Tank Arrived today

[James Hammett]

This shrimp is voracious. Hermit crab yesterday and a bristle work today... guess we know who runs the tank??

 

[James Hammett]

The chemclean has this cyano coming through the protein skimmer now

 

[JBKReef]

Some chemical treatments suggest to turn off skimmers cause it will make them go crazy with foam. I've never used chemiclean but it could be whats causing it? Things look to be progressing!

 

[James Hammett]

The skimmer has settled down a lot it does seem to be stained to an extent around the top of the cup from the red cyano. I did a water change after 48 hours and am considering another today or tomorrow. ( 5 gal) A quick question about skimmers though. I was told by another science teacher here that i should dump the cup out but I should not clean the slime from the bottom of the cup? Apparently that slime aids in getting the skimmer to work? does that make sense?

 

[JBKReef]

The skimmer has settled down a lot it does seem to be stained to an extent around the top of the cup from the red cyano. I did a water change after 48 hours and am considering another today or tomorrow. ( 5 gal) A quick question about skimmers though. I was told by another science teacher here that i should dump the cup out but I should not clean the slime from the bottom of the cup? Apparently that slime aids in getting the skimmer to work? does that make sense?

I believe you should wipe out the slime but dont use chemicals to clean it. I think they're talking about a the "breaking in" period associated with skimmers, if you do a deep clean then its pretty much brand new and needs to be dialed in again... but a simple wipe down should be fine I would say.

 

[Reef Box]

I dump my skimmer about once a week. Rinse under warm water while I rub any debris away. Never had an issue with it working awesome. I have had time when not much was collected over the course of the week but once rinsed the cup it worked better.

 

[JBKReef]

Whats the latest with the kids?

 

[James Hammett]

Whats the latest with the kids?

Thanks for asking and sorry about the lag in updates. One kids mom brought us a Diamond Goby and he is stirring up the sand fiercely. They and I got a scare this week when we looked and our Banded Coral Shrimp had been sucked into the power head. ( Discovered a few minutes later it miraculously reappeared on the other side of the tank) it had molted. One kid actually said "It respawned" like in a video game. Which made me glad to give them real life experiences to counter the video game culture they live in. We tested the water yesterday all is going well and we think we are ready to try some coral. I will get some pictures posted today.

 

[James Hammett]

so now we are researching how often he will molt and what we can do to make sure he has what he needs to be healthy and afe in the process. We are also planning to set up a camera on the tank over night and try to film his molt.

 

[Fudsey]

I thought the same thing when my peppermint molted.... I thought "oh well another dead shrimp" but nope just a husk

 

[James Hammett]

We added several coral this weekend.

Hammer Coral

GSP

Not sure what I have here?

Zoas I think not sure of name

 

[James Hammett]

Trying to figure out what this white stringy stuff is that is showing up now

 

[JBKReef]

any chance your coral banded shrimp is chilling in that crack? looks like tentacles.

The closed up coral you're not sure about looks to me like more zoas.

Hopefully everyone open ups well and settles in.

It was too funny, I added a porcelain crab to my tank and he molted immediately and i thought he had fell victim to the power head just like yours.

Hope everything settles in well!

How're the fish doing?

 

[James Hammett]

any chance your coral banded shrimp is chilling in that crack? looks like tentacles.

The closed up coral you're not sure about looks to me like more zoas.

Hopefully everyone open ups well and settles in.

It was too funny, I added a porcelain crab to my tank and he molted immediately and i thought he had fell victim to the power head just like yours.

Hope everything settles in well!

How're the fish doing?

The clowns are great... The Goby vanished hasn't sifted sand in days but all parameters are stable so I don't think he is dead in the tank????
The Shrimp is close there but it isn't his tentacles the stuff is getting thick I took some out it looks like spiderwebs its kind of silky as well.

what about the green discs on that rock? are those mushrooms of some kind?

 

[JBKReef]

The clowns are great... The Goby vanished hasn't sifted sand in days but all parameters are stable so I don't think he is dead in the tank????
The Shrimp is close there but it isn't his tentacles the stuff is getting thick I took some out it looks like spiderwebs its kind of silky as well.

what about the green discs on that rock? are those mushrooms of some kind?

I was too buy looking at the polyps... yessir those are mushrooms.

unfortunately no clue about the strands

 

[Reef Box]

Trying to figure out what this white stringy stuff is that is showing up now

Looking like a type of tube worm to me. Pretty harmless. I have 1000's in my tank. They will send out the hairlike strands to catch particulates in the water then draw them back in to feed on whatever they caught. Every time I clean my glass I see them coming from everywhere within the tank. Once they get their fill they will go away until next time.

 

[James Hammett]

Looking like a type of tube worm to me. Pretty harmless. I have 1000's in my tank. They will send out the hairlike strands to catch particulates in the water then draw them back in to feed on whatever they caught. Every time I clean my glass I see them coming from everywhere within the tank. Once they get their fill they will go away until next time.

now that just sounds like another cool organism to watch....

 

[Reef Box]

now that just sounds like another cool organism to watch....

It is, they are typically pretty small but I've seen some large enough to get a good look at how they work. They are actually Vermetid snails. Although unlike typical "snails" they build thier shells to the rock/glass and do not move around which is why they are often called worms. Lots of cool videos on Google!

 

[James Hammett]

Exciting day today when kids came in to see the first corals in our tank. Got them on Sunday afternoon donated by a couple local reefers here in Wichita Ks Area. So had to get them in the tank... we videoed putting them in the tank and watched together and discussed process with kids today.

The ohs and ahhs were great. We turned off the lights in the room and spent the last 10 minutes of class just watching the tank what a day...

 

[James Hammett]

Kids and I are very excited, we caught our shrimp molting and set up a camera recording we will try to speed it up and make a time lapse video. Hopefully we will have a video to upload soon.