High Nutrient Macro Algae/Sea Grass Reef

[vlangel]

Well its good to be back on the forum. I have missed you all! Its going to take me a while to learn to navigate the new format. I had to go through all the pages on my own thread just to get to post an update, ha ha!

Not a lot has happened that is new, although I have moved Jammies, the older pajama cardinalfish into a hospital tank and am treating him with furan 2. His pop eye had gotten significantly worse but he still eats well so I decided that this was the best course of action. I have had good luck treating fish with bacterial issues in the past but Jammies is not young for a cardinalfish. I do not think that they have the longevity of a lot of other marine fish. Hopefully he responds well to treatment. Like people, antibiotics seem to work quickly if they are going to work so I should know in the next few days.

Other than that, nothing is new and all is well in the tank system.

 

[vlangel]

Sadly Jammies is not responding to the Furan 2 treatment. Also he has not eatten in the 4 days since being added to the hospital tank. Do I give up on the treatment and return him to the display in hopes that he begins to feed again in an enviroment that he is comfortable in. None of the other fish were harrassing him and he was eatting well before I moved him into the hospital tank. I just don't know what to do but am leaning toward putting him back in the display to live out his days for however long he has.

I cleaned the glass on the fuge the day before yesterday and had noticed that the fighting conch had not moved in probably 2 months or more. I lifted him out of the sand and moved him to another spot to see if he was even still living. This morning he moved back to his original spot, so I guess he just likes it there, ha ha!

Today I plan to clean the glass on the display tank.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Sorry to hear your Pajama Cardinal fish is sick. I'm unfamiliar with dealing with popeye, so I don't have any good, specific advice. No chance of infecting other fish by returning him to the display? Could you could make the hospital tank more homey? I think a lot of us tend to make them too sterile and anything but natural. Does he have more than one place to hide? Any rocks or seaweeds?

Awhile back we talked about making some changes to your refugium to help the shoal grass. Dropping the light down and lessening surface agitation were two I remember. Have you seen any improvements?

 

[vlangel]

I did move Jammies back into the display. I am feeling good about that decision because Jammies began feeding again today. If he did not begin to respond to antibiotic treatment in 4 days, he probably was not going to respond.

Michael, even though popeye is bacterial, I have not found it to be contagious. In all the tanks I have had, and maintained for other folks; not even once did another fish in the tank get popeye after the first fish contracted it. I am guessing that a fish's immunity becomes impaired (for whatever reason) which makes it more vulnerable to disease. In Jammies's case it may just be his age; he is the oldest fish that I have and he was a large fish when I got him. I need to double check my water quality to make sure that is not a factor in him getting popeye.
It is true that my hospital tank was pretty sterile and lacking in comfort. I will keep that in mind for future fish and make sure that they have hiding places. When using antibiotics and other meds, I will choose plastic ornaments for them to hide behind so as to not ruin any rock or macro algae. I am using a small 2 and a half gallon aquarium because that is what I had but I may go up to a 5 gallon. I do have a 10 gallon but the daily water changes needed to add antibiotics each day is too rigorous. A 5 gallon is more manageable.

I did syphon out the bottom of my sump tank. It had accumulated a lot of detritus on the bottom of the sump. That may have caused my nitrates to be pretty high.

Since I cleaned my glass in the display, the tank is looking very nice. Rice Krispies has the sandbed a mess as far as me having shallow areas of sandbed and deep areas of sandbed but it does not ruin the natural appearance of the tank. It just ruins the vision that I had of 2 dramatic heights of sandbeds, ha ha! I often see his claws peeking out of the caverns he has tunneled under my rockwork. He is probably mocking me!!!

I did lessen the surface agitation in the refugium. I did not lower the light yet because I will constantly be fighting salt spray on the bottom of the fixture if I do. There are still some green sprigs of seagrass so I have not totally given up hope yet. I am also adding iron to my water change water in hopes that will help. I will try to take pics of the display and fuge this coming week.

 

[vlangel]

I am sure there must be better ways to show pics of ones tank than posting links to their Google photos. What does the camera mean at the top of where we post?

 

[Michael Hoaster]

That's what you click to upload photos. It's a much more simple procedure than with the old site.

 

[vlangel]

That's what you click to upload photos. It's a much more simple procedure than with the old site.

