Build and Progress of my RSM Nano Tank - Page 18

LaurentSeattle · #**426** 10/17/2007, 10:25 PM

Here is a picture of the Xenia colony as of today: Amazing growth in just a bit more than two weeks!

One week:

On arrival:

LaurentSeattle · #**427** 10/17/2007, 11:17 PM

New toy... I stayed up late to try out the tripod. Therefore here is a full tank shot...

Reefmack · #**428** 10/18/2007, 08:28 AM

The tank looks better all the time!How'd you get those Xenia polyps to all be open at one time? Did you bribe them? My pom pom pulse like crazy, but at any instant some polyps are open & some closed. My pom pom also shows amazing growth - after 6 weeks it's at least doubled in size and has branched off into 2 separate colonies.

BTW I got a Canon 60mm macro lens for my Rebel. I'll test it out this weekend.

LaurentSeattle · #**429** 10/18/2007, 02:37 PM

Thanks Reefmack. Yes, it is looking better but progress is very slow.

The Xenia are open all the time, even at night they continue pumping like crazy. They often close around 8pm one after the other for about an hour or so and then back to pumping... Amazing.

Reefmack · #**430** 10/18/2007, 03:28 PM

My Xenia behave exactly the same way - mine also close down for about an hour after the MH lamp goes off, then pump again all night long I think.

I was questioning how you were able to get a shot (top pic) with every polyp in the colony fully open at the same time - looks really nice. My polyps aren't often all fully open at the same instant - some are pumping open & some are pumping closed. It looks like you were lucky to get a pic with all fully extended at the same instant! Do your polyps all open & close in unison?

LaurentSeattle · #**431** 10/18/2007, 04:48 PM

Oh Ok, I understand better now... I just pressed the button when seeing the closest ones open, and then I guess I just have been lucky to snap them when they were all opened at the same time.

Reefmack · #**432** 10/18/2007, 06:10 PM

Ok! I guess I wasn't clear the first time. Great pictures though! I was wondering if you told all the polyps to smile before you took the pic

LaurentSeattle · #**433** 10/18/2007, 11:12 PM

Month 5 - Week 13 - Day 113 - Thursday October 18th - Around 9pm

Bad news tonight...

I came back from work to discover that Lucy The Yellow Wrasse has some wound on one side. The body looks whiter in this area and the fish'es scales are pointing a bit outside the body.

Yesterday, the yellow wrasse was in perfect shape.

Tonight, the wrasse is a bit less active than usual but is still eating its little portion of cyclop-eeze with good appetite...

All other inhabitants seem to do well in the tank.

Please advise!!!

Rue · #**434** 10/18/2007, 11:27 PM

Sorry to hear about her injury...you can just leave her in the tank and keep an eye on it...

...or if you think it's infected, see if you can put her in quarantine and medicate until it's healed...

Otherwise...great pics!

LaurentSeattle · #**435** 10/18/2007, 11:54 PM

Also tested the water:

Alk: 8.1 (going down)
Ca: 450 (going up)
pH: 8.2 (stable)

Everything else for which I have a test for, NH4, NO2, NO3, PO4 is perfect zero.

Reefmack · #**436** 10/19/2007, 06:46 AM

Laurent - sorry about Lucy. Hopefully it's just a temporary injury from scraping against a rock, and not something worse. Is the white spot swollen? The protruding scales concern me. Worst case it could be things like lymphocystis, marine velvet or some type of bacterial infection. Bacteria can cause the scale protrusion. If you're like me you have no SW QT tank, which rules out treating the whole tank with anything. There are medicated foods, but I have no idea of the affect of any uneaten food that might be picked up by the inverts. Hopefully it will clear up as fast as it appeared. Keep us posted on it.

Reefmack · #**437** 10/19/2007, 09:29 PM

Laurent - update on Lucy?

LaurentSeattle · #**438** 10/19/2007, 10:02 PM

Month 5 - Week 13 - Day 114 - Friday October 20th - Around 8pm

Lucy, the yellow wrasse, has still the same wound on one side. It is not healing but not getting worse either. The fish is still quite active and sill eats a lot with a lot of appetite. I fed the tank twice today.

I cannot beleive such a big wound was caused by a disease because it appeared so suddenly, immediately so big.

Hopefully, it will heal. It will make regular small water changes during the weekend in hopes to avoid secondary infections.

Reefmack · #**439** 10/20/2007, 07:43 AM

Thanks for the update Laurent. It sounds like a good sign that the wound has gotten no worse.

LaurentSeattle · #**440** 10/20/2007, 03:15 PM

Month 5 - Week 13 - Day 115 - Saturday October 20th - Around 1pm

Lucy, the yellow wrasse seems to be recovering a bit. The wound is a tad smaller and the fish is a bit more active than yesterday and has a lot of appetite. Even if I had a QT, I would not be able to catch it. I guess that's good news...

I changed my mind on doing a water change. Avoiding disturbance is probably better because water quality in the tank has never been so good... However, I am now cleaning my mechanical filters twice a day.

Leaving for the weekend... Next update on Sunday night.

LaurentSeattle · #**441** 10/21/2007, 07:39 PM

Month 5 - Week 13 - Day 116 - Sunday October 21st - Around 6pm

- Yesterday, I asked my girlfriend if she would like go shopping and she said "YES", then I added "shopping for fish..". then she laughed and said "yes" again, and therefore here we are tonight with these new Green Star Polyps. Got them for $49, a decent price but some algae is growing in the middle of the lower branch though. They stayed closed yesterday but have nicely expanded today.

