Snow's 10G Underwater Tropical Jungle Retreat (365 Day Challenge) - Taking It Down.

[debbeach13]

I hope the additions heal up for you. That will seriously help fill up you tank.

[Snow_Phoenix]

Took a few top shots of some corals and Derp - quality isn't great but here it is:

 

Official FTS on 1/3/2020:

 

Not much to see, but hoping it'll be filled up pretty nicely in months to come. 🙂

 

Next week, I'll be adding my Duncan and the partially melted green-skirted zoa colony I found smothered by sand in the back corners of my 60G. I will also try to frag my leopard discosoma shroom and see if there's room in this little tank to host two small not-doing-so-well mini acan colonies as well. I think I've more or less figured out placements for most of the corals I intend to transfer over, although the adding the unhealthy Duncan would be tricky because I'm reserving the entire right side of the tank for the torch. 

 

I'll try to pick up my torch from the LFS in 2 weeks time. I'm paying by installments - so I'll only bring the coral home once the entire payment is fulfilled. 

 

My LFS still has some common green mini maxi nems in stock, and they look okay and would make the perfect 'flower', but I don't want to push this tank and stock it too fast. Yes, the biofilter is old, but a system still can crash if you go overboard, and I don't want to risk it. So little frags for now. 🙂 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[debbeach13]

Derp is looking well. LOL

[Snow_Phoenix]

14 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

Derp is looking well. LOL

He tried picking the glue under the cyphastrea for a while, and when that didn't relent, he moved over to pick the glue under my palys next. I swear he's a little twerp. Do you know he completely rescaped my macro for me? Everyday I have to re-decorate my tank using chopsticks, only to have him yank out the algae and go falalalala and put it wherever. 

[debbeach13]

That might be a crab tradition or I guess trait is a better word.

[Tamberav]

Looks really good! Now I need a lepto after seeing yours all fuzzy!

[ECLS Reefer]

On 2/27/2020 at 10:12 PM, Snow_Phoenix said:

Guess who finally got caught and is about to be deported back to the store? 

 

 

Had to remove all my macro and 3 out 4 of my LR pieces to get him. Basically rip apart my scape. 

Shame he was a pretty fish! But at least your store takes them back. I don’t have that option.

[Snow_Phoenix]

11 hours ago, Tamberav said:

Looks really good! Now I need a lepto after seeing yours all fuzzy!

Ooh, get one! I have another green lepto in my 60G that's doing so-so. Neither growing nor shrinking. I'm thinking of getting more lepto frags in the future - different colors, if possible. When the polyps are extended, they look absolutely beautiful. Easy to take care too! 

10 hours ago, Dirté Sanchez said:

Shame he was a pretty fish! But at least your store takes them back. I don’t have that option.

He was indeed. Added a nice splash of color to the tank - I think he would have done better in a larger, longer tank with more horizontal swimming room. 

 

My LFS is pretty good - we can board our livestock there if we go overseas (no fee included so far, but if the fish dies at the store, then you can't blame them) and rehome fish through the store. I've traded in livestock in the past when I had to shut down tanks or the animals were too aggressive (like this damsel). Most of the time, the rehoming works. And when the fish is sold to someone else, the store returns the money back to you. 

 

The only risk is the fish dying at the store before it could be rehomed - mostly because the fish jumps out of the tank (especially wrasses). My LFS runs their main fish-only DTs open-top. They have another section with small divided partitions that they cover with thick pieces of acrylic - they usually use this section to host expensive clownfish, the occasional oddball/premium fish or eels. 

 

The main setup is simple like this:

 

Lots of swimming room. 🙂 

 

[ECLS Reefer]

1 minute ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Ooh, get one! I have another green lepto in my 60G that's doing so-so. Neither growing nor shrinking. I'm thinking of getting more lepto frags in the future - different colors, if possible. When the polyps are extended, they look absolutely beautiful. Easy to take care too! 

He was indeed. Added a nice splash of color to the tank - I think he would have done better in a larger, longer tank with more horizontal swimming room. 

 

My LFS is pretty good - we can board our livestock there if we go overseas (no fee included so far, but if the fish dies at the store, then you can't blame them) and rehome fish through the store. I've traded in livestock in the past when I had to shut down tanks or the animals were too aggressive (like this damsel). Most of the time, the rehome works. And when the fish is sold to someone else, the store returns the money back to you. 

