ReefGrammie's 90-Gallon Reboot

[sp1187]

"And lo, do not be tempted by guiles of the high nutrient reefer"

2 The Reefers Creed 2:3

I have zero live/dry rock in the system.

I don't use a skimmer.

I don't ever vacuum the sand bed.

I like bristle worms.

I have a single asterina star running around the tank. no population explosion 6 months and counting. doesn't bother the corals.

I have 2 vermatid worms in the DT. no population explosion over 1 year and counting. a colony of King Midas zoas have grown around one. the other is being surrounded by a colony of Blonde Haired Blue-eyed ******* and shrooms.

I don't keep sticks and have no interest in them.

what other verses you got?

 

[sp1187]

I was taking a few pictures this morning and thought of you, @sp1187. This is one of my favorites and is currently in the BioCube. I have few zoanthids with their own dedicated rock, but this Miami Vice colony is well deserving of its own rock. It is also the only zoanthid I've fragged...I hate fragging zoanthids (picture me looking terrified with gloves, glasses, tweezers, and a scalpel and glue in hand). I have 3 polyps currently growing on my Zoanthid World rock. This one came from that vendor of yours where I'm extremely jealous of your local curbside pickup option. I can't wait until it covers the entire rock!

I wish I could ID the colony behind it. My LFS owner handed it to me and said "grow this." I've never seen it before and tried Google images, but haven't been able to find anything. I need to get a better picture and put up a post about it!

love those. don't have any.......yet.
local vendor.... yea, I can't wait for the pandemic to end so I can get back in there and "one of those.... one of those......oooooooo.... what's that? ok..... one of those too."

the ones in the back.... base, mouth and lash color?

 

[ReefGrammie]

love those. don't have any.......yet.
local vendor.... yea, I can't wait for the pandemic to end so I can get back in there and "one of those.... one of those......oooooooo.... what's that? ok..... one of those too."

the ones in the back.... base, mouth and lash color?

As soon as I saw the Miami Vice on their website, I knew I HAD to have those! I have big plans for visiting another favorite vendor in the Orlando area. We talk about taking the grands to Disney one of these days..."You all run along and visit the mouse....Grammie has a few errands to run." ;Joyful

I tried another picture...not the best angle, plus the husband is bugging me because he decided that today would be a great day to change every lightbulb in the garage. Where are the lightbulbs? They've been in the very same closet for the past 20+ years and you still don't know where the lightbulbs are?...oh, and I keep piles of 48" fluorescent tubes stacked everywhere. I finally sent him off to Lowe's. ;Hilarious Men...........

Anyway, back to the picture. I actually found a few variations of this when I googled "fire and ice zoanthids." Actually, there are a ton of variations of fire and ice, but that's what they look like they should be called. Ice blue with a bright orange skirt.

 

[count krunk]

Wwc, tsa, and living reef are all pretty slick stores in Orlando

 

[ReefGrammie]

Wwc, tsa, and living reef are all pretty slick stores in Orlando

TSA is definitely in my top 3! I also have some pieces from WWC. I'll have to check out Living Reef....I hope they don't have live sales! ;Hilarious

 

[ReefGrammie]

Quick!! Help me ID this hitchhiker!! ;Hilarious

I have a slightly sick sense of humor...but I love this picture and especially the hermit crab's expression (do they have expressions?). Some of my hermits are HUGE. I have two that are currently wearing turbo snail shells. I haven't bought turbo snails in years, but I have all sizes and shapes of empty shells scattered inside the rockwork. I guess they grow up, need a new house, and move in!

 

[TriggerFinger]

I love all the critters in our tanks, hermits are really neat to watch. That one does look very big!! I have a massive turbo snail and I can’t imagine a crab filling the shell. Great pic! Hope you’re well, happy 2021 @ReefGrammie!

 

[ReefGrammie]

Yesterday was an adventure...I had a new cleanup crew coming from Liveaquaria....a few emerald crabs, hermits, and snails in 4 bags, 3 of which were black on the bottom so I couldn't see inside. Since I was in a lousy work meeting, I taped them all inside my canopy to temperature acclimate in my usual fashion before adding tank water. I usually look in the bag with a flashlight, but not this time because of the lousy work meeting. I went through my usual process, which is one squirt of tank water via a turkey baster every few minutes for about an hour. That's been my unconventional acclimation process for years and it has worked well so far. I added the emerald crabs, check, hermits, check, one bag of snails, check, and the last bag of snails....where are they?!?! I reached all around the bag because they sometimes clump together in one blob....nothing! I pulled the inner bag and it was clearly empty. I thought maybe they escaped into the outer bag, but nope, nothing! I had a bag marked as 10 banded trochus snails with nothing in the bag!! I called and everything will be taken care of....after the girl could stop laughing, that is. She cracked up when I told her I had acclimated an empty bag. ;Shamefullyembarrased I guess it is pretty funny. ;Hilarious After all my years of reefing, that was a first!!

The crazy thing is those banded trochus snails were the main thing I was after! My LFS doesn't stock them and they're my favorite snails since they're the only ones I know of who can turn themselves upright when they fall off the rock or glass. Plus, they actually reproduce in my tank so I get free baby snails! I do run out occasionally...probably due to some of my huge hermit crabs/tank circle of life. I guess the moral of the story is to look in the bag first...or maybe the moral of the story is to avoid lousy work meetings!

 

[sp1187]

Yesterday was an adventure...I had a new cleanup crew coming from Liveaquaria....a few emerald crabs, hermits, and snails in 4 bags, 3 of which were black on the bottom so I couldn't see inside. Since I was in a lousy work meeting, I taped them all inside my canopy to temperature acclimate in my usual fashion before adding tank water. I usually look in the bag with a flashlight, but not this time because of the lousy work meeting. I went through my usual process, which is one squirt of tank water via a turkey baster every few minutes for about an hour. That's been my unconventional acclimation process for years and it has worked well so far. I added the emerald crabs, check, hermits, check, one bag of snails, check, and the last bag of snails....where are they?!?! I reached all around the bag because they sometimes clump together in one blob....nothing! I pulled the inner bag and it was clearly empty. I thought maybe they escaped into the outer bag, but nope, nothing! I had a bag marked as 10 banded trochus snails with nothing in the bag!! I called and everything will be taken care of....after the girl could stop laughing, that is. She cracked up when I told her I had acclimated an empty bag. ;Shamefullyembarrased I guess it is pretty funny. ;Hilarious After all my years of reefing, that was a first!!

The crazy thing is those banded trochus snails were the main thing I was after! My LFS doesn't stock them and they're my favorite snails since they're the only ones I know of who can turn themselves upright when they fall off the rock or glass. Plus, they actually reproduce in my tank so I get free baby snails! I do run out occasionally...probably due to some of my huge hermit crabs/tank circle of life. I guess the moral of the story is to look in the bag first...or maybe the moral of the story is to avoid lousy work meetings!

Monday's meeting agenda.... discuss what should be discussed on Tuesday.

 

[najer]

Smooooth! ;Facepalm

 

[ReefGrammie]

This post has nothing to do with my neglected tanks, but this is my life. My dog was very ill about a week and a half ago and was diagnosed with pancreatitis. She has had it once before and we almost lost her then. She's 9, so she's technically a senior, but she's definitely not super elderly (previous dogs lived to be 16 and 14). She was treated and was doing ok...so we thought...until she went into a crisis at midnight last Sunday. Off to the animal ER in the middle of the night, where we didn't know if she would survive the night. She had an ultrasound Monday morning, which showed her gallbladder had ruptured, and we were given the choice of putting her down or a very risky surgery. After much crying and pacing and crying, we decided it was worth giving her another chance. We didn't know if she would survive the surgery, but she did. We were then faced with 48 hours of her being in critical condition. She made it to discharge and went home Wednesday evening, which was terrifying because she still wasn't out of the woods. The clinic felt she had reached the point of diminishing returns, she wouldn't take any food whatsoever, and they felt she would do better at home.

She's still doing ok, but there are some abnormal labs still going on. She's on 10 pills twice a day. BUT, the good news for us is she's feeling better, showing a little spunk, and she's eating some. We feel like she's out of immediate danger, but we still have no idea what is to come. We go back to our regular vet Friday for suture removal and more labs.

I haven't slept in my regular bed in over a week and have been on the couch trying to sleep with one eye open. I'm mentally and physically completely exhausted, but it will all be worth it to have our girl around for a while longer. I made her promise to give us a few more years after putting us through this!

Thankfully, my tank is fairly well automated. I've managed to keep the fish fed through all of this. Last weekend, I ran the RO/DI unit and filled the ATO reservoir plus every water jug I had, so I had plenty of water on hand. Water changes will have a wait a bit, but alk and calcium are being dosed. I may check levels today, if I can get up the energy. I just did fish rollcall and all fish and shrimp are accounted for except for the YWM goby, who is usually holed up with the pistol shrimp anyway.