- As you can see above, Lucy's wound is only now half of what it was on Friday. The fish is extremely active today and eats with great appetite. I am relieved that no secondary infection established in the open wound. It is not fully healed yet but there is good hope.

- Next in line was this firefish for $15. Graceful and peaceful... She has been immediately named Segolene by my GF who is very good at finding names (among many other things).

The firefish refused CyclopEeze yesterday night but accepted earlier this afternoon some frozen sea plankton. (Ocean Plankton from Kyorin)

- I also cleant the white pad again... Here is why I believe it is important:

I am simply removing easily excess foods, decaying algae, poop and detritus therefore reducing the "bioload" on the tank.

LaurentSeattle · #**442** 10/22/2007, 11:03 PM

Month 5 - Week 13 - Day 117 - Monday October 22nd - Around 9pm

- Removed some algae by hand and cleant mechanical filters.

- Lucy, the yellow wrasse is doing much better and is very active. The wound is much smaller.

- The firefish still does not like CyclopEeze but has eaten some Sea Plankton and seems to do a bit better.

- Most of the Green Star Polyps are expanding nicely, but not all of them yet. They seem to adjust to the new lighting conditions.

- Xenia's are pumping like crazy and are definitely expanding.

- Implemented the skimmer "mod of the year" suggested by GDEsquire here:

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...5&pagenumber=3

So far, so good: It kills the suction noise of the skimmer and that's definitely already a good thing. I will report tomorrow on skimming performance. Does not help with micro-bubbles so far.

Reefmack · #**443** 10/23/2007, 07:05 AM

Looking forward to a second opinion on GDESQUIRE's skimmer mod. Hopefully you'll see a difference today. Quieting the skimmer is already a big plus!

LaurentSeattle · #**444** 10/23/2007, 11:07 AM

Update on GDEsquire skimmer mod:

I did run the modded skimmer overnight with no noticeable improvement in performance. Mitigating factor: My skimmer usually produces very little foam during the night.

I will update later tonight.

Hodge · #**445** 10/23/2007, 05:31 PM

I started my firefish on frozen brine shrimp and it accepted it right from the start. I picked up some frozen variety pack food (SF Bay) and it doesn't seem to like it much except the brine shrimp one.

ZOKU · #**446** 10/23/2007, 08:15 PM

I read this entire thread from beginning to end over the course of the last few days. Wow... awesome information, indeed! I'm taggin' along... great photos, too!!

LaurentSeattle · #**447** 10/23/2007, 11:05 PM

Month 5 - Week 13 - Day 118 - Tuesday October 23rd - Around 9pm

- I did my weekly water change today - about 3 gallons. Added some Buffer "mixture" from Red Sea to boost a bit Alk which is now at 8.6. Ca is at 430ppm. NO3 and PO4 both at zero.

- Lucy the yellow wrasse has almost completely recovered! She is swimming, partying all around the tank, hunting for pods like it is December 31st 1999!

- As suggested by Hodge, Segolene, the firefish has been offered this morning brine shrimps and she liked it. However, this food is too big for all my young fishes and only the smaller pieces have been eaten. The rest ended up in the filters - I caught quite a lot in the white pad but I have to be careful with overfeeding...

- Before the water change, I fed the tank with some Marine Snow. Some say it's great, some say it is just pollution... Please express yourself if you have some experience with it...

- The skimmer mod is still not working for me. After looking closely, I noticed that I drilled a hole a tad too small and this was compressing the air intake tube and certainly reducing skimming performance. After a water change, I always get only bubbles and no foam. So I will wait a day or two before enlarging the hole and make another comparison. That said, the mod is already good: NO MORE suction noise. Thanks a bunch GDEsquire!

- One of the zoanthid colony is not doing so well: polyps are often closed.

- The Green Star Polyps on top of the tank are nicely expanding, but the ones below seem to be struggling with algae.

- The Peppermint shrimp has molted today, the Sea Star is moving around and the Feather Duster seems to be happy.

- It seems like many of my detritivore snails are nowhere to be seen. Is the peppermint shrimp hunting on them?

---
Hodge: Thanks for the tip on brine shrimps. Is there anything smaller for young fishes?

Zoku: Welcome to this thread and do not hesitate to post: Often I ask for hints and tips and sadly, very few people do post to help...

Reefmack · #**448** 10/24/2007, 06:23 AM

I know hermits will hunt snails (just lost a big turbo to a big hermit that killed it and took it's shell), but never heard of peppermints going after snails - aiptasia & maybe polyps, but not snails.

Great news on Lucy!

LaurentSeattle · #**449** 10/24/2007, 10:18 PM

Month 5 - Week 13 - Day 119 - Wednesday October 24th - Around 8pm

- I tried to remove some algae from my green star polyps. I already tried to cut the grass with a cuticle scissor but the stuff was back almost instantly (well... after two days). So this time, I tried to pull by hand the bigger patches. Unfortunately, this also removed the coral mat from the live rock branch. Of course, I immediatedy stopped and continued to use the scissors... Anything better to solve the problem?

- Besides the above, little to report tonight, did my daily routine... (Whitepad, glass, feeding). All inhabitants doing well, except some zoanthids still not willing to open...

- I also took some pictures:

FTS:

Magick88 · #**450** 10/25/2007, 01:09 AM

Hello,

great looking tank, Laurent!

I am just thinking aboout buying RSM, and I saw that you bought tank, stand and starter and more for $743 - I could not find such a good deal on the net.
Please tell me where did you buy it?
If anybody else may tell me where I should buy it, I would greatly appreciate it!

I checked one of my local fishstores (Dallas, tX) $800 + tax for the tank alone :-(((

Tnaks, and great tank again!

Magick