Neb’s diary

[Neb]

22 hours ago, pricewayne said:

😂🤣

Love the firefish! Have you named it or the crablord? Or is the crablord actually The Crablord?

 

Should grab some more clean up crew! Hermits are really effective. Emerald crabs. Trochus snails/turbo snails (i’d stick to one turbo - they poop a lot), nassarius snails have been my favorite so far — they’re small, stuck to the sand bed and are great at smacking any leftover food from feedings and bury themselves in the sand with a little tube sensor poked out waiting to smell food. But yeah, as algae and/or diatoms start to break out — you’ll want a crew, or group of worshippers, on the job.

 

Can’t wait for an update.

Crablord is Aton, and firefish is Quetzalcoatl. 

 

 

[Neb]

Thursday 25th of April:

Serious newbie mistakes, diy dipping etc.

I went to the lfs today to see if the blue neon goby I reserved has arrived - it’s beautiful. In quarantine atm, will pick it up next week.

Got a cleaner shrim and a coral staff said MIGHT be a daisy coral. Also picked up food for the green star polyp if it’s actually alive at all, and the daisy if it’s a daisy at all. The end with the good news.

I was acclimating the shrimp and coral in their bags in a bucket with 10 ltr of freshwater. Slowly adding tank water in the bags. An hour and half I decided this time as freshwater shrimp require a bit longer so I assumed marine shrimp would be just as fragile.

Acclimation was over and decided I will not spill the bag water into the bucket and instead going to run it through a net. I don’t know how shrimp would react if I spill it in non-saltwater. Prepared the net, started emptying and little bugger jumped out of the bag into the bucket with freshwater. I was mortified and started desperately trying to quickly grab him. He clearly had a death wish because he absolutely refused to get in. 30 or 40 seconds I threw the new on the carpet, scooped it with both hands, and quickly drained the water, and put him in the tank. I think, it looked like it was frozen. I thought it died, but it might be just his natural behaviour of chilling. It is currently in the tank standing still but very much alive. I’m praying it wasn’t long enough for any  organ damage due to freshwater exposure.

Now other possibly bad news (not sure).

Daisy (if) was acclimated and I decided to try the famous dettol dip. Used 1.5 ml of dettol for a 10l freshwater (dechlorinated and so was the shrimp’s). Put it in and started squirting with the turkey baster. Almost immediately a big ugly long brown thing with five million legs flew out of a hole at the base completely petrified. I did that for about a minute, took the coral in a plastic bowl filled with some of the same water, ran to the bathroom quickly washed the bucket, filled it with 26 C water (same temp as before), added prime and returned to the coral bowl. At this point I noticed three more at the bottom - dead and an ugly brown bug-like creature. At this point I thought to myself “Okay, if there’s 4, there’s five or six+”. Because even I got confused by what I wrote I’ll summarise before carrying on - bucket with tap (approx 9.6 litres of water with prime), and 1.5 ml of dettol (people use 3 ml per 10 ltr). I dip coral, take 600ml with a bowl, add coral in, wash bucket well, add some 8 ltr water, return to coral. Decided I will add an extra 0.12 ml of dettol for a slightly stronger dip that is still below the recommended dosage. Squirt a few times and instantly 6 more ugly brown worms fly out. Takes 20 more sec. take coral in 8 ltr of fresh tap with prime, dip, swirl gently, squirt with baster, take out, wait to drain for a few sec and put in tank.

Now I am panicking I 

1. Killed the coral listening to people online or;

2. Killed my beneficial bacteria because there might be a very small trace of dettol.

Because there isn’t much I can do for the coral itself anymore, I will focus on the potential danger to the ecosystem - going to perform a 20% water change in an hour just to dilute it even further if there is any dangerous amount. 

While typing the shrimp has decided he owns the right rock and proudly stand tall on it. How am I going to name it?!

ever since I added him the Quetzalcoatl has decided he’s no longer interested in staying hear his cave and now dentures forth.

Moral of the story today is - ignorant people usually listen to other ignorant people that happened to be well spoken.

Two not very good photos, as my iPad camera seems trash for blue light.

 

Updating the update:

a further read suggests people are dipping 1ml per litre and then a quick rinse. Am I panicking over nothing here? I will do a water change anyway. 15 ltr should suffice.

