JLynn's Softy Reef

[JLynn]

A few minor updates:

1. I noticed a couple days ago that I have a feather duster worm on the back of one of my rocks. Thought that was neat. 

 

2. One one side of my tank's glass, I let the algae grow unabated (except for the snails' efforts), because water had sloshed out of that side of the tank (probably from someone pounding up the stairs too hard), and when it dried up it left a bunch of salt crystals all over that side that I was too lazy to clean up. I finally cleaned it off today, and then when I tried to go over that wall with my magnet cleaner, I found that the algae was really hard to get off! It was the green filmy stuff, not the usual diatoms, but it wasn't coralline algae or anything, so I shouldn't have had to scrub at it with the scraper like I did. It was weird.

 

3. Coralline algae has really taken off. I'd go so far as to say that about a third of the algae on my rocks is coralline, now. It's only that really dark red kind, though. Maybe I should try and get some other kinds of coralline in there, just for some variety? Like the purple or pink ones?  I wasn't sure I'd like coralline algae, at first, but I think I do, after all. I am also starting to see that bubble algae (Valonia, I think it's called?) popping up scattered across the rocks. Not much of it, though it is slowly increasing. I also have one solitary aiptasia type of thing. It is very very tiny, and pure white, like a little snowflake. It hasn't grown at all since it first appeared, I have not been able to locate any others of its kind, and it's not near any corals (the closest thing is one of the RFAs, which could take care of itself, I'm sure), so I'm not worried about it. 

 

4. I finally got a response from KPA (apparently they were out of town, and that's why it took so long)! They said the purple candelabras can be sensitive shippers, and sometimes the stress of shipping causes this to happen to them (so no pests, hallelujah). They said if I cut off the dying parts, plus a little extra to be safe, the deterioration should stop. Luckily, I have some nice bone cutters that easily made a good, clean cut on the gorgonian. One of the tips, when I picked it up off the rocks, literally disintegrated between my fingers. It was rather disturbing. Anyways, I suppose the only thing left to do now is make sure the water quality is as good as possible so the coral will heal ASAP.

[JLynn]

A new development on the pump front: according to Marine Depot, the Aqamai KPS powerheads are in the US will be shipped to their distribution centers tomorrow! So in two or three days, mine should finally be on its way!

 

The Hydor Koralia Nano has served me well - it's perfectly adequate - but there are some things I'm just not satisfied with, like how I wish I could sometimes have more or less flow than it provides, and how I really want to see what my corals would look like with pulse mode on (would I get that mesmerizing back-and-forth swaying from the gorgonians?), and how good it will be to have a feeding mode, because when I had my fish, I noticed that they sometimes had difficulty catching the food as it swept by them in the current. 

[JLynn]

My chaeto arrived! Now that I've got the refugium all set up, I'm going to wait and see how much it affects the nutrients in the tank. For comparison purposes, I just measured my nitrate again, and it was somewhere between 10 and 25 ppm -  so probably something in the range of 15-20 ppm. I'll test it again in a few days, and hopefully we'll see some improvement.

 

I'm a little disappointed to realize that half of the chaeto ball won't be lit. I don't see any way around that, but still. It seems like a waste. I wonder if there's some way that I could make one side of the fuge caddy reflective, so that it would reflect some of the light back on to the shaded side of the chaeto.

[JLynn]

The larger yellow sea whip is shedding, and the tissue underneath looks a bit yellower than the old tissue, which would be great (could just be wishful thinking on my part, though).

[Christopher Marks]

20 hours ago, JLynn said:

I wonder if there's some way that I could make one side of the fuge caddy reflective, so that it would reflect some of the light back on to the shaded side of the chaeto.

Maybe you could use a reflective mylar film to wrap the refugium caddy, or at least one side: https://www.amazon.com/NAVAdeal-Reflective-Greenhouse-Effectively-Environmentally/dp/B00B8PAAJW/. It's a polyester plastic, non permeable, with 99% reflectance, I think it will be safe submerged.

I'll be curious to hear how you like the new circulation pump when it arrives, it seems really ideal for nano reefs.

[JLynn]

5 hours ago, Christopher Marks said:

Maybe you could use a reflective mylar film to wrap the refugium caddy, or at least one side: https://www.amazon.com/NAVAdeal-Reflective-Greenhouse-Effectively-Environmentally/dp/B00B8PAAJW/. It's a polyester plastic, non permeable, with 99% reflectance, I think it will be safe submerged.

I'll be curious to hear how you like the new circulation pump when it arrives, it seems really ideal for nano reefs.

Good idea! That's exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. I think I'll double check with more knowledgeable people on its safety, first, but if it is safe, it's a perfect candidate.

 

Yeah, unfortunately, it STILL has not begun to be shipped out by Marine Depot.  Waiting so much for this thing has been a real bummer.

[JLynn]

Noticed this afternoon that in the space of like an hour my big green nem somehow managed to migrate to the opposite corner of the tank. 

 

I was not aware that they could move that fast. It's kind of nice though, because it's new home is much easier for me to see it from, though it does ruin the flower garden aesthetic I was aiming for. Maybe the KPS will change the flow patterns in the tank enough to prompt the nems to go back to where I put them. 

 

Speaking of which, my KPS is supposed to get here sometime Tuesday! I'm in a bit of an odd situation with the timing, though... Finals are next week, so next Friday I will be heading back to Dallas for a week-long break before returning to Alabama for my co-op job for the summer. I'll be boarding the reef at the LFS near my co-op job for Finals Week and my mini-summer-vacation (summer vacation is definitely the thing I will miss most about school once I graduate). So that has me wondering whether I should even bother setting the KPS up when I get it, since I'll just have to disassemble everything a few days later. In that respect, it makes more sense to just wait till I get the tank all set up again to get the KPS wet. But on the other hand, I really want to give it a go ASAP. 

 

Question about moving: Should I just leave the nems on the rocks when I move, or should I try to take them off and bag them up? I'll be transporting the rocks in 5g buckets, and while I'm not too worried about the corals, which are stuck firmly in place, the nems could move around and perhaps get crushed by the rocks if I have to come to an abrupt stop or something like that. (Obviously I will drive as gently as possible, but sometimes these things happen.)

[JLynn]

I got the powerhead this afternoon, and just couldn't resist the temptation to give it a go. I've written up a preliminary review of the device for the review forum. Here's a link, if you're interested: 

 

[JLynn]

Well, today has been a thoroughly exhausting day. This morning, I packed up the reef, and made a 6 hour round trip to board it at my summer LFS. It was awful. When I drive for longer than an hour (especially on freeways) I always end up feeling horribly woozy and totally drained at the end of the trip. So that sucks. Also, while I was there, I learned that that LFS (the ONLY one near me (and the ONLY one that boards!!!)) very nearly shut down because the store itself is far, far less profitable than the maintenance business . It's not surprising, but I would be totally screwed if that happened. So it was alarming news, to say the least. (I comforted myself afterwards with a sirloin and a mini molten lava cake from Chili's .)

 

And then I get back home (finally), only to discover that the nassarius snail I bought in January is in fact still alive. I thought it was dead, because I never saw it anymore, and so I didn't even bother digging around in the sand to try and get it. Obviously, I'm not making another 6 hour road trip just for one snail, but I also can't leave him to die a torturous death in a stagnant pool of saltwater that will slowly evaporate away, thereby killing him. So for tonight, I've dumped some ATO water in the small amount of saltwater left, and I'm leaving the heater on to keep him appropriately warm, and in the morning I'll try to give him to the Pet Supplies Plus down the road from me. I don't especially care whether I have him or not, but I definitely don't want to leave him to rot away, neglected. This way, he'll have a chance to find a more permanent home.  

[JLynn]

Just a quick note: the pet supplies plus did indeed take my lone nassarius off my hands, so hopefully he will live a long, happy life in theirs or someone else's tank.

[ninjamyst]

aww, that sucks you dont have a local reef club to help with boarding or taking the nassarius snail.

