Snow's 10G Critters of Chaos (TOTM)

[Snow_Phoenix]

Update #2:

 

The claw: 

 

 

Puffy lobo:

 

 

Hungry lobo:

 

 

Shrooms! 🥰 :

 

 

 

This rhodactis appears to have declined a little. Hope it can recover because it was a bit pricey when I picked it out at the store: 😓

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Fed the tank a blend of frozen pods & rotifers:

 

Qin decided not to be interested in the frozen stuff today: 🤔

 

Also fed the LPS chunks of frozen mysis:

 

 

 

A lot of hungry corals. 👍

 

Also, my Incredible Hulks made a complete turnaround and popped up several new polyps:

 

 

The Butt Muncher next to it grows slower. 

 

Just waiting for the lockdown to be over so that I can pick up a new Blue Hornet & Midas (if available) frags. 😊👍

[Murphs_Reef]

How many fish are in the 10g now Snow? 

[Snow_Phoenix]

11 minutes ago, Grimes said:

How many fish are in the 10g now Snow? 

Sigh. Too many for its own good. 

 

I believe we're up to 1 damsel, 1 clown, 1 dragonet & 1 goby. 

 

The dragonet will be moved out once he heals up fully, and is fully weaned onto prepared (I estimate he might be ready either some time late Jan - late Feb.), but the other 3 fish will be retained. My clown's a percula, so I don't *think she'll exceed 4" once she's fully grown, but I'll have to think of a back up plan if she grows too big because the bioload will strain this tank. Both the goby & damsel are at max. size already, so no issues there. 

[Murphs_Reef]

I think it's fine to be honest, your maintenance is strong. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

52 minutes ago, Grimes said:

I think it's fine to be honest, your maintenance is strong. 

Yeah, but less fish = me relaxing more. Otherwise, I do have to stay on top of things and that can be a bit stressful at times. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Harold on the pavona: 🤗

 

 

Qin from above (he finally caved in and ate some frozen pods & pellets for dinner) :

 

 

Orange leptastrea up close:

 

 

The summit of Zoa Tower: 🥰

 

 

These zoas have truly come a long way. I remember when I picked it up from the LFS, it was brown and unattractive. Over a few weeks, it slowly began developing color in my pico, and over months it has retained this amazing shade of violet with beige speckles & green skirts:

 

 

Definitely looking forward to rescuing more pieces like this in the future, and nursing them back to health if possible. 😊

 

Also, one of my mint green colonies (which was heavily affected by the pox) is making a comeback! 😄 :

 

 

The polyps are still pale and small, but I'm happy they made it somehow. My second mini mint green colony was nearly wiped out as well, but I *thought I saw some polyps pop up, so I *think it can re-grow in a few months. 👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

Zen the zanzibar shrimp:

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Zen: 🦐

 

 

 

Microgoni is growing well: 👍

 

 

 

The montihat is mostly purple now, which is odd. For some reason, a slimy brown algae film covers the tip of the hat everyday, and I have to either baste it off or gently scrub it off using a toothbrush: 😕

 

 

^It still has PE & is growing though, albeit slowly. Need to keep an eye on it. 🤔

 

The ponape birdsnest is still recovering, but the tips are branching out rather quickly. I still like the amount of purple that it has though! 😉 :

 

 

Two circles! 😄 :

 

 

^My trochus snail & green leptastrea. And yes, that snail's shell is indeed pinkish-purplish in RL. When I was picking out snails at the store weeks ago, this one caught my eye and I made sure to pick it out because I noticed its shell colors were unique. 😅

[Snow_Phoenix]

A quick Qin update:- 

 

This pic is blurry, but here's a dorsal view of Qin atm:

 

 

He's neither fat nor thin, but rather in between (medium). Lateral lines cannot be seen and his belly still remains full (I checked). 