Updating the update of the update:

It looks very much dead to me. White tentacle like things swimming out of some of the holes. I'm actually devastated. It was so beautiful. Think it was alveopora

Updating the update about the update about the update:

It's not dead. Moral of the story - Freshwater dip only for up to 15 seconds. Dettol dips only for up to 5 min at up to 0.3ml per second. 

 

Forgot to officially introduce the newest inhabitant. Meet Nereus:

[billygoat]

22 hours ago, Neb said:

It's not dead. Moral of the story - Freshwater dip only for up to 15 seconds. Dettol dips only for up to 5 min at up to 0.3ml per second. 

Take this advice to heart, fellow reefers! Or you might end up needlessly murdering perfectly healthy livestock, like I did! 😅 My gorgonians will live on in memory, but definitely not in the flesh.

 

Anyway I am glad to see that your coral pulled through. I'm much more surprised that the shrimp made it; most are extremely delicate. Perhaps those skunk cleaners are hardier than I give them credit for. And congratulations on your first fish! Things seem to be going pretty well so far.

 

I for one welcome our new crab overlord.

[Neb]

Wednesday, May 1st:

The goniopora did not make it. Woke up yesterday and it was all covered in slime, 77.9% of the skeleton was spikey and whiteish. Took it out and it smelled dead. The worst part was I inflicted it out of naivety and ignorance.

Now to the good and maybe not so good news. 

I overcame my fear of online coral shopping and ordered a watermelon mushroom, ricordea Florida (5?) and a pulsing Xenia. They all arrived this morning. Not going into details. No, I will go into details. It was supposed to come half eight, came 9 o’clock and this is when my shift starts so it had to stay in the prize shop till 12 when was my break. Ran home (30 seconds), quickly tested the water salinity and pH and it was very similar to mine. I’d say 0.2ish ph difference. Sooo... I had a 20 min break, was desperate and decided I will add water every minute - first minute I added a tiny amount and slowly increased the “dose”. Yes, I did think about either dettol or freshwater dip (10 sec dip and 5 seconds swirl), but with the amount of time I had that was out of question. While dripping *COUGH* splashing *COUGH* I entertained myself with the Tesco leaflet they used to wrap the corals with. How thoughtful of Charterhouse Aquatics. How did they know I was looking for great autumn clothing prices in May? I will give them an extra star on Trustpilot for that! 15 minutes later the corals were “ready” to add to the tank. I took one out and saw a dark orange worm... Let’s call it a *FLATWORM*. Not because it’s a flatworm, but because it was flat. Or it seemed flat, moved a bit fast...I mean for a worm. I don’t know what it was but I highly doubt that was the last one I am to ever see. There was a tiny algae covered starfish with a white bottom that was rock hard.. a fossil? This online store has been operating since before the internet was even invented, I can tell. Or humanity for that matter. How do you ship a starfish fossil to begin with? Is their fishroom in a volcano or something? Is there even an active volcano on the territory of Great Britain? No headlines on “The Sun”? Are Prince Harry’s wedding socks more important that British people’s lives now? Amateurs.

there were also a few other animals that were very quickly moving around the corals while I was placing them in the water. Don’t ask me to identify them, I couldn’t even identify myself in a morgue if I happened to die. One of them was running around the base of the mushroom, it was greyish brownish with antennae on its butt and head. I have a video of it but can’t upload. We can now see black holes, but still can’t upload videos in .jpg format. I’m fuming (like a volcano 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂).

another one... I think there are two or more, live next to the Florida in a small hole. It is very quick and seems to have two white lines on its otherwise transparent body. It hides in the hole with antennae like thingies out and sometimes gets out for a ms and back in. 

See, this is the dilemma I am facing - if I dip everything I am not really certain eggs will die and pests might reappear anytime, hide and reproduce and were at point zero. But such a young tank desperately needs some biodiversity in the form of harmful little animals with antennae that run around and make it alive. On the other hand, if I don’t dip I will have a great biodiversity of a swarm of bristle worms, flat worms, coral eating slugs End of Thinking Capacity. I mean, they’re all in, I could not dip even if I wanted. Sorry corals I am employed. How did you think I bought you? Prostitution?!

Sharing a few photos taken with my whatseemstobe Nokia 3310:

 

Two pulsing Xenias that I don’t intend to keep there, but did not want to soak my hands in goniopora blood again.

Nereus that is now called Aton and crabby NOTOVERLORD (more like a roach)is now Nereus. Aton seems obsessed with me. I think he sees the hand that holds the phone. The same hand that gives FOOD..

