The Trash Can (IM Nuvo 20) - Slow Go

[slogan315]

Had a fun little weekend, found my first aiptasia on a frag which I scraped off (outside the tank) with an xacto knife. Tested nutrients again, still 0/0 on phos/nitrate. Been feeding quite a bit to work against this so the coral don't suffer. At the very least I can see some growth on most of my pieces, especially the zoas. I've ordered neophos and neonitro to try and get these up a bit, also removed the chemipure from my filtration.

Spent a while this morning/afternoon worried about my male clown because he keeps laying on a rock but I think I've landed on goofy clown behavior as I'm not seeing any other signs of illness. Will keep an eye on this. I'm also planning on cutting off the wavemaker and just doing the return for tonight to see if it's a sleep issue.

Working on my water mixing station and glued the wrong piece into the pump plumbing adapter so have to wait 10+ days to get a new set from eBay.

I digress, all told things are still going quite well, just a bunch of turds in a couple day span!

Frustrating on the pump! FWIW, just watched your video update in the earlier post and flow does not look to be an issue for the clowns. Plus you have all kinds of lower flow spots (based on watching the corals) where they could retreat to if needed. My clowns sleep/swim in the top corner of the tank every night, where they have every night regardless of the flow. As I’ve changed pumps and intensities many times over the past 8 months.

 

[robotrash]

Frustrating on the pump! FWIW, just watched your video update in the earlier post and flow does not look to be an issue for the clowns. Plus you have all kinds of lower flow spots (based on watching the corals) where they could retreat to if needed. My clowns sleep/swim in the top corner of the tank every night, where they have every night regardless of the flow. As I’ve changed pumps and intensities many times over the past 8 months.

Yeah I would expect to see similar behaviors from the female if they weren't able to find a spot. I ultimately decided to compromise and set the powerheads to switch every hour instead of every 15 min in the hopes it will allow for a bigger window to find a spot if that even were the issue.

Since feeding yesterday I haven't noticed the clown laying down anymore. I've decided to split the brine cube and feed twice per day with the occasional flake throughout the day which they shockingly seem to enjoy, or at least eat without spitting it back out.

 

[hikermike]

Did some coral shopping this weekend.

Came back with a hairy green mushroom colony with some random zoas on the side. This rock replaces the old center rock which was some dry rock anyway. I also like that this one is shorter which opens up the front of the tank a bit.

Also grabbed a nice looking Ricordea, couldn't tell you the name and a small frag of some orange bam bam zoas that haven't quite opened yet. Here's some shots:

FTS 9/17/23:

Plan on ordering a filter for these shots... RAW editing doesn't seem to be very reliant for FTS so far for me.

Also added some pods that my LFS cultivates for some bio-diversity and the occasional coral snack. Feeding with phyto every couple of days.

Those mushrooms will soon take over your tank...Hope you have plans for a bigger tank!

 

[robotrash]

Those mushrooms will soon take over your tank...Hope you have plans for a bigger tank!

I do! But they're also sequestered on an island (the greenies anyway) so I'm not terribly concerned at the moment

 

[robotrash]

Small update without pictures (not happy with the state of things).

Got a massive hair algae outbreak and unfortunately one or more of my frags brought in some aiptasia, some already a decent size. I've got berghias on the way for the aiptasia. Ive got more CUC on the way to assist with algae cleanup as well. I'm considering an urchin or margaritas, hoping to find a smaller tuxedo locally if I can.

The last week has been using my hands, aquarium scissors, tongs, and pipettes to pull algae off of rocks and away from the coral (primarily the zoas I'm worried about getting covered).

The aiptasia is definitely bothering a couple corals but berghias (3) will be here tomorrow and I intend to get the to work on my favorites first.

I've cut all whites from my light schedule for the last couple days which seems to have halted the new algae growth to some degree but the coral are looking a bit worse for wear.

Tomorrow I'll be ramping whites back up a tad in the hopes that I'll see the typical feeding response I've been getting from most of the LPS. One torch is also looking supremely unhappy so hoping bringing whites back in will help.

Nitrates are still bottomed out, phosphates shot to 0.25 so trying to reel back my feeding now until they level back below 0.1. I did do one dose of neonitro today so will test nitrates again tomorrow, based on the amount of algae I'm not expecting the nirrates to stay in the water column long.

Water change tomorrow.

On the bright side, I do have my water station nearly complete:

It's overkill but got a jebao dcp-20k from my LFS used for $40. Works well after a citric bath and scrub. Hoping that having it on the lowest output plus some valve trickery will keep it reasonable. Moves a TON of water! Should have the station wrapped tomorrow and I can dabble in mixing myself some water for next week's water change.

