CORLZILLA

I can't wait to see all of these in the tank!

It's like Christmas morning around here.

Me too! The frags aren't huge, but I tried to make up for it in quantity

You did more than great!


I should dip everything but Sgt. Fred, right? I've never dipped anything other than corals, so I wanted to check. (And, I'm not giving away to the rest of you what was in the package until the photos are up. )

pm'd you

Got it! Thankfully I had NR up and refreshing while I was putting everything into the tank, so I could still read it even with wet hands.

Photos are uploading!

Woot!

DH sent me a wide range of things for the WL swap. I couldn't believe how much cool stuff he sent!

So... time for what you've all come to see - PITCHERZ!

Halymenia


Halimeda (with some more Halymenia)



Pavona


AOG Zoas


DH's Orange Zoas


GSP


Mini Nem


And their commanding officer, Sgt. Fred:


Thanks DH! This is awesome!!

hi5 man! So glad they all made it! Sorry it took so long to get you everything - I had to compensate for the wait by adding in more frags Here's some tips on that stuff:

1. Keep the halymenia in a low light area for it to retain it's deep red and flaming tips. I haven't quite figured out how to make it grow really fast, but it sure is pretty.
2. The pavona is an SPS - high light and flow - and it will actually eat meaty foods if you lightly spray some on its tentacles when they are out. It's aggressive and grows fast, so be careful where you place it.
3. The halimeda likes high light - it should get a nice deep green after a day or so.
4. The AOG zoas have been temperamental in my tank and never quite thrived - I'm hoping they take off in yours. The DHaut's Orange Zoas on the other hand have been hardy and fast growing.
5. The GSP came from BibleSue and I believe is from the C777 batch. It grows fast (very fast) like all GSP.
6. Sgt. Fred is a veteran nerite from the War of the Red Cottony Doom. He should serve you well. Either that or he'll go AWOL and you should check your floor for his remains.
7. I'm hoping the mini nem wasn't too damaged when I pried him off the rock (he was none too pleased). He'll likely move around a bit until he finds a spot that he likes. Once there, those things are a beast to get off the rock, let me tell you.

Enjoy!

I certainly appreciate it. T'was well worth the wait!



It's very cool looking indeed! Sounds like I'll have to keep an eye on the piece I put to the right. It's kind of shaded, but maybe not enough. I'll keep an eye on it! If I figure out a trick for fast growth, I'll be sure to let you know.



I never knew that pavonas ate! Will they take whole mysis, or maybe just the tiny bits that always show up when defrosting mysis?



Sweet! Part of it still has a nice green to it, so I can't wait to see the whole thing be that color.



I know whatcha mean. I have some pink zoas that I can't seem to get to grow much, despite other zoas taking off. I'm running my lights early today, because I can't wait to see what they look like when open!



So what you're saying is that this GSP really gets around.



He's already quite the trooper. I think he's looking to the rally the troops! I've actually found a nerite on the ground before... a day after I dropped it back into the tank, it was back to cleaning like nothing happened!




It seems like it's in OK shape. When I took it out of the bag, I couldn't get it to let go of the bag. I was wearing a glove, so I just re-filled the bag and tried to nudge it out. Then, it decided to make a home of my finger! So after a few minutes, I got it to move over to the cup instead. It's been doing a bit of moving around already, so I have a good feeling.



Thanks again, DH! My starry blenny is now cruising around wondering what just happened.

Sounds great! Can't wait to see those things grow out in your tank.

Now that things are settling in, it's time for the update photos.

The AOGs are still working on opening:


The DH's Orange are looking happy:


The Pavona looks so cool!


The halimeda is already greening up:


The halymenia is getting a bit of bright red to its tips:


The mini seems to be doing OK, but it's not in a good place for photos. The GSP hasn't opened yet either, but I've heard GSP can take a while before it gets its footing.

Wow! D did a great job! Nice shtuffs you got there MJ.

You ain't kiddin!

Nice!

give the AOGs some time - like I said, they weren't terribly happy in my tank (they would be fully open one day and closed the next and open again the next...schizo). They should open fully in a couple days for sure.

Yeah, I'm not worried about them at all. The one polyp is now open, although not completely extended. I'm thinking of putting the DH's Orange on the third (rear) center pillar. The AOG will likely go between the gooberz and the unnamed zoas. There's a bit of a step in the pillars between the two, and there's a crevase that is almost perfectly "plug" shaped.

I'm not quite sure where to put the pavona, so I'm open to suggestions! The same goes for the mini nem. I've read they like to be placed in the lower third of the tank, so I'm thinking of putting it near the sand bed, on the rock that forms the right part of the "wave break" wall of the acan "harbor."

Never can tell with the Mini's IME. I would suggest putting it where you hope it stays and cross your fingers.

I have them all over the 5.5- top to bottom and in between. Silly nems.

Yeah, I've read that one has to quickly learn that it's now the NEM'S tank!

Kinda like when a woman moves into your bachelor pad. Then again, the vet has said she really likes my place.

The Vet said them nem likes yur place??

Oh, I get it.

Never had that happen. I moved in with her and a few years later we got married. Err, lets move on shall we??

*true story*

For me, I think that's a ways off, even if things do work out between me and the vet. She seems like me, the independent and take it slow type (at least in that category), so I can't imagine having to confront that issue for a while. However, given that I already own a house, I don't think I'd be moving in with someone else.

Moving on....

So, now that the WL swap is (I believe) officially completed now..... when are we gonna do a swap again?

That pavona will kill any SPS near it...so take that into consideration.

And it's encrusting.

Hm, I never realized it was that rough! I may come up with an odd placement for it, somewhere it can encrust on a semi-vertical slope. Might make for some interesting growth patterns!

it will look like this one day:

...not yet. We had been together for a couple years already She needed to move out and really couldn't afford the tiny apartment. Decided to move in and help foot the bills. I think my bedroom at home was bigger than the apartment- also a true story While it was frowned upon by some in the family, Mom had known for some time that we would be married eventually and totally understood the situation.
Get this, we shared a twin bed for quite some time

See, it was fun in the end right? Once you get past the fear it's all good. Pack them as best you can and hope for the best.

I could only wish.


Although, I did notice just how much color my dry rock has taken on! It's still got a really light color from a distance; however, up close, it's a smattering of blues, greens, browns, yellows, pinks, and purples.

I'm also starting to think about doing a bit more frequent calc and alk dosing. I'd like to do something to start seeing a bit faster growth. Also, now that I've got a much more powerful RODI, I'll probably start doing more frequent WCs, which should help encourage faster growth as well. I just need to get another heater, and I'll really be in business.

It seems like necessity does tend to be a driving force in that category. I built my own bedroom in my parent's house, so I built it in the basement using the overhead footprint of the first floor living room. My room was something like 15' x 18'. Now, with a 1440 sqft house to myself, I'd have a hard time living in an apartment ever again.



Yeah, I know whatcha mean. Although, it would be frowned upon by more than half of my family. Hahah this is a great example of just how it would be: When I actually told my mother about me and the vet school girl, it was the day before the vet came over to my place for the first time. She was giving the usual motherly lecture about cleaning up the house, when she said "well, at least you don't have to worry about cleaning too much upstairs... because she won't be up there, will she?"

Yeah.....





Wow, I couldn't imagine even myself in a twin bed anymore, let alone sleeping in one with someone else!




Indeed it was! I'm glad I was able to ship SPS as a part of my swap package, so that I now know I can ship anything! Now I just need to grow some more frags!

I'm thinking the next fragging candidate is going to be the blue(ish) digi colony. I want it to settle in a bit more after it's crab problem, but in a week or three, I might lop off a frag or two.

I've decided to do a three day test to measure Calcium and Alk uptake in the tank. I'll post here for reference:

Calcium: 400 ppm
Alk: 8.6 dKH

While I was at it, I busted out my other kits as well.

pH: 8.2
PO₄: 0 to 0.03

The mini nem seems to be doing OK. He's climbing up the walls of the specimen cup. DH, how long should I leave him in there? Also, now that he's off the bottom, should I put some pieces of rubble in the cup?

Yeah, get some rubble in there and he'll attach to it. Or just peel him off the cup and stick him on a rock - either solution works. Start to feed him too. Anything meaty.

I'll get something in there today for him. I've got some mysis shrimp that should do the trick. I've actually got some rubble in my sump, so I'll go with that. I don't want to stress him more than necessary when I move him out of the cup.

Photo update:

OMG!!! It's the CLAW!!!








The GSP only has two little polyps open, so I'm holding off on a photo until it's looking its finest.

Also, with everyone talking about flatworms, I guess my subconscious mind was still thinking about it, because I noticed one of my older photos had some flatworm-ish critters on them. They were photos taken right after lights up, so I decided to hunt today at that same time. Are these the bad FW?



If they are, I've read that my non-chemical options are either a sixline or a coral banded shrimp. True story?

yeah, those are the ones I had. red planaria. most of the time they just go away or stay a small population. but if they get out of control, a six line will decimate them (Greta did).

Ok, that's good to know. The photo I noticed them in was old, so it doesn't seem like I've had a population explosion in the intervening time. I'll just keep an eye on them, and keep my fingers crossed. I don't like adding livestock not on my planning list if I don't have to add them. Then again, once I convert the 20L to a frag tank, it might make a nice home for a sixline, so I could get one for the 29g until the job is done, and then up to the 20L. Hm..... oh the possibilities. It would be nice to have the planaria wiped out.

what is that between the bottom 2 polyps? looks like some kind of living creature...

I took a dental pick to it, and it's hard and non-responsive. It looks the same as what's all along the outside edges of the frag. It almost seems like hardened superglue mixed with substrate.

that's probably what it is then.

HI5 SCOOBY DOO TEAM!

I think it deserves a few

This seems a bit strange. I just tested my water at 24 hours. Strangely enough, my Calcium and Alk tested to be the exact same, even using the higher accuracy methods with the Salifert kits.

means that your SPS aren't using it up all that quickly. test it over 3-4 days using the same kits and see what happens.

I had a feeling that might be the case. Just seems a bit odd. I'm planning on testing through the weekend, so I guess we'll see what happens!

Just how mobile can a mini nem be? He's not in his specimen cup anymore, and I don't see him outside of it either. There's an acan ech. nearby.... he wouldn't have fought and lost against it, would he?

uh oh, lol. i doubt he got eaten. they're pretty mobile critters. check is some lower light areas of the tank on the rocks.

Well, I thought I'd found him tuck under a small overhang at the bottom of the right pyramid, but when I tried to put food there, it had no interest. Then, I noticed that it had what looked like monti polyps, that retracted when I blew a turkey baster at it. Maybe a NPS gorg of some kind? It's in near total darkness. I don't think it's the mini, because it's got a bit of a curved, oblong shape, rather than the circular appearance of the mini. There's a lot of places on the rockwork that I can't see, so it's hard to tell where he is. I'm guessing he'll move toward the light as he doesn't get fed?

I fed the tank quite liberally today, hoping that it will induce him out (or he'll find some food), but the pavona and hydno sure are loving it!

I realized something this morning as I was contemplating the start of the conversion process for the 20L. With converting it into a frag tank, I won't have to worry so much about the appearance of equipment in the tank. So, I started thinking about that nice little MP10 in the 20L. Since the frag tank likely won't be overcrowded, I think that the return pump, a K1 and a K2 should more than do the trick for the 20L. That would free up the MP10 for the 29g, where I could produce the nice diffuse flow for the SPS colonies and give it a much cleaner look.

I'm just not sure where I'd place it. I could put it on the left, but that's where the frag rack is located. Maybe put it on the back wall, in the middle of the tank?

Still no sign of the mini nem. I'm sure he's tucked away somewhere, because there are certainly enough hiding places! Everything else is doing well so far. Today will be day four of my calcium and alk monitoring. During the first three days, it seems like my tank wasn't using any real amounts of Ca or Alk. However, I realized that evap might be keeping the concentrations elevated, so I did a decent sized top off yesterday, so today should show some kind of difference.

It's very strange to have several days of identical tests though.

Oh, and I think I'm a few weeks away from a pair of new fish. I'm still leaning toward chalk bass, but I'm keeping my eyes open. My birthday is coming up soon, so that seems like a good time to get something new.

Well, it looks like my experiment for uptake had a flaw, namely that I wasn't topping off with RO/DI. The first three days (w/o top off) had consistent results of 400 ppm Ca and 8.6 dKH alk. However, after the test on day three, I topped off to the usual level. Now, on day four, there's finally a change! 390 ppm Ca and 8.0 dKH alk. I think tomorrow will be the last day of testing, to get a second data set w/ top offs, and then a WC to conclude the test.

In other news, the mini nem is still MIA. I'm hoping that since he move himself, or at least that's what I believed happened, he should be able to move himself back into proper lighting when he's not fed, right?

Mini must be happy, wherever it is.

It stinks that he settled in a hidden spot, but hopefully it will start splitting soon enough. With luck the clones will find "viewable" areas to their liking.

Yeah, that's really all that can be done. Those silly nems and their desire to pick their own homes.

Out of curiousity, how often do the minis split?

Oh, and here's a picture of what I found recently in the tank. It's more of an oblong shape, and it looks like monti-style polyps, but it's in the shade. I didn't put it there, so I'm not sure what it is!

In my little 5.5 I'd say once they find that happy spot and settle in every 2-3 months or so seems about average.

Although I have seen them split 2-3 times in one month, so who knows for sure.

Silly nems.

Oh wow, that's better than I was thinking! Of course, two to three times per month would also be great!

Just to make sure I haven't lost it already today.... what's in the photo is NOT the nem, right? I think I'll post the photo in the ID thread, despite how bad it is, but I want to make sure I don't already know the ID (but just don't realize it. )

Sorry T, these ol eyes can't really make it out in that pic.

And don't worry, if it -or its offspring- don't show up I think we can add one of those to a little spring time tradsie.

Unfortunately, that's the best photo I could muster. Between my camera's limited abilities and the fact that it's in the shade more than halfway back in the tank, it was tough getting even that picture.






Sounds great! When I convert the 20L to a frag tank soon, I'll also have a black/white/gray rock flower nem to move down as well. I'm still hoping the mini shows up soon though.