obrien.david.j

Unclip the sheet for scraping. Nice idea.

I'm fighting Dinos now. Mostly large cell amphidinium, aka brown/rusty gravel. Am well down the "correct and stabilize everything" path, and am now into Dose Silicates to grow Diatoms to outcompete the Dinos. Do you think your Scrubber-Algae is outcompeting Dinos?

Nice design. I think I recognize that container too. is it an OXO brand, POP container? How do you clean this design? I'm not a scrubber user, but my understanding is you need to be prepared for weekly/bi-weekly scraping of that white sheet algae grows on.

I setup the camera in front of the Aptasia eating Peppermint tank last night. You can find my post on it here:

Setup a camera last night to watch the activity. Here is 6 hours of shrimp, in 15 seconds. Watching this video, look at the left side of the screen, top corner of the rock. I see a large aptasia pop up, shrink down, pop up, shrink down. I don't think it's gone yet. This video ends, just before I took this mornings photo. (previous post) In the photo it must be down. Only soon to pop back up... and be eaten! 6 hours of shrimp in 15 seconds.mp4 In case you want to see the setup.

Victim 2, third Morning (Thurs AM) Left side, do you see any aptasia remaining? Right side, do you see any aptasia remaining? it's too early to call it. I'll leave it for another day, but soon it may be time for Victim #3!

Very nice. And this spawned an idea...

I have a webcam in the equipment room, which can see the side of one frag tank. (Lower right corner of video) Have you ever wondered what your snails do at night? Check out this video. I compressed 5hrs (midnight to 5am), into 50 seconds. 5hrs in 15seconds.mp4

Good Input

Victim 2, Second Morning (Weds AM) Yesterday, middle of the picture had an Aptasia. Today, all I see is a hungry shrimp.

Victim 2, First Morning (Tues AM) Notice the emerald crab. Right side, above pink epoxy, above snail. There are a few touches of Valonia here too. Might as well go for all killers.

And the next Victim has arrived.

And this is what the rock looked like as I took it out tonight.

What a stunning display! Haven't been to the aquarium in a few years, will have to make a point to re-visit.

Sixth Morning (Mon AM) I'm claiming Success! Yes, I'm sure there are aptasia spores still on the rock - but I've got a lot more rocks that need their big aptasia removed first. So today this rock gets cycled out for a new one from the tank (In case you're wondering what happened to Fifth morning...)

Fourth Morning (Sat AM)

Do you think there's something special about Klein's Butterfly eating aptasia, or ~Any Hungry butterfly?

Third Morning (Fri AM) Looks like Aptasia are reducing It's funny. I think the shrimp can see the Red LED's. I use them to try and not disturb AM photos, get them in action. But they move off the rock as soon as I turn them on. And get skittish. BTW, they don't seem to pick Aptasia during daylight - So this frag tank lighting is OFF all day. (except photo times)

Aptasia can go into my overflow plumbing, that is easy to deal with. I have filter socks before they enter the sump, and when plumbing needs to get sterilized, Its removable and can go into acid->bleach outside. Take the plumbing down for 4hrs, and Bingo - no Aptasia there any more. This includes each frag tank. Quick disconnect, tank into the driveway, sterilize/rinse/return. Done in a few times already.

This is the first I've heard of the idea. Rocks in a copper bath, rinse (or soak) for a day?, and then back into the display tank. shouldn't I be afraid of copper attaching to the rock and releasing later, into main tank water?

My Aptasia have gotten out of hand. I've applied added Filefish (2), a copper banded butterfly, and Berghia. Even added couple of peppermint shrimp... never to be seen again. (I suspect wrasses got them.) Filefish and CB butterfly aren't seeming to make a dent. In this case, I suspect my efforts to fight dinos (feeding the tank heavily to keep NO3/PO4 up) is countering efforts to reduce Aptasia. (keeping the fish fed, so they dont need to eat aptasia. AND keeping aptasia fed, and they reproduce faster). So I'm trying a different approach... Aptasia Death, by peppermint shrimp -- In an isolated tank Take couple dozen peppermint shrimp Put them in one of my frag tanks, connected to the main system, but empty Don't feed this tank, except... Move an Aptasia infested rock into this tank Death by hungry Peppermint Shrimp! I'll bring you along for the ride with regular pictures. UPDATE: If you want to jump to the conclusion - here's a direct link Shrimp Arrival (and some misc) Freshly Added Rock (Tues PM) - Looks pretty ugly First Morning (Weds AM) Second Morning (Thurs AM)

Welcome Back! Few years (before Covid) we spent a week in Costa Rica. Visited Manuel Antonio national park. Those photos instantly reminded me of the tropical environment.

Very Nice indeed!

Atlanta. According to this site. https://www.touropia.com/largest-aquariums-in-the-world/

Agreed, great video. Thanks for sharing!