Snow_Phoenix Posted May 11, 2019 Author Share Posted May 11, 2019 Over the past few days, I picked up four snails - two Turbos and two Turbans to add-on to my present CUC: I also spotted my Tangaroa today - I named him 'Casper', since he does remind me a bit of a ghost with his almost-transparent body, and the fact that he conveniently vanishes in my tank from time to time. I picked up a few things at the store including my CUC - two zoa frags (1 UC & 1 Fruit Loops), 1 green softie, and 1 purple/yellow duster worm. The softie (which I think is a Kenya tree) has become an instant hit with my clown gobies: Lemon, Mango & Goblin: Lemon & Mango are very finicky eaters, so today I gave them a small late-night snack of some freshly hatched live BBS: My duster worm also appreciated the free meal. If you look closely, you can see its 'feathers' curling in at certain parts to trap some of the BBS: I spent most of my morning today gluing down several zoa frags pulled over from my Pico, and regluing some of my older chalice pieces. I also moved my red bali nem and my green weeping willow toadstool into this tank. The bali nem because it was detached and flopped over in the sandbed of my pico, after being constantly picked on by my hermit, and the toadstool because it was going to war with another softie that I had in the smaller tank. I have plans on stocking this tank with different types of coral as I go along, but most of my focus will be on softies, shrooms and zoas (the easy stuff). Here's a current topshot view of my tank (you can see the frags glued down all over the place in an almost messy fashion - I like it that way): My older corals are recovering very slowly. I think my monticaps are a lost cause, but the cup coral, red digi and red pavona are doing alright. The center sandbed of my scape is open and I have several ideas going through my head for that position: 1. Large zoa colony 2. Large Elegance 3. Multiple lobos 4. Multiple large shrooms (like hairy shrooms) I'd love to do a RFA zone on that center, but RFAs are super rare and extremely expensive here. I'm trying my best to get a hold of one right now, if I succeed, I'll upload a pic. Otherwise, I was thinking of a large centerpiece coral (or a cluster of the same coral type) that loves being on the sand. 3 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted May 12, 2019 Author Share Posted May 12, 2019 I just added my Pink Streaked wrasse, Miu, to the tank. As expected of most new fish, she dove into the rocks to hide. Based on what I've observed in the QT, she is the shy sort and it'll take a while for her to come out again. Miu has been QTed since April 17th (almost a month) at my home, and QTed around 1 week at the LFS. She's already eating pellets, but there's plenty of bristleworms and a few pods for her to hunt down in my 60G. I'm still looking into acquiring a larger wrasse for the 60G. It's a toss up between a flasher, fairy or a leopard at the moment. I wanted something active that would swim in the mid- or upper-level of my water column. Right now, all the current fish in my DT are doing quite well. I believe I have 7 fish atm, so I'll probably add 2 or 3 more. Most of my fish are small and nanofish, and only my blenny and clownfish has a large bioload. In the case of the clown, he still hasn't fully grown up yet, so we'll see how it goes. As of now, I do have multiple perchers - 3 clown gobies + 1 blenny, so I'm not going to do anymore perchers. My tangaroa still hasn't paired up with my Pistol - there's a strong likelihood that he won't since he occupies a completely different rock than my shrimp. 1 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted May 13, 2019 Author Share Posted May 13, 2019 I did my second WC for this tank today - the pump makes my life a whole easier. And here's a close-up of Thanos: And Casper too: And my Clown Goby troop: And my some of my duster worms - which are officially my favorite invert of all time: Just a glimpse of some of the corals I have in here: Feel free to catch up on my Insta account to see more pics which are uploaded quicker than this journal. Everything is doing okay - I *think my green monticap is going to make a comeback, because the white edges are already being covered with new 'flesh'. Not sure if my red monticap will do the same, but I guess it's now a waiting game. I'm currently using Saxby with extra whites, but I have tweaked the whites (lowered it) and adjusted the timing to my own personal preference. I noticed my current stock of corals seem to enjoy this setting, so I guess I'll stick with it for now. 4 Quote Link to comment