These are the points in my hobbies that I tend to falter (first signs of failure) but my fish are happy and healthy and even come to the surface when I approach now. The shrimp even comes out and hangs out near the feeding cup I got for feeding frozen. I'm focusing on keeping my baseline water good for them and have accepted that I may lose a coral or two along the journey to recovery and stability. I also know that I put in coral too early so I'll have to accept it

 

[robotrash]

Alrighty folks, I've come out the other end (somewhat) of the extremely ugly part. The algae was bonkers but it has started subsiding to the point that manual removal seems to be enough as the CUC can clear the short bits.

The 3 berghia Nudibranch I got seem to have worked a treat. I only have one confirmed aiptasia left that I know of and it's on the opposite side of the tank from where I dropped the trio originally. I caught one of the nudis out this morning and gently moved it nearer to the aiptasia and I have not seen it extended since, will have to see this evening since they seem to be more aggressively extended as the lights dim.

I'm still sitting pretty flat on nitrates and doing neonitro dosing every couple days to try and raise it but I'm hesitant to do a bunch of dosing this early. Would rather try to work through it naturally with feedings.

Some pics to break up the text:

FTS as of about an hour ago (everything is happy and growing!)

Florida Ricordea that has grown a second mouth (other side of the fold on the left). The patch of hair algae there is the worst in the tank, I don't see my CUC there much, not sure why.

Female clown has fully claimed this pink hammer and is hosting, much to the hammer's chagrin. It is getting better, more inflated over time but initially was very upset with her. It's also recently been splitting and has since added a second mouth which may not help the stress of the situation.

Other than that everything is going well. Not testing (alk/cal/mag) as much as I should but I can also pretty easily tell when I'm due for a WC (torches get a bit tighter/shorter) so I'm feeling pretty okay about that. Haven't started mixing my own water either so I'll have to be wary of that when I do.

My CUC has grown by:
14 Dwarf Cerith
2 Dwarf Trochus
1 Halloween Hermit Crab
2 Zebra Turbo Snail
1 Emerald/Ruby Mithrax Crab

They've all been working hard and the mithrax crab has started getting a bit more confident at feeding time. The crab cave is on the top of the top rock so pretty easy to give him a snack if I'm feeling inclined. The top rock is sparkly clean now due to that crab.

Lost a couple hermits due to infighting. I've added some larger empty shells and 2 of them immediately moved up so I imagine it was due to that!

Surprisingly the starfish is still going strong. The moment I see it climbing for over a day I'll be taking it back. It still spends a lot of time moving under the sand so there must be enough down there at the moment to sustain it.

The cleaner shrimp has already molted twice, seems he's getting more than his fair share of snacks!

I'm cautiously looking at adding another fish, likely a dwarf wrasse. Either a pink-streaked or a possum. I love them both. Besides that, just filling in with coral while I analyze whether I want a larger tank or to ride this one out and tap out if it crashes, overfills (maintenance fragging), etc.

No matter what, next tank will be bare bottom. If it weren't for the sand this tank would be significantly more cleaned up by now.

And that's it!

 

[robotrash]

Everything is going well, still not testing as much as I probably should be (aside from salinity) but doing water changes every 7-10 days (still with LFS water) which seems to keep me plenty stable. Most, if not all of my euphyllia has added mouths since I added them. Most of the zoa's are good but a couple got hit pretty hard with algae and are taking a while to open back up after cleaning them off.

Clowns are noticeably larger and the female is notably more rude to the male. He gets a brief respite every now and then but is often in the top of the water column waiting for her to stop watching him. They both eat like pigs still.

Avoided BF weekend (month?) deals until today (aside from a pod/phyto purchase from DAG). I snagged a violet tip frogspawn and some plating montipora frags to try out as I'd love to get some nice shelves going off the top rock. Those will be here next month (along with some photos no doubt).

Debating on moving my heater to the center chamber (return) to free up a chamber for some macros to aid in the algae wars. Still haven't decided for sure yet though!

Crossing my fingers I'll win one of the many tank raffles/drawings coming up

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Everything is going well, still not testing as much as I probably should be (aside from salinity) but doing water changes every 7-10 days (still with LFS water) which seems to keep me plenty stable. Most, if not all of my euphyllia has added mouths since I added them. Most of the zoa's are good but a couple got hit pretty hard with algae and are taking a while to open back up after cleaning them off.

Clowns are noticeably larger and the female is notably more rude to the male. He gets a brief respite every now and then but is often in the top of the water column waiting for her to stop watching him. They both eat like pigs still.

Avoided BF weekend (month?) deals until today (aside from a pod/phyto purchase from DAG). I snagged a violet tip frogspawn and some plating montipora frags to try out as I'd love to get some nice shelves going off the top rock. Those will be here next month (along with some photos no doubt).

Debating on moving my heater to the center chamber (return) to free up a chamber for some macros to aid in the algae wars. Still haven't decided for sure yet though!

Crossing my fingers I'll win one of the many tank raffles/drawings coming up

Best of luck to the raffles!