My Bonsai Reef

[sam_the_reefer]

 

 

 

 

 

[Nano sapiens]

Looking good!

 

Love that bubbly Yuma Rock island 👍😊

[sam_the_reefer]

57 minutes ago, Nano sapiens said:

Looking good!

 

Love that bubbly Yuma Rock island 👍😊

Thanks! I think it's reached peak Yuma. That's why I asked on your about it on your journal.

[sam_the_reefer]

 

 

[sam_the_reefer]

Still chugging along. Some zoas didn't take the increased PAR too well and receded/melted. I still see some remnant tissue though, so I'm hoping they will bounce back in the future. Just embracing the life and death dynamics and letting things be.

 

[sam_the_reefer]

Been a while... I decided to give away my coral beauty because it seems to be nipping corals when I'm not looking. Things are looking better a month after that change.

Just recently, a fellow reefer decided to put his LS up for adoption and no one else in my club had room for them, so I ended up getting them and now the tank looks full. So much for my minimalist tank plan. I upgraded my wave maker as well to a SLW 10.

I also got a firefish, halloween hermit, and cleaner shrimp as new residents. But the firefish disappeared after day 1. Never found a body (I checked the floor too) but the anemone looked suspiciously happy.

[JustReading]

Your picture quality is top notch

[salzwasser]

What an inspiring aquarium, thanks for sharing!

[sam_the_reefer]

19 hours ago, JustReading said:

Your picture quality is top notch

 

11 hours ago, salzwasser said:

What an inspiring aquarium, thanks for sharing!

Thanks!

[gen]

On 2/10/2021 at 10:52 AM, xellos88 said:

the anemone looked suspiciously happy

This cracked me up. No body, no crime. 

 

This tank is truly amazing. I can only hope to achieve something as balanced, both in scape and colors in the future. 

[sam_the_reefer]

On 2/11/2021 at 7:32 PM, gen said:

This cracked me up. No body, no crime. 

 

This tank is truly amazing. I can only hope to achieve something as balanced, both in scape and colors in the future. 

Thanks for the kind words! Right now it doesn't look as balanced with the new LS. I'm still waiting for the Cynarina to be happy before taking a picture.

[Nano sapiens]

On 2/10/2021 at 1:52 AM, xellos88 said:

So much for my minimalist tank plan.

Had to chuckle on this one as it's really hard not to overload a small nano.

 

Amazing how photosensitive these animals can be.  Even just a relatively small increase in light intensity and/or a change in spectrum can have profound consequences.

[sam_the_reefer]

2 hours ago, Nano sapiens said:

Amazing how photosensitive these animals can be.  Even just a relatively small increase in light intensity and/or a change in spectrum can have profound consequences.

Right? You'd think they'd be super resilient to light being in shallow water under the full tropical sun. I suspect hotspots esp. with the V/UV leds being the culprit. My anemone has regained its purple under-color though which was my goal with the spectrum/intensity change.

[Nano sapiens]

24 minutes ago, xellos88 said:

I suspect hotspots esp. with the V/UV leds being the culprit. My anemone has regained its purple under-color though which was my goal with the spectrum/intensity change.

 

Well, that's a coincidence as I have been dealing with the same hot spot issue when I replaced all my old V/HV emitters recently.  In my case I matched the before PAR level exactly after the new installation, but could see the effects of over lighting in some corals directly under the HV (430 nm produces a lot of PUR!).  I solved the problem by installing a light duty diffusion material and was able to still keep a good amount of shimmer.

 

Details are in my last post on my build thread if you are interested (post w/many pics near bottom of pg. 95):

 

http://Nano Sapien's 12g Nano thread: http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/172031-nano-sapiens-12g-ye-olde-mixed-reef/

[sam_the_reefer]

3 hours ago, Nano sapiens said:

 

Well, that's a coincidence as I have been dealing with the same hot spot issue when I replaced all my old V/HV emitters recently.  In my case I matched the before PAR level exactly after the new installation, but could see the effects of over lighting in some corals directly under the HV (430 nm produces a lot of PUR!).  I solved the problem by installing a light duty diffusion material and was able to still keep a good amount of shimmer.

