Tank update

Its been a while but a lot has happened. I had a large algae bloom that I could not get rid of. I borrowed my friends Sea Hare, which died :( I got a couple fish. Some more snails. 2 snails died. A copepod colony grew. And I had a red algae outbreak. I will try to talk about all of these things.

My tank suffers/suffered from rapid algae growth. Perhaps because there is too much food or detritus in the water/substrate. Perhaps for other reasons. Maybe the conditions are just perfect for growth. The cycle went like this. Day one, just after a water change. Everything looks good, very slight haze on glass in morning. I get home from work and the slight haze has turned into a green hue. I go to bed, wake up day 2. The green hue has turned into a thin film. I go to work, and come home the film has turned into a thick coat of green algae. I clean the glass, do another small water change and go to bed. Cycle repeats. My 2 black snails died during this process. I let them decompose/get eaten instead of removing them from the water. This sounds like a bad idea but I monitored the water conditions almost daily and everything was fine. Small bugs were seen on the dead snails.

I bought a Bi-Color Blenny to try help eat some of the algae. His name became Bender. He really enjoys the porous rock in the tank. He rests on and in it frequently, swimming from cave to cave. He eats his share of algae, but its not enough. Around this point I noticed a lot of 'bugs' in the water. Eventually after going through a lot of salt and some power head reconfiguring; we tried to put my friends Sea Hare into the tank to clean it up. The Hare was shrinking and starving in her really clean tank. A few days later it died, expelling his internal shell through his back. We were both very sad over the loss.

Amongst all this happening, I decided it as time for another fish. This time a tiny False Percula came home with me. Her name is Leela. She is a lovely little creature that swims around and plays in the powerhead wash. Her and Bender get along very well. Seeming to play with each other a little. And swim around with each other too. When Bender first was put into the tank he would stay back from the big liverock, only going into it for a few seconds. It turns out the hitch hiker crab that was in there, was nipping at him and chasing him out. Eventually I caught the crab and put it into another smaller tank. They can get big and viscous. Crabs are very strong. Since then Bender has called the large rock home.

Back to the algae problem. I decided to try leaving the lights off for a couple days. This had 2 effects: the 'bug' population sky rocketed. They now were on every surface in the tank. Sand rocks glass snails everything. Keep in mind these little critters, are VERY little. some of them you can only see as a tiny brown dot moving around. Others are a little larger and white, you can see them on the glass, and swimming. There are a few much larger ones as well, which I assume eat all the other ones. Every now and then I see Leela chasing and eating bugs. Cute. The second effect it had was to almost curb my algae problem. The tiny bugs took care of the rest. Since the bug clean up crew came, I have had the lights on pretty frequently with the timer. And the algae bloom has not really returned. Only a light haze now.

In amongst all of this I have been trying to build an out of tank algae scrubber. What it does is efficiently grow algae on a screen which you circulate your tanks water over. This algae is given lots of light and lots of water flow. It basically takes all the bad stuff out of the water and returns clean water. The algae uses the bad stuff in your water to grow. So all you have to do, instead of water changes. Is just scrape the algae off the screen and throw it away once a week. I have had various amounts of success building this device. A lot of issues have come up and been fixed in the process. Right now the hurdle is water flow. My pump doesn't move the amount of water I would like it to, to function properly. This gives me a much smaller working are for the algae screen.

When I bought the yellow sponge it came from a tank with a lot of algae in it, including red slime. I got a very good price on it, or did I? There was red slime algae on the sponge. So when i brought it home I cleaned it off with a toothbrush a bit. It has not really grown a lot since then but it has grown.This morning there were bubbles forming on it, oxygen I assume. After work today I noticed a significant increase in the amount of slime on it. And the slime had grown right over the gas bubbles from the morning. Something has to be done. So i took the tube off my smaller vacuum and used it to suck as much of the slime off as I could. I got a lot of it. I also got the sand it was infecting. I am a bit worried about the slime taking over my tank. My friend told me to put some red slime remover in the tank. I have been pretty against stuff like that but it might be time. Before it is too late.

Some new things seen living in the tank, before unnoticed. I now have between 3-6 good sized bristle worms living in tank. Some leafy red algae. A few more tube worms, none the same as the last. And some small tube things are growing. I am pretty sure they are animal. I have observed them open up and contract. One is a maroony red, it seems to be growing. And the other is white.

My tank mesmerizes me.

