Kijho's Fluval Spec V - Retired (almost)

[Kijho]

HE CAME OUT!!! The shrimp was ballistic and stirred up a desert storm. I genuinely saw a small tornado forming under-water from sand ... and the shrimp came outside of the cave and put his arms flailing in the air (calling the shrimp god or something) and the crab made a run for it and just got out. Oh I'm so so glad .... I think he's missing a bit of a leg though poor guy. He's perched now ontop of the sand/ rock area over the shrimp's cave.. and everything's peaceful and quiet again.

 

Hope he can swing back up and enjoy my reef now. Poor little guy, feel so bad for him. Hope my other emerald becomes his friend..

[hey]

HE CAME OUT!!! The shrimp was ballistic and stirred up a desert storm. I genuinely saw a small tornado forming under-water from sand ... and the shrimp came outside of the cave and put his arms flailing in the air (calling the shrimp god or something) and the crab made a run for it and just got out. Oh I'm so so glad .... I think he's missing a bit of a leg though poor guy. He's perched now ontop of the sand/ rock area over the shrimp's cave.. and everything's peaceful and quiet again.

 

Hope he can swing back up and enjoy my reef now. Poor little guy, feel so bad for him. Hope my other emerald becomes his friend..

 

hope you got a female, from all accounts I have found on female vs male emeralds the females are far less likely to destroy corals. Not to say its 100% ganna happen I just made it a point to minimize my chances of it by seeking out a female for my tank.

[Kijho]

Well, my tank's doing pretty good - most corals are thriving with a few exceptions:

Torch has begun to sting the HELL out of my green Acan that currently is glued to the top of the rock I have. It pretty much brought one of the mouths down to the skeleton overnight. The other is angled away and hasn't been too affected

 

I've also got a TON of bubble algae. I pulled out some huge chunks lately, but now I've gone TONS of TINY little bubbles EVERYWHERE. Crabs ain't going for it - STILL, even with TWO. Dare I add a third?

 

I can't really pull my rocks out now because every single coral is glued down on the rocks now. I mean, I guess I could get 2 buckets and fill 1 with distilled and 1 with SW - put the rock in the SW bucket and scrub every single last bubble off with a toothbrush.. then gently rinse it in the distilled bucket... Just seems like a huge task and the potential for destruction is so great

 

On another note, the torch is massive. It's gigantic. I think now that I own all of my equipment and some corals, heaters, and understand how filter media works and have a small power-head - I could eventually upgrade without spending so much. I'd definitely begin mixing my own and possibly setup 2x 5G jugs of water (RODI / SW) and a small pump in each and a plug-in switch to do EASY WC's. I'd want an AIO tank, Nuvo 20's are beautiful but literally nowhere to be found in Canada. Nuvo 16's look great but I keep reading up about them leaking

 

There's so much bubble I just wanna cut each individual coral off the rock and put them on a dry rock hah

[TheDude324]

Just a suggestion but what about selling the torch and making a bit of money? If its harming the acans and if you cant move it to another spot then why not?

[Cameron6796]

Try a cad lights tank you could probably get their 18g model for around 200$

[Kijho]

Well today I came home and one of the heads from my hammer coral fell out. Last night I had accidentally nudged my powerhead about 1cm over and I guess over-night the strong blast from the powerhead attributed to the hammer falling out of it's skeleton. This happened to me once before, long ago... I have no idea why because everything is thriving... including bubble algae as you can see. Don't judge me on the bubble, it's an endless struggle.....

 

IMG_6675 by kijho6, on Flickr

 

Where did this piece of hammer coral land? Well, it somehow managed to end up in not only ONE of my acan's, but TWO acan's mouthes. Acans are really dumb corals and eat anything - so they half digested the hammer chunks before I used tongs to literally pulls the hammer OUT of the acans....

IMG_6703 by kijho6, on Flickr

 

IMG_6700 by kijho6, on Flickr

 

https://flic.kr/p/pusUVH'>https://flic.kr/p/pusUVH'>IMG_6707 by https://www.flickr.com/people/125103418@N08/'>kijho6, on Flickr

 

https://flic.kr/p/puuWDG'>https://flic.kr/p/puuWDG'>IMG_6743 by https://www.flickr.com/people/125103418@N08/'>kijho6, on Flickr

 

https://flic.kr/p/pupDQv'>https://flic.kr/p/pupDQv'>IMG_6716 by https://www.flickr.com/people/125103418@N08/'>kijho6, on Flickr

[Kijho]

Just came home from work to find this .. kinda sh*tty luck. This happened to me several months back if you recall, looks like all the heads are just popping right out from the skeleton. Completely clean - like an empty skeleton shell. They just fall out like a loose tooth ... I have had the worst luck with this hammer coral. Makes me sad because I remember the day I bought it, it was massive and so fluffy.

