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

[ECLS Reefer]

Feel better!!

[Snow_Phoenix]

I removed my anti-Phos media yesterday, after asking advice from other forum members, and I did a 20G WC today evening as well. Cleaned up the sump thoroughly and most of a cyano is gone (for now). But most of my LPS still remain shrunken/skeletal and unhappy. 😞

 

I'm hoping in time, they will bounce back. With the way things currently are, I don't think I can acquire such large colonies in the future for cheap/reasonable prices anymore. Heck, I don't think the discount rack will exist after this - *if my LFS can pull through the lockdown and re-open the store properly once it's over. 😞

 

However, my fish are doing well. Fattening up my Scooter is still an uphill battle, but the other 16 critters are chunky and eating well:

 

 

Not taking anything for granted + it's still too early to tell, but I'm very happy I managed to keep a mandarin without issues in this tank. I didn't think it was possible, given how many competitors there are, but I got off really lucky that he's eating prepared like a champ. 

 

Right now, I'll try to nurse my affected coral back to health, and make sure my fish still retain healthy body weight. 

 

Maybe, once everything is stable, and my current corals regrow/color up, then I'll look into getting more LPS like a frogspawn/octospawn etc. Either that, or maybe a RBTA or more mini maxis? Hmm. Not sure. So many options. And now I have a lot of empty space on the rocks. 🤔

 

 

 

 

 

[debbeach13]

I hope you are feeling better. Hard to do any thing never mind take care of your tank when not feeling well. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

59 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

Hard to do any thing never mind take care of your tank when not feeling well. 

True. I have more 'off' days than good days, but I try my best to keep up with everything during the little time I have when I'm well.

 

I slack back a lot on WCs and maintenance because of health issues, actually. I know it's a poor excuse, but it just happens. I was just speaking to my doctor via an online appointment and I actually showed her my tank and told her directly, 'Do you see this? My tank? It's half-dead. What do I do?'

 

She knows how much time I spend with all my animals, so she was trying her best to give me advice on how to get back into a fixed routine. This might sound weird, but after the lockdown, my entire schedule flew outta the window - although I'm a social hermit by nature and nothing much has changed for me (I hardly leave the house anyway). But my anxiety kept peaking and this lead to insomnia and very little restful sleep. My whole sleep cycle shifted, and it was affecting everything, including my work (writing). 

 

Tbh, I've accomplished little to no work at all since early April. 😞 

 

So we were trying to come up with ways to get my sleep rhythm back on track, and then slowly slide back into work, and follow up with care for all my animals. 

 

I'll keep all the tanks up in the meantime. 

[debbeach13]

Sorry to hear that you are not well more often. Hopefully you can get back on track for a good nights sleep that will make a difference. I have noticed many members including my self are not sleeping well. I blame the less active life style and stress from the pandemic. I hope it gets better for you soon.

[Snow_Phoenix]

21 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

Sorry to hear that you are not well more often. Hopefully you can get back on track for a good nights sleep that will make a difference. I have noticed many members including my self are not sleeping well. I blame the less active life style and stress from the pandemic. I hope it gets better for you soon.

Thank you, Debbeach. Hope you get a more restful sleep too. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Goblin today - long time since I took a pic of him:

 

Miko peeking out of his burrow:

 

A blurry shot of Poseidon:

 

Better capture:

 

 

Thanos is as huge as ever:

 

Still not feeling 100% of myself, but am better today than yesterday. Tank overall looks cleaner and better today too. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Update:

 

Pics first:

 

1. Poseidon & Thanos are friends: 

 

2. Thanos:

 

3. Goblin hiding in  the cup coral:

 

4. Poseidon two days ago:

 

Poseidon a day ago:

 

Poseidon today:

 

Okay, here's a proper update. It's currently Thu night on my end. On Tues, I did a full parameter test on all my levels to finally understand why my LPS was/still is unhealthy, despite me doing several 20G WCs (roughly ~25% of my overall system's volume) at a time. Ordinarily, a WC should replenish trace element levels, reduce nitrates etc etc. 

 

But something was still...off.

 

I removed my Anti-Phos media, so I finally saw an increased in Phosphates, which was good. I also saw a spike in nitrates (probably due to me overfeeding + stirring up as much of the crud in the sump as possible), which is actually good. 