[Weetabix7]

17 hours ago, JLynn said:

Well, today has been a thoroughly exhausting day. This morning, I packed up the reef, and made a 6 hour round trip to board it at my summer LFS. It was awful. When I drive for longer than an hour (especially on freeways) I always end up feeling horribly woozy and totally drained at the end of the trip. So that sucks. Also, while I was there, I learned that that LFS (the ONLY one near me (and the ONLY one that boards!!!)) very nearly shut down because the store itself is far, far less profitable than the maintenance business . It's not surprising, but I would be totally screwed if that happened. So it was alarming news, to say the least. (I comforted myself afterwards with a sirloin and a mini molten lava cake from Chili's .)

 

And then I get back home (finally), only to discover that the nassarius snail I bought in January is in fact still alive. I thought it was dead, because I never saw it anymore, and so I didn't even bother digging around in the sand to try and get it. Obviously, I'm not making another 6 hour road trip just for one snail, but I also can't leave him to die a torturous death in a stagnant pool of saltwater that will slowly evaporate away, thereby killing him. So for tonight, I've dumped some ATO water in the small amount of saltwater left, and I'm leaving the heater on to keep him appropriately warm, and in the morning I'll try to give him to the Pet Supplies Plus down the road from me. I don't especially care whether I have him or not, but I definitely don't want to leave him to rot away, neglected. This way, he'll have a chance to find a more permanent home.  

 

Wow, that would totally exhaust me too, so glad you got it taken care of!!!

[JLynn]

2 hours ago, Weetabix7 said:

 

Wow, that would totally exhaust me too, so glad you got it taken care of!!!

Lol yeah, that's why I made sure to do it before finals.

2 hours ago, ninjamyst said:

aww, that sucks you dont have a local reef club to help with boarding or taking the nassarius snail.

Yeah. There is apparently a Birmingham reef club, but I don't think they are really active. They have a messaging board on Reef2Reef, but I've never noticed anything about meetings on that. Also, it's an hour away from me. That's one of the things that would be great about still living in Dallas - a fairly large, active reef club. They also have multiple LFSs in Dallas - I'd only have to drive like 15 min to get to the closest one (I checked it out over spring break and it was pretty nice, too!).

[Weetabix7]

I have a Reef Dealer I could hook you up with in Dallas too.

Sounds like you miss it there. 

[JLynn]

37 minutes ago, Weetabix7 said:

I have a Reef Dealer I could hook you up with in Dallas too.

Sounds like you miss it there. 

Oh?

 

And yeah. I mean I like Tuscaloosa just fine (there's this coffee shop here that has these incredible lemon poppyseed muffins that literally taste like sunshine), but Dallas is home. Also, Tuscaloosa is pretty dang small. I mean literally, my neighborhood back in Dallas has a population the size of Tuscaloosa. So there are multiple LFSs, and multiple of everything else, too. Plus my kitties are in Dallas . I'm not going to live in Dallas post-graduation, but I'm definitely aiming to settle in a large city like Dallas. 

[JLynn]

Heading back Alabama for the summer, right now. I'll be setting the reef back up next weekend. 

 

Also, I've come to the realization that I have literally wasted $100s in gas money by not just getting an RO/DI. I mean sure, it's nice not to have to worry about mixing my own saltwater and stuff, but seriously... a roundtrip to get water for the tank costs me $20 in gas, plus the $10 or so for the water itself. An RO/DI would have paid for itself in savings in under 2 months. So I'll be getting one asap. I'm thinking the BRS 4-stage 150gpd. 

[JLynn]

Well the tank isn't fully set up yet, but I have retrieved all my critters from the LFS I'd boarded them at. Some sad news:

1) The purple candelabra never stopped melting away; it still wasn't dead but the steady decline seemed inevitable at this point, so I threw it out. This is real shame, because it was quite possibly my favorite of the gorgonians. It had a particularly lovely indigo/purple color, with pretty white polyps. I'm not sure if I'll replace it. On the one hand, the scape doesn't feel complete without it, but on the other, I really don't want to buy one, and pay for shipping, and get excited, all for it to literally turn to dust again.

2) I may be missing one of my RFAs! The LFS worker is certain she saw the fifth RFA on one of my rocks when bagging them up, but when we looked at that rock again, we could only see the fourth one. So I'm not 100% certain about this. If it is indeed lost, I suppose I'll just wait and splurge on a really fantastic replacement later.

