Dr. Felicia's Back to Basics IM14 - Retired 2/25/2020

[RollaJase]

3 hours ago, Felicia said:

Happy New Year, Jase!  Glad to see you checking in!  I saw you posted on your thread, but I haven't had time this week to spend much time on N-R.  I'll have to go check out your thread when I get a chance and get caught up.    I'm doing well, thank you!  Just busy at work right now playing catch-up after the holidays.  How about you?  Glad you like the tank!  I crammed it full of easy stuff and now I'm just letting it do its thing.  So far so good on the low maintenance front!  Thank you for the kind words! 

Glad to hear you are doing well Felicia . Everything is good over hear, straight back into work after a week off over Christmas/New Year. Still waiting for construction to start on my house, hopefully that will be underway come June/July. The tank is definitely looking beautiful, you have done a great job. Low maintenance definitely doesn't have to mean dull. I'm looking at going bigger again! Figure it will probably be easier to set up a new tank and transfer livestock than transferring everything over to the new house when I'm ready to move in.

[vlangel]

I have been very busy too Felicia but just caught up on your tank...which is looking fabulous btw!  Wow, you sure have a lot of cute fish in there.  I love the blenny, they are one of my favorites.

 

Your coral look so lush and healthy.  And of course Lily making that quick cameo at the end of the video was precious, ha ha!  

 

Thank you for all your work posting the pics for the creative container contest too.  Its not like you have nothing to do or anything, ha ha.

[Pjanssen]

that blenny is too cute! looks great against the rastas

[Cannedfish]

I think we can all agree TSB are the best. I like yours and his? camo PJ's (or at least that's what we call it when Blenwood gets all stripey).

[RustyRocket]

23 hours ago, Cannedfish said:

I think we can all agree TSB are the best. I like yours and his? camo PJ's (or at least that's what we call it when Blenwood gets all stripey).

Camo PJ's thats hilarious xD! Arent those their stress lines btw? Mine does that every times its spooked. 

Does anyone have TSB problems where they sit on their favourite spot so much that the coral doesnt open anymore? Because thats my neon green star polyps right now. 

[Cannedfish]

27 minutes ago, RustyRocket said:

Camo PJ's thats hilarious xD! Arent those their stress lines btw? Mine does that every times its spooked. 

Does anyone have TSB problems where they sit on their favourite spot so much that the coral doesnt open anymore? Because thats my neon green star polyps right now. 

Stress lines, huh. Our's (Blenwood) only gets them right before bed. Maybe he's afraid of the dark or has sleep apnea. In that case, I might need to start looking for a teeny nite-lite to put outside of his 'Blen-hole' (where he sleeps) or find a sleep center that specializes in spoiled fish. 

 

Blenwood doesn't overly bother any coral, but he does spend most of his day lounging in a blue poly montipora AKA 'The Blen-Dish." As you can see we love him very much and go to extreme lengths to anthropomorphize anything he touches. 

[Lisa166]

It is so beautiful! 

[rsucre]

Everybody look so happy.  That's the place you want to be.........

[Felicia]

On 1/14/2018 at 11:05 PM, Andreww said:

Cool fish. Calanus is such good stuff, my Ignitus Anthias ate it for the first week now they could care less for it and instead eat PE Mysis and salmon like crazy. Can’t complain since that has more protein and can keep them fat but now I have an almost full pack of Calanus and no one to feed it to lol

You can always feed the Calanus to your corals.  It seems like a nice size coral food!  I figured since I have small fish, I can feed it to my fish and my gorgonians can also enjoy it.  

 

On 1/15/2018 at 2:43 AM, RollaJase said:

Glad to hear you are doing well Felicia . Everything is good over hear, straight back into work after a week off over Christmas/New Year. Still waiting for construction to start on my house, hopefully that will be underway come June/July. The tank is definitely looking beautiful, you have done a great job. Low maintenance definitely doesn't have to mean dull. I'm looking at going bigger again! Figure it will probably be easier to set up a new tank and transfer livestock than transferring everything over to the new house when I'm ready to move in.

