ONE YEAR

The Flameback Angel is elusive and shies away from the camera

Wow, it has been 366 days since I started the tank 1. It is actually quite unbelievable that a year has gone by so quickly and I now have a total of 5 marine tanks (2 at home and 3 at the office). It is crazy, I know. I actually spent more than half the time wiping the glass of algae etc. Naturally, I am still far away from the big guys with sps and I may still try them at a later time when I have more time to manage the tanks, but for now, I am happy with just other corals.

December is kind of a slow month for me in the sense that I didn't add much stuff into the 2 home tanks. However, I did more shifting of soft corals etc around both tanks.

In terms of colour, tank 1 is not as colourful anymore. It is quite pink and purple against my wishes and I wish to add more yellow and orange if I can. For tank 2, I have stocked a number of the Zoas from tank 1 and it is kind of crowded but I am still not completely pleased with it yet.

To end the year, the information on the two tanks are below:

Tank 1 (1 ft cube - 27 litres)
The list of livestock is as follows: 

• Fishes 
• 3 Clown Fish
• Flameback Angel
• Invertebrates 
• 2 Cleaner Skunk Shrimps
• 3 Pom Pom Crabs 
• big red Hermit Crab & 3 small red Hermit Crabs 
• 2 Turbo Snails 
• Nassarius Snail 
• red Coco-worm 
• 1 big brown, 1 big yellow-brown and 2 small yellow Feather Duster worms
• Corals 
• SPS
• brown Monti Cap
• grey Monti Cap
• LPS 
• grey red Acan
• pink Acan turned orange blue
• orange green Acan which looks a bit like the topmost one
• Mushrooms 
• plate of blue Actinodiscus mushrooms 
• 2 orange Ricordea yuma mushrooms
• a few assorted colour Ricordea florida mushrooms
• Soft Corals 
• Chili Coral
• Polyps 
• purple Goniopora
• frag of pink-green Palm Tree (Clove) Coral 
• rock of brown Daisy Polyps 
• green Palythoa
• red Palythoa 
• mixture of Zoas
• Macroalgae 
• clumps of green Caulerpa
• purple algae

The technical information is as follows:

• Sobo WP-607H hanging filter
• PS 2012 protein skimmer
• Maxspect Razor Nano 60W (10,000 K)
• Tunze Osmolator Nano 
• Dymax Vortex W-9 Cooling Fan 

Tank 2 (1.5 feet cube - 56 litres)
The updated list of livestock is:

• Fishes
• Flame Angel
• Royal Gramma
• Yellow Tang
• Invertebrates
• Fire Shrimp
• Cleaner Skunk Shrimp
• Peppermint Shrimp
• 7 Turbo snails
• 2 Nassarius snails
• 2 Bumble Bee snails
• electric blue Hermit Crab
• yellow Coco-worms
• blue Clam
• Corals
• Mushrooms
• orange and rock of purple-pink Ricordea yuma mushrooms
• 3 Ricordea florida mushrooms
• 4 red Actinodiscus mushrooms
• 2 rocks of Discosoma mushrooms
• Soft Corals
• rock of Finger Mushroom Coral
• Polyps
• 6 rocks of mixed Zoas & plugs of Zoas
• 2 mats of Green Star Polyps
• brown Daisy Polyps
• yellow Parazoanthus
• green Palythoa
• Macroalgae
• Halimeda
• Caulerpa

The technical details are:

• Eheim 2213 external canister filter
• Bubble Magus Q3 skimmer
• AquaBeauty 70W LED lights
• Two Little Fishes Phosban Reactor running Phosban
• Dymax Windy W-7 cooling fan (42 CFM)
• Hydor Nano and Boyu (WM-101) wavemakers
• Tunze Nano Osmolator
• Dosing container

I lost the earlier pink Palm Tree Coral and this is the second

One of the Acans

I love the combination of this Zoas rock

Another Acan

This purple Goniopora is one of my favourites for a long while

Tank 2 still looks flat in terms of colour and texture

Without other similar fishes, this Royal Gramma is doing well

The algae eating Yellow Tang

The gregarious Fire Shrimp

Thank goodness the Cleaner Skunk Shrimp occupies another corner

The most colourful fish in my tank is the Flame Angel

The combination of Zoas

The Daisy Coral and yellow Parazoanthus

This blue clam is the only one with me for the last 9 months

Close-up of these 3 Zoas colonies

A beautiful mushroom

The Sunflower Zoas is the brightest in my tank

FLOWER POT ANEMONE

I was shocked to find my Fire Goby head over heels in the flower pot anemone in the office tank the other day. I don't know if it was eaten alive or was it eaten after it was dead. There seemed to be no struggle though and since it was already dead, I decided not to pull it out since I didn't have the heart to do it too. I just let it be food to the anemone.

ELEVEN MONTHS

Tank 1

I didn't do much about the two home aquariums this month until yesterday when I had some time to purchase some fishes and corals to stock up the tanks. Prior to this, I shifted some stuff to my office tanks. Yes, I probably forgot to mention this before but I have two nano aquariums in the office.

Anyway, I am still quite pleased with tank 1 because of the wonderful colours of the Zoas and others. Interestingly, this small setup proves to be very good for the LPS and softies because the mushrooms and Acans seem to thrive under these conditions. One of the Acans in tank 2 started to bleach previously under the high light intensity and low nutrients system and after being transferred to tank 1, it recovered well and is starting to look exactly like the existing grey and red one in the same tank. The Zoas are growing fast here but so are the purple filamentous algae, which looked sickly when I placed it in tank 2 previously. Every evening, I see the bluish-purple Actinodiscus mushrooms swell up to large discs and I think it is a haven for mushrooms. There are now 2 Clean Skunk Shrimps in this tank and one appears to be carrying eggs. I must also report success in netting the large crab in this tank last week and threw it into my main office tank with the bigger fishes. Hopefully it will be useful enough to scavenge the food scraps in the tank.

