Weeds

[Michael Hoaster]

Just shy of four months in. I'm happy with the progress made.

I'm seeing some new shoots of sea grass. Asexual reproduction! Oh yeah!

Today I showed my wife a single, tiny, green fern-like plant, barely a half inch tall. I wanted to show her the origins of a plant that could easily overrun the tank. Lots of other fun stuff still popping out of the new rocks. Sponges, halimeda, bivalves, even a few corals.

I'm stoked to have reduced my algae issues, but a little bummed I haven't made the knock out blow yet. I don't expect to be rid of it until I have something to replace it, like a fast-growing caulerpa. And again, my crew needs to keep reproducing - including the mollies. A school of baby mollies would really come in handy about now. They are eating machines. For now I'll keep up with manual removal and UV.

 

[Chasmodes]

The evolution of an ecosystem at work. I guess time is one of the ingredients that one just can't hurry It's awesome that the grasses are reproducing! If that keeps up, you'll not only have nice long healthy grasses, but a thick grass bed too! The new life popping up on the live rock, and other places in your tank, sounds exciting too. Fun stuff for the magnifying glass too!

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Thanks Kevin. It is a good time to watch new stuff pop up.

Unfortunately, it's not all good news. I lost two barnacle blennies in the last three days. I have no idea what's happened to them. They were in QT for months, and showed no signs of trouble. I did a water change last night. I'll replace the charcoal today.

 

[Chasmodes]

Ah man, sorry to hear that (condolences). I lost a goby and a skilletfish over the last month, both seemed healthy, parameters OK, no signs of disease in the tank. It happens. I suspect that perhaps some sort of internal problem that we can't see sometimes cause them to die earlier, parasite or disease. Or, old age maybe. How long do barnacle blennies live?

I like McPuff's suggestion about gut loading meds in the food, in case there are internal parasites. I am going to try that.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

It was strange. The day before each of them died, they exhibited what looked like neurological symptoms. First the biggest, then the next biggest. It shouldn't be the dinos. They don't eat them. They do eat pods that eat them, but I've seen no bad dino reactions in my snails or mollies. My best guess is poisoning from dying algae and possibly dying bacteria, after the erythromycin and black out. Low oxygen is possible too, but no other fish showed symptoms, so it's doubtful.

The remaining three blennies look fine.

 

[vlangel]

It was strange. The day before each of them died, they exhibited what looked like neurological symptoms. First the biggest, then the next biggest. It shouldn't be the dinos. They don't eat them. They do eat pods that eat them, but I've seen no bad dino reactions in my snails or mollies. My best guess is poisoning from dying algae and possibly dying bacteria, after the erythromycin and black out. Low oxygen is possible too, but no other fish showed symptoms, so it's doubtful.

The remaining three blennies look fine.

Hi Michael, I am back from my trip and was sad to read about the 2 barnacle blennies. Did they swim/spin around in circles on the sand or exhibit a behaviour similar to that? The reason I ask is because a reefer on another forum (whose tank is over a decade old which is credit to his skills as an aquarist) told me when I got my barnacle blennies that he did not have long term success with them. He would have them 6 months and then they quite suddenly did the spin on the sand and die. I had hoped that perhaps it was due to his tank being a 12 gallon nano but perhaps not if that is what happened to yours. He did say that he has had good success with the eyebrow barnacle blennies however.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Welcome back Dawn!

Yes, they did exhibit a sort of spin/twist behavior. That's good to know. I did keep my originals in v1 for around three years.

 

[vlangel]

Welcome back Dawn!

Yes, they did exhibit a sort of spin/twist behavior. That's good to know. I did keep my originals in v1 for around three years.

Its good to know that not all barnacle blennies are destined to do the death spin. Here's to hoping that mine and your remaining barnacle blennies have a good future to look forward to.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Another dino-clean on the seagrass today. I'm not even sure it still is dinos. It seems more brownish and less bubbly than before. Diatoms? Everything else seems to stay pretty algae-free. The macros are showing minimal growth, but not dying either. I'll be able to speed things up with dosing, but I need to wait for my crew to catch up. Once they reach a large enough population, I won't have to worry about algae issues so much.