3) I completely forgot to make sure Maui was bagged up, and never saw him (we were looking at all the crevices of the rocks to find the missing RFA, so I'd think I'd have seen him if he were in there...). There were several nasty-looking crabs that were larger than him, plus a bunch of hermit crabs, so I wouldn't be entirely surprised to find that he got eaten by one of them. I'll wait for a while, and listen for his snapping, and if after a month or two there is not sign of a pistol shrimp, I'll go ahead and order another pistol shrimp when I get Moana II. 

4) The lighting in the system was HORRIBLE (they moved to a larger location, but while they used to light all their stock tanks with T5s, they switched to LED strips and cheap chinese fixtures) so my poor corals are looking very drab. I can't wait to get them back under my nice Nanobox lights and see them color up again!

5) Some of the fish in the store showed clear signs of disease (I think ich, but idk for sure), and they are all hooked up to one system, so my rock may have gone fallow, but it probably needs to go fallow again to kill off whatever came in from those fish. And by that point the summer will be close to over, so I'm really not sure when I'll get fish again. There's some complicated stuff with school right now, but when that's sorted out I'll be able to make a plan.

[Weetabix7]

11 minutes ago, JLynn said:

Well the tank isn't fully set up yet, but I have retrieved all my critters from the LFS I'd boarded them at. Some sad news:

1) The purple candelabra never stopped melting away; it still wasn't dead but the steady decline seemed inevitable at this point, so I threw it out. This is real shame, because it was quite possibly my favorite of the gorgonians. It had a particularly lovely indigo/purple color, with pretty white polyps. I'm not sure if I'll replace it. On the one hand, the scape doesn't feel complete without it, but on the other, I really don't want to buy one, and pay for shipping, and get excited, all for it to literally turn to dust again.

2) I may be missing one of my RFAs! The LFS worker is certain she saw the fifth RFA on one of my rocks when bagging them up, but when we looked at that rock again, we could only see the fourth one. So I'm not 100% certain about this. If it is indeed lost, I suppose I'll just wait and splurge on a really fantastic replacement later.

3) I completely forgot to make sure Maui was bagged up, and never saw him (we were looking at all the crevices of the rocks to find the missing RFA, so I'd think I'd have seen him if he were in there...). There were several nasty-looking crabs that were larger than him, plus a bunch of hermit crabs, so I wouldn't be entirely surprised to find that he got eaten by one of them. I'll wait for a while, and listen for his snapping, and if after a month or two there is not sign of a pistol shrimp, I'll go ahead and order another pistol shrimp when I get Moana II. 

4) The lighting in the system was HORRIBLE (they moved to a larger location, but while they used to light all their stock tanks with T5s, they switched to LED strips and cheap chinese fixtures) so my poor corals are looking very drab. I can't wait to get them back under my nice Nanobox lights and see them color up again!

5) Some of the fish in the store showed clear signs of disease (I think ich, but idk for sure), and they are all hooked up to one system, so my rock may have gone fallow, but it probably needs to go fallow again to kill off whatever came in from those fish. And by that point the summer will be close to over, so I'm really not sure when I'll get fish again. There's some complicated stuff with school right now, but when that's sorted out I'll be able to make a plan.

 

Welcome back!!!

 

Hope you are able to get stuff sorted out to your satisfaction before long. 

[JLynn]

Really sad news: Sebastian is dead. When the LFS lady bagged everything up, she went ahead and put Hercules and Sebastian in a bag with some of the rocks. I voiced a minor protest, but she said it would be fine, and so I didn't insist. I really, really should have insisted, because when I opened up the bag this morning to transfer everything to the tank, I found Sebastian at the bottom of the bag, with his abdomen having been pierced by one of the rocks. Hercules was alright, though it looks as though one of his claws may have gotten bent somehow. 

 

The one bright spot in all of this was that it turned out Maui had been hidden in one of my rocks. So it's not all a loss, but still. I'm really disappointed in myself, because this could have been prevented if I had just listened to my instincts and made sure Sebastian had a bag to himself.

