Seafurn's Old School Pico Gets An Upgrade - 365 Day Challenge

[Ratvan]

8 hours ago, SeaFurn said:

Day 75

 

The corals arrived today- and would you believe it, late again - but at least they showed up. Having spent ~44 hours en route, I was expecting the worst as I opened the package but was pleasantly surprised! First, I gotta give a shout out to Cultivated Reef. This was my first order from them and despite the delay, which was not their fault, the package I received was top notch. The corals were packed neatly in a very substantial stryofoam container with a fitted lid.  There was heat pad inside that was still warm and I could feel that the water was still warm too.  The corals were double bagged and sealed closed.  There was quite a bit of water in each bag which probably helped keep them in good shape on the lenghty trip.  And the corals looked good - the water was clear (not cloudy) and the corals had some color!  I don't have much experience with late shipments but I did not expect that. 

I floated the bags, dipped the corals, and got them in the tank.  I'm pretty sure they are all gonna make it.  I got 5 new corals.  Here's one of them - a pink ricordea. Yes, it's really pink (not orange) - but I don't know why the picture doesn't look it.   Pics of the other corals soon!

 

 

 

Abosolutely!  It's tough keeping a daily journal. Luckily it's more for me but hopefully people like reading my musings. 

Was the Rainbow Stylo in the same order? What else did you get?

What do you use for your photo's, I got a load of help lately from other members (mainly I need an Orange filter as my WB on my phone is terrible and maxes out at 7K, most go up to 10K at least)

[SeaFurn]

Day 76

 

Back to griping tonight. There are 3 types of zoas (Butt Kissers, Bam Bams, and Green Bay Packers) that have been closed up for the last several days (even before the new corals arrived) while all the others are open wide and happy. It just doesn’t make any sense. I guess each type of coral has its own preferred parameters. Seems like the trick is to find the sweet spot. My concern is that that band is so narrow it can’t be maintained reliably in such a small tank. In this case, I guess I won’t be surprised when these 3 zoas finally relax and open back up, and others will close up. 

 

14 hours ago, Ratvan said:

Was the Rainbow Stylo in the same order? What else did you get?

Yes! Here’s a pic from earlier today. This one is gonna be awesome if I take good care of it.

 

I also got the pink ricordea, a zoa, a cyphastrea (my first ever!), and shhhh - an acro. I didn’t plan on that one. It was a “door buster” special so really cheap so thought I’d give it a go. 🤞🏻

[GtownSalty]

Love the little ric I have a garden of them in my home tank. My bucket list shroom is a jawbreaker or an eclectus. I have a local challange piece in my home tank my first sps it is just doing meh.

[SeaFurn]

Day 77

 

Here’s a picture of the acro. It’s called Rainbows in Spain. 

It’s really brown but the tips have some color. Probably best to document what it looks like now before I put it through it’s paces.

 

Maybe one day it will look like this....

 

[Ratvan]

11 hours ago, SeaFurn said:

Day 77

 

Here’s a picture of the acro. It’s called Rainbows in Spain. 

It’s really brown but the tips have some color. Probably best to document what it looks like now before I put it through it’s paces.

 

Maybe one day it will look like this....

 

I'm fascinated by this, so is it the shipping that's likely to brown out the coral or is it something else? 

[SeaFurn]

3 hours ago, Ratvan said:

I'm fascinated by this, so is it the shipping that's likely to brown out the coral or is it something else? 

Yes in this case. Acros brown out for tons of reasons - fragging, touching them, taking them out of the water, shipping, etc. It then takes some time and excellent water conditions for them to get stable and start to color back up. 

Mine is sitting in the corner in good flow and I’m sure it will regress once I glue it down where I want it. Plus it will have to reacclimate to that new spot. 

[SeaFurn]

Day 78

 

Still just letting the new corals settle in and trying to figure out where I want everything. Anyone have any advice on where to put a cyphastrea? I’m thinking somewhere on the left side. 

 

The zoas I mentioned the other day are still closed while all the others in the tank are happy. 🤔

 

Also, I have been noticing a significant drop off of the flow in the tank from the return pump. Water has not been rushing through the weir like it had in the past. So I cleaned the pump earlier today and that totally fixed the problem! 

So, everyone remember to clean your pumps! 

[SeaFurn]

Day 79

 

No new signs of the 2 aiptasia I attacked. Thank God! I think it is going to be safe to reglue the zoas back into the spot where they were at.

 

As far as other plans go, I think I’m going to put the frogspawn and the hammer on the rock with the zoas - one on each side near the back. I have 2 concerns with this plan though - the nearby zoas may get shaded some, and the flow on the far right side rear of the tank Is pretty weak. But, I don’t think there’s really anywhere else I can put them and I don’t want to leave them out of the tank because they add a lot of movement. 

