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

[Snow_Phoenix]

Figured I'll update - sorry about the time leap, but a lot has happened since I last added to this journal.

 

Long story short, my Zebra dartfish came down with a mysterious illness on 26/6 and passed away within an hour of it showing symptoms. I'm still not sure what it was - the fish was swimming perfectly fine and eating, and within an hour, was found lying on the sandbed, covered in large white patches (not ich). At this point, I let the tank go fallow for a very short while (around 1.5 weeks), which probably wasn't very effective, but I did a major 90% WC, basted the sandbed, restocked the fuge, swapped out all the media etc.

 

My current fish stock includes: 

 

Fish:

 

Scissortail Dartfish

Grammistes Blenny

Ocellaris Clownfish

Hi-Fin Goby

Ornate Leopard Wrasse

 

It's a lot of fish, but the Hi-Fin goby is somewhat of a recluse and survivor. I bought new fish thinking he was dead, since he didn't show up for nearly a month. He popped up again, and now shares the same bolt-hole as my dartfish. The wrasse is the newest addition and very small (around 1.5"). Very active and beautiful fish. And before you ask, no, all of them were not added at the same time. 

 

I keep nutrients down by doing weekly WCs, basting the rocks, scraping the glass (regular maintenance) and only feeding the fish twice a day. I feed frozen only twice/thrice a week. Otherwise, everyone's on a steady diet of Hikari Marine S and Hikari Seaweed M pellets. I'm trying to order some flakes online though, just to change things up. As for frozen, I feed a mixture of parang fish roe, flower crab roe, mysis, brine shrimp, chopped shrimp, chopped squid and bloodworms. Corals are fed shrimp juice, reef roids, crab roe and Ocean Snow once/twice a week. The only buffer I use is a kH buffer. 

 

No algae outbreaks so far. 

 

Pics later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

I promised pics - so here's a link to some of them:

 

1. Ric yuma (has almost doubled in size since I got it):

 

 

 

2. Occy Clownfish resting on sandbed during lights out:

 

 

 

3. Ornate leopard wrasse investigating tank:

 

 

4. Tuxedo urchin and his 2-polyp hat. 

 

 

 

5. Houdini, the Hi-Fin who's survived against all odds, and the only fish to make it from my previous tank to this one (he's doubled in size):

 

 

 

6. Pagoda/Cup coral PE up-close:

 

 

7. Scissortail dartfish:

 

 

8. Duster worm:

 

 

9. Saron Shrimp:

 

 

>>I originally had a completely different line-up of fish. My reef lobster killed three of them - a McCosker, a YCG and a smaller Grammistes. After deporting the lobster to the store, I brought home another 3 replacements (not all at once - the additions were spread out over 2.5 weeks): an Occy (after repeatedly promising myself I won't get a clownfish for this tank), a new Grammistes and a male Ornate Leopard juvi (around 1.5"). All fish are actively feeding on a mixture of pellets, flakes (just bought this - Seabass was right, crushing flakes does wonders) and frozen. The wrasse is a bit tricky - he only eats NLS 0.5mm pellets and prefers hunting pods. Thankfully, there is a fuge and there are plenty of pods, so he's quite healthy. His fins have also regrown - the ventral ones were badly ripped when he came from the store. 

 

The dartfish shares the same burrow as my Hi-Fin, and mostly appears during feeding times. Everything is settled for now. I considered picking up a new Turbo snail, but the urchin seems to be doing a good job in cleaning the tank. Routine maintenance: glass scrubbing, WCs, sandbed-stirring and rock-basting does the trick.

 

I *might add a Pistol shrimp to pair up with the Hi-Fin, but since both my gobies share the same burrow, I'm not even sure if the shrimp would pair up with the Hi-Fin, or if the shrimp would disturb the bromance going under the rocks between by gobies. So maybe, no.

 

 

 

[specore]

Cool trick!  Can you see mine in 4 months or do your powers only work on your tank? 😋

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

On 7/30/2018 at 10:34 PM, specore said:

Cool trick!  Can you see mine in 4 months or do your powers only work on your tank? 😋

 

 

EDIT: I just remembered - in the US, you switch dates, so 12/6 means 6th of Dec, isn't it? Over here, 12/6 means 12th of June. I feel like such a derp LOL. Sorry, specore! 

