My Bonsai Reef

[gena]

I recognize this beauty from instagram!!!!!  I had to go back to page one to see how this started.  Love those leathers you had!  Do you remember what kind of leather that was on the left side with the long polyps?  I have a longer polyp leather that I'm hoping turns into that one day.  Unless yours was the fancy expensive long polyp.  I know mine isn't that.

 

Glad to hear you are feeling better!!!!

[DevilDuck]

Amazing tank that been through a lot! Love the clean simplicity. Thank you for keeping up with this log!

[sam_the_reefer]

Trimming the turf algae on the zoa tree looks NSFW. XD The cyano situation also looks a little better this week, though it doesn't show much in the photo.

 

 

[sam_the_reefer]

On 8/14/2021 at 12:15 AM, gena said:

I recognize this beauty from instagram!!!!!  I had to go back to page one to see how this started.  Love those leathers you had!  Do you remember what kind of leather that was on the left side with the long polyps?  I have a longer polyp leather that I'm hoping turns into that one day.  Unless yours was the fancy expensive long polyp.  I know mine isn't that.

 

Glad to hear you are feeling better!!!!

Yup, it's me. 🙂 Sorry I'm not sure what kind of leather that was, I just fragged it in the wild. I do miss my leathers...the guy I gave it to hasn't been keeping up with maintenance so it was looking sad the last time I saw it. 😞 I'll take a closer look at yours and comment on your thread.

[sam_the_reefer]

On 8/14/2021 at 2:13 AM, DevilDuck said:

Amazing tank that been through a lot! Love the clean simplicity. Thank you for keeping up with this log!

Thanks for appreciating! Figured I should be more active lately to help the forum. I think this is the best we can do to help the site out, keep our build threads active and engaging.

[gena]

12 hours ago, xellos88 said:

Yup, it's me. 🙂 Sorry I'm not sure what kind of leather that was, I just fragged it in the wild. I do miss my leathers...the guy I gave it to hasn't been keeping up with maintenance so it was looking sad the last time I saw it. 😞 I'll take a closer look at yours and comment on your thread.

You know....that sounds familiar.  If I go back in your journal, I can probably find me asking you what kind of leather that is and where you found it LOL.

[gena]

I just noticed in your photo ID picture thing with the clown...it looks like that long polyp toadstool behind the clown!

[sam_the_reefer]

15 hours ago, gena said:

I just noticed in your photo ID picture thing with the clown...it looks like that long polyp toadstool behind the clown!

Haha, yes! That's the leather when she was young.

[sam_the_reefer]

These were my leathers at their prime. The one on the left is what's in my profile photo and I don't think it's the fancy long tentacled one (weeping willow)....it might be a relative though because they do look similar.

[gena]

@xellos88

 

🥰🥰🥰

 

I posted a photo in my journal of the one I think might be like yours.  The leather you commented on, in my journal, I think is more like the one on the right (only more neon green).  Now that I'm looking at the left one again, I think there's a good chance mine might be the same type.  Here's to really really hoping, crossing my fingers and toes!!!!!! LOL

[sam_the_reefer]

So my first attempt with reef roids didn't go to well with the anemone. It induced a feeding response that I think was unnatural...like it really turned itself inside-out. And the consistency is runny so it couldn't grab the food bits and I think it wasn't able to swallow most of it. 

 

The acans love it though, and they just slurp it up. The cynarina loves it too, but it stayed less puffy after the feeding so I'll hold off until it recovers more.

 

Trying to feed the anemone more now, so it grows enough to get the folds. Made a timelapse video to make sure it swallows the food because the fish are notorious food thieves.

 

 

 

[Sharbuckle]

How’s the battle with cyano coming along?

[sam_the_reefer]

5 minutes ago, Sharbuckle said:

How’s the battle with cyano coming along?

Still ongoing. Making slow and steady progress.

[sam_the_reefer]

I made some scape changes and finally mounted the candy cane to its final position. Moved the equipment around to get a flow rate that makes everyone happy.

 

[sam_the_reefer]

And just like that, cyano disappeared.

 

[debbeach13]

Looks fantastic! I enjoyed the Happy Clowns video.

[sam_the_reefer]

I was re-reading this thread to see if I posted the early diatom phase of the tank way back and got sucked in. I wanted to compare how thick the diatoms were in this tank's ugly phase vs. my new tank (which is the same tank I used when I started this thread) but I guess I didn't post those pictures online. I think I've come a long way as a reefer and now realize almost all of the issues I had were caused by the itch to try to improve things. Which is kind of sad, because I have more improvements planned like leveling the stand (my floor is not level). But for actual tank chemistry issues, simple methods work and are still the best in my opinion (big water changes). Hopefully my other tank will keep me busy and keep my hands off this tank.

[sam_the_reefer]

Also, I should be using my old camera more and stop using my phone. The old pictures were better.

[blizzardscout2]

Wow I really enjoy the bansai look. Keep up the great work. I always admire a full clear glass rimless reef. 

[sam_the_reefer]

In the sweet spot now, but I'm going to mess it up again. Going to be trimming the turf algae growing on the zoas and will be applying h202 on it. Also, using the phone for pictures is just too convenient.

 

 

 

 

 

[sam_the_reefer]

 

 

[Tired]

I hadn't registered the clamshells being used as frag plugs before, that's cool. Those are some nice acans on there, too, and in an interesting shape, with the polyps all smoothed together like that.

[sam_the_reefer]

34 minutes ago, Tired said:

I hadn't registered the clamshells being used as frag plugs before, that's cool. Those are some nice acans on there, too, and in an interesting shape, with the polyps all smoothed together like that.

Glad that you noticed and  appreciate these little details. 🙂 I have a stash of empty clam shells (dinner leftovers...my wife gave me a strange look when I saved them) and I think they look better and more natural than the regular frag plugs. The shape is also convenient, the cup side is great for detached shrooms that need a low flow situation to attach.

[sam_the_reefer]

Tank's still in the sweet spot and chugging along. The cynarina is still not looking 100% but it's making slow and steady progress. There are some kind of protopalythoa that have grown on its receded skeleton preventing it from reclaiming the edges. Hopefully it can edge them out eventually. The turf algae on the zoas at the top are also due for a trim.

 

 

[mitten_reef]

glad to see this is still running - to me, it looked a lot like you were using this same tank for the macro algae project.