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[AliRichardson]

Hello everyone

I'm Ali and I have just signed up to these forums so that I can hopefully grab advice and when I have a nice tank to show... share some piccies

I have been keeping marines for about 2 years now and I have gone through 2 tanks. The current tank I have is a bow front Aquamedic tank.

The reason I decided to join up is because I pulled something from the tank that was stuckunder the glass edge running around the top of the tank... It was light brown in colour (similar to a soft coral) and it was made up of an intestine like mass. My suspicion was eggs so i put em in a pest trap (that has so far never caught a pest) and stuck them back in the tank.

Hopefully I can get a pic of the mass and show you here.

Unfortunately for you guys it seems I have more problems with the tank rather than helpful experience so the first threads I post will be seeking help rather than giving

\looking forward to getting to know you all

Ali

 

[sianeds]

Welcome Ali 8)

Get some pics......we love pics here

Nice tank btw what do you have in there so far?

 

[AliRichardson]

Ill try and get some pics, but I am shy to show them as my tank is currently having a "bloom" and the algae at the bottom of the glass is starting to get REALLY tough to remove- my 2 clowns dont like me cleaning up either and I do get bitten/headbutted regularly. And when I say bloom its more of an ongoing thing

Once I have my list composed I have a question also... here goes!

2 regal tangs- had them from the start and they are getting big
2 of the B&W clownfish- also had for 2 years.
1 psychadelic mandarin
1 watchman goby (unsure if it really is a watchman goby)
6 green Chromis - hated by the clownfish but generally laugh at em.
1 pink+yellow spotted lobster - rarely seen
2 cleaner shrimp
2 of the blood red type of shrimp
(possibly a couple of candy cane shrimp but i see them less often than the lobster)
1 big hermit crab- which I want to take back to the shop as he is a nuisance that my dad insisted on
lots of little baby hermits and some bigger blue legged hermits
sea snails
1 big blue starfish
1 Sea Hair
1 Sea whip
1 clam
5 or 6 corals which I couldnt say what they were...
1 anemone but I dont know its real name its flat and circular in shape, its green and very sticky.
1 big mound of live rock


that question: Am I in your opinion over stocked?

As you can tell there is alot of stock in there that my dad had bought whilst I have been away and he has no idea what its called- just likes the look of it. Thus I have no idea what its called...

Another classic that my dad has done over the past couple of weeks is havin a fasination with batfish! I personally dont think these things will survive in our tank as the ones he bought were about 3 inches tall and wont stand a chance against the tangs at feeding time. I have heard they are tricky to feed anyway Over the past few weeks I have seen the tank bloom with the myserious vanishing of a batfish! I have said no more bloody batfish! haha

There is a fish in there which is quite interesting. It is bright blue with a yellow tail and its just a bit bigger than the clowns. when it gets angry it changes to a charcoal grey/black colour and back to blue when its happy. It's an almost instantaneous change which is really nice to see now and again. Unfortunately I have no idea what it is.

The reason I want to get rid of the large hermit is actually 2 reasons... 1. he causes big rock falls and I know one day he will land one on our anemone and that will be v v sad. 2. he ate all but 1 of our feather dusters the utter git. I had to hide the remaining 1 partly under a rock.

I was having a little read through your anemone FAQ posts. Very good reading. I have a feeling that we have been v lucky with our water quality as I dont feel in anyway an expert after 2 years but our current anemone seems to be doing very well! However that isnt to say we have had anemone related disasters in the past...

We currently have a flat green anemone which isnt too dissimilar to a mushroom (oh yeah I forgot we have a couple of mushies too). We have had tendril like anemones in the past and they havent survived a week. This has mainly been down to during that period they like to find their spot. Unfortunately every time we had one I would come down 1 morning and find it stuck to a powerhead and in a very bad way Now we have taken extra precaution with those powerheads and we gave them sponge protection so that there was no way anything (like our roaming sea hair) could get stuck to it.

Sorry for the long post, just venting some past woes on the tank...


