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Coral Vue Hydros

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Snow_Phoenix
12 hours ago, Murphych said:

Large tank outdoors? 😱

Yeah - both my 4' ft long tanks (70G each) are located outdoors, in my sideporch. We have an awning, so that area is sheltered, but the tanks are partially exposed to sunlight/rain from time to time. 

 

IMG_20210422_204004_390.thumb.jpg.5531afc1466fe6934767c17c83fe4be9.jpg

 

^Am referring to these tanks.

 

The discus tank:

 

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The predator tank:

 

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Snow_Phoenix

The Zoa Ledge from above:

 

IMG_20210425_183508_349.thumb.jpg.ec9ad61c9e3fee690f0d493b61d4eb29.jpg

 

The purple monsters have pretty much taken over most of the bottom of the ledge - they actually grew *over my red hornets and smothered it to death. 😕

 

My magician palys have been closed up for quite a while now - might need to get a replacement frag for this one. 

 

I'm planning on re-collecting these morphs: 

 

-Red magician 

-Sunflower

-LA Lakers

-Midas

-Blue hornets

-Red hornets

-Sparkling red

-Sparkling green

-Radioactive Dragon Eye

-Eagle Eye

-Tubbs Blue 

-Red People Eater

 

Some of these are rare & expensive here, so I'll try to acquire 2 to 3 frags at a time. I'm still not well enough to drive too far from my home. 😕

 

Believe it or not, two of my LFS worker-friends contacted me few weeks ago to check up on me to make sure I was okay, because I haven't been to their store in months. I explained what happened, and told them I'll come once I'm healthy enough. 👍

 

Some of my palys - tricolor green, purple death & dual-colored green:

 

IMG_20210424_094248_071.thumb.jpg.4fef1ff1612a460b67c208a1e35c827b.jpg

 

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IMG_20210424_094248_075.thumb.jpg.726a76d963ee3c44113689e98a012fed.jpg

 

Tank is still in recovery mode. Really regret neglecting it because I lost some of the pieces which I managed to grow out into mini colonies. 😓

 

Hoping my Tubbs Blue will recover, but it's still closed & shrunken. Might trim the setosa later. I lost the main frag, but the fraglet is still partially alive. 

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Snow_Phoenix

I managed to perform a 8G WC on the nano today - so yes, I pretty much drained it all the way down until there's was slightly more than 3" of water level above the sand-line:

 

 

The fish were a bit unhappy for a while, but once I filled the tank back up, everything reverted back to normal.

 

I also noticed my Ironman shroom has a tiny baby shroom! 😄

 

 

This really made me happy because the shroom was on the verge of melting away when I transferred it into this tank. So glad it has bounced back, and is now growing. 

 

As for the rest of the corals - some are okay, some are still recovering, and some are sort-of 50/50. I have had to trim down SPS frags repeatedly over the past 2 weeks due to RTN & STN. Nearly all pieces (save a few) were affected to some degree, which sucked. 😞

 

 

My Tubbs Blues are still closed up for some reason, but knowing how finnicky zoas can be - they can stay closed up for a long time, or even melt away unpredictably. 😞

 

I do hope at least a few polyps would open back up & re-grow. I bought my Tubbs blues by chance around ~2 years ago, and I don't think I'll be able to get another frag of it anywhere here. 

 

Moving on, Hunter has gained a bit of weight. He's no longer ultra-skinny, but is now simply skinny. His lateral lines are still showing, but they're not as evident as before, and his belly is full after each meal (you can scroll forward in the following pics and see the super-tiny bulge in his belly (pic #2) after the evening feeding session) :

 

 

He's already began to accept prepared food and eats pellets like a champ. 

 

Initially, he was doing very well in the 60G, and although he was heckled on occasion by Poseidon (my male spotted mandy), there weren't any direct fights between both fish. That changed a few weeks ago. And after seeing how persistent Poseidon was, I was worried one of the mandys would get killed, so I quickly transferred the smaller, weaker mandy (Hunter) to the 10G. 

 

I'll be honest - I don't think it's safe for me to re-add Hunter back to the 60G - not until I can get that tank back on track and re-fill it with large coral pieces to break the direct line of sight between the dragonets. Since coral prices have spiked, I won't be able to acquire any large LPS anytime soon, so I'm stuck with a choice - either leave Hunter in my 10G, where he seems to be doing fine, or return him back to my LFS, where he *might, or rather will most likely perish prematurely either at the store or in someone else's tank. 

 

I might sound a bit selfish, but I've grown attached to this little blue scooting fish, so I'm keeping him for now. I wager it'll take anywhere between 6 to 8 months for him to properly thicken out and re-gain all that lost weight.

