Chillin with the locals...

When I first started this hobby I turned to message boards to guide me on the right path. Most of the time I spend on the internet is talking to strangers. So I found out that there was a local website dedicated to fish and it had its own section dedicated to saltwater. I found out that there is a lot more people in Winnipeg that have saltwater aquariums than I thought.

So long story short a local member hooked me up with my first coral. I got a handful or two of chaetomorphia as well which I need for my refugium. It was a sweet score and best of all the guy was just a regular dude who was knowledgeable. It was a good experience and he hooked me up with a sweet deal.

Apparently I have to work on my picture taking abilities because I cant get the same color they have in real life. Oh well. Here's a couple pics from a couple angles and a new full tank shot. Notice Fuzz up on the rock and the tiny little frag in the bottom right. :)
























































Shout out to Bobby Risigliano for seeing claude change into his other shell. I have a video here but I'm not sure how much you can make out. Language warning, if there's kids in the room wear earmuffs.

One step for Ribbie, one giant leap for Ribbies Nano Reef Adventure!

Well folks, it's been a couple days since the last update but I've been working feverishly to get my tank in order.

There's been a lot of changes to my tank since I've last posted. I did a large water change as well as some rock cleaning using a nail brush to remove any loose crap on the rocks.

Pretty gross really. It didn't smell very nice either but I'm glad that I took the time to do it. All of the rock looks much cleaner now and there's less visible algae. I was careful not to disturb the sand bed in case it caused a spike in my water levels.

After cleaning out the rock I was forced to re-aquascape my entire tank. I thought it would be easy to remember how I had my rock before I took it out.... I was very wrong. So I went back to the drawing board and came up with this:





I didnt like it at first but it's beginning to grow on me.















Kind of a top down view








I also did some work on my Hagen Aquaclear 70 hang on the back filter. I purchased this product because it has an area where I can grow microalgae without having it in my main display. In order to do this, I had to make some modifications involving an exacto knife, adhesive, and some patience. I ended up with this when I was done:
















After I had let the glue set for 24 hours I was ready to add it back to my tank. I purchased some dust filters for a floor vent at walmart for $5 and they seem to be working quite nicely. I just folded it over a couple of times and put it in the first chamber. The second chamber to the right is where I will be growing the microalgae (basically sea grass). The vent in the front is so that none of it floats out into the main display.




















You probably thought I was done.... hahah NO. I also went out and purchased a minor clean up crew. My first life in the tank! I'm so pumped.

I purchased a blue hermit crab (who I wasnt able to get a good picture of because he's so fast), 3 astrea snails, and a tuxedo urchin or pincushion urchin. One snail also had a friendly little hitch hiker... a currently unidentified starfish! On with the pics:



Myself adding the bags to the fishtank. You float the bags for a couple minutes and then drip water from your tank into the bag slowly over the course of a half hour to ease the animal into your water parameters. After this, you grab them out of the bag and place them in the tank.



It was pretty freaky grabbing a crab for the first time. I'm not really looking forward to the day I get my emerald crabs and have to grab them! The snails were pretty much what I expected and the urchin felt fuzzy more so than pricky.




The tuxedo urchin has earned the name FUZZ for his fuzzy feel and appearance. These urchins like to pick up items off the seabed and wear them as camouflage so that predators cant spot them as easily. That big white think is shaped like him so maybe that's what happens when he molts, I'm not sure.




And last but not least there's stella the starfish. I didn't write about Stella before, but I actually had a different starfish that came with my live rock. My girlfriend is on the naming committee and she decided that starfish should be named stella (Assuming I have only one). Well this is Stella 2.0, I like the little bugger. Likes to sit on the glass and hang out.

I think it's part ninja though because I never see it move but I'll look away for two seconds and it's moved. Very sneaky stella...

I also bought some food pellets:




That's it for now! I'll report back in a while.

It's tough to find good help!

Well, I've been extremely patient waiting for treatment to take place. The magnesium dosing has proven to be effective at mitigating the bitch algae. It seems as if the water parameters have leveled out and it's now time to add some life.

I went to Salt Water Connection to purchase an emerald crab and some snails on thursday evening and guess what!? They didn't have any! I've been in and out of salt water stores for a couple months now and they ALWAYS have emerald crabs. Not today! So I went home empty handed, instead of just impulse buying SOMETHING to put in my tank.
I'm ready to add life though once I'm able to find some animals. I'm going to add some snails and crabs shortly to help take care of any algae growing on the rocks. I've been told that Aardvark pet supplies (on St Marys) has saltwater and am going to try pop in soon to check it out. Until then, I'll increase my photoperiod and see how the rock reacts.

Here's some photos, so you can see how the algae has subsided along with another full tank shot. The rock is super white now! I think it's from the corralline algae dying off the surface (that was the pretty red/purple stuff).

Progress Report

I have been dosing for a little over a week now and have seen some marked improvements. I don't have any pictures this time around but the bitch algae is subsiding slowly. I'm going to continue with high Mg levels for the next two and a half weeks. I might introduce a clean up crew at that point if everything is going well.

Chemical Warfare Begins Now!!

Since my last post, I've left the lights on the tank off more than 23 hours of the day. The only time I turned them on was to do my routine maintenence (levels, top offs, etc.). I didn't want to leave the lights on to promote growth. I did a 50% water change and will not be doing any water changes for the next couple of weeks while I dose Magnesium (to reduce costs). After 4 weeks of heavy dosing I will resume my regular cleaning regimine. I did test my levels this morning and everything has finally reached zeros. This is important, as my tank is now ready to sustain life (if it wasnt for Bryopsis).



Yesterday evening I recieved my shipment of chemicals from JL Aquatics and I am now ready to start combatting this beast known as bryopsis. I'm just going to call it bitch algae from now on though because it sounds more appropriate. I ordered a 64 oz bottle of Magnesium Dose from Kent Marine and a Mg/Alk test kit from Seachem. The total order cost me $78 which may seem a bit steep to most but for comparisons sake the Seachem test kit sells locally for $89.99. Talk about gouging! I probably wont need all 64oz for treatment but I figured it's better to order more than not have enough. Plus, a 16 oz bottle is $10 compared to $20 for the 64 oz.
I have yet to test Mg levels but I anticipate them to be around 1250-1300 ppm. For this treate ment period, I must increase that level to ~ 2200 ppm. The instructions on the bottle suggest to add 1mL/gal daily to see ~ 19 ppm increase. I've got a long way to go. For today, I started with 7x times the recommended dosage. I will test Mg later this weekend and dose further if needed.

Here are some updated pictures of the bitch algae and a new full tank shot (or FTS):









Reducing the light cycle seems to have stunted the growth. I'm going to use a reduced light cycle on my tank along with the Magnesium dosing for the first week.









FTS:

Well that didn't take long...

Ok, so apparently I've got some "nuisance algae" forming at a rapid rate. It's called Bryopsis and it's common problem in the hobby. The bad news is that it's a pain in the ass to eliminate because it only requires one cell for regrowth.

The good news is that a bunch of people have already confirmed that the best method for irradication is to dose Magnesium. Basically, the higher levels of Magnesium choke out Bryopsis' ability to photosynthesis. You can read about it in depth here if you wish.

So the game plan now is to reduce the light cycle and purchase some magnesium booster. I'll also need to purchase a magnesium test kit. A $40 minimum adventure I'm sure. I can't call around to the local stores until tuesday as most are closed. There's a bird and aquarium shop on main st that I might call and see if I can swing by before golf otherwise it'll be tuesday at the earliest. I'm going to continue to test for ammonia, nitrite and ph over the next few days.

Latest pics of my problem! lol

My oh my do I neglect this blog....

So not like anyone even looks at this thing but hey. I've been quite productive over the past 2 months. The tank was officially "born" 6 days ago now on May 26th 2009. I ended up purchasing live rock locally at a place called The Fish Gallery. I've been visiting a couple of the shops in town and I've found a couple of good spots to purchase a clean up crew.

The live rock was $12/lb and I got roughly 18lbs. I had been calling around every couple of weeks asking about live rock and I think they were getting a bit pissed off. But, the Winnipeger in me HAD to seek a deal. No tax. Reluctantly the owner said fine provided I was paying cash (duh). Ended up saving me $30 which was good for me.

Anyways, here's a couple of pictures from the last couple days:

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http://i43.tinypic.com/28ilv12.jpg

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http://i39.tinypic.com/242x0rm.jpg

http://i42.tinypic.com/14x1302.jpg

http://i42.tinypic.com/357lzdh.jpg

http://i39.tinypic.com/neygig.jpg

So right now I'm testing semi daily for a couple of chemicals. My tank is undergoing what is called a "Cycle" which is short for Nitrogen Cycle. Here's a quick diagram of how it works:

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I'm currently in the start of the cycle, testing for Ammonia and Nitrite. I just tested 8.0 ppm (HIGH) for Ammonia and 0.0 ppm for Nitrite. I will begin testing for Nitrate shortly after the Ammonia zeros out.

The next step, as I mentioned earlier, is buying a clean up crew. I am currently researching different species of snails and crabs. Possibly a shrimp but we'll see.

So sorry for the lack of updates but now the ball is rolling so enjoy!