Jeff's 150 Build - The Salt Box

[CastAway]

Pepps are hit and miss. Mostly miss....

Oh well. I'll go about it starting with the least expensive options first I guess. So far the shrimp are continually scavenging the bottom of the tank, and eating well. I may have to starve the tank to truly put them to the test. LOL I guess the end of this line of thinking is one of those high end lasers - now that would be cool, even if it didn't work.

 

[Reeflogic]

I had a few and used some aiptasia-x and well it back fired and I ended up with several dozen and counting. I recently took down my 57 in preparation for my new 110 and put all my rock and corals in a 100g Rubbermaid "temporary" holding tank. I then purchased 10 small to medium peppermint shrimp and tossed in the Rubbermaid. A week later.... no aiptasia, that I can see, including the larger ones that had grown in areas I couldn't reach in the 57. I was using vinegar and a syringe to melt the little bastages and that seemed to work a little. But a "herd" of peppermint shrimp seems to have done the trick. I think the trick is to put an army of them in and it seems to work. I was buying 2-3 at a time and didn't see any success, plus my mystery wrasse was making quick lunch of them before I pulled him from the tank. I too, started with dry rock, they just seem to find their way into our systems.... I hate them, with a passion. Watching corals close up next to one makes me want to buy that laser lol. Good luck with them!! You will eventually win

 

[CastAway]

My local club has a group buy coming up, maybe I should buy a few, and increase my odds. Short of encapsulating them in epoxy putty, I'm really skeptical of any method wherein the are fragmented, including being eaten by shrimp or fish, injected, lased, or whatever. Heck, I'm probably only seeing a tiny portion of what's actually in there.

 

[Reeflogic]

Yeah, I agree, I'm pretty much done with methods other than natural predatory ways. I think the CBB would be the best, I just fear having them in my tank. But I guess even peppermint shrimp can turn destructive. So many hit and misses with any type of aiptasia predator. I guess it's the price we pay!

 

[Fin]

I have also used a file fish in the past. One of the ugliest fish there is, but it does eat aiptasia. I also suspect it of munching on some zoanthids when it ran out of nems. There are no perfect solutions.

ReefLogic, your observation on the heard of peps being more effective than one or two, makes something I once saw make more sense now. A LFS had a 30 gallon tank with probably 50 peppermint shrimp in it. They would put a rock loaded with aiptasias in the tank and the shrimp descended on it like a school of piranha. A true feeding frenzy. I guess I never expected that it was the large number of them that made them that way. I have never had any luck with one or two.

 

[Rob.D]

Kalk paste has been the my go to aptaisia killer.

 

[CastAway]

Weekend Update

I bought three female Lyretail Anthias (Pseudanthias squamipinnis) a few weeks ago with expectation one would turn male. The last three days has seen a dramatic transition in the largest of the three. First, a single spine of the dorsal started to extend, then the pigmentation started to change, the tail fin elongated, now it's flashing the two others. Very cool to see. Very fast changes. Exciting.

I borrowed our club saw and cut some frags up tonight, then mounted some zoas on what I hope to be a zoa garden rock one day. Fun using the saw; a couple more frags to cut, then I'll post some pics.

My female clown has decided I am a very unwelcome guest in it's home. It attacks my hand now. Doesn't hurt (at least not yet), but startles me every time. Little bugger.

The cyano in my refugium is wanning away, but not fast enough to suit me. Going to work on a little more water movement. Thinking about adding a couple more hours of darkness to the light cycle. Have been manually removing and have cut down on feeding my display. Added a tiny Ehiem surface skimmer too.

 

[Hlmarlowe]

Following this. Doing a 150 this winter and need all the help I can get!

 

[CastAway]

Amazing how fast the Anthias changed. It darts and flashes the two females now, and they actually appear to be mating. I think their behavior influences the others. The male Flame wrasse is all flared up.

 

[CastAway]

One of my two new peppermint shrimp has a clutch of eggs under it's swimmerets. Will they hatch? Will some live?

My ceriths lay eggs on the glass. Will they hatch? Will they live?

 

[TJ's Reef]

Been awhile since I last peeked in on your Build Thread Jeff, things are mostly turning out very well KUDOS. I have had many of both survive over the years Peppermints and Ceriths but mostly 99.9% get eaten by your Fish and or Corals ( They Appreciate it very much) Large Refugiums help with survival rate quite a bit. You can even just place Peppermints in your Refugium to breed and feed the DT.

Cheers, Todd

 

[CastAway]

Thanks Todd. I'm really enjoying the tank.

I had not thought about the refugium serving to host the shrimp. I may remove my filter socks for a bit, or at least let them overflow for a while. The shrimp is heavily laden now, and I suspect it will be jettisoning the eggs/young soon.

 

[TJ's Reef]

They will hatch while still on the female and don't recall how quickly she will shake them free to fend for themselves. Having an open path to the Refugium will increase odds of survivors. I've heard of people placing small Night Lights or Moon Lights over their overflow boxes to increase odds for both Inverts and Fish to make it out of DT uneaten.

Cheers, Todd

 

[CastAway]

Hmmm, cleaver.

Therefore, if mine hatch and are released, they'll gather at the bottom of the back of the aquarium, to the glow of my refugium, where they'll promptly be eaten. I may experiment with a night light. lol

Mahalo Todd. :wink:

 

[CastAway]

My alk was running a little high, I think, so I tuned the effluent output down on my Ca reactor, raised the pH in the reactor, and decreased the CO2 bubble count. I thought the alk might have been behind the loss of some SPS, and why some others seemed to be struggling.

Aug 16th - 12.7
Oct 2nd - 12.6
Oct 4th - 12.3
Oct 5th - 11.2
Oct 6th - 11.6
Oct 8th - 10.3
Oct 9th - 9.8
Oct 16th - 8.4

At the same time, my Ca and Mg were a little low, so I started manual dosing the AquaVitro Ca and Mg. They're at 445 & 1350 now.

Thing is, my remaining SPS still don't appear to be doing well. I was patient I thought - made the changes over the course of a month. My green montipora is more like a olive/gray, and the three SPS frags are losing tissue. Po4 and NO3 are undetectable, and really, always have been. Tank has been running over 7 months. I have a little cyano in my refugium, but with decreased light, increased water movement, and manual removal, it's waning away.

In my ignorance, I think my params are good. What could be going on with my SPS? Should I try to raise nitrate somehow? Curios....

 

[Fin]

I always felt like a tank had to run a while (like 6 months to a year)and stabilize before SPS would really begin to flourish. You might be getting close to that time frame now.

 

[Reef-roach]

Hey castaway-beautiful build; I wish I had put half the planning into my first reef tank as you did! With regards to your SPS not doing well, especially the montis turning gray, that has been my experience with Alk swings. My Alk swung up from 7.5-about 11, and the result I saw was dulling of color and polyp extension. Montis in particular turned gray and "ashy" for lack of a better term. It took a couple months of stable Alk levels of about 8 for the montis to regain color, and they're better than ever now! The montis most affected in my case were a Jedi Mind Trick and sunset. Conversely, I have a setosa that was one coral that seemed unbothered. Give it some time and they should bounce back. Hope this helps put your mind at ease!

 

[CastAway]

I always felt like a tank had to run a while (like 6 months to a year)and stabilize before SPS would really begin to flourish. You might be getting close to that time frame now.

Thanks Fin! This is my understanding as well. the birds nests I had really did do well for a bit, doubled in size, then poof, gone. My zoas do well, and I've really been bitten by that bug. Because I seem to be able to keep them alive, I may focus on them and humble myself to go slower on SPS. My end goal was originally a heavy SPS tank. I'm going to have to learn my way there, obviously.

Hey castaway-beautiful build; I wish I had put half the planning into my first reef tank as you did! With regards to your SPS not doing well, especially the montis turning gray, that has been my experience with Alk swings. My Alk swung up from 7.5-about 11, and the result I saw was dulling of color and polyp extension. Montis in particular turned gray and "ashy" for lack of a better term. It took a couple months of stable Alk levels of about 8 for the montis to regain color, and they're better than ever now! The montis most affected in my case were a Jedi Mind Trick and sunset. Conversely, I have a setosa that was one coral that seemed unbothered. Give it some time and they should bounce back. Hope this helps put your mind at ease!

Thanks Reef-roach! Given all the nuances with this Ca reactor, and the difficulty in keeping anything consistent with it - the effluent output tube is always clogging and the CO2 adjustment is not fine enough - I wonder if one day I'll get rid of it and dose. I hope the monti comes back. Monti's are not my favorite, but this was my first coral.

 

[CastAway]

I hosted our clubs meeting last Saturday. Very nice to have experienced eyes on my tank. Thanks nitrox36 for the tip on the green acro. I moved it up in the water column and see a little polyp extension now. Hope it colors back up soon. Thanks again.

And thanks TriMax for the cornbread. It was awesome! Just finished it off tonight.

 

[CastAway]

Strange Algae Growth

I've had this frag of zoas for quite a while. There's been a small tuft of Algae growing on it, an algae like I've never seen. Any ideas what it may be? Should I try and remove it? If so, how?