Michika's 28g long nano-esque tank!

[michika]

January 20th Update
Parameters today:
SG 1.023
Nitrate (Pinpoint monitor): Undetectable
Nitrite 0ppm
Ammonia 0ppm
phosphate (Hanna Colormeter) 0.01
Mg (salifert) 1190ppm
dKH 7
Ca (salifert) 420ppm

Things that are happening this week;

I noticed cyano forming last week in tiny patches, I siphoned it out. This week its back and its everywhere. Last time I delt with this was 2004 and I fixed it by correcting my then low dKH levels. This time around I don't really know what to do. I'm researching it again to see what new information has come out on dealing with it.

I am experiencing STN on my biggest colony of SPS. You can see in the photos below the fresh white skeleton showing through. In one photo there is cyano on the colony before I blew it off. I'm unsure if it is related or not to the dosing program I am on as it was fine prior to starting the program.

My surviving clams came back to me. Delphinius was kind enough to hold onto them while my tank settled back to where I wanted it. Its really nice to see them again. Both are open and the mandarin is happy to have his favorite hiding/hunting spot back again. I can't wait until I can add more clams in the future, I really miss my field of clams.

The tang that I was holding for a friend is now mine. I convinced him to trade the tang for a good meal. I am now the proud owner of a tang that EATS!! GHA. I'm planning a 6ft tank right now to move him to in the next month or so. The tang also taught my imperator angel to eat GHA, so I can't complain.

Speaking of the GHA its still proliferating. I manually prune about 1/4 cup every few days. Its not as thick as the GHA I delt with in my previous tank, so that is a bit of a relief. I'm slowly going to start moving out infested rocks so I can cook them. It is going to be a long and slow process, but I think it needs to be done.

I'm thinking that there are two possible sources that are feeding the GHA right now, a) my RO/DI itself, b) my rocks from my original first set up in 2004. The only rocks that do get covered with GHA are all rocks that I got in 2004 when I set up my first tank. I had to go back through all my photos to make this connection.

I did starve a bunch of my hermits in my sump as suggested, now that they've been returned to the tank I hope they start chowing down. My urchin has finally abanadoned the tank walls as his perfered spot. Instead he how hangs out on the rocks, sadly its the underside, rather then the tops with the GHA.

FTS from Friday the 17th


FTS from today, the 20th


The imperator angel.


Mandarin


Necrosis on my colony




Other corals in the tank






The clams, home at last.

[sharuq1]

Very encouraging to see you have your clams back. Hope all the corals come back. Lovely angel and of course love the mandy. Is it a male or female? (just curious)

[michika]

Thank you. Its a huge improvement from say just prior to x-mas.

The mandarin is a male. I eventually want to find him a lady friend, but it seems like there are no females to be had.

[Delphinus]

My tank looks empty now But I'm happy your clams are back home where they belong! That is one of the nicest derasa's I've ever seen. If you ever decide you're tired of it ....

Sorry to hear about the one piece receding but your other frags are looking well (better than mine ... I'm tempted to try moving them out of the coral-nippers tank, but I'm a little paranoid about putting SPS in my other tanks!)

Gorgeous mandarin. Seems to me they come in bursts .. you'll see a whole bunch, then not for a while, then a bunch again .. if I see a female at any LFS I go to I'll let you know.

[michika]

Thank you!

I was really happy to get my clams back, they just add something to the tank that nothing else can. I guess the same goes for you, if you get tired of any of your clams, I'll happily take them!

[michika]

OMG!! Cyano and GHA are the bane of my tank's existence. The cyano now covers everything. It is smothering out, or trying to, get my surviving zoas, and some of my new SPS.

I added in a seio 2600 to the display to add more flow....something about this just isn't right.

I hate to say it, but I think my tank requires more flow. I think I need to pick up a bigger pump...as if a Snapper isn't big enough....So...who has a dart pump for sale?

Today I don't love reefkeeping as much as I used to.

[michika]

A brief, albeit photoless update for today, superbowl Sunday.

- The cyano got so bad it covered everythng in my tank. I had to blow it off the corals and the sides of the clam twice daily. The powerheads became covered in it. It was just horrific.
- I ended up stopping the use of Energy Elements on Wednesday January 30th and within two days the cyano had dropped back considerably. By today about 95% of the cyano has vanished. I will try again to use the Energy elements in two weeks and see if it again triggers the cyano.
- I'm still battling the GHA, I've swapped out my MH bulb, I'm running a shorter photo period, and I'm doing larger water changes each week, 14g a week rather then 7g. I'm still manually pruning the stuff.
- I am planning to change the tank around. I'm going to re-aquascape this week and see if I can't get things done a little better to combat the GHA. I'm going to cap off two of the returns to see if I can't get stronger flow from the Snapper pump, and more random currents.