[Snow_Phoenix]

1. My Saron alternates colors between green and red at night. Although he favors green more, there are times when I catch him going red during camo-mode:

 

 

2. And I love my blenny. Although he does take a huge risk by sleeping behind the skimmer or fugebox (I'm constantly worried he'll get trapped and squished there). Very personable:

 

 

3. I also purchased a Candycane pistol shrimp to pair up with my Hi-Fin, Houdini. Here's the catch - the pistol can only be purchased as a pair with a goby. I tried my best to convince the store I already have a Hi-Fin and don't need a new one, but no bueno. So now I have 1 candycane paired to 2 Hi-Fins, and all 3 of them share the same rock/burrow. 

 

 

 

4.  Also brought home a female White Spotted Nem Shrimp. She was heavily berried (as was my Pistol), but vanished after 1 day. Things do have a tendency of *disappearing in this tank, and reappearing weeks later. However, in the case of this shrimp, I'm not sure if she survived. Her fellow shrimpmates at the store weren't exactly in the best of conditions either:

 

 

 

5. Topshot view of my cup coral. Slightly bigger than a palm.

 

 

 

And a little bit of sad news here, but my scissortail dartfish was spooked when I flipped the lights off for the evening. He collided pretty heavily against the left side of my tank, and I haven't seen him for over 48 hours, which is unusual because he's always active and swimming in the upper water column throughout the day. I daren't move the rocks around to look for him, so it's a bit of a waiting game. If he doesn't show after a week, I'll consider it a loss. I miss him already. 

 

And a small sidenote - I'm growing out a pair of baby spiny eels in a holding tank on my side porch. If you have freshwater eel experience, please do share your tips with me. Mine have currently doubled in size and are actively feeding on mosquito larvae and grindal worms. Thinking of writing a short article on them, if they successfully live to adulthood. Keeping my fingers crossed regardless. 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

I've almost forgotten about this thread. Sorry for the gap in updates. Long story short, in the space of 1 month+, there has been a shift in livestock. I lost my Occy clownfish few days after I updated this thread. Cause of death was unknown - she was behaving a little bit odd before she died and mostly sleeping behind my green yuma. I found her body pinned under the major LR piece pretty tightly - had to shift the rock to get the fish out. 

 

In the space of a month, I've brought home some new fish and corals. (not all at once).

 

Here's some pics of interest (in no particular order of addition to the tank):

 

1. Thanos the Starry Blenny. Currently the main boss fish of the tank. Extremely large at +4.5". I brought him home because he was kept in a tiny holding box with three nems (LTAs and BTA) and being stung very badly. Haggled, got him for a discount, and he has a small black burn mark visible on his body when he phases to a lighter color. Very, very personable fish that has taken up the habit of greeting me whenever I enter my bedroom. Drops the largest pile of green shakalakas after consuming 21 Hikari seaweed M-sized pellets in a row. Gives puppy-dog eyes to get more food. Sleeps in my fugebox and snacks on my macro when I'm not looking. 

 

 

2. Sugarcane shrimp. Purchased for sentimental reasons. Was originally placed in Morph's old tank, got nearly eaten by the hawkfish, was scooped up and re-added to the bedroom nano. Lives under my cup coral and only seen at night. Super-elusive and cryptic, but model citizen (so far).

 

 

3. Hector the Hector's goby. Strictly pod-eater. Spits out pellets and occasionally winds up in the fugebox and needs rescuing. Cozies up to my Hi-fins and my scissortail dartfish at night. Still has not eaten any prepared food properly since day 1, but thankfully remains healthy and fit. 

 

 

4. New halloween hermit named Bob II, after Bob I died after a very unfortunate bad molt more than a month ago. Very active for a halloween hermit.

 

5.  He lives with my Hi-Fins in/under the LR. I haven't named him yet, but I'm thinking of calling him Ben. Been in this tank for several months now. 

