Tank is stable and recovering

After weeks of stability issues, the tank seems to be stable again and the Coral are starting to open up more. The Candy Cane Coral is really the only one that is still a bit closed up. However, all the coral fed fine on Thursday so things seem to be looking up. 

I believe I lost the Pom Pom crab as there was a huge algae bloom during the stability issues and I didn't see her when I fed the tank. Sad day :(

Also, one of the Hammer Coral heads is beginning to split again so I should soon have 5 fully grown and working heads in the next couple weeks. The body buds on some of the other coral still continue to grow.

Hammer Coral

The Plate Coral continues to astound me with its beauty. The tentacles are getting really long and I love watching them sway in the current. These pictures do not due it justice.

Plate coral tentacles are getting long

Until next time,

~ Keep on Swimming! ~

Tank is still a bit upset.

Salinity levels have been stable for the last two days, finally; for some reason they had been spiking to 1.030 every day. I won't be performing a water change today as usual to give the tank a full week to stabilize. The SPS coral seems to be doing ok and has it's tentacles out. The other LPS corals are still pretty upset and closed but not fully as they have been. I did lose the Tree coral, however.

Hoping things continue to improve.

~ Keep on Swimming ~

Salinity levels are unstable.

I'm not sure why but the Salinity levels of the tank keep rising way above what they should be. Today, the salinity was at 1.035; well above what it should be. No idea what it is doing this. I may stop the Nano daily micro dosing for a few days, maybe it is causing the influx. Wouldn't know why though as I've been using using for for over a year now. Very strange indeed.

Hopefully things settle out soon or I may lose the entire tank :(

Tank isn't doing too hot...

The tank isn't doing too well. The algae bloom is still going strong and the Corals have been closed all week. Performing the water change today I checked the salinity of the tank water as always and discovered it was sitting at 1.030. Not good. I also haven't seen the Pom Pom crab for awhile and trying to coax her out with food didn't bring her out. She may have expired during the salinity spike :(

Also, the circulation pump kind of just stop circulating water. I was thinking this could have been an issue for a little while now but just though I was just overthinking things. I bought a new one when I replaced the Purigen filter and noticed that the old one was indeed not circulating water properly. This also probably attributed to the algae bloom as well as the last SPS to die. Dammit.

I'll be performing some water tests today to see how things are looking before the weekend hits.

Hoping things begin to turn around soon.

Tank is upset

I'm not quite sure what is going on but the tank has been upset for a little over a week now. The corals don't open all the way and one of them pretty much went half white/dead overnight :( I think dosing the Carbonate Hardness buffer a couple weeks ago is what did it; I think my tank likes a slightly lower CH. Couple of water changes since then haven't really rectified the situation. Hopefully things get back to normal soon.

:(

Also, a slight worry of a Federal Furlough coming up in December which would prevent me from entering the building as long as the furlough is in place. That could bet a month+ which would not be good.

But here's to a good outcome!

~ Keep on Swimming! ~

Pom Pom Crab is getting big!

I may have overfed the tank a bit on Friday; the corals have pretty much been shut all day and a lot of algae seems to have sprung up over night. Whoops.

But on a happier note: the Pom Pom Crab has gotten big and her Anemone's are big and healthy as well. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the camera to focus very well so this is the best photo I could get of her.

Pom Pom Crab is big and healthy

Until next time,

~ Keep on Swimming! ~

10/27/2016 Update

The AlgaeFix has really done a number on the Algae in the system. The tank has definitely started to clear up. I did a full water parameter test last Friday and things are looking well. The Carbonate Hardness was a little low but was still in an acceptable range. As always, Magnesium is being used up so I dosed a little Friday and Monday.

I'm really impressed with the Plate Coral lately. It's fully open and beautiful. It's tentacles have gotten longer and I love watching them sway in the current. Unfortunately, my phone camera isn't the greatest so these photos are the best I could provide.

Plate Coral fully open

Another shot showing the tentacle extension

And with that, I think this will be it for today's post. I'll definitely be holding myself to posting frequent updates on the tank. I'll be doing a post, at most, every 10 days.

Until next time,

~ Keep on Swimming! ~

Current day post

Hey all! So I'm gonna try and get back on track with frequent updates. Maybe daily or weekly updates but I don't want to promise anything quite yet :P

As you can see from the below photo, the Green Hammer Coral has grown even more since last time. Both it's heads have fully split and there are now 4 full grown heads. Today, I discovered each stalk has 2 additional buds coming off of the stock. It's hard to see in this photo but click here and I've circled them. This is quite exciting!

Hammer coral has 4 new buds!

This photo is right after I finished target feeding the coral so they are a bit closed up but you can see that each of the heads have finished splitting. You can also see a bit of the algae issue I've been dealing with the past few months. It's not nearly as bad as it used to be but still a little ways to go.

Candy Cane Coral heads have completed splitting

This one came as quite a surprise to me today. I never noticed any significant grown or changes from this Blasto. I can see it's grown a little bit when looking at older photos but nothing really stuck out. However, today after feeding I noticed a new bud coming off of the coral! I'm glad to see that the Blasto's are also growing and reproducing as well.You can also see a big of the algae problem in this photo as well.

Blasto has a new bud!

I'll have to get a whole tank photo soon so I can have a photo comparison because the tank is officially 1 year old as of a couple weeks ago!

~ Keep on Swimming! ~

Extremely long overdue post.

Wow, my last post was from 5 months ago. That is not ok...

A lot has happened in that time and I was able to grab a couple pictures so I'll try to summarize as best as I can to get us all up to current time.

I had thought the Pom Pom Crab had perished but she suddenly appeared a couple weeks ago when I was feeding the tank. This was great news.

The Peppermint Shrimp had passed sometime I went on vacation a few months ago. I may have to get another here soon as the Aiptasia has slowed started to come back.

The Spiny Star Astrea has also passed :( I'm not sure what caused the passing of the snail as the others are all doing just fine. However, I did not catch it's passing for awhile which caused a large algae bloom. I ended up getting some Algaefix and have been dosing as directed for 2 weeks now and it is clearing up the system slowly. I'll be getting another Spiny Star Astrea at some point to help combat the algae issue; he was a lawn mower when it came to that stuff. I'll also be checking the water parameters this week to be sure the algae isn't making the water tests give off false readings.

Anyway, without further ado, here are some of the missed photos from the past.

05/25/16: Blastos with thier tentacles extended

5/26/16 Candy Cane Coral feeding and tentacles extended

5/26/16 War Favia with tentacles extended

5/27/2016 Green Hammer is growing quickly!

7/19/16 Candy Cane Coral heads are beginning to split!

~ Keep on Swimming! ~

POM POM CRAB IS CARRYING EGGS!

LOOKIT LOOKIT LOOKIT!

OK, so the photo quality is horrendous but I was able to get a picture of the Pom Pom Crab with her... bushel? *ahem* of eggs on her abdomen before the flash scared her off. They are probably not fertilized but it's a cool sight to see! If they are fertilized, the odds of them surviving are next to none in the aquarium but it would be neat to see a bunch of baby crabby's running around... but it that was the case I wouldn't know what to do with them as it would most likely overload the system very fast... I'll have to keep on eye on it...

Pom Pom Crab with her eggs!

In further news, it seems the Peppermint shrimp has made nice work of the Aiptasia; I don't see any significant growths anywhere anymore and the bigger ones are all gone. Good work, lil guy!

The Duncan buds continue to grow and they opened up quite a bit during feeding today and the Leptasea has begun to show some of it's green color again. I'm taking all of this as a good sign that the eco system is healthy and thriving. I'm excited to see what the future holds.

Until next time,

~ Keep on Swimming! ~

Tank updates

I picked up a Pom Pom Crab and a Peppermint shrimp last week and I haven't really been able to find them since. I think Lieutenant Dan is still alive because during feeding I saw a Crab feeding and the new one didn't have any anemones and this one did. So I may have 2 crabs... This morning I found an empty shell of a crab though so one may have perished/been killed. It didn't look like a molt.

Also, the buds on the Duncan continue to grow quite quickly; I can't wait to see what it looks like when they've grown! I found another sponge underneath the Duncan again and just left it there.

Buds continue to grow

Plate Coral nomming

Blastos nomming

This was actually pretty cool to see because the Candy Cane's tentacles have never come out that far. Also, the top right head is regenerating nicely.

Candy Cane Coral with tentacles out

Those strange tube growths on the rocks are beginning to concern me; I think they may be those worms that release the sticky lines to gather food because whenever I feed the tank some strands come out but I can't quite tell if they are attached or not. I may have to try and remove them soon.

Also, the Aiptasia are still growing and there are a few more buds. I really hope the hrimp isn't dead because he needs to nom those right up...

Until next time,

~ Keep on Swimming! ~

Tank seems to be thriving

I've began introducing some of the Red Sea Coral Pro Salt slowly into my water changes over the past few weeks and the tank seems to be adjusting to it well. The coral are growing rapidly (especially the Green Hammer), there's a ton of purple coralline algae growing throughout the tank and the water chemistry seems to be better. The Sarlacc Leptastrea also seems to be recovering as it is getting color back. The plate coral has constantly been moving itself and is covering it somewhat so maybe that helped.