Little mushroom. Tried to put it in a lower light area with low flow. Still hasn’t detached and slapped itself at the worst location possible. Maybe its happy?

to the left of the Florida you can see the little animal house. 

the green star polyp is looking nice.

 

Tomorrow or more like today I shall pick 3 more crabs and my blue neon goby. I think red leg ones this time, should coexist fine with the blue leg one.

for the past several days my tank has been exposed to heavy diatoms radiation. I began two days after I have decided to add Seachem stability to my system. I don’t know why I did it. I think I was afraid of a mini cycle. It never happened but at least now I can say it’s because Stability is such a... stable product. Only quality merchandise for Quetzalcoatl!!!!

Been reading about diatoms online. Silica and nutrients, and phosphate. It’s either stability or stability and the fact I did not read rodi instructions and have not been leaving the water run for 30 seconds to clear up. Which should not be enough for an outbreak with such biblical proportions. TDS meter reads 500 on tap and 0 (zero) in the 25ltr bottle. There must be a silica source somewhere, but can’t figure out which tank component leeched/s it. Red Sea pink live sand? I read somewhere silica is contained in sand. Maybe it is in my sand and it will be depleted. I am not buying yet another pro kit (pro aka expensive) just to confirm the obvious. Wait for a few weeks and we’ll see. Skimmer is so busy, the cup is literally black after a day of usage. There are diatoms on the water surface which looks a bit slimy even tho it actually isn’t. Earlier I observed a brown air bubble float to the surface like an air diarrhoea and pop releasing diatoms to the surface. Fish and inverts seem quite happy in this sewerage.. 

[pricewayne]

5 hours ago, Neb said:

Wednesday, May 1st:

The goniopora did not make it. Woke up yesterday and it was all covered in slime, 77.9% of the skeleton was spikey and whiteish. Took it out and it smelled dead. The worst part was I inflicted it out of naivety and ignorance.

Now to the good and maybe not so good news. 

I overcame my fear of online coral shopping and ordered a watermelon mushroom, ricordea Florida (5?) and a pulsing Xenia. They all arrived this morning. Not going into details. No, I will go into details. It was supposed to come half eight, came 9 o’clock and this is when my shift starts so it had to stay in the prize shop till 12 when was my break. Ran home (30 seconds), quickly tested the water salinity and pH and it was very similar to mine. I’d say 0.2ish ph difference. Sooo... I had a 20 min break, was desperate and decided I will add water every minute - first minute I added a tiny amount and slowly increased the “dose”. Yes, I did think about either dettol or freshwater dip (10 sec dip and 5 seconds swirl), but with the amount of time I had that was out of question. While dripping *COUGH* splashing *COUGH* I entertained myself with the Tesco leaflet they used to wrap the corals with. How thoughtful of Charterhouse Aquatics. How did they know I was looking for great autumn clothing prices in May? I will give them an extra star on Trustpilot for that! 15 minutes later the corals were “ready” to add to the tank. I took one out and saw a dark orange worm... Let’s call it a *FLATWORM*. Not because it’s a flatworm, but because it was flat. Or it seemed flat, moved a bit fast...I mean for a worm. I don’t know what it was but I highly doubt that was the last one I am to ever see. There was a tiny algae covered starfish with a white bottom that was rock hard.. a fossil? This online store has been operating since before the internet was even invented, I can tell. Or humanity for that matter. How do you ship a starfish fossil to begin with? Is their fishroom in a volcano or something? Is there even an active volcano on the territory of Great Britain? No headlines on “The Sun”? Are Prince Harry’s wedding socks more important that British people’s lives now? Amateurs.

there were also a few other animals that were very quickly moving around the corals while I was placing them in the water. Don’t ask me to identify them, I couldn’t even identify myself in a morgue if I happened to die. One of them was running around the base of the mushroom, it was greyish brownish with antennae on its butt and head. I have a video of it but can’t upload. We can now see black holes, but still can’t upload videos in .jpg format. I’m fuming (like a volcano 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂).

another one... I think there are two or more, live next to the Florida in a small hole. It is very quick and seems to have two white lines on its otherwise transparent body. It hides in the hole with antennae like thingies out and sometimes gets out for a ms and back in. 

See, this is the dilemma I am facing - if I dip everything I am not really certain eggs will die and pests might reappear anytime, hide and reproduce and were at point zero. But such a young tank desperately needs some biodiversity in the form of harmful little animals with antennae that run around and make it alive. On the other hand, if I don’t dip I will have a great biodiversity of a swarm of bristle worms, flat worms, coral eating slugs End of Thinking Capacity. I mean, they’re all in, I could not dip even if I wanted. Sorry corals I am employed. How did you think I bought you? Prostitution?!

Sharing a few photos taken with my whatseemstobe Nokia 3310:

 

Two pulsing Xenias that I don’t intend to keep there, but did not want to soak my hands in goniopora blood again.

Nereus that is now called Aton and crabby NOTOVERLORD (more like a roach)is now Nereus. Aton seems obsessed with me. I think he sees the hand that holds the phone. The same hand that gives FOOD..

Little mushroom. Tried to put it in a lower light area with low flow. Still hasn’t detached and slapped itself at the worst location possible. Maybe its happy?

to the left of the Florida you can see the little animal house. 

the green star polyp is looking nice.

 

Tomorrow or more like today I shall pick 3 more crabs and my blue neon goby. I think red leg ones this time, should coexist fine with the blue leg one.

for the past several days my tank has been exposed to heavy diatoms radiation. I began two days after I have decided to add Seachem stability to my system. I don’t know why I did it. I think I was afraid of a mini cycle. It never happened but at least now I can say it’s because Stability is such a... stable product. Only quality merchandise for Quetzalcoatl!!!!

Been reading about diatoms online. Silica and nutrients, and phosphate. It’s either stability or stability and the fact I did not read rodi instructions and have not been leaving the water run for 30 seconds to clear up. Which should not be enough for an outbreak with such biblical proportions. TDS meter reads 500 on tap and 0 (zero) in the 25ltr bottle. There must be a silica source somewhere, but can’t figure out which tank component leeched/s it. Red Sea pink live sand? I read somewhere silica is contained in sand. Maybe it is in my sand and it will be depleted. I am not buying yet another pro kit (pro aka expensive) just to confirm the obvious. Wait for a few weeks and we’ll see. Skimmer is so busy, the cup is literally black after a day of usage. There are diatoms on the water surface which looks a bit slimy even tho it actually isn’t. Earlier I observed a brown air bubble float to the surface like an air diarrhoea and pop releasing diatoms to the surface. Fish and inverts seem quite happy in this sewerage.. 

Can’t get over how much I like these updates.

 

The little bugs with antenna you saw on your frag sound like Montipora black bugs... am not positive, but they are hard to beat. I use Bayer insecticide dip for all my corals — one of my montis had the same bugs — little antenna sticking out of a hole and at night if you watch you may see them come out in their full haunting horror of glory. Look up Bayer coral dip mix and instructions if you can get it — knocked mine out in the first dip.

 

The diatoms are totally normal stage — it’s a sign of your tank maturing and your rock being seeded with beneficial bacteria. Best to let it run its course and not add too many chemical “solutions” — mine lasted about 3.5weeks I want to say and cleared up on their own. Couldn’t hurt to try and increase your water flow and/or decrease your light schedule to keep hair algae or cyano algae from blooming.

 

Looking great and can’t wait to see the additions!!

[Neb]

26 minutes ago, pricewayne said:

Montipora black bugs

Mine looks very different to the photos online 🙄 

And I can literally take the coral out and destroy its home, family and heritage. And the other bug that looked completely different to the "florida" bug.. It's grey and long. It was uglier I have to admit. I will kill it later when I do a wc. 

I am very happy yoou enjoy reading, I actually speak in a similar manner to how I write. Often get people making complaints at work 😂😂😂😂 Jesus, it's an arcade, why come if you're angry?

Im going to poop and off to maidenhead aquatics. Will update later. 

[Neb]

11 hours ago, Neb said:

Mine looks very different to the photos online 🙄 

And I can literally take the coral out and destroy its home, family and heritage. And the other bug that looked completely different to the "florida" bug.. It's grey and long. It was uglier I have to admit. I will kill it later when I do a wc. 

I am very happy yoou enjoy reading, I actually speak in a similar manner to how I write. Often get people making complaints at work 😂😂😂😂 Jesus, it's an arcade, why come if you're angry?

Im going to poop and off to maidenhead aquatics. Will update later. 

An update: bought frozen food. Not sure if I should feed the shrimp only or throw the whole soup for corals filter feeding. I will observe diatom bloom closely. Most of the food got instantly devoured. I'm so happy to see both of the gobies happily eating. Shrimp got a little bit too. 

