Jump to content
ReefCleaners.org

Kait’s Kiddo Lagoon


NaturallyKait

Recommended Posts

NaturallyKait
17 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

That is a lovely looking Gramma, how is it settling in?

It’s settling in well! Eats well, and starting to come out a little more even when it’s not feeding time. Still shy though, it bolts back into the rocks if it sees me which makes it hard to get photos of haha. 
 

D7B9379F-6655-43F8-B39F-39FFF530AED9.thumb.jpeg.532aa75e5352b129e0643fb9f5f2bfe5.jpeg

 

19439AFB-C507-4007-971D-6EEC2132BBEC.thumb.jpeg.d3652cee65f666ef0e1e0f889dddd193.jpeg

 

  • Like 3
Link to comment
NaturallyKait

From the other day, the new fish seems to be getting along with everyone so far. 
 

Then today:

 

Pretty sure we’re going to be upgrading within the next couple of months, just need to decide what to 🤔

  • Like 2
Link to comment
NaturallyKait

And my zoas may be dead. 
 

Walked past the tank, noticed the drag plug was upside down in the sand. For what feels like the millionth time. Either a hermit knocked it over or it just slipped somehow. Picked it back up, and one polyp was barely attached and the other was completely the plug somehow. I decided that if I was going to have to risk gluing them down anyway I might as well try to the rocks. It didn't go great, they were already super angry. One I’m 99% sure is a goner. The other may be ok. I guess we’ll see. 

  • Sad 3
Link to comment
NaturallyKait

Not a great photo, but the bigger polyp seems fine! A little angry, but should recover ok. The second one was always a little iffy and I can’t even see it today, I think it’s melted away completely. At least with the one making it it’s not a total loss. I’m alright with that. 
 

04CBFD77-989C-4B3B-9535-336478EB05F7.thumb.jpeg.8566905b87933b7de1bcb158d0278f95.jpeg

 

I have some algae cleaning to do during my water change tonight obviously too haha. I can’t wait for the LFS to get more inverts in. They’ve got basically no CUC available (just a few hermits) and I need some more snails, and I’d like a replacement emerald crab. Still looking out for a cleaner shrimp too, although I know they’re not technically CUC. 

  • Like 3
Link to comment
NaturallyKait

I’m really liking the acans, I think I need more. If I wasn’t saving my money hoping for Black Friday sales on a new tank I’d be blowing it on coral right now 😂

  • Like 2
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
36 minutes ago, NaturallyKait said:

I’m really liking the acans, I think I need more. If I wasn’t saving my money hoping for Black Friday sales on a new tank I’d be blowing it on coral right now 😂

Nice, acans are great and come in so many different colors. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment

Physical trauma is one thing that zoanthids are fantastic at recovering from. I've seen completely mutilated and melted zoas regenerate from almost nothing, so keep an eye on that frag you've got. Even the smashed and melted polyp might not be 100% done just yet!

 

Tank is looking great. I can tell that it's really starting to bounce back after the troubles you were having last month. Excellent job here.

  • Like 2
Link to comment

Strongly second zoas being resilient. I've got a patch of Rastas where a few polyps got mashed really badly in transit, and the chunk of mat that was left after the ruined tissue sloughed away is regrowing into a fresh polyp. I also have a single Red People Eater paly that was disemboweled, literally, its intestines hanging out a slit in its side, and seems to be doing fine now. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
NaturallyKait

I can’t even find the second polyp. Maybe the glue didn’t attach well to the rock? Or maybe it’ll randomly show up one day and surprise me. I’m just thankful that the other is back to happy tonight. The acans are happy and puffy too. 
 

37 minutes ago, billygoat said:

Physical trauma is one thing that zoanthids are fantastic at recovering from. I've seen completely mutilated and melted zoas regenerate from almost nothing, so keep an eye on that frag you've got. Even the smashed and melted polyp might not be 100% done just yet!

 

Tank is looking great. I can tell that it's really starting to bounce back after the troubles you were having last month. Excellent job here.

It’s definitely bouncing back. Still some GHA that’s hanging around, but that’s because I need more CUC. Once the LFS gets some more in and I beef up the population that’ll help. Right now I’m manually removing a lot, but I only have 3 snails (well, 3 herbivores) and 3 hermits and they can’t keep up with it growing back. 

