another freaky event in my tank!

[mattseattle]

after finishing my normal daily chores on my tank i was cleaning the powerhead intakes and noticed something weird laying on the sand behind a rock. i reached behind it and pulled out what i 'thought' was my sally lightfoot crab. after examining it closer i realized it was only a molt. bizarre on how complete and whole it was. all the legs, claws, eyes were all there in one complete piece. i then thought my god what a tramatic experience that must be to shed your whole body like that in a single piece

my cleaner shrimp seems to molt about every 3 - 4 weeks but it's never as 'live' looking as the crab exoskeleton. it's more of a clear looking shell. the crab exoskeleton was just like a clone.

anyway that is my weird experience for today

my tank is doing well. the frags that i picked up at the frag swap are growing like mad. it's amazing how much growth corals can do in such a short time. i guess i expected them to take forever to grow but i swear i have probably 1/4" to 1/2" inch of new growth on one of the frags. i took me a little time but i have now managed to get my calcium up around 400 - 420 and seems to be stabalized. i read a disturbing post on reefcentral the other day. this person apparently raised their calcium level and didn't adjust their alk or something and one day they were trying to clean the sandbed and realized that it was hard as a rock. apparently it solidified. that posting kinda scared me. what would cause this?? was it just trying to raise the calcium quickly without having any major inhabitants using up the calcium and it just deposits itself into the sandbed?

ok think i've rambled enough!

 

[mojoreef]

Tank sounds like its doing great Matt, congrates. As reefers we like to keep elevated levels of cal and alk and that can have an effect on the argonite or CC beds. Keeping a lot of critters in the bed will make it turn over and thus keep this from ever happening. Also with out the critters the DSB is pretty much useless

Mike

 

[mattseattle]

guess after reading that i was a little concerned on that happening to my sand bed. i didn't know if it was a single event that triggered it or several events. die off of the creatures along with high calcium levels.

 

[Montanarocknreefer]

It is pretty cool how sally lightfoot crabs molt. I also have found the exo-sketeton a few times and there is just a small slit in the back of the main part of the exo-skeleton. It is really hard to see. I really like these critters! Johnny

 

[wooddood]

coral banded shrimp do the same thing. when mone did it the first time i thought i had another one it looked alive.