Snow's 20G Lazarus Pit - One Last Tribute.

[WV Reefer]

6 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Yah. There was once where my manager just randomly began ordering all sorts of exotic and weird things like bright purple weedy scorpionfish, shark eggs, colorful seahorses - those kind of stuff. Surprisingly, there are buyers for them. People from out of state sometimes order them in because they keep species tanks or specialized environment tanks for a particular critter. It's amazing what comes in. I always walk in and often see things I've never dreamed of seeing before. The flounder and strawberry slugs today were new to me. 🤐

those slugs are super cool! i dont think i have ever seen one that pretty in a reef tank.

[Snow_Phoenix]

8 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

those slugs are super cool! i dont think i have ever seen one that pretty in a reef tank.

Pretty, but I don't know what it eats, tbh. Never brought home a sea slug or nudi because I heard they only eat specific sponges in large aquaria. Usually die-off in normal nano tanks because our systems cannot provide the diet they need. (Except maybe lettuce nudis which eat algae, and berghias which eat aiptasia)

 

It's a shame because they're gorgeous! 

[Snow_Phoenix]

I already brought my light home yesterday, but haven't re-set it up yet. It's the exact same unit, but they've changed the LEDs - really hope it works fine without giving any issue. 

 

Also brought home 3 jars of pods to seed my tank. My LFS had three large bags of pods come in, so they've been bottling them and selling each container at RM 15 each, which is pricey, but affordable.

 

Here are some random updates of the tank today:

 

 

Also, Thanos turned fully white for a few seconds yesterday. It was the most intriguing thing I've ever seen. I've only seen pics of Starry Blennies go full-on white online, but never witnessed it in person. He did it as a territorial display when the perchlet wandered too close to his man-cave. He's quite possessive of his lair, but he has no issues with my GCG cuddling up to him. Everything else could buzz off, as far as he's concerned. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[WV Reefer]

3 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

I already brought my light home yesterday, but haven't re-set it up yet. It's the exact same unit, but they've changed the LEDs - really hope it works fine without giving any issue. 

 

Also brought home 3 jars of pods to seed my tank. My LFS had three large bags of pods come in, so they've been bottling them and selling each container at RM 15 each, which is pricey, but affordable.

 

Here are some random updates of the tank today:

 

 

Also, Thanos turned fully white for a few seconds yesterday. It was the most intriguing thing I've ever seen. I've only seen pics of Starry Blennies go full-on white online, but never witnessed it in person. He did it as a territorial display when the perchlet wandered too close to his man-cave. He's quite possessive of his lair, but he has no issues with my GCG cuddling up to him. Everything else could buzz off, as far as he's concerned. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Nice pics!  

 

Ive never seen Star Lord go all white! That would be crazy. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

3 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

 

 Nice pics!  

 

Ive never seen Star Lord go all white! That would be crazy. 

Thanks! I didn't expect Thanos too, either. I tried to grab a pic/vid but it was very fast (around less than five seconds). Only his head was a very, very light shade of purple - lavender, almost. The rest of his body was milky white. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

It's official. I'm the owner of one of the cutest douches in the history of fish-dom.

 

(Talking about this guy):

 

I hatched some live BBS because he hadn't been eating well, both in the QT and now DT, and I hardly see him at times. 

 

 

And if a perchlet could murder you with his eyes for dumping a shitload of annoying floating thingies in front of him, this would be him:

 

Good news is I now find him creeping about every time I dose the tank with food - so he's not very cryptic anymore (you just have to search for him):

 

Another super-cryptic enigma that turned up magically quite recently was my GBCS:

 

 

A little bit of good news overall - tank is doing ok, and I just realized my corals have been growing at a good pace, even though I can't see it. Here's my monti cap comparison from 29/11/18 & 26/2/19:

 

 

And here's my leather frag that has doubled in size over 1+ month:

 

And here's my neon RBTA looking all bubbly:

 

 

The only issue I have with this tank is that my nitrates are constantly driven down to zero, which isn't good for corals. Every time I feed heavily, the nitrates will get bumped up to 5 ppm, then they will return to zero again by the end of the day. I'm reluctant to dose anything (*Seachem Flourish, yes, I've read about it) because I have a huge mixture of animals in there and I'm afraid of upsetting or killing anything. So for now, I'm feeding His Overlord Thanos some extra algae pellets in hopes he'd poop more. Like, a lot more. 

