Blenwood's Reef - 1st attempts at focus stacking

[mitten_reef]

47 minutes ago, This guy is extra salty said:

Since seeing that Xmas card photo 

i really want a donut now...

 

it's a beignet!!!! and no, they are not comparable.  😛     

[Cannedfish]

Uh oh... 

 

 

[WV Reefer]

5 minutes ago, Cannedfish said:

Uh oh... 

 

 

🤭

[This guy is extra salty]

1 hour ago, micoastreefing said:

it's a beignet!!!! and no, they are not comparable.  😛     

What is that? 

You will have to explain this cause I’m from the west coast...

59 minutes ago, Cannedfish said:

Uh oh... 

 

 

You got new penny loafers!!

[Cannedfish]

7 minutes ago, This guy is extra salty said:

What is that? 

You will have to explain this cause I’m from the west coast...

You got new penny loafers!!

On one hand, beignets are very much like doughnuts: they are sweet balls of dough deep fried (and COVERED with powdered sugar), served generally with coffee (but in NOLA chicory coffee... gross), and are delicious. Furthermore, like doughnuts, they are adept at raising your cholesterol levels, causing adult onset diabetes, and are likely a contributing factor of why your pants feel tight. Although both breakfast confections are attempting to kill you, unlike doughnuts, beignets go about this with an air of casual smugness while likely smoking a cigarette... you know, because they are French-ish.

 

Sadly, no they are not new loafers... 

 

[Cannedfish]

Sadly, after bringing home the green banded gobies and getting a closer look at them while acclimating, I noticed some white bacterial looking spots on them. I’m not sure whether it was ick or something else, but after serious consideration I concluded that I was not willing to risk introducing them to what has been (knock on wood) a pest free tank. As a result, I drove them back to the LFS.

 

Overall, because of how excited I was about them, this was a huge disappointment. But it would have be soul wrenching if I had taken the chance and introduced new fish only to watch Blen-Daddy and Lorp get sick. 

[mitten_reef]

27 minutes ago, Cannedfish said:

Sadly, after bringing home the green banded gobies and getting a closer look at them while acclimating, I noticed some white bacterial looking spots on them. I’m not sure whether it was ick or something else, but after serious consideration I concluded that I was not willing to risk introducing them to what has been (knock on wood) a pest free tank. As a result, I drove them back to the LFS.

 

Overall, because of how excited I was about them, this was a huge disappointment. But it would have be soul wrenching if I had taken the chance and introduced new fish only to watch Blen-Daddy and Lorp get sick. 

Sorry you didn't get blenwood and lorp their new friends today.  what's up with the freshwater tank, peeking out of the corner of that bag pic?  

[Cannedfish]

21 minutes ago, micoastreefing said:

Sorry you didn't get blenwood and lorp their new friends today.  what's up with the freshwater tank, peeking out of the corner of that bag pic?  

That’s the planted tank in my office. Home to Murderburger the Betta.

 

Funny story: Because I didn’t want to take a janky tank to the office, the planted was originally and temporarily  grown out in our kitchen (where the SW is now). When it finally grew out and I  took it to work, we kinda missed having a dumb fish to anthropomorphasize, which (because of the oft mentioned space issues) inevitably lead me to N-R (which I stalked for about a year), which lead me to @teenyreef tank, which lead to an IM10, which resulted in Blenwood, which lead to coral, which ultimately has created an obsession and resulted in many many Amex Delta Miles (Thanks to B-Money-Cash-$$ we will be in Brazil in October!!). 

 

To summarize: besides eating a small fortune in expensive cherry shrimp, Murderburger was the gateway drug to nano reefing. Here is an absolutely terrible photo of the office tank in all of its 3.7 gallons of glory. 

 

 

 

[mitten_reef]

2 minutes ago, Cannedfish said:

That’s the planted tank in my office. Home to Murderburger the Betta.

 

Funny story: Because I didn’t want to take a janky tank to the office, the planted was originally and temporarily  grown out in our kitchen (where the SW is now). When it finally grew out and I  took it to work, we kinda missed having a dumb fish to anthropomorphasize, which (because of the oft mentioned space issues) inevitably lead me to N-R (which I stalked for about a year), which lead me to @teenyreef tank, which lead to an IM10, which resulted in Blenwood, which lead to coral, which ultimately has created an obsession and resulted in many many Amex Delta Miles (Thanks to B-Money-Cash-$$ we will be in Brazil in October!!). 

