msscha's 24 gallon office cube

[msscha]

Hello, NR Friends!

 

Seems like forever since I've been here. I just got a promotion and new responsibilities at work (yay ) but the learning curve means not so much time to myself (boo ). Tanks is looking fine -- there's an fts below taken a couple of days ago. I am really happy to report the rock is clean of aiptasia! Well, at least the rock arch is -- I'm not even seeing the so-called "light bulb anemones" on that rock. Currently, there are two giant ones left, but the nudibranches will have to go exploring in order to find them. I miss the coralline on that rock face, though... when I move to the new tank (sometime in the next couple of weeks), I am scrubbing as many of those pink shrooms off as I can.

 

FTS -- June 30

 

Aiptasia free rock!

 

Duncans -- fat, happy, with babies a-growing!

[Deleted User 3]

Looks good! Glad you got rid of the aiptasia, I haven't had any yet but it's only a matter of time. What do you do for work, and what was your promotion? Do you enjoy it?

[phoenix91]

Hey, everything looks great, that finger leather is huge!

 

Congrats on the upgrade, can't wait to see it once it's started. Also, congrats on your promotion

[markalot]

Great to see an update. I like the mushrooms, hope you keep some. The trumpets and Duncans are amazing, I really like the way you've let this tank grow out. I could never keep myself from cramming a coral in every corner. Looking forward to your new tank!

[msscha]

Looks good! Glad you got rid of the aiptasia, I haven't had any yet but it's only a matter of time. What do you do for work, and what was your promotion? Do you enjoy it?

Hey TuLIP Girl! I teach science prose at the university of florida -- my pseudo-official byline is "a lapsed linguist teaching undergrads to write science prose" . I have been working at a "center" which is academic-speak for group of people working on very specific subject (we all teach discipline-specific communication). After many years of political wrangling, the university has finally settled on separating the writing and speaking folks, so I now work for the university writing program and will be coordinating the faculty/teachers for the kinds of classes I teach. While I'm not overly fond of being an administrator (especially since "coordinator" has very little power-to-act attached to it), I do LOVE training teachers. So, overall, yes, I am quite satisfied with my work!

 

Hey, everything looks great, that finger leather is huge!

 

Congrats on the upgrade, can't wait to see it once it's started. Also, congrats on your promotion

Thanks, Vicki. The finger leather is a monster -- that and the trumpets are the first on the chopping block when it comes time to frag .

 

Great to see an update. I like the mushrooms, hope you keep some. The trumpets and Duncans are amazing, I really like the way you've let this tank grow out. I could never keep myself from cramming a coral in every corner. Looking forward to your new tank!

LOL -- if I had the $$, I would've crammed coral everywhere -- but I ran out of real estate first due to lack of funds. The only new inhabitants in the bigger tank will photosynthetic gorgs and a clam (if we can ever find one through their dealer). The rest will be the coral nursery. I will then have to find local people to sell/swap frags with or I may just turn them in for store credit.

[msscha]

Life has been uber-busy at work -- but a couple of weeks ago, I managed to complete the tank move! The new tank is an older JBJ24BC -- guess I'll have to change the name of my thread . I guess the move went smoothly, although I seemed to drop stuff, do dumb stuff, and otherwise make a total mess of my office. I added the photosynthetic gorgonion -- in my tank, it is brown, so not as colorful as I'd hoped, but it is HUGE and full branched and actually looks okay tucked back in the corner with the neon green candy cane for contrast. My biggest challenge has been rockscaping and the leather corals. I needed some bigger chunks of LR to create some height -- I am happy with how it turned out. The leathers are still mad at me -- both had adhered to the side of the BC14 and had to be scraped off. That part was surprisingly easy -- but it also meant they aren't attached to anything. I have the toadstool "connected" to a very cool piece of LR with a rubber band, and although it is opening somewhat, it is also curling over on itself rather than sticking up straight as I had envisioned. Ultimately, this will lead to the coral splitting, and then I will still need to stick the "head" someplace. Seriously, I have no idea what to do about this! I'm afraid that if I continue messing with it, it will die of stress, but it's current position is pretty silly. The finger leather is sort of wedged between the back of the tank and the big mushroom cloud looking LR -- kind of like dread locks on the acans . Otherwise, the fish have adjusted (though the trimma is hiding a bunch b/c he does NOT his rock moving, thank you very much). After next week is done, I am going to have a frag party with the trumpets -- time to create a 1/2 dozen of those puppies!

 

Size matters

 

Yikes! What have I done.

 

Breathe easy -- water is clear (but LR looks like a pile of rubble).

 

First FTS of new tank (7/29/2013)

 

Scene with Gorgonian

 

The LEDs are in and the new moonlights look awesome! Took some night shots. My camera isn't great for these, but I got a bit of the fluorescence!

 

 

 

 

Toadstool -- sigh.

 

Fingerleather

 

Phallic Sponge -- hitchhiker on new LR

[eitallent]

oooh... Very lovurly! Especially in blue.

