Fishfreak's foxy BC29: Brine Shrimp!

[fishfreak0114]

10 hours ago, Madcat said:

I saw your hydroid pics and I was like, wow, at least I don't have that creepiness in my tank. And I just got home and peeked in the tank AND I HAVE THEM TOO. I blame you.

 I wonder if we both got them from the same place?  Canada corals or Fragbox perhaps?

[fishfreak0114]

I swear I've had the worst luck with saltwater stores!  Just before I started my tank, Petland stopped carrying saltwater.  Shortly after, Total Pet also stopped carrying saltwater livestock.  That ruled out salty stuff only 45 minutes away.  And now the store I usually go to in Kelowna an hour and a half away is closing!

 

I buy my salt there, as well as some other supplies, and that's where I bought Zeus and some of my macro and the odd little piece of coral  I have no idea where I'll find Zeus II now.  And that's the only place I've come across with small grade PE mysis (My preferred food) and that's also the store I usually give all my frags to.  The only upside is that everything is 25% off.  We may go in this weekend to check it out.  If they have any EVO 5's in stock, I'd probably jump on it, even though I don't technically have second tank approval.  My mom did say that 5 gallons is a nice size, and I think I'm swaying her.  Next step is to make a well-written document detailing my plan

 

It looks like for any future livestock, if I want something that isn't going to bring freaky diseases and cost me double what it should I'll have to go 2 hours. 

[thespinningsadhu]

stopping by to say hey. hey. hope you're well. 

[fishfreak0114]

18 minutes ago, thespinningsadhu said:

stopping by to say hey. hey. hope you're well. 

Hey, thanks for stopping by.  I'm doing pretty good, just getting back into the routine of school and work every day.  I expect updates are going to be somewhat infrequent for a while.  I hope you're doing well as well

[fishfreak0114]

Since there's not a whole lot going on with the tank, here's a pic of the cake I made for my mom's birthday on Tuesday.  It was my first attempt at a drip cake, and definitely had a few hiccups!  It sure was fun though...

 

[fishfreak0114]

I have a few things to make note of.

 

Bad: The still-intact toadstool head has a white spot.  I have no idea whether or not it will spread and start disintegrating like the other half did.  It's the spot that had the pin-hole and discoloration right after the electricity.  I'm keeping a close eye on it, if it is going downhill it's a slow process.  The tonga frilly shroom for whatever reason mostly bleached.  I moved it to the sand bed a few minutes ago.  Minor tissue recession on the watermelon favia.  I'm not sure if it's new or if it was still from the electrocution.  I thought it had recovered from that, but maybe not. The splatter hammer lost a couple heads, the ones that had looked particularly rough.

 

Good: The leathers are doing really well.  They were slower to recover than most things, but even the Japanese leather is looking almost like its old self again!  The cabbage leather seems to have grown, it really hangs down off the rock now.  I think it might be irritating the RFA a bit.  The dendro is still looking awesome (better not jinx it!).  The baby yoda pays are pretty much full size now.  The red branching macro on top of my rockwork has grown so much!  Now that the back half isn't shaded by the toadstool, it has been able to grow new branches all over.  Frank is happy.  The blastos continue to recover.  I'm ordering the spectrapure RO/DI unit this weekend.  I really need to get rid of frags, because I have a somewhat large finger leather, and several GSP frags that are probably growing onto the rack now. I also need to prune the macro, because the codium and red stuff dominate the top of my rockwork and they are starting to smother the pink cabbage leather a little, and the RFA.  I love how it looks (most isn't visible unless viewing top down).  I'm still thinking about a re-scape of the right side, and I can see it in my head (though I pretty much just picture less rock with no definite shape).

 

My return pump was turned too low, so I just bumped it up again.  The water wasn't going through the back fast enough, so it was mostly missing the floss.

 

And in kind of exciting news, I just signed up for a school trip to Bamfield marine science center in November!  This time I'll be going with other grade 11/12's, so it should be a lot less awkward than last time, when I was the fish geeky grade 9 who no one knew who was tagging along on the senior's trip.

[fishfreak0114]

I made a short video of more small critters. I was looking at the pods on the glass near the sand, and then the sand started moving!  I started looking at the sand all along the glass, and there are some freaky little things living in there!  Now I don't want to vacuum the sand and disturb their home, but I suppose I'll have to. 

 

I plan to do a 16l water change tomorrow with distilled, and today I'm doing all the little things that I tend to put off.  Moving things, crushing vermetids, pruning the GSP and macro, etc.  I dipped the watermelon favia and budgie favia, splatter hammer, and a couple other things.  Most notably the watermelon favia appeared to have a bacterial infection.  I took the rubber bands off of all the toadstools.  The smaller long polyp looks like it going to be a double headed one thanks to the rubber band.  The frag that I made from the big toadstool also is split in two  The nub where I cut it off the main one also appears to be starting to grow polyps.  I'll get some pics of stuff later.

 

Sadly I found the shell of my second stomatella (I had already suspected it didn't make it through), but I also saw what kind of looked like a baby stoma?  It's in the video, and I have a better pic.  It was only a mm or two long.

[fishfreak0114]

Does this look like a baby stoma?  I didn't find any more.

P9151092 by orb1915, on Flickr

 

Here's one of the little critters in my sand

P9151097 by orb1915, on Flickr

 

The watermelon favia.  The white slime came off easily with a  turkey baster, and it hasn't yet returned.  Fingers crossed the dip was enough to stop it.

P9161102 by orb1915, on Flickr

P9161124 by orb1915, on Flickr

 

Budgie favia had tissue loss in a similar manner, and I sure has browned out where it faces away from the light!

P9161103 by orb1915, on Flickr

 

I pruned the macro today, but I didn't want to throw out the trimmings.  I hung a breeder box off the false wall and chucked it all in there.  I also moved my branchy macro in there, because I realized it was covering a patch of Sunny D's I didn't even realize I had!

 

Here's the newly uncovered Sunny D's (a little pale)
P9161104 by orb1915, on Flickr

P9161105 by orb1915, on Flickr

 

Breeder box

P9161111 by orb1915, on Flickr

 

The cabbage leather is massive!  Probably 4.5-3.5" now

P9161106 by orb1915, on Flickr

P9161136 by orb1915, on Flickr

 

The nub looks to be forming polyps.  I'm happy to say that yesterday's white spot is returning to a normal color

P9161109 by orb1915, on Flickr

 

Continuing to lose tissue.  I hope the dip helped.  It almost looked a few days ago that there was some white slime on it the same as the watermelon favia.  I almost wonder if the electrocution weakened them enough for the bacteria to get a foothold                                                                                                                                                                P9161114 by orb1915, on Flickr

 

I'm sad to say that the three blastos I haven't re-mounted aren't really improving, despite regular feeding attempts.

P9161115 by orb1915, on Flickr

 

The trumpet has been slowly declining since the incident.  I dipped it as well in hopes that it can bounce back                                                                                                                                       P9161123 by orb1915, on Flickr

 

The yoda plays are growing REALLY fast.  There's already 6 full size polyps!  I'm almost wondering if I should move them?  To a patch of rock that they can dominate?  I don't want them to smother my other zoas                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       P9161126 by orb1915, on Flickr

P9161129 by orb1915, on Flickr

 

I noticed a couple little zoa polyps clinging to macro when I was taking pics.  I'll rescue them tomorrow.  I almost think they're alpha and omega's? 

P9161132 by orb1915, on Flickr

 

this is gonna be one funny looking coral when it gets bigger.  The right corner is also attached

P9161134 by orb1915, on Flickr

 

The Japanese leather looks so much better!  It's driving me crazy because it constantly falls over, I right it a few times a day

P9161135 by orb1915, on Flickr

 

Real quick FTS, things are pissed from my fiddling, and lots of things aren't mounted right now.  I probably won't reattach anything to the right hand rock since I want to remove it anyways some time in the next couple months.  So it's going to be a little cramped on the sand bed and rack for now

P9161137 by orb1915, on Flickr

[fishfreak0114]

I also did some hard core vermetid hunting.  I stuck the turkey baster in the sand and got a bunch of nastiness into the water column.  It was all too easy to spot them after that!

[fishfreak0114]

I just did my water change.  It was very thorough, the water in the bucket was nasty!  Dipped the watermelon favia again because the white slime was returning. I went to turn everything back on and my lights aren't working! 

 

The only thing I noticed was that the power supply had a slight buzz if I held my ear close, I'm not sure if that's normal or not.  Bluefish says that the device is offline.   Anyone know what's going on?  I'm going to do some googling, and fiddle around with it to see if I can get the lights running again. 

 

edit: The fans work, just not the lights.  The light on the power supply still turns on.  I wonder if it's bluefish?

 

@DaveFason

[fishfreak0114]

I think it is the bluefish?  In the hood, I see a blue light and a red light.  I can't totally remember, but I almost think that red light used to be green.

 

edit: further inspection with a  flashlight revealed that the red light is on a green board, not the bluefish chip. 

[DaveFason]

1 hour ago, fishfreak0114 said:

I think it is the bluefish?  In the hood, I see a blue light and a red light.  I can't totally remember, but I almost think that red light used to be green.

 

edit: further inspection with a  flashlight revealed that the red light is on a green board, not the bluefish chip. 

It sounds like something is up with the WIFI signal. The card flashing red means it lost signal. 

 

 

[fishfreak0114]

After an hour of reading and trying things I'm no closer to fixing the light.  I put the splashguard back on and the hood. 

1 minute ago, DaveFason said:

It sounds like something is up with the WIFI signal. The card flashing red means it lost signal. 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by  I realized when I looked closer that the red light is on the green board that all of the wires connect to, not the bluefish.  The bluefish has a blue light.

[fishfreak0114]

I just unplugged the Wifi router and plugged it back in.  Tried the lights again and no luck, but the power supply is now buzzing louder.  Do I possibly need to get a new one?

[Lula_Mae]

Stuff looks good!  I wouldn't give up on the blastos as long as they have flesh, I have found that my most finicky blasto can be retracted and pouty for a few weeks at a time for minor irritations, and then it gets over it and decides to behave. Maybe try spot feeding some very small foods like reef roids or something until they get more flesh back?  I did that, spot feeding with my bottled phyto- and zoo-planktons till things started to look better, after my move.  Hope they start perking up soon!

[fishfreak0114]

25 minutes ago, Lula_Mae said:

Stuff looks good!  I wouldn't give up on the blastos as long as they have flesh, I have found that my most finicky blasto can be retracted and pouty for a few weeks at a time for minor irritations, and then it gets over it and decides to behave. Maybe try spot feeding some very small foods like reef roids or something until they get more flesh back?  I did that, spot feeding with my bottled phyto- and zoo-planktons till things started to look better, after my move.  Hope they start perking up soon!

Thanks Lula  I did remove the neutrino Blasto yesterday because it was just a skeleton, but the other two are still in the rack so I can feed them easier. I have frozen rotifers in the freezer, I think I've fed them that once or twice. It's so messy that I try to muse them only once every 2 weeks-ish. I'll try to do it more frequently though. 

 

The lights still aren't working, and I'm kind of worried. How long can corals go without light?  Dave is helping me figure out what's wrong, but if it's going to take a while, can things survive with indirect sunlight?  I could also shine the light from one of my freshwater planted tanks in, but that's not the right spectrum. 

[fishfreak0114]

Thought I'd give a quick update.

 

Dave said the power supply is on its last leg, and he's sending me a new one.  I must say, his customer service is excellent!  I have the lights from my 10g planted shining in, and things are definitely responding to it, though I'm not sure how much it is actually helping.  I move it to different spots every once in  while.  It turns out zoas/palys are like sunflowers!  Whenever I move the light to a new spot, they turn to face it.  It's pretty neat.

[gogeta]

That's pretty funny about the zoas/palys facing the light.

 

seems you keep having up's and downs. Hopefully starting with new power supply with the might marks nothing but ups from here!

[fishfreak0114]

2 hours ago, gogeta said:

That's pretty funny about the zoas/palys facing the light.

 

seems you keep having up's and downs. Hopefully starting with new power supply with the might marks nothing but ups from here!

It's pretty weird.  They move fairly quick too, they turned 90 degrees in under a half hour!

 

There certainly have been a lots of ups and downs in the last couple months.  I'm hopeful that this will be the last bump for a while, I could do with some smooth sailing!

[fishfreak0114]

How low should I turn my light when the power supply gets here?  A quarter of the usual intensity?  I don't want to shock anything. 

 

Here's how I have the light.  I raise it up and move it to different spots in hopes that everything will get a little light.  I've also been keeping the blinds open to make sure it gets as much sunlight as possible.image1.jpeg by orb1915, on Flickr

image3.jpeg by orb1915, on Flickr

 

Definitely regrowing polyps

image2.jpeg by orb1915, on Flickr

 

I looked at the finger leather yesterday morning on my way out the door and it looks like there is a hole in it?  I'm not sure if it's new, or just exposed because when the coral is expanded the branches hang over a fair amount

image5.jpeg by orb1915, on Flickr

 

My babies are around an inch long now!  Maybe a little more.

image4.jpeg by orb1915, on Flickr

[Lula_Mae]

On 9/21/2017 at 5:11 PM, fishfreak0114 said:

Thought I'd give a quick update.

 

Dave said the power supply is on its last leg, and he's sending me a new one.  I must say, his customer service is excellent!  I have the lights from my 10g planted shining in, and things are definitely responding to it, though I'm not sure how much it is actually helping.  I move it to different spots every once in  while.  It turns out zoas/palys are like sunflowers!  Whenever I move the light to a new spot, they turn to face it.  It's pretty neat.

I've seen that, with natural sunlight shining in and the corals turn to face it lol.  What kinda critter is in the tank to the left of this one?  Looks like a reptile or something?

[fishfreak0114]

2 minutes ago, Lula_Mae said:

I've seen that, with natural sunlight shining in and the corals turn to face it lol.  What kinda critter is in the tank to the left of this one?  Looks like a reptile or something?

It was kind of reassuring that they faced it, at least I know that the light is strong enough for them to notice its presence.  Tobias, my leopard gecko, lives in the tank next to the reef.

[Lula_Mae]

12 minutes ago, fishfreak0114 said:

It was kind of reassuring that they faced it, at least I know that the light is strong enough for them to notice its presence.  Tobias, my leopard gecko, lives in the tank next to the reef.

Leopard geckos are so cute!  I want an African fat-tailed gecko someday, I got to hold one in the science lab in college and he was so chill, I loved it!

[fishfreak0114]

Just now, Lula_Mae said:

Leopard geckos are so cute!  I want an African fat-tailed gecko someday, I got to hold one in the science lab in college and he was so chill, I loved it!

He is a cutie!  Unfortunately he really does not like being held.  I gave up after he jumped on my friend's mom's face   When he was little, I held him on a regular basis but it just seemed to stress him out as he got older. (I say he, but I think he's a she).

[Lula_Mae]

1 hour ago, fishfreak0114 said:

He is a cutie!  Unfortunately he really does not like being held.  I gave up after he jumped on my friend's mom's face   When he was little, I held him on a regular basis but it just seemed to stress him out as he got older. (I say he, but I think he's a she).

Too bad, they are still neat critters.  I can only imagine your friend's mom's reaction!