Our tank's biology up close

jason2459 · Oct 31, 2016

jason2459 · Nov 2, 2016

The aiptasia was very interesting. It seems like even the smallest pieces will survive and keep growing. I had no idea what that thing was I found in the detritus back in March was a piece of aiptasia. That's amazing how it can spread and survive like that.

Also, FYI both are from my unlit sump which is why its so clearish/white and very very little zooxanthellae. I also found it cool how fluid flows through the tentacles like the xenia but it was much faster and seemed like more with the aiptasia. Probably helped I didn't cut it at all. Have to see the videos to see that. Can see detritus, bacteria, diatoms, etc that its consumed.

One of the littlest pieces ready to spread and can see those little "feelers" like in the picture from March.

Here's a scale for it and each division is about 10um or .01 millimeters. I'd say that little piece was around 100 microns. So a 200 micron sock or bigger could let those little pieces through and spread.

bertoni · Nov 2, 2016

Aiptasia can regenerate after an amazing amount of damage. That's one of the reasons they are so hard to eradicate from a tank.

jason2459 · Nov 8, 2016

So, based on a thread below on Microbe-Lift Special Blend and a request to take a look at Seachem's stability I picked up both up.

The pre-shots

Seachem Stability

Looks clean and clear

Microbe-Lift Special Blend

This stuff looks dirty and smells terrible. I can still smell it.

Made sure to get a floating piece of something in there

Pictures and videos uploading

jason2459 · Nov 8, 2016

Seachem Stability

jason2459 · Nov 8, 2016

I'm not sure what happen to the video uploads. 02 of the Stability and none of the Microbe-Lift (which was the much more active one) have uploaded yet. I'll have to check when I get home later tonight.

jason2459 · Nov 8, 2016

Microbe-Lift Special Blend
This had lots of different bacterium shapes and forms. But I'm not sure I would put it in my tank. Hydrogen Sulphide based it seems or at least strongly smells of. Not sure how long those bacteria would last but if you have a sulfur based denitrator this could may help speed up getting that going. I also see on the bottle it says saltwater will slow it down somehow and to dose double. I would assume then much if that bacteria in there is for freshwater and probably great for sewage treatments. It's a very interesting mix though.

Here's that piece I made sure to get in there. I eventually break it up when switching to the 100x lens.

jason2459 · Nov 8, 2016

After getting smashed and other areas around the slide

jason2459 · Nov 8, 2016

Dan_P · Nov 11, 2016

jason2459 said:
See if you can find it in the next two pictures. This very thin filament shoots across almost like its charged with electricity and corkscrewing at the same time. Very excited critter

Way back at the start of this thread I saw a familiar organism...the cork screwing organism is a cyanobacterium. I believe it is a Spirulina species. I have this organism in my tank and it can be green or red.

jason2459 · Nov 11, 2016

Dan_P said:
Way back at the start of this thread I saw a familiar organism...the cork screwing organism is a cyanobacterium. I believe it is a Spirulina species. I have this organism in my tank and it can be green or red.

Spurulina is definitely a type of "corkscrew" bacteria. It's hard to say exactly what it was as small as it was. I have found some spurulina that I could ID.

The fast squiggly thing is another type of bacteria that's a spirochete like not like a spirulina though.

There's a lot of types of bacteria out there. Which there are a lot of types of cyano. Which spirulina is a part of. Which there's a lot of types of spirulina.

jason2459 · Nov 15, 2016

For the past week or so I've been over feeding more then I normally over feed to spur on some cyano and eventually some dinoflagelet outbreaks. I'll probably start up another thread as to the details why but basically I'm actually going to test out some bacteria in a bottle for the first time. I've looked at several but this one has some wild claims but also some interesting reviews to back some of those claims up potentially. So, I want to do some testing.

jason2459 · Nov 15, 2016

Wow, I took an absurd amount of pictures last night. Getting them transfered now.

jason2459 · Nov 15, 2016

jason2459 · Nov 15, 2016

jason2459 · Nov 15, 2016

jason2459 · Nov 15, 2016

jason2459 · Nov 15, 2016

jason2459 · Nov 15, 2016

jason2459 · Nov 15, 2016

Our tank's biology up close

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