Mirya's Mini Garden (Nuvo 8) - Yasha Love Shack

[FlowerMama]

I just got the new PicoSkim 2.0 and installed it today. I chucked my own homemade airstone skimmer. It was pretty nasty on the inside. My skimmer worked, but was a pain to tune, clean, and replace airstones on. (But then, I built it with stuff I had laying around the house. Can't complain with that cost!) The PicoSkim is quite a nice upgrade. Plus the PicoSkim is wider than my homemade skimmer which makes it more effective in addition to being easier to maintain and tune.

 

 

Your skimmer looks very nice! Never heard of that one. Soon it'll break in and you'll be all set.

[AbeHeinkel]

Are you still thinking of getting a possum wrasse? I had one before and he was by far one of my favorite fishes ever.

[Mirya]

Abe - I like the possum wrasses, but I think it is good that I am keeping the bioload on this tank where it is with how irregular my maintenance has been lately. I can't believe you asked me that over a month ago! It has been awhile since I've updated. Work has been, uh... well, let's just say I've been on some job interviews... With working the hours I have been, prepping for said interviews, and oh yeah I decided to run my first ever marathon 2 weeks ago, I haven't had a lot of time for the tanks. But, I've had a little break this weekend.

 

Ophelia hopes you had a Happy Halloween:

 

Baby Borneman is looking just like his old adult head used to right before he split. He is just about 60% of the size he was at before:

 

The JF Jack o'Lantern I bought inexpensively from a local reef club member in June is doing well. He sold it cheap because it "needed some love" as he put it. Here it is when I got it:

And here it is now:

 

Also, the mysterious LPS hitchhiker on the base of one of my spiral wire corals as been growing as well. I wonder if it is a favite?

It is a shame that my non-photosynthetic gorgonian in the background didn't have its polyps out. It has fantastic blue polyps.

[FlowerMama]

Oh my, that jack o'lantern took off. It looks incredible!!!

[Mirya]

Exotic Reef Creations had a live sale a few weeks back. I've been really very happy with my purchases. Most of them went into this tank. There are some lovely Blasto wellsi. I just can't do justice to their colors in this shot:

 

An adorable button Cynarina/Scoly (It is about a quarter in size):

I love this little button coral so much, and it is the perfect size for this tank, that I have another one coming from Cherry Coral's Black Friday sale.

 

There is also a Leptastrea with a blue base and minty tentacles, but I forgot to take a picture of it.

 

Last month my reef club went up to Bellevue High School. Our club donates the the Marine Science Club there. Mr. Saltwater Tank did a profile on it earlier in the year:

We got to check out their tanks and learn about the various projects they've been working on. It was a fun trip. Afterwards I stopped by a LFS in the area and picked this brain coral out of a bargain bin tank:

Any idea what it is? A Lobophyllia perhaps?

[Mirya]

Pouty Yasha is pouty.

 

 

I am down to 2 last RFAs to evict from this tank to move over to the Caribbean tank. They are being real stinkers about wanting to move though!

[FlowerMama]

What pretty contrast in that pic!! Beautiful!!

[Mirya]

There was a lot of coral shopping this week. My other tank got some new Caribbean denizens from a LFS. This tank got two new aquisitions from the internet. I loved the little mini Scoly I got from ERC so much I picked up another one from Cherry Corals' Black Friday sale. Picks in the near future of that one. I do have a pic of the other acquisition though -- a fat head Dendro from Glenn at CGA! It took him a two days to get all tentacley, but now he is out and eating like a pig. I always like adding another aquacultured piece to the tank.

 

While I was trying to get a nice shot of Mr. Fatty, Yasha was being an attention-whore.

"TAKE A PICTURE OF ME ME ME ME ME!"

 

Please ignore the five million flatworms in the background... I'm trying to siphon them out with water changes and get more diligent about said water changes to control their population. They really bloomed in the past two weeks.

[FlowerMama]

yey, a dendro! I have one head too. I love him, just wish he'd grow but I haven't been good about feeding him. He only gets like one feeding a week, I need to beef it up.

[DaveFason]

Any more FTS with the light? I loved the black/brown combo.

 

Either way looking great!

[Mirya]

 

Any more FTS with the light? I loved the black/brown combo.

 

*cough*I need to fix my flatworm problem before there are any more FTS*cough*

 

I have a frag tank set-up now with yet another NanoBox over it. No tank thread for that tank, so I'll just mention it here. I did get a Melanurus wrasse as the fish for that tank:

Part of me would like to pop him into the Nuvo8 for a few days to deal with the flatworms, but I know I'd never get him out again.

 

At least I can still take pics of individual pieces and crop out the annoying flatworms. For example, I'm in love with taking pictures of my Dendro that I got from CGA!

 

 

[FlowerMama]

love both acquisitions!

[Spenseriana]

Pouty Yasha is pouty.

 

 

I am down to 2 last RFAs to evict from this tank to move over to the Caribbean tank. They are being real stinkers about wanting to move though!

 

Dang, I love that nem! So beautiful! How's the flatworm warfare going? Making any progress?