 

I've also decided to delay my WCs to almost- or biweekly changes due to health reasons. I think it'll be easier for me to manage. And I'm still sticking to using tap water from my toilet sink for now, because I *think it's okay here, and my tank is okay with it. 

 

 

 

 

[WV Reefer]

1 hour ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

It's official. I'm the owner of one of the cutest douches in the history of fish-dom.

 

(Talking about this guy):

 

I hatched some live BBS because he hadn't been eating well, both in the QT and now DT, and I hardly see him at times. 

 

 

And if a perchlet could murder you with his eyes for dumping a shitload of annoying floating thingies in front of him, this would be him:

 

Good news is I now find him creeping about every time I dose the tank with food - so he's not very cryptic anymore (you just have to search for him):

 

Another super-cryptic enigma that turned up magically quite recently was my GBCS:

 

 

A little bit of good news overall - tank is doing ok, and I just realized my corals have been growing at a good pace, even though I can't see it. Here's my monti cap comparison from 29/11/18 & 26/2/19:

 

 

And here's my leather frag that has doubled in size over 1+ month:

 

And here's my neon RBTA looking all bubbly:

 

 

The only issue I have with this tank is that my nitrates are constantly driven down to zero, which isn't good for corals. Every time I feed heavily, the nitrates will get bumped up to 5 ppm, then they will return to zero again by the end of the day. I'm reluctant to dose anything (*Seachem Flourish, yes, I've read about it) because I have a huge mixture of animals in there and I'm afraid of upsetting or killing anything. So for now, I'm feeding His Overlord Thanos some extra algae pellets in hopes he'd poop more. Like, a lot more. 

 

I've also decided to delay my WCs to almost- or biweekly changes due to health reasons. I think it'll be easier for me to manage. And I'm still sticking to using tap water from my toilet sink for now, because I *think it's okay here, and my tank is okay with it. 

 

 

 

 

 

The perchlet is super cute!

 

Everything else looks great....... the corals are loving that tap water! 😀

[Snow_Phoenix]

21 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

 

The perchlet is super cute!

 

Everything else looks great....... the corals are loving that tap water! 😀

Toilet tap. Who knew. 

I'll keep overfeeding for the time being to boost up nitrates. Other than that, I'm leaving the tank alone lol. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

If anyone's been keeping up with my Insta-posts, you'd probably know by now what has been happening. But just to recap:-

 

I had a 'scratch' on my glass that decided it wasn't going to be a scratch, but a micro-crack. It's grown from 1" to 3" over the course of ~3 months, and is now angling downwards in the right panel of my tank:

 

 

Having experienced hell the last time my tank cracked and collapsed, and dumped 10G of SW all over my bedroom floor, I know now what I have is a ticking time bomb. I've already discussed ordering a new tank with my LFS - which would be: 1. BRAND new, not secondhand 2. Have thicker, 8mm crystal white glass 3. Come with it's own sump, piping and cabinet 4. Cost me a shitload of money which I'm currently short off. I'm working double - going on triple now, to gather enough resources to acquire the new tank + system by the end of March/April.

 

The new tank will be a combination of a tank-transfer-upgrade. It's tentatively a 2' ft cube and I'll be using my AI Prime HD, which will give me some shadowing in the corners, but that's okay (NPS, anyone?). Sump will be converted into a huge fuge packed with lots of LR and some macro. I'll be tentatively skipping out on using a skimmer for the upgrade. 

 

I've already purchased extra 'dead' LR which will serve as base rock/sump rock/more rock for the ~60G to come. 

 

 

It's currently being cycled in a storage bin on the side porch outside my home with no lights over it and 1 pump + 1 wavemaker to provide water movement. If all goes well, the tank transfer should proceed smoothly with zero or minimal loss of livestock. I'll be using new LS though for the new tank. 

 

For now, I'm just hoping my 20G holds on until end of March/early April. I can feel the crack with my hand from inside the tank, but not outside (yet). So that area of the glass is already weaker than the other panels. Sigh. I really love my 20G. This sucks.  

