Up and running!!

[deadfish]

Hey yall, I've now had my tank running for the last 2 weeks, I've used R.O. water with Kent marine salt. I have in the tank 10 kilo of live rock( cured ) and about 70lbs of Caribsea argonite sand. The temps running at a constant 26/77, salinity is 1.025 and I've been testing Ammonia-0,Nitrate-0,Nitrite-0 and P.H-8.2 every 2 days. Now for some questions!! I noticed the other day that there are orange blotches appearing all over the sand, is this normal? Also there are quite alot of triffid anemones on the rock, shall I remove them? and last but not least I've seen bristle worms emerging from the rock after dark, should I remove these on sight? As I have no livestock in the tank yet what would be the best thing to do as I'm not sure,

thanks for looking- deadfish

[mbeach66]

the liitle "anenomes" on your live rock is typical. they kind or remind me of little white polyups. so...other than looking kinda cool, they really don't serve much of a purpose.

[KillBill75]

Your system sounds to be running well chap,You should'nt remove the critters off the rock unless it is Aptasia Anemone.These become problematic to your other stock.You should now monitor you Calcium and Alkalinity and start dosing those. Some people may argue against that but the fact is that the sooner you stabilize these values the sooner beautiful coraline algae will start to cover your rock and equipment. 400 on the calcium and 9-11 dkh on the Alk. Seachem makes a great product,I'm not to fond of the ESV B-Ionic stuff.
Good Luck! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/peace.gif

[brody98]

The orange spots could actually be red slime algae, keep an eye on it and don’t let it get out of control. You can siphon it off when changing the water. Get rid of the triffids or get a few peppermints when the water is stable they will take care of it.
Not sure how you could have a low nitrite level it should be spiking about now. The worms are ok, just be careful you don’t accidentally touch them, they will sting. good luck

[deadfish]

Cheers for the input guys!!, I've been waiting for the nitrite to spike but it doesn't seem to want to? ammonia dropped off about a week ago so wheres the nitrite spike. With regard to the Rock/triffid anemones I've already started treating them to an injection of Kalkwasser, seems to be doing the trick!! although due to the nature of the substance I've been told to only do a few at a time. As to the orange blotchers I'm now sure its slime algae and have siphoned as much as I can out of the tank. The worms seem to have gone in to hiding as I haven't seen any for the last couple of days. More info on peppermints, cal/alk levels would be sound!! Thanks for all the help......

deadfish..........Floating on the current is where its at!!!!!!!???????

[Chuck S]

Yep things seem to be shaping up just leave the worms etc alone. If the aptasia if thats what it is become a problem you can remove them. However post a picture or something to confirm this is what they are.

[cheerncougar]

well the orangish spots on your sand is the first algae that shows up in an aquarium, get something to sift it or baste it off with a turkey baster and let your filter pick it up. as for the aiptasia u can also use joes juice, peppermint shrimp, or a copper band bfly. for the worms, those are brisle worms and i would try to get them out ASAP especially if they are big. they are going to reporduce rapidly and take over your tank. Small ones in the sand bed are o.k. be careful when handling your rock with those worms, they "spines" on them can hurt. to ketch them put some type of red film over a flash light at night (they are sinsitive to light just not red and they are nocturnal) and then use tweeser or something like that to pluck them out. If none of that works arrow crabs have been known to eat them.