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SeaHorseQueen
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He’s awake in this one but difficult to see. He had a bowl movement before he went under.
Sick Mandarin Dragonet-Acting wrong
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MischiefReef
Active Member
Don’t panic, I believe it’s just sleeping (as evidenced by the color fade in the photo)
Judging by his belly from the photo, he may have also fed a bit when you weren’t watching the tank. Compared to the Thursday photo he is looking a bit plumper. Keep up the good work!
Videos do not load for me unfortunately, sorry!
Judging by his belly from the photo, he may have also fed a bit when you weren’t watching the tank. Compared to the Thursday photo he is looking a bit plumper. Keep up the good work!
Videos do not load for me unfortunately, sorry!
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SeaHorseQueen
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I’m trying to keep calm. I consider even my fish like my dog and horses as family so it’s not been easy. According to my brother who is basically fish sitting for me while at work, he’s moving around in the tank and hides from my brother under the rock when he walks into the kitchen. He hasn’t seen him pecking at anything but he also doesn’t know my brother. He must have some kind of energy to be retreat under the rock. I hope he is eating. The pods were actually landing on him this morning without a flinch which is strange enough.
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SeaHorseQueen
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He’s back to eating. 
He’s taken out a good half of the pods already. I have him a heaping gram of fresh live
bbs.
He’s taken out a good half of the pods already. I have him a heaping gram of fresh live bbs.
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SeaHorseQueen
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Hopefully. I have two more bottles of tigger pods and plenty of live bbs for him. I might consider restarting the copepod culture. It’s not as good as it should be.
That tank is too small and too sterile to have a pod population to sustain a Mandarin. You are just going to have to feed him, which can be expensive, or get a larger tank.
I would increase the light periord to normal 12 hrs. The light is energy input to the tank, and will get things growing. The pod population need food to grow and reproduce. Life needs light. Light in a reeftank is not just for your viewing pleasure, the fauna and flora in the tank require light directly or indirectly to live and thrive.
I would increase the light periord to normal 12 hrs. The light is energy input to the tank, and will get things growing. The pod population need food to grow and reproduce. Life needs light. Light in a reeftank is not just for your viewing pleasure, the fauna and flora in the tank require light directly or indirectly to live and thrive.
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SeaHorseQueen
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Are you referring to the 20g main tank? I haven’t posted recent pictures of how the coralline algae spread all over the tank. I dose phytoplankton for the copepods and bbs when they are past their prime. . He’s been in the hospital tank since last night.
Tired
2500 Club Member
The main tank is, evidently, not able to maintain enough of a pod population to keep him fed. You're going to need to heavily feed appropriate live foods until you can get that larger tank set up and ready.
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SeaHorseQueen
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This is my main twin he was in. I need to figure out how to get it off the glass at least without scratching it. I do dose phytoplankton so it has added bonuses.
This is my main twin he was in. I need to figure out how to get it off the glass at least without scratching it. I do dose phytoplankton so it has added bonuses.
You should add lots of macro algae to grow in. This would help the pod population a lot in such a small tank.
The way it is now isn’t likely to work long term.
Dense macroalgae tanks do wonders for pods.
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SeaHorseQueen
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Do I need to switch to a reef salt or will I be ok with Instant Ocean for adding that? I was reading an article on Macroalgae and it mentioned the other minerals that it requires that you would normally test in reef tanks verses just rocks and sand.
Uncle99
7500 Club Member
Some great tanks on IO.
Don’t change salt, that just destabilizes the tank.
Salt is salt. It’s what you do with it that counts.
Tired
2500 Club Member
IO is fine. It's calcified macros like halimeda that need a lot of minerals, and those are in any acceptable salt.
You can scrape coralline off of glass with an acrylic scraper, or a razor blade if you're careful. And that is still not a mature tank in the slightest. Particularly not given the patches of what look like cyano.
Jam-pack it with macros, and that might help some. But, really, the best you can do is upgrade to a larger tank.
You can scrape coralline off of glass with an acrylic scraper, or a razor blade if you're careful. And that is still not a mature tank in the slightest. Particularly not given the patches of what look like cyano.
Jam-pack it with macros, and that might help some. But, really, the best you can do is upgrade to a larger tank.
instant ocean is a reef salt. I use it in my reef and so so many others.
water changes will replenish trace but if you see some macro struggling they make stuff for that too like cheato grow. The hardier macros seem to do find without it though.
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SeaHorseQueen
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I read that coralline shows it was maturing? How do you get rid of cyano?
Tired
2500 Club Member
Coraline shows the beginnings of maturity, not a mature tank. A mature tank won't have white on any properly-lit rocks.
Cyano is a sign that either something is awry with the water parameters (nutrients out of whack, dissolved organics too high), or just something that happens when the rock isn't yet covered in algae that competes with it.
Cyano is a sign that either something is awry with the water parameters (nutrients out of whack, dissolved organics too high), or just something that happens when the rock isn't yet covered in algae that competes with it.
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SeaHorseQueen
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I’ll do a water change and see what happens over the next two days. How long does it take to treat cyano with water changes?
Tired
2500 Club Member
You need to actually check your nutrients first. Cyano can be a result of low nutrients interfering with your biodiversity, in which case water changes will make it worse. It's also not a problem in itself, it's a symptom that something is potentially awry.
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SeaHorseQueen
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I’ll have to invest in a Hanna checker kit then because all I have is the API liquid kit and the KH/GH tests.
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