Paneubert's 40G Breeder - Round 2

[paneubert]

Box-O-Anemones delivered to my work this morning.  Been sitting and staring at it all day waiting to go home.  About half an hour left.  Sure to post some photos tonight, even if just so I can see how far they move themselves.  Would be fun to have a starting reference photo and then take a photo from the same exact perspective daily until they settle in.

[paneubert]

 

Sorry if some of these look like duplicates.  I was trying to focus on different nems in the tank, so some photos might just be slightly different focal lengths.

 

 

And then the full tank shot......pretty much all that hair algae came out of nowhere.  It was a light green sheen on the rocks last night with maybe a few tiny strands growing, and then.....that massive growth pretty much overnight.

 

 

To try to combat that algae I pulled my fairly fresh carbon from the reactor and added about a third cup of GFO to it.  Mixed it with the carbon and rinsed it really well and then put back in the reactor.  Seems to be one of the more successful methods according to BRS since the GFO doesn't harden into a solid chunk when mixed with the carbon.  Also doesn't need to tumble (for the same reason, doesn't need to tumble to prevent hardening), which I prefer since I imagine the normally tumbling GFO does create some fine dust that I don't want in my tank.  Drawback being I will be "wasting" some GFO since it wont exhaust as fast as the carbon.  But that is ok.

[paneubert]

Already lost one into the back of the rockwork  The one I suspected was not doing well with attachment.  I managed to grab him with my grabber, but don't really know what to do with him so he is currently just sort of sitting on sand near the rockwork.  Maybe he will find a way to attach overnight.  Lights are already out for the night.

 

Seen a few others start to move around as well.  The one that is mostly purple has migrated under a ledge (of course he did.....).  Ohh well.  I have no idea what I will see in the morning.

[skyscraper2290]

That’s a lot of nems! Where did you order them from? They look great

[paneubert]

4 minutes ago, skyscraper2290 said:

That’s a lot of nems! Where did you order them from? They look great

AquaSD Ebay auction.  I did not pay anywhere near retail price when you average it out over how many I "won".  That is all I will say.  Haha.  If you are ever in the market, the Maxi-Mini nems don't seem to be what people are fighting over during their weekly 200+ frag auctions that AquaSD runs.  Yeah, they are almost all the common "green" variants, but it is ok with me.

 

This was my second auction from them.  The first one was.....2 weeks ago?  3?  I got 3 nems from that one just for fun to see what they would look like.  They came in a little lighter in color than these did, but they also came with "lighter" names attached.  Things like "frost" or whatever.  Even with them being "frosty", they have lost a lot of color in my tank.  I am really hoping it is just shipping stress and the change in lighting and all that.  I bet you can tell from the photos which ones they are.....  They are the bleached ones.  

[paneubert]

Well...... 2 are behind the rockwork as of this morning. The one that had attachment issues, and another bigger one that seems to like to wander. I am torn about whether I want to mess with them and force them to settle out front, or if I leave them there to see if they settle in long term. I suppose if they are happy then I can let them grow a bit and then try to get them out of there in a few weeks/months. Mostly I want to make sure they get enough light. I guess I will leave them and then if I see them bleach then I might try to rescue them.  The lights have not come on for the day yet, so I am not sure how much they will get.

 

Will see after work I guess!

[specore]

3 minutes ago, paneubert said:

Well...... 2 are behind the brickwork as of this morning. The one that had attachment issues, and another bigger one that seems to like to wander. I am torn about whether I want to mess with them and force them to settle out front, or if I leave them there to see if they settle in long term. I suppose if they are happy then I can let them grow a bit and then try to get them out of there in a few weeks/months. Mostly I want to make sure they get enough light. I guess I will leave them and then if I see them bleach then I might try to rescue them.  The lights have not come on for the day yet, so I am not sure how much they will get.

 

Will see after work I guess!

They're pretty much gonna do what they please.  In my experience these guys will eventually settle down, and once they do will not move again.  

[paneubert]

2 minutes ago, specore said:

They're pretty much gonna do what they please.  In my experience these guys will eventually settle down, and once they do will not move again.  

Why does it have to be the good looking ones!  Haha. 

[A Little Blue]

It took weeks b4 my RFA settled down. They haven’t moved since. 

[paneubert]

3 minutes ago, A Little Blue said:

It took weeks b4 my RFA settled down. They haven’t moved since. 

