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


Snow_Phoenix

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Snow_Phoenix

Update #2.

 

Gary & Lola:

 

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Thanos:

 

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Casper:

 

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I also added my yellow coris to the DT today. The ruby didn't make it yesterday evening, but the coris was going strong, so I transfered him immediately.

 

I named him Helios. 😊

 

Here is the 60G today, post-feeding (hence all the fish up in the upper column):

 

 

 

FTS today:

 

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Snow_Phoenix

Both wrasses are up early today.

 

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It is difficult to get a clear pic of them because they are constantly on the move. I still haven't picked out a proper name for the Carpenter's. At this rate, I am tempted to just call him 'Red' and leave it as it is. 

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Snow_Phoenix
34 minutes ago, Amphrites said:

Red is a fine name anyway, beautiful fish, sorry one didn't make it.

Thank you. And I truly wish he had made it - he was so close to reaching the 2-week QT period. 

 

My order of a leopard wrasse is still standing in the LFS though. Not sure when it will arrive (or if it will arrive at all!) or what condition it will be when it comes, but we'll see how it goes. 

 

Add-On: I think once the leopard comes, I won't be adding anymore fish. Pretty sure I'm overstocked, and all my wrasses still need the space to grow. 

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Snow_Phoenix

So, big boy Thanos has actually turned 1 on 12/8/2019! Happy Belated Birthday, fishy-overlord-of-doom! 🙂

 

 

 

Goblin turns 1 some time next month too:

 

Some shots of Helios settling in:

 

A few of them swimming together:

 

Another Rhodactis has split into two:

 

Shroom mountain (chaotic mess but I like it) - all Rhodactises, if I'm not mistaken. Just different colors/variants:

 

:happy:

 

 

 

 

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Snow_Phoenix

Some snapshots of my current zoa garden today:

 

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I'm looking out for some Eagle Eyes, Red Magicians and Rastas. Would love some Purple Death Palys but I have yet to come across a frag here. 

 

I also decided to make a yuma garden. They were doing okay in the Pico, but my PAR38 there didn't do their color justice. Now that they are under my Prime, they actually look amazing.

 

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And this is my emerald mummy eye, which is encrusting slowly but steadily. It used to only have 3 'eyes' when I first bought it.

 

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Also, here is Casper today:

 

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And Goblin, of course:

 

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On a separate note, I went to my LFS today and purchased a Lubbock's wrasse (they couldn't get me a leopard) and a chocolate banded serpent starfish. Their coral tanks were crashing today - a skimmer failure issue, and store was a bit panicked and trying to salvage anything left alive. There were 2 serpent stars - one was already dying and dropping legs, but a smaller one was still alive and active. So I quickly took the smaller one home. 

 

I have kept this serpent star before twice. It is relatively reefsafe and doesn't trouble anything else in the reef. But it is still a risk because I do have nanofish in my tank. I'm keeping all the stars well-fed, and will try to beef this one up as well. (Its central disc is a bit deflated)

 

Right now it is taking refuge under my cynarina:

 

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(Bonus pic: hungry coral at night) 😊

 

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Snow_Phoenix
16 hours ago, Amphrites said:

Horrible to hear about the LFS, though I'm confused as to how a skimmer failure could crash tanks.

Me too. Although their main pump was making this weird gurgling noise when I neared the tanks - so I think something else failed as well. The water smelled awful though. Dead, rotting things. It'd be a miracle if any of the smaller frags make it. It's a shame because they had a nice blasto frag collection - and I was thinking of purchasing a few heads to build a blasto garden as well.

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Hmm. Red the flasher wrasse is being a douche. I get that he is a flasher wrasse and needs to 'flash', but he's been dive-bombing Miu, my pink streaked wrasse, since today evening. He doesn't chase her, just occasionally decides to 'zero in' and flash quickly before looping off. The strangest thing is that I've just noticed that my dartfish and blenny actually defend my pink-streak by swimming between both wrasses. In the case of Tic the dartfish, he actually 'flashes' his fins and the whisker on his jaw in return and Red backs off immediately. 

