FredTheCat's 24 Gallon AquaPod

OK, a couple of fresh new questions for those who care to play along! :)

1) My green-striped mushrooms seem to be getting more and more flacid in the "new" tank. Everything else seems fine, water tests show everything normal so I'm wondering if the issue is the lighting. The Eclipse 6 they started out here in had a yellowish fluorescent while the AquaPod 24 has 1x32w SunPaq Dual Daylight & 1x32w SunPaq Dual Actinic plus 2 Nocturnal
Blue leds. My LFS says that I should be running the actinic and the daylight together but I'm wondering if that isn't just too much light for the shrooms. I'm especially confused because some things I read online imply that mushrooms are best under low light while others seem to advise placing them near the top of the tank so as to get as much light as possible. They also seem to say that it's nearly impossible to "kill" them but they sure don't look right. For what it's worth, mine are in the bottom quarter of the tank and I do run my lights most of the day. Any ideas?

2) I also seem to find conflicting information about the sponge filter at the back of the AquaPod24...some folks say rip it out immediately and replace with live rubble, some say use it but wash it out frequently, and some say leave it alone. What say all of you? I did remove the bioballs because those seem universally loathed...

Thanks for any input!

-FredTheCat
 
1) I think mushrooms are pretty flexible about the lighting. I have 196 watts total lighting (T5s) and have some mushrooms in various locations in the tank. The original rock they came on is on the bottom of the tank, but some have detached themselves and relocated to other areas. I will say that most of the "immigrants" moved to areas of lower lighting. One thing I have noticed is that they do seem to prefer an area of lower flow. I put them closer to the range of a powerhead one day and they looked really unhappy (shrunken).
 
I would agree that flow might be more important to shrooms than light. In my experience, I had withering shrooms that i moved to lower light and lower flow and they are doing drastically better.

As for the sponge filter.... I don't have a nano, but everything i have seen and know about reefing says that mechanical filter = bad, rock = good. mechanical filter only traps debris that causes your ammonia to keep going up, while rock degrades the ammonia.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12995000#post12995000 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by FredTheCat
and I do run my lights most of the day.
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what do you mean by most of the day?
 
ps. why do your snails keep falling? I have about 100 in my tank, and they only fall when I am screwing around in there....
 
2) I also seem to find conflicting information about the sponge filter at the back of the AquaPod24...some folks say rip it out immediately and replace with live rubble, some say use it but wash it out frequently, and some say leave it alone. What say all of you? I did remove the bioballs because those seem universally loathed...
Click to expand...

I think LR is generally preferred. However your sponge filter should be fine as long as you clean it regularly. The problem comes when you get a build of nitrates from an unclean sponge filter.
 
Thanks for the responses, gang!

The shrooms are looking somewhat better today. I did adjust my powerhead so that they're getting less flow even though they weren't getting all that much to begin with. The photos I posted showed the mushrooms more or less in a cave but I did bring them out a bit more into the light when I did the post-photo snail rescue, so maybe I'll go back to the cave scenario. I'll keep an eye on them.

As to why the snails fall, they seem to be getting knocked by things. The Sally was grabbing them up fairly regularly and leaving them upside down...I've seen the peppermint shrimp near the scene of a couple falls, and the lawnmower blenny tends to throw his tail around somewhat carelessly so I think he may bump them from time to time. No overturned snails have been seen since the one following the photos, however, so perhaps the problem is subsiding. And no, I don't play around in my tank. :)

One thing to note is that although my LFS referred to them as ceriths they really look more like nerites, with round shells rather than pointed. The curious part is that in researching nerites I find mention that "Unlike other snails these guys will NOT die by flipping over, they can easily flip themselves upright when needed!" So maybe I'm just overly concerned about them and they would eventually have turned themselves over had I not come to their rescue. Seeing their predicament though I find it difficult to imagine they could right themselves. But that remark comes from AquaCon, which I understand may be a questionable source based on other threads I've read.

