Fusion 20...March Update

[billygoat]

What kind of flatworms are you dealing with? If they are alcoel flatworms (little red and yellowish guys that crawl around on the rocks, sand, and glass) I can tell you that they're actually quite harmless. Ugly, but harmless. I've had them in my tank for quite some time as well, and have kind of just come to terms with them. 

[TatorTaco]

I've compared my worms online and it appears I have planaria worms.  😞  

 

I think my tank is too small for a (fish) predator to combat them. 

[TatorTaco]

Guess who has 2 thumbs and an order of 8 SPS frags to be delivered tomorrow?  THIS GUY!

I'm super excited and scared at the same time since my SPS experience is quite limited.  I've had good luck with monticaps, birdsnest, and poccilopora coral and I've dreamed of having some nice SPS on the top of my left rockwork.  I've read countless stories about fatalities, AEFWs, etc so I'm weary.  

Here's what's coming:
Strawberry Shortcake
Purple Acro with green base and yellow tips
Red Robin Stag
Tyree Tri Color
Green Highlighter
Bright gold lepto
Rainbow Granulosa
Greg Hiller Aquamarine Jewel

I'll be receiving them at work so the plan is to run home to dip them and put them on a frag rack I made over the weekend in the corner of the tank.  It's low light and low flow, so maybe I should build another frag rack to put them in a higher light and higher flow from the get-go. 

Any advice/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. 

[SliceGolfer]

Where did you order from?

[TatorTaco]

39 minutes ago, SliceGolfer said:

Where did you order from?

A hobbyist on another forum. 🙂

[Daniel91]

Nice roster of incoming frags.

 

Big tip on SPS, avoid direct touching, grab the plug or something else while dipping - they can be super sensitive/fragile.

 

Would recommend low light, indirect med-flow and then gradually move up as the weeks go by. Take your time. It’s a lot easier to salvage a frag from too little light than one that got too much.

[TatorTaco]

38 minutes ago, Daniel91 said:

Nice roster of incoming frags.

 

Big tip on SPS, avoid direct touching, grab the plug or something else while dipping - they can be super sensitive/fragile.

 

Would recommend low light, indirect med-flow and then gradually move up as the weeks go by. Take your time. It’s a lot easier to salvage a frag from too little light than one that got too much.

Thanks for the tip.  I've been reading a bit on acclimation and I've read that I should pop them off the frag plugs, dip, then put them on new plugs.  So...that makes me nervous since I have the dexterity of a drunk toddler. 

[TatorTaco]

None of the SPS I ordered at the end of February have died and I've noticed some growth from half of the SPS frags which is encouraging.  I'm not detail oriented so I assume the other half are doing okay too?  

 

I was doing a 10-15% waterchange weekly and my alkalinity would usually be quite high (11ish)  and drop 3 points or so a week.  I've switched salt from Instant Ocean Reef Crystals to RSCP blue bucket for more consistent levels.  I also ordered + installed a Jebao doser and I'm dosing BRS 2 part Calcium and Alkalinity.  My levels have been remaining consistent at 430ish Calcium and 8.0 Alkalinity throughout the week and I'm starting to see coralline algae again for the first time in months which is encouraging.  I'm kicking myself for not trying a doser sooner.

 

Oh, here’s a FTS for y’all.  
 

 

 

[TatorTaco]

Just received another order of SPS from a hobbyist online and have the following on the frag rack:  

 

Turqioise Fire Digitata

PC Rainbow (not looking too hot)

German Blue Digitata

Tyree Setosa

ORA Purple Stylo

GC Acroberry

Hawaiian Pocillopra 

Mystery Acropora

[TatorTaco]

The acro stung the crap out of the the digi while on the frag rack. Should it heal up on its own, or should I cut off the top and bottom of the digi?  I've given them more space in the meantime. 

 

Apologies for the grainy photo. Lights were off. 

