My Caribbean Biotope Tank Build

[jraker]

Never mind, I think it's aiptasia. I found 2 more, and it looks like one of them has more at the base of it.

One of the jawfish randomly died. Just randomly, out of nowhere. It was doing fine before, but today I found it dead on the ground.

The snails don't seem to be helping too much with the algae. I keep manually removing it, but it just keeps on growing back. I think I will order a cherub angel soon, to hopefully take care of the algae. I guess I will order some peppermint shrimp also to get rid of aiptasia. Anyone have any better ideas on what to do?

 

[Michael Hoaster]

That's too bad about the jawfish. Are they getting enough food?

Hang in there with the micro algae. In time, your tank will mature, and there won't be as much muck for them, and your macros will take over. You may need to add more macro algae if it dies back too much. Also look at the bottom of the food chain. Pods and spaghetti worms are unsung heroes. Micro stars, snails too. If you're having uneaten food, Nassarius snails are great for cleanup, just don't get more than you need.

 

[EdimarOliveira]

They do not seem Aiptasia, jracker. And I think if they were the size of appearing in photographs, his tank was already full of them. In my case, there are several scattered, which in fact were already in the old tank rocks. They do not care why in my planning, will serve as food for the Berghias I want to have in the aquarium. My interest is curiosity to have a system that covers all aspects "bad", or not, of a biotope. So even I want to have a bit of them, permanently!

 

[jraker]

I'm pretty sure it was getting enough food. It was eating aggressively, like all the others, and was fat and healthy. I am thinking of ordering some things from florida pets like mud (seed sandbed, get more diversity), micro brittle stars, and maybe some shoal grass.

 

[jraker]

Sorry for the lack of updates. Not much has happened with the tank so far. Just manual removal of hair algae. I did get some more plants from GCE: their caulerpa starter pack, some blue hypnea, and some pods. I needed some more caulerpa because too much was dying off. I hope that the new addition of caulerpa will outcompete the existing hair algae for nutrients.

Ever since the fourth jawfish died, the two smallest have moved in together.

The gorgonians are doing okay. I haven't been feeding them too much. They have grown a little bit, but not too much. Just a little vertically and some new polyps. Adding them right away when the tank still needed to mature probably wasn't the greatest idea. They have been collecting hair algae where it is hard to remove.

Other than that, not too much is happening. I think my next fish will be a small group of gobies, a small group of royal grammas, and a cherub angel. I'll get some seagrass eventually, I just don't want to deal with hair algae growing on them.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Hang in there. Everyday that passes, your ecosystem stabilizes more. A lot of aquarists overreact to the algae phase/new tank syndrome, and do too much, destabilizing the system further. Nature is on your side.

Having said that, there are natural things you can do to help. Is your clean up crew adequate? I see no snails in the pics. You may want to consider Mollies to help with algae control, and/or some kind of algae blenny. Pods like hair algae too. Diversity is good.

That's cool you're considering a group of royal grammas. I would imagine you could get 3-4 in your tank, if there are enough hidey-holes.

It may be a great idea to wait on sea grasses. During my 3 month cyano-hell, manually removing muck from each blade on each plant was TE-DE-US!

 

[jraker]

The snails are weird. They all hide during the day, but come out during the night. They seem to be doing a pretty good job. I might get an algae blenny, but I am also getting a cherub angel, so I need to see how much algae the cherub angel will consume. I don't want to have a situation where my macro is being eaten.

 

[jraker]

Not much has been going on in the past few days. The macro seems to be growing a little faster, and the hair algae seems to be letting up a bit. The tank still looks messy, though. It might be time for some new fish soon.

 

[jraker]

I decided to remove a ton of hair algae today. I got a cup full of it, and I weighed it on my scale just for fun. It was getting pretty thick, so there was a lot. I have been dosing nitrate and phosphate lately to try and get the macro growing a little more, and I have also been trying to remove more hair algae. I will also add a pygmy angel sometime soon to help keep the bad stuff in control.

The right side of the tank has been looking pretty good, not much hair algae has been growing. The Caulerpa mexicana over there has been growing very large. I like it. The jawfish over there redecorate daily, so that is always fun to watch.

The original mermaid's fan died, and it actually sprouted 2 or 3 more. You can see the top of one in the picture. You can't really see the whole thing because that area is a huge jungle of algae.

The jawfish are way less timid than when I first put them in. The big one doesn't run away when I come close any more, and I managed to get a good picture of him.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

That is a nice pic, and beautiful fish!

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Any progress?

 

[HuskerBioProf]

I love the "messy" look of the tank. It looks really natural. This has a lot of the qualities that I want in the macro tank I am building.