It’s been far too long since my last comprehensive update. So, I’ve got a pic heavy whopper for you today. To start out, here’s the obligatory FTS:
FTS 2012.11.12
I took about fifteen pics to try to get this FTS, but it just wasn’t in the cards for me that night. I think it looks overexposed and the colors are all wrong. On the plus side, as I was taking the pictures for the FTS, I accidentally got a cool blurred shot of my bangaii as is swam across the frame. It reminds me of an X-Wing. What d’ya think?
Here’s a FTS from today 2012.11.14. I took this with a flash. It sort of illustrates colors of the corals a little better. The rock pillar certainly isn’t green though.
Out with the old..
I’m in a bit of a transitional period with my tank right now. Some corals have outgrown the tank and I’m finding myself pairing down on SPS. The ORA Green Birdsnest that I had on top and front became way too big and were starting to grow into other SPS. So, I got rid of these two colonies. Here’s the last pics I took of them a week or two before selling them to some locals.
Also, my GARF Bonsai refused branch out and up and continued to encrust along the rocks like a monti. It was starting to eat my Red Planets and encroaching on other corals. I never noticed it from across the room. So, sadly I had to let it go. There is still a little bit left that I couldn’t pry off the rocks. That stuff is also becoming a pest as it grows so fast. I might have to kalk paste it.
Here’s…..
what used to be….here:
That first shot was from late July and this thing spread at least twice as far in the last few months.
On a related note, that zebra hermit seems to have taken up residence there along with my tailspot blenny. The zebra hermit never seems to leave this area. If he does, he quickly returns. It’s funny as I didn’t think hermits established territory.
Here he is up close:
On a sad note, both of my Turbo snails recently died. The big one went first, and the small one a few days later. It was odd, while the CUC was eating the big one that died, the small one was hanging around it like morning it. I have no idea why they died as there was plenty of algae for them to eat. All other snails seem fine.
In with the new..
There have been a few new additions lately. As part of a trade for my Bonsai, I got some old school Mowhawks. I added them to the base of the pillar next to the yellow torch and some remnants of ORA Green Birdsnest.
I also added a small frag of Hawkins Echinata which seems to be doing okay.
There have also been a couple additions to my acan garden. It’s been growing like wildfire since I’ve been target feeding the acans at least twice a week. My orange rainbow acans that I got just three months ago have grown from two heads to eleven! Others have added at least two or three heads or babies in the last month or two. I can’t wait to see how everything fills in the in the next few months.
Here’s a close-up of one of my favorites.
A Cryptic Creature
Previously, I posted pics of a sea urchin that’s been in my tank a while. It only comes out at nights, but I was able to get those shots because it was in the middle of a hollow rock. Though, the view was mostly obstructed. Recently, I’ve been seeing it out in the morning. So, I grabbed my camera and got some unobstructed shots with the flash. I hope I haven’t blinded it since it is my understanding that they have photosensitive cells all over their body, essentially making them one big eye. It seems fine though. Check it out. These are my best shots yet. It’s growing so fast!
I never noticed this cool star pattern before.
Speaking of taking pictures early in the morning with a flash, here’s the first non-blurry shots I’ve taken of the clownfish. They sleep VERTICALLY in the nook of the pillar. Sometimes they’re outright shoved up in the corner of it snuggled up next to each other.
The battle continues…
I’m still having issues with algae. I’ve also been picking at small patches of cyano. It got really bad during the last couple weeks. In addition to isolated patches of algae on the display rock, I was competing with GSTGOE (Green $hit That Gets On Everything). I literally had to clean the glass everyday of a thick film of it. The snails were having a field day, leaving trails all over the place. That was kinda fun to see though.
Two days ago, I changed the filter floss (I try to change it weekly, but it had been in there at least three). I also exchanged bags of Chemi-Pure Elite. I was trying to push it to three months on the last bag, but I think it was used up. I always write the date that I put a new bag of CPE in the tank on the container. The last time I changed the bag was the end of August. So I made it about 2.5 months. I guess I’ll change this one after two months.
As a final measure, I put this unsightly thing in the display behind the rock pillar (notice a three other Birdsnest frags recently mounted above the RDE zoas).
In addition to starving out the algae with chaetomorpha in the display, I’m hoping to increase the pod population. There’s a large hole cut out of the bottom of the bottle, and I poked a few holes along the sides.
Finally, I’ve altered my feeding schedule to mostly frozen every other day, and about every other feeding I use more and target feed the acans and my fungia. My old schedule was frozen one day, pellets the next. Also, I was probably feeding too heavily too frequently.
But I think I've scored a victory
In the last two days I've noticed a dramatic, night-and-day difference in the cleanliness of my tank. Algae is already starting to disappear and I haven't seen ANY film on the glass. I'm hoping this trend continues as I keep up with water changes.
There’s one acspect of cleaning my glass that I don’t mind, and that’s little fingerprints on the outside.
Here’s the culprit:
He loves the tank too!
(Haha! This post has too much text...continued on the next post)
Growth!!!
I’ve been seeing particularly good growth in the last few months. The tiny frags of high-end SPS I purchased in the beginning have fully encrusted the plugs and are starting to branch out. Here are some progress pics:
Vivid Rainbow Delight getting blues and purples.
ORA Red Planet is getting a nice pink and branching out. I have two frags of Red Planet next to each other coming out of the side of the pillar. So, they should join together soon. When they start to table they will do so appropriately off the side.
Here’s a milli I got that’s turning a rose color. The funny thing is that the original branch that came on the frag plug hasn’t put out any additional branches. It just encrusted the plug and all of these branches came out of the encrustation in the last five months.
Here’s a better pic of it up close:
Some unknown acro I got at a LFS is now looking almost teal and has awesome polyp extension.
I got a Tierra Del Fuego frag a while back and mounted it to the pillar. It hasn’t started branching out yet, but is certainly encrusting well.
This pic is from 2012.07.25
And here it is today. I made a little animated .gif to kinda get a 3D effect. I hope no one has a seizure looking at it.
My Calitort is making nice progress. The branches are getting longer and getting deeper colors.
At one point I tried to sell this frag of Hawaiian Ding Dang People eaters for $15. No one took it, so I mounted it to the back wall. Six months later it’s become a respectable mini-colony.
Here the colors are a more accurate:
That's all for now. Thanks for checking out my tank!
Sorry about the huge delay. As you can imagine I've been a little preoccupied with the new baby human. He's been crawling around for a while now and is almost walking. Yikes! Hopefully, I'll have time for a regular monthly update in December.
Thanks Miz! I put a lot of time into it. Between taking photos, processing the images, and writing the update I easily spent hours. LOL! It's all fun though. Glad you enjoyed!
Thanks for the post. They're always fun to read and the time and effort your put into them certainly shows. I am months overdue on posting on my tank, but will get back on track once life settles down a bit. I don't mind my son's little finger prints on the outside glass of my tank either
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