A few issues...

[TheGooseWhisperer]

A few things going on in my 29g that I want to check in on:

1- I've started leaving the living room blinds open and the tank is getting pretty good direct sunlight from about 8AM til 9:30. My lighting is on timers as follows: 2x24" VHO actinic 10:30AM-9:30PM, 150W 20k XM MH 11:30AM-7:30PM. The tank is definitely responding to the sunlight...frogspawn starts to inflate around the time the direct light hits the tank and my toadstool is extending polyps around 8AM. My concern is that the overall photo period is too long now. I was considering having the actinics come on as the direct sunlight passes the tank at 9:30 and then the MH 1 hour later at 10:30 and shutting off around 6:30 then having the actinics shut off around 7:30.

2- Emerald crab. I got one of these guys because I like them and thought it would give some diversity to my CUC. I saw him everyday for the first couple weeks and now I havent seen him in over a week. Do they require any type of direct feeding? I only have one fish in the tank and I feed the moon crater zoas, some paly frags, frogspawn and acan 1 or 2 times a week, so there is food around. Just wondering if they have a specialized diet or i just got unlucky.

3- A hole in a piece of live rock has 4 thin black and white striped legs/tentacles sticking out of it...about half an inch long. What is this...is it good/bad...will there be more later...should I do anything about it?

4- Flatworms. I have them...lots of them. I first saw them a couple weeks ago and honestly thought they were small pieces of brown algae since I never saw detectable movement. Then i stumbled across a list of tank predators/bad guys and realized they are flatworms. I know I should get rid of them, but is this a major emergency or can a wait a few weeks til I hit the LFS again to get a treatment?

5- Bacterial bloom. I had thick strands attached to the glass and it was suggested that it is the result of a bacterial bloom. I'm not really concerned about the glass, but yesterday I saw the strands tangling up the polyps on my toadstool and that just pisses me off:p Is there anything I can do about this or will it simply pass? The tank is only 4 months old and I started with some pretty stinky live rock straight from overseas so there was a ton of nutrients in tank early on. Many 50% WCs later its testing stable at 0 nitrates and corals are all expanding/growing nicely. If this is just a step along the way to a mature reef tank I'm happy to patiently wait it out, but if its something more serious I want to be on top of it.

6- green hair algae. I have a tiny tuft of it on a piece of shroom rock. I use my fingers to pinch off as much as I can whenever I do a WC (every 2 weeks on average). It doesnt grown much more than about half an inch in that time and is not spreading. My feeling is that in time it will go away...your thoughts? And no, cooking this rock is not an option to me...it has several shrooms on it that are adding in numbers every few weeks and also has several encrusted bivalves that I'm not willing to give up at this point:)

7- red and green macro algae. A separate shroom rock has bit of bubble algae on it and some red threadlike macro algae...same issues as green hair algae. just to be clear here...the red is not slime algae/cyano...it clearly has a macro algae structure to it.

Umm, well thats probably enough for now. Thanks in advance for comments and suggestions. I was hoping to make the meeting this month, but my wife has yet again made plans for us out of town so maybe next time:)

[snowpunk]

1. I personally don't let natural light hit my tank, can't tell ya if it's good or bad.

2. Emeralds eat algae, and a lot of it. I don't know if they eat meaty foods or not. If you have algae though, I am sure he's still around. They tend to hide a lot.

3. I have tons of these, they are most likely little tiny brittle stars. They don't ever seem to get bigger then a nickel and they have proven harmless in all tanks I have heard of them in. IMO

4. Don't have an answer for ya here

5. This brings me back to number 1. I like to keep sunlight out because I always felt like it encouraged this growth.(true or not, I don't know)

6. I have/had this problem and tried many things. Sea hairs do good but in a tank that small will surely die. the emerald I had went after it, but I have heard others don't. I just got 12 red legged hermits and although they scavenge they seem to eat a fair amount of it. I am going to get another 10 or so I think. Also, you could try a product called Phosphate control by Blue Life. It is very good at getting out the phosphates. Seahorse hase lots of the hermits and the phosphate control too. If you test for phosphates you will likely show none as the hair algae consumes it to grow. If you have a sump, you should put some greens in there to also rob the hair of it's phosphates.

