teenyreef Posted December 15, 2017 Share Posted December 15, 2017 I love your holiday avatar 1 Quote Link to comment
Nano sapiens Posted December 15, 2017 Author Share Posted December 15, 2017 9-1/2 Year Pic and Update: Still up-and-running Lost the little Two-spot Blenny after 2 years or so. (probably cardiac arrest due to the Branacle Blennies' frantic behavior). Rest of the Blenny and Goby gang (all seven of them) hanging out and chowing down . Pedersons shrimp is still alive...amazingly. It's pushing 1-1/2 years in the tank, which is really old for these little guys. Salifert Mag kit went haywire towards its end of life and I ended up with 1500+ for a few weeks. All corals okay...except the Blasto went into recession mode (may recover, likely not...). A little of the sand bed cola colored cyano made it's appearance due to the increased fish load/nutrients, but other than that it's status quo. 8 1 Quote Link to comment
Nano sapiens Posted December 15, 2017 Author Share Posted December 15, 2017 12 minutes ago, teenyreef said: I love your holiday avatar LOL, every year Santa Dendro (the unofficial patron saint of corals everywhere) makes his appearance...it's a tradition 3 Quote Link to comment
teenyreef Posted December 15, 2017 Share Posted December 15, 2017 I've seen that happen with the Salifert mag kit too. It seems once the reagent gets exposed to the air for too long, it starts to measure lower and lower. Then I got a new kit and suddenly I found out I had 1500+ mag, explaining why all the snails were comatose or dead. Quote Link to comment
Nano sapiens Posted December 15, 2017 Author Share Posted December 15, 2017 1 hour ago, teenyreef said: I've seen that happen with the Salifert mag kit too. It seems once the reagent gets exposed to the air for too long, it starts to measure lower and lower. Then I got a new kit and suddenly I found out I had 1500+ mag, explaining why all the snails were comatose or dead. Yeah, it's happened twice so far to me. I've since bought the Seachem Reef Status Magnesium test kit as a second sanity check, and after reading a review or two, I trust it's accuracy over the Salifert. It's more involved to use, but that's a small price to pay for a more accurate reading. Quote Link to comment
teenyreef Posted December 15, 2017 Share Posted December 15, 2017 11 minutes ago, Nano sapiens said: Yeah, it's happened twice so far to me. I've since bough the Seachem Reef Status Magnesium test kit as a second sanity check, and after reading a review or two, I trust it's accuracy over the Salifert. It's more involved to use, but that's a small price to pay for a more accurate reading. Same here. I've got the Red Sea Pro mag test. Much more of a pain to use, but at least it's a second measurement when things seem to go wonky. Quote Link to comment
Nano sapiens Posted December 15, 2017 Author Share Posted December 15, 2017 7 minutes ago, teenyreef said: Same here. I've got the Red Sea Pro mag test. Much more of a pain to use, but at least it's a second measurement when things seem to go wonky. Unfortunately, I found the RS Mag from a few years back to be even worse. Hope the newer ones are more accurate. Quote Link to comment
teenyreef Posted December 15, 2017 Share Posted December 15, 2017 Was it the "pro"? I had heard the same thing about the "regular" one. I wouldn't mind trying the Seachem test kit and comparing. Quote Link to comment
Nano sapiens Posted December 15, 2017 Author Share Posted December 15, 2017 54 minutes ago, teenyreef said: Was it the "pro"? I had heard the same thing about the "regular" one. I wouldn't mind trying the Seachem test kit and comparing. Was the 'regular' from quite a few years back. The Seachem uses a more involved tritation procedure and also gives you Carbonate and Borate alkalinity. The little 'GSB with a santa cap' avatar looks good on yours. On either of mine it'd be the equivalent of putting one on Mike Tyson... 1 Quote Link to comment
jack1978 Posted December 16, 2017 Share Posted December 16, 2017 1 hour ago, Nano sapiens said: 9-1/2 Year Pic and Update: Still up-and-running Lost the little Two-spot Blenny after 2 years or so. Rest of the Blenny and Goby gang (all seven of them) hanging out and chowing down . Pedersons shrimp is still alive...amazingly. It's pushing 1-1/2 years in the tank, which is really old for these little guys. Salifert Mag kit went haywire towards its end of life and I ended up with 1500+ for a few weeks. All corals okay...except the Blasto went into recession mode (may recover, likely not...). A little of the sand bed cola colored cyano made it's appearance due to the increased fish load/nutrients, but other than that it's status quo. Love this tank. Beautiful as always! 1 Quote Link to comment
Nano sapiens Posted December 16, 2017 Author Share Posted December 16, 2017 7 minutes ago, jack1978 said: Love this tank. Beautiful as always! Muchas gracias! 1 Quote Link to comment
sam_the_reefer Posted December 16, 2017 Share Posted December 16, 2017 Nice and clean, as always. The Gobies add a lot of character. 1 Quote Link to comment
teenyreef Posted December 16, 2017 Share Posted December 16, 2017 3 hours ago, Nano sapiens said: Was the 'regular' from quite a few years back. The Seachem uses a more involved tritation procedure and also gives you Carbonate and Borate alkalinity. The little 'GSB with a santa cap' avatar looks good on yours. On either of mine it'd be the equivalent of putting one on Mike Tyson... That's what I was wondering. The RS Pro kit is similar, it's a complicated process with two different solutions to add before the titration, and you have to shake ten second between adding each drop of the second solution, and of course I always lose track of how many drops I've done in between shaking...just not worth it other than when I really need a second data point. Yours definitely would be like Mike Tyson with a Santa hat 1 Quote Link to comment