 

That big ole toadstool is so top heavy it toppled! Yeah, I would not know what to do with it either. Perhaps in time it will be able to straighten itself up.

 

I hope you have fun at your frag party. Sounds like fun. The trumpets will be neat sprinkled about the tank.

 

 

I am so glad all is going well for you, both life and reef.

[das awesome]

Great upgrade! I don't think you need to change the title at all! You just need to have both tanks running now! I wouldn't worry about the toadstool. From my experience, it will either right itself up or it will attach to the rock like that and start splitting into 2, at least that's what mine did.

 

I have a question for you though. When you switch to led's, did you light acclimate the corals at all? Sorry if you already mentioned this. I just asked because I recently upgraded my BC14 to led's and all of my ricordeas and my favia were not happy and started fading, but if I remember right, your's didn't at all. Thanks

[msscha]

Great upgrade! I don't think you need to change the title at all! You just need to have both tanks running now! I wouldn't worry about the toadstool. From my experience, it will either right itself up or it will attach to the rock like that and start splitting into 2, at least that's what mine did.

 

I have a question for you though. When you switch to led's, did you light acclimate the corals at all? Sorry if you already mentioned this. I just asked because I recently upgraded my BC14 to led's and all of my ricordeas and my favia were not happy and started fading, but if I remember right, your's didn't at all. Thanks

Hi! I did not acclimate the coral to the LEDs -- I only added 8 -- so maybe that wasn't very strong? The rics reacted by multiplying, but staying more curled into themselves, and in the new tank, too, they don't spread out as big as they used to, but seemed to grow more quickly. Actually, the new tank had CFLs for a couple of weeks and the coral didn't seem to mind this, but I swear, the second the LEDs came back into their lives, everything just looked better: bigger, fluffier, better polyp extension, better color. My favia didn't "fade" so much as it changed color and the color was somewhat more drab. Under the CFLS, it was a mix of neon green, brown, a reddish brown, and a deep purple-maroon. Under the LEDs in the 14BC, it lost some color -- stayed mostly green and brown, but started splitting and forming new heads which it had done only once in the CFL lighting. Now, in the bigger tank, it is maintaining the prettier color pattern -- maybe b/c it's deeper? Hmm -- so maybe it did fade, as you've described it, at least in color -- but it started multiplying. In the 14, I moved the favia back into the shadow of a rocky point, and it looked better. Do you have a place you could move it to that is less bright?

[msscha]

Everyone seems to have settled nicely following the move to the BC24 about a month ago. The Toadstool leather went through an angry period during which is shed quite a bit, but is now up and fluffy, and I think will probably split itself into two large pieces. It evens looks like it is adhering to the LR rocks onto which it's bound which means I can try to remove the rubber band in a week or two . My clam is still on order for whenever the lfs finds one that looks nice, and just because it seemed like I had to do something about the big flat space atop the mushroom rock, I ordered some purple capricornus montipora from reefgardener...along with a harlequin brittle star. They should arrive in the next day or so. I haven't fragged anything yet, but that adventure approacheth soon. From some reason, the tank already looks full to me! How did that happen? I'm wondering if the LEDs going through the deeper water doesn't dilute the power of the light so that the coral is plumping more than it did in the BC14. Nothing looks bad (quite the contrary), but the coral, especially the acans, get bigger during the day than they used to.

 

I managed to drop the digital portion of my heater into salt water during the move, so haven't been running a heater at all. Turns out that tank ranges only 2 degrees throughout the day, and is actually cooler after the lights have been on b/c the fans are also running then. The volume of water plus heat from the water pump keeps it pretty steady between 75 F and 77 F (according to digital thermometer). I will need to replace the heater for winter b/c our temps vary so much, but I am pleased to see how steady it is right now.

 

A few pics!

 

Favia

 

 

Micromussa

 

Neon Trumpets

 

FTS -- 8/13/2013

 

Sideview Left (which I can't really see given the tank's new position )

 

Sideview Right (same comment as above)

[markalot]

Cool, good to see an update.

[msscha]

Cool, good to see an update.

Thanks, Markalot! I'm starting to see room in my schedule for more interaction outside work...woo hoo!

[das awesome]

Hi! I did not acclimate the coral to the LEDs -- I only added 8 -- so maybe that wasn't very strong? The rics reacted by multiplying, but staying more curled into themselves, and in the new tank, too, they don't spread out as big as they used to, but seemed to grow more quickly. Actually, the new tank had CFLs for a couple of weeks and the coral didn't seem to mind this, but I swear, the second the LEDs came back into their lives, everything just looked better: bigger, fluffier, better polyp extension, better color. My favia didn't "fade" so much as it changed color and the color was somewhat more drab. Under the CFLS, it was a mix of neon green, brown, a reddish brown, and a deep purple-maroon. Under the LEDs in the 14BC, it lost some color -- stayed mostly green and brown, but started splitting and forming new heads which it had done only once in the CFL lighting. Now, in the bigger tank, it is maintaining the prettier color pattern -- maybe b/c it's deeper? Hmm -- so maybe it did fade, as you've described it, at least in color -- but it started multiplying. In the 14, I moved the favia back into the shadow of a rocky point, and it looked better. Do you have a place you could move it to that is less bright?

I do have caves in the tank, but with the amount of rics I have, there's no way I can fit them all in. I am just gonna leave them be and hopefully they'll start gaining their colors back.

 

BTW, your trumpets and duncans are looking freaking rediculous! The growth you're having with them is amazing!

[msscha]

BTW, your trumpets and duncans are looking freaking rediculous! The growth you're having with them is amazing!

Thank you!! They are my faves -- I'm going to frag the trumpets, but I kind of want to let the duncan just keep going. I wonder if there is a benefit to fragging that is similar to what happens with plants? Hmmm.

[eitallent]

Your tank looks spectacular. I absolutely love it.

 

Your thread was the first I read and it really clinched it for me to get into this hobby.

[msscha]

New Tank Inhabitants!

 

Since the experiment with mail-order berghias went so well, I decided to try again with Morgan from reefgardener.net. I got a small piece of purple capricornis monti and a harlequin serpent star. The monti will clearly take a few days before it colors up, assuming that my re-working of it didn't kill it out right (I decided to glue the coral itself directly to the rock rather than the plug. We shall see if that was a good decision or not!). It is night, so my tank is not lit; however, I took a couple of shots with the flash just because the harlequin is SO FREAKIN' COOL I couldn't wait .

 

Monti and Harley, floating

 

Harley -- found cave!

 

Harley -- in cave, side shot.

[msscha]

I'm thinking of getting a pair of rusty gobies and/or a small group of trimmas. I would like to see them darting about for food:-).

[msscha]

Well, Harley is doing great! Comes out when it's feeding time to scour the sand along with everyone else interested in this activity. It is amazing to watch because the black/white is so distinctive in this environment! Kind of creepy-cool, too . On the bummer side, the monti is totally bleached looking. Don't know if this was a problem in delivery (sat in the box for a while, getting warm) or with my messing about with it before placing in tank. Sigh.

 

[das awesome]

Thank you!! They are my faves -- I'm going to frag the trumpets, but I kind of want to let the duncan just keep going. I wonder if there is a benefit to fragging that is similar to what happens with plants? Hmmm.

From my experience, fragging doesn't really make any difference to growth like it does with plants. Mine always grow the same speed afterwards.

 

With the bleaching of the monti, my guess was that it became stressed from the shipping process. Did you acclimate it at all? I know some monti's are extremely sensitive and you need to slow drip acclimate them whereas others like orange monti caps can withstand anything pretty much.

[msscha]

Still lovin' each other in the new tank!

 

[eitallent]

Those shrimp are too cute. You are right about the starfish being cool in a creepy sort of way!

[msscha]

I was trying to explain yesterday how I can see differences in the tank even when they are very hard to explain. I think it comes from watching it everyday. Something in the water clarity, colors, behaviors, even very subtle shifts become apparent. Right now, the tank just looks really happy. I can tell that it's recovered from the move. Cleo the Clown has re-discovered her toadstool now that it's feeling better. The trimma goby has new perching places. The caribbean gorg took about 15 minutes to adjust. But the corals also look different: colors have changed slightly and they seem to be fluffing much more than they did in the BC14. In particular, the big acan (my very first coral) looks pinker while its companion has lost a bit of green but gained a bit a orange. The duncan looks positively gargantuan! Some of the effect might be from the curved glass (a choice I would not make again -- it's difficult to see through from any angle other than the front and makes taking pictures more limited) and some might be from the LEDs (with reflective hood covering) interacting with greater water depth. May have to head back to my books and magazines to see if I can figure this out. In the meantime, a few more pictures.

 

Big Acan

 

 

 

Trimma hanging out on Big Blob Rock next to obviously dead/bleach monti

 

 

Cleo is happy back in her toadstool (she is really growing into a lovely color pattern with a darkening sweep across the top that is dramatic and attractive. I need to get a really good picture of her!)

[eitallent]

Everything does look exceptionally happy.

 

I hated the bow front in the 12g JBJ. Will never have one again.

[msscha]

Everything does look exceptionally happy.

 

I hated the bow front in the 12g JBJ. Will never have one again.

I really should have done more research instead of jumping into a "good" deal. Sigh. Still, I'm glad I did it . Am looking forward to adding more fish soon, too.

[msscha]

Cleo is seriously in love with her toadstool mushroom! She has now gone from merely swimming through the fronds to nuzzling them to laying in the center. I wish she had a buddy to do this with, but she'd probably just harangue him to death! The baby toadstools are looking more like kids now and I love the gorgonian in back, even if it isn't yellow or purple.

 

Cleo loves Shroom

 

Baby Toadstools

 

Gorg and Trumpet