Rougheye's Evo 13

[rough eye]

i'm not sure if this will be a build thread or something but I can use it to put updates. Tank was set up Dec 6, clown was added Dec 30, along with a peppermint shrimp (hiding under the rocks) and already had 2 hermits (also under and behind rock). Got the trochus and added a flattish piece of dry rock under the center rock to raise it up an inch or 2 a couple weeks ago. On friday or saturday I plan to add a tailspot.

 

i left the powerhead out for a week which i think was a mistake; i have cyano and GHA built up on that center rock, possibly as a result; which had a lot of detritus accumulated on it. been blowing the rock off and sucking out cyano most days this week.

 

Next steps will be some corals; I'm thinking a couple Fla. ricordea, possibly below return nozzle where flow seems a little calm, GSP on the wall to cover my messy patch job. After that, who knows, maybe Kenya tree? some zoanthids? or some sort of mushroom front and center. My main goal is to make the fish as happy as possible with their environment. Pretty comes second.

 

[Sealybomb]

Love the set up.... hate green algae!! I don’t have any yet but almost sure I’m going to!

can I ask are you combating it or how do you plan to?

im about to order a bottle of vibrant just to have in the drawer. 
your build is about two week in front of mine and the last few days I have what looks like diatoms forming on my dry rock. It’s only in patches where the small 3w blue LED shines on their surfaces. I haven’t had the main (stock) light on yet for more than ten mins and only about twice..... just waiting for things to mature I guess.

are you going to add your corals before the green hair is gone? 
just being nosey/figuring out how all this works! 😂 good luck bud, look forward to seeing when u add corals ect 👍

[rough eye]

i'm not real concerned wit the hair algae. i've been running the stock light al along, first was about 8 hours a day, then for close to 12 for a bit, and now about 9. i'd rather have that algae than some other things, and after i get tail spot in there for a week or 2 i'll see what cleaning needs to be done.

 

mostly blowing off that cyano and sucking it up with a turkey baster, although i did remove some of the green yesterday when i changed water. the thing is i have a spot of cyano on the left rock from early on, it waxes and wanes regularly, which makes me happy, and never gets larger than a quarter. so i think the difference with the center rock is how much stuff was trapped on the surface which i've been trying to blow off of there. i get a dusting of brown on the sand that waxes and wanes with time too.

[Sealybomb]

Might start running my light soon 😁

Expecting some CuC members very soon.... not much for them to feed on here though so I will be probably putting a couple extra bits in for them. Will put me on 4 hermits, 5 snails (mixed) so should be fun to watch them sliming the place up! 
keep up the good work! 

[rough eye]

1 minute ago, Sealybomb said:

Might start running my light soon 😁

Expecting some CuC members very soon.... not much for them to feed on here though so I will be probably putting a couple extra bits in for them. Will put me on 4 hermits, 5 snails (mixed) so should be fun to watch them sliming the place up! 
keep up the good work! 

i only intended to add one hermit; the other hitchhiked in. and didn't add the solitary snail until recently. i might add a single nassarius soon.

 

i feel like i have a good jump on getting the coralline going which you can't do without lighting. the one side of the thermometer has a pretty good covering of it, and that's what seems to keep kicking the cyano off the rock to the left.

[Sealybomb]

Nice! No coralline algae for yet as I haven’t introduced it, but I do plan to! Want to concentrate on keeping livestock alive first. I have decided to go heavy on CUC to hopefully prevent algae from taking a hold..... but time will see how I do on that 😂 not jealous on your coralline at all!! Haha

[JustReading]

I have that exact patch job on my evo lol feel good knowing I'm not the only one

[rough eye]

should this be in "reef journals"? it's not in the drop down and i don't even know how to find it but i think i started this in the wrong place. can it be moved?

 

edit to add: oh i see now, reef journals isn't under the forum drop down. anyway i goofed. can it be fixed? or just delete this and i'l start over?

[rough eye]

On 1/27/2021 at 9:14 AM, JustReading said:

I have that exact patch job on my evo lol feel good knowing I'm not the only one

i probably got the idea from you 🙂

[rough eye]

so i added tail spot today. he's hiding in a hole with just his head sticking out of course.

[rough eye]

Rod's food is awesome! just fed with it for the first time today.

 

tail spot was out and about being very active and he ate really well. in between pecking at rocks he'll occasionally grab a mouthful of hair algae and rip it out; i'm not sure if he's eating some of the algae or just the critters that are always down in it.

 

clown might have taught tail spot a bad habit - i noticed him joining clown in the corner and looked like he had a little argument with his reflection in the glass.

