mogurnda
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Posts posted by mogurnda
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On 6/26/2023 at 8:59 PM, Origami said:
I'm glad you're settled in, Dave. You're old engineer goby is doing just fine. Best of luck in NM.
Sent from my Note 10+5g using Tapatalk
Glad to hear the engineer is happy. I had that fish for a long time.
Just starting to think about setting up, and my hunt for hobbyists and shops in Santa Fe and Albuquerque hasn't turned up much. It will take more time (and money) to get things going again.
Spending a little time in Baja California this week. Saw a huge pod of dolphins as we were heading to the field site. Retirement isn't all bad.
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37 minutes ago, AlanM said:
Don't worry, we can satisfy that itch by sending 1000 bags and some large coral colonies to you in October so you can still do fragfest and overnight it all back to us. 8)
It would be cheaper for me to splash myself with ASW, coral debris and soft coral slime, then send a photo.
2 minutes ago, ReefdUp said:Oh goodness, what a dream! Glad you're getting settled in safely.
Lots of previous members are still active here, and you're welcome to stay active here too. Hope you find a local group soon, too!
Yep. I will probably continue to lurk ; )
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Hey All,
We have finished the move to New Mexico, but WAMAS lives on in my head. I had a dream last night that I was working in the new house and waiting for someone to pick up some equipment, but could not find my phone. Next thing I know, the person had come by and left frags on the doorstep, but did not get their equipment. What was I going to do with frags WHEN I DIDN'T HAVE A TANK ANYMORE???!! Then I woke up, and was relived that I would not be killing the corals after all.
Anyway, thanks for everything over the years. Once I get settled, I will try to find new reef colleagues and get a tank or two set up. It will be harder without you.
Cheers.
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About 2 degrees day/night right now.
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Really sorry to hear it, Milton. I have definitely been there. Sometimes mysterious, sometimes dumb mistakes, but it is always crushing.
I hope you jump back in after feeling sad/mad for a bit.
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On 8/7/2022 at 5:33 PM, treesprite said:
Did you get it named yet?
Been calling him Pat. Seems to work.
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18 hours ago, YHSublime said:
Patti!
I like the idea of starting with Pat, and changing to Patty when the time comes.
15 hours ago, TrueTricia said:Sylvia ...Earle.
Hmmm....
11 hours ago, Salty Rambler said:Tommy... little Tommy and Dougette.
Maybe Tomasita if Dougette passes the torch?
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Hello All,
Doug is a clownfish that I got from a brood that Doug Arthur raised (hence the name) in 2009. A few months ago, his mate, who was around 15 or 16, went blind and wasted away. I was sad to see her go, but I guess that's not a bad age for a fish. Meantime, Doug has been alone in the anemone, and I expect is now Dougette. I just got a new juvenile ORA ocellaris clown from LiveAquaria, and they seem to be getting along well.
Doug's former mate never had a name, and I was hoping for suggestions for this little guy.
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The first one is definitely Ulva. Tends to thrive in higher nutrients (seems to especially like NO3 above 20), and likes lots of water motion. Some tangs will eat it, some won't, but it tends to fade away at some point, probably when some limiting factor runs out.
The second could be either Derbesia, which is the usual "hair algae" or Bryopsis. A couple of ways to tell the difference. In the water, Bryopsis generally has side branches that make it look feathery. The easiest way is to feel it. Bryopsis pennata, which is the usual species we deal with, feels coarse, whereas Derbesia feels like soft, squishy felt, with no obvious texture. Bryopsis also likes high flow, so you will often see it growing on your return nozzles.
Bryopsis likes the conditions we give corals (low nutrients, high flow) whereas Derbesia tends to get going when nutrients go up (especially PO4) or there is a major disturbance. This generally means that Derbesia will disappear when conditions settle down, but it can be a headache for months before it disappears. There are many ideas about dealing with Bryopsis, many of which are worse than the algae. I just let it grow on the nozzles and let the urchins eat it everywhere else.
You have not posted about your tank conditions, specifically NO3 and PO4. If I am right, your NO3 will be somewhat high, and PO4 may be as well (but may not be, because the algae may be mopping it up).
The only grazer that can be guaranteed to deal with these kinds of algae would be an urchin. Most species of snail won't touch Derbesia, and the only hermits that eat it are Mexican red legs (not the usual scarlets). I am extremely fond of urchins as grazers, and the rock-boring urchins (Echinometra sp) will not bulldoze your corals.
My advice would be to be a little more aggressive with your water changes, feed a little less, wait the problem out, and maybe add an urchin. Do you have a refugium?
**The above advice comes from many years of reefing, and, more importantly, more than five years of developing methods for culturing filamentous algae.
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Looks like Scutus, more of a limpet than a slug, which is supposed to be an algal grazer. May also be Stomatella, also a good guy. Hard to tell from the photo.
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10 hours ago, YHSublime said:
Well, I learned something today!and I learned that it takes about a week for the stink to skim out of the tank.
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7 minutes ago, YHSublime said:
Is that house they propagate? I always thought they split!
Sent from my iPhone using TapatalkThey do both. I would need a boy anemone to get babies, though.
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I walked past the tank about a week ago, and there were gazillions of eggs coming out of the anemone's mouth.
I think it has happened before, based on times when the skimmer went crazy and the water was cloudy for no obvious reason.
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An isopod. Looks kind of like Ligia. Does not look like a predatory species, but hard to say from the photo.
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I would rephrase your question to "How do these animals make a living, and what parts do they play in the reef," rather than asking about their "purpose." Species exist because they can find food, reproduce, and can avoid being eaten often enough to satisfy the first two conditions. Vermetids and Aiptasia are successful in the wild in exactly the same way that they are successful in our tanks: they find resources and reproduce. As far as playing their part in the ecosystem, both serve as food for different species of nudibranch, and Aiptasia feeds some fish species, so they are part of the bigger picture.
To reiterate Chuck's point, one person's weed is another's wildflower. If you are trying to grow Berghia nudibranchs, then Aiptasia is a desirable species, and I have never worried about vermetids in my systems.
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My GBTA has found its spot, and has not moved in at least 10 years. It found a place where it could put its foot deep into a crack in the rocks. I would suggest moving the corals, in the hope that the anemone will stay put in its new place. Two caveats: 1) anemones and tanks differ, and some never settle down; 2) they can get big enough (mine is about 2 ft across) that they can wipe out corals in a small tank, even if they never move.
My leathers definitely suffer if they contact the anemone, so I expect that yours will be unhappy as well.
If you move the anemone, it is likely to keep moving. It is either looking for a better place, or avoiding something that it does not like.
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I think you might be trying to do too much with a small tank. Once the seagrass gets going, it needs a good bit of space to spread out, and, assuming you divide it in half, a square foot isn't much.
What about the coral bommie look instead? Get a coral that grows nicely on the sandbed, like a Pocillopora or Euphyllia?
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I haven't used them for a few years, but Joshua at Batfish Aquatics took care of my system at work when I was away. What part of MoCo?
Phone: 410-934-7409
BatfishAquatics@gmail.com
http://www.batfishaquatics.com -
If you don't need something right now, you can always buy yourself a gift certificate for later. One way of helping them make it through the hard times.
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I had one for many years, and it was an excellent grazer. Two problems with that species:
- They decorate themselves with anything that is not glued down. This can include your favorite frags.
- They bulldoze.
If your frags are secure, they are fun to watch carrying around pieces of reef rubble.
Echinometra species (like rock-boring urchins) are better about knocking things over, and don't carry stuff around.
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8 minutes ago, Jon Lazar said:
I use the Reefbreeder fixtures. I found them to be a great balance of performance and cost. You can program them to ramp up and down if you want. I turn the whole thing on at once.
+1 on Reefbreeder. Nice slim design, programmable, plenty of PAR.
