kiltandblade
New Member
Hello all, I've been lurking for a while here but as I am now cycling my new 14g Biocube I figured I should post something soon because I'm sure to have questions coming quickly. To start with I've been running freshwater tanks for quite a few years and I always wanted to try SW, but it was the usual story not enough $. I resently moved while on sabatical and I figured I should get a part time job to pass the time. So here I am working at a pet store again and now I get lovely discounts. I figured this was a good time to give it a whirl (plus the fiancee got real interested in it). Long story short I'm well into my second week of cycling and from the looks of my tests i should be seeing an ammonia spike soon.
I originally got my live rock from a really nice local store, but it didn't have a whole lot "live" on it. So after digging around in my store's dark and scary live rock tank I found a couple of really nice small pieces covered with purple corraline.
Now my tank is teeming. I've got several dozen various feather dusters, quite a few of what appear to be clear worms in hard tubes, a few tiny bristle worms, a bunch of large pods, thousands of tiny crawly things and what might be about 10 different aptasia in at least 2 colors.
I'm a little worried about what seems to be the aptasia. In all the pictures on this and other sites I see most of the time it looks the same, but in a few it looks different. I want to be sure I'm right in my ID ing. Unfortunatly they are all WAY to small to take pictures of, but most of them are clear with whiteish bands on the tentacles. That seems common enough, but the others are brownish-ochre in color and have wider central stalks.
I guess my first question is do these both sound normal for aptasia? and if so I know I have to get rid of them especially in these numbers, but how? I would prefer a natural solution as opposed to chemical, and I'm not really sure I can stab something this small- should I let them grow a bit??
Also, when my ammonia spikes- will I loose all of the pods, worms and dusters? That would really be a shame...
I guess that's really the only questions I have for now, any help would be appreciated, thanks!
I originally got my live rock from a really nice local store, but it didn't have a whole lot "live" on it. So after digging around in my store's dark and scary live rock tank I found a couple of really nice small pieces covered with purple corraline.
Now my tank is teeming. I've got several dozen various feather dusters, quite a few of what appear to be clear worms in hard tubes, a few tiny bristle worms, a bunch of large pods, thousands of tiny crawly things and what might be about 10 different aptasia in at least 2 colors.
I'm a little worried about what seems to be the aptasia. In all the pictures on this and other sites I see most of the time it looks the same, but in a few it looks different. I want to be sure I'm right in my ID ing. Unfortunatly they are all WAY to small to take pictures of, but most of them are clear with whiteish bands on the tentacles. That seems common enough, but the others are brownish-ochre in color and have wider central stalks.
I guess my first question is do these both sound normal for aptasia? and if so I know I have to get rid of them especially in these numbers, but how? I would prefer a natural solution as opposed to chemical, and I'm not really sure I can stab something this small- should I let them grow a bit??
Also, when my ammonia spikes- will I loose all of the pods, worms and dusters? That would really be a shame...
I guess that's really the only questions I have for now, any help would be appreciated, thanks!
Just my 2 cents. I've heard a couple people talk about using lemon juice, but I haven't used it personally.