naughty's bc 14!!

Sorry, I missed that. Is that just the new saltwater or both salt and fresh top off water? Nitrates do not go down as water evaporates, if the fresh water has them to, you're adding 5ppm of NO3 as you add new water to top off for evaporation. If the fresh has no nitrates and is from the same source, I would suspect the salt mix.

If you're buying your water, you may want to tell the LFS, if you haven't already. Ask him when is the last time he replaced his RODI filters. Or you could just try another LFS. And if you can't trust any of them, you could always get your own RODI filter and make your own.
 
Sorry, I missed that. Is that just the new saltwater or both salt and fresh top off water? Nitrates do not go down as water evaporates, if the fresh water has them to, you're adding 5ppm of NO3 as you add new water to top off for evaporation. If the fresh has no nitrates and is from the same source, I would suspect the salt mix.

If you're buying your water, you may want to tell the LFS, if you haven't already. Ask him when is the last time he replaced his RODI filters. Or you could just try another LFS. And if you can't trust any of them, you could always get your own RODI filter and make your own.

so i think it was just that batch, maybe because i had it sitting around for a while? i'm not sure, but no, the water change water doesn't have any nitrates in it and the top off doesn't either.

I used to not run a skimmer on my nano... Now i'll never run my nano without a skimmer ;)

this might be the way to go for me as well :) still thinking about it, nitrates are at 20 which is better, just doing wc's every other day-ish, i feel like they're slooowly stabilizing.. maybe :lolspin:
 
new pictures!!! i got bored and took a bunch :) my crabs and snails loove rearranging my tank, especially since i haven't glued anything down (can't decide where to put everything), so that's why the fts looks like everything is out of place..

fts.jpg


pretty polyps!! :)
polyps1.jpg


and moar
polyps.jpg


love these snails:
limpet.jpg


shrimp-1.jpg


stripes.jpg




annnd finally!!!!

i got proof that i have pistol shrimp :) see the claw??? haha i have at least 4 of them in there.

pistol.jpg



i've been thinking about it, maybe my nitrates don't go down because the tank is overstocked even w/ just 1 fish in there? there's tons of crabs and shrimp and all kinds of other stuff...
 
i've been thinking about it, maybe my nitrates don't go down because the tank is overstocked even w/ just 1 fish in there? there's tons of crabs and shrimp and all kinds of other stuff...

probably not. the crabs and shrimp and other inverts dont really add much to the bioload compared to fish. could be how much you've been feeding. also have u added chaeto to your fuge section yet? if yes how has it been growing?

chaeto will help bring your nitrates down for the most part, given enough light. or you could do water changes more often
 
A few years back we had some corals come in with about 15 of these tiny half inch or so pistols. we threw them into a tank and forgot all about them, about a year later there were still about 10 and still the same size. Im betting that they are a small species that is rarely seen....unless less they are in a nano. Either way they are very sweet!!!
 
hey guys :)
i got bored and took some more pictures!

not sure what these are but they're super cool looking, and i feel like the head on the left is new :p
somecoral.jpg


some of the best polyp extension i've seen on this guy, my hermit crabs really like munching on it.
purpgorg.jpg


condy looking happy (i think :) )
condy-1.jpg


cucumber came out for like the first time ever. actinics only :)
cuc.jpg


fatty flower after nomming on a shrimp piece. i think it's grown!
flower.jpg


porcandurchin.jpg
 
The structure in the first pics remind me of barnacles. But I'm not sure what those polyps are. From this angle could be anything. You may want to make sure they're no hydroids.
 
The structure in the first pics remind me of barnacles. But I'm not sure what those polyps are. From this angle could be anything. You may want to make sure they're no hydroids.

i looked through the tbs organism id page and i believe they're cup corals :)
 
hey guys :)
i got bored and took some more pictures!

not sure what these are but they're super cool looking, and i feel like the head on the left is new :p
somecoral.jpg

These are corynactis anemones. They are harmless, and actually are probably good and scavanging extra food. Here's a pic.
anemone3.jpg


some of the best polyp extension i've seen on this guy, my hermit crabs really like munching on it.
purpgorg.jpg

Usually, if hermits are munching on corals, then the coral is dying and the hermits are eating the dead tissues. You can see the dying part where the purple is leaving the skeleton behind.
This is a Non-photosynthetic coral that requires feeding with the appropriate food. Most likely it will die and fade away, don't feel too bad, they're for experts only. All the light in the world won't save it.