I will have to work on learning to do that. I never did learn the old way which is why I alway posted links to my google photos.

This morning I lowered my light fixture about half way down closer to the water from what it was. Now its about 7" above the water surface. I put a plexiglass top on so the salt spray doesn't crust the fixture clear plastic. I may buy another heater to warm the water a bit more. My tank is running about 76 degrees which may not be warm enough for the seagrass to flourish.

 

[vlangel]

Let's see if this works. If it does, this is a pic of me riding a dirt bike in a remote village in Senegal while on a mission trip in 2008.

 

[vlangel]

I am moving my pics into my google drive and then uploading them from there. Is that an efficient way to do this or is there a better way?
I took these 2 pics last week so they are reasonably current, although definitely not the best quality of pics, LOL!

 

[Chasmodes]

Your tank looks great Dawn!!! I hope the lighting and heating changes get those grasses growing.

Subsea, by CO2 system, I'm talking about having a C02 tank with a regulator and other equipment that injects CO2 into your filter return to aid in plant growth.

 

[vlangel]

Thanks Kevin, I am hoping moving the light fixture down will help. I need to buy another heater so that may not happen for a while.

How are your tanks progressing? I need to check out both of them although I rarely go to any other topics other than this one. I will see if I can find your thread in the reef discussion topic.

 

[vlangel]

So is everyone else still going through the old RC site and then clicking the link to get to this newer updated version? I feel like maybe I am missing something to get here more directly, LOL.

 

[vlangel]

This time of year when the sun is low on the horizon toward the end of the day, rays actually shine in the tank for a short time (15 minutes perhaps). It's somewhat amazing because that picture window looks out onto a 7' overhang porch and then the tank is on the opposing wall from the picture window. At any rate, I always like the effect and wonder if the fish do too?

 

[vlangel]

Here is a pic of the fuge, too far away to see the few sprigs of seagrass, but you can see the lowered light fixture and auto feeder.

 

[Chasmodes]

So is everyone else still going through the old RC site and then clicking the link to get to this newer updated version? I feel like maybe I am missing something to get here more directly, LOL.

Yes, I was doing that until I finally decided to change the URL in my bookmarks! :lolspin:

BTW, your fuge looks better than my tank! I bet there's all kinds of cool stuff to see under the magnifying glass.

Thanks for visiting my thread!

 

[vlangel]

Thanks Kevin, between you and my better half, now I can get on more directly.

My fuge is coming along but it definitely does not look better than your tank! Sometimes I think about moving it back upstairs next to the display but I always talk myself out of it when I think about having to keep up 2 tanks in the livingroom.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Nice pics Dawn. Especially the first one! You look like you were having fun! The sunset shot is nice too. Do you think it is easier to post pics now?

 

[vlangel]

Nice pics Dawn. Especially the first one! You look like you were having fun! The sunset shot is nice too. Do you think it is easier to post pics now?

Ha ha, it was a blast. That is Dave's favorite pic of me because of the pure bliss on my face! Can you imagine seeing a middle aged women riding a dirt bike in sandals, a skirt and no helmet here?
Actually, I caused quite a stir there too! The village women wanted to kidnap me so I could teach them to ride and then they could learn to drive cars, fly airplanes and do whatever they want!!! Sadly the women in that village have very few options. A father can marry off his 13 year old daughter to a 45 year old man who already has 2 or 3 wives for a few goats. She is the least esteemed in the household and gets stuck with all the worst chores but she can't leave the village because she only knows the village language and can not even speak trade french. Hopefully with our missionary friends teaching them literacy, that is beginning to change. Of course neither I, nor our friends want to start a women's revolution, we just want a little more equality for all people.

Oh my yes, this site is much easier to post pics on. I did not really like posting links to my Google photos but I just couldn't figure out how to do it otherwise.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

I knew there was a good story there! Ha ha! Where is Senegal?

Glad to hear pic posting is easier. Wooooohooooo!

 

[vlangel]

The country of Senegal is the western most point of Africa. Dakar, the growing capital city of Senegal is a mixture of old and new. There are new buildings with modern architecture and then you can see a man herding goats down a main street!

​The people are tall, dark and stately with high cheekbones. They are extremely hospitable even though many are very poor. We will always treasure the opportunity we had to go there!