Diver's Paradise - The Original

[gena]

 

 

 

Both look great to me . Just different lighting.

[jedimasterben]

Both look great to me . Just different lighting.

The second picture would look far worse under blue-dominant lighting versus the 6500K CFL lights they are under now. Coralline algae lights up under warm lighting. If I took the same light and put it over the first shipment's rock (the uncured stuff), it would be full coverage and bright purple/pink.

[FlowerMama]

I found this rock really easy to put frags on because of all the little hills, bumps, divots, notches, holes etc.

[Felicia]

That octo is really pretty.

 

$12 on those acans?! Score!

I've been wanting an octospawn but didn't have space. Now I will!

 

Yep, $12 each plus shipping, but shipping is cheap since it doesn't have to be overnighted. The store is local to me, so they can send it 2 day and it still shows up in 1 day. I thought they had a decent number of heads and a nice shape to the group. I want them to grow into acan balls like in your tank!

 

Looks like you were able to save quite a bit! Is the clown's chalice wiped out or does it still have some tissue? What about your first scoly, did that one survive?

 

I never even heard of an octospawn. Pretty neat! Those acans . I want an acan garden .

 

I see your clams. Maxima looks great. Is the squamosa pissed? Or just closed up in that photo?

More stuff pulled through than I thought was going to. A lot of stuff looked like it was on its way out the door, but has turned around the last few days. I still lost a lot thought. Also a lot of corals that are alive look AWFUL now with dead tissues spots and color loss. Luckily both scolys pulled through. They both had some tissue recession but they're puffing back up now and should be fine. The chalice is alive. It has a big dead spot and recession along the edges, but about 3/4 of it is still alive. Its just pretty ugly at the moment with the dead spots. Its sad because it was such a nice big over and now the dead spots ruin that. Oh well! I'll make a list after I answer these post with the major survivors.

 

Octospawn are super closely related to frogspawn, just a little bit different. I really like how neon green it is You've got some acans now right? You should definitely start an acan garden. I hope to have a small nice one in the new tank.

 

The squamosa was open and happy in that photo. I think the light reflecting off of it made it look white, so its hard to see its open. Both clams seem totally fine though. They haven't even been phased the whole time.

 

Your such a hardcore reefer and a eternal optimist! I agree with Gena, awesome plan and super excited to watch this new reef bloom into another kick azz reef

 

Will say though, i was expecting alot more loss. Your last FTS has alot of promising prospects hanging in there.

 

Love that new octospawn!! I had the most brilliant orange one and it was the coolest coral. Dunno what happened, one day it decided it hated life and peaced out on me. I need to hunt me down some more though. There just so neat looking.

I try to be! I can't dwell on it! Gotta move on and make this hobby fun again. I'm glad you both like my plan! Its still a rough idea and will be evolving as I go along. I'll definitely want input from you guys since you're all such experts!

 

A lot of stuff made a crazy recovery the last few days, so the hit isn't as bad as I originally thought. I still think it was too much to not start over though. Gotta change it up so I'm not always looking at it and remembering how much more awesome it used to look.

 

A bright orange octo would be awesome! Too bad it died like that. Corals can be so bizarre at times. My new one is nothing fancy, but I really like it. Its so puffy and neon

 

I also forgot to tell ya, I had a short cycle w/ mine, it completely skipped over ammonia & went straight to nitrite. I even did a small water change expecting worse but it didn't come.

Good to know! We'll see what mine does.

 

 

Ok, so I'm mid transfer right now. All the rock and coral are in the holding tank. My fish and clams are all in a bucket acclimating right now. Well all the fish except my freakin' wrasse. Of course the minute I started the transfer, he went down into the sand bed. After I got everything out except him, I started dragging my fingers through the sand to make him come out. Issue is, doing that stirred up so much silt that the water is too cloudy to see the wrasse once I get him out of the sand. So I have no way to net him. I'm waiting for the sand to settle out of the water and I'm hoping he'll come out of the sand in a bit. Otherwise, I'll have to try running my fingers through the sand much more carefully and try not to stir up silt. What a pain! Besides the silly wrasse, its all gone very smoothly.

 

Ok, so list of the main survivors:

 

SPS

1) Pink birdsnest

2) Efflo frag

3) Undata (with serious color loss)

4) Red monti

5) Green monti

 

LPS

1) Duncan colony

2) Frogspawn (lost about 1/3 of its heads)

3) Chalice (about 1/4 of the tissue dead)

4) Both scolys

 

Zoas & Palys (some still not opening and all with major color loss)

1) Rastas

2) BBEB's

3) Pink Hallucinations

4) CARs

5) Mind Blowing palys

6) Fruit Loops

7) Bam Bams

 

Softies

1) Green fuzzy mushroom

2) 2 Florida ricordea

3) Pastel rainbow yuma

4) Assorted mushrooms

[Felicia]

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[Mr. Microscope]

I want them to grow into acan balls like in your tank!

