Joe's IM 20: Got a couple clowns, call it a circus 🎪

[Joevember]

Well boy howdy, do I miss posting actual content on this website. I was very tired of just lurking around and occasionally identifying an aiptasia for someone on the ID thread (It's always aiptasia). 

Anywho, I finally got back from Northwestern and it looks like I'll have online classes for the next three months, so I'll be at home with the tank more, but the best part is, they charge the same tuition for not even being on campus! Amazing, thanks again, Corona!...

 

Now the tank. I don't really feel like scrubbing the glass down with a razor blade tonight so I just took underwater pics and others to do a before and after I clean it up. The caretaker doesn't scrub the glass anymore- too much work - so calcified algae builds up pretty thick in there. They found out the snails eat it so they've just been "feeding the snails too."

Here are the pictures as promised:

And a big photobomb

Here's what the tank looks like right now (for comparison after I clean it, I swear)

 

One final thing, the baby euphyllia look to be some torch corals! I almost thought someone moved one to the spot where it was because it has almost tripled in size. If you haven't been keeping up with the thread (I don't blame you, I haven't either 😬) I had some unknown hitchhiker polyps that turned out to be some lil' torches 🔥

[Joevember]

Here's the tank after I cleaned it up a bit.

The population of bristleworms has gone up quite a bit, every time I move a frag on the sand there's a bunch that go burrowing into the sand. The corals all look healthy though, and the symphyllia has grown in some new ridges. The YCG sits on it all day, but I can't get my phone in close enough to take a picture of him without spookin him.

The duncans grew out their tentacles, but they've lost some color. They are kind of out of range of the light, so it makes sense.

[Joevember]

Look at the size of these boys.

The bubble is shredding through 4 different corals around it. I caught it this morning (not really morning since I wake up at  2pm) engulfing the leptoseris. It never really got too aggressive with it before, but now a big part is all white and dead now. 

I might sell a rock on the right side to make some room for some big LPS to take up more sandbed. I also think it would be nice to give the lobos some more light, because they are browning out and could use some love.

[Joevember]

Just found a hermit that found a way to get on top of the acro that's mounted on the back wall. It must've jumped from the stylophora, which is about an inch away from the closest part. Never know how they end up in these kinds of places.

[Joevember]

Nothing really new other than the cyphastrea got sold finally. I think I'm gonna go through on the idea of selling the rocks on the right, I'd keep a torch or two though. I' also going to get a new ATO real soon, the osmolator overfilled again and I still don't know why. I think I'm going with the XP aqua duetto since it's kinda cheap and seems good. Anyone have any recommendations for an ATO? I've only ever used the JBJ one and the osmolator.

Anyways here's some pics:

 

[Joevember]

Lil goby died. He got himself ensnared in the symphyllia, where he liked to sit. I only found him because there were two hermit crabs on top of the coral, and when I took them off they were both holding onto the little guy. He lost some color recently as well.

Rest in peace Meek Gills... 

[Joevember]

Looked through my old photos and found a picture of the symphyllia. It was extending so little that I had thought it was a trachy. It's amazing what the right conditions will do for a coral.

[Joevember]

Started on the redesign/rock moving earlier. I fragged off the last torch of the front rock on the left. It's like 4 heads in a single cluster. Don't really know where it'll go. 

I put all the starfish and encrusting clams from this rock back in the tank. I left the dozens of fireworms on it. I thought I would sell the rock since it has so much coralline algae, but it's only like 2 lbs and I don't feel like prepping some saltwater to leave it in before I get rid of it.

This is what the tank looks like now:

As you can clearly see, I kicked up a lot of sand moving the rock out. After this I thought since it's already so cloudy I might as well move some more stuff so I moved the lobos to the back left and the cynarina and symphllia to the left a couple inches. I don't know the placement for the last rock I'll have on the left yet.

I tried to draw out my tank design idea, but it turns out that my coral drawing abilities are poor, so I'm back to using words... My plan is to move the big rock center stage and fill in the space it will leave with the acans and possibly zoas. 

I'll be moving stuff around soon, and if you have any ideas for me, please let me know because I don't really know what direction I'll take.

[Joevember]

I forgot to put the rock somewhere when I wrote the update and now my basement smells even worse than normal. Ya never miss the smells of reefing when you're away 🤮

[Joevember]

Bubbley :3

Been doing some more redecorating tonight as well...

[Joevember]

What do ya think?

For some reason my skimmer started spitting out bubbles after I turned it off for a WC. Real bruh moment

[Joevember]

Decided to dunk my phone in the water to snap these pics. Gotta love water resistant tech!

