bler Posted June 25, 2020 Share Posted June 25, 2020 Hi Folks, Just wanted to introduce myself. Been out of reefing for almost 15 years but previously had a 125, 1.5 and 40 which I loved but since I was young, didn't own a home and grew tired of moving tanks, I eventually got rid of all my gear.. About 10 years ago, I found a TruVu 20g RR sitting next to a dumpster.. looked like it had been used as a FW tank in a school (water line well below overflow) and possibly in a store system as it was drilled for 2" overflow. It was extremely scratched but figured it would be a good project eventually. After recently purchasing a home in Longview I decided to finally bite the bullet and start looking into setting it up which was sped up by finding a great deal on some already cured and basically ready to go live rock! My goal with the tank is to focus on a clown/anemone and maybe grow out some SPS frags provided the anemone doesn't attack. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald525 Posted June 26, 2020 Share Posted June 26, 2020 Welcome to the forum !! I had a clown/anemone tank for about a year and then wanted to do sps again. It was fun! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MERKEY Posted June 26, 2020 Share Posted June 26, 2020 Welcome to the group! Can't wait to see a pic of your tank when its full! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bler Posted June 26, 2020 Author Share Posted June 26, 2020 Thanks for the welcome!! I'll see what happens with this tank, really just wanted to get back into the hobby again Last time I had reefs was in San Diego and I was heavily into the SDreefs community there, looking forward to meeting up and trading some goodies. My live rock, which basically sat in a tub with heater/pump for a few weeks, had a green BTA somewhere which apparently split into about a dozen (due to the stress?), so that will be interesting to deal with. I guess at least I don't have to buy one haha. Also a hitchhiker soft tree which I'm worried these might take over since there is a patch from removal before I got the rock that is starting to grow back. Also a few buttons.. oh and I think I'm starting to see some xenia hands showing up. Guess I don't even need to stock the tank haha. I also purchased a snowflake clown and a few frags to test the waters; favia as well as a monti and unknown acro. Also a little cleaning crew and cleaner and peppermint shrimp (had a few aiptasia which is has almost demolished) System is durso standpipe corner overflow to a old truvu wet/dry filter converted with just some LR and a protein skimmer at the moment. Entire system is maybe ~25g Ran a full bout of water tests and the results are as follows : temp: 76.8 Sg: 1.026, ph: 8.1 nitrate: <5ppm mg: 1520 alk/kh: 3.1-3.2 meq/l 8.7-9.0 dkh ca: 450 I'll have to get some photos once I get my aquarium photography chops up. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoralReefTankers Posted June 26, 2020 Share Posted June 26, 2020 Welcome! No need to to fine tune your photo skills. We all love pics here, even if they are slightly blurry 👍😁 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
albertareef Posted June 26, 2020 Share Posted June 26, 2020 Welcome back! Lots of "relapsed" reefers in this community - it's a hard hobby to completely walk away from for sure. Glad you decided to join the fray and looking forward to seeing how you "new" tank turns out. Sounds like you already got a head start on the stocking 😄 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Higher Thinking Posted June 27, 2020 Share Posted June 27, 2020 You held onto a scratched and beat up 20 gal for ten years?! Dang, talk about committed. Well glad you're onboard with PNWMAS. Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bler Posted July 20, 2020 Author Share Posted July 20, 2020 Just wanted to post a few photos.. as you can see, there are a lot of visible anemone's in the dt. They split from an unseen one as a hitchhiker from the LR Also some softies I'll have to manage later, probably be a bit of removal of what I don't want as well as some of the LR pieces. Tray up front with a few sps's and favia(favite). Been getting some growth while things are still settling in with the setup. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xxkenny90xx Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 Wow look at those little nems, very cool Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Higher Thinking Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 Just wanted to post a few photos.. as you can see, there are a lot of visible anemone's in the dt. They split from an unseen one as a hitchhiker from the LR Also some softies I'll have to manage later, probably be a bit of removal of what I don't want as well as some of the LR pieces. Tray up front with a few sps's and favia(favite). Been getting some growth while things are still settling in with the setup.Those are majanos. They are absolutely terrible! I'm really sorry, but those are a disaster waiting to happen. They spread everywhere and will kill everything. Those were a huge part of why I tore down my previous 180 gal tank (after they killed countless coral). I'd really reconsider starting over with different rocks. You can never rid your tank of them. Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bler Posted July 21, 2020 Author Share Posted July 21, 2020 so nothing will host in them? Aipstasia-X em out? It's basically impossible to find LR without any 'pest' hitchhikers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