 

I think it's just not a good coral for a Spec V. I believe it's the flow, and that being too much. My torch on the other hand swings wildly and carelessly....

 

Last head fell out here... and landed down behind the rock, couldn't get a photo. Removed it from the tank

https://flic.kr/p/pMY9rp'>https://flic.kr/p/pMY9rp'>IMG_6837 by https://www.flickr.com/people/125103418@N08/'>kijho6, on Flickr

 

One head fell off this guy, too...

https://flic.kr/p/pMY9an'>https://flic.kr/p/pMY9an'>IMG_6839 by https://www.flickr.com/people/125103418@N08/'>kijho6, on Flickr

 

And went right for one of my biggest ricordia's. I f*cking hate these corals and how damaging they are to others. Half my Acan's have been badly burned this past week due to the first head that fell out landing RIGHT inside an Acan's mouth/ body...

https://flic.kr/p/oRpnhM'>https://flic.kr/p/oRpnhM'>IMG_6836 by https://www.flickr.com/people/125103418@N08/'>kijho6, on Flickr

 

I'm really hoping this Ricordia can pull through this and not be hurt

[aviator300]

Play Music

"The Snake" or it could be "The Hammer Coral"

On her way to work one morning
Down the path along side the lake
A tender hearted woman saw a poor half frozen snake
His pretty colored skin had been all frosted with the dew
"Poor thing," she cried, "I'll take you in and I'll take care of you"
"Take me in tender woman
Take me in, for heaven's sake
Take me in, tender woman," sighed the snake

She wrapped him all cozy in a comforter of silk
And laid him by her fireside with some honey and some milk
She hurried home from work that night and soon as she arrived
She found that pretty snake she'd taken to had bee revived
"Take me in, tender woman
Take me in, for heaven's sake
Take me in, tender woman," sighed the snake

She clutched him to her bosom, "You're so beautiful," she cried
"But if I hadn't brought you in by now you might have died"
She stroked his pretty skin again and kissed and held him tight
Instead of saying thanks, the snake gave her a vicious bite
"Take me in, tender woman
Take me in, for heaven's sake
Take me in, tender woman," sighed the snake
"I saved you," cried the woman
"And you've bitten me, but why?
You know your bite is poisonous and now I'm going to die"
"Oh shut up, silly woman," said the reptile with a grin
"You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in
"Take me in, tender woman
Take me in, for heaven's sake
Take me in, tender woman," sighed the snake.

You took the Hammer in, he was just doing what Hammers do!

[Kijho]

Poor Hammer I loved the hammer but the hammer didn't love me haha

[Cameron6796]

It's a generally easy coral but has its ways

[ninjamyst]

happy halloween! how are things doing in the tank?

[Kijho]

happy halloween! how are things doing in the tank?

 

Thank you my friend! Apologies there's been such a lack of updates lately... I just really don't have anything to update on!! Been really tight on budget lately as I save for some new things like a car and such.. haven't gotten anything for my tank. Am looking into the new year at upgrading and transferring my corals to a bigger AIO..

 

However last night as I was going to sleep I hear some loud clicking. I get up and go over to the tank to see that tiny little emerald crab I got a few weeks back (remember he went in the shrimp's cave on his first day..) yeah he decided to venture back into that cave last night.

My Shrimp is such a loving little guy, loves my Goby always with him they're best friends.. but nobody else is allowed in his "cave" I'm sad to say the little emerald didn't make it.. R.I.P. little guy! :'(

 

I also pulled off some of my Acan corals and moved them - Re glued them away from the massive growing torch coral.

 

Also my Hammer lost all it's heads... they were floating all over. Hit several things, caused some major damage so currently recovering 2 acan's from that.

 

But nothing new! Trying to grow everything right now haha..

[ninjamyst]

sometimes no news is good news!

[Kijho]

Bike has been sold... saving every penny now for Christmas time and of-course my new car in the early months of next year!

 

Also waiting on my LFS to stock the Nuvo 20's or something similar. They have Nuvo 16's which I began looking at the other week.. however upon researching found SO much negative review. Made me very weary about them ... I can't imagine that much water dumping out on the carpet in my house.. it would be an absolute disaster. I see photos of them leaking, OR worse - the glass breaking!! Nightmares!