Yeah. I need to let them do their thing. I think you said you have the same red/yellow RFA that I have?  I moved/rotated the rock that he was on last night since he was shoved mostly in the sand and hard to see, and by this morning he had already moved himself back down where he is hard to see again. Haha. So even when they are attached and stable for weeks, even rotating a rock with them already attached seems to provoke a response...

[A Little Blue]

1 hour ago, paneubert said:

Yeah. I need to let them do their thing. I think you said you have the same red/yellow RFA that I have?  I moved/rotated the rock that he was on last night since he was shoved mostly in the sand and hard to see, and by this morning he had already moved himself back down where he is hard to see again. Haha. So even when they are attached and stable for weeks, even rotating a rock with them already attached seems to provoke a response...

I was worried about my two RFA at the beginning. For one, they walked a lot. And bc they seemed to walk away from the light and stay in the shadow or under a rock for days. 

One day, all that changed. Yellow one found his place at the middle of the tank and red one fallowed him there a few days later. 

PS 

Yellow/green one is true yellow under heavy blues. My tank is somewhere between 10,000K-15000K throughout the day so not much yellow for this neme to really shine. 

 

[paneubert]

SInce a lot of the hair algae is on my big rock that I can easily remove from the tank,  I decided to take it out and squirt it with a spray bottle of hydrogen peroxide.  Just to see if I can kill it off.  Seems it is supposed to take a day or two before it dies back.  So it is a waiting game.  Phosphates read zero'ish, but you know how that goes....the API test kit isn't super accurate for the lower ranges and the algae is probably eating up the phosphates in there.  I also have not fed the corals in a couple days, so it also could be that the GFO I added a couple days ago and the existing algae recently took the phosphates lower and I am now in a period where I need to just kill the algae that already grew.  We will see!  Hopefully it dies back so I can feel more comfortable gluing some corals to that big rock.  Until then, I hesitate to attach anything to it in case I need to take it out for another peroxide spray.

 

On another note, my second batch of fish was supposed to deliver today.  But the tracking is still showing it in California, where it was shipped from.  Estimated delivery was noon, and the shipping status at 1 PM still showed it in California......I am in Washington.  So I am just hoping they missed a scan or something and it will deliver today even though it appears to be hundreds of miles away.  If not.....I guess it wont deliver till Monday?  And will sit on my porch all day while I am at work.  Hope they all make it....

[paneubert]

Well.....UPS was of no help.  They basically said, "you can see the same tracking as us".  This is after 5 PM with the tracking still saying "On Time" and the delivery date/time is noon today.....and the last scan was in California last night right before midnight........

 

So I guess I will expect the box Monday?  Tuesday?  And it will be at my house sitting on the porch all day....if they even leave it without a signature.  UPS was of no help when I asked if I could redirect it to my work address (not that it would help much other than keeping it in a more moderate temperature).  They said "sure, we can change the delivery address, but that will add another day to the shipping".  They claim they can't redirect it until it is at the final destination, and that will add another day.  

 

So...... guess I am happy that the seller has a 14 day live guarantee.  I have a feeling I might end up using that.

[A Little Blue]

Sorry to hear that. Seller might give you a refund on livestock but I’m not sure about shipping cost. If it was next day or 2nd day delivery that was missed by UPS, you might be able to get your shipping cost from UPS. 

[paneubert]

14 hours ago, A Little Blue said:

Sorry to hear that. Seller might give you a refund on livestock but I’m not sure about shipping cost. If it was next day or 2nd day delivery that was missed by UPS, you might be able to get your shipping cost from UPS. 

Yeah, it is a bummer.  This is from Live Aquaria, so they are pretty nice people.  I called today (apparently they do answer the phones Sunday, another plus for Live Aquaria) and they will refund me the $15 Saturday delivery fee.  And then of course if I get a box of dead fish they will refund the cost of the fish.  They said they dont require signature for delivery, so it really will be sitting on my front porch from (if I trust their latest delivery estimate) before noon on Monday until around 5 PM.  Guess that isn't that much "extra" time in the overall timeline.  Haha.

 

Guess where the tracking system says my box of fish is right now?  Can you guess?  Frickin' Louisville, KY.  Something went really wrong there.....haha.  It shipped from LA in California, went north further into the state to what I assume is some sort of shipping hub for UPS, got lost, and is now in frickin' Kentucky.....  Should have been a straight shot up the West Coast....

[paneubert]

Hair algae is bleaching on the rock that I sprayed, so that is cool.  Sucks that it is on other rocks as well though.  Haha.

