Live Free or Reef

[MainelyReefer]

Huge tank feeding today of a lot of frozen, all to try and expose the mandarin to a variety of foods.  I think the copious supply of pods that are offered temporarily are making her sour towards frozen, when in the LFS she had nothing else.  She is picking the rockwork constantly and I still see plenty of amphipods of which she gobbles down.  I think she is about the same age as mine as her mouth is similarly sized and that was one hurdle that was difficult in the beginning on the first Mandy was his small mouth couldn't eat but the tiniest pods.  Just performed a WC and will likely again tomorrow, then it's on to the next tank on Thursday afternoon for her as I am doing the ttm but used the pico as tank 1 and she won't return.  I know mandarins are somewhat "immune" to parasites from their slimecoat but I question her ability to make a proper slime coat as at night my other mandarin is pale white in the stuff and she hardly produced any last night, so I'll assume she could be a pathogen carrier and do this as a preventative as it should be easier on her than meds that might not be needed. Maybe I'll use some paraguard on tank 2 and 4 on the last days

Hunting the GardenSO SKINNY

[MainelyReefer]

Busy weekend, saw Star Wars Friday! It was everything I had dreamed of.  Then spent the remainder of the weekend slacking off moving 2 cords of wood as it's my only heat source in my house(so NH) and teaching my 10 month old son how to snowboard! (Super proud he can stand on his own for 5 feet then face plant)Essentially I forgot to maintain anything aquarium related whatsoever except for feedings! I didn't perform my WC on the pico and lazily left the female mandarin in the bowl!  Pod population still kicking but it seems they only come out at night now, almost as if they can smell a fish is with them.  The glass has grown some film algae and a little brown color is happening on the sand, but the corals are all HUGE compared to normal, I'm still thinking it may be running to low nutrient and may begin every other week water changes, as once the fish is gone the bioload will be a fraction of what it was this week so two weeks on a decreased bioload would make sense to me.  Unlike everyone else I still hate doing WC's even though it's only 1.75 gallons.  One thing I did do fish related was go to my LFS who had a sale where anything you stuffed in a stocking was 25% off.  

Pistol shrimp pellets, some crazy make your own frozen food set, and brine eggs for the mandarins once I build the Paul b feeder. Will try getting pics of fat plump corals today before I do a Tuesday WC after work.  Also having the mandarin in the bowl has added some life to it, it really makes me consider the possibility of adding a pair of tank raised yellow clown gobies, a LFS has a few in right now that are super small....

[Lula_Mae]

17 hours ago, GraniteReefer said:

Busy weekend, saw Star Wars Friday! It was everything I had dreamed of.  Then spent the remainder of the weekend slacking off moving 2 cords of wood as it's my only heat source in my house(so NH) and teaching my 10 month old son how to snowboard! (Super proud he can stand on his own for 5 feet then face plant)Essentially I forgot to maintain anything aquarium related whatsoever except for feedings! I didn't perform my WC on the pico and lazily left the female mandarin in the bowl!  Pod population still kicking but it seems they only come out at night now, almost as if they can smell a fish is with them.  The glass has grown some film algae and a little brown color is happening on the sand, but the corals are all HUGE compared to normal, I'm still thinking it may be running to low nutrient and may begin every other week water changes, as once the fish is gone the bioload will be a fraction of what it was this week so two weeks on a decreased bioload would make sense to me.  Unlike everyone else I still hate doing WC's even though it's only 1.75 gallons.  One thing I did do fish related was go to my LFS who had a sale where anything you stuffed in a stocking was 25% off.  

Pistol shrimp pellets, some crazy make your own frozen food set, and brine eggs for the mandarins once I build the Paul b feeder. Will try getting pics of fat plump corals today before I do a Tuesday WC after work.  Also having the mandarin in the bowl has added some life to it, it really makes me consider the possibility of adding a pair of tank raised yellow clown gobies, a LFS has a few in right now that are super small....