 

The only risk is the fish dying at the store before it could be rehomed - mostly because the fish jumps out of the tank (especially wrasses). My LFS runs their main fish-only DTs open-top. They have another section with small divided partitions that they cover with thick pieces of acrylic - they usually use this section to host expensive clownfish, the occasional oddball/premium fish or eels. 

 

The main setup is simple like this:

 

Lots of swimming room. 🙂 

 

Wow yeah that’s busy! I bet it makes it hard to say I want THAT fish right there!! 😂 Thats how I feel when trying to pick out koi for the pond— no I want THAT one with the spots and the white marks quick!

 

Im still so jealous of your coral selection at your store- all those brains- you’d think a port city like mine would have more to choose from but nowhere near what you’ve got.

[Snow_Phoenix]

7 minutes ago, Dirté Sanchez said:

Wow yeah that’s busy! I bet it makes it hard to say I want THAT fish right there!! 😂 Thats how I feel when trying to pick out koi for the pond— no I want THAT one with the spots and the white marks quick!

 

Im still so jealous of your coral selection at your store- all those brains- you’d think a port city like mine would have more to choose from but nowhere near what you’ve got.

Ooh - you have no idea how many times I tried picking out a fish in a tank full of the same type of fish. I actually have to track them with my eyes while my worker-friend runs off to grab a net and plastic bag. Just to make sure I get the correct fish lol. 😛

 

I'm jealous of all the pretty RFAs you guys have there! It's so difficult to get one here in the south - and if you do run across one, it burns a hole straight through your wallet.

 

Certain nanofish are also hard to come by here - like neon/sharknose gobies, GBGs, barnacle blennies etc. People prefer 'big fish' like tangs and rabbits here. Very few are interested in keeping gobies and blennies like I do. 

 

Our coral selection is mostly dependent on the shipment and season. They come in bulk - so you'll stare at a whole frag tank of acans (for example), and once those are sold off, you won't see them again for several months or even a year. I usually just film all the corals but buy ones from the discount rack. Very rarely do I buy a premium coral because it's expensive, and the way I see it, I can get multiple pieces of other corals (non-premium) for the same price. The rainbow brain I have in my 60G is the only premium coral I have. Even then, it was a gift from the store due to a mix-up. Wouldn't have been able to even touch it otherwise. 😛 

[ECLS Reefer]

7 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Ooh - you have no idea how many times I tried picking out a fish in a tank full of the same type of fish. I actually have to track them with my eyes while my worker-friend runs off to grab a net and plastic bag. Just to make sure I get the correct fish lol. 😛

 

I'm jealous of all the pretty RFAs you guys have there! It's so difficult to get one here in the south - and if you do run across one, it burns a hole straight through your wallet.

 

Certain nanofish are also hard to come by here - like neon/sharknose gobies, GBGs, barnacle blennies etc. People prefer 'big fish' like tangs and rabbits here. Very few are interested in keeping gobies and blennies like I do. 

 

Our coral selection is mostly dependent on the shipment and season. They come in bulk - so you'll stare at a whole frag tank of acans (for example), and once those are sold off, you won't see them again for several months or even a year. I usually just film all the corals but buy ones from the discount rack. Very rarely do I buy a premium coral because it's expensive, and the way I see it, I can get multiple pieces of other corals (non-premium) for the same price. The rainbow brain I have in my 60G is the only premium coral I have. Even then, it was a gift from the store due to a mix-up. Wouldn't have been able to even touch it otherwise. 😛 

Oh I totally understand- I love getting 5 frags for $10 or $20 a piece, at most. That rainbow trachy I just got was the most expensive thing I’ve bought as a single item, livestock wise. Even the elegance corals I’ve had were $30-50. And I won’t get another unless it’s cheap like those, though I don’t know that I’ll try one again. I’ve got a crap track record with them so far.

[Snow_Phoenix]

30 minutes ago, Dirté Sanchez said:

Oh I totally understand- I love getting 5 frags for $10 or $20 a piece, at most. That rainbow trachy I just got was the most expensive thing I’ve bought as a single item, livestock wise. Even the elegance corals I’ve had were $30-50. And I won’t get another unless it’s cheap like those, though I don’t know that I’ll try one again. I’ve got a crap track record with them so far.