I have a few fragments of blue hypnea trying to come back from the grave. I'm still monitoring a tiny caulerpa frag too. I do enjoy spotting new stuff in the tank. I may have some bubble algae on one of the new live rocks. Having heard the horror stories, I may pull the rock and scrub it off before things get out of hand.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

I'm pretty sure it's dinos, with the afternoon bubbles. I need to train my snails to clean the grasses for me. I'm getting tired of doing it! Maybe I'll try placing them on the grasses. They do clean them already, but not at the scale needed. Again, as their population grows, I expect them to take over for me. I remember in v1, the snails were all over the grasses. I have the same snails now, just in fewer numbers so far. It'll happen.

I'm still watching and waiting, as the ecosystem develops. There's an uptick in Ulva growth, especially on the back wall. I'll take that over cyanobacteria. The red macros are still frozen in time, with little growth. Given the lack of algae, it suggests that the ulva is hoovering up most of the nutrients. It's no problem for the grasses, with my rich, dirt-filled sand bed. They are doing very well, growing tall and multiplying.

I look forward to more additions to the food chain, but I really need to get my water movement situation resolved. I have some ideas, I just need to make a choice and make it happen. Four months in and I still don't have all the system stuff done! I've been able to delay it thus far, but now I'm at the point that it needs to get done before I can get back to Nature, so to speak.

I'll try to make some progress this weekend.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

I worked on my closed loop system. The current setup doesn't function well. I'd been putting it off for too long, and now it's obvious that it has to be addressed.

The first problem to solve was to make use of both overflow chambers. So, I removed the pipe between the bulkhead and the incurrent/return. This will allow the chamber to fill, then overflow into the display. Flooding both chambers will allow me to spread out some the stuff that's too overcrowded in just one of them. This should also help the closed loop system perform better, with more balanced water levels in both chambers as well as the display.

Not having decent water movement in the tank has held up it's progress. Getting this done will be a relief.

 

[Chasmodes]

Sounds like things are coming along and you're making some progress! Nice!

-signed,
The King of Procrastination

(remember who the King is every time you feel bad about putting something off, LOL)

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Thanks, Your Highness!

I'm still in it this morning. Hopefully will have it done today.

 

[Chasmodes]

Sweet!

My plan this past weekend was to apply the grout to my roots. I was stoked to do it...until I panicked and broke down the oyster reef tank. I guess unplanned events don't count toward procrastination.

My next issues might be good weather. If the weather is good, I'll be outside a lot, saving working on my tanks for a rainy day. Excuses about for procrastination!

 

[Michael Hoaster]

More (painful) progress today on the closed loop. I got the main pump running, but at reduced flow. So its a bit of a compromise. I'm still fiddling with it. Micro bubbles of course. The additional noise of my Dart Gold pump isn't bad at all. Even the Wife approves.

 

[vlangel]

More (painful) progress today on the closed loop. I got the main pump running, but at reduced flow. So its a bit of a compromise. I'm still fiddling with it. Micro bubbles of course. The additional noise of my Dart Gold pump isn't bad at all. Even the Wife approves.

This has really turned out to be quite the project! No wonder you were putting it off. I hope you can get it tweaked to a satisfactory working place where it will supply the flow your tank should have.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Yes, complicating factors have made it complicated. What I have now is not quite good enough. I will live with it, observe and think. Surely something will come to me eventually!

The next thing to work out is raising the water level in the outgoing overflow chamber. The higher the pump flow, the lower the water level drops, causing a long drop for outgoing water, giving me a lot of micro bubbles, and leaving it useless for things like the float valve water level sensor.

 

[Chasmodes]

Jeez, my head is spinning! I hope you can figure it all out!

 

[Michael Hoaster]

I know, right? I spared you the gory details at least. PITA!

 

[Chasmodes]

I didn't mean to imply that I wasn't interested, so I hope that I didn't come off that way. I was just thinking that it is tough to strike that balance sometimes, trying to work with the little space that we have, working against opposing forces of nature within the confines of that space. It is interesting to follow the details, because, in my case, I may learn something (once the marbles stop rolling around).