Snow's 2.6G Little Monsters Picoreef - Retired!

[Ratvan]

45 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Ah, friend. That's actually a mini stool that I sit on while measuring & mixing salt in the container. 

Fair enough. Thanks

[Snow_Phoenix]

21 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

Fair enough. Thanks

I almost wrote: 'that's a mini stool where I put my butt on' but I thought that might sound highly rude & inappropriate, so I changed it to: 'sit on'. 😅

[Snow_Phoenix]

Multiple updates coming through this morning! 😊

 

Update #1:

 

Managed to get a few quick shots of my ever-elusive circus barred goby, Prowler, today:

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was actually quite difficult. Prowler is like a little striped ninja with fins - he doesn't stay in one spot too long, and only comes out of the shadows to grab a pellet for a nanosec before retreating back under Coralline Ledge. 

 

My phone's camera has a very hard time focusing on him in the darkness. Even after zooming in, my phone cannot auto or manually focus because it cannot detect the fish at all. 

 

I will still keep trying to get a clear shot of him someday. He's actually very pretty for a tiny little goby. 😊

[Snow_Phoenix]

Update #2: Corals.

 

There is an imbalance in this tank which I discovered last week. Today I noticed more corals have lost their vibrancy in terms of color, although most pieces are still healthy & growing. 

 

I find this both mysterious & peculiar. And I think I'm overdue for a quick parameter check. 🤔

 

Rainbow brain:

 

 

Merlettis & leptastrea:

 

 

Utter Chaos palys:

 

 

Purple/orange leptastrea:

 

 

Mini rainbow acans:

 

 

Sunny Ds palys:

 

 

Teal discosoma:

 

 

Some of the green on the monticaps I have, like the montihat & chili pepper montis appear faded. Even from a topview, I'm positive their green-ess has dulled out a little. 🤔

[Snow_Phoenix]

Update #3: Moar Corals. 

 

My cyphastrea worries me. It has definitely paled out a little from when I last filmed it. 😓

 

 

My green acans have 4 healthy heads and 3 shrunken ones. I think the decline is because this frag always tumbles off the rocks nearly everyday, and winds down coral-first on the sandbed below. Hopefully it'll have proper room to settle & grow in the upcoming build:

 

 

But, my green leptastrea has almost made a full recovery from near-death due to BJD weeks ago. Although there are several bald patches here and there, most of the coral has completely regrown:

 

 

The new seriatopora actually has full PE, but some of the polyps shrunk back when I partially pulled the lid back to take this shot - it's very responsive towards the lights:

 

 

 

Forest fire digi is doing well so far. I really like it. 😊 :

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Mega update incoming - pic heavy! You've been warned! 😄

 

I took a lot of topview pics of the reef at different angles to compare the color differences in the corals between today & last month. Turns out I was worrying unnecessarily because most of the frags have retained color, and weren't exactly paling out. Phew! 

 

Zoa Tower:

 

 

Mini Zoa garden:

 

 

Rainbow corner:

 

 

Montihat! 🥰 :

 

 

Forest fire digi: 

 

 

Neon nepthea:

 

 

Chili pepper monti & Sunny Ds:

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Sunflower zoa bouquet: 🤗

 

 

Red lobo & duncan friend:

 

 

Random mess:

 

 

Weeping willow toadstool:

 

 

Sticks on the back wall:

 

 

Coralline Ledge:

 

 

How I angle my phone apparently matters quite a bit when I snap pics, because it brightens the shot more if I hold it more horizontally. 🤔

[Snow_Phoenix]

Monthly FTS on 23/10/20:

 

 

 

 

 

Monthly topview shots on 23/10/20:

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

A quick tour of the reef:

 

Sapphire says hello! 🤗

 

(Also, my apologies for the tissue roll reflection - I had to mount my lights on *something so that I could take some topview shots with the lid off. 😅 )

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Not feeling too well today, so I only took a few pics. All my tanks are currently running on autopilot. I only fed the animals & dosed the buffers, but that's about it.

