JLynn's Softy Reef

[JLynn]

2 hours ago, Weetabix7 said:

 

That's funny, I've been eyeballing those on their site!! 

 

I'll be looking forward to seeing them in the tank. 

What a coincidence! Well if mine are as lovely as I expect them to be, you should snatch some up as well. KP Aquatics is definitely the place to go for good, cheap, healthy gorgonians. I just wish they sold Pinnigorgia flava there, too. Buying gorgonians anywhere else, it's twice the price for half the size! 

[Weetabix7]

KPAquatics is a REALLY good vendor, one of the best out there, and they carry a lot of the kinds of things I like. 

I have several things that I actually want from there right now, lol.

[JLynn]

What's stopping you, lol?

[JLynn]

My gorgonians are here! I'm in class till noon, so it'll be a while till I can do anything about it, but still!

 

On the other hand, I woke up this morning to find that 4/5 of my nems have migrated to the side of the rock facing away from me, so I can't even see them. 

 

I am not pleased with this development. I'm also helpless to fix it. *sigh*

 

Lastly, another good thing to look forward to: I heard on Reefbuilder's video from the Global Pet Expo that the Aqamai KPS powerhead is supposed to be released tomorrow! I look forward to finally having a controllable powerhead. It's great that nano reefers now have a reasonably priced, reasonably sized option for a controllable powerhead; Vortechs are super expensive and overkill for a tank my size and Gyres are a bit more reasonably priced but still major overkill. Jebao does have some pumps that fit the bill, but I'm just not comfortable with the way that they rip off designs from other brands (that might be more okay if they ever did any real innovation of their own, but to the best of my knowledge they don't). 

[JLynn]

Alrighty. I've gotten the gorgs all acclimated and glued them into place on my rockwork. 

 

KPA did indeed come through for me. My lone gripe is that the yellow sea whips are really just tan, but I'm hoping that's just due to stress, and that after a little while to settle down, they'll color up more nicely. I have a lot more to praise, though:

 

1. I ordered one yellow sea whips, and got two - it seems they threw in a freebie for me!

2. The purple ones are an absolutely gorgeous, deep blueish purple!

3. They are small, but not small the way that most corals you buy are; they have lots of branches and are generally a good size. Small but robust colonies, as opposed to the tiny frags you normally get these days.

4. They just have little chips of rocks at the base, instead of big bulky frag plugs or rubble pieces. That made it a lot easier to position them the way I want to.

 

Despite having glued them in place, I'm not really satisfied with the way I arranged them. The issue is, I've got three of them right in front of my toadstool. The freebie gorgonian meant that I wasn't able to arrange them in a way that framed the toadstool how I'd planned, or at least not without clumping them together in a way that would limit their ability to grow (another big no-no). I could just sell off the extra one, but I like having two yellow sea whips... 

 

I'll post pictures of them once I've got some polyp extension. Maybe when I do y'all will have some advice on a better way to arrange them.

[Weetabix7]

I can't wait to see them!!!

Oh, and my budget is holding me back, I have to plan very carefully. 

[JLynn]

Ah. Yeah, I can sympathize with that.

 

Two things I've just noticed:

1. The yellow sea whips have blackish/brownish edges on their branches. Is that supposed to be that way? Or are they sick? I mean they look healthy, but blackish edges? That sounds like decay to me. 

2. There's a little round nub on the duncan that looks like it may be another polyp! 

[Weetabix7]

I have always found KPAquatics to be extremely reliable in every way, so I'd be super surprised if they shipped you something that wasn't totally healthy. 

Just monitor it, post a pic when you can and we can give more feedback off of that. 

[JLynn]

I'll start off with the bad news: I emailed Aqamai for confirmation of the release date and it's not today, it's sometime next week (the release date for online retailers, at least). Which means I have to wait even longer than I already have been (I've been waiting since I first heard about it in one of the MACNA videos or articles; it was initially supposed to be released in December or January, or something like that). But oh well. Patience is a virtue, and all that jazz. 

