A Great Way to ruin a perfect wall; My 400 Gallon Project

[psteeleb]

Ryan - I was going to suggest that mojano zapper. I think Marc got one from Paul B, so you may want to ask to see if you can borrow it for a test run.

You indicated you don't have room but consider a large brute and set it up to cycle your water through it then put half your live rocks in the brute and cover it for a couple months. then change it out for the other half and in the meantime start zapping.

if you are afraid of the racoon you may want to consider a Falcula (Chaetodon falcula) or Yellow Pyramid Butterflyfish (Hemitaurichthys polylepis), both are supose to be good anemonee eaters and otherwise tend to be reef safe

you may want to build a eggcrate cover for your clams before adding any butterfly

 

[SERVO]

Thanks jgsensor and Pete. I used the mojano zapper, but it is likely a better option if you don't have 2million majano's. The device can be challenging to maneuver given large corals, small spaces and retracting anemone's.

I'm thinking of adding a filefish. I can easily sustain it with my coral load.

 

[psteeleb]

Thanks jgsensor and Pete. I used the mojano zapper, but it is likely a better option if you don't have 2million majano's. The device can be challenging to maneuver given large corals, small spaces and retracting anemone's.

I'm thinking of adding a filefish. I can easily sustain it with my coral load.

I just noticed someone on DFWMAS was selling a mojano chomping filefish

 

[SERVO]

So I used to love my rock pictured above on day one. Since then somehow a massive collective of majano's has invaded my tank. I contemplated option after option, but I don't have the time and patience to set up and plumb brute garbage cans or Rubbermaid containers into my system. That would involve taking LARGE colonies off of the rock, moving the rock over into the canisters, finding a way to light the containers, all the while hoping to minimize losses. Not an option.

Now mind you, the rock had some paly's on them and I wouldn't mind scraping some of the exhisting rock anyway. Additionally, I currently hate the way the tank looks after 6 years of growth and die off from light starvation and poor husbandry/Ca reactor effluent failure. I would love to reaquascape with something more minimal, adding valleys and pegging the rock to the point of structural failure.

http://www.dfwmas.org/Forums/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=20726

I'm going to actually start an aquascaping project where I use mortar to glue some rocks together. I'll need to cure that rock IF I do decide to use it, but as above: Doubtful. I want to do that for experience, and if I fall in love with it, who knows. Maybe I'll start a second tank. As usual, I digress.


I friend of mine has very good experience with a file fish for Majano elimination/control. The raccoon butterfly fish I purchased never made it into the reef. Since I wimped out, my Majano problem had exploded, and after discussions with my friend, I've decided to put that above mentioned file fish into my tank. I suspect that I know what corals he'll likely mow down, but given the alternative, this is much more of an ease to control. I'll post my experiences as I know there are others actively contemplating the same action.

Here he is hiding under a rock at the bottom of the tank.

 

[SERVO]

I hope he isn't too distracted.

 

[SERVO]

Well I'm not sure why, but he died. He didn't even touch a single Majano.

The problem continues to get WORSE. I've got a ton of corals that are dying in small patches because of the stings of the majanos.

The way I see things I could

-pull everything out; put my corals into a bin, drain the tank, pull out the starboard and clean underneath, run a razor blade over every last piece of glass, go buy new rock and put the corals back into the tank.

If this was a 200 gallon tank, I would have done this by now.

The best part of an overhaul like this is that I could really clean out the inside of the tank, cement some great aquasculptures together, drill the hell out of the rock to peg my corals.

Well, I'm not going to do this...yet................

After a discussion with a local reefer, the biggest weakness of the Majanos is light. The best part about these creatures, is they will migrate like pilgrims in order to find it. He advised me to get a small, round, spot light 60-100 watts.
Put it in the corner of the tank, where the rock is at it's highest. Add an empty rock between the light and the top of the rock stack. Turn off all the other lights. Prevent any light from getting into the tank. I'm using left over coraplast from my tank backing.

Leave the other lights off for a day or two. The majanos will move, extremely quickly, towards the single source of light. Don't point it accross the tank. The more concentrated spot, the better.

As they leave their crevices, and crawl towards the top, you can waft your hand over them, or flick them slightly, and they will let loose. It will take a day for them to get moving, but believe me, they'll head toward the light. They'll crawl on the back glass, and up onto the empty rock. I'm going to use an empty rock and a piece of acrylic as substrate bait.

I'm going to try this a couple of days, leave the lights on for about 4-5 days and repeat.
People always post their sucesses, but rarely their failure, I guess when I do something well, I love to brag. Pictures to follow.

 

[Chrisrush]

Good luck Ryan. I was in Dallas this weekend and thought about calling you. Guess I wouldn't have been able to see much of your tank.

 

[psteeleb]

wow - that's an interesting approach, but it sounds like it may just work

 

[SERVO]

Well in the meantime, I have gotten some new addtions. I've been running biopellets in a large canister filter with little tumbling. It works great, gets clogged up and I start to see more algae growth. I clean out every thing and the cycle repeats. I was really impressed by this video

<iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/COSaqcdkZNA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

So I ended up with one. Should decrease my maintainance.

 

[Chrisrush]

Hey Ryan. Did this end up working?

 

[PaPa_Johnny]

Ryan, how did your Mojano war wind up? The concept was intriquing......

