Where the Wild Things Are: 100 Days (rezing the thread)

[Weetabix7]

4 minutes ago, lkoechle said:

First loss.  I woke up to this 

 

There was no salvageable part of the sponge I could cut.  I dont know what the cause is.  it looked great yesterday.

 

Really bummed.  I dont have time to do a full battery of tests right now, but nitrates were good yesterday when i tested.  I will test after church.

 

Super super super disappointed right now.

 

Sponges are dumb.

 

 

Sorry to hear this. 

Your most recent change in this system was to add Xport blocks, or something of that nature to lower nitrates, wasn't it?

[Thunder Goose]

Sponges are very difficult. Even if YOU do everything right if anyone along the supply chain pulled it out of the water it seems they're doomed. Damn, difficult things. Sorry for your loss.

[lkoechle]

4 minutes ago, Weetabix7 said:

 

Sorry to hear this. 

Your most recent change in this system was to add Xport blocks, or something of that nature to lower nitrates, wasn't it?

Yeah, I have thought about that but they only went from 50ish to 20ish (maybe 30ish)  and I have been feeding heavier to hopefully mitigate any shock from it.  I didn't think that would do it.  But its possible.  

 

sucks hard though.  I might order another from KP after the contest is over to try again and when I am done "tweaking" the tank.  Damn, shouldnt have messed with anything.  Those blocks are the only change.

[debbeach13]

Sorry about the sponge. It would be nice to know what caused it for peace of mind. Unfortunately we often never find out why. If every thing else is looking good do not panic and start changing things. Better to not stress the other livestock. You have had wonderful success so far.

[Weetabix7]

1 hour ago, lkoechle said:

Yeah, I have thought about that but they only went from 50ish to 20ish (maybe 30ish)  and I have been feeding heavier to hopefully mitigate any shock from it.  I didn't think that would do it.  But its possible.  

 

sucks hard though.  I might order another from KP after the contest is over to try again and when I am done "tweaking" the tank.  Damn, shouldnt have messed with anything.  Those blocks are the only change.

 

There is no way to learn what works and what doesn't other than trying. 

Any time you try something new, there will be some successes and some failures. 

The important thing is to learn from those and use those lessons to make sure that the successes outweigh the failures. 

The cool thing is, we are all learning here along with you and will take the knowledge to ensure greater success with sponges.

So, this is disappointing, but it will lead to greater success and better knowledge unless we don't let it. 

[Pjanssen]

Sorry about your sponge leah. Tank is still awesome though.

[SeaFurn]

Triple awesome in my book. Sorry about the sponge. Wouldn't have lasted a week in my tank. 

[lkoechle]

Thanks all.  So all tests are normal.   My gorgs arent opening today (the NPS and the purple thing I think is a seawhip, I hoenstly dunno) but Maru has been wipping up a sand storm since I have been home from church.  so that could be it.  I do need to do a water change on the QT tank today so I will probably do a 2 to 3 gallon change in the contest tank (I make my water in 5 gallon batches) just to dot the is and cross the ts.

[Weetabix7]

3 minutes ago, lkoechle said:

Thanks all.  So all tests are normal.   My gorgs arent opening today (the NPS and the purple thing I think is a seawhip, I hoenstly dunno) but Maru has been wipping up a sand storm since I have been home from church.  so that could be it.  I do need to do a water change on the QT tank today so I will probably do a 2 to 3 gallon change in the contest tank (I make my water in 5 gallon batches) just to dot the is and cross the ts.

 

Sounds like a good idea. 

[Thunder Goose]

1 hour ago, lkoechle said:

Thanks all.  So all tests are normal.   My gorgs arent opening today (the NPS and the purple thing I think is a seawhip, I hoenstly dunno) but Maru has been wipping up a sand storm since I have been home from church.  so that could be it.  I do need to do a water change on the QT tank today so I will probably do a 2 to 3 gallon change in the contest tank (I make my water in 5 gallon batches) just to dot the is and cross the ts.

I have a lot of freshwater experience so my immediate response to something going wrong is "do a water change" - IMHE water quality is often either the original problem or a contributing factor.

 

 

[lkoechle]

2 hours ago, Thunder Goose said:

I have a lot of freshwater experience so my immediate response to something going wrong is "do a water change" - IMHE water quality is often either the original problem or a contributing factor.

 

 

Yeah but the tank is one day oberdue for a water change, so the water quality should have been fine.  my other thought is it was in slow decline the last 9 weeks but its also had noticeable growth or there is some bad hitchhiker that did something.  

 

If it is water quality, its something not usually testable. 

[ninjamyst]

sponge are hard to keep for a long time.  are all the sponges in the tank dissolving or just one?  

[lkoechle]

1 hour ago, ninjamyst said:

sponge are hard to keep for a long time.  are all the sponges in the tank dissolving or just one?  

Just the one.  could be possible its a type that feeds on really small food that isnt produced in that size and its been slowly starving.  Its just weird since it looked great yesterday and this morning it was just literally falling apart. But everything else looks fine.  

