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

[Ratvan]

That Wrasse is gorgeous, very jealous of you at teh moment. 

 

Oh that's a skinny Yasha, goo to hear it is eating. Its needs to

[Snow_Phoenix]

14 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

That Wrasse is gorgeous, very jealous of you at teh moment. 

 

Oh that's a skinny Yasha, goo to hear it is eating. Its needs to

I hope they both make it. The Yasha cost me 3 figures - would be an ouch! to the wallet *if I lose it in QT. 😭

[seabass]

3 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

I'll move Derp to the sump

So sad.

[Ratvan]

2 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

I hope they both make it. The Yasha cost me 3 figures - would be an ouch! to the wallet *if I lose it in QT. 😭

Yeah the Nano Fish are expensive unless you can get tank bred ones it seems. 

[Wonderboy]

Very pretty wrasse - sending many positive vibes that the yasha fattens up fast for you - it looks like it didn't have much longer  :[   Kudos to you for not leaving him even though it was expensive  :]

[Snow_Phoenix]

26 minutes ago, Wonderboy said:

Very pretty wrasse - sending many positive vibes that the yasha fattens up fast for you - it looks like it didn't have much longer  :[   Kudos to you for not leaving him even though it was expensive  :]

Thank you, Wonderboy. It's very risky purchasing a fish this emaciated - especially given that it's rare and expensive here. I hope it makes it through the night in QT - I'm actually quite anxious now and hope it'll be okay in the morning. It did eat a few Hikari carnivore pellets though, so that's a start, at least. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Tiny morning/early afternoon update:

 

Both fish made it through their first night in QT okay. The Yasha ate six to seven Saki-Hikari Marine Carnivore pellets - took her a while, but damn, she was *hungry! I'll probably feed her three times a day, and once she reaches normal weight, dial down feedings to twice a day. Tentatively, I'm not feeding her frozen *yet, but I will in a few days. Also putting *1 drop of Prazi in QT either tomorrow or the day after, then will perform a large WC 3 days later. 

 

The wrasse is okay too, but a bit skittish, which is the norm for new wrasses. He'll most likely be added to the tank first, before the Yasha, because it looks like the Yasha will need some time to regain all her lost weight. 👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

Sigh. The time has come. And Derp was sump-ed.

 

I found him uprooting one of my more expensive shrooms from the mountain today - this shroom, to be exact:

 

To say I was annoyed is an understatement. The coral was super stressed after being detached - but I managed to shove it into a small crevice in the mountain. As long as my urchins or brittle stars don't pick it up and tote it around, I *think it can re-attach to the rock and bounce back.

 

In the meantime, I'm facing issues with my levels again. Tank is running even cleaner than before at NO3 = 25ppm & PO4 = 0ppm <---Is this even possible??? 

 

I've thrown away the alveopora skeleton. My orange frogspawn, which was already not doing well to begin with, is now more retracted than before. My blasto garden was retracted. My green zoa colony was closed up (but the red fungia hitchikers were all open with tentacles waving) and I've lost a good chunk of flesh on my red symphyllia - it's very thin and skeletal, not fleshy or puffy as before. Half of my green frogspawn is retracted/skeletal. And there's this weird transparent patch that has emerged on the neon green section of my elegance - bleaching, maybe? Not sure. 😢

 

I haven't checked my other levels yet - but I think this simply cycles back to the nutrient levels being too low to keep certain types of coral 'happy' in my reef. What I don't understand is how/why some of my other corals remain unaffected (thankfully). My cynarina and dual-toned symphyllia are very puffy and healthy. Green hammer is okay - tentacles appear a bit browned out at the base, but it's still there. Torch coral is still swaying in the flow with no issues - and of course, the shrooms are growing and bopping out babies. The other zoa frags are growing (slowly) and are still vibrant. Merlettis are fine and growing very quickly. SPS is slowly regaining color (green monti now has traces of green again - all red SPS still remain red and are unaffected). All softies have full PE and the cup coral has full PE and remains very vibrant. 