 

Anyways, now comes the good news: the gorgonians seem to be doing well. I've got at least some polyp extension on both purple ones and a scattering of open polyps on the larger yellow sea whip. Despite the fact that I don't have full polyp extension yet, I took some pictures for you guys.

 

First, an updated FTS:

And this is a closeup of the gorgonian cluster:

I hope you can see what I was talking about with the the blackened edges from this photo; I don't have any kind of lens for my iPhone camera, so I'm afraid this is the best I can do. (Of course the bits of polyp extension on the one of them does go a long way to alleviate my concerns.)

[JLynn]

I now have full polyp extension from both the larger of the yellow sea whips and the purple gorgonian in the back. Both have small, whitish polyps, which I like, because it means that the polyps won't ever obscure the beautiful color of the branches. The purple candelabra remains stubbornly and frustratingly halfway between extending and retracting its polyps; the nubs of each of the polyps are out (looks like they'll be white as well), but it still refuses to open the polyps up and extend their little tentacles. The smaller yellow sea whip, on the other hand, has shown absolutely no signs of polyp extension, which is disappointing. 

 

One tiny bit of exciting news is that I caught a glimpse of Maui the pistol shrimp inside his rock! I haven't seen him since the day I got him, so that was nice. It also happened to be when I was feeding Sebastian, Hercules, and the corals, so I poked a small chunk of LRS Reef Frenzy into the hole in the rock that I glimpsed him through, and was delighted to see it immediately dragged back into the rock by him. That was a relief. I always leave a little chunk of food poked into one of the holes in his rock when I feed the tank, and it's always gone by morning, but I've never actually seen him take the food, so I couldn't be certain it was him eating it, and not the bristle worms or starfish or the hitchhiker crab or even Sebastian, coming to steal it away in the night. I knew he was alive, because I hear him popping every once in a while, but it's still a relief to know for certain that he's had something to eat. 

[fishfreak0114]

Nice tank!  I really like that you chose to get less types of coral and let them grow out. My tank is pretty much all tightly packed frags because I can't resist buying more haha, but I think your approach is going to give you a stunning reef in time  Sorry to hear of your fish troubles, I hope when you restock it goes better. That's interesting that your orchid dottyback was somewhat aggressive, I've only read about them being peaceful (for a dottyback). Hopefully when I get mine it plays nice. Anyways, I'll be following!

[Weetabix7]

I couldn't see what you were talking about with the blackened edges, but it seems like you're getting good polyp extension for the most part, so that sounds encouraging. 

It looks nice!!

Glad to hear the shrimp is doing well. 

What is the Aqamai, I don't remember?

[JLynn]

59 minutes ago, Weetabix7 said:

I couldn't see what you were talking about with the blackened edges, but it seems like you're getting good polyp extension for the most part, so that sounds encouraging. 

It looks nice!!

Glad to hear the shrimp is doing well. 

What is the Aqamai, I don't remember?

Aqamai KPS is a small controllable powerhead from Hydor (Aqamai is Hydor's newest(/first?) brand). Apparently it's only about the size of an egg. The most important factors to me, though, are it is controllable (through an app, over wifi), programmable (again, through an app, over wifi), has a gph more appropriate for my size of tank (goes from 370 gph all the way up to a little bit over 1000 gph) than any other controllable powerhead, and is only $99. IE, a great deal from a brand I trust.

 

2 hours ago, fishfreak0114 said:

Nice tank!  I really like that you chose to get less types of coral and let them grow out. My tank is pretty much all tightly packed frags because I can't resist buying more haha, but I think your approach is going to give you a stunning reef in time  Sorry to hear of your fish troubles, I hope when you restock it goes better. That's interesting that your orchid dottyback was somewhat aggressive, I've only read about them being peaceful (for a dottyback). Hopefully when I get mine it plays nice. Anyways, I'll be following!

