The heater on the tank went kaput, no idea why and not sure what damage it caused. The actual temp. never went down lower than 75.3-4 degrees, but the dial unit had a weird electrical burn sort of smell to it and the actual heater (titanium) had an iridescent burn on the end, not good :/ The company is resending another and I have used their heaters an my 75g for almost 2 years without incident, so I have to think this was just a bad unit(?). After the heater went, the sinularia and the neon toadstool looked wilted and closed up, respectively. Also, one of the cardinal's died So it makes me think something toxic may have been released into the water. I ran some carbon and made up some water for a water change. After a couple hours running carbon, the affected coral looked much better.
On the upside, I did get some of the equipment organized better and things better automated. Figured out the Reefkeeper Lite (wow, their manual is of little to no help, btw), mainly from their online forum. I didn't even have any complicated programming either........I have a pH probe I still need to calibrate and install. Here's what I did with the control units. Mounted most things on a piece of wood, then mounted that to the wall. HATE having things laying all over the ground; makes me worried that they'll 1. Get wet, and 2. I'll get confused on what's what in an emergency. So it's looking better, still a work in progress.
The tiny macro algae frags have been doing well, for the most part. I did get some more to replace some of the ones I lost. Unfortunately, the blue ochtode, which had survived shipping this time around, was somehow blown away last night and of course, I think it was my favorite one. I tried in a last ditch attempt to keep it in one place by gluing it to a frag, but the part that touched the glue died, probably helping the rest of it blow away Going to order it one more time, hopefully the third time will be a charm. Going to try something different this time to hold it down while it attaches to the rock, wish me luck, I apparently will need it, lol!
Blue ochtode, note the pink where it was glued; that part is dead. Love the blue color though.....
Green gracilaria
Violet Dream
Red grape bot. Love that all the little "grapes" have grown back and this one apparently doesn't mind being glued down.
Codium. This is really taking off! Many new knobs and branches forming, love it
FINALLY got around to fragging the rather large Tyree neon green toadstool. Did it yesterday while the kids napped and it took a good hour and half, phew! Tedious work, sewed 19 frags onto plugs, then glued the nylon threads down to the plugs So they're all over the tank right now, obviously going to have to remove most of them at some point, just plan on keeping the biggest frag in the tank and selling the rest.
And the original toadstool, before fragging. Not the best picture to see the size, but it was ~6-7" across.
The neon green sinularia. It has a light green neon color to it, but I can't seem to capture this with my camera.
Excited that with the warmer weather comes more macro algaes in stock at the few places that really sell them I placed an order at Gulf Coast Ecosystems last week that will come sometime this week, can't wait They finally had some c. barbata in, love the look of that one.
Here's what I have coming:
c. barbata
sargassum
red gracilaria
yellow finger gorgonian
purple sea rod gorgonian
Was looking for something with some height and I'm hoping the gorgonian's will fit that bill. The gracilaria will hopefully find a spot somewhere in this tank, otherwise it will go into a 5g bucket for the time being with a light, heater and a powerhead until I get my other refugium going. I'll be sure to update with pictures once I get things acclimated and placed into the tank............
So the macros and gorgonians came in from Gulf Coast Ecosystems this past Thursday. Shipped on Monday and took 3 days to come from Florida. Everything looked good, temps for shipping were wonderful, with the exception of the snail bag which somehow got punctured in transit and the water drained out Surprisingly, the 13 cerith snails pulled through it all, although they were pretty sluggish for about a day or so. It was quite a lot of work unpacking everything and getting things mounted, took me a couple of hours between all that and watching my two kids Also had to move and acclimate all the little toadstool frags into my bigger tank, as there just wasn't room in this one with all the new plants!
Here are the gorgonians in their shipping bags:
Here are the plugs I use to mount some of the macros......I put a bit of reef glue inside, add the frag, then add a little epoxy to keep them in. Has worked pretty good for most of them.
The sargassum after I rinsed it off:
The red gracilaria
C. barbata
It took awhile to find the right spot for things and also balance their different needs for light and flow etc. Its still a work in progress, but I'm liking it pretty well right now Love the fact that I sort of filled up my tank for like $60 shipped I think a pint of the red gracilaria was $8......will have to come up with a final price list here pretty soon, as I don't have much more to add.
Left side of tank
Right side of the tank
Some of the c. barbata and the violet dream. They sent a TON of the barbata, so I have it all over the place at the moment
The codium and a frag of the barbata that came attached to a small rock. Barbata is not where a had it.......like the look of the two greens together though. The codium is really growing well
The purple sea rod. Its currently sloughing tissue, not sure if its supposed to slough as much as it is or if its not happy. The do slough tissue, but I was thinking it was more of a superficial sloughing. I email GCE to ask them about it, we'll see I guess.
The yellow finger gorgonian; I LOVE this thing It is cool on so many levels. It has these white flower-like polyps that are out 90% of the time filter feeding, then retract for a bit, then come back out. The base is a bright orange; just colorful and interesting, and inexpensive as well. Hoping I can keep it happy and thriving!
The sargassum. Love the little air bladders all over it that keep it upright. Yes, its BROWN, but I think it has an interesting look
And a full tank shot. Since adding all these macros, my nitrates went from ~ 5ppm to 0ppm! Normally, I would be thrilled, but in a tank full of macro algaes, ummm, now I'm worried about how I can get my numbers back up, lol Looking into dosing now and reading up on iron and nitrates etc. I want to see growth continue, but don't want to overdo it. Also added an adorable little cleaner shrimp the same day as all the macros, not sure what in the world I was thinking, adding yet another thing to the tank that day, but he's found his little niche in the tank and is a feisty little fellow. The kids really enjoy watching him
Last edited by phishcrazee; 03-25-2012 at 08:36 AM.