12 Gallon Aquapod (first saltwater tank)

[KidNano]

just hope for the best. and cross your fingers. my wife swears by that one.

 

[arejay]

Crossed and hoping. . .

The anemone is on the move. From the front to the back right corner and half on the glass. This thing is fantastic!

To keep the theme alive, here is yet another question:

My dottyback is intent on moving as much sand as possible. At this point there is a gap under one rock so deep I can see the glass bottom. Do I let this go as it will or should I move the rocks and smooth the sand back out?

All of you help is much appriciated and I am learning a great deal. Thanks again and I look foward to hearing back.

—RJ

 

[arejay]

Here's the newest member.. .

I did a test yesterday and I had a significant shift in my KH it is now 36ppm. My Nitrate is also up to 7.

I am due for a waterchange on Saturday. Should I test again after that or should I consider some sort of buffer.

Also, the back of my tank is still completely stock (bioballs, carbon, etc.), what if anything should I be doing with this?

I want to add a couple of frags (I found a store with awesome prices) but I don't want a catastrophe. . .

UPDATE!!!

the yellow polyps are not doing so good. . .

Something is munching on them, probably the clown? Should I take him to the LFS? Is there another clown that would work better? (he is a tomato)


Thanks for looking,

—RJ :thanks

 

[arejay]

I added some frags tonight, hope to get pictures tomorrow. Any Word on the clown?

Thanks,

—RJ :thanks

 

[Trogdor]

I doubt the clown is munching on them. They aren't really a coral muncher. Do you have any flat worms?

 

[arejay]

I have never seen a worm, but anything is possible. I'll post pictures tonight so you can see what I'm talking about, but in the meantime:

It looks like something ate the "fingery" things from off of 4 or 5 stalks in the middle of the rock, but left the others completly untouched. It has been going on for three days now, and each day there is more off of each (of the same) stalks.


:thanks

—RJ

 

[arejay]

Here are the images I was talking about:

Here are the yellows before:

& After:

As a nice contrast, here is my green softie (seems to be doing quite well)

Thanks for any help you can give,

—RJ

 

[Trogdor]

Can you post a list of your inhabitants? Include everything that isn't a coral. That might help narrow it down.

 

[arejay]

1 Tomato Clown
1 Magenta Dottyback
3 Hermit Crabs
3 Turbo Snails
3 Nassarius Snails
1 Bubble Anemone

(I had 5 hermits, two died/were eaten. The dottyback was seen carrying off half of one).

 

[Trogdor]

The only thing that I would even consider from the list would be the hermit crabs. The snails shouldn't munch on them enough to rip the heads off. Only other explanation would be a hitchhiker that you haven't found yet. They aren't by any chance just closed up are they? A few of them look closed but it's hard to tell for sure on the ones toward the back.

 

[arejay]

Some are closed, but others are just hacked up and shriveled. I did forget to mention that there is a small porcelain crab in there somewhere, though I haven't seen it in almost three weeks.

Thank you again for helping with this. I have a couple of orange polyps that haven't opened yet and I 'm really trying to get to the bottom of this before they do.

Is there anything that I can be adding to the water to help these corals along? My Calcium is at 480, the Magnesium is ok, and I'm still adding phytoplankton for the anemone. . .


—RJ

 

[Trogdor]

I really wish I had more information to share, sadly I don't. Hopefully someone else can chime in and help out.

 

[KidNano]

I haven't heard of anything that you knowingly have in your tank munching on polyps. you should try a dip. John and Dawn gave me a recipe that he dips every coral he purchases in but I forget off hand. I'll try to find it. A lot of people use dips like this in a very small amount of iodine and freshwater to kill off any bugs or criters that might eat them. I'd say this is your best bet. Make sure you find a recipe or a specific product to use before you go dipping though.

Do you have a moon light? Can you monitor it during the night hours to see what's going on?

 

[arejay]

Thanks for the advice. The dip sounds like a good ritual to get into, these things are too expensive to just replace.

Yesterday I did my water change and in the process moved the polyps higher in the tank.

I do use moonlights, and per your suggestion kept an eye on things. The only thing that I saw happen was that one of the turbos sat over three of the polyps for almost an hour. They were closed when it moved, and this morning. I'll have to see if anything else got to them when they open.

Thanks again for taking the time to help,

—RJ

 

[KidNano]

Thanks for the advice. The dip sounds like a good ritual to get into, these things are too expensive to just replace.

Yesterday I did my water change and in the process moved the polyps higher in the tank.

I do use moonlights, and per your suggestion kept an eye on things. The only thing that I saw happen was that one of the turbos sat over three of the polyps for almost an hour. They were closed when it moved, and this morning. I'll have to see if anything else got to them when they open.

Thanks again for taking the time to help,

—RJ

Here is a link to one such product. I've never used it and would reccomend using a product reccomnded by someone that has used it.
http://www.aquadirect.com/store/product ... t=0&page=1

Good luck. I don't think a snail would be the cause of the damage that your seeing.