Guits Posted April 12, 2015 Author Share Posted April 12, 2015 It's been a little over 2 months since the ich started, and I'm glad to report that the masked goby pair is still hanging on. I have the sense that the ich isn't 100% gone from the tank which makes me weary of adding any new fish, but whatever infection that still exists it seems to be subclinical at least to the human eye. I decided to finally upgrade from my Ebay lighting, so I ordered a nanobox which I hope will be coming soon (been waiting over a month!). This may be the last full tank shot before the lighting upgrade! Note that I've gotten some additional rock and hitchhikers since my last post. I was itching to get more corals, so I went ahead of placed another order of rock and asked for hitchhikers. I wound up getting 2 additional rose corals, an ivory coral, a rock flower anemone (I actually had a previous little baby rock flower anemone hitchhiker but I think it got munched on by a peppermint shrimp I had to eliminate some unwanted anemones), and a christmas tree worm. They arrived 3.5 weeks ago and have acclimated pretty well. Purple and turquoise rose coral, on arrival and today Green and brown rose coral, on arrival and today Ivory coral, on arrival and today Rock flower anemone and christmas tree worm Close up of christmas tree worm Shot of one of the older rose corals that has slowly turned a pastel pink Link to comment
Acielot Posted April 12, 2015 Share Posted April 12, 2015 Im still jealous of your awesome rose garden and you are still getting more. Link to comment
Mirya Posted April 13, 2015 Share Posted April 13, 2015 Wow! Those are awesome additions. I like the shape on the new lavender one. I also can't believe how big some of your original ones are getting. It will be interesting to see what happens to everything's color's under the Nanobox. (Welcome on joining the club btw!) My original rose has become such a dark green under mine. Link to comment
Slowtwitch Posted April 13, 2015 Share Posted April 13, 2015 I just got two rose corals in my live rock. Both are green and brown. One suffered a little damage in shipping. I want to do my best to help it survive. Any suggestions? What do you feed and how often? Link to comment
Guits Posted April 13, 2015 Author Share Posted April 13, 2015 Im still jealous of your awesome rose garden and you are still getting more. Thanks! I had a clear vision for the theme of my tank and I've been pretty lucky (and determined) to keep to my theme of focusing on aquatic life from our own US waters. Wow! Those are awesome additions. I like the shape on the new lavender one. I also can't believe how big some of your original ones are getting. It will be interesting to see what happens to everything's color's under the Nanobox. (Welcome on joining the club btw!) My original rose has become such a dark green under mine. I hope the corals look as good as yours when the new lights come! I agree with you about the shape on the lavender one. The folds and symmetry make me think of the mantle of Tridacna clams. I just got two rose corals in my live rock. Both are green and brown. One suffered a little damage in shipping. I want to do my best to help it survive. Any suggestions? What do you feed and how often? That's great! I would "soft cycle" the rock (i.e. water changes to keep water quality acceptable) and also spot feed especially when you see feeder tentacles. I usually use New Life Spectrum micro pellets or mysis. I used to feed daily, but now feed less frequently due to time constraints. The rose corals usually seem to recover fairly well and usually get over minor damage within weeks. Link to comment
gena Posted April 13, 2015 Share Posted April 13, 2015 This is gorgeous! Sounds like the company is pretty accommodating when it comes to requests for certain hitchhiker corals! Did you do a treatment on the fish or did they just end up fighting off the ich? Link to comment
Slowtwitch Posted April 13, 2015 Share Posted April 13, 2015 That's great! I would "soft cycle" the rock (i.e. water changes to keep water quality acceptable) and also spot feed especially when you see feeder tentacles. I usually use New Life Spectrum micro pellets or mysis. I used to feed daily, but now feed less frequently due to time constraints. The rose corals usually seem to recover fairly well and usually get over minor damage within weeks. Great. Thanks for the feedback. They went into a tank that had been cycling with other live rock for several weeks already. No noticeable ammonia spike so far, but I am keeping a close eye on things as I can see some die off happening in other areas. Did a 10% water change today to help bring the nitrates down and both pieces ate some frozen blood worms. Link to comment
Guits Posted April 13, 2015 Author Share Posted April 13, 2015 This is gorgeous! Sounds like the company is pretty accommodating when it comes to requests for certain hitchhiker corals! Did you do a treatment on the fish or did they just end up fighting off the ich? I tried 3 different things, none of which I think actually helped. I think ultimately the masked gobie developed some resistance or tolerance to the ich. (1) soaking food in garlic - no real literature on actual efficacy but I did it anyways (2) dosing Ruby Reef Kick Ich - doubtful it actually works because 2 fish died from ich several days after I started dosing, but it didn't seem to harm the corals either. One of the turkey wing clams died, but I'm not sure if that was the cause as the other turkey wing clam did fine, as did the other hitchhiker mollusks. (3) feeding New Life Spectrum Ick Shield medicated pellets - the fish only really ate it the first day, but learned to avoid it (I suspect there must be something about the taste the fish don't like). Actually, the rusty goby would consistently eat yet, and it died from ich anyways, which makes me think it doesn't work. Great. Thanks for the feedback. They went into a tank that had been cycling with other live rock for several weeks already. No noticeable ammonia spike so far, but I am keeping a close eye on things as I can see some die off happening in other areas. Did a 10% water change today to help bring the nitrates down and both pieces ate some frozen blood worms. They seem to recover ok so you should be fine Link to comment
