Friday, January 31, 2014

13 MONTHS

The month started well and I acquired more soft corals but it ended with the death of my favourite Flame Angel which suddenly went missing yesterday. I didn't see it after coming back from work and waited it out. This morning I finally saw its body hidden amongst the rocks towards the back of the tank. I was in a bad place yesterday and I hope that had absolutely nothing to do with it.

The purple macroalgae in Tank 1 is becoming very invasive. When I tried to remove clumps of it earlier, it broke easily and when these fragments settled at different spots, they grew into new clumps that attached themselves firmly onto rocks, corals. Now even my mushroom rock is occupied by it and I couldn't effectively eradicating them from the rock. The filter sponges are also overgrown with algae. Otherwise, it is a lovely algae that I don't see on sale anywhere. 

Tank 2 is colouring up quite well actually. And yes, I finally successfully have a plate of blue Sympodium polyps that didn't melt away. Another observation is that the yellow Parazoanthus and Daisy Polyps are developing long stalks and tentacles. The Parazoanthus looks as if it has a head of long hair strands that sway with the currents compared to the one in Tank 1 with short stalks and tentacles. I have also never seen such big and long individual polyps of Daisy Polyps in any of the lfs. From a small flower-like polyp, the stalks and tentacles become so extended. 

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

  • Fishes 
    • 3 Clown Fish
    • Flameback Angel
    • 2 Dragonface Pipefish
    • Red Scooter Blenny
  • Invertebrates 
    • 2 Cleaner Skunk Shrimps
    • 2 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
    • 1 clam
  • Corals 
    • SPS
      • brown Monti Cap
    • LPS 
      • grey red Acan
      • orange blue Acan
      • orange green Acan
      • green red Acan
  • 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 golden Clove Coral
    • rock of brown Daisy Polyps 
    • 1 green Palythoa and 1 red Palythoa 
    • mixture of Zoas
    • yellow Parazoanthus
  • Macroalgae 
    • green Caulerpa
    • purple algae
The technical information is as follows:
  • Sobo WP-607H hanging filter
  • Dolphin H-200 hang-on-back filter
  • 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
    • Royal Gramma
    • Yellow Tang
    • Blue-yellow Damsel
  • Invertebrates
    • Fire Shrimp
    • Cleaner Skunk Shrimp
    • Peppermint Shrimp
    • Turbo snails
    • Nassarius snails
    • 2 Bumble Bee snails
    • electric blue Hermit Crab
    • 3 Clams
  • Corals
    • SPS
      • brown Monti Cap
      • grey Monti Cap
    • Mushrooms
      • orange and rock of purple-pink Ricordea yuma mushrooms
      • Ricordea florida mushrooms
      • 4 red Actinodiscus mushrooms
      • 2 rocks of Discosoma mushrooms
    • Soft Corals
      • 2 rocks of Finger Mushroom Coral
      • Chili Coral
    • Polyps
      • 7 rocks of mixed Zoas & plugs of Zoas
      • 2 mats of Green Star Polyps
      • brown Daisy Polyps
      • yellow Parazoanthus
      • green Palythoa
      • mixture of Zoas
      • white Organ Pipe Coral
      • blue Sympodium 
      • unknown
  • 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
A snail

The Red Scooter Blenny







This is the last time I saw the Flame Angel





Blue Sympodium polyps


The long tentacles of Daisy Cloves and Parazoanthus











This is one snail in Tank 2 which I do not know if it's poisonous or not?