When I mention I run lights "most of the day", I mean to say that I run them from ~10AM through 8-9PM. The instructions that came with the AquaPod suggest:
LED Light - 24 hours per day
Dual Actinic - 13 hours per day
Dual Daylight - 11 to 12 hours per day
Is this not advisable after all? I do notice that towards the end of the light period the daisy polyps tend to retreat.

Lastly, to the filtering...it's no problem to pick up some live rubble and replace the sponge filter and it seems that's the suggestion from both of you. I'll try to get to my LFS today and get some but it makes me wonder, if the sponge is a poor choice why would it be the default method in an AIO nano?

Thanks again for the responses, gang, it's good to know I have a sound source of information beyond my LFS! :)

-FredTheCat
 
(Sigh)...ok, now I'm all confused again. I discovered another LFS that is much better stocked than my usual LFS. The place is very clean, all the livestock looks great, nice frag tanks with plenty of good-looking frags, and a manager who seems to know his stuff. I was discussing with him the idea of replacing the sponge filter with the live rock rubble and he thought it would be best NOT to do that. His suggestion was to increase the quantity of live rock in the main tank and to do a good cleaning of the sponge filter once or twice a month. He explained that the problem with putting the rubble into the filtration compartment is that it would produce a substantial amount of dirt there and I'd get better benefit from the additional rock out front. Any comments about this take on the situation?

While I was there I picked up some more nassarius snails because the two I had in the AquaPod seemed unable to keep up with the detritus in the sand. I floated them and drip acclimated them and when they were finally released into the tank Muppet (the lawnmower blenny) seemed to be greatly offended by them. Any that stayed on the surface were subject to a brief assault by him.

The snails seemed to take it in stride, cowering until the vicious blenny left the area, but I notice he now seems to be patrolling the tank LOOKING for them! Is this common among lawnmowers and nassarius or is he just overly protective of "his" tank? Or is he just a jerk? :D It does seem like he's most likely to attack those that wander into his favorite corner (facing me) and near his prized cave...

-FredTheCat
 
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The managers solution makes sense to me. The rubble in the filter would be more work to clean out than the sponge would be. (This brings up the point that it's a good idea to occasionally use a turkey baster or powerhead to blow the detritus out of the nooks and crannies in your LR to be sucked up by the filter.) Besides adding live rock you could also increase your filtration capacity by implementing a deep sand bed . Since 4" of sand is required it would eat up a good deal of space in a nano but in my experience its worth it.
 
when you said you keep your lights on most of the day, I thought you meant like 20 hours....

your scehdule seems fine.
 
Hi FredTheCat. Like the others, I really enjoyed reading your thread. Not often can someone obviously entertain a lot of readers talking about their new tank with a couple snails and one Chromis !! Your Tank looks great!! I'm pretty much a newbie too. Started my first tank 14 months ago. As for your question about your Ceriths (or nerites) not being able to right themselves when they fall over..... I have ceriths, small and jumbo nacarrius, Astrea and bumble bee snails, and the only snails I have that can't seem to right themselves, are the ceriths. I believe Astrea's can't right themselves, but I haven't seen mine ever fall upside down. I have seen the Ceriths fall and land upside down. If I don't turn them over, I find them dead. Half the time, it's me knocking them over by accident when I'm cleaning the glass. The Nacarrius are cool. They can flip themselves over incredibly fast if they fall and land upside down. They're my favorites. I love how they emerge from the sand when I feed the tank.....like zombies! The bumblebees are cool looking, although they don't move around like the Nacarrius snails. You're right FredTheCat, it can be amazing watching the little things in the tank like the snails. A few days ago, I saw a nacarrius on the back of my Conch. The conch was obviously NOT happy to be giving the snail a piggy-back ride, and started flipping himself along with the snail, onto his back. It was like a wrestling match. The conch finally got the snail off of him. The two both walked off in opposite directions after that. Pretty amusing!

If you're looking to add something else to your cleanup crew....scarlett legged reef crabs are considered one of the safer crabs. I've had two for about a year and I've never seen them go after anything. I did add a small Emerald Crab about two months ago, and I can't say the same for him. He's really cool looking, but one day I saw a Nacarrius snail racing for a piece of food that had landed near the Emearld Crab. I wanted to see who would win and get the piece of food. Well, the Emerald crab just looked at the piece of food, and then as soon as the nacarrius got close, he jumped on the snail, flipped him over, and started ripping off pieces of flesh!! Yikes! I rescued the snail, not knowing if he would survive, but he walked away like nothing happened, so hopefully he's ok. I've also watched that Emerald crab sitting in my Duncan coral night after night after lights out. Luckily, he doesn't seem to be damaging the coral, just made it his bed. I recently read that Emeralds don't last more than about 6 months in most reef tanks, so if he vanishes, I won't be replacing him.

Will be watching the progress of your tank.
Pam
 
(Sigh)...ok, now I'm all confused again. I discovered another LFS that is much better stocked than my usual LFS. The place is very clean, all the livestock looks great, nice frag tanks with plenty of good-looking frags, and a manager who seems to know his stuff. I was discussing with him the idea of replacing the sponge filter with the live rock rubble and he thought it would be best NOT to do that. His suggestion was to increase the quantity of live rock in the main tank and to do a good cleaning of the sponge filter once or twice a month. He explained that the problem with putting the rubble into the filtration compartment is that it would produce a substantial amount of dirt there and I'd get better benefit from the additional rock out front. Any comments about this take on the situation?
Click to expand...
That's fair enough I guess, shows how many different ways of doing things there are in this hobby! I'd rinse your sponge filter a little more frequently though, perhaps once a week.
 
Evil Blenny Tricks

Evil Blenny Tricks

OK, it's official, my lawnmower blenny (Muppet) is a JERK!

He seems to be actually biting the siphons off of the nassirius snails! All my little snorkles are gone!! He'll sneak up on them and then lunge and chomp on them, sometimes slamming them against the side of the tank with a loud click. Each of them (I >think< he's hit them all by now) have just about a quarter inch of siphon sticking out.

I feel so bad for my poor little snails! :( Is this a life-threatening condition for them? It certainly seems like it would be problematic to their way of life.

WHO WILL SPEAK FOR THE SNAILS!?!

-FredThe(legs crossed)Cat
 
Alright, I dropped a mysis shrimp cube in the tank a short while ago and the snails rose up out of the sand, apparently with siphons intact. One of them has a suspicious bend in his siphon but seems otherwise unscathed.

The blenny continues to attack them anytime he finds them on the surface of the sand, clearly trying to bite off the siphons. This seems to stun the snails for a moment, who retract into their shells as much as possible. After a minute or two they'll flip themselves back over (he often leaves them upside down) and limp away or dive quickly into the sand. They don't seem to be sticking their siphons out of the sand when buried anymore though.

I'm really bummed by this because I like both the blenny and the snails. Is the blenny actually capable of hurting them or is this just some form of cheap blenny thrill?

On a different note, another of my ceriths/(nerites) died from landing upside down sometime during the night. A little while ago I watched as three different nassirius snails fought each other over the corpse. Each would completely envelop the deceased snail until the next came along and wrestled it away from him. When they finally abandoned the late snail and I removed it it was just COVERED in "snail goo". Yuck! This brings my cerith/nerite count down to just one I think so I guess I'll be restocking those soon. This time, however, I'll make sure to get the spiral shelled flavor and hope to have fewer little snail catastrophes. I never imagined there'd be so much drama in the snail world! :p

-FredTheCat
 
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Hooray! My peppermint shrimp chose last night to finish off the lone aiptasia. Not a trace of him to be found!

