Operation Re-Do is a GO!!

Now im back from my hols tonight is new years eve and over the last couple of days ive cleaned the glass a fair bit, needs some more cleaning though. Ive changed the water (a big half change), ive replaced the fabric filter and cleaned the sponge filter. Then i tested the water's levels.

The results are in and;
PH 8.5 (green)
Nitrate 5 (green)
Phosphate 0.1 (green)
Nitrite 0 (green)
Calcium 300 (amber (Low))
Ammonia 0 (green)
gravity 1.018 (green)

With my calcium low that probably means my magnesium is low too as they go hand in hand.

So for the next few days i will add my calcium and magnesium supplements and test the water later on till they are in the green zone. The salt level is a little low, so added some salt into the back to slowly disseminate through the tank so as not to shock the inhabitants. I will check on the level later on. As with the mag and calc i will add a little bit till levels are perfect.

The reason i am doing all this is cause on monday i plan on adding a new friend to our tank. Stay tuned to find out!!

Long time no see....

For all you out there in fish world. I am gearing up to get back into it for the new year. After leaving the tank standing for many many weeks. The strongest are now stronger and the weak are gone. Who is lest standing is 4 crabs (3 reds and a blue) the anemone (some how lol) klaus the star fish and the two interns (the snails). We have lots of new friends as well. As there is no predators of the fishy kind there has been a large build up of small white possibly crustaceans on the glass and some tiny sand burrowing millipedes crustacean sort of things. There has been groth on the live rocks which is cool.

Right so after giving it a well deserved clean here is the plan. A water change after this weekend and then another just before the skiing holiday (WOOOO). Then after the new year begins i will get some more fish to put in. First off i will get a hardy fish and a cleaner shrimp to make sure the water is good. Wait a few weeks then i will start to build a colony of Clownfish. I am going to try and concentrate on just one type of fish as many fish is many problems. I love Clowns so i will get a nice colony of them. and probably some more anemones and then eventually some corals and more small crustaceans.

See you guys soon

They all looked into her eyes....

After getting some new friends to replace the old and the dead I realised I made a massive mistake with my Medusa worm :( From what I can gather she found her way into the back of the tank into the filter section. In doing so she lost about 90% of her body. I figure it must have been on the filter bit. Well the Medusa worm is fine as now it is just a head stuck in the back of the tank. The body I figure was eaten by the crustaceans in the tank as it disappeared! I came through in the morning to find her head in the back happily eating away. After several attempts to remover her I left for work. A few hours later my lovely Simone delivered the bad news via text letting me know that all the fish were dead and that Reuben was removing them for me. This was rather bad news. After closer inspection I believe that Phallus the feather duster worm has died as well.

Ive since taken the Medusa worm back done a massive water change and replace the carbon along with the filter fabric. The plan is to wait 3 weeks do another filter and water change and try a fish out in the tank.

Ive had enough, its time for u to leave....

An epic disaster last night Jacques decided to make his mark on the tank and have an epic final battle with Arnie, Arnie and Jacques have never been the best of friends. Small skirmishes happen now and again all ways resulting in a draw. Arnie managed to chop off one of Jacques claws but much to my surprise Jacques managed to finish off Arnie :'( Sad times. To finish the blow Jacques also killed and ate Hoff. Now completely devastating the larger crustacean populous making Jacques the supreme crustacean. I wasnt having any of this first thing this morning i chased him around the tank with a net, after removing some of the live rock i eventually caught him (not before scaring him into loosing his other large claw) and bagged him ready for transporting him to the prison facility in Aquatics center. Hopefully there he will regrow his two major claws and find a new home.

Bringing the death toll to 13;
1 Threadfin Butterflyfish (Todd)
1 Copperband Butterfly fish (Sherminator) who was already ill!
4 turbo snails (never buying them again, Shaun's and Sam's)
1 red legged hermit crab (griffin)
1 blue legged hermit crab
2 dancing shrimp (Bunny and now Hoff)
2 Clown fish (Cousteau and Stevsie)
1 Royal Grammar :'( (Monie)

Now to repair the damage left by this vicious predator, i have now purchased a larger arrow crab called Arnie (squared), he is a bigger far more calmer crab who by the looks of it is happy to plod about.

