I'm Baaaack! :o)

[weez1959]

Hey you guys, how has everyone been doing!?! I've been out of the picture lately, really busy with my Mom's hospital appointments and rehabilitating, bla bla bla.....
Anyway, I'm back!
Im sorry to say that I really neglected my tanks!! :eek3: for example............
I'm embarassed to say, 3 water changes since september! Needless to say I'm trying to get back on top of this mess now. Luckily the fish haven't complained, nobody packed up thier little suitcases and left so I guess it's not that bad in the main tank.
Anyways, just a little question, I did water tests (AP and Salifert) and everything is in the normal range?!?!? Phosphates and nitrates are both at 0 but I have red slime, can someone explain that?
Louise

[zhenya]

Hi Louise,

Welcome back!!!!

The reason your tests not showing much is because your cyanobacteria consumes most of it for itself, hence why it is in bloom at the moment. Once you get back to your normal water changing schedule I think you'll see it receeding rapidly.
Glad to hear everything is pretty much in good shape, tanks and all... ;)

[weez1959]

Hi Gene!
Thanks for the reply!

I did a 30% WC on saturday, should I do another saturday coming or sooner?

The pony tank is another mess but I didn't want to overwhelm anyone with a pile of questions

I have a hair algae problem in there, is it the same solution with that? I pretty much ripped it apart last thursday and put the live rock that was in it in the dark in a QT, the ponies are fine but it looks pretty barren in there
I gave them a plastic plant while the algae dies off and I did a 30% WC in there too...

Is there anything else I can do to speed up the pony tank recovery?
Louise

[zhenya]

I did a 30% WC on saturday, should I do another saturday coming or sooner?

Louise,

I wouldn't rush with the water changes, 30% is pretty large exchange and I personally would wait until Saturday to do another w/c.

I have a hair algae problem in there, is it the same solution with that?

Pretty much. If you removed the rock to another container it is pretty easy to just give it a good ol scrub, rinse, scrub treatment. You can certainly quarantine it in some darkness after that to see if the algae returns. Give it some time and I'm pretty sure it will die off some. Once you put it back in the tank you just have to see if you need to repeat the treatment.

But basically it is the same problem, nutrient build up in the system. Just do some water changes every week for couple of weeks, skim agressively and all that good stuff. ;)
How is your mom doing now?

[weez1959]

I hadn't thought of the scrub Maybe I'll do that and still leave them in the dark a couple of weeks anyway. I hate that I let them (my tanks) go that much but I really didn't have a minute to myself during these past few months but I'll be putting in overtime on the tanks now

I don't know if anyone remembers that I had a Clarkii clown in my Japanese tacky tank and I felt terrible about him being alone in that tiny tank and I wanted to put him in with the ponies so I checked on the net and it said it was risky to do and then I mentioned it here and Charlie said it wasn't a good idea.... so back in nov., still not knowing what to do with him ( and not wanting to bring him back to the LFS ) I decided I would try it and keep a close watch on everything, feedings and whatnot,
anyway, it worked out great! I feed him first with frozen formula 1 and then feed the ponies and everyone is happy! except the peppermint shrimp, but that's for the next post...

My mom's pretty beat up but the good news is that the cancer is all gone! (hopefully for good)
She just went home last weekend from a 2 month stay with me.
I'm glad I quit smoking 25 years ago and if I hadn't it would have definately scared me into quitting! Cancer treatments are pretty harsh and it doesn't end there, you still have a huge recovery time afterwards which is pure hell She's still not eating much and it's been 40ish days since the last treatment.

Louise

[weez1959]

so about the peppermint shrimp...
I had 3 in the pony tank then about a month ago I saw the clown munching on one and I figured hmmm, must of died of natural causes... oh well, I still have 2! So a week goes by the he's munching on another one, hmm, this is getting kinda weird, why are my shrimp dying? So last week I took out all the rock in the tank because of hair algae and I turn around and the litlle bugger is zooming around the tank chasing my last shrimp!! Needless to say I took him out and put him in the qt with the rock!
Question here is, do clown fish attack shrimp normally? I thought they were safe together, is my Clarkii a Jekyll and Hyde case? :eek3:

Louise

[zhenya]

Louise,

Peppermints are a fair game when it comes to fishes that can fit them in their mouth. Cleaner shrimp are totally different and I haven't seen my clown ever picking on them.



PS. I couldn't ever keep them long enough to take after Aiptasia because my fish(like the hawk) would go after it and finish them off.

[TimH07]

Louise,

Peppermints are a fair game when it comes to fishes that can fit them in their mouth. Cleaner shrimp are totally different and I haven't seen my clown ever picking on them.



