Kait’s Kiddo Lagoon

[NaturallyKait]

Just now, billygoat said:

Looks nice! That light has worked out pretty well for me so far, so I hope it ends up meeting your needs too. 😊 At 15w it's definitely not the strongest light on the block, but as long as you don't plan to grow anything too demanding I imagine it will be just fine.

 

Kessil logic makes it pretty easy to tune the color; you basically just find a setting that you like the look of and keep it in that neighborhood all the time. Any plans to pick up the Kessil Spectral Controller?

Yeah definitely not planning anything demanding. Just some softies and maybe a few LPS. If I ever really feel the need to jump into SPS I’ll add another a80, but for a tank that belongs to a 4 year old I’d rather stick to easier corals. 

 

Eventually I’m going to grab the controller, just spreading out purchases over a few months. Pretty sure my partner thinks I’m off my rocker, he still doesn’t understand why we’ve upgraded anything lol. 

[NaturallyKait]

First FTS with the new light to cheer up what’s a dreary Monday here in Atlantic Canada. 

 

We had thunder showers last night and today is drizzly and chilly. We almost lost power overnight too which makes me glad I dropped into the LFS again yesterday afternoon to grab a battery powered bubbler. Didn’t end up needing it, but I was relieved we had it just in case. The power flickers were bad for a bit. 

 

Unfortunately the trip into the LFS ended up with a sad tiny reefer. I brought him into the store and lo and behold there was a pair of baby clownfish. Just like he’s been promised. They weren’t there the day before so I was caught off guard. They didn’t have a quarantine label on the tank like new livestock usually does so I was confused, and the employee said the owner picked them up for someone specifically while he was out of province and was just storing them there for them until they can pick them up. So not for sale. Try explaining that to a sad 4 year old though. He was heartbroken when we left without them 😢

 

That pretty much cements for me that when we’re out of province later this month I’m going to pop into the LFS in the city we’re visiting to try to snag him a pair there. He won’t be with us so he won’t get to pick them like we hoped but hopefully it makes up for how sad he was having to leave behind the pair here. I wish I had known they were there before bringing him in, I would have left him in the car with his dad to spare him the heartbreak. 

[Scotty Amen]

On 7/13/2019 at 10:30 PM, NaturallyKait said:

they had a few pretty zoas. I’m pretty tempted now that the lighting is set up. 

Do it!

[Scotty Amen]

Also, how's the evaporation been with the screen top?

[NaturallyKait]

7 minutes ago, Scotty Amen said:

Do it!

I think I will, but I need to go back at a time when the owner is in. He’s almost always there, but the other employees are mostly freshwater keepers and don’t tend to know the coral prices. It just happens he was away for a bit this weekend so he wasn’t there like he usually is. 

5 minutes ago, Scotty Amen said:

Also, how's the evaporation been with the screen top?

Not bad honestly. I’m topping up twice a day (we don’t have an ATO yet) probably 120-180ml each time? Thankfully I’m home all day with the kids so I can keep an eye on it and top it up as needed. I think an ATO is one of our next purchases though. 

[NaturallyKait]

Tonight, I have the happiest 4 year old in the world. 

 

Today while killing time on the way to an appointment for one of the tiny reefer’s little brothers I dropped into the LFS to ask about some coral prices. Lo and behold - clownfish. 

 

It was just these two, chilling in an acclimation box together. Our LFS used to be a second location for another store a few hours away, until the current owner bought it. These two have been at the other store for a while and no one was buying them, so the owner there sent them this way to see if they’d sell here. Bingo. They’re a little bigger than what I was planning to start with (about 1.25-1.5”, so still not big) but they’re already successfully paired up so that’s a plus. I asked the owner to save them for us so I could come back with the little guy after he got out of daycare. 

 

I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so happy, and I’m absolutely in love with the misbar 

[Scotty Amen]

They look great. Love the misbar too. Glad kiddo is happy. :) 

[NaturallyKait]

Went to the LFS tonight again for more food. Promised my spouse I wouldn’t buy any more fish (we’re fully stocked, I wouldn’t want to add any more fish to this small of a tank), but I didn’t promise anything about inverts...