 

The little twerp actually tried to posture against Thanos, of all fish in the tank. 🙄

 

I'll keep observing all the fish - so far they're just flashing each other, but no chasing or nipping (yet). If the Carpenter's proves to be aggressive in any way, I'll find a way to remove him (I know where he sleeps - usually it's behind my dual-toned symphyllia) and return him to the store. Adding two pink fish of the same 'type' to a cube tank - what was I thinking? 🤦‍♂️

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Snow_Phoenix
9 hours ago, WV Reefer said:

Everything looks great! 😃

 

 

 

Thanos makes Star Lord look like a minnow. 😂

Thanks! And I don't know how, but he actually managed to make this tank look tiny when he swims about in it. He's just so chunky lol. 😂

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I made a couple of mistakes around 2 days ago. I accidently topped up too much water into my sump - around 2" above my usual waterline for the sump. (I have marked out the waterline, so that I know exactly how much water to add when it drops everyday. Usually I top off every two to three days once). I didn't think much of it. I seriously didn't.

 

Fast-forward yesterday morning, I saw my new serpent sea star - the chocolate banded one with the deflated disc - out in the open and missing a leg. I immediately knew something was off - stars don't shed arms/legs/whatever you choose to call them, unless there has been an abrupt change in salinity or kH. I had accidently dropped my salinity to 1.022. The swing isn't much, considering I usually run all my tanks at 1.024. But it was enough to stress this particular animal out as compared to the others (checked on the other four stars I have, and they were all doing fine). 

 

I pulled out the serpent star and it began shedding legs on my hand. :scarry:

 

As in, it was literally disintegrating on my palm. I knew then and there that either my tank was headed for a major crash soon, if I didn't fix this quick, and I needed to move the serpent star out of the reef because I cannot risk it fouling the water if it disintegrates completely (ever tried siphoning *bits of starfish out of a tank? Yeah, not easy). I acclimated the serpent star to my nano, but I knew it was beyond saving. I've never seen an animal collapse and degenerate so quickly in my life. I felt extremely horrible because I'm the cause for it's suffering. And by today morning, there was only a partially intact central disc with 2 halves of 2 arms left in my nano. The bristleworms were actually eating it - because I saw one of the worms poke through the central cavity, and I knew it was gone. :tears:

 

As for my major reef, the moment I pulled out the serpent star yesterday, I siphoned out its broken leg bits from the sandbed and did a major sump clean up-overhaul. I threw in a huge pack of carbon, replaced all the media including the coral stones in my zipped bags, replaced the floss, pumped out layers of crud etc etc. I estimate I removed around 75% (?) of the sump water's volume and replaced it with freshly made SW. I managed to bring up the salinity slowly over the cause of a day back to 1.024 (so that I won't shock any of the animals), and I also scrubbed the DT's glass, basted the rocks, stirred up the sandbed etc. 

 

Basically some extensive maintenance work. I noticed two things after I was done - I was missing two fish: my Hector's, Henri, and my green filefish, George. Henri never ate prepared for me. I tried a variety of things, but he insisted on being a mini-mandarin through and through. He even turned his nose up at live BBS. I noticed he was losing weight after I added my Carpenter's and Yellow Coris. My guess is that since wrasses eat pods and also microfauna, Henri couldn't compete and perished some time within last week (last sighting was around ~3+ days ago, I believe). As for George, it was a bit of a shock. I didn't see him for several days, but he's extremely good at camoflaging and at night, I have seen him pop up in various compartments of my sump. I had plans to move him out of my sump this week, but it looks like I lost him too - because I cleaned out my sump (except the compartment with the macro and rocks) and he was nowhere. I'd be amazed to find him alive, but some inner feeling tells me he didn't make it. There were no bodies for both fish - I assume my CUC got to Henri, and my sump has some pretty large bristleworms. R.I.P. Henri, R.I.P. George, R.I.P. Serpent Sea Star .:tears:

 

That's three losses in the space of one week. To make matters a bit worse, I was toying around with the settings of my Prime and ramping up my UVs (in hopes of getting my montis to grow faster) and I bleached out my red lobo brain and parts of my cynarina by accident. :sad:

 

You can see how bleached they are here:

 

I think the cynarina will recover, but I'm worried about the lobo. Really hoping it'll turn dark red again. 

 

Back to lighter tidings, here's a small vid. during feeding time today:

 

 

And a 10 shots of Gary, Lola, Thanos and Goblin:

 

 

 

And mushroom mountain is doing well, at least:

 

And the latest teal shroom addition:

 

I guess the important thing is to always watch your tank. My tank is a mess. It's chaotic, nuts and full of livestock. But I love it. Every bit of it. And I had my first official tank visitor today (so nervous!) and she liked my reef too (thank goodness non-reefers are oblivious to near-reefing-disasters - she called my Pico the 'nursery' :lol:). I'll definitely be more vigilant in the future. And be more cautious when dosing or topping off too. Honestly, it could have spiraled to hell yesterday, but thank goodness major WCs and lots of carbon are a help. 

 

Reef is back to normal today - I have a film algae outbreak, which is not unusual, given my choice of light settings for the past week and that I have been feeding rather heavily. So I've re-adjusted the settings back to the original mode I was on, and will cut back on feedings. That, and get more turban snails. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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18 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

Sorry for your losses. That last group of pictures looks like almost everything is back to normal great job.

Thank you. Tbh, I think I got off really lucky this time. And the serpent star was a very early warning sign. I'm planning on doing another WC - this time for the DT - some time this week. Need to make sure the parameters don't differ too much though, or else I might lose more. 😕

 

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I guess you were sitting really close to the PAR limit for your animals, you could always try to run acclimation mode and turn your UV up over the course of a month or two and see if your lps respond better.

 

Sorry to hear about your losses, I'm stunned such a small salinity swing could do that to such a large animal... Maybe something about swinging low is more dangerous than the little swings folks almost can't avoid in nano's?

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32 minutes ago, Amphrites said:

I guess you were sitting really close to the PAR limit for your animals, you could always try to run acclimation mode and turn your UV up over the course of a month or two and see if your lps respond better.

 

Sorry to hear about your losses, I'm stunned such a small salinity swing could do that to such a large animal... Maybe something about swinging low is more dangerous than the little swings folks almost can't avoid in nano's?

I guess so. I ramped up UVs from 50% to 60% but I only used acclimation for 10 days (which is not long enough, I believe). Thank goodness it didn't actually kill anything. The lobo is bleached very badly though. Will offering it some shade (like putting it under the rock arch) help? It's still taking in food (chopped raw shrimp).

 

I think the issue was aggravated by the fact that the serpent star wasn't healthy to begin with - as compared to my other stars, which were very healthy upon purchase. This serpent star was pulled out of a crashed coral frag tank and it was starved quite badly at the store - I've never seen a central disc look that deflated in my years of owning this species. So factor in the fact that the animal was already weak from the get-go, I believe even the smallest fluctuation in parameters (like salinity) was enough to tip it over into degeneration. I was actually hoping it could survive the night, especially since the central disc was partially intact. But then I saw a bristleworm eat through the central area of the disc (the mouth) and I knew it was dead. Had to dispose it quickly - including all the broken arms, before it could contaminate my nano. 

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I'm not sure to be honest with you, sorry. You could try moving it to an area of lower light to recover, but I'm not the best person to ask. I'm honestly surprised enough that an extra 10% PAR contribution from a single channel managed to damage/overwhelm the animal in the first place.

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So what are your nitrate and phosphate levels like in this tank?

 

Nutrients are generally a good thing and make having a stable tank far easier a prospect, but they can be a double edge sword when it comes to the dinos as it sorta keeps them in high gear.  Check below this quote for the link to the article...these are the author's bullet points, not mine:

  • Nitrogen cycling in reef-building corals is a function of all holobiont members.
  • Control of nitrogen cycling may stabilize holobiont functioning under oligotrophic and eutrophic conditions.
  • Anthropogenic change may sway the control of nitrogen cycling, promoting coral decline.
  • Elevated nitrogen fixation rates may foster coral bleaching and disease.

 

Link:

https://reefsuccess.com/2017/05/23/nitrogen-cycling-in-corals-the-key-to-understanding-holobiont-functioning/

 

I've saved a few other interesting articles on the topic, which can be found on this search:

https://reefsuccess.com/?s=holobiont

Edited by mcarroll
clarity
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Too much "anthropogenic change" seems to apply.

 

Dino population grows out of control with sudden light exposure, coral bleaches to avoid death and waits for better conditions.

 

Is UV still on/boosted?

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Sorry you are having losses and trouble with this tank.  Do you think the dying star will cause any problems with your nano nursery!!! I hope not, I just have not seen an update on it in a few days.

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12 hours ago, Amphrites said:

I'm not sure to be honest with you, sorry. You could try moving it to an area of lower light to recover, but I'm not the best person to ask. I'm honestly surprised enough that an extra 10% PAR contribution from a single channel managed to damage/overwhelm the animal in the first place.

 

11 hours ago, mcarroll said:

So what are your nitrate and phosphate levels like in this tank?

 

Nutrients are generally a good thing and make having a stable tank far easier a prospect, but they can be a double edge sword when it comes to the dinos as it sorta keeps them in high gear.  Check below this quote for the link to the article...these are the author's bullet points, not mine:

  • Nitrogen cycling in reef-building corals is a function of all holobiont members.
  • Control of nitrogen cycling may stabilize holobiont functioning under oligotrophic and eutrophic conditions.
  • Anthropogenic change may sway the control of nitrogen cycling, promoting coral decline.
  • Elevated nitrogen fixation rates may foster coral bleaching and disease.

 

Link:

https://reefsuccess.com/2017/05/23/nitrogen-cycling-in-corals-the-key-to-understanding-holobiont-functioning/

 

I've saved a few other interesting articles on the topic, which can be found on this search:

https://reefsuccess.com/?s=holobiont

 

11 hours ago, mcarroll said:

Too much "anthropogenic change" seems to apply.

 

Dino population grows out of control with sudden light exposure, coral bleaches to avoid death and waits for better conditions.

 

Is UV still on/boosted?

 

I think there's been some confusion somewhere - I don't have dinos, just a bit of film algae (the kind that vanishes overnight when the lights are off, and returns when the lights are back on the following day). I did dial down the UVs back to the original setting it was on (50% with a few ramps in between - nothing exceeding 55%, if I'm not mistaken). 

Usual NO3 and PO4 levels (before WC) were 50ppm and 0.25ppm. I found out another possible cause of the bleaching - I run a tank with high nutrients which benefits my LPS and Softies the most. But when I changed the water, I stripped down the nutrient levels to 10ppm and 0ppm. That is a large swing from what my corals are accustomed to. And running anything at zeros is never truly a good thing in my system. 

So I ramped up feedings today in hopes of getting the nitrates and phosphates back up. It might take several days - might see some nasty algae come and go in the interim, and might (*hopefully not!) witness another 1 or 2 LPSes shrink or bleach. 

 

So far at a passing glance, everything looks okay today. Even the bleached lobo is receptive towards fallen pellets on its surface. I'm not sure what else I can do except wait and see. I siphoned a lot of crud out of the sump - maybe too much in too little a time frame. And I did change out all media at once, including the RowaPhos. 

 

Thank you for the article links - will read them shortly. 🙂 

45 minutes ago, kimdawg said:

Sorry you are having losses and trouble with this tank.  Do you think the dying star will cause any problems with your nano nursery!!! I hope not, I just have not seen an update on it in a few days.

The star died in my nano - I managed to transfer it out of the major reef to a small nano FOWLR that I run downstairs (which houses my Falco hawkfish). The pico is an independent tank that is in my bedroom, by the foot of my bed. I try not to overload that tank because it had some algae issues recently - very strong film algae that's difficult to scrape off, even with a metal blade. I'm planning on giving it an overhaul, before adding more corals (shrooms) to it. The fish in there are fine though. Derp the hermit is okay too. 🙂 

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