obrien.david.j Posted July 21, 2020 Share Posted July 21, 2020 I've fought Aptasia multiple times. Don't buy Aptasia-X, use Frank's F-Aptasia instead. I've had much more success with this product. https://saltwateraquariumstore.franks-tanks.com/F-Aiptasia-Killer-Patented-Formula-p158766197 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bler Posted July 21, 2020 Author Share Posted July 21, 2020 well I already had aiptasia-X on hand and spent a few hours trying to kill all of them. Luckily there were only about a dozen and even fewer larger ones which I was able to eventually get the foot to drop hold, a few didn't release their foot so I'm assuming I'll need to give those another go after a while unless the cleaner and pep go to town on them while they are disabled. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bler Posted July 23, 2020 Author Share Posted July 23, 2020 So update, This morning saw a few of the feet survived and one moved around so I got back at it... ~6 hours later I think I got all the feet and remnants I could find, but I feel future damage control should be fairly easy being able to remove the rockwork if necessary and keeping an eye on things. My Method was blast with A-X, let sit and dissolve whatever it could, suck it out with baster/pipette and repeat till the foot was gone. Also the peppermint shrimp was also happy to join in the cleaning process The hardest were the ones upside down because I decided to see if I could get them while I was blasting the others before removing the rocks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oregonic Posted July 23, 2020 Share Posted July 23, 2020 +1 for F Aptasia, works a thousand times better then aptasia x. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bler Posted July 23, 2020 Author Share Posted July 23, 2020 Yeah, I'll have to order some of that.. I ended up with one that was a huge pain so I just superglued it in Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
albertareef Posted July 26, 2020 Share Posted July 26, 2020 On 7/20/2020 at 9:04 PM, Higher Thinking said: Those are majanos. They are absolutely terrible! I'm really sorry, but those are a disaster waiting to happen. They spread everywhere and will kill everything. Those were a huge part of why I tore down my previous 180 gal tank (after they killed countless coral). I'd really reconsider starting over with different rocks. You can never rid your tank of them. Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk Second this - these look like majanos and are way harder to eradicate than aptasia with no known predators that I am aware of. It would be worth trying the F-aptasia on these as I have recently also had much better luck with that than Aptasia-X on actual aptasia. No experience trying it with majanos as it wasn't around when I had my outbreak. Like Andrew, I tore down a large (125) tank because of these - they are not to be trifled with! Good luck! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bler Posted July 26, 2020 Author Share Posted July 26, 2020 4 hours ago, albertareef said: Second this - these look like majanos and are way harder to eradicate than aptasia with no known predators that I am aware of. It would be worth trying the F-aptasia on these as I have recently also had much better luck with that than Aptasia-X on actual aptasia. No experience trying it with majanos as it wasn't around when I had my outbreak. Like Andrew, I tore down a large (125) tank because of these - they are not to be trifled with! Good luck! Well, fortunately I have a 20g and the rock is actually pretty easy to move/relocate/etc. I feel like I was able to eliminate them all but there is always a possibility I missed one or some cells were left behind. At least they appear to like the light and will come out from the dark which helps with removal and finding them. Do they just pop up in large swaths within a few days? If they do return is manual (A-X or F-A) removal an option? These were on the rock for quite a while and did propagate but I didn't notice in anything uncontrollable if I had addressed it earlier. I noticed what looked to be some sort of BTA and should have taken note when they were propagating that they could possibly be a pest. Since you have some experience, what was the reasoning behind the complete teardown because of these instead of trying to eradicate them? A 100+ would be much more of a hassle then my nano so I could totally see an infestation of a tank that large as a major undertaking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
