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

[Snow_Phoenix]

3 minutes ago, vlangel said:

Things are well at my end of the world.

 

Sadly Samson passed a few months back and I had decided that I was not going to do ponies anymore at this time.  I wanted the freedom to get a bigger variety of creatures and so my tank ststem is active with lots of smaller fish, shrimp, macro algae and I have added shoal seagrass to the fuge.  It's much more maintenance friendly and I am enjoying the new direction my tank has taken.

Sad to hear about Samson's passing. Ponies are such delicate but beautiful creatures. I understand the need to diverge and keep something different in your reefing journey though. Looking forward to your journal thread about the new system in the future. 🥰

[vlangel]

6 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Sad to hear about Samson's passing. Ponies are such delicate but beautiful creatures. I understand the need to diverge and keep something different in your reefing journey though. Looking forward to your journal thread about the new system in the future. 🥰

It's actually the same tank and fuge/sump system that I had before.  For that reason I am not going to start a new thread, just update the old thread.  That way folks can see where the tank came from and where it is going.  It's hard to believe but the display tank has been set up for over 4 years now!

[Snow_Phoenix]

16 minutes ago, vlangel said:

It's actually the same tank and fuge/sump system that I had before.  For that reason I am not going to start a new thread, just update the old thread.  That way folks can see where the tank came from and where it is going.  It's hard to believe but the display tank has been set up for over 4 years now!

Wow, 4 years! I'll check up on your thread once you update it - looking forward to seeing your progress and all the new things you've done with your tank! 🙂 

[Snow_Phoenix]

That halloween urchin is actually super colorful! 🥰

 

 

 

He has already latched on to my rocks at the front of the tank. I named him Monty. 😊

 

Caught Leopold out and about too - he's the first wrasse to wake up every morning now:

 

 

Quick update on Freckles the tang: still skittish but doing okay. He still prefers the company of my cleaner & fire shrimp at the back of the rocks. He swims out in the open frequently but always darts back to the shrimp corner when he sees me coming. 😕

 

It's a bit difficult because I wanted to check up on him and see if his lip has improved. And also make sure he doesn't have Ich - it's a bit hard to tell because his body naturally has whitespots as part of his scale pattern, and he swims off, fast.

 

I'll still keep a tight watch on him. 👍

 

And maybe once he's comfortable enough with me, I can take a few pics of him. He's actually a very pretty fish. And a beneficial one too, by the looks of it. 😊

[Snow_Phoenix]

My major stock pump failed today morning. The pipe it was attached to was also stuck, so I couldn't remove the pump to replace. Eventually my LFS sent out someone to help cut off the older pipe (he couldn't remove it either), reinstall a new pipe & replace the pump at a go. 

 

 

Definitely a stessful morning + early afternoon, but I'm glad my LFS came through to me. The service wasn't cheap, but compared to the prices of all the livestock left in the tank, I figured it was worth it. 

 

Fish were fine during the downtime - I temporarily added the SW-4 wavemaker in the DT to increase circulation while waiting for the pump to be replaced. 

 

Equipment failure is a pain. I noticed my pump was starting to fail yesterday, when I turned it back on after the fish have eaten. It was *slow to start, which was unusual. I tested all the sockets in my power strip because I presumed one of them was becoming faulty, but it turned out the pump was going kaput. 

 

Anyhow, back to the tank - here's Freckles actively grazing on the rocks:

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CHPpQ-FDDzx/?igshid=72mzb2vmiaxt

 

And here he is, just swimming about:

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CHPpLmDDFpt/?igshid=cdg9r8f0mekj

 

Really love the blueness of his eyes. 🥰

 

He has marks on either side of his body - same pattern on both sides. Not sure if he acquired them from accidently scraping himself on the rockwork (he likes swimming between the rocks at the back of the tank) or that's part of his natural, possibly juvenile markings. 

 

A little hard to tell, given that his entire body naturally has grayish-white spots & stripes. 🤔

[debbeach13]

2 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

here's Freckles actively grazing on the rocks:

He is getting comfy in his new home.

[Snow_Phoenix]

1 hour ago, debbeach13 said:

He is getting comfy in his new home.

Yep, he is! 😊

[Snow_Phoenix]

I forgot - I nuked both my aiptasia today! 

 

The major large aiptasia was very difficult to get rid of. I heated up a bucket full of 50% water + 50% vinegar and blasted the crap outta it using my baster. 

 

^This only melted *half of it. 

 

I had to siphon out bits of the aiptasia - but a good portion of it was still stuck to my rock. Left me with only one option - pull the rock out. 

