Snow's 2.6G Little Monsters Picoreef - Retired!

[Snow_Phoenix]

Morning! 🤗

 

 

Will be scraping the glass shortly. Might WC the tank at a go though. 🤔

[Snow_Phoenix]

Uh, so I scraped the glass with a razor edged scraper. Once I was done, I looked at the tank and I noticed I had sliced open my rainbow brain coral (again!!!) with my scraper this time. 😭😭😭

 

The tear was bigger than the time I accidently sucked it up using the gravel vac. 😓

 

So I did a quick emergency WC, and isolated the brain coral in a small blue bucket full of fresh SW + iodine + Vit. C. Once the WC was done, I put the coral back into the tank. 

 

Once side of it is still scrunched up (the torn side), but I hope it heals back up again. 😕

 

I think this piece has outgrown my pico - I keep bumping into it when I do maintenance. I need to transfer it out to my 60G, but that tank isn't doing well atm, so I'm keeping it in the pico for the time being. 🤔

 

Sigh. Really need to be more careful next time. 😓

 

Also, half of the green leptastrea is gone. I cleaned it up and it still has a bit of flesh left, but I'm not sure if it can bounce back from that. I hope it can though. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Brrr...it's cold in the reef this morning! 💦

 

 

Sneaky:

 

 

Montihat with full PE: 😊

 

 

Cyphastrea still growing: 👍

 

 

Rainbow brain is pinched in the bottom right corner, where the tear is, but otherwise pulled through the night:

 

 

I think it can make a full recovery. Just needs some food & dips. 😊👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

I woke up this morning and found my lepto flipped upside down and pressed against my fungia. The lepto was okay:

 

 

But the fungia is a bit retracted at one corner:

 

 

Given time, I think it should bounce back. As for the green leptastrea, it still has a bit of polyps left and is no longer sliming:

 

 

I'm not sure if it can regrow or recover, but I truly hope it would in time. 😕

 

My setosa & tenuis are both growing slowly - they're most encrusting further on the frag plug:

 

 

Also, the tenuis is now purplish-blue with green polyps. I honestly have no clue why it keeps switching colors. 🤷‍♀️

 

I took a quick time lapse vid. of the tenuis extending its polyps:

 

The original vid. is a min. long but this has been sped up 4x. 😊

 

[debbeach13]

3 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

I woke up this morning and found my lepto flipped upside down and pressed against my fungia. The lepto was okay:

 

Was it glued down? Didn't that one flip over before?

[Snow_Phoenix]

35 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

Was it glued down? Didn't that one flip over before?

Yeah, it was glued down, and yep, it has flipped over before. I have to re-glue it because only a small part of the underside of the coral is in contact with the LR. So it's very easy for it to be toppled over by a snail.

[debbeach13]

I get it. Until you want to pop a certain coral off the rock, then that one is stuck.

[Snow_Phoenix]

Well, it looks like I'll have to re-glue this (again!) because once again, I found it flipped over on the rocks this morning:

 

 

Damage is minimal from what I can see - a quick dip and some time should be enough for it to heal. 👍

 

I got a close up of my tenuis (which is bright green today, with a mild purplish undertone), but my phone auto-adjusted the brightness, so the colors look a bit pale/bleached: 😕

 

 

My setosa is definitely growing, albeit slowly: 

 

 

And here's a better pic of the pair:

 

 

The red pavona is growing as well - this is easily one of my fav. SPS because it appears to be quite hardy & beautiful: 😊

 

 

And I have a Coral War of sorts going on between my purple death paly & my meteor shower cyphastrea - I *think the cyphastrea is actually losing: 😕

 

 

 

And the palys are in dire need of being fragged. There's no way to skip this - I *have to do it. 😕

 

Since there are a lot of palys, I think I can actually make up to 4 tiny frags. I still need to get a razor blade though - so I have to drop by the stationary store to buy one. 🤔

[Snow_Phoenix]

I'm not sure if my green leptastrea can make a comeback but this is what I have left:

 

 

I still see some flesh on the coral, although there is zero PE atm. It might take a *long time to regrow & heal, but I truly hope it does. 