The other new addition is a member of the sea cucumber family called a Medusa worm, she will be called Euryale. Named after the wide stepping sister of Medusa. This is a sand cleaning wonder, hope fully will be a wonderful new addition to the family.


In other news because I had to move the rocks about the anemone is more open and as a result the remaining clown fish is hosting with it perfectly. So i am a very happy boy!

Been a long time

Hey guys i know its been a long time since ive posted. I havnt been posting as the fish tank has been getting me down. Previously i had a beautiful butterfly fish called Todd who died i replaced him with a copperband cousin of his called Sherminator, he died after a few days so i took him back for a full refund as the other copperband they had at the shop had also died so oh well. With the money they gave me i got my self a beautiful Firefish called Amber. Meanwhile one of the clown fish has died and Simone has bought me a belated birthday gift as they finally have Royal Grammars named Monie in stock. Another clown fish died so now i only have one :'( bad times. Then the Royal Grammar died and i all but gave up on the fish tank. The crustacean's were hardly ever about because they dont like the Cynobacteria that is covering my tank. With this black-green slime nearly covering the tank i was about ready to jack it all in. I have since decided to call my remaining clown fish Zissou as that was the name i liked the most :)

After a couple of days of mulling it over i decided to give it one last crack. I decided not to buy any more creatures for the tank until every thing was sorted. I went to the local Fish shop and got my water tested too see if they could help. They told me that i was low on magnesium and calcium, the two things i hadnt actually tested since. So they sold me some fluid top up additives for the tank. With the instructions of put one cap full in every day for a week then do one cap full of each once a week. We chatted some more and after a passing comment that i should make a book about this they showed me the book they recomend, which is a million times better than the 'look at the pretty fish' book they sold me in Havant. After a flick through i saw a man with a siphon i asked what its for. I now realise that the water changes i have been doing every 3 weeks have been taking water from the top of the tank not the bottom ><. So i bought a siphon and now i change my water like this.

I have also put some black out curtains in that room so as to block the natural light as the cynobacteria seems to be growing more on the side of the tank where the window is even thought it doesnt not directly touch it.

Things ive learn't:
Magnesium and Calcium need topping up now and again
Water changes must be done from the bottom of the tank as they are more effective at removing rubbish.
Havant's fish store is really crap, oh wait I already knew that!
Natural light bad, black out curtains good!

So now the bacteria is on a massive decline before it covered most of the tank now it is only on a few rocks and hardly on the sand at all :D Happy days!!

Kobi Identified

Now that he has reappeared (finally woo)i can attempt to identify him. Me and lizzi have tried to but not with much luck as the photo i had was rubbish compared to actually looking at him.

We have come to the conclusion that he is probably a member of the Tritoniopsis Elegans family.

You can find more at this link HERE

Here is what he could look like, if we have it right.

Big shuffel about

Ive decided to move all the rocks about for several reasons.

Firstly the black-green bacteria stuff has bloomed since Todd died so ive decided to do a big water change and i figured first id take the dirtiest rocks out and give them a good scrub in dirty water.

With all this movement i figured id move the anemone so you can see it easier. Its last home was round the back and only one clown fish was using it, so i figured a more open spot would be better for all.

Another reason, last night i saw Jacques and Arnie butting heads over territory, im fairly sure Jacques is to blame so if he doesn't settle in the new territory he might have to go back im sorry to say.

So with the rocks now clean and rearranged the tank looks good, but there is a lot of crap thats been stirred up. I want to change the water today to help fight this black-green crap. But the fish look a little freaked out. So im guna wait a few hours before i upset them some more. This also gives Kobi some more time to move away from the water line where i spotted him this morning. As i dont want to starve him from water when i remove a third of the tank.

KOBI ALIVE AND WELL!!!!

