Andy's rebooted reef

[ajm83]

Just reading up on those Dinoflagellate things and they, or most of them, feed by way of photosynthesis and that makes sense why I've heard a few marine-tank keepers complain about an abundance of Dinos ... The lights on just about all of the marine tanks is enough to give someone a tan sometimes (it seems that bright anyway) so it does make sense why they're a problem. I also read that they require lots of nutrients to survive so maybe the issue could be too many nutrients rather than a lack of???

Also reading up on a specific reef site and am I right in saying that the type most commonly found in marine tanks is often referred to as "slime algae"? ... Sounds like horrid stuff, for your tank anyway, especially seeing that there are species of Dinoflagellate that can release toxins and kill everything in the tank!!!  ... I've read a couple of times that there are species of Dino that release toxins often referred to as "red tide" that can harm humans if ingested.

Yeah they are a massive pain in the bum and I wouldn't wish them on anyone!

I had at least two types, ostreopsis and amphidinium.  Ostreopsis in particular is very very toxic and killed all the snails and cleanup crew in the tank. 

I'm 100% certain it wasn't triggered by high nutrients for me, as phos and nitrate were 0/0 for months beforehand. 

There are many types though,  for example marine ich and velvet are caused by types of dinos,   I think zooxanthellae (which are the good guys which photosynthesize inside corals) are also a type of dino.

[TropicalFishForums]

[ajm83]

Got some new zoas/paly frags    Pardon the awful photos, not quite got to grips with photography yet!


OG Nightmares


Fire and Ice


Alien Antivenom (colours a bit weird in this pic)



Also getting some nice polyp extension on my acros



And my Devil's Finger leather is looking quite nice




I've got pretty bad diatoms on the glass since adding the new rock, but I'm just going to let them run their course I think.

[Suelo]

Great pics!

[kas]

I think the pics are great. Can't wait to see what you produce when you get the hang of photography?!

[Gingerlove05]

Very nice pics looking good, i do like the devils finger its very pretty


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[plankton]

I think the pics are great. Can't wait to see what you produce when you get the hang of photography?!

Yes, I was going to say similar, but was tempted to be a little more explicit!

[ajm83]

Very nice pics looking good, i do like the devils finger its very pretty


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Thanks GL, I like it too but it's a bit of a weird coral actually!  It looks fantastic when it's all puffed out. But it spends probably 75% of its time either flopped over like a semi-deflated balloon animal or shedding its weird mucousy waxy layer. Kinda gross TBH 

I think the pics are great. Can't wait to see what you produce when you get the hang of photography?!

Yes, I was going to say similar, but was tempted to be a little more explicit!

Thanks both for the kind words   I'm still trying to fight the urge to get a second hand DSLR and a decent macro lens! So frustrating not being able to capture how it looks in person.

[Pilgrim89]

Corals look amazing Andy!

The Devil's Finger sounds gross but awesome at the same time 

[ajm83]

If any of you get a chance to go to the London aquarium on the south bank, do it!

I was lucky enough to receive a behind the scenes tour from my 2 year old (she apparently knows how to use a credit card already,  they grow up so fast    )

Unfortunately virtually none of my pics came out due to a big splodge of sun tan lotion over my phone's camera lens  but I got a few bits that might be of interest:


QT setup.  Currently they are suffering an unknown disease among their tang population which looks almost like eczema, and each fish in here is being treated with a different medication. 


Their frag tank.  Mostly illegally imported corals which have been seized by customs.  Biologist dude joked one of the pieces in there was probably worth more than his house  It was a very large and pretty rainbow chalice. Google that and imagine it two foot across!


Feeding regime


The guy who took us round was really funny and interesting, so I highly recommend it!

The aquarium itself is awesome,  there are two central tanks, one holding sharks, guitarfish etc and another holding rays and sea turtles.  Really really nice!



Curiously the piranha tank in the last pic is also full of about two billion guppies which have somehow avoided becoming lunch.

Also noticed they were suffering from dinoflagellates in one tank which made me feel a bit better about my own tank 

[plankton]

Looks like a good trip.

[ajm83]

Ugh, just bought a coral only to find it covered in flatworms 

Luckily the dip (currently using Coral Revive) seems to have killed them all, but apparently it doesn't remove the eggs.      Into the QT tank you go then!! 

[Drunken horse]

I dont know why shops dont treat for that kind of thing before selling (well I do its so they can sell you treatments and new stock (repeating the pattern).  But I see so many people pack in marine because of problems brought in on corals and then you have people like me put off by seeing others have those problems.

 You'd think it'd be smarter long term to produce from clean stock or to treat corals for nasties before putting them on sale.

[ajm83]

I dont know why shops dont treat for that kind of thing before selling (well I do its so they can sell you treatments and new stock (repeating the pattern).  But I see so many people pack in marine because of problems brought in on corals and then you have people like me put off by seeing others have those problems.

 You'd think it'd be smarter long term to produce from clean stock or to treat corals for nasties before putting them on sale.

Some pests are hard to treat, but I imagine it's mostly laziness. 

You get what you pay for TBH,  never seen any pests on corals from from AAC.  If only I could afford to get all my bits from them!    The owner was saying every time they move corals between tanks they dip it again to ensure nothing gets cross contaminated. 

[kas]

Ugh, just bought a coral only to find it covered in flatworms 

Luckily the dip (currently using Coral Revive) seems to have killed them all, but apparently it doesn't remove the eggs.      Into the QT tank you go then!! 

YUK. Glad you spotted them, but the LFS should have treated their stock beforehand, just good practice, even if they are a bit cheaper than AAC. Not good!

[ajm83]

YUK.

 

Although funny enough there are some really nice looking ones...




Mine sadly looked like this


Apparently these ones eat snails