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Tightrope

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Coral's here! Coral's here! It's as torqued off about the flight as you can imagine, but it looks fine other than being withdrawn. The snails all look fine and snaily.

 

I'll put up pictures when everything gets into the tank.

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Ahh, there's nothing quite like waking up to the dog barking at the UPS man. It's nice to wake up knowing you have corals!

 

I murdilated the tape to get into the box and slowly unwrapped the excellent packing. These are, after all, my very first corals ever. I wanted to enjoy them, in all their stubby, angry, withdrawn glory. And, lo and behold, a bunch of plastic bags, which got tossed in to float:

 

fstcorbfr.jpg

 

I love floating things in a tiny tank.

 

So we floated and dripped and acclimated. Then I had to get up the guts to take them out of the bag. The stalks of LPS coral look amazingly gross and squishy. I was sure I was going to hurt something. But you know what? They're called "stony" corals for a reason. Those squishy looking stalks are actually hard as rocks.

 

I found a perfect little rock niche for the hammer. The frogspawn is laying on the rock in a bit of a groove. The bubble is on the sand. The galaxia is in exile on the other side of the tank, where its sweeper tentacles won't hurt anyone else. There was a perfect chasm in the rock over there for it, though, and I hope it'll fill in that hole.

 

fstcoraftr.jpg

 

Everything started expanding right away. First the bubble was all nubby, then it expanded fully so I could see some of the flesh connecting the bubbles. Then it drew in a bit so that the bubbles were closer together, but everything's inflated and gorgeous.

 

The frogspawn is a gorgeous green with its purple tips still needing a bit of color. The hammer is a lovely green, and the galaxia is coming out and is a terrific shade of green. The first thing it did was send out a several inch sweeper tentacle, which a clownfish promptly bit the tip off of. That'll show it.

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True macro shots will have to wait til I buy some 800 speed film and set up my tripod for my real film camera (a film camera, gasp!), but here are some better shots closer up with my really cruddy digital:

 

Bubble with flash:

flashbubble.jpg

 

Bubble without flash:

noflashbub.jpg

 

Frogspawn:

frogspawn.jpg

 

And frogspawn again, pay no mind to the algae on the glass:

frogspawn2.jpg

 

Hammer:

hammer.jpg

 

Galaxia with flash:

galaxia2.jpg

 

Galaxia without flash:

galaxia.jpg

 

Three corals, one snail:

threecoral.jpg

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I am fifty miles over the moon right now.

 

When the lights went out, my bubble coral deflated, as I might expect. It pulled all the bubbles to the sides, stuck out a bunch of twiggy sweeper tentacles and, lo and behold, there was its mouth. I fled for the freezer and pulled out the partial mysis cube I had in there and defrosted some in tank water quick-like. ("Honey, what are you doing?" "I'm defrosting mysis shrimp!" "Of course you are. With a turkey baster?" "Yep!" "Only you, love.")

 

Oh so carefully, I got some in the baster. And, nearly vibrating with excitement, I squirted some down at the sweepers. They caught it, and ever so slowly passed it along. And it ate them! It put them in its mouth, and closed its mouth, and ate them! ("Hon, why are you squealing while you squirt the turkey baster at that thing?" "It's eating! It's eating!" "If I'd realized squirting dead, frozen shrimp out of kitchen utensils made you this happy, we could have saved a lot last Valentine's Day.")

 

Yes, this must seem like old hat to most of you. But this is my very first time feeding coral, and I am dancing with excitement. This is so awesome. Why haven't I been keeping saltwater all this time? I am a nitwit. I could have been feeding coral for years.

 

Squee!

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hahahahaha, i was laughing as you described your first "feeding" experiment! I remember doing the exact same thing! I rushed to get all of my roommates, who promptly called me a geek and turned back to the TV. Sigh..... oh wells, they are just missing out on something incredibly cool! Haha

 

I love the bubble coral! My brother has one at home, and i must say yours is much prettier than his! (but dont tell him that) ;) FTS is great, and i cant wait to see more pics!

 

PS - Im seeing a lack of PURPLE in your tank! :D

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Oh, I know. I'm having a terrible time finding purple things that tickle my fancy. I did pick up this, though:

 

pmush1.jpg

 

One purple mushroom! It was loose in the tank, so I got it on the cheap. I hope to find something purple this weekend/next week to buy and add.

 

Here's a terrible picture of the bubble coral, but it gives a better color representation:

 

bubble3.jpg

 

I'm quite in love with it. It's gorgeous. Dr. Mac's place sent amazing stuff, no doubt about it.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Not much has happened after the addition of my first corals. I added a cleaner shrimp. I got a case of cyano, which I am giving some time before I chemically nuke it. So, my November full tank shots look much alike.

 

I didn't get a coral order put in mid-November, as the money needed to go elsewhere, and my local stores seem stymied by the color "purple". Friday is payday, however, and I will be putting in a nice coral order then. I hope it will feature most of the rest of what I need. I am also hoping to buy a mini-carpet anemone. We'll see what gets tossed onto the order come Friday!

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Coral order set to come in on Wednesday from Fraggle Reef. I did my level best to buy Miguel out of purple and green corals! And...I bought a mini-carpet anemone. I have Miguel's solemn word that he will look for the very purply-greenest anemone in his tanks.