[lkoechle]

 

FTS 11

Havent veebbposting much because losing that red sponge really got to me I just have to remind myself it was my first loss (aside from the already damaged sponge) since having this tank.  I dont know if 9 weeks was a good run with a sponge or not, I am thinking not.  i just wish i knew why it died.

 

I keep reminding myself I went into this with the expectation of an experiment. but having anxiety, I tend to get wrapped up in details.  So i keep reminding myself, even in the worst case scenario, the world is not going to end. lol

 

And I think the clingfish might have paired up.  I don't know if they are like clownfish or not, but Mr. Cling is definitely larger and Mrs. Cling is smaller but Mr. Cling doesn't bully or chase Mrs. Cling anymore and will actually sit and eat side by side on the glass. and if they haven't paired, they have at least come to an impasse. And their names are sticking regardless of sex since I can (have always been) able to tell them apart. It would be too confusing to invert the names now if the larger one (mr cling) is actually female.  haha

 

I am going to try and make a video this weekend maybe yo showcase the tank in action as well as how alive it is during feeding.  

 

[lkoechle]

The Clings.

Mr. Cling is the fat one, well super fat one.  They are both pretty fat and actually eat out of the water.  You can hand feed them and pet them too.

 

[Boggers]

With the sudden and full on loss that you had with that sponge, there was noting you could have done. We can speculate for a long time on what "could have" caused it. But similar to RTN sometimes it just happens even to the best of us.

[Pjanssen]

Looking good as always Leah

[Lula_Mae]

Sorry about the sponge. The tank does look wonderful though.

[lkoechle]

Week 12!

 

halfway through week 2 of no water changes.  I want to only do changes every two weeks.  I am like on week 3 for Yoshii's tank.  Everything looks great (yes, there is a sponge thay needs to be reglued).  Just chugging along.

And i decided to not care about nitrates anymore unless something looks wrong.  Because the last time i trued to reduce them, I lost my beautiful sponge.  So no more poking. Thats that.

 

Morning shot

 

5 minutes later (dosed phyto hence cloudy water)

[Weetabix7]

1 hour ago, lkoechle said:

Week 12!

 

halfway through week 2 of no water changes.  I want to only do changes every two weeks.  I am like on week 3 for Yoshii's tank.  Everything looks great (yes, there is a sponge thay needs to be reglued).  Just chugging along.

And i decided to not care about nitrates anymore unless something looks wrong.  Because the last time i trued to reduce them, I lost my beautiful sponge.  So no more poking. Thats that.

 

Morning shot

 

5 minutes later (dosed phyto hence cloudy water)

 

Beautiful, as always. 

I really like that red Macro growing at the top of the rockwork. 

[lkoechle]

tank is still good.  I swear I have updates.  Even a video.  Kids have been kicking my butt lately though.  TBH, I don't like spending my evenings on nano-reef after they go to bed on hard days like these.  I prefer to spend the evenings on wine time.  My head is about to explode from the screams my three year old is putting out right now.  Holy meltdown batman.  I don't even remember over what.  We've moved on to so many different things.  Now I'm just hiding listening to him on the baby monitor.  And my brain is turned to mush thanks to these tiny beings that I love with my whole heart for some reason.  

 

So, do I have updates?  

Yes, yes I do.

Will you be getting them?

Some day, but I don't think that day is today.  

[holy carp]

Those sponges are unreal looking.  Nice work.

[Mariaface]

I don't have that level of drama llama, but I'm struggling with my own updates  To be fair, when am I not..

 

Congrats on two weeks without water changes!! Everything's still looking great!

[Boggers]

The torture 3's were always infinitely worse than the terrible 2's for my household.

 

That gorg front and center seems to have gotten its grove and is growing IMO.

[lkoechle]

Hey look guys! I'm updating!

 

On 8/1/2017 at 2:11 PM, Boggers said:

The torture 3's were always infinitely worse than the terrible 2's for my household.

 

That gorg front and center seems to have gotten its grove and is growing IMO.

Yeah, terrible twos are a lie.  Threes are the worst.  And I have an 18 month old full of girl attitude.  So it's lots a fun here! 

 

The gorg def has gotten into its groove.  Still has some bare tips and I'm debating on clipping for aesthetics, but I'm gonna let it be until the end of the competition at least.  Don't want to sink it before the end! 

 

On 8/1/2017 at 1:57 PM, Mariaface said:

Congrats on two weeks without water changes!! Everything's still looking great!

Yeah... I don't think they appreciated it.    I'm going back to once a week with knowing I confidently be lazy for a week and a half. lol

 

SO! WEEK 13 FTS:

 

ITS THE HOME STRETCH 

 

Everything's still chuggin'  I glued my sponges back and one is already back on the sand bed.  Whatever.  It can stay there.  One like that in Yoshii's tank has been doing fine for 2 months now.  I'll fight with it later.

 

Anyways, its been a while and one cool thing I caught on video was the tail end of a porcelain crab fight.  Here it is:

 

Complete with a photo bomb from the lord of the tank.

 

I also have a longer video, but I'm probably going to cut it up so it won't be on tonight.