For tank 2, the algae problem persists because I still didn't do anything about it other than the usual scrubbing of the green filamentous algae on the aquarium walls. The introduction of the Yellow Tang did seem to provide some help in controlling the algae growth and it is working very hard 247. But even the foam sponges are now a media for the filamentous green algae to grow on. I kind of stopped dosing the Grotech and Polyp Lab products and have completely removed almost all the SPS and replaced them with more Zoas and softies although I do not wish to replicate tank 1's look. The newly acquired Peppermint Shrimp made a brief appearance when the blue lights were on but it is often out of sight. I continued to remove a few Zoas-eating nudibranchs over this month but it is getting less now and I am introducing the Zoas slowly. I am actually glad that this tank is a bit more colourful now and I will try the SPS again some other time.

The information on the two tanks are below:

Tank 1 (1 ft cube - 27 litres)
The list of livestock is as follows: 

• Fishes 
• 3 Clown Fish
• Flameback Angel
• Invertebrates 
• 2 Cleaner Skunk Shrimps
• 3 Pom Pom Crabs 
• big red Hermit Crab & 3 small red Hermit Crabs 
• 2 Turbo Snails 
• Nassarius Snail 
• red Coco-worm 
• 2 big (brown) Feather Duster Worms 
• Corals 
• SPS
• brown Monti Cap
• grey Monti Cap
• LPS 
• grey red Acan
• pink Acan which is looking at the top one now
• orange green Acan (from tank 2)
• Mushrooms 
• plate of blue Actinodiscus mushrooms 
• 2 orange Ricordea yuma mushrooms
• a few assorted colour Ricordea florida mushrooms
• Soft Corals 
• Chili Coral
• Polyps 
• purple Goniopora
• frag of green Palm Tree (Clove) Coral 
• rock of brown Daisy Polyps 
• green Palythoa
• red Palythoa 
• mixture of Zoas
• Macroalgae 
• clumps of green Caulerpa
• purple algae

The technical information is as follows:

• Easy Aqua Ex500 External Filter with wave deflector
• PS 2012 protein skimmer
• Maxspect Razor Nano 60W (10,000 K)
• Tunze Osmolator Nano 
• Dymax Vortex W-8 Cooling Fan (10.5 CFM) 

Tank 2 (1.5 feet cube - 56 litres)
The updated list of livestock is:

• Fishes
• Flame Angel
• Hector Goby (no sign of it anymore)
• Royal Gramma
• Yellow Tang
• Yellow Wrasse
• Invertebrates
• Fire Shrimp
• Cleaner Skunk Shrimp
• Peppermint Shrimp
• 7 Turbo snails
• 2 Nassarius snails
• 2 Bumble Bee snails
• electric blue Hermit Crab
• red and yellow Coco-worms
• brown Feather Duster Worms
• blue Clam
• Corals
• SPS
• unknown white
• Mushrooms
• orange and rock of purple-pink Ricordea yuma mushrooms
• 3 Ricordea florida mushrooms
• 4 red Actinodiscus mushrooms
• Soft Corals
• rock of Finger Mushroom Coral
• Polyps
• green Clove Polyps
• plate of green skirt orange center Zoas, plate of mixed green and green skirt orange center Zoas
• plugs of Zoanthus (Incredible/KO 9, Eagle Eye 10, Sunflower >20, Red Eagle Eye 17, Nuclear Death 6, Purple Death 7, Rasta 14 and Sunflower 2) 
• 2 mats of Green Star Polyps
• brown Daisy Polyps
• yellow Parazoanthus
• Macroalgae
• Halimeda
• Caulerpa

The technical details are:

• Eheim 2213 external canister filter
• Bubble Magus Q3 skimmer
• AquaBeauty 70W LED lights
• Two Little Fishes Phosban Reactor running Phosban
• Dymax Windy W-7 cooling fan (42 CFM)
• Hydor Nano and Boyu (WM-101) wavemakers
• Tunze Nano Osmolator
• Dosing container

Addition of a Cleaner Skunk Shrimp

Cross Damsel for the office tank

Grey red Acan partially covered by Caulerpa and orangey red Acan

Green red Acan

Top view of tank 1

Changes to tank 2 after yesterday's new introduction

Small Yellow Wrasse is the latest member of the fish family

Actinodiscus mushrooms (L) and green Palythoa (R)

Interesting mushrooms yet to open up

Yellow Parazoathus rock (C) and red Zoas (R) for office

Daisy Polyps (bottom L) and Clove Polyps (top R)

Purplish-pink Ricordea yuma mushrooms

DAY 317

After leaving the blue lights on for some time, I still found most of the sps showing poor polyps extension and colour. So I finally switched on the white lights and due to the sudden increase in white lights, the sps and some of my Yuma mushrooms bleached out.

Initially, I ruled out high phosphates as the possibility since I added lots of new Rowaphos in the Phosban Reactor. However, I still found lots of algae growth and turning on the white lights made it worse. Even my Clove Polyps were covered with lots of strands of green filamentous algae and refused to open up. Without a Yellow Tang, it does appear that the phosphates is an issue that I need to address.