 

The clownfish have trained my husband. I was sitting here last night, doing something nerdy (playing WoW, thank you kindly), and my husband says, "Hey, hon? The one of the clownfish is trying to get your attention." Sure enough, he's sitting in the corner of the tank, staring right at me and bobbing up and down like crazy. I glanced at the clock and, lo and behold, it was dinner time.

 

So I chucked in a couple pellets. This morning, I get, "Hon? The clownfish wants you." What do you know, there he is in the corner, bobbing up and down. And tonight, my husband put a bag of tacos down on my desk, in front of the tank, and brightly proclaimed, "Tacos for clownfish!"

 

It's going to be bad when I get the big tank set up, and a puffer or trigger starts spitting at him.

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your tank looks good so far! congrats on your first tank. you seem to know a decent amount about sw tanks already! :)

 

gl!

 

Thanks! I am an obsessive researcher, so I try to learn from what others have done.

 

The coral order came in beautifully. Miguel at Fraggle Reef has my hearty two thumbs up for his wonderful corals and service. And the anemone he picked is terrific! It's slowly but surely finding the place it likes, which I hope will mean slithering off the piece of plastic its still attached to. :lol:

 

FTS coming in the next day or so!

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Today was a reasonably rough day, as it was busy, fraught with disappointment and worst of all, one of my much loved hamsters, Mushroom, died. My husband, being the amazing individual that he is, took me to the local pet store (which also happens to be the best LFS in town) for a new friend.

 

And while I looked at the hamsters, he went to the saltwater section, and found a beautiful purple plate coral. He had the man bag it on the sly for me, and presented it to me, quite proud of himself. I'm not sure it gets much better than that.

 

So we welcome Olga and Inga to the hamster family, and I have a gorgeous plate coral. I believe this just about completes my coral acquisitions, but for some GSP, and PPEs, if I ever find them for less than the cost of selling one of my kidneys. Pictures either later or tomorrow!

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Im excited to see the new plate coral!!! keep up the good work........ sounds like you got a good husband there! now, if i can only find a girlfriend like that! hahaha

 

Sorry I havent been around to comment! Anywho, cant wait to see some pictures of the new corals and such. I want to see what you got from fraggle reef, cause i got some corals from them a few weeks back too! they did a splendid job!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Well, folks, this is the end. I'm calling it quits.

 

December was kind of a rough month for life and the tank. With the stress and bustle of the holidays, I continally forgot to take the requisite photos of my tank. I was going to have to post some pictures taken too closely together, and given my other reasons, I decided it was best just to remove myself from the competition.

 

My order from Fraggle Reef came in well, but hasn't fared well at all. While the other corals in my tank flourished (my bubble coral is insane!), the corals from Fraggle Reef seemed to die in active and aggressive fashion. On the zoo rock I bought, all the purple zoos died, while the greens did fine. The radioactive dragon eyes never opened. The leptastrea looked all right one day, and then was a grey fungal mess the next day. Now, the favites that have looked fine since day one are very suddenly going belly-up.

 

My clownfish decided to eat my plate coral. They nipped at it in hopes of claiming it, and it receded and finally died.

 

All water parameters test normal, and all other coral is perfectly fine. It's been these select pieces that haven't done well. The only exception is my mini-carpet anemone, who picked a spot and hasn't been inclined to move. My problem with cyano is going away since I decreased the photoperiod in the tank, and my algae problems are going away, too.

 

I've decided that these small tanks aren't my cup of tea just yet, especially under stock conditions. I'm too new at this, and the smaller ecosystem just isn't forgiving of mistakes or normal snafus. Being new, I don't catch the snafus as quickly as is necessary to create a really excellent environment under the conditions. After some thought, I came to realize that it'd be best for my stock (and my pocketbook) to set up a slightly larger system with a skimmer and sump.

 

Also, quite honestly, not only do I not have the money after Christmas to properly "finish" stocking this tank (no local reef stores with cheap frags here...I have to get everything shipped in, by and large), but I feel kind of like I'm spending money on a contest with no reward at the end of it. With the end of the contest just a couple months away, no prizes have been announced. I find this kind of discouraging.

 

So, I'm withdrawing from the contest. Hopefully this month, I'll be buying a 40 gallon breeder tank, for which I already have a light. I have a skimmer and powerheads already, as well as adequate supplies to make a sump. I'll transfer everything from the 10 gallon into that. The 10 gallon and light will either become a quarantine tank, or I'll use the light for a 30 gallon Oceanic cube FOWLR system.

 

Thanks to everyone who supported me. I'm not leaving the community or the hobby, just the contest. Salt has me well hooked, and as soon as the new system is up and running, I'll be posting pictures of it. :)

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Sorry to hear about your tank. It was a great idea and a great name too! Good luck with your 40 and I'll be sure to check it out when you start a thread on it!

 

 

-Iz

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  • 5 weeks later...

This is my first time visiting this thread, and I must say, I had an absolute BLAST reading it!!!

I was sorry to hear about you withdrawing from the contest, but I also understand your reasons. I really look forward to seeing what you do with that 40 breeder.

On a side note, are you a professional writer? If not, you might want to consider it. You have a real gift for drawing people into your "story" and making them feel like they're a part of it. I'm a professional reader, so I should know! I got several chuckles out of your descriptions, greatly enjoyed your verse, and definitely identified with some of your experiences. It even sounds like we may have the same husband! Aren't they great?

Anyway, good luck with your future reef endeavors and thanks for some very enjoyable reading!

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