Snow's 10G Critters of Chaos (TOTM)

[Snow_Phoenix]

Harvey and a snail: 😊

 

 

 

The acro's colors are still off, but I just noticed it has already encrusted to the LR below: 

 

 

 

 

Quite excited to see that - the rock is isolate, with only a few leftover mint green zoa polyps on it, so the stick should have plenty of space to cover & grow out. 😊👍

 

Am tentatively planning a WC either tomorrow or the day after. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

New bottle of antichlorine has just arrived! 

 

 

 

WC tentatively set for tomorrow morning. 

 

Also, Harvey the ninja: 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

I woke up to some trouble in the nano today. Even before I turned the lights on,  I had a sense something was off. 😕

 

True enough, my red finger leather had vanished overnight - presumably melted away. It was struggling after I returned home from my short, 4-day vacation, but the sudden disappearance suggested my levels were off. 

 

I checked my SPS first - garf bonsai is still discolored, but otherwise okay. Forest fire frags were alright - except the main frag, which had begun STNing at the base, and I was quite troubled by it: 😕

 

 

I'm planning on snapping off the upper branches this evening and sticking it somewhere else on the rock ledge. Should be easy enough to do, I think. 🤔

 

What worried me the most was my pavona-lepto combo. From a sideview, the part of the pavona encrusted to the rock is fading, but not completely bleached. And from a topview, an upper patch of my lepto has very retracted polyps (but no loss of flesh yet, thankfully). 

 

 

It was heartbreaking to watch these two pieces show some regression, because I truly love them, and it took a long time to nurse them back to health & let them grow out again. Definitely deeply upsetting. 😔

 

I didn't wait. I immediately WCed the tank as usual. Corals are still acclimating to the new levels, but I'm hoping I can save all of the affected SPS - especially the pavona. 😔

 

The one good thing that the no-light-for-four-days has done is that it appears to have brought the oily surface film algae under control to a minimal layer, and the cyano appears to be gone for *now. Most of the GHA is slowly dying off - or rather being eaten by my current CUC. 

 

Geralt needs his shell scrubbed though. There's a bit of film algae on it, and I *thought of gently scrubbing it off using a soft toothbrush (if he'd let me) :

 

 

I think this particular type of snail that I have is very good at eating the type of algae in my tank, so I'm planning on picking up another pair of them from the store. Once the algae runs out, I can easily shift them to my 60G to munch on the film algae there. 👍

[debbeach13]

I really hope the WC does the trick. That pavona is my favorite in your tank. 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

47 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

I really hope the WC does the trick. That pavona is my favorite in your tank. 

 

Yeah, I hope so too. The pieces will need more time to recover - worse come to worse, I'll frag off the receding bits to save the base. I rather wait another year or two to grow out the coral all over again than lose it entirely. 😞 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Just flicked the lights on. Tank is slowly coming awake. 😊👍

 

 

 

[Critteraholic]

ACK!!!  I hope everything works out!

[Snow_Phoenix]

3 hours ago, Critteraholic said:

ACK!!!  I hope everything works out!

It is a bit better, although the pavona is still struggling at the base and the garf bonsai's colors are terrible. Will upload pics later. 👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

Having a migraine. Going to rest in a bit. Here are some pics as promised (taken under heavy whites, hence the less color 'pop!' and brownish tones) - garf bonsai looks hideous. 😭😭😭

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

^Duncan is developing 2 new heads, which brings it to a total of 8 heads now. If all goes well, I'm expecting that number to double by the end of this year. 👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

The shrooms:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy New Year, everyone! 🎉✨🎊

[debbeach13]

Happy and Healthy New Year to you.

[Snow_Phoenix]

44 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

Happy and Healthy New Year to you.

Thanks, Deb. 🌺

[Critteraholic]

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

[Snow_Phoenix]

16 minutes ago, Critteraholic said:

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy New Year to you too! 😊

[Snow_Phoenix]

After the cyano died out, the new dominant strain of algae appears to be a simple brown film on the sand, glass & rocks. A bit unsightly, but not too bad. 

 

 

The blastos at the top are still quite retracted, so I'll try to move them to a different spot and see if they can recover better there. The orange leptastrea is growing out rather quickly. So is the green one - they'll be touching each other soon. 😊

 

I had no choice but to break off the STNing piece of my pavona today:

 

 

 

It really sucks. 😔

 

But I'm trying my luck to just see if I can rescue part of the broken off piece that still has some color on it. So yes, there's now a mini pavona frag on the rocks. 🤐

 

The lobo brain is so puffy - reminds me of those doughnuts full of jelly/jam that are about to pop any second now: 😅

 

 

Blue hairy shroom sideview:

 

 

Cloves:

 

 

I'll be replacing the media and carbon in the HOB shortly, then quickly scrape the glass. Tomorrow morning/evening, I'll try to perform the routine weekly WC. 👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

Harvey was up and about all over the tank today:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Am tentatively planning on picking up my reserved zoas & a fish (or two), so he should have some company in the upcoming weeks, once the fish has been QTed. 😊

[Snow_Phoenix]

Just finished swapping out the floss and carbon in the filter for new ones. Glass had minimal algae but I scraped it regardless. There is still a very thin layer of oily film on the water surface, but I'll mop that up with tissues tomorrow. 

