My journal of my SW tank set-up

[Great Lakes]

Spanair!!! Dude!!

Your little "spawning" thing looks like one of the biggest aiptasias I have ever seen.

Definite TROUBLE

They are one of the most troublesome pests in the marine world. The are able to reproduce at a rate that can smother everything else in the tank.

Hopefully someone else will com along and prove me wrong.

And your "musroom" is a toadstool. They are hardy and grow well under normal lighting. They like a more moderate current though so don't put a powerhead right on him.

GL

 

[spanair]

GL,

what can I do about it?, I've only started to run the tank a few weeks ago and now I have this big problem by the sounds of it . Argh, it happened 3 days after the live rock was in the tank .
Please help me

 

[Great Lakes]

Tank could use a little more maturing, yet a peppermint shrimp might be in order. I was hoping someone else with better eyesight would come along and disprove my Aiptasia label. I thought at first it could have been a type of rock anemone, but they would not spawn like that.

Peppermint shrimp really like the stuff. It is one of the time honored ways to combat it. Don't fear to much, your tank is not all full of corals at least. Now is the best time to gain some experience on battling some of the troubles.

GL

 

[spanair]

What i'll do is tomorrow i'll pass by the lfs and get 1 or 2 shrimps and a couple of pieces of live rock as well. I hope it will help and that the shrimps will be okay in the tank .

I'll let you know, and thank you!.

PS:

16/5/04:

I bought 2 maxi-jet's powerheads (900), they sure are nice and I found them cheap new!. Great. I also moved them so they dont hit the coral's to hard as you said they dont like it rough so they are okay so far . I love the

Here is some shots of the tank and the powerheads, i'll post more tomorrow though when I get back from the LFS hopefully .


PSS, the pieces of rock are quite big but I guess the aqurium been big makes the live rock look small, but is not that small .

 

[spanair]

I bought a peppermint shrimp, he should take care of business . I'll post pics later as he still getting acclimatised .

 

[ade]

Span,

I had what I thought was some sort of feather dusters on one of my pieces of LR, having consulted the book though, it's exactly the same as their piccie of Aiptasia (sp?). But it looks nothing like what I can see of your pic. Have you positively id'd it?

I followed the route that the book suggested for removing it, which is to squirt very very hot water onto it. Not a pleasant task, but a necessary one.

HTH

Ade

 

[spanair]

about a couple of days ago the tank was fine next day I looked and it was full of algae, it got worst next day but slowly it has started to fade, still there as you can see on the pic but is no way as bad as it was at first. I bought 3 turbo snails for now to help clean the algae up, although it's probably just a maturing/cycling phase they should help out a fair bit. More snails will be added this weekend most probably too.

Hey ade, thanks for the reply. Yep they were Aiptasia, most of them have now banished thanks to the pepperming shrimp. The home marine shop had a couple of Aiptasia in their live rock so I showed him to make sure it was Aiptasia and it was . happy now too as theres only a few remaining, and i've seen them move but theres no escape from the peppermint shrimp .

Since i've bought 3 turbo snails, more live stock will be in this weekend though, I mean cleaner type live stock, not fishes yet as I want it to mature a couple of weeks more.

Heres a pic of the snails when they were put in the tank after aclimatising them to the different salt level etc on their bag B) .

 

[spanair]

27.5.04

Hey guys, I bought 2 hermit crabs today, hopefully this weekend if not the next I will get the rest of the live rock (about 100GBP) and 1 maybe 2 peppermint shrimp/s, a few more hermit's. Later on maybe in 2 weeks time or maybe 1 depending i'll get a pair of clowns. I bought 2 very nice looking damsels, and i'm very pleased with them, they seem happy and all the water parameters have gone back down.

I seem to be having a critters bloom, but I guess it's good for the fishes and the rest of the habitants. , the algae bloom hasen't gone as yet, still a bit much on one side of the tank, but it is fading by time. Hopefully the turbo snails and hermits should help a bit

here is a pic of the damsels:

peppermint shrimp (at last I manage to cacth him by surprise for a pic )

& the hermits

More updates to come,
thanks for reading

 

[impur]

That definately looks like a HUGE aiptasia. A bigtime reef badguy. If i were you i would inject that sucker with boiling hot watter ASAP. Or soon your rock will be covered with the stuff.

Also i think you are adding inverts and fish to fast. You must cycle the tank first before adding anything. Most of what you have added may die. Have you tested ammonia, nitrites, nitrates Also what kind of water are you using? What kind of lighting? What sort of filtration? There are so many things that may go wrong in that tank from what i see, i hope you have researched a lot before this endeavor.

My guess is that in the next week or so your ammonia will rise off the charts and kill those snails, hermits and shrimp. The fish may live. I hope it all goes well, but you might consider reading up on the process new reef tanks go through as well as husbandry of corals.

 

[spanair]

Theres only one left right now though, from about 8-10 to 1 , I guess the shrimp is doing a very good job or something

 

[spanair]

I bought some more live rock today + a starfish friday and a coral today as well (green buton).

Here are the pics & more updates to follow very soon so keep watching this space 8)

Starfish:

Right side of the tank now, coral closed though.

Here is the green buton coral i bought, really pretty!:

The left side as it is for now:

Tank overall:

 

[spanair]

I bought a red goby and 4 red legged hermit crabs and 3 turbo snails, got the pics but i'll upload them afterwards.

Oh I also bought some bits of live rock

 

[leanne]

Looking good!! Its brilliant to read your journal. Its good that a few of us are doing it now so others can read and see that it's not all horror stories!! I'm going to put some more photos on soon - my live rock now covers the whole of the space of the back wall!! It mega now.

 

[spanair]

Thank you leanner is great to read yours as well!. I do enjoy seen th process of these tank progress, they really are amazing to watch all that life around in the tank . I might of spent alot of money but it's so worth it!.

Here is an update:

Here is a pic of the goby I got to help keep the copepods under control a bit as i'm having a bloom of them

And a tank overall with some more bits of rock too .

 

[spanair]

Here is the latest fishes for a month now, I want the tank to mature a bit more and then i'll add some fishes, i'm considering the morish idol and the coral beauty and a yellow tang and some madarin fish, but for now i'll just keep buying some corals and more live rock for about a month and then in a month or two i'll start buying a few more fishes . I dont want to rush it. The tank is nice as it is anyways so no hurry for me .

Anyways I bought the latest aditions for now, 2 x percula clowns, still very tiny guys and very active 8)

sorry, I know it's blury

keep watching!!