HTH,
Aaron
 
These are corynactis anemones. They are harmless, and actually are probably good and scavanging extra food. Here's a pic.
anemone3.jpg

hmm they look more like these to me, listed as cup corals on the tbs site...
db_1_cupcoral_-dsp.jpg


some of the best polyp extension i've seen on this guy, my hermit crabs really like munching on it.
purpgorg.jpg

Usually, if hermits are munching on corals, then the coral is dying and the hermits are eating the dead tissues. You can see the dying part where the purple is leaving the skeleton behind.
This is a Non-photosynthetic coral that requires feeding with the appropriate food. Most likely it will die and fade away, don't feel too bad, they're for experts only. All the light in the world won't save it.
HTH,
Aaron


well crap! thanks for letting me know about that :). i should probably start spot-feeding it. i have some frozen rotifiers that i put in the tank when i feed it, and i took that pic right after feeding time and i think the gorg caught quite a bit (i let everything circulate w/o the filter pump on for like a half hour once i feed them so the porcelains and the gorgonians can catch the stuff). we'll see if it starts doing better and opening up a little more if i spot feed it :) i read some good articles on gorgonians, gotta do some readjusting now.


btdubs i think the chaeto is starting to grow pretty well in the back chamber, though it gets munched on quite a bit in the display. still trying to catch all the gorilla crabs, i probably have like 5-10 in there still, those mofo's are so quick.

but the important news is! my nitrates are finally stabilizing, after a week or so of water changes every other day i left for the weekend and haven't changed the water for about 5 days. after checking the nitrates today i saw a very pleasing 10 ppm :) yeah, i'm that much closer to my clownfish :).
 
Well it's hard to tell for sure from your pics, If they have a skeleton, then they're corals, if they retract into the rock, then they're anemones. But like I said if they are the Corynactis, then they aren't to worry about. It's not like aiptasia.

You could check in the Non-photosynthetic forum for feeding ideas for your gorgonian. Good luck.
Aaron
 
guess what i got at the super awesome marine conference that i went to!!!

ric.jpg


ric2.jpg


ric1.jpg


annnd i won a 25 dollar certificate to a fish store from the raffle :)
awesome trip.
 
Oh god no, not a ricordea. You have no idea what kind of flood gate you just opened. Before you know it your going to have a whole section of your tank covered in a garden of them! There's just so many variations of colors it's hard to have just one.

Here's mine (and these are all the more "common" colors from the LFS I got them from $5-$8 a head)
DSC_8090.jpg


Glad to hear your nitrates are dropping, gonna be interesting to see what you stock your tank up with once you get the ball rolling...
 
Oh god no, not a ricordea. You have no idea what kind of flood gate you just opened. Before you know it your going to have a whole section of your tank covered in a garden of them! There's just so many variations of colors it's hard to have just one.

Here's mine (and these are all the more "common" colors from the LFS I got them from $5-$8 a head)
DSC_8090.jpg


Glad to hear your nitrates are dropping, gonna be interesting to see what you stock your tank up with once you get the ball rolling...

that's soooo pretty :) how'd you get them off the frag plugs??? i tried to scoot mine off of there but i don't think you can do that cause it wasn't very happy with me afterwards...
 
They are super glued to the plug. I guess the only way to get them off is a razor blade. May be easier to cut the plug part of and use superglue gel or reef epoxy to fix it you rock.

Watch out for these guys. Under the right conditions, they grow like weeds. Soon, you may be selling these guys kids at your meetings.
 
Usually they attach themselves to a piece of rubble that then gets glued to a frag plug or disc for sale. If you break the piece of rubble from the plug it's glued to, you can then glue that piece of rubble to your rock where you want the Ricordea in your tank. They prefer low to moderate lighting, and lower flow areas, so in a stock bc14, anywhere is fine for light and just keep it out of direct flow of your Hydor.
 
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