Snow_Phoenix Posted August 23, 2021 Author Share Posted August 23, 2021 Just ordered a new wavemaker. Took some quick pics of the tank. Red monticap is completely white - will chip off & remove all the dead SPS later. Surprisingly enough, there were some corals that actually improved under these troubling conditions. My meteor shower cyphastrea actually colored back up and has spread out even more on Coralline Ledge: Garf bonsai went brown due to weeks of prolonged no-WCs, but has now gained more tiny branches and is coloring back up: Acans are very plump and still coupled to the red finger leather - I think it actually keeps the softy's growth in check since they're in close proximity with one another: Due to the significantly lesser flow in the tank, the rainbow brain is more spread out and poofy: More pics incoming. 😊 2 1 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted August 23, 2021 Author Share Posted August 23, 2021 Focused on some shrooms next. Blue hairy shroom finally has a very, very deep blue center that I really like, along with subtle yellow highlights here and there: Darkened the next pic a little (my ISO was off when I took the pic, so I had to adjust), but here's the Ironman shroom and its two baby shrooms, alongside the tricolor palys perched atop the Zoa Ledge: The bicolored yuma is very large and bubbly: Superman discosoma next to bicolored lobo brain: The cyano is still very much an unsightly nuisance, but I think if I 'flush' the system (do several rapid WCs at a go - I usually do this with my paludarium), I should be able to remove some of it. With time and persistence, *hopefully I can get rid of it all together before Dec., then slowly restock the tank with new frags at the end of the year. 👍 2 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted August 24, 2021 Author Share Posted August 24, 2021 Tinkered around with my phone's camera settings as well as the light channels on my hipargero. Here's the forest fire digi under 75% blues, and then roughly 90% blues: Other corals are still retracted because I just turned on the lights for the morning. 3 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted August 24, 2021 Author Share Posted August 24, 2021 Ironman baby shroom: Harvey the saron shrimp: Chili pepper monti: Rainbow brain coral: 3 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted August 26, 2021 Author Share Posted August 26, 2021 I took several pics of the nano today. It's quite a lot, so I'll break it up into a few posts. These are the dead SPS I was talking about in my previous posts. The ex-birdsnest should be easy enough to remove, but the monti skeleton will need to be chipped off bit by bit. The spongodes is still partially alive, but receding. I'm not sure how to save it because the front of the coral (like in the pic) has polyps, but the back is completely dead. I don't think new flesh will regrow over the dead areas because it is constantly covered in algae, but I'll try to save it somehow: On to other shots of the tank - some corals are doing well, some are doing so-so. Here are some of the shrooms: 3 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted August 26, 2021 Author Share Posted August 26, 2021 Zoas & palys - growth rate has slowed down quite a fair bit in some of the morphs. The palys seem to be faring well though: 3 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted August 26, 2021 Author Share Posted August 26, 2021 Other coral pieces: 4 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted August 26, 2021 Author Share Posted August 26, 2021 Pavona & Lepto. Lepto's colors have dulled out a bit. Pavona's colors/growth is as strong as ever: Monti: 4 Quote Link to comment
Critteraholic Posted August 27, 2021 Share Posted August 27, 2021 Ohhhhh how I love that pavona! 2 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted August 27, 2021 Author Share Posted August 27, 2021 New wavemaker arrived today: It's quite strong. I'm only using it at 50%. I think my cyano issues should lessen over time. 1 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted August 29, 2021 Author Share Posted August 29, 2021 My long lost turban snail still lives! 👀 1 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted September 6, 2021 Author Share Posted September 6, 2021 Haven't WCed yet - am waiting to heal up from an injured ankle before I can do it. I did manage to remove all dead/dying pieces from the tank. And also manually removed all the vermetid snails that have seemed to pop up everywhere. 😕 The blasto colony has declined very badly, but I think it can recover & regrow again in time: Accidently broke off a branch of the forest fire, so I glued it in the place of the dead (and removed) red monti cap: Gave the spongodes a trim by snipping off all the white parts: Harvey observing me hacking at various coral pieces: Regarding the zoas, I have lost more morphs/varieties over time. The Zoa Ledge is mostly covered by Purple Monsters, but my mini carpet nem is taking refuge amongst my other zoas, and still quite bleached: The Sunny Ds are doing well though: Will try to take a FTS once I do a full WC. 