Glad to hear you're doing well!  That's exciting that hopefully construction on your house will start in the next few months.  I think that is definitely an excuse to go bigger!  Maybe something cool and built in or designed into the house?   Yeah, I enjoyed the time off for the holidays but then work got busy as soon as I got back!  I haven't really had a lot of time for the tank/posting.  I feel like my interest level comes in waves a bit just depending on how busy I am and such.  

 

On 1/15/2018 at 4:55 AM, vlangel said:

I have been very busy too Felicia but just caught up on your tank...which is looking fabulous btw!  Wow, you sure have a lot of cute fish in there.  I love the blenny, they are one of my favorites.

 

Your coral look so lush and healthy.  And of course Lily making that quick cameo at the end of the video was precious, ha ha!  

 

Thank you for all your work posting the pics for the creative container contest too.  Its not like you have nothing to do or anything, ha ha.

No worries!  I've been busy too and have been slacking on keeping up with Nano-Reef again.  The tank is doing well overall, but I've had some struggles/issues lately unfortunately.  I'll post an update below.  Sorry for taking so long to respond!  I'm glad you enjoyed the Lily cameo.  This is my first reef tank that she's been very into and she seems to really enjoy it.  Sometimes in the evenings, I'll be sitting on my couch watching TV and she'll sit up on the dresser and just stare at the tank like its a cat TV.    And you're very welcome!  I'm enjoying hosting the contest.  I'm just trying to keep up!  Its easier now that we're down to about 25 contestants.

 

On 1/15/2018 at 4:11 PM, Pjanssen said:

that blenny is too cute! looks great against the rastas

On 1/15/2018 at 2:20 AM, Lula_Mae said:

TSB is super cute! Mine is pretty shy. Found a hole he likes though and hangs out there a lot!

On 1/15/2018 at 5:11 PM, Cannedfish said:

I think we can all agree TSB are the best. I like yours and his? camo PJ's (or at least that's what we call it when Blenwood gets all stripey).

On 1/16/2018 at 4:55 PM, RustyRocket said:

Camo PJ's thats hilarious xD! Arent those their stress lines btw? Mine does that every times its spooked. 

Does anyone have TSB problems where they sit on their favourite spot so much that the coral doesnt open anymore? Because thats my neon green star polyps right now. 

On 1/16/2018 at 5:30 PM, Cannedfish said:

Stress lines, huh. Our's (Blenwood) only gets them right before bed. Maybe he's afraid of the dark or has sleep apnea. In that case, I might need to start looking for a teeny nite-lite to put outside of his 'Blen-hole' (where he sleeps) or find a sleep center that specializes in spoiled fish. 

 

Blenwood doesn't overly bother any coral, but he does spend most of his day lounging in a blue poly montipora AKA 'The Blen-Dish." As you can see we love him very much and go to extreme lengths to anthropomorphize anything he touches. 

 

Blennies are super cute!  Unfortunately, mine didn't make it very long.  He was eating well, but kept getting skinnier, so I think he may have had an internal parasite.  I'll have to maybe try another one at some point.

 

On 1/17/2018 at 10:34 AM, Lisa166 said:

It is so beautiful! 

On 1/20/2018 at 6:40 PM, rsucre said:

Everybody look so happy.  That's the place you want to be.........

Thank you! 

 

[Felicia]

Tank Updates

Unfortunately, I've been having some issues/struggles with the tank recently.  First off, I lost 3 fish in rapid succession without much warning or a definitive cause.  I believe the new blenny had an internal parasite because he was eating, but kept getting skinnier.  However, I also lost my picasso clownfish and my possum wrasse that had both been doing well.  One day they were fine and the next the next they were dead.  No signs of ich or anything like that.  Very baffling and sad.  However, my two remaining fish (the misbar clown and the yellow watchman goby) are super happy and healthy.  Also, all my inverts are doing wonderful (snails, cleaner shrimp, pistol shrimp, pom pom crab, and porcelain crab).  I figure there must not be any kind of water quality issue since all the inverts are doing so well.