 

Here are some other shots of him:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'll be honest. Keeping a mandarin in a tank this small is a bit stressful on me. Making sure the fish eats and maintains its body weight in a 10G is both challenging and difficult. Not too mention that all the extra feedings I'm doing also exerts a strain on my system because naturally, there will be a rise in NO3 & especially PO4 levels, which affects my SPS. 

 

In a bigger nanotank - like a 30G with either a dedicated fuge or a macroalgae-dominant display, the strain *should be considerably less. 

 

I'm trying to compensate for Qin's dietary requirements by keeping up with WCs, swapping out the floss 2x or 3x a week and basically stay on top of maintenance. I also cannot stay separated from my tank too long because I need to be here to feed the fish. 

 

I'm happy he's begun to accept pellets, but pellets alone are *not enough to keep a dragonet, and I'd love to keep Qin long-term, if possible (unless I truly cannot handle it and my health declines again, in which case I'll have to rehome him 😭). 

 

I think the 10G, as a temporary measure, is okay, but a larger tank would be more suitable to meet the demands of this fish. 👍

 

I hope he does well in the 60G once I add him to it. A bit worried about how my older dragonets would react to him - especially Poseidon. 😕

[Snow_Phoenix]

Took some topview shots today evening. 👍

 

Neon green tenuis:

 

 

Bird of Paradise seriatopora:

 

 

Whiplash merlettis & John Deere leptastrea:

 

 

Mushroom combo:

 

 

Acans:

 

 

Japanese green nepthea:

 

 

Duncan:

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Blasto colony from above - has regrown quite well: 👍

 

 

Zoa Ledge:

 

 

Zoa Garden:

 

 

Sunflower zoas:

 

 

Metallic GSP growing on the back wall:

 

 

I spy an eye: 🤐

 

 

The cyphastrea is covered in algae - I'll try to remove the main plug from the rock using a smail pair of bone cutters - but I'll leave the encrusted edges behind. As for the plug, I'll try to scrub the algae of it as much as possible, give it an iodine dip and temporarily place it on the sandbed to allow it to recover:

 

 

I think I'll remove those palys from the plug as well because they appear to be hurting the cyphastrea. 🤔

[Snow_Phoenix]

Add-On: The meteor shower cyphastrea & the rescued green blasto colony are the two pieces that are not doing well at all, and needs some nursing/healing. The ponape birdsnest is already recovering - glad I didn't trim it. I'll check on the other pieces to make sure they're all okay and update this journal accordingly. 👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

I finally removed the cyphastrea's frag plug from Coralline Ledge. I had to remove the rock from the tank and then remove the frag using bone cutters - and as usual, I knocked off a few other frags by putting my hand in the tank: 🙈

 

 

There is still some encrusted cyphastrea on the rocks, so I'll be leaving that as it. The frag plug is now on my sandbed, but tomorrow I'll scrub off the algae using a toothbrush and dip the plug in Iodine. 

 

My weeping willow toadstool was accidently knocked off the rock, but I re-glued it and it's still very sulky: 😕

 

 

That isn't the only thing to fall off - both my green leptastrea frag fell off, and a large part of my chili pepper monti broke as I lifted the rock out of the water. I re-glued the leptastrea back without issue, and I also re-attached my chili pepper monti frag - but they're both understandably upset. 

 

 

I'm starting to think I should have moved the broken monti frag to my 60G - just as a test to see if it can grow & plate out there. 🤔

 

Also, I fragged my red monticap into half and put the extra half in my 60G. 

 

 

It was only after I took a topview pic did I realize how badly browned out my montihat is today. 😭

 

I suspect my PO4 levels must be very high because I did feed the tank very, very heavily yesterday. 

 

The floss was also brown and yucky, so I replaced it today. I might move up my WC schedule to tomorrow instead of Saturday. The glass is filthy (needs to be scraped) and the tank is going through a brown-film algae phase. 

 

If I can't find a way to balance the nutrient buildup/export, then I will have to move Qin to my 60G prematurely, or rehome him. 😓

 

Either way, it's one fish versus a tank full of corals, with >20% of them being SPS. It's difficult, finding balance in such a young tank. 

