It’s been a while since I did an update, let’s start with a FTS for April:
Closeup of left side, or as I’m calling it euphyllia-land:
Right structure:
The view from the dining room:
The view from my favorite chair:
Some closeups:
Octospawns:
Hammer time:
Torches:
Everything is growing new heads, I couldn’t get a pic of the new heads coming in on my blasto, but there’s 5 and I’m super happy about it!
I’ve also decided to try my hand at SPS. I invested a whopping $15 bucks in 3 frags, a gamora Acro, no name milli, and a neon green birds nest, which I’m really hoping will grow:
We’ve got 3 new residents, 1 each of peppermint shrimp (which I only se when feeding). Coral banded shrimp which is als very reclusive, and this skunk cleaner shrimp who is super friendly and follows me around the tank and hops on my hand and starts cleaning it every time I’ve got it in the tank:
Coral banded hiding in his cave:
The hair algae battle has been slow going, I’ve been keeping up vibrant treatments, tried adding chaeto to the refugium, but it melted, I’ve heard vibrant can do that. Did 24 hours lights out followed by 1 week blues only, did a ton of manual removal and scrubbing with a toothbrush during that time and I’ve finally got it under control. I’m just now going back to 2 hours a day of whites. I don’t see any need to have them on any longer. There aren’t any fish yet and the corals pop under the blues. Anyone know of any possible detrimental effects I might be in for with this kind of light schedule (12 hours of blues and 2 hours of whites near the end of the blue cycle) basically it goes 8 hours blue, 2 hours full spectrum, 2 hours blue, off.
Right on cue cyano has started to show up as I’ve gotten the hair algae under control. Knock on wood so far it hasn’t had a massive bloom like GHA, Dinos, and diatoms did...
My parameters are holding pretty steady, ammonia is consistently 0, nitrate hovers around 2, at least its detectable now. Phosphates are a little high at 0.08, it’s likely what fueled the GHA bloom, they were above .1 for a while. I can’t figure out where they’re coming from. I may have been over feeding and I’ve cut that back a little. Nitrite has been stubbornly hovering at 0.05, which is really annoying me, it was at 0 for a long time, but I can’t get it back there. I’ve heard Dinos can kill off your beneficial bacteria, and I think that’s what might have happened, I’ve ordered some dr. Tims to help reseed the tank.
I’m also getting set to get the first batch of fish into QT next week or the week after, I’m planning to add the following:
- McCosker’s flasher wrasse
- Carpenter’s flasher wrasse
- linespot flasher wrasse
- blue flasher wrasse
- diamond watchman goby
- lawnmower blenny
The last two are for some help I desperately need keeping the tank clean, and I want to add all 4 flashers at once to limit aggression, I want them displaying at eachother, not ganging up on the new one. I’m worried that 6 fish at once may be a lot to start out with though, both in the 20 broader QT and in the possibly damaged biofulter in the DT being able to handle the large bioload all at once. I am doing TTM, so since they’ll go in new water every 3 days maybe I’m worried about nothing with the bioload in QT, were also going on vacation the week after they will be added, I’ve got a tank sitter but it’s a company, so if something goes wrong they can probably handle it, but it’s gonna cost me. I’m looking for some feedback here, would you do the 6 at once to start or just the 2 cleaners and get the wrasses after I get back from the trip?
Also I noticed these odd little spots on 2 of my hammers today (came from the same mother colony) I was worried they might be eggs from some sort of pest at first, but someone also said they thought it might be Gammetes, which would be pretty neat, winter if that would have something to do with the weird light cycle I’ve had the tank on...