 

The owner didn’t believe me when I said I saw a crab scurry under a rock. He said they haven’t had any crabs aside from hermits in over a month, and yet here was this guy hiding waiting to come home with us. So clearly he had to.

 

He’s happy in his little cave for now, but I’ve seen him picking at the hair algae already. I put him right by a patch of it at the entrance of his cave so he’s at the all you can eat algae bar. 

[748S911]

On 7/16/2019 at 8:47 PM, NaturallyKait said:

Tonight, I have the happiest 4 year old in the world. 

 

Today while killing time on the way to an appointment for one of the tiny reefer’s little brothers I dropped into the LFS to ask about some coral prices. Lo and behold - clownfish. 

 

It was just these two, chilling in an acclimation box together. Our LFS used to be a second location for another store a few hours away, until the current owner bought it. These two have been at the other store for a while and no one was buying them, so the owner there sent them this way to see if they’d sell here. Bingo. They’re a little bigger than what I was planning to start with (about 1.25-1.5”, so still not big) but they’re already successfully paired up so that’s a plus. I asked the owner to save them for us so I could come back with the little guy after he got out of daycare. 

 

I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so happy, and I’m absolutely in love with the misbar 

Cutest clowns ever... what kind are they? I love the black edges on fins. 

[yoshii]

Cute clowns! Glad the tiny reefer loves them! 🙂

[NaturallyKait]

6 hours ago, 748S911 said:

Cutest clowns ever... what kind are they? I love the black edges on fins. 

They told me they’re just plain ocellaris, with one being a misbar of course. I don’t know if they’re ORA or what though. That would be my guess because the store he got them from usually gets ORA clowns, but they weren’t labelled at the LFS here. 

[748S911]

They kinda look like fancy ones. I’m really liking the regular ocellaris.  I might get two orange and two black in other tank. 

 

[NaturallyKait]

Just now, 748S911 said:

They kinda look like fancy ones. I’m really liking the regular ocellaris.  I might get two orange and two black in other tank. 

 

They may be. Either way they look close enough to Nemo to make the 4 year old happy. I even got away with a misbar and made @Tigahboy jealous 😂

[NaturallyKait]

First time for everything, tonight I saw the first hitchhiker in our tank. No idea what he was, some kind of long skinny worm like thing? Not flat like a bristleworm, he was round and skinny. I just happened to notice it dart back into the rock out of the corner of my eye. Hopefully he’s a good guy. 

 

The puzzling part is I have no idea what he hitchhiked in on. We started with dry rock, and what was once life sand...10 years ago. It was long dead. No corals in the tank yet, just the fish, snails and crabs. I’m stumped 🤷🏻‍♀️

[Tigahboy]

12 hours ago, NaturallyKait said:

They may be. Either way they look close enough to Nemo to make the 4 year old happy. I even got away with a misbar and made @Tigahboy jealous 😂

Hmm.  Yeah.  Still jealous.

[NaturallyKait]

Dinner time 🐠

 

I added LRS Fish Frenzy to our rotation and the fish are pretty happy with that choice haha. 

[Scotty Amen]

Those emerald crabs will munch on hair algae all day and all night. :) 

[NaturallyKait]

The tank had a big day. 

 

We’ve needed to do the move for a while. The tank got more sun than we expected where it was, which wasn’t helpful with algae. Plus the room just wasn’t working. This will hopefully work better, but yikes my nerves. I had to take two of the rocks out so they didn’t fall and crack the glass. I can’t seem to get my scape quite right now, which is annoying. 

 

I was also really lucky that I got my hands on a few meds to keep and they arrived in the mail today. With the medication ban here in Canada we’re pretty much screwed if our fish come down with something because you can’t get any meds without a prescription from a vet and none of them here will treat fish. So you basically just get to watch them die. I managed to get my hands on a few things, but there are still some things I won’t be able to treat if they come up. Fingers crossed we avoid anything that requires copper because I couldn’t get any. I did get prazipro, general cure, ich x, and methylene blue. Now to hoard them away. 

[Scotty Amen]

Good job on the move!

