Thanks For Great Swap (now, what the heck did I buy?)

[aumfc]

I had just began stocking my 24g Nano dx (72w PC) last week and decided to go to a frag swap Saturday. I sure am glad I did! I left with 17 frags. I think I bought something from every table! Here's the list of all I got (as best as I can remember):

Teal w/ Orange Zoas
Neon Green Large Zoas
Blue Ridge
Green Spotted Mushroom
Blue Zoas
Purple Sea Whip
Candy Cane (2-head)
Candy Cane (3-head), different colors
Green Hairy Mushroom
Red Zoas
Green Digi
Blue Mushroom
Yellow Polyp
Green Spaghetti
EvilMel's Green Skirts w/ Yellow Polyps
Kenya Tree

I also got a little piece of some sort of plate coral?? I'm not sure what to call it.

Everything has opened and looks great so far with the EvilMel's mixture being our favorite, but just barely. There is so much and it's all very nice.

I already had two stalks of xenia, a four-headed Frog Spawn, a large feather duster and 2 false clownfish. For a cleaning crew I've got 2 nassarius, 2 astraea, 2 blue-legged hermits. (Is this enough?)

My big question now is, what food/supplements should I be adding to the tank and how often to keep these guys happy? Also, could someone please tell me the actual names of some of the stuff I have?

Thanks to everyone that we talked to at the swap,
Jason

(I was the guy with the cute red-head that was carrying the box full of all my purchases. What a great wife!)

 

[Angela Short]

Oh I remember you guys. I was the crazy gal trying to shop for myself at the end. I had the green spaggetti but today someone was over that thought it was a nepthilia or sinulara, kinda the same thing. It wasn't mine and the guy I sold it for didn't know so it looked exactly like my spaggettii just green is how I IDed it. Anyways they are all fast growing and nice IMO. I love the frag I kept. I thought you got more from me at my "don't want to take it home sell" ? You sound likie me at my first swap in chatty I scored 16 things and was loving it!!

 

[AndynSarah]

i think we got about 15 different corals and 21 frags. Really filled out my 29 though. I have been feeding my tank pyhto pheast, and 1/4 of a cube of mysis shrimp.

 

[aumfc]

That green coral, spaghetti or whatever, is very pretty. Unfortunately it came off its base and I had to fish it from under a rock. I just stuck it to another rock using a toothpick as it was before. It does look like one of the stalks have torn and is close to coming off.

Also, the mushroom I got came off its base and went flying around the tank, hehe. I tried getting it to stick to something but could not. Any ideas on how I can get it to stay in one place?

Thanks,
Jason

 

[ct_vol]

Need a larger cleaning crew Jason... Well, depends on the amount of maintenance you're wanting to do... lol I hate cleaning my tank/ water changes, so I have a lot more... After picking up 50 or so hermit crabs for my 135, I've decided they're a pain in the *** about knocking things over, so now I stick with more snails... You'll find it near impossible to keep your mushroom attatched... You can use some netting and wrap it around, keeping it against the rock... I just throw mine in my 5g nano where there's less flow and wait for it to attatch to a peice of rubble... But I have a few mushroom colony rocks, and the damn things are always letting go... Once you get enough of them, you kinda stop caring as much when they're dispersed throughout the bottom of your tank... lol

 

[aumfc]

I was planning on getting more cleaners, just unsure what exactly I should get.

Also, that green spaghetti guy came lose again. He must have ripped through the toothpick. Any ideas on how I can keep him in one place??

The flow in my tank seems kinda strong for some things. I've got the MJ 1200 with a HydroFlo in a 24g Nano Cube. It seems that everywhere in the tank is medium to high flow.

Also, and I realize I am preaching to the choir, put attaching all those little rocks and frag discs is a pain in the ***! Glue and epoxy everywhere and they still fall off! Not to mention, there just isn't a lot of room for my hand/fingers in the tank. Oh well, just gotta be patient.

Thanks!

 

[SRT80]

maybe get one of those breeder boxes and drill holes in the sides and hang it on the front of your tank then sit your new frags in that until they attatch? Thats what I'm thinkin about doin because I sit zoa frags on rocks and my clownfish knocks them off. I watched her the other day pick up a zoa frag that was next to her zoa rock she hostes and carry it to the other side of the tank. It was crazy...

Steve

 

[ct_vol]

Those crazy dang clown fish... One of mine steals food when i feed one of my anenomes and brings it to a frog spawn... But the dang frogspawn doesn't want it, so another clown brings it back to the anemone... lol

As far as cleaning crews go, Aquatic Island has the best deals on the web for them... They'll even send you a free pack of cleaners with your first order... Plus ETRC members get 10% off of orders... I like the margarita snails, but the ceriths are probably the best workers... My nassarius tend to steal food from my corals and that ****es my off... And like I said the hermits constantly knock things over... Hope this helps...

 

[bkv1997]

I had a piece of branching plate, if you got the nickle sized plate looking thing out of the first tank... was dark green looking?

 

[aumfc]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7895013#post7895013 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bkv1997
I had a piece of branching plate, if you got the nickle sized plate looking thing out of the first tank... was dark green looking?

The small piece I got was out of the tank on the back wall next to the where the frag demo table was held.

 

[bkv1997]

that was either revhtree or michaels aquatic den then.

brandon

 

[RevHtree]

That was Michaels then, I didnt bring any plate frags.

 

[gflat65]

Glad to hear everything is looking good and that I was able to correctly pick out the teal and orange centered zoas from the gloom.

A few other things to try on the spaghetti leather is to loosely (but tight enough to hold it) use a rubberband to hold it to the rock. You can also try to sew it onto a rock with fishing string (and glue the string tot he rock to hold it in place. Another option is to put some course gravel in a lower flow of the tank and sink the leather into the gravel. It should attach to a few pieces in a few days. Once it has some firmly attached, super glue gel it onto something.

A tip on the super glue gel is to set your spacer rocks out and put thick globs of glue where you think you'll be putting the frag. That gives the glue a chance to thicken up (slowly drying) while you grab the frags and put them in. It is a finesse thing. Once you get the feel, cutting and gluing 100 frag swill be nothing but killing an hours worth of time. If you have some sort of structure aorund them (walls, books, tanks, etc.), prop them. I glue as many as 25-30 at a time sometimes, so they may be out of water for minutes (5 is not uncommon). Do it as quickly as possible, but don;t rush yourself too much.

Is the gorgonian/sea whip attached to anything? There have been noted issues with them reacting badly to cyanoacrylate. garf.org has some goo attachment methods. I stuck mine in a hole in a small rock and used toothpicks to wedge it in place. It's working so far...

 

[aumfc]

I'm having some algae problems now:

What can I do to get rid of it? More cleaning crew?

Thanks.

 

[danieljames]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7896665#post7896665 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by gflat65


Is the gorgonian/sea whip attached to anything? There have been noted issues with them reacting badly to cyanoacrylate. garf.org has some goo attachment methods. I stuck mine in a hole in a small rock and used toothpicks to wedge it in place. It's working so far...

Stripping the flesh from the "stem" carefully with a blade or some wire strippers works well (not hard to do). It's shown on the garf site gary mentioned. You can then glue the stem as you would any other frag.

 

[Angela Short]

Sorry the leather is acting up on you. I hate the toothpick methode for that reason! I always take some thread and loosley but tightly enouph to not blow off wrap the stem down. You can lay the whole thing down and tie( or rubberband ) the whole stalk, not just the tip end of the cutted end. I always tie it with a lot of thread personally. A rubberband has to be just right so it doesn't squeez it in 2. Allow room for it to swell back up a dab also....I decided last min. to chop it up or I would have already had them attatched for people. If it don't make it just LMK. The mushroom had some nice big peices of crushed coral attatched well so already so try more glue. It has to be gel form super glue and using a hole tub to glue something big like that is not uncommon. Shrooms slime so easy so if the CC is still embeded in the bottom try taking it out of the water upside down so the instant slime pile falls away from the peices you are putting glue on. Lay it on a dishtowel (don't tell your wife ) and dab the little CC peices dry with a PAPER towel (it wicks water away best) And pour a whole tube of SG gel on the bottom and while still upside down lat a flat section of a rock, not huge, over the shroom and let it set for a min or so. Then carefully dip it underwater still inverted to set the glue even faster and just let it lay inverted for a good 10-15 mins to harden the glue. That is if the CC is still embeded in the shroom well. If not other methods are needed. I bet the shroom slimed gooy stuff on the CC before it got glued is why it went flying off where you put it. And you arfe pushing a ton of flow for shrooms, put it in a very low flow area till it attatches well. Sorry so bla bla bla, I talk a lot LMK how it goes!

 

[ct_vol]

Jason~ What kind of skimmer are you running??? Cleanup crew will only help out so much with excess nutrients in your water...

 

[aumfc]

I'm using the stock 24g Nano Cube deluxe, no skimmer. I made some changes to stock system but I don't want to run topless.

 

[ct_vol]

Weekly water changes??? I'd recommend them...

 

[gflat65]

You said you have a lot of flow, right? That looks kinda like cyano ,but I could be seeing things. Nutrient is the first place to start, but flow can also help.

So no skimmer, what about surface skimming? I have found in Jenn's 20L that it does fine without a skimmer (and with a lazy caretaker) as long as the surface is skimmed (cheap attachment to filtration that will pull the surface scum off the water as it enters the filter).