Elegances here aren't too good either. They do well in the first few months, but after a while, they just shrink/melt/die. My older elegance used to be very large and beautiful. Then one day, it just shrunk. It's still alive and hanging on, but is very badly retracted with the skeleton showing. I prefer frogspawns and torches. The branching varieties last longer and grow quicker too. 

[ECLS Reefer]

6 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Elegances here aren't too good either. They do well in the first few months, but after a while, they just shrink/melt/die. My older elegance used to be very large and beautiful. Then one day, it just shrunk. It's still alive and hanging on, but is very badly retracted with the skeleton showing. I prefer frogspawns and torches. The branching varieties last longer and grow quicker too. 

That’s exactly what happened to every one I’ve tried. I’m excited to see the SCA finally getting its actually together and growing- my frogspawn especially has gotten twice its original size in like a month

[Snow_Phoenix]

I found more frags lurking in the shadows of the 60G - and they were in terrible shape - worse than the previous batch, I think. 

 

I moved over 5 tiny frags and 1 large partially-melted zoa colony.

 

But before I could move them over, Derp has been up to his usual antics and succeeded in throwing down my rainbow implosion palys: 

 

I've managed to re-glue the palys back to the LR, but they weren't very happy at being repeatedly handled:

 

Then I concentrated on moving the frags one by one.

 

This used to be an amazing green-striped red acan with multiple heads once. I found this poor thing at the very back of the tank, facing the sandbed. 😞

 

 

The two shrunken heads still have flesh on it, so I believe there is still hope for this piece. 

 

I also transferred two mushrooms into this tank. The first frag had two rhodactis heads which were healthy and the size of half a pea each. They're baby shrooms and were difficult to capture on film because they were too tiny. The second frag used to be a vibrant orange shroom which is now partially bleached in the center. It still has an orange rim - but I also found this frag on the sandbed, at the very back corner of the 60G:

 

This was my unhealthy Duncan in the large reef. For some reason, this coral never quite grew for me, even before I acquired my 60G cube. I'm hoping it'll turn around in this tank and actually start bopping out more heads (it currently has two tiny ones):

 

This used to be a very vibrant green encrusting monti. At its peak, it would make the perfect 'lichen' for this little reef. But it has completely lost its color - still not dead yet, but I'll try my best to save it somehow. SPS are super tricky for me: 😞

 

 

This was the large partially melted zoa colony I uncovered buried in my sandbed of the 60G. There were these beautiful red fungia that hitchiked on this colony, but most of them have shrunk and one of them is skeletal. As for the zoas themselves, I checked the colony under the lights and I can still spot multiple polyps - so there's a very good chance it can open up again and regrow. My only issue with this piece is that it's very large - too large for the nano. The zoas can pass off as beautiful 'flowers' and the fungia as 'fungal plates' but I'm not sure I want to retain this colony because it takes up too much space on the sandbed:

 

It also makes the tank look too cluttered and crammed. I'm not sure how to frag it because there are polyps everywhere. I don't think ordinary bone cutters can make a clean cut. I might need to ask my LFS to use their frag cutter to see if they can break up the colony into two parts, which would make placement easier. 

 

Otherwise, this is how the tank looks like with the colony in it it (so packed eek!):

 

I also spotted some algae growing on the glass - one of my turban snails is already busy trying to clean it:

 

No signs of other pest algae yet, but I won't be surprised if I get more of it on the rocks/glass, now that I've added multiple frags. 

 

I will wait on fragging my leopard discosoma. That piece is quite healthy and thriving in my 60G, so I'm not too worried over it. 

 

But I found some blastos which were not doing too well, and my green galaxea kept getting smothered by sand by my dartfish, so those will be my next two transfers by the end of this week. I'm only rushing because I'm trying to save as many of the little bits and pieces I can find in my large tank - I never expected to see so many tiny things struggling in there because I've been mostly monitoring the large LPS and softie colonies. Not the smaller ones ---> careless on my part. 😕

 

I might shift more macro to the nano as well. Need to prune my fuge again. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[debbeach13]

You have been very busy. If all or even most of those frags recover you will have a very colorful full tank!

