120 Reef Office Build (75 upgrade)

[Bax]

Anyone know where I can get a Sea Hare?

I tried the lettuce nudibrachs and they put out a good effort, but could not make a dent in my hair algae. So, I'd like to try one of these ugly buggers. My sources tell me they are the king of hair algae control.

In the FTS above, you can see the thick tufts of hair algae on the LR.

[Bax]

Merry Christmas

Hope everyone has a very happy and healthy holiday

[Dudester]

Merry Christmas to you too, Bax. Any luck on that sea hare?

[Bax]

Originally posted by Dudester
Merry Christmas to you too, Bax. Any luck on that sea hare?

Not yet

I need to put aou an APB on the local forum to see if anyone has one.

[Bax]

Happy New Year one and all!


So ... I put out an APB on the local NJ forum for sea hares, turned out, my usual LFS had several, but by the time I got there they were gone.

I'll call in to the LFS tomorrow to see if they'll be getting more soon.

I had hoped to go to the office to do some major hair algae harvesting either yesterday or today, but I blew my back out over Christmas carrying a new bed from Santa for my daughter in from the garage. Where the heck are those elves when you need them anyway? ... the hair algae will just have to wait.

[Bax]

Here's some pics of the HA situation after about a week or so without a good algae harvest:





I am really getting frustrated with the HA. I just can't belive that I am adding any nutrient sources to the system. I am stumped?

To add to the good news, I lost another Heinochus butterfly in QT over the long weekend. It was not eating well and may have been doomed from the start, the other one is doing great.

I also have been experiencing STN in my new gemmifera colony. I have clipped off some of the dying section. I dipped and inspected and redipped and see no AEFW or Red Bugs, it's just STN'ing???

Here's a pic.



Ok ... please cheer me up

[Dudester]

Well, you've still got your health

Woops, I forgot, you blew out your back

Guess I'm no help at all.

But seriously, sorry about the butterfly, the STN, and that nasty algae that's trying to squelch out your beautiful corals. Did you use new sand, or did you transport old sand into this tank? If it was old sand, did you wash it out well? Maybe your sand bed is a potential nutrient source for the algae? (Shallow attempt to offer a solution to your problem, I know.)

The photo of the coral doesn't show any "fragged" sites - are those spots continuing to STN as well? If not, then maybe you just need to frag a little more? Also consider fragging off a healthy piece of that coral and mounting it in a different location to avoid the potential loss of an entire colony. Just a thought.

[msuzuki126]

Good luck with the algae. Have you tried turbos? I would get a ton of them and see what they can do. Maybe you've tried that and it just keeps coming back...

[Bax]

Originally posted by Dudester


But seriously, sorry about the butterfly, the STN, and that nasty algae that's trying to squelch out your beautiful corals. Did you use new sand, or did you transport old sand into this tank? If it was old sand, did you wash it out well? Maybe your sand bed is a potential nutrient source for the algae? (Shallow attempt to offer a solution to your problem, I know.)

The photo of the coral doesn't show any "fragged" sites - are those spots continuing to STN as well? If not, then maybe you just need to frag a little more? Also consider fragging off a healthy piece of that coral and mounting it in a different location to avoid the potential loss of an entire colony. Just a thought.

Dudester

Thanks for your support. My chiropractor is working wonders on my back. And, at least the remaining HBtfy is doing great, its banner has grown over 3/4" in the two weeks or so it's been in QT. So, all is not lost.

I used all new sand in the display. And I added a ton of nassuris (sp?) snails to keep it stirred up. I also have tons of mini brittles, two large brittles, a tiger tail cuke and a Fighting Conch sifting around along with about 30-40 hermits.

If you look at that coral pic, to the lower right, you can see some flat faces from prior fragging already being colonized by the dreaded algae. Above that there, are two struggling branches that have since been fragged off.

So Santa sent me some ca$h to play with my tank.

I got a p. fridmani, I was considering chalk bass, but my wife really misses the pseudo pair we used to have, so she won. I really like these too.

I also gave in and got a yellow tang to help keep algae in check in the future.

They are both acclimating to QT right now.

I also got a linka star ... always wanted one, I know they are tough to acclimate, but I figure the HA has to be good for something and will provide a good source of foods for the star in all the nutrient rich crap the HA collects.

[IMG][/IMG]

And yet another bright spot in my reef ... my clowns continue to spawn every 4-6 weeks.

