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Firefish's 10G rimless "The Island" - Tank transferred to 14g bow front


Firefish15

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Well, it's been almost a week, and all of the corals are still alive. Might not seem like much to you more experienced people, but it feels good to me. :lol: 

The mushroom seems to be doing alright where I glued it, low current and light.

The sinularia has not attached to the rock yet, but the polyps are usually extended, and the limbs are upright, not droopy or anything. IMG_20190122_234046850.thumb.jpg.d9faa39796bc1abd483d8eeb06250837.jpg

I actually had a little mishap with the zoas today, accidently knocked them off of their perch while doing a water change. I finally decided to epoxy the frag rock down, so hopefully it stays put now. I may also have accidentally squished a polyp while trying to get the epoxy to hold. :eek: Sorry little buddy. They're pretty much all open again now though. IMG_20190122_234032121.thumb.jpg.3eba5f1ce88561200f280818b7efe536.jpg

 

I also put a background on the tank, just a solid black one. Looks a lot better in my opinion. IMG_20190122_224149995.thumb.jpg.0c2f08dec253378995549b337a6a4ee0.jpg

Next order of business is to pick up a cerith snail or two to help combat the algae that keeps popping up in the sand bed. 

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I got a pair of cerith snails on Wednesday, and they've been roaming around the tank, one mouthful of sand at a time. They're doing well. I think the next animal to get will be a shrimp of some sort. I haven't decided between a peppermint shrimp, a SSCS, a blood red fire shrimp, or a sexy shrimp trio. I'm done adding fish though.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, I did end up getting a shrimp. I went with a peppermint shrimp because they were much cheaper than the other options. It's been sequestered in its little cave most of the time. Got it a few days ago. It does come to my hand for food though, which is pretty cool. Hops onto my fingers and does the little tappy-tap dance with its claws. :happydance:

The sinularia is attaching to the rockwork. It already attached once, but I accidentally dislodged it trying to remove the toothpick. :wacko: I'll give it another shot in a week. I'll have some nice forceps by then, so that should help. The zoas are already making a few new polyps and coloring up a bit more. They love the Reef Roids! The mushroom has been curled over around itself a bit, so I think the current might be too strong where it is. I reduced the powerhead a bit. If it doesn't look better in a few days, I'll try moving the rock to a less lit place.

Everything else is doing decently well. Firefish and YCG are good, snails are all active, hermit crab just molted again. 

I've been dealing with some issues in the sand bed. A few diatoms and a little bit of cyano, but also something else. After some research, I think it might be cladophoropsis algae. I'll have to get some more pictures.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've recently had the pleasure of researching how to deal with Byropsis. I have a few patches that are growing and spreading. I will probably have to dose the tank with Flucanozole.

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Photo update since it's been a while! Corals are mostly doing well. The zoas have some byropsis and cyano growing over a few polyps. Flucanozole is on the way, and I manually removed some growths after the photo. The mushroom has been opening up much more since being placed in a lower-flow area. The peppermint shrimp has molted twice now since I got it. 

 

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I got a few more corals! My LFS got a big shipment of stuff in, so I got a Ricordea mushroom and some utter chaos zoas on Monday. They're all pretty consistently open now. Everyone ate reef roids today. They're sitting in the sand bed for now. I think I want to try some pom-pom xenia next. It's supposed to be less invasive than some other types I've heard.

 

I added a dose of Reef Flux yesterday to combat the byropsis. I used one capsule for my 10g tank. Hopefully I see some results in two weeks. I'd been manually removing it beforehand (might have been the wrong approach), which seemed to be fine for managing it. This stuff is supposed to eradicate it though. Corals, inverts, and fish all look normal. I'll keep you guys posted as the battle progresses.

 

I dropped off my big (~2") nassarius snail off at the LFS. It'd been super lethargic, and I didn't think it was getting enough food. I've still got a small one in the tank though, around 1/2".

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  • Firefish15 changed the title to Firefish's 10G rimless "The Island" - More Corals
  • 2 weeks later...

Well, I'm 10 days into the Reef Flux treatment. So far, the bryopsis seems to be melting. It's been turning white and getting stringy, until it just disintegrates. :naughtydance: There are still a few stubs left, but I've still got 4 days of treatment to go. 

It's been 12 days since the last WC, because I'm not supposed to change water during the treatment. I checked my nitrates, which are a little higher than normal, around 5ppm. I'm also getting some cyano on the sandbed. Overall though, tank seems fine. New corals got moved to their spots and seem happy.

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I've finished the two weeks of Reef Flux. The bryopsis is pretty much gone, just a few little stubs left. If it does revive, I've got 9 more pills to hit it with. 

The tank has gone almost three weeks without a water change, which was a new record for me. Usually, I do one every week or two. However, nothing really showed any ill effects. At one point, there was a little bit of cyanobacteria popping up on the sandbed. It went away before the water change today though. Nitrates reached a high of 5ppm. 

Here's the tank after a good cleaning. 

