17 MONTHS

enhanced photo of Aquarium 2

Looking at this photo of the former Aquarium 2, I must say I really miss this setup, especially the inhabitants that were with me for a long time and which perished in the transfer to the new aquarium.

I always found that the photos I took were not representative of what I saw because of the colour misrepresentation. But one thing I did recently was to turn up the lights to increase the illumination to capture better lit photos.

So, anyway the following are the livestock and technical updates and the photos:

Aquarium 1 (1 ft cube - 27 litres)
I have recently removed another batch of basal sand with a lot of accumulated debris from this aquarium. It is still a far cry to how it used to look like because my attention was mostly spent on Aquarium 3. My Acans also deteriorated for a while since the damages by the Yuma mushrooms and recently it was worse because the Hector Goby loved to spit sand onto the Acan, causing some death of the heads. Anyway, I moved them to Aquarium 1 for some recuperation.

The list of livestock is as follows: 

• Fishes 
• Flameback Angel
• Yellow Shrimp Goby
• 2 black Ocellaris clowns
• Hector Goby
• Invertebrates 
• Cleaner Skunk Shrimp
• big red Hermit Crab & 3 small red Hermit Crabs 
• 3 Turbo Snails 
• Nassarius Snail 
• small yellow Feather Duster Worm
• medium Clam
• Corals
• Soft Corals
• unknown Anthelia (with a lot of dieback recently)
• Zoas
• Xenia
• Rose Bud Tip Anemone
• Mushrooms 
• a few loose blue Actinodiscus mushrooms
• Macroalgae
• green Caulerpa
• red algae

The technical information is as follows:

• Dolphin H-200 hang-on-back filter
• Shiruba XB-303 External Filter
• Maxspect Razor Nano 60W (10,000 K)
• Tunze Osmolator Nano
• Aqua Cool Fan 

sand can be seen on the dead heads

close-up of the dead heads

none of the Acans was spared

pair of black Ocellaris Clowns

rose bud tip anemone I added for the clowns

Hector the Goby

Aquarium 3 (3 x 1.5 x 1.5 feet and sump - 250 litres)
There is still quite a bit of frustration that I felt with regards to this aquarium. A lot of the sps now started to show rapid tissue necrosis (rtn) or slow tissue necrosis (stn) and I lost a number of them already.

The updated list of livestock is:

• Fishes
• 2 Clown Fish
• Yellow Tang
• Purple Tang
• Blue-yellow Damsel
• Flame Angel
• Royal Gramma
• Six Line Wrasse
• Yellow Wrasse
• Fathead Sunburst Anthias
• Two Spot Goby
• Yellow Shrimp Goby
• Hi Fin Red Banded Goby
• 2 true Percula Clowns
• Invertebrates
• 2 Cleaner Skunk Shrimps
• Fire Shrimp
• Turbo, Nassarius and Bumble Bee snails
• electric blue Hermit Crab
• 1 big and 2 small Clams
• red Linckia starfish
• small yellow, big brown and yellow-brown Feather Duster worms
• Cowry
• 2 black pistol shrimps
• black crab in sump refugium
• Corals
• SPS
• 5 Acropora (bleached)
• 2 unknown branching sps
• 2 red digitata
• Green Millepora
• Red Millepora
• 3 Monti Caps
• LPS
• 7 Acans (nursing back the ones from Aquarium 1)
• Hammer Coral
• 2 Blasto
• mega Blasto
• Elegance Coral
• Sun Coral
• Supersun Coral
• Green Chalice
• red Plate
• Brain Coral
• Bubble Coral
• Mushrooms
• 7 Ricordea yuma mushrooms
• rock of blue Actinodiscus mushrooms
• Soft Corals
• 2 Chili Corals
• green Carpet Anemone
• red Flower Rock Anemone
• Polyps 
• frag of pink-green Palm Tree (Clove) Coral
• mixture of Zoas
• mixture of Palythoa
• 2 yellow Parazoanthus
• 3 Green Star Polyps
• 1 green and 1 purple Goniopora
• Macroalgae
• Caulerpa
• Chaetomorpha
• purple algae
• red Bamboo

The technical details are:

• Jebao Marine Aqua DC-6000 return pump
• Maxspect R420R 16,000k 120W
• Tunze 9004 Nano Skimmer
• 2 Two Little Fishes Phosban Reactor running Phosban
• Dymax cooling fan (42 CFM)
• Fluval 3 external filter
• MP25 and Boyu wavemaker
• Tunze Nano Osmolator
• Marine Magic Triplet Dosing

enhanced photo of right side of Aquarium before rescaping

it's hard to capture photos of the Two Spot Goby

left side of aquarium

panoramic view of fts

unknown red plate, green Blasto, branched sps and green Monti Cap

slightly bleached digitata spa and a brown Monti Cap

a new Bubble Anemone

another branching sps and red Millepora

a red Millepora with stn which I clipped off some parts

close-up of more stn

new rainbow brain

amazingly beautiful green Chalice

3 Acans and red green Blasto

pair of true Percula clowns, Sun Coral, Supersun Coral with Acans

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

TEN MONTHS

This is a month of little change. In fact, I shifted a lot of the corals around the two aquariums and moved some to my office tank. These days, capturing the photos is a problem for me because somehow my iphone and Nikon cameras are unable to record the true colours of the fishes and corals.

For tank 1, I still find that the assortment of Zoas provides a richer palette of colours. 

For tank 2, there was a significant reduction in corals. For October, there were only additions of 3 rocks of Yuma and Actinodiscus mushrooms and shifting of some of the rocks and Zoas. Unfortunately, this tank suffered a nudibranch attack, presumably from some corals that I last bought. Things are still not under control and sadly, the Zoas are not opening up optimally. Things are also not looking too good in this tank because I have problems maintaining the kH of the water. I am left with only a few pieces of SPS and the green and red digitatas have almost lost all its colours. I guessed it was due to bleaching under the 80-100% of the white intensity of the AquaBeauty LED lights but I have since reduced it to 10% daily but there is still no improvement. I suspected the phosphates were high since I started seeing the appearance of algae and had since replaced the phosphate removers. Ruling out the high light intensity and phosphates as the causes of the poor appearances of the SPS corals, I can only suspect the water quality as well as the delicate balance of kH, Mg and Ca as the principal causes.

Another astonishing thing for me was also the discovery of one big crab in each of the two tanks. The one in tank 1 has a rougher exoskeleton while the one in tank 2 looks like a solid black. They looked menacing to me and I wonder if they were accountable for the disappearance of some fishes.

As for the LED lights, whilst I did receive the Maxspect Razor 120W early this month, mounting it proved to be an issue. Hence, I replaced back the AquaBeauty.

All the information on the two tanks are listed below:

Tank 1 (1 ft cube - 27 litres)
The list of livestock is as follows: 

• Fishes 
• 3 Clown Fish
• Flameback Angel
• Invertebrates 
• Cleaner Skunk Shrimp 
• 3 Pom Pom Crabs 
• big red Hermit Crab & 3 small red Hermit Crabs 
• 2 Turbo Snails 
• Nassarius Snail 
• red Coco-worm 
• big (brown) Feather Duster Worms 
• Corals 
• SPS
• brown Monti Cap
• grey Monti Cap
• LPS 
• grey red Acan
• pink Acan
• Mushrooms 
• plate of blue Actinodiscus mushrooms 
• orange Ricordea yuma mushroom 
• Soft Corals 
• Chili Coral
• Polyps 
• purple Goniopora
• frag of green Palm Tree Coral 
• rock of brown Daisy (Clove) 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
• Royal Gramma
• Invertebrates
• Fire Shrimp
• Cleaner Skunk Shrimp
• 7 Turbo snails
• 2 Nassarius snails
• 2 Bumble Bee snails
• electric blue Hermit Crab
• red and yellow Coco-worms
• brown and grey Feather Duster Worms
• blue Clam
• Corals
• SPS
• green digitata
• red digitata
• Acropora secale
• unknown white
• green Horn Coral
• LPS
• orange green Acan
• Mushrooms
• 2 rocks and 5 orange Ricordea yuma mushrooms
• 12 Ricordea florida mushrooms
• 4 red Actinodiscus mushrooms
• Soft Corals
• rock of Finger Mushroom Coral
• Polyps
• Pink 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, Fruit Loops 5, 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, frag of GSP
• Macroalgae
• Halimeda
• Caulerpa

The technical details are:

• Eheim 2213 external canister filter
• Dolphin H-200 hang-on-back filter
• Bubble Magus Q3 skimmer
• AquaBeauty 70W LED lights
• Two Little Fishes Phosban Reactors running Phosban
• Dymax Windy W-7 cooling fan (42 CFM)
• 2 Hydor Nano wavemakers
• Tunze Nano Osmolator
• Dosing container