I'd probably suggest just one YCG with the volume of the bowl.  A pair might work in a bigger tank, like 5 gallons or so, but I don't recommend two fish in anything under about 5 gallons (and then only tiny ones of course).

[MainelyReefer]

My buddy came over with his orphek actinic flashlight! What a difference in colors! I am pining for one of these now! And best of all my wife’s iPhone 8 does decent at catching the fluorescence of the corals without a filter(still need one).  I took some pictures with the actinic and then without, I had to take the pictures in zones as the flashlight could only illuminate small areas at a time.  

red and green film algae on the lid

this is still the only algae types that grow in the tank, it’s incredible my tanks always have pest algae problems but this pico is the exception

Rainbow acan under CFL

Rainbow acan under CFL+actinic 

clearly I need one of these flashlights and a filter to make them look even better, but it also makes me feel better that the CFL is keeping them healthy enough to maintain the colors. I honestly like the way it looks under the CFL only now too. I have a few more photos to post but can only do 10mb at a time

Shaded acan under CFL

Shaded acan under CFL+actinic 

more to come

[MainelyReefer]

CFL

CFL+actinic 

those rasta zoas(slightly closed from the nearby limpet on clean up duty) pop up out of nowhere when illuminated with actinic! But I only added one polyp so CFL only has grown a new polyp which is acceptable growth, the skirts on the eagle eyes are awesome too! 

CFL 

CFL+actinic 

really glad the green mouth on the bicolor trumpet is still super bright under the proper light. I thought it was losing color but it's just not being illuminated by flattering spectrum.

Overall seeing the corals still have their colors has made me more comfortable with running the CFL, before I was worried I would put on my kessil A80 in a few months and they would no longer be as pretty but it's obvious they will be healthy and beautiful with the CFL by then anyways.

[MainelyReefer]

Ric that was worrying me by looking bleached but under actinic looks really close to the WYSIWYG photo from the retailer, only ever had 1 ric before these and it slowly lost color and shrunk to nothing so I was hesitant to try but the blue has worked great(nice LFS who knows the divers who collect and a price  to match) the tricolor  one was sketchy upon purchase (cheap) from the local online site so I have less confidence but perhaps it’s ok after all, it eats like a champ and is staying nice and held on.

CFL

CFL+Actinic 

I will post the December FTS later today, Not that it will be reposted to a FTS thread with any speed so it just feels like a waste of time to PM it and all, plus lazy people before didn’t do it already and everyone’s so soft nowadays it’s ok because we would rather see people succeed then hold them to a rule.  I’m guessing had the November FTS’s been posted December 1st a lot of people would be booted. So to sum it up I hate the rule and having to adhere to it, but hate it even more that other people haven’t and get away with it.  Sack up people! Early morning rant over.

[MainelyReefer]

Topdown 

December FTS

Doing a WC 2 hours before getting a last minute monthly FTS  doesn't result in the best and happiest corals.  Leaving the ring of green algae around the brim so the stomatella have some grazing ground(you can spot a white one making laps on the top left).  If I take the reflector off it makes many of the corals retract like the merlettis are in this photo, it helps with coral growth but makes taking pics a pain in the butt

Brittle Star addition x2

These stars have recently taken off in numbers in my 40(out competing bristle worms I think) so I took two for the bowl. Their names are Dr. Leo Marvin and Bob Wiley. Don't hassle me I'm local.

[MainelyReefer]

Heres why photo editing is lame like some other people use. Both only lit with CFL

Unedited

Who knows what my wife did on her iPhone edited

It's a cheese ball Willy wonka land in there, and worst of all some people are better at it with gadgets and blue spectrums, and some like me left with a spouse and a mobile phone and a CFL... Commies

[Felicia]

Just a friendly reminder that if you haven't already, please pm me your December FTS and a link to your build thread by January 5, 2018.

[MainelyReefer]

1/2 teaspoon Reefroids spot fed via pipette, 100% WC performed 2-3 hours later

 

whenever I feed or perform maintanance I plan to do a simple update like above for my own purposes so I know the frequency.