 

[debbeach13]

Dam I hope it holds for you. I don't know if I could do it. I would be out buying a temp tank or storage bins today. Even if I had to put it on the floor. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

26 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

Dam I hope it holds for you. I don't know if I could do it. I would be out buying a temp tank or storage bins today. Even if I had to put it on the floor. 

I already have two storage bins prepped and ready. Just need to accumulate a little bit more finances before I can purchase the new tank. So it'll take a while, unfortunately.

[Snow_Phoenix]

I decided it's safe enough to introduce my Mandy to the forum. I've already released pics of him on Insta - here's just a few shots of him:

 

 

 

 

 

 

This Saturday, Meatball would be officially 1-month-old in my home. I know it's not much and far from a mandarin success story, but I'm extremely happy with the progress I've made with him overall, and the fact that he's eating voraciously. I feed Meatball up to 4x a day - usually a mix of live pods, live BBS and live grindals with some frozen thrown in. He hasn't quite acquired the taste of frozen brine or mysis yet, but he loves frozen crab roe, so that's one step up. 

 

I Prazi'd him in QT for only a week. I kept him secret from everyone I knew, including my own family, who loves dragonets as much as I do. Simply because of how the recent debacle with the Rubies ended, I was hesitant and nervous over telling anyone about him, because I was worried I'd screw up again, and take some hate for it. But Meatball made it through QT fine, and he adapted very well to my 20G. He was purchased on the same day I purchased my Perchlet, PJ. (If you're wondering about him, he's still alive, but has reverted back to his cryptic ways of sneaking and hiding in the tank)

 

After how badly the Ich took down my fish stock last year, I now make it a habit to QT all new fish for 1 to 8 weeks. The dragonet's QT period was quick, because multiple sources state that they shouldn't be QTed to begin with, and will almost immediately begin to die in a sterile QT tank. I dumped a lot of live copepods in the QT tank so that Meatball could make it through the one week without losing any weight. 

 

Looking after him does take up a lot of my time, but I actually enjoy it, and most of all, I enjoy watching him 'flutter' around the tank. Despite having a large in-tank fuge in the 20G, I'm pretty sure Meatball cleared out the pre-existing pod population within a day (you can see how chunky he is). So I've been feeding him live BBS every other day - a 500ml of brine solution gives me around 3 harvests for 3 feedings, and a 80% to 85% hatch rate, which is reasonably okay, I suppose. 

 

A 500 ml bottle of live pods at my LFS costs RM 18, which can be expensive, given that a Mandy Meatball's size could finish off an entire bottle within a day. So for the last few days, I've been mostly supplementing him with live BBS and live grindals. I'll slowly mix it up with frozen brine, then mysis, and maybe even some NLS pellets, and hopefully he'll accept everything in time.

 

Since I'm upgrading my tank soon, I think Meatball will benefit greatly from a much larger system with a proper refugium in the sump (estimated sump volume is around 16G). Once he's stable with the new system, then I *think I'll cut back on feedings.

 

For now, most of my corals seem okay with the extra live food, and even my nem crab enjoys it:

 

 

Oh, and Thanos and Goblin send their regards. 🙂

 

 

 

 

The RBTA is doing well too:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[vlangel]

Snow, Meatball is beautiful and so nice and round.  Good job.  Your tank is looking great with a personable diverse cast of fish and the coral are looking nice too.

[Snow_Phoenix]

33 minutes ago, vlangel said:

Snow, Meatball is beautiful and so nice and round.  Good job.  Your tank is looking great with a personable diverse cast of fish and the coral are looking nice too.

Thank you, Dawn, for your kind words. It's no easy task keeping him well-fed. Tbh, I've never ever seen him poop lol. But he loves to eat, so that's a good sign at least.

 

I have too many fish in the tank though. Everything exists at a very precarious balance. I can't keep all my corals pleased at once (my blue digi hates me - it's stubbornly remained brown/light blue but for some reason, is still growing) but I do enjoy running a mixed reef. I like the challenge. 

 

Once the bigger tank is up, I'll collect more softies and shrooms. And maybe even purchase my first ever Gorg. I love the concept of your 56G natural-looking reef. It's something I've wished to emulate for a while, but I can't stick macros in the DT because Thanos and my tuxedo urchin will eat them all. 

