I found these on these attached the aquarium glass this morning:
I suspected they were snail eggs as nothing else in the tank really climbs on the walls. I found some images of cerith snail eggs on google that look just like these. I have a few ceriths in the tank...hopefully I will have a bunch more...my CUC is on the lean side right now.
I found these on these attached the aquarium glass this morning:
I suspected they were snail eggs as nothing else in the tank really climbs on the walls. I found some images of cerith snail eggs on google that look just like these. I have a few ceriths in the tank...hopefully I will have a bunch more...my CUC is on the lean side right now.
Well, I do not think that the Cerith eggs ever hatched...have not seen any signs of baby snails. The eggs were getting a lot of attention by what I think were amphipods. It looked like they were eating the eggs...not sure if amphipods would do this or not. While watching the eggs get munched on one night after light out, I got a surprise by what I think was a peanut worm, which may have been feeding on the amphipods...this thing looks a bit scary (I could not get a picture of it), but from what I have gathered on-line, it is nothing to be concerned about.
OK, well, I updated by 'scape this past week.
The rock is pushed back a little and there is now more a single "mountain" which gives the aquarium a look of more depth I think. The Caulastrea like their position up on top. Also, found a new setting on the camera which I think results in color in the image more representative of how the tank looks to eye. Still a little too blue.
Another shot of Ferdinand and Lucinda in their hangout.
The frogspawn is now positioned a little lower in the tank. The left side of the tank is his essentially. You can also see the blue anthelia in the image...this started as a single waving hand that was left from a frag I returned to the LFS...glad it grew back!
A shot of the other Yuma in the tank
Really like this one...
Well, I do not think that the Cerith eggs ever hatched...have not seen any signs of baby snails. The eggs were getting a lot of attention by what I think were amphipods. It looked like they were eating the eggs...not sure if amphipods would do this or not. While watching the eggs get munched on one night after light out, I got a surprise by what I think was a peanut worm, which may have been feeding on the amphipods...this thing looks a bit scary (I could not get a picture of it), but from what I have gathered on-line, it is nothing to be concerned about.
I think some of the snail eggs might have hatched after all...this morning I noticed three very tiny snails on the glass. I wonder how long they will last with the new wrasse...
It has been a while since I updated my thread. I have been busy with life outside of my tank. I will likely be moving from Ann Arbor to the Twin Cities area in the next few months and have been busy with those plans. Unless things get too crazy as the move date gets close, I fully intend to move this tank and most of its inhabitants with me. I have posted for sale on this site some of the corals from the tank, but they haven't moved and I will likely keep them rather then sell them back to the LFS. I have plans for how to move the tank, and I will discuss those in a later post.
OK, in the past couple months there have been some changes to the tank as far as equipment and livestock.
Equipment changes:
1. The submersible Aqueon heater I had in the tank showed much internal condensation build-up. I removed it and replaced it with a heater by Eheim Jager.
2. One extra Koralia 425 added for a total of 3
3. I modified the Aquaclear 50 HOB filter by insertion of a media basket from the company InTank. This basket allows water to be first filtered through a poly-filter pad before entering a second chamber containing Chemipure Elite. Without the poly-filter pad the fine mesh bag holding the Chemipure Elite gets covered in debris over time.
4. Added ~$20 Air King fan (also sold under Sunlight Supply brand name) to keep tank temps under control during summer. The 80 degree March weather provided a nice test for tank temp stability under the new MH light.
Livestock changes:
I decided to venture into the realm of SPS. I purchased several frags of Montipora digitata of red, green, and purple color. The purple digi frag was browned out and had tissue loss at the LFS, so I got a large discount on it. It is healing well now, but still has not regained its purple color which I witnessed when it first arrived at the LFS. I also have a second brown or browned-out digi frag that I hope will change colors. I also have a nice Bird's Nest frag. This I started too high in the tank and it lost some tissue on its tips. I moved it to the bottom and it is 100% recovered now.
