Our Tbs - Page 29

BrianPlankis · #**701** 01/28/2006, 01:23 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by patsan
The one in your picture is beatuiful! Your urchin is HUGE too!!
SC reef & fish is probably 25 minutes away from me, so it's certainly not as bad as pw is.

I find that things in the tank aren't really growing. They're just more or less staying the same, and even some zoas have disappeared. I don't know if it is because Bob's light bulb placement was different than what I had in the tank I sold or what. But I was always seeing growth in my tank, and now I find it more or less stagnant. The corals open nice and full during the day.
The candy cane has not grown at all nor gotten any new heads. It is a different candy cane than the one I had that got a bunch of new heads, and I had only gotten it a week or two before I sold the tank....so I don't know if it's just Bob's tank, or it would have been the same in my sold tank.
Benny the blenny is constantly throwing sand all over the place and knocking zoa frags all over the place. Many of them have disappeared because he knocks everything he can off the rocks.

I don't even see a tremendous amount of coralline growth. So I don't know what the story is.

Pat,

A few suggestions to help you with growth.

1. Remove the blenny...at one time I had more than 20 different kinds of zoas. Before I finalized my rockwork most were on the sand. They got knocked around by snails, hermits, urchins, conchs and moved by Eunicid worms. Their growth was pretty slow. Once attached to rocks in one place their growth has taken off. I use the 2 part epoxy to do this.

2. I have started using kalk to keep my Ca and Alk more stable. The values still aren't STABLE, but better. I've used it for about 2 months now and the corals are really taking off. My candycanes stared off as 3 and 2 heads. They are now 5 and 4 heads and getting ready to split into 7 and 8 heads respectively. I'm trying to shoot for 450ppm Ca and 10-11.5 Alk and STABLE.

3. Target feed your corals. I feed mysis, cyclopleeze and store bought shrimp (uncooked, unseasoned) and I think that has helped my growth.

BTW....People were talking about a feeding tube a while back...what is it called and where do you get it? I want to stop putting my arms in the tank to feed the corals.

Brian
Brian

BrianPlankis · #**702** 01/28/2006, 01:24 PM

Bob,

BTW...your urchin is awesome. I just read Dr Ron's Invert book and he talked about how those urchins suffered HUGE losses recently, like 95% or something crazy like that. You truly have a RARE (from the Caribbean anyway) urchin that should be treated with very good care.

Brian

drk70 · #**703** 01/28/2006, 02:55 PM

Brian, I think you are talking about the Kent Sea Squirt that a few of us have.

ratherbediving · #**704** 01/28/2006, 03:04 PM

Pat--

If I could add one thing to what Brian said-- when I was first starting off, I was getting a lot of corraline growth-- and I was using a LOT of magnesium for some reason. I started dosing it and my coralline is still doing quite well. The only reason I don't have a lot more of it is I have kept my three hitchhiking urchins in the tank, which is probably at least one too many. But I like them

BrianPlankis · #**705** 01/28/2006, 03:32 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by ratherbediving
Pat--

If I could add one thing to what Brian said-- when I was first starting off, I was getting a lot of corraline growth-- and I was using a LOT of magnesium for some reason. I started dosing it and my coralline is still doing quite well. The only reason I don't have a lot more of it is I have kept my three hitchhiking urchins in the tank, which is probably at least one too many. But I like them

You were probably using LOTS of magnesium because corals use it too, and coralline algae makes magnesium up to 5% of its skeleton

More here:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-12/rhf/index.php

My urchins have grown so large that I'm selling two of them out of my main tank. Too many bare spots in the coralline from them feeding that get taken over by cyano.

Brian

patsan · #**706** 01/28/2006, 03:40 PM

Thanks everyone. I have never ever checked magnesium levels....so I have no clue what they are.
The CA is a little low, but not horribly. I think the last reading was 390.

I guess I will have to get a magnesium test kit and see what the story is with that. We just check the usual stuff, and never magnesuim or stronium or those type things.

bobt2 · #**707** 01/28/2006, 03:43 PM

thanks for the comments. thats the only urchin in the main tank, and i use the kenk sea squirt also. i also dose mag and a little iodine.

bobt2 · #**708** 01/28/2006, 03:45 PM

pat, my cal adverages 380. i can't get it to 400 without tons of kalk or other cal additives

bobt2 · #**709** 01/28/2006, 03:46 PM

i should have also said my mag is 1180-1200. the book says 1300

patsan · #**710** 01/28/2006, 05:27 PM

Anyone know what kind of snail this is?
It is super duper tiny. This is the best picture I could get of it. Now I can't even find it.

BrianPlankis · #**711** 01/28/2006, 06:05 PM

Pat,

That picture isn't clear enough. I could be a collonista snail, but I can't see enough of the shell. It could also be a baby snail of a number of trochus snails. Have any trochus in your tank?

Brian

patsan · #**712** 01/28/2006, 06:10 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by CirolanidHunter
Pat,
Have any trochus in your tank?
Brian

I don't have a clue.

phil519 · #**713** 01/28/2006, 08:52 PM

what a crazy coincidence. I also just found a batch of those snails in my tank. I'll post pics shortly. If they are indeed the same - then I believe it's likely they are from the gulf. I don't believe they could have hitched in with some corals though I presume anything is possible.

All of mine are located under the tunze...I also found a batch of four and a batch of two together...my pics didn't come out nearly as nice as Pat's though...

Do astrea snails have a platonic stage? If not - my guess would be that's a baby.

dwculp · #**714** 01/29/2006, 09:50 PM

Hey, how is everyone, I am not dead, I swear!!

Things have been going AWESOME in my TBS tank. It has never looked better. I am going on almost a year and a half with the tank. I licked that algae/dinflagellete problem a while back and I have to say my tank is doing incredible.

My hammer coral is going crazy and even growing its dead head back. My brain quit receding and is doing awesome. My kenya tree coral has become a &*^%# weed and I have not had any fish deaths in a LONG time.

I went to the fish store today to buy a Niger Trigger for the FO tank and all they had were tiny ones. So I bought......

AN OCTOPUS!!!!

Yes, an octopus, I have wanted one for a very long time and they had a tiny golf ball sized Octopus Vulgaris for sale and I couldnt resist. I carried it to school in a bucket and proceded to clean my four tanks for four hours!!!

Anyways, I aclimated it, placed some PVC pipe for it to hide in and released it into the tank. It just balled up for awhile and then walked/crawled up the tank and wedged itself between the back of a PH and the tank. When I got close to it it would begin pulsing colors.

Awesome

I will keep it in the 29 gallon QT and setup a 55 gallon for it in about a month.

ratherbediving · #**715** 01/29/2006, 10:13 PM

DW--

Welcome back

You know you can't post anything about getting an octopus without getting hounded for picture requests.

So-- go borrow that camera and start snappin'

dwculp · #**716** 01/29/2006, 10:19 PM

I have snapped a few pics already. The guy (being a typical octo) is pretty shy and so I dont have a good one yet. I promise pics tomorrow.

dwculp · #**717** 01/30/2006, 09:28 AM

Ok, three pictures:

patsan · #**718** 01/30/2006, 10:04 AM

Better you than me with the octopus!

Generally, what is the lifespan of those?

Phil, we've noticed a few more of those little snails in the tank. It's really hard to get a good view of the shell, as they're so small. But it does look just like your picture.