Melev's new 280g Starfire tank thread

[melev]

[melev]

gmacy just left a couple of hours ago. He is going to let me test out his new skimmer. I thought some of you might like to see it.



I can't run it with my current sump, because when it powers off, too much water will drain out of it and flood the fishroom. Plus when it restarts, it would suck out too much water from the sump, and run the sump dry. I just need to build my new sump now.

Also, my Powder Blue Tang is now chowing down on a specific patch of zoos. I don't know why. I think he likes the featherdusters perhaps, not the zoos themselves. However, while a section closed up, I saw this.



I think it is a anemonia majano. It is hard to tell, and is very tiny at the moment. If not for the macro lens on my camera, it wouldn't be big enough to see with the naked eye to determine what it is. Anyone else recognize it?

[maxxII]

I dunno. Its strange and different. I say you kill it!!!

Actually, in all seriousness, I think it does look like a small majano...
Nick

[geris]

Marc, I have one very much like it and I asked Dr. Ron and he said it was Pseudocorinactys - a type of mushroom anemone. My rock is from the Caribbean. He just said I should feed it and that it does have a nasty sting if you touch it. I'm 98% certain it looks like mine (2% error margin because I'm no expert!)

[beamer]

Nathan, I'm so sorry to hear about all of your losses. I know you were so excited to get your corals back.

Let us know how it goes.

Cindy

[beamer]

Nathan, I'm so sorry to hear about all of your losses. I know you were so excited to get your corals back.

Let us know how it goes.

Cindy

[rjwilson37]

Looks like a majano to me as well.

[geris]

Check out this thread before taking it out http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...ght=corynactis
Also check with Dr. Ron, because if it is a Corynactis Californica or a Pseudocorynactis, is ok to have. They are from the corallimorph family and like low light. They are also known as orange ball anemone.
Do a search and check it out before yanking it out. The majanos I've seen are solid colored not transparent.

[melev]

Thanks Geris. Last night I was peering in my refugium at 3 or 4am and found two more on the glass. There may be a few in the overflow chambers as well. I moved the orange zoos that that critter was in because my Powder Blue continued to chew on the zoo polyps, so we will see if that thing reappears in its new location.

Then I looked at my zoanthid patch near the mandarin diner. Lately, I've seen one Asterina starfish on the tip of a closed up zoanthid. It looks like it is parked on a grape. Knowing that the mouth of the starfish is parked 100% over the opening of zoanthid, it troubled me a bit. Well, last night 4 or 5 of the zoos were like that, and I decided that I had to change fate or suffer some probable losses. Using my huge mechanical claw, I pulled out the zoanthid patch because it has giant bristleworms intertwined among the polyps. With some forceps (large tweezers) I removed each starfish. Then I thought I might remove the giant bristleworms, which they didn't like at all. After trying a few times, I noticed that my zoos were getting bristled here and there with little quills sticking out of their side.

A few bristleworms were dropped in the tank, and two were sucked into the Tunze Streams and turned into bristle-confetti. oops.

The zoos look good today. I think I may continue to remove asterinas as I stumble across them, possibly tossing them in the refugium. Nathan told me he saw some "blue asterinas" on his corals, which he says eats SPS. I've never even seen an asterina on any of my SPS, but will watch them closely.

I updated the ID page to 168 items last night. http://www.melevsreef.com/id/

[NuclearReefs]

the ones i removed from the bottom of that bali piece that is still haning on was about the size of a pen head., maybe a 1/8 of a inch across.. Water has totally cleared up in my tank and the skimmer has damn well had its test of a work out the last three days . NASTY SKIMMATE lemme tell you .. I setup another 16 gallon bucket of FSW for another WC tommorow. I dare get out the test kits as well.. I can tell the water should be fine at this point. I got hooked up with a local group buy here and getting another 50 snails and some lettace nudis and have decided that I am not putting any wild colonies back into this tank. Anything if fedex pans out that i return back in will all be frags from people i know and maybe a few from a LFS here. I have a good friend here as well that has a few really CHOICE sps colonies that I can get some frags from as well. He is still holinf some of the orignial Solomon Island stuff that hit the states about 8 years ago.. Anywho,, Its a waiting game to see what fedex is going to make judgement on for out mishap with the shippment. Wish us the best.



