A few problems and Q's

Hello my fellow reefers!

So, first thing, my coral beauty is snacking on my nassarius antennas viciously. Even after feeding, he'll cruise around and just attack their antennas or other parts that are out of the shell... bummer. But thinking about it, I'd rather not have the snails, than not having the coral beauty. But still, is there anything I can do?

Second one: I'm tired of extracting the flat worms off my sump with the pipette. At first I thought this would help and numbers did reduce, but lately they just came right back, and apparently with a vengeance!! Fortunately, I believe they haven't made it to the DT yet, but it isn't sure. I haven't seen any there.
My question is; Will flat worm exit kill them AND my cope pods or is it only targeted to flat worms?

Third: I found yesterday the claws of my green emerald crab laying on the sand. I haven't seen him in quite a few days, and he could have molted, but he hasn't shown up for 2 days after the find. I haven't added any new rock that may have brought in a crab eating hitchhiker. I also have a red emerald crab that's been losing his solid red color, and is now looking kind of pale. Any thoughts on that too?

Fourth, and last one (for now at least): I have a greyish-white sponge, that has just been spreading everywhere, even in the sump. Every day I look, there's a tiny new sponge emerging from somewhere and I'm afraid my tank will be full of them in the near future. It would be ok if it was only 2 or 3 spots, but I didn't want it spreading all over. This one is some hardy one. I've had the rock where the main colony is out of the water a few times when moving stuff around. It never dried, but it was in contact with air for at least 5 minutes or more, but didn't die. Can I just scrape it off? I don't know much about them, but I have the feeling they will be back is scraped off.

Well, thanks for reading up, my friends. And as always, sorry for all the questions and thank you for any input on any of these issues. I really appreciate the help!

- Mag.

EDIT: Don't know if this is relevant, but here are my readings from tonight:

Temp: 79F
Salinity: 1.023
pH: 8.3
ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate: All at 0
Magnesium: 1230
Calcium: 420
dKH: 12.2
Alk: 4.34 meg/L

 

Hope that helps you a little Mag!

 

You always help me a lot RM!
Thank you for taking the time, buddy!!

I hope the green crab just molted and is hiding. How long do they usually hide for? The red one, he's been like that for at least 2 weeks. Does it take that long?

As far as my CB munching on nassarius, I will let them be and hope they'll back off. My hippo tang is doing the same with the nerites, but they seem to re-grow antennas in a matter of days. You can't see a happy, antenna wearing nerite on the glass though, he would get it in a heart beat!

The sponge... I don't know what to do. Maybe RO/vinegar on it?

Thanks again.

- Mag.

 

My big green one will be pale like that for a month or so then I won't see him for about 2-7 days but when I do he's real green again.

If you use an outside agent to kill the sponge on your rock you will kill everything on the rock. Just food for thought and don't want you to cause yourself a mini-cycle.

Hope the fish quits but doubt he will. Appearantly nerite antennae are delicious.

 

I may have to order that next time I go to the chinese place

Thanks again for the input. How's your mantis? Well, I'll go check over your thread

- Mag.

 

BTW. I was gonna mention you would get a better balance on calcium/alk if you get your Mag. up to 1450-1500.

 

I've been adding bulk Mg (epsom salts) but I'm not sure how much I can safely put in the tank. So I've been dissolving about 4 tea spoons in a cup of water and dumping that in the sump.

Any recommendations on how much is safe to add on a daily basis?

 

I just read on the additives calculator on here that you need to keep it under 100 ppm per day to be safe. I was kind of calculating the amount of epsom salts and it shows like I need to add cups of it instead of teaspoons. Now I'm trying to figure out how much with a cup of epsom salts raise my mg, so I can safely keep it under 100.

Anyone knows? In the bag it says 5 grams contain 495mg of magnesium, but I don't know how much that equals in ppm and if there is such a conversion. Also, I don't have a scale to measure up the amounts and adding. Just cups or half a cup, etc

Any help appreciated on this subject.

- Mag.

 

It depends on your water volume. For instance my system requires about 18.3 ounces to raise it 200 ppm.
There are risks of long term use with straight Epsom salt. You can have a lethal build up of sulfates. If you can afford it you should buy a bag of Mag from bulkreefsupply.com or at least raise your mag to desired levels then use a supplement like Kents Tech M to maintain the level.

 

To further RM’s comments on FW Exit:
I have used Saliferts FW exit in the past – I turned off my refugium pump and never had an issue with pod’s dying . The only thing is that you really need to nearly double the recommended dosage before it works…..but it does work well.