 

Here were my levels, measured on 28/4/20:

 

NO3 = 50 ppm <-- this is fairly normal for my tank, don't panic

PO4 = <0.25ppm (It looked more like between 0.1 and 0.25ppm)

Calcium = 485 ppm

Magnesium = 1290 ppm <--- Very low!

dKH = 6.4 <--- Very low!!!

 

Usually, my dKH is ~8.3 and my Magnesium is very high at around 1485 ppm. 

 

I quickly checked back on my earlier records, to the point when my tank was thriving, and had all sorts of corals - SPS, LPS, softies, zoas, shrooms (and nems) - growing in it, and this were my levels on 14/8/19:

 

 

NO3 = 50ppm

PO4 = 0.25ppm

Calcium = 450ppm

Magnesium = 1485 ppm

dKH = 8.3

 

There was a huge difference in the Mg and kH levels!!! 

 

In order to understand wth was actually going on, I quickly consulted two more experienced reefers - Tamberav & WVReefer, to figure out what was the source of the low Mg/kH, and how to correct it. 

 

And we found...it was my salt!!! 

 

I'm currently using up the last remaining kg of my Fritz RPM salt which was purchased in 2018 (early that year, I believe). My salt was clumped up pretty badly, and I've been breaking the clumps with the back of my algae scraper/bare hands, and rolling the bag around (or just shaking it) to use it. Tam found some very good information over what causes clumping, and how this results in low kH when it's mixed into SW. 

 

The most natural course of action would be dose kH (I've been slacking to dosing once every three days, and now I dose kH daily) and Mg (I didn't have the buffer for this on hand) in my tank. Since my country's lockdown laws only relaxed yesterday, my access to both my LFSes have been cut off for the past few weeks, so I couldn't get anything, even if I wanted to. Now that the laws are a *bit lax, and allows us to travel in pairs, I was planning to drive down to my primary LFS with my father to pick up the dry items I ordered earlier (before the lockdown), some CUC etc etc. 

 

But I remembered that my primary LFS does not carry Mg buffers. My secondary one *might, but it's gamble - so I just ordered a Mg buffer online, and it should arrive by mail in the upcoming week. 

 

Back to my salt - I still have a kg left which cannot be used for any reeftanks. But I have a nano that's a FOWLR (with a *bit of macro in it), so I think I can WC that tank with this old salt. I do have brand new Fritz salt (purchased Dec 2019) in storage, so I'll be using that to perform WCs on all my reeftanks in the future.

 

I guess, my takeaway from all this is - always, always check the consistency of the parameters of your freshly mixed saltwater. And if possible, try to stop it from clumping up into blocks. If the salt mix yields low levels, just toss the stupid bag out and get new salt. 

 

I was indirectly damaging my tank without realizing it. 😞 

 

Will try to be more careful next time. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Just a few quick pics:

 

Goblin really loving the cynarina today:

 

Zoomed in pic of Goblin:

 

Freida:

 

Poseidon:

 

Illaron:

 

Tux is currently my oldest living invert in the reef:

 

Was initially planning on WCing my pico today, but I woke up with severe costochondritis pain and couldn't move my upper body much. Even breathing in/out was straining my ribs, so I knew I couldn't do any lifting today - even if it's just a couple of gallons of SW. 😕 

 

Hopefully the pain will abate by tomorrow morning, so that I can do some much needed WCs. Thinking of WCing this large reef either this Sunday or the coming Monday. Will be using the new salt from now on. 

[A.m.P]

Costochondritis is a bugger, get that every once in a while b/c of my skeletal muscle loss from scripts, feels anywhere from a heart attack to the after-effects of a few body blows, hope you feel better soon. Glad you were able to sort out the alkalinity!

[Snow_Phoenix]

13 hours ago, Amphrites said:

Costochondritis is a bugger, get that every once in a while b/c of my skeletal muscle loss from scripts, feels anywhere from a heart attack to the after-effects of a few body blows, hope you feel better soon. Glad you were able to sort out the alkalinity!

It is. 😞

 

I used to get varying degrees of it - as in mild to severe to 'I-cannot-breathe-but-need-to-scream' moments. Yesterday's pain was bad, but not severe, thankfully. I just wrapped myself in two thick blankets and dragged a pillow over my chest to protect it against the cold (because the cold is what causes it for me). 