Nathan

[melev]

Nathan, all the informaion has been faxed to the claim department, but I'll call tomorrow to make sure they received everything okay.

[cscr212]

Nathan, I wish you the best!

[selgado]

-----

You want I should have a word with these fed ex fellas for ya?

[Poppy828]

Evening Marc. Hope the tank is doing well after all the trauma of getting Nathans frags to him. Sorry to hear about all the trouble with FedEx. That really sux. Sorry Nathan. Hopefully fedEx will do right by you and reimburse you for the losses. Very unfortunate.

On another note, aside from plucking this hair algae daily, which I spent 2 hours doing today, can I take the rock out and let it dry out for a couple days? I assume with this that I will have die off of some sort. Would this be an option? My lovely wife is getting as irritated as I with it. She too helped pluck away again today. Gotta love her.

Thanks for your time,

Todd

[AJP]

Since you are willing to remove the rock I assume you have no light dependent beings you would like to keep. What I would do is "cook" the rock. I have seen many people do this, including a friend first hand. It works well, but in the future you have to stop the cause of hair algae

Here are some possible causes:


1. Less than adequate biological and chemical filtration methods used to set-up the aquarium.
2. Areas of anoxic denitrification, such as in sand beds, have been changed to anaerobic denitrification. These possibly hardened sand beds, from misuse of calcium and buffer additives, now add plant nutrients instead of removing them.
3. Derbesia and Bopsisplumosa is caused by an over abundance of nutrients, e.g., ammonia, nitrate and phosphate, "and" incorrect spectrum. Bulk water nutrients or those on the surface of rock are perfect initial growth areas.
4. Overfeeding, especially with products like flake or frozen foods can easily lead to "pockets" of uneaten food or partially metabolized waste products. These pocket areas are perfect breeding areas for cyanobacteria. Once started, sheet4like cyanobacteria can quickly spread, even in dimly lit areas.
5. Brown diatoms are caused by silicate usually introduced into the aquarium via make-up water, the salt mix itself, silica sand, or something in the aquarium that may be composed of a silica substance.
6. Dino flagellates, free-swimming brown algae, can be introduced with live rock or coral. Under the right circumstances, i.e., water rich in organic material, they can multiply rapidly and form stringy globs of bubble filled goo. They can produce toxic side chemicals that further reduce water quality, making it more to the lighting of other forms of unwanted algae.
7. Overcrowding - the more fish the more food needs to be fed. This generates more waste products, resulting in a copious amount of bulk water nutrients. Some of which coat the rock in the system, establishing perfect sites for initializing new algae growth.
8. It is quite normal for a new system to develop some forms of algae while the system is developing its initial microbial processes. Some may dissipate quite quickly, however others may gain a foothold. If the system has more nitrogen compound producing processes than efficient denitrification processes, it contributes to ongoing conditions favoring algae growth.
9. The use of Diatomaceous Earth (DE), i.e., the skeletons of tiny single cell diatoms composed of silica, for filtering purposes can lead to brown algae problems.
10. The use of unprocessed tap water, if containing plant nutrients, can lead to unwanted forms of algae.
11. Medications can greatly reduce the efficiency of biological filtration. They destroy or inhibit bacteria and part of the result can be a rise in ammonia level. If experiencing any levels of ammonia, the safest thing to do is not add any further bioload to the system until the source of the ammonia is resolved.
12. The over use of certain additives can lead to unwanted algae growths. Not only do some additives directly influence algae growth, they may also indirectly affect them by increasing the level of seawater constituents above NSW levels, thereby negatively influencing the spectrum of the delivered light.
13. Some salt mix formulas may contain algae nutrients.
14. Lamps may be too old or incorrect spectrum.
15. Failure to properly use protein skimming or activated carbon. Poor water movement.
16. Crashing macroalgae growths quickly add to the nutrient level. The decomposition of dead algae adds nutrients and vitamins to the bulk water.
17. Carnivorous fishes are eating too much of the microfauna, i.e., copepods and amphipods, that naturally eat some microalgae.
18. Sand sifters/snails are dying off in hidden areas, not being removed, thereby adding to the nutrient level.
19. Lack of water changes.
20. Die-off of organisms living on or in newly installed live rock can result in an excessive initial nutrient level which in turn leads to giving algae a chance to gain a foothold.
21. Phosphate can stick to any calcium carbonate material (live or dead rock substrate material), thereby providing fertile areas to get algae started.
22. Starting systems with dead rock, e.g., dry tuffa/lava/concrete rock, and dry, dead sand. Dead rock has no beneficial bacteria living either in or on it. That may allow unwanted nutrient levels in the aquarium to rise without being processed by beneficial bacteria that would have normally inhabited live rock.
23. Not keeping the mechanical filter clean.