 

So I'm still going to be researching. Plans will be to transfer all corals from the Spec V into a very well laid out bigger tank. I want fresh clean rocks, no algae hopefully, and perhaps black sand.. I'm not sure though. That will be in the next year early month

 

[ninjamyst]

are you gonna still run your spec??? dont take it down!

[cswan19]

Excited to see the nuvo man. I am thinking about doing the same with a bigger tank. I have been looking at the Nuvo tanks but want to look around. If/when I upgrade I will for sure be using black sand as I wish I would have done that in the first place.

[thomas8man]

my 40g tank the hammer head extends once or twice since i got it but just chills at the certain height

[Kijho]

^ Biggest signature ever? Damn!

 

 

Few small updates!

 

https://flic.kr/p/pYEujA'>https://flic.kr/p/pYEujA'>IMG_7068 by https://www.flickr.com/people/125103418@N08/'>kijho6, on Flickr

 

https://flic.kr/p/pYEuEA'>https://flic.kr/p/pYEuEA'>IMG_7064 by https://www.flickr.com/people/125103418@N08/'>kijho6, on Flickr

 

https://flic.kr/p/pJqQi9'>https://flic.kr/p/pJqQi9'>IMG_7051 by https://www.flickr.com/people/125103418@N08/'>kijho6, on Flickr

[NorthGaHillbilly]

Glad to see things are doing well, after seeing how my mive into a larger tank went, all I can say is DO IT!

 

Decided on a new car yet?

[Kijho]

Glad to see things are doing well, after seeing how my mive into a larger tank went, all I can say is DO IT!

 

Decided on a new car yet?

 

Hey GA sorry long on a reply - New car, hmmm... really hoping for a 2011 or 2012 Subaru wrx sti... depending on how my yearly review at work goes and if I get a nice promotion, heh!

 

Been super tight on budget lately. No new corals, no new fish, not much new of anything in my life haha except saving every penny to pay off debt and also save for Christmas so I can give gifts to friends and family! Been keeping very busy with work and school, full time work part time school. It's been really hectic but my tank is doing well.

 

Tank update is very small, but I have a huge battle of Bubble Algae and Aiptasia.

Currently I'm struggling to keep up with zapping the aiptasia with X juice .. but am managing. Corals are doing okay. Lost all my hammers sadly, but the torch is a wild one and loves to eat mysis. Also haven't seen my emerald in a week.. hope he's okay in the rock somewhere.

 

My question: Would I be able to successfully remove BOTH of my algae/ aiptasia infested rocks? My idea would be to remove one of the two rocks now .. (placing my corals on a rack) and then let the system stabilize. Then in a few weeks, take the other rock out. I would then purchase a fresh clean dry rock online custom shaped and place it in the tank. I would let it be then and place my corals on it.

 

What are your thoughts on doing this? Would I be able to get away in doing this without destroying my entire tank?

When I say I have a bubble algae outbreak, I really really mean it haha.......

[TheDude324]

if you cycled the new rock first than you wouldnt destroy the tank, however i think the bubble algae spores would remain in the water even if you removed the rock but it would give you a leg up on the battle. As for the aiptasia i don't know if it eould work or not.

[Kijho]

if you cycled the new rock first than you wouldnt destroy the tank, however i think the bubble algae spores would remain in the water even if you removed the rock but it would give you a leg up on the battle. As for the aiptasia i don't know if it eould work or not.

 

Even though the new rock would be a bone dry rock with nothing on it? It wouldn't add anything to the system - I'd just slowly (1 rock at a time) be removing each of the rocks..

[ninjamyst]

add the dry rock to your system first for a couple of weeks then start removing old rock. you want bacteria to establish on your old rock before removing the new one.

 

yes, it's very possible the nasty will transfer to your new rock but at least it will be at a manageable level?

[Kijho]

add the dry rock to your system first for a couple of weeks then start removing old rock. you want bacteria to establish on your old rock before removing the new one.

 

yes, it's very possible the nasty will transfer to your new rock but at least it will be at a manageable level?

 

This is what I'm thinking... I kinda want less rock. I wish I could even go rockless or something.. I want very minimal rock in my next tank, just very simple one rock easy to remove any time.

[ninjamyst]

This is what I'm thinking... I kinda want less rock. I wish I could even go rockless or something.. I want very minimal rock in my next tank, just very simple one rock easy to remove any time.

that's what i am doing soon =). getting rid of hte my rock to the left.