Teenyreef's Deep Blue 30g - Massive Reorg

[teenyreef]

1 minute ago, debbeach13 said:

That tank is stuffed!

I know! If I can just get rid of the pests. And get rid of COVID-19. Then I can get rid of the frags 

[debbeach13]

I hope your recovery will happen soon. 

[teenyreef]

3 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

I hope your recovery will happen soon. 

Oops, I see my last post was confusing! I just meant get rid of COVID-19 for everyone so we can go out and buy corals again 🙂

[debbeach13]

No worries. I remember a couple years ago I got some blue Kenya and some zoa's from you. The zoa's are still alive just never took off. I have the worst luck with zoa's. The blue Kenya grows like a weed not as fast as the pink/tan kind. I give it away when ever I find someone that wants some, I drop it off a LFS and they throw it there their sump if it's too much, and some times I use it as a nutrient export (nice way of saying I throw it out) because I don't want a whole tank of it. Glad you not sick.

[teenyreef]

On 4/26/2020 at 10:03 AM, debbeach13 said:

No worries. I remember a couple years ago I got some blue Kenya and some zoa's from you. The zoa's are still alive just never took off. I have the worst luck with zoa's. The blue Kenya grows like a weed not as fast as the pink/tan kind. I give it away when ever I find someone that wants some, I drop it off a LFS and they throw it there their sump if it's too much, and some times I use it as a nutrient export (nice way of saying I throw it out) because I don't want a whole tank of it. Glad you not sick.

Thanks! I love that blue kenya. Like you said, it doesn't grow as fast as regular kenya tree but it still thrives in almost all conditions.

 

I've had bad luck with zoas off and on almost as long as I've been keeping reefs. Right now they're doing great in the 10g but they've been struggling in this tank because of the hydroids. And I had to pull all the zoas out of the 40g because they were outright dying in there.

 

I think I've turned the corner on the hydroids, fingers crossed!

[StinkyBunny]

9 minutes ago, teenyreef said:

Thanks! I love that blue kenya. Like you said, it doesn't grow as fast as regular kenya tree but it still thrives in almost all conditions.

 

I've had bad luck with zoas off and on almost as long as I've been keeping reefs. Right now they're doing great in the 10g but they've been struggling in this tank because of the hydroids. And I had to pull all the zoas out of the 40g because they were outright dying in there.

 

I think I've turned the corner on the hydroids, fingers crossed!

There is a nudibranch forum and it's a great place to find out what eats what. There might be something that eats the hydroids and will die out after it's done its job.I've seen my Red Sea Raccoon butterfly pick in between zoanthids and I think that's what it was eating. The problem with RSR butterflies is your acros will go first.   

[teenyreef]

3 minutes ago, StinkyBunny said:

There is a nudibranch forum and it's a great place to find out what eats what. There might be something that eats the hydroids and will die out after it's done its job.I've seen my Red Sea Raccoon butterfly pick in between zoanthids and I think that's what it was eating. The problem with RSR butterflies is your acros will go first.   

Funny you should mention that. I added a six line wrasse a couple weeks ago in hopes that he would provide some insurance against pests. I've been religiously picking off hydroids (or whatever the hell the things were in my zoas) every few days. But they don't seem to be as bad as they have been recently. Either my long-term plan of reducing nutrients by feeding less is working, or the six line has been working on them. Or both. Just goes to show that doing multiple things sometimes really helps.

[Merthynia]

Teeny, even with the pests, this tank is amazing! Those Miami vice(?) zoas stand out! I hope you're winning the battle against the creeps in there!

[teenyreef]

23 minutes ago, Merthynia said:

Teeny, even with the pests, this tank is amazing! Those Miami vice(?) zoas stand out! I hope you're winning the battle against the creeps in there!

Thanks! Yes, those are the classic "Miami" Vice zoas. I've had them ever since I got the in the 4g tank. Some of my favorites.

 

I see the six line picking away underneath and around the base of the frag plugs so I have hope that he's doing something. 🙂

[Merthynia]

3 minutes ago, teenyreef said:

Thanks! Yes, those are the classic "Miami" Vice zoas. I've had them ever since I got the in the 4g tank. Some of my favorites.

 

I see the six line picking away underneath and around the base of the frag plugs so I have hope that he's doing something. 🙂

If they weren't such a pain in the butt, I really enjoy how well six lines take care of pests! Glad to hear he is pulling his weight!

