Lizzyann's IM 20 Peninsula

[lizzyann]

Forgot to post this little NPS feeding video with the post yesterday!

 

 

[debbeach13]

Hungry little buggers. Great response.

[SaltyTanks]

On 8/1/2020 at 1:21 PM, lizzyann said:

Ready for a photo dump? I've managed to keep the glass fairly clean for a couple days in a row and that plus all of the beautiful photography I've seen around here has encouraged me to play with the camera and macro lens some more! Still couldn't convince myself to pull the tripod out of the bottom of the closet, but hey this is progress!

 

I didn't get a shot from the end of the peninsula in that last update, so here's her full frontal, baby! 

 

 

Feeding time!

 

Yasha has gone back to never being visible except when feeding and even then is super shy with any movement around the tank so I had to get all set up and trick her into this one!

 

I couldn't get a good pic, but Lily got in a tussle with somebody (or something) again and has those weird white spot/wounds. I've decided to just ignore it, because she seems to heal every time. I'm guessing she just sometimes falls asleep near something that is a slight irritant/aggressor?

 

The orange ricordea bubbles continue to get weirder. I feel like that one bubble with the yellow dimples looks like some character...

 

Ooo maybe I was thinking about Admiral Ackbar 😂 What do you think?

 

ANYWAY... Next thing I need to trim down will be the mint pavona. I'm hesitant because I'm so proud of how big and beautiful it is, but it's just taking up too much space. I'd much rather have it be a bit more sparse there between the two islands. I'm also considering plopping a clam right in the middle of the pavona rock? Would that work??

 

Also probably going to need to frag up the duncan soon 😢

 

 

Sps are coasting along for now

 

 

 

This is the mad raver milli 🙄 Looks nothing like it but it doesn't get much light. I'm hoping one day the tippy top tips might get enough light to look neat.

 

Kitty always getting in the way

 

Part of why there's always so much hair in my tank 🤦‍♀️ Usually it's long white hairs from my Great Pyrenees mix though. Not sure... this one might be human 😬

 

 Cornbred Rainbow Crush chalice is growing but still showing no signs of rainbow colors 🤷‍♀️ Apparently the original owner has a couple frags from this experiment that are starting to get streaks, but most are staying green and purple.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And I think that's it for the dump! Hope yall are having a good weekend!

 

 

 

Your coral combos, colors,  composition...everything is so amazing. And Admiral Ackbar is so perfect. 

[caas1496]

On 9/16/2020 at 10:59 AM, lizzyann said:

Forgot to post this little NPS feeding video with the post yesterday!

 

 

This is making me really want to get some NPS! Amazing video! Do your NPS stay open during the day?

[lizzyann]

17 hours ago, caas1496 said:

This is making me really want to get some NPS! Amazing video! Do your NPS stay open during the day?

I love them so much and highly recommend them as long as you're willing to spot feed them! The dendros stay open during the day, or open and close at random throughout the day, but the sun corals are closed until evening. Sometimes the tentacles will poke out when I'm feeding flakes or stirring up the sand (basically when they "smell" something yummy) though.

[lizzyann]

19 hours ago, SaltyTanks said:

And Admiral Ackbar is so perfect. 

lol thank you so glad someone appreciated that! 😂

[Tigahboy]

Beautiful photos! I thought the kitty was inside the tank for a sec there. 😸

[lizzyann]

Quick update because my LFS biota court jester goby special order came through over the weekend and I just picked it up today. As long as it's not just acclimation stress, I think I might actually, finally, have a not-so-shy, open-water-swimming fish in my tank! That doesn't mind being photographed! I love it!

 

 

 

 

 

It seems like it's doing well, but after being in for 3 hours, all while I've been sitting by the tank, it got a little booboo on its right gill! Maybe just adjusting to the neighbors and someone took a swipe (or bite!) at it? Or got spooked by something and scraped up when darting and not knowing its surroundings at some point? 😓😥😩

 

 

Hopefully it will heal up without any issue! 🤞

 

 

I also got a new emerald crab, two blue leg hermits, and a sea hare. Trying to put a dent in this algae. I've tried sea hares twice before to possible eat the tiny hydroids but they were DOA or almost DOA so I was hoping getting them from a LFS would have better luck. We'll see how it goes, definitely not planning on this being a permanent home though. TBH sea hares just make me uncomfortable! They are kinda cute with their silly fat bodies and funny little ears and things, but also just super weird and freaky 👀. And I think the negative experiences before make them seem really delicate. Just look at it!

 

 

It's just letting that poop leak out of one of its random holes! Why do they have all those random holes??

 

You can see its weird eye here:

 

I'm not even sure if its a wedge or dolabella sea hare that might eat the hydroids. It had a darker coloration than a lot of the ones I've seen. We'll see how it goes.

 

That's all the update I've got time for but I did get this cute pic of Yasha and Maraschino hanging out together the other day:

 

Oh and while taking those photos I noticed Maraschino is missing some legs! Hopefully they'll grow back after the next molt!

