Cuttlefish tank cycling.

[Jocco]

Yay! Peps are fun to watch. Mine found they can crawl under the return flow pipe and get into my overflow on the first night home. Be careful lol

 

[ekocak]

So, no peppermints available at the shop yet, but they're supposedly working on getting some more in. Tank seems to be doing well, and I will officially be at the 90 day mark on August 4th. There are many, many amphipods in the tank. Like. A lot. Probably because nothing is in there to eat them. I seem to be past the red slime explosion, but now have quite a lot of green hair algae.

 

[DWhatley]

Removing what you can and doubling your water changes should help with the hair algae (small crabs are good too).

 

[ekocak]

Did a big water change yesterday, and added 5 astrea snails and 2 emerald crabs. All accounted for this morning. Removed what I could by hand.

 

[ekocak]

I have been doing 30-40 % changes every two weeks, but it is becoming cost-prohibitive to buy my salt water. I am working on repairing my old RO system, I think it basically just needs a new membrane.

 

[ekocak]

Last night I did my basic water tests before going to bed, only to discover my pH had bottomed out at around 7.5. It's consistently been low, usually around 8. I can't remember if I dip-tested the water Sunday when I did the water change, but it must've been off. Pretty mad at myself there. Anyways, I had some pH 8.3 Buffer on hand, which i mixed into some distilled water and topped off the sump with. This morning the pH is 8.1. I hope the violent swing didn't kill anything, but as of this morning, everything seems OK.

 

[Jocco]

Oi, I hope all the water changes help soon and everything stays alive. I had a bunch of deaths, but I feel we have the hang of it now. I can't wait till you find some shrimpy buddies. We feed ours with a few straws stuck together - they go nuts when they see it enter the tank now, haha.

 

[ekocak]

Everything in the tank is doing well. Still have a lot of green hair algae, but for now I'm just trying to keep it from completely overrunning things by pulling it out by hand. Im also reducing the time i have the lights on. I also finally acquired a peppermint shrimp!

 

[ekocak]

Oh forgot to mention! I fixed my old RO unit, so I'm back in business! Gonna save me so much money. Now I just need to buy some salt....

 

[ekocak]

Hey guys, today is day 90! I'm officially ready. Now if I could just actually acquire the cuttles.

 

[ekocak]

So, last night I hooked up that RO system that I had sitting in my basement for the last 10 years. Last week, I had the guys at the LFS test it out with me, and we made sure everything was good, and that it still functioned. Amazingly, it works great. (this may in part be that even though I purchased it "used" all those years ago, all the replaceable bits had been replaced prior.) Anyways, it was functioning, and I thought we had been pretty thorough. Turns out, I somehow missed the fact that the faucet attachment is missing a washer. So, when I turned the water on, I got sprayed, right in the face. I'm going to the hardware store later.

 

[tonmo]

Turns out, I somehow missed the fact that the faucet attachment is missing a washer. So, when I turned the water on, I got sprayed, right in the face. I'm going to the hardware store later.

That'll learn ya!

 

[DWhatley]

Not too much worse (but not as funny) as having an octopus give you a saltwater shower

 

[ekocak]

So I picked up some more snails today and this one has some kind of coral growing out of it. Any ideas? I'm not very good at IDing corals.

 

[DWhatley]

I have something similar that has volunteered in my nano. I THINK it may be a form of Porites (mostly because it is very hardy and the first coral to grow back after a reef fails) but am not sure.