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

[A.m.P]

It might be worth tossing a powerhead into the fuge to give it more-flow and help keep detritus from settling, otherwise I'm really sorry to hear things went downhill so quickly, glad the fish seem to be okay.

[banasophia]

Oh no!! I’m so sorry to hear. 😞 I’ve had sea hares die in my tank when I haven’t rehomed them fast enough after they’ve eaten most of the algae, and I’ve never had any issues at all, but I do have a super strong biofilter in my tank due to the really heavy feeding I do for my nps corals. Once even happened when I was out of town and my husband didn’t notice it had died and I think it was in there a couple days. Now when I get them I only keep them about a week before rehoming/returning to the LFS, and I always have to keep a really close eye on them. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

25 minutes ago, Amphrites said:

It might be worth tossing a powerhead into the fuge to give it more-flow and help keep detritus from settling, otherwise I'm really sorry to hear things went downhill so quickly, glad the fish seem to be okay.

Yeah, I had a mini one in the fuge many months ago until it stopped working one day. I'll try to rummage through my fish supply cabinet downstairs tomorrow morning - usually I keep spares of every equipment except major filter pumps and main LED lights. Otherwise, I'll definitely pick up a new small wavemaker and add it in the fuge so the dirt doesn't collect on the macro and rocks again. 

9 minutes ago, banasophia said:

Oh no!! I’m so sorry to hear. 😞 I’ve had sea hares die in my tank when I haven’t rehomed them fast enough after they’ve eaten most of the algae, and I’ve never had any issues at all, but I do have a super strong biofilter in my tank due to the really heavy feeding I do for my nps corals. Once even happened when I was out of town and my husband didn’t notice it had died and I think it was in there a couple days. Now when I get them I only keep them about a week before rehoming/returning to the LFS, and I always have to keep a really close eye on them. 

I should have kept a closer eye on mine. It did an excellent job of eradicating all the film algae on the rocks, and there was more algae on the backwall, but I guess that wasn't enough. 😞

 

I do run carbon, but perhaps not enough. This time I tripled the amount of carbon that I usually throw into the sump. I think things will recover in given time, but the losses were hard to stomach. Roughly ~RM 500 worth of coral lost in just one night. 😞 

And I really liked my frogspawn and elegance too. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Another update: my crocea clam didn't make it and died overnight. Quite sad to see it go because it was a brilliant shade of electric blue, and I liked it a lot. 😞

 

I scraped the glass in the DT and basted the rocks, stirred the sand - standard maintenance. Lots of corals are still recovering from the crash. Cynarina is still not fully open and looks 'pinched' in one side. Blastos and other LPS remain shrunken. Cup coral somehow has full PE, and my Fire Shrimp molted. So there are a few good things going on at least, despite the bad things. 

 

Fish and inverts are all still alive and okay. Poseidon the Mandy is still quite plump and hasn't lost any weight. Illaron the Scooter is so-so - I wish he would eat more to be fat and rounded out like my Mandy, but he's a bit picky during feedings. My Leopard Wrasse has gained weight and grown large enough to rival my yellow coris. Right now, my Leopard is the most dominant wrasse in the tank, although Thanos the Starry Blenny remains the most dominant fish due to his size, bulk and attitude. 

 

My Steinitz goby pair have actually doubled in size since I first acquired them. I was planning on returning them and my Green Chromis to the LFS to cut down my fish load, but I have no idea how to catch them without upending my entire scape. 

 

No plans on adding anything for a while. But once the tank stabilizes again in the upcoming months, I'll try to pick up another green frogspawn colony. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Well, I went against my no-additions-plan today. 

 

My mother returned from a church camp in PD today and brought a container full of seashells soaked in SW. There were some very tiny live snails in it - but there was one very large seashell which was 'alive'. 

 

 

Turns out there was a live conch which was accidently picked up and transported via minivan, hundreds of kilometers away, and left in my hands. 

 

I did think it was weird when one of the seashells had 'eye stalks' - and when I saw it move, well - it was seriously effing awesome.

 

 

I knew I couldn't keep the conch in the small plastic container forever. So I acclimated him and dropped him in my reef. 

 

So far he's like a mini bulldozer in the tank, and he's a bit scared of me (retreats into his shell if I wander too close to the glass). But otherwise, he's pretty much siphoning my sandbed atm. 

 

He's slow, but I think he should be alright.

 

I also discovered a secret to one of my rocks - or more specifically the smaller of the two mushroom mountains I keep in the reef. 

 

I actually saw this rock move, and *breathe. 

 

Turns out, under all those shrooms and layers of grit and rubble, there's actually a giant tunicate - and the 'rock' was not quite a rock at all. 

 

Such a huge hitchiker. I'm excited to discover new things in this tank every now and then. Every time I think I know something, or have figured out something, this hobby always catches me by surprise. 🙂 

 

As for the reef as a whole, it's on the mend. I'm seeing things improving and recovering. And I believe in upcoming months, it would be safe enough to add other large colonies again.

 

 

Fish and other inverts are doing okay too:

 

🙂 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

A day before yesterday, I managed to slip out of the house really quickly to grab some pre-ordered items from my LFS. I picked up a pair of thermometers for both my reeftanks:

 

And a small wavemaker (1500 L/Hr) for my refugium/sump tank:

 

Since the country is in a state of semi-lockdown (apparently we're not allowed to call it a 'lockdown' since it's a 'Restricted Movement Order' (RMO), but truthfully speaking, it is actually a lockdown and we have our army deployed at roadblocks exiting each housing district to prevent people from leaving too far from their homes, unless it's to seek medical attention or buy groceries (even then, only a max. of one person per family is allowed to go)), most of the stores here are closed including LFS. But my store was open because someone has to do WCs for all the tanks and feed the animals, so I slipped in while one of my worker-friends was inside the shop to quickly grab my things and head back home. 

 

Since the borders are closed, there's no livestock imports atm, so whatever's available in the store is the only thing left. 

 

Same batch of corals and same batch(es) of fish from previous shipments were there. They have extra frag tanks in the back of the shop which they only allow regulars to look through, myself included. I have two corals boarded there which I intend to pick up for my nano for the 365-day-challenge contest, but then I saw this relatively large frag tank with a few frags of SPS in it. Tank was bare otherwise, but it had 4 dragonets - 2 very chubby Scooters, 1 so-so blue Mandy and 1 so-so spotted Mandy. 

 

Business was crap, I won't lie to you. After the RMO-lockdown-whatever-you-call-it, I'm the first customer they had in a week. My friend was quite weary. 

 

And the fish didn't look too good. 

 

I picked up the Blue Mandy and that was their first and only fish sale for the week. 

 

Back to the Mandy, she's a beautiful gal and from the dorsal-view, she looks great:

 

But she's actually not doing too well. At the store, I noticed she was lethargic and seated in the corner of the frag tank, and not moving about much. My LFS treats all their new fish with Prazi and copper, and this Mandy has been with them for 2 weeks.

 

When I added her to my reef, I noticed her belly was sunken and I could see her lateral lines:

 

Classic signs of starvation in a dragonet. 😞

 

I admit, it didn't look good. 

 

And her inactivity worried me the most - I only managed to take a few pics of her on the first day before she retreated to the shadows of my tank, and stayed hidden over the next 24 hours.

 

 

I offered her frozen pods and even pellets - but no bueno. She just wasn't up to eating anything, and quite frankly, didn't want to move. This worried me a lot. Healthy dragonets usually peck the rockwork constantly in search for pods and microfauna to eat. And I have two other healthy dragonets in this tank, so the deviation in behavior is very noticeable, and quite alarming.

 

 

I immediately consulted more experienced dragonet keepers over my new Mandy's behavior. Honestly, I was preparing for the worst because I didn't think she would even make it past the first night in my tank. 😞

 

This 'lethargic' behavior persisted even throughout yesterday. She made it through the first night, but again refused to eat or come out from the shadows.

 

By late night yesterday, I was thinking of how to get this fish to eat - or even move, when I noticed my Spotted Mandy, Poseidon, had vanished at night! 

 

Usually he shares the same burrow with Tic, my dartfish, and pales out for the night. But I couldn't find him! I immediately looked around the areas outside of the tank first - on the carpets/rugs, behind the tank - heck, even on the wiring! I was so afraid he jumped out somehow and made it through the lid - because he has a notorious habit of chasing his reflection along the glass late at night. 

 

I couldn't find him. 😞

 

So I took out my torchlight and began 'searching' the tank. And...surprise!

 

 

Turns out he was bunking in with the new gal! 

 

Phew, I was so happy to see him alive and okay. And a little bit stunned to see him holed up with another Mandy of a different type. He's ignored my Scooter so far, but he likes (?) this new fish? Strange dude.

 

So early this morning, Poseidon was already up and awake with the rest of the tank, and pecking pods off my LR. But my new Mandy was still in the shadows and avoiding the light - and I only managed to get this pic by shining a torch directly on her:

 

When she's curved in like this, you can see a bit of fat rolls on her, and the potential of exactly how chunky she can be if she eats. But if she straightens out, you can still catch a small glimpse of her still-sunken belly and lateral lines:

 

Which is still not good. 😞

 

She's still super shy, but has very vivid colors, so I decided to name her Electra.

 

 

She also missed today's routine feeding again, and was barely moving. 

 

Then, something...strange just occurred about an hour ago. 

 

I caught a flash of movement in the corner of my eye and I actually spotted Electra cruising along the length of the corners of the tank! 

 

And she wasn't alone!

 

Poseidon, who is usually asleep at this hour, was up with her, and they're both swimming next to each other and staying close to one another. 

 

 

I have absolutely no idea how they tolerate each other so well. They're both roughly the same size, although Poseidon is much thicker, has a rounded belly and no lateral lines showing. 

 

I am hoping in time, that Electra would follow him around during the daylight hours and perhaps learn how to 'eat' from him as well. I'm not expecting her to eat pellets - because honestly, it's quite uncommon/rare for a Mandy to accept pellets off the bat, and Poseidon is a special case, but I am hoping that she would be braver and venture out in the open in the upcoming days. The sooner the better, because her life and health depends on it. I can target-feed her as much as I want, but it's up to the fish to decide whether she would accept the food or not. 

 

And I'm hoping she really won't thin out more than this. Blue Mandys have always been trickier with me. I've always had better luck training Scooters and Spotted Mandys to eat prepared as compared to Blues. However, I will keep trying and won't give up on her.

 

As for the tank itself, my Elegance Coral succumbed to ECS - I'm pulling it out tomorrow and binning it because there's nothing much left of it. ECS is apparently quite common in Indo-variants, and as much as I love Elegances (they're all so beautiful!), the ones here never last beyond a year or two. 

 

My tank has bounced back quite quickly from the sea hare incident - far quicker than I expected. Levels are stable and kH is always around 8.3. Other LPS are doing fine - orange frogspawn is still miraculously existing, but it isn't exactly growing back, so I'm not sure what to do about it except leave it alone. Blastos are slowly regaining their vibrancy, and my rainbow acans actually grew a new head. The surviving shrooms are also doing okay and nothing else has melted. 👍

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Hey guys, so a quick update about both my mandys. My Spotted attacked my Blue and I had to transfer the Blue one into my nano to save it. Turns out the Blue Mandy was also a male, and not a female as I'd originally presumed. Its fins were badly ripped and it's still not eating, but at least it's slowly recovering in my nano.

 

I consulted @Tamberav directly over this issue. Mandys do fight apparently, even if they're different types, same sex etc etc. This was a genuinely bad move on my part - I should have asked around for more firsthand experiences from reefers who have successfully kept different types of mandys (or mandy pairs) in a single tank, before bringing the blue one home. For now, I'll be honest with you - my Spotted, Poseidon, and Scooter, Illaron, are doing very well in my 60G on their own. 

 

But my Blue one might not make it - its belly is still very sunk-in, and I can still see its lateral lines, plus it's making no attempt to eat anything, including live pods. Since we're now in serious lockdown-mode in my country (people are now getting arrested and fined for leaving the house without proper reason), I cannot access my LFSes. So I can't return my fish or purchase extra dry supplies for the moment.

 

I managed to snag a large bottle of Formula One pellets right before my country enforced the lockdown more seriously, but otherwise, I had to order other dry things like antichlorine and FW fish food online. 

 

Back to my reef, I've been focusing on maintaining what I have atm, and giving extra attention to two specific fish in my tank - Poseidon, the Spotted Mandy, and Prince, the banded pipefish. 

 

Poseidon is quite large for a Mandy. He's around 3" and quite chunky. To maintain his 'thickness', I feed him a *lot of Formula One pellets daily, and a *lot of frozen pods every other day. The best bit about this fish is that he's now eating quite stably in the reef, and as long as he has his daily fill (I usually check to see if his belly is distended, if it isn't, I increase the helpings), he's covered.

 

Prince is a bit skittish. He's still on frozen and live pods, and quite healthy, but he's a very, very slow and methodical eater. To allow all of my fish to eat comfortably, I now leave the pumps off for 1 to 1.5 hours daily after adding pellets and pods to the water. 

 

My refugium still has a lot of interesting critters in it, although I've scaled back on the amount of macro that I have because I noticed my nitrates and phosphates were too low to support my LPS.

 

The conch my mother brought back from the beach is still alive and doing well:

 

Some LPS pieces - all puffy and healthy, bouncing back swiftly from the crash:

 

Fishies and FTS/FTV taken today:

 

Looking back at this tank properly, I have to say I have lost a fair bit of coral after the sea hare toxin incident. Small things could be saved and transferred to the nanotank, but I've lost a few large LPS pieces - especially my beautiful elegances and my frogspawn. 😞

 

The tank does look bare in some places - even mushroom mountain has lost half its stock of shrooms. Restoring it to its former appearance will take a lot of time, money and patience. For now, I'm finding more solace in maintaining what I currently have, rather than rushing off to the store to bring in something new to fill up all the empty spots. There were a lot of unhealthy pieces which I'm still trying to nurse back to health in this reef. So far, my brains seem to be the least affected by whatever that's happened, which is a good thing - because I doubt I can afford anymore symphyllias after this. (I'm not even sure if my LFS will be open either. 😢)

 

But the good news is, whatever I still do have, is still *here. So I'm taking it a day at a time, slowly, for a change. And working off the lockdown by cleaning the tank(s), keeping up with basic maintenance, feeding the animals etc. 

 

Also, on a non-reef-related note, I raised a pair of juvi red severums from <2" until ~7.5" (today), and they've began to spawn. 🙂

 

 

Meet Bonnie & Clyde. 🙂 

 

So I'll be focusing on keeping these five tanks up and running: 2x betta tanks, 1 nanoreef, 1 large reef & 1 large FW tank at all times. I have no intentions of starting up any new tanks in the interim - all plans put on hold because of all the uncertainty surrounding Covid. 

 

Since my immune system is weak, I'm probably one of the high-risk people who *might actually die if I get this thing, so I'm trying my best to stay home and stay safe. Only dipping out for grocery runs, but will minimize contact with the outside world as much as possible. Stay safe, NR. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

The Megano turns 1-year-old today. Happy birthday, reef! 🙂

 

I didn't take a proper FTS today, but I did manage to capture a few shots of the fish and some corals over the last few days, so here we go:

 

1. Miu:

 

 

2, Thanos:

 

3. Bo:

 

4. Freida:

 

5. Goblin:

 

6. Corals:

 

7. Miko:

 

8. Poseidon:

 

 

I admit I've certainly kept my fair share of animals in this reef over the space of a year - and it has been a somewhat bumpy ride from the first day I wet this tank until today. I'm hoping over the course of the next year, this reef will be once again full of coral - mainly various types of LPS and mushrooms of different types and colors. I do have a lot of empty spaces that do need to be filled up, and personally, I'm thinking of adding a RBTA to this in the future - I have a lot of room in the front rocks on either side of the tank, as well as the back ledge. 

 

Either that, or do a small frogspawn/hammer garden. I still love Elegances, but the way my last two went - I'm not keen on trying one out again anytime soon. But frogspawns, hammers and torches (the normal types - classified as 'boring' by most reefers) are actually quite hardy (provided I don't drop one on the other again - heh) and last long. Clams are too expensive and suck up too much Alk/Ca - so it's a hard pass from me atm. 

 

Oh! And I'm thinking of acquiring a small pistol shrimp to be paired up with either my steinitz gobies or my tangaroa. I think my previous Candycane pistol died some time last year, because I haven't spotted it for months, or heard a single snap from the tank in a while. 😞

 

If any of you have some good suggestions on what sort of corals I could try to keep in this tank, feel free to let me know. 🙂 

 

I'm going for anything that's not too demanding in terms of water quality (because I stretch out WCs up to once a month if I'm unwell). The only SPS left in this tank is a small chunk of red pavona, and it's growing ultra-slowly. I *might try out monticaps or encrusting montis again - but I have to figure out better placements for them so that they can receive more light to grow. 

[ECLS Reefer]

4 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

The Megano turns 1-year-old today. Happy birthday, reef! 🙂

 

I didn't take a proper FTS today, but I did manage to capture a few shots of the fish and some corals over the last few days, so here we go:

 

1. Miu:

 

 

2, Thanos:

 

3. Bo:

 

4. Freida:

 

5. Goblin:

 

6. Corals:

 

7. Miko:

 

8. Poseidon:

 

 

I admit I've certainly kept my fair share of animals in this reef over the space of a year - and it has been a somewhat bumpy ride from the first day I wet this tank until today. I'm hoping over the course of the next year, this reef will be once again full of coral - mainly various types of LPS and mushrooms of different types and colors. I do have a lot of empty spaces that do need to be filled up, and personally, I'm thinking of adding a RBTA to this in the future - I have a lot of room in the front rocks on either side of the tank, as well as the back ledge. 

 

Either that, or do a small frogspawn/hammer garden. I still love Elegances, but the way my last two went - I'm not keen on trying one out again anytime soon. But frogspawns, hammers and torches (the normal types - classified as 'boring' by most reefers) are actually quite hardy (provided I don't drop one on the other again - heh) and last long. Clams are too expensive and suck up too much Alk/Ca - so it's a hard pass from me atm. 

 

Oh! And I'm thinking of acquiring a small pistol shrimp to be paired up with either my steinitz gobies or my tangaroa. I think my previous Candycane pistol died some time last year, because I haven't spotted it for months, or heard a single snap from the tank in a while. 😞

 

If any of you have some good suggestions on what sort of corals I could try to keep in this tank, feel free to let me know. 🙂 

 

I'm going for anything that's not too demanding in terms of water quality (because I stretch out WCs up to once a month if I'm unwell). The only SPS left in this tank is a small chunk of red pavona, and it's growing ultra-slowly. I *might try out monticaps or encrusting montis again - but I have to figure out better placements for them so that they can receive more light to grow. 

Yay happy birthday reef!

[Snow_Phoenix]

Buddies:

 

Still growing:

 

Anyone loves wrasses? 😛

 

 

Saron Shrimp:

 

Little goby:

 

On a Food Quest:

 

Cynarina:

 

FTS on 31/3/2020:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Very quick update:

 

1. I have just discovered that one of my steinitz gobies is most likely egg-bound - her belly is very swollen today, and I estimate she should round out more in the days to come:

 

Truly hoping to see some eggs soon, but I think she might lay them in one of the burrows. This is my first experience with steinitz gobies & them spawning, so I'll try to document as much of it as possible. 

 

I've only experienced Hi-Fins, YCGs and zebra darts spawning/laying eggs before in my tank(s). So this will definitely be interesting to watch.

 

2. Speaking of big bellies, Poseidon has a fully belly today after gorging himself on a *lot of pellets:

 

He's doing good in this reef so far, so I'm truly hoping to have him with me for the next few years:

 

3. I also realized my green toadstool leather has increased in size and developed pink tips - which is quite pretty up close:

 

4. Managed to grab a pic of my red spotted yellow discosoma - this is the parent shroom, and it has so far produced one large baby shroom:

 

I have several plans to follow through with this reef:

 

1. Repopulate mushroom mountain with various, colorful mushrooms sourced out from the discount rack

2. Get a healthy green frogsapwn - preferably a branching variety this time

3. Get either a different colored frogspawn or octospawn to occupy the left side of the rocks - am considering a Fox/Bubble Coral as well

4. Add more macro to the fuge

5. Get more frags of softies of different colors 

 

With the way the economy is right now, this will probably take a year or two to achieve in full, but it's okay. I'm using the downtime from the lockdown to maintain the reef and keep it going, and enjoying the view from my bed. 🙂 

 

 

 

 

 

[ECLS Reefer]

3 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Very quick update:

 

1. I have just discovered that one of my steinitz gobies is most likely egg-bound - her belly is very swollen today, and I estimate she should round out more in the days to come:

 

Truly hoping to see some eggs soon, but I think she might lay them in one of the burrows. This is my first experience with steinitz gobies & them spawning, so I'll try to document as much of it as possible. 

 

I've only experienced Hi-Fins, YCGs and zebra darts spawning/laying eggs before in my tank(s). So this will definitely be interesting to watch.

 

2. Speaking of big bellies, Poseidon has a fully belly today after gorging himself on a *lot of pellets:

 

He's doing good in this reef so far, so I'm truly hoping to have him with me for the next few years:

 

3. I also realized my green toadstool leather has increased in size and developed pink tips - which is quite pretty up close:

 

4. Managed to grab a pic of my red spotted yellow discosoma - this is the parent shroom, and it has so far produced one large baby shroom:

 

I have several plans to follow through with this reef:

 

1. Repopulate mushroom mountain with various, colorful mushrooms sourced out from the discount rack

2. Get a healthy green frogsapwn - preferably a branching variety this time

3. Get either a different colored frogspawn or octospawn to occupy the left side of the rocks - am considering a Fox/Bubble Coral as well

4. Add more macro to the fuge

5. Get more frags of softies of different colors 

 

With the way the economy is right now, this will probably take a year or two to achieve in full, but it's okay. I'm using the downtime from the lockdown to maintain the reef and keep it going, and enjoying the view from my bed. 🙂 

 

 

 

 

 

That's really cool!!

[Snow_Phoenix]

Hey everyone,

 

Wanted to quickly drop by and say that I'm facing a lot of personal issues and it took a toll on the husbandry of all my animals, including my reeftanks. Although I did manage to perform some WCs for all my reeftanks, I still had issues and sustained some losses in both tanks. 

 

This lockdown period has been a bit rocky for me, but still, that's no excuse. 

 

However, I'm taking this downtime period to maintain whatever I do have left and stabilize everything. It'll probably take weeks, or even months, but I've reached a point whereby I'm too tired to tinker around with any of my systems. 

 

I finally lost Prince, my banded pipefish, just a few hours ago - after doing a massive WC day before yesterday (I believe the two events are related). However, my other fish are still alive and okay. My Spotted Mandarin is still very fat and healthy. My Scooter is unfortunately declining - either due to lack of pods, or simply because he's not on a stable diet of prepared food yet. 

 

All other fish including wrasses are actually quite fat, which is good. Also, I believe my female Steinitz goby has reabsorbed her eggs - she's doing well and less rounder. 

 

I've lost a lot of LPS and SPS corals over the past few weeks. 

 

I admit I didn't check my levels because quite frankly, I was too exhausted and caught up in a lot of other things. Survival and self-isolation being one of them. Since I'm high-risk, I'm limiting the periods that I do go out - even for grocery runs - and it is taking a toll on me somehow. I'm pretty sure most of you could relate, no matter which part of the world you're in. But my priorities have shifted to my family, my health, and our overall safety/security first - including getting proper food and meds to survive the upcoming months. The tanks had to take a backseat - it's as simple as that.

 

They now allow our LFSes to open twice a week for only half-days each time. My primary LFS is closed, but my secondary one has re-opened. I'm still mostly ordering things online though. Only items that can't be acquired online merits a trip to the LFS, otherwise, I'm avoiding it as well. 

 

I'll be updating pics on Insta though - so to keep up with the progress (or lack of therof) of my tanks, feel free to catch me on there. 

 

Before I go, here's Poseidon today:

 

Still hooked on Formula One and NLS pellets. Thank goodness. 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Tank's still chugging along. I'm not doing much except scraping the glass, feeding the animals and topping up the water in the sump as needed:

 

Thanos still remains the bossfish of the reef:

 

Poseidon eating Formula One pellets today:

 

Close up of Poseidon:

 

Pawprint:

 

Hungry corals:

 

Genuinely bummed that I no longer have access to any of my LFSes because the police have completely blocked road access leading out of my area. The city has been red-zoned, but my suburb is relatively untouched, thankfully, so we can still buy groceries without too many issues. 

 

I'm mostly ordering stuff online. Already had 3 bags of filter floss and 3kg of activated carbon come through two different couriers today. Am expecting another order of fish food (some reef flakes for the SW fish, and algae wafers for the FW fish) and a large order of bird food (1kg of fruit pellets and 5kg of mixed seeds) to come in over the next few days. 

 

I really miss looking at all the corals and fish at my LFSes - miss talking to my worker-friends too. 😞 

 

Also, Miu turns one in my reef today - happy birthday, my little wrasse! 🙂

 

 

In five days, Prowler, my circus barred goby, would turn one as well. 👍

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Just realized I've had this duster worm for quite a while. Around a year or slightly more, if my calculations are correct:

 

Blasto garden looks a little bit lackluster these days. A lot of my corals have lost their original color, tbh - especially the symphyllias:

 

Poseidon is still doing well in this reef:

 

 

Am battling a really bad migraine tonight, but I'm planning on doing a small WC some time this week. Nothing larger than 5G, actually. 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Hi everyone, will be splitting today's update into two separate posts, so hopefully that's okay:

 

Update #1. Prowler turns 1! 

 

Happy to announce that my circus barred goby has been with me for a year now. Happy birthday, Prowler! 

 

Blennies are awesome. Here's Miko peeking out of his burrow - he has successfully removed every single zoa/paly frag near his home, and even tossed my cherry garcia chalice on one of my symphyllias (don't worry - I glued the coral back up on the ledge, slightly further away from my TSB's burrow:

 

Thanos is still my bossfish. And I'm secretly proud of him, because he gets along with everything except my Nass snails in the tank:

 

Poseidon is still healthy and a very good eater. Keeping all the fish thick and rounded out is my topmost priority atm, although I haven't quite succeeded in doing this with my scooter, Illaron:

 

My Steinitz goby pair now occupy the opposite corners of the tank. They broke up, I guess. 😕

 

 

Update #2 coming up shortly!

[Snow_Phoenix]

Update #2: Corals!

 

I took some snapshots of my corals both yesterday and today:

 

I'm currently facing nutrient imbalance issues. Mainly, my nutrients keep hitting zero.

 

Given that I have a tank which is now mostly LPS (and with other types of corals as well), and 17 fish, I didn't think this was possible. I've uprooted most of the macro in my fuge, but I'm facing a nasty case of cyano in the sump (thankfully, my DT is free of it, and only has a bit of film algae). What concerns me is that is it possible that my anti-phosphate media is doing too good a job?

 

Either way, it's definitely not a good thing. Already some of my larger LPS have retracted and even turned redder (?) (not brown - just dark red, which is weird). Some LPS are still doing very well, like the cynarina, my blastos, acans and one of the symphyllias seem unfazed by this. The rest of my LPS however, seem to be taking a hit. 

 

I'm quite uncertain as to what exactly is driving down my nutrients to zero, or almost zero. I can't remove my fuge completely, because I do have 2 dragonets and 4 wrasses in this tank - all of which eat pods. So yes, this is puzzling.

 

If anyone has any idea over what is going on - please lmk. 😞 

 

 

 

 

[A.m.P]

Some tanks process phosphate and nitrate too quickly, it may be in your best interest to simply dose both to keep levels up rather than increasing feeding or changing the landscape of your biotope.

You can use potassium nitrate (stump remover) or sodium nitrate (food grade) and food grade trisodium phosphate for, well, phosphate. Otherwise an assortment of companies sell premixed solutions, but they start to become tricker in larger volumes.

 

I have a similar issue in that something in my system obliterates nitrate, especially if I slow down on waterchanges, and my tank can (and recently did) swing from 20 ppm to near 0 in a week or two.

[ECLS Reefer]

2 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Update #2: Corals!

 

I took some snapshots of my corals both yesterday and today:

 

I'm currently facing nutrient imbalance issues. Mainly, my nutrients keep hitting zero.

 

Given that I have a tank which is now mostly LPS (and with other types of corals as well), and 17 fish, I didn't think this was possible. I've uprooted most of the macro in my fuge, but I'm facing a nasty case of cyano in the sump (thankfully, my DT is free of it, and only has a bit of film algae). What concerns me is that is it possible that my anti-phosphate media is doing too good a job?

 

Either way, it's definitely not a good thing. Already some of my larger LPS have retracted and even turned redder (?) (not brown - just dark red, which is weird). Some LPS are still doing very well, like the cynarina, my blastos, acans and one of the symphyllias seem unfazed by this. The rest of my LPS however, seem to be taking a hit. 

 

I'm quite uncertain as to what exactly is driving down my nutrients to zero, or almost zero. I can't remove my fuge completely, because I do have 2 dragonets and 4 wrasses in this tank - all of which eat pods. So yes, this is puzzling.

 

If anyone has any idea over what is going on - please lmk. 😞 

 

 

 

 

MOAR food? I mean the fish will love you even more. Or begin dosing the tank 🤷🏽‍♀️

[Snow_Phoenix]

1 hour ago, Amphrites said:

Some tanks process phosphate and nitrate too quickly, it may be in your best interest to simply dose both to keep levels up rather than increasing feeding or changing the landscape of your biotope.

You can use potassium nitrate (stump remover) or sodium nitrate (food grade) and food grade trisodium phosphate for, well, phosphate. Otherwise an assortment of companies sell premixed solutions, but they start to become tricker in larger volumes.

 

I have a similar issue in that something in my system obliterates nitrate, especially if I slow down on waterchanges, and my tank can (and recently did) swing from 20 ppm to near 0 in a week or two.

 

1 hour ago, Dirté Sanchez said:

MOAR food? I mean the fish will love you even more. Or begin dosing the tank 🤷🏽‍♀️

Thank you so much for the responses, guys. Am half asleep - will reread them in the morning. Thanks to WVReefer for helping me out as well. 

 

Am getting rid of the anti-phosphate media in the morning to see if that helps. If it doesn't, I'll chuck a tiny bit of it back into the sump. Am also planning to do a large WC soon. The sump looks like some alien barfed all over it. Very unpleasant. 😞 

[mitten_reef]

I haven't stopped by in a while.  Love the blastos and yumas. sorry about the recent troubles.

 

But wow, your page is SLOWWWW (both mobile and laptop), I wasn't sure what (I think) seabass was talking about over on another thread.  Idk if it's just too many individual IG linkouts per posts or what? 

 

  

[Snow_Phoenix]

12 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

I haven't stopped by in a while.  Love the blastos and yumas. sorry about the recent troubles.

 

But wow, your page is SLOWWWW (both mobile and laptop), I wasn't sure what (I think) seabass was talking about over on another thread.  Idk if it's just too many individual IG linkouts per posts or what? 

 

  

Sorry if it's still slow. 

 

I tried splitting up my posts to see if it helps, but I admit I do post a lot of pics with every update - simply because I find it easier to show what's happening within the tank rather than typing out long chunks of text. Plus, I love taking pics. 

 

If you're having a lot of trouble with the thread - then just hop on over to Insta directly to see the pics. Insta loads way faster, and my profile is public so anyone can view the pics even without following me. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

14 hours ago, Amphrites said:

Some tanks process phosphate and nitrate too quickly, it may be in your best interest to simply dose both to keep levels up rather than increasing feeding or changing the landscape of your biotope.

You can use potassium nitrate (stump remover) or sodium nitrate (food grade) and food grade trisodium phosphate for, well, phosphate. Otherwise an assortment of companies sell premixed solutions, but they start to become tricker in larger volumes.

 

I have a similar issue in that something in my system obliterates nitrate, especially if I slow down on waterchanges, and my tank can (and recently did) swing from 20 ppm to near 0 in a week or two.

 

14 hours ago, Dirté Sanchez said:

MOAR food? I mean the fish will love you even more. Or begin dosing the tank 🤷🏽‍♀️

I've removed the anti-phosphate media to see if it'll help solve the nutrient imbalance and bump up my phosphates. I'll try to do a large WC today evening, if not, tomorrow evening. The sump needs some heavy cleaning. 😞 

[Snow_Phoenix]

My clownfish pair (and other fish in the background) today:

 

🙂

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Feeling quite unwell today. On the flipside, I managed to map out a whole book series today in under 45 mins. Which probably didn't help my budding headache. 

Anyhow, good night, NR.