What is this?

[Eob13681]

Hi folks I have recently started up my marine tank been running for 2 weeks now and I have just put in live rock and I got this little guy but have no idea what it is! also he keeps floating to the top and with all the water movment going on he must be getting dizzy!! I am so excited, its a hard waiting game!!!

Here he is I hope!!

 

[Max]

looks like a tiger tail cucmber. or if not a tiger tail one a cucumber. beware some cucumbers will release toxins when they are stressed or dying. but tiger tails dont. anyone else think this is a tigertail?

 

[nutter]

yes it is

 

[Eob13681]

Still confused a little

Had a search for it there and couldnt find much, but what I could find showed me a bumpy rough looking thing. Mine aint its smooth!?

 

[Eob13681]

Hi there this pic might be a little better to see it, I placed it on the rock as it seemed to be more active, must have been a bit slow from being out the water during transportation of the rock. Anyway it took hold, here it is a little blurred but not to bad.

Heres one of the tank in all its glory, quite pleased with the live rock some interesting things on it, time will tell what they are I guess!

 

[Navarre]

Tank looks great! Trigons make wonderful tanks for aquascaping ideas.

Not sure about the worm sorry so wont make any guesses as to what it might be.

Is that red algea in the bottom right corner Haliptilon? If so then its quite a rare algea in the UK. I have loads of it and the dmenad from people that want it for their sumps (its very stable and wont crash) is phenominal. Be aware though, it likes alot of calcium and lower light levels to get the best from it.

My only concerns is your sand. It looks quite deep. Make sure you have a few cretures that will turn this sand over alot as it will form bad areas with bad gasses etc. If possible, i would try to keep the live rock off that depth of sand or it will create dead spots where bad nutrients will increase.

 

[Eob13681]

Hi there thanks for the comments.

As for the red algea in the bottom right corner not sure at all, what pic are you talking about and I could get you a closer pic to show you what it is. No idea lol.

I kept the sand under the live rock quite shallow, but thanks for the comments. How soon do you recommend that I put in some sand shifters/clean up crew?

Eddie.

 

[Navarre]

The alea is on the bottom rock on the right hand side (as i look at it)
I will post a piccy if mine for you.

If the live rock in that area is on shalow sand then that is a far better idea. As for adding things to the tank.
How much live rock have you got there? how long has it been there? and are you feeding the liverock? if nothing is in the tank to feed the rock then you are doing more harm than good to the liverock. I alway buy as much liverock as i can and place it in the tank, (good quality rock from a reputable dealer) I put my first fish in the tank within 24 hours. this is enough to keep the tank fed and bacteria levels high. If you dont have anything in the tank then bacteria will decline and you will need to cycle your tank.

 

[Eob13681]

Ahh Confusing, fish shop says I should wiat a few weeks, says I should add the live rock then wait 1-2 weeks before adding anything!! But from what I have seen on here people put in a few fish at the same time. got about 13kg of live rock.

 

[Navarre]

You can do it the way the fish shop has sugested but in the meantime this only means the liverock is not being supplied with the waste material needed to keep the liverock with a fully loaded bioload.

Here is what has been said elsewhere and seems to carry alot of weight behond the theory. I use this method and never lost a fish through it.

Fully cured live rock should not cycle on introduction to a new salt water aquarium.

What Steve has said above is right - it really all comes down to the rock being fully cured on introduction. If it is, when it enters your tank, then there should be no problem.

I've noticed a lot of replies lately about fully cured live rock going through the 'recognized' cycling process. I really don't think that this is true. The reason I don't say that "it categorically isn't true" is because I'm waiting for an answer to a question from some microbiologists - hopefully within the next week (all established tanks cycle continuously but this is beyond test kit detection )

Fully cured live rock has nothing on it that will die back. With no die back, there can be no cycling of the rock - end of story.... - ish . There is the issue of 'osmotic shock' to address though. From what I believe, the Nitrosomanas sp. of bacteria found on/in live rock don't have a cell wall that allow the rapid transfer of water into/out of the cell (this is what I'm trying to establish). So, osmotic shock should not be a major factor.

That said, if anybody doesn't agree with me, then why do Steve, STM, Fantasea etc (all purveyors of quality fully cured live rock) say that their rock is ready to go? Provided that the rock arrives with you within 12-24 hrs then it should be fine. The only way this rock will 'cycle' is if some of it has died during shipping (unlikely, given the experience in packaging of the sellers) or if you kill some of it on receipt.

Provided that your salt water is set-up in accordance with your salt manufacturers’ recommendations, then there really shouldn't be a problem.

I've only set-up 6 reef tanks thus far (nothing, compared to others), all using fully cured live rock as the main filtration, and I've stocked each tank within 2 days of the rock going in . So far, I have suffered no fatalities as a result of this start up procedure (fatalities down the line are a different issue ). Now, I'm either the luckiest Taff reef keeper around or the suppliers of fully cured live rock are right .

Once I've received the answers to the questions I've asked, I'll write a diatribe on this subject . If I'm wrong, then I'll go gracefully


Cheers,

 

[Eob13681]

Ok Thanks a lot for that, Still trying to find out what the hell this wormy thing is!! lol