Snow's 60G Secret Predatory Sanctum 🐲🐉 - Shutting Down

[Snow_Phoenix]

Feeding the reef raw & frozen goodies today:

 

 

Some snapshots of some of the LPS enjoying delicious chunk of raw shrimp:

 

A rare, semi-decent shot of Tic, my zebra dart (he moves too quickly to be filmed otherwise):

 

 

I'm expecting an algae bloom since I fed the tank very heavily tonight. But at least the fish and corals seem to be receptive towards the food, so that's good. 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

The new guy was added to the reef today: 

 

Already getting heckled by my yellow coris: 

 

 

(But at least he loves all the extra space to explore)

 

Also, Gary having an off-day as usual:

 

The tiny Steinz goby pair is doing quite well in my nano - they'll be moved into the 60G next Monday (tentatively). There's an old anthias that has been at the LFS for a while - still debating if I should/should not pick it up, or just wait for a new supply of wrasses. I'm losing out a lot on purchasing wrasses, tbh. Getting a hold of that one special specimen that will survive the QT process almost seems like an impossibility at the moment. 

 

I'm still trying to look out for a pygmy perchlet. I really miss my old one, PJ, and I would love to have another chance at keeping this fish. 

 

Will also most likely pick up my blastos this week from the LFS, and my zoas next week. Can't wait to bring those colonies home. 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Just brought my new mixed blasto colony home today! 😊

 

Under white lights:

 

 

In my tank:

 

 

Older blasto frag:

 

 

Tricolored yuma:

 

 

Thanos:

 

 

 

Goblin's new hangout spot:

 

 

Elegance coral:

 

 

Puffy lobo:

 

 

Sir Prickles:

 

 

Glass needs to be cleaned, and little gobies will be added to the tank in a few days. Zoa colony coming in next week. 👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

Some close-up shots of the blastos today:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanos by the blastos:

 

 

Miko - so hard to get a good pic of him because he never sits still for too long:

 

 

Today didn't start out well. I woke up to find my orange frogspawn upside down and head first in my sandbed - quite possibly after being bowled over by my urchins last night.

 

The remaining head lost a chunk of flesh - personally, the way things are going with this piece, I wager I am going to lose the entire coral by Dec. 😓

 

I think this was officially the worst investment I made (coral-wise) from the discount rack. For the amount of money I spent on it, I could have actually purchased an entirely new blasto garden. (It was pricey, and a painful lesson on my part - Be. More. Careful!) 😓

 

But the day wasn't a total loss. I scraped the glass, stirred the sandbed, basted the rocks - did all the usual maintenance. 

 

The evening was much better - my tank is officially 6-months-old today! 😊

 

How quickly time has flown! Definitely ups and downs to keeping a mixed reef with an assortment of critters, but I love this hobby and am constantly learning new things. 

 

FTS today (note corals are not fully open because it was late and the lights are being dialed down for the day):

 

 

 

 

😊

 

[WV Reefer]

40 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Some close-up shots of the blastos today:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanos by the blastos:

 

 

Miko - so hard to get a good pic of him because he never sits still for too long:

 

 

Today didn't start out well. I woke up to find my orange frogspawn upside down and head first in my sandbed - quite possibly after being bowled over by my urchins last night.

 

The remaining head lost a chunk of flesh - personally, the way things are going with this piece, I wager I am going to lose the entire coral by Dec. 😓

 

I think this was officially the worst investment I made (coral-wise) from the discount rack. For the amount of money I spent on it, I could have actually purchased an entirely new blasto garden. (It was pricey, and a painful lesson on my part - Be. More. Careful!) 😓

 

But the day wasn't a total loss. I scraped the glass, stirred the sandbed, basted the rocks - did all the usual maintenance. 

 

The evening was much better - my tank is officially 6-months-old today! 😊

 

How quickly time has flown! Definitely ups and downs to keeping a mixed reef with an assortment of critters, but I love this hobby and am constantly learning new things. 

 

FTS today (note corals are not fully open because it was late and the lights are being dialed down for the day):

 

 

 

 

😊

 

That FTS looks great. 😊

[kimberbee]

Happy 6 months to your reef!!

 

I think it's looking great! Especially those blastos!! 😉

 

Sorry to hear about the frogspawn. 😕

[Snow_Phoenix]

1 hour ago, WV Reefer said:

That FTS looks great. 😊

Thanks, Christy! 🙂 

1 hour ago, kimberbee said:

Happy 6 months to your reef!!

 

I think it's looking great! Especially those blastos!! 😉

 

Sorry to hear about the frogspawn. 😕

Thank you! And yeah, I love those blastos too. 🙂 

 

And yeah, my bad on the frogspawn - if I hadn't dropped it, I think it would have survived and done okay in the tank. I'll definitely be more careful in the future. 😞 

[Ratvan]

Those Blasto's are indeed amazing, really nice collection. The FTS as usual is gorgeous and especially love Thanos. Sorry to here about the Frogspawn, fingers crossed it pulls through

[Snow_Phoenix]

27 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

Those Blasto's are indeed amazing, really nice collection. The FTS as usual is gorgeous and especially love Thanos. Sorry to here about the Frogspawn, fingers crossed it pulls through

Thanks, Ratvan! They were all from the discount rack. LFS was clearing off a lot of coral - I returned to the store a week later and their entire collection of shrooms were gone. 😞

 

Was really hoping to grab a psychedelic shroom, but looks like I was out of luck this time. The only reason I got a hold of these blastos was because I offered to put down a deposit for them and pay the full amount in 2 to 3 installments (managed to pay it off in 2). They weren't too keen on selling the whole piece - LFS wanted to frag it off first, but I asked if it was okay for me to take the whole thing. Counted about 23 large heads and easily a dozen baby heads on this thing. It's growing quite quickly. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Few quick snapshots today:

 

Miko and his 'fat' butt lol:

 

Easily my favorite LPS in this tank:

 

Few coral pics:

 

 

 

 

Mushroom mountain still standing strong:

 

New blasto garden still doing okay:

 

 

Zani says hi! 🙂

 

 

Thanos flaring his colors:

 

 

Lastly, non-reef-related, but here's a RM 6K channa barca (Barca snakehead) - maybe one day, if I win the lottery, I'll keep a pair: 

 

Little gobies are still going strong in QT - only two more days left before I add them to the main DT. 🙂 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[kimdawg]

Beautiful pics as always.  I wish I had a mushroom mountain in my tank.  I can not find anywhere with the variety of shrooms that you have.

[Snow_Phoenix]

1 hour ago, kimdawg said:

Beautiful pics as always.  I wish I had a mushroom mountain in my tank.  I can not find anywhere with the variety of shrooms that you have.

Thank you. Most of these shrooms were cast-offs from the discount rack. I usually purchase corals that the store wants to get rid off quickly, and mushrooms aren't very popular amongst hobbyists (excluding yumas or premium stuff like candy crush/jawbreakers). You can make a tiny mountain in your tank too. Just stick the frag plugs/little rocks the shrooms are anchored to, to a bigger piece of LR and you're pretty much making your own mountain. Just be careful when sticking different varieties closely. Discosomas are usually okay when they're side-by-side, but I noticed my bullseye rhodactis doesn't play nice with anything. Yumas sting too, and can only be placed with their own type. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Prickles popped up tonight to do his standard duty of eating any film algae on the rocks:

 

Nero turns 1! this coming December. I can't believe how much she has grown - from a fingernail-sized baby to a ~3" clown in the space of <11 months or so. 

 

And this is something nice to wake up to, everyday:

 

Love my system - although it can give me a headache sometimes *cough cough* orange frogspawn *cough cough*

 

I'm thinking of trying out some basic Acros next year. Not trying to make this a full-on SPS or SPS-heavy tank, because then I'll have to get an auto-doser, but I would like to try a few sticks and see if I can grow them. Otherwise, I'll definitely be collecting more shrooms, a few zoa frags and anything else that catches my eye. Basically I'll see if I can snag more interesting stuff off the discount rack.

 

I'm adding the two little gobies tomorrow morning as well - hope they'll love this tank and the room it has to offer. I'm also planning on getting a Fire Shrimp (in the future) to add a tiny bit of extra color and motion in the tank. 

