Snow's 10G Critters of Chaos (TOTM)

[Snow_Phoenix]

Well, that is a lot of 💩. 😅

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

That one time I scored some unique macro from the LFS in 2016:

 

 

 

It was really pretty & branching. I'm not even sure what the ID is because it hitchiked on some LR, and I bought the rock. 😅

 

Hoping to acquire unique macro like this again in the future (if ever I'm lucky enough to spot anymore macro hitchikers). 

 

Dec 13th will mark the end of a two month fallow period for this nano. I'm only dropping by my primary LFS on Dec 15th, my birthday, but I'll have a quick look at their fish section for a skunk clown and/or tiny blenny/goby. 👀

 

If they have a small healthy nanofish, I *might pick it up on that day, but I'll be QTing it first for 2 to 3 weeks before adding it to the DT. 🤔

 

With any luck, this tank will once again have fish by mid-January next year. 😊👍

[Ratvan]

4 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

That one time I scored some unique macro from the LFS in 2016:

 

 

 

It was really pretty & branching. I'm not even sure what the ID is because it hitchiked on some LR, and I bought the rock. 😅

 

Hoping to acquire unique macro like this again in the future (if ever I'm lucky enough to spot anymore macro hitchikers). 

 

Dec 13th will mark the end of a two month fallow period for this nano. I'm only dropping by my primary LFS on Dec 15th, my birthday, but I'll have a quick look at their fish section for a skunk clown and/or tiny blenny/goby. 👀

 

If they have a small healthy nanofish, I *might pick it up on that day, but I'll be QTing it first for 2 to 3 weeks before adding it to the DT. 🤔

 

With any luck, this tank will once again have fish by mid-January next year. 😊👍

That looks like something along the lines of Rhodopeltis, mega costly over here if it was. 

Glad to see you planning new additions again 

[Snow_Phoenix]

2 hours ago, Ratvan said:

That looks like something along the lines of Rhodopeltis, mega costly over here if it was. 

Glad to see you planning new additions again 

Never heard of rhodopeltis before! 🤔

 

Looks so cool though! 

 

Will update about possible future fish additions once I hit the store again. For now, I'll just keep up with WCs & dosing. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Throwback pic to an older nano in 2016 (or was it '15? 🤔 ) that used to house my mantis shrimp:

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Throwback to a 16G nanoreef that I had in 2015:

 

 

Throwback to a mandy that I was training to eat frozen in mid-2015:

 

 

 

Throwback to my first attempt at a 30G mixed reef in 2015: 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Fed the tank some frozen phyto & pods today. Might have elevated NO3 & PO4 levels a *bit, but levels should dip down again with the next WC, which is tentatively set for tomorrow. 👍

 

The forest fire frag plug's growth is quite quick. The glass is quite dirty and there's an algae film on the surface of the water, so the pics came out a bit blurry (sorry! ) but the nubs of potential branches can be seen:

 

 

 

 

^I think this piece will be quite large, provided I don't accidently break off future branches in the tank. 😅

 

Also, the cyphastrea is the background really is losing ground to the leptastrea. I'm not sure if there's a way to scrape off a portion of it (to salvage it) and glue it to another rock, but I'll try. 😕

 

Pavona & lepto combo still work well as a team. Lepto's growth is eclipsing the red fungias underneath though, so those tiny plates are shrinking back a bit now. 🤦‍♀️

 

 

Really bad pic - but here's the chili pepper monti, still capping out super slowly because of the leptastrea:

 

 

Garf bonsai has actually put out more smaller branches at the top, and doesn't seem to have issues with the surrounding corals for now:

 

 

^That blasto rock in the background will be cleared off and given a peroxide dip. Since there are only 2 types of blasto frags on it, I can easily remove them using my coral cutters, and re-purpose the rock to hold more zoas & palys to further my collection in the future. 👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

Some of the corals need a trim. One of them is this GSP patch stretching out towards the Zoa Tower. It has actually grown *over several of my zoas, so I'll have to separate the two carefully:

 

 

Two different angles of the brains & shroom garden, with a 'nice' layer of cyano at the side: 

 

 

 

I'm thinking of moving my duncan further back a little, and bringing the blasto rock forward. Mostly because I hadn't expected the duncan to make a comeback, let alone grow out in this tank, and now that it is developing new heads, it's best to give it a bit of space:

 

 

Some of the zoas & palys shrink up after heavy feedings, but I got a chance to properly look at my blue hornets, and was surprised to see 5 (!!!) polyps already.

