Our Tbs - Page 36

lossman · #**876** 09/03/2005, 09:32 AM

ok, I found the thread I was looking for. It even had pictures.

Greenbean said they were hydroid jellyfish and would fade on their own. It's weird that we got this sudden explosion of them pretty much overnight. I cleaned the glass last night so I know there weren't any there then.

dwculp · #**877** 09/03/2005, 02:23 PM

Another update:

I think I did my last water change of the algae battle. Only dead crap left. I was going to do 15 gallons but decided on 10 simply because by the time I was done with 5 gallons of water there wasnt much left to siphon!!! I went ahead and did 10 though.

Bunches of snails out and about today, even accidently siphoned a few into the waste bucket (I rescued them!). The cyano is still receding and the rocks really look good.

Things are looking up. Two more days with no lights and we will see what happend on Tuesday!

lossman · #**878** 09/03/2005, 02:30 PM

We stopped by TBS today to pick up some more snails. They were pretty well cleaned out. They were taking the opportunity to rearrange and clean out tanks. It looked weird with half the big holding tanks gone!! Josh was not sure when they would be able to get out to dive again but said he felt the hurricane helped with the red tide. We'll see.

patsan · #**879** 09/03/2005, 02:40 PM

Glad to hear things are looking up with your tank dw....

I made food for the fish today. Took a few hours because I soaked the vitamins in first. Now lets hope they like my recipe...will eat it and don't die on me.

drk70 · #**880** 09/03/2005, 05:28 PM

Good to hear about the tank DW. How about some pics!

lossman · #**881** 09/03/2005, 05:30 PM

We added out new snails and hermits and tried to turn everyone over to give them the best chance. We waved a napkin at Harley to keep him from munching out on the new critters. Then we saw a serpent star reach out and grab one of the snails and drag it behind a rock!! Then another star came out and we watched as it stuck it's leg down inside a snail shell attempting to grab a bite to eat!!! Holy mackeral!! And all this time we have been blaming Harley for our diminishing population of snails and hermits!!! WOW!!! Guess this is a wake up call to us to feed those guys!!

BrianPlankis · #**882** 09/03/2005, 05:54 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by lossman
We added out new snails and hermits and tried to turn everyone over to give them the best chance. We waved a napkin at Harley to keep him from munching out on the new critters. Then we saw a serpent star reach out and grab one of the snails and drag it behind a rock!! Then another star came out and we watched as it stuck it's leg down inside a snail shell attempting to grab a bite to eat!!! Holy mackeral!! And all this time we have been blaming Harley for our diminishing population of snails and hermits!!! WOW!!! Guess this is a wake up call to us to feed those guys!!

Wow, what kind of serpents do you have? I was thinking of adding one (not green) and now I'm going to think twice about that. Sure seems like you are learning a lot about your inhabitants recently

Brian

patsan · #**883** 09/03/2005, 05:57 PM

My serpents don't eat snails or stuff that Sally's do. I over feed my tank, where I believe they under feed. They'll usually eat the left over food from the fish and/or the silversides when they get fed directly.
I really don't think you have to worry about it Brian.

drk70 · #**884** 09/03/2005, 06:09 PM

I feed my serpents once a week a small pice of silversides. Those serpents must be really hungry to eat your snails like that.

lossman · #**885** 09/03/2005, 06:21 PM

Yeah, they must. But remember that we have had a consistently high nitrate problem (10 - 15 lately still), a huge cyano outbreak that we finally used Chemi-Clean for, and now a triple algae outbreak of brown, green and red algae. I really think we underfeed our tank and yet we keep having all these problems. We started to feed our serpents and we started to feed DT's daily because of all the bivalves and sponges we have and that's when we started with this triple algae bloom. We also started seeing a distinct improvement in our sponges, corals etc. So, do we feed those guys and just deal with the algae or do we quit feeding and watch our livestock die along with the algae????

I've just posted in the expert forums for Dr. Ron to ask when you know you have enough food in your tank for your inhabitants.

