sparty059
Active Member
Quick warning... I'm in my blog/writing mood today so it'll be a long one!
To start out, I'll mention my #1 issue... my green hair algae. After going to my local fish store to find out some additional information from what everyone has given me here regarding how to get rid of the green hair algae he had told me an effective but daunting and time consuming would be to simply get a toothbrush and the bristles will grab and tug the hair algae out. I did this and by the time I knew it I had a paper towel filled with GHA. I took a step back from my tank to see the improvement I had made to only find it looks almost no different. Apparently I have quite a bit of GHA. Anyway, I've been at it for a few times now and have been starting to see a difference in the amount of algae in my tank. I'm still leaving small patches here and there for my blenny to eat as well as the crabs, and snails.
The other day I decided to go out and purchase two more turbo snails. The reason for the purchase was because my back wall was starting to get filled with hard algae spots. I didn't mind that so much until actual algae hair started to grow on the back wall. That's when I said enough was enough and bought the additional turbos. The wall is algae hair free now, but still has the hard algae on the back wall. To my knowledge (correct me if I'm wrong) the hard algae isn't a bad thing. It just means my tank is maturing, so it doesn't worry me. Regarding the turbo snails, three of them eat like crazy. They eat the algae on the back wall and on the front glass all the time. One however hasn't had any desire to eat for the last few days. I see him usually laying on the sand and not moving around much. Occasionally I'll find him on the very low end of the glass about an inch off the sand looking like he's trying to eat, but doesn't care much for it. Finally the other day I found him on the sand with his shell flipped upside down and he had no desire to flip himself back over. I flipped him over and placed him on the glass near the top of the tank where there was a significant amount of algae. He started to eat, and then decided to stop again. I came back into the room after leaving for a short while and he was again, on the sand. I know some snails are nocturnal but even when lights are out I don't see him moving around. I check before bed and when I wake up in the morning and he is often still in the same spot as before. I check to make sure he isn't dead, but at this point, I think it's only time until I find the shell with a dead snail carcass in there. I finally decided to say enough is enough, and moved him into the fuge where there is a significant amount of food in there for him to chow down on. I don't expect to see any change though and anticipate only having 3 turbo's within the next few days/weeks.
I do have a question regarding emerald crabs. About two months ago I had found a dead emerald crab in my tank. Everyone was assuring me that it was just the molt of the crab. However, after seeing a molt from another crab, I am 100% sure this was no molt. My question though is regarding how crabs procreate. I've had one emerald crab in there since the other had died (again I am SURE the other had died based on when I picked it up it wasn't moving, nor did it have any break in it looking like it was a molt, and it was a hard shell that wasn't breaking apart) but the other day when the lights were out, I noticed a pink object in my tank. I looked closer to find that it was a crab that had either just hatched or molted a shell. It was out in the open for just a few minutes until it caught wind that I was eying it down. It's significantly smaller than the other emerald crab and as a matter of fact the other emerald was on the other side of the tank eating some hair algae so I know I wasn't confused. Again, I know the other one was dead and I removed it from my tank... approx how long does it take for crabs to procreate and do they need a mate for it?
Finally, my refugium is rocking! My Chaeto is thriving right now. It's grown from a handful to about the side of a volleyball or womans size basketball. My stomatella is going to town. From the first stomatella I've seen it was approx the size of a pin head. Since then he has grown to be close to two inches long when moving across my tank. He is a lean mean eating machine. He is (or I assume is) actually a she. Since I've been reluctant to look at my refugium because of all the small cyano outbreak in there I haven't been paying much attention to the environment. Not to mention I wasn't necessarily neglecting the refugium, it's just much easier to forget about it when it's out of sight out of mind. Anyway, the other week I took a look and noticed two things: One, the cyano was practically gone. It's not gone due to moving into the DT because I don't see a trace of it in my DT as of now. So my only assumption is stomatella (or mine at least) love to eat bacteria. I have no issue with that, and room them on for it too. The second thing I took notice of, baby stomatellas literally all over my refugium. The main stomatella has reproduced like a rabbit, and they're all over my refugium walls, sand, cleaning up the Chaeto... these things are little vacuums! My refugium is cleaner than I have ever seen it... I can see one side of the tank to the other side with no problem, where as before I had issues because of all the cyano and algae on the walls. The last thing with my refugium is on a rock I put in when I purchased everything I noticed a little and I mean little feather duster. When it would come out it would have one color and again was probably about the size of a pin head. Last week I took a look and noticed the feather duster now had 5 strips of color on it. It started off as white, then brown, then white, then brown, and now white. It's so cool to look at when it's opening up as you see the pattern when it emerges from the rock.
Anyway, that's the news for me. I'm excited about everything. As a side note, my fish are all doing well. My blenny is becoming a cow with all the food he has around him. My clowns are enjoying the space they have. My cardinals are all getting along for the most part (there is one that they seem to isolate from the group, he was the last to come into the tank). My green star polyps are doing amazing, they're actually growing onto my rock now! I was surprised to see that also since I only have CFL and I know it's probably not strong enough to make them VERY happy, but happy none the less. My hammer coral is starting to grow two new heads, I was shocked about that as well. The heads are growing very slowly, and again I just assumed that would be the case... I wasn't even expecting really any growth but am excited about it!
I plan to purchase a new fish (possibly a young dwarf zebra lionfish) we'll see, I know I don't want to buy one that can fit my fish into its mouth, because like everyone else, my goal is to have a nice fish tank with many fish... not a fish tank with a monster!