 

6. I tried out 3 SPS frags for a change. Er, it didn't go too well. The radioactive birds nest is STNing, but the orange and blue digita are still doing alright. My fault actually - I overdosed my kH buffer the day after purchasing a few new frags. Might have gotten a bit too enthusiastic and put a few more drops into the tank than required. Good news is there's still flesh on this coral and it still glows under actinics. The bad news is, this is probably the third birds nest I've tried in my 6+ years of reefing, and probably the third time I've actively killed a SPS. I don't know why, but montis and acros always grew for me, but Poccis and Birds Nest always hated my guts. They'd die to spite me, I'm sure of it. Not planning on getting any new SPS for a long, long while. 

 

7. My new purplish-orange yuma. Already has two babies but this is the main head. There's also a mysterious green encrusting coral growing on the same rock piece this yuma is on, but I couldn't identify it. Will try to post a pic of the mystery coral once I get a clear snapshot.

 

8. One of two zoa frags I picked up. This one brings back memories of an old nano I had several years ago. I had a colony of these those days, so I was quite surprised and pleased to see it again at the store.

 

9.  Green weeping willow toadstool leather. Has doubled in size since I first got it. Love the tentacles. I have another smaller orange toadstool leather at the back of the tank, but it's hard to get a clear shot of it. 

 

 10. Both my Hi-Fin gobies. The one in the LR is Houdini, the fish that has survived against all odds, including a cracked tank, an emergency tank transfer, ich and even the loss of his shrimp buddy. He's *almost a year old. The newer Hi-Fin up front is Pippa. They have a pecking order of sorts during meal times. Both of them are paired to my new female Pistol shrimp and live together. 

 

11. My green ric yuma - one of the first corals to be added to this tank. Can stretch up to 5" on a good day. I target feed this coral slices of frozen shrimp every fortnight. 

 

 

 

^^My other non-reefing related projects:

 

1. Discus (these are a breeding pair at a store I just visited, and also where I source out juvi discus for my 70G freshwater tank):

 

 

2. Spiny Eels (local species). I've had them grow from 0.5" & 1" to 2.5" and 3" now through continuous live food cultures.

 

 

3. Grindal Worm (live food) culture for freshwater fish, especially eel fry.

 

 

 

So I guess that's it. Oh! And my current stock list is overstocked:

 

Fish:

 

Starry Blenny

Hi-Fin goby (x2)

Scissortail Dartfish

Hector's Goby

Ornate Leopard Wrasse

 

Inverts:

 

Sugarcane Shrimp

Saron Shrimp

White Spotted Anemone Shrimp

Candycane Pistol Shrimp

Halloween Hermit Crab

Electric Blue Legged Hermit Crab

Brown-Legged Hermit Crab (x4)

Tuxedo Urchin

Super Tongan Nassarius Snail

Turbo Snail

Feather Duster Worm

 

Anemone:

 

Mini Maxi Carpet Anemone (bleached but recovering slowly - hosted by shrimp)

 

Corals:

 

Orange Monti Digi

Blue Monti Digi

Green Radioactive Bird's Nest

Green Goni

Purple Yuma

Green Yuma

Orange Rhodactis

Purple/Blue Rhodactis

Green Rhodactis

Mystery Green Encrusting Coral

Bicolored Hammer

Duncan

Orange Toadstool Leather

Brown Cabbage Leather

Green Weeping Willow Leather

Green Cup Coral/Pagoda

Green Star Polyp

 

Macroalgae:

 

Green Grape Caulerpa

Caulerpa Peltata (eaten by Thanos)

Red Grape Caulerpa (also eaten by Thanos)

Galaxaura (definitely eaten by Thanos)

Chaeto (I'm pretty sure he ate this one too) 

 

Feeding regiment:

 

Frozen 2x a week (brine & mysis + reef roids)

Ocean Snow 3x a week

NLS pellets + flakes + Hikari pellets 2x a day (for fish)

Nori 1x a week (for hermits & urchin)

 

WC 25% per week. If I'm hospitalized or bedridden a week, then I'll WC 50% every two weeks until I get better again. 

