14G Not a Cube (Lots'a Pics)

eggplantparrot · Feb 27, 2019

Medical_Reef said:
They are funny creatures in the aquarium, my parents have one that has split twice now and has been pretty happy. But, they also bought a green BTA at the same time that only lived a couple weeks. I'd love to have one as I think an anemone hosting clowns is about as cool as it gets in a nano tank, but I have to move the whole tank across the country in a little over a year, so I am not sure I want to deal with that. Especially if I wait a good amount of time to add the BTA, it will only have a few months or so to adjust to the tank before it moves anyways. Maybe after the move, or if I can find a rescue like you did!

man i was totally hoping my clowns would like it, but the most they've done was look at it. i gave up on that and ended up getting the shrimp instead.

Medical_Reef · Feb 28, 2019

eggplantparrot said:
man i was totally hoping my clowns would like it, but the most they've done was look at it. i gave up on that and ended up getting the shrimp instead.

Luck of the draw I guess. I had success with my first set of clowns in a BTA and my parents got a pair of maroon clowns to each host their own RBTA, but nothing seems guaranteed. Maybe one day your clown will find still find it!

eggplantparrot · Feb 28, 2019

Medical_Reef said:
Luck of the draw I guess. I had success with my first set of clowns in a BTA and my parents got a pair of maroon clowns to each host their own RBTA, but nothing seems guaranteed. Maybe one day your clown will find still find it!

You think the shrimp will want roomies? Lol

eggplantparrot · Mar 2, 2019

Saturday update.

After treating with dips and brushing, my zoas are finally opening up again.

More details on my thread on this issue.

Pablo Jr. Is also done with his isolation and treatment, and has been moved back to the display. He and his girlfriend have been inseparable since i put him back.

His sunken belly is not sunken anymore, and i have not seen any white stringy poo for a long time now, but i kept him in the sump and treating with Metroplex mixed food just in case. Hope he stays healthy.

eggplantparrot · Mar 6, 2019

Second try with Utter Chaos

eggplantparrot · Mar 6, 2019

Full extention

eggplantparrot · Mar 6, 2019

Is this lobophylia?

Medical_Reef · Mar 6, 2019

eggplantparrot said:
Full extention

Looking good. What kind of snails do you have in there? Trying to decide which ones are compatible with a bare bottom tank.

eggplantparrot · Mar 6, 2019

Medical_Reef said:
Looking good. What kind of snails do you have in there? Trying to decide which ones are compatible with a bare bottom tank.

3 adult trochus, 1 baby trochus
2 cerith
1 stomatella
a butt load of collonista
a bunch of chitons

that picture there is the shell corner for my hermits, not dead snails lol. i distributed them all over the tank but my flow pattern brought them all there as well as detritus.

eggplantparrot · Mar 6, 2019

Picture dump with an FTS

Cute baby trochus

Nice big Reef-Roids feast for this guy

FTS as of Mar 06, 2019
Some corals closed as its night time and they all just had a big meal

Medical_Reef · Mar 7, 2019

eggplantparrot said:
3 adult trochus, 1 baby trochus
2 cerith
1 stomatella
a butt load of collonista
a bunch of chitons

that picture there is the shell corner for my hermits, not dead snails lol. i distributed them all over the tank but my flow pattern brought them all there as well as detritus.

Ahh got it. Thanks!

eggplantparrot · Mar 8, 2019

Aaaaaannnd its back...

what the heck... Back to more dips and brushing i guess... I am this close to just scraping off the affected zoas. It all started when i got these Constellations, arghh :mad::mad::mad:

00Barracuda00 · Mar 10, 2019

eggplantparrot said:
one bad thing that happened was my smaller clown developed a sunken belly. it happened very quickly and he started pooping white long white strands. things went downhill very quickly and he soon stopped eating. i do not have a QT nor am i allowed to set one up. so i put him in the sump where there is less flow, and his girlfriend wouldnt take all the food.

i took a chance and dosed some API General Cure, as well as mixed some in with frozen food to eliminate the parasites from my other fish. it seems that the General Cure may have helped, as the small clown started eating again last night! he still not super excited but i did get him to take down about 1 small pellet worth of food, and would come up to me again looking for more.

i ran out of General Cure, and because of idiots buying fish medication to take the medicinal ingredients out instead of getting prescriptions, most fish medication are now banned in ontario, if not canada... i managed to source some Seachem Metroplex and Focus from British Columbia, and it should arrive on monday. i will keep feeding medicated food, and hopefully Pablo jr. will recover and make the transition back to the display.

Great idea using the sump for a makeshift QT! I might have to do the same if mine ever stops eating.

eggplantparrot · Mar 10, 2019

00Barracuda00 said:
Great idea using the sump for a makeshift QT! I might have to do the same if mine ever stops eating.

yep, if nothing else, there is less flow for the fish to fight against. i thought i had more information on the treatment, but i guess i remembered wrong.

Anyways, i used 1 cube of frozen food to 1 scoop of Metroplex to 1 scoop of Focus + a bit of water. the Focus binds the medication to the food since Metronidazole is not very soluble . i crush the Metro as much as possible in a jar with water first, dissolve as much as possible, add food, stir for a bit, then add the Focus and stir. i also add a bunch of New Life Spectrum pellets since my clownfish doesnt really like frozen food. let it sit for a while to soak in the medicated water, then feed.

eggplantparrot · Mar 13, 2019

Stomatella out for its nightly stroll. This guy grew from a tiny blob the size of half a pencil eraser to around 2 inches long in a few months. He has a red spot on his right side which i first noticed when he was still a tiny blob! Need to find it a mate.

eggplantparrot · Mar 13, 2019

Utter chaos 2.0 and Rasta

eggplantparrot · Mar 13, 2019

Palythoa grandis growing a second polyp

eggplantparrot · Mar 13, 2019

New Yuma picked up for 5 Canadian pesos. Came on a rock absolutely filled with hair algae, so they gave me a discount.

eggplantparrot · Apr 21, 2019

soooo its been more than a month since any updates, reason being an out of country trip.

the tank is still doing ok as you can see

i had my friend come over to take care of the tank for the 1 month i was gone. He had less than 0 experience with this stuff, never even had a guppy before, however with 3 weeks of "training" he was able to do almost everything i do as maintenance weekly. all in all he did a great job being someone completely unfamiliar with fishkeeping and i have to thank him deeply.

i made a 32G brute bucket of saltwater for the weekly water change, and another brute bucket if RODI for top off. food was prepared as frozen cubes with the 2ml daily amount of phytoplankton i feed my feather dusters, 5-7 pellets that my small clown loves, with a bit of frozen mysis that the royal gramma loves. this was fed daily by my family that stayed behind in Canada.

i set up a Jebao doser for Alk and Cal before i left and unfortunately it was not very accurate given how little i needed to dose for such a small tank. upon checking the values, my Alk was 12.1 and Cal was 471

fortunately i think the change was slow over 1 month and nothing really died except for half of a polyp of 1 Acan. the higher Alk and Cal seems to have accelerated the growth of my stony sticks and coraline algae. the green acropora in the middle was just starting to base out before i left, and is growing multiple mini sticks from the base now. my birdsnests are really branching out like actual birdsnests. my montiporas are all attached to the rockwork now. pink coraline had covered the back of the tank, but i scraped it all off as i prefer the look of a clean back.

1 funny thing that happened was the addition of the anemone shrimp before i left had ticked off my anemone, and it had started to wander around before i left. a couple of weeks before i left the anemone had completely disappeared, and i presumed it to be dead. upon returning it had turned up on the opposite side of the tank and my clownfish which had no interest in it were both being hosted by that same anemone

on the front of the white spots problem i had with my zoas, it seems that cutting off most of the Constellation colony that was the cause has fixed the issue completely. all of my zoas and palys are open and happy looking, although none seem to have grown any more polyps. the only one that was a problem was the Orange Rainbow, which has completely disappeared without a trace.