Wooo while checking the tanks black bacteria problem i spotted our little friend round the right hand side of the tank looking bigger which is fantastic woo :D

Working weekend = death :'(

After working away Simone came home from a friends to find Todd dead. Sad times he was ill from marine white spot but after a 3 day treatment course he was looking healthy. Im guna have to put this down to natural causes. Which really sucks cause i liked him :'( Guna go and do a big water change today to get rid of the ammonia and other stuff in the water that might have built up after Todd dyeing.

May Poseidon rest his soul!

Bringing the death count up to.....7

1 Threadfin Butterflyfish (Todd)
4 turbo snails (never buying them again, Shaun's and Sam's)
1 red legged hermit crab (griffin)
1 dancing shrimp (Bunny)

The day in the life of a stupid fish

The morning has arrived and thankfully Cousteau got him self out of the back, i wasnt looking forward to trying to get him out. Over the night i pulled out one of the pumps and turned it off leaving a large enough tunnel for him to get back into the main tank.

Phew!!! lets hope he doesn't go 'exploring' again!

MISSING - Presumed IDIOT!!!

After retuning from the pub i go to check on the little guys. After a scan around i notice we are one fish short!!! A bit shocked i search frantically about looking for little Cousteau. Worried he might have been eaten by Jacques, highly doubt it though. I opened the lid to see Cousteau behind the back wall on the right trapped in the filter section of the tank.

God knows how he got in there, let alone how to get him out!

Total Maintenance Done

Ok so here is how it stands, i am really regretting buying this tank, dont get me wrong i love having these fish its wicked, but i wish i had gone to a different shop and get a different tank. From what ive gathered Maidenhead Aquatics in Havant dont know what they are talking about and they will quite happily sell an electric blanket to a Saudi. They dont ask what you have what u want or give you enough information before you buy. For me this has been an up hill struggle learning what i need to look after it all. But thanks to the shop assistants and managers of The Aquatics Centre in North road and the Fish shop by Asda (cant remember the name) i have managed to figure it all out. Oh and the manager at the Fish/Bird/Reptile shop near Asda is a relative encyclopida on marine fish he rocks.

Ok so far, the tank i have isnt really supposed to be used as a marine tank, there isnt a built in protein skimmer and the smallest on the market is the only one that fits. To get that to fit you have to place the heating unit where the pumps are. You then have to open the lid, cut a section out of the lid. Then unscrew the transformer, move it to the other side of the lid. I achieved this by getting new wire and junction boxes from Maplin (they were very helpful). I then cut some polycarbonate into shape and glued it into place using special marine sealant. You MUST use the special sealant stuff other wise it can release toxins into the water. I did all this so that the protein skimmer would fit and not bubble water into the lid.

The Protein Skimmer itself needs to be emptied now and again, to do this you lift off the little box on the top. This sounds easy enough, once you remove the box when you put it back on it pushes the whole skimmer down under water. For it to work the top needs to be at the water line. To hold this fantastic piece of kit they designers use 3 suction cups which have a tendency to stick to the wall more than the skimmer grrrr. So to combat this i have installed a large Cable tie. Cause if you cant fix it with Cable ties/duck tape/super glue u cant fix it at all!!!

Next to the tank

One thing that i have always wanted to do is grow chilli peppers so that i can make my own uber-hot-chilli-sauce, so what ive done is, i have (with simone's instruction) got a plant pot, put some mud and stones and planted the seeds. Ive placed it next to the tank because its warm enough and there is a regular light cycle. Will let you know how it goes.

Currently i have Scotch Bonnets and Dorset Naga's growing in there, 6 seeds, i wonder what will grow.

Ok so here's the plan...

Because now i know what im doing with my tank (AT LAST) i can now look after my fishy friends.

The cleaning sceme is now;

Change 25% of the water every 3rd weeks

Test the water every 2nd week

Until bottle runs out add one cap full of 'good bacteria' (Actimel for fish)


Feed fish appropriate amount (not too much like i was doing)

Regularly scrub the walls

Wooo!