 

This was a base rock for the scaping on the left side of the tank, so I had to remove two other rocks to get to this rock. 😕

 

Worse, when I managed to finally pull the rock outta the water, a *lot of icky bristleworms fell out of it. And a few of the miscreants were still in pockets of the rock, so I got stung. Twice. 🤐

 

Anyhow, I used half a tube of coral glue and covered the partially melted remains of the aiptasia, then reset the scaping. 

 

The second aiptasia turned out to be attached to the dead Christmas favia frag. So when I pulled the frag off the rocks - the aiptasia came cleanly with it, so I just binned it. 

 

So guess I won't be needing a Copperband, which is quite frankly a relief. 😊👍

 

I guess in the future, I'll be zapping these guys if they pop up - when they are still tiny & manageable. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Monty:

 

 

Getting comfy:

 

 

Shrooms! 😊 :

 

 

 

 

My mummy eye chalice: 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

The refugium is full of life: 🌱

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Very bad, grainy pics of Freckles (apparently my camera can't focus properly on brownish objects in motion either 🙄 ) :

 

 

 

Poseidon & Illaron eating pellets together:

 

 

Peek-a-boo! 🤗 : 

 

 

Bo: 🥰

 

 

Freckles swimming & eating:

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CHSQh1ND7yw/?igshid=12qoj56ooyafm

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CHSRFRoj_r-/?igshid=uz45godtbub1

 

Need to add some corals to make this a proper reeftank again: 

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CHSRZNijP2k/?igshid=1z7wo5hx67am

 

My father suggested I move a few pieces from the picoreef to the main reef. I'm thinking of transfering the rainbow brain over, and since I need to frag some of the zoas in that tank, I guess I *could move those frags over to the 60G and *hopefully they'll grow out in this tank. 🤔

[Snow_Phoenix]

Hermes:

 

 

Bristleworms out at night: 

 

 

I have plenty of 'em. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Good morning! 🤗

 

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CHT9RkXDlRC/?igshid=1p237lyry5dic

 

Dragonet 🐲🐉 update coming through shortly. 😊

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Update #1: Poseidon. 💦

 

Poseidon favored the rockwork at the back of the tank today morning. Busy on the lookout for pods to eat:

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Update #2: Orion. 🔥

 

Still slender, but very active. He was mostly hanging around Mushroom Mountain: 

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Update #3: Illaron. 😊

 

He appears to have gained more weight. 🤔

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Update #4 : Bella. 🌺

 

Love following this gal around. Among all my dragonets, she's the easiest to film, followed by Poseidon. 🥰

 

 

 

 

 

[Leo_ian]

Makes me tempted to get a ruby red. But I have no will power to feed them

[Snow_Phoenix]

6 minutes ago, Leo_ian said:

Makes me tempted to get a ruby red. But I have no will power to feed them

It takes a lot of work & prep. time for the food. But if you're truly committed, then it is a fish worth keeping. 👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

Clean up crew hard at work:

 

 

 

 

He's not talking to me: 😅

 

 

A swimmer, a percher & a scooter: 😊

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Something of interest - my clove polyps died out months ago in this tank and I was quite sad to see them gone. And yet today, through some miracle, I saw these:

 

 

 

Two very tiny polyps - they literally regrew out of nowhere. This part of the tank never had cloves originally. 😊

 

Another interesting sign of growth that I noticed today - my Superman discosoma has just bopped out another baby shroom:

 

 

I'm quite happy with the regrowth that I'm witnessing. I had no idea reeftanks were this resilient - delicate, yes, but watching things grow and regrow like this...it is an amazing feeling. 🥰

 

I think this tank is finally ready to accomodate new small shroom frags. I was eyeing on a teal shroom at the LFS, but passed on it this week because I was uncertain if it could survive in my reef.

 

Unfortunately, my nation is shifting back into a state of semi-lockdown until the beginning of next month - or even possibly till the end of the year. 😕

 

So I don't think I will be able to visit my primary LFS because it is in another district - unless they ease the rules of travel again. It really sucks because my primary LFS has hundreds of healthy frags to choose from, at very reasonable & affordable rates. Even their colonies are stellar. 

 

I guess I'll just have to be patient and wait. 😓

[debbeach13]

That new growth is great. It's too bad about the lock down.

[Snow_Phoenix]

38 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

That new growth is great. It's too bad about the lock down.

Yeah, the lockdown sucks but there is nothing that I can do about it. 😓

[Snow_Phoenix]

Another dance with the 🐲🐉 tonight:

 

 

Bo's still awake: 🤷‍♀️

 

 

[vlangel]

19 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Update #1: Poseidon. 💦

 

Poseidon favored the rockwork at the back of the tank today morning. Busy on the lookout for pods to eat:

 

 

 

That is a beautifully plump mandarin!  Love it.