I also seem to have a few more hitchhikers that I've never seen before so I'm hoping they didn't come in with the salt since I haven't added anything new in months. I removed something that I thought could be a type of weird worm from the tank that was underneath the Duncan plug that had gotten knocked over. I found another today and decided to try and ID it. It looks to be a pineapple sponge and they aren't really good or bad so I think I'll just leave it for now. There's also various feather dusters sprinkled around the tank and some other tube-y critters that are too small for me to ID just yet.

Pineapple Sponge attached to the Blastomussa

I'm not quite sure what this is on the Duncan but I'm hoping it's just splitting and isn't injured or a parasite.

Not sure what that white area under the head is...

I do have some aiptasia growing still and I found a new bud in a different location in the tank so I'll need to get a peppermint shrimp tomorrow. Hopefully he'll take care of them but for not I tried to syphon them out. I went to Petco last week but they didn't have any so they should have a new shipment in by now. They also had a lil pom pom crab that I may end up grabbing as well.

Plate Coral super expanded

Until next time,

~ Keep on Swimming! ~

Coral growth photos

Short post today but I managed to get some photos of the neat stuff going on in the tank.

Plate Coral has expanded a lot.

Plate Coral expanded. They do this to "move"

Plate Coral expanded (underside). You can see how much it has expanded from the center "core" of the coral.

The Green Hammer Coral is still growing profusely!

Purple Hammer Coral head splitting

I'm really happy to see noticeable growth of the tank :) On a sadder note: I believe the Pom Pom Crab has perished as I haven't seen him in a couple weeks now :( I really hope that isn't the case but he usually becomes active during feedings and I haven't seen any indication of activity from him. Sad day, indeed.

~ Keep on Swimming! ~

Noticeable growth

So it turns out there are a few more feather dusters on the Zoa's. I moved the Zao's and happened to see a couple more attached. So, neat.

The Green Hammer and the Plate coral are continuing to grow pretty quickly. I'll have to post some pictures soon once I clean the glass a little bit.

Also, something that is pretty neat: It seems that the Purple Hammer is beginning to split into two heads! The head has been closed for probably a month now and I noticed some strangeness with it a couple weeks ago. Last week, I noticed a second mouth had developed and this morning there is definite signs of splitting. Very cool!

As always,

~ Keep on Swimming! ~ 

Stowaways located

Inspecting the tank today I noticed 2 new critters that and I believe I have some sort of baby Feather Duster and probably some Aiptasia. I've posted some images on a forum for some better input as to what they are exactly. (edit: as I suspected, it is a feather duster (woo!) and Aiptasia (crap!)). Looks like I'll be going to war for the first time against Aiptasia.

On a happier note, I also got a nice shot of the Green Hammer Corals growth! It's so nice to see if finally being fully open (and huge!) after being shut up for so long!

Green Hammer Coral has grown!

I may pick up a peppermint shrimp this week that will hopefully take care of the Aiptasia issue. Apparently, they are pretty hit-or-miss when it comes to munching on them and can also munch on coral if they get a taste for it. Sheesh.

Until next time,

~ Keep on Swimming! ~

Tank stabilized and un-uploaded photos

I checked the water parameters of the tank and they have stabilized and have gotten back to optimal levels. The coral are looking much better. The Birdsnests may have passed as they have algae growing on them now but they also have some of their flesh. So maybe they are somewhat living. I'll be keeping them in the tank until they are fully white and covered in algae or they recover. It's great to see the Green Hammer Coral to finally be fully opened again. I may end up moving the Purple Hammer because it doesn't seem to be getting much water flow and doesn't really open up.

The Duncan, the Blastos and the Candy Cane Coral have also noticably grown, which is a great sign. I've been dosing Reef Foundation and Coral Colors by Red Sea as needed and I think it has helped.

Below are some photos I took awhile back but apparently never uploaded. Kinda bitter-sweet as they have Gilbert and Gumdrop.

Feather duster emerging

New Tank Setup

Gilbert digging caves

Plate Coral is all Puffy

That's if for now.

~ Keep on Swimming! ~

Gumdrop has passed

I was sick pretty much all last week so I was out of the office. With the high Nitrates, I was planning on doing 2 water changes during the week but that fell through when I got ill. Unfortunately, Gumdrop passed while I was sick. A buddy of mine was able to remove him from the tank.

