Step-by-step account of my first reef (with lots of pics)

[Bax]

Dudester

The size difference melve mentions is really important. I just added a smaller o. clown out of QT and these two pared up in literally 5 minutes or less. The "old" clown was previously the subordinate one, after an unfortunate curious clown/nervous and jerky crocea clam incident, the old dominant clown met its demise. The "new" clown was purchased at just over half the size of the existing one. Worked like a charm, they are inseparable!

[Dudester]

[i]
There is another good book by Daphne Fautin about anemonefish that you might like. [/B]

Thanks, Marc, I'll do that.

Bax - Congrats on the pairing of your clowns, is that typical? The two clownfish I have are very different in size, with the female being more than twice the size of the new addition. They're almost never in close proximity to one another so I don't have a photo yet to show the size comparison. Three days into the attempted union and there are no fireworks going off in the tank, at least not the intended ones. They are tolerant of one another during feedings and neither looks particularly stressed, although the female is reluctant to allow the little guy to share her frogspawn home. She nestles into the frogspawn at night to sleep, and he sleeps in a different bed, in a relatively calm region at the far right of the aquascape, near the closed loop intake PVC pipe.

By the way, please elaborate on the whole clown/crocea incident. Sounds sad but extremely interesting, kinda like the car crash from which you find yourself paralyzed and unable to look away.

[Dudester]

At this stage of the game, my water parameters remained quite stable, although I was unhappy with my calcium and alkalinity despite dripping kalkwasser via my auto-topoff. My calcium ran around 380 and my kH/alk was 7/2.52. I decided to supplement with ESV B-Ionic, a two-part alk & Ca solution containing additional trace elements as well. The directions recommended starting at 1 ml of each solution for every 5 gallons of system water, and if using kalk (which I was) to cut that back to 1 ml per 10 gallons of system water. So one month ago I started adding 4 ml of each solution to my tank each day. I followed Ca and alk daily, and every 2 days I increased the volume of my B-Ionic addition in order to increase the calcium level in the tank. My alkalinity increased nicely to 9.3, but I was unable to get my calcium above 390, and that was with the addition of 40 ml of both B-Ionic solutions. I posed this problem to Randy Holmes-Farley and he recommended that I use this calculator to figure out how much of the calcium component to add. This came out to about 110 ml to increase my tank's calcium to 420. Well, instead of measuring, my man John and I simply squirted a boatload of the stuff into the tank a few days ago and measured serial calcium levels until it got to 410. Since that time I've been adding 30 ml of each component daily to maintain the level. I'll check it tonight to see where it is, and I'll update everyone.

My impetus for increasing the tank's calcium was my desire for some SPS, and I'll show you what I got in my next installment.

[Bax]

Don't know what to tell you about two part supplements. I used to drip Klak at night in my 26 g and added Kent's calcium supplement and my Ca was >400 my alk ~ 2.5 to 3 meg/l.

I just started running a Klak reactor on the 75 and I am still tweaking. If this does not give me the Alk/Ca levels I want I am looking at an MRC HOT Ca reactor for the 75 but I'd rather just buy corals so we'll see how it goes.

Oh yes, the clown/crocea incident ... let me see ... it was about a year ago now, my clowns had been in the 26 almost a year. I had a 5" deraesa and two 4-5" blue crocea clams. The larger clown had a habit of picking food off the LR and ... the clam mantles.

I got home from work one night and joined the family at the dinner table after which me and my two daughters went down stairs to the family room. One of them perched in front of the tank to see what was happening and she let's out a squeal. The larger clown was sticking face first straight up out of one of the croceas. Still alive and kicking. The harder it fought the tighter the clam gripped. I grabbed a container and yanked em both out'a there but the more I fiddled, the tighter the clam clamped down...

... it was over in a few more minutes that seemed an eternity for the clown. It took over an hour for the clam to open up and release the clown's lifeless little body ... sniffle ... sniffle .. and me without my digital camera!


... I got nothing!!!! not one picture!!!!


As for the crocea, niether one made it after the move to the office, they were my only livestock casualties of the move. Probably too much disruption of the sand bed in the 26 g tank during the move.

[Dudester]

With an improved calcium level and an adventurous spirit, I decided to embark on an SPS frag. Well, that, and John had gotten in some very small and very inexpensive frags at his LFS, and we figured this would be a good way to get started. There was a beautiful little fuzzy green pocillopora frag and a rather nice tricolor acropora frag (Acropora valida), and since the fuzzy greens are a little more plentiful around here and easier to find, I decided on the acropora frag. It had very recently been mounted on a small piece of LR with super glue gel, and it had not encrusted whatsoever at its base. I selected a location in my tank under direct light and copious flow, but not directly under a closed loop return so as to avoid ripping the tissue off of the little frag.

Here's what it looked like 3 weeks ago immediately after putting it in my tank. I super glued its LR base onto my aquascape instead of prying it off of the rock and remounting it.



This frag (really a "fraglet") is only about an inch tall. Sorry the image is so small, I'll need to do a better job of resizing in Photobucket. It's primarily brown although you can see that the axial corralite (the one at the top) has a purple hue. I expect it to develop some green, purple, and ? another color (hence the name "tricolor") in the future. In this pic the polyps aren't fully extended but most of the time they are, and it's beginning to lay down a base over the super glue gel. In the future I'd like to avoid adding relatively large pieces of rock to my aquascape, so I think I'll get a Dremel tool to chisel off the extra rock. Is that what people do, and if so, what bit is recommended?

Here are some full tank shots with the new frag in place. These pics were taken on Nov. 20th, 2005.

Here's the front ...



left side ...



and right side.



In the full frontal view, you can see where I put the acro frag, near the top and upon the central rock mound. It's happy there.

[Dudester]

Thanks, Bax, for that detailed and sad description - I know that must have been difficult for you. If you need a referral to a 12-step program, I can help . I'm glad you didn't have your camera. It would have been disgraceful for the poor fish, and this thread would have to be changed to a PG-13 rating.

As far as the calcium goes, and I may have mentioned it before, but I can't have a calcium reactor so I'll be dependent on this two-part supplement. I might get a LiterMeter dosing pump once I get the proper dosage dialed in. I know it's a lot of money but I'd like to automate things as much as possible due to my work.

Do you (or anyone out there) have any comment regarding the rapidity with which your clowns paired up? I'm starting to feel inadequate as a matchmaker.


Back to my tank in mid to late November ...

By this time I was feeling pretty confident about my setup. My corals were growing, my original percula clownfish was healing from its infection with lymphocystis, and my parameters were pretty stable. My peppermint shrimp were (and still are) molting regularly, as I find a sloughed shell in the tank about every 10 days (recall I have 3 of these shrimp). I never saw any eggs of any kind but I did find a small snail that to me resembled an astrea. I got a pic of it ... anyone know what it is? If it's a pest snail (if there are any) then I could remove it easily. Amazingly it hangs out in the same region of the tank and I've never had difficulty finding it.

[Dudester]

BTW, there are some small blue-legged hermit crabs at the left of the above image to give a sense of scale as to the size of this little snail. It's about 2/3 the circumference of a dime.

[Bax]

As far as time to pair, like all match making, it's a case by case basis ... took my wife nine years to come around.

I have a "pair" of pseudochromis fridmani in my tank. By pair, I mean they coexist in the same tank and the much larger female has not eaten the male as a snack. That effort has been ongoing for about 5 or 6 months, before transferring out of the 26 g the little male lived in an isolation container in the corner of the tank. I am told that I am doing pretty well at this pace. So be patient.

[Bax]

... one more thing on pairing, I belive that other fish in the system FW or SW play a big part in driving two of the same species together. In a community environment, they feel more driven to pair. JMO

[Dudester]

Originally posted by Bax
As far as time to pair, like all match making, it's a case by case basis ... took my wife nine years to come around.

Good stuff!

I'm glad to hear that having other fish will "drive" them together. That's actually a perfect segue into my next update, as I plan to get a six-line wrasse after I return from my holiday trip. Why a six-line?
1. I think they're a beautiful fish
2. Good size for my tank with nice color variation compared to my current occupants
3. Shouldn't damage any of my corals or future acquisitions
4. They eat flatworms!!!

[Dudester]

We're still in mid-late November, and I started noticing some very small, flat, grey, worm-like creatures with notched tails on my glass. They were almost motionless but occasionally wiggled along the glass. They looked exactly like a worm that was in the bag with my blasto colony that I got at the LFS. At that time I didn't remove the worm from the bag, believing that maybe it was a beneficial worm species. This was truly ignorant and I should have done a search right there and then. My other mistake was not doing a dip treatment of the coral to prophylactically treat any unwanted hitchhikers. So I just acclimated the blastos and put them in my display tank. Well a month later I saw tens of "Mini-Me's" on my glass that looked just like the big guy in the bag. I finally did some research and learned that I had FLATWORMS. Here's what I did.