 

In other news, I have the best luck with snails in my overflow.  Don't know what they find so attractive about crawling all the way into my overflow, then into the tube.....

 

This is the third one in as many days.

 

[A Little Blue]

Louisville, KY is in fact one of the largest UPS hubs. Probably the largest air hub in the country. Next day/overnight/2nd day deliveries are guaranteed and you should get refund or credit for it. Make sure to take pics of the box and content on the day of a delivery. They might ask for it. 

Weather or misplaced package are usually the reason for missed delivery date. Even if the package didn’t make the “wave” (number of planes leaving say ... in the morning) they will try to redirect it to another airport to make that delivery on time. Even if they are overwhelmed by volume (usually happens during peak season with heavy demands from Am@zon) they would rent the plans/crew to make it work. Those packages are always a priority so I know that they try get it on time. 

Hope you get your fish soon. 👍

[YHSublime]

Those are some nice Maxi Mini's. Live Aquaria has a good system setup, they'll take care of you, and cant really account for poor shipping practices once it's out of their hands. It always sucks though. 

[paneubert]

2 hours ago, YHSublime said:

Those are some nice Maxi Mini's. Live Aquaria has a good system setup, they'll take care of you, and cant really account for poor shipping practices once it's out of their hands. It always sucks though. 

Yeah, I don't fault them, and I am sure the 14 day live guarantee will be super easy to justify if any die, even 13 days from delivery.  I will just say "take a look at the tracking info".

 

Box-O-Fish are currently in Portland Oregon.  So they couldn't even fly them from Kentucky to Seattle direct apparently.  I wonder if they will come to Seattle next, or somewhere else.

 

 

[paneubert]

Can you tell which rock I sprayed with Hydrogen Peroxide?  Hahaha.

 

 

And here are some shots of the two Maxi-Minis who decided to live BEHIND my rocks.  Luckily my tank is away from the wall, so I can easily view it from the side.

 

 

[skyscraper2290]

Love all the nems! I would really like a maxi-mini but my tank is a bit too small. One of my LFS has sexy shrimp and would love to get the combo. 

 

That main rock is sure looking better, are you watching your parameters closely after the peroxide spray? Curious if you are worried about any type of die off. Whats your plan for the rest of the rocks? 

[paneubert]

19 minutes ago, skyscraper2290 said:

Love all the nems! I would really like a maxi-mini but my tank is a bit too small. One of my LFS has sexy shrimp and would love to get the combo. 

 

That main rock is sure looking better, are you watching your parameters closely after the peroxide spray? Curious if you are worried about any type of die off. Whats your plan for the rest of the rocks? 

Nems are fun!  When they stay where you want them!

 

Peroxide degrades into water and oxygen, so I am not worried about that part.  As for the die off from the rock, not super worried about that either.  I did not have anything really growing on it other than the algae, so that is all that should spike anything.  I have my skimmer going, and the carbon/GFO in the reactor.  So I don't expect to see much negative stuff happen.  I basically took the rock out and sprayed it, then dumped a bunch of water over it to rinse.  None of the corals seemed to react at all when I put it back in, so all seems ok.  It really did bleach the rock though, didn't it?  I feel like it got more white as time went on.  When I was actively spraying, it did not bleach the algae or anything.  Still was nice and green when I put the rock back in the tank.  It is like the effects were delayed a while.  

 

As for the other rocks.......don't plan to do anything other than hope the algae dies back or is eaten by the crew over time.  A little manual removal where it gets thick enough to grab.  I only did the rock that I did since it was easy to remove.  Wishful thinking that it just dies back over time and is simply there currently due to me feeding the corals heavy in a still young tank.  That is what I am hoping happened.  If it keeps growing.....maybe some sort of blackout combined with some big water changes or something.

[paneubert]

Tracking keeps bouncing between 10:30 AM and noon delivery.  UPS also taunted me by offering a link to live tracking of the truck on a map, but the link is non-functional.

 

But....late breaking news, my doorbell camera just rang as I was writing this post and I see a UPS truck driving away....can't see the box they left.  Have not gotten a notice it was delivered yet either.  So maybe?

 

Yep. 

 

09/24/2018 - 9:21 A.M. - DELIVERED

 

So now I wait until I can leave work.

[skyscraper2290]

Hope everything is still alive!

[paneubert]

Check out my new coral guys!  It looks.....clean?

Trigger warning......melted fish.....

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

 

 

Surprisingly the Coral Beauty is alive, and so are the two damsels.  Guess I am not as surprised about the damsels......haha..