Otherwise, I'm just hanging in there for now, hoping and praying that the better days continue!

 

[ReefGrammie]

Things are better with our sweet girl, so we all feel better around here.

Well, the Hawaiian ban bit me! I should have bought a Kole tang while I had the chance. Liveaqauria has them....for $300!!! Umm, I don't think so. I guess I'll wait on deciding on a tang. I only have room for one, and it will need to be one of the smaller varieties. I need to make a trip to the LFS anyway to check out the latest stock.

 

[WiscoFishNut]

Things are better with our sweet girl, so we all feel better around here.

Well, the Hawaiian ban bit me! I should have bought a Kole tang while I had the chance. Liveaqauria has them....for $300!!! Umm, I don't think so. I guess I'll wait on deciding on a tang. I only have room for one, and it will need to be one of the smaller varieties. I need to make a trip to the LFS anyway to check out the latest stock.

Glad to hear about doggo doin better! Sounds like its time to look in to captive breeding some tangs lol

 

[ReefGrammie]

Maya is thrilled. She got a good report yesterday and is allowed back on the couch. She hated it when the humans told her "no" (it was for her own good) and is not used to such a terrible word from the humans. We're such softies... ;Shamefullyembarrased No long walks, though, so she's still less that happy with us.

Today I have time for some TLC for my neglected tanks! Thank goodness for automation. I checked a few levels and everything is ok. Skimmer is a little "ripe," but nothing terrible. I'm doing a w/c on the BioCube because it's easy. Maybe the 90 tomorrow. Running the RO/DI unit....hopefully, I won't forget and flood the carpet. Set my usual duck alarm on the the phone as a reminder! The duck alarm works great. It's extremely annoying and reminds me very time to change water jugs....unless I've accidently left the phone somewhere upstairs and it's quacking away and I don't hear it. It's also pretty embarrassing when you're unmuted on a work call with 30 people and the duck starts quacking....except that's never happened to me...nope! My coworker IM'd me and asked, "Is that your duck alarm quacking?" Oops. ;Hilarious

 

[ReefGrammie]

After a little tank maintenance, I decided to take a few top down pictures. I tried to crop out the lights as much as possible...hard to do when they're built in my canopy.

JF Fox Flame. The picture doesn't do it justice. This is one of my favorite pieces, especially when the actinics are on. It was a tiny little thing when I first received the frag!

Not a great picture, but I can't wait for these monticaps to start spiraling around each other. I love the grafted pieces. I had monticaps in my first tank and really enjoyed them. The royal gramma says hi!

I LOVE encrusting pieces. Dragon fruit is kind of a coral base with light blue polyps. It has grown so much and I love the coloration....same with Bizarro. It's so hard to find a "true" yellow.

Did I mention I love encrusting pieces? This is the section with the ricordeas and acans (whatever they're called now), but I think the focal point of this picture is the Jedi Mind trick monti. It is one of the few pieces I had in my previous tank that I really wanted again.

Did I mention that I love encrusting pieces? ;Hilarious This rainbow monti is showing it's purple now. I have it on a shelf rock and can't want until it encrusts the entire rock. That's Purple Rain above it (gotta love Prince) and JF Beach Bum to the left...it's still light acclimating and will be moved.

I need to work on a FTS....haven't done one lately!

 

[ReefGrammie]

Well, this is shaping up to be a really bad and good fish day.

Bad and partially good: I finally found a Kole tang reasonably priced. Acclimated the little guy yesterday and added him to the tank with lights out. Instead of hiding like most of my additions do, and gradually coming out little by little, the fish decided to be out all the time and was being attacked constantly. I finally got him in my fish trap after he had been really torn up. I felt horrible. He lived through the night...somehow. The pygmy angel and one of the damsels keep attacking the box, but he was actually giving them the fin earlier. If he survives, I'll keep him in the box for a few weeks. He has a section of PVC pipe in there for a "cave." He hasn't eaten and I'm sure is really traumatized. I've tried freeze dried brine soaked in Selcon, frozen brine, and flakes. Any suggestions are appreciated! I'll just keep trying. The only fish with a mouth big enough to take chunks out of his tail is the clown, who just may be relocated into the BioCube if I even get the chance for reintroduction.

