Mitten_reef’s WB55.2

[mitten_reef]

Another Friday, another full tank shot update

 

[FISHnChix]

Just now, mitten_reef said:

Another Friday, another full tank shot update

 

Nice buddy.. how have you been? You don't call you don't write beginning to think you have another man in your life😉

[mitten_reef]

9 minutes ago, FISHnChix said:

Nice buddy.. how have you been? You don't call you don't write beginning to think you have another man in your life😉

all is well over here, except the tank, damn thing is just taking its sweet ass time. Now I know why new tank ppl run into so many issues 🤣.  6+months in and things still aren’t quite finding their own grooves around the tank.  I popped in every once in a blue moon to the lounge.  And I’m trying to stop in on more topics/journals around here too.  

[FISHnChix]

2 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

all is well over here, except the tank, damn thing is just taking its sweet ass time. Now I know why new tank ppl run into so many issues 🤣.  6+months in and things still aren’t quite finding their own grooves around the tank.  I popped in every once in a blue moon to the lounge.  And I’m trying to stop in on more topics/journals around here too.  

Yea I was kinda worried about that when you were used to growing sps like weeds. Think it's the dry rock. Did you add some live stuff?

[mitten_reef]

5 minutes ago, FISHnChix said:

Yea I was kinda worried about that when you were used to growing sps like weeds. Think it's the dry rock. Did you add some live stuff?

The rocks technically was precooked for some time, but still they didn’t have anything grown on them because they were just in the sump at LFS. No full live rocks, other than a few small ones carried over from my old system.  It was def touch and go for a couple months there with dino and all the other uglies. 

[FISHnChix]

8 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

The rocks technically was precooked for some time, but still they didn’t have anything grown on them because they were just in the sump at LFS. No full live rocks, other than a few small ones carried over from my old system.  It was def touch and go for a couple months there with dino and all the other uglies. 

Did your first system have real live rock ?

[mitten_reef]

17 minutes ago, FISHnChix said:

Did your first system have real live rock ?

If you mean aquaculture rocks from the ocean, like KP or Gulf, the answer is no. all the rocks I got here in MI have all been from the store live rock tub. They’re wet and “live” but not that kinda of real live rocks.  
 

I think the last tank just benefited from having so many frags come and gone over that 6 years span from many sources, including some imported maricultured pieces. and yeah it took a long time for that one to be hitting on all cylinders as well. So it’s just the matter of patience.  And let the whole system develops.  Now that I say that I should probably add some stuff that LFS just import for the black Friday sale. Even if it’s not a very nice piece, it’ll hopefully introduce some new good diversity into the tank microbial population. I’m just so damn scared of acro eating flatworms now that I’ve seen a few ppl having to deal with them. 
 

[FISHnChix]

8 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

If you mean aquaculture rocks from the ocean, like KP or Gulf, the answer is no. all the rocks I got here in MI have all been from the store live rock tub. They’re wet and “live” but not that kinda of real live rocks.  
 

I think the last tank just benefited from having so many frags come and gone over that 6 years span from many sources, including some imported maricultured pieces. and yeah it took a long time for that one to be hitting on all cylinders as well. So it’s just the matter of patience.  And let the whole system develops.  Now that I say that I should probably add some stuff that LFS just import for the black Friday sale. Even if it’s not a very nice piece, it’ll hopefully introduce some new good diversity into the tank microbial population. I’m just so damn scared of acro eating flatworms now that I’ve seen a few ppl having to deal with them. 
 

So you know I don't know shit right. This was suggested to me by mccarrol.  He seems to know his stuff . For context we were talking about what I should do if starting with dead rock.  Just throwing this out there to look at

[pal]

34 minutes ago, FISHnChix said:

So you know I don't know shit right. This was suggested to me by mccarrol.  He seems to know his stuff . For context we were talking about what I should do if starting with dead rock.  Just throwing this out there to look at

My order from IPSF was really nice. I think Your scape is too nice to add a bunch of live rock . People at gulf live rock are cool, maybe ask them about just getting small pieces with a lot of life?

[ECLS Reefer]

Jeez it’s been six months already? Mine is 16 months and I hope just had its last attitude meltdown before maturity. Now the rocks look clean as a babies butt in there but empty of corals 😑 

[mitten_reef]

2 hours ago, FISHnChix said:

So you know I don't know shit right. This was suggested to me by mccarrol.  He seems to know his stuff . For context we were talking about what I should do if starting with dead rock.  Just throwing this out there to look at

Money I’d rather spend on something else more fun, lol. Like they say in jurassic park, Life finds the way.  
i just try to keep it heading the right direction, and don’t f*ck it up along the way.  That’s been most of my game plan 

[mitten_reef]

Well, since acros are not in the card yet for this year’s bf sales….picked up yet another maxima.  This time it’s orange-peach color 

[jservedio]

On 11/19/2021 at 8:49 PM, FISHnChix said:

Yea I was kinda worried about that when you were used to growing sps like weeds. Think it's the dry rock. Did you add some live stuff?