 

 

I've tried keeping blue hornets before, but they never did well for me and melted away from both occassions. This batch seems to be doing well for now, so I'll keep an eye on them. 👀

 

I'm also planning on fragging off some of my tricolor death palys. Mostly because its growing out too much, too quickly, and the edges of its skirts appears to be stinging (?) nearby zoas. If I can safely remove the entire mini colony from the Zoa Ledge and place it on the sandbed, I'll do it. 

 

Problem with fragging these guys is that they're highly toxic, and accidently squishing even one polyp can upset the entire tank for days (it did, one time). So I'll have to remove the entire Zoa Ledge from the tank, frag the palys, dip the ledge, put it back in the tank & run extra carbon for a week or two. 🤔

 

Not exactly something I'm looking forward to doing, but it has to be done either way. Just need to be really careful when I do it. 🤔

[debbeach13]

Isn’t it funny we watch are tanks and wait for things to grow. Them Boom stuff starts really taking off and we have to cut back and make room. Keeps us busy. Tank looks super!

[Snow_Phoenix]

1 hour ago, debbeach13 said:

Isn’t it funny we watch are tanks and wait for things to grow. Them Boom stuff starts really taking off and we have to cut back and make room. Keeps us busy. Tank looks super!

Yeah, it's like pruning an underwater garden. Heh. 

 

And thanks! 

My parents really like the nano too. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

I finally got around to trimming the tricolor nuclear death palys and downsizing it to 3 loose polyps, which I put on the sandbed, next to the green starburst implosion palys. It has opened up after ~2 hours, and so far looks okay. I had to remove a few vermetid snails from the Zoa Ledge - the red hornet frag was accidently knocked off, so I re-glued it, but slightly to the left, where the tricolor nuclear death palys previously were. 

 

Most of the palys and zoas on the Zoa Ledge is still quite pissed, and rightfully so. I had to remove the entire rock from the tank to do the trimming, and they were out of water for roughly ~30 minutes. I did swap out the old floss and carbon for new ones. 

 

One slight issue though - my blue hairy mushroom had anchored itself to my filter intake. So when I lifted the filter out to give it a quick clean, the shroom was ripped from the intake and left a tiny bit of itself on the intake, while the majority of it is still on the rock. 

 

The parent shroom is quite shrunken and upset, and I hope it doesn't melt away and makes a comeback. Hairy shrooms used to be easy to find locally, but now they seem to be hard to come by - what more the blue morphs. And this one is slightly unique because it had neon yellow highlights on the surface. 😕

 

Overall, the tank looks okay - I managed to shuffle around some pieces on the sandbed, including moving the duncan backwards, and clipping the blasto frags off the rock and putting it around the Zoa Tower. They look quite shrunken and unhealthy, tbh - so it might take a while for them to bounce back. I moved the rock they were on to the back right corner of the tank. Once I acquire more zoa and paly frags, I'll convert it into a second Zoa Ledge. 

 

I discovered a small frag of bicolored nuclear death palys which were overshadowed by my duncan. The lack of light has caused most polyps to shrink and lose color (for the most part), but I checked the frag and the coral appears relatively intact. This morph is different than the tricolor version - so I shifted the whole frag off to the left corner of the tank, on the sandbed, next to the starburst implosions and tricolors. I think it should heal up in a couple of weeks, but will need a month or two to recover its original colors. 

 

Still have a layer of cyano on the sandbed and a thin algae film on the water surface. It should be cleared up with the upcoming WC - I have the salt and equipment already ready, so I'll try to WC today evening (if I'm not too tired) or tomorrow (if I'm too tired today). 

 

Spotted Harvey the saron shrimp investigating the retracted blasto frags - he's mostly scavenging for algae around them. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

These are the shrunken, unhealthy blastos I was talking about earlier:

 

 

They're in extremely rough shape, but they still do have flesh, so there is some hope yet. The rock they were originally on was full of vermetids - especially around the edges of the corals. I think the vermetids irritated them enough that they couldn't recover fully earlier. 🤔

 

But now that the vermetids have been crushed, and the blastos are kept isolate on the sandbed, they should be able to regrow. 

 

The washed out bicolored nuclear deaths are the ones pressed up against thr glass. The tricolor polyps are currently being overshadowed by the cloves, but at least they are open and appear to be well after the pruning/fragging:

 

 

The ex-blasto rock is the empty rock which I currently shoved into the far upper right corner in the pic:

 

 

And I think I have to find a way to safely peel back the edges of the leptastrea a little. It seems a bit too over-eager to take on my merlettis:

 

 

Blue hairy shroom is half of its original size atm, but it's no longer sulky. You can see a tiny smidge of shroom still anchored to the filter intake:

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Squished together:

 

 

Ironman shroom:

 

 

Rainbow brain:

 

 

Duncan in its new position:

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Sunny Ds are really growing out and co-existing well with the trumpets: 😅

 

 

Missed out a patch of clove polyps on the Zoa Ledge. Will trim them off next time. 🤔

 

 

Turns out a few tricolor nuclear death palys survived the pruning session today. Hopefully they won't bother red hornets too much. 🤔

 

 

Some of the zoas and palys are still touchy and closed up. I think the Gold Mauls need more light though. I'll try to shift the Ledge to the left a little next time, so that the Mauls are not shadowed: 🤔

 

 

Hopefully the bare areas on the rock will be encrusted with coralline in the future. 😊

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

The blastos are doing better today. Some of the heads look slightly puffier:

 

 

Some of the zoas are still sulking. Gold Maul palys are mostly open - 6th polyp is already coming in at the back:

 

 

When 4 different types of encrusting corals meet. 👀

 

 

Still sulky, but slightly bigger today:

 

 

Mystery monti will be moved once new zoa frags arrive next month:

 

 

Red finger leather:

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Spotted red discosoma:

 

 

Christmas favia:

 

 

Peacock blues, which honestly looks purple to my eyes:

 

 

Leptastreas:

 

 

A quick view from above under heavier blues:

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Did an 8G WC today. Usually it takes a full day for the tank to truly settle in and *all of the corals to open up fully again, but I took some pics anyway. 😅

 

Zoas & palys:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Moar corals! 👀

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

And how about...even moarrr...!!! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

And I took a few angled topview shots:

 

 

 

As well as FTSes: 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Corals. 🥰

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

The red lobo is recovering quite well. The tiny bleached area is finally (!) turning reddish again. 😊

 

 

The rainbow brain is quite puffy today. It has grown quite large since the first day it was added to the tank:

 

 

The rainbow yumas have almost regrown fully. The tiniest one still needs more time:

 

 

Palys:

 

[michael_cb_125]

Everything looks amazing! I love how natural your coral placement is. Nothing looks staged like a typical reef tank, great job!!

[Snow_Phoenix]

1 hour ago, michael_cb_125 said:

Everything looks amazing! I love how natural your coral placement is. Nothing looks staged like a typical reef tank, great job!!

Thank you. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

The store just dropped off 1.2L of live copepods and a free 600ml tester pack of rotifers at my gate. So awesome of them! 😊

 

 

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CWqOlq4p_th/?utm_medium=copy_link

 

Looks like the corals will be having some tasty brunch tomorrow! 😅