[rough eye]

so added my first coral today - GSP - and i was vey nervous about doing it because i now nothing about corals. i was going to add a ricordea at the same time but chickened out. anyway this week i'll find out if anything in the tank (like the peppermint). i might go for an orange ricordea during the week or next week, depending how thing go and whether or not i have time.

 

current tank occupants are:

O. clown
tail spot benny

2 blue leg hermits
1 emerald crab
1 peppermint shrimp
1 each trochus, mexican turbo, astraea

 

i started changing water every 4 days 2 weeks ago (only 10 - 15%) and closed my curtains to see if that will inhibit algae growth. i didn't know if that makes a difference but we'll see. also i've been leaving full light on about 8 hours and then the last hour os so i switch over to blue lights. i might go for less full light and longer blue gradually. also i've been changing floss nearly every day, pulling algae nearly every day, and blowing debris off that problem rock nearly every day. anyway, my feeling is the algae is receding very slowly. i'm not sure how fast i want it to go away; the tail spot and emerald certainly like to munch on it.

 

i've been feeding once a day mostly rod's food but once in a while p e mysis or the spirulina infused brine shrimp. but also giving marine s pellets to the clown every day, as he doesn't seem to relish the frozen food as much - unless it's a brine shrimp day.

[rough eye]

all the shells seem to end up in this one corner for some reason. one of them probably has a hermit in it.

 

[rough eye]

feel like i'm turning a corner on the GHA. it's now possible to pull it out and has been for the past few weeks. before that it was holding on too tight.

 

here's a photo from 12 hours ago:

[rough eye]

don't understand the precipitous decline of algae in my tank. i hope it's not the sign of something bad. photos are from Aug 1, Aug 17, and Aug 24. the colt can be seen in the Aug 17 photo on left, and the stylo in Aug 24 photo, center rock.

 

tail spot and clown still doing fine. i think the tail spot gets a sick stomach from too much meaty foods. his poop seems better the day after he has some nori. 

 

CUC: one peppermint shrimp, 1 emerald crab, 1 blue leg hermit (the hitchhiker blue leg disappeared), 1 trochus and 2 astraea snails. plus various hitchhikers.

 

Corals to date: GSP, 2 f. ricordea (plus one baby), One green toadstool leather, one colt coral, purple stylo and tiny acan frag.

 

I asked the guy at LFS what i could feed corals that won't get stolen by the peppermint shrimp, he suggested a bottle of "fuel for reefs aqua vitro." hope it's not a bad idea. i thought i might try 1/4 the recommended dose tomorrow.

[rough eye]

by the way, does anyone think I need a 3rd fish?

[banasophia]

Looks great. The stylo seems to be doing well despite being catapulted across the room. I think clownfish are nice in pairs.  

[rough eye]

looks like the acan has just about disappeared. it has receded to the point there's just a touch of range down in the skeleton. the blue leg hermit as spent a bit of time on it; i wonder if he's been snacking on it. 

 

the toadstool also has what looks like a large crescent shaped bite out of it although overall it's bigger than when i bought it, so i wonder if someone has been munching on it.

 

anyway acan was never a part of my original plan. might go back to sticking to softies. everything else is looking very healthy. even less algae. i have no idea why. i never did dose that "fuel for reefs" because i was afraid it might fuel cyano.

[banasophia]

My Fiji yellow leather looked like it was being chewed on after I got it and it turned out to be a nudibranch… may want to inspect yours. Bummer about the acan. How’s the stylo? 

[rough eye]

the stylo looks great. if i had a nudibranch it would likely be hanging onto the toadstool somewhere?

[banasophia]

Just now, rough eye said:

the stylo looks great. if i had a nudibranch it would likely be hanging onto the toadstool somewhere?

Oh good… I’m inspired… I think I need to copy your idea and get a stylo!! 😁

 

Yeah if there’s a nudi they are very camouflaged… they often match the color of whatever they eat and blend in. I’d  look at it now and just keep an eye on it. 

[rough eye]

On 8/31/2021 at 1:53 AM, banasophia said:

Oh good… I’m inspired… I think I need to copy your idea and get a stylo!! 😁

 

Yeah if there’s a nudi they are very camouflaged… they often match the color of whatever they eat and blend in. I’d  look at it now and just keep an eye on it. 

i don't know if it would be a nudi. the part that's removed is the area most easily accessible to a crab sitting on a rock. 

 

looks like every trace of GHA has disappeared from the tank. I put strips of nori attached to a rock in twice the past week and might need to think of how i can add supplemental herbivore stuff.

[banasophia]

Need…more…photos 🤗

[rough eye]

10 hours ago, banasophia said:

Need…more…photos 🤗

as of Sept 5:

[rough eye]

so now the question is where to put a green nephthea. also, the first photo shows what will be the ricordea side. in the 2nd photo, that could be a zoa side, or a RFA side.