Just to add another data point, I've been going through typical "new tank" issues with hair algae in my newer tank and 60% of my rock is more than 10 years old. I'd bet no matter how long it was cooked or how much real rock was added, there'd be maturation problems no matter what if you are adding any significant quantity of dead rock. It sucks, but what can you do? Can't force stuff that takes years to grow to just instantly colonize a blank rock.

[mitten_reef]

Something new, work-in-progress.

 

scored a really good deal on a couple of used Hydra32HDs. The lenses are burnt, but the leds inside are ok. I should have some new lenses on the way next week. Also have had these orphek bars since last winter, about time they get used. 

overkill for a 24” square coverage?  Not if I wanna be like @Cannedfish, in which case, I don’t have enough yet 🤣🤣🤣, I’ll need two more hydra’s. 

 

 

 

[mitten_reef]

Some random topdown shots for future reminder of how crappy things look at this point in time.

 

3 blue acros

this rainbow chalice has more colors on the sides, from @pokerdobe

Big scoly took some type of beating after the black ring appeared, throwing out mesenterial filaments across the top, then lost almost all colors. It seems to be coming back. 

[mitten_reef]

worked on the new light today 

Topdown sample

 

front closeup

[spectra]

Doesn’t look like a NB to me…….

[joshthebox]

5 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

worked on the new light today 

Topdown sample

 

front closeup

Looking good!! Shadows definitely won't be an issue that's for sure! 

[TheKleinReef]

On 12/22/2021 at 9:04 AM, mitten_reef said:

future reminder of how crappy things look at this point in time.

 

if that's crappy, I'm not posting my pics....

[mitten_reef]

On 12/29/2021 at 9:59 PM, spectra said:

Doesn’t look like a NB to me…….

Nah, decided to not go with the NB hybrid. Still have it sitting in the back room tho. 😂

On 12/30/2021 at 12:40 AM, joshthebox said:

Looking good!! Shadows definitely won't be an issue that's for sure! 

That’s the goal, minimizing shadow

On 12/30/2021 at 9:28 AM, TheKleinReef said:

 

if that's crappy, I'm not posting my pics....

😂, sounds like yours is coming along nicely tho, now that you figured out the low nutrient being one of the reasons

full tank 12000K shot

scoly recovery

the two sun corals

 

sad update, the big blue clam died last week but little blue keeps on growing. So not quite sure what happened. Just hope that the little one will stay healthy going forward

 

[mitten_reef]

sent to LFS this wknd and couldn’t come home without a new scoly

[Poodges]

Looking good @mitten_reef. How often does your NPS Gorg put out polyps? I rarely ever see mine.  

[mitten_reef]

50 minutes ago, Poodges said:

Looking good @mitten_reef. How often does your NPS Gorg put out polyps? I rarely ever see mine.  

That's a very good question.

 

That yellow gorgonian, when happy will have polyps out almost all the time, only retract fully when bother by something.  a few weeks ago, I had to pull it out to do some cleaning of the stems, it got covered in algae, and stopped extending polyps.  I think manual maintenance is required to remove film/green algae from its surface and keep it healthy.  I used a combination of just bare fingers and a toddler toothbrush (soft bristles I assume and I have it handy with a 4-yo in the house) - kinda gently scrubbed it, try not to damage the actual flesh.  It actually seems due for another cleanup time, haven't seen any polyps in almost a week and the stems are now noticeably covered in algae once again.  Maybe when i get to it this week, I'll do a before-and-after photos for you.  

 

I wish I can find some natural cleaners for this, @johnmaloney are there small snails that travers these soft-ish NPS branches and eat algae on them (yellow gorg pic on top of the page)?  I've seen one emerald crab that hangs out and picks at bigger algae chunks, but I think the crabs are too heavy to clean all over the gorg colony, as it can only sits at the base of the main trunk.

 

   

 

      

[Poodges]

18 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

That's a very good question.

 

That yellow gorgonian, when happy will have polyps out almost all the time, only retract fully when bother by something.  a few weeks ago, I had to pull it out to do some cleaning of the stems, it got covered in algae, and stopped extending polyps.  I think manual maintenance is required to remove film/green algae from its surface and keep it healthy.  I used a combination of just bare fingers and a toddler toothbrush (soft bristles I assume and I have it handy with a 4-yo in the house) - kinda gently scrubbed it, try not to damage the actual flesh.  It actually seems due for another cleanup time, haven't seen any polyps in almost a week and the stems are now noticeably covered in algae once again.  Maybe when i get to it this week, I'll do a before-and-after photos for you.  

 

I wish I can find some natural cleaners for this, @johnmaloney are there small snails that travers these soft-ish NPS branches and eat algae on them (yellow gorg pic on top of the page)?  I've seen one emerald crab that hangs out and picks at bigger algae chunks, but I think the crabs are too heavy to clean all over the gorg colony, as it can only sits at the base of the main trunk.

 

   

 

      

Thanks for the tip! I’ll do a little scrubbing at my next water change .  

[mitten_reef]

This was so puffy today