 

To summarize: besides eating a small fortune in expensive cherry shrimp, Murderburger was the gateway drug to nano reefing. Here is an absolutely terrible photo of the office tank in all of its 3.7 gallons of glory. 

 

 

 

Holy F bomb!  that's one of the most beautiful bettas I've seen outside of Apple promotional pics.  that's a good story on how u got to set up a nano reef tho. 

 

Mine, I just inherited a Marineland Eclipse 12 from a co-worker who was into saltwater fish.  He set it up a clown tank at the office, then got approval from the homefront to set up a bigger tank at home, so he moved all the tank residents home, and pass that tank to me.  when one of the recent TOTM was a built-out eclipse 12, I got all warm and fuzzy and had to dig this up and drop it into Flickr.

August 2013

  

[Cannedfish]

2 minutes ago, micoastreefing said:

Holy F bomb!  that's one of the most beautiful bettas I've seen outside of Apple promotional pics.  that's a good story on how u got to set up a nano reef tho. 

 

Mine, I just inherited a Marineland Eclipse 12 from a co-worker who was into saltwater fish.  He set it up a clown tank at the office, then got approval from the homefront to set up a bigger tank at home, so he moved all the tank residents home, and pass that tank to me.  when one of the recent TOTM was a built-out eclipse 12, I got all warm and fuzzy and had to dig this up and drop it into Flickr.

August 2013

  

Awesome! That’s also not a bad looking tank! Let be honest, office nano’s make the work place infinity better!

 

About Murderburger, (who is quite beloved in the office, which is the only thing keeping his shrimp

devouring ass

from being kicked to the curb), he’s a lot like Blenwood, in that any compliment goes straight to his sand grain sized brain... 

 

It’s funny how this hobby progresses... (#addiction) I’m just thankful  that I don’t have space for a larger tank.

[Cannedfish]

So where were we? Ah, that’s right, The Castle (the name given to our sh$tshow of a house) had just picked up 25 day old chicks from a very confused and alarmed US Postal worker. Why 25 you ask? Well we actually only ordered five, the other 20 were cheap meat breed chicks that the hatchery throws in, as sort of, living packing peanuts and heat warmers (we didn’t know that either till they arrived). Also chickens really don’t need to eat the first two or three days (yolk sac). Boom. Facts. Who said this thread just rotted your brain!

 

Anyways, make yourself comfortable, here’s the next chapter of A Tale of Two Chickens.

 

...it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. We had 25 baby chicks, zero animal husbandry skills, no jobs or real responsibilities, and probably what most doctors would consider slightly excessive drinking habits (the medical term: your early 20’s). The chicks for the most part lived in a giant Tupperware container in my bedroom, ate organic food, scoffed at our tomfoolery, and did surprisingly well. But it wasn’t just the chicks living the Crescent City High Life. Due to a strange combination of pure absurdity and the general irresistibility of baby animals, my already hedonistic roommates discovered that these tiny birds had not an in significant affect on their ability that pick up chicks (the now famous Slam Joel theory of Chick Relativity).

 

Let me explain. It’s one thing to approach a college girl at a bar and be like “Can I buy you a drink?” or “Was your dad an astronaut?” or whatever terrible pickup line you happen to be peddling that night; because it’s a well known scientific fact that all women (most notably stuck-up sorority girls) possess a veritable Golden Dome of horn-ball defense, especially when it comes to shitty pickup lines. What my roommates quickly found out, however, is that even the toughest ladies’ hit-on defense systems had a loophole, and that loophole goes something like, “yeah, we have 25 baby chicks living in a box in our basement.” It’s too weird of a statement. It leaves too many unanswered questions. It involves baby animals. The desire, no the need, to know more is too much to resist, and just like that the shark is in the shark cage, the fox is in the preverbial coed henhouse. If you don’t believe me, scroll back and see what happened when I just casually mentioned house chickens... Hook. Line. Sinker.

 

Another strange development over those early weeks was a the nonsensical process of chicken anthropomorphizing (big word, heyyo!) that occurred. There was little chick, the tiny but feisty take-on-all comers Dutch bantam, Slack Jr. the streetwise hood-chicken named after an obscure local rapper (who had maybe the greatest mural ever painted of him), Mama the responsible chick named by our neighbor’s children, Mr. F*cking Balloon Hands, and Glen the very boring account-chick that nobody liked. Also because of the sheer number of people that flittered in and out of our house these chickens were near always being handled and became remarkably tame.

