Nat's 125 Litre Juwel Rio Marine!

[natwood]

Quick update, ended up putting my sand in scooping it in a cup at a time. It's all nice and cloudy now and I can't see a thing. Haha. Will post a picture when it clears up..which I imagine will take a while...

 

[natwood]

Still fairly cloudy, especially as I just dusted off loads of the sand with a paintbrush. Haha. But here's my tank with live rock and sand. You can pretty much see the layout of it. I've made sure there's lots of little caves and places for things to hide. Tied some of the pieces together with cable-ties after drilling small holes in them. It's all pretty sturdy now. It's a shame so much of the rock is buried in the sand, but I guess I can move some of it away from the bottom of it.

I've got one small piece of live rock with what looks like green grass on it. It's kind of stripey. Will it be algae or a plant of some kind? I'll get a picture of it when the water's clear.

 

[ben1987]

looking good nat. any sign of that ammonia kit yet?


the green stuff is probably either hair algae, or green star polyps.

 

[natwood]

looking good nat. any sign of that ammonia kit yet?


the green stuff is probably either hair algae, or green star polyps.

Thanks! No it's not here yet. I think it should arrive tomorrow, it was dispatched in the middle of the week, so hopefully!
I've got a feeling it's hair algae, isn't that stuff bad? It doesn't look too bad. Just like I've got a bit of regular grass on a rock. Haha.

 

[ben1987]

yank it off! It will do your head in eventually! when it starts growing evrywhere

 

[natwood]

Here's some pictures of my tank now that the water's started to clear a bit more. Should be getting a protein skimmer soon, I found one second hand and should be buying it in a day or so. Hopefully my new powerhead will be here soon too. This ones sucks!

I've taken some pictures of the green algae/plant type stuff. Will it definitely take over the tank? I quite like it. lol. Also does it looks like I've got enough/big enough caves? I was thinking of trying to pull the rocks out a bit as about 3 inches of them are buried in the sand. Not sure if I've got too much sand either? It was 2 bags of Arag-Alive, I guess it's not properly spread round the back yet though.

 

[eltz21]

hey nat, tank is looking good.

how much sand did u use?

And what salt?

 

[natwood]

hey nat, tank is looking good.

how much sand did u use?

And what salt?

Thanks! I used 2 bags of Arag-Alive sand. Not sure about the salt as I bought the water ready mixed from P@H.

 

[seffieuk]

If it were me I would take out some of that sand Nat

Seffie x

 

[natwood]

If it were me I would take out some of that sand Nat

Seffie x

Will it cause problems or purely for aesthetic reasons? I might move some of it to the back to make it even. Right now it's just kinda how it landed in the tank.

 

[seffieuk]

Both really, a deep sand bed can be difficult to keep clean oh and forgot to mention that green stuff looks like a macro algae, just check it isn't Bryopsis by doing a google

Seffie x

 

[ben1987]

it shouldnt cause you any problems for quite a while. Eventually most people have top replace their sand. As all the crap gets stuck in it. If you want to look into it, its linked to 'old tank syndrome'

You can have problems if you go too deep. Like 4 inches plus, as this is then considered a deep sand bed. When a DSB is disturbed and oxygen let into the anerobic bacteria at the bottom it can cause your water quality to go T!ts up.

I always hoover my top layer off with all teh crap on water change day. Then you lose some sand each week. Then when it gets low - chuck some fresh stuff over the last bit.

Id try and get rid of that algae if i where you, i had a rock that started off like that, ended up like a field. Couldnt shift it at all. Its now sumped!

 

[AK77]

If you can Nat, remove that piece of rock and place it in a bucket. That bryopsis can be a real PITA if it gets established, and not many things eat it either. You could try picking it off with tweezers or needle pliers, alternatively, you could get a cold chisel and chip away the top layer of rock that the bropsis is attached on to and ditch it, then return the main bit of rock back into the tank.

 

[seffieuk]

ah but we dont know if it is bryopsis yet! It could be a macro algae, the same as I have in my tank, doesn't grow that fast.

Seffie x

 

[natwood]

Ah right, I'll try and get some of the sand out then, will also have a go at getting rid of that algae.
After all my freaking out about Zoas the other day..I think I've actually got one! Over the last hour it's slowly started to open out..if it is a Zoa anyway? At first I thought it was a tube sponge. If it is a Zoa, will I need to improve my lighting? I've only got the original lights in that came with the tank.

Try and spot my well disguised feather duster..haha. It keeps wandering around my tank and popping out of different rocks! Do I need to feed it anything? Don't want it to die!