And so it begins
- Thread starter KafudaFish
- Start date
Updates:
1. Gone over Labor Day Weekend and one of my frags was exposed to the air. Some of the polyps melted but I left the others alone and they are coming back. I now have 4 on that one.
2. My filter sponge blocked too much flow and water was spilling out over the back of it. I lost around 20 oz. of water. I had to move the tank in order to dry the table it was on. Oh and this was at 3 am.
3. I now have some mangroves in the top off area but have not decided if I will keep them there or not. I realize this is a change to the system but change is a natural phenomenon of natural systems such as disturbances or succession.
4. I thought that my polyp count had remained about the same but after counting things continue as you can see below.
5. I need to figure out if I want to frag my “extra” one since it has polyps growing from underneath or leave it alone for the long hall. I had thought about making frags ever 3 months off of it so now would be the time.
22-Jun-11 23-Jul-11 23-Aug-11 22-Sep-11
Left wall 9 11 18
Top off 5 6 4
Left rock 14 23 35
Right rock 10 19 32
Lower rock 3 5 6
Left floor 22 27 57
Shell 8 3 4
Center floor 2 15 21
Right rock 8 9 18
Powerhead 6 6 10
Total 60 87 124 205
Difference 27 37 81
1. Gone over Labor Day Weekend and one of my frags was exposed to the air. Some of the polyps melted but I left the others alone and they are coming back. I now have 4 on that one.
2. My filter sponge blocked too much flow and water was spilling out over the back of it. I lost around 20 oz. of water. I had to move the tank in order to dry the table it was on. Oh and this was at 3 am.
3. I now have some mangroves in the top off area but have not decided if I will keep them there or not. I realize this is a change to the system but change is a natural phenomenon of natural systems such as disturbances or succession.
4. I thought that my polyp count had remained about the same but after counting things continue as you can see below.
5. I need to figure out if I want to frag my “extra” one since it has polyps growing from underneath or leave it alone for the long hall. I had thought about making frags ever 3 months off of it so now would be the time.
22-Jun-11 23-Jul-11 23-Aug-11 22-Sep-11
Left wall 9 11 18
Top off 5 6 4
Left rock 14 23 35
Right rock 10 19 32
Lower rock 3 5 6
Left floor 22 27 57
Shell 8 3 4
Center floor 2 15 21
Right rock 8 9 18
Powerhead 6 6 10
Total 60 87 124 205
Difference 27 37 81
Here is the only new pic of I have of the tank. This was at 3 am the other night when I discovered the leak. The mangroves have roots which is cool.
22-Jun-11 23-Jul-11 23-Aug-11 22-Sep-11 25-Oct-11
Left wall 9 11 18 24
Top off 5 6 4 6
Left rock 14 23 35 50
Right rock 10 19 32 57
Lower rock 3 5 6 8
Left floor 22 27 57 67
Shell 8 3 4 6
Center floor 2 15 21 27
Right rock 8 9 18 25
Powerhead 6 6 10 12
Total 60 87 124 205 282
Difference 27 37 81 77
I have not touched the tank other than to top off each day. It seems to be getting some build up and I will need to remove some detritus pretty soon.
Mangroves continue to grow roots and my kids think it is pretty cool have trees in the living room.
You can now stand back several feet and see something vs. having to get up close and hunt (though that is fun too).
I was gone Oct. 15 - 23 on vacation and my tank sitter did a great job.
If you ever have a new tank sitter you need to do the following before you leave:
show them the tank and the equipment, believe it or not when something sounds different is usually a sign that there is an issue
how to feed and how much
where top off water is at and if necessary WC water too
write out detailed instructions on what to do and have them read it because something may make sense to you but not to them and they could accidentally nuke your tank.
Until turkey day .....
Left wall 9 11 18 24
Top off 5 6 4 6
Left rock 14 23 35 50
Right rock 10 19 32 57
Lower rock 3 5 6 8
Left floor 22 27 57 67
Shell 8 3 4 6
Center floor 2 15 21 27
Right rock 8 9 18 25
Powerhead 6 6 10 12
Total 60 87 124 205 282
Difference 27 37 81 77
I have not touched the tank other than to top off each day. It seems to be getting some build up and I will need to remove some detritus pretty soon.
