friar1 Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 Hi Mr M, Excited to see you are stocking again. I just purchased a Royal Gramma, great little fish, eats well and hangs out in the front a lot. I need to post a vid I took a few days ago. Can wait to see you new corals too. I was just looking at your thread to see what I could stock on my pillar in my tank, since mostly what I have prefer lower light Looks like you have some zoos and palys (or had, I was looking at your TOM pics) in hiigher light that I would have thought they tolerated Still don't think I will do SPS yet, Water probably not pure enough 1 Quote Link to comment
Mr. Microscope Posted May 17, 2015 Author Share Posted May 17, 2015 Hi Mr M, Excited to see you are stocking again. I just purchased a Royal Gramma, great little fish, eats well and hangs out in the front a lot. I need to post a vid I took a few days ago. Can wait to see you new corals too. I was just looking at your thread to see what I could stock on my pillar in my tank, since mostly what I have prefer lower light Looks like you have some zoos and palys (or had, I was looking at your TOM pics) in hiigher light that I would have thought they tolerated Still don't think I will do SPS yet, Water probably not pure enough Hey Friar! Good to hear from you. I'm glad to hear your gramma is working out for you. Yeah, I've been getting tired of just the two clowns. They've been ruling the roost since last August. I decided it was time to add a couple more swimmers. I'm looking forward to seeing your video. Your thread is overdue for an update I've only had a couple zoas in my tank sitting on my rack for the last couple years. They did best when I was only using mechanical filtration. As soon as I introduced a skimmer, started lowering nutrients, and polishing the water, they took a serious dive. Now they just don't thrive. I'm lucky if I see a new polyp once every six months if not negative growth/melting. I've pretty much given up on them. For me, now it's just LPS and SPS. If you wanted to try some SPS, you would probably do a monti or birdsnest no problem. You don't have to have stellar water for SPS. The recent trend has been been steering away from ULN. nice order list!Thanks Kat! Gotta say you inspired me a bit on that Ice Tenuis. Quote Link to comment
Felicia Posted May 17, 2015 Share Posted May 17, 2015 Glad to see you're adding some more fish! I love blennies. So much fun. I went way too long without one and then had to get myself a starry recently. Such a character. Also glad to see you're beating the pests. Sounds like things are on the way back up over there 1 Quote Link to comment
Mr. Microscope Posted May 17, 2015 Author Share Posted May 17, 2015 Glad to see you're adding some more fish! I love blennies. So much fun. I went way too long without one and then had to get myself a starry recently. Such a character. Also glad to see you're beating the pests. Sounds like things are on the way back up over there Yeah! It feels like it too. My next hurdle is to overcome to coming heat. The tank is at 80 now 1 Quote Link to comment
Felicia Posted May 17, 2015 Share Posted May 17, 2015 Yeah! It feels like it too. My next hurdle is to overcome to coming heat. The tank is at 80 now Yikes! Yeah I hate when the temperature spikes here. My tank crawls up to about 82 sometimes and its ok. As long as its only for a few days at a time it should be ok. Do you have any fans on the sump? 1 Quote Link to comment
Mr. Microscope Posted May 17, 2015 Author Share Posted May 17, 2015 Yikes! Yeah I hate when the temperature spikes here. My tank crawls up to about 82 sometimes and its ok. As long as its only for a few days at a time it should be ok. Do you have any fans on the sump? I used to, but it died last fall. Got to install a new one. Quote Link to comment
kimberbee Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 Still interested in that purpley acro I had? The growth on it has been great, the color, not so much. I can try chopping off a piece for you! 1 Quote Link to comment
Mr. Microscope Posted May 18, 2015 Author Share Posted May 18, 2015 Still interested in that purpley acro I had? The growth on it has been great, the color, not so much. I can try chopping off a piece for you! Cool! Thanks for the offer. I'm glad to hear it's settled in for you. I know that period can be nail bitingly long sometimes (seemingly like six months for some varieties of acro). Hold off on fragging it for now. Especially since it's finally happy for you. Sometimes fragging can really set back a coral. Also, since my whole flat worm incident, I had to frag up a couple of my pieces and I mounted them in separate areas of my tank. I have no room anymore. I'm actually going to have to make some room (probably sell off a few acros) when my new pieces arrive from UC. I'm planning to post a couple new pics today and you'll see what I mean. 1 Quote Link to comment