 

-

 

Back to the reeftank - I threw out the old bag of salt today. Opened a new bag and tested it by doing a 100% WC on my pico first. Corals were all responsive and actually looked better in that tank, so I'll be using this new bag. Also, I noticed my new salt was very fine (like granulated sugar), mixed far, far quicker than the old salt, had no clumps, and had higher salinity when mixed using the same amount with water (as compared to my old salt). So I had to add more water during the mixing to decrease the salinity to 1.024. Otherwise, I was getting 1.026 (based on my refractometer readings). 

 

I still have very, very minor, residual pain in my chest, so no heavy lifting for the next day or two at least. So no WC for the 60G tomorrow either (will try to do 20G on Mon. evening though). 

 

The 60G is still chugging along, but my LPS really look like they've been run over by a dump truck. I had to move two of my brain corals (the rainbow one and the red/blue lobo) to my Pico because they were regressing too much. The other pieces look horrendous. Some have lost color, others turned lackluster, some have become skeletal, some shrunken etc. 😞 

 

One slice of good news though - I managed to access my LFS today! 🙂

 

My father accompanied me - we took a backroad first to check and see if the roadblock was still there, but the police/army has moved the block to the next traffic light stop, so we could turn in directly into the main road leading next to my LFS without any issues. 

 

Managed to get a *lot of floss, carbon, coral stones, coral glue, some extra sand, and CUC!

 

(Snails are now super expensive at RM 10 each, so I only bought 4, as opposed to my original plan of getting 6)

 

Also, through some amazing dumb luck - I spotted a tiny banded serpent starfish hiding under a small piece of LR in the frag tank of my LFS. Apparently it had stayed hidden away in the filter section for months, and was only noticed by staff recently:

 

This was the original 'brittlestar' that I had a long time ago, and was trying to find (with an absurd amount of difficulty) from every LFS for years. If you look back at this journal, I did manage to acquire one, but the specimen was very unhealthy because it came from a crashed tank at the LFS, and it died in my nano within days (literally fell apart) at home. 😞

 

I thought I'd never find one again, especially now that there's zero importation of marine livestock going on due to the lockdown (all ports closed). So I was surprised to see this lil' fella. And he only cost me RM 10.

 

Since the 60G still has low kH and Mg levels, I didn't want to risk putting the serpent star in there, so I temporarily put him in my pico instead. He crawled under a rock and is now at home with my other brittle starfish (Ophiomastix sp.). 

 

I also divided up the snails - I put 2 turbans in the 60G, and another 2 went to my Pico (Pico has algae issues, which is normal for a young, re-started tank). Was hoping they'd get to work straight away, but they don't have the munchies yet.

 

So right now, I have 4 alive (and expensive!), but inactive snails in two tanks. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

The tank looks a little sad with so little coral in it, but at least I have my fish:

 

I used to believe that fish were harder to keep than corals. But after the last few weeks, I'm starting to think it's the opposite for me. 😞

 

Hopefully the ports will open up again by the end of this year, and importation of livestock will continue. The hobby is toast on this end, otherwise. 😞 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Good morning, NR. 🙂

 

Still loving the pawprints on his back: 🥰

 

Big boy Thanos is doing okay too:

 

Loving all that purple: 🥰

 

Poseidon & Odin yesterday:

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

So I was feeling very nostalgic over this tank today, and well, looking back:

 

I messed up. 😞

 

Even though I miss how everything was, I can't magically put it back together again, and these things take time (?) and patience to heal. It's a very steep learning curve, but it's still hitting me over the head like a ton of bricks every time I look back on my SM feed. 

 

I guess the only thing left to do is to look forward and keep reefing. 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Fish are doing fine:

 

I've ordered a Magnesium buffer online but I'm tracking it and the parcel has not been moved from the warehouse for a week. It's just sitting there. 😞

 

So I'm going to try and dip by my secondary LFS tomorrow to see if they have any Mg buffers in stock. 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Poseidon says hi! 🙂

 

 

Also, my Mg buffer finally came in the mail today. 

 

 

And I managed to swing by my secondary LFS today. They gave me a lot of free macro for my fuge:

 

 

Speaking of my LFS, check out this huge purple monticap in one of their DTs: 😮

 

 

Their brain corals looked amazing too:

 

 

 

 

And their LPS corner was nice:

 

 

🙂

[WV Reefer]

1 hour ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Poseidon says hi! 🙂

 

 

Also, my Mg buffer finally came in the mail today. 