 

Also...I'm thinking hard as to whether I should shift the focus of this nano and make it a mandarin-pair-exclusive-tank. 

 

Zoey (my female blue mandy) is in the 60G. Poseidon haunts her from time to time, but she's very quick and very smart, and keeps a low profile in that tank. She's not faring too well though, and I don't want to lose her either. 😞 

 

If I turn the 10G into a mandarin-pair tank, I'll have to rehome my blue devil damsel and percula clown, because a 10G cannot handle the bioload of 5 fish. It's a bit of a dilemma, actually, because I'm unsure what to do. I'll keep thinking about it. But for now, this tank holds 4 fish, and yes, it is 1 to 2 fish too many in a 10G. 

 

Please do *not attempt to copy what I'm doing. 

 

This whole set up can fail at any time, but I always have the 60G to shift everything into if anything goes wrong. And the 60G has a 23G sump, half of which has been converted into a stable refugium full of macro and old, mature LR. 

 

On that note, I'll keep trying to fatten up Hunter. And keep all of you updated on his progress (or decline). 👍

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Glad to see you had the energy to get that W/C done. I know it was bothering you.  Sounds like you do have a lot to think about. 

2 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Also...I'm thinking hard as to whether I should shift the focus of this nano and make it a mandarin-pair-exclusive-tank. 

This sounds like an awesome tank. 

 

2 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

If I turn the 10G into a mandarin-pair tank, I'll have to rehome my blue devil damsel and percula clown, because a 10G cannot handle the bioload of 5 fish.

That is a tough call.

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Snow_Phoenix
13 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

Glad to see you had the energy to get that W/C done. I know it was bothering you.  Sounds like you do have a lot to think about. 

 

This sounds like an awesome tank. 

 

That is a tough call.

Thank you. Oddly enough, I woke up feeling very ache-y and lethargic today, and I seem to be developing a mild case of the flu. I was supposed to WC my twin FW tanks today, but I'll wait and see first if I'm strong enough to do so in the evening. Otherwise, I'll just leave the tanks as it is and not WC anything until I get stronger/healthier again. 

 

It does sound awesome, but I'm worried that it's not feasible long-term. So far, I haven't encountered anyone who's been successful at keeping a dragonet pair in such a small tank long-term - actually, there's hardly any record online of anyone keeping a lone dragonet long-term in a 10G either. So I'll have to think of this very, very carefully. Since the 10G has no attached refugium, I'll most likely have to resort to dumping 1 to 2 bottles of live pods in the tank per *week. And this can get very costly, very quickly. Not really a recommended path to pursue, especially since I don't have a stable source of income atm. 

 

Also, there is the issue of territory. The 10G actually has a lot of hiding spaces despite it's small size, but dragonets can be aggressive towards each other (even if they're a mated, spawning pair) if they don't have enough *space. One thing I've noticed about this fish is that at the peak of their health, their first priority is always to *eat as much as possible to maintain optimal weight so that they can spawn successfully. This means a *lot of extra food will need to be added to the tank to make sure both fish remain thick & healthy.

 

And of course - overfeeding will cause an increase in NO3 & PO4 levels...which is counterproductive for the growth of the SPS in this tank.

 

It's a lot to think about, and I'm definitely going to try and find a workable solution for this. I want to keep my fish healthy long-term, so it's not going to be easy, unfortunately. 😕

 

And yeah, it's a super tough call. I'm attached to all my animals - and the percula has been with me for quite a while. I'll definitely think & plan more. I'm not going to start any new tanks because I don't think I can handle the commitment of another SW tank - it's too much, and I already have multiple animals to take care of. I can't neglect one, just to pay attention to another - it's irresponsible, and doesn't sit well with me. 

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Snow_Phoenix
18 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

Hi Harvey - looking good!

 

16 minutes ago, Murphych said:

Looks great Snow

Thanks guys.

 

I'm going to try and drive to my primary LFS one of these days to pick up an extra bottle of kH buffer. And *maybe get a cheap frag or two. :happy:

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More pics:

 

IMG_20210501_175217_571.thumb.jpg.dda14f5e5cc3816e44e0219be62b4a16.jpg

 

IMG_20210501_175217_570.thumb.jpg.d7b5892d1fe621882f38e92ec74024c2.jpg

 

IMG_20210501_175217_557.thumb.jpg.12387954d5ab7a57487e7a43d7782bc3.jpg

 

Quite worried over the mini red carpet nem though. It looks really washed out: 😓

 

IMG_20210501_175217_586.thumb.jpg.d8fd358b2dcdaad2c217533b88413668.jpg

 

