So as of today the Red Bugs on the Blue Stag have not returned so I'll call that a success. However, after dipping the zoa frags a few times it seems that the Byprosis is just as resilient as ever. It kind of faded away for a day or so looking like it would die off, but was back a couple days later in full force. I need to find a way to take care of this stuff cheaply. Yes I know, some of you may say that there is nothing cheap about this hobby and I will agree to some point, but the point of this blog is to find a way to keep reefs somewhat inexpensively. The majority of us, including myself, don't have hundreds of dollars to spend on keeping reefs.
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Thursday, September 18, 2014
Update: Bayer Advanced Insect Killer Dip
Last night I finally had the time to do this Bayer Dip on my Blue Stag. I was a little uneasy at first because I didn't know how it was going to turn out and I really didn't want to kill it, just the red bugs and whatever else that was being a pest. I used the recipe that I posted awhile back, diluted it a bit more adding about 290 mL to a gallon instead of the 320 mL that would have been used. When I was done mixing it all together it was the color of watered down milk which made me a little more nervous, but I tried it anyway.
Monday, September 15, 2014
NOAA Adds 22 More Corals to the threatened list!!
Well the title says it all. I just learned about this after watching Marks video on Mr. Saltwater Tank TV. This is a bummer in multiple ways. The main being the fact that our Ocean's reefs are still dying. Is there any good thing about this though? I think so. Even though there are a few more restrictions on what corals we are allowed to keep, it means that the Governments are starting to pick up on the fact that we truly do need to protect the reefs that we have. The coral that may come as a bit of a surprise is the branching frogspawn.
To read the article from NOAA and to see the 22 species added click the link below:
http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/invertebrates/corals.htm
To watch the video from Mark Callahan AKA Mr. Saltwater Tank:
http://www.mrsaltwatertank.com/replay-of-the-live-qa-session-with-mr-saltwater-tank-about-listing-of-corals-as-threatened-under-the-endangered-species-act/
To read the article on ReefBuilders.com about the impact on the hobby click the link below:
http://reefbuilders.com/2014/09/05/20-species-stony-corals-finally-ruled-threatened/
To read the article from NOAA and to see the 22 species added click the link below:
http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/invertebrates/corals.htm
To watch the video from Mark Callahan AKA Mr. Saltwater Tank:
http://www.mrsaltwatertank.com/replay-of-the-live-qa-session-with-mr-saltwater-tank-about-listing-of-corals-as-threatened-under-the-endangered-species-act/
To read the article on ReefBuilders.com about the impact on the hobby click the link below:
http://reefbuilders.com/2014/09/05/20-species-stony-corals-finally-ruled-threatened/
Red Bugs: Bayer Complete Insect Killer
This is going to be the recipe that was posted up on Nano-Reef.com by a member going by the name of jcarmon81 last year around this time. Here is the link to the thread and the post and his observations with it are towards the bottom.
http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/333832-discovered-some-red-bugs-in-my-sps-tank/
Of course I wont be using 30 Cups of it so I'll be scaling it down and storing a bit for when it's needed. I'll post my observations as well just to give my opinion on it to add to the multiple good reviews I've seen for it on the different forums.
http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/333832-discovered-some-red-bugs-in-my-sps-tank/
Of course I wont be using 30 Cups of it so I'll be scaling it down and storing a bit for when it's needed. I'll post my observations as well just to give my opinion on it to add to the multiple good reviews I've seen for it on the different forums.
Update: 26 Gallon Tank Extreme Clean!!!
So after careful consideration and planning I decided to do away with the 2" sand bed in the 26 gallon display. Looking at it after I cleaned it all out I realized that that was probably the best decision I've made in awhile. I grabbed a tote and put some of my tank water in it and removed all the corals, fish, and rocks and placed them in the tote and filled it up as much as possible. I filled up two more 2.5 gallon jugs with tank water too.
At this time I had about 2 gallons of water left in the tank and all the sand which I mixed up and ended up turning the rest of the water that was in the tank into like a chocolate milk color... This was from all the crap that had settled in the sand bed over the past couple years. This is where my nitrate and phosphate issues were coming from. I decided that I would rinse out the sand that I removed from the tank as well just out of curiosity. Man was I surprised. After 6 or 7 full buckets of water and a few times of just continuously running water into the sand the water was still a dark brown.
I added the leftover sand from my girlfriends tank to the little bit of sand that was still in the tank to end up with a little under 3/4" of sand on the bottom. As I mixed 10 gallons of fresh saltwater up I decided to get the rock back in and play with it until I got the look I've been going for for the past 3 years and I finally got it. I dumped in the newly mixed saltwater, the two 2.5 gallon jugs of previous tank water and then as much of the tank water from the tote as was needed to fill the tank up past the power head so I could turn on the filter to clean up the water a bit before adding anything.