 

 

 

 

 

[kimdawg]

I love all of your unique creatures you have in this tank, and I look forward to the pictures of them.

[Snow_Phoenix]

Hello. I haz new blasto: 

 

 

Also two bonus pics taken this morning of the blasto garden & my cynarina:

 

 

 

Also, a bit of sad news for the hobby here. My country is officiating a ban on corals from Sabah very soon. Most of the local corals we get are from that region. This was why the discount and main racks have been almost picked clean in the past week. 

 

Found out today that the Singaporeans panicked and began buying out all the pieces (Singaporeans usually purchase corals from us at the southern part of the peninsular, because corals are dirt cheap to them here once the exchange rate is taken into account $1 = ~RM 3). 

 

So yes, we're now stuck with limited frags between hobbyists or 'leftover' pieces at stores. I really hope the hobby won't slowly die out this way. Or that we're not forced to rely on trade-ins between reefers only. 

 

So I guess we'll be seeing a lot less colonies from now on. Maybe a handful of common frags here and there.

 

Some stores still have large colonies (SPS & LPS) for sale, but I don't think they're legal. 😓

 

And since demand is now exceeding supply, prices are going to skyrocket. I don't even think there will *be a discount rack in months to come. 🙁

 

Only slice of comfort I have is that I managed to acquire many little & large pieces of coral - including various LPS over the past 6 months. But I genuinely don't see how a newbie can enter this hobby unless they are very rich. No more room for budget reefers. 😭

 

I will still keep reefing somehow though. Probably only have access to more common things, but something is better than nothing.

[Poodges]

Tank is looking awesome!  I love the blasto garden.  Trying to find some for my tank.  That combo rock is the coolest. 

[Ratvan]

That Cynarina is gorgeous, I wish I could find a decent specimen. Got a lovely little area that It will look great in (Top down view) 

[Snow_Phoenix]

10 minutes ago, Poodges said:

Tank is looking awesome!  I love the blasto garden.  Trying to find some for my tank.  That combo rock is the coolest. 

Thanks! Blasto garden was actually made by my friend, May, who works at the LFS. She is extremely talented at fragging corals and also creating mini gardens/colonies. This mixed colony was actually a pull-out from the main DT. She wanted to frag it further, I asked her if I could buy the whole thing as it is and we settled on a price.

 

I really love the assortment of colors on it though. 😊

7 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

That Cynarina is gorgeous, I wish I could find a decent specimen. Got a lovely little area that It will look great in (Top down view) 

Thanks! Can you get a green one there? Green are a lot more common than red ones, so they might be easier to come by. (And yeah, they look great from above). 😊

[Ratvan]

9 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Thanks! Blasto garden was actually made by my friend, May, who works at the LFS. She is extremely talented at fragging corals and also creating mini gardens/colonies. This mixed colony was actually a pull-out from the main DT. She wanted to frag it further, I asked her if I could buy the whole thing as it is and we settled on a price.

 

I really love the assortment of colors on it though. 😊

Thanks! Can you get a green one there? Green are a lot more common than red ones, so they might be easier to come by. (And yeah, they look great from above). 😊

Scoly's area cheaper at £120. lmao 

[Snow_Phoenix]

15 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

Scoly's area cheaper at £120. lmao 

Scolys here are super expensive. Worth 4 frogspawn colonies. 

 

Might as well get all the frogspawn and do a LPS garden. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Updates!

 

The new blasto is looking much more puffier today morning, and appears to be acclimating very well to the 60G:

 

Current status of blasto garden:

 

Green hairy mushroom:

 

'What's up?' 

 

Goblin & symphyllia under heavy whites:

 

A bit of news: I noticed today evening that a small part of my green monti cap has STNed. The tiny cap that overlaps with my red monti, and the base which has encrusted to my LR are still as green as ever with full PE, but there's a relatively large white patch along the left side of the coral which is plating out. I tried to think back on what exactly I changed over the last few days - I know I let my salinity increase by accident (forgot to top-off FW in my sump) because I was drowning myself in my writing/work, but maybe the salinity jump affected it somehow? 🤔

 

Other corals don't show any negative response. My orange frogspawn is still so-so, and a small part of my green frogspawn (which I dropped the orange frogspawn on) is retracted, but none of my other SPS, LPS, softies, zoas or shrooms show any signs of regression or deterioration. In the case of my shrooms and zoas, they're actually popping out new heads. Still very confused.