 

Clove polyps: 😊

 

 

Green discosoma shroom:

 

 

Rainbow brain is still recovering from the scraping accident. Feeding response is still very good:

 

 

Mystery coral - suspected leptastrea, is finally growing. 👍 :

 

 

Green acans have regrown, but I hope they'll spread out more in the future: 😊

 

[Tired]

Man, you've got so much in there! Better get good at fragging, you'll have a lot of it to do over the tank's lifespan. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

1 hour ago, Tired said:

Man, you've got so much in there! Better get good at fragging, you'll have a lot of it to do over the tank's lifespan. 

I fragged it about ~45 mins ago. It wasn't perfect, and I was a bit rough, but I managed to make 3 frags! 😊

 

I think I'll WC the tank later again, just as a precaution. Two of the polyps were releasing brown slime a little - I removed most of it using a baster, but my more sensitive corals like my merlettis looked very irritated. Might swap out my carbon daily over the next few days too. 🤔

 

Also, I accidently broke a very tiny piece of my lepto while trying to re-glue it back to the rock. I glued the tiny fragment to the Zoa Tower - not sure if it can regrow from that bit, but we'll see. 

 

I was mostly rushing through the fragging & re-gluing because I had some errands to run. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

I fragged my purple death palys in the afternoon, and managed to create 3 frags. 

 

This is the first frag, which I will be keeping in the pico to grow out again:

 

 

This is the second frag, which has around ~5 big polyps, but needs time to stabilize:

 

 

This is the third frag, which only has two polyps and I intend to sell it via my LFS/turn it in for store credit: 

 

 

After removing the palys, I could finally see how badly stung my cyphastrea was, and tbh, it looked pretty bad: 😓

 

 

The unaffected areas are healthy though, so I *think it can recover fully in a month or two. 

 

This is a jack-o-lantern lepto fraglet that I accidently created by accidently breaking my main frag while I tried to re-glue it to the rock:

 

 

I'm not sure if the fraglet can grow, but I'll observe it and leave it alone. It's currently on the side of the Zoa Tower. 

 

My tricolor blasto: 

 

 

Random zoa corner on the sandbed:

 

 

I initially thought of doing a WC today because some of the palys were exuding brown slime (I was a bit rough when I handled them) but I'm a bit exhausted. Quick check on the tank & its inhabitants at a passing glance ---> everything is okay, so I guess I can stick to the regular weekly WC. 

 

Will swap out the floss tomorrow though. The current one is filthy. Need to agitate the surface of the water too. 🤔

[Snow_Phoenix]

Topview shots taken today evening: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monthly FTS incoming! 🤗

[Snow_Phoenix]

FTS on 25/9/20 :

 

 

 

Topview FTS on 25/9/20 :

 

 

 

Will work on nursing all injured & sick corals back to full health. Those palys on the frag plug won't remain in the pico permanently. Once they're traded in, I'll try to get a small new frag to occupy the empty space left behind. 👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

Currently my fastest-growing SPS: 😊

 

 

The yellow filter bleaches the original colors, but the chili pepper monti frags are actually quite bright green with dark, rusty red polyps: 🧐

 

 

 

Love the iridescence on these polyps: 🥰

 

 

The rainbow brain has actually made a full recovery (!) :

 

 

The area of the tear is a bit pinched, but otherwise, the coral is back to normal. I'm surprised by how quickly the flesh reattached & re-grew, but I won't be handling this piece, just in case the flesh is still healing under the rainbow pattern. 🤔

 

Harvey was quite active today:

 

 

I noticed he loves hanging out on the gorg. : 

 

 

Unfortunately, the pink AOGs are still in poor shape:

 

 

I'm not confident if it can recover from this one. The polyps are shrunken and barely open. Surviving, but not thriving. 😓

[Snow_Phoenix]

I think my green leptastrea might make a comeback. I spotted some stubby polyps on the surface: 😅

 

 

The weeping willow looked very happy today with full PE:

 

 

The Montihat: 🥰

 

 

This piece is finally taking off and growing quickly: 

 

 

I'll be dropping by my primary LFS soon. Not sure what else I can pick up, but I'm thinking of another zoa frag, and *maybe a third, small stick. 😊

[debbeach13]

2 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Currently my fastest-growing SPS: 😊

 

Looks fantastic.

[debbeach13]

2 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

The Montihat: 🥰

 

I feel that this coral has really done well.

[Snow_Phoenix]

2 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

I feel that this coral has really done well.

Yeah, I really like how much color it has regained over the months. 🙂

[Snow_Phoenix]

When you go to your LFS with the promise of *only buying a zoa & a stick, and then this happens:

 

 

Rasta zoa:

 

 

Sunny Ds:

 

 

Nuclear green paly:

 

 

Radioactive birds nest:

 

 

 

 

And there was this gorgeous purple monti with neon green polyps, but I accidently broke it into 4 fragments while trying to trim the stem of the frag plug: 😭

 

 

All pieces look in poor shape atm, but there is still some mild PE, so I'm hoping it will recover after a few weeks. 

 

Here's the total list of corals I purchased today: 

 

Sunny Ds paly

Nuclear green paly

LA Lakers zoa

Blue Hornet zoa

Utter Chaos zoa 

Rasta zoa

Radioactive green birdnest

*Unknown montipora

Red finger leather

 

And yes, I found places for all of them in my pico. 😅

 

Although I will re-glue the LA Lakers & rasta zoas to Coralline Ledge - they look awkward in their current places. 🤔

 

Also, I think I might remove the purple gorg. from this tank. I think it doesn't have the room to grow in this tank. 😕 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Display tanks at my LFS: 🥰

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Their frag tanks: 😊

 

 

 

 

🤗

 

(This is my primary LFS, btw)

[Snow_Phoenix]

Got algae? Om nom nom nom. 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

The tank is still 'waking up'. 😊

 

LA Lakers zoas:

 

 

Blue hornet zoas:

 

 

Sunny Ds:

 

 

Utter Chaos & Rasta: 🤗

 

 

 

 

Jack-O-Lantern lepto:

 

 

Tricolor blasto in its new spot at the Zoa Tower:

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

SPS. 🤗

 

Tenuis:

 

 

Setosa:

 

 

Birdnest:

 

 

All three of them on the back wall:

 

 

New mystery monti has neon green polyps today: 

 

 

 

I think it can regrow and heal. Just needs a few WCs and a few weeks/months. 👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

These two were removed from their current areas and repositioned in the tank:

 

 

 

I glued the Blue Hornet to Coralline Ledge, and moved the UCs lower down the Zoa Tower (and closer to the peacock blues) so that the rasta can open fully and spread out next to the orange bam bams. The rasta is quite moody though - it has closed up again now, but I hope it doesn't melt on me because rastas are a bit difficult to come by here, and that lone polyp was expensive. 😕

 

At least the nuclear deaths have opened up fully:

 

 

They're not purely green. The outer rim has a mild bluish tint to it, and at certain angles, there are hints of yellow as well. 🤔

 

Hoping this one will grow out quickly like my purple deaths. 

 

I had my eye set on a large blue agave polyp at the LFS as well, but I'd go over my budget if I had acquired it, so I skipped out on it. Perhaps next time I'll pick it up if it is still there. 

 

They had quite a variety at the store - some with fancy names, some without, but I spotted a clump on un-fragged Captain America palys too - asked the manager to reserve a frag for me once he frags them. 😊

 

I think I'll do more extensive shopping in Nov/Dec, but I'll be focusing on re-stocking my larger reef with mushrooms and softies then. 👍

 

Also, I'll be doing a full-dual WC today evening on the pico. 😊👍