Polarcollision's Nuvo 24: March FTS

[Polarcollision]

The comeback

 

The red planet is starting to grow over bare skeleton. Yay! It's green now instead of pink. Weird. Well, maybe not. I think the pink was growth tips. Hopefully to come back soon.

 

All but the pink lemonade/strawberry shortcake SPS are coming back from the chiller/cat ordeal. The 10k lokani and green slimer are still brown, but they're showing polyps now. Phosphates jumped up to 0.34 with the dieoff, but I'm sure a little phosban will have those two shining soon also. Interestingly, everything else is bouncing back very quickly and colorfully despite high phosphates.

 

Alk usage dropped to 4 mL/ day from previous 26 mL/day. We're now back to 8 mL. My favorite teal bird has 1/8 growth tips already. Having to test alk every day to stay on top of the quick return to growth.

 

 

BEST NEWS!!! The yellow watchman finally got brave enough to swim over to where the Randall's pistol shrimp lives. They're officially hitched as of yesterday. In leu of wedding gifts, please donate to your local LFS. ;-) Shrimp will even come out of its cave now, as long as the fish is nearby to touch. So happy with lifting the shrimp ban on this tank!! What a fun match.

[Simone]

Great to hear things are looking up!

[rdck99]

Sorry if it's been asked before, but where did that stand come from?!

[Polarcollision]

Sorry if it's been asked before, but where did that stand come from?!

 

It is from Ashley Furniture. The stand is great. But I'm hesitant to advertise for them because they also sold us leather couches that had a large cut repaired (as new). When we finally noticed the peeling repair 2 months later they said too much time had passed for them to replace the couch with an undamaged one we should have received.

[rdck99]

It is from Ashley Furniture. The stand is great. But I'm hesitant to advertise for them because they also sold us leather couches that had a large cut repaired (as new). When we finally noticed the peeling repair 2 months later they said too much time had passed for them to replace the couch with an undamaged one we should have received.

Yikes! Sorry to hear that, but thanks for the info. I'm not in the market for a new stand at the moment, but was just curious for if/when I need to. Thanks again!

[owenj]

Glad to hear things are getting back on track. Do you have any progress pics?

[Polarcollision]

Glad to hear things are getting back on track. Do you have any progress pics?

 

Soon! Pics have been scarce with the Hydra lights. I used to just turn all the channels up for color balance and light intensity for photos with the AI Nano light. But the controller for the Hydra is a royal pain in the ### -- takes about an hour to reset the light program. Sometimes the stars align and I'll actually be home and motivated to shoot when the light program is at full intensity. Maybe Santa will get me Director for xmas. :-)

[Egginis]

It's going to be a challenge to add something new in your heavily coral stocked and thriving aquarium. You may need to do addition by subtraction or start another tank

[Polarcollision]

The aquarium has exploded with life lately. Just the other day I noticed this hanging out under the trachyphillia. A tunicate, maybe? Around 1/4" long with 2 siphons. Definitely not a sponge - it deflates when touched.

 

These are hard like stony coral, but their polyps are only at the ends. Tiny. Maybe 1/16"

 

Even smaller filter feeders growing on coralline. Also, a true purple coralline starting to spread. The more pinkish is the common variety.

 

plating coralline

 

 

So I've been siphoning brown sand and this out for the last few weeks

 

Started wondering exactly what was growing in the tank and got out the microscope. The reddish blob magnified 40x. This is likely the TINIEST single-cell I've seen under the scope from my tank. It grows in a biofilm which traps random plankton - I assume for food. The larger dark, round shadows are the dinos I've had at low levels for almost 2 years.

 

Magnified 100x

 

unidentified (red)

 

 

I think these little dots are another type of dinoflagellate. Lucky me! From what I can tell, they typically appear when the biodiversity of the tank crashes, so my first plan of attack is to continue siphoning and to dose live algae/phyto, pods, and bacteria. I'll also start running the UV LED at night for a few hours. These dinos are photosynthetic (you can see the chloroplasts) so their numbers fade at night. I figure hitting them when they're down could work. Carbon changed every 4 days to absorb toxins.

 

 

There's also a brown film on the sand that reappears every 4 days or so. Turns out they're diatoms: Cylindrotheca closterium. Here's a fantastic pic of them taken by Waldo Nell with a DIC scope. The brown spikes are the diatoms. The green spheres are the algae film that grows on glass.

