A
Anonymous
Guest
OK, so I've had a range of problems with my tank since I set it up. However, though I overcame the crinoloid isopod and Dictyota, the Myrionema hydroids proved indestructible. Various suggested ways of dealing with them (Pteraeolidia ianthina nudibranchs, African Flameback Angel, physical removal by scraping them off the rock, covering them with kalk, dosing with Zeospur2) didn't work. These things have deep roots in the rock and seem to be pretty resilient.
So, in the end, I went for the approach where I removed what coral was salvageable from the rock, transferred it to frag plugs after painstakingly removing every last trace of hydroid stalk and put the rock in a tank in an unused bathroom, in the dark, for three months. This appears to have done the trick, in the sense that there is now no trace of life on the rock and very little coming off it in terms of mulm etc (I've done infrequent water changes, but otherwise relied on having first scrubbed the rock to remove most organic material and decent flow while it's sitting there in the dark). There is of course no guarantee that when I reuse the rock, a thousand hydroids won't pop up overnight, but I'm hopeful I've done what's necessary.
A quick couple of points on the hydroids:
- zoanthids appear to be able to outcompete them if you help by removing every trace of hydroid every time you see one of those little pom-poms appearing. They block the light from any tiny fragment of stalk left over;
- the most dangerous stage is when the hydroids start to grow into large clumps, because then they start breaking off, floating round the tank and rooting in a new piece of rock. Don't go for the approach that some recommend where you leave them because "quite often they disappear all by themselves"; and
- once coral is removed from the rock, it's possible to painstakingly remove the hydroid stalks from them with a pair of tweezers, if you do this both underwater and out of water.
I'm now approaching the stage where I want to fish the rock out and start again. Currently, in the main tank, I have the DSB still intact, a range of zoanthid colonies doing very well, some LPS doing OK (a Blasto, a couple of Acans, one chalice), a few mushroom corals and Ricordias, yuma and florida and my very pretty purple soft coral. I've lost all my SPS and most of my LPS (a couple of acros, a couple of montis, 3 chalices, one acan), for reasons I don't properly understand. I tested, but didn't track down what I was doing wrong.
I have a number of decisions to make, but before I ask for opinions about those, I'd like to put on the record that:
I now understand why some people originally told me that the marvelous diversity of wild live rock was overrated. I can't be sure the hydroids came in on LR (they probably came in on a coral given the timing of their first appearance), but I can see the argument for starting with live rock rather less bursting with life. I'm now looking forward to creating an aquascape with my rock that's been curing for months in the dark.
I'm also starting to understand why some people go for bare bottomed tanks, not just for the nutrient export, but also for the extra space it gives you in a shallow tank, the lack of sand storms and, I'm guessing expense of sand (though that money's already gone for me).
Given I think it's only honest as part of this mea culpa to give credit where it's due - *nod of head to Rich on both those points - lessons learned*
You can probably tell from those last points that I'm thinking of ditching the sand bed and going bare bottom. But this isn't an easy decision, for a couple of reasons.
One is that it will be a lot of work to remove the sand bed. That's not such a biggie, as I imagine it will be a couple of days hard work to remove the old bed and set up the new aquascape (I plan to go for something rather more organised this time, less free form). Tiring, but achievable. I can make up a lot of water, reuse some of the old water, and probably get away with a minimal mini-cycle.
The second more crucial hesitation I have is that I'm now planning to go for mainly soft coral stocking. Given that I don't know why my SPS and most of my LPS did so badly, I'm not about to try that route again. Maybe if I achieve success in the medium term with the softie tank, I might try a hard coral or two (and I have some small LPS which will be my canaries), but for now I'm going to focus on corallimorpharians, zoas and other softies.
This implies a tank which is not as nutrient poor as an SPS tank. Over the past few months of relative neglect, the zoas in the tank have done well. I expect this might be less the case with a BB tank. I know they need clean water, but possibly not as clean as Acros etc. I have an overpowered skimmer which might exacerbate this problem still further. I also need to consider whether my Strombus snails and McCoskers Wrasse are going to suffer due to the lack of sand.
