Day 38 - The Bristle Worm and New Additions

Ew...

These things are gross, i really want to get it out of the tank, but apparently their good, in most cases anyone...

but for horrible reading:

Giant Worm

Giant Worm 2

I seriously hope mine doesn't end up like those, although the tank would have to get a lot bigger for that to happen...

Meanwhile, i bought some new snails today, as my tank was starting to get a little over run in some areas with green algae, im pretty sure i saw the clowns trying to host in it... or they have white spot and are itching...



New and Old Additions

Long Time Over Due - Day 36

My internet has been out for a few days, but a bit of an update on the tank...

Everything is nicely balanced, nitrates are very low, phosphates have not reared their head yet, although i have had a bit of an alge break out.

My Clown fish are doing fine along with the Yellow Goby, and my cleaner shrimp is fantastic, in fact i would have to say this the cleaner shrimp is my fav. when i put my hand in the tank he'll come and clean my hand!

Shrimp Surprise!

Ok, so little bit of a blond moment here... but legitimate i believe...

came home from the movies the night i got my cleaner shrimp, looked into the tank to see if everything was alright. see upsidedown floating shrimp being attacked by hermit crabs... fuck...

what a waste of money... try to make sure its not dead by trying to get my hand into the little cave, cant, then all of a sudden. Shrimp comes out of its hole! like bastard had shed his shell!

i knew they do this, but wasn't expecting it straight away!

Day 19

Couple of things happened today, I have been using the forums over at Marine Aquarium Societies of Australia who have been really helpful in giving me advice (and a slight scolding for putting fish in so quick... whoops... but you live and learn, hopefully in this case my fish will live!

anyway one of the members was kind enough to give me a lot of info and offered me some matrix to help seed my tank with good bacteria and 'pods'. Matrix is like a very light rock that little animals live in... they eat bad stuff :P

So I went around and got a bit and set up a mini refugium for it, and also placed some in my canister filter... nothing has died or gone off the charts in the hours since i have added it.

the other development, which im probably going to have someone go 'AHHHHHHH' at me about is, my cleaner shrimp arrived today, I've spent the better part of the last hour and a half aclimatising him to the water and giving him a little bit of food (just a pelet - which he ate some of) and about to release him into the water...

The torch coral has really come out today also! it looks really pretty

Todays Parameters

Ammonia - 0

Nitrite - 0

Nitrate - 10

Phosphate - 0

Calcium - 440

DKH - 11

Ph - Again really hard to ready but im going to say 7.8

Day 18

All parameters looking good - Same as last post, bar Nitrates that have risen to 10ppm

When I got home tonight I found my temp up around 29C which is kinda scary high. Must looking into better ventilation when new lighting arrives if problem persists.

I've decided to up my water changes in order to lessen the blow of the bio-load in my tank, I've been told quite a bit that i was very hasty in adding my fish so quickly, so to help with this I've taken to changing about 2L of water a day. Also apparently the PolyFilter I have in my filter will be helping heaps in keeping things under control (thank god!)

I'll try and take daily readings over the next two weeks in order to document the process

Todays Parameter

Ph - 7.8 or 8.2 - I can't tell with the API tests as they are the same colour!

DKH - 10

Calcium - 440ppm

Phosphates - 0

Ammonia - 0

Nitrite - 0

Nitrate - 5

Salinity - 1.024 kinda high

Pumps Arrive!

Well a big shout out to Age of Aquariums (see link over in the links)

Cheap delivery, cheap prices and SPEEDY delivery!

My Hydor Koralia Nano's arrived today, ordered last friday and they managed to deliver by wednesday even through a natural disaster (the QLD floods)

omg these things are tiny! yay i didn't want a pump making my tank ugly

I've rearranged the tank a bit so things look a little nice and there are better spots of corals to grow when i get around to adding more... I've added one torch coral (bottom right corner) to see how it goes.