New tank not cycling

[tholleyh46]

Aquarium Suitability: Aiptasia anemones usually find their way into aquariums by hitchhiking in on live rock. Even though these are an attractive looking cnidarians, and the genus name does mean "beautiful", they are considered by most all aquarists to be destructive, nuisance pest animals that are extremely difficult to get rid of.

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[Seige]

That type of anenome looks like aptasia; not a good kind - I'd kill them - but get a second opinion or two. I epoxy them.

ok so much for the bonus lol. When you epoxy them do you cut it down to just a stem first? I'm guessing you cocoon it in epoxy...

Maybe I'll pick up some peppermint shrimp to feast on it.

Thanks for the warning. No way I'd be able to eradicate it after it replicates. My LR are like acorns. Thousands of tiny gaps n cracks for things to survive in.

[tholleyh46]

No problem, most people don't epoxy them. I've heard lime juice stories, boiling rocks, etc. The shrimp may take care of them as well.

But I've found if you just mix up a little epoxy and smash them into their hole it does the trick. You don't want to cut, try to move, etc. b/c they will spread.

[My2heartboys]

Might check with GARF. Geothermal Aquaculture Research Foundation

I don't know if they will ship to Canada, but only a few pounds (5-10) would seed a tank but good.

I plan on ordering some toward the end of Feb. to add to the tanks that we have at our house. The frag tank is newly established and could really use a good dose of biodiversity and the established tank could use it as well. Been having trouble with red slime, so I am hoping that adding some new biodiversity will help.

Anne
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Florida Keys live sand is $1/lb here in Louisiana. It may not be what you expect because usually there is nothing that is visible to the naked eye in it. The average particle size is usually 1-2mm.

Here is what I would suggest in your situation. See if you can find anybody in Canada selling live amphipods and copepods, live baby bristleworms (Eurythoe complanata), live micro-stars and mini-stars and add that to your ordinary aragonite sand. Then try to find a fellow hobbyist or some other source to beg, borrow or steal a cup of real live sand from. Aragonite sand in a flourishing reef aquarium that has been set up at least a year probably has more viable life in it (infauna) than what will survive shipping from either Florida or Fiji.

I will give you links to a couple of U.S. vendors just so that you will have an idea of what you should be looking for in Canada.

Inland Aquatics "detritivore kit", Inland Aquatics "spaghetti" worms, innoculated sand, $9.99/lb. That's rather pricey for the live sand but it's probably worth it. I've never ordered live sand from them but I did order the detritivore kit, the spaghetti worms and some trochids. I managed to acquire small amounts of live sand from five different sources during the first three or four months.

IPSF in Hawaii. What Gerald calls WonderMud is actually live sand from his tanks. It's good. It's not exactly pretty looking, so I hid it behind some of the live rocks. It will still perform. The rest of his stuff is pretty much the same as Inland Aquatics and Inland doesn't take two days for "overnight" shipping. Of course, your problem is that you're in Canada and most U.S. vendors won't ship livestock to Canada.

Reeftopia's live sand, $16 for 2 lbs. You can add that to any order. That's if you lived in the U.S. Their live sand comes from their tanks, not the Keys. Maybe it came from the Keys originally but the stuff you get comes straight from their tanks and it's VERY alive. Reeftopia has great prices on volume lots of snails, hermit crabs, etc., but that's only if you live in the U.S. I'm only trying to show you what we have available online here in the U.S. so that you will know what to look for.

Premium Aquatics sells live sand for $2. I'm pretty sure that's per pound. It's just aragonite sand that has been in their tanks for several months. This is something that an American hobbyist might add to their order for other stuff. It's not likely that anyone would order just the sand. That's how I ended up with live sand from five different sources. Usually it was just one or two pounds added to an other for other stuff, except for about 12 pounds that I ordered from the guy who sold me my fully cured live rock. It was fantastic live rock! Too bad he's no longer in business.

Anyway, that should give you an idea. Any decent live rock should already have lots of copepods and possibly some amphipods. It may very well have peanut worms, bristle worms and other non-specific polychaetes. In the U.S., when we say "bristleworms," we usually mean E. complanata. Live rock will usually contain lots of microcrustaceans that are too tiny to see with the naked eye. However, live rock alone is not enough to get your sand bed going strong. That's because most of the critters that live in the sand bed do not live in/on live rock and vice versa. There is some migration back and forth, but, in general, most of them are either sand bed infauna or live rock epifauna.

