Diary of my LiL 40 Gallon Breeder(Intense)

[InsaneClownFish]

My First Zoos:

Under Full T5s

Under T5 Actinics(Blue +)

 

[InsaneClownFish]

Before I lost my Oulophyllia, it had fast become my favorite coral; and at the time I knew I had wanted more. I wanted a piece in the baby blue range.

While checkin out the LFS, where I admittedely go to because they get their corals in as "assorted corals," and rarely do they know what they actually have, I found a dullish powdery blue acanish looking colony. I checked it out under their power compacts and knew it would definately color up under my T5s.

When I got the 7 x 3 inch colony home I noticed changes in the polyps and coloring in the bag, and I knew I had scored a really gorgeous piece of Oulophyllia.

This is a nice shale blue with purple rimmed colony- not bad for the assorted coral price of $39.99...

 

[nebraskareef]

awesome.

 

[InsaneClownFish]

Progression
2/13/05(The beginning)

6/06/2005

11/27/05

3/30/06

10/28/06

 

[FLIPbmw]

what happen to the tank??? ( I wasnt following from the start)

 

[InsaneClownFish]

FLIP, read page 16 and you will have all the details. The main problem I had was Caulerpa Racemosa going asexual in my tank. I had to remove all my live rock and let it dry out.

 

[InsaneClownFish]

My Haddoni Carpet and Fire Clown:

 

[InsaneClownFish]

 

[InsaneClownFish]

Update: I'm being exceptionally patient- especially for me. I've been tempted several times to add some more live rock to the tank, but I'm waiting for two reasons.

There still appears to be some very subtle die off on the current rock, and the rock in my "vat" is still looking a bit green.

Phase three for the addition of rock will come very soon. Patience allows me to carefully observe the rock already in the tank so that I can head off any possible macro growth.

Diatoms seems to be settling, and the usual hair algae has formed on my powerhead outlets- hair algae has never been an issue in my system due to the high flow rates.

The rock is showing new coraline growth, and there is a brand new colony of red, coraline based tube worms forming on one rock...

Rolling right along :rollface: Off to the fishy store tomorrow for more salt...I ran out! Guess that's what happens when I keep up with my water changes...

For those who are curious I only alternate two supplements- Kent Super Buffer DKh for water changes...and B-Ionic two part system maybe once every other week or so.

My Favia is showing continual new growth over the previously "died off" section.

 

[InsaneClownFish]

Time Delay Baby Blue Oulophyllia Polyp Retraction
Actinics on; Feeding on Oyster Eggs:

 

[InsaneClownFish]

 

[Nathan4Wvu]

Im sure it says where you got your rock in this thread but man thats to many pages to look though lol

So if you don't mind me asking where did you get it??

 

[InsaneClownFish]

Nathan, I obtained the rock locally. It's Brazilian Live rock, and it's about 2/3 the density of Fiji- very light and porous. Unfortunately, that particular pet store no longer deals in salt water.

If you really want to know I can do the leg work and tey to find the distributor he used.

 

[tsquad]

Carpet looks good, you'll be back in no time :thumbsup:

 

[InsaneClownFish]

Tyler, thanks...things have been rolling along... how are your various tanks doing?

The other night I saw it....Caulerpa Racemosa on my powerhead inlets?!?!

I immediately removed it from two inlets, but I think I might have broken two of the bubble in the tank. I thought there might have been a piece in the sand, but I couldn't be sure.

I'm definately at a loss to see how it returned to the system. I'm wondering if this stuff can stay in the water column in some type of microscopic form.

This morning I noticed two tiny growths of Racemosa on my largest piece of live rock....I really wanted to faint...:mad2:

Tonight I performed a water change and I removed that rock. I spent almost an hour and a half with this one piece of rock. There were tiny formations of Caulerpa Racemosa all over. I took my time and removed each one with a plastic knife, and I rubbed each area with a combo of salt and alk buffer. WHAT a PITA this has been. Hopefully I have gotten all of it, and I guess I should have let the rock dry out even more before returning some to the tank...oh well....*sigh*

I'm really concerned about the rock towards the back of the tank. I couldn't see any Racemosa...but it is easy to miss initially. I'm crossing my fingers that it was isolated to this one rock. Thankfully, I see no growth on the rock with the tiny BTA I had to perform surgery on a few weeks ago.

 

[InsaneClownFish]

I made the decision tonight to trade in my maroon clown in order to try for a mated pair of fire clowns. The maroon is missing some sections from his dorsal fin. The fire clown becomes hyper aggressive when I work on the tank- in fact he jumped out of the tank and bit my sweatshirt sleeve tonight..:eek2: Hopefully, I can obtain another fire clown from the LFS's original batch.

Because I was spending so much time with the rock, my water change was going pretty slowly. I had to deal with some salinity and temp swings. My carpet got annoyed and dove into the sand. I kicked a bit of sand up when I was putting water back into the tank.

Some of the salt and alk buffer fell on my Oulophylia...I turkey bastered most of it off, and I really hope it doesn't suffer any burns. I kept the lights off for awhile and it did extend its polyps...good sign.
I'm a bit annoyed at the amount of time I was able to run the lights yesterday, so the tank should get some much needed light this weekend.

A couple of cool notes:

I fed the anemone with a mixture of blood worms and cyclopeeze blown across him with a turkey baster...pretty cool response.

And for anyone who is curious...rubbing sections of a deeply purple coralline covered rock with salt and alk buffer yields mottled sections of some serious hot pink coralline...kinda neat if you ask me..

 

[doomicon]

I Love this thread as it highlights the Ups and more importantly the Downs. I've been thru the same thing when I first started. Work and life takes priority, and the tank "looks fine", I will definitely change the water next week, it won't hurt to wait another week.

It catches up, but I did the same things, and like you just exercised more patience on what I call the "restart".

I've had my 37 up for 6 months since restarting, it's not stocked with everything that I imagined, but it's healthy, happy, and still looks good

btw, I'm gonna try the rubbing sal/buffer thing, I have some deep purple coralline I want to try this on :-D

 

[InsaneClownFish]

doomicon, as of today I wouldn't recommend the rubbing...after the lights had been on for 9 hours today the pink completely burned off...

I guess the effect is only temporary...

 

[tsquad]

John, my tank's are doing alright. My Dad's 180 will be up within the month, and I'm just starting to stock the 300g. If you ever need softies, let me know! For other stuff, look into my company later on when we're more established

 

[InsaneClownFish]

Here's a quick picture with some more rock added and a few things moved around: