Blog Comments

I had a black ant get into my tank once and it got eaten by my acan. It was eventually spit out as a long stick-like mass of legs.

I had a wasp in my sump the other day! It is the middle of winter and the house is all closed up. What the heck! I have no idea where it came from.

I had to keep an eye out for stink bugs this year. They have arsenic in them which is what causes the odor, and they were EVERYWHERE. Luckily both of the ones I caught in the sump were still alive... as I could easily see them crashing a smaller tank :-\

I hate it when something unwanted shows up in my water. Roaches are nasty, and I don't want any bits of them in my reef.

That's a good idea Mockery, I like it. The Valonias that make it past the smaller tip won't clog in the wider tube. Time to find an adapter...

Get an adapter to increase the tube size to 1/2 in or so that way no clogging.

Just siphoning, no pump. Valonias are strong, I think they would jam the pump.

Were you using a pump or just siphoning water out of the tank?

Nice, looks like a pretty solid method. Hopefully it works and gets it all cleared up. My mithrax crabs put in a dent in the one large rock that I have covered with the stuff, but they havent made much progress in the last two weeks.

A long time ago I was sold a small carnation coral (Dendronephthya) and told that it was good because it was "low light." Suffice it to say, I knew this wasn't going to last when I looked up the info online. I was inexperienced and probably irresponsible by not researching my purchase, but any dealer worth your business shouldn't use ignorance to move product.

As a general rule of thumb, a dealer worth your business is one who: is interested in gauging your experience level as a hobbyist, learning about your system, and will tell you not to buy equipment/chemicals/livestock if it isn't right for you.

The last one is a biggie in my book. I'll gladly pay an extra $10-20 to a local vendor I trust. I will never support a disingenuous vendor who believes that "there is a sucker born every minute."

Yep, most emerld crabs eat Valonias. I had one, but it died after a few months in the tank. It did eat Valonias, but.... not as fast as they propagated given the level of infestation I have. Maybe if I had thinned them down when I added the crab he could have kept them in check (if he hadn't died, of course).

Problem is, no LFS here seems to have emerald crabs. The one I had I bought from a guy living in Ilhabela (Google Earth http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...h&z=11&iwloc=A) and I understand he fished them during snorkelling trips. But he moved, and I have no new supplier....

Will an emerald crab not eat bubble algae?

I do this alot! There are about 6 stores in my area and I go out of my way to go to the ones who truly care about their fish/coral and want to make sure they thrive!

Ok, so what's the permanent cure all snake oil for curing algae problems????

HAHAHAHA

if only.........

Emerald crabs love to eat them also! You may want to pop a few of them in ya tank too. ;-)

Yes, I'm planning to do exactly that. I haven't done it yet as I wasn't sure if it would be effective without further measures like putting in a UV sterilizer or fish that eat Valonia (a Foxface maybe). But after a lot of people recommended doing so (+1 with you, thanks), and reading some on the topic it looks like it will work in the short term.

Medium term, after the cleanup I intend to suck out the valonias that appear during water changes, popping them as I suck them out. In that way I expect that spores will be pulled out to the bucket. If it is not enough I'll probably get myself a UV sterilizer. Wanted to avoid that cost though...

that is a lot of bubble algae, I would take that out and scrape that off that rock. the polyps do look very good though.