Good: I actually thought the Kole tang jumped into the overflow because I saw something out of the corner of my eye. Looked with a flashlight and saw nothing. My flasher wrasse just happened to disappear about a week ago and I feared he was dead. Nope, that was him in the overflow! I found him earlier today! He must have made one heck of a jump because I actually have a big piece of mesh ziptied around the overflow for that very reason. I haven't had a fish in there in a long time....until now. I can't get him out, but I can at least keep him fed until one of my long-armed sons can come to town. We've done an overflow rescue before by pulling the spout and draining into the sump, but if the fish doesn't drain, he's trapped at the bottom of the overflow and I don't have arms long enough to reach down there! He's fed now and I'll at least keep feeding him. Should have one of our sons here in a few weeks.

I actually thought about putting the Kole tang in the BioCube for a few weeks, but then I'd have to start the reintroduction process all over again if he makes it. I'm trying to keep him "visible" to the other fish in the 90, but I don't know if that's a terrible idea or not. My fish trap is also an acclimation box, but I've used it more as a fish trap than anything and almost forget I even had it! Should I put the tang in the BioCube and treat it as a "hospital tank" for now? There are no fish in there....just duncans and zoanthids and a snail/emerald crab or two. He's pretty small, probably 2-1/2 inches. He also seems ok in the box, so it might be better to just leave him in there and see how things go.

 

[najer]

Can you put some rock or rubble in with micro / macro on, it wants to graze?

 

[ReefGrammie]

Good idea on the rubble! I need to check with my other LFS today to see if they have something he would graze on. I just have chaeto in the refugium. I did pick up some algae wafers at the LFS yesterday and he's picking at those. They didn't have any algae sheets, so I'm going to the other LFS today to pick up some. A suction cup clip should stick inside the acrylic box.

At least the little tang is eating, so hopefully will heal up and can be reintroduced. He's eating both flake food and freeze dried brine shrimp soaked in Selcon. At first, some of the other fish were attacking the box, but I've noticed them backing off now. I still plan to put the mean clown in the BioCube before reintroduction. Actually, the pygmy angel is showing the most aggressive behavior, so I might put both of them in the BioCube! I know I can catch the clown...the pygmy angel might be a little tougher to catch, but taping a mirror tile to the end of the acclimation box/fish trap lured the evil six-line wrasse into the trap...that fish was a monster!

The flasher wrasse is still in the corner overflow, but he's being fed now (since I figured out he was in there). I'm changing the filter socks regularly to keep from feeding the sump!

 

[TriggerFinger]

Glad that Maya is feeling better! My goodest puppy girl is going to be 9 in April, they’re the best.
I recently “lost” lady clown and found her in the overflow 30 DAYS later. Your wrasse will be fine, especially since you are intentionally feeding it. Btw; I looked for her in that box TWICE when she went missing and I didn’t see her.
All of your encrusters look great! Ive had bad luck with encrusters...maybe I’ll try that dragonfuit if I get the nerve again.
Also, with the new tang; I would try to put the bullies in the bio cube since they’re smaller. Maybe they will “forget” about the 90 while they are away in time out and the tang can get more comfortable?

 

[ReefGrammie]

Glad that Maya is feeling better! My goodest puppy girl is going to be 9 in April, they’re the best.
I recently “lost” lady clown and found her in the overflow 30 DAYS later. Your wrasse will be fine, especially since you are intentionally feeding it. Btw; I looked for her in that box TWICE when she went missing and I didn’t see her.
All of your encrusters look great! Ive had bad luck with encrusters...maybe I’ll try that dragonfuit if I get the nerve again.
Also, with the new tang; I would try to put the bullies in the bio cube since they’re smaller. Maybe they will “forget” about the 90 while they are away in time out and the tang can get more comfortable?

Thanks!! The same thing happened to my clown goby...he took the wild ride through the plumbing into the sump and I never dreamed he was in there. Something caught the corner of my eye, and there he was! He was in there for weeks probably. Crazy thing is after I put him back in the tank, he did it again! That's when I added that mesh strip. That flasher wrasse really took a leap to get in the overflow. He seems fine in his corner apartment for now.

I'm really watching the bullies and have thought about temporary relocation into the BioCube...great suggestion! I've actually used my acclimation box more as a fish trap than an acclimation box over the years. I'm also underfeeding right now (except for the Kole tang) just in case I need to trap a fish or two. That's how I trap them, by tilting the acclimation box a little with the lid open and feeding inside the box. I've had 4-5 fish in there at the same time before!

The dragonfruit has really grown and seems pretty happy where it is, which is pretty low in the tank in an area of low flow. I have other encrusters higher up in areas of higher flow, so who knows what they prefer! Otherwise, I just keep my alk and calcium in balance and broadcast feed ReefRoids or Reef Chili about twice a week.

Good to see you on here! I hope all is well. ;Joyful