 

 

And I managed to swing by my secondary LFS today. They gave me a lot of free macro for my fuge:

 

 

Speaking of my LFS, check out this huge purple monticap in one of their DTs: 😮

 

 

Their brain corals looked amazing too:

 

 

 

 

And their LPS corner was nice:

 

 

🙂

Poseidon is so pretty. 😊

[Ratvan]

2 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Poseidon says hi! 🙂

 

 

Also, my Mg buffer finally came in the mail today. 

 

 

And I managed to swing by my secondary LFS today. They gave me a lot of free macro for my fuge:

 

 

Speaking of my LFS, check out this huge purple monticap in one of their DTs: 😮

 

 

Their brain corals looked amazing too:

 

 

 

 

And their LPS corner was nice:

 

 

🙂

He's gorgeous. That LFS looks incredible. That purple plate is impressive, so much going on in that photo alone

[Snow_Phoenix]

1 hour ago, WV Reefer said:

Poseidon is so pretty. 😊

I think so too. 🙂 

1 hour ago, Ratvan said:

He's gorgeous. That LFS looks incredible. That purple plate is impressive, so much going on in that photo alone

Yeah. They take good care of their fish and corals. This is my secondary LFS, btw. Store isn't as large as my primary one, but they have a variety of dry items. Most of the corals are gone though - only tiny frags and a few large brains/softies remain. There's also some leftover designer clowns. I saw a Snowflake that I really liked, but it was out of my budget, so I left it. 😞

 

Otherwise I was thinking of getting it to pair up with my Platinum in the nano. 

[debbeach13]

Hope you are feeling a little better every day. The fish look great.

[Snow_Phoenix]

My refugium atm, with 5 different types of macro:

 

 

Blasto garden:

 

 

Haven't seen these dudes for a long time until today:

 

 

 

Dragons in the reef! 🥰🐉

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fishies:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Limpet:

 

 

Performed a 20G WC + major maintenance routine on the tank yesterday. A lot of my LPS pieces weren't doing well, but they look a *bit better today. Will test levels tonight/tomorrow morning. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Did a parameter check today evening for both my reeftanks. This one seems to have low kH and excessive Calcium. 😕

 

Nitrates = 50 ppm

Phosphates = 0.1 ppm

Calcium = >500 ppm (seriously, this was off the charts)

Magnesium = 1335 ppm

dKH = 7.0 (Might need to dose daily to slowly bring this back up to ~8++)

 

Last WC was yesterday = roughly 25% of overall system's volume has been changed. I think I'll do another WC in 10 to 14 days time. 🤔

 

Will not be dosing Mg or Ca for the next week or so, but will definitely be dosing kH. 

[A.m.P]

CA will deplete ALK, and vice-versa, I would continue to dose MG and watch the CA while trying to elevate ALK.

[Snow_Phoenix]

39 minutes ago, Amphrites said:

CA will deplete ALK, and vice-versa, I would continue to dose MG and watch the CA while trying to elevate ALK.

Noted. I know all three of them are linked - if one is 'off', chances are the others will be lower/higher accordingly. Will keep dosing then. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Moar pics today. 😊

 

Leopold out for a swim:

 

 

Helios is now as long as Leopold, but has a more streamlined/tubular form:

 

 

Poseidon was up and about very early today morning:

 

 

 

 

Caught him chasing his reflection on the glass: 🤗

 

 

 

 

He's actually very playful and energetic, for a Mandy. I've seen him spend a *lot of time just swimming around, rather than foraging for pods. 🤔

 

Parent shroom of the red devil shroom is nice and big now:

 

 

Illaron skulking about the smaller mushroom mountain:

 

 

The 'rock' the shrooms are on is actually a giant tunicate. I've seen it 'move' and 'expand' several times like a lung. 

 

My moody cynarina looks much better today:

 

 

This christmas favia used to grow very quickly and then it just...stopped one day. Not sure if I should move it higher up in the tank somewhere.

 

 

 

Also took some time to just sit back, relax, and watch the fish swim:

 

No concrete plans yet, but I'm tentatively thinking of upgrading the lights in the far future - either by adding a second AI Prime HD, or just getting a new Hydra 32 HD. 

 

Lights have always been the most expensive part of reefing here. But my single AI Prime can't cover my entire tank (still have shadowing in the corners) and I have a sense any extra light would benefit both my current and any future corals I wish to add to this tank. 🤔