Official introduction time:

Please meet Anapos. He's a good boy. Ate well and now happily sleeping under Quetz's rock. They're practically together.

On a side note decided I actually don't want the little bugs. Prepared 0.1 ml of dettol with 600 ml of water and dipped all corals for 4 minutes. Followed by a soak in water change 5l water and back to the tank. The little bug that lived with florida died, had two white stripes. No signs of the other one. Corals seem alive, but so did the goniopora. We shall see in 4 days. 

[billygoat]

21 hours ago, Neb said:

Jesus, it's an arcade, why come if you're angry?

I love you Neb; never change.

 

This tank is actually looking pretty good in my opinion. Excellent diatom growth means things are moving along very smoothly. As @pricewayne suggested I think you should probably not make too many dramatic changes during this period; just let the brown slime eat up all of whatever it is feeding on and it will naturally go away. I can't quite recall if you've mentioned snails or not, but do you have any in there? Snails of all varieties prefer diatoms to practically everything else and will plow through them rapidly.

[Neb]

5 hours ago, billygoat said:

I love you Neb; never change.

 

This tank is actually looking pretty good in my opinion. Excellent diatom growth means things are moving along very smoothly. As @pricewayne suggested I think you should probably not make too many dramatic changes during this period; just let the brown slime eat up all of whatever it is feeding on and it will naturally go away. I can't quite recall if you've mentioned snails or not, but do you have any in there? Snails of all varieties prefer diatoms to practically everything else and will plow through them rapidly.

Well, 33 years in and I still haven't been beaten up by a mob of angry people sooo... 😂😂😂

I don't have any snails, wanted to buy some yesterday but lfs girl said hermits kill snails for their shells. I didn't really agree but didn't want to argue. I mean, you can add empty shells for them to chose, no?! 

The only dramatic change I did was switch to frozen from flames. Best decision ever. Maybe a mistake, but yesterday I added 3 portions of copepods after the water change and let them settle for 10 min before turning everything on. After that read that diatoms could be harmful to the copepod population 😕

[billygoat]

4 hours ago, Neb said:

Well, 33 years in and I still haven't been beaten up by a mob of angry people sooo... 😂😂😂

I don't have any snails, wanted to buy some yesterday but lfs girl said hermits kill snails for their shells. I didn't really agree but didn't want to argue. I mean, you can add empty shells for them to chose, no?! 

The only dramatic change I did was switch to frozen from flames. Best decision ever. Maybe a mistake, but yesterday I added 3 portions of copepods after the water change and let them settle for 10 min before turning everything on. After that read that diatoms could be harmful to the copepod population 😕

Hermits do kill snails for their shells, but only if they are desperate for a new shell or if they have nothing else to eat. This is generally more of a problem in mature tanks that have little algal growth, since the hermits can't find enough algae and decide to go after snails instead. They will also opportunistically attack stressed or dying snails, but you probably want them to be doing that anyway so you don't end up with snail corpses rotting in your tank. In my experience having a few empty shells here and there is more than enough to keep hermits in line. And don't you only have one anyway? I think you should go back there and get some snails for sure, because they are a much more important part of your clean-up crew than hermits could ever be. Just make sure you are getting algae-eaters (Cerith, Nerite, Turbo, Astraea, Trochus, Stomatella, etc.) and not Nassarius snails, which only eat carrion and have no interest in algae.

[wiigelec]

Not quarantining and adding livestock too quickly are great ways to crash a system. The basic guideline is to no more than double bio load with a 30 day stabilization period between additions.

 

Also if something big like a coral or fish dies I would recommend a 30 day stabilization period before any new additions and to find out what may have gone wrong...

[Tigahboy]

Love this thread.  Your journal updates are very entertaining and thorough.  Looking forward to seeing this tank develop.  Keep the updates coming!  

[Neb]

On 5/3/2019 at 4:31 PM, wiigelec said:

Not quarantining and adding livestock too quickly are great ways to crash a system. The basic guideline is to no more than double bio load with a 30 day stabilization period between additions.

 

Also if something big like a coral or fish dies I would recommend a 30 day stabilization period before any new additions and to find out what may have gone wrong...

I do understand quarantine is the best way to introduce fish to a display tank, bu I do not have a quarantine tank available and my lfs singles out fish for some weeks when I reserve and that kind of does the quarantine for me. I thought I could have the luxury of a second fish since most people buy two clowns right after the cycle and I decided to go with just one. 