 

As I said, it was the best of times... But all good things must come to an end, and that end came shortly after Mardi Gras.

 

I think that enough for now, there is a lot still to get to, including: chicken murder, the West Nile Virus, and the aforementioned taxidermy incident.

 

As also, I apologize for the crap pictures, these are especially low quality, but to be fair, I had to really dig deep in the vault to find these. 

 

Tupperware McMansion:

 

Who dis?

 

Game of chicken: 

 

 

[TheBig053]

3 hours ago, Cannedfish said:

So where were we? Ah, that’s right, The Castle (the name given to our sh$tshow of a house) had just picked up 25 day old chicks from a very confused and alarmed US Postal worker. Why 25 you ask? Well we actually only ordered five, the other 20 were cheap meat breed chicks that the hatchery throws in, as sort of, living packing peanuts and heat warmers (we didn’t know that either till they arrived). Also chickens really don’t need to eat the first two or three days (yolk sac). Boom. Facts. Who said this thread just rotted your brain!

 

Anyways, make yourself comfortable, here’s the next chapter of A Tale of Two Chickens.

 

...it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. We had 25 baby chicks, zero animal husbandry skills, no jobs or real responsibilities, and probably what most doctors would consider slightly excessive drinking habits (the medical term: your early 20’s). The chicks for the most part lived in a giant Tupperware container in my bedroom, ate organic food, scoffed at our tomfoolery, and did surprisingly well. But it wasn’t just the chicks living the Crescent City High Life. Due to a strange combination of pure absurdity and the general irresistibility of baby animals, my already hedonistic roommates discovered that these tiny birds had not an in significant affect on their ability that pick up chicks (the now famous Slam Joel theory of Chick Relativity).

 

Let me explain. It’s one thing to approach a college girl at a bar and be like “Can I buy you a drink?” or “Was your dad an astronaut?” or whatever terrible pickup line you happen to be peddling that night; because it’s a well known scientific fact that all women (most notably stuck-up sorority girls) possess a veritable Golden Dome of horn-ball defense, especially when it comes to shitty pickup lines. What my roommates quickly found out, however, is that even the toughest ladies’ hit-on defense systems had a loophole, and that loophole goes something like, “yeah, we have 25 baby chicks living in a box in our basement.” It’s too weird of a statement. It leaves too many unanswered questions. It involves baby animals. The desire, no the need, to know more is too much to resist, and just like that the shark is in the shark cage, the fox is in the preverbial coed henhouse. If you don’t believe me, scroll back and see what happened when I just casually mentioned house chickens... Hook. Line. Sinker.

 

Another strange development over those early weeks was a the nonsensical process of chicken anthropomorphizing (big word, heyyo!) that occurred. There was little chick, the tiny but feisty take-on-all comers Dutch bantam, Slack Jr. the streetwise hood-chicken named after an obscure local rapper (who had maybe the greatest mural ever painted of him), Mama the responsible chick named by our neighbor’s children, Mr. F*cking Balloon Hands, and Glen the very boring account-chick that nobody liked. Also because of the sheer number of people that flittered in and out of our house these chickens were near always being handled and became remarkably tame.

 

As I said, it was the best of times... But all good things must come to an end, and that end came shortly after Mardi Gras.

 

I think that enough for now, there is a lot still to get to, including: chicken murder, the West Nile Virus, and the aforementioned taxidermy incident.

 

As also, I apologize for the crap pictures, these are especially low quality, but to be fair, I had to really dig deep in the vault to find these. 

 

Tupperware McMansion:

 

Who dis?

 

Game of chicken: 

 

 

 

[teenyreef]

Ahhhh, work and travel has been crazy and I haven't kept up with any threads at all. But this one is my #1 priority, and it all paid off when I caught up tonight. Well done, sir 

 

And am I the only one that's a little scared about House of Chickens, Part 3, the Ultimate Jason?

[Cannedfish]

On 7/27/2018 at 9:22 PM, teenyreef said:

Ahhhh, work and travel has been crazy and I haven't kept up with any threads at all. But this one is my #1 priority, and it all paid off when I caught up tonight. Well done, sir 

 

And am I the only one that's a little scared about House of Chickens, Part 3, the Ultimate Jason?

Thanks, man! Always appreciate it! Again congrats on the feature, well deserved! If it’s any consolation for the magazine, after seeing your tank in it, I ordered a subscription. Also it’s been funny to a watch a new wave of your tank’s FTS take over reef-tank Instagram. 

