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Pest tank


Islandoftiki

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Ok, so I'm about to get the 2 gallon pico back up and running. This time it's going to be a pest tank. That's right, a tank full of mojano, aiptasia, bubble algae, unknown crabs, etc. If anyone has any pests that they want to donate to the project, let me know. It's not like you can go down to the local fish store and specifically ask for aiptasia without being looked at like a crazy person, so I might need a little help with this one.

 

I think my first order of business is to find some infested live rock.

 

Cheers!

 

John

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I'm not sure if my schedule will allow me to get down there any time soon. I should be at the next meeting, I hope. I'll put another call out for pests just before the meeting.

 

 

Does anybody have any chunks of live rock that they're ready to give up on? It's only a small tank, about 6.5" x 6.5" x 8" tall. 2 lbs should be enough.

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Yeah, people consider it a pest. Emerald crabs love the stuff. Some say Emerald crabs will eat corals if they get too hungry, but mine has been a model citizen... and bonus, no bubble algae.

 

But the pest tank is another story altogether! Bring on the pests! It's going to be a battle royale to determine the ultimate winner!

 

Does anyone have any hitchhikers they want to get rid of? Nuisance crabs, pistol shrimp, mantis shrimp?

 

Send 'em my way!

 

In all seriousness though, I'm excited to give a home to these misfits.

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Oh, how exciting! This is almost as much fun as my main display tank!

 

First off, I would like to thank George for his generous contribution of both live rock and a wicked huge aiptasia.

 

He gave me so much live rock that I had to scramble and put together my old empty Mr. Aqua 7.5 gallon freshwater cube tank and set it up for saltwater. Yay for having enough extra bits and pieces to throw together an impromptu holding tank. It's now running and hosting what must be about 10 lbs of live rock. Thank you, George!

 

Here's the 7.5 gallon and 2 gallon next to each other:

 

200144A9.jpg

 

And here's the largest aiptasia that I've ever seen. Thanks George!

 

1838D776.jpg

 

I'm still in need of more pests, and I'll be getting in touch with folks as I'm excited to host some mojano, bristle worms and other nasties!

 

I think I'm going to remove about half of the sand bed from the tank and hopefully add some more nasty, infested, pest addled live rock to the tank!

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Also, in researching pests, I'm learning some new trick for removing them from a display tank.

 

For Majanos, try this trick... Place a piece of a shell on top of the majano, the anemone will climb up on top of the shell to get back into the light, sometimes withing a day. Then simply remove the shell and no residual bits of majano in the tank.

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(laugh)(laugh)

Oh, how exciting! This is almost as much fun as my main display tank!

 

First off, I would like to thank George for his generous contribution of both live rock and a wicked huge aiptasia.

 

He gave me so much live rock that I had to scramble and put together my old empty Mr. Aqua 7.5 gallon freshwater cube tank and set it up for saltwater. Yay for having enough extra bits and pieces to throw together an impromptu holding tank. It's now running and hosting what must be about 10 lbs of live rock. Thank you, George!

 

Here's the 7.5 gallon and 2 gallon next to each other:

 

200144A9.jpg

 

And here's the largest aiptasia that I've ever seen. Thanks George!

 

1838D776.jpg

 

I'm still in need of more pests, and I'll be getting in touch with folks as I'm excited to host some mojano, bristle worms and other nasties!

 

I think I'm going to remove about half of the sand bed from the tank and hopefully add some more nasty, infested, pest addled live rock to the tank!

 

How about you use the 7.5 gallon tank as a quarantine for the pest tank.................(laugh)(laugh)

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A big thanks to pnkrcklives for donating a couple pieces of heavily majano infested pieces of rock to the pest tank!

 

Now I need some green majanos and maybe some pest crabs. Perhaps a bristle worm or two. I'll contact some of the folks who offered up the green majanos after I get the rockwork all dialed in.

 

I suspect the tank is nearing the end of it's cycle, although I haven't tested yet. I'm starting to see diatoms. I'll test it this weekend and see where it's at. Then a couple snails and maybe a pest hermit if it's ready.

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Here's a picture of the tank with some of the rockwork that I got from pnkrcklives. He was also nice enough to throw in some amazingly underwhelming pallys! Such a lovely shade of brown. :-)

 

One of the rocks has a nice carpet of algae, and a batch of colorless pallys that are nestled in the middle of a pile of majanos and are probably getting stung.

 

AB35D755.jpg

 

Oddly enough, it's not bad looking for a pest tank.

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Quick update, the pest tank is doing great, hasn't had a water change in weeks. The majanos are looking happy as a clam and the aiptasia are looking great. I picked up a couple bubble algae bubbles from my LFS today and stuck them in the tank and popped them. Should get some bubble algaes coming up soon. Yay!

 

I'll probably do a water change tonight when I do the water change on my display tank.

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