10G nano journal

[th08tu]

I hope you are right. This morning I poked around the tank again, removed a lot of rock and stirred the sand a little bit and no signs of him, so I am leaning towards he is gone. I just wish I understood where he went so I can make sure it doesn't happen again...

 

[joy13]

Gobys like to hide and are very good at it also good jumpers.

If it died your CUC probably took care of the body. if you can't find a fish in the future look for the CUC when you see a bunch of them together they are finishing off the last of the missing fish.

 

[SLove1104]

I had an eel disappear from my freshwater 90g once... Nothing in the tank with him but a pleco... Checked behind the tank, the filters... everywhere in and out of the tank. Never found him... lol. I suggest you try looking OUT of the tank... behind the tank, under crevices he may have flopped under, the filter, etc... I've had fish somehome jump out of very small spaces in the top of the tank and flop their way under the tank stand! Acrobatic little things...

 

[Etunes]

You would be suprised how well things can hide in a tank. I would have like a week or 2 i would just watch for him to make sure. Because if you have not seen him by then and he was dead then he got cleaned up by the CUC.

 

[th08tu]

ok so I just did a water test and I think that worst has happened, my ammonia had risen to 0.50. Sadly I think that means I have lost him, as my cycle is over and I don't know what could be the source of that much ammonia, even in a tank that small. I hope you are right Etunes and that he shows up soon, I did a pwc this morning to lower the ammonia, but I am at a loss for what is next. Anyways I will keep updating in the days to come...

 

[Etunes]

If the ammonia spiked like that he is probably buried in the sand and dead . But i would still watch for him just in case.

 

[th08tu]

I hope you are right... I will give it a few days before I purchase new ones though, just in case he does show up...

 

[th08tu]

Ok so time for an update, and pics will be coming wednesday I promise! Anyways I have good news and bad news.
Th good news is my fiance replaced my missing clown with two more clowns, a small zoo colony, and a cup mushroom that is about the size of a ping pong ball.
I added the clowns a few days ago, and the zoas and mushroom tonight and I think they are all doing pretty well. The clowns stick together most of the time, they haven't really hosted anything though. The zoas have even opened up already which I was kind of surprised as the salinity at the lfs was off of mine a bit.
The mushroom also I think is doing ok, although it is still shrivelled up. It is purple with fluorescent green on the inside. I am hoping it will adjust to my tank in the next few days and then open up fully.

And now for the bad news...

Since the mushroom and zoas were a surprise for me, I didn't really get a chance to research them. She said that the lfs person said they would be good in a nano and I am sure they will mostly however after doing some reading I saw that the mushroom can actually eat fish! First of wow, and second, how worried should I be about this? Like is it really rare and only when they get big, or should I return the mushroom, because honestly if it takes a bite out of my clowns I will be pretty mad. Has anybody ever heard of this?
As for the zoas, they are purple with green on the inside also, so it is a nice colour match I guess, and I know that they are reef safe so I am not too worried about them.
Anyways love to hear what you guys think about everything, especially the mushroom!

 

[th08tu]

as promised I here are the pictures of the tank. The only thing is I woke up this morning and saw a monster algae bloom, it looked like snot all over the tank. you will see what I mean in the pictures, tomorrow I have the day off, so I figure I need to change somethings drastically! I have a fluval 304 that I will hook up, running a phosphate remover, and I also picked up a cheap protein skimmer so I hope it works. Currently the tank reads 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and 0 nitrate. Phospates I am not sure because I haven't been able to pick up a test kit for it yet. anyways here are the picks below, comments are more than welcome!

 

[lkkmateo]

Well i must say that looks like a drunken green webbing spiderman played a prank on you. Still looks nice or should when the algea is gone

 

[th08tu]

I love that! "Drunken green webbing spiderman" That is a perfect example! anyways I am starting today removing as much as possible and hooking up my canister filter, removing the two HOB filters to get a little but more flow with less clutter...

 

[0o.Kelsey.o0]

i have never heard of a mushroom eating a fish haha as far as i know they are very harmless...my brother has one that looks similar to yours and we have never had any problems with it

 

[th08tu]

alright good to know! I will worry less now lol, at least until it gets bigger...