Let me explain. Whenever I go to my friends house I can't help but stare at her tank. Face pressed up to the glass. Watching everything. She gets annoyed that I pay more attention to it that her. In this 29 gallon tank there are a few fish, snails, some hermit crab, a wonderful sea hare, Jaques the cleaner shrimp, a clam?, and a very unique nudibranch. Its hard not to stare. Along with these animals are a wide range of other life. Coraline algae, tube worms, at least 4 different kinds of sea sponge. And many unknown little critters. From tiny zooplankton, copepods, algae, tiny tiny snails, unidentifiable (to us) bivalves etc. The tank is teaming with life and every time I stare at it I find more and more going on. One day I was staring at a Piece of her live rock where 2 hermit crabs were resting and grazing. Suddenly from inside the rock a thick pink crab like claw comes out and tries to grab a hermit. Quickly it retracts. I have never seen this claw since.

The thing is, it's impossible to tell what kind and how much life really lives in the tiny nooks crannies caves and shadows of the rock. I literally see something new every time I stare.

Now that I have a tank of my own to care after; so many years have gone by with me wanting one. I finally get to see the fruits of my labour. At least of my pocket book. My timers turn lights on at 6am, maybe 10 minutes before. My alarm clock for work goes off at 6am as well. In case I haven't mentioned it my tank is also about 2-3 feet from my head as I sleep. Beside the bed. So right when I wake up there the 'reef' is also waking up. It is said that tanks are most active at night when the lights are off. So this must mean that as I wake up the inhabitants are just winding down from a wild night in the water. I roll over and just stare.

Seeing where everything in the tank has relocated. What has changed what is new. It blows me away. I can not help but to stare. And time just flys by. Suddenly I am looking like i will be late for work. Even if I just run in to the house to grab my laptop to make another blog post. The tank grabs me. Suddenly I forget what I was doing, why I am here.

Its funny really. The life I live is pretty interesting, entertaining even. There are not too many dull moments in it. But the underwater world consumes me. I am a registered PADI diver, and whenever I hit the water everything seems alien. But you know what, its not. This air breathing surface existence I am used to is the alien world. The life on earth began underwater, and is primarily underwater. Life on earth, in a non biblical sense starts at microbes and progresses up to phytoplankton and continues on, zooplankton, fish fry, etc, etc. Most of the air we breath comes not from the forests but from the ocean. Hard not to get blown away by the vastness of it all.

It seems a little fishy!

Its time for a post about the tank, "Project Spongia" Be warned, this is going to be a long post. Originally this was going to be a tank devoted to specifically the growth of different sponge. So off of Craigs list, my friend found me a link to a tank for sale. It was $10, how could I go wrong. So off to this mans house I go. Ten bucks in hand. It was a good purchase. A little small but for the price it a deal. about 10 gallons of sponge growing real-estate. It was brand new never used. Perfect.

I took the tank home. The next day i visited the local hardware store. Purchased a sheet of 5/8" plywood. Some 2x3 lumber, a power bar, 2 timers, a 23 watt cfl, some 16ga power cord, a male household plug, and a lightbulb fixture. And I drove home. Next step: Setup a makeshift cut station and built a 30"x24" aquarium table with a large shelf underneath; for storage and phytoplankton growth. Having it made of rough wood lends the benefit that I can later cut/drill holes in it for sumps or algae scrubbers without worry about messing up nice furniture.

Next up was dealing with the tank. I washed it out, and promptly set to leak testing it in the bath tub. Everything checks out good. Throw down a towel on the new table. Set the tank on

top. Head out to the LFS and break out the bank card. A filter, air pump, air line, air junction

valve, airline tee's, crushed coral 'sand', a heater, and small power head, salt mix, and a 24" double light setup, hydrometer, and thermometer all came home with me. Some of thee bits were for the Algae-coloda project, and others for Spongia.

Putting all the pieces on my bed I started opening packages. Reading directions, and installing hardware. Fast-foreward about an hour and I am in the bathroom mixing and testing water for the tank. Somewhere along the way I had gone to Walmart and bought a rubbermaid bin for storage and water mixing. I found the water did not want to test repeatably. I attributed it to a few different things. 1: testing different areas in the bin resulted in different readings. Mixing was not even throughout. 2. mixing was introducing air bubbles into the water which would change the volume of water in the hydrometer giving false reading. 3. the actual act of filling the hydrometer could introduce bubbles that wanted to stick to the float needle, causing it to rise more than it should. and 4. allowing the water to sit for a short period of time allowed the salts to dissolve more evenly into the water. removing the 'grit' from the bottom of the tank. So I worked around all these little problems and have a method for making repeatable and accurate readings now. Also as a side note; I noticed that if you let the hydrometer sit after testing salt will stick it up when the water evaporates. This also introduces error in your next reading because you re-disolve this salt when taking your next reading. My solution is simple. rinse with fresh water when I am done using it for the day.