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1586620095_IMG_20190314_205153643(1).thumb.jpg.e3420ad06c797b2c62e955d6660bce78.jpgI've decided to name the shrimp Greedy McFatface after the latest round of coral feeding. :rant:

 

I also recently ordered a pair of picorox from @NanoRox , so those will be cool to see when they get here! I want to get some more corals that grow pretty fast like pom pom xenia, plus something else. I didn't want to put them on the main rock island though.

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I think this one zoa polyp in the center might be getting ready to undergo longitudinal fission. It's been looking pinched in the center for a few days now. If that's the case, it'll be the first time I've seen it. The rest of the colony growth has been via budding off the mat. Pretty cool!

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Very cool tank you've got over here! Those Zoas look gorgeous. I love your aquascape too; your shrimp seems to love it under that arch! A perfectly natural environment for it to hang out in. Following along!

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27 minutes ago, billygoat said:

Very cool tank you've got over here! Those Zoas look gorgeous. I love your aquascape too; your shrimp seems to love it under that arch! A perfectly natural environment for it to hang out in. Following along!

Thanks for the kind words! I tried to put a lot of thought into the scape. 

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35 minutes ago, billygoat said:

Sooo... what kind of corals are you thinking of getting in the future? 😄

Haha, if you insist. 

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This is my first saltwater tank ever, and I'm sticking with the theme of soft corals. I really enjoy the movement of them compared to SPS, and they're generally more beginner friendly (but still quite beautiful). 

 

I got my Picorox pair from Nanorox! That'll let me introduce some more invasive-ish corals on their own little islands. I was thinking a xenia colony on the rox on the left. It's a low-flow area, so it should hopefully get some nice pulsing action. On the right rox, I'm thinking GSP.

 

I want to get a few more zoa colonies to go with my green ones and the Utter Chaos. Get a nice garden going on the piece of branch rock. On the far left, I want to get some more Discosoma mushrooms to go with my blue-spotted. Then on the front-bottom rock under the arch, I want to get more Ricordeas. On the ledge on the left side, I'm thinking a rhodactis mushroom. On the top right, kind of above the branch rock, I want to get a pipe organ coral. They're kind of an oddball octocoral, which I thought was cool. Up top and center, I want to get a cabbage leather coral, since they tolerate higher light and flow. Hopefully grow it nice and large. 

 

So those are my stocking plans. :lol:

 

They might have to be on hold for a while though because I'm moving in two months. I'm going to try and take my tank with me. It's a eight-hour drive, but I think it'll make it.

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Seems like a great plan to me! I think it's really wonderful that you've gone through all the effort of planning everything out, and I'm sure your tank will look amazing when everything comes together. The aquascape has a great variety of nooks, peaks, shelves and crannies to give you a ton of different positioning options, which is awesome. As for your plans to move, well... if softies can survive 3-day shipping by priority mail (which many of them do with no problems), I think they can certainly handle a measly 8 hour drive without trouble 😄 

 

Those NanoRox are definitely pretty sweet too. I think they are a great innovation for space-limited nanos in particular. The only thing I'd be concerned about is xenia/GSP growing straight off of them and onto the glass, but that can be a great look too if you're into it!

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2 hours ago, billygoat said:

Seems like a great plan to me! I think it's really wonderful that you've gone through all the effort of planning everything out, and I'm sure your tank will look amazing when everything comes together. The aquascape has a great variety of nooks, peaks, shelves and crannies to give you a ton of different positioning options, which is awesome. As for your plans to move, well... if softies can survive 3-day shipping by priority mail (which many of them do with no problems), I think they can certainly handle a measly 8 hour drive without trouble 😄 

 

Those NanoRox are definitely pretty sweet too. I think they are a great innovation for space-limited nanos in particular. The only thing I'd be concerned about is xenia/GSP growing straight off of them and onto the glass, but that can be a great look too if you're into it!

I've noticed a trend in most of the tanks I like. They've all had a good amount of time to mature, starting with small frags and letting them grow in around each other. It makes for a really natural and beautiful display in my opinion. I want to keep this tank running for a long time, at least five years, preferably longer.

 

If the xenia/GSP does make it onto the glass, I'll probably just slice it off with a razor and frag it when it gets large enough. Try and make a little money back that way. I got my green Sinularia frag from a nearby LFS, and the owner recently sold the whole mother colony for $500. It was maybe 8 inches across. He told me to remember him when my frag turns into a nice colony of its own.

 

I didn't know that softies were THAT durable. That's definitely encouraging! :lol:

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  • Firefish15 changed the title to Firefish's 10G rimless "The Island" - I did a thing...

I just got back from Spring Break, cleaned up the tank. My roommate took great care of it while I was gone! The utter chaos zoas have sprouted 5 new heads from the original 4! :biggrin: After a WC, things look great. 

 

I also re-did the background. The tape wasn't doing it for me, so I researched some other ways. I settled on the Vaseline method, and it turned out pretty slick looking. 

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I went to the LFS today and picked up some more coral. Got some xenia, a nice blue mushroom, and the guy threw in a cabbage leather frag for free. Don't have photos of them yet though.

 

And then there was this little guy swimming around in a stock tank...