On the something big like a coral or fish death topic - well I do know what killed it, don’t I 😂😂

And I decided to throw it long before it actually died. Once I saw the slime started forming on more than one side that was enough for me to deem it dead and send a quick prayer.

 

a quick update:

 

 

recommended resolution 4K. Today I will try to take a slow motion video of them feeding. 

[Neb]

Friday, 10th of May.. This year:

A quick update today. I cooked chicken with rice

It was really nice, hope you're jealous! 

Yesterday the blue Neon goby (Anapos) was missing at feeding time. He does NOT miss food. So I naturally panicked. I removed the atrocious cover and gently lifted the rock they live under with Quetz. Not there. Searched around the tank with a torchlight but he was absent.. So I looked around on the carpet 😂😂😂😂

Was rather happy not to see him.

Was not happy when I finally found him 30 minutes later tho.. 

I was convinced this aquarium was designed by sadistic monsters, but this confirmed it. Why not add a plastic mesh by default? What were you thi king, Fluval? I'll be keeping tangs?!? A nano tank... Nano. Nano fish. Nano. Fish.

Now I have to think of something DIY, a random mesh bag tied around or maybe use a bit of the black spo ge that was in chamber 2.. 

Speaking of chamber 2.. Media basket finally arrived today. Cleaned all three Chambers (disgusting, again - significant design flaw with these stupid 100 holes which I think I now want to seal and test) Removed all old media, added fluval carbon which I bought today, new phosphate remover just in case and a floss. Because flow is strongest on the lowest level, I have made the unpleasant decision to add floss to the bottom instead of top. 

Clearly a good decision when it comes to picking up dirt. Although that could be a bit of phosphate remover dust. I will have to experiment a little bit with it in the upcoming weeks. If it turns out it's best at the bottom - massive con. I have to remove whole basket, drain it and replace floss. I think it is best to keep floss there as water from lower column goes straight to pump. Agh, hate using my brain. I wish Fluval did that instead. 

Oh, got a free plug for the hole I already sealed too. Now I have to remove the suction cup. 

Been playing with snapseed and az camera for a few days ago. S9 stock camera just can't handle the blues even when I fiddle with it in Pro mode. Here's an almost accurate photo of my green star polyp 

And a slightly inaccurate photo of my shrooms

It's easy to work on the watermelon mushroom, but accurately displaying the florida colours is a nightmare. 

Been seeing new heads lately. Xenia is also showing rapid growth. Repositioned one of them in the lower column and it is now out of wavemaker blast radius. 

Picked up a cerith and another snail today. Not planning on any other cuc to be honest.

Random readings from lately:

Ammonia 0

Nitrite 0

Nitrate 15

Phosphate 0.03

pH 8.4

Salinity 1.025 (goes up to 26 after 4 days and 27 after 7 days). Intentionally did not do any top up with RODI - going on a holiday for a week and needed to know roughly how high it will get in a week. If my calculations are correct and temperature goes up by around 3-4°C by 10th of June, I will avoid a major disaster if I simply slowly reduce salinity to 1.023 over the next couple of weeks and keep it there till I leave. Will also fill tank a bit more so skimmer can work properly.  Then my friend who will feed the fish will only have to worry about emptying the skimmer and feeding fish. Yes, I am dreading. Might teach him how to use a refractometer. He's a bit of a caveman so I'm not keeping my hopes high. 

What else happened? I have an amphipod. He's cute. And also have a weird little thing with two white stripes that lives in a hole next to the mushroom. Today I saw it grabbing and dragging to its cave a bit of detritus. I think it's harmless. When I got Anapos, also picked up a bag of copepods. More than a week later - they are still alive, crawling on the glass. 

The diatoms are going to hell also

Got algae pellets for snails and Nereus in case there isn't much to eat. 

Before I depart:

 

[billygoat]

Looking great in there Neb! Your hard work and careful research is really visible in the results. That is truly one of the tastiest-looking casseroles I have seen on this site so far.

 

Oh the tank looks pretty good too!

[Neb]

On 5/10/2019 at 2:54 AM, billygoat said:

Looking great in there Neb! Your hard work and careful research is really visible in the results. That is truly one of the tastiest-looking casseroles I have seen on this site so far.

 

Oh the tank looks pretty good too!

The only*

😂😂😂

Thank you. 