👍 Glass is still very dirty & there is cyano everywhere. 4 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted September 6, 2021 Author Share Posted September 6, 2021 Forgot to add earlier, I have no plans to give up on this tank. I admit I'm struggling with the balance & upkeep of maintaining, feeding, cleaning & bonding with all my various animals - it's actually running me to the ground. 😞 As of now, I have 2x SW tanks (10G nanoreef & 60G FOWLR), 3x FW tanks (2x 4'ft longs (estimated 70G) each, and 1x pico betta tank), 1x 10G Vampire Crab Paludarium, 1 dog, 1 parrot, 1 hedgehog & 2 hamsters. I notice I'm struggling the most with the smaller exotic mammals (dog is fine, as she is part of the family), in terms of finances & upkeep. Turns out my hamsters & hedgehog are easily the most expensive animals that I'm currently keeping atm. Yes, they're very cute and I do feel happy/calm/focused when I spend time with them, but my attention is torn between meeting the needs and demands of various types of animals in the house. If I had kept let's say - fish only, it would have been a lot easier to manage. Basically, I bit off more than I can chew with this one. 😕 But back to reefing, the nano is the only reeftank that I currently have, and its smaller size makes it easier to manage as compared to my once-reef-60G. And I only have 2 fish, 2 shrimp & 1 snail in there (besides the corals), so the bioload is quite low. Right now, I'll be focusing on slowly taking care of what I currently have, and try to nurse back any declined or injured pieces. Once I gain a better sense of balance in my animal care, then I'll work towards slowly restocking the nano with new frags in the future. I'll edit the coral list in the front page - I believe I've lost easily one third (or maybe even half) of what's originally on that list. 😕 Also, regarding the rest of the animals - don't worry, they're all fine and I do try my best to take good care of them. You can catch pics of them from time to time on my Insta page - it's set to public, so it's open to viewing for everyone. 🙂 2 Quote Link to comment
debbeach13 Posted September 6, 2021 Share Posted September 6, 2021 That is a lot of life to take care of. I have no doubt that you do a great job. I just hope that it is enjoyable for you more than a chore. How is the ankle doing? 2 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted September 6, 2021 Author Share Posted September 6, 2021 Another quick update: A bit of sad news on this one. So I now have only 66 types/varieties/morphs of corals left, when I previously had 84, and before that, around 96. 😞 Most of the earlier losses were from the Zoas & Palys, which either died due to Zoa Pox or simply melted away/shriveled up and vanished mysteriously. Certain types of zoas and palys seem unusually sensitive towards even the smallest of fluctuations in water parameters, including basic things like temp. The more common varieties (the cheaper, often overlooked ones) seem to be hardier, last longer, and are quite tough to kill. Regarding the latest losses, a quick check has shown that I've lost half of my SPS collection - mostly montis & birdsnest. Even lost the incredibly pricey/rare tenuis, which sucks. Also lost a few LPS - mostly differently blasto morphs. Thankfully, blastos are quite common here, although they can be quite expensive, depending on the color, size and the store that sells them. My shrooms are very resilient, and so are the softies - they're actually, I daresay, thriving, growing & actually bopping out babies (especially referring to the cloves and shrooms here). I think...any future restocks would be best to include other different types of shrooms, perhaps a few not-too-super-fancy zoas & palys, and *maybe a stick or two. Any future SPS frags will have to wait though, because I need to re-stabilize this thing and try to minimize the algae outbreak. Getting a new wavemaker with stronger flow actually helped decrease the cyano by almost 50%, but it's still very unsightly and keeps coming back. I only drop less than 10 pellets in this tank a day for both fish and both shrimp, so I'm not entirely sure where the excessive PO4 buildup is coming from. I'll have to clean out the filter properly, and maybe do some investigating. There must be something that I'm missing, somewhere. 