[DreC80]

I'm sure some will say to frag it, but I've had a lot of success with corals regrowing over dead parts.  I think the key is that algae doesn't cover the dead portion.  If it were me, I'd leave it.  Great tank by the way.

[TatorTaco]

I hacked up a lot of leather coral the other day so it’s looking quite...different. 
 

I’ll continue to monitor the frag for algae. 

[TatorTaco]

Coral Health:  Tank is still alive and chugging along, but I wouldn’t consider it "successful" at the moment.  I lost the majority of my SPS when my 2-part depleted and I didn't notice.  By the time I got more 2-part ordered, the doser re-calibrated, and by the time I figured out how much I should be dosing, most of the SPS were goners.  To be honest here - I am not sure I really enjoyed the SPS and I likely won't pursue this aspect of the hobby for the foreseeable future.  I struggled with using my Red Sea calcium and alkalinity test kit which I’m sure exacerbated the issue, so I transitioned to Salifert which I like a lot more.  I just pulled the trigger on a Hanna Checker (Alk) and should get it in the next few days.  I am hoping I like it more than the Salifert Alk kit since I am not great with colors. I liked my original plan with big leathers and zoas.  My Yellow toadstool leather either got stung to death by RFAs or melted which makes me sad.  I knew it wasn’t doing good, but I kept crossing my fingers and hoping it’d improve.  By the time I tried to move it, the whole thing just…disintegrated.

 

Fish/Parameters:  I feed quite heavily (in my opinion) but I am still running 0 nitrates.  I suppose that is due to having so much liverock? I’d like to raise my nitrates and I even started using RedSea Reef Energy AB+ daily. I would like to use this opportunity to add another fish, but I feel as though 2 clowns and yellow watchman goby might have me already fully stocked?  I’d like to try a possum wrasse, pink streaked wrasse, or a trio of barnacle blennies though.  I don’t have a lot of hiding spaces for a wrasse though.

 

Lighting:  During my time with the tank, I've tested a variety of light schedules:  Pirates of the Caribbean, Saxby, AB+, etc.  I'm not sure what version I landed on last, but I was curious what my PAR readings were so I rented another PAR meter from BRS. Now, the picture isn't flattering because I turned the lights on really early Saturday morning just to do this, so nothing was really open.  The numbers should read "previous light setting / AB+ light setting".  The second number is the AB+ and I figured I should go back to the tried/true AB+ for simplicity sake.  I'm a bit tired of struggling. 

 

Anyway, that’s where I’m at for the moment - a little bummed, annoyed, frustrated, and disappointed.

 

[debbeach13]

On 12/15/2020 at 9:48 AM, TatorTaco said:

- a little bummed, annoyed, frustrated, and disappointed.

Sorry to see that your tank troubles have you feeling like this. Most people have these feelings at some point. For many the tank or this hobby has it's ups and downs. No one sets up a tank not caring when live stock dies or so they can look at dino's and hair algae. Right now I think your tank looks pretty good. I hope you find your sweet spot soon. 

 

 

[TatorTaco]

I've placed an order for some barnacle blennies that should ship after the holidays.  I'm so incredibly excited! In preparation, I set up a hospital tank.  I debated between using 3 different tanks:

• An AIO 4gallon tank (no lid so I didn't use it)
• An old 3 gallon square tank (no idea why I didn't use this)  Thought it was a bit small and wanted a bigger tank so I could get away with not hooking up an ATO. 
• An old 10 gallon Walmart tank.  This had a lid and my AC20 would fit great.  

 

I struggled more than I should getting all the equipment setup, but I eventually got it running. 

 

A few hours later I hear this weird noise from across the house.  Long story short, I didn't create a drip-loop and my outlet started smoking/sizzling.  In my infinite wisdom, I put in in my bedroom (mistake #1), then kinda-sorta draped a towel (mistake #2) from the top of my tank, OVER, the hob filter, and down the backside of the tank to avoid the sun shining through the blinds into the tank, Then, I didn't create a drip-loop (mistake #3).  I think the towel barely touched the HOB and soaked/dripped down the towel. 