 

So why are some pieces doing well while others are retracting? I understand that low nutrients = unhappy LPSes, but shouldn't that mean *all the LPSes would be unhappy? It's confusing to me. 

 

I figured I'll do a mini WC tomorrow and see if that helps. I'm already running carbon in my sump. And I'm not sure what Jerk (my other hermit did) but he kept his portion of the sump ultra-clean (do hermits even eat dirt? 🤔). My sump is full of filter-feeders, macro (just freshly pruned today), algae patches and all sorts of weird hitchikers. So I assume that's a good thing, right?

 

Back to the reef, fish and all non-coral inverts remain happy and thriving. Everyone's accounted for, and no fighting between any of the fish observed so far. I'm really hoping that by adding two more new fish, I can get my nitrates and phosphates up again. 

 

Speaking of the two new fish - the Lubbocks finally ate some pellets in QT today. Phew! And the Yasha has a full belly. None of them have stringy poo either, and they're acting normally. 👍

 

Also, Thanos & Goblin says hi:

 

If anyone has any pointers regarding solving the issues I'm experiencing, I'm all ears. 

 

 

 

[A.m.P]

You could try simply dosing phosphates, with all the macroalgae in your sump and coral in your tank you might not be able to keep detectable levels just by feeding. I don't think you need to worry about your nitrates though.
OH and worth adding it could be that the low phosphates might be starting a bloom of nasty-pest algae and could be irritating things, just an idea nothing much to base it on.

[Wonderboy]

On 11/28/2019 at 5:02 AM, Snow_Phoenix said:

So why are some pieces doing well while others are retracting? I understand that low nutrients = unhappy LPSes, but shouldn't that mean *all the LPSes would be unhappy? It's confusing to me. 

Animals/corals have evolved to collect and persist with what nutrients are available to them. Different environmental circumstances -over too much time to reference- have influenced them to utilize nutrients in often the same ways and often very different ways - this is essentially why there is such variety in structure between species. So, maybe the reason a coral would deplete reserves (if any) quicker than another (even individuals of like species) is because of its developed design and also the way it had previously allocated provisions (usually based off environmental stimuli). In any system, utilize early depleters as early warnings. These things are almost constantly processing, so it's important to have nutrients/food available whenever their polyps are out. How have you been feeding things?

[Snow_Phoenix]

10 minutes ago, Wonderboy said:

Animals/corals have evolved to collect and persist with what nutrients are available to them. Different environmental circumstances -over too much time to reference- have influenced them to utilize nutrients in often the same ways and often very different ways - this is essentially why there is such variety in structure between species. So, maybe the reason a coral would deplete reserves (if any) quicker than another (even individuals of like species) is because of its developed design and also the way it had previously allocated provisions (usually based off environmental stimuli). In any system, utilize early depleters as early warnings. These things are almost constantly processing, so it's important to have nutrients/food available whenever their polyps are out. How have you been feeding things?

I admit I only do frozen twice a week - frozen as in a mix of mysis, brine, crab roe & bloodworm enhanced with Selcon. And also raw shrimp pieces + juice, with some Zooplankton from Brightwell. Otherwise, I do feed my fish and non-coral inverts pellets - NLS & Hikari (seaweed + carnivore). So I guess I'll be upping the frozen...? 🤔

[Wonderboy]

I would give it a try. The more biomass (algae and coral) that accumulates in there, the more you'll have to feed. Something that helps me keep up with frozen and supplements is portioning daily-ish rations into small containers and keeping about 2 or 3 weeks worth of them ready to go in a tub in the freezer. Each one has some mysis, rod's, fish eggs, krill, reef roids, Zoe, Zoecon (Selcon is great too), tiny amount of garlic, and topped off with live phyto. You wouldn't have to compose anything in an identical manner, but the preparation helps with consistency. I love Brightwell's line of Phytoplanktos - I use some in my target coral feed - a different blend that I make fresh for target feeding twice weekly - you could absolutely incorporate these into a more frequent regimen, also. Every individual system will have a particular metabolism, so it has helped me to write down what was put in while concocting so that next time, rations can be adjusted based off of parameter/observable fluctuations. I feed each system their daily frozen ration unless pest algae starts to become an issue, then I reduce to every other day. I should let you know that I also feed pellets (NLS) sparingly multiple times daily; sometimes I may have to reduce this frequency, too - usually until its frozen ration is adjusted. Hope this helps  :]