After an hour or so I started putting coral into the tank and then the fish and finally topping off the tank. Total time for this project: about 5 hours. I took my time with it making sure that I had everything, cleaned everything, and placed everything right the first time so there was no messing with it after the fact. Now since the sand is so shallow, when I blow the rocks out I can also do it with the sand as well and not have to worry about releasing 2" of crap and who knows what else into the tank. To help with keeping the sand bed clean I've added my girlfriends Orange Spotted Goby who kept jumping from her tank because he was to big for it. Now he has plenty of room in my tank to do what he pleases.
As far as the Red Bugs go, I haven't had a chance to make up the dip and try it out, but I will be doing that tonight and posting about it. I will also be posting up the recipe for it on here as well. Now it's picture time!
The tank before the tear down and cleaning
After the water, rock and sand have been removed and cleaned and the rock and sand were replaced. The front glass still needs to be cleaned off.
This is shortly after everything was put back in. It was still a bit cloudy, but everything was good.
A FTS as of yesterday morning about an hour after the lights came on. The water is nice and clear, the fish are all active, and the corals are all open and happy (except for the Blue Stag that has the Red Bugs...).
At this time I had about 2 gallons of water left in the tank and all the sand which I mixed up and ended up turning the rest of the water that was in the tank into like a chocolate milk color... This was from all the crap that had settled in the sand bed over the past couple years. This is where my nitrate and phosphate issues were coming from. I decided that I would rinse out the sand that I removed from the tank as well just out of curiosity. Man was I surprised. After 6 or 7 full buckets of water and a few times of just continuously running water into the sand the water was still a dark brown.
I added the leftover sand from my girlfriends tank to the little bit of sand that was still in the tank to end up with a little under 3/4" of sand on the bottom. As I mixed 10 gallons of fresh saltwater up I decided to get the rock back in and play with it until I got the look I've been going for for the past 3 years and I finally got it. I dumped in the newly mixed saltwater, the two 2.5 gallon jugs of previous tank water and then as much of the tank water from the tote as was needed to fill the tank up past the power head so I could turn on the filter to clean up the water a bit before adding anything.
After an hour or so I started putting coral into the tank and then the fish and finally topping off the tank. Total time for this project: about 5 hours. I took my time with it making sure that I had everything, cleaned everything, and placed everything right the first time so there was no messing with it after the fact. Now since the sand is so shallow, when I blow the rocks out I can also do it with the sand as well and not have to worry about releasing 2" of crap and who knows what else into the tank. To help with keeping the sand bed clean I've added my girlfriends Orange Spotted Goby who kept jumping from her tank because he was to big for it. Now he has plenty of room in my tank to do what he pleases.
As far as the Red Bugs go, I haven't had a chance to make up the dip and try it out, but I will be doing that tonight and posting about it. I will also be posting up the recipe for it on here as well. Now it's picture time!
The tank before the tear down and cleaning
After the water, rock and sand have been removed and cleaned and the rock and sand were replaced. The front glass still needs to be cleaned off.
This is shortly after everything was put back in. It was still a bit cloudy, but everything was good.
Thursday, September 4, 2014
20 Gallon Long Frag Tank Update
So since I was already doing a water change in the display I figured I would do one in the frag tank as well. Ever since I took the Scopus tank out of here and added the RBTA's I've been having a bit of an algae problem as you can see from the pictures. I wanted something else to help control it so when I was at my LFS I bought a small Sailfin Tang and an emerald crab to help keep the hair algae down until I can get a bigger filter.
In the previous post I mentioned that I bought a few pieces of Green Staghorn that were thrown into the LR bin at my LFS. They are a little worse for wear, but I may be able to bring them back with a little care. I cut some small pieces off the three bigger ones because the tissue wasn't attached. For some reason, I'm thinking that these small frags will recover better than the bigger ones. The tissue has become very thin due to being in the LR bin for a day or two with crappy light and water.
In the previous post I mentioned that I bought a few pieces of Green Staghorn that were thrown into the LR bin at my LFS. They are a little worse for wear, but I may be able to bring them back with a little care. I cut some small pieces off the three bigger ones because the tissue wasn't attached. For some reason, I'm thinking that these small frags will recover better than the bigger ones. The tissue has become very thin due to being in the LR bin for a day or two with crappy light and water.
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
26 Gallon Display Tank Update
I hadn't done a water change in awhile and since I'm not running a sump or fuge with this tank I figured I needed to do one. I did a 10 gallon water change last Thursday and added some carbon to the filter before I went north for the holiday, but when I got back something still seemed off to me. Everything looked fine, but a film had developed on the glass and there was no polyp extension on my Blue Staghorn. So I decided to do another 10 gallon water change. And boy am I glad I did.
I tend to take a real good, close look at my tanks before, during, and after a water change and tonight was no different and that's when I saw them... Red Bugs. All over my Blue Staghorn. These little bugs are an SPS keepers worst nightmare. It's a good thug I caught it though since I was going to add one of 7 different Green Staghorn frags I got and made up today (got an awesome deal: 2 bigger pieces for $10 ea and another for $5 cause they were dying pieces that my LFS had trimmed off a colony and put in the LR bin. I cut 4 more frags from these where it was just a little branch with tissue not connected to the main tissue). I'll be doing the dip tomorrow to see how it goes and give an update on my Red Bug situation during the next week.