[Weetabix7]

25 minutes ago, JLynn said:

Really sad news: Sebastian is dead. When the LFS lady bagged everything up, she went ahead and put Hercules and Sebastian in a bag with some of the rocks. I voiced a minor protest, but she said it would be fine, and so I didn't insist. I really, really should have insisted, because when I opened up the bag this morning to transfer everything to the tank, I found Sebastian at the bottom of the bag, with his abdomen having been pierced by one of the rocks. Hercules was alright, though it looks as though one of his claws may have gotten bent somehow. 

 

The one bright spot in all of this was that it turned out Maui had been hidden in one of my rocks. So it's not all a loss, but still. I'm really disappointed in myself, because this could have been prevented if I had just listened to my instincts and made sure Sebastian had a bag to himself.

 

I'm so sorry. 

Listening to my gut is something I've been learning to do, cause I've always been like you and second-guessed it. 

[JLynn]

There's a bit more good news: all 5 RFAs are officially accounted for, and my duncan coral has indeed sprouted a new little baby head! I don't know if y'all remember, but a couple months ago I spotted a little nub that I thought may be a new polyp growing; now it's had time to grow and it has all it's own chubby little tentacles and stuff. 

 

The kenya tree coral has uncharacteristically stayed pretty shrunken in on itself, but then again, it was tucked under a rock for who knows how long (it somehow came detached from its superglue at the LFS), so it probably just needs some more time. 

 

Everything is coloring up very quickly under my lights, so that's another nice thing.

[JLynn]

Alright, so last night I went on Diver's Den... and they had both a pretty green finger leather coral frag and a large (2") blood red fire shrimp! Obviously I had to jump on that, so I bought that plus a tailspot blenny that went up sometime last week. I think I'm just going to stick to having a tailspot blenny for the summer, because I do love having a fish to watch, and of all the fish, tailspot blennies are among the most entertaining - a good choice if you will only have one fish. Diver's Den Fish have already been quarantined, so that takes some weight off my shoulders. Anyways, that should arrive on Wednesday, and I'll update y'all when that happens. 

[Lula_Mae]

2 hours ago, JLynn said:

Alright, so last night I went on Diver's Den... and they had both a pretty green finger leather coral frag and a large (2") blood red fire shrimp! Obviously I had to jump on that, so I bought that plus a tailspot blenny that went up sometime last week. I think I'm just going to stick to having a tailspot blenny for the summer, because I do love having a fish to watch, and of all the fish, tailspot blennies are among the most entertaining - a good choice if you will only have one fish. Diver's Den Fish have already been quarantined, so that takes some weight off my shoulders. Anyways, that should arrive on Wednesday, and I'll update y'all when that happens. 

I saw that TSB!  He is so cute, he will look great in your tank I'm sure.

[JLynn]

They've arrived! Everyone seems healthy, though Flynn II is EXTREMELY stressed out. Sebastian II is probably a bit bigger than Sebastian I was at the time of his death, which makes me happy, and he seems to be just as feisty. I'm acclimating them right now, and after work I'll drive to the nearest city to buy some frozen foods from Petco. Hopefully by the time I get back Flynn will have calmed down enough to venture out for food.

[JLynn]

Flynn II has delighted me by immediately taking up residence in the barnacles I bought him! He is still in full on stress coloration, and didn't eat any of the brine shrimp I offered him (though I didn't really expect him to, so soon after a traumatic move), but he was definitely interested in it, and made some movements like he might try to snag one of them passing by in the current. I fully expect to have him eating food in the next 24 hours, which is great. It took me several days to get Flynn I to eat anything I offered, so this is a nice change.

 

The new green finger leather coral has opened up nicely for me, and it's probably about the size the kenya tree coral was when I bought it. I can only hope that it will grow as fast, too. Speaking of growth, I've just noticed that there are 4 or 5 little bumps on the devil's hand leather where it is beginning to grow new fingers! I'll take pictures for y'all tomorrow, once I've had time to glue down the finger leather where I want it. It's not nearly as vibrant as the diver's den photo of it, but it's still a nice pastel-y neon green, and after it's had time to settle in it may return to its former vibrancy. 

 

Last but not least: the new baby duncan head caught it's very first food! Two brine shrimp, all by it's lonesome! I'm very proud of it. (It's kinda weird to be proud of a coral, isn't it...)