New 14Gal bio build!!!

[aquawolf]

Glad to hear that as many have said once they eat the Aiptasia they end up dying. If yours are eating frozen then they should be like mine that has been in a tank with no Aiptasia for over a year.

[Paramecium]

they have been picking at the rocks and such and when i fed tonight they were right up front grabbing at the frozen food so hopefully they will do well. I would hate to see them die off. Again they did do one hell of a job on the Aptasia in just 2 days. The Wrasse also grabbed some of the frozen food so that was comforting as well. The new light is en route too so this should be an exciting week for my lil tank.

[Paramecium]

I was messing with the digi cam and came across the macro setting so I thought I would take a few tank pics. Nothing spectacular but what the hell. Enjoy.

[Paramecium]

and some more.

[Paramecium]

last set.

[aquawolf]

Those are nice macro shots.

[Paramecium]

According to the UPS tracking info my Sunpod should be arriving sometime today. I'm pretty excited to rip the top off and see how the tank likes it. I have already covered the tank with egg crate. I did that a few days ago when I got the Six Line. That crazy fish jumped out of the acclimation bowl I had him sitting in and tried to surf the hard wood floors.

My plan is to run the light for 4 hours the first day and bump it up an hour a day or so until it's on either 10 or 12, I haven't yet decided.

Also as I said before the Aiptasia are completely gone thanks to my peppermint shrimp, the Wrasse however has yet to decide that the flatworms look like food. He picks at the rocks all day and when I feed the tank he's right in the mix chowing down but the worms don't seem to be any less yet.

~Danny

[Paramecium]

The Sunpod arrived yesterday so last night I pulled the stock hood off and set up our new lights. I only had the halide on for a few minutes to make sure it worked but wow what a difference!! Here's some pics and I'll update as we go along on how the tank is liking it.

[Paramecium]

Also here's a couple more of those first attempt macro's with just the old actinics.

~Danny

[aquawolf]

Is that Xenia at the top of the tank? If so then it will be interesting to see how it reacts to that new light. The new light does look really good though and brightened things up a whole lot. Congrats!

[Paramecium]

Ya the Xenia I'm sure won't be a big fan of that halide and even over the first 3 days it has been less extended on the highest pieces. I set up my 7 gal a few weeks ago and plan on fragging most of that Xenia out of the tank. I may keep just a little bit lower in the tank. It was one of my first corals and obviously it has done well but I would like to clear room for some new corals. I'd like to see how some SPS does under the new light. A Monti Cap maybe as they seem to be fairly hardy by what I have read may be interesting to try.

Also I think one of the peppermints met his maker somewhere in the rocks. He has been missing for a few days and for the first time since the tank was initially cycled I showed 20 on the Nitrates the other day. I'm assuming he died and probably got eaten by the crabs and tons of bristle worms in the tank. I did a 3 gallon water change yesterday and will test again tonight, if it is still high I will do another change tomorrow. I blew all over with a turkey baster like normal on my water change as well as looking around with a flashlight in the rocks but I can't find a body anywhere. Other than tearing apart the rockwork which I have no desire to do I can really just hope the biological filter is up to the task and keep up water changes. Everything in the tank still looks happy so unless things start to get ugly I'll stick to that plan.

On the flatworm issue I think I may have to use FW Exit after all. The Wrasse is fat and happy but seems to have no desire to eat the flatworms at all. I siphoned a bunch out last night but they are mainly on my mushrooms and they stick pretty well so siphoning seemed to damage the mushrooms and do more damage than the worms as I've never noticed any negative effect from them other than being an eyesore. I definitely want them gone before I out any new coral in or frag any of the existing stuff out. The Wrasse eats frozen food fine, he even took a few bites out of the Nori I put in every other day for the Starry Blenny. Oh and I think my emerald crab may be picking at the Coraline, there are some little white patches showing up and he's the only suspect I have at the moment.

More updates and hopefully some pics to come soon.

~Danny

[aquawolf]

Xenia is a very finicky coral it seems. Many people can keep it without any problems and in other tanks it melts away. My wife had a nice patch of Xenia in the 50 gallon that she really liked. I finally convinced her to let me put a CPR BakPak 2R skimmer on the thing. A week later and all of the Xenia is melted away. Apparently that skimmer is doing a great job of removing the excess nutrients that the Xenia really like.

[Paramecium]

So the plans for this week are set. I bought a magnesium test kit today and tested nitrates, calcium, alk, and mag this evening. Trates are still 20 and I'll be doing a water change tomorrow as well as using the flatworm exit and giving the tank a good glass cleaning. I want the worms dead before the new arrivals. Calcium was 420, alk was 8.6 and Mag was 1290. I think that all should be ok, I may raise that alk up a bit but I'm not too concerned about it.

I'm making a bunch of RO/DI water for water changes associated with the FW exit or trates and Wednesday I'm going to frag all that Xenia and leave just a piece or two lower in the tank away from the light. My little frag tank is set up and good to go, just need to get the light running. As far as I can tell everything is ready for the SPS so hopefully it goes well. They should be arriving Thursday so wish me luck!

~Danny

[Paramecium]

Alright. I used the FW exit yesterday, ended up at about double the initial dose. I still saw a few running around afterwords but this morning I am not seeing any at all. I will keep an eye out and use it again in a week like it recommends if necessary. I will say that the only corals that showed any signs of distress were the mushrooms and rics that had flatworms on them. For the most part the flatworms were only ever on them. I read up before hand and found that most issues associated with FW exit are not from the product but from people underestimating the population of worms and the die off poisoning the tank. My problem was not that bad so I think the corals with worms on them must have been unhappy about the dying bugs getting toxic on them. Everybody looks fine today. I am running carbon for a day or two and will do another water change if needed today. I did do one right after I treated the tank yesterday.

Today is also Xenia fragging day. This is my first attempt so hopefully it goes well. I have some LR rubble to mount them too, my plan is to just cut them off, wrap them with some mesh net to a LR and rubberband it. Hopefully they attach in a week or so. Also tomorrow the new corals should be here!!! I'll take pics of everything for posting soon.

~Danny

[Paramecium]

Alright that stinky Xenia is fragged, got 15-20 frags, did a rough count. Hopefully most of them take.