Snow_Phoenix Posted November 22, 2020 Author Share Posted November 22, 2020 On 11/22/2020 at 7:07 PM, farkwar said: I would put egg crate over the hat There are already two opaque lids over the tank - adding eggcrate wouldn't block out more light, I *think. 🤔 Plus, I'm using my older light strips which have much less power & intensity compared to the PAR38. I think the Montihat will recover. It's been quite resilient so far. Just needs time & more WCs. Thanks for the suggestion though! 👍 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted November 22, 2020 Author Share Posted November 22, 2020 Glad to see some collonista snails managed to make it through the TTM: 🤗 Kraken: His partially missing arm is regrowing. 👍 2 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted November 23, 2020 Author Share Posted November 23, 2020 Update #1: Took a few shots of the reef this morning - my apologies if some of the pics seem repititive, but I love certain coral pieces a lot - like my yuma, for example: 🥰 Puffy brains: UCs: Recovering blastos: Favites is still healing too: 2 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted November 23, 2020 Author Share Posted November 23, 2020 Update #2: However, there are some pieces in the reef that aren't doing well. 😕 I'm debating if I should trim my forest fire digi, but even the damaged parts still has some polyps, although PE is minimal in those areas: My purple monti confuses me. There white patches that come & go on the coral, and I'm not sure why. I thought it was light intensity damage, but now I'm starting to wonder if Sapphire or Dusky has been nipping it: 🤔 My tenuis is a bit of a mystery. A part of it is lighter than the other - this one I definitely attribute to light intensity damage: The tricolor blasto is still shrunken. It didn't do too well in the pico. Same trouble here in the nano: 😕 1 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted November 23, 2020 Author Share Posted November 23, 2020 Update #3: Two different shades of green: 😄 Memphis filter feeding: Sapphire: Investigating the Zoa Garden: 🥰 1 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted November 23, 2020 Author Share Posted November 23, 2020 Brunch in the reef - cue pod storm! 🤗 https://www.instagram.com/p/CH64_CSjnxM/?igshid=1entqzh4xbo56 Hungry lobo: Vids. taken at 4x & 8x speed: https://www.instagram.com/p/CH65M0ALwq3/?igshid=vzb4t50slkhz The rainbow brain was hungry too - vids. taken at 4x & 8x speed: https://www.instagram.com/p/CH65nTCLRed/?igshid=yu8uz4002dxz Benny sneakily eating a piece of mysis from the sandbed: https://www.instagram.com/p/CH65scVjsdE/?igshid=6j6smcue680l Really miss the Instagram links being able to be embedded in NR. 😕 2 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted November 23, 2020 Author Share Posted November 23, 2020 I noticed some of the new & old zoas have already popped out new polyps. 😄 Starburst with new 4 polyps: UC with new baby polyp forming: Rainbow yoda with 2 new polyps: 😊 Unknown zoa with two new tiny zoa polyps: Blasto with new tiny head: 2 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted November 23, 2020 Author Share Posted November 23, 2020 Nuclear death (green/yellow morph) with new head: Purple hornet (bad pic - sorry!) with 2 new polyps: My blue hornet is still single tho: 🤔 But at least the trademark yellow ring is back. 1 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted November 24, 2020 Author Share Posted November 24, 2020 Caught Prowler rescaping the back of my tank again: 😅 He thinks I can't see him in the shadows, but I do. 😉 Memphis filter-feeding: The micro-goni has grown further: Also, I think I figured out what's wrong with my forest fire digi - mostly why it has no/minimal PE when the lights are on, then PE when the lights are off. I caught Dusky the blenny biting off the polyps of one of my setosa fraglets which I glued too close to its burrow. It killed the fraglet within a day - today morning, all I saw was a white dead stick. 😕 The forest fire digi is also very close to Dusky's main burrow. I'm going to try and move the coral away and towards the back of the tank (near the main chili pepper monti frag) and see if it can recover there. 🤔 This coral-biting behavior isn't new to me. A very long time ago, I owned a cute YCG that killed a whole pocci frag by biting off its polyps. It never bothered anything else in the tank. Blennies can be quite territorial too. I've owned several, and I've seen them *move entire coral frags if they are too close to the fish's main burrow. So I guess that ledge space around Dusky's burrow cannot accomodate any sticks. The odd thing is that my Montihat is there, but Dusky doesn't seem bothered by it - perhaps *plating corals are better tolerated as opposed to *branching ones. Also, I've decided to order in a new light for the reef. It's not exactly a fancy one, but not a super cheap budget one either. I've seen several local reefers use it for their mixed reef tanks - it can support basic SPS like montis etc., but two units might be needed to support more demanding SPS. It's a M029 Aqua Knight Spectra. I tried getting a secondhand light from my LFS, but it was too expensive. I figured I might as well order a brand new light for the same price. No wifi capability, but has dimmers & cree LEDs. No green or red channels though, but has whites, 2x types of blues & UVs. I tossed it into my online shopping cart - will check out later. Also, it's only 30W, and since I can dim it, the chances of it frying anything will be less. My current PAR38 bulb will be moved back in storage & kept as an emergency back up light. I tend to keep back ups of all main equipment for my tanks - just in case one of them fails and I can't get to the LFS to get a replacement. 1 Quote Link to comment
A.m.P Posted November 24, 2020 Share Posted November 24, 2020 HiParGero are good lights, not the best for growing sps under unless you crank the whites up, but grow just about anything else fine. You've got the two other for supplemental light anyway and some folks have no problems with higher-mounted sps under them, look forward to seeing it on the tank, hope it works better! 1 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted November 24, 2020 Author Share Posted November 24, 2020 11 minutes ago, A.m.P said: HiParGero are good lights, not the best for growing sps under unless you crank the whites up, but grow just about anything else fine. You've got the two other for supplemental light anyway and some folks have no problems with higher-mounted sps under them, look forward to seeing it on the tank, hope it works better! Thanks! So far all the SPS are mounted from mid-level to the upper-level of the reef. Only my pocci is mounted at the bottom corner, but I'm thinking of moving it up soon. And yeah, thank goodness I have the other two LED strips as extra light - I think there might be a *bit of shading at the extreme corners of the tank, but I'm more happy that I can adjust/dim the new lights according to what the corals need. Also, I think I won't be focusing on sticks too much - might collect more montis though, because I absolutely love them, but maybe I'll slow down on picking up any acros (will try to avoid millis though). I'll focus more on building up my zoa garden/collection. And perhaps add a few more softies & shrooms too. 1 Quote Link to comment
farkwar Posted November 24, 2020 Share Posted November 24, 2020 17 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said: I noticed some of the new & old zoas have already popped out new polyps. 😄 Starburst with new 4 polyps: UC with new baby polyp forming: Rainbow yoda with 2 new polyps: 😊 Unknown zoa with two new tiny zoa polyps: Blasto with new tiny head: And not even a baby shower Well, I wasn't invited 1 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted November 24, 2020 Author Share Posted November 24, 2020 I've finally paid for the new light - just waiting for it to ship. Might take up to 3+ weeks due to the pandemic-shipping-transit-delays. In the meantime, I'll still be using my Aquazonic LED & Chihiros LED strips (combined total output of 34W - but currently both lights are only being used at 50% capacity). Thank goodness the 54W PAR38 bulb I purchased recently wasn't too expensive, so I didn't loose *too much money acquiring it. I need to do my research even more carefully next time. Even after all the reading & preparing that I did, I still made several mistakes with regards to purchasing aquarium lights in the past. 😕 I *think I can still pick up my mini red carpet nem from the LFS before/after my birthday though (store closes on Tuesdays, and my birthday is on a Tuesday this year pfft). Hopefully the new light will arrive before I pick it up, but I think the nem should be fine for a few days under my current LED strips. I'll try to keep an eye out for more Zoa morphs at the store though. I think I'll try to get a Midas polyp - and if possible, the Incinerators too (hopefully they'll be fragged by the end of this month). They had some very bright pink ones which I forgot the name of. Looked pretty. If it doesn't stretch the wallet too much, I'll try to pick up 3 to 5 new morphs next month. 