A new friend!

As the tank hasn't been very clean up until now along with the increased water changes and other care ive started giving it I have gone and bought a sand sifting starfish and we have called him Klaus, to keep in theme with the other names. He is wicked and he went straight to work on the cleaning the sand.

I placed him on the rock as you can see for the photo.

He wanted to be in the sand


However he landed on the sand upside down, watching them flip round is wicked, however Todd is being a bit of a dick while this is going on as Klaus has some sand stuck to him.

UNCLEAN UNCLEAN!!!

After much work the tank is now clean and working well. Apart from Todd he has started developing white spots on his fins, bad times :(

After a trek down to the aquatics centre i am now sure it is Marine white spot. A very common parasitic condition caused by high saline levels or other imbalances in the water.

Luckily the medicine is cheep and cures lots of other things too. It is a three day course 25 drops on the first day and 12 the next two. The medicine is a neon green so now the whole tank is well green hehe.

Get well soon Todd!



What is actually wrong with him!



"Marine white spot is caused by a ciliate parasite called Cryptocaryon irritans and was only identified as a distinct parasite in its own right in 1951. Although the disease’s symptoms appear similar to freshwater white spot (Ichthyophthirius multifiliis) the two parasites are not very closely related and both need different husbandry and/or treatment regimes to prevent and resolve an outbreak. "

The cure...

Water change needed!

After consulting Mr. Fox he informed me that the water was filthy and it needed changing. After much instruction from the North road aquarium they taught me all i needed to know, which is exactly what i wanted as the Havant aquatics centre didnt tell me diddley squat! I have now got an information sheet showing what all the levels have to be at. Turns out they told me a figure way to high for the salt in Havant (never going there again!!!) SO ive now changed the water and replaced the cleaning materials and Simone is being a scientist and doing all the testing she was loving it :D All the values came out in the green which is great. Apart form the the Gravity (salt content) that was in the red and that is because of Havant aquatics centre. Shouldnt be too much of an issue i will slowly lower the gravity over the next week till its in the green, i just hope none of the fish get any parasites :(

Homes for clowns

As ive now got more rock i figure its time to get a place for the Clowns to live in. So i do some research and find that the lights ive got arnt suitable for anemones so i talk to the shop and they have some on order, should be here on friday. So i figure bollocks to it ill make the daylight cycle longer until the weekend.

After bringing our new friend home, it took ages to get him out the bag, i place our new anemone friend in the tank at the front. He wasnt very happy with this so he slowly creped round the back. Much to the dismay of Jacques who didnt like the encroachment into his territory but couldnt do any thing about it as he gets stung as soon as he touches it hehehe suck it Jacques. Hopefully the clowns will enjoy it :D

Each night it has been in a different position, will update when it has settled.

More homes for the inverts

After the tragic death of bunny i realised that i could stop this from happening again by getting more live rock. With my wage packet in im off to the shop to buy some more rock.

I have now doubled the rock in the tank, making a very nice arch with a flat bit at the top.

OMG OMG OMG a new friend. After studying the new rock carefully i noticed something white and squidgy, worried it would be a pest anemone i watched it for a while. A magical thing happened the little squidgy thing hatched. It hatched into a beautiful baby Nudibranch, which is now called Kobi after a dear friend of mines kid (and my favourite steak strangely).



After settling the rocks into new places the crustaceans were quick to re-establish territory, and all were happy.



I also got some more shells for the hermit crabs.



After a few days we noticed a small growth, what turns out to be a Blue mushroom soft coral.

All out war!

Bad times as Jacques (the red banded coral shrimp) has now killed and eaten Bunny (dancing shrimp) one of the oldest inhabitance of the tank. After the dispute Arnie was quick to the scene of the crime to clean up any evidence. More on this story as it progresses.

Bringing the death count up to.....6

4 turbo snails (never buying them again)
1 red legged hermit crab
1 dancing shrimp

Lots of new friends

Yay the day has arrived!!!!

Ive actually got fish in my tank now!!!!