PS. I couldn't ever keep them long enough to take after Aiptasia because my fish(like the hawk) would go after it and finish them off.

oddly enough, peppermints dont seem to go after aptaisia unless you give them reason, ie.. mine never touched my apt's untill i tried burning them with boiling water, it didnt kill the aiptaisias, but the shrimp devoured them in less than a week after they were "charred" as though it was like a burger king opened up and they smelled the cooked meat

i too have never seen a clown chase them, but i can say, that both of my shrimps (peppermint and skunk) molted in the same day, and when you see the molt of the shrimp your immidiate thought is it died, but peppermints hide so well they may stil be alive and you've assumed they've died.

perhaps~

[weez1959]

i too have never seen a clown chase them, but i can say, that both of my shrimps (peppermint and skunk) molted in the same day, and when you see the molt of the shrimp your immidiate thought is it died, but peppermints hide so well they may stil be alive and you've assumed they've died.

perhaps~

Don't worry, they didn't molt, it was the whole shrimp he was munching, he even had a little bowl of garlic butter on the side!

I guess when I put the tank back together I'll get a cleaner shrimp instread or maybe none at all...

Louise

[Live Rock Ricky]

Louise,

I wouldn't rush with the water changes, 30% is pretty large exchange and I personally would wait until Saturday to do another w/c.

I do a 30% water change every two weeks, is that too much?

[zhenya]

[QUOTE=Live Rock Ricky;173080]

Louise,

I wouldn't rush with the water changes, 30% is pretty large exchange and I personally would wait until Saturday to do another w/c.


I do a 30% water change every two weeks, is that too much?

No it is not too much. People change water every week, I was doing it for a while as well, and don;t seem to have an issue with that schedule. Having said that, if your bioload isn't all that great and you have great nutrient export mechanism installed that works, I don;t see a reason to do large water changes every week. It really depends on your particular system, mechanics of it and livestock that you keep.
You can keep your schedule if it works for you, as long as you adding well mixed and conditioned water you should be just fine. ;)

[Live Rock Ricky]

i just have a phosphate problem that is mentally killing me.. they have come down a bit though. not sure if i need to replace all my sand...

[zhenya]

i just have a phosphate problem that is mentally killing me.. they have come down a bit though. not sure if i need to replace all my sand...

That is a loaded question, Ricky. ;)
I don;t believe you should replace all of the sand bed unless it completely failed. What I mean to say is that if you see that your sand bed is clumping or it is totally devoid of life (hence why it is clumping ;) ).
You can reduce your PO4 levels with water changes, you can also utilise some phosphate reactors with phosphate removing media(iron oxyde based preferably) like Phosban or Rowaphos. I personally use Phosban reactor and Pura Phoslock media in it. I haven't seen algal film on my glass in month....
What type of sand bed do you have?

[weez1959]

If you removed the rock to another container it is pretty easy to just give it a good ol scrub, rinse, scrub treatment. You can certainly quarantine it in some darkness after that to see if the algae returns.

I did the scrub rinse thing today for the pony tank and will do another 30% W/C on the weekend but I was thinking of adding a bit of Rowaphos to the filter section of the tank, would that make a difference and if so how often should I change it?
Louise

[zhenya]

Louise,

How much is Rowa in Canada? I persoanlly use Pura Phoslock in the reactor to combat PO4. Not that I have extremely high levels but I do keep mostly "sps" type corals and I still prefer to use the media and run ozone.
Having said that, I'm not sure if it is OK to run Rowa in a passive way or not but I'm pretty sure it should be OK to just put it in the filter compartment in the old knee high or something... I used to use my wife's pantyhose for the media until I got busted for it, so now I have to ask for it...

[weez1959]

I personally use Phosban reactor and Pura Phoslock media in it. I haven't seen algal film on my glass in month....

we must have typed replies at the same time, is Pura Phoslock the same as Rowa Phos?

[weez1959]

Louise,

How much is Rowa in Canada? I persoanlly use Pura Phoslock in the reactor to combat PO4. Not that I have extremely high levels but I do keep mostly "sps" type corals and I still prefer to use the media and run ozone.
Having said that, I'm not sure if it is OK to run Rowa in a passive way or not but I'm pretty sure it should be OK to just put it in the filter compartment in the old knee high or something... I used to use my wife's pantyhose for the media until I got busted for it, so now I have to ask for it...

Ha ha, that's funny!
Rowa is about $70 a quart up here!

I have a reactor in the 90 gallon but I can't fit one in th cube so a sock will have to do...

[zhenya]

Ha ha, that's funny!
Rowa is about $70 a quart up here!

I have a reactor in the 90 gallon but I can't fit one in th cube so a sock will have to do...

Louise,

Check out the prices here.
They sell this stuff and you can also buy the best magnet cleaner in the process.

[weez1959]

Looks like the prices are similar, so are these product almost the same?
I ordered a quart of Rowa from J+L aquatics today so I should be set for a little while. What scares me about ordering US is the shipping and customs, In some cases it almost doubles the price of the item when you add it altogether

[weez1959]

oops, I forgot the check the magnet cleaner...