 

Then on top of the fish deaths, I seem to have a sudden outbreak of dinoflagellates.  Ugh!  I'm not 100% sure that's what it is, but I'm reasonably sure.  It looks just like the photos and descriptions of dinos that I've seen on the forums.  Its this stringy brown stuff that produces tons of bubbles.  Its definitely not algae because it brushes off easily and comes back way faster than algae can grow.  The only reason I'm not positive its dinos is because everything I've read says dinos are toxic to snails, but all my snails are still grazing and are happy and healthy.  To treat it, I've been doing 30% water changes every couple days and siphoning out as much of the dinos as I can.  Yesterday I started a blackout period.  I'm thinking I'll do a full 3 days of blackout.  I've got the tank draped in towels to block even the ambient room light.  I'm hoping that will help.  I also put in an order for DinoX from BRS and will start dosing that if I don't notice much improvement after the blackout period.

 

Otherwise, surprisingly the corals are all doing really well.  I'm seeing tons of growth.  The dinos are irritating the gorgonians and zoas a bit, but I've been siphoning them off regularly, so nothing is in danger of being smothered right now.

[vlangel]

Ahh Felicia, I am sorry the tank is going through some stuff.  You have been in this hobby long enough to know that we all go through it sooner or later.  Its just a matter of persevering through it and eventually the tank will balance out and go on from there.

 

I hope the rest of life is treating you well!

[Felicia]

3 hours ago, vlangel said:

Ahh Felicia, I am sorry the tank is going through some stuff.  You have been in this hobby long enough to know that we all go through it sooner or later.  Its just a matter of persevering through it and eventually the tank will balance out and go on from there.

 

I hope the rest of life is treating you well!

Thank you, Dawn.  I completely agree.  At this point I definitely am not letting this tank stress me out.  What will be will be and eventually it should all straigten out.  This tank is only a little over 5 months old now, so its still young.

 

And yes, the rest of life is great!  So I can't complain!    How have you been, Dawn?

[vlangel]

1 hour ago, Felicia said:

Thank you, Dawn.  I completely agree.  At this point I definitely am not letting this tank stress me out.  What will be will be and eventually it should all straigten out.  This tank is only a little over 5 months old now, so its still young.

 

And yes, the rest of life is great!  So I can't complain!    How have you been, Dawn?

I am glad to hear that life is treating you well.  Yes, I also can not complain.  I just got back from a short trip to FL with a friend and met my hubby in Charlotte so we could watch our grandkids being dedicated.  My seahorses are doing well, although I added sand to their tank, so I hope things stay good there.

[Nano sapiens]

6 hours ago, Felicia said:

Tank Updates

Unfortunately, I've been having some issues/struggles with the tank recently.

Sorry about the fish loss.  Never a good feeling, especially when there is no apparent cause

 

Tank is young and it should straighten out given enough time.  Personally, I'm not a fan of these 'remedies in a bottle' and prefer the patient and steady/stable approach to resolving these imbalance issues.  Whatever you decide, best of luck!

[Felicia]

1 hour ago, vlangel said:

I am glad to hear that life is treating you well.  Yes, I also can not complain.  I just got back from a short trip to FL with a friend and met my hubby in Charlotte so we could watch our grandkids being dedicated.  My seahorses are doing well, although I added sand to their tank, so I hope things stay good there.

Glad to hear you got to go on a nice little vacation and see your grandkids!  I have been checking out your thread, but haven't gotten around to posting!  I'm back about perusing on my phone when I have a free moment, but then not wanting to go to the effort of trying to write comments on my phone.  I love the addition of the sand!  Very cool concept for a scape and I am really hoping you get a yellow headed jawfish.  They are one of my favorite fish!  Buying them as a mated pair from KPA is also a really cool option!  

15 minutes ago, Nano sapiens said:

Sorry about the fish loss.  Never a good feeling, especially when there is no apparent cause

 

Tank is young and it should straighten out given enough time.  Personally, I'm not a fan of these 'remedies in a bottle' and prefer the patient and steady/stable approach to resolving these imbalance issues.  Whatever you decide, best of luck!