 

I've just got a rag tag bunch of spooky zombies and creeps and gouls around here 👻

[billygoat]

Beautiful rainford's goby! I hope it adjusts quickly and comes out to participate in many of your amazing photos. 😁

 

1 hour ago, lizzyann said:

TBH sea hares just make me uncomfortable! They are kinda cute with their silly fat bodies and funny little ears and things, but also just super weird and freaky 👀. And I think the negative experiences before make them seem really delicate. Just look at it!

Sea hares are pretty weird, yeah... but you should see the coldwater species! I've seen sea hares more than a foot long off the coast of California! 😂 Anyway though, I hope the sea hare experience goes well for you this time. One thing you can be sure of is that it will want to eat a lot more algae than you have in your tank, though... is your LFS okay with you returning it when the job is done? I've also heard of people feeding them algae wafers, but not all individuals will accept prepared foods.

 

[lizzyann]

2 hours ago, billygoat said:

is your LFS okay with you returning it when the job is done?

Yea I was planning on only having it in here for a short while. Either going to pass it on to someone else or return to the lfs once I determine if it's eating any of the hydroids or not and/or once it runs out of algae.

[lizzyann]

Quick update with some pictures!

 

Court Jester Goby is doing great!

 

Sea hare died after a few days 🤦‍♀️, though I can't imagine running out of algae was an issue yet. Never putting one in my tank again. 

 

Some yucky filmy stuff has been forming on the sand... can't decide if it's cyano or dinos. My tank's history would suggest dinos, but the color and the fact that it's not getting stringy on the gorgonian makes me lean towards cyano.

 

Still going skimmerless after breaking mine, which might cause things to change a little, but nitrate and phosphate levels are the same as they always are (nitrate super low, phosphate a little bit high).

 

Still working on my video skills. I wanted something that captured the whole tank at an angle, but with the macro lens focus wasn't my friend:

 

 

 

Everything really is pretty normal otherwise.

 

 

 

I worked on trimming stuff up and doing some more hardcore maintenance on the last water change. Attempted supergluing shut these little worms living in my spath acro. We'll see how it works.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also moved some zoas to the clam tray. New plan - instead of trying to break up the tray to make it look more natural, cover it with corals! Next step is building the tiny/tall island that this will sit atop and gluing the pavona all over it.

 

 

 

Lily's hanging too! Just out of focus. I think she likes the jester a little better than Randall. My favorite thing about the jester goby is his funny blob nose!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lobo fluff!

 

 

 

I don't show off this pagoda cup much because it's hard to get a good angle, but got this with the camera porthole.

 

 

 

Annnd gotta keep it humble:

[Thetravelguy]

I’ve read this whole thread and I’m so impressed how you started totally green and you ended up here!!! 

[lizzyann]

16 hours ago, Thetravelguy said:

I’ve read this whole thread and I’m so impressed how you started totally green and you ended up here!!! 

Thank you so much! I think I owe it mostly to obsessive internet research. And time. And money. 😂😭

 

Someone in my local reefing group recently said, "well, I don't think you can call yourself a newb anymore" and I thought that was the biggest compliment. 🤩 Is this what nirvana feels like?!?

[SaltyTanks]

Love the videos. And the pink diamonds filling in around the clam is going to look so good! 

[lizzyann]

My aquarium was selected to be in the most recent Reef Hobbyist Magazine! A lot of the write up was taken from my TOTM write up here, so not a lot of new info for those of you that read that, but I'm so proud to have been featured! I'm still waiting on the hard copies but have a look at the digital version for now:

 

https://issuu.com/reefhobbyistmagazine/docs/__369c005b93ed98/22

 

 

I made some changes in the tank recently so I'll try to find time to share those soon! 

[pokerdobe]

40 minutes ago, lizzyann said:

My aquarium was selected to be in the most recent Reef Hobbyist Magazine! A lot of the write up was taken from my TOTM write up here, so not a lot of new info for those of you that read that, but I'm so proud to have been featured! I'm still waiting on the hard copies but have a look at the digital version for now:

 

https://issuu.com/reefhobbyistmagazine/docs/__369c005b93ed98/22

 

 

I made some changes in the tank recently so I'll try to find time to share those soon! 

Congrats!

[Cannedfish]

Congrats!!!

[SaltyTanks]

Fantastic, congrats @lizzyann!  They nailed the title - you're truly an amazing artist.  That back of the tank pic is amazing.  And I bet your pics will hold up great in print compared to the featured tanks with heavy blues.  Can't wait to pick up a hard copy at my LFS.

[lilmatty5dimes]

Tank looks amazing. I had a friend looking to sell his peninsula tank. After looking at yours and seeing it I’m pretty sold on getting and hoping it’ll look half as nice. 

[lizzyann]

Oh look, it's 2021!

 

Life has gotten in the way of any "extra" tank duties the past few months, and unfortunately updating the internet on my tank's progress is definitely part of that. Also guilty of longer times between water changes, less spot feeding, and lapses in testing, but overall things have been moving right along without much issue. Perhaps that's part of why I haven't updated enough, not much eventful has been happening! But I think it's more that I haven't had as much time to pay attention to all the little things that I would normally be excited to update on or certainly at least not had time to write about them or take nice photos.

