Lula Mae's "Jarden" of Enjoyment--dinos :(

[seabass]

Congratulations!

[Lula_Mae]

1 hour ago, seabass said:

Congratulations!

Oh wow!  Haha I didn't even notice!  Thanks!

This is what happens when a third of your posts consist solely of smileys.

[seabass]

[Lula_Mae]

2 hours ago, seabass said:

[jahnje]

On 11/14/2017 at 4:54 AM, Lula_Mae said:

[Lula_Mae]

38 minutes ago, jahnje said:

 

[Lula_Mae]

Cultivated Reef has basically everything 30% off right now.  I may or may not have made a purchase intended for this jar...

[Thunder Goose]

Weren't you looking for branching GSP? Divers Den has some right now.

[Lula_Mae]

17 hours ago, Thunder Goose said:

Weren't you looking for branching GSP? Divers Den has some right now.

I did see that!  I'm saving my pennies (ok, more like $10 bills ) for hopeful Black Friday shopping!  Someone on ebay regularly offers it, I just haven't broken down and paid the shipping costs they want lol.  I had talked with a member about buying some but haven't heard from her in a while...

 

I bought an API test kit for the 15 and decided to run some tests on this since everything's been mad.  Ammonia and nitrite are both 0 but then, so is nitrate.  Maybe everything is mad cause it's too clean?

[vlangel]

6 minutes ago, Lula_Mae said:

I did see that!  I'm saving my pennies (ok, more like $10 bills ) for hopeful Black Friday shopping!  Someone on ebay regularly offers it, I just haven't broken down and paid the shipping costs they want lol.  I had talked with a member about buying some but haven't heard from her in a while...

 

I bought an API test kit for the 15 and decided to run some tests on this since everything's been mad.  Ammonia and nitrite are both 0 but then, so is nitrate.  Maybe everything is mad cause it's too clean?

The first week I set my jar up everything looked mad.  Then I fed it heavily and let it sit 2 days before a 100% WC and the coral perked up perceptibly.  I decided to feed heavily twice a week after that.

[Lula_Mae]

4 minutes ago, vlangel said:

The first week I set my jar up everything looked mad.  Then I fed it heavily and let it sit 2 days before a 100% WC and the coral perked up perceptibly.  I decided to feed heavily twice a week after that.

That sounds good, everything was happy-ish till I changed out the sand.  The feather duster is out and the GSP is open but all the zoas hate life right now.  I think the sexy peach galaxies actually melted (I transferred back to the 5.5 but it was too late).

 

I just put in some reef snow and will try to remember to add something before I head off to work tonight, if only to get nitrates up a little bit. Not sure if zoas/palys can eat when closed lol.

[Lula_Mae]

My stuff from Cultivated Reef came! Got it dipped and in the jar. Will try to get pics up tomorrow! 

[Felicia]

Hi!  Just a reminder to please pm me your November full tank shot (FTS) along with the link to your build thread by the end of the day on November 30th.

[Lula_Mae]

I mentioned last week about getting a package from Cultivated Reef but a crazy work schedule over the holiday didn't allow me to take the time to upload pics and post them.  I got several zoa & paly varieties I've wanted for a while.

 

From left: pink zippers, sunny D's, strawberry wines, scrambled eggs (finally!), granny smith apples, blondies (since my other frag has never reopened ), and King Midas.

 

It came with a few hitchhikers!

Stomatella!

 

Feather duster!

 

Some kind of snail--collinistas?  I was afraid to add them lol...

 

The frags I already had in the jar never reopened. I Lugol's dipped them and moved to the 5.5 but am not holding out much hope.

 

I was feeling really discouraged, seeing how nice everyone's jars were looking and mine with angry corals and hair algae growing back was frustrating me.  I couldn't figure out how to make it better!  But then, I pulled out the skeletal botryocladia to clean algae off of it once again, and realized--the bubbles are starting to grow back!  Hooray!  They fell off after shipping and I was ready to give up on it.  The other day I pulled some of the long hair algae off but didn't have time for a full clean up, then last night realized that my astrea had mostly cleaned off the top of the rock!  So I am excited and hope that continues, and will try to get it cleaned off in a couple days when I'm off again.  My xenia and anthelia did kick the bucket, but the GSP is getting happier by the day, and my little feather duster is happy too!

 

Here's the new stuff in the jar:

 

At the front are blondies, scrambled eggs, king midas; to the left of the square plug is strawberry wines; above that is pink zippers, sunny D's, granny smith apples.  I think stuff looks browner than it should under the lighting and am contemplating a different light, maybe a coral compulsion, or maybe putting something else on the 5.5 and taking the coral compulsion bulb from that.

 

And here is the official FJS (full jar shot) for November!

 

Nothing fancy, and I need to start gluing things down, but you can see the astrea hard at work up near the top, a weird orange-red spot from one of the LED diodes, and bubbles from the air stone I put on the other day (which I like a lot!).  I'm a lot happier with it than I was last week and am hopeful things will continue to look up!

[Pjanssen]

looks great Lula. I love your Zoa choices. I'm going to have to get some king Midas myself one day.

[Lula_Mae]

16 minutes ago, Pjanssen said:

looks great Lula. I love your Zoa choices. I'm going to have to get some king Midas myself one day.

Thanks!  I really like them!  I am hoping once I get a slightly better spectrum over the jar that they'll really pop.

[fishfreak0114]

Very nice!  Blondies are one of my favorites. 

[vlangel]

Its moving in the right direction Lula.  Just hang in there!  Remember, nothing good happens fast in this hobby.  And my jar for 1 is deceptive.  Everything looks good but the xenia are definitely declining and all the gorgs except the corky finger are status quo, not dying but not thriving either.  My red acan turned orange and now is turning yellow. Last and least I am pretty sure the kenya tree is deader than a door nail, LOL.  Who kills a kenya tree?

[Lula_Mae]

5 hours ago, fishfreak0114 said:

Very nice!  Blondies are one of my favorites. 

Mine too!  Still sad I killed the others though.

 

5 hours ago, vlangel said:

Its moving in the right direction Lula.  Just hang in there!  Remember, nothing good happens fast in this hobby.  And my jar for 1 is deceptive.  Everything looks good but the xenia are definitely declining and all the gorgs except the corky finger are status quo, not dying but not thriving either.  My red acan turned orange and now is turning yellow. Last and least I am pretty sure the kenya tree is deader than a door nail, LOL.  Who kills a kenya tree?

Me, haha, the one in my 5.5 melted a little while back!  I feel a little better knowing I'm not the only one with struggles.  I hope yours turns around soon!  My last little gorg frag that was in here melted into a skeleton once moved back to the 5.5.  I have not figured out the trick to gorgs in a jar and won't try again so I don't nuke anything lol.  Not being able to run carbon or anything is a special challenge, for sure.

[Lula_Mae]

Legendary Corals order is here!  I worked last night and waited up for it, thinking it would be here by 10-11 or so like my Cultivated Reef order (also shipped via FedEx) and I could dip, place, and go to bed.

Well.  At 4 pm I gave up and went to bed.  It wasn't delivered until after 6!  Good job FedEx...now I missed out on a solid day's sleep thanks to you.  Grumble grumble.

 

Anyway.  I finally got up and got stuff out after 9.  I was very happy to find a stomatella baby!  I also found a tiny orange-red nudibranch that looks like the yellow one I found in my last LC order over the summer, and like the one I just found in the 5.5 a couple weeks ago.  I added him to a little box of water that I am throwing random macros and such in that I don't want to keep elsewhere.  No filtration or circulation, just a box I top off every few days (used to be the 1.6 tank) so hopefully he'll find something to eat in there as the species I thought it was eats algae/macroalgae of some sort.

 

All the frags:

 

Tiny nudi on the top zoa polyp:

 

And on my finger:

 

Filled up the sandbed!

 

On the left you can see I finally got my hands on a green striped mushroom after all these years.  Hooray!

 

FJS:

 

[seabass]

That ought to fill up your tank nicely.

[Lula_Mae]

4 hours ago, seabass said:

That ought to fill up your tank nicely.

I agree! Some may move to the 15 or 5.5, but the 5.5 needs room first! 

[tanacharison]

Sooo many zoas! 

[fishfreak0114]

I can't wait to see them all open!

[gena]

Looks like some fat juicy polyps .  I'm sure they will look fantastic when they open .