Sorry I've been out of contact for awhile. I've just been busy with life, switching between new contracts and companies. Dealing with life mostly and just slowing down a bit to observe and breath while straightening things out.
Before I ramble on throughout the day while I work, here's the latest parameters from when I last tested about a week and a half ago.
DT
Temp: 77.9
SG: 1.026
PH: 8.1
NH3: 0
No2: 0
No3: 5ppm
Alk: 8.5 (salifert)
CA: 460 (salifert)
Mg: 1240 (red sea)
QT
All levels and things were fine here. The 2 Mandy's are still alive and doing their thing. Sometimes I think there is trouble with the male because it's flashing against things a lot, on random occasions. But they're both easily eating BBS that we're continuously hatching and feeding (really easy by the way). And we're wondering if he's just attacking his reflection. Because we've been perfectly stable at 1.009 SG in there the whole time. We're about 3 weeks into QT at hypo for them. I just dosed a treatment of Prazi-Pro a couple days ago. That way I'll be able to do a water change this weekend after some observation time. I'll repeat the Prazi-Pro treatment if I feel it's needed. But so far, they've just been calm and relaxed during the bath. So I think they're doing good and after 5 days, we can do a couple water changes. Then we'll be well on our way to the end of QT and will be close to raising up the SG and transfer to the DT!
Hey guys, sorry about the late reply....I had to go out of town for my cousin's wedding, for a few days...the tank wasn't very happy with my departure, and between getting things back on track, and work...I've been swamped.
Nice LPS pickups, guys. I love Sun corals, but with their feeding requirements and my extreme laziness, I haven't been able to keep 'em happy for long. Do you plan on feeding the LPS frags as well, for faster growth? With the additional intake of food in your tank, you may see a rise of cyano, though I hope not.
- The sun corals have been interesting so far. I think they're doing pretty well. I think we're both curious to see if there is a new head already starting to form. Haven't seen it yet, so I don't know what to look for, but it sure looks like something is happening. :thumbsup: We're testing out a little feeding dome for the sun coral. We've been using a 20oz pop bottle that D.B.R. cut off. We cover the coral with that, then squirt frozen food in. It keeps the cleaner shrimp from prying open the polyps and steeling the food. And also allows us to target feed with less food. Because the feeding cap keeps the food floating in and around the sun coral for the polyps to grab, so it takes lots less to target feed now.
Yes, we have been target feeding the LPS corals as well. They get a mixture of reef roids and whatever frozen/pellet/flake food we're feeding that day, once a week now we squirt some at each LPS. I think we were dramatically over-doing the feeding. So we've made a big conscious effort to dramatically alter our feeding regiment. We've seen a resurgence in cyano again. And the GHA seems to have thinned, but hasn't gone away and still makes my rockwork look pathetic.
In order to combat the algae and general ugliness and possible SPS woes. I've spent some time evaluating different parts of our system. I think we have a massive imbalance right now. I think we kind of ignored the fuge slightly over the beginning of the system and it never fully got going and established as a fuge. So I think by feeding the DT, everything took hold there and is out-competing the fuge. So we're in the final stages of setting up some better lighting for the fuge and are really focusing on getting any algae to move from the DT to the fuge :strooper: So less feedings, more slowly, and more targeted in the DT. And we've taken to feeding the fuge lightly with a pinch of flake food every other day or so. We also added a new round of seeding pods and a new ball of cheato to the fuge recently. We're trying to really set the system up for the mandarins to get released. So along with the pinch of food. We've been dosing live phyto to the fuge 2 or 3 times a week.
All of the above has led to the cyano creeping back in. But really, the cyano isn't that hard to manage and deal with. And it was kind of expected with the NPS and phyto. So I'm ok handling that. It's the GHA that I'm trying to get out of the DT that's my nemesis right now. MOVE TO THE REFUGIUM!!!
Any sneaky purchases troub?
- hey there Fishy1. Nothing really sneaky. We did that last round of updates with the Kryptonite Trumpet Coral, the unknown LPS (while/purple/yellow favia or acan looking type thing) with the sun polyps. That's really about it. Just been watching those things settle in and do good while we try to figure out the SPS and algae stuff.
Unfortunately the Red Planet, Purple w/blue tips, and I'm 99% sure the Millie now have all moved onto a "better place" apparently. :facepalm: However, the Pink Monty Cap and the Birdsnest seem to be showing signs of forgiveness. The Pink Monty is appearing to be the best right now. It's starting to get some color returning throughout the entire piece. The Birdsnest is starting to get some better color returning too. Nothing spectacular, but I'll take not bleached white! The Orange Digi is still hanging in there, but not looking as good as the Pink Cap. But those are our only SPS that are hanging around.
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My phone is a bit low on battery today because I forgot my charger. So I can't get the videos I took uploaded right now. But here are the couple pictures I do have access to for the new Mandarin pair.
- The color here is of course a little pale. Either a bad exposure, or it was dull because of stress and shipping. I think this is the male, right after acclimation into the QT.
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- A much better shot of the female here just after acclimation. Way better color representation.
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Male and Female. Hopefully a pair one day if they both make it through the full run of QT. We requested a small to medium size pair. It looks like we got more of a medium size pair. But I think that will be ok as they'll be the most timid and picky fish in the tank for awhile. The only other fish they'll be hanging with for now are a Juvenile Clowfish pair, YWG, and Orange Firefish.
So far we've been putting mysis, fish eggs, blood worms, and assorted pellets into a little ceramic dish in the corner to see if they'll take to eating out of the dish. I haven't been able to tell if this has worked at all. But when we first started, it seemed like the food would slowly disappear. I'm positive it was not enough to sustain them.
But then we got the Brine Shrimp Dish and have kept a steady supply of Baby Brine Shrimp constantly hatching and getting added to the QT multiple times a day with some RO top-off. We've been seeing pretty consistent feeding response with the BBS. So I know they're getting some food from that.
Good stuff Dis.
I've never heard of it, but the masago cubes are very interesting, tried feeding them yet? Which fish took to it? Although, if I probably had easy access to the roe, we'd be eating sushi all day :lol:, fish be damned
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Ah, so there's 2 mandarins? Small sized? I've only tried them twice, with the small one taking to cyclopeeze, until I did something stupid. The big one lasted for about 2 years, never taking prepared foods, but lived off the pods in a 265G tank.
I'm craving Sushi now.
We looked around for different types of fish eggs out here. It was tough to find anything at our typical stores. So when D.B.R. started working with someone who also works at a sushi shop. It was a no brainer to buy a bulk supply of masago (the smallest sushi eggs). D.B.R. did a great job freezing a couple trays of egg cubes with RO water. We filled up our old frozen food container with them and still have TONS left that we froze as a chunk.
I haven't witnessed the Mandy's swallow the eggs personally. But I've seen them suck them into their mouth, roll them around or whatever, and spit it back out. So if they haven't eaten any yet, they keep thinking about it.
But the Clownfish, Orange Firefish, YWG ABSOLUTELY LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, the eggs! The clowns try to swim up the turkey baster end and try to attack the eggs through the plastic before I even squirt any out! From everything I've read about the fish eggs being such a highly nutritious food source, I'm definitely going to keep these as part of my feeding routine. I've even seen the cleaner shrimp grab them off the rocks and sand. The only thing I've seen these 4 fish attack as quickly is when we dump in the live BBS.
Oh, I can also say that the fungia plate coral LOVES it some fish eggs. DisBeReef has some good shots of dropping a huge load of fish eggs on the fungia. It promptly folded up and swallows the pile of them!
And here is the last thing we've been up to. Started up a live phyto plankton culture. I still need to set up a 2nd light bulb and a second culture. But it's getting there...
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Well, time to get back to my work day. There are a few updates for you. I think we'll run out and browse around some this weekend. Who knows what we will find. For now, it's finish off the QT process, observe the SPS, and try to balance out and establish the fuge. I'm thinking when the Mandarins are ready to be released, it will be time to bulk up the reef a bit more. Unless I find a tastey piece this weekend anyway :inlove:
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Mmmm, orange juice ...... Ack, bleh, what is this! :lmao:
