Jack's 10 year old 20g Tall

[jservedio]

About a week ago I noticed an oval white lesion on the left side of my wrasse and he started resting all of the time except for feeding time, and lost some weight since he wasn't grazing - I thought for sure his time was up, especially after the eye incident and and the fact he is pushing 10 - he's basically the Bilbo Baggins of melanurus wrasse.

 

But, as always, he started bouncing back and getting very active again and it looked like the white spot was fading! However, as it faded, it left the the outline of the wound he suffered - a half-moon in exactly the same shape and size as my female clown's mouth...I also know from extensive personal experience this exact wound, seeing and feeling it on my forearms dozens of times - that unmistakable half-moon bleeding wound, now clearly imprinted into the side of my wrasse.

 

It's a blurry cell phone picture since he's back to being active and slightly turned, but it's pretty clear what happened here...

[jservedio]

Figured since I'm doing so much scaping and asking for people's help with it, I thought I'd break out the old DSLR and take a new FTS to work off of before making more changes tomorrow or Friday. What I'm going to do this week is chisel off the purple stylo above the green favia on the left and move it to the new island I created for the green stylo. I'm also going to move the green and red blasto onto the island that the big purple blasto is on and move the red palys along with some green zoas in between the favia and echinata. Eventually I'll fill in this area with a few ricordeas.

 

That will leave me that big alcove and corner above the favia and echinata to put some new corals! I am thinking of getting a setosa above the echinata and some sort of smooth skin deep water acro in the corner.

 

Those nems are also getting out of control - might be time to sell one, too. Anyone got a few rolls of paper towels they want to trade for a 4" nem?

 

 

[jservedio]

While I had the DSLR out I got a new macro of the Bowerbankii along with some of the new heads it's growing! It's now up to 12 heads and bigger than my fist. I really do wish it  grew faster in my tank though.

 

[mitten_reef]

4 minutes ago, jservedio said:

While I had the DSLR out I got a new macro of the Bowerbankii along with some of the new heads it's growing! It's now up to 12 heads and bigger than my fist. I really do wish it  grew faster in my tank though.

 

amazing piece!!  I found that my micro lord grow at warp speed when fed meaty food like mysis, similar may apply here?  

[jservedio]

11 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

amazing piece!!  I found that my micro lord grow at warp speed when fed meaty food like mysis, similar may apply here?  

Thank you! I feed it about once a week with the nems and any other LPS that happen to be in feeding mode. It's been putting down a lot of skeleton. Since I moved it off of the sand and onto a bathroom tile, it's kind of floating up in the air and has a lot of filling in to do with it's skeleton.

 

My goal is to have it grown down to touching the tile by October, or at least close, so when I get a new tank that's an extra 6-8" deep I'll be able to find a fairly flat and downwardly sloping rock and dremel out a perfect tile shape into and mount it.

[jservedio]

Well everything is moved to its final place - once things are settled I'll break out the DSLR. Every single time my hand goes in the tank I frag something... Anyone local want to trade a roll of paper towels for a WWC Yellow Tips frag?

 

[lizzyann]

I love that bowerbanki! That's been one of my dream-list corals. I got a speckled one a while ago and it has sloooooowly continued receding. It's the only coral in my tank that hasn't been doing well for a long time so I decided maybe it wasn't meant to be and not to try again, but dang, yours makes me want to give it another shot.

[jservedio]

53 minutes ago, lizzyann said:

I love that bowerbanki! That's been one of my dream-list corals. I got a speckled one a while ago and it has sloooooowly continued receding. It's the only coral in my tank that hasn't been doing well for a long time so I decided maybe it wasn't meant to be and not to try again, but dang, yours makes me want to give it another shot.

Thanks! Do you know why it's receding or any ideas why? Mine's in low light sitting on the sandbed and partially shaded, it gets a pretty hefty amount of flow, and gets fed every couple of weeks. One thing that did help was mounting it on a tile (just a $2 ceramic bathroom tile turned upside down) so that it isn't getting irritated by sand or being shifted around preventing it from fully opening. IME they are pretty easy to keep since the giant polyps with no spacing between them makes it pretty hard for algae or other irritants to get in there. They can also murder almost any other coral that gets near them and can eat any CuC members that irritate them like crabs or shrimp, so not much gets to them. They love dirty water, too.