 

I’m still trying to decide where to put the LPS and SPS. I also have to find a spot for the new zoas. I’m suddenly wondering if I should have gotten a bigger tank...

[WV Reefer]

On 5/16/2020 at 10:35 PM, SeaFurn said:

Day 78

 

Still just letting the new corals settle in and trying to figure out where I want everything. Anyone have any advice on where to put a cyphastrea? I’m thinking somewhere on the left side. 

 

The zoas I mentioned the other day are still closed while all the others in the tank are happy. 🤔

 

Also, I have been noticing a significant drop off of the flow in the tank from the return pump. Water has not been rushing through the weir like it had in the past. So I cleaned the pump earlier today and that totally fixed the problem! 

So, everyone remember to clean your pumps! 

Cyphastrea can run wild so keep that in mind wherever you put it. I’m so glad my chalice killed mine or I would have had one giant rock of Cyphastrea. 

[SeaFurn]

36 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

Cyphastrea can run wild so keep that in mind wherever you put it. I’m so glad my chalice killed mine or I would have had one giant rock of Cyphastrea. 

Whoa - run wild like GSP?

Good to know though. Should I put it on its own rock? 

[WV Reefer]

2 minutes ago, SeaFurn said:

Whoa - run wild like GSP?

Good to know though. Should I put it on its own rock? 

Maybe ...until you see how fast it grows. @Cannedfish has one that has gone nuts in his tank. 

[ECLS Reefer]

2 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

Maybe ...until you see how fast it grows. @Cannedfish has one that has gone nuts in his tank. 

I have two different cyphastrea and leptastrea in the Evo, with the hope that it does kind of run wild. 

[Cannedfish]

12 hours ago, WV Reefer said:

Maybe ...until you see how fast it grows. @Cannedfish has one that has gone nuts in his tank. 

When cyphastrea settles in it can be pretty unstoppable. It will grow under and around ledges (it can thrive with very little light), it will literally grow over zoas, and if it get near any other LPS or SPS it will nuke 'em. @WV Reefer's cyphastrea has been stopped by a chalice,  but I have yet to encounter anything that can beat back mine... (it even beat a pectinia which can be mean as hell) though, admittedly, it hasn't yet ventured into the acan echinata's realm. In my opinion when it comes to coral warfare, the Echinata is the final boss. Hell, I'm convinced if given the chance the Echinata would eat me (it destroyed a balanophylia that was around a corner of the rock this week, and a lepto about 4 weeks ago at once ate a rock flower anenome... and a walking dendro... and a fat head dendro... the list goes on). 

 

But overall, cyphastrea can be a plague... Currently, mine is covering about 20% of my live rock at this point, and I actively beat it back with dental scrapers. 

[SeaFurn]

21 hours ago, Dirté Sanchez said:

I have two different cyphastrea and leptastrea in the Evo, with the hope that it does kind of run wild. 

I remember seeing one of yours on IG that I think you called Joker - bright green and purple and awesome! 

 

9 hours ago, Cannedfish said:

When cyphastrea settles in it can be pretty unstoppable. It will grow under and around ledges (it can thrive with very little light), it will literally grow over zoas, and if it get near any other LPS or SPS it will nuke 'em. @WV Reefer's cyphastrea has been stopped by a chalice,  but I have yet to encounter anything that can beat back mine... (it even beat a pectinia which can be mean as hell) though, admittedly, it hasn't yet ventured into the acan echinata's realm. In my opinion when it comes to coral warfare, the Echinata is the final boss. Hell, I'm convinced if given the chance the Echinata would eat me (it destroyed a balanophylia that was around a corner of the rock this week, and a lepto about 4 weeks ago at once ate a rock flower anenome... and a walking dendro... and a fat head dendro... the list goes on). 

 

But overall, cyphastrea can be a plague... Currently, mine is covering about 20% of my live rock at this point, and I actively beat it back with dental scrapers. 

😳 OMG that echinata sounds like pure evil! Definitely won’t be having one in my 4g tank.

And will be putting the cyphastrea on its own rock that I can take out to frag to keep it under control.

 

Thanks for the advice everyone! 

[SeaFurn]

Day 80

 

Bam Bams still closed up and slowly withering away to nothing. They used to be open all the time, no matter what the params were. Makes no sense as almost all the other zoas are open and water tests don’t indicate any problems - unless it’s just too clean for them. 

Any way to coax them open? 

 

 

[ECLS Reefer]

13 minutes ago, SeaFurn said:

I remember seeing one of yours on IG that I think you called Joker - bright green and purple and awesome! 