I did a search on RC and read about Salifert's Flatworm eXit (FWE). I also checked Melev's site to learn the details of how to kill them. A brief summary for those of you who don't want to go to the trouble of researching is that these worms are considered unfavorable since they can populate a system quite heavily and smother a tank's occupants. They are highly-susceptible to treatment with FWE, which is supposed to be completely safe for everything else in the tank. There is an important caveat ... when the flatworms die they release a toxin which can kill the other inhabitants of the system. In order to reduce the toxicity, it's recommended that you siphon out all of the worms that are visible, then treat the tank with FWE. Here's the device I used to siphon them out. It's a piece of rigid tubing connected to some air line tubing, and the other end was rubberbanded into a fine mesh bag.





I cut the end of the rigid tubing as a bevel so that I could suction the worms off of the glass easier. A great trick that Marc mentions on his website is to place the mesh bag in your sump while siphoning, that way you don't waste any water and you can take your time without worrying about overflowing any container you might otherwise be holding. Just be sure that your flexible air line tubing is long enough so that it can rest in the sump, allowing you to walk around the display when siphoning out the flatworms.

In order to catch any dead worms that might have been flushed out into the overflow, I placed a mesh bag over my spray bar in the sump to catch them. Ultimately this didn't yield a ton of dead worms, but I thought it was a good idea at the time.



After siphoning out the worms, I removed the carbon from my sump and added the FWE. The directions suggest using 1 drop per gallon of system water, but many people add more (since the substance itself is supposed to be nontoxic to the system). I therefore added 2 times the recommended amount (90 drops). The flatworms started moving along the glass almost immediately, and as they came into view I siphoned them out. The instructions also say that if any worms are alive after 30 minutes, go ahead and treat again with 1 drop per 2 gallons of system water. I DID see more living worms and therefore treated again but with 1 drop per gallon (45 more drops). After another 20 minutes I placed new carbon into my sump, waited another hour, then did a 10 gallon water change to dilute any toxins.

I don't know if it was the FWE or the toxins released from the worms, but my peppermint shrimp went into hiding for 48 hours after the treatment. Fortunately they emerged unscathed. Less fortunate were my cerith snails, as several of them died during or immediately after the treatment. All of the other snails, pods, corals, and the clownfish appeared completely unaffected.

[Dudester]

Even though that battle had ended, the war wasn't over. Six days later I started seeing flatworms again on the glass . Over the next few days they began increasing in number, so I decided to treat again. The instructions actually indicate that it may be necessary to re-treat. So I added the rest (100 drops) of the bottle and followed the same procedure that I described above . Again some cerith snails died but nothing else, and this time the peppermint shrimp didn't seem to mind. I figured this had to be the end but 2 days later I saw a few more living flatworms on my glass . So I got the last bottle of FWE in town and 4 days ago I retreated the tank with 135 drops. Once again there was some cerith snail mortality and, in addition, my conch died. I haven't seen any flatworms since then, but I might just treat again tonight to try and nip this in the bud. My only reluctance in doing so is that it appears to be killing my snails even though it's supposed to be inert to all things other than flatworms. Anyone have any suggestions?

Interestingly, a few days after the first treatment with FWE I noticed that the chaeto in my fuge was starting to die back. Throughout this ~2 week treatment process it continued to recede until there was only a very small handful-size ball of macro that was alive and healthy. I removed the dead/dying macro and wonder if it was the FWE or flatworm toxins that may have knocked off my chaeto? Anyone have any similar experiences with this? I also considered that maybe it just wasn't getting enough light in my fuge based on the fact that my light hangs over the FRONT of the fuge compartment instead of OVER the center. John added that maybe there weren't enough nutrients in my tank (which would be a relatively good thing) to support the growth of this macroalgae. Comments or suggestions anyone?

Allow me to add here how helpful it's been to have someone local (John) to ask questions of in a pinch. This website is indeed wonderful, but there's nothing like having an in-person consultation to look things over, and to have someone (a mentor) from whom I can get help. It makes me really appreciate how difficult this hobby must be for folks living in remote areas, where the closest LFS is over an hour away. I'm spoiled in that I can visit one of 2 or 3 good LFS's, all within 20 minutes of my house.

[Dudester]

So I guess the take home point of this whole flatworm fiasco is that I should have dipped my blasto colony. On that topic, what do you folks use as a dip? I have Lugol's solution, and was thinking about combining Lugol's with FWE as a dip for ALL new corals that I get. Waddya think?

[maro1]

Allow me to add here how helpful it's been to have someone local (John) to ask questions of in a pinch. This website is indeed wonderful, but there's nothing like having an in-person consultation to look things over

I agree! do you think John Would like to move to Iowa?

