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

[Snow_Phoenix]

Trying to take my mind off some pain atm, so here's a quick peek at the fuge today:

 

My male still hasn't eaten. 😓

 

But my female seems okay - very active, still eating, no external marks on the body etc. 

 

The fuge is covered in crud though. Looks like dust underwater and it is smothering the macro. I'll need to siphon out as much of the dirt as possible, but only after both pipes are either in a different sump compartment or they've been safely removed from the tank. 

 

Tomorrow, I'll be adding more PraziGold to both the DT & sump, wait a full week, then perform a 20G WC + add some carbon. I have temporarily removed my RowaPhos from the sump yesterday - will re-add some new RowaPhos tomorrow.

 

 

 

[kimberbee]

Does the coral rx kill the flatworms? I'm not really familiar with that product. 

 

I had flatworms on a frogspawn once. I think I dipped in hydrogen peroxide. They all fell off and I never saw another wormy. Maybe it's stronger than the coral rx? I can try to look up what I did.

[Snow_Phoenix]

20 minutes ago, kimberbee said:

Does the coral rx kill the flatworms? I'm not really familiar with that product. 

 

I had flatworms on a frogspawn once. I think I dipped in hydrogen peroxide. They all fell off and I never saw another wormy. Maybe it's stronger than the coral rx? I can try to look up what I did.

If you can remember the exact dosages and steps, please let me know. Otherwise, I'm pretty much facing a losing battle with them with regards to my frogspawn. 😞 

[kimberbee]

11 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

If you can remember the exact dosages and steps, please let me know. Otherwise, I'm pretty much facing a losing battle with them with regards to my frogspawn. 😞 

All I found was I did a 30 second dip in peroxide, then 5 min in saltwater, then another 30 seconds in peroxide. Doubtful it was straight peroxide. I know the peroxide itself is 3%. 

 

Google search found some people do 10:1 tank water to peroxide, 3:1, and some 1:1. Sorry I don't have a better answer on that. Usually I document that stuff better. 😕

[Snow_Phoenix]

Some quick updates!

 

1. Finally spotted new heads on my local rainbow acans today - two tiny ones, but I'm happy that they're finally (!) growing: 

 

2. My long-polyped toadstool shed its skin few times, but I love the PE on this thing:

 

3. Shroom pile! :

 

4. Older elegance is still hanging on, and still has stubby polyps. Quite frankly, I'm amazed it managed to pull through BJD with most of its flesh intact:

 

5. Lots of tiny 'baby' blastos amidst the larger polyps in the blasto garden. They're very well-hidden and can only be seen when the blastos retract at night:

 

6. Cynarina was ultra-puffy and large today. 

 

7. Doc set up a cleaning station under the yuma bridge: 🙂

 

 

8. Galaxea has more new polyps at the bottom - officially the fastest-growing coral in the reef atm:

 

9. Moody brain today morning (it was back to its puffy-self later in the evening):

 

10. One of my older gray/orange yumas:

 

11. Are the tips purple, or blue? 🤔

 

12. Thinking of shifting these normal red acans to my 10G next week. I think they might stand a better chance of growing out in that tank than this one:

 

13. Mini maxi finally crawled out of its hole after sulking in there for a few days:

 

14. Snail using a thermometer as an Uber: 

 

 

 

Okay, so I'm still facing issues with my frogspawns, some red flatworms and a male pipefish that sleeps vertically against the glass all the time (rather than eating), but aside these three main problems, the tank overall is doing much better and stabilizing. The fish appear to be recovering after I added more PraziGold to the DT & sump yesterday, and I'm seeing less incidents of flashing. (It's very sporadic now, and only my yellow coris & starry does it - other fish are fine). 

 

I fed the tank a LOT of raw diced shrimp (and shrimp juice) today evening. Basically target-fed all my LPS using a pair of tweezers, and then broadcast-fed some finely diced shrimp meat/shrimp juice all over the rest of the coral/clam/nem. The fish also ate some of the chopped shrimp, and most of them seemed to prefer it over the NLS pellets I fed at the same time. Leopard wrasse actually had a tiny bulging belly by the end of the feeding session, and I'm quite happy over it. 

 

Tank is currently running on filter floss, coral stones packed in mesh bags and a fuge full of macro & LR only. No activated carbon or RowaPhos is being used for the time being. No WCs for more than 5 weeks so far. (But I'll do a WC by the end of this week or the next).

 

System is still quite overstocked, but I'm aiming more for stability rather than chasing the perfect numbers. As long as the reef looks good and the animals are okay, I'll stick with what I have been doing since this seems to work the best for this tank. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

I actually succeeded in taking a pic of both of my pink-colored wrasses at a go today morning! 

