Snow's 10G Critters of Chaos (TOTM)

[farkwar]

9 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Brown algae on the sandbed. Vanishes at night, reappears in the morning. Very strange

 

 

[Clownfish king]

What is that supposed to mean

[A.m.P]

17 minutes ago, Clownfish king said:

What is that supposed to mean

Dinoflagellates, could be diatoms as an honorable mention.

[Snow_Phoenix]

On 12/24/2020 at 7:01 AM, A.m.P said:

Dinoflagellates, could be diatoms as an honorable mention.

I did consider that it could be dinos, but the strange thing is that it's confined to a very small area of the tank and it comes and goes everyday. 🤷‍♀️

[Snow_Phoenix]

Update #1: 

 

I took a lot of coral pics - noted some growth in some pieces, and recovery in others. The tip of the montihat browned out a bit though - maybe because I fed the tank too much for the past few days (there was excess on the sandbed) but I cut back on feedings today, and hopefully the montihat will regain full coloring with future WCs. 

 

Also will be moving Kraken (the brittlestar) out of this reef - he's struggling to compete for food with my serpent starfish, and I think he'll do better in my 60G, where there is plenty of food to scavenge. 🤔

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Update #2:

 

That GSP in the back wall now has very visible polyps - I *think it's actually starting to grow: 🤔

 

 

Purple encrusting monti has grown a fair bit too:

 

 

Zoas:

 

 

 

This one fell off the rocks - will need to re-glue it later:

 

 

Puffy lobo: 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Update #3:

 

Some critters:

 

 

 

Overall, tank is doing okay. Minor algae issues, but my CUC is handling it. 😊👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

Merry Christmas, forum! 🥰

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Update #1:

 

Some of the green polyps on the freebie frag has now developed yellow centers, which is quite amazing, I think:

 

 

 

Took several pics of some of the SPS. 🤗

 

Leptoseris:

 

 

Setosa:

 

 

Pavona:

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Update #2:

 

Spongodes:

 

 

Seriatopora:

 

 

Tenuis:

 

 

Montis: 

 

 

Leptoseris:

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Update #3:

 

Yuma:

 

 

Bullseye rhodactis:

 

 

UCs:

 

 

Mini carpet nem (blurry pic - sorry! 😅 ) :

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Took some quick topview pics. 😊

 

Rainbow yodas:

 

 

Rastas and assorted others:

 

 

Zoa Ledge:

 

 

Whiplash blasto merlettis:

 

 

GSP frag on the back wall from above:

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Sunflowers:

 

 

Weeping willow toadstool leather:

 

 

Bullseye rhodactis:

 

 

Monti corner:

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

The tenuis appears to be growing towards the light - so the new braches are stretching towards the right: 🤔

 

 

Freebie monti seems to lost most of its yellow which it showed yesterday. 😓

 

I'm due for a WC, so hopefully replenishing the elements will help it regain more color:

 

 

Woke up to find that Sapphire had flipped my favites on top of my orange leptastrea. The favites has lost a fair bit of flesh, but the leptastrea only suffered minor damage: 😓

 

 

It'll take time for it to recover - I'll try dipping it in iodine to see if that helps. 

 

Also, I spotted Minx! Took a very blurry vid. of her - but I'm glad she's fine:

 

She's staying very well hidden. Couldn't see her eggs, but she still has both of her pom poms. 😊

[Snow_Phoenix]

Did a WC earlier. This was how the forest fire digi looks like with retracted polyps - could see the base green color of the stick: 😊

 

 

 

 

Neon Spongodes: 

 

 

Radioactive birdsnest has many new small branches:

 

 

Pavona & Jack-O-Lantern leptoseris temporarily exposed to air while I drained the tank during the WC:

 

 

With the water drained, I could physically get closer to the Zoa Ledge to take a quick pic of it: 🤗

 

 

