Melev's new Nano!

[melev]

Day 123

Day 123

Full tank shot.

End of Tank shot.

Some of the zoanthids visible from the front.

This purple Gorgonian is growing well. I'll have to look back through this thread to see how much it has grown, but it seems like it may have doubled in size.

I like the eyes on this hermit for some reason. They are almost cartoon-like.

Another hermit with electric blue stripes.

While hard to see, these are Orange Ball Anemones. Look closely and you'll see the balls at the tip of each tentacle. They are tiny 1/4" to 1/2" wide hitchhikers, and have never done any harm in my tanks.

The mini carpets continue to do well, but haven't split lately.

 

[melev]

The gobies are funny fish. As I scrape the coralline off the acrylic, they get right in the way, even between the scraper and the wall of the tank. I actually have to be careful not to hurt them.

The Money Cowrie may end up being a real boon for this tank. I'm not positive yet, but I get the impression that it actually eats cyano bacteria.

Look closely at the membrane covering part of the shell. It appears like those little branches are picking up and retaining red dots. Could it be cyano? Beats me. I'll keep an eye on the animal to see if it keeps the red or if it fades away.

 

[ooja3k]

wow awesome pics!

why do you think you are having an issue with cyano??

i just recently began having a cyano problem.. i have never had any algae issue before and i have plenty of flow. 0 phosphate, 0 nitrate...

i was at my lfs and they said it is a common stage in "newer" tanks between 2-4 months old... (mine is 3 months old)..


have you heard of this?? how are you planning to combat yours?

 

[melev]

My tank didn't have any cyano until I started running AZNO3 in my system to lower nitrates. This tank is part of my 280g reef, in that it drains from this tank into the main sump. All the water is shared so that I wouldn't need more gear to run this nano.

My nitrates were 60ppm before, and now they are under 5ppm. While dosing the tank with that product, the skimmer has to run. And week after week I tested phophate and it was 0. So my guess is my tank has this as a result or byproduct of the AZNO3.

It isn't really detrimental but it is ugly. I've siphoned it out twice already, but will probably run Chemi-Clean or Red Slime Control to get rid of it once and for all. Either of those products have to be dosed with the skimmer off for a 2 or 3 days.

 

[Micki]

Very nice Marc!!! Maybe the cowrie is red because it's eating the cyano! :lol:

 

[pagojoe]

That's pretty interesting. The cowry is Cypraea (Monetaria) caputserpentis, the Snake Head Cowry. It very well may be eating your cyano. The habitat for this species is usually on lava rock in very rough water, but it usually feeds when it's OUT of the water at low tide, crawling from its hiding spot at night and scraping whatever is available off the rocks. I suppose if cyano were available, it would eat it. I checked all the live-animal pics I could find, and couldn't find any that were good enough to properly compare for red spots on the mantle. None of the written descriptions mention red spots, and I've never noticed any on live animals (although I don't think I ever took any close-up pics). One of the cool things in the mollusc world is that dark red often equals black, and characteristics that are brown or black in some animals show up as red in others. That may be the case with yours, or it may be that... the cyano is somehow showing up in the coloration of the mantle...!!! If Dr. Burgess were still alive, I'm sure he could shed some light on the situation. Felix Lorenz also might know if this is particularly unusual, as he is a super-expert on the family, but I'm not sure that he has the experience with live Indo-Pacific animals that Dr. Burgess had. We could probably get his opinion, if you want to e-mail him.

Cheers,



Don

 

[melev]

Don, thank you so much for chiming in. Something you may have noticed in that picture above is how even its anttennae (whatever that feeler thing is) is full of red stuff too, while the other one wasn't for some reason.

When I bought it, it crawl up the bag out of the water for the trip from Norman, OK to my home. And during acclimation, it crawl up to the dry area. Fortunately for me, it has not crawled out of my open-top tank!

What I'll keep doing for now is watching it closely, and can continue to take macro shots to show if it is changing its appearance. The membrane that covers the shell has these feelers, sweepers or mouths. I don't know what they do or what they are for. I know the snail itself has a mouth because I can observe it eating on the sand and the glass, but if the membrane also has some way to trap food that might be how the red stuff was trapped. Or maybe it caught some cyclop-eeze food in its system.

I also appreciate the idea, as I've been referring to it as a Money Cowrie. Snake Head Cowrie - I wonder why that name was given to it, especially if it is a cyano eater. If it is, it is worth every penny I paid for it.

 

[jvdb]

I don't know. I caught them during a collection trip near Port Aransas, and they seemed cute. I like them. However, they aren't exactly social, in that they chase each other around the tank and never hang out together.

Could be one of these:

http://gobiidae.com/FL_goby_project/FL_list.htm

 

[jnarowe]

Maybe build a pillar that sticks out of the water?

 

[melev]

Not a lot to update on this tank, other than the fact that I finally fished the Purple Firefish out of the sump and placed it back in the tank.

I moved an acan colony into the tank, along with some pretty zoanthids, and found a finger Caulastrea in my prop section so it was moved into the reef as well.

The sand is nice and white because I dosed my system with Chemi-Clean.

 

[melev]

A few pictures of the tank.

Full tank shot.

Silly mini carpets are gather along the top of the tank now.

 

[ooja3k]

are those two different types of corals in that 3rd pic?

 

[melev]

The third picture focuses on a Favia in the center, has two polyps from a Finger Lobophytum (I think), and has some specks of Pavona growing along the left side of the rock.

 

[jnarowe]

you have good luck with the red macro?

 

[GSMguy]

that anemone looks really good.

 

[melev]

Jonathan - it looks healthy, but I don't think it is growing necessarily. There isn't more of it, from what I can tell. I like it as a backdrop, especially since it doesn't take root.

GSMguy - That would be two RBTAs. If it becomes three, the tank will explode. :lol:

 

[jnarowe]

I love that stuff, but it nevers grows. Just sits there and finally dies. Tried it in the fuge, the display, and the QT. No luck. I do have some really cool fat-bladed grass growing in my fuge now, and I hope to pass it around once I have enough.

 

[melev]

 

[zma21]

Absolutely gorgeous.

 

[jaguarmonk]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11435829#post11435829 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by zma21
Absolutely gorgeous.

Agreed...