 

So I'll make do with simple, 'flowy' corals instead. 

[vlangel]

1 hour ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Thank you, Dawn, for your kind words. It's no easy task keeping him well-fed. Tbh, I've never ever seen him poop lol. But he loves to eat, so that's a good sign at least.

 

I have too many fish in the tank though. Everything exists at a very precarious balance. I can't keep all my corals pleased at once (my blue digi hates me - it's stubbornly remained brown/light blue but for some reason, is still growing) but I do enjoy running a mixed reef. I like the challenge. 

 

Once the bigger tank is up, I'll collect more softies and shrooms. And maybe even purchase my first ever Gorg. I love the concept of your 56G natural-looking reef. It's something I've wished to emulate for a while, but I can't stick macros in the DT because Thanos and my tuxedo urchin will eat them all. 

 

So I'll make do with simple, 'flowy' corals instead. 

Maybe your digi is brownish because of PO4?  A lot of coral will use the phosphates as energy to grow but too much can affect their color.  When you have a lot of fish, phosphates are kind of inevitable unless you are using something to control them.  That is where my tank is now.  The good news is that something (soft coral and/or macro algaes)is out competing the nuisance algaes and that has not been a problem in my tank.  I just added a PO4 sponge to passively absorb the PO4 so hopefully it lowers it gently.  In my opinion, stripping the water column of PO4 is worse than having it high when the tank is utilizing it.

[Snow_Phoenix]

33 minutes ago, vlangel said:

Maybe your digi is brownish because of PO4?  A lot of coral will use the phosphates as energy to grow but too much can affect their color.  When you have a lot of fish, phosphates are kind of inevitable unless you are using something to control them.  That is where my tank is now.  The good news is that something (soft coral and/or macro algaes)is out competing the nuisance algaes and that has not been a problem in my tank.  I just added a PO4 sponge to passively absorb the PO4 so hopefully it lowers it gently.  In my opinion, stripping the water column of PO4 is worse than having it high when the tank is utilizing it.

Could be possible. The piece arrived to me brown, with brown polyps but light blue tips at areas of new growth. My PO4 levels have always been a bit higher (0.03 ppm) due to me feeding the tank heavily and using tap for water changes. Nutrient export is quite high in my tank thanks to the large in-tank fuge packed with smaller LR pieces and macro (my nitrates can even hit zero sometimes), but the funny thing is none of my other SPS is affected or browning out. My pavona, red digi, and red & green monti caps have all retained their color, and in some cases, actually became more vivid than before. I honestly have no idea - SPS is still something very new to me. 😕

 

I do use PhosBan though. I once accidently stripped all levels to zero and my LPS threw a fit. 

 

I do agree that stripping the water column and making the water too 'clean' can have an adverse effect. I like running my tanks a bit dirty though. SPS growth is slower, but at least it's still alive and growing. I'm thinking of getting more montis. I like them. Been hunting for a purple cap frag for a while now. 

[vlangel]

3 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Could be possible. The piece arrived to me brown, with brown polyps but light blue tips at areas of new growth. My PO4 levels have always been a bit higher (0.03 ppm) due to me feeding the tank heavily and using tap for water changes. Nutrient export is quite high in my tank thanks to the large in-tank fuge packed with smaller LR pieces and macro (my nitrates can even hit zero sometimes), but the funny thing is none of my other SPS is affected or browning out. My pavona, red digi, and red & green monti caps have all retained their color, and in some cases, actually became more vivid than before. I honestly have no idea - SPS is still something very new to me. 😕

 

I do use PhosBan though. I once accidently stripped all levels to zero and my LPS threw a fit. 

 

I do agree that stripping the water column and making the water too 'clean' can have an adverse effect. I like running my tanks a bit dirty though. SPS growth is slower, but at least it's still alive and growing. I'm thinking of getting more montis. I like them. Been hunting for a purple cap frag for a while now. 

Ha ha ha 😂, you call your PO4 high at .03 and mine is 3.0!  I wished mine could be in your range.  I will be happy to get it down to 1 - .5 ppm.

[Snow_Phoenix]

7 hours ago, vlangel said:

Ha ha ha 😂, you call your PO4 high at .03 and mine is 3.0!  I wished mine could be in your range.  I will be happy to get it down to 1 - .5 ppm.