 

I thought so! The blues on them are quite vibrant. You've got a ton of growth on your coral in here! I'll have to look back through the whole thread to see what you've been doing with it!

[teenyreef]

15 hours ago, Merthynia said:

If they weren't such a pain in the butt, I really enjoy how well six lines take care of pests! Glad to hear he is pulling his weight!

 

I thought so! The blues on them are quite vibrant. You've got a ton of growth on your coral in here! I'll have to look back through the whole thread to see what you've been doing with it!

It's true, six lines can be real jerks. So far this guy's been a model citizen. I think maybe because there's plenty of room and plenty of hiding places. Or I just got lucky 🤷‍♂️

[teenyreef]

One of the problems I've been dealing with is "bad stuff" on the zoas. Mostly algae and hydroids, but also some invasive clove polyps. The cloves in particular tend to spread onto the rocks where there are zoas, so over the last couple nights, I've been scraping all the zoas and palys on rocks and putting them on fresh frag plugs. Once they recover I can put them on clean rocks in the display tanks, and I'll have extra frags to sell or trade.

 

I still have two rocks that I kept because they are completely covered in polyps and don't have any pests on them. Everything else has been put on frag plugs. I also looked carefully at the polyps before gluing them, and discarded any that seemed to have too much "stuff" on them.

 

So far, so good. Most of them are already opened back up.

 

The next step is to work on the old frag plugs that have polyps on pieces of rubble rock. I'm going to scrape them off and replug too. Eliminating all the nooks and crannies that pests can grow in on the rocks should make a big difference.

 

Edit: just notice that one aiptasia growing on the tank bottom. I guess the filefish can't quite reach it there, underneath the eggcrate. Time to get out the kalk paste. Other that that one, I haven't seen any aiptasia recently since getting the file fish. He's doing a good job 🙂

 

[Merthynia]

Those frags look pretty darn happy! I can't tell from the photo that they were recently transplanted at all! Is the "stuff" on the actual polyp or around it? I've got a few older frags that I need to try and dip to see if I can salvage them. They aren't opening and have some hair algae on them.

[teenyreef]

1 hour ago, Merthynia said:

Those frags look pretty darn happy! I can't tell from the photo that they were recently transplanted at all! Is the "stuff" on the actual polyp or around it? I've got a few older frags that I need to try and dip to see if I can salvage them. They aren't opening and have some hair algae on them.

Mine always seem to respond pretty will to a peroxide dip for the algae. Some stuff is around the polyps, but some of it is actually on and under the mat. The worst affected ones lifted right off the rock once I started peeling. I'm so glad I did this - I think they will do much better now.

[teenyreef]

Well, big stuff has been happening here! I've continued to remove zoas from the rocks and put them on frag plugs, and finally I moved the last two big zoa rocks back to the IM40 to make room for the frags that were in that tank.

 

I've been putting off doing something with the frags in that tank for waaay too long. Here's what the big frag rack looked like when I brought it over 

 

Most of the frags were encrusting onto each other. There's a lot more damage underneath that you can't see. I spent a couple hours just cleaning up frag plugs and trimming off big chunks from the overgrown frags and replugging them.

 

I had to toss all the bird of paradise frags. They were just too messed up, and I wasn't too worried because they grow really fast and I can easily get more when people want them. But I got a ton of Katropora and cali tort frags glued up. Almost all of them are still so big that I had to use 2" frag plugs. No teeny tiny nubs in this tank! Now there are so many there isn't really enough room in the frag tank even after getting rid of all the zoa rocks. For tonight, I just tossed them all into a pile in a corner of the tank. Tomorrow night I'll do a water change and rearrange everything. 

[Merthynia]

18 minutes ago, teenyreef said:

Well, big stuff has been happening here! I've continued to remove zoas from the rocks and put them on frag plugs, and finally I moved the last two big zoa rocks back to the IM40 to make room for the frags that were in that tank.

 

I've been putting off doing something with the frags in that tank for waaay too long. Here's what the big frag rack looked like when I brought it over 

 

Most of the frags were encrusting onto each other. There's a lot more damage underneath that you can't see. I spent a couple hours just cleaning up frag plugs and trimming off big chunks from the overgrown frags and replugging them.

