I did the usual tank maintenance today, except it was more like a 1.5 gallon water change in the main tank. I rinsed sponges, removed algae, even happily removed a couple of small patches of cyano and a shrimp exoskeleton (molt) was seems appropriate on the eve of Halloween, all ghostly-looking, white and translucent. I also removed a strand of that new macroalgae that popped up a while back which which had attached itself to Elle’s tube (to her obvious dismay, she’s been “in” more the past couple of days). All is well and happy in the tank. After a two day sulk when I moved the sun corals back to their original position in the tank, they started feeding again. I gave them a cube of mysis a few days back and was fascinated to see them “snap” at the mysis and suck them in. Kalimba and Tam also snapped up some, but the corals got most because they can eat more at a time than the two well-fed shrimp. Speaking of eating, I’ve noticed that Kyo is eating more. Gradually his food intake has increased so that he now eats about double what he ate when I first got him. He started at 9 food pellets, twice a day. He’s now eating 18-20+ pellets twice a day. He still occasionally has “off” meals when he only eats 10-12 pellets, but by and large his intake has roughly doubled. I’m still feeding him with the pump off since he’s developed a preference for that. When the current drops he knows it’s meantime (though if he is begging he gets fed no matter what time it is).

Why did I enjoy cleaning the tank today? I’ve spent the week nursing a new very sick dog and our elderly dog then caught what the new dog had, so I’ve had two sick dogs—the weakest, sickest one (new) with practically no appetite. I’ve spent a lot of time at the vet. Both dogs seem better today, though the new dog had a relapse Monday so I’m trying not to get my hopes up too much. But all signs are positive. Suddenly I’m not all bent out of shape about a couple of small patches of cyano. I’m appreciating that everything in the tank from the sun corals to the snails are sucking down food with a healthy appetite. I’m appreciating the abundant healthy life in the tank. I’m enjoying how easy it is to just feed and clean and go through the routine with no worries or over-analyzing, no wondering if some poor little creature is going to starve itself to death while ill. I’m appreciating the placidity of the aquariums, the vigor of everything.

I didn’t get around to that 1 qt water change I should have done in the picoreef last week, so I did 2 qts (half gal) today. There was a slight bit of film on glass and areas of substrate which I sucked off/out. Both the little snails popped up to scavenge after I’d cleaned it. I’ve noticed more amphipod activity, too. I’m still a little worried about my “aiptasia in a jar”, it doesn’t seem to be handling the hair algae very well, but that’s another day, another post.

Happy Halloween, everyone! Have a great weekend!

No long rambling post from me today, just short and to the point. Did the usual water change, actually close to 1.5 gal. Didn’t change water in picoreef, but it looks good since I put in a new filter and did water change when I moved the sun coral to the mini-reef. May do 1 qt. water change tomorrow. Sun corals have been fed regularly until a couple of days ago when I moved them onto palace rock, thinking it was a better location, just a couple inches from where they were. They didn’t open after that, except one this morning. So when I did the maintenance this morning I moved the colony back to where I’d originally placed it, only fiddled around until it was oriented more upright, instead of sort of on its side—-which looked good, but I felt the small lower polyps weren’t getting good exposure to food. Also smoked Elle with microvert a couple times when feeding coral. Did usual maintanence today…did I say that already? Pardon my distraction: Monday we adopted a new dog from the Humane Society. He’s cute, but became ill with some nasty germ he was incubating so I’ve spent more time dealing with a poor little sick dog than observing the aquarium this week. Hence my distraction and the very short post. If my other dog has caught it, I’ll likely have little to say next week. All appears to be well in the aquariums. Thank goodness!

Got up early this morning, did the usual water change and maintenance in the mini-reef, then began the acclimation process to move the sun coral from the “quarantine” picoreef where it was languishing to the 29 gallon mini-reef. Several hours later, I put it in the spot I’d planned, but it’s precariously balanced, tipping on it’s side so all polyps are facing me. May move it around some more in that area to get it more upright, but the area seems to be a good one for it. We went to the dog park and were gone a couple of hours: when we got home a little while ago we found this (click for bigger pics):

Sun Coral, 2 hours after being put in the mini-reef

Close-up of Sun Coral, 2 hours after being put in the mini-reef

The sun is definitely shining and looks very happy in it’s new home! Something I noticed that I hadn’t thought of when I got it, is how the pink of the polyps picks up the pink of the pink skunk clownfish which lives nearby.

