🧜🏼‍♀️34 gal Solana Cube Journal 8/19🐡-Photo Updates

[Tired]

It looks kind of like a keyhole limpet or some kind of black stomatella. Is there a hard shell underneath all that? 

[Juno]

On 11/10/2019 at 10:24 PM, Tired said:

It looks kind of like a keyhole limpet or some kind of black stomatella. Is there a hard shell underneath all that? 

There must be one inside but it seems soft. He’s kinda cool though. Getting bigger. 

[Juno]

My tank is just about 6 months old now. I get it slowly and haven’t had much trauma to deal with other than diatoms. I have 3 fish, a coral beauty, tail spot blenny and a firefish. All my vitals were purchased as small frags and here’s my frustration. NONE of them are showing any growth. Maybe the teeniest, tiniest bit in my month-cap, but not a single new zoa head, no expansion from the clove polyp or pipe organ, zero new heads on the torch or candy cane. Not even my GSP will grow up the back. My water parameters are damn near perfect with my calcium being slightly elevated. I run the Karen Vazquez lighting schedule. 

[Tired]

What's "damn near perfect"? You need nitrates and phosphates for growth, and free amino acids. Do you feed the corals?

 

Oh, and I think your black flat creature might be a shield slug/elephant slug. They're a type of keyhole limpet, and considered to be harmless. Nice find!

[DNR88]

The Zoa's doesn't seem to get enough light, because they're all stretched up. 

 

I think the key for growth is good flow, good (full-spectrum) lightning and weekly waterchanges from 15-20%. 

 

And a lot of patience of course. 😉

[Juno]

Ok, my alkalinity is the only thing that’s off and that’s a bit low. My nitrates and phosphates are super low too. So...I got a new fish and I’m going to start doing weekly water changes vs biweekly. Once I get that down, I’ll tweak my light strength a little. 

[wrenchclench]

Could be that your tank is "too clean"? I've found my zoas grow nicely when my nitrates are between 10-15 and Polyplab Reef Roids seem to help with growth. Would also agree with some of the other folks on increasing the lighting intensity. 

[billygoat]

On 12/9/2019 at 11:04 AM, DutchNanoReefer88 said:

The Zoa's doesn't seem to get enough light, because they're all stretched up. 

 I agree here. I am not sure if it's just because you took that photo early in the day and the zoas weren't open or extended all the way yet, but they certainly seem to be reaching for the light. Perhaps increasing light intensity could be the answer for improved growth? You'll want to do this slowly of course, as it's very easy to shock your livestock with sudden bursts of bright light. And increased lighting could also lead to increased algal growth. 😬 But I think it might be worth a try.

 

Tank looks great though! Taking it slowly and steadily definitely is paying off. 👌

[Juno]

Now I remember why I got out of this hobby. It takes waaaaaaay too much time. I’m giving it what I have and things aren’t great. Looking back over my photos, I’ve lost quite a bit of stuff. This morning I woke up to my feather duster crown on the sand. The only stressor I can think of is that I did a water change last week and the saltwater was pretty low in SG. Because of that, I went from 1.025 to 1.023. It’s back up to normal now. My gsp won’t open either. On my current light setting, my zoas and palleys stand waaaay tall. When I switched to a slightly more intense setting, I lost my acans. It’s been 7 months and I’m already annoyed with this hobby.