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

DAYS 91-93

2 days ago, I found Coco curling up her crown and thought something was wrong. Later that night, she was back to normal. I also saw something that looked like a small starfish clinging onto the glass. Let's see whether it develops into a full fledged specimen.

I don't often see Hector, but when I did, it was mostly in the day. I don't recall seeing him out in the waters when I am back from work every night. His disappearance act almost fooled me into thinking it was dead. As for Herman the electric blue Hermit Crab, he has been quite active and I am beginning to like him. But tomorrow is time for him to be transferred to my office Pico to help manage the hair algae problem. The poor seahorses were almost bleached white and I wonder how long more they can take it before giving up.

Today I also did what I wanted to do for a while. I didn't manage to buy the green and blue Daisy Polyps that I set out to buy but instead purchased a Sympodium coral, a small rock of red Goniopora and a mixed fluorescent and brown hammer coral and rescaped both tanks. Some of the corals are definitely not happy with me and I am still not pleased with the look for both tanks but it would do for now.

In the 27 litres pico tank 1, there are a few gaps for me to add some interesting stuff later. One is at the left hand bottom corner and one is at the right hand top corner behind the GSP. Both GSPs are not opening up fully but the 2 fluorescent Gonioporas are opening up quite well as I am typing this. When comparing the 2 plates of Sympodium corals, it is apparent that the original plate in this tank is quite bare. This was what I meant when I opined in a previous post that I suspect the Sexy Shrimps were behind this.

The 56 litres pico tank 2 was a mess and I had to clear up the rock of green bubble macroalgae. I transferred the brown mushroom finger coral to this tank and am certain the easy going coral would grow well here. What is interesting is I saw 2 small red corals on the rock although I do not know what they are. The Sympodium plate is definitely looking much fuller and better here. Let's see when it would fully open up. As for the hammer coral, it is still pretty much shrunk up and I am unable to capture its full colour. I guess patience is the key now. And oh, I managed to clear the 2 bubbles on the Zoa plate in this tank but unfortunately dislodged the 1 bubble in tank 1. I hope I won't get a bubble algae outbreak in tank 1.

Well, I will update again in a few days time when things are more stable.

 

2 MONTHS

I was supposed to post this on 1 Mar 13 but I could make it. These are photos of the latest layout with new additions to celebrate the 2 months anniversary.

The final list of livestock is as follows:

• 1 Red Spotted Goby (Renee)
• 1 Clown Fish (Candy)
• 1 Cleaner Skunk Shrimp
• 1 Fire Shrimp
• 10 Sexy Shrimps
• 1 Pom Pom Crab
• 3 Turbo Snails
• 2 Nassarius Snails
• 1 small Yellow Cucumber
• 1 Coco-worm
• 4 Feather Duster Worms
• 3 Green Star Polyps (1 brown, 1 wavy long tentacles faint fluorescent with white eye and 1 short tentacles fluorescent with pink eye)
• 1 orange Sun Coral
• 1 pink Sun Coral
• 1 Stick/Tree Coral
• 1 Palm Tree Coral (broke into 2 frags)
• 1 branched Goniopora (1 white branch and 1 light brown branch)
• 1 Candy Cane Coral (broke into 2 frags and 1 was brought to the office)
• 1 pink Cauliflower Tree Coral
• 1 rock of Yellow Polyps
• 1 plate of Daisy Polyps
• 1 plates of red Actinodiscus mushrooms (1 plate was brought to the office)
• 1 plate of blue Actinodiscus mushrooms
• 1 plate of Ricordea mushrooms
• 1 branch of Rhodactis mushrooms
• 2 plates of Zoanthus
• 1 Mushroom Finger Coral
• 1 Xenia (1 hidden)
• 1 rock of red bamboo macroalgae, 1 plate of red bubble macroalgae, 1 plate of red wavy macroalgae and 2 clumps of red branched macroalgae

It is almost unbelievable that I managed to pack so many things into this small 27 litres pico aquarium. I will be going on a Taiwan trip in a few days time and this would be a test of how the tank will function without me around for a week. I am worried about Sunny since it has been very grumpy.

Anyway, the newly recorded casualties for this month are:

• 2 Clown Fishes (Claudia and Chloe)
• 1 Six-Line Wrasse (Sally)
• 1 clump of Chaetomorpha macroalgae

The technical information is as follows:

• 1 Ocean Free Super Hang-On Filter 2
• 1 Atman HF-0600 hang on back filter
• 1 Green Element 3W LED light (4 white, 2 blue)
• 1 Beamworks LED light (31 white, 2 blue)
• 1 Tunze Osmolator Nano

DAY 43

It is with great sadness that I announce the demise of Claudia. I found her on the floor when I came back from work earlier. Did something spook her? Otherwise, why did she jump out of the tank when she was behaving so well all these time? She is still very small, young, has been eating well and was in good health. Sigh, what a pity.

When I saw Chris the other day, the exoskeleton was on the sponge and 3 of the Sexy Shrimps were teasing it apart. Chris the Skunk Cleaner Shrimp has been moulting quite regularly compared to Felicia the Fire Shrimp. Coco's twin crowns are also getting bigger each day. I brought the Daisy Polyp to the office yesterday and rescaped the layout yesterday.

Anyway, looking at these photos, I feel very dissatisfied because the colours shown are so dull. It lacks shades of blue, green and yellow. By the way, the camera did not reproduce all the colours truly in the photos.