Other notes: the cyano appeared to be gone this morning, so I won’t have to treat the tank again.  I smoked Elle with microvert shortly after putting the sun coral in the tank; though Elle and the coral are on opposite ends of the tank, the coral might be able to tell that and have opened up to snack on what little bit wafted over. There is one bit of bad news: it appeared when I lifted the coral out of the picoreef, that another polyp died overnight last night, a small one that was next to the dead one, and like it, right against the substrate. I suspect the substrate in the other tank was part of the problem and if I keep it up on rock it’ll be fine. In fact, I’m considering trying to see if I can fit it into the biggest niche on palace rock which is about an inch up and inch over from where it is now. For the moment, however I’m not going to touch it….and hope it doesn’t get tipped over by a shrimp or hermit crab! I just want it to settle in and feed. It looks just magnificent! I’m feeling much better about it now.

I thought things were going well in the picoreef; the film stopped covering the substrate a some days ago, though there’s still some in the tank, the coral was opening up every night and feeding, then I get up Tuesday morning and find this:

Sun coral in trouble

There was a thin film over the affected polyp, the same stuff I’d siphoned out of the tank. I blew it off with a turkey baster and siphoned the few patches in the tank that morning, doing a 1/2 gal water change then and another 1 qt water change that evening. I did not feed that night. Yesterday morning I did another 1 qt water change and again this morning. Last night I fed, but just zooplex and I did not see the coral open to take it. The film on the substrate is still there in a few places, but not much. I find it frustrating that when the coral had been feeding well and the problem in the tank was going away then the polyp dies. Not when it wasn’t feeding for days, not when the tank looked like it was crashing from stuff all over everything….nooooooo, after the mess has been cleaned up and subsided, after the coral has been feeding really well and everything is looking good, then it starts to die overnight.

I feel especially frustrated because there is damn little I can do about it. I’m really stuck between a rock and a hard place. If the die-off is indeed caused by whatever that cyano-like slime that didn’t seem to be cyano which was no doubt caused by so much nutrient in the little tank, then the solution is to move ahead and put the sun coral in the minireef. No more noxious hitchhikers have shown up, so I really don’t think quarantine is necessary any more. OTOH, the reason this coral got quarantined in the picoreef was that I was treating the mini-reef for cyano—and I’ve had to repeat the treatment. After 24 hours (when it’d disappeared the first time I ever used this stuff) it not only hadn’t faded but had gotten noticeably worse. It wasn’t until after the 48 hour second dose that I saw any sign of decline at all. It does appear to be very, very, very, slowly fading away. But it’s not gone and tomorrow marks the one week period. Should I do a water change and another round of cyano treatment? Or should I just say “screw it”, do a water change and acclimate the sun coral to its permanent home? The cyano isn’t bad in the main tank. It’s just persistent in a couple of places, small patches. But if I just remove it by hand it keeps coming back—and spreading—as if I’d done nothing at all. The only thing that seems to keep it down to a couple of small pale patches is the cyano-killer.

So, which is worse for the sun coral—to stay in an overloaded, poorly filtered, tiny quarantine tank, or to go into the main tank where it which will be dosed with cyano-killer again (probably Sunday)?

Aside from a couple of small pale patches of cyano the mini-reef is in great shape. The creatures are happy, growing, thriving, feeding. Kyo absolutely pigged out at lunch today. Probably because he wasn’t hungry for breakfast this morning. Kalimba, Tam, Calypso, Cortez and the amphipod army love it when Kyo is too sleepy to eat in the morning. They scramble over the rock to scarf up the pellets he ignores or feints at.

I’m going to be up and out early tomorrow morning and gone all day so I won’t be able to do my usual late Friday afternoon water change. The weekend plans are still up in the air. My gut feeling is that I need to go ahead and move the sun coral over to the 29 gal tank. I’ll need a block of time to acclimate it. It will be either Saturday or Sunday. Tonight I’ll try to feed it, then do a water change before I leave the house tomorrow morning. This is really bad timing for the coral to have problems because I couldn’t just move it over that day because the cyano treatment was still too fresh and the skimmer was a bit wonky from the treatment. Now that the one week period for the treatment has expired I won’t be home to acclimate it right away. I feel edgy about each day that passes, but the coral doesn’t look any worse. The pic above was snapped today and it looked like that Tuesday morning. I feel certain the polyp is dead (or so far gone that it will not come back).  The rest of the colony looks healthy. I’ve got my fingers crossed—and if nothing happens to make me change my mind, I’ll move it to the mini-reef this weekend.

