tuesday8877

So the crab was fine...very active and super fun to watch...til it started getting a lil bigger. I'm pretty sure he killed my baby blue tang...I caught him eating it but I'm not positive that the crab actually killed it. But he was snapping at the fish if they got too close and also running all over the coral and anems with his sharp legs. So he got banished to the sump...currently he's happy in the 90 gallon before I move the rest of the animals over.

Since my last post the tank stabilized nicely and I've been adding livestock. Currently in the tank are: Fish - 2 clowns, a melanurus wrasse, a coral beauty, and a yellow tang Inverts - sea hare, a bait crab from Galveston, coral banded shrimp ( I think this guy is the sole remaining member of the original crew) Anemones - 1 green bubble tip (from dsquare) and 1 long tentacle SPS - birds nest, and 2 others that I forgot the name of Soft Coral - Toadstool leather, pulsing xenia, waving hand from subsea that tried to take over my entire tank! and one chunk of GSP that I keep isolated on the sand bed, and an whole lot of what I think is called Texas trash polyps Zoas? I have to small frags that I got at the last frag swap but I don't know the names...one is pink...its my favorite! **Livestock I forgot to add: 1 tube anemone, 1 green hammer, 1 lobo, 1 cabbage leather, 1 candy cane, 1 brain coral (maybe) I got a new tank a couple weeks ago so I am in the process of upgrading. I will start a new thread for that one.

I have an over abundance of this stuff. Let me know if your interested. Tuesday

Well I think it started when we made some major changes a couple months ago...we added a sump, switched to a deep sand, and switch from t5 to led. After that the algae and cyanbacteria just boomed like crazy...I figured it was going through a mini cycle and would pass. But things just went down hill. Was also having trouble keeping the temperature warm enough..so recently I added another heater to the sump (our sump is a large plastic container). Well apparently it became loose and was touching the side of the container and melted a hole through it which caused a huge leak....of course this all happened right as we were about to walk out the door....so we shut it down and thought there would be enough circulation in the tank with the two powerheads until we got back. We were wrong and everything was dead when we came back about 5 hrs later.

Diaster stuck my tank this week. A series of unfortunate events led to a tank wide apocalypse with few survivors. All that's left are some coral, the sea cucumber, a coral banded shrimp, a conch, and few crabs....even most of the snails are gone. Trying to salvage what is left and get it stabilized. Did a large water change today and added ChemiClean to try and get rid of the cyanobacteria that has be plaguing the tank for a couple months now. Feeling pretty frustrated and discouraged...and guilty for killing off my critters Not planning on getting any livestock until everything is worked out but I guess now I have a pretty clean slate if or when I decided to start over.

Thanks y'all. I sent him a PM.

I'm in need of just a canopy for our 75 gallon that is 48 x 18. We built the stand but never got around to building the canopy. Just bought an led light that needs to be hung but we can't hang it from the ceiling. Doesn't have to be fancy or beautiful just sturdy and in decent condition. 254-four five eight- 0250. Thanks!

Thanks! We had the heat off in the house while out of town and the tank heater was only set to 72. I will raise the temp gradually and hopefully that will bring them back.

Oops that was supposed to be 72...I will raise it up a notch and see if that helps.

Hopefully someone can help me figure out what is going on with these guys. We went out of town for a couple of days and returned to find these three not doing very well at all. The BTA is withered and deflated, the waving hand looks dehydrated for lack of a better way to describe it, and the toadstool leather is turning a dark gray. Everything else in the tank seems to be fine including all the fish the other leather coral, mushrooms, shrimp, urchin, etc. Even the new sebae anemone that I got last weekend is looking good. Could the new anemone be emitting a toxin? I checked nitrates, phosphates, calcium, salinity, and temperature. Nitrates = 0, Phosphates < .25, Calcium is low but it always is in the this tank even though I dose fairly regularly. Temperature is around 70. The only thing that seemed off was the salinity which was a lil high at 35ppt and I ususally keep it at around 32-33. The only other thing that is different besides the new anemone is that we just switched to a sump after the canister filter died. If anyone body has any ideas what could be affecting these critters and not the other any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