 

Memphis filter feeding:

 

 

Yuma squished between the corals:

 

 

Nepthea with mild PE:

 

 

Nuclear palys:

 

 

Little zoa polyp growing out:

 

 

I need to separate these two. The tip of the seriatopora lost flesh because it touched the acans - will trim off that dead tip later, and re-attach the seriatopora further up:

 

 

The coral isn't brown btw - my clip-on yellow filter lens has a way of neutralizing the blues and adding an anemic film to everything. 😕

[Snow_Phoenix]

The tank is waking up slowly...Memphis is already alert: 

 

 

The setosa has grown quite a fair bit: 

 

 

Rescued the bullseye rhodactis from Prowler's cave - it's still a bit moody:

 

 

UC has a new polyp at the front (need to trim off the excess glue from the rasta & re-attach it to the Zoa Tower later) :

 

 

Mild PE on the brown toadstool leather:

 

 

Tank's chugging along okay. I was quite sick last night, so I didn't separate my Birds of Paradise seriatopora from my acans and trim off the dead edge, but I'll get to it later. Need to find a new spot for the trumpet coral too. It's lost a fair bit of flesh since it keeps getting buried by Sapphire on the sandbed. 😕

[Snow_Phoenix]

I made a few adjustments in the tank. Pissed off a few things (as usual). 😅

 

I broke off the dead tip of the seriatopora, then reglued it away/up from the acans:

 

 

Also re-glued the rasta next to the Captain America Paly:

 

 

And repositioned the orange leptastrea next to the nuclear death palys, where it will receive more direct light:

 

 

Also, excuse the dirty glass - but the nepthea is growing fast! Already has two new 'branches' growing out:

 

 

It might actually outgrow my weeping willow. 🤔

[Snow_Phoenix]

Update #1: Growth. 

 

Found Memphis in his usual spot:

 

 

But that's not what drew my attention. I noticed my milli has put out more new branches! 😄

 

 

 

^You can see three new branches slowly growing out in the lower left section of the coral. I'm quite happy it's growing - I never thought I could grow anything in this little reef when I first set it up months ago. 🤐

 

The edges of the lepto has flared out a bit more too:

 

 

And the pavona has definitely hit a growth spurt of some sort. 😅

 

 

The montihat had full PE this morning:

 

 

^But I'm a bit worried over its colors. Some of the shaded areas have darkened a little - possibly due to lack of light there. 😕

 

It definitely needs more room to grow. 🤔

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Update #2: SPS. 

 

The B.O.P. is doing well after the repositioning & trimming yesterday. Still exhibited full PE today morning: 👍

 

 

The radioactive birdsnest is also growing & has full PE. I saw the stubs of new branches appearing on the lower side of the frag:

 

 

Fuzzy tenuis:

 

 

Forest fire from above:

 

 

^I can see a few new branches trying to slowly pop up, but it looks like it might take some time. 🤔

 

The setosa amazed me though. A store worker at my secondary LFS told me that I'll never be able to grow it - that it was 'beyond me' a.k.a. my reefing skill level. But I liked it and really wanted to try it out. It was expensive - a tiny frag cost me RM 80 (which is very pricey for a stick here), but I have no regrets bringing it home. 

 

 

It is a bit of a slow-grower, yes, but at least it's growing. I like the orange polyps. Thinking of trying more sticks in the future, *if I can get them at reasonable prices. 🤔

[Snow_Phoenix]

Looks like a new duncan polyp is forming: 

 

 

Orange leptastrea still adjusting to its new spot:

 

 

This thing glows sometimes: 🤔

 

 

Memphis squished against the glass:

 

 

Harvey:

 

 

 

Some whitish strings are irritating these blastos today - I think it is some sort of sponge but I'm not sure: 🤔

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

UC: 😮

 

 

Still waking up:

 

 

 

Memphis is the first one up, as usual: 🦀

 

 

Sapphire swimming around: 🥰

 

 

 

The white stringy stuff from the blastos are completely gone. The blastos are back to normal this morning. Not sure what was up with them yesterday. 🤷‍♀️

[Snow_Phoenix]

Look who came out today: 😊

 

 

 

Squished up against glass:

 

 

The interesting corner: 🤔

 

 

Time to frag these: 🤔

 

 

My picoreef: 🥰

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

I actually forgot to top off the pico for the last few days and the tips of my setosa were jutting out of the water for a bit. 🤐

 

Filled up the tank and a chunky stomatella showed up next to the setosa last night:

 

 

Loving the amount of growth I'm getting on the setosa. 😄

 

 

 

So many branches coming up. 😊

 

The radioactive green seriatopora & milli are doing well too: 🤗

 

 

 

And here's Memphis lounging on the zoas this morning: 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Turban snail has the munchies: 🤐