 

Details are in my last post on my build thread if you are interested (post w/many pics near bottom of pg. 95):

 

http://Nano Sapien's 12g Nano thread: http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/172031-nano-sapiens-12g-ye-olde-mixed-reef/

Hehe, yeah I read your post. 🙂 I also saw some AI prime owners having problems with their LEDs burning lately. I'm still following the BRS AB+ spectrum, but lowered the intensity to around 75%.

[sam_the_reefer]

 

 

 

 

[sam_the_reefer]

Sporadic update. I've started dosing Aquavitro fuel again, but I might have been dosing too much in the past few weeks. I've been dealing with COVID, so I haven't been able to do the corrective measures (large water changes with Natural Salt Water). Anyway, just wanted to share the mess. What's important is that the corals are still happy despite the cyano. And thankful that I have this hobby to lean on during tough times like this.

 

 

[debbeach13]

Sorry to hear you have not been feeling well. Take care of you first. Like you said the coral look fine and once you feel better you can clean the tank. I hope that you feel better soon. Just remember you might feel tired for a couple months and need to rest and let your body recover.  

[Tired]

Hope you recover soon and don't wind up with any of the long-haul issues. This thing can be nasty. 

 

Don't worry about the cyano. It's ugly-looking, but probably the easiest pest "algae" to deal with. Just blow it off any corals it annoys, if needed, and it'll go away once conditions shift away from what encouraged it. Plus, here's something cool about it: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Oxidation_Event

Cyanobacteria kicked off the existence of almost all life today. Before it took off, there wasn't really any oxygen in the atmosphere. Then cyano started to spread everywhere, and gradually pumped the atmosphere full of oxygen, causing a mass extinction and firmly establishing itself as a dominant species. Everything alive today is descended from the survivors of that event, and cyano is largely unchanged since then.

[sam_the_reefer]

14 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

Sorry to hear you have not been feeling well. Take care of you first. Like you said the coral look fine and once you feel better you can clean the tank. I hope that you feel better soon. Just remember you might feel tired for a couple months and need to rest and let your body recover.  

Thank you, I am feeling better.
 

10 hours ago, Tired said:

Hope you recover soon and don't wind up with any of the long-haul issues. This thing can be nasty. 

 

Don't worry about the cyano. It's ugly-looking, but probably the easiest pest "algae" to deal with. Just blow it off any corals it annoys, if needed, and it'll go away once conditions shift away from what encouraged it. Plus, here's something cool about it: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Oxidation_Event

Cyanobacteria kicked off the existence of almost all life today. Before it took off, there wasn't really any oxygen in the atmosphere. Then cyano started to spread everywhere, and gradually pumped the atmosphere full of oxygen, causing a mass extinction and firmly establishing itself as a dominant species. Everything alive today is descended from the survivors of that event, and cyano is largely unchanged since then.

Thanks, I do feel that I've recovered. The cyano is fine, and I'm totally not stressing out about it. 🙂

[sam_the_reefer]

Our home quarantine ended 2 days ago so I was finally able to get some NSW to do a water change after 3.5 weeks. I tested the water before doing the water change and was surprised that my nitrates are zero. I might have added too much Purigen and activated carbon to handle the perceived waste. So I halved the amount of those 2 filter media in my filter. Also, someone in my local reef club was selling his bigger wavemaker for cheap, so I hopped on that to increase the flow a bit. And, I also added a small yellowtail damsel and I hope it stays with me for long like my last one. Why is the zero nitrates a concern? This tank just looks better with some nitrate in my experience.

 

[sam_the_reefer]

I also plan on setting up a second tank. It's going to be a marine planted tank and will be using the original Eclipse 12 that I started with. After the whole COVID experience I've learned not to put off these things. Life's too short to have just 1 tank 🙂. Still thinking if I should paint the background black though, I can't do anything with the black mounts the light came with.

 

[sam_the_reefer]

Test post from phone...

[sam_the_reefer]

A friend was quitting reef keeping and going the FOWLR route and was selling his extra reef roids for cheap. Now thinking of feeding the nem reef roids to fatten her up...maybe coat the food (tuna slices) in it.

 

 

 

[Tired]

Any sessile invert that has a mouth should like the reef roids. Try them plain, she might take them anyway if you put a bunch on. To feed the roids, put a pinch of them in a couple drops of water, just enough to suck the mixture up into a pipette, then squirt it on whatever you think might want some.