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Rainford goby. That was one of the fish that I had been researching as the last fish for the tank. The guy at the LFS said it was eating brine and mysis shrimp, and had been in the store for two weeks. It also had a full-looking belly and looked bright and healthy. My nitrates are consistently under 5ppm, so I think the tank can handle the bio-load.

So yes, it was an impulse buy. But a calculated one! fingerscrossed 

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Looking pretty good in there! Having roomates watch your tank can be pretty hit-or-miss, but it looks like yours did a great job while you were gone.

 

Congrats on the Rainford's goby! That's a beautiful fish. Here's hoping he has a long and healthy life ahead of him in your system 🙂

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Here's some photos of the new corals. Apologies for the quality of the xenia and mushroom photos. My phone doesn't like that part of the tank lighting. 

 

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I really love the motion of the xenia. Mesmerizing for me to watch. I'll mount it on a picorox next week sometime.

 

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It looks a lot better in person, I swear... :lol:

 

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I know it's not a fancy color, but I still think the cabbage leather is really pretty. It's a pretty large frag, 2 or 3 inches across. I superglued it to a small rock for now. Getting good polyp extension already! I'll try to set it up top next week, hopefully, I don't cook it.

 

15 hours ago, billygoat said:

Looking pretty good in there! Having roomates watch your tank can be pretty hit-or-miss, but it looks like yours did a great job while you were gone.

I'm really lucky with my roommates. They already took care of it over winter break, and that was for a whole month. They even followed my instructions for a water change 2 weeks in. So one week was no problem. Just paid one with a neat succulent plant, and the other with a Dutch Bros gift card. :happydance:

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9 minutes ago, vegasgundog said:

Hmm, I'll have to check that out. I've got a Moto E4, which isn't quite as high tech. I'll still see if there's a comparable setting though. Thank you for the tip!

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8 hours ago, Firefish15 said:

Hmm, I'll have to check that out. I've got a Moto E4, which isn't quite as high tech. I'll still see if there's a comparable setting though. Thank you for the tip!

I use a pretty janky phone as well (iPhone 6), and I have to say that PolypLab's lens set has helped a lot with my aquarium photography. So that could be another solution if you're willing to drop a bit of cash just to take better photos for your journal thread 😄 

 

Love that cabbage leather. I have seen huge carpets of them growing at work (I work at a public aquarium) and must say that they are quite beautiful... though apparently some aquarists consider them invasive! They say that about every fast-growing softie though, so I wouldn't worry too much about it.

 

And speaking of fast-growing softies... make sure to post some more pics once you get that Xenia up on the PicoRox! I am interested to see how it turns out.

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My girlfriend came over to make dinner for my birthday tonight. She brought a fresh sockeye salmon fillet, so I shaved off a little piece of fresh fish to share with the tank. I tried tempting the Rainford's goby, but he didn't take any. I'll try again tomorrow. The other fish, a lot of the inverts, and some of the corals also enjoyed little pieces of salmon. My blue dot mushroom took around half an hour to choke down a massive piece. :biggrin: Fun to watch. I kept having to chase away the shrimp and nassarius snail though. 

 

I removed the powerhead on the left side of the tank. The mushrooms and ricordea seem to like it better that way, plus I get more pulsing motion from the xenia. 

 

2 hours ago, billygoat said:

So that could be another solution if you're willing to drop a bit of cash just to take better photos for your journal thread 😄

It's on the Amazon list! :lol: I'll just try and wait for a lightning sale. I got my AC70 and a nice grow light for half off by doing that. 

 

2 hours ago, billygoat said:

I have seen huge carpets of them growing at work (I work at a public aquarium) and must say that they are quite beautiful... though apparently some aquarists consider them invasive!

It was part of a rather large colony. And it was free. But hey, it should fill in the top section nicely, and it's not difficult to frag. And yes, definitely beautiful. 🙂

 

2 hours ago, billygoat said:

And speaking of fast-growing softies... make sure to post some more pics once you get that Xenia up on the PicoRox! I am interested to see how it turns out.

WIll do!

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I moved all the corals around yesterday to their new spots. Put the cabbage leather up top, mounted the mushrooms on the left face of the rockwork, mounted the Ricordea just above the sandbed, and put the xenia on the PicoRox. I really like the look of it! Hopefully, I can keep it contained.

 

They all seem pretty happy, except for maybe the blue spotted mushroom. We'll see how long it takes it to open up. 

 

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Left view of the xenia

 

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Front view of the xenia

 

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Left side of the tank (notice the two mushrooms, one shrunken down)

 

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FTS

 

Next step is to get some pipe organ coral, more Rics, more zoanthids, more mushrooms, and another kind of invasive-ish coral for the other PicoRox. Maybe GSP or yellow polyps. 

 

I've thought about getting a toadstool leather, but I think I'd run out of room pretty quickly. Not sure yet though.

 

Not really having much luck getting the Rainford's goby to eat. I think I'll try and trap him, then put some food in with him. The shrimp doesn't make it any easier, always snatches up food immediately. 

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  • Firefish15 changed the title to Firefish's 10G rimless "The Island" - Tank transferred to 14g bow front

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