 

Regarding our dumb house chickens, we aren’t even into the meat of this epic tale yet! Think of these early chapters as the story’s hors d’oeuvres, small quiches or tiny meat balls on tooth picks of plot development.  Unfortunately, however because the overall story, at the end of the day, isn’t all that great, think of it as the hors d’oeuvres at Applebee’s. Yep, that’s how I’m  selling the next couple chapters... You’re going to basically be wasting your time reading the Applebee’s of stories! What’s not to be excited about!

 

Till then here’s some mediocre photos!!

 

 

[This guy is extra salty]

Damn I want a piece of those shitty pic frags lol

[mitten_reef]

4 hours ago, Cannedfish said:

Thanks, man! Always appreciate it! Again congrats on the feature, well deserved! If it’s any consolation for the magazine, after seeing your tank in it, I ordered a subscription. Also it’s been funny to a watch a new wave of your tank’s FTS take over reef-tank Instagram. 

 

Regarding our dumb house chickens, we aren’t even into the meat of this epic tale yet! Think of these early chapters as the story’s hors d’oeuvres, small quiches or tiny meat balls on tooth picks of plot development.  Unfortunately, however because the overall story, at the end of the day, isn’t all that great, think of it as the hors d’oeuvres at Applebee’s. Yep, that’s how I’m  selling the next couple chapters... You’re going to basically be wasting your time reading the Applebee’s of stories! What’s not to be excited about!

 

Till then here’s some mediocre photos!!

 

 

That hawkins, is it a jerk to its neighbors?  I sat mine right in the middle of the birdnest colony. Stupid ORA frag plug won’t fit anywhere else. Well, this morning a whole 2-in of birdnest branch started peeling off flesh - presumably due to coral warfare with the hawkins. Sigh. 

 

Those SPS look great 👍!! Man, I love seeing the red dragon showing white growth all around everywhere like that. Keep an eye on ca/alk (check weekly, maybe even twice a week?), your growth rate is crazy fast right now. 

[Cannedfish]

21 hours ago, This guy is extra salty said:

Damn I want a piece of those shitty pic frags lol

Sooner or later I'm gonna have to do something with them... I just need to set up some sort of frag tank, because I refuse to have a frag rack clutter up the tank, and they would probably need time to heal if I were to ship them. But don't worry if and/or when that happens they have your name all over 'em! Although, I feel like the pectinia is itchin' to throw out some tentacles and if that happens... Sayonara!

 

19 hours ago, micoastreefing said:

That hawkins, is it a jerk to its neighbors?  I sat mine right in the middle of the birdnest colony. Stupid ORA frag plug won’t fit anywhere else. Well, this morning a whole 2-in of birdnest branch started peeling off flesh - presumably due to coral warfare with the hawkins. Sigh. 

 

Those SPS look great 👍!! Man, I love seeing the red dragon showing white growth all around everywhere like that. Keep an eye on ca/alk (check weekly, maybe even twice a week?), your growth rate is crazy fast right now. 

Appreciate the complements, man! Growth has definitely been picking up, which on one hand is great but from a parameters perspective a little scary with a 10 gallon... especially in that I will be leaving the tank in the hands of our less than capable house keeper for over a week early next month. And unfortunately, no one has ever described housekeeper Josh's fish husbandry skills as if  "he has the hands of Jesus." But you make a great point, while I have been keeping a close tab on the alk levels, I need to check calcium, I have no idea where it's at. 

 

Interesting about your Hawkins. I've had the exact opposite experience. Mine also sits next to some birdsnest and wherever the birdsnest polyps touch the Hawkins, it recedes. This has happened mainly on the encrusting base, so I don't know if that why it's losing or whether I just have a really aggro birdsnest. Either way, I will keep an eye on it.

 

On a different note, the Hawkins was one my earliest acros, and at the time I had not yet plunged into dark expensive depths of all-out acro addiction. You know, I was just using recreationally on the weekends (brown-out bargain frag here; an older named frag there). I was totally in control... I could stop when I wanted to... Thus, when I bought it, I thought it was the best, and as a result of my ignorance, I immediately went about making the mistake of 1) gluing it directly to the live rock; 2) placing it on the single best piece of tank real estate: font-dead-center. Unfortunately, since then I moved on to the harder stuff (now I'm essentially Randy from Trailer Park Boys, but instead of cheeseburgers it's over-hyped acro boogers ), and although the Hawkins is really nice under white lights and from above, I wish I had reserved that real estate for something a bit more... acid trippy. But since I'm 1) stubborn; 2) a moron; 3) stubborn, and because it has now encrusted, and I refuse to move it. 

 

 

---------

 

Anyways, as always... shoddy pics!

 

 

 

 

[mitten_reef]

stopping by to say I hope that things aren't as doom and gloom as you've been dropping hints elsewhere.  STN can be corrected/stopped, like @tanacharison said over on the grow-out thread.  Just gotta stay on top of it!  

[Cannedfish]

On 8/1/2018 at 10:12 PM, micoastreefing said:

stopping by to say I hope that things aren't as doom and gloom as you've been dropping hints elsewhere.  STN can be corrected/stopped, like @tanacharison said over on the grow-out thread.  Just gotta stay on top of it!  

Really appreciate the support. I know

you have/are going through similar issues and understand, but still it really sucks. Hopefully, I have stabilized things, but it’s hard to be optimistic know that I will be out of the country for over a week starting Thursday, which couldn’t come at a worse time. Fingers crossed. In the meantime I’m will just drink away the trouble. 

 

———

 

Anyways, here’s a Friday (pre-apocalypse) tank shot...

 

 

[FISHnChix]

Meanwhile at Cannedfish's house

[Cannedfish]

Quick and dirty tank update:

 

STN Update:

 

I'm still having some STN issues on three acros, however, it seems like things are stabilizing. What's weird is after having pretty stable parameters over the last month or so, when I checked last night my alk was 1 dkh lower than it has been. I'm not sure why, but I will keep monitoring it. Also, I'm still not sure what caused the STN, but my working theories include:

 

1) Heat: because it's August, and because NOLA is located smack dab in the center of the Satan's asscrack, it has been both hot and sweaty down yonder. In fact, it's so damn hot,  I have taken the heater out of the tank entirely, even without a heater the tank has still been around 82 degrees (I'm not a damn toucan!). I have an Inkbird sitting around, but since I'm going to need to redo my cable management here shortly (see new additions below) I have been holding off on installing it.

 

2) High calc: a week ago or so, when I tested the Calc it came in higher than expected at around 510. I know that isn't astronomical, but it's also not ideal.

 

3) Light: as mentioned previously, several weeks ago, Lorp the logically challenged possum wrasse decided to start jumping. Although, I immediately ordered an Artfully Acrylic lid, and paid for express manufacturing, due to a communication issue (not awesome) it still took over three weeks to come. During that time I was forced to use mesh lid that came with the IM 10, which for some unknown reason, uses an extremely thick mesh that might as well just be a solid pane of plastic. I believe this blocked a significant amount of light. All of the acros that have had issue were located on the tank's periphery or in an otherwise shadowed area. And while it might not be the main cause, it may have contributed to their stress.

 

New Additions:

 

Artfully Acrylic Lid: as mentioned above, because of Lorp's recent fascination with imitating Evel Knievel, I sucked it up and got a Artfully Acrylic lid. Also, as mentioned above, despite paying extra for the express service it still took almost a month to arrive. While the lid is certainly better than the IM10 lid (you would honestly have to try not to be), overall, I find the lid pretty disappointing. I'm certainly no mathmagician, but I have a hard time understanding how this thing costs so much. The design is uncomplicated, the finish work is non-existent, the materials aren't anything to write home about, the packaging was basically an envelope... boom 140 bucks. Worth it.  Looking at my track record in previous posts, you know I'm really good at both buying dumb things and making questionable decisions, and as a result don't like to complain about price or quality, but it seems like this thing should be better. Maybe they were tired of dealing with me and sent a lemon, just to stick it to me... Who knows. 

 

IM MightJet Pump: just arrived. Has nearly double the flow of the Eheim 600 that I am currently using. It's about to look like a Vitamix up in this heez. 

 

AI Prime HD: you're probably asking, "but don't you already have one?" Yup. But as mentioned above, I'm really good at making questionable purchases. Furthermore, since my contest frag decided it didn't want me to win, I have basically said "eff it." So I'm going to blast it with light and see what happens. In reality, I have been kicking around the idea of adding a second Prime for awhile to both increase the PAR and reduce shadowing. Plus, I am basically, out of room to buy frags, so I need to find other avenues in which to donate my paycheck to this hobby. Unfortunately, I'm not going to install it till I get back from vacation in two weeks. Apparently, we are going to see ancient ruins, but only going so I can 'slaps-five' with some tribal shaman, ride some mother effing alpacas, and chew questionably legal vegetation... Oh and go all Quad City DJ's on a train. 