To do this, I removed the frag from the plug, and mounted it to a rock. Then, as the acans outgrew the rock, I continued to add more rock pieces (carefully chosen and thoughtfully placed) under/around the base of the original. As they've continued to grow, I've done this maybe two or three times on each colony. If your acans are already growing on the plug, you can wait until they over grow that and mount some rock under/around the plug. It helps to use fragging cutters to snip off the bottom knob of the plug so you have a flat surface to work with.

Good luck. Oh, and good luck NOT getting any more. lol. They're addicting.

 

 

IEEEEE!!!!

[gena]

Is that a giant bristleworm in there??? LOL

[Felicia]

To do this, I removed the frag from the plug, and mounted it to a rock. Then, as the acans outgrew the rock, I continued to add more rock pieces (carefully chosen and thoughtfully placed) under/around the base of the original. As they've continued to grow, I've done this maybe two or three times on each colony. If your acans are already growing on the plug, you can wait until they over grow that and mount some rock under/around the plug. It helps to use fragging cutters to snip off the bottom knob of the plug so you have a flat surface to work with.

Good luck. Oh, and good luck NOT getting any more. lol. They're addicting.

 

 

IEEEEE!!!!

Good to know about how you made the acans grow like that! I will definitely have to try that. And yeah, I'll probably need a few more

 

Yeah, its pretty scary looking right? I've got to get it all cleaned up tonight and filled back up with brand new salt water. Tomorrow officially starts the new build when my live rocks arrive.

 

Is that a giant bristleworm in there??? LOL

Haha! Nope, thats a piece of red grape macro that's laying in there. That would be one scary bristleworm!

[dixie reefer]

Wow, sorry about the crash. BUT I can't wait to see what you come up with now!

[Felicia]

Wow, sorry about the crash. BUT I can't wait to see what you come up with now!

Thanks, Dixie! I'm psyched to get my live rock tomorrow and get started on making the tank pretty again

[gena]

Thanks, Dixie! I'm psyched to get my live rock tomorrow and get started on making the tank pretty again

I think my brother gets his live rock tomorrow from KPA too! He just set up a NUVO 38g. Still has his cube, but is upgrading his 29g tank. I need to text him and find out what's up.

 

Exciting day for you tomorrow getting that rock .

[Felicia]

I think my brother gets his live rock tomorrow from KPA too! He just set up a NUVO 38g. Still has his cube, but is upgrading his 29g tank. I need to text him and find out what's up.

 

Exciting day for you tomorrow getting that rock .

That's exciting that your brother is upgrading! Sounds like KPA has sold a lot of rock this week. Someone else posted and said they had some on the way too. Not that I have room to talk, but your brother needs to post more!

 

My acans come tomorrow too, so very exciting!

[FlowerMama]

That's exciting that your brother is upgrading! Sounds like KPA has sold a lot of rock this week. Someone else posted and said they had some on the way too. Not that I have room to talk, but your brother needs to post more!

 

My acans come tomorrow too, so very exciting!

 

With many people getting KPA rock I'm wondering how many more mantis tanks will be acquired???

[Felicia]

Alright, I finally caught the wrasse and now the light is all hooked up on the temporary holding tank. Here it is in the middle of my kitchen floor.

 

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Lily finally has a tank at her eye level!

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[Mr. Microscope]

Lily finally has a tank at her eye level!

"mmmm, clownfish a-la-kitty claws"

 

You may need to add a padlock to your mesh cover there. lol

[Felicia]

"mmmm, clownfish a-la-kitty claws"

 

You may need to add a padlock to your mesh cover there. lol

Luckily, Lily is too much of a priss to get her paws all wet trying to catch fish

 

 

So it looks like my rock isn't arriving today The USPS tracking info has said the estimated delivery date is today and it still does, but the updates on the tracking say the rock just left the USPS sorting facility in Florida today. Ugh! So now I'm not sure if it will arrive tomorrow or Saturday. I sure hope its still "live" rock by the time it makes it here.

[gena]

I love her eye-level tank .

 

My brother told me the same thing this morning. Tracking is showing similar to what you are getting but says delivery date is today. Wonder what is up?

[Felicia]

I love her eye-level tank .