[Snow_Phoenix]

13 minutes ago, Wonderboy said:

I would give it a try. The more biomass (algae and coral) that accumulates in there, the more you'll have to feed. Something that helps me keep up with frozen and supplements is portioning daily-ish rations into small containers and keeping about 2 or 3 weeks worth of them ready to go in a tub in the freezer. Each one has some mysis, rod's, fish eggs, krill, reef roids, Zoe, Zoecon (Selcon is great too), tiny amount of garlic, and topped off with live phyto. You wouldn't have to compose anything in an identical manner, but the preparation helps with consistency. I love Brightwell's line of Phytoplanktos - I use some in my target coral feed - a different blend that I make fresh for target feeding twice weekly - you could absolutely incorporate these into a more frequent regimen, also. Every individual system will have a particular metabolism, so it has helped me to write down what was put in while concocting so that next time, rations can be adjusted based off of parameter/observable fluctuations. I feed each system their daily frozen ration unless pest algae starts to become an issue, then I reduce to every other day. I should let you know that I also feed pellets (NLS) sparingly multiple times daily; sometimes I may have to reduce this frequency, too - usually until its frozen ration is adjusted. Hope this helps  :]

It did help, and thanks for sharing this with me. I usually pop out few cubes of Hikari mysis + brine + bloodworm in a small container of heated saltwater (taken from the tank), stir it all up, let it cool for a bit, then add 1 drop of selcon, some frozen crab roe and Zooplankton. Then I re-freeze the whole container, and thaw a tiny bit each time I want to feed the tank. So far, in the past, that seems to work quite well - even with picky fish like Mandys and stuff. But I guess I did lower my frequency of frozen-feeding because I was worried of a major pest algae outbreak. Now that the fuge does have a lot macro (which is pruned when it reaches a certain mass), I guess that could be why I'm getting very low nutrients.🤔

 

Don't get me wrong though - I still do have pest algae in the tank, just not too much of it. I have green film algae on certain LR pieces, and my wavemaker has GHA (which I purposely didn't remove for now, because my TSB loves grazing on it every time the pumps are off for feeding). It's just a bit difficult/challenging to keep all types of coral happy/content with a specific nutrient level. For example, too high PO4 & NO3, and my SPS either turn poop-brown or stop growing. But the LPS and shrooms are happy and have full PE/bop out babies. Too low PO4 & NO3, and the SPS starts growing/is very vibrant, but the LPS begins bleaching/retracting. Shrooms don't care - they will keep growing anyway. 

 

The hardest part of running a mixed reef is trying to find that point of balance to keep all corals healthy and growing. I don't think there's such a thing as the 'perfect' number, but I'll still try my best to keep the animals healthy and thriving, not just surviving. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Eh. Came home to my Saron shrimp perched suspiciously next to a frag of my red zoas, with all polyps gone except for 1. 

 

Slight benefit of a doubt - that particular frag was faring poorly for the past two weeks because Miko, my TSB, kept nipping at the skirts of zoas since I glued the frag too close to his burrow. So it was dying in a way, and my Saron *could have been just finishing off the remnants. Either that, or he has developed an unhealthy fascination for my zoas, in which case I'll be keeping an eye on him.

 

There's no way to get him outta the tank since he literally moves ninja-fast, and I'll have to tear down everything and drain out all the water before I can even get to him. 

 

If he still has the munchies, I guess I'll have to close one eye on it and keep reefing. Here's to hoping he'd go rogue on the brown palys I have though, because those things are hideous as shit. 

