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.

Update: Nothing really major

My tank is going through a mini cycle, ammonia is somewhere between .25 and .5. Diatoms are gone, it has turned into hair algae. For the time being, I am just letting it grow. I am still trying to get some snails to breed from Reef Stewardship Foundation, so far no luck. I have tons of algae just waiting for a species or two.

I mentioned hair algae, but I also noticed corraline specks. They are growing on my powerhead, there are tiny specks. I have been scraping them off daily hoping to seed the rest of my tank with them, every day it grows back on the powerhead. So I am hoping to see spots of it all over the tank soon and hopefully it will start to compete a little bit with the other algae. At least it is a good sign that conditions will support corraline growth.

Anyway, let's see what is new? hmmm.

I have seen at least two different asterina starfish. One of them hitched a ride on my hermit crab for two days. And here is the odd part, the hermit has two really bright spots on its shell, I am not surfe if the starfish cleaned some of the gunk off of its shell or if it actually consumed some of the shell.

I have noticed several hairlike things coming out of the rocks, they seem to lasso some microscopic particle and then get reeled back in. They are vermetid snails, they are harmless filter feeders. Some people have had problems with them irritating their Zoanthids, but other than that they are harmless. I have noticed several small white feather duster things on the rock. I am not sure what these are yet, they could be colonial hydroids or feather dusters. They could even be Aiptasia for all I know, my philosophy for the time being is observe, and learn. If I observe something that is a nuisance I will find a natural means to deal with it. I also noticed three really tiny snails... at least I think they are snails. Their behavior was kind of odd, they would all connect to each other and roam around the rock. They are too small to really get any details, at this point all I know is they have snail like shells, and they are alive. I can not see enough details to make out any more than that. I hope they turn out to be interesting additions to the tank and are easy to breed and raise :).

I have decided that this tank will be a display, but I will focus on the breeding side. I hope to breed several types of snails, brittle stars, asterina stars, hair worms, spaghetti worms, bristle worms, Bangai Cardinal, False percula clownfish, maybe a type of goby. I also plan to have several species of Euphyllia coral. Frogspawn and torch coral at the very least. I would like most of my coral to be brooding coral. That would give me an ok chance to breed them.

So basically at the moment i am waiting for the cycle to finish, then I will add more live rock, and hopefully get my DIY live rock finished and cured so I can start adding coral. I know I am going a lot slower than most people would, but this is my first saltwater setup, I want to make sure everything is really stable so I do not kill off expensive livestock needlessly.

Update and first fish

I have noticed there are many bristleworms of all sizes living in my tank. There are thousands of copepods on the glass and sand. There are many amphipods living in the rock, they are growing and shedding. I see them moult quite often. The diatoms are almost gone, and there is a dusting of green algae on the glass, and quite a bit on the intake. I am still just letting it grow, it will balance in time. The coralline algae on the rocks has became a deeper purple color, so it seems healthy. There is no coralline growth on the glass as of yet. Altogether everything seems stable, ph still drops a little low, but I think with regular water changes it will balance. When I do a gallon water change ph is stable for a few days. I have been feeding my bristleworms with a piece of shrimp every now and then. The ammonia level has remained zero despite these feedings, so I decided the tank had cycled. I was doing some research on the web and found out that black mollies live in fresh, salt and brackish in their native habitat. So I decided to try one out as a test fish. I added the molly, ammonia rose to .5 overnight. Then it dropped to 0 in a few hours. So it appears that my tank is cycled, so I may start adding a few corals. I still need to finish my rock. I have made two rocks, and I am not too pleased . I am hoping with practice I can make decent looking rock, my first two attempts are not encouraging though.

A few days ago the hermit crab got really lethargic. He would not move, just kind of lay there. I was becoming concerned, then he started moving around a lot inside his shell. Then I saw his legs come off, I was really worried I thought he had died. Then a little while later, I saw him come back out, he was fine. He had moulted, and now he is a bright red color, he has been really active ever since. He climbs up on the rocks, and explores the entire tank. He cleans the algae off of the rock pretty good also.

The snail is active, he cleans the glass and the rock, of course they can not keep up. The tank is large for just a snail and hermit. I will be adding more snail soon. The molly is really active as well, she picks algae off of the glass and rock. She comes out and swims for a few hours, picking algae off the tank, and then hides unde the rock for a while.

It is very odd seeing a black molly and a live coral in the same tank. Mainly because you are so used to seeing them in fresh water.

Parameters are:

Ammonia, nitrites, nitrates 0 PH 8.2

As soon as I figure out how to stabilize my PH I will be ready to add coral. I will start doing a daily 1 gallon water change soon and see how that affects PH.

Tank Update

Everything is still clicking along, ammonia is up a little like around .25. It is back to waiting. Nitrites and nitrates still at 0. Ph