However, there are obvious attractions. I can have random flow all over the tank, including near the bottom, even if I don't dial the power up too high (with some corals that prefer less powerful flow). I will also add about 3 inches of depth to my aquascaping.
Which has made me consider whether I can address my low nutrient concern by adding more fish to the tank. Currently, all I have is an Ocellaris pair, a McCoskers Wrasse and an African Flameback Angel. The tank is 36"x24"x18", 67 US gallons, with a couple of adjustable Tunze Nanostreams, a Super Reef Octopus 100 Internal Skimmer and GRC and GFO reactors. I'm wondering if I could increase the stocking quite considerably, by adding maybe 2-3 more active fish.
My choices seem to be:
Tangs - not really, the tank's too small. The tangs that might, at a push, be OK (Kole, Yellow eye bristletooth), I don't like the look of.
Damsel - one of the less aggressive types? Yellow tail Damsel would be very pretty (but would it see the African Flameback as a competitor given the similar coloration and this lead to one fish not making it?).
Anthias - the Princess and Sunset Anthias are supposedly better for smaller tanks. If I were to go for a single specimen, could I consider another type like the Lyretail, or the Dispar, which I understand is better for shallow tanks? I've not seen the Princess and Sunset available here, but haven't been looking either to be honest. The more regular feedings might also help keep the softies happy (side question: would spreading 3 feedings over 4-5 hours be too close together? On a weekday, that's the time frame I have between coming home and going to bed).
Wrasses - would lack of sand bed would be an issue?
Dwarf Angel - I'm assuming the answer is a straight "no" in a tank my size, but would adding a Dwarf Angel very different in coloration to my African Flameback be an option?
Chromis - as a single specimen, to avoid the attrition seen with this fish when added in groups.
As you can tell from my list, I need to avoid anything too docile if they're to avoid getting beaten up by the African Flameback, but also want to avoid anything that's going to cause too much trouble.
So, to sum up an overly long post:
1. Does the overall plan (bare bottom with softies, slightly more heavily stocked) sound feasible?
2. What do people think of me adding more fish, and what do they think my options are?
Please bear in mind that there are some fish I can't seem to get hold of here (e.g. Midas Blennies) and some are so expensive that I can't buy them, much as I'd love to (e.g. Rhomboid Wrasse).
So, in the end, I went for the approach where I removed what coral was salvageable from the rock, transferred it to frag plugs after painstakingly removing every last trace of hydroid stalk and put the rock in a tank in an unused bathroom, in the dark, for three months. This appears to have done the trick, in the sense that there is now no trace of life on the rock and very little coming off it in terms of mulm etc (I've done infrequent water changes, but otherwise relied on having first scrubbed the rock to remove most organic material and decent flow while it's sitting there in the dark). There is of course no guarantee that when I reuse the rock, a thousand hydroids won't pop up overnight, but I'm hopeful I've done what's necessary.
A quick couple of points on the hydroids:
- zoanthids appear to be able to outcompete them if you help by removing every trace of hydroid every time you see one of those little pom-poms appearing. They block the light from any tiny fragment of stalk left over;
- the most dangerous stage is when the hydroids start to grow into large clumps, because then they start breaking off, floating round the tank and rooting in a new piece of rock. Don't go for the approach that some recommend where you leave them because "quite often they disappear all by themselves"; and
- once coral is removed from the rock, it's possible to painstakingly remove the hydroid stalks from them with a pair of tweezers, if you do this both underwater and out of water.
I'm now approaching the stage where I want to fish the rock out and start again. Currently, in the main tank, I have the DSB still intact, a range of zoanthid colonies doing very well, some LPS doing OK (a Blasto, a couple of Acans, one chalice), a few mushroom corals and Ricordias, yuma and florida and my very pretty purple soft coral. I've lost all my SPS and most of my LPS (a couple of acros, a couple of montis, 3 chalices, one acan), for reasons I don't properly understand. I tested, but didn't track down what I was doing wrong.