 

Thanos says hi again.

 

 

 

[A.m.P]

What a face XD, love Thanos.

Could be the shrimp was cleaning up after an overnight melting, I feel like the majority of asterinas get a bad-rap for that exact kind of scenario though I'm sure some actually do chomp on coral.

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

6 minutes ago, Amphrites said:

What a face XD, love Thanos.

Could be the shrimp was cleaning up after an overnight melting, I feel like the majority of asterinas get a bad-rap for that exact kind of scenario though I'm sure some actually do chomp on coral.

 

I, too, have a feeling that it was just cleaning up. He's been quite reefsafe so far and I've had him for almost 1.5 years now. Would be strange if he mysteriously decided to revolt and eat anything polyp-y. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Okay - I think I've figured out why my zoas melted. Turns out to be my tri-colored yuma (should just call it Rainbow Yuma from now on, because it has 5 to 6 colors) has been stinging the crap out of everything near it. I didn't really realize it, but the yuma has *doubled in size since I first brought it home, and well, it packs a potent sting. It has already melted 2 merletti polyps on the left and 4 to 5 polyps of red zoas. It's currently irritating 2 of my rainbow implosion polyps as well, although there's half an inch between both coral pieces. Since the yuma has anchored itself to my LR and is pretty much impossible to remove (not unless I want to risk damaging the coral irreparably), I will have to move my zoa frags *away from the yuma instead. So I'll be re-gluing my Rainbow Implosions to another part of the LR or another LR entirely. 

 

My chalices are spreading out too - so I'll need to watch out for aggression with those frags as well in the future. 

 

In the meantime, here are some shots of the tank - enjoy!

 

On a non-reef-related note, I visited the annual Pet Expo in my state recently, and one of my friends brought some of his lizards out for display, which was really cool:

 

 

Gotta love animals. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

I added my Lubbocks to the DT today afternoon - have decided to name him 'Bo', short for 'rainbow' because he's very colorful. 😁

 

Here he was during acclimation:

 

 

In the tank:

 

 

Swimming with the other fish (my yellow coris kept eyeballing him and wasn't quite sure of what to make of the new guy 🤣):

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quick vid:

 

 

And a quick peek at a brittle starfish leg up close (Ophiomastix sp.):

 

 

 

😊

[Ratvan]

Gorgeous colours on that Wrasse, my Yellow Coris also does the same thing, she is like the inspector of the tank with anything that is new (fish, inverts, corals) 

I love the detailed shots of the Brittle Stars as well, so incredible to see so much detail on something so small

[Snow_Phoenix]

1 hour ago, Ratvan said:

Gorgeous colours on that Wrasse, my Yellow Coris also does the same thing, she is like the inspector of the tank with anything that is new (fish, inverts, corals) 

I love the detailed shots of the Brittle Stars as well, so incredible to see so much detail on something so small

Thanks, Ratvan! It's usually Thanos that does the inspecting - but I was a little bit surprised when my yellow coris kept tailing the new guy. I admit I was a bit worried that the fish might have a territorial dispute. With 3 wrasses now, there's no telling. But they each don't seem to mind swimming together in the center of the tank. Planning on adding a leopard wrasse in the future if I can get a hold of a healthy one. 

 

I miss my ornate leopard terribly. He was gorgeous, and very active. 😞

 

 

[Ratvan]

31 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Thanks, Ratvan! It's usually Thanos that does the inspecting - but I was a little bit surprised when my yellow coris kept tailing the new guy. I admit I was a bit worried that the fish might have a territorial dispute. With 3 wrasses now, there's no telling. But they each don't seem to mind swimming together in the center of the tank. Planning on adding a leopard wrasse in the future if I can get a hold of a healthy one. 