Mangroves continue to grow roots and my kids think it is pretty cool have trees in the living room.
You can now stand back several feet and see something vs. having to get up close and hunt (though that is fun too).
I was gone Oct. 15 - 23 on vacation and my tank sitter did a great job.
If you ever have a new tank sitter you need to do the following before you leave:
show them the tank and the equipment, believe it or not when something sounds different is usually a sign that there is an issue
how to feed and how much
where top off water is at and if necessary WC water too
write out detailed instructions on what to do and have them read it because something may make sense to you but not to them and they could accidentally nuke your tank.
Until turkey day .....
Realize it is not turkey day yet but thought this may be interesting to zoa nuts.
I did a 98% WC the other day and when I moved some rubble around one of the rocks had 3 polyps growing on it. I did not attach anything there so I guess nature did her own thing.
I did a 98% WC the other day and when I moved some rubble around one of the rocks had 3 polyps growing on it. I did not attach anything there so I guess nature did her own thing.
Thank you very much.
I just wish I could take better photos.
I just wish I could take better photos.
StephLionfish
New member
Awesome tank, it's going to be amazing once it's filled in!
Thank you.
For some reason on Friday I was looking around and saw that some polyps were on the underside of two of my rocks so I did some fragging.
Of the 3 frags 2 of them survived. The one I lost had a polyp attached by the mat but was not attached to the rock. I put some gel down, held down the polyp with a chopstick for a few seconds and then poured some water on the glue to cool it. The gel had not set so it covered the frag.
It was stupid on my part but I really was not sure if that one would have made it otherwise.
The other 2 have opened up. I have one in the back on the floor behind my two rocks. I think there are 12 polyps on that one and over time it should cover my floor.
The other, around 5 polyps I glued to the right side of the tank above one of my blenny holes. I am hoping that over time the zoas will crawl up the right side.
This area gets decent flow from the powerhead but of the main areas gets the least amount of light.
I may swing the light arm back and forth every other day.
On Saturday I got home at midnight to find about half a gallon of water on the floor. My filter was overflowing again.
I mixed up some warm tap water and salt for a minute, poured it in and went to bed.
I did not want to spend the next few hours waiting.
Honestly I don't know how people manage to cut one polyp, glue it and everything go well. If you can then golf clap for you.
For some reason on Friday I was looking around and saw that some polyps were on the underside of two of my rocks so I did some fragging.
Of the 3 frags 2 of them survived. The one I lost had a polyp attached by the mat but was not attached to the rock. I put some gel down, held down the polyp with a chopstick for a few seconds and then poured some water on the glue to cool it. The gel had not set so it covered the frag.
It was stupid on my part but I really was not sure if that one would have made it otherwise.
The other 2 have opened up. I have one in the back on the floor behind my two rocks. I think there are 12 polyps on that one and over time it should cover my floor.
The other, around 5 polyps I glued to the right side of the tank above one of my blenny holes. I am hoping that over time the zoas will crawl up the right side.
This area gets decent flow from the powerhead but of the main areas gets the least amount of light.
I may swing the light arm back and forth every other day.
On Saturday I got home at midnight to find about half a gallon of water on the floor. My filter was overflowing again.
I mixed up some warm tap water and salt for a minute, poured it in and went to bed.
I did not want to spend the next few hours waiting.
Honestly I don't know how people manage to cut one polyp, glue it and everything go well. If you can then golf clap for you.
you used warm tap water bro?you will not keep a nice reef tank that way.the chlorine in the tap water most likly killed all youre good bacteria and started a cycle all over.never,never,never,never,use warm untreated tap water again.you need to mix the salt for day in the water you can burn all youre corals with that salt.if nothing happened to youre tank you dodged a bullet.
Lucky page 7 for me.
Yes I used warm tap water. It was probably around 85 F but that was by touch to be honest.
I do see your concern and it does bring up a really good question:
At what concentration does chlorine kill bacteria in water?
I had a guess but off the top of my head I was not sure so I looked it up and it is 1.0 mg/L at a pH of 7.5 and typically the level in drinking water is 0.2 - 1.0 mg/L.
I added about 1/8 tank volume back so it would be below that threshold.
I could see issue if I had done a 100% change but at this amount I don't think that it killed the bacteria because the tank is not cloudy and there are no baterial mats on the rock indicating a die off that could crash the tank.