Tamberav Posted May 13, 2019 Share Posted May 13, 2019 I love your photos 🙂 I think I got one of those long polyp toads with the set up I bought, it looks so cool. 1 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted May 14, 2019 Author Share Posted May 14, 2019 5 hours ago, Tamberav said: I love your photos 🙂 I think I got one of those long polyp toads with the set up I bought, it looks so cool. Yeah, can't wait for it to grow bigger though. 😊 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted May 14, 2019 Author Share Posted May 14, 2019 I bought my first ever RFA today! Also brought home some extra macro for the sump of the 60G: And here is how my tank currently looks like (scroll forward on Insta for a FTS video). 4 Quote Link to comment
Matteo Posted May 14, 2019 Share Posted May 14, 2019 Noice! You will now want 10 more RFAS 😂 2 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted May 15, 2019 Author Share Posted May 15, 2019 This is one of my LR pieces that currently has the most amount of frags on it - mostly a mix of zoas and chalices. I'm planning on collecting more varieties over time. This is the finger leather that semi-crashed my QT bin. I left it to heal with only sunlight and a wavemaker in a small plastic tank. There are still bits of flesh missing but those areas now have very tiny polyps. I am running extra carbon in my tank anyway, just in case: 3 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted May 16, 2019 Author Share Posted May 16, 2019 My clown gobies today: 1. Lemon: 2. Mango: 3. Goblin: I am still having a hard time feeding Lemon and Mango. They've thinned out a little and they only accept live food like live BBS. Lemon did try a NLS pellet yesterday though, but she wasn't happy over it. Mango is still stubborn as ever. A little bit worried for them both. 😓 Goblin is okay though. He loves prepared so he is doing great. 2 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted May 19, 2019 Author Share Posted May 19, 2019 Pic updates: 1. LA Lakers zoa frag: 2. Thanos and Lemon: 3. The zoa garden-to-be: 4. My RFA: 5. My duster worm: 6. FTS & sideshots of the tank: 5 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted May 28, 2019 Author Share Posted May 28, 2019 Nothing much going on except I haven't done a proper WC for a while since I have been very sick for over a week now. I did however, get a small aquacultured baby Occy to be paired up with Nero: And my YCGs have been attempting to spawn behind the rocks. Can't really film them because they are well-hidden, but there is definitely something super kinky going on behind the rocks lol. Lemon also now has befriended Thanos and enjoys perching on him: 🤣 As for my corals, I am seeing signs of improvement in terms of growth and color: And Miu is doing very well too: The RFA has moved a little to a more shady spot under a rock overhang: And my Saron has molted a few times and grown much, much larger than before: Lastly, bossfish Thanos still rules the tank with an iron fin: 😊 He is now 6", and I am hoping he will hit 6.5" by the end of this year. 5 Quote Link to comment
Tamberav Posted May 28, 2019 Share Posted May 28, 2019 Looks great! Loving that wrasse and I love how your Lemon uses Thanos for his mighty steed 😂 2 2 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted May 28, 2019 Author Share Posted May 28, 2019 55 minutes ago, Tamberav said: Looks great! Loving that wrasse and I love how your Lemon uses Thanos for his mighty steed 😂 Yep, the wrasse is amazing though. She's tiny in this tank but breezes from one end of the rockwork to the other. Constantly pecking off at the rocks, and now she's grown a bit bolder. No longer shies away when I whip out my phone to snap a pic. Lemon and Thanos are hilarious! Thanos himself seems to love the clown gobies. He's constantly perching near them, and doesn't seem to mind them at all. 3 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted May 28, 2019 Author Share Posted May 28, 2019 Tonight's shenanigans: Fancy a clean-up by a one-clawed shrimp? 😊 2 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted June 6, 2019 Author Share Posted June 6, 2019 I have some bad/good news. First, the bad: I lost my YCG pair. They were spawning about a week ago behind the front rock in the right corner of my tank. The next morning after I saw them spawning, Lemon (my female) went missing. She was very healthy, but she missed the feeding for the next day (something which she doesn't do) and for the next 48 hours, she was 'missing'. At this point, I asked another reefer - Tam, about what might have possibly happened to her, and the most likely conclusion was that Lemon became eggbound and perished prematurely. My CUC is quite efficient, so I'm unsurprised as to why there was no trace of her left. Following Lemon's death, Mango (my male YCG) began to deteriorate. He started off by eating sporadically, and then avoiding feedings. He began to slowly thin out, and I was worried. I was down with a very nasty flu bug for two - going on three now, weeks, so I had held off doing any major WCs with this tank because I couldn't do any lifting. Two days ago, as I was rushing out for my medical appointment at the clinic, I finally caught sight of Mango with his head tilted towards the sandbed. I couldn't fish him out and isolate him because I was already running late, and the doctor won't wait. So I had to leave him, and by the time I returned late in the evening, he had gone 'missing' as well. I'm guessing this had something to do with them spawning - because prior to this I had 2 very active YCGs with no health issues whatsoever. 😞 The good news: My tank overall is doing okay. I took a few pics of the corals today: With regards to the new red Symphallia, my urchin and hermit did and excellent job of eradicating all the RHA within two days. After they did though, I noticed that the areas covered by the algae was actually a dead skeleton underneath - there were no flesh in these areas, which was probably why the algae took root in the first place. However, the coral overall appears healthy, and I'm hoping given time and care, new flesh will cover those empty areas once more. My duster worms are also doing okay: Moving on to fish, Thanos is doing quite well and is chunky as usual: And my clowns, Nero and Sushi love dancing in the flow: And Goblin is still sneaking around and enjoys perching on multiple corals - especially the soft ones: And lastly, here's a topshot view of the tank, taken a few days ago: 2 1 Quote Link to comment
Tamberav Posted June 6, 2019 Share Posted June 6, 2019 Looks like the clowns are getting along well! 1 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted June 6, 2019 Author Share Posted June 6, 2019 4 minutes ago, Tamberav said: Looks like the clowns are getting along well! Yes, looks like it. I was quite worried because the smaller one was way too small. But they appear to be pairing up - occasionally I'll see the twitchy-twerk dance out of the corner of my eye, but they seem to enjoy each other's company. Quote Link to comment
ValerieR Posted June 6, 2019 Share Posted June 6, 2019 You said before that the 60 was bigger than you thought, is it still really big feeling? I'm considering going from a 13.5 to a 60. Your tank is coming along really nicely by the way. 1 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted June 6, 2019 Author Share Posted June 6, 2019 22 minutes ago, ValerieR said: You said before that the 60 was bigger than you thought, is it still really big feeling? I'm considering going from a 13.5 to a 60. Your tank is coming along really nicely by the way. Yeah, it definitely feels big. I think my only issue is that the tank is taller than me (I'm a bit short) so I do have difficulty doing maintenance like scraping the glass/basting the sandbed or even moving frags around at times - I need to climb on a ladder/pouffe/chair to get anything done. It definitely feels roomy though. There's so much empty space here and there, that I had difficulty filling it up with frags, so I opted to purchase some colonies instead. I do love movement though, so I was thinking of getting more 'flowy' LPS like frogspawn, bicolored hammer & torch corals. I'm not sure on the last two yet, but I'm dead set on the frogspawn. I saw a nice green one for sale at my LFS, so might pick it up some time this week or the next. And thanks for the compliment! 🙂 Quote Link to comment
ValerieR Posted June 6, 2019 Share Posted June 6, 2019 14 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said: Yeah, it definitely feels big. I think my only issue is that the tank is taller than me (I'm a bit short) so I do have difficulty doing maintenance like scraping the glass/basting the sandbed or even moving frags around at times - I need to climb on a ladder/pouffe/chair to get anything done. It definitely feels roomy though. There's so much empty space here and there, that I had difficulty filling it up with frags, so I opted to purchase some colonies instead. I do love movement though, so I was thinking of getting more 'flowy' LPS like frogspawn, bicolored hammer & torch corals. I'm not sure on the last two yet, but I'm dead set on the frogspawn. I saw a nice green one for sale at my LFS, so might pick it up some time this week or the next. And thanks for the compliment! 🙂 I'm not super tall either, so I'd likely need a stepladder too. Is it an AIO, or are you running a sump? Frogspawn is my favorite, I have 3 right now, but my hammer is really nice too. I like that I can butt them against each other, which is why I'm avoiding torches, which sting other euphellia. Look for branching... wall varieties are more difficult and very slow growing. Around me they are fragging the wall ones to look like they're the branching, which I think is very tricky of them. I don't know if that would be an issue near you. I also got a colt coral that added a lot of height/movement to my little tank. I may try Gorgonians too. 1 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted June 7, 2019 Author Share Posted June 7, 2019 10 hours ago, ValerieR said: I'm not super tall either, so I'd likely need a stepladder too. Is it an AIO, or are you running a sump? Frogspawn is my favorite, I have 3 right now, but my hammer is really nice too. I like that I can butt them against each other, which is why I'm avoiding torches, which sting other euphellia. Look for branching... wall varieties are more difficult and very slow growing. Around me they are fragging the wall ones to look like they're the branching, which I think is very tricky of them. I don't know if that would be an issue near you. I also got a colt coral that added a lot of height/movement to my little tank. I may try Gorgonians too. I'm running a 23G sump under the DT. I converted the skimmer compartment into a fuge full of LR and some fern caulerpa. Yeah, I love that you can put them up against each other. My LFS set up their DT with multiple frogspawn and hammers squished next to each other and it looks really neat. 😊 I picked up the wall version because they were on a 50% discount at the store. Since the colony appeared healthy enough, I decided to try one out to see how it goes. And I love gorgs! There was a very large purple one for sale recently but it was way out of my budget, unfortunately. 😕 1 Quote Link to comment
pgrVII Posted June 7, 2019 Share Posted June 7, 2019 Tank is coming along nice Snow. Thanos is cool looking. 1 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted June 7, 2019 Author Share Posted June 7, 2019 1 hour ago, pgrVII said: Tank is coming along nice Snow. Thanos is cool looking. Thanks. 🙂 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted June 9, 2019 Author Share Posted June 9, 2019 Quick updates - I managed to snag a few good photos of Miu today: 😊 Good news is she is no longer very shy! And now she actually swims towards me instead of away. Here's also a shot of my neon wall hammer: Finally fed my red lobo successfully today (no Derps to steal food in this tank): 🙄 Train of neon GSP is growing slowly but surely: And here is Casper my tangaroa: Goblin: And Thanos under orange filter: Nero & Sushi: And a very old blurry pic of one of my male mandarins years ago: I am thinking of making a small lobo garden on the sandbed. I put down a deposit for a red-striped green lobo at my LFS and it is huge at 8"++. My LFS has several lobos they are selling at a discount as a clearance sale. Most are pure green, but 1 or 2 had dual colors. My manager told me outright that he doesn't like them very much and they are taking up too much room in the frag tank. So he asked me if I would like some, and I thought I might as well grab a few of them. What do you guys think? They also had purple tipped elegances for sale, and more LPS coming in. So I guess I *might be doing a LPS garden bit by bit. 😊 Add-On: I just noticed some of my pics came out extra blurry when I uploaded them directly from my cellphone onto the site, so I swapped it out with my Insta pics instead. Hope it's clearer now. 😕 Also added my clowns to the mix too. 🙂 2 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted June 9, 2019 Author Share Posted June 9, 2019 Right now, my plans for this tank is deviating a little bit. It will still be a mixed reef since it has an assortment of critters in it already, but here's what I currently have: Fish: 1x Starry blenny 1x GCG 1x Tangaroa goby 1x Pink streaked wrasse 2x Occy clownfish Macroalgae: Fern Caulerpa *mysterious blue branching macro Inverts: 1x GBCS 1x Saron Shrimp 1x Candycane Pistol Shrimp 1x Brown Legged Hermit 1x Purple Rock Urchin 1x Tuxedo Urchin 3x Nassarius Snails 2x Turbo Snails 2x Turban Snails 4x Duster Worms Corals: SPS, LPS, Softies, Shrooms, Zoas Anemones: 1x RFA 1x Red Mini Carpet Nem 1x Neon RBTA Livestock I plan on adding (Subject to change) More Corals + NPS (Gorg?) Cleaner Shrimp Fire Shrimp 1x Medium-sized Wrasse (Leopard/Fairy) 1x Matted Filefish 1x small sand-dwelling goby (Yasha/Hi-Fin) 1x Porcelain Nem Crab 2x Electric Blue Legged Hermits 1x Halloween Hermit 1x Brittle Starfish The way things are heading, there will most likely be a LPS garden of some sort, and I'll try to keep a lookout for other types of softies and macros as well. I'm still going skimmerless. 3 weeks, going on 4 now, without a WC. I *think I can actually slack back on WCs to biweekly (and in worst circumstances (like now) monthly if need be). Will keep the thread updated if I acquire something new and interesting. 1 Quote Link to comment
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