Mr. Microscope Posted May 18, 2015 Author Share Posted May 18, 2015 Hello All! Gonna just post a quick update as I've gone through a few changes lately. Since I had to frag up a few of my pieces, I moved some things around to make room. Here is how my tank currently looks (ignore the basket of BTA's in the upper right): FTS 2015.05.17 and in blue for fun: You'll see I moved the Hurlock colony down near the acan garden. I moved the bonsai back and moved up a few of my acan colonies up the rock pillar. I also moved the blastos into a shadded area up near the middle of the pillar away from the acan colonies. I caught one of my acan colonies about to start eating them near the bottom. So, it was time to give them their own spot. Here's a little top down action: (Note, the green mystery acro in the middle that has dramatically improved and colored up (was fadded brown) after dipping for AEFW's.) and a new view of the Hurlock: As for the AEFW situation, here is the improvement on the pieces I dipped. It's been a little more than two weeks since dipping. One half of my BBG Milli that I had to frag apart. I mounted the pieces on to one of those larger frag plugs. You can see it has moved from fadded with no PE to the brown-out phase and a little encrustation. Thumbs up for progress. Also making progress is the Palmer's Blue. Here's one half of that former colony. It's returned to its green phase with PE and should soon turn back to purple/blue: I thought I lost my Kat. This was one of the first corals I noticed taking a dive and I couldn't figure out why until I noticed the AEFW's on the other acros a couple months later. That one was really really sad and fadded. After dipping, it's making a dramatically quick improvement. I've got that green base back and some new encrusting growth already. Hoping to see some pink with blue tips soon. Finally, after taking pics and processing them today, I'm not so sure I've got them all beat. Here's a pic of my ORA Joe the Coral (another one I dipped): Zooming in on one group of branches I'm seeing some bite marks. I'm not sure if these just need to heal or if they're new. I'll keep observing and maybe dip the piece near the end of the week if I don't see any improvement. That's all for now. If I have time, I'll post more updates later this week after my UC shipment arrives! 10 Quote Link to comment
Mr. Microscope Posted May 19, 2015 Author Share Posted May 19, 2015 MY UC order has shipped!!!! I can't wait to see my next happy blue box! 9 Quote Link to comment
Mr. Microscope Posted May 20, 2015 Author Share Posted May 20, 2015 omgomgomg :D 3 Quote Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted May 20, 2015 Share Posted May 20, 2015 omgomgomg :D Did they recommend it being held for pickup or is that just easier for you. Blue Zoo had the cajones to tell me since I live an hour away from the Fedex hub that that was the reason I lost 100% of two different orders of fish. 1 Quote Link to comment
Mr. Microscope Posted May 20, 2015 Author Share Posted May 20, 2015 Did they recommend it being held for pickup or is that just easier for you. Blue Zoo had the cajones to tell me since I live an hour away from the Fedex hub that that was the reason I lost 100% of two different orders of fish. No, I I feel it's just easier, quicker, and more reliable. I literally go bonkers pacing back and forth waiting all day for a truck to deliver my livestock. If I know where it is, it's in my control. Also, my door buzzer thing doesn't really work, so any time I order anything that isn't delivered USPS, things get mess up. That's crazy about Blue Zoo. Most online stores seem to recommend holding at the FedEx. actually... from the UC shipping website: 3 Quote Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted May 20, 2015 Share Posted May 20, 2015 No, I I feel it's just easier, quicker, and more reliable. I literally go bonkers pacing back and forth waiting all day for a truck to deliver my livestock. If I know where it is, it's in my control. Also, my door buzzer thing doesn't really work, so any time I order anything that isn't delivered USPS, things get mess up. That's crazy about Blue Zoo. Most online stores seem to recommend holding at the FedEx. actually... from the UC shipping website: I know why they recommend it (get it sooner than delivery, etc etc) but they were trying to give me temperature BS. I check the temperature of the water in the bags as soon as they arrive. The BZ orders were 80 and 82 degrees, which is about perfect. I got an order from Liveaquaria in January. It was 85F here, below freezing in Wisconsin, so they shipped with a heat pack. The water temperature was 90F in the bags when I opened it, but all of those fish were fine, and I explained that to them. BZ didn't get back with me after that. About $300 that I could have simply lit on fire and gotten more enjoyment out of. 1 Quote Link to comment
Mr. Microscope Posted May 20, 2015 Author Share Posted May 20, 2015 I know why they recommend it (get it sooner than delivery, etc etc) but they were trying to give me temperature BS. I check the temperature of the water in the bags as soon as they arrive. The BZ orders were 80 and 82 degrees, which is about perfect. I got an order from Liveaquaria in January. It was 85F here, below freezing in Wisconsin, so they shipped with a heat pack. The water temperature was 90F in the bags when I opened it, but all of those fish were fine, and I explained that to them. BZ didn't get back with me after that. About $300 that I could have simply lit on fire and gotten more enjoyment out of. Dang! That's rough. Quote Link to comment