Christopher Marks Posted December 16, 2017 Share Posted December 16, 2017 Beautiful update @Nano sapiens, nine and a half years is an incredible benchmark! Its 10th birthday will be here in a flash 3 Quote Link to comment
Nano sapiens Posted December 16, 2017 Author Share Posted December 16, 2017 4 hours ago, xellos88 said: Nice and clean, as always. The Gobies add a lot of character. Thank you. Tomorrow, Saturday, is my cleaning/water change day so the tank's a little scruffy right now The Blennies and Gobies fit nicely in a small tank like this. I especially like the Hasselt's goby and I've read that they occur widely throughout the Indo pacific (including the Philippines) in shallow water. Next time you visit your shallows/tidepools you might see one if you look closely (they are really well camouflaged!). Quote Link to comment
Nano sapiens Posted December 16, 2017 Author Share Posted December 16, 2017 3 hours ago, Christopher Marks said: Beautiful update @Nano sapiens, nine and a half years is an incredible benchmark! Its 10th birthday will be here in a flash Thanks, Chris! Fingers crossed for the next 6 months 1 Quote Link to comment
sam_the_reefer Posted December 16, 2017 Share Posted December 16, 2017 35 minutes ago, Nano sapiens said: Thank you. Tomorrow, Saturday, is my cleaning/water change day so the tank's a little scruffy right now The Blennies and Gobies fit nicely in a small tank like this. I especially like the Hasselt's goby and I've read that they occur widely throughout the Indo pacific (including the Philippines) in shallow water. Next time you visit your shallows/tidepools you might see one if you look closely (they are really well camouflaged!). I do see Gobies that look like the one you mentioned (Hasselt's) when tidepooling. I say "look like" because I can't really ID any Goby, because they dart away as soon as I notice them. Quote Link to comment
Arkayology Posted December 16, 2017 Share Posted December 16, 2017 9.5 years? wow 1 Quote Link to comment
Christopher Marks Posted December 16, 2017 Share Posted December 16, 2017 I love scrolling through all the FTS photos over the years in the first post, I encourage everyone to take a look if you haven't lately! 3 Quote Link to comment
Nano sapiens Posted December 16, 2017 Author Share Posted December 16, 2017 2 hours ago, Christopher Marks said: I love scrolling through all the FTS photos over the years in the first post, I encourage everyone to take a look if you haven't lately! When I look at the progression pics I can see when lighting was changed, nutrients were too low, aquascape was rearranged, etc. Lots of experimentation and admittedly not all of it good for the system, but that's part of the process to find out what ultimately works best for each individual reef aquarist and the system that he/she is maintaining.. 1 Quote Link to comment
Nano sapiens Posted December 19, 2017 Author Share Posted December 19, 2017 Just a note that the single old time resident Pedersons Shrimp is MIA and presumed deceased. This one was from my original batch I added to the tank on August 20, 2016, so nearly 1-1/2 years residency. For these little guys, that's quite a long life. With the current fish population I have no plans to replace any inverts (except hermits). One of the Eyebrow blennies has grown rapidly to nearly 3" and the Hasselt's is even longer, so I don't trust them with 1" inverts. 2 Quote Link to comment
Nano sapiens Posted January 1, 2018 Author Share Posted January 1, 2018 Fishie Update: Unfortunately, over the last week or two both of my little Panamic Barnacle Blennies (aka 'Hanckock's Blenny') took a turn for the worse. I've had one before, and had a similar experience to what I noted with these two. In a nut shell, they stop chasing after food and start living out in the open on the sand bed (in the wild, this would mean near instant death due to predation, so very odd. behavior). While the fish are aware of their immediate neighbors and will open their mouths to threaten them, they would hardly move from their sand bed spot. If they swam, it was often in circles (in the advanced stages). Eventually, they get too thin and pass away. Interestingly, the two Eyebrow Barnacle Blennies are perfectly healthy and eating normally and the rest of the fish are a-okay, too. I have read about certain microorganisms/parasites that cause their hosts to radically alter their behavior so that the host will be eaten and their life cycle can begin anew. Possibly a brain parasite that this species is susceptible to? I find it suspicious that in two separate instances the same fish species developed very similar behavior in the space of just a few months time. I'd be curious to hear if anyone has been able to keep one of these Panamic Blennies for a year or more? Fish...sometimes perplexing, but always interesting! 1 Quote Link to comment
Christopher Marks Posted January 1, 2018 Share Posted January 1, 2018 How bizarre, that's unfortunate! I'm glad to hear the others are doing well though. Cheers to a prosperous 2018 for this special tank! Quote Link to comment
Nano sapiens Posted January 1, 2018 Author Share Posted January 1, 2018 Just now, Christopher Marks said: How bizarre, that's unfortunate! I'm glad to hear the others are doing well though. Cheers to a prosperous 2018 for this special tank! Thanks, Chris...and a Happy New Year to you! 1 Quote Link to comment
Polarcollision Posted January 1, 2018 Share Posted January 1, 2018 Wow, almost 10 years. Does this make your tank the longest-lived on NR? Quote Link to comment
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