If everything goes well, I'll be heading to my primary LFS tomorrow. I'll be driving, but my parents will be tagging along for company. It's their wedding anniversary tomorrow too. 😊

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Snow_Phoenix

Drove myself (and parents) to my primary LFS today. Felt so awesome to be able to drive far on my own again. 🙂

 

Also, I picked up a super tiny <1" yellow banded coral shrimp from the LFS:

 

 

And my LFS manager helped me trim off the STNing parts of my purple encrusting monti to save it - so I have a half-sized monti now, but at least it's still here:

 

And I reserved 14 frags of zoas/palys & shrooms, due for a pick-up in June/July:

 

Some of these includes morphs that I lost such as blue hornet, blue agave & red hornets. Others are new, and I *think one of them is a gold maul zoa as well (the one with 3 polyps, bottom row, second frag from the right). 

 

My LFS manager was very kind/good to me, as always. We have been friends for a very long time, and I am actually one of their oldest customers and one of the first customers to step into their store when they opened a branch near my home (this branch was shut down to due to the pandemic though 😞). 

 

I couldn't really spend as much time as I'd liked, because my parents were with me and I didn't want to keep them waiting, but I'll be *tentatively picking up a grandmaster krakatoa frag in the future from the store, if all goes well. The store is actually helping me - if the krakatoa polyps grow out and I frag them, I could sell them through the store to get extra money - which can go towards medical bills or even the future purchase of food/equipment for any of my animals. 

 

 

 

Of course, purchasing the first frag will be challenging because krakatoas are pricey. Even with the discount given, I still have to save up and fork out a lot of money to acquire a frag first. It's definitely a worthy investment though, because the demand is strangely high locally. 

 

I'm such a derp though. My LFS manager reminded me that I can frag my current zoas/palys to trade in through the store or sell to other reefers. Even though I lost a *lot of morphs, I still have plenty enough that I can get some $$$ out of it. Example - my Purple Monsters. I literally have 10 to 12 polyps of these guys on my Zoa Ledge, and they're one of the fastest growing morphs that I have. And a single polyp is quite expensive locally. 

 

But my LFS manager told me to be extra careful fragging anything - I think if I do frag any of the larger zoas/palys, I'll try to take the whole ledge to the shop and see if they can help frag off a few polyps for me. 🤔

 

Also, it looks like Hunter will be staying in the nano for a long, long time. I picked up a supermale XXL-sized mandy from the LFS today, and my other dragonets actually get along with him - probably because he's too large to pick a fight with (he's literally 5.5"+). 

 

 

Zoey (my female mandy) keeps following him around. And so does Poseidon (my male spotted mandy), who hasn't quite figured out why he's no longer the largest mandy in the tank. :rolleyes:

 

Feeding the big guy will be a challenge though. He just ate a bristleworm by mistake this afternoon and his lips are a bit swollen, but I did catch him actively pecking the rocks for pods. And I named him Titan. 🙂 

 

 

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Not feeling too well. Lost a relative to covid complications today. Moved some shrooms from the 60G to the nano because they were faring poorly there.

 

Country slipped back into semi-lockdown, so access to my primary LFS is not possible atm. New frag pick-up will have to wait. 

 

My Zoa Ledge, after I did some noise reduction & dehazing in Lightroom:

 

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IMG_20210501_174853_491.thumb.jpg.12c67ac8be5841be3b1390b63dff6a0b.jpg

 

Insta pics are quite blurry right now, I think. The deresolution on images on that platform is quite awful. NR also does this, but it's not that bad - well, unless you expand/magnify the pic. 

 

Since I take a lot of pics, it'd be impossible to adjust each one before posting on Insta - so I guess I'll just be more selective over the pics I share on *this site instead. 

 

If I drop off the grid from time to time, don't worry - I'm just not feeling well & need some downtime to rest/heal. Hope everyone on here is okay. 🌺

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Hunter is recovering very well. His lateral lines are quite faint now, and only visible when he turns a certain way:

 

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20210510_114606.thumb.jpg.10a68162aa40cec3d6073feb46a0c816.jpg

 

^Pics were taken when I had *just turned the lights on, so most of the polyps are not open yet. 

 

Hunter still needs to fill out & thicken more. Progress is slow, but I'm monitoring him. 👍

 

Here he is, with a full belly after eating some pellets during the evening feeding session:

 

Still no luck on catching my female mandy, Zoey, and shifting her into this tank. 😔

 

I'd really love to shift the focus of this tank into a mandarin-pair-exclusive tank in the future, but I guess I'll need to be patient. And start planting more macro. 🤔

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  • Snow_Phoenix changed the title to Snow's 10G Critters of Chaos (TOTM)

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