 

My brother told me the same thing this morning. Tracking is showing similar to what you are getting but says delivery date is today. Wonder what is up?

Lily's food bowl and water fountain are right next to that tank on the kitchen floor, so she keeps going in there to eat or drink and then gets distracted by the fish being at eye level. Normally she mostly ignores the tanks but apparently when they're down on her level she notices the fish swimming around a lot more.

 

Weird! I was going to ask you if his was delayed as well. My tracking info is showing that my rocks sat at the sorting facility for two days instead of going out. I don't get why it still says delivery today though. I'm hoping the error is on the part about the sort facility and that it actually shows up today. We'll see. My USPS packages usually make it here by 11 am, so I have about an hour to wait.

 

 

I just wanted to let everyone know that all my fish and corals and clams are doing well in the temporary holding tank. I moved over all the rock and the AC70, so I figured there should be enough biofilter in that tank, but I also dumped in a bottle of Dr. Tim's just in case. All the fish have settled in and are out and about doing their thing. They all came out for dinner last night. I was concerned the wrasse might freak out without any sand to sleep in, but he seems to be ok with just going up under the rocks at night. Moving fish always makes me worried about the stress causing and ich outbreak or something, but all the fish seem pretty unphased and they all look healthy and happy. Yay for a successful tank transfer! Now let's hope it goes just as smoothly when everything moved back into the main tank. For anyone who followed my thread when I transferred from the 10 gallon to the 30 gallon, I don't know if you guys remember, but I accidentally knocked over the bucket the firefish and YWG were acclimating in and they ended up on my living room floor. Those two fish survived that incident and have now been with me for around 2.5 years. This time around they didn't end up on the floor!

 

Oh, also a note to anyone planning a tank transfer or upgrade...2 year old sand bed smells AWFUL! Yuck! Cleaning that sand bed out of the tank last night was disgusting!

[Felicia]

Oh! I almost forgot an update from last night. My pom pom crab is alive and made the transfer! I lost all my stars, shrimp, and crabs in the crash, so I assumed he was dead. Last night he was out and about in the holding tank looking for food. He's gotten HUGE! Unfortunately, he's missing both poms but I was just super excited to see him alive and well.

[gena]

Oh! I almost forgot an update from last night. My pom pom crab is alive and made the transfer! I lost all my stars, shrimp, and crabs in the crash, so I assumed he was dead. Last night he was out and about in the holding tank looking for food. He's gotten HUGE! Unfortunately, he's missing both poms but I was just super excited to see him alive and well.

Those little guys are so resilient .

[Felicia]

Those little guys are so resilient .

Yep! I'm glad to see one of my inverts made it! Unfortunately, I lost my pistol shrimp, both cleaner shrimp, all my hermits, the blue porcelain crabs, and all 5 of my starfish

[gena]

Yep! I'm glad to see one of my inverts made it! Unfortunately, I lost my pistol shrimp, both cleaner shrimp, all my hermits, the blue porcelain crabs, and all 5 of my starfish

That's rough. Especially the blue porcelains for me. Those babies were HH's right? Oh and the pistol .

[Acielot]

Yep my tracking info says the same thing, Depart USPS sort facility. They usually show up around 3 so hopefully the boxes really were not just sitting around since monday :/

[Felicia]

That's rough. Especially the blue porcelains for me. Those babies were HH's right? Oh and the pistol .

Yeah the blue porcelains were hitchhikers. Losing them is definitely very sad, since they're been with me since the beginning. The came with the original live rock I used in the 10 gallon. The pistol was the hardest to lose since I'd had him since the 10 gallon and the poor YWG seems so lonely. I'm going to have to get him a new buddy once the tank is ready again. Granted, losing the shrimp and starfish I'd had for 2 years + was hard too! I love my inverts too much. Oh well... live and learn. 2 year old sand beds should not be disturbed if they've never been stirred up. Silly wrasse! Go figure he was a nightmare to catch too! He's so pretty and well behaved and eats flatworms, but man is he a pain!

 

Yep my tracking info says the same thing, Depart USPS sort facility. They usually show up around 3 so hopefully the boxes really were not just sitting around since monday :/

I wonder what's up with USPS today! Normally I have no issues at all with 2-day priority. I've gotten several shipments from KPA that way with no issues. Hopefully tracking info is just screwy, but I'm not too hopeful.

 

At least my acans just made it! I've got the bags floating to temp acclimate right now.

[gena]

Looks like everyone that ordered KPA live rock this week is experiencing the same delay! Or like I told my brother, USPS is just slacking with their updates. Wouldn't be surprising. They are getting worse and worse.