20g Macro Algae/Seagrass build

[nawilson89]

Oh. Hope you find a good new job soon. That stinks like dead snails.

HAAA! That's a good one.

Yeah it's tough, but I'll survive :3

Thanks!

 

[nawilson89]

What a morning! I captured the blenny (big mean one) and threw it in the 29g with the other monsters and then I saw a surprise.

The 20g. Has babies. BABIES! I'm almost 100% sure its not shrimplets. I see 2 big eyes and a skinny body. ALOT of them.

 

[Orbela]

What a morning! I captured the blenny (big mean one) and threw it in the 29g with the other monsters and then I saw a surprise.

The 20g. Has babies. BABIES! I'm almost 100% sure its not shrimplets. I see 2 big eyes and a skinny body. ALOT of them.

Pictures!!!

 

[nawilson89]

Pictures!!!

I can try, they are incredibly small.

 

[Salty1962]

That's a great idea. Looks good!

 

[nawilson89]

Pictures!!!

Unfortunately they are too small for me to take a picture of them clearly.

I couldn't see them this morning (probably hiding), but I did see shrimplets!

 

[Eienna]

I feed Hikari First Bites to my baby mollies...maybe they'll work for your little guys?

 

[nawilson89]

So let's talk about my 20g.

Unfortunately like I thought I wasn't able to take care of the babies, but I am very happy that they did breed. So my next plan is when i have the money, to start up my 2.5g pico exclusively for these goby and breeding.

Over the weekend I saw the alpha Goby and it wasn't looking too well. It's wasn't see-through and was looking quite ragged. It may have lived a full life, before being found in the harvested live rock and brought to my tank. I wasn't able to capture it and it may have passed since then. So that's my first major death since putting fish back into my tank. It's sad to see it go, but I am glad that I was a fat happy fish for months. Maybe it was even one of my breeders. Already planning on going to get some more in the future.

So for my 20g, I had wanted to get dwarf seahorses, but was concerned over hydroids. It looks like since my tank went sexual a few months ago when I was sick that all the hydroids are gone. Other than brown algae growing everywhere and a single aiptasia that refuses to die, even with aiptasia-x, my tank is looking really good. Heck i forgot to mention the flatworms. Okay THEY HAVE TO GO. These guys have taken over. So I plan on siphoning as much out as I can and then getting some flatworm meds for the tank.

Who knows. After clearing up this baby I and getting my pod population back to where it used to be, I may get some dwarves.

I kind of want to pull everything from the tank and do some reworking on what I want too, but that probably won't ever happen.

 

[nawilson89]

Just came back from vacation for a few days with some changes, Pics to come this afternoon as I was too tired to take pics.

29g. Grape growth is still coming along very well. Very. Very well. I think the brightness of the lights has been a huge factor compared to the 20g. The grape here is compacted and bushy. It's really cool to look at. I can see shaving brush popping out of the sand bed in different places. One of the original heads died off. Ulva is growing in different areas, most notably on a filter.

I saw two of three sandfish last night. One seems to be hiding, but I don't fear the worst, not in this tank. Other than that everything is growing steadily.

20g. In the few days I was gone this tank REALLY changed. Not really sure why. Maybe the light timers wasn't working as well, but my girlfriend confirmed them to be working before we left so I'm not sure. Anyways let me explain why its weird. The grape in the 29g is short and compacted. In here it was pretty lengthy and stretched around the tank, but rock was almost not visible for the most part. Now the grape has really started stretching. each stalk is open and I can see alot of the rock where I couldnt before.

I havent seen ANY of the fish in this tank other than the molly. Not sure why. Gonna purchase some new food this afternoon and hopefully they will show themselves.

 

[nawilson89]

I definitely forgot to take pictures as I was just looking for my goby most of the afternoon. Still can't find any inhabitants other than the molly, pistol shrimp, porcelain crab and other members of the CuC.

So just a bit of shameless promotion for a bit:

I've been talking about a friend of mine and the fish and stuff that i've gotten from him. He's given me permission to go public with my info.

He's the owner of saltybottom reef company. It's a Tampa area company that harvests their own live rock. Which is some BEAUTIFUL live rock. I've seen it first hand at his shop. When I was there I was able to catch my own goby from his many tubs or rock and see some beautiful things. One tank had a huge toadfish which was about 10 inches long. He also had a really small gulf toadfish about 2-3 inches long in another tub that I got to catch and take pictures of. All of my current fish save for my mollies are from him as are most of my CuC (the others are from reefcleaners). I've received various fish, crabs, shrimp, snails and macro from him. I really hope you all can take a look at his site (google saltybottomreefcompany) and see what he has to offer! He's a really cool guy!

 

[nawilson89]

20g as usual is looking grand. I moved the female molly in there so this batch of babies can have a chance without the sandfish hunting them down.



I've come to terms that my gobies are all gone. I still haven't seen a single one and its been over a week now. Usually they would be hiding in a hole laying eggs, but I would at least see one or two when I feed. It's possible they are short lived as there really isnt much info on them. That or my pistol shrimp took them out. I did see the little blenny once or twice, but he's always been elusive.



Tom, my saltybottomreefcompany friend wants me to get his yellow neon gobies, but I don't want to give up on my tigers yet.



Here's a pic of the 20g. It's looking real good. I moved some Gracilaria from my 29g to give to a few local reefers in my facebook club.







A close up on my grape jungle.







My 29g is looking a bit worse for wear so no pics yet. I think the blenny I added from my 20g has dug into the mud layer. The tank is now extremely cloudy, I probably cant see my hand if I put it in there. I ordered a nice BIG aquaclear filter for one day shipping from amazon to work on it, but it wasnt delivered yesterday (thanks USPS). I'm hoping to get it today and get this tank cleared up. I fear the worse. With the tank clouding up and possibly sending nutrients through the roof, I don't want any caulerpa to go sexual (although prolifera is just shooting up EVERYWHERE). Over the weekend I pulled at least 10 gallons out the tank for a WC, but nothing helped.
"Help me Obi-Wan Aqua-Clear, you're my only hope!"

 

[nawilson89]

29g. Is cleaned up! Time for some pics!


Here is the FTS!



I lost quite a bit of grape caulerpa. Looks like after the fern went sexual the grape went as well. Though it looks like this brown algae has taken over! Looks nice too!


Tank is full of stomatella snails. Here is one pair



Belted Sandfish hiding.


The big boy!

 

[nawilson89]

Time for an update. 20g is all taken down and the 29g is doing very well.



I'll let the pics speak for themselves!

 

[Reefing Madness]