[Lula_Mae]

On 12/31/2017 at 6:27 AM, GraniteReefer said:

Ric that was worrying me by looking bleached but under actinic looks really close to the WYSIWYG photo from the retailer, only ever had 1 ric before these and it slowly lost color and shrunk to nothing so I was hesitant to try but the blue has worked great(nice LFS who knows the divers who collect and a price  to match) the tricolor  one was sketchy upon purchase (cheap) from the local online site so I have less confidence but perhaps it’s ok after all, it eats like a champ and is staying nice and held on.

CFL

CFL+Actinic 

I will post the December FTS later today, Not that it will be reposted to a FTS thread with any speed so it just feels like a waste of time to PM it and all, plus lazy people before didn’t do it already and everyone’s so soft nowadays it’s ok because we would rather see people succeed then hold them to a rule.  I’m guessing had the November FTS’s been posted December 1st a lot of people would be booted. So to sum it up I hate the rule and having to adhere to it, but hate it even more that other people haven’t and get away with it.  Sack up people! Early morning rant over.

There was general agreement to allow one "freebie" for missing the FTS deadline and after that start booting people.  Plus the people running the contest have, you know, jobs and lives and things and it's also been the holidays, and something like this is a ton of work, so expecting things to be done immediately is pretty ridiculous.  Pretty sure every contest ever has a FTS/month rule and every contest ever also has people who basically drop out along the way (and I expect we'll see people getting booted/dropping out starting this month anyway).  If you hate following the rules of the contest so much, why don't you drop out and then you can use your Kessil on your tank and stop griping about everything related to the contest (which you've done basically since the contest was announced).  Nobody's making you participate.  You've got a beautiful little tank here and I like reading about it, but your constant complaining about the rules of the contest kinda sours things for me.

[MainelyReefer]

1 hour ago, Lula_Mae said:

There was general agreement to allow one "freebie" for missing the FTS deadline and after that start booting people.  Plus the people running the contest have, you know, jobs and lives and things and it's also been the holidays, and something like this is a ton of work, so expecting things to be done immediately is pretty ridiculous.  Pretty sure every contest ever has a FTS/month rule and every contest ever also has people who basically drop out along the way (and I expect we'll see people getting booted/dropping out starting this month anyway).  If you hate following the rules of the contest so much, why don't you drop out and then you can use your Kessil on your tank and stop griping about everything related to the contest (which you've done basically since the contest was announced).  Nobody's making you participate.  You've got a beautiful little tank here and I like reading about it, but your constant complaining about the rules of the contest kinda sours things for me.

If it sours you don't read my thread, I don't go to your thread and tell you to kill another squat lobster... also thought this may help you. 

 

[Lula_Mae]

1 minute ago, GraniteReefer said:

If it sours you don't read my thread, I don't go to your thread and tell you to kill another squat lobster

Right, because I did that on purpose.  You'll note I stopped buying them since I couldn't seem to keep them alive.

[MainelyReefer]

I put in good effort to adhere to the rules, even if I may dislike them.  Then to have others given a free pass feels shitty because some competitors(like me) spend time even though we also have jobs, a life, holidays(lame excuses). If someone doesn't follow the rules then THEY should drop out or be booted, not me for caring about playing the game within the rules.  If someone doesn't send the FTS by deadline they don't deserve a 400$ prize or great light or a cool seahorse tank, am I that crazy for thinking that?  Being someone that truly dislikes many of the rules of the competition, it makes it even more prevalent for me to get upset when others don't adhere and it's viewed as no biggie.  Did I want to take time 12/31/17 to post that FTS and send it to Felicia? No, but my desire to win a prize drove me to do so, if others don't have that drive why is it ok? What entitles them to not follow the annoying rules and still maintain the same chance at winning as those that do?  

