Tuesday, January 27, 2004

Changed Shells

SWEET! Well I took Shanes idea, and I picked up a few shells from JL's and tossed them into the tank. The other day, while looking in my tank, I noticed a big shell moving. Odd, doesn't look like a snail, what could it be? I then noticed the shell of my Blue Legged crab, which was now empty. Looks like he found a new home, and a bigger one I might add. Nature is awesome!

On another note, all my readings are still the same. .25, and 0, 0. PH is around 7.8, 7.9. My damsel has the ick. I've noticed white dots, here and there on him. Comes and goes. I've been feeding him the food I got for him, soaked in some garlic. Seems like he's doing okay. He didn't eat much the first few days, now he eats everything. I may give him a freshwater bath to clean up the ick.

Saturday, January 24, 2004

GOT A FISH!!!

Okay a few things have happened this week. Wed: Went by JL, and picked up some more Invert's. I got 2 Bumble Bee Snails, and 8 more snails (mix of Astrea and Cerith's). I also stopped by at Big Al's on the way home. They had a special on LR for $3.99/lbs so I picked up 2lbs. Its a small rock, and its REALLY flat, I figured I could use it for support somewhere. I got bored in the evening, and so I mixed up the rocks a little to change the look. Nothing to big. Fri: (TODAY!) After leaving work, I thought I would drop by Fin-omenal Fish. They are located at blundell cntr, nice and close to home. Funny thing is I never knew they were there till Tyler and Trev told me about the place. Anyhoo, I did stop by there about a week ago, just to drop by, and say hi, and see what they have to offer. Just like my they just started up in the salt water (only fresh before). I noticed at the time they only had LR and fish. Cool just like me. Nice LR as well.

Anyways so today, I dropped by with Hiren, and thought I would take a look at some of the LR, as I really do need some more. I forgot how nice the rock they had there looked compared to what I have. And here I thought that my rock looked good! Their rock has tons of life! So I picked up a 8lbs rock, my biggest piece yet, and I love it! I noticed some small corals on it, hopefully they will grow bigger.

Anyhoo, so I was talking to the 2 nice ladies at the shop (Kate & Dawn), and I was talking to them about my setup, and what i've got in it (really nothing much) so they said they would give me something for free. A DAMSEL FISH!!

Honestly, I never really wanted to get a damselfish, mainly due to how mean, and territorial they are, but who would give up the opportunity for a free fish? So they caught him, and off I went home to acclimate him.

The scary thing was, I had to run and do some other errands. I didn't know I was going to be getting a fish today, so when I got home, I put the bag in the water, and left to run my errands. When I got back home, the fish was still in the bag, but lying on its side. I freaked!

I opened the bag, and put a little of my water in the bag, and lightly shook the bag a little. A fin moved. A little more water. The fish started to get up slowly. But he finally did. After about 15 minutes, I put him into my tank, and let him boot around. He's doing great so far, and its very cool to finally have a fish! Click on the pic on the left for more pictures.

Btw, up until today, my readings are all still 0, cept NH3 - 0.25. We'll see what happens now that I've got the fish in there.

Tuesday, January 20, 2004

Red Scarlet

So tonight, I went to check on my crabs. They seem to be more active after 9-10pm. I went and found the RS (Red Scarlet) and the BL (Blue legged) crab, behind a rock, close to each other. It looked like the BL was trying to get away, then the RS smacked him with her claw. "Her" you ask? How do I know its a girl? We'll I don't. Natisha thought because of her "smacking" or "beating", that it should be called a girl. Don't ask me why... Anyhoo, I was bored, so I took some video of the RS cleaning the rocks, looking for grub. Its not the best quality, buy you'll get a idea... click here for the video. Click on the image on the left for a new closeup pic as well.

Monday, January 19, 2004

New Pics

Sunday, January 18, 2004

Invertebrates's

Woot! Today I finally bought some live stock. Okay, not fish, but stuff worth watching!

I picked up the following from JL, one Red Scarlet Hermit Crab, one Blue Leg Hermits Crab, three Astrea Snails, and two Cerith Snails.

I brought them home, and left the bag in the tank for about 30-50mins. I then added about half cup of water every 10-15 minutes, about 3 times. They seemed to be doing well, so after 1-1/2hours after first putting the bag in the water, I took them out of their bags, and put them in the tank. I got to watch them for a bit. The Red Scarlet (still hasn't gotten a name) is the best to watch. It's the biggest one in there, over a inch big, and as soon as I put him in, he started rumbling around, throwing sand around and stuff. Very cool.

I was also board, and took a VERY small peice of shrimp and tossed it near Wormy. He took take to it, and grabbed it quickly and started eating/attacking at it. Very cool! I've left them in the tank so far, and went out for the evening, and just came back (about 5 hours later) and they seem to be doing well. Tomorrow I'll turn on the light, and see how they are doing.

Saturday, January 17, 2004

AMPHIPODS

So my mom must of turned of the tank light, and room light tonight. I thought I'd take a quick look at my worm (I'll now call him Wormy), so I went in the room, and turned on the tank light only. Zoom! I saw some little guy run across one of the rocks, and hide. WTH!? So I turned off the light, and returned about 5 minutes later, to check again. Again I saw the guy, but I saw 2 of them. Very cool. They booted around, and then went into hiding. Spoke with Shane, and told me they were Amphipod's. What are Amphipods?

Friday, January 16, 2004

Algea Growth!

So today I algea! Woot! Actually quite a bit. It seemed to come outa no where. Tons of green algea. I think they are called diatoms. I've noticed it growing in the sand, on the LR, and also on the glass! At least some more life is growing! I spoke with Shane (my personal saltwater guru!) who says it may be okay to add a few snails and crabs to my tank. Good thing they are on special at JLaquatics. I'll probably stop by tomorrow and pick up 1-2 crabs, and 4-5 snails to start off, and see how they do. My tank readings are still showing the same after 2 weeks now!

Wednesday, January 14, 2004

Update

Yesterday I went over to Shane's (Lostmind) house. I got a chance to check out his sweet 150g tank (looks WAY better than the pic). I also met his friend who lives downstairs, who also has a rad 90g tank. After a good 1-2 hours of chatting, staring (trust me, its addictive!), and tons of good info, I made a move on. Shane was nice enough to give me a cup of sand. Sounds like nothing right? We'll, wrong. A cup is good enough to seed my small tank with some type of different organisms and stuff. He was able to pick up a Spaghetti Worm as well. My first visible organism! Its really small, maybe just less than 3/4". Its right near the front of the tank, so you can see it under the sand, with the strands sticking out, flowing in the water. Shane's friend also was nice to give me a few peices of LR from his sump, which may also help up with the cycle my tank is going thru. So last night when I got home, I put the sand and the LR in my tank. I took a reading tonight, but as you can see below, there hasn't been any changes. The only other thing I did notice is that there is some red and green color on my LR that wasn't their before. I'm guessing its algea of some sort, which is good, but I'll have to read up on it. I'm guessing this is a good thing however. The wait continues... NH3 - 0.25 NO2 - 0 NO3 - 0

Sunday, January 11, 2004

Testin' Update

Well I went away for the weekend, so my tank was left to itself for a few days. I came back today to about 1" less of water. The shrimp that I had in there, is no longer looking like a shrimp. It looks like its covered with a bit of a webbin, so its starting to rot! I did my tests and came back with:

NH3 - 0.25
NO2 - 0
NO3 - 0

So not too much of a change yet. Hopefully this week I'll pick up some algea of Shane, and some Live Sand to put some type of life into my tank.

Tuesday, January 06, 2004

Last Few Days...

Well a bunch has happened in the last few days, I kinda forgot to post up about it, so here's a breakdown. First, I started a new area in the image gallery for all my aquarium pictures. Check them out here.

Here is Day 2. I filled up the tank with water, and salt, and you can see how cloudy it is from the silt from the sand. It stayed like this for a few days, and didn't get any better, and I couldn't take it.

So on Jan 2nd, my bday, I took out all the water, and sand, gave it a rinse, and put it all back together. The pic is from jan 3rd, but notice the difference. I also had picked up a filter for my powerhead which helped to cleaning up the water.

On Jan 4th, I thru in a cocktail shrimp to start up the cycle. Yesterday, I started my first DIY, and made a Acrylic cover for the top of the tank, to slow down the evaporation. I made it all on the CNC at work. Now i'm just waiting for the cycle to finish up, so I can start getting some livestock. I may pickup some more LR however.

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