Thanks! I can't blame you for falling prey to the urge to keep getting more frags. It's really hard to be patient and let corals grow. I think the main reason I can do it is because I spent nearly a year planning this aquarium - everything from the equipment to corals, I'd decided what kind and how much I'd be getting before I ever bought anything. There were times when I started to add a bunch of different corals to my list, but then a week later I'd go back and re-evaluate and think about what that'd look like a year or two down the road, and eventually I was able to settle on a final stocking list that will hopefully fill out all the space in the aquarium given time, but will leave enough room for large colonies to grow. So that way, I started with a vision in my head of what I wanted the reef to look like, when it was mature, and having that vision in mind gives me the self-control to stay my hand when I really want to buy all the gorgonians, and a frogspawn, and ten more RFAs, and basically every other kind of coral under the sun .

 

I read the same thing about orchid dottybacks! That's the only reason I got one at all. Maybe it was just a fluke. Sometimes species that normally are pretty peaceful have unusually aggressive individuals. Or, I mean, I was also comparing its aggressiveness to a tailspot blenny and a shrimp goby, which are both super chill, so. Anyways, I hope your's is nicer than mine was. Do you have a tank thread? I'd like to check it out, if so.

[Weetabix7]

Ah, yes, that powerhead sounds pretty cool!!

I look forward to seeing how it works for you once you get it in. 

 

I've always been interested in Orchid Dottybacks myself. 

[JLynn]

Me too. I'm very excited about it. 

 

Orchid dottybacks are definitely really beautiful. Jasmine basically glowed under my blue LEDs.

[fishfreak0114]

Haha looks like I did the exact opposite of you.  I started with a small list of coral, then I added and added and added but didn't pare it down and now I can't even find places for them all.  Still planning a few more additions though  I do have a tank thread, the link is in my sig

[JLynn]

Seems that Maui has figured out when food is coming, cause when I put a chunk of LRS Reef Frenzy in the tank, I saw him come up to one of the entrances to his rock, and when I broke off a smaller chunk for him and moved it over to him, he even ventured slightly out of his little cave to grab it! Clever boy. 

[JLynn]

I can't believe it took me this long to notice it, but the purple candelabra is wounded! The tip-tops of two of it's branches are... a bit mangled. Kind of shriveled. It otherwise looks healthy, though, and I'm now pretty sure that what I thought were just white nubs of unopened polyps are actually the opened polyps of the gorgonian. I think they're just really small, and have super short tentacles, which makes it hard to tell if they are fully open. 

[JLynn]

I took a chance on the KPS pump and pre-ordered it from Marine Depot. I normally don't buy anything until it has some reviews for me to check out. So this had better work out for me! Disappointingly, it's ended up being retailed at $120, not $100, like the Reefbuilders articles said. I supposed the $20 markup is so that Marine Depot makes some profit off it. I probably shouldn't be disappointed about it, anyways. $120 is still a damn good price for a controllable powerhead with a pulse mode and a feeding mode and stuff. I payed the extra $5 for slightly upgraded shipping, so hopefully it'll be here by next Monday.

 

Other than that the only news is that the smaller yellow sea whip has a few scattered polyps that are halfway open and that I've just realized how absurdly large my ricordeas have gotten to still be squished onto one frag plug. The blue one is approaching 2" in diameter, and the others are at least 1" in diameter by now. Does anyone know if I need to manually separate them out? For some reason I've thought that they will move away from each other on their own, but that doesn't seem to be the case - maybe I got them mixed up with anemones. If I do need to do that myself, how? I'm pretty sure they were glued onto the frag plug, and the plug is glued, in turn, onto the rock.

[JLynn]

I just tested my aquarium and while everything seems to be doing quite well, I was extremely alarmed to find that my nitrates are 25 PPM!!! 

 

My phosphates are quite low - just 0.25 ppm, so it's a weird imbalance, especially since I don't have like GFO or anything targeting them. 