[NaturallyKait]

Full tank shot today 😊

 

The emerald crab always hides, he’s such a scaredy crab! I was surprised to catch him out and about. 

 

The tank had a little ammonia spike the other day, presumably because of the move across the room. Seems to be cleared up now.   

[HighlyCaffeinated]

On 6/25/2019 at 12:02 PM, NaturallyKait said:

Also, we had our first power outage since the tank went up the other night. It was planned so I was prepared with a battery operated bubbler, but it was only planned for 15-30 mins so I just waited it out to see if we’d need it. Sure enough it was only out 10 mins so no biggie. However the tank is on a wifi power bar so I can turn individual plugs on and off without having to reach for the power bar but when the power came back none of the equipment did. Thankfully I was awake and fixed it before bed but now I’m worried. I’m going to have to find another plan for a power bar. I don’t want to risk that happening without us home and the tank going without power for an extended period of time. 

 

When you say "wifi power bar" is it available on the outside network (i.e can you check/operate it when not connected to your wifi) or is it only available locally? If you can access it from an outside network you should be able to use an automation app to run a script that checks the status every half hour or hour that trips an alarm on your phone if the power is off. It depends on exactly the plug you have and it's cloud capabilities as well as your phone's eco system, but it should be possible. Not going to say it will be easy, especially if you don't already know how to code, but with a whole lot of research it might be a solution.

 

Cheers

[NaturallyKait]

13 minutes ago, HighlyCaffeinated said:

 

When you say "wifi power bar" is it available on the outside network (i.e can you check/operate it when not connected to your wifi) or is it only available locally? If you can access it from an outside network you should be able to use an automation app to run a script that checks the status every half hour or hour that trips an alarm on your phone if the power is off. It depends on exactly the plug you have and it's cloud capabilities as well as your phone's eco system, but it should be possible. Not going to say it will be easy, especially if you don't already know how to code, but with a whole lot of research it might be a solution.

 

Cheers

I can check it from anywhere. I’m ok with tech, but coding isn’t something I’ve done before. Thankfully the next time our power went out (for all of 5 mins) it did come back up on its own. I’m hoping it continues to, and eventually I want to get a controller but it’s just not in the budget right now. Especially with there being no real entry level controllers left on the market (like the reef keeper or apex jr) unless I can find something used. 

[Juno]

I got my first nano tank when my kids were 4, 3 and 1. We all loved it. I upgraded and upgraded until finally we had a 120 gallon monster tank in the kitchen. I gave it up about 5 years ago and getting back into it again with a 34 gal Solana. The kids are so happy. So is mama. I love your tank and love that you’re doing this with them. Think of all the teaching opportunities! My kids all have Tourette so it’s also a nice distraction and calming factor for when we’re all agitated. Good luck and I’ll be following!!!

[NaturallyKait]

35 minutes ago, Juno said:

I got my first nano tank when my kids were 4, 3 and 1. We all loved it. I upgraded and upgraded until finally we had a 120 gallon monster tank in the kitchen. I gave it up about 5 years ago and getting back into it again with a 34 gal Solana. The kids are so happy. So is mama. I love your tank and love that you’re doing this with them. Think of all the teaching opportunities! My kids all have Tourette so it’s also a nice distraction and calming factor for when we’re all agitated. Good luck and I’ll be following!!!

I’m really excited for the learning opportunities and watching them grow up with tanks. The tiny reefer is autistic and his little brothers probably are too (and were preemies) and all have health issues so we need something that’s just a source of happiness and calm. Who doesn’t love to sit and watch fish swimming and soon corals swaying in the flow? 

[NaturallyKait]

Trying new salt starting at our next water change (likely this weekend). I’ve been using Instant Ocean, and we haven’t had any problems I’m just tired of how long it takes to mix. Everyone seems to rave about how Fritz mixes so fast. Fingers crossed we like it. I had to order this bag in which sucks because shipping is expensive here but our LFS does carry the big boxes. I just didn’t want to buy a big 200 gallon box without trying it first in case we don’t like it. 200 gallons lasts a long ass time in a 13 gallon tank lol.