On the weekend before my birthday (Sept. 28th) I got a sun coral which had a tiny rock chip stuck to the base. On it was my very first Aiptasia hitchhikers. I detached the chip and placed it in a Spice Islands spice jar. On Monday, the 28th, I fed it two drops of microvert. I couldn’t help but think of Dr. Carrington in The Thing From Another World. Yes, I’m a mad scientist, but I didn’t go as far as he did. It’s predatory enough without getting a taste of human blood.

Thus, begins my “Aiptasia Island” experiment. From what I’ve read, Aiptasia is zooxanthellate, but can survive in low light, sucking any nutrient it finds out of the water column. It’s so well adapted to surviving and multiplying and colonizing that it’s the bane of the marine aquarium world. But maybe it is, like a weed, simply misplaced. It’s said that the only difference between a weed and a wildflower is that a weed is a misplaced plant, something growing where it isn’t wanted or doesn’t belong, often “weed” is applied to something invasive. Plants—and animals like Aiptasia—aren’t inherently good or bad: that is a judgement humans make about them. They are what they are. By all accounts Aiptasia may be a candidate for the hardiest marine animal out there. It doesn’t belong in a typical reef aquarium where it will run amok, but what about a species tank? Octopus don’t belong in typical reef aquariums either. They tend to wreak havoc and eat the other inhabitants. This doesn’t mean they’re bad; it just means that they need a tank to themselves. I’m thinking Aiptasia—if kept in a tank by itself—may be the perfect beginner marine animal. Small tank, poor water quality, little or no filtration, spotting feeding by the aquarist, neglect…this would kill almost any marine animal. Would it kill Aiptasia? How bad can conditions be and still maintain the Aiptasia? That’s what I want to find out.

Greetings From Aiptasia Island!

Rock chip with tiny Apitasia in a Spice Islands spice jar on top of egg crate over mini-reef.

Hair algae sprouts on Aiptasia Island

I have added no nutrient to the bottle since Sept. 28th. There is no filtration. The bottle is kept capped, so there’s very little oxygen exchange. Once a day I upcap it and swirl the water around just a little bit. This is both to facilitate a bit of oxygen exchange before I recap it and to stir up nutrient and particulate into the water column so the Aiptasia can feed on anything that had settled to the bottom. I replace about 1/3 of the water every other day. I did the first partial water change the day after adding the microvert, let it go for two days, then settled into the every-other-day routine. I over-filled the bottle today, filling it all the way to the top, instead of 3/4 full, so I had to pour a little water out after I’d done the change.

A couple of days ago I noticed that hair algae had started growing on “Aiptasia Island”. I was surprised as I didn’t think there would be enough nutrient and light for algae. So, now I’m wondering: which is more invasive, Aiptasia or hair algae? Since algae may be a problem in a beginner tank, this question needs to be settled before all others regarding whether Aiptasia could be beginner animal for a single-species tank. The first challenge for my reef-in-a-bottle.

I’m tagging all posts related to this and if the experiment continues for very long I may convert the tag to a menu item category.)

I’d planned on doing a water change and the cyano treatment yesterday, but when I got up there was a fresh shrimp molt in the tank and I didn’t think it’d be good to add anything so soon after a molt. I’m assuming it was Kalimba who molted because I’d assumed it was Tam last week. Either way, they’ve both done their thing now.

I added microvert last night and the night before to the picoreef where the sun coral still languishes in quarantine. This afternoon I did a half-gallon water change, double the usual and sucked out a lot of the film on the substrate. It’ll be back tomorrow, no doubt. The snails did not put in an appearance. Usually if I’m disturbing the substrate (which they live in and love to have stirred up) they pop out. The amphipods are more conspicuous now that I’ve removed a mass of bristleworms from the tank. (I lifted the barnacle shell when I did the first big cleaning and found about a half dozen fat bristleworms in a ball under it. And removed them.) Again, I really believe that the amphipods suffer from a competition for food with the bristleworms in such a tiny tank. OTOH, now that the tank is getting both light and nutrient, the hair algae is sprouting on top of the barnacle shell, so they should all have plenty to eat. I’m not feeding bits of sheet algae to the amphipods any more.