This hobby can definitely be frustrating at times.  I'm trying to not let it bother me too much when there's nothing I can do about it.  I always feel so guilty though when things die.  

 

I am totally with you on not liking the "remedies in a bottle".  My plan is to try to battle this with water changes and blackout periods.  I've been doing frequent water changes and siphoning out the dinos for a couple weeks now and I definitely see progress.  My only concern is that I have a trip coming up and I don't want to have the dinos take over and smother things while I'm gone.  I ordered the DinoX as a last resort to start trying before my trip if the dinos are still really bad.  Also, my tank sitter could easily dose the DinoX if needed to keep the dinos under control while I'm gone.  The good thing is that I just have hardy soft corals, so whereas sensitive corals like SPS are sometimes irritated by these "remedies in a bottle", my gorgonians and softies should be ok if I have to resort to dosing the DinoX.  Fingers crossed that the water changes, siphoning, and 3-day blackout do the trick without having to resort to the chemicals.

[Pjanssen]

35 minutes ago, Felicia said:

I am really hoping you get a yellow headed jawfish.  They are one of my favorite fish!  Buying them as a mated pair from KPA is also a really cool option!  

Unfortunately they are out of stock. Philp from KPA says Hurricane Irma really messed things up down there and he doesn't expect to find any mated pairs anytime soon.

[vlangel]

52 minutes ago, Felicia said:

I love the addition of the sand!  Very cool concept for a scape and I am really hoping you get a yellow headed jawfish.  They are one of my favorite fish!  Buying them as a mated pair from KPA is also a really cool option!  

 

I am glad that you like the sand and my new scape.  I am definitely going to try and get a pair of yellow headed jawfish.  KPA will sell them as juveniles so maybe I can get 2 of them and let them pair up when they are ready.  I think I would like a pair of rusty gobies too.

[Pjanssen]

29 minutes ago, vlangel said:

I think I would like a pair of rusty gobies too.

I'm waiting on these from KPA for my IM20

[Felicia]

57 minutes ago, Pjanssen said:

Unfortunately they are out of stock. Philp from KPA says Hurricane Irma really messed things up down there and he doesn't expect to find any mated pairs anytime soon.

Bummer that they are out of stock.  Yeah it seems like Irma really interfered with their ability to stock a lot of items.  I've been anxiously waiting for them to collect some of the nano serpent stars since I started my tank.  They finally listed two in stock this morning and I snatched them up!  They're one of my favorite CUC invertebrates.

36 minutes ago, vlangel said:

I am glad that you like the sand and my new scape.  I am definitely going to try and get a pair of yellow headed jawfish.  KPA will sell them as juveniles so maybe I can get 2 of them and let them pair up when they are ready.  I think I would like a pair of rusty gobies too.

Getting two juveniles sounds like a plan.  I wonder if its difficult to get them to pair or if you need to make sure you have a male and a female and how you would do that.  I bet its a good question for Kara and Philip at KPA.  A pair of rusty gobies would also be fun!  I remember Gena had a pair from KPA in the past and they were very cute.

 

[vlangel]

9 hours ago, Felicia said:

 

Getting two juveniles sounds like a plan.  I wonder if its difficult to get them to pair or if you need to make sure you have a male and a female and how you would do that.  I bet its a good question for Kara and Philip at KPA.  A pair of rusty gobies would also be fun!  I remember Gena had a pair from KPA in the past and they were very cute.

 

They now have it in their description that 2 juveniles are not male and female yet so that they will become a pair.  It sounds similiar to juvenile clownfish.  I also remember when Gena had the rusty gobies because that was when I first became acquainted to that specie.

[Subsea]

On 11/26/2017 at 12:33 AM, Felicia said:

Good to know!  I am so bad at keeping track of names and lineages and such.  I'm just like oh, pretty!  I'm curious, do the two look similar or very different in their tank together under the same lighting?  I'm more looking for ones that look quite a bit different from each other since I don't have much space.  