🤔 1 4 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted September 6, 2021 Author Share Posted September 6, 2021 14 minutes ago, debbeach13 said: That is a lot of life to take care of. I have no doubt that you do a great job. I just hope that it is enjoyable for you more than a chore. How is the ankle doing? Ankle still's sore. The problem started 2 days ago. First day, I WCed almost 50% of my 70G FW Predator tank, and did a manual & very thorough clean out of the canister filter, which took easily ~3.5 hours. Cleaning out the filter was what took so long - there was an unusual amount of dirt and poop clogged up in the bottom sponge layer, and the intake power of the filter wasn't too good (a block in one of the tubes, as it turns out - so it couldn't suck up the dirt from the tank properly). A day later (which was yesterday), my right ankle did throb a bit, but not too badly. I proceeded to do a 80% WC of the 70G FW discus tank, and had to 'flush' the filter several times because there was some dirt trapped under the nano quartz blocks. Here's the thing - my tanks are tiered on on top of the other using a two-tier metal stand. Discus tank is up and can only be reached if I stand/tiptoe *on a chair, and predator tank is below, like this: ^That was taken after I WCed both of them. When I was WCing the discus tank, I had to tip toe a bit on the chair to scrape the glass, because I couldn't reach all the way to the bottom of the tank, even though my entire arm was almost completely submerged underwater. I'm not sure what exactly happened but I felt a very sharp pain in my right ankle, and I did cry out a bit, I guess. Ironically, my mum was just nearby, trying to get the laundry hung up to dry and she did hear me. Asked if I was okay, I said yes, and I continued to WC the tank. It took another ~3.5 hours to get the discus tank thoroughly cleaned up, and well, fast-forward an hour later, I was limping very badly and had a lot of trouble getting up the stairs to head back to my room. I borrowed an ankle guard from my mum - have been wearing it since yesterday, but the foot still hasn't healed. The pain is slowly ebbing away, but I still feel the strain when I flex the ankle, or when I go up/down the stairs. Both my parents suggest I rest it out. I was supposed to get a lot of other things done actually - WC the nanoreef, WC the paludarium, bathe the dog, bathe the hedgehog, do a deep clean of the bird cage, do a deep clean of the dwarf hamster's cage etc etc. In other words, I'm way behind schedule on everything. 😞 The nano doesn't look too awful, I guess, but the lack of WCs are certainly showing in some of the pieces. I see growth in some, but decline in most. 😕 1 1 Quote Link to comment
debbeach13 Posted September 6, 2021 Share Posted September 6, 2021 That is a big to do list but your parents maybe right. Rest the foot a day or two then doing all those tasks might be easier with a rested foot. Hope it feels better soon. 2 Quote Link to comment
growsomething Posted September 6, 2021 Share Posted September 6, 2021 Adding things is easy, almost unconscious, but cutting things out is hard and takes thought! Good luck and best wishes. 2 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted September 7, 2021 Author Share Posted September 7, 2021 10 hours ago, growsomething said: Adding things is easy, almost unconscious, but cutting things out is hard and takes thought! Good luck and best wishes. Yeah. It was actually quite difficult to toss out & remove all the dead & bleached pieces. I had a tough time removing the dead red monti cap because it had actually spread out quite a fair bit & encrusted on the LR below. 3 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted September 10, 2021 Author Share Posted September 10, 2021 Took a few coral pics today. Sapphire the damsel dropped a rock on my lobo though. Pavona & the duncan are growing well: Neon spongodes is still alive after trimming: FTS on 10/09/21: 5 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted September 10, 2021 Author Share Posted September 10, 2021 Shrooms: Microgoni: Mini nem amongst the zoas: 4 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted September 11, 2021 Author Share Posted September 11, 2021 Let's go green today. 🌱💦 3 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted September 11, 2021 Author Share Posted September 11, 2021 Love how stretched out the corals can get once the pumps are turned off after feeding the fish: 5 Quote Link to comment
greenerdayz Posted September 11, 2021 Share Posted September 11, 2021 Hope your ankle is healing up! I just read through a fair bit of your journal and was wondering how you like the aquaknight? (assuming you're still using it) 2 Quote Link to comment
Snow_Phoenix Posted September 12, 2021 Author Share Posted September 12, 2021 9 hours ago, greenerdayz said: Hope your ankle is healing up! I just read through a fair bit of your journal and was wondering how you like the aquaknight? (assuming you're still using it) I'm still using it. It's actually okay for a budget light. I like tinkering around with the different channels/settings when I take pics though. 😊 2 Quote Link to comment
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