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

[SeaFurn]

Day 63

 

Some commentary on yesterday's FTS: 

 

Ealier this week I commented on all the red algae on the rocks.  Over the course of the week, the snails have really gone to work and it's looking much better. There's only a couple of spots that are still clearly red.  I fed the tank a little less this week so that may have helped.  

 

Status of some of the corals - more to help me remember what was going on in April

 

Digi - showed pretty good PE and color throughout the month - just got a little pissy for a few day and I still have no idea why.

Psammocora - new tissue is starting to cover the spot that had become completely bare.  I'll post a photo of this soon.  Pretty amazing.  It's dark green color is starting to turn back to its original bright green color.  This started as soon as I stopped dosing ntrate and phosphate. 

GSP - a lot growth this month.  I need to keep my eye on it so it doesn't start creeping up the rocks.  I also need to find a permanent spot for it - but don't want it in a spot where it can take over.

Zoas:

Butt Kissers - one of the two polyps slowly melted - even after it was open for a week or so early in the month.  The remaining polyp is generally open all the time and has started getting its bright yellow color back.  So happy about this.  Fingers crossed a new head shows up in May.  It's a slow slow grower I've been told.

Solar Flares - 4 new heads.  This thing is taking off.

Rastas - they looked good early in the month and then they just started acting whacky - all stretched upward most of the time - and hit or miss on being open.  So weird. Have no idea what's going with them.

Green Bay Packers - 2 new heads

Utter Chaos - glued these down early in the month and the heads turned black from all the handling, It took most of the month for the orange blotches and dots to reappear. 2 new heads have appeared as well.  This could become a fast grower. 

Scambled Eggs - killed the aiptasia but now they've been closed for the last week.   

Bob Marley - the lone polyp in the tank was open most all of the month and had been looking great.  Something has happened to cause it be closed for over a week now. I have no idea why.

The rest of the zoas - generally open all month but not showing any growth. I commented earlier in the month that I think they haven't really shifted into growth mode due to all the stress the tank has been under the last several months.

Frogspwan & Acan - well, you know

Hammer (recovering in the 45) - doing well, coloring up

 

 Plans for May

Get a couple of the zoas reglued in their spots.

Get the frogspawn glued down.

Move the hammer back to the tank.

Begin dosing aminos

Small water changes every 3 days

Keep my hands out of the tank

Pick a new coral to add.

 

 

[SeaFurn]

Day 64

 

😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡

one of the aiptasia survived

 

Next time it won’t be so lucky...

 

 

[SliceGolfer]

11 minutes ago, SeaFurn said:

Day 64

 

😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡

one of the aiptasia survived

 

Next time it won’t be so lucky...

 

 

They always find a way, don’t they?

[friar1]

Pretty tank ya got there, looks like your transfer was a success.

[teenyreef]

I haven't looked in a while...WOW!

[SeaFurn]

Day 65

 

Wow - only 300 more days to go!

 

So I've pulled out several more bright red spaghetti worms over the last several days.  I wonder how many are in the tank. I usually catch them when they release from whatever they are on and start swirling around in the water column.  I know they are supposed to be harmless but I'm not convinced.  

 

The Bob Marley polyp "tested" the water today.  Funny how it just opened up its one side ever so slightly.  This is the most I've seen of it in over a week.  Hopefully it's an indicator that it will make a full appearance tomorrow. 

 

 

 

23 hours ago, SliceGolfer said:

They always find a way, don’t they?

IKR!  So unbelievable.  You know what was going through my mind when I posted that last night - that final scene from Caddyshack when Carl drops the dynamite into the gopher hole.  (Cuz I'll likely nuke my tank trying to kill it and that damn thing will still survive.)

 

 

23 hours ago, friar1 said:

Pretty tank ya got there, looks like your transfer was a success.

Thanks - so far I've been pleased with the move.  I've seen quite a bit of improvement considering all the problems I was having.  Still have a lot to learn and experience. 

 

23 hours ago, teenyreef said:

I haven't looked in a while...WOW!

Thank you!  It's coming a long slowly.  Just need to be attentive, patient, and don't do stupid stuff.  

I always have your tanks in my mind as a benchmark and hope mine looks like yours some day. I need to pop over and check out your updates soon.  

 

 

[debbeach13]

I am also not a fan of spaghetti worms. Glad to see Bob is opening for you.

[SeaFurn]

Day 66

 

The digi suddenly looked like crap again today. Tested the water just to make sure nothing was off - and it wasn’t. So I guess it’s just an off day. 

 

13 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

Glad to see Bob is opening for you.

Ya mon. Bob be jammin’ today!

 

And here’s a pic of one of the hermits. They don’t get much love but have been killing it with keeping the rocks clean. I’m afraid it’s gonna cause some snail deaths...