 

I think a big part of why it does well is because it started as a small frag from a well-established colony that had been in captivity for a while. I got mine from Scott at Unique Corals back in 2014. I know he sold the mother colony mine came from years ago, but you can check see if he has anything similar - he seems to get them from time to time.

[jservedio]

Everything is now mounted where it belongs and I have a little bit of space up top for one more acro slightly above where the purple stylo used to be, space for some zoa frags to fill in, and I've got plenty of room for my ricordea garden down low. Here is what the new and updated sections look like.

 

The blasto garden now that I've got everything mounted. The green blasto is much bigger and happier now that it's got room, but the red blasto has a lot of growing to do!

 

 

The new stylo island is glued into place and tucked down below my monti island with plenty of room. The rock that I pulled from the back of the tank had some zoas growing on it already, so I am thinking I might toss some nice zoas in the empty space on the right side of the rock. Either that or a cool chalice. I also mounted my toadstool leather down there as well and it's happier now that it's not getting pounded with flow. Maybe now it'll actually grow some.

 

 

After chiseling off the purple stylo, it looks like I'll have room for one nice acro - definitely want to go with a deepwater here. I also mounted two zoa frags that I had floating around the tank (the green zoas are all kinds off mad from being in the back of my tank for a few years) and hopefully they look happier in the next few months. I think I'll throw one more zoa/paly frag below the red zoas on the top rock instead of trying to jam another SPS coral here. I think the zoas filled in the spot where the acans were, and they will stand up much better to the LPS without getting stung. The favia is already growing faster with the lords gone.

 

 

And, just for fun, here's what all the SPS up top that you can't see in the FTS shots look like since they are blocked by the big tort. Slow going, but they look good!

[banasophia]

Oh nice, I love your background, and very beautiful tank! I’ll have to look through when I have more time!! 

[jservedio]

39 minutes ago, banasophia said:

Oh nice, I love your background, and very beautiful tank! I’ll have to look through when I have more time!! 

Thanks! It's still a weird mix of small frags and bigger, really old corals that just refused to die throughout my moves. I'm hoping it looks pretty good in about 6 months now that I'm done rearranging and can get one more acro and a couple more zoas/palys so the left side looks complete and fills back in. Just in time to break it down and upgrade for it's 10th birthday.

 

I still sometimes wonder what I was thinking with most of my placements - I've got all of these contrasting colors and shapes available with the corals I have and I just make clumps that are all the same color. Next time!

[A.m.P]

Secret OCD color sorting?

 

I think your layout looks great though lol, can't get over that bowerbanki it's just gorgeous.

[jservedio]

42 minutes ago, Amphrites said:

Secret OCD color sorting?

 

I think your layout looks great though lol, can't get over that bowerbanki it's just gorgeous.

Maybe, but I've been spending the better part of 2 years planning out my upgrade so I'm definitely not making that mistake again! I'm either going with an SCA-45 (24x20x20) or the new IM 50-INT (24x24x20) since they won't take up any extra floor space since my 20g sits 6" from the wall with the HOB overflow and my stand pokes out another 3" in front of the tank. My current tank was built with zero experience and just bought crap as I went along (at least I bought a good light!), so I have so many mistakes that I won't be making this time. It definitely won't be looking like a mad scientists experiment. I'm going to stick with the two main island theme, but I'm taking the left island and ripping everything except that favia off and positioning my awesome right-side island in front of it then filling the left open gap with more acros. Left column will be all new and I'll be able to build it on dry land with dry rock and it'll be a little taller with acros up top and LPS down bottom. I'm going to leave a nice circle in the middle for my nem island that I'm going to ring with RFAs and Mini-Maxis. All my nasty echinatas are getting their own island and I'm copying lizzyann's lord island idea with nothing on the sand directly. I got the go-ahead from my wife to start building for my tanks 10th anniversary (which coincides with our 6th anniversary!), so I'll have anew build thread pretty soon.

 

And yeah, that bowerbankii is a total showpiece and by far the nicest thing in my tank other than maybe my yellow mini-maxi. So strange that my two highest-end pieces were either free, or bought incredibly cheaply as a brown blob.

 

BTW - you need some new FTS for your 20!

[Spencer7]

I could see this being TOTM this year...

WWC acro looks nice

[jservedio]

57 minutes ago, Spencer7 said:

I could see this being TOTM this year...

