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

FIVE MONTHS

It has been a long one month and many things have changed in the tanks. I am still highly dissatisfied with the layout and scaping and am trying to be more selective in the addition of any new members into the tanks. I said trying because it is hard to resist the temptation of buying the corals when I go coral shopping and there is a fair share of regrets when it comes to new introductions.

Anyway, the updates on the 2 aquariums are as follows:

Tank 1 (1 ft cube - 27 litres)
In the last monthly post, I mentioned that I was irked by the thick protruding inlet tube of the Atman hang-on-filter. So I got it replaced with the Easy Aqua Ex500 External Filter.

The list of livestock etc is as follows:

• Fishes
• 1 Clown Fish (Candy)
• 1 Hector's Goby (Hector)
• 1 Six Line Wrasse (Wendy)
• 1 Blue Neon Goby (Bernard)
• Invertebrates
• 1 red and white Pistol Shrimp (Paul)
• 3 Pom Pom Crabs (Penelope, Phoebe and Phyllis - 1 of them was no where to be seen though and could possibly be dead)
• 4 Turbo Snails
• 2 Nassarius Snails
• 1 small Yellow Cucumber
• 1 Coco-worm (Coco)
• 2 small (yellow and red) Feather Duster Worms
• Corals
• LPS
• 1 red Acan Brain Coral
• 1 pink Sun Coral
• 1 Bubble Coral (Badly shrunk from tank 2)
• 1 brown Elegance Coral
• Mushrooms
• 2 plates of red Actinodiscus mushrooms (1 is bleaching)
• 1 plate of blue Actinodiscus mushrooms
• 1 plate of Ricordea mushrooms
• 2 orange Ricordea yuma mushrooms
• Soft Corals
• 1 Rose Tip Bubble Anemone
• 1 Chili Coral
• Polyps
• 1 piece of Green Star Polyps and 1 mat of GSP
• 2 frags of green Palm Tree Coral
• 1 frag of orange Palm Tree Coral
• 1 fluorescent Goniopora with pink eye (It has not opened for weeks now although it is not dead)
• 1 brown Goniopora (It expands so big all the time that Candy prefers to be hosted here than at the RBTA)
• 1 rock of brown Daisy (Clove) Polyp (It shrunk so much that only a few remaining polyps are seen)
• 1 green Palythoa
• 1 frag of green Zoanthus (cannot find 1 frag)
• Macroalgae
• 1 rock of red bamboo macroalgae
• 1 plate of red wavy macroalgae (Ulva) 
• 2 clumps of red branched macroalgae

The casualties are:

• 1 Red Spotted Goby (Ralph)
• 1 Cleaner Skunk Shrimp (Chris - I woke up one morning and saw a Nassarius snail eating the body of the shrimp. It was disgusting.)
• 1 Pom Pom Crab (I don't see it anymore)
• 3 big Feather Duster Worms
• 1 piece of GSP (Polyps were all withdrawn)

The technical information is as follows:

• 1 Ocean Free Hang-on-Back filter 2
• 1 Easy Aqua Ex500 External Filter
• 1 Green Element 3W LED light (4 white, 2 blue)
• 1 Tunze Osmolator Nano
• 1 Dymax Cooling Fan

Tank 2 (1.5 feet cube - 56 litres)

I am still battling some phosphate problems and transferred my Two Little Fishes Phosban Reactor home to run the NP biopellets and am also dosing the Brightwell Aquatics Reef BioFuel daily. It looks like I have to set up one more reactor to run phosphate removers.

The updated list of livestock etc is:

• Fishes
• 2 Clown Fish (Cindy and Cynthia)
• 1 Yellow Wrasse (Yogi)
• 1 Six Line Wrasse (Selena)
• 1 Hector's Goby (Henry)
• Invertebrates
• 1 Fire Shrimp (Felicia)
• 1 Cleaner Skunk Shrimp (Calisto)
• 7 Turbo snails
• 2 Nassarius snails
• 3 Bumble Bee snails
• 1 electric blue and 1 red Hermit Crabs
• 2 Coco-worms
• 1 big and 1 small (yellow) Feather Duster Worm
• 1 blue Clam
• Corals
• SPS
• 1 pink digitata sps
• 1 brown Millipora
• 3 frags of white sps
• LPS
• 
  
• 1 orange Sun Coral
• 1 rock of fluorescent green and blue Goniopora
• 1 rock of shrinking fluorescent Goniopora
• 1 cream Elegance Coral
• 1 pink Hammer Coral
• 1 green Frogspawn Coral
• 1 branched Candy Cane (bleached and transferred to office tank)
• Mushrooms
• 1 rock of orange Ricordea yuma mushrooms
• 2 green Ricordea mushrooms
• 1 branch of Rhodactis mushrooms
• 1 plate of purple Actinodiscus mushrooms
• Soft Corals
• 2 rocks of Xenia
• 1 rock of Finger Mushroom Coral
• 1 Leather Coral (from office tank)
• 1 pink Cauliflower Tree Coral
• 1 Chili Coral
• Polyps
• 1 rock of Clove Polyps
• 2 frags of orange Palm Tree Corals
• 1 brown Palythoa
• 1 rock, 2 plates and 6 plugs of Zoanthus
• 1 mat of Green Star Polyps
• 1 rock of Green Star Polyps (polyps disappeared and growing Halimeda macroalgae)
• 1 branched GSP (from tank 1)
• 1 Organ Pipe Coral
• Macroalgae
• 1 red Bamboo (transferred to office tank)
• 1 big and 1 small red Bubble macroalgae
• 1 red branched macroalgae
• Halimeda

The casualties are:

• 1 Tigertail Seahorse
• 2 Banded Pipefish
• 2 purple Clams
• 1 blue Millipora

The technical details are:

• Eheim 2213 external canister filter
• Tunze 9004 skimmer
• Green Element LED (12 white 12000k and 8 blue 460 nm) with 2 mini fans
• 1 Two Little Fishes Phosban Reactor running NP biopellets
• 1 Sunon fan
• 1 wavemaker