Dawn's seahorse garden!

My reef club held its 1st frag swap this past weekend. Since I had already bought a lot at LEAR, I did not buy anything but another club member had seen that I was asking to buy hypnea pannosa on the club forum, so he brought some to the swap and gave it to me, along with a sprig of dragon's breath. I am very excited about both of those macro algaes.
 
Yes, they seem to do better when placed and left alone. I had to break my habit of moving plants around until I was happy with their placement. I think it takes them awhile to adjust to new lighting, etc.

I have a few frags of old hypnea that are slowly coming back. The red I have planted behind the barnacles might be dragon's breath. So we may have a couple of plants in common!
 
Yes, they seem to do better when placed and left alone. I had to break my habit of moving plants around until I was happy with their placement. I think it takes them awhile to adjust to new lighting, etc.

I have a few frags of old hypnea that are slowly coming back. The red I have planted behind the barnacles might be dragon's breath. So we may have a couple of plants in common!

I too have trouble placing macros and corals and then leave them be. Its so easy to want to tweak the placement to make it a little bit better, ha ha!

Yes, we actually have quite a few of the same macros as I have codium and red grape too. They are both very nice macro algaes. I wished I could get ulva to not get blown away and to grow in my tank, but every time I try it, it is swept away and disappears. I would like to get some blue scroll again some time as well.
 
Hi Dawn, how are things going with your tanks? Haven't heard from you in a while...

Hi Kevin and thanks for asking. The tanks are doing well. Its just with spring coming to PA I have been busy with outside work around our house and at my church. Also my son and his family are here this week. The dragons breath and hypnea I got at our local frag swap seem to be flourishing so I am really happy about that.

My son is in the middle of redoing his tank and he has lots of coral frags that he wants to give me. He is into sps so he has a lot of coral that I don't have. I will have to be careful because I do not want to get into dosing kalkwasser or anything like that. I don't mind adding some 2 part occasionally but not everyday.
 
Ah yes, spring is here, and it's so good to be outside in this nice weather. Same with me, a lot going on in the outside world, leaving me less time to work on my projects inside. Glad the tanks are doing well!
 
You really feel the seasonality of this hobby when winter gives way to spring. Here come the honey-dos!

Yes, that is so true. Late autumn and winter are when I make the biggest changes in my tank. Spring and summer I just do routine maintenance.

My honey can't do for a few weeks. He's a cancer survivor and an amputee as a result. A few months ago he found a lump on his residual limb on the inside of his knee. He had surgery this past Monday to remove it and we are thanking the Lord that it is almost assuredly benign. It is being sent to a lab just to double check but the surgeon is quite confident that its not cancer. Anyway, Dave is on crutches since he has 17 stitches and can not wear his leg for 2 weeks while the incision heals. What some guys will do to get out of the 'honey do ' list!
 
Ah yes, spring is here, and it's so good to be outside in this nice weather. Same with me, a lot going on in the outside world, leaving me less time to work on my projects inside. Glad the tanks are doing well!

How is your big tank coming along? And how are the blennies and their tank mates?
 
Thank goodness that the lump was benign! I hope that the biopsy confirms that too.

How is your big tank coming along? And how are the blennies and their tank mates?

Well, spring has definitely slowed down my progress on my builds. I've spent all my time fishing! That said, one of the holdups for the complete build has been my electrical infrastructure, but my sister-in-law started dating an electrician, and he does side work :)

Until then, I plan to set the larger tank up without a sump, which should work just fine, just not the complete build. I'm working on my root project for my other tank that I need to finish, and i'm using my stand as a workbench for that. Once the DIY roots are done on that tank, then I can set up my big tank. My goal is to have the tank up, cycled, and running by early to mid summer...if I can find some time between fishing outings LOL

Also, I decided to set the new tank up on the unfinished stand, and finish the stand after that. The stand completion involves mostly cosmetic stuff. The stand is fully functional now to at least hold my tank safely.
 
I took a video of the tank since I added a large rock feature to the foreground. Now my tank had 3 very distinct levels which I think makes it more natural in appearance. Let me know what you think. I got a kick out of Marmalade little antennae blowing in the flow too.
https://youtu.be/GH4VhguMFOo
 
I'm with Kevin - your scape is awesome! The multi level substrate does look very natural. Is that a compact caulerpa prolifera? Looks cool! Great spot for the green goby. You've got the best example of reef/plant tank I've seen. That's a challenging combo that few have mastered.
 
I love the new scaping, well done! Your tank looks great overall too. All of the fish look happy :)

Thanks Kevin, that is very kind of you. The tank is doing very well overall. The coral does not seem to be growing much but they all look happy. I know frags need time to settle in and feel established before they grow. The fish all seem healthy now with no scratching so of course I am happy about that.
 
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