No Presh Reef

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Harvested another tub of chaeto and found my mushroom has split. It wasn't getting much light w all the macro.. Pretty neat.

 

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Awesome

 

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Went with another AI Prime (instead of the Blade). Covers really nicely on this size tank... Dropped my saxby preset from 80% highest peak to 60 and set a 7 day acclimation starting at 50%. So far everything seems happy including me

Also bought this magnetic frag 'rock' thing as a perch for my Hawkfish to sit on (used to leave the cleaner magnet in there but too many spiorbid worms, etc. grow on it).. Regardless. This thing looks terrible under the lights imo. Like shards of glass. Hoping something encrusts on it and dulls it a bit. So far the Hawkfish won't go near it

 

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My anemone wasn't coming out for about a week. Was fully open but covering it's cave instead of stretching out and up toward the light. Was worried but everything else thriving so I didn't do anything. Then it split. I think the foot was splitting the whole week, behind the mantle out of my view and then it finished last sunday. It's been hiding in the dark most of this week but today finally came out for some light!



Also added a montipora setosa and montipora digitata about a three weeks ago, a week or so apart. The dead spot on the setosa was there day one...

 

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Lookin better every day. Relieved they're both healthy

 

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Snails need to step it up Added a tuxedo urchin to the mix

 

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Corals are starving! Nitrates have been high (~50} for months. Corals looking great (especially softies). Np imo until I started to get a few patches of gha. So over time, I increased water changes (slightly), fed less, added cuc for gha, added coral, wetter skimming; to try to get no3 down. Po4 ~1 (salifert for both) forever. Had a 2x2 patch of cyano on sand, vacuumed it with wc. Started getting what I think were strings of dinos on tips of corals. Blowing them off with baster daily. That slowed down,gha halted and reduced a bit by cuc, but zoas, gsp, hammer lookin bummed and not full open. Checked no3 and it's bottomed out - 0. Po4 ~.5. Started feeding heavy the past week; leaving skimmer off longer and reducing chaeto light photo period (has been growing good but not crazy imo;maybe the issue though). Each day corals look a little better. Planning to move everything to a new 60 g in a few weeks so I broke down and bought brightwell neonitro and phos (also ammonium chloride but the shipping was too far out). Hoping I can get everything back to normal before the stress of the move.

Caulastrea about to split (if I can feed it enough )

 

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Seems to be working. Gsp almost back to fully open and Nems lookin great!

 

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Seems to be working. Gsp almost back to fully open and Nems lookin great!

Glad the anemones are doing good!

 

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Almost there. Goin to pick up a 60 and 40 g breeder for my new setup. Drilling overflow and return this time and hard plumbing. All parts are in. Will drill tomorrow at the new place

 

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Also picked up this huge interesting rock for the new tank. Started to Dremel out the middle a bit for a swim through

 

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It's been a harrowing week. Setup new 60 gallon breeder with 40 gallon diy sump kit. Created 100+ gal RODI water. Moving...Uggh! Moved the rock and corals last night and the fish this morning. Nems already out and everyone is accounted for minus the Skunk Cleaner who didn't survive the car trip for some reason . Gotta go back and comb sand at old tank for corisse Wrasse. Couldn't find him this morning and I wanted to get the fish movin.. Overall happy but exhausted

 

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Still got some wire cleanup and rocks to rearrange but it's gettin there

 

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Went back and got my pistol shrimp and Wrasse! Without any structure in the tank the shrimp was up top behind the wier box. Poked him out and netted him.

The wrasse was in the sand so I started dragging my tongs through and it popped out. Problem is it kept diving back into the sand! So I'd approach slowly with the tongs til it cam out again. Eventually I think it knew I was helping and it sort of just went into the net, lol.

Also found another emerald and more snails and some spaghetti worms. I know I have more snails though so I'm trying to figure out a way to sift the old sand better before I break down the old tank and toss it

 

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thinkin about letting my gsp and xenia take over the refugium instead of chaeto. I'll do some research but I think it'd look so much better and idk if i want the gsp up top so large; definitely not the xenia (thank God it never took off for me).

 

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Last night I was looking all over and couldn't find my hammer. I was pretty tired so not thinking too clear. Shot out to the old apt to look for it around midnight. Nowhere to be found. I was perplexed. Earlier in the day found a tub of zoas I forgot in the return chamber and it sank (they were fine) so I figured it must be somewhere I missed. Got home around 1:30 and found it in the tub I put it in with the top on but tipped over on the ground under some debris (fish room is chaos right now). Put it in the tank and it's good! I was so relieved. Everyone accounted for. Still a little bummed about the cleaner shrimp but maybe it was nearing it's end of life anyway? Maybe I was too rough catching it? Idk....bugs me

 

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To do's (in no particular order):
Setup ato (making rodi now)
Finish screen top (brs diy kit)
Rearrange rocks a bit
Remove temporary heater
Comb old tank for life - grab chaeto
Wire cleanup
Build top for sump overflow chamber (bubbles making a little mess on lines etc)
Finish cleaning skimmer and install (no rush here, tank needs nutrients right now - I didn't take any old water, the rocks were valuable to me)
Full battery of tests (dose N or P as necessary)

Edit: oh... And CLEAN UP! lol

 

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New tank's settling in. Corals are growing. No more (relatively) daily growth on the sand. I stopped daily dosing NO3 + PO4. Maintaining with 2 part daily.

Finally got around to finishing the top. Wanna get another portal for the opposite side. There's about a 1" gap in the back but I'm going to figure out another solution there. Literally just did this the other day; fish haven't jumped and I loved having the open top but I want more fish and don't want to worry...

A few weeks ago picked up 2 baby Banggai Cardinals at my LFS, following all this ban hoopla, figured why not.. Well one was barely swimming by the time I got home and I put it in the refugium and never saw it again. Assumed the worms got it. The other has been doing great but solo. Went back to the lfs today to get it a mate. I didn't ask for it but when I mentioned the condition of the last one I was offered a replacement for free (great service at this lfs). Got it home and put it in the refugium. Both were fine in the dark (ref light comes on at 1:30am at the moment). So I'm up when it comes on and got to check on the tiny cardinals. I'm looking all over the sump and find one but not the other. So I start looking in other sump chambers and find one in the return! Twitching to stay away from the pump! I net it and get it over to the refugium chamber. Then I notice two already there! Both of the original 2 survived! This one in the return must have been the weak one and it's been living it's best life in there the past few weeks and has gotten stronger. Well now I have a little school and I couldn't be happier I didn't lose any. I'll mention it next time I'm at the lfs..

Also picked up this sps. They thought it was a digitata. It's dark purple with what looked like gold polyps at the shop but now look green under this wierd ref lighting... If you have any ideas lmk please

terrible pic I know
And now I'm going to bed

 

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My two little montis are comin along...slowly but surely (shopping for dosers at the moment to help step things up a bit)

Here's where they started

This one has re-grown flesh over the bleached part

and this little guy's getting his horns...awwww

I'd like to think they'd be further along if not for the move and new setup but c'est la vie...it's not a race, right? Steady automated dosing in my near future ...

 

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Oh and a little love to my grand master yaddah yaddah... still goin.. accidentally broke a tip off during the move. Luckily the old mount spot on this rock was on top and so I'm hoping the two grow to meet each other in a glorious manner