gena Posted May 20, 2015 Share Posted May 20, 2015 I love your tank, Mr. M. I know you've been going through rough patches with it, but it still looks amazing . Are you getting rid of the BTAs? 1 Quote Link to comment
Mr. Microscope Posted May 20, 2015 Author Share Posted May 20, 2015 I love your tank, Mr. M. I know you've been going through rough patches with it, but it still looks amazing . Are you getting rid of the BTAs? Thank you gena! Now if I can just get rid of that dang turf algae. Perhaps my incoming tailspot will help with that a little. Yes, I should have sold them all off already, but since I have them in the basket, I've been lazy about that. There is still one hanging out on my display rock. It's a smaller one. So, it's really cute to watch my clowns try to snuggle up together and sleep in it at night. 1 Quote Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted May 20, 2015 Share Posted May 20, 2015 Get a juvi rabbitfish to clean up that algae 1 Quote Link to comment
Felicia Posted May 20, 2015 Share Posted May 20, 2015 That's so exciting! Love getting new boxes of coral. Like Christmas morning! Cant' wait to see photos of the new arrivals. I am so with you on having coral held at the FedEx store. So much more peace of mind that way. If it makes you feel any better, I have crazy short fuzzy green algae covering my rocks too. I assume that's turf algae. 1 Quote Link to comment
Mr. Microscope Posted May 20, 2015 Author Share Posted May 20, 2015 Get a juvi rabbitfish to clean up that algae Do they eat turf? How did your's do? (BTW, totally ut of the question for me, lol) That's so exciting! Love getting new boxes of coral. Like Christmas morning! Cant' wait to see photos of the new arrivals. I am so with you on having coral held at the FedEx store. So much more peace of mind that way. If it makes you feel any better, I have crazy short fuzzy green algae covering my rocks too. I assume that's turf algae. Christmas indeed! I actually took a half day at work for this shipment. I'm home now. EVERYTHING MADE IT! The fish are swimming and acclimating. I even got the tailspot (which is adorably small BTW) to eat some cyclope-eze a few minutes ago. No bites from the gramma, but it's got a lot of life in it. It tried to jump out of its acclimation box several times. It's a good thing I have a cover. The Ice Tenuis looks awesome and quite large. Very healthy and in tact. The ORA Mint Pavona showed up and it's a freakin' MONSTER of a "stock frag". OMS, I love Unique Corals. My moonlights are on at the moment and that thing is glowing nuclear green at the moment. I'm really looking forward to seeing it with all the lights on. 5 Quote Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted May 20, 2015 Share Posted May 20, 2015 Do they eat turf? How did your's do? (BTW, totally ut of the question for me, lol) They eat anything that they can scrape off of a rock. http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2013/8/fish2 Why is it out of the question? 1 Quote Link to comment
metrokat Posted May 20, 2015 Share Posted May 20, 2015 My rabbit is a fake. I swear he has a rabbit costume on. He loves caulerpa but won't pick at anything else unless i refuse to feed the tank. Then I see him pecking at frag plugs. I got him for bryopsis, I'll eat my heels if he decides to eat bryopsis. Fake rabbit. Bennys rabbit on the other hand loves bryopsis. 3 Quote Link to comment
Mr. Microscope Posted May 21, 2015 Author Share Posted May 21, 2015 They eat anything that they can scrape off of a rock. http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2013/8/fish2 Why is it out of the question? My tank is too small and I don't want to do the temporary housing and give it away to a bigger tank thing. I also have no plans on upgrading anytime this century. Cool article though! My rabbit is a fake. I swear he has a rabbit costume on. He loves caulerpa but won't pick at anything else unless i refuse to feed the tank. Then I see him pecking at frag plugs. I got him for bryopsis, I'll eat my heels if he decides to eat bryopsis. Fake rabbit. Bennys rabbit on the other hand loves bryopsis. Interesting.. Wascally Wabbit! Quote Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 My tank is too small and I don't want to do the temporary housing and give it away to a bigger tank thing. I also have no plans on upgrading anytime this century. Cool article though! You'd be surprised - one they get ~2.5" or so, they grow very slowly. This is actually about the only time of year that they're found this small, usually they're collected around 3-4", but there are itty bitty tiny ones to be had. Even in your 25g it will look tiny, smaller than a fully grown ocellaris clownfish 1 Quote Link to comment
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