6 minutes ago, Tired said:

Strongly second zoas being resilient. I've got a patch of Rastas where a few polyps got mashed really badly in transit, and the chunk of mat that was left after the ruined tissue sloughed away is regrowing into a fresh polyp. I also have a single Red People Eater paly that was disemboweled, literally, its intestines hanging out a slit in its side, and seems to be doing fine now. 

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
  • 2 weeks later...
NaturallyKait

Well, I resisted the Black Friday sales on tanks. We’re definitely upgrading, but decided to treat the kids for Christmas first. I did stock up on test kits I need, so that’s going to be helpful and I ordered a RFG for this tank to see if that helps with flow, I can’t wait to try it. I think I’m going to have to cave and add a wavemaker soon though, I just can’t decide what I want to buy. 
 

Still dealing with some hair algae which is annoying. Really hoping the LFS has some CUC in when I go tomorrow. I’m sick of pulling it by hand, and the other day I managed to pull my zoa polyp off the rock 🤦🏻‍♀️. That poor polyp has been through hell and back, I can’t believe it’s still alive. That’s what I get for doing a water change too late in the day and having the lights go out half way through algae pulling. It’s mounted on a little snail shell now and glued back to the rocks, and happy as can be.

 

6631DDE0-6F26-4BB3-9865-06ECB4C61EB8.thumb.jpeg.baeff256d778c34038197e74e0ffb5f2.jpeg

 

The acans have been a little angry lately, they spend part of the day all shrivelled up, but they do open up all the way for some of the day. Maybe that’s normal? Once my test kits get here I can get a better idea on if it’s water quality that’s bugging them. I have phosphate, alk, cal and mag tests coming which are all new for me, so we’ll see, plus a new nitrate kit because the API one is finally almost gone. I can’t imagine that there’s any alk/cal/mag issues with only one small frag LPS in the tank and weekly water changes but maybe I’m wrong. We’ll see! 

This is what the acans normally look like: (don’t mind the white spot, it was eating something it snagged from the water column) 

 

 

B9700CCB-5189-4A32-B5F5-BC06FECDE7D6.thumb.jpeg.3945a3e94cec6a74a0e2f27ec754c0bf.jpeg

 

Then when they seem to recede. Normal?

 

4AA48A54-6958-47C8-96DB-55315855138A.thumb.jpeg.d46af5f3265f894d1ba9f2b21b52415f.jpeg

  • Like 3
Link to comment
On 11/29/2019 at 9:13 AM, NaturallyKait said:

Then when they seem to recede. Normal?

I would say it’s not uncommon. My original acans seem to always be puffy and happy but the newer ones (1-2 months in the tank) still occasionally close up. As long as it doesn’t look unhappy all the time you should be fine. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
NaturallyKait
10 hours ago, Gravity said:

I would say it’s not uncommon. My original acans seem to always be puffy and happy but the newer ones (1-2 months in the tank) still occasionally close up. As long as it doesn’t look unhappy all the time you should be fine. 

Definitely not all the time, so I guess that’s good! 

 

The stuff I ordered for Black Friday was delayed because they realised when they went to pack one it was expired, so I’m waiting for their shipment to arrive and they’ll ship it all out. I’m anxious to try the RFG and finally get a full parameter reading so hopefully any day now 🤞🏻

Link to comment
  • 2 weeks later...
NaturallyKait

Black Friday purchases arrived! 
 

My water change is overdue so this I guess is the perfect time to check and see how the parameters are in the tank. Tonight after the kiddos go to bed I’ll have a chance to run all of the new tests. 
 

Thanks to being overdue for the water chance the tank has had some GHA take over a bit of the rock work. I’ve been manually pulling some daily all week, but hopefully I can get a good amount out with my water change. The problem really is that I desperately need some more snails, but my LFS hasn’t had any. They just had their tanks crash thanks to another unit in the building they’re in treating with antifungals that travelled through the air exchange system. I may need to cave and eat the shipping costs to order some in! 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
On 12/4/2019 at 11:28 PM, Gravity said:

I would say it’s not uncommon. My original acans seem to always be puffy and happy but the newer ones (1-2 months in the tank) still occasionally close up. As long as it doesn’t look unhappy all the time you should be fine. 

Any time a fish bumps them, a hermit or snail walks over it, a piece of sand is blown into it, etc. LPS will deflate to protect themselves. This is totally normal. As long as it isn't closed more than open you are fine.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
NaturallyKait
1 minute ago, jservedio said:

Any time a fish bumps them, a hermit or snail walks over it, a piece of sand is blown into it, etc. LPS will deflate to protect themselves. This is totally normal. As long as it isn't closed more than open you are fine.