Mar

[Dudester]

I'll allow him to respond to that

Hey John, whatever Mar is offering you, I'll double it!

[maro1]

Actually I am thinking about getting out of here myself it was 14 degrees below zero this morning! Arizona dreaming

Great thread guys, I am learning alot

Mar

[bcoons]

Originally posted by Dudester

It makes me really appreciate how difficult this hobby must be for folks living in remote areas, where the closest LFS is over an hour away.

Like me! (At least a LFS that knows anything about SW.) But it really helps to have these threads.

Sorry to hear about your flatworm bout. I am very lucky so far (knock on wood) not to have had anything really bad happen to my tank. I added 3 turbo snails last week, and they have completely cleaned every speck of algae from all the glass and anything else they can get on. The four fish, three shrimps and the hermit crabs all are doing fine. The Condi anemone has moved around the tank some, but looks even healthier than ever. If I don't feed him (it?) every other day or so he shrivels up and pouts, but I have been giving him a whole silverside every three days and he seems to really thrive on that.

I sold some old hobby stuff on ebay, so I think I'm going to buy a Pinpoint salinity monitor first. Since I don't have any corals yet, and don't add kalk or anything yet, and I don't have an auto top off system (yet) I think watch salinity is more important than pH for now. I'll get the pH monitor next. Any thoughts on this?

Dudester, you were looking at the Digital Aquatics Reefkeeper controller. Did you make a decision on that yet? I'm still seriously considering getting one after my next ebay sale to control lights, pumps, and temps in my tank. Just wondering if you had decided yet?

Well, the freezing rain down here today caused panic in the US Gov't, so they closed Fort Hood and sent us home! You know how we feel about ice in Central Texas, LOL. So I'm home and surfin' the net. Hope you stay wrm and dry down there!

Bruce

[Jasonanatal]

All I have to say is Dudster you have one amazing tank. Everything seem to have been done with both logical and reverse engineered thinking. I ought to hire you for my next setup.

[melev]

The snail you asked about appears to be a Nerite, which is a good algae grazer and reef-safe. I have one or two in my tank too.

To protect livestock from dying during treatment, you can always pull out whatever you are concerned with and keep them in a small container of tank water. Since you lose ceriths, I'd pull out all the ceriths I could find, then treat.

You stated that the flatworms were gray. White or opaque ones are benign, but the reddish rusty colored ones are what FWE is for. Red Planaria.

[Dudester]

maro1 - Glad to see you're learning from this thread. That's what it's all about, and feel free to chime in whenever you want to steal, I mean ask John a question.

bcoons - It's nice to hear about the successes of your tank while my fish are dying, my calcium is in the subterrestrial range, and flatworms are taking over my world . But seriously, it sounds like things are going well for you. It's nice when your troops do what they're hired for, isn't it?

If I were you, I'd establish some sort of auto-topoff system as a first priority instead of the salinity monitor. You don't have to get a Tunze Osmolator; there are less expensive ways of doing it if you do a search here on RC. I just chose the Osmolator because I thought it was slick. Why monitor your salinity when all you need is an auto-topoff unit which will stabilize the salinity for you? Just my opinion, but it seems to me that a salinity monitor is a waste of money. I check my salinity once a week with a refractometer and I've never had it out of the range of 1.025-1.026. It takes about 15 seconds to check it, and the refractometer is extremely accurate. My concerns and desire for a pH monitor stem from my difficulty interpreting the pH color card of my test kit, and I don't feel secure with my readings.

Yes, I have decided on the ReefKeeper controller. I put it on my holiday wish list as a top priority and hopefully it'll be running on my system by the new year. Get an auto-topoff unit before buying a ReefKeeper!

Jasonanatal - Thanks for the compliment (it's "Dudester" BTW, or you can just call me Mike). You're right in that everything was designed with an overwhelmingly pessimistic view. That is to say, I tried to calculate everything that could go wrong, and components were selected, positioned, and utilized in such a way that even if something did go wrong, my living room would stay dry. Naturally we can't prepare for EVERY possible disaster, but prevention is certainly the best medicine. Of course I can't take all of the credit for this system's design. John helped immensely, as did many of the folks out there on RC who answered my questions and hosted threads just like this. That being said, I'd be happy to help you in any way I can with your next setup. We can discuss the financials at a later date .

Originally posted by melev
The snail you asked about appears to be a Nerite, which is a good algae grazer and reef-safe.

Cool, wonder how it got into my tank?

Originally posted by melev

To protect livestock from dying during treatment, you can always pull out whatever you are concerned with and keep them in a small container of tank water. Since you lose ceriths, I'd pull out all the ceriths I could find, then treat.

Will do, think I should re-treat before I see any more as a preemptive strike?

Originally posted by melev

You stated that the flatworms were gray. White or opaque ones are benign, but the reddish rusty colored ones are what FWE is for. Red Planaria.

So are you telling me that I've been treating flatworms that are NOT HARMFUL to my tank? In other words, the carnage and savage killing spree I've put upon my poor helpless cerith snails and my beloved fighting conch has all been for naught? Alas, I cannot accept this and must quit the hobby immediately . They're definitely not the red ones that are illustrated on your site. "Benign" is a potentially deceiving word. Even if they aren't Red Planaria, can't they still multiply and potentially smother out my corals?

[bcoons]

Originally posted by Dudester

If I were you, I'd establish some sort of auto-topoff system as a first priority instead of the salinity monitor.

Hmmmmm, OK, I went back to the first page of this thread and started re-reading the beginning (which was most beneficial, I picked up on a few new things) and looked at your Tunze Osmolator. Also looked it up on a couple of web sites. Looks pretty slick, basically an optical level control with a number of safety backups. I like that. Yours is in your sump. I (currently) don't have a sump, so I would have to put it in the tank. There doesn't seem to be a problem with that, but is there any downside to having it in the main tank that I am missing?

And speaking of sumps, I'm thinking now in that direction. I think I could just fit a cheap 10 gal aquarium in my current commercial stand. I also have a CPR-90 overflow I bought a while back just to play with, but was never comfortable with that siphon thing. I even have the aqua-lifter pump to keep the siphon going, but was still a little leary of it, which convinced me to stay sump-less so far. So, how has your CPR-90 overflow worked for you? No major floods? Maybe I'm just paranoid? Do you think a simple 10 gal sump is worthwile on a 20 gal long tank? I'd probably put the skimmer and heater down there, too, and use a Mag ? return pump with a SCWD to the tank. Then I could put my auto top off device down in the sump.

Then I could convert the Aquaclear 110 HOB filter on the tank to a 'fuge,..................

Dang! Now ya got me thinkin' again. (I often tell myself that I'm not gonna fix it if it's not broke. Usually lasts about 10 minutes.)

[thedude15810]

Mike- Threads looking good bro and don't worry, Iowa isn't exactly on my list of future places to live (that's too damn cold btw lol). And yes, people have said that the opaque flatworms are benign but I don't like them one bit and zapped them myself.

As for the salinity meter, just go with a refractometer. Relatively cheap, easy to use, extremely accurate. Also a 10 gallon sump would definitely help your tank! Think of it, you're effectively raising your total volume by 1/2!

On with the show!

[bcoons]

Originally posted by thedude15810
As for the salinity meter, just go with a refractometer. Relatively cheap, easy to use, extremely accurate. Also a 10 gallon sump would definitely help your tank! Think of it, you're effectively raising your total volume by 1/2!

On with the show!

Actually, I have been using a refractometer from the gitgo. Never have had one of the hydro things. The refractometer is easy, but being the lazy cuss that I am, I thought just glancing at a LCD readout was easier than doing the refract thing. Plus, it's cool.

Anyway, I have already pulled the trigger on the salinity monitor on Ebay. Never was known for my patience. So, an auto top of of some type is the next project. Then the Reef Controller. I've got another item up on ebay that should net me several hundred bucks, and I don't want that money burning a hole in my pocket.............

John, how do you feel about siphon overflows like the CPR-90? Safe, reliable? Should I use that to feed a sump? Can't very well drill the tank now.

[Dudester]

bcoons - I'll have to address your questions/comments tomorrow. Not much time to respond thoroughly tonight ... just saw 1 flatworm in my tank. Still debating on whether or not to re-treat with FWE. I hate these flatworms! I've never had a lot of them, but they sure are frustrating. All right, that does it. Tonight, they die! It's GO TIME.

[Dudester]

I was getting ready to treat with FWE and thought I'd feed my tank beforehand. I noticed my juvenile clownfish that I added 3 nights ago was quite lethargic. It's breathing pretty rapidly and didn't eat a single bite. This is highly atypical for this fish, which ate voraciosly in my quarantine tank and in the display every day until now. I'm very worried about this fish and decided not to treat with FWE to avoid putting any more stress on the fish. I think I'll do a 10 gallon water change just in case there is some FWE toxicity in the tank. I tested all my parameters (pH 8.4, salinity 1.026, Ca 400, alk 8.45, nitrate 0, phos 0) and the water remains in good condition and stable. I hope this fish doesn't die, that would REALLY bum me out.