 

[SeaFurn]

Day 67

 

Operation Caddyshack (kill the &?!/@ aiptasia) was undertaken today! I got impatient. We’ll find out in a couple of days if it was a success. Until then - pray. 

 

Besides the digi, the other corals were looking a little off today so I changed some water and changed the floss. The floss was pretty dirty surprisingly. Hopefully things look a little better tomorrow. 

[debbeach13]

Hope it all works out. What did you use on the aiptasia?

[SeaFurn]

1 hour ago, debbeach13 said:

Hope it all works out. What did you use on the aiptasia?

Some Kalkwasser 🧨...followed by a harsh scraping session with a pin. 

Needless to say, the zoas weren’t particularly happy despite the fact I was especially careful to not get it on them or my skin! 

[SeaFurn]

Day 68

 

Coralline!

Hoping it spreads to the rocks. I guess this is a good sign, huh? 

 

[SeaFurn]

Day 69

 

Ummm...I couldn’t resist...it was on sale!!!

And maybe a couple of other things too... 

[SeaFurn]

Day 70

 

Need some problem solving help tonight. One of my goals this month was to stop messing with the corals so much.

Here’s the situation - I have several small ricordea corals on frag plugs sitting loose on the bottom of the tank. Remember that the tank is bare bottom. So what happens is that they all get moved around, turned around, wedged under the rocks, etc by the hermits and the snails. Many mornings I’ll try to get them situated back against the rocks out of the way, but undoubtedly they’ll get moved around. I don’t want to permanently glue them down just yet because I’m not sure where I want them. Is there a way I can attach them temporarily so they don’t get moved all around?  

[debbeach13]

Use fishing line or string and attach to rubble, Some use elastic but I have never had good results with that.

[Ratvan]

6 hours ago, SeaFurn said:

Day 70

 

Need some problem solving help tonight. One of my goals this month was to stop messing with the corals so much.

Here’s the situation - I have several small ricordea corals on frag plugs sitting loose on the bottom of the tank. Remember that the tank is bare bottom. So what happens is that they all get moved around, turned around, wedged under the rocks, etc by the hermits and the snails. Many mornings I’ll try to get them situated back against the rocks out of the way, but undoubtedly they’ll get moved around. I don’t want to permanently glue them down just yet because I’m not sure where I want them. Is there a way I can attach them temporarily so they don’t get moved all around?  

Eggcrate maybe? Will look ugly as hell though 

[SeaFurn]

Day 71

 

Thought I’d show you how the psammocora is healing up. 

 

This is back in March when the tissue on lower right side had died. Plus the vibrant green color was gone due to the swings in my parameters as I was trying to get nitrates and phosphate dialed in along with all the algae I was battling. 

 

Today you can see the tissue is slowly growing over the barren spot and the color is looking a little better. It’s actually been off the the last few days so it usually looks even better than this.

 

[SeaFurn]

23 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

Use fishing line or string and attach to rubble, Some use elastic but I have never had good results with that.

Well luckily they are already attached to the frag plug. That was a nightmare getting that to happen though. 

 

17 hours ago, Ratvan said:

Eggcrate maybe? Will look ugly as hell though 

Yeah I dunno. I guess I’m just going to have to keep rearranging the furniture every day - at least until I figure out where I want them. 

If there was more room in the tank I’d glue the frag disks to a rock with just a tiny amount so I could pop them off. 

[Wingy]

What if you drilled a hole through some tiles and used that as a stand.  

[SeaFurn]

Day 72

 

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms!

Given Mom was the focus of the day, I pretty much stayed out of the fish room and tried to maintain good behavior! I did sneak in at one point and changed a little water because the corals just didn’t look happy today. Lights are out now so I’m not sure if the water changed helped. Stay tuned. 

[SeaFurn]

Day 73

 

A few of the zoas remained closed tight the entire day. With new corals arriving tomorrow, I thought it best to test the water just to know where params are at. 

 

Nitrates < 1

Phosphates - undetectable

Alk - 10

Ca - 430

Mg - 1380

 

So maybe it’s just the low nitrates and undetectable phos again. 

I fed heavy today so hopefully that will help. 

 

Nonetheless, I’m excited to get the new corals tomorrow.

[SeaFurn]

Day 74

 

Well, I was hoping to show you some pics of new corals today but, unfortunately, the corals are still a no show.  They should have been here by 10:30am and have been at the ATL sorting facility since 9am according to the tracking info.  WTF Fedex?   I hope they'll be ok. Such a bummer.

[devaji108]

man your tank is looking good!

I really like how you have been numbering the days...just might have to borrow that from you. 

[SeaFurn]

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!

 

 

 

On 5/12/2020 at 9:03 PM, devaji108 said:

I really like how you have been numbering the days...just might have to borrow that from you. 

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

[debbeach13]

Glad the corals arrived in good shape. 22 followers so some one reading your journal. I hope the corals adjust and love your tank.