Guits Posted April 26, 2015 Author Share Posted April 26, 2015 I finally received the NanoBox mini. It came with Bluefish so I have been playing around with the settings. I would say the light barely covers the 17.5" width of the tank, but I like the overall look especially with the improved color and clarity compared to my previous Ebay lights. The rose corals seem to be expanding as nicely as before. However, I can't seem to take an accurate picture at all with my iPhone - everything looks blue even though in real life it's not overly blue. It's somewhat more accurate with my iPad but the quality is not great. I will have to figure out how to take pics with these lights. My iPhone took great photos with the old lights, but in real life the corals look brighter and sharper with the new lights. Link to comment
hypostatic Posted April 27, 2015 Share Posted April 27, 2015 xmas worms are one of my favs! Link to comment
Guits Posted April 27, 2015 Author Share Posted April 27, 2015 xmas worms are one of my favs! I think they are neat! How was your luck with keeping them in the long run? I try to target feed with PhytoPlan and ZoPlan but I'm not convinced it's consuming anything, often times it will just retract its spires ... Link to comment
Mirya Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 In the BlueFish you can set special light settings for when you want to take pictures. I just have two channels on my NanoBox. I set the white channel to 100% and the blue channel to 40%. Seems to help the iPhone handle the blues. Link to comment
Guits Posted April 29, 2015 Author Share Posted April 29, 2015 In the BlueFish you can set special light settings for when you want to take pictures. I just have two channels on my NanoBox. I set the white channel to 100% and the blue channel to 40%. Seems to help the iPhone handle the blues. Thanks I'll try playing around with the settings this weekend! Link to comment
Guits Posted June 15, 2015 Author Share Posted June 15, 2015 I still haven't gotten around to taking any full tank shots with the new lights. Since my last update, I placed an order from KP Aquatics and for this tank I added a female sailfin blenny that I absolutely love! Lots of character. She mainly stays behind the folds of one of the rose corals and peeks her head out. I also added an anemone shrimp, a tiny basket star, a porceline crab which I also love, and a sexy shrimp from my other tank that seemed to be munching on zoanthid skirts (or at least irritating them repeatedly) but doesn't seem to bother any of the corals in this tank. I did a water change tonight and afterwards discovered a tiny crab hitchhiker from the live rock didn't seem to make it from the water change. The sailfin blenny found it and has been trying to eat it without any success - it's way too big for the blenny's tiny mouth. I took a shot since it looked too cute: Link to comment
Mirya Posted June 15, 2015 Share Posted June 15, 2015 She is kinda like a dog with her bone! Link to comment
Guits Posted July 5, 2015 Author Share Posted July 5, 2015 I still haven't developed an interest in photography yet so I don't know how to take good photos, but I took Mirya's advice about turning down the blue to take some pictures that better represent how things look in real life. I don't know how to avoid the washed out look of the photos - still need to figure out how to take photos that better show the colors under these lights. No new corals or live rock recently (not that this tank could fit much more it's already piled the entire length of the tank). There are a number of new specimens from KP Aquatics - I added a masked goby so there are now 3 in total, a male and female sailfin blenny, and rusty goby. There is also a new anemone shrimp (previous one jumped out ), a tiny harlequin serpent starfish, and 2 porceline crabs. I also added a Coralife BioCube protein skimmer a while back - it was the only easily available skimmer that also fits in the small filter chamber of the Fluval Spec V. It skims so-so - I'm hoping it's better than nothing? You may notice the rose corals seem to appear different in color from picture to picture. Since I've had them for the past 1+ years, they seem to change their color slightly but fairly dynamically depending on the placement and lighting conditions. Link to comment
yoshii Posted July 5, 2015 Share Posted July 5, 2015 Wow, what a great little tank! Until I saw the picture showing the complete tank I thought this tank was like 20 gallons! Link to comment
Mirya Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 Maybe we can send MetroKat over to you place, take some pics, and then you can be TotM. Link to comment
markalot Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 Pics look great IMO, and the tank looks fantastic. It's hard to get all the brights and shadows because it exceeds what the camera can handle. Link to comment
Nano sapiens Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 Just found this wonderful, unique tank. Definitely the largest variety of Atlantic corals that I've seen in one place (outside of a public aquarium). Link to comment
metrokat Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 Roses are looking nice and fluffy Guits. My latest one from GLR is a neon green, I love it. Link to comment
teenyreef Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 I love the pictures! Everything looks so natural and happy Link to comment
Guits Posted July 7, 2015 Author Share Posted July 7, 2015 Wow, what a great little tank! Until I saw the picture showing the complete tank I thought this tank was like 20 gallons! Thanks - I think the long rectangular shape helps make the tank appear larger. Maybe we can send MetroKat over to you place, take some pics, and then you can be TotM. I don't know about TotM but MetroKat does take awesome pics Pics look great IMO, and the tank looks fantastic. It's hard to get all the brights and shadows because it exceeds what the camera can handle. Thanks! Just found this wonderful, unique tank. Definitely the largest variety of Atlantic corals that I've seen in one place (outside of a public aquarium). Thanks - I loved the idea of having a tank with only hitchhikers that naturally occur on live rock and was lucky to achieve that goal Roses are looking nice and fluffy Guits. My latest one from GLR is a neon green, I love it. Yes I love how puffy they get! Aren't they great? I love the pictures! Everything looks so natural and happy Thanks! Link to comment
plainrt Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 Very neat little tank. I love the concept Link to comment
gena Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 Looks fabulous! The masked gobies look so perfect in there . Link to comment
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