NC 12dx

[jejton]

Is it true that turbos can't right themselves up if they fall over?

 

[jejton]

Ok what the heck is going on? I just added three more scarlet hermits and as soon as they got into the tank, one of them is attacked by a nassarius. They are about the same size and I already shook it off the crab once. Now I look into the tank and the snail is back at the hermit. The hermits all looked healthy and were moving about in the bag as I acclimated them so whats going on? Also why are astrea and cerith snails so hard to find right now?

 

[Deanos]

Nassarius snails would only 'attack' a dead/dying hermit. How did you acclimate the hermits and for how long.

Ceriths snails frequently bury themselves in the sand as well as clean the glass.

 

[jejton]

I floated the bag in the tank for 1-1 1/2 hrs while adding water from the tank in increments and watching the crabs for any signs of problems. At the end of that I took the crabs out of the bag and placed directly into the tank.
By the way, I meant why am I having a hard time finding astrea and cerith snails in local stores, not in my tank :lol:

 

[jejton]

I havent updated this in a while but a couple of weeks ago I got some free frags from CharlieNYC1 - kenya tree, toadstool and GSP. Everything was doing well and opened up within a few days. Fast forward three weeks. I went away for a week so last Thursday I did a 50% WC with store bought distilled water. ( BTW since doing that I havent had much of that red stringy cyano so that was good ). Beforehand though, I tested the water and everything was at 0, pH was at 8.2, SG at 1.025 and Alg at 3.5 meq/l. I come in this morning and i have these tufts of green algae everywhere, but most distressingly, surrounding ( though it doesnt appear to be much directly on ) the Kenya tree frag. The frag, though, looks like crap. It is closed and limp, shriveled ( keep your jokes to yourselves ). I dont know what happened. I will wait to see if this improves when the lights turn on. Any suggestions ?

 

[jejton]

OK so here are some updates ( photos later ).
I added the following frags ( bought from Fritz ):
Pipe organ coral.
Zoos
( from Peeshee )
GSP
more zoos
anthelia.

Everything looks to be doing great. Some of the zoos still have to fully open and the pipe organ, after doing well for two weeks, hasnt opened in a couple of days. I will see if maybe targeting it with a little cyclopeez might coax it open.

I would like to add some pulsing xenia, a small frag of sun coral ( i am trying to stay with softies but I really like the sun coral ), and maybe some mushrooms so if anyone has any of the above and is in, or willing to deliver to, Brooklyn, let me know.

I am having a problem with algae for the past two or three weeks. I have been doing W.C. and topoff with distilled water bought from Target and IO salt mix. I havent fed the tank anything except for an occasional flake or two for the cleaners. I have had a terrible outbreak of algae. I am not sure what type but it is in the form of green tufts or bushes. It is not very tuff as I can easily pull it off with my fingers though some remains stuck on the rock. It has spread everywhere ( though hasnt grown on any of the frags, yet ). My water parameters have been stable at: 0 amm. 0 nitrite, 0 nitrate, pH 8.2-8.4, temp 78-80, SG 1.24-1.26 off of a floating hydrometer ( i have to calibrate my refractometer and use that ). The light is on for about 10 hours a day on a timer. The filtration consists of one chamber filled with floss and the middle chamer has polyfilter in it. I have a huge clump of chaeto ( or calurpa - I was told thats what it was when I bought it but it looks like chaeto to me ). Can anyone offer any suggestions?

 

[fritz]

Could be "new tank syndrome." An algae outbreak id usually indicative of nutrients in the water. Your test seem to indicate otherwise but they are in there, they're just bound up in your algae not free floating where a test kit would find them. Keep up with the water changes and lower your photoperiod. Also continue to manually remove the algae, dipping your hand into fresh water between each pull of algae.

 

[jejton]

The tank is already three months old, and the lr was partially cured when I bought it so why do you think it would be new tank syndrome? I will try your advice and see what happens. Why the freshwater dip in between ?

 

[fritz]

It may be Melev, not sure but someone had an article on battling hair algae and that was their procedure. When you tear out the tufts you don't want tiny pieces to stick to your hand and re enter the water thereby spreading your algae problem. The fresh water dip is meant to kill an any stray algae pieces (and get them off of you.)