So it's been a while and time for an update. The tank is pretty much a mess right now. Still having algae growth problems..mostly green hair. Had a couple of die offs that I can't explain...the konch and the star fish died and the hammer coral is basically done for. We did add some interesting creatures...an oyster and 4 gulf shrimp. We got a bunch of live oysters at Fiesta (to eat) and decided to try a couple out in the tank and one of them has survived a couple months now. And last weekend we went to Port Aransas to "pick up" some sand and brought home some live gulf shrimp and but them in the tank. So far so good...they mostly stay hidden in the sand unless it's eating time. Then today I was adding some more of the gulf sand to the tank and doing general maintance and the Fluval filter started leaking out of the sides (I broke one of the clips a couple months back) so after trying to get the leaking to stop and cleaning up about 3 gallons of water I decided it was too dangerous to keep it running anymore...so now there is no filtration in the tank at all. Not sure how long it can stay like that before bad things start happening. But today the water seemed to be in good condition..nitrates close to 0, phosphate is lower than before but still around .25-.5. calcium is very low even though I started dosing a few weeks ago.

Here are some pics of the recent changes...I liked the rocks better the other way but I did add some Texas Holey rock that we had in the sump of our 110 gallon freshwater tank. Here's the clarkii in jail with a bunch of the dragons breath that got knocked off the rocks while trying to catch him! Gorgeous macoralgaes and waving hand from Subsea and new rocks. [ attachment=22141:IMG_3772.JPG]

I added some very nice macroalgae that I got from subsea yesterday. Thanks Patrick! Also had to pretty much tear the rocks apart trying to catch the dreaded Clarkii...he is now in an isolation net hanging in tank until he finds a new home. *I was going to give him away but then I got scared that he won't be taken care of or just be turned into a LFS. The anemone is still recovering and the hammer is looking MUCH better. Everyone is generally happier with the bully out of commission. Thinking of adding some biopellets to my canister filter? Also does carbon go "stale" after while? And is activated carbon the same as the carbon used in HOB filters in the lil pouches? Need to get the nitrates down without having to do massive water changes all the time. Also I'm leaning toward the "natural" methods instead of or in addition to technology. I will be trying the DSB in my DT. Just wondering if there is a brand out there that is preferred. In going with the larger bits of crushed coral not the fine sand. Oh and I finally got the surface agitation just right do no more surface scum!

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Hey Patrick, thanks for the reply and advice! I do have a tray of carbon in the fluval...forgot to mention that. I do need to overhaul the media...I will probably take out the filter pads and replace with pellets or rubble if I can find some. I think your right about it cycling...it was a long move and it probably killed a lot of the good bacteria in the sand and rocks. Before that the 75 gal tank was running for about a month with no major algae problems. When it was still in the 55 gal I used a HOB filter and it seemed to work but I didn't like the look and sound of it and it was kinda messy (water spray and salt creep). Plus I think the fluval is keeping the water clearer and less bubbles. The HOB was definately better at agitating the surface scum though. The cleaner shrimp and the banded have been together for awhile now. They seem to completely ignore each other but I will keep an eye on them. I think I have a Macro algae called dragons breath growing in the tank. Don't know where it came from but it's growing really well. There is some in the pics above maybe someone can help id it if its not dragons breath.

We built a stand and don't need this one anymore. Had a 75gal on it. Brown...no canopy. It's in pieces right now but fairly easy to reassemble. I think there was a flat top on it at one point but its missing...could use as is or lay a piece of plywood on top if you want. Will post pics asap. South Austin near Barton Creek Mall.

Thanks guys! The fluval only has some filter pads and a tray of ceramic pettlet things. I was wondering if I might be able to use another canister filter that I bought but not using (a Marineland Magnum 350) as a phosban reactor. Seems like it would be an easy conversion....have to do some research.

Some issues I am currently trying to deal with: Algae! Lots of it! I had it pretty well under control until we moved the tank to our new place...now it's bad again. The blenny, urchin, snail, and other critters are doing what they can. Higher Nitrate levels. I just did a 1/3 water change middle of last week and they are high again. Ive been getting water from Aquadome and RCA for the water changes. Probably need more live rock and sand because this tank is larger, Phosphate levels are also higher The Clarkii is a bully! He will not leave the Zenia alone and now he's picking on the blenny....might need to get rid of him! Other than that everything seems happy and healthy and growing. .