 

___

 

Sorry this ended up so long, and even more so for a complete lack of proofreading. Anyway, as always, here are some shoddy pics!

 

Unloved Zoa Island:

 

Acan Garden:

 

WWC Slimball:

 

I wonder what's in the box? It could even be a box!

 

Who named this thing?

 

PS: @Weikel don't worry, A Tale of Two Chickens, ch. III, will hit shelves soon. 

[Stoops718]

Bummer about the STN and the Lid. I'm looking into Top Lids or Octo Lids as options. I was curious about the Mighty Jets as well but thought it was weird for it to have a wave mode. Wouldn't the water level constantly change? Seems like a gimmicky feature. Alas, the price is still pretty good with them. Might still pick one up. Lemme know how you like yours after a bit. You can be my guinea pig.

[mitten_reef]

ya know, what you could have done instead of dual Prime - and it'll be much, much cleaner looking.  Buy a Hydra 26HD with mounting kit, and sell off the Prime.     

[Cannedfish]

23 hours ago, Stoops718 said:

Bummer about the STN and the Lid. I'm looking into Top Lids or Octo Lids as options. I was curious about the Mighty Jets as well but thought it was weird for it to have a wave mode. Wouldn't the water level constantly change? Seems like a gimmicky feature. Alas, the price is still pretty good with them. Might still pick one up. Lemme know how you like yours after a bit. You can be my guinea pig.

I also looked at Top Lids, however, their lead time was too long. I really wanted (and was willing to pay) for something made and shipped in a week. In fact, I did just that. Except it took three weeks. Don't get me wrong, the Artfully Acrylic lid isn't terrible, however, like my bee keeping skills, it just leaves a lot to be desired (like edge polishing). I may end up doing that myself, but for a  $140 (or 79,216 Central African Francs) I kinda expected it to be done. 

 

Funny you say guinea pigs, because in about 24 hours, in addition to getting getting funky with some Inca shaman, I hope to be eating some of those fur balls. Oddly, last month at work, we rated the top ten weirdest things we have eaten, and let's just say tailless south american rodents won't crack my top 15 (nor should it for anyone who has ever been to Iceland... that place is like a carnival of horrors when it comes to food). Anyway, I will be happy to give a full review of the pump as soon as it is up and running and I have some time to put it through its paces. 

 

1 hour ago, micoastreefing said:

ya know, what you could have done instead of dual Prime - and it'll be much, much cleaner looking.  Buy a Hydra 26HD with mounting kit, and sell off the Prime.     

I thought of that, and definitely agonized over the two options. In end, however, the decision came down a few factors. First, the controllability of the two light beams. I wasn't convinced that having two static pucks basically in the same position as my current Prime effectively ameliorated the shadowing issues. Being able to spread the pucks out a few more inches and independently angle them (via swivel bracket) I think will be a significant advantage over the Hydra. Second, I think the bracket system I have (in theory) rigged up (I'm not installing till next week) will be cleaner looking that my previous diagrams/descriptions allude to. As I have mentioned before, the tank sits dead center in the middle of our kitchen, and the lady-friend is not only terrible at tennis, a jeopardy champion, and talks with a comically thick south Georgia accent if you let her drink too much champagne, but also she is extremely design/aesthetically conscious, so if this hair-brain idea of mine look remotely amateurish it won't last long. Lastly, while there was a slight difference in cost, at the end of the day, I concluded acquiring a second Prime increased my overall flexibility. See, in addition to agonizing over this decision and my current STN issues and why people are so obsessed about the McRib (fact: its not that good), I have also been agonizing over setting up a small frag tank, as sort of a tiny holding chamber for when I have to trim back corals. Instead of just throwing them away, or getting exactly zero credit at the LFS (and then coming back the next week to see them sell said trimming for $$$), I would prefer to give them away and/or send them to people, but the timing doesn't always work, and I refuse to clutter up the tank with a frag rack. Also I am the worst at selling things, so selling the current Prime probably wouldn't have happened. 

 

——

 

Anyways, for those who don’t read, photos!

 

Acan Garden:

 

My 3rd worst tank decision:

 

Button scoly continually getting funkier looking (much brighter orange in person)

[Travis]

You can send those trimmings right on over to the west side of the state, Sir. 😛