[Mirya]

Dang, I love that nem! So beautiful! How's the flatworm warfare going? Making any progress?

 

Thanks!

 

I got a blue velvet nudi last weekend. Saw him/her for 24 hours and haven't seen him/her since. At least for the 24 hours it was on the prowl sucking up flatworms like they were spaghetti which was kinda cool to watch. Anyways, guess I'm back to siphoning them out. I don't really want to use flatworm exit.

[Spenseriana]

That sucks. How much do Nudis cost? I once said to myself at Phishy Business, I hope I get a pest so I can buy one of those. Obviously, only a fool says something like this to himself, but those electric blue stripes on them are great.

[kimberbee]

Did you get any pics of the nudi?

[Mirya]

That sucks. How much do Nudis cost? I once said to myself at Phishy Business, I hope I get a pest so I can buy one of those. Obviously, only a fool says something like this to himself, but those electric blue stripes on them are great.

$20 at R2R

 

Did you get any pics of the nudi?

I didn't. I told myself I'd get pictures and a video of my "Live Nude!" the next day, and then didn't see him/her again.

[FlowerMama]

I don't know about all nudis but at least the ones that eat aptasia are out at night so maybe it's still there?

[Mirya]

I'm hoping my nudie is hard at work in the tank... somewhere...

 

I upgraded to an iPhone6 yesterday. Had been using a 4s for the past 3 years. It is so big! But so light! I messed around taking a few pics in the frag tank to see what the camera on it is like.

 

These are Lite Brites from Legendary Coral. They are washed out in this picture, far more bright in person. I love them and they are growing well:

 

Here is a "I Wish I were a Bounce" shroom I also got from Legendary Corals in the same shipment I got the Lite Brites. It has been growing well. You can't see it from this angle, but it is just starting to grow its first bubble. Next to it are some Butt Munchers I picked up at California Reef Company when I was out in Davis a few months back. I bought it as a single polyp. It has obviously been happy.

 

And yesterday I received a shipment from Cherry Corals. They had a live sale a few weeks back. Shipment was delayed due to the weather. I picked up these King Midas and a Pink Krak zoa, some Rics, and a few $1 frags of random stuff like Cyphastrea.

[natalia_la_loca]

niiiiice I wanna get some lite brites! And some pink kraks too. I noticed that Cherry Corals was selling those for relatively cheap.

[FlowerMama]

ha! Butt munchers.

[Mirya]

ha! Butt munchers.

 

The less fun name for that morph is PacMans. Butt Munchers wins on hilarity factor.

[hypostatic]

I'm hoping my nudie is hard at work in the tank... somewhere...

 

I upgraded to an iPhone6 yesterday. Had been using a 4s for the past 3 years. It is so big! But so light! I messed around taking a few pics in the frag tank to see what the camera on it is like.

 

These are Lite Brites from Legendary Coral. They are washed out in this picture, far more bright in person. I love them and they are growing well:

 

Here is a "I Wish I were a Bounce" shroom I also got from Legendary Corals in the same shipment I got the Lite Brites. It has been growing well. You can't see it from this angle, but it is just starting to grow its first bubble. Next to it are some Butt Munchers I picked up at California Reef Company when I was out in Davis a few months back. I bought it as a single polyp. It has obviously been happy.

 

 

And yesterday I received a shipment from Cherry Corals. They had a live sale a few weeks back. Shipment was delayed due to the weather. I picked up these King Midas and a Pink Krak zoa, some Rics, and a few $1 frags of random stuff like Cyphastrea.

 

Nice! What color are the Lite Brite's center? Yellow?

 

Cherry Coral's stuff is nice, but their prices are OUTRAGEOUS. The stuff on their site also looks really touched up.

 

Speaking of colors, whats your favorite color?

 

Blue?

 

Green?

 

Yellow?

 

Red?

 

Orange?

 

Purple?

[Mirya]

Yesterday was this tank's 1 year anniversary! I wanted to post an update. But then this happened:

I've been hospitalized since Sunday. Had the gallbladder removed today. There still might be another procedure tomorrow.

 

Nice! What color are the Lite Brite's center? Yellow?

Cherry Coral's stuff is nice, but their prices are OUTRAGEOUS. The stuff on their site also looks really touched up.

 

Speaking of colors, whats your favorite color?

 

Blue?

 

Purple?

OK, I'm tackling these questions from last to first... normally green is my favorite color and purple is my #2 favorite. BUT AMG DAT PURPLE FRAWG. AND AMG DAT BLUE FRAWG. What types are those?

 

My Cherry Corals purchases were from their Live Sale that they hosted on another forum. I thought the live sale prices were very good. Yeah, their regular prices are steep though. The corals arrived very well packed and true to the pictures on their site. They had some website issues and oversold a bunch of the $1 frags during the live sale. They still honored as many of the oversells as they could though. I got a GINORMOUS hunk of Jingle Bells Cyphastrea (like 4" diameter) as one of the $1s. So overall, I was very happy with them and would participate in future live sales.

 

The Lite Brites are yellow in the center and green tipped on the skirts.

[natalia_la_loca]

Sorry to hear about the gallbladder Hope you recover quickly.