[Ninong]

Today I noticed that same LR has a tube anenome. It's a single tube on the bottom of the LR opposite the mushroom. Lucky I didn't squish it.

What color is it? How large is it? In other words, how tall is it fully extended and what is the diameter of the tentacles fully extended? Are you sure that you see its tube?

Are there any markings on the tentacles? Anything at all that would help describe it? Do the tentacles taper to slender tips? Or are the tips blunt? Are the tentacles fairly straight or are they somewhat bent and curley at the tips?

It's virtually impossible to ID an anemone of any kind without a photo but it's really important that you see an actual tube so that we can eliminate Aiptasia as a possibility.

[Seige]

What color is it? How large is it? In other words, how tall is it fully extended and what is the diameter of the tentacles fully extended? Are you sure that you see its tube?

Are there any markings on the tentacles? Anything at all that would help describe it? Do the tentacles taper to slender tips? Or are the tips blunt? Are the tentacles fairly straight or are they somewhat bent and curley at the tips?

It's virtually impossible to ID an anemone of any kind without a photo but it's really important that you see an actual tube so that we can eliminate Aiptasia as a possibility.

I'll get a photo this afternoon. Have to run for a dental appointment.

Very similar to the ones in the pic on post #119 of this thread.

It's beige/brown. I can definately see the tube. Tube is thinner then the one in that pic maybe 1/8" wide and about 1" long. Roughly 24-30 tentacles with 2 or 3 small white stripes on them. They extend about a 1/2" and get slenderer as they go until the end in a point. They bend a bit at the base but are fairly straight at the tip.

1 Possibility of why I can see the tube is that it's out of the light under a raised rock. The extended tube gets the head part into the light a bit but just barely.

Gotta run... Thanks...

[Ninong]

Very similar to the ones in the pic on post #119 of this thread.

What you have described is not at all similar to the picture you posted. Everything in your description is different. Here is your description:

Tube is thinner then the one in that pic maybe 1/8" wide and about 1" long. Roughly 24-30 tentacles with 2 or 3 small white stripes on them. They extend about a 1/2" and get slenderer as they go until the end in a point. They bend a bit at the base but are fairly straight at the tip.

That sounds like a common feather duster tube worm. It's perfectly benign and to be expected in a reef aquarium. I wouldn't be worried about removing them unless they get to the point where they are taking up too much space. It is certainly not Aiptasia. For one thing, Aiptasia do not build tubes.

[Ninong]

Check out this picture to see if this is closer to what you have:

That's a photo of common feather duster worms, harmless filter-feeding polychaetes. There is great variation in the size, shape and color of their crowns. They have a tendency to grow under live rock ledges out of bright light. (Those worms are actually a lot whiter than they look in that picture. Must be a lot of actinic light on them. Check out the one that is partially obscured at the upper left side of the picture.)

[Seige]

A lot more like the ones in the pic on 119. I tried taking a pic but can't get anything clear. Going to buy a micro zoom lens.

[Ninong]

Very similar to the ones in the pic on post #119 of this thread.

It's beige/brown. I can definately see the tube. Tube is thinner then the one in that pic maybe 1/8" wide and about 1" long. Roughly 24-30 tentacles with 2 or 3 small white stripes on them. They extend about a 1/2" and get slenderer as they go until the end in a point. They bend a bit at the base but are fairly straight at the tip.

These guys have about 120 tentacles. It's difficult for me to judge size in this photo but you say that yours have a tube that is thinner, perhaps only 1/8" by 1" long with tentacles that extend about 1/2". So your physical description doesn't seem to be a close match for this photo.

Well, all I can say at this point is that the fact that you see tubes eliminates Aiptasia and Majano anemones, both of which are serious pests.

[Seige]

That pic isn't a perfect match. It's close in the basic look and color. Tentacles look to be the same type but mine has fewer tentacles with white bands on them. The stalk on mine is a lot thinner then the head.

Don't think it's a worm. The head never retreats. It's always out.

Thanks.

oh I moved the coco worm. It's in a better spot.