So, materials gathered. Table built. Tank setup, water mixed. Add the water. Done and done. I proceed to set the timers and plug everything in. Timers are set on the lights for 6am rise and 10pm set. I let the tank circulate for 2 days. The water cleared up and everything settled down. Another trip to a different LFS (my fav one so far) And I was coming home with some Prime, and a 10lb live rock. I added some prime hap-hazardly to the tank. And set the live rock in place. In hindsight; I realize that I put in a lot too much Prime. Oops. I calculated that I need to add .1ml of Prime per 4L of water. This again I let circulate for a day or two. Some long algae grew almost instantly. Not a lot of it, maybe 5 pieces.

Next I did something that I have read a bit about. I pee'd in the fish tank. Seriously. Ok maybe not exactly how it sounds. I have been doing a lot of reading on how to 'properly' cycle a tank. And it turns out, there are many ways. There are the die hard old school people who throw in some hardy fish to swim around, and probably die. Some people put in live rock, live sand etc. Let it sit for a month or 2 and then call it good after various 'milestones' are hit with water testing. Some people put in a few cocktail shrimp (yes the frozen food item) It rots/decomposes with the help of bacteria. Ammonia is produced and other bacteria eat it. Turn it into nitrites/nitrates. Other people have other methods. The key thing here is that ammonia is produced. Bacteria cultures multiply and start to break the ammonia down. When ammonia/nitrites/nitrates all read 0 again after this ammonia spike; then your 'cycle' is complete.

I read about people actually using human urine to cycle their tank. I thought why not. I did some research on urine. What it constitutes, what gets flushed out of your body with it. How much 'could' be added. How to collect it, etc. I made the decision to try it. I am a relatively healthy person. I eat pretty well, don't put too many toxins into my body, and I drink plenty of water. So I chugged a bunch of water, went to the bathroom. Drank a bunch more. I did this to ensure I was properly hydrated and that the urine would not be full of pollutants hat had been accumulating. I wanted fresh pee, so to speak. So next bathroom break I brought a small cup and dipped it in mid stream. Collected a table spoons worth of it and doused the tank with a bit of urine.

I let the tank sit for about a week. A few days after the pee was added my friend bought me a test kit and I set out to check the levels. They were lower than i expected, but still above what I would expect to see of a cycled tank. So I let it continue to work its magic. During this time I did no water changes. Various forms of algae grew. My live rock 'funked' over turning golden yellow to a browny color. Red slime started to form. I tested the water every few days and levels progressively dropped in all areas. Ammonia, nitrite, nitrates, phosphorous. My friend came over and was a little upset by how the rock an tank looked. She insisted on doing a partial water change. Another couple days later and everything read zeros. My cycle was seemingly complete. In under 2 weeks. To be sure, I added a little more urine. Brought my ammonia level up to 2.6ppm and let it circulate again. Testing the next day, levels dropped and nitrates/nitrites were forming. Everything was working properly.

Around this time I also discovered a hitch-hiker in my piece of live rock. A little blue crab. His name quickly became Joda. Joda likes to hide inside the rock. The core of the live rock seems pretty hollow, with tunnels running through it. Joda has a collection of small stones hidden in there which 'he' likes to stuff into the holes to the caves. Blocking himself in. I am not sure what kind of crab he is yet. Bluish grey with slightly hairy legs.

So today I decided would be a good time for some more live rock. I bought a nicely shaped 4 pound rock, and 2 sponge rocks. A blue one with a red sponge hitch-hiker (plus various other creatures). And yellow with what I thought was some odd black Coraline algae). The 'algae' turned out to be an animal. What I have identified as a Scutus. Otherwise known as an Elephant Slug. Why it has this name, I don't know. But it is a slow creature. And it exposes its internal shell which makes it look like a racing stripe. Neat creature. On the blue sponge rock was a large patch of deep purple Coraline algae. Really pretty. A medium sized tube worm.