I have a number of decisions to make, but before I ask for opinions about those, I'd like to put on the record that:
I now understand why some people originally told me that the marvelous diversity of wild live rock was overrated. I can't be sure the hydroids came in on LR (they probably came in on a coral given the timing of their first appearance), but I can see the argument for starting with live rock rather less bursting with life. I'm now looking forward to creating an aquascape with my rock that's been curing for months in the dark.
I'm also starting to understand why some people go for bare bottomed tanks, not just for the nutrient export, but also for the extra space it gives you in a shallow tank, the lack of sand storms and, I'm guessing expense of sand (though that money's already gone for me).
Given I think it's only honest as part of this mea culpa to give credit where it's due - *nod of head to Rich on both those points - lessons learned*
You can probably tell from those last points that I'm thinking of ditching the sand bed and going bare bottom. But this isn't an easy decision, for a couple of reasons.
One is that it will be a lot of work to remove the sand bed. That's not such a biggie, as I imagine it will be a couple of days hard work to remove the old bed and set up the new aquascape (I plan to go for something rather more organised this time, less free form). Tiring, but achievable. I can make up a lot of water, reuse some of the old water, and probably get away with a minimal mini-cycle.
The second more crucial hesitation I have is that I'm now planning to go for mainly soft coral stocking. Given that I don't know why my SPS and most of my LPS did so badly, I'm not about to try that route again. Maybe if I achieve success in the medium term with the softie tank, I might try a hard coral or two (and I have some small LPS which will be my canaries), but for now I'm going to focus on corallimorpharians, zoas and other softies.
This implies a tank which is not as nutrient poor as an SPS tank. Over the past few months of relative neglect, the zoas in the tank have done well. I expect this might be less the case with a BB tank. I know they need clean water, but possibly not as clean as Acros etc. I have an overpowered skimmer which might exacerbate this problem still further. I also need to consider whether my Strombus snails and McCoskers Wrasse are going to suffer due to the lack of sand.
However, there are obvious attractions. I can have random flow all over the tank, including near the bottom, even if I don't dial the power up too high (with some corals that prefer less powerful flow). I will also add about 3 inches of depth to my aquascaping.
Which has made me consider whether I can address my low nutrient concern by adding more fish to the tank. Currently, all I have is an Ocellaris pair, a McCoskers Wrasse and an African Flameback Angel. The tank is 36"x24"x18", 67 US gallons, with a couple of adjustable Tunze Nanostreams, a Super Reef Octopus 100 Internal Skimmer and GRC and GFO reactors. I'm wondering if I could increase the stocking quite considerably, by adding maybe 2-3 more active fish.
My choices seem to be:
Tangs - not really, the tank's too small. The tangs that might, at a push, be OK (Kole, Yellow eye bristletooth), I don't like the look of.
Damsel - one of the less aggressive types? Yellow tail Damsel would be very pretty (but would it see the African Flameback as a competitor given the similar coloration and this lead to one fish not making it?).
Anthias - the Princess and Sunset Anthias are supposedly better for smaller tanks. If I were to go for a single specimen, could I consider another type like the Lyretail, or the Dispar, which I understand is better for shallow tanks? I've not seen the Princess and Sunset available here, but haven't been looking either to be honest. The more regular feedings might also help keep the softies happy (side question: would spreading 3 feedings over 4-5 hours be too close together? On a weekday, that's the time frame I have between coming home and going to bed).
Wrasses - would lack of sand bed would be an issue?
Dwarf Angel - I'm assuming the answer is a straight "no" in a tank my size, but would adding a Dwarf Angel very different in coloration to my African Flameback be an option?
Chromis - as a single specimen, to avoid the attrition seen with this fish when added in groups.
As you can tell from my list, I need to avoid anything too docile if they're to avoid getting beaten up by the African Flameback, but also want to avoid anything that's going to cause too much trouble.
So, to sum up an overly long post:
1. Does the overall plan (bare bottom with softies, slightly more heavily stocked) sound feasible?
2. What do people think of me adding more fish, and what do they think my options are?
Please bear in mind that there are some fish I can't seem to get hold of here (e.g. Midas Blennies) and some are so expensive that I can't buy them, much as I'd love to (e.g. Rhomboid Wrasse).