 

That said, first, a list of (slightly) noteworthy events: I sold my big acan colony at the front of the tank, heavily fragged the pink birdsnest, tried and failed to send some of my bubbly orange ricordea to @mitten_reef (not sure why I thought I could get away with 2 day shipping 🤦‍♀️) and ended up eventually melting all but one of mine BUT no worries it's making a comeback, traded my 2-color "rainbow" chalice in for a frag that actually had more colors, trimmed the digi and the monticaps, witnessed a spawn event with my only two rock flower anemones, glued my skimmer back together, sold both the goniopora and replaced with a yellow octospawn, and finally, for the first time, hung up my apex and organized my cords (but I'm not showing you what it looks like because it honestly still looks like a before picture 😂 ...I'm not the most organized).

 

Second, here are all the photos I have managed to snap in the last 3-4 months!  

 

FTSs (before I sold the acan)

 

 

 

new octospawn from cali kid corals

 

 

Unfortunately the pipe organs seem to be getting taken over by a sponge. Already did a seachem dip, followed by a freshwater dip, followed by a little air drying, and it didn't do anything. Going to try to treat with peroxide next.

 

Silly yasha!

 

She actually just moved out of that tiny hole she's been in for months and has been hanging out in the back though. Here she is with my new chalice frag, and a little piece of the old one that held on. I'm curious if the two chalices will fight or not... I'm hoping the rainbow might just share some of its color with the boring one. I'm guessing they might be the same species?

 

Here's Lily and the court jester, who I decided to call Junior. They are friends, but get on to each other sometimes, especially over food. 

 

Oh and the RFA spawn! This is what they looked like during:

 

The green/rainbow one that's against the glass was definitely spewing some cloudy stuff at least a little, and the pinstripe was just wiiiiiiide open. Feels kinda NSFW 😝

So here's hoping maybe they are male and female 🤞

 

Maraschino's doing fine, his legs all grew back!

 

This sunburst monti is getting green splotches!

 

Suprise update 🙄, lepastrea is continuing to take over

 

Randomness:

 

And more randomness:

Oh the pink diamond zoas I put by the clam all slowly melted away though so I gotta keep my eyes out for more... I feel like that color combo is going to look great with the blue of the clam and the green of the pavona once I build that pavona mountain... one day.

 

Sooo on my to do list is:

frag duncan

make pavona mountain for clam to sit on

treat pipe organs to kill sponge

figure out what I'm going to replace the acans with (bowerbanki? scoly? hop on that fancy trachy train?)

[lizzyann]

On 1/6/2021 at 6:47 AM, lilmatty5dimes said:

Tank looks amazing. I had a friend looking to sell his peninsula tank. After looking at yours and seeing it I’m pretty sold on getting and hoping it’ll look half as nice. 

Thank you! After having this one, even if I go bigger or change it up at some point, I don't think I'll ever not be able to get a peninsula tank. I just like having two large viewing areas so much! Highly recommend!

[lilmatty5dimes]

On 1/8/2021 at 10:15 AM, lizzyann said:

Thank you! After having this one, even if I go bigger or change it up at some point, I don't think I'll ever not be able to get a peninsula tank. I just like having two large viewing areas so much! Highly recommend!

Yea since we bought our house I’ve always wanted a peninsula once you walk into the door. But I did pull the trigger and got a killer steal for this guy. 

[Mystichrome]

Love the tank! I have a question about how you have your AI primes set up. I'm adding my 2nd prime to the same tank and making a metal bracket. Right now, I have my light at about 70% at about 12 inches height to spread it out. What setting do you have both primes on? Trying to gauge how much lower I should run now with 2? Are you able to post a straight on pic and/or measure how far from the edges the center of each puck is? Trying to match yours since the corals look amazing.

[lizzyann]

12 hours ago, Mystichrome said:

Love the tank! I have a question about how you have your AI primes set up. I'm adding my 2nd prime to the same tank and making a metal bracket. Right now, I have my light at about 70% at about 12 inches height to spread it out. What setting do you have both primes on? Trying to gauge how much lower I should run now with 2? Are you able to post a straight on pic and/or measure how far from the edges the center of each puck is? Trying to match yours since the corals look amazing.

Sure thing! Lights are 8-9 inches from water surface. Back light is over the higher light stuff and the blues are around 105% with white at 64% and front light has blues at 100% and white at 44%. That's at the highest point of the day. I started the tank with both the lights, so you might be in a little bit of a different scenario since you're going from one to two. I might put the acclimation mode on for a week or two if I were you? Don't really have experience with that though.

 

Here's a pic

 

[Mystichrome]

3 hours ago, lizzyann said:

Sure thing! Lights are 8-9 inches from water surface. Back light is over the higher light stuff and the blues are around 105% with white at 64% and front light has blues at 100% and white at 44%. That's at the highest point of the day. I started the tank with both the lights, so you might be in a little bit of a different scenario since you're going from one to two. I might put the acclimation mode on for a week or two if I were you? Don't really have experience with that though.

 

Here's a pic

 

Wow, thank you! Here, i feel like my current prime running at 60-70 percent at a higher height is TOO much and afraid im over doing it lol