 

I checked my fish and inverts next - especially the sea stars. If there's any issues with the water, the sea stars are usually the first to deteriorate. But Gary and Lola (thankfully!) are doing okay - no limb loss, tissue degeneration etc. 

 

I suspect a contamination of some sort. Will need to get to the bottom of it because I really don't want to lose anything - especially now, when we have very limited corals in stores. 😞 

 

On a non-reef-related note, I picked up some really cool local Kuhli loaches (fished from our river!) at the LFS yesterday for my betta tank:

 

Kuhli loaches are one of my favorite native fish. They're actually hilarious during feeding time when try to forage for sinking pellets as a group. I used to have a mini 'army' of Kuhlis at my old home, in my 30G. Unfortunately, I lost the whole group when we moved houses and shifted tanks - for some reason, upgrading into a larger system didn't sit well with them. 😞

 

They were older fish too, with some of them being with me for more than 2 years, and growing out from 0.5" to nearly 4" during that time. My LFS occasionally stocks Kuhlis, but a dedicated setup or peaceful community tank would be the best way to enjoy keeping them. 

 

Also, remember the Old School Pico Reef contest that just finished? This is the current state of my Pico reef today (which has been converted to a low-tech planted tank for my betta, Oscar):

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

I kept holding it off, but I finally (!) added my two little gobies to the tank today:

 

Both of them made the mistake of trying to enter my tangaroa's burrow the moment I released them into the tank. In less than a minute, they were booted out and one of them now occupies the space under my mushroom mountain, whilst the second, more skittish one has retreated into the shadows behind the rockwork. The first goby, which was out in the open, was already eating in the tank today. I couldn't find the second one - still can't find it, but I'm hoping it turns up soon.

 

Here's a shot of Thanos & Miu each:

 

And this how the center of my sandbed currently looks like: 

 

I'm still having issues with the frogspawn and green monti - but my chalices seem to be growing rather quickly. Might need to reposition the emerald mummy eyes and cherry garcia frags, so that they have more room to grow. 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Found my second steinitz goby today! Little dude currently lives in my dartfish's burrow and can actually jump all the way to the top if startled 😮:

 

 

 

And here's the first dude, who is super chill and enjoys posing for the camera:

 

 

 

Thanos sneaking around behind my elegance today:

 

 

Doc scouring the rocks for pellets:

 

 

Close-ups of my cynarina, lobo & elegance:

 

 

 

 

Blasto garden today:

 

 

Tic up and about:

 

 

Red devil shroom:

 

 

Metallic GSP growing quickly! 🤗

 

 

Lastly, my yuma garden:

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Only the tricolored yuma is not visible in this shot)

 

My green monti has browned out completely. It has done this twice in the past, and twice it bounced back with stronger colors. My guess is there is something upsetting this particular piece, although I haven't quite put my finger on it yet. 

 

Frogspawns are both not doing too well either. Really regret buying the orange one - my green one was doing perfectly fine until I dropped the orange one on it. 😓

 

I will be picking up my zoa colony either tomorrow or the day after. Can't wait because that piece is *big, and it was one of the few pieces left at my primary LFS. 

 

My second LFS is having a sale but most the discounted ones are chalices. I have no idea how they're stocking coral with the ban - am not going to ask them about it either. 

 

Just waiting to get a hold of more common shrooms. 

[Ratvan]

Love that shot of Thanos, looks like he's about to feast on that Xenia(?)

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

1 hour ago, Ratvan said:

Love that shot of Thanos, looks like he's about to feast on that Xenia(?)

 

He's easily one of the most photogenic fish I've ever kept in my life. He actually swims straight up to the glass when he sees me come near the tank. And sort of follows me around when I move from one side of the tank to the other to take pics. I daresay, I do love him a lot. 

Hoping for many good years ahead with him in my reef. Big guy had it tough with Ich last year - nearly lost him then, but thankfully he recovered.