my reef GARden frenzY: wrasse

I thought I wouldn't be able to put up this post today because I was quite ill the last few days due to a fever, sore throat, cough and back ache after weeks of working on the floral display. I slept from 4-6 am on last Friday and that morning, I developed a sore throat, lost my voice around lunch time and a high fever by 2 pm. I went to see the doctor by 5 pm and when I reached home, I slept until the following day around 11 am.

For this whole month, the aquariums were so neglected and I didn't even make any new acquisitions. So everything looked miserable and just yesterday, the first casualty of the year was the Yellow Wrasse, which I found today on the table. I guess it managed to squeeze through the gap in the cover. Rest in peace, little fella. I don't know when I lost the Hector Goby, which is one of my small favourite gobies, but I think it could be last month. Even the Tuxedo Sea Urchin was dead and I found the remains of it.

I felt better today, did a cleanup of the aquarium and here are some photos taken today.

Aquarium 1 (1 ft cube - 27 litres)
I feel bad that the water in this aquarium always feel warm to the touch. I stopped using the fan for some time now and whilst the inhabitants are fine, I think they are not in their optimum condition. Maybe I am being cruel here, so I am considering getting them a chiller now to make them feel more at ease in this small abode.

The livestock are:

Fishes

False Percula Clownfish
2 Fire Gobies

Invertebrates

Turbo Snails
Cleaner Skunk Shrimp

Corals

2 Supersun Corals

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

Aquarium 3 (3 x 1.5 x 1.5 feet and sump - 250 litres)

Today, I removed a number of dead corals and siphoned away a lot of sand, which was smouldering the corals lower down, and hopefully things will stabilize soon. I discovered my beloved Black Percula Clown also disappeared and I think it could have gone missing last month. The biggest culprit is the Golden Maroon Clown, which was always chasing it and which I failed to net out.

The monthly updated list of livestock is as follows:

Fishes

Purple Tang
2 Blue-yellow Damsels
Yellow Tang
Flame Angel
Regal Blue Tang
Orange Striped Prawn Goby
True Percula Clown
Golden Maroon Clown
Royal Gramma
Yellow Clown Goby

Invertebrates

Turbo and Nassarius snails
Tuxedo Urchins
Cleaner Skunk Shrimp
Golden Stenopus Shrimp

Corals

Horn Coral
Poccillopora
orange Cyphastrea
Red Planet
red Acropora digitata
green Poccillopora
unknown green
Radioactive Bird Nest frag
Bird Nest frag
green Acropora digitata
unknown Acropora
Bird Nest frags

Hammer Corals (purple green)
green Candy Cane
Duncan Coral
Fox Coral

Mushrooms

orange Ricordea yuma mushrooms
green Ricordea yuma mushrooms
red mushroom
green mushroom

Soft Corals

Chilli Coral
pink Rose Bud Tip Anemones
Toadstool Leather Mushroom
luminous green Tree Coral

Polyps

purple Zoas
Fiery Red Zoas
5 assorted Zoas
2 green Palythoa
3 green Star Polyps
5 Clove Polyps (2 gold, 1 green and 2 common)
3 Daisy Polyps (brown and 2 green eyes)
15 frag plugs of Zoas
pink Zoas
green base purple skirt Paly
green base brown skirt Zoas

Macroalgae (in sump)

Chaetomorpha
red Bamboo
green Bubble algae

The technical details are:

Jebao Marine Aqua DC-6000 return pump
Maxspect R420R 16,000K 160W
Solite 2 x 24W T5 lights
Hailea HS-66A chiller
Skimz skimmer
Two Little Fishes Phosban Reactor running Phosguard
Maxspect Gyre and RW-8 wavemaker
Tunze Nano Osmolator
Marine Magic Triplet Dosing

This day is an important milestone for me.

Today, it marks 3 years or 1,095 days that I returned to aquarium reefing and I must honestly admit I am still a novice in SPS husbandry. Just when I thought almost everything seemed fine and promising, some SPS started to bleach or showed rtn. The big chunk of Bird Nest was getting my attention and on the way to become one of my favourites when it started to deteriorate. Fortunately, this past week I had more time on my hands and spent boxing day taking frags of it. In fact, I spent some time taking multiple frags of some SPS that were happy, with the slim hope that I will not see the end of them. I should probably steer free of Stags since they never seemed to do well in my hands with fading colours and non-existent PE.

What is making me happy are the few SPS listed below that are displaying very good PE and/or new growth. I cross my fingers that they will remain this way for a long time.

copper green Poccillopora - It was on the verge of declining previously but is one of the best specimens that I have now with excellent PE.
unknown fluorescent green SPS - I started with a frag of it from AquaMarin and subsequently, I broke a smaller frag from it and now I have 2 separate frags. Initially, I don't see the PE but now it seems to extend bluish polyps.
radioactive Bird Nest - I bought 2 frags of it from AquaMarin and now the larger frag has surprising long waving polyps in the water.
Acropora - This is a recently acquired Acropora together with a pink Millepora, green Acropora, blue Stag etc. All the others either perished or are declining but this colony has a brown body with green tips and blue polyps, that seemed to be on display most of the time.
red Acropora digitata - I got this in Taiwan in June this year and the frag initially lost its colour but it is now recovering its colour even though it is not as red as when I first got it and it certainly is growing.
green Acropora digitata - I used to have 2 frags of it and one main frag got rtn and perished, but not before I took a frag of it, and the other was partially bleached. I discovered one small frag which was originally white has green on its body now. I have also taken a frag of the bleached one, with the hope that it can regenerate itself.
orange Cyphastrea - I got this from GO in May this year and it seemed stable and is extending outwards slowly.
Red Planet - I bought this frag with a green body and purple "pimples" for $10 from a reefer and it is one of the most stable SPS that I have. Whilst most of the frags I bought from reefers died, this one seemed to look better by the day. It is growing very, very slowly but I am confident it has become accustomed to the tank conditions.
unknown deep sea Acropora - Ok, I have no idea of its identity but it is a very slim, smooth-skinned frag with a brown body that is showing more green now.

Well, I suppose it is quite apparent that I have a penchant for green SPS, presumably because I am in the green industry and love green plants. I am definitely trying to build up my collection of colourful SPS gradually over time.

Other notable corals that are worth mentioning are the now expanding pink-tipped Bubble Anemone, which almost shriveled and died when I first got it, and the green body brown polyps Tree Coral and green polyps Toadstool Leather Coral, both of which I bought in Taiwan. I guess the chiller did make a difference in the successful culture of SPS but it is obvious that temperature is not the only factor worth paying attention to. I guess stability of the water parameters is still paramount to maintaining a successful and sustainable pico or nano-reef.

Aquarium 1 (1 ft cube - 27 litres)

After the death of a huge chunk of Caulerpa algae, I think, that fouled the water and made me scrambled to partially change the water and replace the phosphate removal media, this aquarium has more fish inhabitants now. The water temperature remains to be one of the problems that is limiting the success of this aquarium.

The good news is, out of 4 Fire Gobies, 2 are now responding well and have ventured out of their hiding places to look for food.

The livestock are: