Vicki's 20G

[phoenix91]

Thanks. Yeah i like the look of the 20g too, the fact i have 3 lovely and different views is nice.

 

The journey of Fred the ridiculous blue mushroom

 

Over the weekend i sold/traded some corals but wanted to keep a blue mushroom. I cut him off his rock and have tried (unsuccessfully) to get him situated on a new piece of rock. He's been tied with string and rubber banded, neither worked and he managed to move.

 

 

I saw him yesterday floating around the tank and gently helped him into a cave at the bottom of the rock structure, it looked like he was going to stay there, all puffed up and happy.

 

Well, i came home from work and found him up on the frag rack with the birdsnest

 

 

Silly mushroom. When i do a WC tonight i'll pop him back in the cave and maybe construct a little wall and see if that holds him until he gets settled. I'd hate for him to end up stuck under the rocks or chewed by the powerheads.

[phoenix91]

Lots of tank maintenance last night. Glued the birdsnest in place and re-glued some zoas that the hermit had knocked off with his huge new shell. Moved a small rock and pulled bubble algae off the devils hand; also moved that into a slightly more open space to give it room to grow.

 

 

It's looking pretty in it's new place and the pink colour is really coming out.

[phoenix91]

After almost 7 months of having a saltwater tank i am still amazed almost every day by something in this tank.

 

Tonight i fed the tank mysis, the fish got their share and i spot fed the froggie, hammer, acan and war coral. The frogspawn opened up it's mouth so wide i sat and watched it take in 3 mysis one after the other, hungry coral. It eventually wrapped its tentacles in enough to cover it's mouth but that took a while. The acan took 1 piece and last i looked it was clinging to a piece of mysis so big i doubt it'll fit into it's mouth, the way it was contorting though makes me think it's going to try very hard. The war coral finally got something too, it never seems to want to take food but tonight it did.

 

Edit: yup, that acan managed it, it looks completely stuffed, possibly like it might throw up.

[msscha]

After almost 7 months of having a saltwater tank i am still amazed almost every day by something in this tank.

 

Tonight i fed the tank mysis, the fish got their share and i spot fed the froggie, hammer, acan and war coral. The frogspawn opened up it's mouth so wide i sat and watched it take in 3 mysis one after the other, hungry coral. It eventually wrapped its tentacles in enough to cover it's mouth but that took a while. The acan took 1 piece and last i looked it was clinging to a piece of mysis so big i doubt it'll fit into it's mouth, the way it was contorting though makes me think it's going to try very hard. The war coral finally got something too, it never seems to want to take food but tonight it did.

 

Edit: yup, that acan managed it, it looks completely stuffed, possibly like it might throw up.

I feel that way, too. The longest I've ever gone without being amazed by something is maybe 3 days. Sometimes I am so startled by how pretty it is that I get paranoid and worry about when it will all come crashing down .

 

LOL on the acan! My duncan did that yesterday -- one mouth opened so wide that I could see INSIDE the coral!! It was so cool. I tried to get a picture, but didn't move fast enough .

[phoenix91]

Oh me too, i worry that i'm feeding too much, not enough, that things will suddenly up and die.

 

It was so amazing, i've seem the corals eat before but never something so big, i've been dusting the new additions with baby brine and thought it was time to give them something bigger, i think they're glad i did.

 

For those interested my setup is in the LEDTRIC may contest to win a bulb/bulb setup.

If anyone has facebook and would mind going here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2...1022&type=1

please 'like' my picture and vote for my reef. i'm quite poor and would really like another bulb over this tank

 

Thanks.

[phoenix91]

Been away from home for a 4 day holiday, left my dad on charge of my tanks and cats. I got a call yesterday morning saying lizzy had ended up in the filtration section and he was trying to rescue her. Bless him he must have been there hours trying to catch her, I got another call after lunch saying she was back in the tank! He can take care of them more often. Although I'm still not home yet so I haven't really seen the state of the tank yet.

 

Poor man also had to look after my sickly cat and I think as some kind of punishment to me, or maybe just to keep me informed he texted everytime she puked. My poor dad needs a holiday himself after dealing with my pets.

