Please keep following the blog on wimsea.net from now on. I will soon remove this entry.
Algazit against filament algae
Watervalues seemed OK by now, but the algae struggle already continues for a year, last month primarily by scrubbing of the algae with all kind of brushes.
Read http://homeaquaria.com/saltwater-algae-control-the-ultimate-guide/, and (the same but more concise) http://www.algone.com/getting-rid-of-algae-in-aquarium
I applied almost all these measures, only not yet tried phosphate and nitrate blockers.
To apply this I decided to put an extra small pot filter (Juwel Filter Bioflow One) in the tank and bought Aqua Phosphate Minus which I apply in the filter cabin inside a kind of teabag.
I have the tank for almost a year now and impatience is lurking… Since I have only polyps, anemones, fishes and snails in the tank, I decided “what the hack” and also applied 5 tablets of Tetra Algazit. The website mentioned it can be used in any tank, the leaflet suggested fresh water only. I took the risk: I still have no hard coral, so the algae are the only plants in the tank, so they are supposed to be the only ones to suffer… Let us see: the tank now looks like:
And water values:
| 18 sep 16 | Unit |
| 1 | NO3 (ppm) |
| 0,02 | PO4 (mg/l) |
| 1230 | Mg (ppm) |
| 290 | Ca (ppm) |
| 9,9 | KH (dKH) |
| 8 | pH |
In graph up till now:
Hard coral stressed
That hard coral started stressing yesterday, see bleaching on the photo. I had some red flap reoccuring last week, also near the foot of the coral. Wondered whether that may have caused the current stress. Decided to push it back with a treatment of Mycosidol. A bit of a long shot, but let’s see if that helps.
New buttons, hard coral “try out”
More or less once a week now, I clean by syphoning some 25 litres, including scrubbing or picking algae from the rocks (stopped logging them all). The watervalues are good now, and filament algae and red flap can still reoccur, but not very fast.
Anemone fishes, Shrimps ansd Saliaris are doing fine. Thought it maybe time for some more corals/polyps, as far as the space permits (anemones tend to stick on one rock so far…).
Thus I came across a tank-man in IJmuiden, André, who was selling some left over cultures via Markplaats. Went there and my eyes stand out for a really very beautifull tank! Nice guy providing lots of advice and stories. Anyhow, I collected a leather coral, a small button with some star polyps, yet another poyp, and a small peace of hard coral. The last one more or less as a trial to see if my tank is ripe enough for hard corals.
Laurel & Hardy
The red nipple anemone split itself into two after the first week: Laurel & Hardy. Hardy moved to the back of the same rock. Recently Hardy moved back and they are next to each other again. Clown fishes are more and more familiarizing with them (sitting in them), and less and less friendly towards me :-).
New: One red nipple anemone (Entacmea quadricolor)
Bought one big red nipple anemone at the local petstore. One day later it became completely grey and withered (gee, there goes my 50 bucks…) but hey, next morning it was there again. Read they do this occasionally to refresh their internal water-content.
Becoming a bit stable, allthough flap reoccurred…
Becoming a bit stable, allthough flap reoccurred…
Syhoned reappearing red flap from the sand, with 12 liter replacement.
Finally pink…
Shrubbed algae from the remaining half of the rocks. Syphoned the sand an replaced 20 l.
Tank now looks more pink then green for the first time…
Started shrubbing the algae of
Shrubbed algae from the the first half of the rocks. Did it more thoroughly then the first time (november 2015). Syphoned the sand an replaced 20 l.
New arrivals: cleaner shrimps and turbo snail
Bought 2 Lysmata Amboinensis (Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp, poetsgarnaal)
1 Buccinulum Corneum (Orange Spotted Turbo Snail, oranje gespikte turbo slak).
The latter moved real quickly under the sand (within a minute disappeared).
The Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimps seem to do fine, they are active and look at ease.
I changed the second pump into a morning-shift only. Hoeben advised not to temper to much with the current, keep it one regime.
wimszeewater 