7. Bubble algae is annoying but the emerald should actually go after this also. if not just use your hand and pull the bubbles off. They are pretty hard so you can grab them. DON'T LET THEM POP! As for the red, if it looks like it is trapping air under it you probably have a bit of the red slime algae. Once again at seahorse they have redslime control from Blue Life. If it hasn't went completely nuts, just get as much as you can out first then turn the skimmer and UV sterilizer off and add this stuff. Mine was gone in 2 days flat when I had it. Also either add more flow or redistribute the flow so the spots where it is are hit with flow. this will help it to not get ahold on the rock as well.

Hope something here helps ya, and as always take it with a grain of salt as this is just my personal experience/opinion :) Can ya tell I like seahorse a lot??

[stylaster]

[quote=snowpunk;73844]1. I personally don't let natural light hit my tank, can't tell ya if it's good or bad.

Now i know you dont mean that, what do you think the real reefs get??? (laugh) I think the only issue you could have with natural sunlight is over heating the tank.

other then that i agree with snowpunk

[snowpunk]

DOH!I know sunlight is exactly what we are trying to imitate. What I was trying to convey I guess was that I don't let it hit the tank. The reason is that when I did long, ago I got huge algae blooms on that side only. Thats why I said cant tell ya if it's good or bad. I guess it did sound a little tarded(nutty)(clap)(drooler)... What do you expect, theres a reason I'm still reading in the noob section:p

[CCR]

On my 180 in the right side. for about 10in, Sun would hit it, and yes algae where it hit the class ,grew and I had to scrape it often. JUST where it got hit.

[snowpunk]

See i'm not totally (nutty). I think totally is the key word in that sentence(laugh)

[USCG CWO]

On the emerald crab, I lost mine for a week or two and when I found him again I didn't recognize him. He had molted and was little bigger then a 50 cent piece. Now he looks like some creature out of a Godzilla movie roaming around on the rocks. (rock2)

I have the those black and white stiped legs/tenticles sticking out of a couple pieces of rock. Not sure what they are, all I ever see is them waving around in the air. I always tell my kids we have Krakens living in the rocks. (laugh) My youngest gets a kick out of it.

[stylaster]

those little legs are most likely small brittle stars. I have a ton of them in my tanks they are awesome detreviores

[TheGooseWhisperer]

With the natural lighting...in just a few days I'm getting lots of green algae on the glass window side so I went back to lowering the shades every night.

The emerald crab returned and once again I'm seeing it on a daily basis.

Flatworms are gone now thanks to Salifest Flatworm exit...the recommendation is 4 drops per 5 gallons...I ended up doing 10 drops per 5 gallons because after 30 min at a lower dose there were still a few surviving. A few shrooms shrivled up pretty bad but other than that everything is fine.

Bacteria is still going strong. I'm running some quality carbon now so hopefully that will help put it in check a bit. My poor toadstool is getting all tangled up in strands of bacteria by the end of the day:(

[dsoz]

Good to hear that some of the issues are starting to resolve themselves.

dsoz

[TheGooseWhisperer]

A new issue popped up last night. I had a small frag of some zoas (4 polyps) that I had mounted about 10-12 days ago. Last night it was 1 polyp totally gone, 2 polyps that were munched on and one that was still OK. There were some big (about 6-7mm) pods grazing on the leftovers, but I cant imagine they were the original source of injury. Where I had the frag placed is the only rock that I have seen those little disfigured starfish (Asterina) on. I moved it out of the area and I'm keeping an eye on it. Has anyone know Asterina to graze on zoas before? Other than that I have no clue what the culprit is, but it has me concerned.

[dsoz]

Some forms of asterina do eat corals. Also there are some pods that eat corals. Hard to tell the culprit without pics.

dsoz

[andy]

I can't keep zoas in my nano because the asterinas in there mow them down as fast as I can add them.

[impur]

Lots of info about pods eating zoas. Has happened to me.