Tomorrow we will feed the serpents again. We fed them two weeks ago and I guess they liked the idea of the easy food!! LOL

I'm really getting depressed with the tank as I see others who have had their tanks set up after ours that are adding all kinds of corals and fishes and here we are still struggling with the cycle and having to be extremely careful of adding things because of our problems. Does not make reef keeping easy. Of course, Brett can attest to the fact that I have pretty much zero patience.

dwculp · #**886** 09/03/2005, 06:39 PM

Wow, I have never seen my serpents even think about going for a snail or crab! In fact, I often see them sitting and feeding side by side!

patsan · #**887** 09/03/2005, 06:40 PM

Sally, feed DT's every other day. Daily feeding of that could be helping the algae outbreaks you're having.

So try doing DT's every other day, and give the serpents a piece or 2 each of silversides once a week. They'll eat that right away, and hopefully that will keep them from starving and eating the snails.

dwculp · #**888** 09/03/2005, 06:46 PM

I had noticed algae outbreaks after feedsing Dt's so I stopped!

BrianPlankis · #**889** 09/03/2005, 07:06 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by lossman
I'm really getting depressed with the tank as I see others who have had their tanks set up after ours that are adding all kinds of corals and fishes and here we are still struggling with the cycle and having to be extremely careful of adding things because of our problems. Does not make reef keeping easy. Of course, Brett can attest to the fact that I have pretty much zero patience.

Tell me about it! I'm with you! I'm still stuck on zoas and shrooms! Of course I want to finish my aquascaping before adding my other corals and of course the lovely cirolanids are keeping fish out of my tank

I would try to find a local source of phyto if you can. I used to feed DTs and I had bad algae problems. I have since found a local guy that grows his own phyto and much lower phosphate in the phyto. I feed it 2-3 times a week. I turn off the skimmer for two hours and let everything feast.

What kind of skimmer do you have? Poor nutrient export is often one of the causes of algae problems.

Brian

bobt2 · #**890** 09/03/2005, 07:16 PM

do the dt's have a lot of phosphate? this is the first time i've heard that

BrianPlankis · #**891** 09/03/2005, 07:33 PM

I've heard DT's has bunches of phosphate in it. I unfortunately finished my bottle before I got my phosphate test kit. If anyone has DTs and a phosphate test kit, could you put a little in a cup and let it settled and then test the phosphate of just the clear liquid, sure would be interesting to know it?

B.

lossman · #**892** 09/03/2005, 08:00 PM

Funny but our phosphates have always measured zero. I'll have to try that test.

drk70 · #**893** 09/03/2005, 08:02 PM

Mine still haven't read 0 even after running the phosban reactor. It has gone down but still not gone.

bobt2 · #**894** 09/03/2005, 08:26 PM

i'll try the test tomorrow am

dwculp · #**895** 09/03/2005, 09:03 PM

I tested my Phosphates today - 0! The test kit didnt even change color!!

Who was having problems with corals not opening and the skimmer not skimming? I remember in a previous post that they took out most of the Phos-ban, was wondering if that helped?

bobt2 · #**896** 09/04/2005, 11:26 AM

well i tried to do a po4 test on the dt's. i could not get a clear enough sample for a true reading, but using a fastest kit their was a definite reaction./ and yes my skimmer is working better. i think it was too much phosban for the size of the tank.

dwculp · #**897** 09/04/2005, 12:36 PM

Thanks, I think on Tuesday I will take out over half the Phosban. What did you do with the Phosban you took out? Did you save it or throw it away?

dwculp · #**898** 09/04/2005, 03:25 PM

The pet store near me had a 110 long (72 X 18 X 20) with stand, glass top and lights (NO flouresent) for $900.00.

Someone stop me.

patsan · #**899** 09/04/2005, 03:28 PM

If you're going to go for that large a tank, get something wider than 18". You won't regret it. Hopefully the dimensions of the 110 will stop you!

dwculp · #**900** 09/04/2005, 03:30 PM

I LOVE the length of it though, I love long tanks. The price is a bit high. The tank by itself was just a bit over $500.00, the rest was for the stand, top and lights.

My dream tank is a 72 inch long 220.