You choose inhabitants like I do.  What does it look like here next to this!  With small tanks, you are more challenged because of space imitations.  With my larger tanks, I like open spaces to encourage fish to swim in the open areas.

 

I like your possum wrasse.  On a separate note, I caught a real opossum in a live trap  two days ago.  When my brother asked me what they eat, I said,  “They eat anything”.  Weikepedia said opportunistic omnivore.  In reading further, they eat cats and smaller mammals.  When I got to opossums being immune to pit viper bites and that they poisonous eat snakes, except coral snakes, which have neurotoxins.  I turned the critter loose.  Up close and personnel, opossums are ugly.  

 

I am glad that you got the pretty version possum for your tank.  Always good reading your thread.

.

[Pjanssen]

10 minutes ago, Subsea said:

On a separate note, I caught a real opossum in a live trap  two days ago.  When my brother asked me what they eat, I said,  “They eat anything”.  Weikepedia said opportunistic omnivore.  In reading further, they eat cats and smaller mammals.  When I got to opossums being immune to pit viper bites and that they poisonous eat snakes, except coral snakes, which have neurotoxins.  I turned the critter loose.  Up close and personnel, opossums are ugly.  

Yikes! I suppose Opossums have their place in society, but if I have have to choose between one and one of my 2 cats...Well lets just say I would release it far far away! (But then I would feel really bad because she probably has babies and now they would be pretty much orphaned )

[RustyRocket]

On 13/02/2018 at 11:00 AM, Felicia said:

Tank Updates

Unfortunately, I've been having some issues/struggles with the tank recently.  First off, I lost 3 fish in rapid succession without much warning or a definitive cause.  I believe the new blenny had an internal parasite because he was eating, but kept getting skinnier.  However, I also lost my picasso clownfish and my possum wrasse that had both been doing well.  One day they were fine and the next the next they were dead.  No signs of ich or anything like that.  Very baffling and sad.  However, my two remaining fish (the misbar clown and the yellow watchman goby) are super happy and healthy.  Also, all my inverts are doing wonderful (snails, cleaner shrimp, pistol shrimp, pom pom crab, and porcelain crab).  I figure there must not be any kind of water quality issue since all the inverts are doing so well.

 

Then on top of the fish deaths, I seem to have a sudden outbreak of dinoflagellates.  Ugh!  I'm not 100% sure that's what it is, but I'm reasonably sure.  It looks just like the photos and descriptions of dinos that I've seen on the forums.  Its this stringy brown stuff that produces tons of bubbles.  Its definitely not algae because it brushes off easily and comes back way faster than algae can grow.  The only reason I'm not positive its dinos is because everything I've read says dinos are toxic to snails, but all my snails are still grazing and are happy and healthy.  To treat it, I've been doing 30% water changes every couple days and siphoning out as much of the dinos as I can.  Yesterday I started a blackout period.  I'm thinking I'll do a full 3 days of blackout.  I've got the tank draped in towels to block even the ambient room light.  I'm hoping that will help.  I also put in an order for DinoX from BRS and will start dosing that if I don't notice much improvement after the blackout period.

 

Otherwise, surprisingly the corals are all doing really well.  I'm seeing tons of growth.  The dinos are irritating the gorgonians and zoas a bit, but I've been siphoning them off regularly, so nothing is in danger of being smothered right now.

I wonder if this is a Coincident with the Dino outbreak in the bay...Kinetic also had something similar recently. 
Myself in South Berkley also had an outbreak not too long ago...Maybe something in our water?

 

 

[Felicia]

8 hours ago, RustyRocket said:

I wonder if this is a Coincident with the Dino outbreak in the bay...Kinetic also had something similar recently. 
Myself in South Berkley also had an outbreak not too long ago...Maybe something in our water?

 

 

Definitely a thought if we're all suddenly having issues at once. This is the first time I've ever had a Dinoflagellate outbreak since I got into the hobby. I use a 5 stage RODI system so I wonder what it might not be filtering out that could be in our water. Do you use an RODI unit to filter your water?

[William]

Do you buy stuff from the same LFS?....