[Lula_Mae]

5 minutes ago, GraniteReefer said:

I put in good effort to adhere to the rules, even if I may dislike them.  Then to have others given a free pass feels shitty because some competitors(like me) spend time even though we also have jobs, a life, holidays(lame excuses). If someone doesn't follow the rules then THEY should drop out or be booted, not me for caring about playing the game within the rules.  If someone doesn't send the FTS by deadline they don't deserve a 400$ prize or great light or a cool seahorse tank, am I that crazy for thinking that?  Being someone that truly dislikes many of the rules of the competition, it makes it even more prevalent for me to get upset when others don't adhere and it's viewed as no biggie.  Did I want to take time 12/31/17 to post that FTS and send it to Felicia? No, but my desire to win a prize drove me to do so, if others don't have that drive why is it ok? What entitles them to not follow the annoying rules and still maintain the same chance at winning as those that do?  

When I said jobs/life/holiday, I was referring specifically to the moderators of the contest, since it sounded like one of your complaints was the speed with which pictures got added to the FTS thread.  I wasn't referring to the participants when I said that.  On the contest thread, the general agreement was to allow a single free pass for people since life happens.  I didn't see anyone advocating to give pass after pass after pass.  I felt it was made abundantly clear that failing to keep up with the rules, including the monthly FTS rule, would mean disqualification from the contest.  I certainly agree and would share your frustration if someone who wasn't actively participating (by sending in the required monthly FTS and updating) were to win a prize, but I do not see that happening.  I do not see them "maintain[ing] the same chance at winning" by any stretch of the imagination.  If they did, the other active participants would likely be just as upset as you are at the hypothetical possibility of it.

 

I guess the tl;dr is that I think you're making a mountain out of a molehill.  We're only onto the second set of monthly FTS's so I think here is where we'll start to see participation drop off sharply.

[MainelyReefer]

I'm not actually that interested In Discussing this with you @Lula_Mae, it doesn't make for the best page of reading.  Now go buy some super glue and refrain from commenting again

[Lula_Mae]

8 minutes ago, GraniteReefer said:

I'm not actually that interested In Discussing this with you @Lula_Mae, it doesn't make for the best page of reading.  Now go buy some super glue and refrain from commenting again

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MainelyReefer]

Today is a "blizzard" where I am so I have the day off because my work truck has junky tires.  Perfect excuse to wake up early and feed the tank!  I started off with some freezer burnt nutramar ova(corals don't mind but Poe my mandarin does) then after two 10 minute standbys their feeders all came back out so I added a TBS of reefroids and fed that too, what I didn't use I then fed to my 40(which I neglect now because the pico is easier to feed Coral wise). I finally have a pest algae!!! Bubble algae came in on that first acan frag my buddy gave me(he's plagued by the stuff). So I finally get to whip out the hydrogen peroxide during today's WC.  Coralline is growing, it looks like the purple is the only one spreading to the glass, but there is also red and pink on the rocks!  Never had incredible coralline growth in any other tank so we will see if this pico differs. Lots of tiny shrimp that I haven't identied have been reproducing and jet around the tank(Atleast a hundred at night) and the stomatella have had multiple generations now I counted about 12+ and I believe I added 4 but removed one a few weeks in.  The brittle stars are far superior to the bristle worms, both of which will rob a coral of food, but the brittle stars you can easily spot feed and distract.  Spirorbid worms are booming on the rocks and lots on the glass that get taken out by the bettamag. They look natural to me so I like their inclusion and without filtration their numbers are only set to increase so I better get used to it.  The damn vermetid snails that are growing amongst my acans will have to be addressed as they are a nuisance.  Hydroids have seemingly self exhausted and disappeared.

[MainelyReefer]

Didn't perform the WC and will wait to do so until Saturday, it didn't matter anyway as the corals are just pooping now, the excess nutrients have been helping coloration anyway I think.  Kind of gross but the brittle stars are eating the coral poop right up, its cool how they transfer the "food" up their arms with the little feelers to their body.  Not to afraid of the bubble algae spreading as it has likely been there since the beginning unnoticed so what's 2 days more, and in the event of a plague, fluconazole/vibrant would kill it quickly but I would like to avoid that as other beneficial algae get wiped out to IMO.  The blizzard today didn't disappoint and I even got to drive my Taco in it to go get a pizza!

[fishfreak0114]

43 minutes ago, GraniteReefer said:

 The blizzard today didn't disappoint and I even got to drive my Taco in it to go get a pizza!

?????????????????

[MainelyReefer]

Not sure if that taco would have made it!  I love my Tacoma though

The Taco

[vlangel]

I wondered what kind of taco you drove too!  Thanks for the clarification.

[MainelyReefer]

My best friend from high school who also is a reefer came over today and we loaded up both of our babies into his Subaru and gave our wive's a much needed reprieve.  Of course we headed out to a LFS, this time to Aquatic Creations in Amherst, NH as he had never been.  If your local to the area check it out, Myk is a great guy to deal with and they carry some nice corals for a small store.  He's even going to order me a captive bred female mandarin from biota to pair with Poe after my failed attempt last month(depressing).  The blue ricordia I already have is from there and it is a picture of health(other LFS ricordea not so much IME).  I've been eyeing the orange ricordia I got today for the past few trips and finally pulled the trigger as I haven't seen ones of this quality elsewhere locally.  Myk said they were diver collected from Jakarta, its nice when the salesman proudly states the source of each coral you are interested in.  He even fragged it right off the live rock as I wanted it on a small piece(he offered the whole rock with some freebie zoas included but I limit my corals to exactly what I want)

Side View from under reflector

Top Down of Rics

I also glued the tricolor on onto the rock too so when I baste the sand it doesn't move, the blue seems to have attached itself for me.. what a model citizen.  Also the WC will happen tomorrow as I'm procrastinating and cleaned and fragged a ton of corals in my 40!  I made 10 decent frags of neon green trumpet and still have over half the colony! All grown from a single frag in less than two years!  

[MainelyReefer]

4 gallon WC performed, it was actually quite a nightmare of a WC as first I accidentally sucked the blue ricordea up!  I was using 3/8" tubing to try and get very detailed with the detritus cleanup so I more or less got momentarily distracted and ripped it right off the rocks, no obvious damage was done but of course it just wouldn't look quite the same so I actually moved it to the opposite side of the new ric(and now there is visible glue ugh).  In the process I then knocked off an acan(which is now pretty close to the blue trumpets... maybe too close).  And I also reintroduced a small amount of GSP to the back glass in hopes it will behave and just grow there(will regret that in a year but in the interim it will look good as its becoming clear this tank will never leave its spot and always be viewed from the one angle.). Thing is both GSP and Glass don't work with super glue that well so it was being finicky.  Rather than keep fighting the issues I got things back to OKish and will battle it another day.  Also removed that bubble algae but one exploded, no water was in tank but I'm sure I'll have fun down the road, I did H2O2 the living crap out of the spot it was on and amphipods came out of the woodwork! Whoops.  Just one of those times I shouldn't have put my hands in the tank.  My single island is too large with corals attached to remove so I will just have to deal.  I removed a few bristle worms too as nutrient export.

Blue Rics new spot

placement wasn't well planned for the blue ric and it was shriveled when I glued it, but it's safe for now and that's what counts.  Maybe it will move itself over the glue if I'm lucky.

[MainelyReefer]

Happy 3 month birthday to the pico!!  

3 month Top Down

its a bit dark as I have to use my hand to block the light's reflection, making the zoas near impossible to see.  The explosion of a bubble algae during removal yesterday has me on edge so I prophylactically dosed some vibrant this evening, hoping it won't resurface everywhere.  Only initial reactions to the vibrant was one acan extending its feeders, the tricolor ric pooping and shrinking and the neon green trumpet expelling its white innards he continued to shrink and remains that way now as I cook dinner,  not concerned in the least though as everything else is stoked and it would be an easy 100% WC away from normalcy if it continues.  The ring of green film algae I leave near the water surface has quite a few grazers tonight! Maybe they like it because I loosened it up with the bettamag last night.

Limpet and Black Stomatella