It is with much excitement for me to announce that a full month has past and these are the latest photos of the aquarium that was set up at the turn of the year. I am personally proud that I have accomplished much and the following is the latest update in terms of the livestock (not in order of purchase or stocking):
- 1 Clown Fish
- 1 Cleaner Skunk Shrimp
- 10 Sexy Shrimps
- 1 Pom Pom Crab
- 3 Turbo Snails
- 2 Nassarius Snails
- 1 Coco-worm
- 2 Feather Duster Worms
- 2 Galaxy Star Polyps
- 1 Sun Coral
- 1 pink Cauliflower Tree Coral
- 1 plate of Daisy Polyps
- 2 plates of red mushrooms
- 1 plate of blue mushrooms
- 1 plate of Rhodactis mushrooms
- 1 plate of mixed green Zoanthus
- 1 Mushroom Finger Coral
- 2 Xenia
- 1 rock of red macroalgae
- 1 Chaetomorpha
Interestingly, the blue and red mushrooms seemed to recover from the shock of being newly introduced into the aquarium and are getting bigger everyday. The Daisy Polyps, Rhodactis mushrooms and Mushroom Finger Coral are also growing larger. Even the rock with the initial clump of Xenia is recovering back.
The only recorded casualties thus far are:
- 1 orange Cauliflower Tree Coral
- 1 green Zoanthus
- 1 Caulerpa macroalgae
The other technical information is as follows:
- 1 Ocean Free Super Hang-On Filter 2
- 1 Ocean Free Super Hang-On Filter 3
- 1 Green Element 3W LED light (4 white, 2 blue)
Nothing much changed on most of day 13 except that I was freaked out again when the Turbo snails didn't move. Later on, 2 of them were actively scouting around the rocks, glass and sand for algae but 1 was immobile. If it is dead, I would have to quickly remove it before it polluted the water.
Luckily, this 1 here was happily coasting on the glass.
By the end of the day, I bought myself a small Clown Fish and a Sun Coral which I shall named Claudia and Sunny respectively. The Clown Fish has always besotted me and I don't think a marine setup is complete without this amazingly cartoonish yet attractive orange fish. The Sun Coral is orange too and I had a hard time coaxing it to feed on the Mysis Shrimps and freeze-dried Cyclop-eez. Hopefully I have better luck keeping it alive. I added a small filter at the same spot where I placed the wave maker to create some flow but the current seemed quite weak. This was also where I placed the Sun Coral.
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.