Yeah it’s pretty happy most of the time so it seems all good. 

Link to comment
NaturallyKait

Got the RFG installed, we’ll see how this does for getting more flow to some weaker spots from before. I think I need to pull my pump out too and clean it, it’s due anyway and I noticed before I did the swap the flow seemed lower than usual. Tonight I’m doing a water change so I think I’ll add that to the list of things to do. If I still need more flow I’m going to have to cave and add a wave maker. It’s interesting to see how different the flow is though, and I do enjoy the variation. 
 

Ran all of my new tests. My nitrates are high again (at least it’s time for a water change anyway), and I’m partially blaming that on my old API nitrates kit and my apparent difficulty in reading it. If I’m understanding as well, it seems like my alk is a bit low, and my mag a bit high? 
 

Nitrates - 30-40ishppm (somewhere between the 20 and 50 on my test kit, I’d say leaning toward the 50)

Phosphates - 0.05ppm

Alkalinity - 6.7 dKH

Calcium - 430ppm

Magnesium - 1480ppm 

 

From what I’m gathering I should check my new water tonight to see where the alk/cal/mag sit to see if this close to matches up? I feel like a newbie all over again! 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
  • 2 months later...
NaturallyKait

Well, long past due update. 
 

The tank has had some major issues. The algae and cyano from when I was in the hospital came back with a vengeance. Nothing I did could get it under control, I was manually pulling hand fulls, upping snails, just nothing worked. It killed the two corals. It made no sense. All my snails ended up dying from an ammonia spike caused by a cable repair guy shoving the tank so hard he spilled water out of it. I was livid. 
 

Then my alk went totally wild. Wouldn’t come above 6, even with a water chance. I’d test my new water and it would be 8.7, and I tried so many different sizes of water change and nothing would change. Again, made no sense. Something was obviously wrong. Never did figure it out and then just one day...it fixed itself. 
 

The tank is almost back to baseline now. Algae is finally coming under control again, alk is stable. I’m not convinced something isn’t still wrong, but...after a little over a month of waiting on technicalities I finally got a big order placed today. 
 

New tank, new stand, new lights, new sand, new heater all on the way. At this point I’m planning a tank transfer. Details to come! 

  • Wow 3
Link to comment
NaturallyKait
11 hours ago, Gravity said:

Sorry to hear about your algae issue and losses. I hope things continue to turn around. Looking forward to your tank upgrade. 

Thanks! It’s been a perplexing few months but I’m very much looking forward to the new tank. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
  • 3 weeks later...
NaturallyKait

Well, my new tank and light are sitting at my LFS. Only two problems, one the stand hasn’t arrived yet and two I’ve been on isolation with sick kids who are high risk in this pandemic so it’s been a nerve wracking experience so far. To make myself feel better I finally pulled the trigger on a RODI system. I’ve been using distilled, but I know that has a medical use too so I’m saving what I have to use for the kids’ medical supplies and share with other families in the same spot if I have to. Guess it’s time to figure out how to hook it up when it arrives. I have everything else I need to set up the new tank when the stand arrives and I can get it all home. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
NaturallyKait
7 hours ago, Gravity said:

Hope they start to feel better soon. A RODI system is a great investment. Much easier than lugging gallon jugs around. 

It’s never really bothered me to do the lugging, but with such a small tank I never really needed a lot of jugs so it wasn’t as big of a deal. Plus we live in a rental so I can’t permanently install a RODI like I could if we owned so that’s why I kept putting it off and made sure to just always keep enough for an emergency water change if needed. Clearly I don’t want to risk not being able to get water for the tank though during all of this, so RODI it is. I’m just going to have to hook it up to the kitchen sink when I need to make water and store it in between uses. It’ll be handy for the initial fill up too. I don’t want to transfer any water from the current tank so enough water to fill the new tank was definitely going to be a pain to lug lol. 

Link to comment
NaturallyKait

This finally made its way to my house today! Now just waiting on the stand to arrive in the mail, I hope soon. Tracking says by April 14th at the latest. Usually stuff arrives sooner than that, but with covid they may be backed up. We’ll see. 🤞🏻

  • Like 3
Link to comment
NaturallyKait

Today’s arrival in the mail:

 

 

Tomorrow should be interesting figuring this out. Fingers crossed, for some reason this is intimidating haha. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recommended Discussions

×
×
  • Create New...