Actually, I'm a bit baffled why mine isn't super high. With my stocking and the way things I run things, it should be higher than yours. 😄 

 

I think the fuge helps out a fair bit. I haven't done my weekly WCs for 2+ weeks now because I've been juggling multiple jobs + falling sick. All I've done is scrape the glass twice and stir the sandbed a little. I think having a mature biofilter helps and gives me a lot of wiggle room to do unorthodox things with my reef. 

[vlangel]

9 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Actually, I'm a bit baffled why mine isn't super high. With my stocking and the way things I run things, it should be higher than yours. 😄 

 

I think the fuge helps out a fair bit. I haven't done my weekly WCs for 2+ weeks now because I've been juggling multiple jobs + falling sick. All I've done is scrape the glass twice and stir the sandbed a little. I think having a mature biofilter helps and gives me a lot of wiggle room to do unorthodox things with my reef. 

Definitely, I think we reefers underestimate just how beneficial a mature biofilter is to a closed system!  I am positive that is why I can run my tank with such high NO3 and PO4.

[Snow_Phoenix]

Took a bad sideshot of the tank - you can see the white skeleton of the green monti cap all the way from the top.

 

And my red mini carpet nem is bleaching rather quickly under the strength of my Prime. I'm still in acclimation mode, but different corals have different responses. Already the yumas at the bottom right corner on the sandbed and the zoas on the rocks are stretching for light. But the SPS pieces are showing growth. Some of the LPS too. I can already see tiny 'nubs' popping up all over my chalice and Pavona. And the monti caps are spreading out around the edges.

 

My GSP has been throwing a fit however. Guess you just can't please everyone. 😕

 

Here's Meatball today:

 

 

 

And here's my Purple Puppy trying to act all cute and adorable so that I might feed him infinitely. 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

6 minutes ago, vlangel said:

Definitely, I think we reefers underestimate just how beneficial a mature biofilter is to a closed system!  I am positive that is why I can run my tank with such high NO3 and PO4.

Me too. My rocks are a lot more older because they keep getting transferred from tank to tank. So technically, they've been in the water for around 2+ years. My only concern is that when I upgrade, I'll be adding rocks that are cycled, but 'new'. I might have to suffer through the ugly diatom/algae phase all over again. 

 

Right now I'm planning out my CUC and how many extra snails and crabs I'll need for the bigger tank. Looks like I'll have to triple or quadruple everything I currently have. 

[vlangel]

1 minute ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Me too. My rocks are a lot more older because they keep getting transferred from tank to tank. So technically, they've been in the water for around 2+ years. My only concern is that when I upgrade, I'll be adding rocks that are cycled, but 'new'. I might have to suffer through the ugly diatom/algae phase all over again. 

 

Right now I'm planning out my CUC and how many extra snails and crabs I'll need for the bigger tank. Looks like I'll have to triple or quadruple everything I currently have. 

Yes you may have some of the ugly stage.  Save your current sandbed and then lay it on top of the new sand you put in your upgraded tank.  That should help.

 

It will be fun upgrading however.  What size will the new tank be?

[Snow_Phoenix]

17 minutes ago, vlangel said:

Yes you may have some of the ugly stage.  Save your current sandbed and then lay it on top of the new sand you put in your upgraded tank.  That should help.

 

It will be fun upgrading however.  What size will the new tank be?

If all goes well, it should be a 2' ft cube (60G) with a standard 2' ft long sump (16G). I'm still saving up for it because the cost of buying a new, custom-made setup is very high here. Also need to upgrade my current wavemaker and buy a new bucket of salt, more LS etc. 

[vlangel]

3 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

If all goes well, it should be a 2' ft cube (60G) with a standard 2' ft long sump (16G). I'm still saving up for it because the cost of buying a new, custom-made setup is very high here. Also need to upgrade my current wavemaker and buy a new bucket of salt, more LS etc. 

It sounds very exciting and will be the same in volume as my 56g natural tank with 20g sump.

[Snow_Phoenix]

8 hours ago, vlangel said:

It sounds very exciting and will be the same in volume as my 56g natural tank with 20g sump.

Yep! 😊