Finally had time to post an update. I have been keeping measurements and observing the tank, but I haven’t had time to type out my thoughts. I apologize that this is disjointed; I’ve written it over several days and it integrates several posts, which probably leads to some syntax errors.
Video link is below as well……
(just to remind people: inhabitants were previously a large marinepure subbing for live rock, about 2-3” of sandbed, a mated pair of pearly jawfish from KP aquatics and some nassarius snails, and a hermit crab)
Anyway, several things have happened since my last post in this build thread:
Algae cycle: I only heard about the nitrogen cycle when I first planned the tank; I thought that once ammonia was reliably turned to nitrates I was done cycling and I could add fish. That happened at about the one week mark with Dr. Tim’s bacteria in a bottle, ammonia drop additions and a “live” marinepure.
However, I did not know that people recommended several months wait AFTER the nitrogen cycle was stable, to allow the algae cycle to go through: briefly said first diatoms, then cyanobacteria, then green algae. I *think* that’s gone through now, because as of my last water change I had a good amount of green algae in the tank. With that said….
Pest algae: was growing a bit before my last water change - not out of control, but noticeable. During my water change I wiped a lot of that out. I also have added a few more snails. Finally, I’ve also added some macrolgae which I hope will absorb the nitrate and the PO4
Lighting: after having gotten a Kessil 360 tuna, I decided I needed something in the greener spectrum to grow the macroalgae and replaced it with a $40 supposed growth LED.
Macroalgae: I added some macroalgae from live-plants.com: Caulerpa sertulariodes (a somewhat less prolific, fern shaped species of this genus) - with C. prolifera and cupressoides mixed in - and Rhipocephalus phoenix (calcerous “pinecone” algae). I chose the Rhipocephalus because I wanted one of the odd-shaped calcerous macroalgae. I chose C. sertulariodes because I wanted a fast growing, nitrate absorbing and easy to care for macro; this one looked less dangerous of overgrowth and sexual sporing than others of its genus, its fern shape is quite pretty, and I found that it’s edible for humans. (though in the end I also got prolifera and cupressoides in the bag as well; the former being particularly fast to grow, and neither of which are palatble to humans)
The growth of the various Caulerpa has been good with the new light, but not spectacular. I’m not seeing any growth in the (much slower growing) Rhipocephalus. Part of me wants to get a proper grow light, and perhaps dose a small amount of iron.
Given that i don’t have any algae eaters right now in the tank, I intend to prune it occasionally. I will first let the fronds grow big (maybe 6-7”) and then start pruning it.
Cats: my cat discovered the tank and would regularly harass the male jawfish (discussed more below) by jumping up to him and chasing him corner to corner (I've put newspaper all over the front of the tank as a temporary measure) - since then, both the male and female jawfish been very skittish. I am going to get a paper, magnet attachment to make a “front cover” on the tank to be placed when I’m not at home.
Bristleworms: they’re apparently quite common in the sandbed now. I saw about a 3” one a few days ago (my first notice they were there) and now looking there are little ones under most of the small rock rubble pieces, and I’m sure I’d see more if I dug through the sandbed. I presume they came with the algae, and that I did not rinse/quarantine. However, reading about this on the web, I’ve come to conclusion that they are generally beneficial, pending anything actually eating my (presently nonexistent) corals.
Snails: I added about 25 small snails. I intended only for 10; reefcleaners sent me double my requested amount.
I’ve given about half of them away; I regret it a bit now because there is still lots for them to eat, but we’ll keep cool about this. I *think* one of my nassarius snails died, but my accounting of them is nowhere near reliable.
Bispira worms: there were 1-2 of these on the Marinepure block at first. I now dub the population officially out of control. There are like 50 of them on the Marinepure.
Obviously, this means that there’s too much detritus in the tank….
Detritus: when I stir up the sand a bit, a cloud of small stuff comes out. It isn’t big and doesn’t go far, but still……. Two water changes ago, I was feeding the jawfish everyday, about 2-5mL of rehydrated (with tank water) mysis a day. Since they stopped eating, I’ve cut that down, and I’m really struggling with their feeding schedule right now.
Measurements: two water changes ago, Nitrates got to be about 30 and pH went down to 7.5-7. After that water change, it went down to like 8, and now that the macroalgae are growing it’s went down to around 5 (going back up to 11 after a week), now down to around 2 after the last water change . I got a phospate kit (Salifert and Hanna), and the measurements went from 0.3 or so before the last water change down to 0.1 right after, now back up to about 0.18.
This again suggests I’m letting stuff build up and I need to cut feeding.
Alkalinity absorbtion has been pretty heavy; since my last water change (with Red Sea Coral Pro salt), the alkalinity went from 177 to 160 over the course of four days. I attribute this to the Bispira, and possibly to things living in the sandbed.
Anyway, my raw measurements as 10/29, about four days after the last water change, are: Ammonia 0, Nitrate 2.5 (up from 1 in the past week), pH 8.0ish on salifert (7.7 on the pH pen), Alk 164 (down from 177 4 days ago after the water change), Phosphate 0.10-0.13 (from the Hanna. Salifert suggests darker than 0.1 but much less than 0.25), salinity 34
(side complaing: my copy of the Hanna PO4 checker is not an instrument for measuring PO4 down to two significant digits ppm; variations between measurements can easily be up to 0.07ppm between readings. Unfortunately, I'm also having a hard time discerning the differences the Salifert PO4 kit; next time I'll double the dose per the instructions.
Jawfish: I got Mr. and Mrs. Jawfish about a month ago, shipped from the Keys right before Irma hit (due to the cluster that inevitably was UPS in that area at that time, the next day air shipment took two days. I drip accumulated over, I think, 30 mins. There are no other inhabitants of the DT besides some snails. And yes, I intend to quarantine future purchases, or purchase quarantined fish from a trusted vendor and WAMAS supporter/member). Mr. Jawfish (the problem one) has not been active in that time, and has not been visibly eating*. (feeding regime: freeze dryed mysis kept in 5ml tank water for a few minutes, with garlic powder and selcon added) Usually, he just stayed in the den while Mrs. generally poked her head out and used to eat in my presence (and come out when I stood next to the tank). From the point they arrived, one or both of them have been very active building and rebuilding their den.
Come about two weeks ago, when algae growth picked up in the tank and water parameters suffered, they both started hiding themselves. Mrs. would never appear. Mr. would hang out outside their den, in the corner. Den modifications appeared to stop for 2-3 weeks (that being said, I've not done rockwork before and after pictures; they may have done comparatively subtle modifications).
During this whole time, I've not fed them; I tried feeding once or twice in the hopes they'd get food but I've seen no evidence they emerged and ate it, so I stopped feeding them absent Mrs. Jawfish coming out of the den. However, after a Wednesday water change which made the Mrs. emerge, on Thursday PM I put in around 100 live mysid shrimp. She promptly emerged and ate a few. By Friday AM I could only see a few mysids and by Sunday I saw none (other potential consumers: I have a plague of tiny, 5mm tube diameter fully extended Bispira-type feather dusters). Since the Wednesday water change she also seems to open the den in the late morning; when I turn on the lights and leave for work it's closed but by the time I get home it's open, she looks out some, but closes it within 15-20 minutes of my return.
I got Mr. a piece of PVC pipe to hang out in a week ago, he lived in it for a bit, then under it, then next to it. Then, a few days ago, he put a whole bunch of sand and live rock rubble in its entrance, which I took as a good sign (I want eventually to get another piece of largish-rock to bury in the sand, to form their second den/the second bedroom of their den).
Friday, he was under the PVC pipe, with his tail flat on the gravel behind him. I thought he was dead and dying, especially since he had not (appeared) to move much in the preceding week. I poked him with a net very gently, and he moved under the pipe quickly (dispelling my dying theory, fortunately). By Sunday I believed he was under the pipe, but nthen I looked and he's no longer there; he either died and was eaten by my snails (far less likely) or he went back into their den (far more likely).
Anyway, I have not observed him eating in the past month, and for the past several weeks he's been generally hanging out in the corner of the tank and listless. Thus, I've been worried he might have a disease, Brooklynella as a WAG from reading various fish books. The trip certainly stressed him out, as well as the cat. However, I cannot see any signs of anything odd on his fins or body. And for each time I'm about to judge him "definitely sick", he does something oddly normal like go back into the den or start covering his pipe with sand and rock rubble.
As of today (Monday), the jawfish do appear to open the “door” to their den in the late morning and close it when the see I’ve gotten home from work, seeing me over the newpaper I’m using to keep the cat from bothering them. However, today, it seems they did a lot of burrowing work - two water changes ago I redid the sandscape and made them a “hill” about 6” high of sand and rubble. I’ve seen evidnece they’ve been playing with it; to include changing the location of their “door”, possibly building secondary and tertiary “doors. And today the “hill” has to be at least 8” high.
If read the above, thank you.
but of course I understand if folks don’t want to go through it all.
In summary, it seems to me that I need to seriously get the nitrates and phosphates under control. It may not yet be disastrous scale yet, but if I ignore it it might. It’s made harder by the deep sandbed. Given that the jawfish are not regularly out and are skittish when I feed them, and possibly, sick, I’m in a bit of a bind, especially now that I need to take off for two weeks.
I kind of wish now I didn't use the marinepure block, and that maybe I got different fish instead. But what's done is done; I wanted jawfish (and they are fun when they come out!) and the already live marinepure helped the tank get up to speed fairly quick. I am thinking of changing things around, though
What next:
- I need a skimmer. I’ve identified one. Even though I’m in a big financial rut right now (only necesities in the tank, for now), I think this counts as a necesity.
- I would like to add some live rock; premium aquacultured rock from Florida. 1-2 large boulders, maybe 10-15lbs.
- I have received a zoa in trade; it’s in quarantine
-I’d like to get a Kessil H80, or other good looking grow light for them. That's way down the list of things I need to buy, though.
- I’d like an MP10; but unfortunately my financial situation has put me off a good deal for one, and I don’t see getting one of these for another few more months. (current pumps are two cheap marinelands; maybe a total of 10X flow.
- future livestock would be maybe at most 3-4 individuals of some the following: Royal Gramma, filefish, PJ cardinal, maybe a small flasher wrasse. I do hope to upgrade this to a bigger tank, but this is looking more like next summer vice this winter as I originally hoped.
I also, after I’ve got a lock on the parameters, want to add at most 1-2 of some of the following: Porites lobata, a Montipora,or a nonphotosynthetic gorgonian.
- part of me is even thinking about getting and oveflow and sump, especially if the larger, apex controlled tank is more and more of a pipe dream. But, again, I have very limited resources now and other priorities.
Video of the tank, before and after the water change:
