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MainelyReefer

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MainelyReefer

The clowns in my 40 laid eggs again, the last time they hatched I fell asleep only to find one fry in the filter floss when I woke up in the middle of the night on the couch.  I took that one baby put him in the pico and he immediately sunk like a stone into the lavender acans mouth, a healthy snack indeed.  Well this time around I fell asleep again, and waited until 5 am to search for survivors of the hatch... and I found two! This means I did twice as good technically!  I have even got a video of them swimming around the bowl, probably a good thing my Air Pump is only 8GPH as they seemingly can find areas they can control their swimming still. Here is a video, one is swimming towards the top and get wrecked and sent back down and the other is hunting the glass.

and here's the video of the clutch, which was considerably larger and maybe even the baby's are slightly bigger all around.  It takes a moment for the camera to focus and the clutch is under the frogspawn again making pictures lackluster

 

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MainelyReefer

Also an update on the Solar equipment.... it doesn't work at all and won't even turn on anymore haha.  Given I bought a dyson for my wife for Christmas and am sure to over spend on my sons first Christmas the funds to buy solar equipment isn't there.  So while it's lame to be reliant on fossil fuels, my tank will continue to be(d batteries in emergencies).  These baby clownfish hopefully live past a day because they are making me enjoy the tank a little more, maybe if corals had eyes.  Hoping my LFS's Black Friday sale will have a suitable live food for two fry in a bowl.  The bowls copepod population is pretty robust but I'm not sure if the population contains a species who has a portion of their lifecycle that is small enough for the fry to eat.  It's fun to dream of them growing, and just getting them in the bowl makes my wife think I'm "good at this" and impressing her is what it's all about right?!

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MainelyReefer

Black Friday LFS success!  I got a cool blue ricordia for 35% offIMG_2379.thumb.JPG.6841d10207bd4bd242bc8a0895138493.JPG

then I got some live food called rotifeast in an attempt to feed the fry in the event existing populations can't sustain them.  I have already seen a feeding response, and I have been initiating 10 minute standbys frequently to relieve the fry from swimming in the flow and it seems during this time they are getting more eating attempts in.IMG_2381.thumb.JPG.b95f261ef372510ffce147ef7904beb1.JPG

and for being the first customer I got a free package of frozen! So I tried a new one to me hoping it will get good response from my mandarin.IMG_2382.thumb.JPG.0d6535019526bbfd777562aa01d76a6a.JPG

this same store had really great looking tank bred yellow clown gobies, for 35% off it was tempting but I knew the fry would become snacks in moments so I held off.  But in the likely event these fry don't work I will consider getting a YCG, I think the tank could handle it

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22 hours ago, GraniteReefer said:

Yea filtering sounds like doctoring to me.  It's likely the very reason why WYSIWYG corals blow most of the time compared to the actual colors under normal spectrums Correction=Enhancemant.  

Yellow/orange filters just cancel out the extreme blue hue cameras pick up with bulbs like the ABI Tuna Blue. Since cameras have a hard time depicting what our eyes see when LEDs are used, this is a useful tool to show what a tank actually looks like instead of a mass of indistinguishable blue hues. No "enhancement" about it. Same with adjusting white balance to make things look like they do to the naked eye. It's hardly the same as a full out Photoshop job. FWIW, my WYSIWYG pieces from Legendary Corals actually did look like the photos even under my much whiter lighting. I was very impressed.

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MainelyReefer

Update on clownfish fry, neither made it through the first 24hours, I blame the corals as they were definitely eating and getting more adventurous within the jar.  There will be many more chances as my clown is prego again!  In an effort to increase the amount of light the corals are receiving and alleviate shadows I have created a reflector out of aluminum flashing and some Velcro.  It makes it so much brighter on the edges and side polyps on corals!  This weekend I may try getting more precise with its build and get it as close to the light as possible to reduce spillIMG_2403.thumb.JPG.5e2dd9b695e0a310ed7c1c59a1c89183.JPGIMG_2404.thumb.JPG.356e76a1659fb4b0bb7d9fc358459a19.JPG

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MainelyReefer

100% they needed the light intensified.  Given the nature of my light (cfl) it diffuses the light over a broad area, unlike the relatively directed path of light from an LED.  This leaves me with only a percentage of the produced light which is only 20w max, factor in the refraction from the bowl and lid and I wasn't getting even half the light( if only I had that seneye Reef monitor to get solid numbers!) the shadowing before the reflector was a huge problem and that red/green blasto wellsi wasn't even getting light on the larger polyp that faced outwards and not upwards, now it is fully illuminated.  And the zoas up until yesterday were spotty at best in their opening, now every polyp is open, and way open not just half exposed.  I honestly can't wait to hook up my Kessil a80 after the competition as it will look sleeker and offer way more lighting options, but being creative in working with what I have until then is all I can do.  This reflector will Atleast make it so the corals are healthy and happy until the upgrade can happen in 5 months

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ChristopherDido

Looking good! Was just scrolling through the FTS thread, seeing who is where. Mine looks sparse compared to yours I have a total of 5 corals at this moment... But I'm only adding very intentionally.

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MainelyReefer

Just picked up my 12$ ricordia I got on Black Friday from Frag Freaks, a local establishment with an online store only but local pickup was offer by appointment.  It's smaller than I imagined but is definitely the exact one shown so that's cool

vendors picture

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In Bowl picture(just added)IMG_2444.thumb.JPG.7d2663eb397418b60127376ac35a6947.JPG

hoping it moves off that little chunk of live rock onto the main rock structure and towards the blue one a bit.  The spectrum from this CFL really cramps my style too, it makes everything not as epic as it would be under heavy blues.