 

But yeah. So, in response to this, I've decided to get that refugium basket from InTank. The results from BRS TV's recent test on this have encouraged me to believe in the ability of even small refugiums to keep nutrients in check. I thought about springing for a skimmer, but I can add a refugium for just $40 total (light included), whereas a skimmer will be $100+.

 

For the fuge light, Amazon came through for me with this: https://www.amazon.com/Mingdak-Aquarium-Light-Tanks-7-5-inch/dp/B00X84LMHK/ref=sr_1_25?ie=UTF8&qid=1491409072&sr=8-25&keywords=refugium+light. $10, good reviews, can be submersed inside or suctioned on outside.

 

I'll probably also do a larger water change than normal this weekend.

[JLynn]

The mangledness is spreading down the tips of at least one of the branches of the purple candelabra. I'm emailing KP Aquatics about it rn; hopefully they can tell me what's going on (is it an illness? is it a pest? can I fix it?).

[Weetabix7]

32 minutes ago, JLynn said:

The mangledness is spreading down the tips of at least one of the branches of the purple candelabra. I'm emailing KP Aquatics about it rn; hopefully they can tell me what's going on (is it an illness? is it a pest? can I fix it?).

 

Let us know what they say, hopefully it can be reversed. 

I'm interested to see how the refugium works out for you. 

Thx for linking that light, already added to my Amazon cart for later purchase, lol.

[JLynn]

The fuge basket and light got here Friday night. The fuge is, of course, beautifully constructed. It was unexpectedly difficult to fit my bag of XPort Bio Cubes in the lower compartment of my filtration basket, and now I'm wondering if I'll have to get rid of some of those to make this work. The light seems perfectly nice. It's plenty bright enough for the chaeto to grow, but not so bright that it would really bother me at night, I think. Another unexpected thing: turns out my extension cord does not have quite enough room to accommodate this added equipment. Not a problem, now - I just plugged it into the wall socket instead because the cord is pretty long - but it will be a problem later, when I am back down south for my co-op this summer, because the plug I use there is quite a distance from the aquarium. I suppose I'll have to buy a new extension cord.

 

I did a 20% water change today, and might do some more smaller ones during the coming week, just to get nutrients back down to reasonable levels. I think 10 ppm is probably a good target for me, because softies like their water a little dirty. 

 

Now, on to a couple frustrating things. 

Frustration #1:

NO ONE HAS CHAETO!!!!! 

I went to every single lfs in my area with a saltwater section (a Petco, a Pet Supplies Plus, and a reef store) and not a single one of them had chaetomorpha. W.T.F. Considering how many reefers have refugiums, you'd think chaeto would be as ubiquitous as clownfish, but nope! I ended up having to order it from Reefcleaners (and pay $10 in shipping to do so), and it should be here Wednesday or Thursday.

(Sorry if this seemed extreme, I just needed to vent.)

 

Frustration #2:

The Aqamai KPS did not, in fact, come out this week either. It should be any day now. It's just one of those things where you are really excited to get something, and it's about to arrive, and every extra moment you have to wait for it feels like an eternity. (I really ought to work on my patience.)

 

Frustration #3: 

This one is really minor, but I'm having an incredibly hard time getting the fuge light's suction cups to stick. I might even need to replace them. You can get replacement ones like for heaters at Petsmart, right? I think I saw some there, but I can't quite remember. Oh well. At least it'll be cheap, wherever I get them.  

[Weetabix7]

I'm interested to see how well that fuge light works in practice. 

 

How are all of the Gorgonians doing?

[JLynn]

Me too. I know at least one of the Amazon reviewers used it as a fuge light and was pleased, so I'm optimistic.

 

Nothing much has changed with the gorgonians. I'm getting more partial polyp extension on the smaller yellow one than I had been before, and I think the purple candelabra's wound has spread just a little bit further down (still no word from KPA on this), but other than that, nothing's changed.