 

Quick check - tank is okay, equipment is fine & most of the inhabitants look normal (only a few retracted polyps here and there). 

 

But there is still discoloration in some pieces, so I'll keep my eye on those. 👀

 

I'll be away for the weekend (just one night away), but I think the tank shouldn't have any extensive issues upon my return. 

 

Quite excited to go fish shopping next week - it's been so long since I looked at the store's fish section properly! 😅

[Snow_Phoenix]

Finally did the WC today afternoon. Tank had very little detritus and the water was very clean. I did have issues with mixing up the new batch of SW - at first, I miscalculated the amount of salt needed for 8G and undershot salinity to 1.020. Then I attempted to correct it by adding *more salt and overshot to 1.030. 

Luckily I kept checking the salinity in between all the mixing (in the pail) and managed to remove some of the concentrated SW, add more tap water and bring the whole mix back down to 1.025. I was quite tired after repeatedly *adjusting the mix (still haven't fully recovered from the aftereffects of the booster vaccine, and I'm still lethargic), so I decided to go ahead and WC. Once that was done, I checked the salinity of the nano and it's at 1.025 - which is ideal for most reeftanks, but not exactly for mine.

 

I usually keep my salinity slightly lower at 1.024 with the thought of the evap. rate in mind. So I *think I'll remove some water from the tank later (not too much - maybe a bucket-full) and top it off with tap. That should bring the salinity back to 1.024/1.023, which is better. 

My corals are still adjusting to the new water - usually takes them a few hours and they'll be happy again. Spotted all my inverts and they're fine too. 👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

With the janky lids on, post WC:

 

 

Lights are already off for the day. I skipped out on feeding the inverts, mostly to give them time to settle in. Will drop in some pellets tomorrow morning. 👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

Finally returned from my weekend trip. Tank was okay while I was away - Geralt the hermit flipped the green leptastrea in protest of the lights being out for ~36 hours, but luckily the coral wasn't damaged. 

 

The shrooms were a bit shrunken, but otherwise looked fine:

 

 

 

The pavona frag looked fine too - I'm hoping it'll eventually encrust to the LR below: 

 

 

The garf bonsai surprised me a little. The base color is no longer muddy, but has now adopted a slightly pale, pinkish hue - which I'm hoping will settle back to its original shade of purple in the future:

 

 

The tips are becoming more green and almost neon-like. I think the last WC helped it bounce back, and a few more WCs should do the trick. 🤔

 

I lowered the salinity back 1.024 before I left, so I *think that slowly tilted things back in balance. I'll monitor the salinity and keep it no higher than 1.025 in any case. 👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

Finally picked up all 11 of the frags I purchased 3+ weeks ago: 

 

 

 

 

Also picked up 2 new turbans to assist with the clean up of the last bit of algae:

 

 

The drive to & fro from the store wore me out completely though. 😕

 

Was so exhausted that I accidently glued *over one of my zoas while trying to glue it *on the rock: 🤦‍♀️

 

 

Also succeeded in pissing off everything in the tank because I kept shuffling things around to accomodate Zoa Ledge #2. 🙈

 

 

Still, one of the polyps that opened up immediately was the giant red PEs (I have the regular version in the tank as well) :

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

I also reserved more zoas, palys & shrooms at the LFS to add to my collection in the future:

 

 

One of the frags is a rusty red nuclear death. The mother colony in the store's DT is absolutely beautiful. 🥰

 

The shrooms are not bleached - my camera couldn't capture the colors correctly under actinics. One's an ultra orange, another is an ultra green rhodactis. I really loved the ultra green I spotted in @Murphych 's journal, so I tried to see if I could get something similar here. Was pleasantly surprised to see rows of them available today, so I snagged one. 🥰

 

Also, not sure at what point my trumpet coral split again, but it's up to 4 heads now:

 

 

All squished between the SunnyDs. 😊

[Snow_Phoenix]

Some of the new frags have finally opened up a bit. 😊

 

 

 

 

I can't recall all the morphs, but I'm pretty sure I have Midas, Captain America palys and some Fairy Dust in there. 😅

 

At least the Vampire in Drags have opened up! 🥰

 

 

 

[debbeach13]

Wow Look at all those new zoas. Be careful or your going to need a bigger tank! Looks like they are adjusting to their new home well.

[Snow_Phoenix]

13 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

Wow Look at all those new zoas. Be careful or your going to need a bigger tank! Looks like they are adjusting to their new home well.

Nah, I'm not going to be upgrading this tank - but I'm slowly learning to trim & frag any excess polyps/sticks/heads & trade them in at my store. So far my LFS has been quite happy to accept anything that I bring in, which is really nice of them. 😊

 

I'll have to give them a few more days to open up fully. Some morphs might take even up to a week or more to adjust to the tank. 👍