[WV Reefer]

4 minutes ago, Joevember said:

Decided to dunk my phone in the water to snap these pics. Gotta love water resistant tech!

Corals are looking really good. 😊

[Joevember]

One of my favorite things to do is take macro shots of coral to use for my wallpaper on my phone, I think it's one of the coolest perks of reef-keeping.. Here are a few of my favorites that I've got:

 

[Joevember]

The 'ol reactor pump for the biopellets stopped pumpin' water. Tried a vinegar bath and cleaning, but it seemed content not working after all the help I gave it. 

Also running low on frozen food for the two clowns I got in the circus. I usually get it from my LFS but I have no clue if they do normal hours during qt.

[Joevember]

Just cleaned up the aquamaxx hob 1.5 skimmer the first time since I bought it. It's been blowing out bubbles for the past month whenever it's on and I finally decided to clean it up, along with my whole basement after that. I had random buckets of year old saltwater lying around with a bunch of detritus, and I'm getting a dog next week, so I didn't want her getting sick... 

Anyway I took it apart and found the whole air line filled with salt creep, there were vermetid snails everywhere, there were 5 limpet shells in the bubble wheel, and a layer of detritus settled at the bottom of the skimmer body. I just plugged it back in and it's skimming so much smoother 👌 Nice bubble froth building up in the collection funnel for the sludge bucket to catch. 

Work and other hobbies have been keeping me away from the tank, I'll try not to neglect the tank as much as I have been.

[Joevember]

Took a top down shot because I'm too lazy to clean the glass again.

The skimmer is working so much better than before, still some bubbles coming out of the return though. I threw a pad of filter floss in the rear chamber by the skimmer, so hoofully it'll catch some of the microbubbles.

Also I met the future dog today, her name is Ellie. One of the greatest great danes.

[Christopher Marks]

Great colors @Joevember!

 

Congrats on your new doggo too! ❤️ 

[Keewie]

I really love the colors of your tank. The blues and teals are just so calming.

 

And your new puppy is adorable. Huge kudos for adopting. We ended up adopting a 2 year old great dane/lab mix that looks similar. For some reason I thought the great dane part would mellow out the lab part. I was wrong, but we love him lol

[Joevember]

3 hours ago, Keewie said:

I really love the colors of your tank. The blues and teals are just so calming.

 

And your new puppy is adorable. Huge kudos for adopting. We ended up adopting a 2 year old great dane/lab mix that looks similar. For some reason I thought the great dane part would mellow out the lab part. I was wrong, but we love him lol

We're really excited to finally have a dog back in the house! After we finished the adoption work 2 more people we know decided to take after us and adopt too 😄

The foster owner said we should get the XXL crate for her, and it takes up half of the room I used to use for 'fish stuff' storage. I think it's a little too big... (guitar for scale)

The package it came in was also 100lbs, and very hard to set up with low ceilings 😁

Here's the monster from this morning. I promise to post more tank stuff next week!

[Joevember]

I've been working on cable management, but after organizing a few it seems like futile effort. Too much going on in the stand as it is. I envy the reefers who plan out their tank and stand so thoroughly before adding any water. After you got everything set up it's very tricky to change after.

Here are the pics as I promised, dog has been taking up too much time, and my fish are very jealous of the treatment I give her. Also had to wait a day for the water to clear up after cleaning the glass, really should've done a water change right after, but again heindsight is 20/20. 

 

And my favorite girl 😄

Got some big jowls 😆

[Joevember]

Also both the GSP and acro on the back wall are expanding at a good rate. I cut the GSP when it got a little too close last time. Is there any chance that the GSP could grow over the acro? IME acros are pretty good at coral warfare/defence, but I wanted some input on this.

[Elizabeth94]

Tank looks great. That green bubble coral is probably my favorite in there. 
 

I hear you in wire management. I planned out a lot and have a separate cabinet for equipment. However the wires that run from the display to the cabinet are just a mess you can’t see. Makes equipment maintenance hard when I want to pull out anything from my sump. 

[Elizabeth94]

Oh- and congrats on the new family member. Dogs are the best. 

[Christopher Marks]

On 7/4/2020 at 5:17 PM, Joevember said:

Also both the GSP and acro on the back wall are expanding at a good rate. I cut the GSP when it got a little too close last time. Is there any chance that the GSP could grow over the acro? IME acros are pretty good at coral warfare/defence, but I wanted some input on this.

How's the battle going this week? I bet they're getting close now!

 

Don't feel too bad about cable management! If it's all working fine, why rock the boat? 🙂 

 

We'll need some doggy updates too! 😄