 

I had to toss all the bird of paradise frags. They were just too messed up, and I wasn't too worried because they grow really fast and I can easily get more when people want them. But I got a ton of Katropora and cali tort frags glued up. Almost all of them are still so big that I had to use 2" frag plugs. No teeny tiny nubs in this tank! Now there are so many there isn't really enough room in the frag tank even after getting rid of all the zoa rocks. For tonight, I just tossed them all into a pile in a corner of the tank. Tomorrow night I'll do a water change and rearrange everything. 

Wow! That is an impressive amount of growth right there! 

[teenyreef]

On 5/4/2020 at 12:31 AM, Merthynia said:

Wow! That is an impressive amount of growth right there! 

I'd like to take credit for it but really it's all down to pure procrastination and LRS (Lazy Reefer Syndrome).

[teenyreef]

I'm exhausted but very happy to report that it's done! Water changed, aiptasia on the bottom glass zapped with kalk paste, and frags completely reorganized.

 

Here's what I started with after draining off 10g of water: Note the huge pile of corals along the top/right. Some of them were three or four corals deep from piling them all up last night.

 

What a mess...

 

To make more room, I cut some more egg crate for the far back right corner behind the rocks, for low-light lps/softies.

 

It was NOT easy, but it all fits now! 

 

[Merthynia]

10 hours ago, teenyreef said:

I'd like to take credit for it but really it's all down to pure procrastination and LRS (Lazy Reefer Syndrome).

I think it's certainly more than that. LRS around here just results in hella hair algae!

 

But damn, that looks amazing after you got it all cleaned up and treated! Did you find more aiptasia underneath the egg crate to kalk blast?

What are the zoas with the black/dark skirts, blue face and possibly purple/blue mouth? Last photo 3rd row back 4th from left.

[mitten_reef]

11 hours ago, teenyreef said:

I'm exhausted but very happy to report that it's done! Water changed, aiptasia on the bottom glass zapped with kalk paste, and frags completely reorganized.

 

Here's what I started with after draining off 10g of water: Note the huge pile of corals along the top/right. Some of them were three or four corals deep from piling them all up last night.

 

What a mess...

 

To make more room, I cut some more egg crate for the far back right corner behind the rocks, for low-light lps/softies.

 

It was NOT easy, but it all fits now! 

 

that's one seriously organized frag rack....well done, sir.  👏

[teenyreef]

4 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

that's one seriously organized frag rack....well done, sir.  👏

Thank you! 

[teenyreef]

5 hours ago, Merthynia said:

I think it's certainly more than that. LRS around here just results in hella hair algae!

 

But damn, that looks amazing after you got it all cleaned up and treated! Did you find more aiptasia underneath the egg crate to kalk blast?

What are the zoas with the black/dark skirts, blue face and possibly purple/blue mouth? Last photo 3rd row back 4th from left.

As far as aiptasia goes, I found one big one and three small ones. I zapped them all, of course. I'm not seeing any on the plugs or on the corals, so I think the filefish just couldn't get to the ones under the eggcrate.

 

The zoas you asked about are Aquascapers Morphologics. They're some of my favorites. I'll try to get a better picture later.

[Merthynia]

5 hours ago, teenyreef said:

As far as aiptasia goes, I found one big one and three small ones. I zapped them all, of course. I'm not seeing any on the plugs or on the corals, so I think the filefish just couldn't get to the ones under the eggcrate.

 

The zoas you asked about are Aquascapers Morphologics. They're some of my favorites. I'll try to get a better picture later.

Nice thank you! I thought maybe Tubbs at first, but they didn't seem quite right. Glad you only found a few underneath there! Sounds like your filefish did a great job on the hunt!

[teenyreef]

Just now, Merthynia said:

Nice thank you! I thought maybe Tubbs at first, but they didn't seem quite right. Glad you only found a few underneath there! Sounds like your filefish did a great job on the hunt!

Yeah, I think he's earning his keep!

 

Here's a better picture of the Morphologics:

 

[Merthynia]

1 minute ago, teenyreef said:

Yeah, I think he's earning his keep!

 

Here's a better picture of the Morphologics:

 

oh WOW!!!! I love those even MORE! That green/blue/purple coloration is amazing! I see why you like them so much. The distant photo makes the skirts look so dark. 

I looked that shop up, it looks like they were planning on selling online (a couple years ago) and then stopped posting on their website/facebook/twitter after that? Are they still in business? I need to buy some of those!