Edit: just found the blue unnamed fish, an orange carnation coral (which I forgot to mention, and ours has released a few mini frags around it) and that blue starfish

 

[AliRichardson]

As promised some pics of the tank, I havent zoomed in on it all as there is alot of algae atm please excuse it.


my tank

clam and cleaner shrimp

clowns and tangs

silly clown getting comfy in a coral rather than its anemone

the tangled mess i pulled off the back wall

As you can see the last pic is what I hope isn't eggs! If they are i may have just killed our first babies! Hopefully they will be safe in the trap!

 

[rhysiboy]

just a tip make the room dark and dont use the flash will make everything look more natural, part from that wow your tank is really nice

 

[SkiFletch]

Tank looks nice, well established

A few thoughts: That green anemone is commonly known as a Haddons Carpet Anemone. I'll bet just about any money that the carpet nem ate your batfish at night . Carpets are one of the best at catching/eating fish, especially slow fish. They also require significant lighting, what do you have over the tank?

As for being over-stocked, probably not. My only concern is that the tank is a little short for your tangs, they typically do best long-term in 5 or 6' long tanks while yours is only a 4'.

Other than that, tank looks great. Can we get a pic of the mandarin?

 

[Eversurf]

You do have a bit of green algea in there. Do you see your Hippo Tang eat any of it? I stopped feeding mine algea flakes and he started eating what's on the rock. The best way to control it is to find the source of the problem. What kind of water do you put in your tank? Tap or R/O ? Test it and see if it seems ok.

I would get a couple Emerald crabs(3), couple smaller hermit crabs like you suggested and how many snails do you have? You might need more.

What are your water readings?

Nice tank

Another tip. Don't use your real name for screenname when you are on the internet. Just m opinion

Have fun!!!

 

[AliRichardson]

I havent seen the mandarin in a while, but then again I think that about quite a few bits and bobs that are in there! I will keep the camera poised just in case he pops out.

I have just done a water change. I checked the readings before hand and the Ca was at about 500ppm, nitrate test was slightly tinged pink so im not so worried about that, PO4 was up a bit so I reckon thats what the algae is mocking me with!

Oh whilst I was doing the change we had some exciting action! The Sea Hare popped out for a stroll, I saw the claw of my lobster (which is v exciting) and the big crab fell into the nem!!!!!!!! I did wonder whether I should leave it or not but I decided to pull him free because I thought he might damage it. If I stopped to grab the camera I reckon he would have been too far stuck in it and irretrievable, so no snaps sorry!

Just as a follow up to Ski, when the batfish disappeared the tank had a real surge in algae. if it was eaten by the nem would that surge have happened still?

oh and here is a pic of my sea star (sorry for the reflection).

And some pics I took with no flash and darkened the room as much as poss:

the tank
The crab (my favourite piccy so far)
The female clown posing in coral
eggs???


When it comes to snails I have no idea how many we have! my guess is about 7-8.

As for lighting we have something quite powerful with 2 halides and two blue tubes, ill try and find a weblink for it now. We were told a year or so ago that we were the first people in the UK to ever have one as it was imported

 

[AliRichardson]

lighting is aquasunlight

we used to have an overtank luminaire on the old tank. When we were setting up this new tank and finally turned on the lights we couldn't believe how bright they got!! no comparison.

We were saying "yeah thats about as bright as they will get" but no they kept getting brighter. We started squinting and felt as though we could get a tan from sitting in front of the tank.

It was funny because our neighbours were convinced we had bought a sunbed and just left it running lol XD

I have seen somewhere on these forums that someone has a moonlight which is V cool! I noticed that the aquamedic site has them for sale so tht might be the next purchase.

 

[steelhealr]

Welcome to the salty half of the TFF forum. SH

 

[Navarre]

Hello and welcome to the dark side

 

[SkiFletch]

Now that's some good lighting for an Anemone, well done . At least your neighbors dont think you're growing certain "plants"

As for the nem eating the batfish, you could absoloutely have a bloom after that. Remember, even anemones excrete what they dont digest... Eating something as big as a batfish would cause a nem to expel a significant amount of waste.

 

[AliRichardson]

At least your neighbors dont think you're growing certain "plants"

Now that made me lol

I guess the nem having the batfish is entirely possible as he does seem to have got big recently

 

[jeffery]

thought i would add a pic of my moon lights becouse you like them
and welcome to tff