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MainelyReefer

Tank wakes up at 7am and this is what it looks likeIMG_2460.thumb.JPG.c6c40663ae3b22e0937a42e72c24305d.JPG

The tank is coming along nicely, I'm actually considering testing to see if it has a noticeable calcium/alk consumption and am considering dosing if needed.  I only do one water change a week now and feed right after to reintroduce nutrients and the colors are definitely improving,  that one trumpet that's red and green went really dull for a while and since the reflector/increase feedings/decreased WC's it has gained some color back!  The gorilla nipple is loose this morning so may need to be moved but the 2 rastas to the left and the utter on the right are fully attached, the utter even has visible new growth that's been slowly happening the past 2 weeks.  This blasto really looks way better than when I got it! It has sprouted a few little buds around the heads, maybe with target feeding I can get them to become a head.IMG_2450.thumb.JPG.c9311cee6cb105b91a3e9c93c2488252.JPG

the colonista snails I got purposely for free from a LFS have bred and there are quite a few, nothing plague proportions yet bet pretty awesome as I only got 2 to begin with.  They look cool because they are so tiny it makes the tank look big.  Also as you can tell it's only the center island rock now as all others were removed, this seems to be helping with flow and will look better in the long run I think and solve the issues with corals covering the glass, which would be undesirable to me.

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MainelyReefer

100% water change after two feedings yesterday and one this morning, after the WC I allowed it to settle 6 hours and tested calcium and alk to get a baseline for the week, I will try to test daily for the next week and post the results each day.

Todays results 

IMG_2485.thumb.JPG.cdba1a0f0d59a7353599ed0ea44dd81f.JPG

Alk 10.3 Calcium 411

red sea Coral pro mixed to 1.026ish( I think its borderline 1.025 as I seldom wash the optics of the refractometer with RODI like I should so it skews higher between calibrations but never too far, hence the laziness)

While the 100% water change is the way to go for cleaning, doing them really makes the tank not as vibrant that day and that is why I'm checking the alk/calcium levels as it may be a shock each week and dosing could lessen that shock.  And I know it's not the nutrients that are being released as the corals all put out their feeders and puff up huge when I baste the rocks and sand bed before the WC.  I will not be doing any dosing this week only topping up with RODI.

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MainelyReefer

Today's resultsIMG_2505.thumb.JPG.92d3e541b0d11a9cbffe54f469c17880.JPG

Alk 10.1 Calcium 418

about to feed the tank as the acans still look pissed likely because the water is 100% clean. I attribute the higher calcium today to user error in that when I deposited the sample 4 drops came out today when yesterday 3 drops did.  I think today's numbers might be the correct ones though as it would be closer to what the ICP analysis was of this batch. I will just try to make sure the sample is 4 drops for continuity here on out.  I may skip a few days as I only have 6 reagent b for the calcium test and I think I smudged a few tests before so have less reagent a, probably because this tests biggest weakness is its small sample size of your SW demanding supreme accuracy

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MainelyReefer

Definite consumption happening, we will see where it ends up at by  SundayIMG_2534.thumb.JPG.dc601354a62672a0a2d5c8c7383aff87.JPG

also I missed my chance at more clownfish fry last night, it must have happened after 12am as I checked then and they hadn't hatched yet, there is maybe 20 more late hatchers tonight... maybe I'll be lucky and get one.  There is also some hydroids I've been watching in the pico that have been spreading, they have so far proven to be harmless to the inhabitants and have a cool lifecycle phase where they look like jellyfish babies(planula). They are definitely a KPAQUATICS Hitchhiker as the tank with the majority of that live rock has a few specimens including a cool neon green one, I think because that tank has filtration the planula don't ever settle successfully and there is less detritus in the water column for the hydroids to eat, essentially the bowl is a perfect storm for them so we will see what happens as they've never been an issue before IME.  They are impossible to photograph sorry. My Nikon really needs a macro lens!

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MainelyReefer

One week numbersIMG_2613.thumb.JPG.a87ef4b002980c41326182ba6876bba2.JPG so very little if any consumption since Thursday's test.  Ordering more reagents next week and then will commensurate dosing amounts once I can get some more numbers.  Also trying to dial in my Jebao DP4 on my 40 so I'm flying through the reagents.  

What I thought was baby colonista snails have grown larger and appear to actually be baby stomatella snails! I never knew they would reproduce in tank!

Puffy TrumpetsIMG_2612.thumb.JPG.3a128a165a747bb6eebe6f71be0f81bc.JPG the blue ones collide with the lift tube now when fully inflated, the goofy red/green one is slowly coloring back up after going super pale I think from lack of light, but who knows as everyone else was ok.  Really considering trying to cram a few more trumpet heads on the opposing side of the rockwork as trumpets look so cool under all light.  Still only growing film algae! No nasties yet which is definitely the longest I've ever gone without some kind of nuisance infestation(knocking on wood).  And both the Rasta Zoas are spreading their foot-like mat on both sides so expecting a baby in the following weeks.  Off to go do a WC

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MainelyReefer

Making the pico a temporary QT for a new female green mandarin dragonet my wife bought me for Christmas that I couldn't not save from my LFS!  Hopes are to pair with my existing 2 year old male in my 40, I have started a thread that will show her journey to becoming American!(fat and made of processed food)IMG_2628.thumb.JPG.3df28f70692ba5fa0504ad39c0d8e4ad.JPGsafer than a net...organic baby food jars!!!IMG_2629.thumb.JPG.2cad03440de922aad8990d1abafd3b21.JPGstomatella photo bomb.  

I cant stress enough how temporary this house will be for her, just so a novice doesnt think this is acceptable. Thanks.

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