albertareef Posted July 26, 2020 Share Posted July 26, 2020 12 hours ago, bler said: Well, fortunately I have a 20g and the rock is actually pretty easy to move/relocate/etc. I feel like I was able to eliminate them all but there is always a possibility I missed one or some cells were left behind. At least they appear to like the light and will come out from the dark which helps with removal and finding them. Do they just pop up in large swaths within a few days? If they do return is manual (A-X or F-A) removal an option? These were on the rock for quite a while and did propagate but I didn't notice in anything uncontrollable if I had addressed it earlier. I noticed what looked to be some sort of BTA and should have taken note when they were propagating that they could possibly be a pest. Since you have some experience, what was the reasoning behind the complete teardown because of these instead of trying to eradicate them? A 100+ would be much more of a hassle then my nano so I could totally see an infestation of a tank that large as a major undertaking. I'm not sure about Higher Thinking's experience but in my old tank, I had too much rockwork to effectively try removing and they were expert at getting into crevices where physical removal wasn't a viable option. I tried the usual aptasia treatments to try and keep them in check but they eventually just got to a point where I had to pull the whole thing down - the rock baked in my driveway for about 6 years until I set another tank up - in which I fortunately have not seen them again. The way the F-aptasia works, however, there is a chance it could be effective in cases where it's impractical to take out the rockwork. If you can take it out (sounds like you already did) and remove them that way it's probably your best bet. Hope you managed to catch them early enough. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bler Posted July 26, 2020 Author Share Posted July 26, 2020 1 hour ago, albertareef said: I'm not sure about Higher Thinking's experience but in my old tank, I had too much rockwork to effectively try removing and they were expert at getting into crevices where physical removal wasn't a viable option. I tried the usual aptasia treatments to try and keep them in check but they eventually just got to a point where I had to pull the whole thing down - the rock baked in my driveway for about 6 years until I set another tank up - in which I fortunately have not seen them again. The way the F-aptasia works, however, there is a chance it could be effective in cases where it's impractical to take out the rockwork. If you can take it out (sounds like you already did) and remove them that way it's probably your best bet. Hope you managed to catch them early enough. Thank you for the info! I too hope I managed to catch them early enough I really only have maybe 4-5 decent sized LR pieces in the DT and 4-5 smaller ones so it is actually fairly easy to either turn them to get to all the places or remove them if needed. I haven't started mounting any corals to the rock so that should make things easier to manage if I need to cull some pests or even toss rock if needed. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bler Posted September 15, 2020 Author Share Posted September 15, 2020 got some new stuff after killing all the majano got more but getting my macro chops back in order so I'll have more soon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheClark Posted September 15, 2020 Share Posted September 15, 2020 Missed your intro thread, welcome back to the hobby neighbor! Then I saw the majonos, was poised at the keyboard to herald a warning. Then with relief I saw that you were in good hands. Nice new frags! Glad things are doing well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bler Posted September 16, 2020 Author Share Posted September 16, 2020 Yeah, I think I got all the majano's out of the DT, I found a few stragglers in the sump with some LR I got in there which were either removed or encased in carbonite(super glue) .. the peppermint has done a great job with any aptasia in the DT and things are going pretty dang well so far, I guess I paid the price for getting someone's 'leftover' live rock haha but it was established and probably saved me a good 6 months of waiting and I also got a few nicer hitch-hikers like a few cool mushrooms and I guess the kenya tree 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheClark Posted September 16, 2020 Share Posted September 16, 2020 Sure tough to avoid pests, glad you were able to wipe em out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bler Posted September 16, 2020 Author Share Posted September 16, 2020 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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