I'm alive! Assuming you remember me!

[lcs]

Hey all!

I've been MIA for several months. Last August I added a Coral Beauty to the tank and it didn't set too well with my YWG or bicolor blenny. I didn't see the goby for over a month (and he was considerably thinner) and I have yet to see the blenny (who I'm assuming has died). I didn't notice any overt aggression, but apparently there didn't need to be. Then in October I found my Carpenter's wrasse under the couch, stuck to the floor. I wasn't overly upset, but by then I had started to neglect the tank and even considered leaving the hobby.

So now I'm battling cyano and some hair algae, but other than that it's not too bad for only doing water changes every couple of months from September through mid-January. It's been mostly weekly since then.

Recently I've moved a couple of rocks around, my blue rics have gone from six to ten, my frogspawn is a happy camper, and the YWG has been out and about more and more. Quite a while ago his pistol shrimp died and I'm considering getting another. I've added a few SPS frags and a couple of the ones that I had last summer are making a comeback. Regular water changes are a good thing!!

There are also two new fish additions now in QT "“ a very tiny percula clown and a male melanurus wrasse. Both are doing well and I'm having an extremely difficult time keeping myself from bringing them up to the DT. My husband isn't helping matters either! The lighting over the QT is really crappy, but I'll try to get some pics of them soon.

Happy frogspawn. Started as six heads late last spring and is now 14 going on 15!

Chalice:

New milli (?) frag - green with pinkish-purple coralites:

New pocci frag:

Growth of monti cap. I'm happy with the growth, but bummed about the loss of color.:

Last spring:

Today:

Acans:

Queen conch:

Coral beauty. In all the shots because he wants to eat!:

 

[lcs]

Full tank shots . . .

Full tank shots . . .

FTS from a couple weeks ago. I have since moved the chalice to the right side, directly facing the couch.

Right end as viewed from couch:

See what I mean about the CB? Ham!

 

[solRNY]

hi there! nice growth with the happy frogspawn

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

of course I remember you!

of course I remember you!

very nice but you failed to mention the mini carpet anemones in the pic

 

[lcs]

very nice but you failed to mention the mini carpet anemones in the pic

Good eye! Since that picture was taken I turned the rock around so they are in the shade a bit. They've become quite bleached.

 

[museumguy]

Welcome back!

 

[lcs]

Thanks Tad! How are the rics doing? One of mine is alive and with good color, but is smaller than a dime. Weird.

 

[lcs]

New fish . . .

New fish . . .

They both eat great. The wrasse will eat anything, even pellets and I think the clown prefers them!

The container is a little sand pool/bed for the wrasse. He puts himself to bed every night and usually doesn't come out until after 10:00am. All I can see is a little spot of blue showing through the sand. I'm so glad I found this idea here on RC. I'm sure he's happier and adjusting better because of it. The green stripes are bluer in real life.

 

[aquadonkey]

Welcome back!
After reading your first paragraph, I was surprised to see how good your pics look! Lots of nice coral growth in there - and that new wrasse is stunning!

 

[museumguy]

Thanks Tad! How are the rics doing? One of mine is alive and with good color, but is smaller than a dime. Weird.

One of the blue rics is still doing good right where I put it in the big tank and has grown to be about 3 inches across. I think the others either didn't make it or migrated somewhere into my rockstack where I can't see them. Whenever we move our stack around we find corals that had migrated off the beaten path so to speak.

Did that monti cap come from me? Lots of growth on it!

 

[lcs]

Did that monti cap come from me?

Yup! Actually all three are from you - the one on the far left, the brown one (but with pretty purple polyps) that the shrimp is on, aaaand middle right on the end shot, also pink.

I've noticed that the majority of the growth on the caps has been encrusting and not plating - is this normal as they get established? I wouldn't consider my flow to be super high.

 

[museumguy]

Yup! Actually all three are from you - the one on the far left, the brown one (but with pretty purple polyps) that the shrimp is on, aaaand middle right on the end shot, also pink.

I've noticed that the majority of the growth on the caps has been encrusting and not plating - is this normal as they get established? I wouldn't consider my flow to be super high.

Glad they are all doing well.

I'm not really an expert but I think it has to do with flow. I have frags of the exact same red cap and of course the mother colony in the tanks here. One frag is attached to a very low flow spot in the small tank and it doesn't grow very much and has basically encrusted growing down the rock. The mother colony is out in the open with a lot of flow and grows whirls and plates like crazy.

 

[lcs]

Ah! I had it backwards. I thought high flow equated to less plating and more encrusting. It makes sense then. Although I do have about 2500gph which amounts to about 40X my tank volume. Wow, I had no idea it was that high until I just did the calcuation! Good grief.