 

Dosing: 5 drops of dKH buffer every three days. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[WV Reefer]

Speaking of Thanos:

 

I measured Star Lord and he is barely 3”!! Thanos is aptly named. 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

14 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

Speaking of Thanos:

 

I measured Star Lord and he is barely 3”!! Thanos is aptly named. 

 

Really? But Star Lord looks so big! Just imagine though - Thanos still hasn't reached his full size yet. Can you imagine having a 6" blenny? (and the amount of poop lol)

[WV Reefer]

1 minute ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Really? But Star Lord looks so big! Just imagine though - Thanos still hasn't reached his full size yet. Can you imagine having a 6" blenny? (and the amount of poop lol)

They will be beasts!.......with XXXL poops. 😄

[Snow_Phoenix]

Well, this just happened about a day ago:

 

 

Took about half a day of poking around the tank before I found the remains of the forked stick hidden under a rock. This douchebag did it. He seemed thoroughly pleased with himself too. 😠 :

 

Other corals are doing alright, although the orange digi has taken on a rusty complexion and has two white spots. I'm worried it's STNing too, but the other parts of the coral are actually growing. So I'm confused. 

 

I also asked the forum what this mysterious green encrusting coral on my purple yuma frag was - turned out to be leptoseris, which is quite frankly, kinda cool once I googled it up:

 

Oh, and I finally got a decent shot of my Duncan. There's a second, smaller head coming up on one side, so it's growing at least:

 

 

 

And I took a trip to my LFS to get 25kg of Fritz salt - saw these two interesting things up for sale:

 

1. Rusty angelfish:

 

 

2. 3' ft++ blue ribbon eel:

 

 

Everything else in the tank is doing fine so far. I'm thinking of upgrading my lights to 2 PAR 38s (15W each), but the light is out of stock at my local store. So I'm hunting around for an equivalent or better light. My currently light is okay, but too old and is putting out too much heat. It also doesn't have a proper handle, and rests on my lids (dangerous). Thoughts/Suggestions for any good light? I'm keeping a mix of corals - SPS, LPS, softies, shrooms, zoas and a mini maxi nem. Need something that (preferably) can be adjusted to accommodate the needs of all these animals. 

 

EDIT: Made an ID mistake. The angelfish from the LFS was a Golden angelfish, not a Rusty angelfish. Sorry!

[Christopher Marks]

Amazing photo updates as always! I love the video clips too, that blue ribbon eel is unreal! Your LFS seems to get in a lot of rarities.

 

Your starry blenny Thanos is quite a beast, beautiful! How have all the different shrimps been getting along?

[Snow_Phoenix]

11 minutes ago, Christopher Marks said:

Amazing photo updates as always! I love the video clips too, that blue ribbon eel is unreal! Your LFS seems to get in a lot of rarities.

 

Your starry blenny Thanos is quite a beast, beautiful! How have all the different shrimps been getting along?

Thank you! And they do pull in rare stuff occasionally. There was someone four states away that expressed interest in getting the rusty, but the fish wasn't eating at the store (in fact, it hasn't eaten anything for the past 1 week) so the customer backed out.

 

And yep, he is a beast. I'm actually very happy to have him. Love his antics too.

 

The white spotted anemone shrimp is a bit aggressive, but she postures only when other shrimp approach her nem. I caught her doing this when my Saron wandered too close to her nem: 

 

 

Otherwise, all the shrimp occupy different parts of the tank and don't interact much. The pistol is forever with the gobies in/under the LR piece on the right side of the tank. The Saron usually hangs out under the major LR piece on the left side of the tank, the sugarcane shrimp is attached to my cup coral and the white spotted nem shrimp doesn't leave her nem. 🙂 

[Snow_Phoenix]

More pics!

1. Thanos is doing great, bless him. Still as chunky as ever, still dropping organic land mines all over my tank when he thinks I'm not watching. 

 

And of course, the wavemaker-blenny-combo horror. This was how I lost my previous fang blenny, who crammed himself so well inside my pump that I couldn't see him, and was chopped when I turned the pumps back on after feeding. Thankfully, Thanos is physically too big to sit inside my wavemaker, but I still wasn't happy with his choice of perch. Had to shoo him off with a baster, then triple-check the tank before I turned the pumps back on.

