Dawn's shrimp chalet & 5.5 AIO !

[vlangel]

3 hours ago, JBM said:

Persistence is key, atleast that's what a buddy of mine says. Your doing all the right things. Hopefully sooner rather then never Yin starts to eat again. And your right, if Yin eats. Yang will most likely follow. As I'm sure both are getting hungry. 

 

The stress of another tank mate may have shocked it into not eating. Patience and often feedings without fouling water will be the only course. 

I agree that diligent persistence is the key.  That is how I trained the seahorse fry and juveniles onto frozen.  If the mandys were eating the newly hatched nauphii better I would have stuck it out longer but I do not want them to perish, so I offered them free to a BIG home in my local club forum and I got a taker.  He is a very knowledgeable reefer and he has a big tank so I believe it is Yin and Yang's best interest to go there.

[vlangel]

This morning I cleaned the 5.5 aio.  I just love how you can do a complete overhaul in less than an hour.  That is precisely what I did since I have been feeding it exceptionally heavy for Yin and Yang.

 

First I turkey basted all the rock and coral to get out any detritus in the many holes and crevises.  As debris was swirling in the water column I took rock and coral out of the 5.5 and moved it into a 5 gallon bucket with newly made saltwater.

Then as the debris and junk settled onto the sandbed I siphoned out the water and junk on the sand down to about 3/4th of an inch and made sure my airline was aerating it for Yin and Yang.  Then I cleaned the glass.  After the glass was clean, I moved the rock and coral into the bucket that I had siphoned the dirty water into but being careful not to stir up the debris on the bottom of the bucket.  Now I could refill the 5.5 with new saltwater. Before returning the rock and coral into it, I decided to peroxide any algae I saw and glued some coral that had come loose.  I also super glued the gap to the false back wall where I hope it takes over.  

 

The coral are not happy at the moment everything does look nice and fresh and clean. I expect by tonight that they will mostly be back to normal.

[vlangel]

Some of the coral are recovering already.

I have a Pico LED fixture that is not strong enough for the coral at least I don't think it is.  It has 6 3W white diodes and 3 3W blue diodes and I like the color so much better than the par 38 bulb which is way too blue for my liking.  Anyway, I take pics under the small LED fixture as the coral look exactly how they look to me.

[JBM]

well, it certainly does have that "shiney" fresh and clean look to it. 

 

Ive found that my corals get pissy when I move them, but within a few hours are bright and happy again. 

[vlangel]

5 hours ago, JBM said:

well, it certainly does have that "shiney" fresh and clean look to it. 

 

Ive found that my corals get pissy when I move them, but within a few hours are bright and happy again. 

I just wish that "shiny" fresh, clean look lasted a little longer, ha ha!

And all the coral were opened up and looking their best last night.  I probably should have waited until then to take the pic, but O well.

[vlangel]

I have been dreaming of RFAs and ricordias.  I think they would nice on the sand.

[JBM]

Two words

 

"Do it"

[vlangel]

10 hours ago, JBM said:

Two words

 

"Do it"

LOL, it is never hard to find folks to urge us to spend more $.

[Pjanssen]

3 minutes ago, vlangel said:

LOL, it is never hard to find folks to urge us to spend more $.

So true. I don't usually need any help though

[Mariaface]

I second this 'do it' motion!!

[Lorekeeper]

Do it!

[vlangel]

I saw Cheerleader, the pom pom crab this past week.

[JBM]

Purdy

[vlangel]

9 hours ago, JBM said:

Purdy

Thanks JBM, I would have taken a FTS but I was too lazy to clean the film algae off the glass 😉.

[vlangel]

I was videoing the copepods on the glass and the amphipods in the back chamber and I saw Cheerleader come out and steal mysis from an acan!. It's the first time I have ever seen him eat.  Excuse the poor quality of the clip.

[Lula_Mae]

Sorry the mandys didn't work out but I'm glad you found them a good home. I love how Cheerleader is just like "nothing to see here, move along..." Tank looks great!

[vlangel]

Today as my hubby were out on the bikes, we stopped at a lfs.  They had some nice coral so I came home with a fairly big tree sponge for the seahorse tank, and a sun coral and a RFA for the 5.5.  The sun coral and RFA both ate some mysis tonight so that was encouraging.

[Christopher Marks]

Cant wait to see them @vlangel, glad they're already taking food. Have you kept any sun coral in other tanks? They're such a bold contrast color in reefs. 🙂 

[vlangel]

9 hours ago, Christopher Marks said:

Cant wait to see them @vlangel, glad they're already taking food. Have you kept any sun coral in other tanks? They're such a bold contrast color in reefs. 🙂 

I tried one a 1 polyp drag in the seahorses tank once but I could not get it to open up and did not want to overfeed the seahorses tank.  This 5.5 gets fed very heavy anyway so it seemed like a good fit.

[vlangel]

 

The new coral are on the sand.

[SeaFurn]

Nice additions!

Sun coral intimidate me. I hope yours do well! 

[seabass]

Remember, you have to feed each polyp of your sun coral, basically every day (since it's not photosynthetic).  They definitely take work, but are beautiful when trained to come out during the day.  They naturally come out to feed at night.  It's been many years since I tried one.  I just didn't put enough time into feeding it.

[vlangel]

10 hours ago, SeaFurn said:

Nice additions!

Sun coral intimidate me. I hope yours do well! 

 

4 hours ago, seabass said:

Remember, you have to feed each polyp of your sun coral, basically every day (since it's not photosynthetic).  They definitely take work, but are beautiful when trained to come out during the day.  They naturally come out to feed at night.  It's been many years since I tried one.  I just didn't put enough time into feeding it.

I did not know that they needed fed everyday but since this little tank gets fed very heavy I am hoping that it will do well.

[seabass]

9 minutes ago, vlangel said:

 

I did not know that they needed fed everyday but since this little tank gets fed very heavy I am hoping that it will do well.

Not absolutely necessary, but not a bad idea: https://www.advancedaquarist.com/2011/12/corals

[teenyreef]

I target feed mine almost every day. If I miss a day or two, they don't mind, but after that they start to have trouble opening up. Broadcast feeding is hit or miss.