[Snow_Phoenix]

10 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

You have been very busy. If all or even most of those frags recover you will have a very colorful full tank!

Thank you - I really hope they can recover. Especially the encrusting montis - I got them from one of my LFS branches far from home. And they're quite difficult to come across. 😞

 

I need to slow down though. Too many additions in less than a week. My biofilter may be old, but I don't want to risk crashing the system. So far everything looks good for now (touch wood), but I don't want to push it. 

 

I still need to rescue another handful of frags from my main DT though. I'll give it a few more days - if those frags start declining very badly, then I'll transfer them to the nano and step up my WCs to twice a week to compensate. 

[Ratvan]

3 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

I need to slow down though. Too many additions in less than a week. My biofilter may be old, but I don't want to risk crashing the system. So far everything looks good for now (touch wood), but I don't want to push it. 

This is where I am struggling currently, I want to add it all. But need to go slow 

[debbeach13]

The 60 must be cleaning up nicely. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

6 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

This is where I am struggling currently, I want to add it all. But need to go slow 

So tempting. Must. Resist. Adding. MOAR. Corals! 😫

6 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

The 60 must be cleaning up nicely. 

It is. I call it the 'Deep Cleanse of 2020'. 

[SeaFurn]

8 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

I'm jealous of all the pretty RFAs you guys have there! It's so difficult to get one here in the south - and if you do run across one, it burns a hole straight through your wallet.

You need to take the hit on a few and then breed them! (I bet you guessed I'd say that!)  Sounds like you could pay for your investment in short order.  

[Snow_Phoenix]

14 minutes ago, SeaFurn said:

You need to take the hit on a few and then breed them! (I bet you guessed I'd say that!)  Sounds like you could pay for your investment in short order.  

Gah, don't tempt me! 

 

Tbh, I'd love to set up a RFA breeding tank. Would be amazing to watch them spawn. 🙂 

[Ratvan]

13 minutes ago, SeaFurn said:

You need to take the hit on a few and then breed them! (I bet you guessed I'd say that!)  Sounds like you could pay for your investment in short order.  

It is a very, very tempting idea. Cheapest I can find is £45 ($60) for the "plain" ones

[Snow_Phoenix]

6 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

It is a very, very tempting idea. Cheapest I can find is £45 ($60) for the "plain" ones

The nice red one I had (which was eaten by my filefish) cost me RM 350. And that was after a 'discount'. 😞 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Performed some quick maintenance today - mostly added 1 drop of dKh buffer and trimmed off the encrusted glue at the bottom of a shroom frag:

 

See the amount of glue stuck at the bottom? Derp picked it off and threw the frag to the side:

 

So I clipped off the hardened pieces of glue and re-glued it to the LR:

 

My red finger leather is a bit mushy and split into half. 😞

 

 

The second half just fell out of the rocks and is currently on my zoa colony - I'll move to another part of the tank later before Derp gets to it. 

 

Today I could get a closer look at the zoa colony I transferred yesterday. Prognosis is not good. The red fungias are skeletal (but still alive) and most of the polyps are melted, but still have green centers, so I'm assuming they *can regrow in time:

 

The green encrusting monti is still alive, but still very washed-out in terms of color: 😞

 

But the red acans are finally more puffy-looking than yesterday (although the colors are poor), which surprised me. I think this piece definitely can make a comeback:

 

What surprised me the most was my Duncan coral. It was wide open and looked really good. 🙂

 

 

Also managed to zoom in and take a pic of the baby bullseye rhodactises (one of the heads is facing the rocks) - sorry if the image is blurry:

 

That rogue Fern Caulerpa strand doesn't look too bad either:

 

Pisces and Dusky looked pretty happy despite all the new additions. 🙂

 

 

Up for another WC day after tomorrow, I believe. I think it should be fine. Some of the SPS pieces may be beyond saving, but I'm happy that the acans and duncan made it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ratvan]

Your Caulerpa always looks amazing. I don't get it. Every time i try it just pales out and then goes sexual within the first 3 days. 

 

As annoying as these little maintenance tasks are they make the whole tank look much for finished. I wouldn't have noticed the new mushroom position if you hadn't pointed it out. What sort of glue was it on the plug? Looks like Hot Glue Gun Glue to me?