Help ID'ing stuff (Newb)

[martinbrody]

Hi All,
Forgive me if i plow through this. this is my second attempt, first write up was lost because IE crashed on me.
Anyway, new to SW and fish tanks for that matter. just set up a 29 gal Biocube about 3 weeks agao. I have about 30 lbs of LR as well as 20 lbs of live Caribsea sand. Added a peppermint shrimp and 5 hermit crabs a couple days after set up. everyone seems happy except for 2 of the hermit crabs that became snacky treats to something. i just added a diamond watchman goby 3 days ago and he is seems to be doing great outside of the fact that he is socially handicapped.
anyway, i am increasingly getting a growth of green algae on all surfaces especially from the sand though. not sure if this is normal and it will cycle itself out or if i am giving too much light or what i am doing wrong. Can anyone help here.
Also, i noticed when i was originally putting in the LR, the was what seemed to be the tail-end of something buried in the rock. dont know what it was but i think i just saw it yesterday for the first time. ugly little

[hr]
. seems to be a worm. can anyone ID it? is it bad? should i not be in there? hopefully i can figure out how to post pics... below:
Algae:

Worm:

Thanks for any help and please be gentle. i'm a noob.

 

[perfectdark]

Welcome to the boards..

First being new to the hobby I would suggest that you be prepared to have your water chemistry readings on hand. The first thing asked when someone has an issue with algae growth or any other nussance issue is, How is your water quality? Dont reply with "good" specific numbers for Ammonia, nitrates, nitrites, pH, alkalinity, salinity and temp are much more beneficial.
I would say that being a new set up your brown algae issue are diatoms which is completly normal for a new set up. In time it will go away. However you seem to have a decent amount of hair algae in your tank and for it being so new I am wondering how it grew so fast. So, the brown covering may or may not be diatoms. But may very well be cyano bacteria. Typically this is due to excess nutrients in your tank, and or poor circulation/filtration.
Can you tell us more about your tank? Filtration, powerheads if any, feeding schedule if any, lights what kind and how long are they on for? HTH...
Ohhh and the worm appears to be a bristle worm, harmless filter feeder. Common hitch hiker on live rock. You most likely have more you havent seen yet.

 

[zeke92]

if you can keep them alive, there is some hermit crabs that love hair algae. i know my old anemone carrying hermit loved it. not sure about why your crabs died, i would watch for hitchikers that could be the cause maybe.
also, your goby will need time to get used to the new place. i know my goby took like a year before he finally came out when others were here. for a long time he would only show himself to me some people thought i lied about him existing

 

[martinbrody]

Thanks PerfectDark. I will try to get water chemistry readings this week.
As far as current tank conditions, its the stock set-up. Stock lighting and filtration. I dont have any powerheads. i just scaled back the lighting but i was leaving the lights on pretty much from 9 am to 12am. so all day and then just the lunar LED's during the night. Was this too much? HTH? dont know what that means.
Knowing this, do you have any recommendations for clearing up the algae or will it run its course?
Thanks for your help again.

 

[perfectdark]

Originally Posted by MartinBrody
http:///forum/post/2703834
Thanks PerfectDark. I will try to get water chemistry readings this week.
As far as current tank conditions, its the stock set-up. Stock lighting and filtration. I dont have any powerheads. i just scaled back the lighting but i was leaving the lights on pretty much from 9 am to 12am. so all day and then just the lunar LED's during the night. Was this too much? HTH? dont know what that means.
Knowing this, do you have any recommendations for clearing up the algae or will it run its course?
Thanks for your help again.
Your lights were on wayyyy to long. 8 to 10 hours is plenty, what are you feeding, how much and how often? I would recommend getting a power head or 2 in your tank to increase your flow. What is your water change schedule like? How often, what type of water? Pollutants that facilitate algae growth can come from a number of different places. Feeding to much to often, Lighting, flow and water quality. Tap water untested can have high phosphate levels along with a number of other bad elements in it that can harm your live stock and promote algae growth. I would recommend that if you are using tap water, to test it with a TDS meter (total dissolved solids) Phosphate and copper test too. If you are using RO (reverse Osmosis) or RO/DI (De-Ionized) water (which is preferred) then your ok.
HTH= Hope this helps...

Good Luck

 

[martinbrody]

yeah. Thats what we figured. I am cutting the lights back to 8 hrs a day.
As far as feeding, i just added the goby 3 days ago and have only fed once. i am using frozen brine srimp and i used about a thrid of the cube. cube is the size of my thumbnail i guess.
the tank has only been up for about 3 weeks so i have not done a water change. should i?
I used a combination of the Nutri-seawater Live (4.4 gallon) and water from my LFS which has been filtered and treated and its the stuff he uses so all levels are perfect supposedly. i did top it off with tap water that i had left out over night to de-ionize but this was probably only about a gallon and a half so im not sure water is the issue but i will test this week.
all in all, everything seems and is behaving seemingly normal as far as i can tell outside of the algae issue. Any recommendations on getting rid of it PerfectDark?
Thanks for all the help so far. i will be sure to take some pics and posted as i go on.