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t79250.html

http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/f6/zoa-eating-pods-113113.html

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1435706

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1258557&perpage=25&pagenumber=1

[TheGooseWhisperer]

well then...guess I gotta get something to eat the pods then:p Any suggestions? Keep in mind this is just a 29g w/ no sump/fuge. I have a watchman goby already and I know I'm going to be getting a pair of clowns (probably baby percs). If theres room i would also like a dwarf angle someday.

[stylaster]

6 line wrasse would do well

[mrgreenthumb]

6 line wrasse would do well

Agree 100%

[impur]

Yep 6line would be great. Any type of wrasse should help keep the larger pods in check. You'll need a top on your tank though, they are jumpers!

[andy]

Yes, and they can be bullies too...

[TheGooseWhisperer]

An options for non-jumpers? I dont have a top on the tank and I really dont care to add one. What about dottybacks? I had one before and really liked it. I've heard they can be aggressive and territorial, but the one I had before was a big chicken. I saw that they eat bristle worms...can I assume they would eat pods too? ORA has an indigo variety that looks really nice.

[andy]

A Mandarin or Scooter Blenny will tear through pods, though keeping them well fed after the pod population has crashed could be a problem.

[impur]

Yah forgot about mandarins. I had a spotted mandarin for a year or so that also ate frozen foods.

Ironically she jumped out.

[tidalsculpin]

Another good thing about the 6 line wrasse is that it may eat any surviving flatworms.

[downhill_biker]

I would also have to strongly recommend against a mandarin, unless you happen to come across one that is eating frozen foods in the fish store. You can always ask them to feed some brine and see if it eats. Your best bet would be a wrasse though.

[TheGooseWhisperer]

I already lost a scooter blenny by being dumb. I wont do it again to any other fish like that. Will wrasses be fine with prepared foods once the buffet gets thinned out?

[mrgreenthumb]

yep wrasses are definitely easy to ween on to frozen, most of the time the lfs's do this for us so by the time we get them they are already eating frozen. To ensure this ask the store owner to feed the fish before you buy it so you can see with your own eyes if its eating prepared foods! Good to do this anytime you purchase a fish, and don't fall for the the fish have already beeen fed today trick, fish are pigs they will always eat more!!!!!

[TheGooseWhisperer]

I got a yellow wrasse (canary/golden) from WAVES yesterday. Really pretty fish and he'll be fat and happy for a couple weeks picking off all the critters to munch on in the tank. The watchman is acting tough when his turf gets encroached on, but the wrasse hardly notices and moves right along. I'm nervous about the wrasse jumping though...my canopy is open in the back and about half of the area is not covered by HOB items but there is a frag shelf hanging there...I just keep telling myself it would be a 1 in 100 shot that would give him the angle and speed to get out of the tank. Hopefully my bubble isnt burst by finding him on the floor DOH! Thanks for the advise..I'm really happy with this fish!

[Michael7979]

If you have some eggcrate lying around....... cut a piece to fill in that hole and it will help, (but not prevent), him from being able to jump from the tank.

[TheGooseWhisperer]

great idea! Thanks:)

[TheGooseWhisperer]

The wrasse is fat and happy...he was bit timid for the first couple days. He hid as soon as the MH went off and wouldn't come out in the morning until they were back on. Now hes staying out until the actinics switch off and he's coming out in the morning with just room lights and indirect natural light.

I was resuspending detritus yesterday and was pretty surprised by something I saw floating around in the water. It was a pod exoskeleton that was huge by pod standards...curled up it was the size of a fingernail...stretched out it would probably be an inch long! I was starting to worry that maybe I did have a zoa eating nudi on my hands as I have lost a couple more small polyps, but they were on the opposite end of the tank. This happened just a couple days after the wrasse was put in the tank and hasnt happened again for several days that I have noticed. I'm sure the pod population has not been "wiped out" out all yet. With pods that big I would suspect them to be the culprit over a nudi that I have searched high and low for, but have never seen. Maybe I should do a little night time searching so see what is coming out in the dark.

A bacterial bloom broke out on the glass again...this one was pretty strange because I have been running fresh carbon every 4-6 days for the last couple weeks. I thought my water quality was getting better, but apparently there is something in there that these bugs really like. Corals still look great so I'm not concerned at this point though.

[impur]

A quick dip in freshwater will tell you if you have zoa eating nudis.