🤔 They had some green implosion palys too - those are very cheap and in abundance, so I *think I can get a small frag of that for RM 10 to RM 15. Will keep it isolated on the sandbed though - really don't want that taking over the rocks/tank! I already have shrooms at the LFS reserved for my large reef, so need to consider all of that in my calculations as well. I'll be sticking to a budget (as usual), but it's very easy to exceed it when there are so many small frags at the store. So...a lot of self-control will be needed ---> I suck at this. See coral, want coral. See fish, gimme fish! Bleh. 😞 3 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted November 24, 2020 Author Share Posted November 24, 2020 Looks like my tank might be suffering from New Tank Syndrome (NTS). 🤔 Either way, I have small patches of algae popping up over the sandbed, glass & Zoa Ledge: Time to beef up the CUC, I guess. A pair turban snails should be enough. 🤔 Cloves: The brown toadstool now has tiny, stubby polyps again: The purple monti is on the road to recovery: But the Montihat has turned gray (?) in some areas, while a part of it remains a vibrant shade of green. 😭 I don't know why it keeps changing shades (but at least Dusky looks cute next to it). 1 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted November 24, 2020 Author Share Posted November 24, 2020 Prowler waved his fancy fins at me from the shadows: 😅 Dusky looking out for more pellets: Dusky in motion (blurry pic) : 2 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted November 24, 2020 Author Share Posted November 24, 2020 Harvey: 😊 1 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted November 24, 2020 Author Share Posted November 24, 2020 Just yanked out a snail from my 60G and dropped it into the nano as extra CUC: ^The stripey guy is new. 👍 2 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted November 25, 2020 Author Share Posted November 25, 2020 Growing: 🤗 Some of my SPS aren't too happy, but these pieces are doing okay, and the monti is recovering very well: My LPS are very, very happy though, with the current parameters: 🤔 Zoas look okay too: 😊 1 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted November 25, 2020 Author Share Posted November 25, 2020 Kraken under the rainbow brain: 🤗 Both my brain corals side by side: Prowler staring me down during feeding time: https://www.instagram.com/p/CIAk7aWjVmj/?igshid=17cp29tg7gnpt 1 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted November 25, 2020 Author Share Posted November 25, 2020 Grainy pics, but here's more of Prowler: 🤗 Spitting sand: 😅 He no longer wants to be filmed: 🤐 Dusky knows something's up: Only, what? 🤐 1 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted November 26, 2020 Author Share Posted November 26, 2020 Took some quick coral shots this morning: The bottom edge of the lepto lost a bit of flesh - maybe it got stung by the pavona? 🤔 They're both pretty much going to grow into each other. I think the growth rate will be better when the new light arrives though! 1 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted November 26, 2020 Author Share Posted November 26, 2020 A different view: 🤗 The macro corner: Weeping willow: Dusky: Prowler actually spotted me. He swam out to get a good look at me, and once he realized it was me and not some weird blobby shadow outside the tank, he quickly darted back under the ledge. He's a very smart fish. 😅 1 1 1 Quote Link to comment
sr2z Posted November 26, 2020 Share Posted November 26, 2020 Just a little question... How do you manage detritus build-up behind your rockwork and among your zoas? Thanks Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted November 26, 2020 Author Share Posted November 26, 2020 6 minutes ago, sr2z said: Just a little question... How do you manage detritus build-up behind your rockwork and among your zoas? Thanks I use a baster and try to blow off as much dirt from the rocks as possible. As for the sand, I stir it up using a single chopstick in a zig-zag motion. 👍 I don't really baste my zoas (or any other corals directly) - just the spaces on the rocks that are not occupied by corals. 2 1 Quote Link to comment
A.m.P Posted November 26, 2020 Share Posted November 26, 2020 That side view is really, really impressive; love the sloping drop-off aesthetic to it. 2 Quote Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.