Sadly, coming with a quick update:

Today shrimp launched an attack on the watermelon mushroom 😡

A little bit of food landed on it and Aton leaped, used its white spears to pin the shroom and started poking and poking... 

The result is rather nasty. I can't tell if the shrimp has destroyed the fluorescent pigment, tissue itself.. It looks very scary (to mee). 

Trying to find any information regarding this. If it turns out to be really bad, I might have to... Ugh cut it through its mouth and try to frag that way (I did watch a YouTube video of someone propagating that way). 

[pricewayne]

2 hours ago, Neb said:

The only*

😂😂😂

Thank you. 

Sadly, coming with a quick update:

Today shrimp launched an attack on the watermelon mushroom 😡

A little bit of food landed on it and Aton leaped, used its white spears to pin the shroom and started poking and poking... 

The result is rather nasty. I can't tell if the shrimp has destroyed the fluorescent pigment, tissue itself.. It looks very scary (to mee). 

Trying to find any information regarding this. If it turns out to be really bad, I might have to... Ugh cut it through its mouth and try to frag that way (I did watch a YouTube video of someone propagating that way). 

Prob just pissed off from getting poked! Mushrooms are pretty tough I think — maybe give it a few days and maybe it’ll... dare I say... bounce back.

[Neb]

7 hours ago, pricewayne said:

Prob just pissed off from getting poked! Mushrooms are pretty tough I think — maybe give it a few days and maybe it’ll... dare I say... bounce back.

Looks awful today 😓

[billygoat]

6 hours ago, Neb said:

Looks awful today 😓

 

Definitely seems to have been taken out in the back alley for a good drubbing! Mushrooms have remarkable regenerative capabilities though; I think there's still a good chance that it will recover unless it develops an infection as a result of the beating it received.

[Neb]

Me again... With yet another update.. 

I think it's splitting itself? It keeps twisting itself and turning and twisting again.. Now I can see the rock underneath. 

I'm not even sure it's because of the shrim. The other day I fed it for the first time with a syringe and its entire gut came out to feast. Was a bit gross. It secreted some sticky slime to catch the food or idk.. Should of taken a video in ⏩. 

I'm not convinced it is suffering anymore.. 

[pricewayne]

Just now, Neb said:

Me again... With yet another update.. 

I think it's splitting itself? It keeps twisting itself and turning and twisting again.. Now I can see the rock underneath. 

I'm not even sure it's because of the shrim. The other day I fed it for the first time with a syringe and its entire gut came out to feast. Was a bit gross. It secreted some sticky slime to catch the food or idk.. Should of taken a video in ⏩. 

I'm not convinced it is suffering anymore.. 

It’s lookin better!

[pricewayne]

@Neb, how's the tank goin'? Need an update -- any rituals? Visits from spirits ? Are the stones speaking to you yet?

[Neb]

Okay-okay, don’t hit me, mother 😂😂😂😘

Thursday, 30th of May:

It’s been awhile, why are you not texting? Is ours over?

A lot of things happened. Mostly in real life, but some good stuff with my aquarium too.

I was hyper busy at work so no energy for essays on my day off, but active I was... AAAACTIIIIVEEEE.

Right, straight to it. A few weeks back I purchased a benggai cardinalfish. I dosed with a little bit of prime every 2 days and 1ml of Seachem stability daily for a week. Had no ammonia or nitrite spike.

A rare photo of Esmeralda (to be renamed). She’s been happily standing still in the middle of the tank, occasionally standing still somewhere else. 

A week after Esmeralda arrived, my pockets felt heavy so I went online and purchased an Australian Duncan (on your screens). Photo is on his second day. He now opens wide and receives one brine shrimp every 3 days. He also gets moved in a fallout shelter in order to actually consume it, as the long claws of justice reach quite far (shrimp). I think there’s a small bump on the side, hoping for a baby girl at some point. I will also include a photo of the advertised coral. It looks EXACTLY the same. I feel the urge to rate five stars on item as described 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟...

 

Of course I didn’t spend £15 on delivery to get one coral..

Also got a mushroom of some sort... let me check ebay.. opal sparkle mushroom. I’m pretty sure the seller has children into glitter and unicorns and just came up with the name. There’s literally no sparkle whatsoever..

Can’t be arsed to take a decent photo right now. I’ll tell you later why

yes, they are two I’m well aware. Tested the cut in half through the mouth method. My watermelon mushroom seemed to have gotten worse and I wanted to test cutting and revival.

well, these two took about a week to come together. A word of advice to anyone attempting this - the wateverthatliquidtheyspit water they spit when cut burns the skin. Obviously not too bad, but I had a burning sensation for about two hours. No, my hand did not split forming a miniature of myself.