 

The bedroom stinks.  The outlet needs to be replaced.  Oh, and my wife isn't a fan of the running water noise in the bedroom (understandable). So now I have to move the tank.  

 

TLDR:  didn't install a drip-loop.  Wife is mad.  

[thecoralbeauty]

Oh dear! After my tank move this weekend I am noise-paranoid. Any dripping, gurgling, or sizzling has me on high-alert. Sorry about your troubles, easy mistakes to make. 😕 

[debbeach13]

That is a terrible morning. You may need grab some flowers for your wife. 

[TatorTaco]

LiveAquaria is supposed to ship my (5) barnacle blennies from CA to for tomorrow's delivery.  I can't help but wonder if I could order anything else as an impulse buy and it'd be included in the shipment?   I'm excited, but I regret not hooking an ATO to the QT tank.  I have time to do it tonight, but since my biggest screw up, I'm scared to make it worse.  Bonus:  picture of the outlet in question.  I'll fix the outlet after the QT tank is no longer needed and I have better access.   

 

Last night my Neotherm heater stopped working after a water change.  I've heard awful things about these heaters but I've never had an issue.  Temperature dropped from 79* to 75* by the time I noticed.  I went through a series of juggling/swapping extra heaters since I have 1 in my water change bucket, another one in my makeshift QT tank, and then a couple pico spares in storage.  By the time I got a new heater installed, I noticed that the InkBird temperature probe fell out of the tank - this was the cause of the low temperature alarm.  SMH! 🙄

[TatorTaco]

I ordered the blennies on 12/18 but they were held by LA until after the holiday rush.  Fish were expected to be delivered today but I just received an email stating, "Due to species availability we were only able to ship part of your order today".  So....that sucks. 

[TatorTaco]

I placed a new order on 1/1/2021 after LiveAquaria cancelled my last order.  Thankfully, this order wasn't cancelled and I'm a happy recipient of 6 new Barnacle Blennies.  I also bumped the quantity of fish from 5 to 6. 

 

I dropped a few dimes in the bucket just for size comparison. These fish are so tiny.  Eeeeek! 

 

[TatorTaco]

So, I've read a few articles on QT tanks but felt bad for not providing their natural habitat, so I tossed in some extra barnacles.  I was SUPER on the fence about including the rockwork, but felt the more hiding spaces the better.  Right?  Well, now I can't find my fish.  None are in the barnacles or the PVC, so that means they're hiding in the rocks. 

 

It's been less than 12 hours and I can only find 3 out of the 6.  No clue how I'll get the blennies OUT of the rockwork when it's time for them to go into the DT. Can you find at least 1 blenny in this picture? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Below, I highlighted where at least one is hiding in plain sight.  Sneaky little fellas.  

[sublunary]

I love barnacle blennies!  I have 2 of them, who have paired up, and they are a lot of fun to have.   I can't wait to see how your colony settles in!

[TatorTaco]

3 hours ago, sublunary said:

I love barnacle blennies!  I have 2 of them, who have paired up, and they are a lot of fun to have.   I can't wait to see how your colony settles in!

Do yours occupy barnacles or just any hidey-hole they can find?  Do they share the same spot? Do they alternate their spots, or find one place and stay there? 

 

What has your experience been with barnacle blennies so far? 

[Tamberav]

Love it! My LFS got some In this week and it is tempting!

[Snow_Phoenix]

11 hours ago, TatorTaco said:

I placed a new order on 1/1/2021 after LiveAquaria cancelled my last order.  Thankfully, this order wasn't cancelled and I'm a happy recipient of 6 new Barnacle Blennies.  I also bumped the quantity of fish from 5 to 6. 

 

I dropped a few dimes in the bucket just for size comparison. These fish are so tiny.  Eeeeek! 

 

They're so tiny but adorable! Especially the one in the middle of the first pic. 😮