my camera to work.

 

[n3ont3tra]

More pics.

The best pic I could get of the coral:

Crabbby!

Trochus Snail:

Shrimp right after I put him in:

Annnnnd shrimp on the heater. He NEVER leaves the heater unless it's to go on my hand or up to the powerhead!!

I've tried moving him to the rocks while he's cleaning me but he just jumps off and goes back to the heater!! Weird. Oh well.

I'm leaving at 3am (EST) tomorrow and I very detailed instructions of where to fill the tank to, with pics, and I left 2 1/2 gallons of water and instructions on how to use the RO unit. And I'm still worried.

 

[shibby]

looks good, is that coral your on a bout a small feather duster? ....

cleaner shrimp are awesome im thinkign of getting a couple they massage your fingers

 

[mcdanielnc89]

hope everything goes well...

 

[mattster]

maybe you shrimp thinks you heater is dirty. lol nice tank

 

[n3ont3tra]

looks good, is that coral your on a bout a small feather duster? ....

I don't think so 'cause it's completely green... but I could be wrong.

 

[n3ont3tra]

Okay I'm back... and the tank is covered in algae. I'm buying more snails and the first fish will be the jawfish, coming this week. Shrimp is still alive. No pics because the tank is too ugly.

 

[mcdanielnc89]

LOL.. Hope you get the algae taken care of...

 

[n3ont3tra]

I got the snails and jawfish today. I love the jawfish, he's so cute. Video:



sorry it's not very good, I had to take it through the side of the tank and I don't clean the sides very often.

I hope he moves it somewhere I can see him better...

 

[n3ont3tra]

The snails are stuffing their face like there's no tomorrow. The shrimp is hanging upside down from a rock. And Jaws hasn't been sighted yet today.

 

[atmmachine816]

Tank looks nice, and nice jawfish, they have fun behaviors

two things:
will the shells over time get junk in them and lead to ammonia spikes?
astrea snails can fall over in case you haven't read that

 

[SkiFletch]

Yes, and no, not ammonia but nitrates yes
And yes, Astrea snails have difficulty righting themselves

 

[n3ont3tra]

Well.. the jawfish didn't come out at all wednesday or thursday. I woke up the morning and found him dead in the front corner. No marks or anything on him he looked perfectly normal other than being dead. The nassarius snails had just gotten to him when i woke up, so he must've died recently. Parameters were all fine, before and after death.



About the shells, I thought about that. If I have a problem then I can just take them out.

I don't know if I'm going to get another jawfish or not... I pretty much planned this tank around a jawfish, but there didn't seem to be any problem with my fish and he just died. I thought they were supposed to be relatively hardy. I guess he was just stressed out.

Any opinions on whether i should get another one or not, or why he died?