Sunday, July 31, 2016

43 MONTHS

This month was a busy month for me because of the Singapore Garden Festival 2016, so there wasn't much to update in terms of new purchases. But I did manage to get some photos from the web on some designs of aquariums as partitions across the rooms as an inspiration for my future full height aquarium in 2018 or 2019. However, I may have to reduce the length to just 2 feet.



a full height aquarium

Aquarium 1  (1 ft cube - 27 litres)
I introduced 2 small Flame Angels to this aquarium but they both ended up dead. I guess they are not suitable for a tank of this pico size given that they feed a lot.

The livestock are:
  • Fishes
    • 3 common Clown Fishes
  • Invertebrates
    • Turbo Snails
    • Cleaner Skunk Shrimp
    • Camel Shrimp
  • Corals
    • LPS
      • Supersun Coral
      • Fox Coral
    • Soft Corals
      • 2 pink Rose Bud Tip Anemones
      • cyan Tree Coral
      • pulsing Xenia
    • Polyps
      • green Palythoa
      • Zoas
      • green Star Polyps
    • Macroalgae
        • green Algae
        • Chaetomorpha algae
    The technical information is as follows:
    • Atman HF-0600 HOB Filter
    • Maxspect Razor Nano 60W (10,000K)
    • Tunze Nano Osmolator
    • AOL 60 litres chiller
    none of the Clownfishes touched the anemones!



    Aquarium 3 (3 x 1.5 x 1.5 feet and sump - 250 litres)
    A number of the sps have really coloured up more vibrantly and I am seeing a lot of green in some of the sps that I bought previously. Even some colonies that browned out previously coloured up under the AI and Sanrise lights. A purple Acropora is also developing a green base, which I never thought it had.

    Sadly, I have 4 large colonies of sps - 3 Milleporas and 1 Acropora, showing stn and I have already lost 2 of them despite making multiple frags of them. 1 is left with a small remaining frag and the most recent one is a blue/green Acropora which really coloured up so much. I just made lots of big frags of the latter today and hope that at least a frag of it would survive in here. Sometimes this hobby can be really frustrating and hurts the pocket a lot. Just when I thought I mastered something, another thing goes wrong just to prove that I am a total idiot. I am not entirely sure if it was because I disturbed this aquarium too much recently removing lots of the basal sand and live rocks and adding 2 Aquaroche rocks as replacement. 

    My gsp was having chemical warfare with my Duncan coral and the latter lost the battle. There is at least a dead head with several shrunken ones beside the ever-spreading gsp, which I so loved. It is so ironic. I also stopped introducing any new Yellow Tang to this aquarium since the last few I added seemed to starve to death.

    I bought the new Jebao Cross Flow CP-25 in early July and after using it for a few days, the red warning lights came on repeatedly. So I had no choice but to disconnect it and sent it for replacement at AquaMarin. Ah Heng replaced it with a set that he is using in the store and I had no problems with it since. I was told mine was the first set sent for replacement. Sigh, why am I always so lucky with marine equipment?

    The monthly updated list of livestock is as follows:
    • Fishes
      • 2 Blue-yellow Damsels
      • Flame Angel
      • Regal Blue Tang
      • Orange Striped Prawn Goby
      • True Percula Clown
      • Royal Gramma
      • Yellow Clown Goby
      • Yellow Wrasse
      • Tomato Clown
    • Invertebrates
      • Turbo and Nassarius snails
      • 2 Tuxedo Urchins
      • Cleaner Skunk Shrimp
      • Golden Stenopus Shrimp
    • Corals
      • SPS
        • Horn Coral
        • green Poccillopora
        • orange Cyphastrea
        • red Acropora digitata
        • green Poccillopora - 2 frags
        • unknown green
        • red Montipora
        • green Acropora digitata
        • 2 unknown Acropora
        • red/brown Poccillopora
        • brown with blue-tip Millepora frags
        • green deep sea Acropora
        • pink Birdnest
        • red Acropora digitata frag
        • Acropora valida frag
        • green/pink Acropora
        • green/blue Acropora
        • green/pink Millepora
      • LPS
        • Hammer Coral (purple green)
        • green Candy Cane
        • Duncan Coral
        • yellow Torch Coral that turned green (left 2 heads)
        • Bubble Coral
        • Goniopora
      • Mushrooms
        • green Ricordea yuma mushrooms
        • red mushroom
        • green mushroom
        • blue mushroom
      • Soft Corals
        • Chilli Coral
        • Toadstool Leather Mushroom
        • luminous green Tree Coral
      • Polyps
        • purple Zoas
        • Fiery Red Zoas
        • 5 assorted Zoas
        • 2 green Palythoa
        • 3 green Star Polyps
        • 2 Clove Polyps (2 gold)
        • pink Zoas
        • green base purple skirt Paly
        • green base brown skirt Zoas
        • orange Zoas
    • Macroalgae (in sump)
      • Chaetomorpha
      • red Bamboo
      • green Bubble algae
      The technical details are:
      • Jebao Marine Aqua DC-6000 return pump
      • Aqua Illumination Hydra 52 HD
      • Sanrise Aqua Pro (without wifi) 30 cm
      • Hailea HS-66A chiller
      • Skimz SN143 skimmer
      • Two Little Fishes Phosban Reactor running Phosguard
      • Maxspect Gyre
      • Jebao Cross Flow CP 25 
      • Tunze Nano Osmolator
      • Marine Magic Triplet Dosing
      pile of live rocks (r) removed in preparation for Aquaroche rock


      the empty space

      top view of Zoas


      an unknown frag colouring up


      the left Millepora died and the right Acropora with stn

      the brown Poccillopora

      a green Poccillopora

      is this Purple Death Zoas?



      remnants of an Acropora (l) and an Acropora (r) recently exposed to light

      a similar looking Acropora turned green

      a dying pink Fiji Birdnest

      an interesting gsp rock

      an Acropora that is dark green now


      the FTS didn't seem very impressive

      the Aquaroche rock is still quite bare

      I fragged multiple frags of it but the parent colony died off

      the once beautiful Millepora with excellent polyps extension died

      some frags of the deep blue green Acropora




      it is so sad to let this go

      the gsp that killed the Duncan heads!

      an intense green Acropora!

      one of my two pink Birdnests!