Coraline Algae

I noticed this morning first of all, that the green algae on the side of the tank is turning a yellowish green color. Looks like it is dying. So finally some of the algae is going away, got to love the nitrogen cycle! Ammonia test this morning was less than .25, almost at zero but still not end, I will add another live rock to the tank probably 5-7 pounds. So that will bring the live rock total to 13-15 pounds. I have two DIY rocks made from oyster shell and cement, they probably weigh another 8 pounds. So that will be 21-23 pounds, which means I will need at least 60 more pounds. I need to get busy making rock!

Now we get to the reason for this post, I noticed more coraline algae this morning. It is growing in quite a few spots on the powerhead. It is also starting to compete with the green algae on the live rock. We have some deep purple, and light purple, and pink colored coraline. Possibly have some lime green coraline also. I noticed it growing in several spots on my overflow as well. I spent some time scraping it off the powerhead and overflow, so maybe this will help to seed my tank.

All of the critters are happy and accounted for. The snail disappears, I see him every couple of days. The asterina starfish, I see maybe once a week or so. The molly is always out eating algae, I tried to feed her some flake food she ignored it. I have tried a couple of times, I also tried to feed her some krill, and some shrimp. She turned her nose up at it all. So I have decided not to feed her. She just keeps getting fatter and fatter off of the algae so I will let her graze. The copepods are still there in great numbers. I keep waiting for the crash, but it has not happened yet. Amphipods are still numerous and getting a lot bigger. I saw a couple of large ones last night, they were much bigger than any I had seen thus far.

Well, I said that all of the critters were happy, but I really am not sure. I have not seen any bristleworms in a while. I counted seven one night, and have seen none since then. They are probably still there and happy. I never did see them very often so probably are hiding.

I have notice these really tiny brown slug looking things. I believe I have ID'd them. I think they are a type of flat worm, pretty much harmless unless they are in huge numbers. Then they can block the light from the coral and pretty much smother them. I am leaving them alone for now, hopefully they will reach a stable population and not plague proportions.

If you are not familiar with coraline, it is the purple and pink stuff you see growing over all of the live rock. It also usually grows all over the back wall of the tank as well. Some people hate it, I think it is beautiful, and it looks a lot more natural than a background.

I am not sure if I have mentioned this before, I have also spotted three really tiny snails. They are about the size of a pin head. They are also almost transparent, you have to look really hard to see them. I saw one on the glass yesterday, the way that his antennae? were shaped it looks a lot like my nerite, so maybe the nerite was pregnant and layed eggs? I am not sure if that is even possible, it is either that or the snail eggs hitchhiked on the live rock. Either way, it is very cool that I may have more snails that hitchhiked. I love hithhikers into the reef tank.

New Live Rock and First Coral

My tank has been up for about 2 weeks, it has 50 pounds of aragonite sand. I have two small pieces of live rock, each weighing about 4 pounds. I bought the second piece of rock today, it has a beautiful buttok polyp on it. I believe it is a protopalythoa sp. not sure, but I found a picture on the internet that looks an awful lot like it and that is what it was. My tank is not fully cycled, I went to buy a piece of live rock. I saw this live rock with the polyp attached and decided to take a chance. The owner of the store said that the rock was in his nano until he broke it down. He also told me that the polyp was on his first piece of live rock in the nano, so it has lived through one cycle. I hope it makes it through this one also.

Now, I know that i should have much more rock than I have in my tank. I need around 100 pounds of rock, but at $4.50 a pound I do not have the money to put that much rock in. I am considering DIY rock using cement, oyster shell, and rock salt. Until I decide whether to go this route or not I am adding a small piece of rock waiting for the ammonia and nitrites to go down, adding another small piece etc. I do not agree with adding all of the live rock at once, simply because that will cause an ammonia spike that very little can live through. I want as many critters to make it through the cycle as possible, so I am allowing the tank to cycle with each rock I add.

Anyway, I am excited about this new addition, with my first coral attached. The rock also has beautifull coraline growing on it, deep purple, red, light purple. It looks like three or four different types of coraline. I will be glad when that stuff starts growing on my tank instead of these dreaded diatoms.