 

 

Rasta on the Zoa Tower still has faded colors, but at least it has opened up fully:

 

 

Green leptastrea has made a full recovery:

 

 

6 days of not cleaning the floss = yuck! 🤢🤐 :

 

 

And this is why I swap the floss out twice a week. I forgot to do it this week though. Heh. 😅  

[Snow_Phoenix]

Memphis, the little cheerleader of the reef:

 

 

Kraken curled up against the glass:

 

 

Blastos:

 

 

Sideview of the duncan:

 

 

Bullseye rhodactis shroom:

 

 

Sunflower zoas: 

 

 

Will need to WC the tank later in the evening. And perhaps do one large feeding of some frozen mix too. 🤔

[Snow_Phoenix]

Hey NR! The Little Monsters Picoreef turns exactly 6-months-old today! 🤗

 

 

 

I did a full WC and full maintenance routine in the morning, and the corals look much better. Only the rainbow brain is stretching because it doesn't have enough space to open up fully - but that shouldn't be an issue soon. 

 

My orange leptastrea was very fuzzy after the WC:

 

 

And the palys looked good too:

 

 

Can't believe it has already been six months. It almost seemed like a year. 😅

 

I'm planning on picking up 6kg of LS next week for the upgrade. My wavemaker took forever to ship from overseas, but it has finally reached the main parcel hub up north. Should arrive within a few days - hopefully it'll work well and be undamaged. 

 

It's a Jebao SW-4. Small enough for a pico/nano. I've already ordered a nice steel rack to put all the extra fish food & bottles once I bring the cabinet upstairs. 

 

Judging by the timing of things, I'll most likely set up this 2.6G pico on the cabinet first, before getting the new 10G nano - because that tank will only arrive in Dec (or late Nov by the earliest). 😊👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

Woke up to a fallen acan on the brown milli & forest fire digi leaning on the Zoa Tower. As I tried to put the acans back up on the rocks, it fell over again & took the Bird of Paradise setiatopora with it. 😱

 

So...had a fun time (not!) re-gluing everything back in place. The brown milli has lost flesh in the area that came into direct contact with the acans though. 😕

 

Despite everything, I did manage to take a few quick shots of the tank this morning. Some pieces are still sleepy, but the SPS had their polyps all out already:

 

 

The pavona has had wicked growth these last few weeks - it's outgrowing this tank rather quickly:

 

 

And I had to re-adjust the position of the montihat yesterday because I accidently knocked it off the rocks during maintenance (oops!) :

 

 

The weeping willow:

 

 

Sulky softie:

 

 

Tricolor blasto looks a bit shriveled: 🤔

 

 

UC zoa & little blasto friend:

 

 

Can't wait to transfer all of these in the new tank-to-come. 🤗

[Snow_Phoenix]

I accidently cross-posted some of the picoreef's updates in my 60G's journal thread yesterday, but I was too lazy to correct it. 🤭

 

Anyhow, this is a somewhat important update - so here's a repost: my Jebao SW-4 wavemaker finally arrived via courier yesterday:

 

 

 

 

I checked it and it's working. The 10G upgrade is slowly coming together, but I still need to pick up some LS, the tank itself, and wait for the new rack to arrive. Will also need to shift the cabinet upstairs and probably put this pico on it first. 

 

By the way things are going, the earliest I can pick up the tank is during the 3rd week of Nov, but given that my district has been recently red zoned for Covid, I'm not sure if the police have blocked the main highway leading to my primary LFS. 🤔

 

So all of this *might take some time before I can actually upgrade the tank and move the corals. Hmm. 

 

Back to the pico, Memphis is probably up for a molt some time soon:

 

 

The new slanting position of the Montihat isn't exactly attractive, so I might rotate the frag and reposition it again:

 

 

Sunflower zoas:

 

 

And I accidently put a giant blob of glue when I re-glued the milli to the back wall - so I'll probably trim off the excess bit after this: 🤔

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Sapphire's been a gem, although I noticed there were mild rips on her tail: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm not sure what exactly caused it, but I have a hunch Prowler might be involved. My goby is small, but quite territorial over his cave under the rocks. I have seen him shoo away Harvey (the shrimp) once when the shrimp got too close. 🤔

 

I think any territorial disputes should ease out with a bigger tank (more space). 

[A.m.P]

As long as the goby is winning the exchanges...