My blue hornet appears to be shriveled though. I'll try and see if I can move it to the Zoa Ledge tomorrow, and hopefully that'll help. Otherwise, it looks like I may end up picking up a new blue hornet zoa (if it is in stock) from the LFS. 😕

[Snow_Phoenix]

Seriatopora:

 

 

🥰

[Snow_Phoenix]

Settling in for the night:

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Just found a very large asterina irritating my mint greens:

 

 

Removed it & tossed it in the fuge of my 60G, but then I noticed the mint greens were quite badly infected with the pox:

 

 

This sucks. 😓

 

I'll try to dip everything in Furan-2 tomorrow. This is the 3rd time my frags have caught the pox in this tank. Need to get to the bottom of it - I don't want to lose my garden! 😭

[thecoralbeauty]

1 hour ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Just found a very large asterina irritating my mint greens:

 

 

Removed it & tossed it in the fuge of my 60G, but then I noticed the mint greens were quite badly infected with the pox:

 

 

This sucks. 😓

 

I'll try to dip everything in Furan-2 tomorrow. This is the 3rd time my frags have caught the pox in this tank. Need to get to the bottom of it - I don't want to lose my garden! 😭

I can't comment on Pox, but I did have a huge infestation of asterina stars that were responsible for eating ALL of my zoas on my old 50 cube. Finally i caved and got a harlequin shrimp, it took him a few weeks but he made pretty quick work of them. I do have a few remaining that I can spot once in a while (I was concerned about the shrimp running out of food so I probably pre-maturely re-homed him to a friends tank with an asterina problem.) but, we wary of those little guys. I didn't believe they would actually eat my zoanthids until I witnessed it myself. If one is "irritating" yours, be sure its not also chowing down. 

[Murphs_Reef]

2 hours ago, thecoralbeauty said:

I can't comment on Pox, but I did have a huge infestation of asterina stars that were responsible for eating ALL of my zoas on my old 50 cube. Finally i caved and got a harlequin shrimp, it took him a few weeks but he made pretty quick work of them. I do have a few remaining that I can spot once in a while (I was concerned about the shrimp running out of food so I probably pre-maturely re-homed him to a friends tank with an asterina problem.) but, we wary of those little guys. I didn't believe they would actually eat my zoanthids until I witnessed it myself. If one is "irritating" yours, be sure its not also chowing down. 

I hear you. I had one a big bugger as well. Lifted it right out.. if anything is even a slight threat it's out in good time.

[Snow_Phoenix]

14 hours ago, thecoralbeauty said:

I can't comment on Pox, but I did have a huge infestation of asterina stars that were responsible for eating ALL of my zoas on my old 50 cube. Finally i caved and got a harlequin shrimp, it took him a few weeks but he made pretty quick work of them. I do have a few remaining that I can spot once in a while (I was concerned about the shrimp running out of food so I probably pre-maturely re-homed him to a friends tank with an asterina problem.) but, we wary of those little guys. I didn't believe they would actually eat my zoanthids until I witnessed it myself. If one is "irritating" yours, be sure its not also chowing down. 

 

11 hours ago, Grimes said:

I hear you. I had one a big bugger as well. Lifted it right out.. if anything is even a slight threat it's out in good time.

 

Whenever I try to do some light reading on asterinas online - I always get conflicting info on them. Some swear it only eats microalgae and irritates zoa polyps as it moves around (thus forcing them to close), and some say it eats/damages the polyps. BME, I've noticed that the asterinas in my tank do indeed irritate polyps. I haven't exactly seen them *eat a zoa polyp, but I believe certain types of asterinas can cause damage to the coral. (Mine is weird - it's a mottled shade of purple & gray, not like the beige ones you usually see in other people's reeftanks)

 

I still remove any asterina I see though, as a precaution. I don't kill them though - I simply toss them back in the fuge of my 60G, and I've seen some of them stick to the rocks or glass. 

