My 10gal Nano

[jandree22]

Here's my tank! Being away the past two years at school have really limited my money and the time I was home, so it's nothing at all impressive I also have those friggen white spec thingies all over the back of my tank and I never got around to scraping them off yet....they don't bother me too much though. I've kinda put this tank on hold because of my 75gal. project. These pics are kinda old and my 'shrooms have like doubled in size! BTW, would someone please let me know if they're ricordea or not? My LFS sold them to me as a 'mushroom rock' but they appear to be rics. Thanks!

---Tank Specs---
10gal. All Glass
Whisper 1 HOB(for Chemi-Pure)
100W Visi-Therm Heater
72W PC... 10,000k & Actinic
SeaClone Skimmer(sitting in storage, so i figured I'd throw it on)

12lbs. Fiji LR
15lbs. Aragonite sand
Yellow-Tailled Damsel
Occelaris Clown
10 Nassarius
5 Astrea
1 Red-Legged Hermit
Mushroom(ric?) colony
Numerous fanworms on LR

any questions or comments feel free!

 

[reefann]

Are those white things calcium deposits? I have had them before to.
JJ
_________________
weed joints

 

[brandon4291]

Those white specs are likely the very sabellid worms I was describing in a previous thread. They are very good for the environment, filtering particulate matter and sending out tiny tiny fans that are colored bright red or possibly a number of shades. Scraping them won't hurt either, but I kinda like them especially if you look at them with a magnifying glass.

They deposit calcium and carbonate from the water column in a mucous casing which is the hard spiral you see...

The shrooms look like a variant of rhodactis species, a little different but very close to standard mushroom corallimorphs. Sometimes these guys like to feed, mine like to eat soft frog pellets that land on the disk. Nice tank, thanks for posting it over here so we can watch you change and grow it over time, it looks great and the animals are very healthy. I sa where Chip suspected they were ricordea yuma and they may well be, I suggest doing a google on both names and comparing pics to see which one they are.

Brandon M.

 

[jandree22]

thank for all them kind words :lol:

as for the white specs, I did notice that they have a tiny spiral shape on their underside, but I didnt notice any fans coming off of them... maybe I'm not looking close enough? You better believe, though, that I'm pulling the magnifying glass out after work today

 

[brandon4291]

Sometimes the fans are withdrawn, and then sometimes when they are extended they are clear and very small. In my systems the ones that have tiny white spiral shells are the red fan worms and for their size, these are my favorite colored sabellid. I have also seen slime castings coming from small white spiral shells like the ones you describe, these are different than fanworms in that respect (they cast and reel in slime strings with food particles) but they appear to live in the same housing.

Do you have any nitrate readings on your system? The skimming should keep everything in check, but Id be curious to see if it pulls it all out or leaves an average of 5ppm in the system considering the fish and its feedings. Water change routines affect this as well...

If the skimmer is oversized for the tank it probably keeps it at or close to zero. I like to hear people's feedback on nanos-with-fish to memorize some of the trends in nitrate from tank to tank.

B