ACBlinky
Premium Member
As promised... some pictures of the reef's slow progress. I took these with my cell phone, because when I got the camera out to take some decent shots, the batteries died!
FTS:
The left side tower:
Caves on the right side:
Starting to see diatoms on the rockwork and the powerheads:
I added a few hermits, and they're feasting on the half a shrimp we tossed in the tank to help it cycle!
The little nubs on the coral skeleton (top rock, left side) are zoas. Three of them started to open this afternoon - I'm hoping to see their sunny little faces later this week! It looks like they're green, or have green centres. Unfortunately the acropora with bits of clinging flesh is now just a skeleton. I didn't hold out much hope for the little guy, it was 99.5% skeleton with just a few, completely bleached, living polyps and a tiny flap of skin a few milimeters across. A semi-cycling tank is no place for a recovering coral, especially one that's so close to death, and while I'm a bit sad, I'm not at all surprised.
Tank parameters are fine, PO4 is still present but I haven't seen any ammonia or nitrite. The skimmer is producing some lovely (well, truth be told, it's revolting) skimmate. The tank is starting to feel more like a reef and less like a bare box of rocks.
Our son is pestering me for his 'Nemo fish', and we've been watching the movie every day. I'm trying to assemble a stock list, but it's proving quite difficult to choose what I want to keep! Good thing we have ages to decide
More updates as exciting things happen!
FTS:
The left side tower:
Caves on the right side:
Starting to see diatoms on the rockwork and the powerheads:
I added a few hermits, and they're feasting on the half a shrimp we tossed in the tank to help it cycle!
The little nubs on the coral skeleton (top rock, left side) are zoas. Three of them started to open this afternoon - I'm hoping to see their sunny little faces later this week! It looks like they're green, or have green centres. Unfortunately the acropora with bits of clinging flesh is now just a skeleton. I didn't hold out much hope for the little guy, it was 99.5% skeleton with just a few, completely bleached, living polyps and a tiny flap of skin a few milimeters across. A semi-cycling tank is no place for a recovering coral, especially one that's so close to death, and while I'm a bit sad, I'm not at all surprised.
Tank parameters are fine, PO4 is still present but I haven't seen any ammonia or nitrite. The skimmer is producing some lovely (well, truth be told, it's revolting) skimmate. The tank is starting to feel more like a reef and less like a bare box of rocks.
Our son is pestering me for his 'Nemo fish', and we've been watching the movie every day. I'm trying to assemble a stock list, but it's proving quite difficult to choose what I want to keep! Good thing we have ages to decide
More updates as exciting things happen!