 

😳 OMG that echinata sounds like pure evil! Definitely won’t be having one in my 4g tank.

And will be putting the cyphastrea on its own rock that I can take out to frag to keep it under control.

 

Thanks for the advice everyone! 

It is bright green though the purple hasn’t colored up quite yet. I’m hoping with time I’ll see if. The rainbow cyphastrea is more low key but pretty to me.

2 minutes ago, SeaFurn said:

Day 80

 

Bam Bams still closed up and slowly withering away to nothing. They used to be open all the time, no matter what the params were. Makes no sense as almost all the other zoas are open and water tests don’t indicate any problems - unless it’s just too clean for them. 

Any way to coax them open? 

 

 

I JUST put a single bam bam polyp in my challenge tank and it’s the slowest one to open as well. Maybe they’re temperamental?

[SeaFurn]

25 minutes ago, Dirté Sanchez said:

I JUST put a single bam bam polyp in my challenge tank and it’s the slowest one to open as well. Maybe they’re temperamental?

Mine haven’t been in the past and that’s what’s strange. Now the Butt Kissers - TOTAL PITA. 

Your zoas always look good on IG - got any tips? 

[ECLS Reefer]

Just now, SeaFurn said:

Mine haven’t been in the past and that’s what’s strange. Now the Butt Kissers - TOTAL PITA. 

Your zoas always look good on IG - got any tips? 

That little tank is so dirty the water is kind of  green by the end of the week. And the phosphates are always 0.1-0.2. 
 

Those crazy ones in the big tank all almost died at first and then have bounced back- they’re in a good place to catch food, and I always hear they want food and dirtier water. 
 

But mostly I can’t explain how I’ve managed to get this far other than being anal retentive about daily maintenance and LUCK. Because for sure I don’t really know what the heck I’m doing. 

[SeaFurn]

Day 81

 

Here are the last of the @Cultivated Reef new corals.

WWC Skittles Bomb cyphastrea and Nirvana zoanthids. Still one stubborn zoa polyp...

And check out that little dot of coralline on the ABS. 

 

Bam Bams are still closed up. 👎🏼

 

[SeaFurn]

Day 82

 

This little ricordea has been looking worse and worse every day. It’s been shrinking and you can see how the polyps on the left side are disappearing or all sunken into the coral. The right side looks fairly normal. 

 

I thought it might not be getting enough flow or light so I decided to move it this morning. I reached in with my long tongs and picked it up and another one of those damn red spaghetti worm dislodged from somewhere on it or the little rock it’s on. While I don’t know for sure, I believe this could be another instance where these things have been trouble affecting the health of a coral. 

I sucked it out of the water column and took a picture. 

 

I’ve been pulling one out of the tank every couple of days now. 

I’ve been told they are spaghetti worms. Spaghetti worms seem to have all their long tentacles on one end. This worm has these tentacles all along it’s body and can pull

them in against its body to make to look like it’s solid. The one in the picture has most of its tentacles pulled in. Could it be some other kind of pest worm? 

 

Bam Bams are still closed. 

[A.m.P]

The Ric might be fussy because it appears to be splitting, can't help with the worms - the closest harmful lookalike I'm aware of to spaghetti would be syllidae - which are quite nasty - but yours doesn't fit that ID.

 

Looks like a hair worm though, still harmless, but not a spaghetti worm fwiw - cirratulid.

[SeaFurn]

Day 83

 

Sucked out another one that was swirling around in the water column today. This one was a good half inch long when all stretched out. 

Again, not the best picture, but you can kind of see all the long “hairs” pulled in alongside its body. Need to get a better picture. 

 

The acro is starting to look a little less brown and more green. 

 

I really don’t think the Bam Bams in the crevice are going to make an appearance again. This same thing happened with a colony of Bob Marleys - only one survived. 

 

Changed the floss today. I’m always surprised how dirty it is. 

[SeaFurn]

11 hours ago, Amphrites said:

Looks like a hair worm though, still harmless, but not a spaghetti worm fwiw - cirratulid.

Thanks - but I’m still a little skeptical it’s not harmless. I hope your right though. 

[A.m.P]

3 hours ago, SeaFurn said:

Thanks - but I’m still a little skeptical it’s not harmless. I hope your right though. 

There's an enormous possibility it may be an animal I'm not familiar with, I still have to google vague recollections to track down the names or specifics about darn-near anything lol.

[devaji108]

yeah Zoas can be a PINTA some times eh? 

cultivated reef is a great place I got some nice corals a years ago now they where beautiful. great ppl.

tanks looking great!