 

[Aquarium1]

Yeah, ppl keep mushrooms all the time. Where did you hear that?

 

[joy13]

I know my mushroom ate a piece of shrimp about as big as my thumb nail, it didn't move like this one in the videohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHs3VHGnns8

Look close at about the 1 minute mark.

 

[th08tu]

yeah I knew you could feed them shrimp and stuff, but just through going through different threads I heard about them eating clowns that tried to host it.

As for the tank, yesterday I had a fun day... (Sarcastic) I took my canister filter which was being used on my cichlid tank, showered it so that anything on it died, and they put in filter floss, fluval clearmax, that is supposed to remove phosphate. Also I put in the foam that comes with it. I figure that I can use it to do the water changes and at the same time clean the filter weekly.
This morning that tank is still pretty gunky, but I don't want to turn on the canister full, because it is rated at a pretty high flow rate for larger tanks (Fluval 304) so I figure at between 50-75% everything is moving around nice without blowing stuff around, however if I turn it at full, no sand moves, so if you guys think it would be ok to have it at full, I might put it up there and see how it goes. What would be the warning signs for having too much flow?
also I had some more free time yesterday so I thought I would try my hand at a kind of DIY thing. I picked up an aquaclear 70 from the LFS, (On sale for 29.99CAD!!!) and also the biocube protein skimmer. I know you aren't supposed to need a skimmer for tanks this small but I figure it can't hurt. I took the motor off of the aquaclear 70 and switched it with the motor and impeller of my aquaclear 20. This way the flow rate is down to managable levels. Next I put the skimmer inside of the aquaclear chamber and began adjusting. I have never used a skimmer before so I am not sure if it is working ok, but I set it up where the foam coming up is just below the collection cup.
When I woke up this morning the foam had risen into the collection cup, however it was white, not green and brown like I think I am supposed to get. Anyways I emptied the cup and I am just going to let it go for a little bit and see how it goes.
Also I am contemplating doing a little bit more mods to the aquaclear to make it more of a refugium. I figure if I divide it into chambers using baffles I could potentially have a DSB with pods, and still enough room for the skimmer. I will post some picks in a few minutes of what I have gotten so far to see if you guys have any suggestions, but for now I am going to wait on the DSB addition.
Once again comments are more than welcome, and thanks for everybody that has already posted in my thread, truly this site is the best aquarium forum out there!

 

[th08tu]

here are the pictures as promised

This one is the whole assemby...

This is what I am getting in the collection cup...

EDIT: Oops I put the pictures with the wrong description, oh well I am sure you can figure it out...

 

[austinsdad]

Look up the rhodactis mushroom. They do eat fish.

Here's the excerpt I found:

Rhodactis
Rhodactis spp. have an oral disc covered with pseudotentacles that are usually branched. The edge of the oral disc in most species has toe-like tentacles, and there is often a naked tentacle-free margin separating the central oral disc from the edge of the disc. Some species have thick tissues, but many have rather thin tissues, much thinner than in typical Discosoma. Most are also slippery to the touch. Rhodactis spp., except R. cf. mussoides actively feed on fleshy food when it is offered, folding up the disc margins to envelop the food. The tentacled varieties of Rhodactis spp. tolerate and prefer much stronger light and water motion than most Discosoma spp. Large species of Rhodactis can trap fishes, in the same manner as the related genus Amplexidiscus. Rhodactis spp. reproduce by fission, pedal laceration, and a type of budding that involves the formation of gemmules both internally and on the surface of the oral disc (Sprung and Delbeek, 1997). ​

 

[th08tu]

thats kind of cool and creepy at the same time lol.

 

[th08tu]

ok so here is what I was thinking of for the next mod, the blue is a screen, the red a baffle to overflow water into the green box, where it will be about 3/4 full of sand, then the green will overflow into the skimmer compartment and through the screen back into the tank. That way I will get moderate flow through the DSB and less flow through the skimmer. I think I could switch the two compartments and have more flow through the skimmer and less through the DSB if you think that will work better, anyways comments as usual are always welcome!