If one of my frags had not been exposed to the air I probably would have waited until morning to add water to allow the chlorine to degas.
Also when I do a WC it usually takes me a day or two to get to do it but there have been several threads focusing on how people mix their salt water.
Most do the mix and wait approach while others mix until the salt dissolves, the water is clear and then they dump it right then and there.
As far as a nice tank for the first time in a long time I like my tank, I enjoy it, I don't worry about it, and I actually sit down and look at it beyond cleaning it unlike I have done in the past. To me that is a nice tank. Perhaps one day I will make a 180 and go back to the stress of a tank.
Again thank you for taking the time to post. I hope you stick around the zoa forum and provide your experiences so that we can all learn something about what we all love.
:beer:
Yes I used warm tap water. It was probably around 85 F but that was by touch to be honest.
I do see your concern and it does bring up a really good question:
At what concentration does chlorine kill bacteria in water?
I had a guess but off the top of my head I was not sure so I looked it up and it is 1.0 mg/L at a pH of 7.5 and typically the level in drinking water is 0.2 - 1.0 mg/L.
I added about 1/8 tank volume back so it would be below that threshold.
I could see issue if I had done a 100% change but at this amount I don't think that it killed the bacteria because the tank is not cloudy and there are no baterial mats on the rock indicating a die off that could crash the tank.
If one of my frags had not been exposed to the air I probably would have waited until morning to add water to allow the chlorine to degas.
Also when I do a WC it usually takes me a day or two to get to do it but there have been several threads focusing on how people mix their salt water.
Most do the mix and wait approach while others mix until the salt dissolves, the water is clear and then they dump it right then and there.
As far as a nice tank for the first time in a long time I like my tank, I enjoy it, I don't worry about it, and I actually sit down and look at it beyond cleaning it unlike I have done in the past. To me that is a nice tank. Perhaps one day I will make a 180 and go back to the stress of a tank.
Again thank you for taking the time to post. I hope you stick around the zoa forum and provide your experiences so that we can all learn something about what we all love.
:beer:
Innate thanks and glad you found it interesting. There are more interesting tanks out there due to all of their eye candy but I wanted to do something different I guess.
Perhaps I will become a collector once again when the mood hits.
Mikey true and I know I have some prime in my fish closet but it is so old I would probably crash my tank like Steve Weast's dream tank.
It looked like I had some die off with my CA on my rocks so I dosed a pinch of Mg salt yesterday. I will add small amounts over the next week and things should turn around.
Perhaps I will become a collector once again when the mood hits.
Mikey true and I know I have some prime in my fish closet but it is so old I would probably crash my tank like Steve Weast's dream tank.
It looked like I had some die off with my CA on my rocks so I dosed a pinch of Mg salt yesterday. I will add small amounts over the next week and things should turn around.
Round 2 on me.
Here is November's count:
Left wall 26
Top off 9
Left rock 88
Right rock 101
Lower rock 15
Left floor 40
Shell 5
Center floor 25
Right rock 36
Powerhead 12
total 357
change +75
The one frag, right rock, increased from 57 to 101 polyps during the last month. The frag still has plenty of area to spread and should but at some point it will fill up all of the available area. Perhaps when it reaches around the 250 mark it will be done.
Of the three frags I made two of them made it, back floor and right wall. The rock was the one frag that showed up.
Back floor 15
Right wall 5
Rock 3
Total 380
Change +98
I am going to keep track of all polyps and the total from the original 10 frags.
Left wall 26
Top off 9
Left rock 88
Right rock 101
Lower rock 15
Left floor 40
Shell 5
Center floor 25
Right rock 36
Powerhead 12
total 357
change +75
The one frag, right rock, increased from 57 to 101 polyps during the last month. The frag still has plenty of area to spread and should but at some point it will fill up all of the available area. Perhaps when it reaches around the 250 mark it will be done.
Of the three frags I made two of them made it, back floor and right wall. The rock was the one frag that showed up.
Back floor 15
Right wall 5
Rock 3
Total 380
Change +98
I am going to keep track of all polyps and the total from the original 10 frags.
Thank you very much.
I'm still tagging along Mike. Great job man.
Mooch
Mooch