WWC acro looks nice

Wow, thanks! Maybe later, but definitely not quite yet. It's still a mess after all the changes with big empty spots and frags scattered about. If I can wrap it all up and manage to keep it going on track with our first baby coming in the next couple weeks, just maaaaybe for its 10th birthday!

[A.m.P]

Lol, I've been in the middle of a long upgrade on the 20 for a while. Can't get the tank right now b/c distributors are closed, I may end up building one myself if I can.

I really should get a few shots thrown together as an update though, it has been too long - kept planning on having things wrapped up and moved but having things come up XD

[Spencer7]

17 hours ago, jservedio said:

Wow, thanks! Maybe later, but definitely not quite yet. It's still a mess after all the changes with big empty spots and frags scattered about. If I can wrap it all up and manage to keep it going on track with our first baby coming in the next couple weeks, just maaaaybe for its 10th birthday!

Get everything the way you want it. Distribute colors, fill in any holes, give corals some space...than hands-off for six months with a good routine! E-Z 

[jservedio]

Well, looks like yet another change of plans for my tank... The Mini-Maxis decided to go for a short walk like they do every month or so for a few inches since the RBTAs were getting too close and that prompted the RBTAs to go into explosion mode and are now about 30% bigger in just two weeks (not all growth, just expanded way more). Those Mini-Maxis are going to have to be moved - probably where I planned on putting the new acro since I've got nowhere else.

 

To anyone who wants to put an RBTA in their nano - just be prepared! They are going to get out-of-control huge in just a few years. Here is what they are doing now, just two years after the last split where they were about 2" and 1.5" across respectively. When fully expanded, they stretch from the back glass to the front glass and are just a couple inches from my acros on the left island!

 

[jservedio]

So, clearly I've been missing a lot in camera technology in the last 13 years... these are just some test shots before I really got a chance to get my settings and preferences down in the camera, but holy crap...

 

Handheld shot of my right island with all the fish

 

 

The WWC Castell's Banana frag I've got just looks like a green speck in my FTS, but it's pretty incredible up close:

 

 

 

Same thing with my Red Robin Stag - the colors are great, but it gets overshadowed by the Yellow Tips all the time since it's small and I broke it in half a while ago by accident:

 

 

My Platygyra also looks like a purple lump in my FTS, but again, it's pretty nice for a $10 bargain bin coral from 7 or 8 years ago

 

 

My Blasto Island now that it's in place and expanded:

 

 

My big favia with lots of room to grow after going into beast mode:

 

My acans will hopefully recover from their battle with the favia above now that they are on a tile and far from danger

 

And last, but not least, had to get a close in macro of my ding dang palys

 

[jservedio]

Chalice Day! Here's a picture of an unnamed el-cheapo chalice I picked up at the LFS a while back as a small speck for $10 to fill in and it's been coloring up nice.

 

 

And, can't forget my stunner that's been growing quite fast!

[jservedio]

Normally I only put up an FTS every 2-3 months, but since I got everything rearranged and glued down I figured it was warranted. Plus, it gives me an excuse to play around with the new camera anyway! Also, first time I've done an oblique shot of the tank, hope you enjoy.

 

 

[jservedio]

With a week old baby, I probably won't be taking as many pictures of my reef, but here's a couple I took today.

 

Here is a progress picture of my BC Boomberry acro that I got a little over a year ago:

 

And here is my POTM Submission:

[mitten_reef]

Congrats on the new baby!  Catch some sleep 😄

[jservedio]

9 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

Congrats on the new baby!  Catch some sleep 😄

Thanks! I really appreciate it.

 

I've been looking all over for a deepwater acro that isn't exactly the same colors as my other acros and just can't find one. I'm just going to go with my 2nd favorite acro and slap a big ol red planet in the hollow where those green dragon eyes are. Should look good assuming I can keep it alive. They've sort of been the bane of my existence for no reason at all.

[mitten_reef]

3 minutes ago, jservedio said:

Thanks! I really appreciate it.

 

I've been looking all over for a deepwater acro that isn't exactly the same colors as my other acros and just can't find one. I'm just going to go with my 2nd favorite acro and slap a big ol red planet in the hollow where those green dragon eyes are. Should look good assuming I can keep it alive. They've sort of been the bane of my existence for no reason at all.

My red planet took about 3 years to warm up to my tank, 🤣. It kept encrusting for the longest time, didn’t shoot up any branches until this last two years