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Reeftank Log 01/2001
Friday, September 14, 2001
On Wednesday, I noticed a brown jelly around the green slimer. Yesterday, the brown jelly had totally consumed the green slimer and the tri-color next to it. This morning, the brown jelly was on the lower reaches of the huge SPS in the middle of the tank. Luckily, I transplanted some frags of the green slimer to the tank at work and positioned them with epoxy. This morning, they had no sign of brown jelly and the polyps were fully extended. I'll have to make sure the tank at work maintains optimum conditions for SPS growth. I removed all the dead coral this morning. The most drastic procedure was removing the huge SPS in the middle and the rock it was attached to. I broke off a few frags that were farthest away from the brown jelly and distributed them in the 50-gallon tank and the 29-gallon tank. Hopefully, they can escape the infection. The other SPS in the tank haven't been hit yet. I'll have to keep my fingers crossed. I guess the lesson learned is to isolate the water that specimens have been shipped in and to net out the new specimens for the tank. Optimum thing to do would be to have a quarantine tank, but I don't have the room or the time right now to set up another tank. It's unbelievable how fast the brown jelly rapid tissue necrosis (RTN) spreads. When I removed the large SPS growth today, most of it was still healthy, but leaving it in would only leave more healthy tissue for the brown jelly to attack. Normally, I would be very distraught at what has happened to my tank, but with the terrorist attack that occurred on Tuesday, my tank's problems since very irrelevant. In one way I was fortunate since my shipment arrived the night before the attack via Fedex, but then it was the water from those specimens that caused the brown jelly RTN.
Sunday, May 27, 2001
Tuesday, May 22, 2001
Thursday, March 01, 2001
Monday, January 15, 2001
I can't wait to get an additional lens with better macro capabilities.
Wednesday, January 10, 2001
Tridacna crocea Clam Shot 1 According to Daniel Knop in the February 1998 issue of Aquarium Frontiers: "T. maxima may also be confused with the closely related T. crocea. In addition to the difference in size, most T. maxima have a row of hyalin organs near the edge of the syphonal mantle that look like dark, pimple-shaped, pointed elevations. While these hyalin organs are also present in T. crocea, they are spread over the entire syphonal mantle." From the closeup pictures, it looks like the hyalin organs are all over the syphonal mantle, which would make my specimen a Tridacna crocea. The shell is also more rounded and doesn't have the rows of fluting along the side of the shell that a T. maxima has. I just posted to rec.aquaria.marine.reefs that this was a T. maxima, but upon a closer look, I think I have a T. crocea. I'd appreciate feedback on whether I'm correct with my identification.
Moved a three head section of pom-pom xenia to the propagation tank at work. Because of its shape, I could use fishing line to secure it to a piece of Cercona artificial rock. I initially tried to superglue it, but that didn't work out too well. I also turned off one of the two powerheads connected to the wavemaker in order to give the transplanted Xenia slightly calmer water conditions for it to latch onto the rock. I moved one of the SPS corals to the left of the tank since it was touching the clam's mantle. I hope it grows out so that there's a SPS chemical barrier on either side of the Xenia in the middle left of the tank.
Saturday, January 06, 2001
Thursday, January 04, 2001
Purchased a 4-line wrasse with beautiful colors from Aquarium Concepts. I really like that store. Maybe I'll try to pick up some green chromis from Seascapes tonight.
Monday, January 01, 2001
Friday, December 29, 2000
Thursday, December 28, 2000
I finally changed the water in my 20-gallon tank after months of neglect. Thank God the the tank is stable so I had no major algae problems. I have a feeling the green star polyps in the tank were sucking up any excess nutrients. I plan on adding a large refugium/sump made out of a Rubbermaid container to this tank system and getting rid of the BakPak II skimmer. I'm interested to see what type of conditions will result from a skimmerless system. The white polyps in the 50-gallon tank are definitely Xenia since they're pulsing. I'll have to wait a little bit to see where they came from They are all over the tank and growing quickly... I'll have to do a water change with this system this weekend. Like the 20-gallon, there hasn't been any water change for months. Yet, things appear to be flourishing in the tank. I am down to only two green chromis now, but I'm not sure whether I want to replace them with anything. I was thinking of buying four more green chromis to create a small school. The chemical warfare going on in the tank is very interesting. Soft corals, coralline algae and encrusting corals are turning white and dying where the stinging chemicals from hard corals are touching them. I can't wait to see what happens when the SPS corals start touching each other. I used a drill and jigsaw to cut holes into the tops of the Rubbermaid and Sterilite containers I'm using to create refugiums. I made my first holesaw cut into a Rubbermaid container for a bulkhead, and it was interesting to see the nice round hole that a holesaw makes. I hope I'm as successful cutting into acrylic. I should be receiving the 13-watt kits from AH Supply later on this week that I'll use to light the refugiums. Received my shipment of Tangs Delight from Stockly's Aquarium of Hawaii at www.ecosaqua.com, and both the Tang's Delight and the small shrimp included were still in good shape. The yellow tang in the 50-gallon tank still hasn't really taken to the Tang's Delight. I wonder if it's different from the Tang's Heaven from IPSF. I just remember how the yellow tang would munch on the Tang's Heaven until its stomach was full.
Thursday, December 21, 2000
Both my 20-gallon tank at home and propagation tank at work don't seem to have as optimal conditions as the 50+29-gallon setup, and I think the answer may be to add a refugium to both setups. I think it also hasn't helped that I haven't changed the water in all my tanks for months! I have a CPR CITR in both the 20-gallon and the propagation tank at the moment, but I only see them as interim measures until I can set up larger refugiums for both tanks. One thing I definitely want to do is to drill holes in both tanks as outlets to sumps. The Lifereef overflow works great in the propagation tank, but it takes up a lot of space and a bulkhead installation would take up a lot less space. Wow, I just thought of using the present one inch overflow in the propagation tank as the feed or outlet for a refugium! I could then drill another hole for the sump. There's so little room in the 20-gallon tank that it would just be nice to have a bulkhead inlet in the back of that tank and direct it to a sump/refugium underneath the tank. I feel sorry for this tank since I don't look at it that much. I occasionally glance at it, but I really focus on my 50+29-gallon setup at home. Contrast this with when I first set up my 20-gallon tank and I would look at it for hours. There's some small white polyps growing all over my 50-gallon tank. I don't think they're Xenia, but they do look like Xenia polyps. I'll have to get a closeup picture soon. Speaking of closeup pictures, I'm amazed at the quality of the pictures that the Nikon Coolpix 990 can take without any additional lenses. This is quite an amazing digital camera that I'll probably be acquiring sometime next year. Oh wait, I'm supposed to be saving money for the new kid and a house ;-)
Monday, December 18, 2000
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