 

I'll evaluate my options and try to do my best for all the animals (fish & corals) - perhaps even meditate on this & sleep on it too. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Harvey. Taken with & without flash: 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

I did my best to save this frag, but the algae at the top is stubborn. I left it as it is on my sandbed, but I'm unsure if it can regrow over the dead areas: 😭

 

 

 

I scraped the glass this morning and pulled out the chili pepper monti frag to transfer it to the 60G. My leather was still quite sulky from yesterday:

 

 

But it opened up fully by late evening. I also shifted the unhealthy green blasto to the sandbed, to the tiny space behind the duncan. Speaking of the duncan, it now has 3 going on 4 heads! 😄 :

 

 

I tried to get a close up of the 3rd head but it's still very small and well-hidden behind the major head, so it can't be seen on film. 

 

I did pull my trumpet coral off the sandbed using extra-long forceps and managed to glue it back on Coralline Ledge:

 

 

I noticed more of my tenuis has turned blue, but some parts remain green:

 

 

 

The center of the tips are bright yellow though. 🤔

[Snow_Phoenix]

The bonsai acro still doesn't have impressive PE: 🤔

 

 

But my cloves are multiplying fast:

 

 

And the radioactive birdsnest is growing rather quickly too:

 

 

Zen: 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

My Zoa Garden as of now:

 

 

 

 

 

Can't wait to collect more morphs once the lockdown eases. My fingers are itching to replace all the zoas that I've lost due to the pox weeks ago. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

I took several angled FTSes of the tank this morning (but not all of the corals were fully open after maintenance) :

 

 

 

 

 

I originally intended to WC this tank today, but I ran into issues with my 60G in the morning and had to perform a large emergency WC on that reef instead. 

 

I think a few pieces in this tank still need to recover, and I truly hope they will with more WCs & time. 👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

Qin this morning: 🥰

 

 

 

 

 

 

My warring montis - looks like the chili pepper is more dominant and will win: 🤔

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Puffy rainbow:

 

 

Acans will need weeks to regrow again: 😕

 

 

Fairy dust zoas:

 

 

Tubbs blue zoas: 

 

 

Zen with attitude: 🦐

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

I WCed 4G of the nano today. Luckily I did a salinity check of the new SW because I measured the amount of salt wrongly the first round and the resulting salinity was 1.022. Added more salt to the pail, mixed it up and brought the salinity back up to 1.024. 👍

 

Qin was spooked when I used the gravel vac. and jumped out of the tank. Luckily, he landed on my art canvas which I store/wedge in the gap between my bed and the nano. If he had aimed a little further, he would have jumped on my bed. 🤐

 

He was fine though. I added him back to the tank and he was back to chasing his reflection and hunting for pods - no signs of stress or sliming. I think he regretted being plastered to the canvas. 😅

 

I took two quick shots of my corals which were temporarily exposed to the air as I drained the tank. I noticed the green leptastrea has already started to encrust on the back wall, which is pretty cool: 😊

 

 

 

I took more pics later, in the evening, after I turned the pumps off to feed the fish. My valida still has minimal PE, but I'm hoping that'll change soon: 

 

 

My rainbow brain was stretched out and easily the size of a small plate though: 😊

 

 

And the tips of the ponape has branched out even further. 😅

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Also took two different viewpoints of the Zoa Garden:

 

 

 

(I think the topview is better)

 

And two quick FTSes of the tank under dark, and darker lighting (heavy blues) :

 

 

 

And here's Qin eating some pellets for dinner today: 😊

 

The Zoa Ledge is probably one of the most helpful training tools in this tank. Qin's very comfortable using it as a plate, and he often steals pellets that land on my large zoas like the Blue Agaves. 😊

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Harvey in camomode for the night: 🤗

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Purple encrusting monti still growing: 👍

 

 

 

The microgoni is growing too: 😊

 

 

 

This rhodactis still appears to be injured though: 🤔

 

 

It also hasn't attached to the rocks yet. 😕