 

I miss my ornate leopard terribly. He was gorgeous, and very active. 😞

 

 

My Yellow has chased my Tailspot once that I have seen, the Yellow took a couple of body slams and hid in the sand for a few hours. Now it leaves it alone. 🙄

The Leopard Wrasses are beautiful and so personable as well, mine begs at the surface whenever it sees me approaching the tank, I keep thinking i'll hear it hitting my lid with the speed she zooms to the surface with

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Guess who finally showed up? 🙄

 

 

 

He's my most expensive shrimp and I'll be lucky to even catch a glimpse of him once a week. Why...???

 

🤦‍♀️

[Snow_Phoenix]

Quick update:

 

I brought home my shroom colony today - and it's huge! It's like a mini mountain on its own, and has around a dozen shrooms all over it. They appear to be rhodactis shrooms, and have lovely red 'spots' on them, which I find very beautiful and intriguing (also got pricked by a bristleworm as I was placing this colony on the sandbed - ouch!):

 

I'll be bringing home my mini colony of red people eater zoas sometime next week - can't wait to see those in the reef!

 

Speaking of the reef, Bo, the new wrasse is doing quite well and made it through his first night in the tank with no problems. He was also eating voraciously today, and so far doesn't exhibit dominance over my other two wrasses. I'm dead-set on getting a leopard (I know I've mentioned this several times before), but now it's become somewhat of a must, because I discovered a few red flatworms on some of my shrooms on the mountain yesterday. 

 

After going through hell with immortal-zombie-flatworms in my pico, which eventually let to the tear-down of that little reeftank, I want to stop these pests before they start spreading to plague-like proportions. My three wrasses do a fairly good job of pest-control, but there are some spots in the tank they refuse to touch - the mountain being one of them. I'm hoping with a fourth wrasse added in the future, it can eat some of the flatworms that pop up in the areas the others don't usually go. 

 

That aside, I'm trying something new. This new:

 

I've had experience keeping dragonfaces, but not multibanded pipes. So this is a first (and huge!) step for me. It's already eating, which is a plus. And I have a lot of live pods in the fuge & sump in general, plus a lot of macro, so I guess that's okay (?). My tank is still young though. Usually I'd wait a year before attempting one, but I decided to give it a try. And my LFS has frozen prepackaged copepods in stock, so they offered me one packet as a tester product of sorts. 

 

Even the anthias at the LFS went wild for it. 

 

I'll be back to hatching BBS, and I also have a Daphnia culture outdoors which I can use as backup. Will have to restart my grindal worm culture though. 🤔

 

We'll see how it goes. And speaking of the pipefish, he's (I don't know how to sex it, so I'll just designate it as male for now) around 5" and very curious. I have no plans to move him to the main DT, but I'm thinking of setting up a large macrotank in the future, with mandys and scooters, so I *might be doing some pipes in there. I just need to convince the folks to keep another simple 'sea-plant' tank. 

 

Oh, and one more thing: my second Steinitz goby is still alive! But unfortunately, it's trapped in the outflow chamber in the back corner of the tank. I tried my level best to get it out using a brine shrimp net and my bare hands, but even with the water drained in that chamber, I couldn't reach it. 

 

It didn't help that the fish is super tiny (<2") and moves fast. I have no idea how it could have even jumped back in there - it must have leaped at least 20"++ up from the sandbed - but I noticed it's thinned out. 😞

 

I'll try to get another smaller net from the store, but I'm not optimistic. The BBS nets are usually the smallest available, and if that can't get it out, I don't know what can. I'll throw some pellets in the chamber when I turn off the main pumps to feed the main DT though, so hopefully it can snack on something. My best hope is that it'll go down the pipes and into my filter sock - I can catch it there easily then. 

[A.m.P]

Maybe try to set-up a homemade fish-trap and lower it down on a line.

[Snow_Phoenix]

9 hours ago, Amphrites said:

Maybe try to set-up a homemade fish-trap and lower it down on a line.

I will. The space in the chamber is very restrictive though, because there are two pipes leading in/out of it. Will also need to get an ultra teeny-tiny container to catch the fish. 😓