And last, but not least... I bought another goniopora. Yep, round 2, FIGHT

I am dosing iron every 3 days to keep it happy and extended. With a syringe 💉 I pick and flush brine/mysis shrimp until small particles and let food pass through with the current. It seems to like it that way, since it stays open all the time. Umm, even at night.

 

 

 

What else happened? Ah, yes. I have built a crabavator so my blue hermit can explore the world. It’s reef safe, with a very low energy consumption and snack is offered during transport. Water surface exposure is available for additional fee. 

 

 

Alright, into today’s news. 

Ill start with the boring part - water parameters:

water - 0 TDS;

salinity - 1.024,5;

pH - 8.4;

nh3, no2 - 0;

no3 - 0.10 mg/l;

kh - 12;

ca - 470 (a bit high);

mg - 1305;

fe - 0 at the time of reading, normally 0.15 mg/l right after dosing. Gets consumed by both corals and carbon;

po4 - 0.01. Yes, I am checking the right side, the guy from page 1 was right. I hate admitting I’m wrong. 

I proudly announce that my collection of bomb-building ingredients no longer fits the cupboard.

Now the fun bit - I went to the lfs to buy AI Prime HD and jump guard. They didn’t have the light unit so I bought the jump guard... and a few other treats to comfort myself, because I now have to wait till tomorrow for the light and mounting bracket. 

He was a bit scared at first, but now has found a new home on top of one of my corals. I hope they get along fine. 

Got three corals for £40. Got them in, dipped quick and I think I need to increase the dosage of dettol. The recommended dose doesn’t seem to be strong enough to make pests panic evacuate the rockwork.

found this 

looks like a bristle starfish. Didn’t feel like having it so I dipped the base in freshwater for about 30 seconds. Ice cold too. Just to make sure it’s dead. No further movement was detected. While trying to take a photo tho..

someone decided they’re the most important thing in the world and they demanded food. I’ve been aiming at him for awhile and I think I’ve gotten to the point when I’m ready to help him pack and send him to the local asylum. He’s entertaining to watch and bring a great deal of life to the tank, but I prefer to feed corals without the fear of something ripping their guts out for EVEN MORE food. He receives massive quantities just to make sure he doesn’t bother anyone at feeding time... No success.

Another hitchhiker was seen leaving the vehicle...

A bearded bristleworm. Tried grabbing it with a pair of pincers but it quickly moved back into the cave. I hope I didn’t damage it, as it might spawn a swarm and take over the tank with its brethren. 

I’ve decided to keep it... forever. Took coral out and dipped the rock carefully in ice cold freshwater, sealed the hole with glue and returned to tank. No, there is no escape. To my knowledge this is the only entrance and exit. I BURIED IT ALIVEEEEE. There were air bubbles in the hole so I was afraid the dip might have failed. 

mushroom 🤕 It’s alive so I’m hoping it will recover.

Green star polyp has been relocated to the side panel. It has already started growing polyps at the back of the plug.

 

a few photos of the jump guard:

I think that’s all there is for now.. No photo of the tank as a whole until new light is ready to blast the depths of my private ocean with pretty. 

If anyone knows what kinds of favia these are, it’d be lovely to share.

[pricewayne]

Nice!! May not want to spot feed corals too much (or at all), as it can cause more harm than good from what I've read. I'll do a small spot feeding once a week or less if I don't get around to it. Lots recommend by simply feeding your fish inhabitants it will provide more than enough food for coral stock. Didn't see nitrates in your test list -- be sure to keep an eye on those levels as you don't want them to be too high (typically excess food and fish waste will bump nitrates up).

 

Crabavator is awesome.

[Neb]

4 hours ago, pricewayne said:

Nice!! May not want to spot feed corals too much (or at all), as it can cause more harm than good from what I've read. I'll do a small spot feeding once a week or less if I don't get around to it. Lots recommend by simply feeding your fish inhabitants it will provide more than enough food for coral stock. Didn't see nitrates in your test list -- be sure to keep an eye on those levels as you don't want them to be too high (typically excess food and fish waste will bump nitrates up).

 

Crabavator is awesome.

My no3 is 0.10 mg/l. Quite low but I don't want it any lower than that. Xenia might suffer.