In the mini-reef, aside from the rapid recurrence of the cyano, things seem to be OK. Cortez and Calypso have been climbing through that nearly floating cloud of algae at the back, picking out the debris trapped in it (as the amphipods, do, too). The snails have been very active, but most the new snails, MissPriss and Baldy. I’ve only seen Drew once this week.

Tam continues to be shy about taking food from my fingers, but I make sure to drop pellets near him if he’s reluctant. Kalimba is not shy and will still “elbow” him aside occasionally. Friends visiting us from out of town last weekend were amazed at me hand-feeding shrimp. Most non-aquarist think of shrimp as wild things in the ocean, soon to become food on their plate. The idea of having shrimp in the living room and feeding them pellets of food is quite a novel idea to those who’ve never had a marine aquarium.

Before doing the water change I “smoked” Elle with microvert, which she seemed to appreciate since she opened her “feather” even more. Maybe I should feed her more. I’m also considering repositioning her in the substrate instead of rock because substrate is the natural habitat and would also protect her tube from cyano and algae (I think).

I did the standard 1 gal water change, sponge filter cleaning and hair algae removal in the mini-reef this afternoon. Then I added the cyano remover. (sigh) The skimmer is now producing microbubbles, as it did the last time, but didn’t do the first time I used it. So, I’m going to have to readjust it and probably turn the skimming function off periodically. I wonder if the skimmer (which the product says can be kept running, but may need to be adjusted) is the reason the treatment didn’t work magically as it did the first time? I wonder if the skimmer is the reason I’m having this problem, if maybe it’s not pulling its weight.

Ah, I caught movement near the glass in the picoreef—both snails are out and about! I haven’t seen one of the snails for a couple of days now. They are both foraging on the substrate (instead of under it). When I got them they were both the same size, but one snail is definitely bigger than the other one now. I wonder if that reflects the fact that one has been more conspicuously active than the other? They’re still tiny. If they were in the 29 gal mini-reef they’d vanish completely. Even in the 2.5 gal picoreef, they are still so tiny and well camophalaged that I have to really look for them. Eventually, when they are “all grown up” they’ll go in the mini-reef.

Eventually the sun coral will go in the mini-reef. I didn’t want to put them in with the cyano reappearing, especially with it so near the area where I want to put it. So far the sun coral base is showing no signs of Aiptasia. It appears that the outbreak was confined to the small rock chip that was stuck to the base. I will, of course, examine very carefully before putting it into the main tank—which will be, at the soonest, in another week.

My Aiptasia-in-a-bottle experiment is interesting, but that will be another post.

Oh gee, I wrote this on my BlackBerry yesterday, but never got around to sending it. I’m not going to rewrite all the “todays” and “yesterdays” in these notes. Set your mental clock back one day while reading. The only thing I have to add is that the sun coral is still closed, I didn’t attempt feeding last night, & am going to do another 1 qt water change this morning. Though I suppose putting those notes at the top here in present day, present tense, only confuses the time sense of the following notes even more.

Forgot to mention last week that one of the shrimp had molted, probably Tam since he’s growing so fast.

The cyano has already returned to the mini-reef — something I’m really not happy about since I’m putting very little nutrient in the tank and the skimmer is skimming. It has reappeared on Elle’s tube which concerns me. It’s patchy in the left front corner as usual, but also patches on sponge rock and Tonga rock. The Fiji rock is free of it so far, but what this means is that the nuisance algae, temporarily surpressed by the cyano, has rebounded. The good news is that the red macroalgae there seems to be getting a foothold, but it’s making very slow growth.

Kyo is dividing his time between his algae nest on ledge rock and the cave under the ledge. He still sleeps up top, though, and is eating well. I’m not worried. At this time it seems more like a preference than a stress reaction.

The picoreef which is acting as a quarantine tank is an absolute mess. Over the weekend a dark grey film began to cover the substrate and barnacle shell. I fed the sun coral zooplex one night and skipped the next. Then I suctioned out as much of the film as I could — something that seemed to excite the substrate-dwelling snails. It was about a 1 qt water change. The sun corals haven’t been open — at least while I was still up — the past few days. Last night I smoked them with an excessive amount of microvert, then added a zooplex chaser. They didn’t seem to respond and I was tired so I turned on the little filter and went to bed. The tank looked smokey, so if they opened there would be plenty to eat.

This morning I suctioned the film on the substrate again, doing a 1 qt water change. By this afternoon the film is back. It reminds me of cyano, but is neither green nor red. It’s more of a charcoal gray. It could be bacterial without being cyano, I suppose.