Snow's 10G Critters of Chaos (TOTM)

[Snow_Phoenix]

Jack-O-Lantern leptoseris:

 

 

Tricolor orange rhodactis & fellow orange spotted discosoma:

 

 

Puffy bicolor lobo: 🥰

 

 

Colorful edge of the rainbow brain:

 

 

^It's still recovering, but most of the coral is relatively healthy. 🥰

[Snow_Phoenix]

Well, this certainly took a roundaway trip across the state. 🤐

 

 

Finally arrived today with a small dent on one side. Coupling Reef Snow with Reef Roids & ReefServe's liquid food from now on for the corals. 😊👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

A few random throwbacks:

 

My green torch coral before it caught BJD and died several years back:

 

 

 

Bubbletip brittle starfish:

 

 

Pink legged hermit crab named 'Derp'. Calcinus latens:

 

 

Unknown hitchiker micro-sized crab:

 

 

 

^As large as gravel. 🦀

[Snow_Phoenix]

More throwbacks - a mandy I once had several years back:

 

 

 

 

How the John Deere leptastrea first looked like:

 

 

How my current green acans in this nano once looked like (very shrunken & discolored) :

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Had an awful migraine yesterday. Still suffering from the after-effects of it, but at least it's gone and I'm just exhausted. I did manage to do some basic maintenance though. Threw out the old media:

 

 

And replaced it with a new bag of carbon and floss. The glass was a bit dirty, but not too bad. 

 

 

I scraped it and then soaked up the ultra-thin film layer on the water surface using some tissues. 

 

(The tank pic was taken without yellow lens filter, under full 100% blues & 100% whites)

 

I had to prune back the cloves that were growing over the Incredible Hulks and Butt Munchers zoas (as usual). The Zoa Ledge is still a bit angry at my interference, but I think all the polyps will open back up fully in another hour or two.

 

I noticed 2 pieces weren't doing too well - my green leptastrea, which has receded even further after brushing against my orange leptastrea (again! 😔) and my Fire & Ice zoas. 

 

In the case of the zoas, they appeared shrunken and elongated for the past few days. I moved their Ledge slightly to the right, thinking they were being stung (?) by my metallic green palys, but sometimes a morph will simply shrivel away for no reason. 😔

 

I also trimmed back the metallic GSP clump in the center of the tank because it was obscuring my Malayan rainbow acans. 

 

If I'm up to it, I'll WC the tank this evening - if not, tomorrow or the day after. 👍

[Snow_Phoenix]

So here's the bare patch on the rocks after I pruned the cloves:

 

 

 

The Gold Mauls are up to 9 polyps now:

 

 

Rainbow brain is recovering very well. Feeding tentacles were out (sorry if the pics are too bright; should have increased my ISO) :

 

 

 

Rainbow brain from above: 🥰

 

 

Forest fire digi garden has multiple new protrusions: 😊

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Chili pepper-leptastrea fusion:

 

 

Toadstool is quite large now. 😮

 

 

Clump of metallic GSP:

 

 

Ironman discosoma:

 

 

 

Duncan:

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Shifted the purple rhodactis out in the open a little because it was being overshadowed by the superman discosoma:

 

 

Red fungias with full PE:

 

 

Harvey featuring some mild purple banding on his exoskeleton:

 

 

Pickle:

 

 

 

 

^Chonky fish! 🥰

[Snow_Phoenix]

Managed to complete the weekly WC today afternoon. I took the oppurtunity to frag some of my Zoas, Palys & GSP as well:

 

 

There are several bald patches on the Zoa Ledge and on the Paly Tower right now, but at least I can add these extra polyps to my 60G. 😊

 

Several corals are still a bit unhappy after the WC, but everything should open up within a day. 

 

Pickle was in a very good mood though! 😊

 

 

 

 

And Geralt was being sneaky, as usual. 😅

 

 

 

I'll upload a pic of the Zoa Ledge later. It doesn't look too pretty atm, but at least the remaining Purple Monsters and Devil's Armor are held at bay. 💦

[Xj reefing]

Can’t believe I have not followed this thread of yours already. you have So many amazing corals in this tank and it all looks so filled in

[Snow_Phoenix]

38 minutes ago, Xj reefing said:

Can’t believe I have not followed this thread of yours already. you have So many amazing corals in this tank and it all looks so filled in

Thank you. I did a fair bit of pruning though, so there are some empty spots in certain areas - but I'm expecting it to fill up again in a month or two. 

[Xj reefing]

How do you manage coral ware fare? Regular fragging? Or just letting coral sort them selves outs?

[Snow_Phoenix]

8 minutes ago, Xj reefing said:

How do you manage coral ware fare? Regular fragging? Or just letting coral sort them selves outs?

Bit of both, actually. Sometimes a more dominant type will try to grow over the other, but I usually frag them at this point. I did wake up once to see both my brain corals try to eat each other. 

 

(They're okay now, after I shoved a rock between them to create a barricade of sorts)

[Xj reefing]

1 minute ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Bit of both, actually. Sometimes a more dominant type will try to grow over the other, but I usually frag them at this point. I did wake up once to see both my brain corals try to eat each other. 

I had a lobo fall onto a rainbow acan and pretty much completely ate it before I noticed.

[Snow_Phoenix]

Here's Pickle again! 💦

 

 

 

 

On his Acro throne: 🦀

 

 

Puffy lobo:

 

 

Cluster of cloves:

 

 

Cheerful yellow yuma: 😊

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

2 minutes ago, Xj reefing said:

I had a lobo fall onto a rainbow acan and pretty much completely ate it before I noticed.

That sucks! My rainbow brain ate my fire shrimp once. Granted, the shrimp had a bad molt, but it was still painful to watch. 😔

[Snow_Phoenix]

Ironman still a tad shrunken after the WC:

 

 

Here's the Zoa Ledge, with its bald patches:

 

 

 

 

I had to scraped some of the coralline layer off because I didn't want to damage the polyps. Also glued my rusty red palys to the Paly Tower, but it's not too happy. 😕

 

 

I finally discovered why my Fire & Ice zoas were unhappy - there was a super-tiny aiptasia next to one of the polyps. Will have to smother it with a blob of super glue. 🤔

[Snow_Phoenix]

My comfy pillow. 🥰

 

 

 

(Taken at midnight, during lights out)

[Snow_Phoenix]

Pic Update #1.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Pic Update #2:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Pic Update #3.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Pic Update #4.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Pic update #5.

 

 

 

 

Feeling a bit dizzy suddenly so I'm retiring early for the night. Sorry for the lack of captions. Tc, everyone. 🌺

[Snow_Phoenix]

The rainbow brain is recovering quickly and I'm silently grateful. Pickle absolutely adores this coral. She sleeps on/under it everyday. And she likes to rub herself all over it too! 🥰

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Different angles captures the lights and coral colors differently. The first, and last two pics are nearly 100% accurate in terms of color, but are also incredibly dark, so the brightness of the colors are quite off. 

 

Not sure if there is a way to fix this, (I've tried editing in both Lightroom & Promode to no avail) so I left it. 🤷‍♀️

[A.m.P]

You could try adjusting ISO and shutter speed manually, you may be able to find a combination which gives a brighter -but still accurate- result.