 

Pics of the tank in next post!

[Polarcollision]

September coral updates!

 

 

 

New additions!

 

New gonipora, green slimer, unknown green SPS, mystic sunset monti - destined for the back wall. They're still a little brown, but phosphates are back to a good level so it's just a matter of time now.

 

 

Not sure what these are, but they glow icy blue. Camera couldn't get the color very well.

 

 

 

Random coralscapes

 

 

Recovery shots

Red planet is starting to get tiny pink growth buds, but it's neon green right now.

 

Not sure if this strawberryshortcake/pink lemonade is going to come back. It has 12 polyps that glow under blues. It's looking pretty sad.

 

Garf bonsai is half way back to good. It's mostly purple hazed and polyps are starting to come out more. Pretty sure it's going to pull through.

 

red is almost completely back, polyps are 90% back on the montis. It's impossible to kill the pocci.

 

baby acan is fluffy and pink again

 

These have to go, but they're pretty little green hydroids

 

plating monti is 80% back to color

 

moved the coco worm to a calmer spot, feeding it phyto to help it recover.

 

The tricolor valida is mostly toast on the underside. There's a little on the tops so I'm giving it 6 months to come back before I toss it.

 

Favorite SPS barely noticed the temp swing. Lost a little color, but it's all back now and growing like a weed again. I've trimmed off 3" frags and you can hardly tell.

 

chalice is green again and growing

 

lokani has polyps again. Purple is returning, bleached areas are getting thicker color.

 

 

 

And LASTLY... Should I be concerned about this white string clown poop? Parasite?

[Felicia]

Wow! Stunning new photos! So many of them! Everything looks great! That tank is already so full

 

Silly cat! I just read what it did to your chiller. Glad it wasn't worse. Good thing we love our cats. Haha!

[Moolelo]

What type of snail is that? Looks like you added 2? Sorry out of all that, this is what I notice >_<. But glad your coral are bouncing back, such a colorful tank!

[Polarcollision]

Wow! Stunning new photos! So many of them! Everything looks great! That tank is already so full

 

Silly cat! I just read what it did to your chiller. Glad it wasn't worse. Good thing we love our cats. Haha!

There's not much room for anything else! I replaced the center pillar to get rid of the blue clove polyps and moved the torch to the top where it can grow out and not sting anything else. The pipe organ was smothering the chalice so it is also at the base of the new pillar next to the clam. That leaves room for 2-4 more zoas and replacement acros on the left pillar. That's what I love about zoas, they fill in quickly and then give way as SPS grows out. Trying to put lots of little pieces everywhere so they grow in around each other more naturally and look like a rich reef as they compete for space.

 

Cats keep life interesting, that's for sure. She's lucky I love her. :-)

 

What type of snail is that? Looks like you added 2? Sorry out of all that, this is what I notice >_<. But glad your coral are bouncing back, such a colorful tank!

They're sweet looking, yes?! Spiny star astrea I believe. Heads up that they don't flip over easily--damsels in distress.

[RollaJase]

Looking good my friend .

[Arkayology]

Looking good!!!!!

[Moolelo]

Amazing snails, and you don't hear that very often. Sadly I won't have to worry about flipping because I can only get what is native to Hawaii. It is just nice to see thought put into simple animals that usually end up looking the same as a freshwater tanks CUC.

[Polarcollision]

Looking good my friend .

Looking good!!!!!

 

Amazing snails, and you don't hear that very often. Sadly I won't have to worry about flipping because I can only get what is native to Hawaii. It is just nice to see thought put into simple animals that usually end up looking the same as a freshwater tanks CUC.

 

Ah, I see. Sorry to hear that, though the reasons why are understandable. Are these reef-safe? Quite a few of them are really pretty.

[markalot]

Howdy,

 

I missed the last update, nice to see things are making a comeback. Red Planet is on my list of Acros but man is it expensive.

 

I think all shells are reef safe as long as they haven't been polished with any chemicals. I buy shells off Ebay for my hermits, my thin stripe prefers shells similar in shape to the bottom just left of center shell above.

[vlangel]

I was looking at your thread and read about the chiller/kitty encounter! Wow, I am shocked that a kitty would or could get that loose, much less apart completely. I've had a chiller with flex tubing and hose clamps for years and dogs and cats and never an incident. I guess I will count myself lucky. I did have a controller malfunction last Christmas and chill the tank to below 50 degrees in the middle of the night. Luckily my husband had gotten up and noticed it running. Amazingly I only lost 3 fish, a damsel and 2 chromis. 4 fish and all the coral survived!

[gena]

chalice is green again and growing

. What is the name of this one? I love the color and growth pattern!!!!

 

I've had clowns with that stringy white poop and it's gone away on it's own. Just keep an eye on it. If the fish starts losing weight then you want to do something.

 

I really enjoyed this photo update .

[Polarcollision]

Howdy,

 

I missed the last update, nice to see things are making a comeback. Red Planet is on my list of Acros but man is it expensive.

 

I think all shells are reef safe as long as they haven't been polished with any chemicals. I buy shells off Ebay for my hermits, my thin stripe prefers shells similar in shape to the bottom just left of center shell above.

Oh! I will see if my coral guy is willing to ship. I get most of my frags for 20-35 compared to 60-120 in retail or online shops. Red planet is super easy to come by. Mine was just $25. The only one I'm super bummed about losing is the Oregon tort. I've never seen a blue that deep and rich in anything else living.

[Polarcollision]

I was looking at your thread and read about the chiller/kitty encounter! Wow, I am shocked that a kitty would or could get that loose, much less apart completely. I've had a chiller with flex tubing and hose clamps for years and dogs and cats and never an incident. I guess I will count myself lucky. I did have a controller malfunction last Christmas and chill the tank to below 50 degrees in the middle of the night. Luckily my husband had gotten up and noticed it running. Amazingly I only lost 3 fish, a damsel and 2 chromis. 4 fish and all the coral survived!

It's amazing that coral do so well with lower temps considering everything you hear otherwise. Kinda makes you feel like they're not quite as fragile when they pull through 50 degrees! Sorry to hear about the fish though. I regularly drop the temp to 74 degrees every water change. Hopefully just conditioning them to slight extremes since nothing seems set back by it. :-)

 

Not sure if it's a design flaw of Aqua Euro chillers, but the prongs to connect the tubing to chiller are *very* thin plastic. It's not too surprising they snapped right off when the 15 lb cat landed on it, though I think the chiller should have less flimsy parts. :-)

 

Thanks for stopping by! Looking forward to checking out your thread too.

[Polarcollision]

. What is the name of this one? I love the color and growth pattern!!!!

 

I've had clowns with that stringy white poop and it's gone away on it's own. Just keep an eye on it. If the fish starts losing weight then you want to do something.

 

I really enjoyed this photo update .

That's bubblegum monster chalice. I got it as a tiny little nub. Normally they grow out smooth and thin over their substrate, so you see the round frag plug disk under them. I took it off the disk frag and glued it to rock rubble. When it grows over it's base, I'll pry the frag rubble up and add more to give it that interesting shape. I guess a reverse bonsai?? Anyways, it's large enough that I'm going to let it run loose over that bottom shelf.

 

Thanks for the input on the fish poo. They don't seem skinny so I'll let it ride like you suggest. Does it seem weird that the black clown wedges itself into a paly colony and stays there for hours? He seems fine otherwise, it's just hard for me to tell if he's a mellow, happy clown or sick.

 

Glad you liked the pics! I'll see if I can be more regular with them. :-)

[vlangel]

It's amazing that coral do so well with lower temps considering everything you hear otherwise. Kinda makes you feel like they're not quite as fragile when they pull through 50 degrees! Sorry to hear about the fish though. I regularly drop the temp to 74 degrees every water change. Hopefully just conditioning them to slight extremes since nothing seems set back by it. :-)

 

Thanks for stopping by! Looking forward to checking out your thread too.

My tanks are now running 72-74 in anticipation of seahorses arriving. It ran 78 all summer but I haven't noticed any I'll effects on anything and the only change is less growth and less CA, MG and Alk. usage(which is OK with me). Even the crocea clam is happy.

[Polarcollision]

My tanks are now running 72-74 in anticipation of seahorses arriving. It ran 78 all summer but I haven't noticed any I'll effects on anything and the only change is less growth and less CA, MG and Alk. usage(which is OK with me). Even the crocea clam is happy.

This is very interesting to me. What do you see in terms of nitrates and phosphates, oh, and little buggers like diatoms, cyano, dino's?