[rjwilson37]

You forgot to mention..

24. Bringing in a piece of LR or Coral with hair alge growing on it to allow other hair algae to culture from it.

[rjwilson37]

Marc,

I did a really good cleaning in my tank... blowing off the LR with a turkey baster and cleaning up the top of the sand bed a little (I don't have a DSB) and cleaning out the power heads suction screen area. There was a bit blowing around in the tank for a bit, which usually all the filter feeder's love with alot of food being blown around as well as the bad getting filtered out.

Anyway... Every since that day, the cocoworm only seems to be coming out at actinic only times and all night, it is not coming out during the day much only a time here and there just to go back in the tube after 5-10 minutes. Any clues as to why the cocoworm is doing this considering it was out almost all the time all day long for the first 8 months.

Thanks ahead!

[selgado]

Originally posted by AJP
Since you are willing to remove the rock I assume you have no light dependent beings you would like to keep. What I would do is "cook" the rock.

Mmmmm!! Live rock stew!!

[AJP]

Originally posted by rjwilson37
You forgot to mention..

24. Bringing in a piece of LR or Coral with hair alge growing on it to allow other hair algae to culture from it.

Oh man I knew there was one more thing.

[Poppy828]

There will not be any cooking of the rock. I do have corals in the tank. Most of the rocks with corals on them do not have algae on it. The rock itself is covered in coraline. Algae does not grow on that. Any rock that has a coral and algae is easily remedied by removing the coral for the short time it will be out of the tank.

This was just an idea. I have tested all water parameters that cause the hair alage. None show. I also added more chaetomorpha and red gracilaria today to help combat the hair algae.

Time will tell I guess.

Thanks,

Todd

[selgado]

Originally posted by Poppy828
There will not be any cooking of the rock.

Todd

Hmm... too bad. Cooking of the rock always takes care of my excess green problems.

[Poppy828]

Let's say I do cook the rock. I assume I will need to recure the rock after that correct? I also assume that I will need to recure it if I do the drying out method I mentioned as well.

Wife is very supportive of this and helps all the time. Not sure she wants 150lbs of live rock in her oven though....

Todd

[selgado]

originally posted by Poppy828
Wife is very supportive of this and helps all the time. Not sure she wants 150lbs of live rock in her oven though....

Why not? Just tell her to pretend she's cooking her signature meatloaf special.

[Poppy828]

Too funny. I'll try it. What is the baking time and temp? Do I pre-heat the oven????

Todd

[andy51289]

you do know that "cooking" live rock doesn't involve putting the rock in an oven, don't you? "Cooking" refers to putting the rock into a containter of SW for a few months without light.