Say hello to my new friends

Jacques the Banded Coral Shrimp



Along with the Clown fish
Zissou (pinch in is main stripe)
Stevsie (darker fins than Cousteau)
Cousteau (lighter fins than Stevsie)

'The Todd' the Threadfin Butterflyfish (Chaetodon auriga)




Two sand sifting snails (i think) that berried them selves in sand immediately and haven't been seen again! They shall hence forth be known as the 'interns'.

Lights, camera...Bollocks!!!

A near fatal disaster this morning forced my undersea friends to go with out light this morning. When i purchased the tank they manager at the shop told me i should cut a gap in the lightings casing so that the protien skimmer could fit. With the containment of the lightings electronics breached the water from condensation began to creep in, along with the bubbles of water from the top the transformer dramatically blew up.

I turned on the lights as the timer was wrong and with a hiss and a pop sparks began flying out of the hole on the light enclosure. So I quickly turned the tanks lights off and removed the lid.

After calling the shop apparently they forgot to tell me to cover the new hole that I had cut. Fortunately they have now replaced the lid with a new one (that doesn't have a kick stand, bad times).

So now I have to cut a new hole for the protein skimmer and then make and seal a barrier so this doesn't happen again!

Where did you come from???

After the morning feed for my tank i was watching all my little invertibrate friends scurrying about when i spotted a hermit crab i was sure dead. As you may remember i lost one of my dwarf and one normal hermit crabs, bad times. But out of nowhere humphry has appeared happy days! Bringing the death toll down to 4 :)

Stay tuned as today im getting some actual fish! :D

Arrow to the tank!

Ive picked up two new Turbo snails today called Sam and Shaun 2.0


as well as a new addition

Arnie the arrow head crab


and Falacio the Feather duster worm

The Invasion Began...

The Hermit crabs invaded snail country!!

The snails that seemed so happy, one morning I found that Cross had over turned Sam and Shaun in a quest for new shells.

After research it turns out that Turbo snails cant turn them selves over :'( and they died.

New Members

After my first test that meant that my water is nice and safe for life. These will be added to the two Dancing Shrimp (Hoff and Bunny)

MEET THE CRABS!

3 Hermit crabs; Chris, Cross and Griffin
2 Blue Dwarf Hermit crabs; Herbert and Hubert

MEET THE SNAILS!

2 Turbo Snails; Shaun and Sam

with some empty shells for them to play with, but dont worry there will be more to follow!


The new populous acclimatising


Just after landing in their new home


Scurrying off in all different directions

First Test

Right with the aquarium wanting to charge £5 a water test, I decided to buy a test kit, which will save oodles of money in the long run. After performing the first test the results are;

Date: 17/7/09
PH: 8.4
Nitrate: 0.1
Phosphate: 0.5 - 1.0

With the results in mind time to go to the fish shop to buy my clean up crew.

Welcome one and all!

Monday has arrived and its time to visit the Aquarium wooo. The manager was expecting me he knew exactly what i wanted and it was these..



Two pretty little dancing shrimp (Rhynchocinetes uritai)!

I shall call them Bunny and Hoff - The life guards!



Taking them home we placed them in the tank with the light off for 15 min.



Tea break....

Back again they seem rather comfortable, so i opened the bag and dropped them in. They quickly found them selves a place to live.

Now to leave them for a couple of hours before i return to them to put the lights back on and take some photos



Lunch time....

That toasty was amazing but time to check on my new friends.

They seem rather busy cleaning the whole tank from the top too the bottom, ill leave them too it. But as soon as they have found them selves a little cave in between some of they have hidden. I guess they will stay there till they feel more comfortable.




The lighter on is Bunny, the darker on with the mustache is Hoff.




More photos will follow when they work there way round to the front of the rocks.

Patience is a virtue apparently

Well with Simone ill from swine flu (probably) ive been bored and doing some window shopping online because i cant buy anything till tomorrow.

Oh there are so many beautiful fish I can buy. Remembering my conversations with the local aquarium owner, he can order me pretty much any thing i can find on the net.