The tank is looking better again this week. I did notice that the filter was unplugged and I'm not sure if it was unplugged over the weekend or just since Monday. Either way, it isn't good; pretty sure all the beneficial bacteria that was growing in the filter is dead now which may cause yet another cycle of the tank -.- This is not good for the inhabitants to constantly have their environment out of whack. 

I'll be performing a larger water change today and check my water params. If the params are not looking better, I'll probably do another water change on Monday.

~ Keep on Swimming ~

Tank looking a little better

The tank seems to be a little happier today. Most of the coral have started to open up again which is good to see. Unfortunately, I believe the Asterospicularia Coral is dead because it was not on it's base when I came in. I'm wondering if a snail or something knocked it off. I kept the body of the coral itself in the tank for now just in case if just got detached but It's covered in sand and doesn't 'feel' alive. Bummer, that was a cool one. Also, I believe all the other SPS (aside from the Sylophora) are not going to make it because of all the water chemistry changes the past few weeks. They're pretty much completely white but I read not to remove them until algae grows on them as this is a guaranteed indicator that the coral has died.

Time will tell,

~ Keep on Swimming ~

Things are not well...

So the Dinos are pretty much all gone (woo) but I probably caused a tank cycle replacing all the filter media at once. I knew this isn't a good idea but I was hoping the live rock would compensate as a filter. But apparently, the filter was doing all the work because my water params are completely out of wack now (and deadly to the inhabitants). Gilbert, unfortunately, has perished.

Parameter

Value

Salinity

1.024

pH

8.4

Ammonia

0 ppm

Nitrite

0 ppm

Nitrate

160 ppm

Phosphate

.25 ppm

Calcium

340 ppm

Carbonate Harness

107.4 ppm

Alkalinity

6.1 ppm

Magnesium

975 ppm

Iron

.05 ppm

Potassium

440 ppm

Iodine

.06 ppm

      

       *Green*: Values are good 
*Orange*: Values are not ideal but are not bad 
*Red*: Values are lethal










Ugh, and all this before a weekend, too. I threw in some Algone yesterday to hopefully try and drive down the Nitrates and dosed some dKH buffer to raise the alkalinity a bit but still not enough to be a proper value. I really wish we were allowwed in the building over the weekends like the last building so I could check on the tank...

Hoping for the best.

~ Keep on Swimming ~

Battling Dinoflagellates

I've been battling a huge dinoflagellate outbreak for the past couple weeks; hence the lack of posts. They just popped up and exploded. I'm constantly siphoning them out and off the coral because it's suffocating them. I also had some cyanobacteria pop up but I think (read: hope) that issue has resolved itself. All the coral are closed, except for the plat coral that is about 80% open. My light is also not behaving properly; it doesn't seem to be throwing light like it used to as the corners of the tank no longer get light.

I believe I may lose a couple of the SPS coral. I did a blackout of the lights for 3 days to help take the dinos down but it didn't really seem to help. I noticed all my amphipods and copepods are gone which may have attributed to the dino explosion. I picked up 300 copepods to hopefully counteract the dinos and replaced the Purigen and Chemipure Elite. 

Today, the tank seems a bit better than it has been recently. I believe the media replacements have cleaned up a bunch of the phosphates but I'll have to test for this. I also didn't use the new Red Sea Coral Pro Salt my last water change as I have been using the past few weeks. Since I began using it my coral has not really opened. 

There may be an issue with the Koralia pump because it doesn't seem to be causing as strong a current as it used to. I may have to replace it.

I'm really hoping things begin to recover soon

Tank is looking much happier

To my relief, the tank is looking much happier today! The Duncan and the Hammer were open much more than they have been and the Birdsnest that I've been worried about looks 'slightly' better. Still keeping my fingers crossed on that guy.

I also discovered that the Feather Duster I got is actually alive! During feeding today, he put out his crown. I'm glad I didn't remove him from the tank! I'll have to put him in a better spot now.

He's alive!

The Plate coral is getting large and looks gorgeous and the Big Polyp Blast is looks really neat. The Asterospicularia is cool to watch as it actually 'grows' and branches out towards the light like a sunflower. If it gets bumped around by a snail or whatever it'll change to compensate. It's relatively quick too. I was able to get a picture of the Candy Cane Coral polyps as well which was pretty cool to see. I was able to see the Favia coral extend its' polyps as well but my camera wasn't able to pick them up :( I really should get a better camera for this and clean up the side walls of the tank...