[phoenix91]

Finally got a good look at my tank this morning after my vacation and Lizzy was back in the filter section, idiotic fish. I had to rescue her again, which is proving easier than i thought, she's finally accustomed to being caught in a net and was easy to flip over into the main section of the tank. I've fashioned some kind of guard which i hope will keep her where she should be; time will tell. i might have to experiment a few times with it.

 

The corals look okay, nothing looks dead, the acan has lost a head but i think that had started to happen before i left, i think i had it in too much light so i moved it onto the sand bed and it looks much better, minus a head. Everything else looks pretty decent, so i've mixed up water for a wc tonight to get that tank back on track. My dad did a pretty good job.

[msscha]

Welcome home!

[sublunary]

Glad your dad did a good job. I freak out when I have to leave my tank for more than a weekend. It's scary to put someone else in charge of something they really don't understand.

[phoenix91]

Welcome home!

 

Thanks

 

 

Glad your dad did a good job. I freak out when I have to leave my tank for more than a weekend. It's scary to put someone else in charge of something they really don't understand.

 

Me too, i left him very detailed instructions and made him show me he could feed my puffer before i left. I found out when i got back though that the cup he'd used to try and catch Lizzy was actually the cup i use for washing liquid for my clothes, so god knows what chemicals made it into the tank. Nothing has died yet and i did a wc, for far it seems okay.

[phoenix91]

Today was a tank maintenance kind of day, i finally got a scraper that could remove the coralline algae off the glass so i can see into my tank without purple splotches everywhere. I siphoned out some flatworms because they are ugly and were annoying me. Plus i did some fun things on my puffer tank, i finally installed the air stone i've had for a while, he's enjoying swimming around the bubbles.

 

A few photos.

 

The monti cap which bleached slightly and looked pretty bad seems to be recovering nicely. It's getting to be a nice vibrant red and even looks like it has growth along one edge.

 

 

The war coral still has it's strange white line, it doesn't look like it's changed, grown longer or gone away at all but the coral looks to be getting 2 new green mouths so i'm guessing it's healthy. I really hope that line isn't some weird disease.

 

 

and i just like this shot of the hybrid hammer.

 

 

Thawing out some mysis and getting really to spot feed the lps.

[msscha]

Cool! I've been thinking of getting some monti, but don't really know that my tank is a good environment for it! What kind of scraper did you get? I desperately need one. I don't want to remove the coralline from the back (I actually like it), but I don't want coralline or the hard green algae specks on my glass.

[phoenix91]

Your tank might be okay. Mine is attached to the rocks, not in direct light and with i'd say moderate flow. So if you put some in direct light (you have pc's right?) it should be fine. I think mine would grow faster if it was in direct light but i wanted it to recover from it's bleaching.

 

i got an api long handle scraper, i tried to find a pic but this is the closest i could find, it looks just like this but with a blue handle

 

http://www.marinedepot.com/Tom_Algae_Scrap...IMTASLH-vi.html

 

It worked a treat! i'm not sure if the blade will rust, possibly... and i'm not sure if i can change it out. i hope so. i was going to just use a razor blade but i know they rust like crazy. I have coralline everywhere i don't want it and no where i want it. i really want it to grow on the plastic the separates the equipment from the tank but so far it's just liking the glass. luckily it's spreading over the rocks quite nicely in little deep red patches.

[msscha]

Thank you!

[phoenix91]

Traded some small frags today and got a cleaner shrimp, his name is Mr. Collins. So far he's being a bit timid and hiding in the macros, but i think he'll do just fine once he's had a little time to get used to the place.

 

 

Found some new feather dusters.

 

 

My favourite zoas They're really starting to grow quickly now, new heads are appearing constantly.

 

 

The war coral still has that strange white line on it but it hasn't changed, plus the coral appears to be growing at least 5-6 new mouths so i'm not too worried about it.

 

 

and to finish, the babies. Lizzy is getting huge, she's much bigger than Darcy now and it looks like she's trying to make friends and play nice. I've seen her swimming right next to him and dancing, he's not into it right now and swims away but she just slowly follows after him. I hope he relents soon and they start spending more time together.

 

 

The only real issue i'm having with the tank right now is the flatworms, they're everywhere. I'm going to have to step up my siphoning, Bingley has stopped eating them i think so i might even feed the fish less and see if that'll encourage him to hunt more.

 

I rigged up a fan to help keep the tank at a stable temp and i'm glad to say it's working so far.

[msscha]

Nice cleaner shrimp!! I want to try again. The clowns are so cute. Maybe I'll work up the courage to try again...nice zoas, too, though I read an article this weekend by Shimek in Coral on palytoxin that scared the living daylights out of me. Now, I want to get my single zoas colony out of my tank altogether !

[phoenix91]

Thanks. I really like the shrimp, i'm so glad i got him. He's turning out to be quite the character, it's really funny to watch him scuttle around and grab food that falls to the bottom. He's still a little shy but i bet he'll get over that quickly. I have 5 small colonies of zoas/palys, i have to say i do wear gloves when i put my hands in the tank because i had a strange reaction to something in the water so now i always wear gloves. I quite like the colours they give that one rock and i love the orange ones i have, i have some lovely pink/purples ones too but can't get a photo that shows the colours off right. I think i remember reading a post on my local reef clubs site about a guy who was doing something with palys in a basement, maybe scrubbing a rock they were on in hot water or something. The vapour poisoned him and his whole family (who were upstairs), his family got mild symptoms but the guy was in hospital for a while.

[phoenix91]

Well poor Mr. Collins died for some unknown reason. He stopped eating and didn't move around a lot so i tested the water. The only thing that was slightly off was a tiny ammonia spike (no idea why the tank had that) so i'm assuming this is what killed him, although he might have been ill to begin with and he might have caused the spike. Who knows.

 

WC to get rid of ammonia.

 

This sucks, i really liked that shrimp. No new additions to the tank for a while i think.

[msscha]

Bummer! Mine died after only 3 days, and I have no idea why since params were good and both the peppermint and sexies did just fine. Weird.

[phoenix91]

Yeah, i'm pretty annoyed by it. Plus i now have a lovely ammonia spike going on and no real idea why.. JOY!! More wc's with added siphoning and cursing at the flatworms ahead.

 

But before that photos. My water is mixing so i figured i'd add a few pics.

 

Pink and fuzzy:

 

 

I was trying to get a top down shot and Lizzy was very interested in what i was doing. I'm glad she's settled down and i got to keep her around

 

 

 

Oh and i told my dad about the ammonia issue i am having and his response "if you can't cure it, just get a bigger tank and move everyone". I love my dad

[msscha]

Great dad you've got! I really like the top down. Lizzy is cute poking her nose up at the top of water.

[phoenix91]

Yeah, i think he's living vicariously through my tank right now (plus he did a great job of tank sitting, he can do that job again anytime). She is too cute!! I can't get a good shot without her in it, she just likes to see whats going on.

[phoenix91]

More corals on the way! Placed an order with saltcritters and it shipped today, i should have it by tomorrow since they're just one state over from me.

 

On the way is:

 

http://www.saltcritters.com/wysiwyg-zoanthids-k8/

http://www.saltcritters.com/wysiwyg-zoanthids-a35/ and

http://www.saltcritters.com/purple-haze-acan/

 

I took advantage of their rolling discount offer, got 41% off my order. I wasn't going to add to the tank but with that discount i couldn't resist.

 

Looks like i've got the water issues in my tank under control, i've been testing and doing wcs every 2 days (due for another today) just to make sure. I'll probably keep this up for a few weeks just to make sure then get back to a once a week schedule. Looking at the tank and the corals etc you'd never guess there was an issue. I think i'll take a sample of my water to the lfs for them to test just to make sure.

[CReef]

No problem. He's definitely my baby so i love sharing photos of him with anyone really.

 

He has a whole range of head gear. He probably hates that i dress him up but he's fairly tolerant The year before it was antlers. At halloween we're going to do a barn dress up contest, my plan is to dress him up like the TARDIS and go as dr who (matt smiths dr)

 

awesome tank

[got2envy]

Tank looks great! just stumbled onto this thread