A small mushroom (I think). A few black and

white brittle stars. And another crab. This crab was almost identical to the crab I found the other day; it quickly left the sponge rock and made a dash for the large live rock i had initially bought. I guess that this new crab (named Mu Shu) and Joda will meet. I expect one of 2 things to happen. Crab babies, or crab carnage. Time will tell.

So now I have a bunch of rocks in the small tank, 2 crabs, a few brittle stars, 3 sponge. A mushroom, A snail(Scutus), 3 tube worms and who knows what else in the tank. Room has disappeared quickly.

I cleaned all the glass surfaces today. And did a 30-40% water change. Once all the levels again return to zero its probably time for a fish. The real test to see if my tank has cycled well; or to see if my tank will suffer like so many with 'New Tank Syndrome' To be continued....

Do the Dew

So it has been about 9 days since I started project Algae-coloda and things are looking good. Basically what is going on in this shot is as follows. The jug is a 3.89 litre juice bottle, cleaned and rinsed. Then sterilized with a bleach and water solution. Rinsed with freshly made salt water. and then filled up 3/4 of the way. The specific gravity of the water was 1.0215. After that about 500ml of store bought refrigerated live phytoplantkon was added as a starter culture. This made green water that looks a lot like watered down Mountain Dew. I purchased an air pump, the kind you use to run features in fish tanks. This pump has 2 outputs on it. I intend to run 2 phytoplankton batches; and one line per batch. But for now I have 2 lines running one batch. The air bubbles through the green water to keep it agitated, it helps to eliminate a lot of settling that may take place. If phytoplankton settles on top of other plankton, the stuff below will die after a little while. So every morning I remove the air lines, cap the bottle, and give it a good shake. Just to make sure that anything that has still settled, gets re-introduced to the water column. Every few days I add 3-5ml of Miracle Gro Liquafeed plant food. And I have had to top up the mixture oncewith more salt water. There is a 23watt CFL hooked up directly beside the bottle to provide the phytoplankon something to photosynthesize. The light is on a timer, 16 hours on, 8 hours off. Just like 'nature' This is pretty much the whole setup. Not a lot of maintenance required to keep it going. I have a few tweeks I would like to make. The jugs are going to get swapped out in favour of round glass vases. I will need to build special lids for these. My flexi-tubes are going to get a facelift. Hard straw down to the bottom of the mix. It is a little bit of a pain to fish the hoses down now. They want to float and push around. I would also like to incorporate some sort of self mixing device. Either a mixer blade/propeller run by motor. Or an air powered rotating bubbler that can do double duty. Lets see some results after 9 days. Notice how much darker, more green, the batch looks. Also notice how much more light it blocks now.

The colors turn

I have been taking photographs of the tank for the past couple days. Once when I wake up. Once when I get home from work, and once when I go to bed. I used the same settings. Iso, white balance, shutter speed, aperture, focal point, everything. It is interesting to see the changes in water quality and in the rock as it adjusts.

This morning the rock looked much the same as it did yesterday, and the day before. However when i got home from work today it looked very different. The color was a lot more saturated. The purple coraline algae is a bit more purple. A little less subdued anyway. But the bare rock itself has taken on a golden yellow sort of look. Pretty neat.

Projects Spongia and Algae-coloda begin

Well, Hello. With this my first blog post I would like to inaugurate a couple projects.

One, project Spongia: Within the confines of a small fish tank, I will be trying to grow and propagate various forms of sea sponge. The goal is to be able to cultivate food for captive nudibranch. Genus Glossodoris Atromarginata. This little carnivore has a particular appetite for certain forms of sea sponge. They are very picky eaters. Passing over many sponge as though not even there. The trick here will be to first gather various sponge specimens; identify which forms of sponge the nudi (Newman) wants to eat; And then try to propagate the colony while keeping Newman fed, and not letting him eat everything putting the project back to square one.

Two, project Algae-coloda: This project deals with growing phytoplankton and various algae. These will become food for a few forms of marine life. The plankton will help feed project Spongia, it will feed corals, mushrooms, and other invertebrate. Also I would like to cultivate forms of algae to feed grazers. One special sea slug in particular needs a good meal. Gonzo the Dolabrifera Dolabrifera. The Phytoplankton will be grown and stored in plastic bottles, hopefully with a 1 week turn around between batches. The Algae may need its own smaller tank to batch in.