Candy Cane Coral Polyps extended

And last but not least, I got another fish for the tank to help with the SPS nutrients. It's a small one and I was really nervous as I'm already pushing the limits with the Clown. He seems to have adapted well and made his home in the tank with his tank mates. Say hello to Gilbert: the blue neon goby! I picked him up from Petco last Wednesday, I believe. I had to pry myself away from a really cool Galaxea Coral they had in stock. I really wanted it; they're some of my favorite looking coral! I have to make sure my current coral are going to be happy where I finally set them before I get it because it needs to be far away from anything else. They extend long sweeper corals and I'd be sad if it killed anyone :(

Gilbert!

That's it for now!

~ Keep on Swimming! ~

So much reading. Starting to see why SPS are more difficult to care for.

Man, the learning never stops...

I discovered that SPS corals want 'dirtier' water than LPS corals, ie they want some Nitrates and Phosphates in their environment. I also discovered that coral, particularly SPS, can change drastically in color depending on minerals and water chemistry. Mind. Blown. This could explain why the Leptasrea went from greens to red. Not quite sure if it is dead or not so I moved it to a different location to see if it has any affect. It could also very well be starving due to lack of nutrient. You'd think places that sell SPS would say they like some Nitrate and Phosphate...

Also, since the SPS want dirtier water, I may have to add another, very small, fish to increase the bioload and up the nutrients in the water. I'm going to skip this weeks water change and slightly increase the feeding of the tank to see if this affects anything. I turned the filter down to a low setting from a high setting. I don't want to do too much and overload the system.

The bleaching of SPS is not only due to too intense of light but lack of nutrients. I'm beginning to see why people say caring for SPS is more difficult that caring for LPS... I may have to get a much more sensitive Nitrate and Phosphate test kit so I can monitor these parameters at a much finer level. 

Sheesh, all this information is overwhelming but I'm loving the learning. Kind of worried about the health and life of the new SPS though and hope I can make the system happy for them and the LPS before they begin to die. 

~ Keep on Swimming! ~

Some pictures before moving the Corals

I decided to take some quick pictures of the happily acclimated corals before I disturb them all and move them. It's crazy how different some of them look from when I first got them! 

Livestock first received (for reference)

Orange Birdsnest Coral acclimated	Asterospicularia Coral acclimated
Taylor's Purple Tree Coral acclimated	Purple Hammer Coral Acclimated
Acclimated Coral

~ Keep on Swimming! ~

[Insert expletive's here]

So this long weekend seemed to not go so well with the reef. I came in this morning and a bunch of water had evaporated; the floating rock in the back fell off the tank and onto the Favia coral, the Green Birdsnest coral may be on the brink of death, the Duncan and Green hammer are closed up and the Stylophora doesn't look too happy. But the weird part is, the other coral and exploding. The Tree, Blastomusta's, Candy Cane, Plate and Asterospicularia Corals are all expanded and happy. The Specific Gravity in my tank is about 1.026 right now just after replacing the missing water with fresh water.

I may have to figure something out to account for evaporation for long weekends like this. I had overfilled the tank on Friday to try and compensate but it didn't really seem to make a difference...

Trying to stay optimistic about the issues but we'll see what happens. I'll get some pictures later; I'm gonna try and place the coral into homes later today.

~ Keep on Swimming! ~

3-day weekend ahead...

This weekend will be the first time since the building move where I won't be able to monitor the tank for 3 days. Mondays are usually feeding days and the water seems to evaporate quicker here than it did in the other building. I checked the specific gravity again today as yesterday was pretty low after I performed a water change (1.020). I was able to bring it up to 1.023 but the coral wasn't too happy about that and the Duncan is still closed up today. This morning the gravity was 1.024. I'm hoping that the evaporation won't cause too much of an issue over the weekend and spike the salinity too high. I may just add a bit more fresh water to lower the salinity a bit so it can raise safely over the weekend.

I also checked my water parameters and the Calcium and Carbonate Hardness levels were low. I dosed the tank with Purple Tech to see if I could raise them a bit but I'll need to pick up some actual boosters today. Having much more coral, it'd probably be wise to begin dosing the tank with these elements.

Also, I don't think the Feather Duster made it. I haven't seen it once since putting him in the tank. I'll have to check out his casing to see if he moved or if he's dead in the case. I hope he isn't dead because he would make a neat addition to the reef. If he is alive, maybe he just opens up at night? I may have to set up a live stream for the weekend so I can see if this is what happens.

I got a neat picture of the Hermit crab hanging out with the coral. He's made his rounds to all of them and it's kind of neat to see him interacting with them. I can't wait to get the corals organized in the tank ^.^

Hermit chillin' with the coral

Whelp, that's it for now!

~ Keep on Swimming! ~