Gaz'z RSM

[Gazdac]

Well... Here we go. ill just start where im at... And that's identifying which are the baddies... and how to kill them. Soo... lets play Name that thing...

Yes I'm doing some resarch... but the learning curve is pretty big if I don't want to screw up royally.

Mushrooms?: Good guys? pretty, right out front. rock has nice colors on it.

Starfish?: Eats my good stuff right? Kill it?

Orange stuff? Maybe alive? Maybe Good:

Dead Crab?: and a swirly thing in the background: Dead crab goes away.

OOOh Pretty

Anemone of the purple persuasion?: Sorry its deep, cant focus on it. At least 10 others in tank.

Noodle monsters?: dont know what they are, but I like them. Some broke away and landed elsewhere. Will those grow?

Anemone of the reddish persuasion?: Another guy, I think there are around 200 of them in my tank. There is also one that is nearly see through. Some are almost microscopic.

 

[reeffreak]

1)Yes mushrooms,good guys.Low flow and low to moderate light.They should multiply in time.

2)Asterina sea star-removing them is up to you.Some say they eat corals but I think they just eat dead corals and film algae.I have many and haven't lost any corals.

3)The orange stuff looks like a sponge-reef safe,filter feeder.

4)Dead crab?I don't see it

5)Nice rocks,pretty yes!

6)Aiptasia anemone-pest anemone that you need to kill.Joe's Juice,salt paste or boiling water will kill them.You might need to remove the rocks to do it except for the Joe's Juice.Peppermint shrimps may eat them too.

7)Zoos/button polyps that aren't open yet.Give them some time,moderate flow and low/mod light.

8)aiptasia again-holy cow 200 of them?You need to nip them in the bud asap!

 

[Bifferwine]

I agree with Freak on all of them! Yay Freak and Biffy!

HOLY SHIT YOU HAVE 200+ AIPTASIA!!! Those are awful to have in your tank. Get rid of them, STAT. Peppermint shrimp will eat them. Like Freak said, you can also use a Kalkwasser paste, a salt paste or lemon juice. But it will take a loooong time to kill them one by one if you really have that many.

 

[Gazdac]

8)aiptasia again-holy cow 200 of them?You need to nip them in the bud asap!

Well, I think its them. Theres little guys that look the same all over the tank (the couple I showed before are the big ones)

Like in this picture:

at high rez there are at least 9 small ones visable in the picture (and I confirmed that "swirly" is a live snail.

As for the dead crab, it looks like legs sticking out of a shell (same colur as rock)

How well does the shrimps work. I don't mind investing in one. And if my LFS sells live rock with this many in it they probably could find someone for me to sell the shrimp(s) to after.

Just to confirm, regardless of color and slight difference in shape they are all the same?

Thanks guys yall rock!

 

[reeffreak]

The aiptasias are all the same,some are light,some dark,some have stripes and speckle to there bodies,some tiny,some bigger.You get the idea,right?

Sometimes peppermints get to work fast,sometimes not.I would get 3 or 4 with that much aips in there.I had about 10 aips and 3 peppermints.It took about a month before they got around to all of them.

The swirly snail looks like a vermetid snails-reed safe/annoying.

 

[Gazdac]

Fanks....

The purple bastard moved out of his cave and deposited himself front and center of the tank... Shame they are so "pretty" initially. He's also about 2 inches across... massive little bugger.

Ill probably pick up the juice and some shrimps tomorrow, as long as my levels in my tank dont spike too much. and of course if my small town fish store carries them.

Heh, maybe mr pinchy (crab, havent seen him since my inital peek) will get him then :P

 

[Bifferwine]

If you still have ammonia and/or nitrites, wait on the shrimp for now. The shrimp won't survive in a tank that is still cycling.

 

[Gazdac]

1.0 posphate
5 nitrate


This is after 48 hours of doing nothing to the water except moving the rocks around.

These should be low enough for for the shrimps, no? Obviously I will probably do a partial before I put them in.

 

[hibye]

http://reefscavengers.com/peppermint.html

http://reefscavengers.com/berghianude.html

i have the nudis love them about 5 in my ten

 

[yote]

The tank looks great Gaz.
But like every body else said,you need to get rid of that aiptasia.
Once your cycles done,get some pepperment shrimp,and let em have a feast.

 

[Bifferwine]

I would skip the berghia nudis. They specialize on aiptasia (that's the only thing they eat), so once they clear out your tank, the starve to death. The only time a berghia nudi would be a good choice to get rid of aiptasia is if you have a friend or an LFS that has aiptasia that you can pass the animal on to when it's done.

 

[reeffreak]

Yes avoid Berghias,if your ammonia and nitrite is zero then get peppermint shrimps.

 

[MikMcgyver]

Nice setup Gaz, dig the shrooms... Thats a heck of a lot of aitasia... try a lil joes juice and they will be toast... Shrinp after levels are stable..

 

[Gazdac]

The levels were all looking pretty good, so the LFS and I decided it was time to get the shrimp. They only had 3 of them in total, so I took 2. I also took a bottle of "aiptasia killer" (no Joe's juice around) ... I know it might not be as safe as Joes, but heck I dont have much of anything in my thing to kill.

The killer definatly worked well on the things. you squirt it on them and it sticks to them ala-napalm One of them I missed, and only hit half, so he sort of half retracted with the rest of him hanging out kinda limply. Since it's late, I don't get to stay up and see what the 30 minute and hourly results are.

The shrimps seemed happy, they freaked out and ran around like crazy for a while, then settled in crawled around and then found a cave.

Pics tomorrow, stay tuned. Oh, if anyone needs one my LFS "knows how to get a hold of a reef shark, just need 20,000 gallons or so to put it in" LOL :p

 

[reeffreak]

Let the shrimps do there thing first before using that product.You may kill the shrimps by accident.

 

[Gazdac]

Let the shrimps do there thing first before using that product.You may kill the shrimps by accident.

Lol... oops A litle late for that. The shrimps were floating in thier bag when I used the product, and most of it was dissapated before they were free. The product listed a PPL/Hour to not exceed and I came no where close to that amount since i only dosed the 5 gigantic ones. Hoping the shrimps can do the rest.

20 hours later they look fine still. If they start acting strange I'll make sure to try to rescue them.

 

[RigoSharon]

great pics gazdac!!

 

[Gazdac]

Well A small update.. My shrimps are doing good. One shedded and I took pictures... but alas he's too see through to show up lol.

My big crab still hasnt ever come out of his cave, but he's still alive.

Found some new stuff recently:

My mushrooms doing pretty stinking good. the 2 small ones were basically non existant when I got the rock. Yay for growing things. A new find is the crab next to the mushroom. I can never get a good enough look at him, he darts out snaps at something and then back into his hole so quick. only about a CM in size or so.

Why just have one? Why not have an entire forest?
My aiptasia seem to be growing into forests now. Luckily this seems to be the only place I see them in the tank currently. Whenever one becomes visable it dissapears the next day. Shirmpies go to work!

I haven't seen any spikes in my tanks levels, and the purple alage seems to be thriving. Course my hair alage seems to be thriving too, yet my levels aren't even registering in the tests. It's only growing in half the tank, so maybe ill cover that half to shield it from external lighting (stupid hydroponic garden in the room.

I think next time I'm in town I should hire some cleaners. The tank is starting to look filthy.