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

[seabass]

31 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

'Dude - get away from that scraper!'

[WV Reefer]

[A.m.P]

I called my damsel little dude, or little sh*t depending on its' behavior. Also I love milli's.

[Snow_Phoenix]

25 minutes ago, seabass said:

I remember that movie! 

[Ratvan]

I'm not going to dirty this thread with what I say to my fish

[kimberbee]

 

Dude sounds like a toddler:

- Dude, stop climbing into the cabinets

- Dude, that's not a toy

- Dude, get that OUT OF YOUR MOUTH!!

[Ratvan]

3 minutes ago, kimberbee said:

 

Dude sounds like a toddler:

- Dude, stop climbing into the cabinets

- Dude, that's not a toy

- Dude, get that OUT OF YOUR MOUTH!!

Toddler or pet

[Snow_Phoenix]

Took some early morning shots of the reef and its inhabitants:

 

 

 

 

 

Also, a little bit of bad news - I think I've lost my second Steinitz goby. She could be still hiding, but I'm doubtful since I haven't seen her for two, going on three, days now. The first Steinitz goby - the bolder one, which I named Odin, however, is doing quite well. He's constantly out and about, and has taken refuge under my blasto garden as a den of sorts, during nights:

 

Otherwise, he's usually up and about, near my zebra dartfish's burrow. 

 

Also, no reef tank is without its own set of issues, so here's a pic of Aiptasia in my sump: 😛

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Not my best shot or vid, but here is the FTS & FTV of the reef on 22/11/2019:

 

 

Also, *might pick up a fire shrimp tomorrow (if it is still there) at the LFS. If there are any interesting pieces of coral (eg. blastos/acans etc.), I *might put down a deposit for them. I am tempted to pick up a milli from my second LFS, but I'll see first. 😊👍

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Hey everyone! So I picked up these guys from the LFS today! (Fire Shrimp, brittle starfish, 2x turban snails) :

 

So far, they seem to be doing okay in the reef - here's the brittle star and shrimp right after being added to the tank:

 

 

Also, a small slice of good news. My LFS is selling off their last Yasha at 2/3rds of its original price. Which means, I finally can afford to bring it home. So coming up next week, I'll probably be picking up this lil' dude from the store on Wed:

 

Speaking of the LFS, they had a variety of amazing fish and coral (surprised by the influx of it, because we were pushed down to almost zero coral at one point) of various types, including SPS:

 

 

Most of the corals came in relatively large or extra large colonies, as opposed to tiny frags. I did spot several which caught my interest, but since colonies are quite pricey, I managed to only put down a deposit for two - a dual-colored rhodactis shroom colony & a red people eater zoanthid colony:

 

(My apologies for the all the blue - I didn't bring my yellow filter lenses for my phone to the store)

 

The colonies are quite healthy too. And one of them even came with a tiny sea cucumber. The store offered to give the cuke to me for free, but I declined. Mostly because I was worried by how small it was, and how it could easily slip into my wavemaker, get minced to pieces, release some toxins and nuke my whole tank. Not really something I wanted to risk, although the temptation was there.

 

As for my tank itself, it's doing okay - I caught Helios sneaking up on Miu today :

 

And Tic sleeping out in the open yesterday:

 

With Odin standing guard outside Tic's burrow. (Not sure what he ate, there's a black splotch inside of him - so maybe pellets? Eh? 🤔 :

 

 

And my view, today morning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

I realized today I have several new baby shrooms popping up! So far 1+ red devil, 2+ leopard discosoma & 1+ teal-striped discosoma. So excited to see the mountain getting taken over by shrooms! 

 

I also took a few close-up shots/vids of some of my corals:

 

 

Goblin finally decided to hop on to my cynarina for a change today 😛 :

 

 

 

And Gary parked his lazy butt on my zoa colony as usual:

 

The middle of the sandbed looks cluttered. Thinking of moving the red symphyllia to the back a bit, beyond the cynarina's reach: 🤔

 

I found my new fire shrimp lurking in the shadows. He's okay and made it through the first night in the reef with no issue - which is good:

 

Close-up of one of the brittle starfish arms which is regrowing at the tip (this is the new brittle star I purchased yesterday, not my older one):

 

Here's how the tank looks overall, with the sump in full view:

 

A couple of FTSes during feeding time today evening:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[kimberbee]

It's looking really good! Your hard work and patience is paying off!!

 

Do shrooms generally get along with each other? I have blue shrooms taking over my rock. I had wanted to get rid of them, but I also don't want to chip away at the rock, so I'm thinking of just giving in and making my own shroom mountain. 🤷‍♀️

[Snow_Phoenix]

52 minutes ago, kimberbee said:

It's looking really good! Your hard work and patience is paying off!!

 

Do shrooms generally get along with each other? I have blue shrooms taking over my rock. I had wanted to get rid of them, but I also don't want to chip away at the rock, so I'm thinking of just giving in and making my own shroom mountain. 🤷‍♀️

Thanks for the kind words, Kim.

 

The tank isn't without its own set of hurdles or issues. But if those problems are tackled quickly and timely, the system can bounce back fairly well. 