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Pretty straightforward if you have an Apex. Just hook up a float switch to the I/O port and (depending on the orientation of the switch) have it shut the pump off when the switch is closed (or open).Without an Apex, it could be done with a power supply, a float switch and a relay, if
you areyour friend is comfortable with electronics. -
23 hours ago, KingOfAll_Tyrants said:
So it seems for the hypothetical 1g phosphorus and 30g nitrogen, I would need 150g carbon (750ml!!!) of vodka, though obviously in a 20 gallon tank that's an insane amount on all sides. (the planted tank calculator says that to raise phosphate in 20 gallons water by 0.1ppm, I'd need 0.1g potassium phosphate in 10ml of RODI. Ergo, 3g. nitrogen and 15g/75ml vodka. (sounds like a lot!)
Though again, it seems you don't dose vodka with phosphate or nitrate.
Anyway, a few more little questions.
It seems that Trochus will eat seagrasses?
The predicted bacterial bloom, then, is a matter of the new tank becoming stable, and I should probably not filter or do drastic water changes to remove bacteria? (much less dose bacteria killing stuff!!!!!)
I am just lucky that Mrs Mogurnda is a very patient woman.
Anyway, the 150:30:1 is just the ratio, not the actual amount. My recent notebooks are in the lab, and I am stuck working at home, but when I dosed vinegar, I was dosing about 50 ml/day of vinegar, which is about 1g/day of carbon, with N and P in the appropriate proportions. That was for a 5-tank system of about 60 total gallons. So, you are right that 1 g of phosphate a day would be a bit much. Something closer to 5-7 mg a day is more like it.
I really am not sure about Trochus and seagrasses. My turbo would love a chance at the turtle grass, so I tend to avoid large snails.
My worry about bacteria has more to do with that first stage, when everything can get out of whack quickly. FIlter and skim to your heart's content to get the initial gunk under control, the nitrifying bacteria will be fine. My concern was mostly that the heavy bacterial metabolism, and effects on water chemistry, during the first week or so would unnecessarily stress the fish.
I love Walstad's book. It was the first one that gave me a decent understanding of how planted tanks actually work. She has some funny ideas, but the principles are solid.
If it were my tank, I wouldn't hurry to start dosing. Seagrasses and macros can tolerate a little starvation, but cyanobacteria, dinoflagellates and hair algae absolutely LOVE young, nutrient-rich tanks. Queen of the Tyrants would not approve.
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Overall, looks like a careful plan. I don't have time for a more thorough response (dang this whole work thing) but here are a few comments (FWIW).
1. I use the ratios to determine how much I put in, rather than the steady levels. PO4 in my algae system is always too low to measure. I look at it like feeding dogs: if the food is gone, they must have eaten it. I buy dry reagents, use chem 101 to figure out my concentrations, and dose at a ratio of ~30 grams nitrogen to 1 gram phosphorous. Start at low dose, then ramp up slowly, using test kits to make sure you're not overdoing. It's different from reefkeeping, where you're trying to reach a constant level.
2. I have found rock to be a liability in a small planted tank. Takes up space, stuff can collect underneath it, and always seems to block light in some place. For a gorgonian, anchor it to a small rock. I have some Montipora just sitting on the sandbed, and it does just fine.
3. Go light on the cleaning crew. Tangs are a no-no (obviously not an issue in your 20g), as are urchins. I would rather have an ugly algae bloom than add a fish or invert that will mow down your grasses. Ceriths and Nassarius are good, as are the little columbellid snails. Astrea would probably be OK, but you will probably want to keep an eye on the Trochus.
That does sound like a pretty full 20 gallon tank. Might be worth waiting on fish for a short time, just to let the tank settle a bit. With everything in the water column after the sand, mud and plants go in, there will probably be quite the bacterial bloom for a while.
WAMAS Dream
in General Discussion
Thanks! You should see the other 50 that looked awful. This little guy was sitting by the steps on the way to the van they morning we packed up. Seemed happy to see us go. Came close to fully retiring a little early.
Great to hear from you, Dave. A lot of the old timers pop in and out, time permitting. Still trying to figure out what exactly I'll be doing. Take care!