Well look what ive found!



One of my favorite things to hunt for on dives are these beautiful little worms called Nudibranch's they come in all shapes sizes and beautiful colours! So when i go and pick up some shrimp on Monday im going to ask about these beautiful critters.

The Waiting Game

Now my tank is ready to go, all i have to do wait until the tank's temperature ph and bacterial levels are ready for life to be placed inside.

First step is to place cleaner shrimp on monday, these will start to eat the bad forms of bacteria and start making the tank ready for other less durable life.


















Then at the end of the week more of the cleaning crew such as hermit crabs, turbo snails and the like.

I cant wait!

Purchasing

10/07/09 - Purchasing and Construction

The next day i dragged Gayna in with me to the aquarium again. I hunted around until i found the size tank that would fit in my house. I flagged down a shop assistant and told him i wanted it, he asked me what for and I explained, he enlightened me to the fact that this tank although a good size wasn’t nearly suitable for what I wanted. He took me over to the marine tank section, there stood several nice looking tanks with considerably larger price tags. After lots of consideration and being told that the biggest one wasn’t actually in stock, I went for the 100 Lt tank.



Included in the tank was;

The tank obviously
Thermostat
2 pumps
Lighting system built into the lid
Water purifying solution ( i dont need this)
Water filters (carbon, bio filters, etc)


On top of the tank (without stand) I had to get;

Protein skimmer (slim line version)

Current generator

2 x 1.5Kg bags of Live sand

3 x Live rocks

3 x 25Lt (75Lt) of Pre-made Salt water


They gave me a thermometer that sticks on the side as a gift as id spent so much hehe. As well as £30 of store credit when I returned the three jerry cans in which the salt water came in.

So now I had every thing, after some ‘Tetris’ style stacking in my car I managed to fit it all in. I drove my self and Gayna back to my house where we proceeded to unpack and play with everything. After much fiddling and reading of rubbish instructions we determined that the box set was missing one of the pumps that were needed and that the micro protein skimmer wouldn’t fit in the tank. After calling the Aquarium we took the skimmer and the pump to the store where they gave us the second pump. The manager showed us how to fit the protein skimmer in and how to damage the lid that so that it will fit. So now we took our stuff and went back home where we made some tea and tried again. We fitted the protein skimmer and the pumps, placing the thermometer in the new spot, we managed to fit it all in, HOORAY!

Taking the lid off and placing a section of it by the hob I heated up a knife and sliced through the plastic like it was butter. Putting the lid back together, I was now ready to start filling my tank.

Taking the first jerry can I emptied into the empty tank. I then took the two bags of live sand and opened them pouring them into bottom of the tank. Smoothing the sand out so it evenly covers the bottom. Filling the bags and pouring them out over and over again so I got all the obscenely expensive sand out and into the tank. Now for the fun bit, opening the live rock bags I placed them where I wanted them. Balancing one ontop of the bigger one so that it created an overhang it looked great. I now have to add the other two jerry cans of water into tank. Slowly pouring it using a jug so that it doesn’t disturb the sand that much or break the rocks. When the jerry canns were light enough I could pour them directly into the tank, pouring them onto Gayna’s arm to disperse the water before it trickled in worked rather well.

With all the water in, the rocks and the sand as well, all the equipment is set up and ready to go, time to turn it on!

With the water all murky time to go get put the kettle on.

Hours later I returned to see my beautiful tank ready!

Research

08/07/09 - The discovery

Well ive decided to get myself a fish tank for my birthday. Ive kind of always wanted a fish tank and to keep fish, but ive never really liked the look of any fish ive seen in shops. That was until i was out shopping with Gayna (mother in law) she has a tropical fresh water tank. When we went into the Havant aquarium and there i see a massive red sea fish tank. Next to this massive display were a series of smaller tanks with some beautiful fish for sale for reasonable prices, I was over joyed! Right that's what i want to do. I went home buzzing with ideas i spent several hours on the internet looking at fishes :D