 

 

2. I beefed up my CUC. Mostly got 3 new Nass snails to stir up the sandbed and one mystery red-legged hermit that was sold as a blue-legs. He was quite pricey for a hermit, too. Anyhow, meet Grant.

 

 

 

 

3. Meanwhile, my other hermit, King Douchebag, has been traumatizing my goniopora every night. Finally caught him red-clawed, using my goni as a bowling ball of sorts. Most people would get rid of the hermit, but I actually like Douchebag and he does a good job of keeping any algae pop-ups under control. 

 

 

4. Oh, and my Saron molted again! He's bigger than ever now - I glimpsed him early this morning while the lights were still off.

 

 

4. Also spotted Houdini and his shrimpy pew-pew partner this morning. I'm thinking of downsizing my fishload by giving away Pippa (the second Hi-Fin) and Hector the Hector's goby. Problem is catching them, since they spend an awful amount of time hidden in the rocks (in the case of the Hi-Fin) and Hector's a fast lil' bugger. Netting them would be a pain.

 

 

 

And on to a few interesting things at the LFS this week:

 

1. Splendid garden eel imported from Philippines:

 

 

2. Juvenile dragon wrasse:

 

 

3. And a pair of Yashas. Very pricey, and both fish have almost maxed out in size.

 

 

 

Tank is otherwise doing reasonably well. I'm thinking of cutting back on feedings for a while, but since I do have an XL-sized blenny, this isn't quite possible. No plans to add any new corals anytime soon, but I'll be working on creating a bigger zoa and shroom garden. If I see any interesting leather frags at reasonable prices, I might pick those up too. Hmm. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Just some close-ups of a few of my current corals:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And I also bought a Fire Eel for my freshwater tank! Am extremely pleased with this guy - he's a 2' ft long+ chunky monster, and I named him Beast:

 

 

 

And on another note, I slacked back a little on my WC last week. Surprisingly, my tank and corals appear better without the WC. But there is still an issue of nutrient export - so I'll be doing a smaller WC in the upcoming days. 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

FTS on 11/9/2018 (yesterday evening):

 

My green yuma apparently packs a potent sting. My hermits messed around with the frag last night and propped the yuma against my orange ricordea. Both corals were in direct contact with each other over night while I slept (which is roughly 9 to 10 hours) and by the time I pulled the yuma away and put it back on the sandbed, the orange ric was a brown blob. The blob dissolved and now there a tiny piece of mushroom still attached to the rock - I'm hoping this will sprout into a new orange ric in the months to come. I genuinely didn't know yumas were stingers/released chemicals like that. I was originally planning on keeping various shrooms next to each other on the right side of the tank, but it looks like I'll have to be extra careful with the placement. Hmph.

 

Also, I'm thinking of getting either 2 15W PAR38 LEDs or 1 36W PAR38 LED for this tank. My current light is too old, and even though my digis are growing, I'm not too pleased with their color under the lights. Still sourcing out other equivalent or better lighting options atm. Wish I was in the US because I'd pick up a nanobox from Dave in a heartbeat. 

 

 

[specore]

I just don't understand why shipping from the US to Canada is so difficult.  It sounds as if you probably have an easier time getting products shipped from China than you do the US 😕  

[Snow_Phoenix]

2 minutes ago, specore said:

I just don't understand why shipping from the US to Canada is so difficult.  It sounds as if you probably have an easier time getting products shipped from China than you do the US 😕  

Specore, I live in Malaysia, SE Asia. So most of the equipment I have are either from China, Korea or Japan. I prefer the Korean items because they last longer. Most of my Chinese equipment (eg. lights, wavemakers etc.) don't last more than 2 years. My current LED light is very old and exceeded my expectations, but it's putting out a lot of heat. Plus, I decided I do like montis. So I was thinking of keeping different types after I find a suitable light to upgrade.