To start out, I'll mention my #1 issue... my green hair algae. After going to my local fish store to find out some additional information from what everyone has given me here regarding how to get rid of the green hair algae he had told me an effective but daunting and time consuming would be to simply get a toothbrush and the bristles will grab and tug the hair algae out. I did this and by the time I knew it I had a paper towel filled with GHA. I took a step back from my tank to see the improvement I had made to only find it looks almost no different. Apparently I have quite a bit of GHA. Anyway, I've been at it for a few times now and have been starting to see a difference in the amount of algae in my tank. I'm still leaving small patches here and there for my blenny to eat as well as the crabs, and snails.
The other day I decided to go out and purchase two more turbo snails. The reason for the purchase was because my back wall was starting to get filled with hard algae spots. I didn't mind that so much until actual algae hair started to grow on the back wall. That's when I said enough was enough and bought the additional turbos. The wall is algae hair free now, but still has the hard algae on the back wall. To my knowledge (correct me if I'm wrong) the hard algae isn't a bad thing. It just means my tank is maturing, so it doesn't worry me. Regarding the turbo snails, three of them eat like crazy. They eat the algae on the back wall and on the front glass all the time. One however hasn't had any desire to eat for the last few days. I see him usually laying on the sand and not moving around much. Occasionally I'll find him on the very low end of the glass about an inch off the sand looking like he's trying to eat, but doesn't care much for it. Finally the other day I found him on the sand with his shell flipped upside down and he had no desire to flip himself back over. I flipped him over and placed him on the glass near the top of the tank where there was a significant amount of algae. He started to eat, and then decided to stop again. I came back into the room after leaving for a short while and he was again, on the sand. I know some snails are nocturnal but even when lights are out I don't see him moving around. I check before bed and when I wake up in the morning and he is often still in the same spot as before. I check to make sure he isn't dead, but at this point, I think it's only time until I find the shell with a dead snail carcass in there. I finally decided to say enough is enough, and moved him into the fuge where there is a significant amount of food in there for him to chow down on. I don't expect to see any change though and anticipate only having 3 turbo's within the next few days/weeks.
I do have a question regarding emerald crabs. About two months ago I had found a dead emerald crab in my tank. Everyone was assuring me that it was just the molt of the crab. However, after seeing a molt from another crab, I am 100% sure this was no molt. My question though is regarding how crabs procreate. I've had one emerald crab in there since the other had died (again I am SURE the other had died based on when I picked it up it wasn't moving, nor did it have any break in it looking like it was a molt, and it was a hard shell that wasn't breaking apart) but the other day when the lights were out, I noticed a pink object in my tank. I looked closer to find that it was a crab that had either just hatched or molted a shell. It was out in the open for just a few minutes until it caught wind that I was eying it down. It's significantly smaller than the other emerald crab and as a matter of fact the other emerald was on the other side of the tank eating some hair algae so I know I wasn't confused. Again, I know the other one was dead and I removed it from my tank... approx how long does it take for crabs to procreate and do they need a mate for it?
Finally, my refugium is rocking! My Chaeto is thriving right now. It's grown from a handful to about the side of a volleyball or womans size basketball. My stomatella is going to town. From the first stomatella I've seen it was approx the size of a pin head. Since then he has grown to be close to two inches long when moving across my tank. He is a lean mean eating machine. He is (or I assume is) actually a she. Since I've been reluctant to look at my refugium because of all the small cyano outbreak in there I haven't been paying much attention to the environment. Not to mention I wasn't necessarily neglecting the refugium, it's just much easier to forget about it when it's out of sight out of mind. Anyway, the other week I took a look and noticed two things: One, the cyano was practically gone. It's not gone due to moving into the DT because I don't see a trace of it in my DT as of now. So my only assumption is stomatella (or mine at least) love to eat bacteria. I have no issue with that, and room them on for it too. The second thing I took notice of, baby stomatellas literally all over my refugium. The main stomatella has reproduced like a rabbit, and they're all over my refugium walls, sand, cleaning up the Chaeto... these things are little vacuums! My refugium is cleaner than I have ever seen it... I can see one side of the tank to the other side with no problem, where as before I had issues because of all the cyano and algae on the walls. The last thing with my refugium is on a rock I put in when I purchased everything I noticed a little and I mean little feather duster. When it would come out it would have one color and again was probably about the size of a pin head. Last week I took a look and noticed the feather duster now had 5 strips of color on it. It started off as white, then brown, then white, then brown, and now white. It's so cool to look at when it's opening up as you see the pattern when it emerges from the rock.
Anyway, that's the news for me. I'm excited about everything. As a side note, my fish are all doing well. My blenny is becoming a cow with all the food he has around him. My clowns are enjoying the space they have. My cardinals are all getting along for the most part (there is one that they seem to isolate from the group, he was the last to come into the tank). My green star polyps are doing amazing, they're actually growing onto my rock now! I was surprised to see that also since I only have CFL and I know it's probably not strong enough to make them VERY happy, but happy none the less. My hammer coral is starting to grow two new heads, I was shocked about that as well. The heads are growing very slowly, and again I just assumed that would be the case... I wasn't even expecting really any growth but am excited about it!
I plan to purchase a new fish (possibly a young dwarf zebra lionfish) we'll see, I know I don't want to buy one that can fit my fish into its mouth, because like everyone else, my goal is to have a nice fish tank with many fish... not a fish tank with a monster!
