THREE MONTHS

Finally, this is the update at the end of the 3rd month. Let me start off with a photo of what I thought was the corpse of the blue hermit crab that I found in my 1.5 feet tank yesterday. Thankfully, it was just a moult but it sure fooled me until I saw the real hermit crab moving.

Next is the full tank shot (fts) of the 1.5 feet tank showing the amended scape yesterday.

Then it is back to the fts photos, of the 2 tanks, taken just a while earlier. Clearly, there is still a lot of room for changes and improvement and that would happen in this 4th month. Until then, this is the most updated information on the 2 tanks:

Tank 1 (1 ft cube - 27 litres)
This tank had a brown oily film about 2 weeks back and I had to scoop it out during 3 water changes. I suspect this had something to do with the freeze dried Cyclop-Eeze that I fed in copious amounts to the tank because of the Sun Corals. Since I was caught up with other stuff and didn't have time to feed the Sun Corals individually, I realized the oil slick is gone although Sunny the orange Sun Coral doesn't look too happy. I am not sure if the water parameters are good but when I tested for phosphates with the Salifert test box about a week back, it registered 0 although I am still skeptical about it.

On a separate note, I am amazed that there are still 10 Sexy Shrimps around but I lost a brown Xenia and Yellow Polyps and I have a feeling that they may have something to do with it. I bought a grey Xenia recently but just two days in, I realized there were less clumps on the rock and had to transfer the rock over to tank 2. Again I am unsure if the shrimps are the culprits because I haven't been feeding them Mysis Shrimps.

I also observed that the new crown that Coco the Coco-Worm grew seemed to take on a more uniform pinkish crown instead of alternating strips of red and white before the two crowns were shed. I wonder what is the cause of this?

Overall, I am quite happy that the tank is quite stable and the fishes, invertebrates and macroalgae include:

• 1 Clown Fish (Candy)
• 1 Hector's Goby (Hector)
• 1 Six Line Wrasse (Wendy)
• 1 Diagonal Bar Goby paired with 1 red and white Pistol Shrimp
• 1 Cleaner Skunk Shrimp (Chris)
• 1 Fire Shrimp
• 10 Sexy Shrimps
• 1 Pom Pom Crab (Penelope)
• 3 Turbo Snails
• 2 Nassarius Snails
• 1 small Yellow Cucumber
• 1 Coco-worm
• 3 big and 2 small (yellow and red) Feather Duster Worms
• 3 pieces of Green Star Polyps
• 1 orange Sun Coral
• 1 pink Sun Coral
• 1 branched Sun Coral
• 1 Stick/Tree Coral (transferred to 1.5 feet tank)
• 2 frags of green Palm Tree Coral
• 1 frag of orange Palm Tree Coral
• 1 branched Goniopora
• 1 fluorescent Goniopora with white eye (with a bubble algae)
• 1 fluorescent Goniopora with pink eye
• 0 Candy Cane Coral (remaining 1 was brought to the office to make space here)
• 1 pink Cauliflower Tree Coral (1 clump moved to the rock formerly with Xenia)
• 1 plate of brown Daisy Polyps
• 1 plate of red Actinodiscus mushrooms
• 1 plate of blue Actinodiscus mushrooms
• 1 plate of Ricordea mushrooms
• 1 branch of Rhodactis mushrooms
• 1 orange Ricordea yuma mushroom
• 2 frags of green Zoanthus (5 small plugs, 1 medium plug and 2 plates transferred to 1.5 feet tank) 
• 1 Mushroom Finger Coral
• 1 Acropora Coral
• 1 unknown coral (not sure if it is Sympodium) with a small piece that broke off and it is still not opened up yet
• 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

The casualties are:

• 1 Red Spotted Goby (Renee) - committed suicide by jumping out of the tank when I was away in Taiwan
• 1 Fire Shrimp (Felicia) - disappeared after I came back from Taiwan
• 1 Xenia (presumably eaten by Sexy Shrimps)
• 1 rock of Yellow Polyps (it just slowly disappeared even though I fed it occasionally with Mysis Shrimps while the one in the office which is unfed is still growing)

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) - just a supplement for viewing
• 1 Tunze Osmolator Nano

Tank 2 (1.5 feet cube - 56 litres)

In comparison to tank 1, I am kind of disappointed with this newly setup tank. It is up for nearly 2 weeks now and the inhabitants are not happy and are not really feeding. Diatoms are appearing everywhere, on the glass and sand. Just the other day, I was sad to find 2 dead Cleaner Skunk Shrimps and a dead Tree Coral. One was actually carrying eggs. When I touched the water, it was so warm. I dipped my hand into tank 1 and surprisingly, the water was cooler. I immediately turned off the skimmer because I was worried the running submerged skimmer pump might have contributed to the heat. I guess I need to do something about this before adding any more shrimps.

These two days I also had to clear the carcasses of 2 dead Six Line Wrasses, which were absolutely gorgeous when I bought them. The remaining 3 Tigertail seahorses are very emanciated and I suspect their ends are near. They have taken on a pale yellow look but I could still make out their bony exoskeleton and their heads looked brown as if diatoms were growing on them. I do know that they can get infection easily in warm waters.