 

The one I removed from my mint greens yesterday however, was fairly large for an asterina, which I found a bit odd. I'm not sure how many more are lurking in my nano - they seem to be more active at night, and I have dipped all my zoas & palys several times before this, but I suppose they could be lurking in the underside of the non-zoa-covered rocks in the tank. 🤔

 

Either way, I'll keep monitoring the reef closely at night from now on. This tank has had its fair share of interesting (and scary! ) hitchikers. The worst was probably the polyclad flatworm, but thank goodness I managed to get that one out before it went on a murdering spree. 

 

I've already identified 4 zoa frags/mini colonies with the pox - mint green x2, purple hornets x1 & fruit loops x1. Have lost some polyps, including the blue hornet , but I'll be dipping everything today evening and continuing my Furan-2 treatment. I actually have another zoa/paly on standby to enter this tank (supposed to pick it up either tomorrow or Wed), but I'll try to discuss with my primary LFS to see if they can hold it for me for another 2 to 3 weeks. The tank *must be pox-free before anymore new zoas/palys can enter it. Other frags like SPS or shrooms should be okay though. 🤔

[Snow_Phoenix]

Thinking of getting this for the nano next year:

 

https://myaquariumshops.com/product/kamoer-f4-pro-wifi-4-channel-dosernew/

 

Will really need to work & save up for this one. It's a Kamoer F4 Pro Wifi (4 Channel) Doser. The cheaper Jebao ones are currently out of stock, but I *think this one might be more reliable. The Neptune is too expensive - I can't afford it no matter how hard I work:

 

https://myaquariumshops.com/product/neptune-systems-trident/

 

😞

 

But at least the Kamoer seems okay enough. Hopefully this means I can finally be away for extended weekends (or even a full week, if need be) from my tank. Plus, will need to look into an ATO in the future as well. 👍

[Murphs_Reef]

51 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Thinking of getting this for the nano next year:

 

https://myaquariumshops.com/product/kamoer-f4-pro-wifi-4-channel-dosernew/

 

Will really need to work & save up for this one. It's a Kamoer F4 Pro Wifi (4 Channel) Doser. The cheaper Jebao ones are currently out of stock, but I *think this one might be more reliable. The Neptune is too expensive - I can't afford it no matter how hard I work:

 

https://myaquariumshops.com/product/neptune-systems-trident/

 

😞

 

But at least the Kamoer seems okay enough. Hopefully this means I can finally be away for extended weekends (or even a full week, if need be) from my tank. Plus, will need to look into an ATO in the future as well. 👍

Oh nice. That looks amazing and I do like a WiFi controller. I got a jedao wp-4 from my mate cheap cause I wasn't convinced in auto dosing.. I will definitely be upgrading to something a bit better in the new year 👍🏼. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

57 minutes ago, Grimes said:

Oh nice. That looks amazing and I do like a WiFi controller. I got a jedao wp-4 from my mate cheap cause I wasn't convinced in auto dosing.. I will definitely be upgrading to something a bit better in the new year 👍🏼. 

Bonus points because the doser channels are colored, so the chances of me mixing up the buffers on the wrong channels will be reduced (hopefully anyway). 

 

The DP-4 was originally on my list. For budget reefing, it's actually not too bad, but the store had some massive sales recently, so I think it got cleared out quickly. 

 

If I get the Kamoer next year, it would be the most expensive reefing equipment I've had to acquire, to date. 🤔

 

But my SPS are growing quickly, and I do need a doser, so I'll get one. I was looking into the Kamoer ATOs as well. Looks interesting. 👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

Quick update: It's raining cats & dogs outside, and I can't access any of the extra tools to do the Furan-2 dip today. I suppose I can try a late night dip, but then I *might upset the rest of the tank or spook the fish if I suddenly flip on the lights again. 😕

 

So I'll have to wait until tomorrow morning to do the dipping - hopefully the mint greens can still be salvaged.