 

The bullseye rhodactis and yumas are the only ones that cannot be lumped together with the others. In the case of the yumas, they pack quite a sting and can actually melt other shrooms nearby, but they're okay if they're placed next to each other (yuma-to-yuma), so I lined them up along one of the overhead LR pieces and they're doing fine there. The bullseye is a bit tricky - it actually partially melted my purple yuma when it came into contact with it, and was stinging my discosomas as well. So I placed it at the bottom of the 'mountain' and now it's attached itself there, where it can't touch any of the other shrooms.

 

You can put discosomas of any type next to each other though, which is pretty neat. That's how I managed to pile the different color morphs next to each other. 🙂 

[A.m.P]

Ricordea also take to being piled-high pretty well too.

[Snow_Phoenix]

Well, my new shrimp is MIA. Couldn't find him anywhere - but since the tank is full of crevices, he's probably hiding somewhere. 🤷‍♀️

 

Took a few shots of the reef and the fish today:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And shrooms: 😊

 

 

 

Also, something strange went on last night - not sure what these 2 were up to but it was pretty weird: 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Found him!

 

 

Of all the places he chose to hangout, it's at the back of the tank next to the glass, under the rock that has my pavona. 🤦‍♀️

 

Another expensive animal that I probably won't see out in the open very much. Le sigh. 

[Hannahhhh]

Just now, Snow_Phoenix said:

. 

Another expensive animal that I probably won't see out in the open very much. Le sigh. 

Lol I feel like this always happens! I see my watchman goby once a week for a quick second if I’m lucky. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Just spotted this just now:

 

Quite excited! 

 

Yumas are usually a pain when it comes to growing babies. Hoping to see my rock covered in little yumas in the months/years to come. 

 

[WV Reefer]

4 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Well, my new shrimp is MIA. Couldn't find him anywhere - but since the tank is full of crevices, he's probably hiding somewhere. 🤷‍♀️

 

Took a few shots of the reef and the fish today:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And shrooms: 😊

 

 

 

Also, something strange went on last night - not sure what these 2 were up to but it was pretty weird: 

 

 

 

 

When mine start climbing the glass and rocks I know they are preparing to get it on in there. 😁

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

7 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

 

When mine start climbing the glass and rocks I know they are preparing to get it on in there. 😁

 

 

Ah, sneaky buggers. Am I to expect an explosion of brittles in the future? 

 

(Not that I'm complaining, because I love brittlestars)

[WV Reefer]

1 minute ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Ah, sneaky buggers. Am I to expect an explosion of brittles in the future? 

 

(Not that I'm complaining, because I love brittlestars)

hopefully! 🤞😊

[ef4life]

13 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Just spotted this just now:

 

Quite excited! 

 

Yumas are usually a pain when it comes to growing babies. Hoping to see my rock covered in little yumas in the months/years to come. 

 

It takes a while but it will happen. I have my 1 original Yuma I bought 6 years ago, it’s now about 4-5” diameter, it’s slowly moved all over and left about 20 babies in its wake. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

5 hours ago, ef4life said:

It takes a while but it will happen. I have my 1 original Yuma I bought 6 years ago, it’s now about 4-5” diameter, it’s slowly moved all over and left about 20 babies in its wake. 

Twenty?! Talk about building an army of yumas! 

[Ratvan]

5 hours ago, ef4life said:

It takes a while but it will happen. I have my 1 original Yuma I bought 6 years ago, it’s now about 4-5” diameter, it’s slowly moved all over and left about 20 babies in its wake. 

Wow, I had 4 "adults" that used to drop 6-9 babies every other month

Just now, Snow_Phoenix said:

Twenty?! Talk about building an army of yumas! 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Update! 

 

I picked up my yasha goby today morning, but she is paper-thin, unfortunately. Hoping to beef her up in QT in the upcoming weeks - one small slice of comfort is that she has already began to eat:

 

 

Also tried my luck and picked up the last Lubbock's wrasse at the store which has been there for 2 weeks:

 

 

Chose him because I loved how active and vibrant he was at the store. He has already been treated with Quick Cure at the LFS, so I'm debating if I should Prazi him. Given how delicate wrasses are here, *maybe not, but I'll observe him first. 

 

The reason I bought two new fish is because my nutrients in the 60G is dipping again. One would think that with the amount of livestock I have, my nutrients would be sky-high, but I'm getting NO3 = 25ppm & PO4 = 0.03ppm, which is too low. My LPS are not happy. 😓

 

PE on certain pieces is poor. And for some reason, I lost my alveopora frag last night. It was retracted yesterday evening and stripped down to the skeleton with only 3 polyps by today morning. It almost looked as if it had been 'picked clean', which is weird.

 

My suspicions fall on either Derp the hermit (because I did catch him pick at my zoa colony yesterday) or my low nutrient levels. Or could it be my new shrimp? 🤔

 

So many variables. All need investigating. My concern is mostly on my clown, Nero, though. I heard her hit my lid several times last night and I'm not sure why. So I am a bit worried. 

 

I'll wait another day. If I lose another frag, I'll move Derp to the sump and see if that changes anything. 🤔