It might have left an impression on the blenny (Muppet) because I notice the shrimp now occupies his favorite cave and he's idling patiently outside. This doesn't, of course, stop him from randomly abusing nearby nassirius snails. :(

I added some PhytoFeast last night hoping to spruce up the shrooms. Everything in the tank seemed to enjoy it but no shroom advances to speak of yet.

-FredTheCat
 
Apparently the aiptasia was hiding deep in his hole at the time, he showed up a while after that last post. So now I'm again waiting for the pepperemint to get around to doing what he was hired for! :p

I've noticed that one of my baby chromis seems to have a "patchy" look to his coloring under actinic light, but looks normal under daylights. It doesn't seem to be ich in that it's not white specks but light patches and only visible with the actinics on. He seems fine, he's been in there for some time now and while he's looked this way all along, none of the other fish show any signs of it. I'd post a picture but the wife is away with the camera...Any guesses?

-FredTheCat
 
The blenny murders again!

A few days ago I put a couple margarita snails in the tank to add some snail variety. Muppet, my lawnmower blenny, had been tormenting my nassarius snails at every available chance. Anytime one was above the sand he would get close and stare at them for a moment, then lunge at their siphons.

The snails would draw in their siphons lightning quick but he often managed to grab them anyway and hurl them a couple inches in the water. I was often alerted to this event by the "tink" sound as their shells were slammed against the glass walls. All of my nassarius snails keep their siphons extremely close to their shells now for fear of being molested and very rarely extend them out of the sand when buried.

So back to the margaritas...when I added them they were pretty much ignored by Muppet. Last night I noticed one had wandered into Muppet's favorite cave and really didn't think much of it. But I wake up this morning to find the snail overturned just below the cave entrance.

"You little jerk!" I proclaimed as he scowled at me through the glass. I fished (ha, get it? ;) ) the snail out with my net and while he wasn't quite dead he wasn't really active either. I placed him atop one of the rocks in the tank and hoped for the best.

A few minutes later I glanced over at the tank and the snail was again on the sand, again upside down, and there was Muppet sitting in the exact place I had put the snail, glaring at me. I again netted the snail and I put him somewhere out of Muppet's normal cruising ground.

Here's the interesting part. I sat for a few minutes watching to see if anything would happen. Muppet hung around his normal areas, parking in different places and glaring at me. It seemed he was going to cooperate so I went on about some other business. A few minutes later I look at the tank and again, the snail is overturned on the bottom. So I put him in ANOTHER spot.

As I watched, Muppet sidled over to the snail and defiantly knocked it right off the rock and sat glaring at me. This time the snail is in a place I can't readily get to without dismantling my aquascape. Sigh. I finished up what I was working on and returned to the tank to try to figure out a solution. It was then that I saw a gang of 5(!) nassarius snails swarmed over the poor margarita. He didn't have a chance. They made very quick work of him and disbanded leaving the empty shell to mark the spot.

Muppet is sitting on a rock, watching everything I do. If something should happen to me, I blame the blenny.

-FredTheCat
 
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Any guesses?
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I can't be sure without seeing some pics but the fish may have scraped a few scales off getting out of a tight spot in the rockwork.

Sounds like muppet is a real terror! With that much personality I'm deffinately going to have to get some sort of blenny once I breathe some life back into my 40.
 
Yeah, the blenny has tons of personality. He spends much of his day swimming around and finding different vantage points to glare at me from. He loves to fit himself into every hole he can find, especially ones that look far too small for him. He acts like he owns the tank and exhibits far more intelligence than you'd expect from a fish. He also does a great job of keeping the rocks clean. I highly suggest adding one to your tank but be prepared for some big attitude! :)

As for the pictures, I keep forgetting to do that. It really doesn't look like the chromis is wounded, he just seems to have...discolorations. I'll try to get some tomorrow, it's sleepytime in the tank now. :)

-FredTheCat
 
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