Cleaning 19-10-2011

Been some time since I have updated here, and to be honest also been a long time since we did a big cleaning on the aquarium. We had a busy period but hopefully we can get things more steady now.

First of we bought a couple of Kauderni’s on the 13^th of October. After a long time we are going to give them another go. Good thing about these is that they have been in the aquarium in the aquarium store for some time already, so might make them stronger?

Then the 19^th I cleaned the aquarium big time. Cleaned the windows for the first time since 3 weeks, nice to see the fish again :). Picked out 4 loose mushrooms (2 red, 1 ricordea and 1 blue) and removed the rock we got the green buttons on long time ago. They weren’t doing very well anymore, probably because of the Kenya Tree next to it blocking the light. Hopefully the ones that remain on the old rock will recover and the ones that are still there will stay nice.

Replaced the rock with buttons with the rock with red mushrooms that was below between the purple and ricordea mushrooms. Not that there are many mushrooms left on the rock, but hope that what remained will stay there.

Also cut a branch from the Kenya Tree, hopefully this will stop the light being blocked from the buttons. Seems now that I cut the wrong branch, but we will see how things go now. I have put the branch on a rock in the fragtank now.

And finally, an overview of how it looks now.

Quick Vacation Update Pt 2

The continued story...

I cleaned a couple of corals from Planaria by giving them a tab water bath. Dipping the corals 10 seconds in tab water with the same temperature as the aquarium should remove Planaria.

One of the corals that got a bath was the Klyxum Simplex, unfortunately he didn’t look good to begin with and didn’t get much better afterwards. Part of the coral ripped so I had multiple parts, I moved all that weren’t attached to the frag tank and the small part that remained was put back.

And also the Ricordea mushrooms got a bath, these looked much better afterwards.

And last I moved some corals around in the RSM, couple moved to the fragtank, couple are staying (for now).

I moved 1 rock with buttons and 3 rocks with starburst polyps to the fragtank.

The rock with pink buttons moved next to the brown ones on the left side of the aquarium.

The rock with brown buttons moved on top of the Green buttons, to give more different colour buttons in one place.

And I removed the rock with Encrusted Gorgonian that we bought long time ago, all the coral has moved onto the other rocks now, so this gives more room in the corner.

And finally a complete overview how it looks now.



Quick Vacation Update

Just a quick update before my vacation. On Saturday the 23^rd I bought a couple of fish for the 60liter aquarium, “unfortunately” my wife liked them very much and we put them in the RSM250.

So now we have 2 new inhabitants there, the Neon Dottyback and the Cleaner Common Wrasse.

Neon Dottyback

Cleaner Common Wrasse

That same day I also noticed a frag on the Kenya Tree in the RSM250, I removed the frag and placed it on a rock using a rubber band. After that I placed it in the 60 litre tank until it attaches.

On Thursday the 26^th I bought a couple of Reef Chromis at our regular aquarium store. Both of them show themselves often, much more then the small Gobie that is still in the crab tank somewhere. So now I have some fish and some movement during the daytime as well.

Wednesday I cleaned the 60 liter aquarium, I removed the rubber band from the Kenya Tree I put in 4 days ago and I also removed the rubber band holding the leather coral on crab rock. Both are attached to the rock now.

The day before the vacation we did a big cleanup on the RSM. I started with injecting some of the Majano Anemones, which where multiplied a lot. I think I got a big bunch of them, next time I will take on all that is left.

Next I went to investigate why all the buttons on the sand where doing so poorly, well…I found out. All the rocks with buttons on the bottom had bristleworms on them, some of them where pretty large as well. All where bright red with a part black on them. I started removing them one by one from each of the button rocks, and for the result.

To be continued...

Rebuild 16-7

Last Saturday I’ve done some work on the crabtank again. The new coral pieces have been moved a bit and I have adjusted the crab-rock.

But first the frag part, at this point I have 6 Kenya Trees on 5 different rocks on the top shelf together with a piece of the Pavona Coral and a shotglass with 2 corals still waiting to attach.

The middle shelf is filled with one big rock with starpolyps and purple mushrooms and 4 small rocks with star polyps together with a rock with buttons and a purple mushroom.

And finally at the bottom there is a shotglass with a ricordea mushroom.

Kenya Trees on top shelf

Then the crab part of the aquarium, the montipora coral has been moved into the crab part, it is located in the rear next to the overflow. Here it is in a high location without much waterflow.

I removed a piece of the Pavona coral from the rock RobT put it on and placed it of the crab-rock using reef construct. So I now have 2 pieces of it.

The small leather coral I got from Lara is now attached to the crab-rock using a rubberband. Hopefully it will attach itself soon to the rock so I can remove the rubberband and leave the rock alone.

The eventual result looks like this.

New inhabitants Crabtank

Yesterday I got some nice new additions to the crab/fragtank. First I went to a forum member RobT where I got 15 euro’s of new additions, being a Green Clown Goby, Branched Montipora Coral, Pavona Coral and 2 pieces of Young Blushing Finger Leather Coral. The 2 SPS corals are currently located on the frag side, until I find a spot for them. The 2 leather corals are in a shotglass because he made the frags directly when I was there, so they need to attach to rock first.

The Goby starting hopping around in the aquarium quickly, at first hanging around near the red mushroom, but this morning I found him on the frag side in one of the Kenya Tree corals.

Then after dinner we went to Lara, where I spend 5 euro’s on a coral and a second Mud Crab. The Mud Crab is much smaller then the one I already have, but I hope it doesn’t give problems, the Leather Coral frag also needed to be attached to a rock, so I put it on a rock with a rubber band.

So with all these new additions I will need to see how to place them, but first we will see how they evolve in the aquarium.

Changes to crab aquarium

Last Wednesday I made a big change to the crab part of the fragtank. I removed the covering rock and replaced it with the “crab-rock”. It was a rock that I was building up with all sorts of corals on it. Now the purple mushroom has been removed but instead the following corals where added, a Toadstool Leather coral, Kenya Tree coral, Button polyps, Starburst polyps and the latest addition to the crab-rock, a Cabbage Leather coral. Next to that rock I also moved the rock with a big Button polyp and Red Mushroom. So now the top of the Crab tank is covered with corals.

Here are some pictures directly after placing the rock, everything looks better already.

Work and changes to 60 litre aquarium

Tuesday and yesterday I did some work on the frag/crab aquarium again. I got my new pumps in from Fish-street.com, 2 Sunsun JVP102A pumps and one Sunsun JVP201A. One small thing was a small miscalculation from my side. I came at more then 100x the current in litres, which is a bit too much. Besides that the pumps where rather big in size as well, so I ended up using only the Sunsun JVP201A. One of the JVP102A’s was for the Red Sea Max, so that one will go there when we start working on the RSM again.

So now I have a 6000 l/h pump on the bottom and a 600 l/h pump on the surface. The water flow is perfect now.

I also started moving some corals into the frag part from the Red Sea Max, we believe one of the reasons the RSM isn’t going well is because of the overdose of corals in there. I moved all the Kenya Tree frags, most of the Star Polyp frags, a small mushroom and the rock with Purple mushrooms, Xenia and star polyps into the frag part of the aquarium.

Yesterday I did an extensive feeding round, frozen artemia for the fish in the RSM, frozen fish for the Bulb Anemone in the RSM and frozen coral food in both aquaria. Also in the Crab tank I put a frozen shrimp for the crabs, but when I put the shrimp on the sand the sand started moving a the Babylon Sand snail came out and claimed the shrimp. I will add a movie of this soon, it was an awesome thing to see!

Crabs of the Xanthidae family

Currently I have two members of the Xanthidae family located in my little crab aquarium, and I have been observing them and finding information about these “unwanted” creatures.

The Xanthidae family is one of the biggest crab families, it is divided in 13 sub families containing over 500 different species. These species are poisonous to eat since their toxins can’t be destroyed by heating/cooking. The Toxins come from bacteria living in symbioses with the crab, both from the Vibrio genus. There is no antidote for these toxins either and they will cause Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning. But on the other hand, they are not venomous, so they have no way to introduce their toxins by stinging or biting. Some species however do have hairs on them that can cause allergic reactions.

They can become anywhere between 5 and 10 centimetres and some of them are beautifully coloured. They move slowly and hide most of the times. Most of them are opportunistic feeders, the ones I have don’t bother much with any other invertebrates around them but do eat frozen shrimp and fish when provided. They once went for a smaller hermit crab but gave up when they noticed it was too much trouble. I do think they would go for fish or invertebrates that are alive but weakened.

In most aquariums species for this family are no threat. They could be a threat when you have animals that could feed on them, since I haven’t found any information on the effects of the toxins on other animals.

According to some websites they are not reef safe, but the only non-reef safe thing I noticed so far is that they enlarge their hiding spaces, making holes in life rock. This will of course weaken the rock making your reef weak with the risk of collapsing.

The two species I’m testing with are the very common Actaeodes tomentosus and the less common, but very nice looking Lophozozymus edwardsi. Both of them behave in the same way as far as I can tell so far and both fit in the description given above. Both live together with 2 smaller hermit crabs, 2 smaller turbo snails, a Babylon sand snail and a horseshoe crab. Only saw them take a swing at one of the hermits when it ran into them. Both are about 4 or 5 centimetres now, so actually rather big.

Lophozozymus edwardsi

Update on RSM

The RSM is still overcrowded and messy from all the frags that are still located there. And in the past days it only became more instead of less. I needed to save some corals from the expending starburst polyps. So I removed some pieces and placed them on rocks to hope to get some frags from them. But after 9 days they still haven’t attached to the rocks.

Also I cut of a blue mushroom from underneath the rock with green star polyps and placed it in the shot glass. Only problem was that he attached himself to the bottom of the glass instead of a rock. So yesterday I went to try again.

And then there is the Kenya Tree that is spilling frags, on May 31 I got 1 that I attached with some rubber band. This one is now attached to the rock. 2 days later I got 2 others, these I put in the shot glass where they have attached yesterday. Then June 5^th I got another one that I dumped in the crab tank, still hanging loose. And last I got 2 new ones yesterday, one is in the shot glass and one is attached to a rock using rubber band.

Update on frag/crab tank

Been silent for some time around the aquariums, but this doesn’t mean that nothing happened. The crab tank has 4 new inhabitants by now. All are there for cleaning in the aquarium.

First is a Babylon shell snail, this snail keeps the sand clean. I only got a picture when I put it in during night time, so the picture doesn’t look to good.

Second one is also for cleaning the sand and is a Horseshoe crab. This little crab can grow pretty large but is currently a nice small size and running around full speed. He also often digs himself in the sand so he is also not always visible.

The last 2 new inhabitants are Turban snails, they are there to help clean some of the algae from the aquarium. I introduced one the frag side of the aquarium and the other on the crab side. Both are still on the side I have put them, but I’m sure they will move around.

And last a nice nightshot of the Edwardsi Crab, who is still doing good. I saw both him and the Mud Crab moving around last night.

Trumpet coral moved

One of the corals that really had a hard time with the red hair algae in the red sea max was the trumpet coral. The hair algae gets covered every time by a brown layer of grease or something that results in the polyps not opening.

After cleaning as much hair algae from the coral as possible I moved it into the crab part of the 60 liter tank. Hopefully it will pick up there and hopefully some inhabitants will remove the left over red hair algae from the coral.

Urchins!

Yesterday we went to pick up 2 urchins we where able to trade for a couple of coral fragments. They are 2 really awesome looking urchins, one nice small Tripneustes gratilla and a bigger Echinometra mathaei. Traded both of them for a piece of Cabbage leather, starburst polyps and Finger leather.

At first my wife wanted to test them for eating red hair algae and then think of putting one in the Red Sea Max, because of our fear of them eating all of the algae. But after seeing them she wanted to have one in there right away. So now the biggest of the 2, the Echinometra mathaei has moved into the Red Sea Max. Right after setting him free he moved behind the rocks. Good thing I had my phone with me for a quick picture :p

The Tripneustes gratilla moved into the crab tank. This shouldn’t give any problems for a long time since it is still very small. It moved around a bit on the sand, already leaving a trace of white behind him. The crabs don’t bother much with him, so seems that he is a good addition to keep algae out of there.

Moonlight installed

Yesterday I installed moonlight on the frag/crab aquarium. I ordered 2 SMD LED Waterproof light strips – Blue of 30 CM each at Dealextreme.com. These work at 12v and provide 1.8 watt of light. So now I have 3.6 watt of night light in very bright blue.
I had to put a Power converter between for it to work which I also ordered from dealextreme, but this way I had a full working moonlight for under 10 euro. The LEDs had a strip to attach them to any surface, so I attached them to the already existing T5 armature.

And here is an example of how it looks.

New corals

Yesterday I went to pick up a piece of Cabbage leather coral from a city mate from the Nederlands en Belgisch Zeewater forum, called bawaruba. When I got there I was amazed by his aquarium, it was a fully automated 1000 litre aquarium that was supported by 2 sumps that both have a capacity of another 1000 litre. It all looked very professional with the way everything was placed.

His cabbage leather grows very well, and he had a big rock that he had to remove due to lack of space. I first thought it was going to be a big Cabbage leather, but it seemed to be a big rock with couple of smaller cabbage leathers on it. Even better, since now I could use part for the crab tank.

Together with the Cabbage leather rock I got a small piece of Montipora coral.

Using a chisel I broke the rock in 5 parts (well actually more but 5 parts of cabbage leather). 4 of them are now on the reefrack in the frag part of the small aquarium. Maybe one will move to the Red Sea Max, we will see what happens when we start rebuilding.

And one I attached to one of the rocks in the crab part of the small aquarium using reef construct.

Another piece of rock that broke from the cabbage leather rock I placed as a bridge between 2 bigger rocks in the crab part and I put a small piece of starburst polyp on it.

The montipora is currently located in the Red Sea Max, awaiting his destination.

Cleaning Red Sea Max

Yesterday I cleaned the Red Sea Max again, tried to get rid of as many cyano, red hair algae and planaria as I could.

One coral which I noticed was covered with Planaria is the soft coral, last week I already tried to clean him as much as possible, and I continued with it this week. He doesn’t really seem to like what I have done to him.

Also cleaned around the Xenia, which is getting pressed away by the starburst polyps. I tried to tear some pieces off around the Xenia again, but we already lost a lot of it. I did however accidentally suck a piece of Xenia with the tube and put it in the fragtank where it will hopefully recover. Also placed the pieces of Starburst in the fragtank.

I also moved two rocks with buttons that originally came from the fragtank around a bit, maybe I can keep them in the Red Sea Max. We will see, for now they have to remain there any way :)

Made some frags

I just finished a couple of frags for in the fragtank. Cut of a piece of the Kenya Tree from the Red Sea Max which was bothering the nearby buttons and divided the part in 2 parts again.

I also removed 2 parts from two of the Starburst polyp colonies and attached them to rocks using rubber band.

One of the Kenya Trees and one of the Starburst polyps will be traded for 2 urchins later today.