 

[perfectdark]

Originally Posted by MartinBrody
http:///forum/post/2703934
yeah. Thats what we figured. I am cutting the lights back to 8 hrs a day.
As far as feeding, i just added the goby 3 days ago and have only fed once. i am using frozen brine srimp and i used about a thrid of the cube. cube is the size of my thumbnail i guess.
the tank has only been up for about 3 weeks so i have not done a water change. should i?
I used a combination of the Nutri-seawater Live (4.4 gallon) and water from my LFS which has been filtered and treated and its the stuff he uses so all levels are perfect supposedly. i did top it off with tap water that i had left out over night to de-ionize but this was probably only about a gallon and a half so im not sure water is the issue but i will test this week.
all in all, everything seems and is behaving seemingly normal as far as i can tell outside of the algae issue. Any recommendations on getting rid of it PerfectDark?
Thanks for all the help so far. i will be sure to take some pics and posted as i go on.
Yes I would recomend a water change, when you do it syphon out the algea that you can. Get a power head like a Koralia nano or 1 to get more flow in your tank. You are feeding a bit too much IMO but that isnt what created your issue. FYI brine shrimp holds no nutritional value for your inhabitants. Look into a decent frozen food. Something without gel binders in it is ideal but Formula 1 frozen is an alright starting place. I use a home made concoction, but another really good food is "Rods Food". Keep up on weekly water changes about 20% or so, and syphon out all the algea you can when you do them. It may take some time but, it should clear up. Although water tests are going to help a whole lot here. Its important you know what your water chemistry is especially when things go wrong. Good Luck and I look forward to seeing pics.

 

[martinbrody]

Ok. I'll do the water change tonight. planning on ordering the power head very shortly.
Thanks for all the great advice PD!!

 

[paintballer768]

Welcome to the boards! For your size tank, I would recommend the Maxijet 900 powerhead. I use it in my 24 gallon and its about all I need. Many of us have diary threads in the Nano Tank forums, and I know I started mine when I didnt know much about salt water, so something could be in there that might be able to help you out, along with many other users' threads.

 

[martinbrody]

Thanks Paintballer. I will be checking out your thread for sure!!

 

[martinbrody]

I added a Koralia 1 Power head and removed the bristle worm. actually, my girlfriend went in there with pliers and pulled it out. i was too much of a sally.

ugly looking thing. I read a couple different sources all stating that they can potentially do a fair amount of damage as well as multiply. i didnt want to take any chances. Hopefully i dont have any more but if i do, i'll be sure to have my GF remove them.

 

[paintballer768]

Hahaha. The Koralia 1 is a good choice, youll like that for any types of corals you choose. And yea bristleworms are generally considered reef-safe. Theyll find excess food and detritus and eat that. If they reproduce to plauge levels, then its a major pain. They usually keep themselves in check too. Dont touch the bristles though. I picked up a rock and I got an entire side of a 2" worm in my hand and it hurt for about 30 minutes or so.
Also theyre tricky to remove because if you break off a piece, itll grow into a new worm.
Back when I was cycling and all that, I had a lot of hair algae and diatoms. The diatoms work themselves out, and the hair algae usually continues to grow until you get a cleanup crew. Usually consists of snails and hermits. I recommend nassarius snails for sand bed and maybe 1 mexican turbo and a few astrea snails for the glass/rocks. I have 4 blue-leg hermits that do a great job of keeping everything clean.
Another good habit to get into like PD said would be the water changes. In a 30 gallon with water displacement with the rocks and all that, probably somewhere around 20-25 gallons of actual water. Doing a 5 gallon change weekly will keep nitrates down and all the levels where they should be.
Theres so many more aspects I could go into but just read up in your spare time and Im sure youll pick up everything you need

 

[perfectdark]

Bristle worms, providing their are not out of control, are an asset to a reef tank. Cleaning up left overs, detritus etc helping to keep you toxic waste levels down. An over abundance of them is a result of over feeding and excess nutrients. Some species are not reef friendly but that is not seen too often.

 

[martinbrody]

Great. thanks for the advice. I do plan to put some coral in there eventually and i read that bristle worms will feed on coral as well as anemones. is that not correct?
The diatoms seem to be on the decline and i will be purchasing some snails and a couple more hermits to keep the place tidy.

 

[perfectdark]

Originally Posted by MartinBrody
http:///forum/post/2704813
Great. thanks for the advice. I do plan to put some coral in there eventually and i read that bristle worms will feed on coral as well as anemones. is that not correct?
The diatoms seem to be on the decline and i will be purchasing some snails and a couple more hermits to keep the place tidy.
Depending on the species yes, but rarely are the bad ones found in our systems. There are only a couple types that are considered bad.

 

[paintballer768]

Yea the one you had is definitely the same kind I have. Theres a similar looking worm called a fire worm that will munch on corals. We dont have a fire worm thankfully.
The snails and hermits will do a good job and keeping things clean.