Also added a peppermint shrimp which has effectively reduced aptasia population.
Top down view showing green digi at top
Top view of Bird's Nest
Another top view showing various corals including Duncans:
That's all for now. I am using a different camera, but still not very good pics...
I added a JBJ ATO unit to my tank after thinking long and hard about which ATO to go with. Thanks to MizTanks and Speedracer for their input on the JBJ unit in a different thread in the hardware forum. I wanted a very reliable ATO and was leaning towards the more expensive Tunze unit for sometime. I finally convinced myself that the less expensive JBJ unit would be very reliable with very low risk of overflowing the tank, if set up correctly properly.
Currently I am running the JBJ unit in mode A with a single float switch only (although use of a second float switch, as described below, would make the setup more fail safe), which is located in the display tank as shown here:
The back of the float switch is simply attached to the black plastic aquarium rim using super glue. The water level is maintained ~1inch from the top the tank.
The water pump I have coupled to the ATO unit is a low gph Tom's Aqualifter. This is a popular combination based on my on-line research.
I had read elsewhere that the Tunze ATO is a more fail safe unit, meaning the water level sensors are less likely to fail, causing a flood in your room. For ATO units, redundancy is very important to prevent flooding. The Tunze unit uses an optical eye as the primary monitor of water level and this backed up by a float switch, and a third back up is a time out mechanism in which the Tunze controller will shut off the reservoir pump if it runs for ~10min continuously. It seems this is a pretty fail safe setup; from what I have read, the optical eye is less likely to fail than then a float switch.
However, after much thought, I came to the conclusion that the JBJ unit can also be essentially fail safe if set up appropriately. The JBJ unit relies on float switches, not an optical eye. With the JBJ controller set in mode A, one float switch, placed in the display tank in my case, is the primary monitor of water level. In this mode, there is the option to use a second float switch in the water reservoir to ensure your pump does not run and burn out if reservoir water runs low. An alternative setup, which for some reason the JBJ instructions to not describe, is the following: In mode A, the second float switch, if turned upside down, can be placed slightly higher than the primary float switch and in this way the second float switch backs up the primary float switch (like for the Tunze unit, in which a float switch backs up the optical eye). In this way, if the primary float switch fails and water level rises, the secondary float switch will be activated and will shut off the pump before the tank overflows. Again, for this to work, the secondary float switch needs to be turned upside down and the controller set to mode A. [I]I currently not using the second float switch because of additional backup mechanism[./I] Then, importantly, a final backup is that the JBJ controller will turn off the pump if it runs for longer than 3min 45sec (this time can actually be adjusted to up to ~15min). In my case, with the Tom's Aqualifter pump, there is no way that in 3min 45sec the pump will overflow the tank...pump is just too weak. There is the possibility that something could cause the primary float switch to be activated for less than 3min 45sec, repeatedly, over a short period of time, and this could cause the tank to overflow. Something strange like this could happen perhaps if the float switch was being affected by algae or a snail that liked to jump on and off of it frequently, but this seems like a remote possibility. An Also, it should be mentioned that one big benefit of using the Tom's Aqualifter is that if the reservoir runs dry, the pump will not burn out. So, with this pump, there is no need to use the second float switch to monitor water level in the reservoir.
OK, well I hope this helps anyone who is trying to decide between the JBJ ATO and the Tunze. So far I am very pleased with the JBJ unit. I do not notice any fluctuation in water level.
This will likely be the last equipment upgrade for sometime. I am really happy with the way the tank is set up now. In a later post I will talk about an important modification I needed to make to the inTank media basket I use in my AC50.
Wonderful news! I'm loving mine for sure Water level hasn't changed a bit since I started running it. Has helped in parameter stability big time!
Enjoy your new found freedom!!
Originally Posted by purerebel
A2 Club Coordinator
Water level hasn't changed a bit since I started running it. Has helped in parameter stability big time!
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