First Saltwater Tank! 90g Reef

[Maggie321]

I'm...22. Yes, 22, I keep thinking I'm 23 for some reason.

Keeping track of your age get harder as you get older.

That looks like a devil's hand leather. Maybe. Google some images and compare. You'll know in a few days cause it will pop tiny green polyps out if it's that.

Maggie

 

[teddscau]

Ah, yes, that's what it is. The polyps aren't coming out, though. Hmm, it looks like it's starting to shed. Well, if it's anything like the gorgonian, I guess it's polyps will come out once it's done shedding. Pain. In. The. Butt. I hate scooping out the skin >_<. Well, I can't just let it float around, injuring the other corals. Plus, one of the sun coral polyps was trying to eat some skin earlier, so I had to suck it out of its mouth with my target feeder.

 

[Maggie321]

Ah, yes, that's what it is. The polyps aren't coming out, though. Hmm, it looks like it's starting to shed. Well, if it's anything like the gorgonian, I guess it's polyps will come out once it's done shedding. Pain. In. The. Butt. I hate scooping out the skin >_<. Well, I can't just let it float around, injuring the other corals. Plus, one of the sun coral polyps was trying to eat some skin earlier, so I had to suck it out of its mouth with my target feeder.

I have a toadstool leather and the "skin" gets devoured by my tang. If it did not get consumed, I would just leave it. Food for something

Maggie

 

[teddscau]

Hmm, I heard that it could potentially harm other corals. There's a heck of a lot of acropora in the tank, and I can't imagine they'd be too thrilled if the skin landed on them.

 

[Maggie321]

Like I said my tang eats mine...

Maggie

 

[teddscau]

There's basically just coral in my tank right now, so it would probably end up looking like someone threw a shredded napkin in there .

Assuming everything goes well (i.e., parameters are stable, corals are thriving, tons of microfauna), I'll buy a couple of pairs of dragonface pipefish in August or September. I'll have to order them online, unfortunately. I'll also have to buy a bunch of macroalgae and stock my sump/refugium with copepods and amphipods. I've already put a bottle of tigger pods in the tank, but I'll have to buy from Canada Copepods for a better variety of critters.

 

[Maggie321]

I would wait longer than that to add pipefish.

Maggie

 

[teddscau]

Boo, you're no fun . But you're right. No need to jump the gun.

Do you think my layout for the live rock is okay? Like, I feel as though it could be "taller". I'm definitely going to buy some more "shelf-like" corals such as toadstool corals and whatnot, to provide my future dragonface pipefish with...dang, sentences. I want the pipefish to feel secure with lots of overhangs. So, I know there's toadstool leathers and Montipora capricornis that are shelf-like, but are there any others? Well, I assume there are. Thanks .

 

[teddscau]

Well, poo. I found what appears to be a small purple sponge on my live rock. I found several other jelly-like clear masses (dead sponges...) on another piece of live rock that look very similar to it. Unfortunately, they were exposed to air when I was putting the rock in the tank, so I doubt the little guy will make it. I hope he pulls through.

 

[teddscau]

Okay, so I was reading about sponges and exposure to air, and it sounds like if he was going to die, he'd already be dead by now. The sponge is in a hard to see spot, so I tipped the live rock upwards slightly so it can be viewed more easily. The flow there is gentle, and there's very little light. I'm glad he's going to make it . Hopefully he'll grow nice and big. He's the size of a cockatiel egg right now (but way flatter).

 

[reenact12321]

if there's big pieces stuck to an acro, it's worth snagging, I wouldn't worry about getting all of it. Leathers shed frequently as they grow and are damn near indestructable. They go through lots of cycles of growth and splitting and polyps out, polyps in, they deflate for awhile. They can even survive outside water for a few hours at low tide. It will be mad and deflated from the move for a day or two and then it should start to perk up. Don't be concerned when it starts dropping fingers. they will fall off and blow around the tank until they stick. it's out it reproduces.

 

[teddscau]

if there's big pieces stuck to an acro, it's worth snagging, I wouldn't worry about getting all of it. Leathers shed frequently as they grow and are damn near indestructable. They go through lots of cycles of growth and splitting and polyps out, polyps in, they deflate for awhile. They can even survive outside water for a few hours at low tide. It will be mad and deflated from the move for a day or two and then it should start to perk up. Don't be concerned when it starts dropping fingers. they will fall off and blow around the tank until they stick. it's out it reproduces.

Thanks . Honestly, that devil's hand is being such a baby. I mean, he's been moving his spongy body around and stuff, but he refuses to open his polyps. Heck, even my severely bleached corals have their polyps out, and this guy's having a tantrum >_>.

Oh, here's what my sun coral looks like now! His polyps are so fat!



Oops, turns out he's a dendro, not a sun coral.

 

[teddscau]

Well, I went ahead and bought four firefish and two yellow clown gobies. I'll be picking them up on Tuesday. I'm going to have the staff hold off on packing up the firefish so I can see if any of them are paired up. If so, I'll just buy the pair and get a refund on the other two. If they'll only give me a store credit, I don't mind. I have a lot of other things I need to buy as well.

Dang, better get the 29g set up for quarantine. I have emerald rasbora fry in there right now, so I'll have to set up the 10g for the little guys first, stick them in there, then bleach the 29g...

 

[teddscau]

Well, I went all the way to Toronto to pick up four firefish, two yellow clown gobies, six nassarius snails, a red rimmed people eater paly, and some chaeto algae. Three. Freaking. Hours.

Anyways, they only had three firefish and only one yellow clown goby, but they also had a black clown goby. Bought the three firefish, a yellow clown goby, a black clown goby, etc.

When I came home, I took everyone out of the styrofoam box they packed their bags in. As soon as I saw the black clown goby it was clear he was very sick. The little guy's covered in black fuzz, so I set up yet another quarantine tank to put him in. At least the yellow clown goby and firefish look quite healthy. I acclimated everyone, put them in their respective quarantine tanks, then I dosed Blackie with Kanaplex and ParaGuard. Probably should've only done half the dose of each... Anyways, I offered him some food soaked in ginger, but he didn't want any, which is fine. I'm going to do a 50% water change everyday until he's all better.

I fed the 29g quarantine tank as well, and the firefish gobbled up the food. They wanted more (I fed them frozen mysis shrimp and spirulina enriched brine shrimp with ginger), but I told them they'd have to wait an hour or two. I want to space out their feedings a bit instead of feeding them a ton in one sitting. Man, saltwater fish eat WAY more than freshwater fish.

I'll post some pictures later. Oh! And the copepods I ordered from Canada Copepods came in today, so I seeded the 90g with them. Excellent, super fast shipping.

Well, passive aggressive email is SENT.

 

[teddscau]

Okay, so I haven't updated you guys in months. It's been a hard few months. I had to euthanize one of my rescue parrots, another one of my rescues suffered a series of strokes and died, we had to euthanize our 5 year old chihuahua... Anyways, it's been tough, so I got distracted with other things.

My dendro is doing FANTASTIC. He's fat as heck, a bunch of tissue has regrown, and I dealt with the evil white millipedes that were living in his skeleton. They kept biting his polyps and were crawling into his mouths and pulling food out. They were such a pain to deal with, but everything's fine now.

I've bought a ton of corals since I last posted (balanophyllia, another dendro, rainbow monti, a couple of acans, ricordea, a Yuma, a button coral...).

 

[teddscau]