 

(Btw, that's not a white spot on Bo, my Lubbocks - it's actually a grain of sand from the sandbed because he just woke up) 

 

And here are some other coral pics I took as well:

 

All the pics above were taken using yellow filter lens to tone down the blues. Otherwise, this is pretty much how everything looks like without the filter lens:

 

 

Today I plan on feeding the fish in the DT Hikari & NLS pellets (dry food) since I fed frozen very heavily yesterday. The pipefish will still receive their staple enriched frozen pods with a bit of crab roe and mysis/brine juice. I'll keep trying to get the male to eat. I'm not sure why he has no appetite - could be due to the PraziGold, which does suppress the appetite of fish, but he stopped eating even before I added the meds to the water, so it's definitely a cause for concern. 

 

Will definitely try to figure out what's up with him. 🤔

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ratvan]

6 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

I actually succeeded in taking a pic of both of my pink-colored wrasses at a go today morning! 

 

(Btw, that's not a white spot on Bo, my Lubbocks - it's actually a grain of sand from the sandbed because he just woke up) 

 

And here are some other coral pics I took as well:

 

All the pics above were taken using yellow filter lens to tone down the blues. Otherwise, this is pretty much how everything looks like without the filter lens:

 

 

Today I plan on feeding the fish in the DT Hikari & NLS pellets (dry food) since I fed frozen very heavily yesterday. The pipefish will still receive their staple enriched frozen pods with a bit of crab roe and mysis/brine juice. I'll keep trying to get the male to eat. I'm not sure why he has no appetite - could be due to the PraziGold, which does suppress the appetite of fish, but he stopped eating even before I added the meds to the water, so it's definitely a cause for concern. 

 

Will definitely try to figure out what's up with him. 🤔

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How long has it been since you've seen the male eat?

 

Nice to see both pinks together too. I love the sand dwellers, watching my two emerge from the sand.

 

Hope the new year was kind to the tank 

[Snow_Phoenix]

6 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

How long has it been since you've seen the male eat?

 

Nice to see both pinks together too. I love the sand dwellers, watching my two emerge from the sand.

 

Hope the new year was kind to the tank 

He started eating again today. 😊

 

(But it took him about a week)

 

I love perchers more - especially the blennies. So much personality in one fish. 😆

 

New Year has been kind to it so far. There are still some lingering issues, but nothing that cannot be corrected with time and patience. 

[Ratvan]

1 minute ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

He started eating again today. 😊

 

(But it took him about a week)

 

I love perchers more - especially the blennies. So much personality in one fish. 😆

 

New Year has been kind to it so far. There are still some lingering issues, but nothing that cannot be corrected with time and patience. 

That's great you must be so pleased and relieved. 

 

New Years here we had a big firework display. Hantu did not like it at all, I ended up trying to dampen the vibrations with sheets, duvets, towels and pillows

[Snow_Phoenix]

13 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

That's great you must be so pleased and relieved. 

 

New Years here we had a big firework display. Hantu did not like it at all, I ended up trying to dampen the vibrations with sheets, duvets, towels and pillows

My dog didn't like the fireworks either. And I have really bad anxiety - certain sounds + flashes of light triggers it and my epilepsy, so I just watched the display with headphones over my ears. Also went to sleep with headphones because one nutter was still bursting fireworks at 1.45am. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Tossed a small sock with a bit of Rowa Phos in it into the sump today evening, because I started noticing the appearance of green film algae again on the rocks in the morning:

 

Also found these two goofing off in the wrong sump compartment! 🙄

 

Transferred them safely back to the fuge at once. Prince took a few tiny snicks of frozen pods today. His appetite still needs to be worked on, but for now, I'm glad he's at least trying to eat again:

 

 

The mini maxi looked a lot happier than I've seen it in days. I think yesterday's feeding of diced shrimp really helped:

 

I still have two fish occasionally flashing off the sandbed. So I'll do another round of PraziGold tomorrow morning, and then change the water either the day after, or two days later. I've upped my Calcium and kH dosing to meet the requirements of the latest batch of corals, and also the clam. Speaking of the clam, it moved a little, and the mantle is no longer pinched. I basted it with shrimp juice yesterday and I think it might have appreciated that. 

 

 

 

[ECLS Reefer]

5 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

He started eating again today. 😊

 

(But it took him about a week)

 

I love perchers more - especially the blennies. So much personality in one fish. 😆

 

New Year has been kind to it so far. There are still some lingering issues, but nothing that cannot be corrected with time and patience. 

Yayyy!!!!!!! Im glad he’s coming around

[Snow_Phoenix]

Pic updates!

 

So Prince has receded back to his non-eating ways, unfortunately. I noticed he is constantly 'sleeping'. I'm not sure why. I still can't see any physical marks on him and his gills/eyes are clear, so I'm not exactly sure why he's being very moody: 

 

I noticed these tiny hitchiker snails have multiplied in my fuge. Not sure if they'll get any bigger than this, but I'm hoping they'll stay tiny and cute:

 

My mini maxi nem is no longer shy: 

 

Puffy corals! 🙂 

 

 

Casper has lost a tiny chunk of his hi-fin, but I think it should regrow in time:

 

Big guy looks as glorious as always. I want to measure him again - I have a feeling he has finally exceeded 6" (probably 6.25" if I had to hedge a bet) and I'm genuinely wondering if he can actually make it to 7". I think it is possible, because I have seen some very, very large Starrys at my LFS (larger than Thanos). 🤔

 

Quick vid of the afternoon feeding session: (am planning on removing the two browned out SPS pieces to my nano next week, to see if it can make a comeback there)

 

Whenever the wavemaker is off, Miko comes out to graze on the algae covering the wavemaker:

 

Right now, I'm waiting patiently for my LFS to open (they're still on CNY break) to finish off the last payment of my nem (I brought it home in advance, under the goodwill of the store) and put down a deposit for the neon pink yuma I spotted earlier.

 

I still have some residual flatworms covering my shrooms and frogspawn here and there, but they appear to be contained (not reaching plague-like proportions), so I'm leaving them as it is. 

 

Fish are all almost back to normal - no signs of flashing from what I've seen in the past two days. Waiting to get a bit stronger to do some heavy lifting so that I can finally WC the DT. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

The morning started out a bit rough today. 

 

I initially thought I was being hit by BJD after witnessing one of my rainbow acan heads and acid green shrooms turn into a brown blob.

 

Turns out I overdosed my kH buffer yesterday and spiked up my kH from the usual ~8.3 range to ~9, and I forgot to top-off water in the sump, so my salinity hit 1.028. 

 

I couldn't save the shroom - it literally melted away as I was trying to suck up the brown goop. 😞

 

I managed to save my acans, although I did lose one head. I also lost my browned-out Pocci, which RTNed. 

 

Some corals were quite stressed, including the elegances. 

 

I managed to slowly bring down the salinity back to its usual 1.024 range over the day. It's still a rapid swing, but I'm trying to save the rest of the frags and colonies - tentatively, everything looks okay. 

 

Checked up on all the fish and they're all accounted for. All 4 shrimp, 3 brittlestars & 2 urchins are still here. 

 

But I did lose 2 turban snails. Overall, not a huge loss, but I'll try to be less enthusiastic when I dose my tank in the future. And re-calculate the amount of kH and Ca needed, because I think that has changed after the addition of various corals and a clam. 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Sorry for the lack of updates, but life/writing keeps getting in the way.

 

So quick update - I acquired two new things from my primary LFS few days ago. First, was this bright neon pink yuma (there's a smudge on the glass, hence the small blur in the photo):

 

Second, was a spotted mandy which I named Poseidon. He's already been Prazi'd at the LFS and was the only fish in their euphyllia frag tank, so I added him directly to my DT when I came home:

 

Thanos approves:

 

Tic's cool with him too:

 

Foraging for pods today:

 

After adding Poseidon, I've noticed most of the red flatworms on mushroom mountain are gone. I have seen him constantly buzzing about the mountain and pecking it - so I'm *assuming he's been clearing it out of flatworms (and my four wrasses couldn't do it ). I'm not sure if he can get the ones on the frogspawn though - although I did catch him eyeing the coral when it was retracted for the night.

 

He's a bit fussy about food, which is normal for a dragonet, I suppose. I'm giving him a lot of enriched frozen pods a day, and yesterday I basted some selcon-dipped frozen brine + mysis mix in his direction. He's super-slow, even by dragonet standards. His slowness was why he was caught easily using a hand at the store, and not a net/basket. He literally swam up to my worker-friend's hand and sort of sat in it while she cupped him and transferred him into a bag.

 

Once the flatworm issue has been resolved, I *might shift him to my nano. (Not entirely sure yet, but I'm planning on rehoming my damsel since it's too jerk-ish). Otherwise, for now, he'll remain in this tank. 

 

The rest of the fish & coral are doing okay. There's still some issues with the frogspawns and older elegance, but the other colonies and smaller frags are doing fine. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Another quick update:

 

Had to rescue my merlettis because my urchin tried to run away with it! 

 

This is what I feed my pipefish & mandy:

 

Some of my corals exhibited good feeding response to the addition of the frozen pods:

 

These three under evening heavy blues:

 

I've already re-glued my merlettis & one of my rainbow acan frags - both of which were picked up/knocked over by my urchin. The merlettis were okay, but the acans were knocked into my largest symphyllia and melted a fair bit. I'm unsure if it'll make it. 

 

Things I plan on doing:

 

-WC!!!

-Clean out sump & refugium (lot of crud), swap out filter floss, rinse coral stone bags etc etc.

-Buy more activated carbon

-Do some maintenance in the DT (eg. stirring the sandbed, scrape the glass, baste the rocks etc.)

-Figure out a better diet plan for the dragonet. Frozen pods work great, but he's huge and chunky, and I don't think it's enough. He. Needs. More. Meat! (Or flatworms) 

-Buy Hikari Marine S pellets (mine became rotten with bugs - I didn't seal it properly, and had to throw it away) 😞 

 

Things I'm not going to touch:

 

-The corals themselves. Less time spent with hands in tank = healthier reef. (I *think)

-The fish. (Tempting to play around with the dragonet, especially, because he sits in hands and is very slow, but no! I shall resist! )

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Bunking in last night with my dartfish in the burrow:

 

Cruising around the tank for pods & flatworms:

 

(And yes, he has fat rolls) 😛 :

 

 

Eating frozen pods today evening:

 

Leopold the leopard wrasse has now been fully weaned onto pellets. 🙂 

 

He loves NLS pellets in particular - so no more feeding issues with him. 

 

 

After I acquired Poseidon, I've been overfeeding my tank a *lot of frozen stuff, so I do have some pretty nasty algae popping on my rocks - especially this one rock piece at the front, right corner of the tank. It looks quite unsightly, but I did catch my turban snails munch on it, so I might transfer two of my turban snails from my nano to this reef, to boost up my CUC (until I can get more snails):

 

Some quick coral and nem pics - speaking of the nem, it has moved a little towards the right and parked its butt directly next to my green kenya tree. It's not bleached (checked, it just looks light-colored under heavy whites) and is still sticky, so it's healthy, at least:

 

 

 

 

Differences in my cynarina taken under heavy whites (before feeding) and under heavy blues (after feeding):

 

Just a quick vid taken before the afternoon feeding session - under very heavy whites (I'm talking around 55%):

 

The fish are vibrant and healthy...but the tank looks a bit neglected. 😞

 

And I guess, it is in a way, because I kept delaying WCs and any thorough maintenance. Personally speaking, I don't think I'll be able to physically manage cleaning out the sump + fuge & WCing the DT in a single day (or single week, for that matter), so I've decided to stretch it out for two weeks.

 

First week: Heavy maintenance on sump - scrubbing most (not all) the algae from the walls, siphoning out all the crud, removing all the LR & macro from the fuge & rinsing them in freshly made SW, before returning them back to the fuge chamber, rinsing out the coral stone bags, swapping out the floss, adding a new filter 'sock', adding more carbon etc. etc. --> I estimate this might take up to 3 hours, including the time required to wash all the equipment before/after cleaning out the sump & washing the bathroom upstairs. Definitely not looking forward to it, but I think this is necessary, and should be done at least 3x or 4x a year.

 

Second week: 20G WC in DT, including stirring the sandbed, scraping the glass, basting the rocks - the usual. --> should take no more than 2 hours on a good day.

 

Since I have another new bioload-heavy fish, I think I can no longer push my tank to go without WCs beyond six weeks. Four weeks (Once a month) seems to work best for large WCs. And on good days (a.k.a. days were I'm uber-healthy and get to be myself for a moment), I can do small biweekly WCs of 5G to 10G. Right now, I'm relying heavily on dosing kH, Calcium & Iodine to keep the tank going. I think my dosing is not enough (am doing it manually) because the growth of some corals have stagnated. That, and a nitrate spike from all the excess feeding I've been doing of late.

 

Finding balance has always been challenging for me. Especially in a mixed reef that has pretty much a little bit of everything. 🤔

 

I've also decided to challenge myself by filming (taking pics) of all 18 of my fish in the space of 24 hours. The date isn't set yet, but I'll definitely try to do it. It's not going to be easy, because not all my fish are visible throughout the day - and in some cases (like my circus barred goby), I don't see them for days/weeks. Other times, I have fish that only come out at night (like my Steinitz goby pair), are hidden very well (like my Tangaroa or Zebra barred dartfish), or move too fast (like my wrasses). But I'll try to do my best. 🙂 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ratvan]

A Stunning fish, love a Mandarin. Love the photo with the Dartfish bunking togeher 

[Snow_Phoenix]

25 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

A Stunning fish, love a Mandarin. Love the photo with the Dartfish bunking togeher 

Thanks, Ratvan. I think keeping him fat and chunky is going to be difficult - but he's eating anything frozen I've thrown into the tank so far, so that's good.

 

Still need to WC though. 😕 

[Tamberav]

Beautiful photos as always 😍 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Quick updates!

 

I managed to get a hold of some extra long/large bamboo chopsticks from the supermarket recently. Moving coral on the sandbed is now much, much easier since I don't have to soak my whole arm into the DT anymore. 🙂

 

 

Cute Mandy looking cute: 

 

Still has some chunk to him. He's actually cleared off all my red flatworms from mushroom mountain. I'm hoping he'll tackle the ones covering the green frogspawn. He does a good job in keeping the pests in check, and he's constantly eating. Now I double-dose my tank frozen copepods every day. One major dose (target-fed) for the mandarin, and one major dose (target-fed) for the pipefish. All three of them are healthy. Even my male pipefish is slowly returning to his usual self. I noticed he just prefers staying in the filter floss compartment of the sump - maybe because there's more swimming room & pods to prey on there.🤔

 

Sleep-mode activated: 😛

 

 

Managed to snap some pics of the other fish:

 

Thanos, the Starry Blenny:

 

 

Miu, my pink streaked wrasse:

 

 

Nero & Sushi, my aquacultured clownfish pair:

 

 

Tic, the zebra barred dartfish:

 

 

Freida, the steinitz goby:

 

 

Prowler, the circus barred goby:

 

Also, my almost-2-year-old Saron Shrimp:

 

^This guy is seriously cool. If you're looking for an interesting shrimp which *might be cryptic, but is fun to watch, then I recommend getting one. They can change colors too! 🙂

 

Side profile video of the tank (pumps off) today afternoon:

 

 

I noticed a lot of differences in my fish, in terms of health & vibrancy after I did two things:

 

-dose the tank with PraziGold for 1 week & remove all activated carbon during treatment

-daily feeding of frozen copepods into both the DT & refugium

 

Stability and variability of diet seems to be a key factor in maintaining fish vibrancy and overall good health (based on my observations in my reef). Adding more frozen food to the usual pellet-mix and increasing feedings to 2x heavy feedings a day has actually made some of my more finnicky fish gain weight. My leopard wrasse for example, was thinning out a little when my system was hit with flukes, and when it was newly introduced to my reef. After treatment with Prazi and supplementing its diet with spirulina-enriched copepods/frozen mysis/brine enriched with selcon, it has now actually developed a tiny belly. I think it should become as chunky as my yellow coris over the next month or two, as long as it keeps eating. Right now, it's very stable on NLS pellets. 

 

Coral colors have shown a slight improvement after feeding frozen pods daily. Feeding response is very good though - especially with the LPS pieces. I'm no longer seeing any retraction in my frogspawns or elegance - they've hit a sort-of stasis mode, which is better than melting and dying outright. Considering the elegance was hit by BJD and recovered, I'm genuinely surprised the coral is intact for the most part, even though it's not as large and 'fluffy' as it used to be.

 

I still haven't performed a WC. Writing keeps getting in the way and I'm a few short days from completing my manuscript. Most of priority is devoted to my work atm, so the tank is on autopilot (except during feedings). 

 

Quick note about Poseidon, the dragonet - he hasn't lost nor gained weight since I brought him home. Hope he can maintain his chunkiness because he's quite active, despite being super-slow. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Quick pics - Part 1:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Part 2:

 

 

Bonus Pic - my Citron Goby 5 years ago: 🙂 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ratvan]

gorgeous photo's as normal. How much and how often do you feed Poseidon?

I love watching my micro brittle stars as well, so much entertainment

[Snow_Phoenix]

11 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

gorgeous photo's as normal. How much and how often do you feed Poseidon?

I love watching my micro brittle stars as well, so much entertainment

I do 1x light & 1x heavy feeding a day. Heavy feeding is very heavy - as in, there's literally a food-storm in the tank. I leave the pumps off for about 45 mins to an hour during each feeding time so that he can pick off anything he likes. So far he likes picking frozen pods off the surface of my cup/pagoda coral. 🙂

 

Once I do a thorough clean-up of the sump, I'm thinking of upping feedings to 3x or 4x a day for his sake. Quite tricky keeping a mandy and four wrasses. And my chromis is a food-hog too. 🙄