[IMG][/IMG]

[Bax]

Well I found a Sea Hare on Thursday at a different LFS and brought it home. Did about 1 1/2 hour of drip acclimation and added it to the display.

The lights were still on so it hid under a rock the remainder of day one.

On Friday it moved around the rock but never really started cruising the tank.

This morning (Saturday) I stopped by the office and it is now buried in the sand in the rockwork on the other end of the tank.

Is this normal behavior?

I have done as much reading on these as I could find, there's little said on their behavior in captivity so I only have the comments others here on RC have made in regards to their specimens.

Should it be cruising the tank selecting tasty algae morsels to eat? ... Or something like that?

[Bax]

The Sae Hare is still moving around quite a bit, and I see some evidence of it, or something, grazing algae. Since The Sea Hare is the only new algae eating critter in the tank, I am giving it the credit. I'll post some pics as soon as I can upload them.

Water params:

temp 78-81
pH 8.1-8.3
Alk total 3 Meg/lt
Ca 300-350 ppm
Am/Ni/Na ND (Kordon)
PO4 ND (Merk)
ORP 290-310

On the STN front, my baby blue gemmi finally gave in and the new green gemmi si still slowly STN'ing. I am goingto bring in my Dremel to split eh colony and try to save as big a piece as possible. I've been doing Betadine dips on both colonies and the frgs. Some of the frags are doing alright others are STN'ing.

[Bax]

Here's a pic of the Sea Hare



Crazy little eyes on this bugger huh!?!

[Bax]

My trumpets are growing like weeds ... just like my hair algae!

[Dudester]

Bax, I'm sure you already know this, but for the benefit of others, it merits mentioning that when you frag off pieces of your STNing corals, you'll do so at areas that are as remote as possible from the affected branches, yes?

Trumpet looks beautiful, sea hare looks heinous .

[Bax]

Originally posted by Dudester
when you frag off pieces of your STNing corals, you'll do so at areas that are as remote as possible from the affected branches, yes?

Trumpet looks beautiful, sea hare looks heinous .

Yes, I am being very carful as to what fagged pieces I try to salvage. And, I am keeping a very close ey eon the frags

"Heinous" is the perfect word!

[Dudester]

I'm sure you meant to say "fragged" .

[Bax]

Oops! ... sure did

[Bax]

Just to further show that all things in my system don't suck, here's a random pick of my female o. clown discussing who's reef this is with my Midas blenny. I just thought is was a cool shot.



Sea Hare ... what Sea Hare?

[MyMonkey]

Looking good. Even with the HA. Nasty stuff. I battled it for months. The Sea Hare should help.

[Bax]

Thanks!

I actually saw the Sea Hare during the day light just the other day. So, hopefully it is acclimating and will begin pitching in on the house keeping.

I just changed my MH bulbs today, maybe that will help with the HA, but they were just a year old, like, to the day.

[MyMonkey]

I had several Sea Hares within about a year. FIrst one died of bacterial infection that wiped out my whole collection of fish. Next on succumbed to an attack by my giant cleaner shrimp names Mr. Clean. Yes, attacked.... I finally ended up with a cool little Sea Hare that looked alot like yours. Named pickle. He now resides in another reef.

He mowed down any sight of HA present by the way. Good luck.

[Bax]

Thanks, that's sort of encouraging.

This guy is a giant compared to my blood shrimp... and hopefully free of bacterial infections ... yet another reason to QT EVERYTHING! .... I did not QT the Hare, no facility to do so at this time.

[Bax]

Here's my QT right now. This is the heniocus butterfly (remember I lost one right after introducing them to QT). The banner on this one has grown over 1 1/4" since being in the shelter of QT where nasty tank mates aren't nipping at it!



I was thinking chalk bass, but my wife really wanted another orchid dottyback, so I got this little male. Maybe I'll try to introduce a female in a little while ( I have had success with that previously, but lost them to ick).



And here's the absolutely most neurotic fish I have ever seen in my life! You may recall the eblie mimic tang I introduced brought ick to my tank. I am trying a tang again. I think I need more algae control critters. ( I know, I need to control the source of algae ..... working on that). I am not a fan of tangs ... period ... but I will give this yellow a shot and see if it can turn me into a tang lover.

[MyMonkey]

Nice pics. Love the tang too. My fav fish was my Scopas Tang. He ate every kind of algae he could find. Yellows are a bit more agressive fom what I hear.

[Bax]

Yes, the yellows are but again, the wife really liked it and it's time to start remodleing for my built in display at home so I am pushing for all the brownie points I can