 

[gone_fishing]

I had a similar majano problem in my first tank. What I did was set up a 10 gallon tank, moved a few pieces of rock at a time in there, and had no light on it. The room they were in had a round ceiling light and a window on the other side of the room. I turned on the room light every day, and after a week or so, the majanos moved off the rock and up high on the glass of the tank. Once the rock was free of majanos, I swapped it out for another. Worked great! I kept one, they were pretty cool looking with green bubble tips, and it has never moved or multiplied in over 7 months.

 

[SERVO]

And the dead has arisen. I felt it apropos to post on Easter. I have had a couple of new updates.

I struggled with the Majano, palyathoa and hydroid infestations. I waxed and waned about taking out all of my rock and replacing them. If I could house the corals somewhere, I would have done that in a heartbeat. At this time, I have a file fish in the frag tank that has completely eradicated the entire collective of majanos. The stupid fish in the display has helped to some extent, but I'm sure he would rather eat the fish food, as there are still majanos in the tank.

I took off my T5's over the frag tank and did this. My buddy Aaron did all of the work for me.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/18777697@N03/7058226947/" title="Untitled by ryanreeves, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7120/7058226947_7610aae304.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Untitled"></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/18777697@N03/6912144690/" title="Untitled by ryanreeves, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5337/6912144690_f7edb4d556.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Untitled"></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/18777697@N03/7058225475/" title="Untitled by ryanreeves, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7179/7058225475_57cff9b784.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Untitled"></a>

I still haven't quite dialed in the colors of the corals yet, but I've slowly started to bake them. The LED's are Cree Blues/Royal Blues/Cool White.

My corals are doing really well, but I still go through the take out all my rock issues. I am going to move in the next year, so I'll be breaking down the tank. That will allow me to restart with my new 8x4x2.5 foot build.

 

[SERVO]

I converted because of my new Profilux Ex 3 controller. To have this controller and not have any LED's is really wasting the technology.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/18777697@N03/7058378007/" title="Untitled by ryanreeves, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5462/7058378007_b9f3ddd22d.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Untitled"></a>


As you can see, it has really streamlined the access into the tank. Before the T5's were literally right on top of the opening. I've noticed about 1 degree of cooling and there is more stability with less swings in Temp. If I can master the colors in the frag system, I'll convert to full LED with my next build. I still need to understand a good ramp peak decline %age of output to the general health of the corals.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/18777697@N03/6912358372/" title="Untitled by ryanreeves, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7089/6912358372_6c9a48969a.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Untitled"></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/18777697@N03/6912358372/" title="Untitled by ryanreeves, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7089/6912358372_6c9a48969a.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Untitled"></a>

Overall, my parameters have been super solid, so at least I have a good comparison over the past 8 months.

I took the biopellets off line. Last summer, I was getting NH4 directly from the cities water. I ended up losing A LOT of corals. The NP beads were about 5-6 months old on the system. I've decided not to run them for now.

I still need to add a few more file fish. I go back and forth about using Laser, but I think I'll wait until someone in the club gets one and pay them to come over while I take the family outside. I'll probably end out moving by then.:hmm2:

 

[Chrisrush]

Where are you moving? In town I hope. That new tank will be sweet. Good luck with the LEDs. I ended up switching back to MH/T5s as I was never happy with the LEDs, but I had other issues with that tank that I can't blame the LEDs.

I thought about getting a laser for my aiptasia infestation (and I do mean infestation, someone said it looked like I had an aiptasia farm) but in the end, I switched tanks, took all the rock and bleached it. Got rid of all the aiptaisa that way. Still have a few on some corals, but a couple of peps will help out. The issue that I had with the laser was the time commitment, I heard it can be a lot of time to take them out one at a time. Any natural predators besides file fish? I was thinking about buying a couple of berghis before I found the bleach on sale

 

[SERVO]

Chris, I don't have a single aiptasia, but plenty of Majano's for all. I could try a raccoon butterfly but my coral could be in danger. I've contemplated this many times.

As for Aiptasia, I would load up on peppermint shrimp. They can be hit or miss, but I've had a ton of success in the past with them.

We are staying around, just upgrading Our new house will be in Westlake Texas.

As you may know, Aaron is running all LED on his tank and his colors are pretty crazy. I made another adjustment on my LED settings yesterday. I'll see if I can start to get them to pop a bit.

 

[kwl1763]

Wow, he lives. I'm about to get back in also. In Richmond now, setting up a 180.

Be good to see you at MACNA

 

[washingtond]

Wow, he lives. I'm about to get back in also. In Richmond now, setting up a 180.

Be good to see you at MACNA

Keith you are in Richmond, Va????

 

[Chrisrush]

Chris, I don't have a single aiptasia, but plenty of Majano's for all. I could try a raccoon butterfly but my coral could be in danger. I've contemplated this many times.

As for Aiptasia, I would load up on peppermint shrimp. They can be hit or miss, but I've had a ton of success in the past with them.

We are staying around, just upgrading Our new house will be in Westlake Texas.

As you may know, Aaron is running all LED on his tank and his colors are pretty crazy. I made another adjustment on my LED settings yesterday. I'll see if I can start to get them to pop a bit.

I ended up buying 10 peps from the coast and no longer have any aiptasia. Amazing how fast they worked. Should have done that before I pulled all the LR for a nice bleach bath. Oh well. The rock is nice and white now.

Glad to hear you guys are staying local. Maybe sometime this summer when I'm in town I'll stop over.

I saw Aarons tank the other day. Amazing how good his color is. I was never able to get that color from my LEDs. He said he is getting good growth as well.

 

[MHG]

Hey how much did they nail you for that waste container and was it custom or a stock item?