 

My LFS used to have PAR38s two years ago, but they didn't have the E27 holders. Now I found a local online site selling holders, but not the bulb. All the other lights my LFS carries are quite cheap, and quite frankly, unsuitable for reefing (unless you wish to grow macros and pest algae). There are more expensive brands like AI and Maxspect but they cost at least RM 1.5K++, which is beyond my budget, unfortunately. 😞

[specore]

4 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Specore, I live in Malaysia, SE Asia. So most of the equipment I have are either from China, Korea or Japan. I prefer the Korean items because they last longer. Most of my Chinese equipment (eg. lights, wavemakers etc.) don't last more than 2 years. My current LED light is very old and exceeded my expectations, but it's putting out a lot of heat. Plus, I decided I do like montis. So I was thinking of keeping different types after I find a suitable light to upgrade.

 

My LFS used to have PAR38s two years ago, but they didn't have the E27 holders. Now I found a local online site selling holders, but not the bulb. All the other lights my LFS carries are quite cheap, and quite frankly, unsuitable for reefing (unless you wish to grow macros and pest algae). There are more expensive brands like AI and Maxspect but they cost at least RM 1.5K++, which is beyond my budget, unfortunately. 😞

lol...I was thinking you were one of the Canadians.  That makes more sense lol

 

My question still stands, even though it doesn't apply to you 🙂

[Snow_Phoenix]

4 minutes ago, specore said:

lol...I was thinking you were one of the Canadians.  That makes more sense lol

 

My question still stands, even though it doesn't apply to you 🙂

I suppose I can still ship directly from China. I saw some PAR38s for sale online - problem is I have no idea what condition the light is in, even though the retailer claims it's brand new. With my local stores, I can always return an item if it is defective, or by the very most swap it out to get a new one. Plus I get to see what I'm buying first, which is a plus. I'm always wary buying from online sources. Too many cases of customers not receiving the correct item or getting anything at all. It's a risk, I suppose. Still unsure if it's one worth taking.

 

As for the US to Canada shipping - is it really very difficult over there? Will shipping by sea rather than flight be a more inexpensive and affordable option? The wait will be longer (months sometimes), but at least the shipping costs will be cheaper, I *think. 

[specore]

20 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

I suppose I can still ship directly from China. I saw some PAR38s for sale online - problem is I have no idea what condition the light is in, even though the retailer claims it's brand new. With my local stores, I can always return an item if it is defective, or by the very most swap it out to get a new one. Plus I get to see what I'm buying first, which is a plus. I'm always wary buying from online sources. Too many cases of customers not receiving the correct item or getting anything at all. It's a risk, I suppose. Still unsure if it's one worth taking.

 

As for the US to Canada shipping - is it really very difficult over there? Will shipping by sea rather than flight be a more inexpensive and affordable option? The wait will be longer (months sometimes), but at least the shipping costs will be cheaper, I *think. 

I don't know honestly.  In the US we don't have much need for Canadian goods (except fossil fuels).  And it probably is cheaper by sea, for no other reason than we are talking about government regulation and shipping by sea being cheaper would make no logical sense what so ever, so it is probably so.  

[Snow_Phoenix]

1, Ever seen a crab moonwalk across your sandbed? 🤣

 

 

As if that wasn't weird enough, he decided to climb my wavemaker too!

 

 

2. Pistol shrimp = ninja shrimp. 😎

 

 

3. Found this fat purple derp camping out in my fugebox last night. Had to pull him out of it today, but thankfully he only ate a few stems of Caulerpa this time. He was NOT happy being released back into the DT. Gave me the grumpy face the whole time.

 

 

 

 

On a non-reefing-related note, there were some nice flowers that bloomed in the garden today morning. It's not everyday I get to see the whole shrub blossom like that. 

 

 

And my littlest eel finally got to see my biggest eel face-to-face (somewhat). 

 

 

 

 

Also have a little bit of sad news. While I was freeing Thanos from the fuge, I found two inverts pinned behind my fugebox - a Nass snail and my sugar cane shrimp. I have no idea how the snail especially, could squeeze in behind there, but they did. The snail made it out alive, the shrimp didn't, unfortunately. Was a bit heartbroken. The sugar cane was a recent purchase and quite cryptic, but I have seen him wandering around the tank late at night. I'm not sure when exactly he slipped in the gap between the box and the back panel of the tank, but he was pinned pretty tightly. With the amount of rocks in the box pressing on him, he could have died the moment he was stuck. So I'm trying to stop this from happening again by fish/invert-proofing the back of the box. I haven't figured out a way yet, but I'm open to any suggestions. 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

I keep forgetting about this thread. 😅

 

Anyhow, here's some quick updates:

 

1. Hector the Hector's goby, unfortunately, passed away almost a week ago. He grew longer, but not plumper. He was a very odd fish - he didn't eat any prepared food from the get-go, and I seldom saw him pecking the rocks (presumably foraging for pods). Eventually, he perished. Miss you, lil' bud.

 

 

2. My remaining inverts are doing quite well. We had a week full of molts - I called it 'molting season' lol, where there were pieces of empty exoskeleton, legs and pincers strewn all over the place. Here's my Saron, who just went through another molt and has gotten bigger already:

 

 

3. My Pistol and Hi-Fin have opened up a new side tunnel under my LR. They plugged the other exit using my purple shroom. 

 

4. My Hi-Fins also dislike my hermits...with blazing passion.

 

 

5. And of course, Thanos is still being his goofy self. Still chowing down on seaweed pellets, and stuffing his face whenever he can.

 

 

6. Oh, and I accidently broke one of the tips of my orange digi. I glued it back at the side of the frag and basically made a fraglet. 

 

 

7. View from my bedroom yesterday, after performing a large 50% WC and cleaning out the filter etc. 

 

 

I've already booked a PAR 38 LED bulb from my LFS. It's 36W and being sold at cost price because it was new, but unused unit. Problem is, I have to buy a E27 flexible gooseneck holder on my own. I've sourced out an online shop that did sell them, but they've run out of holders. Amazon shipping isn't worth it because it's too expensive (the shipping fees alone is more than the item itself). I've tried to source out other vendors with no success. So worse come to worse, I'll get the bulb first and wait for my vendor to restock holders (which might take anywhere between 6 months to a year). I thought of getting an AI Prime. It looks wonderful and would be perfect for this tank, and I would finally be able to keep some better SPS. But the price is too high where I live. Importing it directly from the US is actually cheaper and half of the price offered by LFSes here. So I'll have to give it a miss. 

 

Before I head off, here's my therapy doggo:

 

 

She makes painful days more bearable. Glad to have her with me most of the time. 🐶❤️

 

And if you're into mantis shrimps, I have a new and wonderful gal with me named Zephyra. Catch her build thread here:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Update:

 

I have a mixture of news. This tank is doing alright, but I had to miss last week's WC. The corals do not look happy today without the weekly WC even though I'm maintaining the kH level using a liquid buffer. I had to put all my salty tanks on the backburner because I had a major fungal outbreak in my 70G freshwater tank. I fed my eels a (possibly) bad batch of feeder goldfish, and within three days, my Fire Eel's tail had began to disintegrate rather badly, and his slime coat was sloughing off.

 

 

 

I had to move him to a separate storage bin which doubled as a hospital tank, and thankfully, after a week of quarantine and a treatment of a mix of antibiotics/salt/malachite green, his condition is improving. 

 

 

Freshwater eels usually die when they contract infections. I spend at least an hour or two a day dosing his QT and WCing, and getting rid of any mucus (sloughed off from the body/skin), and feeding him earthworms one at a time to make sure he eats something. It takes a lot of manual work, and with my health dipping at times, it's very difficult. I also had to make sure my major FW DT was treated, because I didn't want to lose any of the animals in there either. I couldn't do much with my mantis shrimp or bedroom tank as a result, except feed the fish lightly and leave the tanks be.

 

The bedroom tank doesn't look too bad - just a few unhappy corals. Somewhere in between all the mess of the two weeks, I did pick up a small Warpaint Green Clown Goby and named him Goblin. He's super tiny at roughly 0.75", and hides under my giant toadstool leather. I only see him at night (usually), because he's so well-hidden):

 

 

 

 

 

So today, by hook or crook, I'm doing a WC on the bedroom tank. Even a small one would do. My skimmer also crapped out yesterday evening, so I need to export any excess nitrate and phosphate as soon as possible. <---- I suspect this is the main reason why my corals are unhappy today morning. 

 

Good news though: I found an E27 holder! Someone diverted me to a local vendor who sells various electronic gadgets and I had a small chat with the seller. The unit is available to be ordered, so I'll be getting it and the PAR38 LED from my LFS. So if all things go well, I'll have a new light in weeks to come. 

 

P.S. I have reason to believe that Ben the Dartfish has passed away. I haven't seen him for a month - that last pic I snapped of him was the last time I saw him. Unless he's been hiding out in my rockwork, (which is a very slim possiblity), I'm not sure how he could have survived without eating anything. I have seen both my Hi-Fins pull pellets and bits of food into their burrows - but I assume they share any morsels with the pistol shrimp, and not the dartfish.

 

So the tank is still overstocked in a way, but thankfully no algae issues. I think the fuge and the (usually!) routine maintenance helped balance things out a lot. 

 

P.P.S. Oh, and kitty on my car:

 

 

My neighbor has six of 'em and one of them loves to visit our porch. 🐱

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Tiny update: Order for E27 bracket/holder placed - waiting for vendor to contact me in return to confirm shipment. I'll drop by the LFS to get the PAR38 LED bulb some time next week - I'm very excited. Also managed to get my skimmer to work again - there was water stuck in the outlet tube - once I squeezed it out and adjusted the position/height of the cup, it's working fine. Corals looked significantly better after I did a massive WC - turns out my salinity dropped to 1.021. I have absolutely no idea how that happened, but there was an unusual amount of salt creep under my HOB filter/back panel of the tank. I took a day bringing the salinity back up to 1.023, then 1.025 this morning. Everything looks happier now.

 

My Warpaint goby also ate for the first time yesterday evening! Quite thrilled, because clown gobies are very finnicky eaters, but mine went after frozen mysis and brine like a champ.

 

Here's a couple of late-night shots of him:

 

 

 

And of course, bad boy Thanos is still his big, goofy self:

 

 

 

My only concern is my blue digi, which isn't doing well, and has lost some flesh. But my orange digi is encrusting and growing very well, and the other corals seem alright. Also, I might eradicate the pink-skirted zoas I bought - it's growing like a weed, and I have a suspicion they're actually palys, and not the good kind. Oh, well. No plans on adding anymore fish (I have more than enough), but will add more coral frags in the future. This time, I'll just scrape the corals off the plugs and glue them to the rocks, rather than gluing the hideous plugs themselves to the rocks. 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Fresh arrival through the mail just a scant few minutes ago:

 

 

 

All I need to do is pick up the bulb from my LFS (I hope it's still there eek). I'll probably pick it up tomorrow or the day after - someone's coming over to service/repair one of the decoders connected to the tv set downstairs, and since I'm the only one at home, I'll need to babysit the dude and make sure he doesn't accidently turn out to be robber or something (one of the hazards living here). 

 

Oh, and tank is otherwise chugging on somewhat alright - my blue digi is regrowing its lost flesh (?) and I'm planning on eradicating the pink-skirted brown Palys I have (really poor choice in introducing it to this tank in the first place). Also, random update-shots:

 

1. Bob II is doing well:

 

 

2.  Goblin the Warpaint Goby is now actively eating NLS pellets as well as frozen food:

 

 3. Caught a rare shot of Thanos phasing out to an almost milky color during night-time:

 

 

4. One of two of my baby yumas is growing out quite well:

 

 

5. The larger Yumas are getting larger too:

 

 

6. My Ornate Leopard Wrasse has gained almost half an inch since I first got him about 2 to 3 months ago:

 

 

7. My giant toadstool leather has aberrant mood swings. Sometimes he's stubby, sometimes he's long and swishy:

 

 

I'm hoping to see improved coral growth and color with the PAR 38. Only time will tell, I suppose. And hopefully this means I'll be able to keep more montis in the future. I find it difficult keeping a mixed reef tank happy, because different types of coral have different requirements in terms of flow, lighting and even nitrates/phosphates. But I'll do my best to keep this system stable for as long as possible.