I have 2 clumps of Caulerpa (a feather and a bubble) and because of that, alternated the turning on of two sets of lights in my bid to prevent them going sexual. However, I am not sure if this is a permanent solution. The bubble is looking kind of strange now and if it does die on me, I may not grow anymore Caulerpa in the tank. Anyway, I doubt having the lights on almost 247 is the cause of the high water temperature.

A plate of Zoanthus in this tank and a Goniopora in tank 1 were purchased from Go Octopus and both are sprouting bubble algae. I have to find some means to remove the bubble algae sometime. By the way, all the Zoas have opened buttons here. So I suppose the Sexy Shrimps were the cause of them not opening up in tank 1 previously.

To end this post, here is the list of fishes, invertebrates etc:

• 3 Tigertail seahorses
• 3 Banded Pipefish
• 1 Yellow Wrasse
• 9 Turbo snails
• 2 Nassarius snails
• 1 electric blue Hermit Crab (meant for the office tank)
• 1 big and 1 small (yellow) Feather Duster Worm
• 1 salmon Tree Coral
• 1 Stick/Tree Coral (lost its fluorescence)
• 1 plate of grey Xenia with a sponge/tunicate
• 1 rock, 2 plates and 6 plugs of Zoanthus
• 1 rock of Green Star Polyps (not opened yet)
• 2 red mushrooms
• 2 green Ricordea mushrooms
• 1 purple Rhodactis mushroom (from office tank)
• 2 frags of orange Palm Tree Corals
• 1 red Bamboo and 1 red Bubble macroalgae

The casualties are:

• 2 Cleaner Skunk Shrimps
• 2 Six Line Wrasses
• 1 Tree Coral

The technical details are:

• Ocean Free Super Hang-On Filter 3
• Easy Aqua Ex500 External Filter
• Tunze 9004 skimmer
• 40 cm Green Element LED light (7 white, 3 blue)
• 40 cm AquaZonic T5 lights (2 tubes of 14W)

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

DAYS 54-59

These are more random photos of the aquarium. Sunny was puffing up but turned grumpy the last days when it toppled several times after I changed the layout.

Finally, the new Green Star Polyps also opened up.

DAY 46

Much has happened since the last post and it is a long story. To cut things short, my old Fujitsu laptop was dying, so I got myself a new Sony Vaio laptop yesterday and I am now posting from it.

Anyway, much has changed to my aquarium and the photos shown here are no longer updated. Just looking at these photos, I have to say that I replaced the OF 3 HOB filter with a Atman HF-0600 filter because  it has a surface skimmer when drawing in water through the inlet tube and the compartment is more spacious. However, I hate it now that the inlet tube is sticking too far out into my tank and obstructs the view. I also added the Tunze Nano Osmolator as an auto-top up for water so that when I go for my upcoming trip for 7 days, it will refill the water for me without me having to worry too much. I was running out of real estate area in my tank, so I took out the Boyu wavemaker since the currents appear too strong and blew everything in a haphazard manner. These are the only equipment addition and changes.

In terms of lifestock, I have to admit that I added a cute Clownfish Chloe and a Six-Line Wrasse Sally but both fishes perished. I have decided not to add any fish for the time being until I am back from the trip.

As for corals etc, I added the following which I will post on another day:

• Stick/Tree Polyp
• branching whitish Goniopora
• frag of luminous green and pink Ricordea mushrooms
• plate of mixed Zoas
• piece of brown Candy Cane which somehow broke into 2 and I brought 1 to the office
• rock of luminous Green Star Polyps which has not opened since day 1 on 19 Feb 13. I didn't know it has been 7 days until now.

Looking at these photos, somehow I must say I find the actual tank display looks better in person than on camera but I will strive to post better photos next time.

DAY 12

In this post, the top half of the photos was illuminated with my existing 2 14W, 12,000k lights. In the second part, I turned on my new LED lights with 4 10,000k and 2 actinic blue partially and switched off the former towards the end.

Oh yes, the tank obviously looked different because I added the following:

• a plate of mini Zoanthids
• 2 stalks of Green Star Polyps (GSP)
• an unknown soft coral
• a Xenia at the corner
• 3 Turbo snails
• a live rock with Caulerpa and a Chaetomorpha in an old fish breeding container

I know I probably shouldn't stock the aquarium so quickly and one can tell my impatience from all these because I just couldn't wait any longer. Anyway, the Xenia looked like it was gone but I placed it in a corner with good flow and hope it would recover. If it is dead, it would definitely pollute the water significantly. One GSP opened up a bit while the other remained close. I actually wanted 3 Nassarius snails but they gave me 3 Turbo instead. I threw all of them in without acclimatizing them and for a while I was worried because they didn't seem to move at all except occasionally. Hopefully, they would do a good job of cleaning up the tank of hair algae. I got the Caulerpa first then managed to get the Chaetomorpha subsequently to help with nitrate export.

I was checking out the Clown Fishes and Six-Line Wrasses in the local fish shop (LFS) because I love both but ended up not buying any of them since the staff were busy. Well, at least I managed to curb myself and left the place before I succumbed to temptation again.