DAY 131

I was still battling algae problems right until now in tank 2 although the problem has lessened with some water changes and controlled feeding. 

Sadly, I lost 3 clams during the last week. I bought 1 purple one from Sea Life Aquarium recently and placed it in my office tank but it died a few days later of the pinched mantle. When I bought the 1 from Sea Life, I actually transferred another perfectly healthy purple specimen from the office tank into this tank 2. Shortly after, another purple clam in tank 2 that was doing well for weeks suddenly displayed the pinched mantle disease too, so I had it removed. Finally, the 1 that I brought from the office also showed the same symptoms. I had no choice but to remove it the following day when I saw my hermit crab and shrimp tearing its flesh. Now I am left with only 1 blue clam and I cross my fingers that nothing will happen to it.

On another note, I love the Organ Pipe Coral, Hammer Coral and SPS frag that I recently added.

DAY 129

I am so sad. I just bought 5 Sexy Shrimps today and released them into my 27 liters tank. Wendy, the Six Line Wrasse, immediately swooped in and grabbed one of the shrimps away into a hidden corner. Then it came out again and attacked the next. I suspected earlier that Wendy might have something to do with the disappearance of the 10 shrimps, and now I confirmed it. The question now is I can only have either Wendy or the Sexy Shrimps in the tank. Which one should I give up? It was really an expensive $10 meal for Wendy.

On another note, I recorded these 2 videos of the pulsing Xenia which has been growing well in the other 56 liters tank. The videos show the Xenia pulsing even though I switched off the wavemaker that was sweeping the currents towards it. I hope it grows into a big clump. Since it is growing so well, I dare not move it at all.

 

FOUR MONTHS

I am already one day late in providing the update for the fourth month.

The photos shown here before 1 May 13 are no longer relevant. Both tanks look kind of empty in certain areas and I am looking forward to adding new stuff to both aquariums.

Meanwhile, this is the updated information on the 2 tanks:

Tank 1 (1 ft cube - 27 litres)
One thing that really irks me is the thick protruding inlet tube of the Atman hang-on-filter on the left of the fts because it obscures the frontal view. Purple coraline algae has colonised aboyt 20% of the tube, and that is one reason stopping me from doing something about the filter.

I am waiting to add the Sexy Shrimps and the current fishes, invertebrates and macroalgae are:

• 1 Clown Fish (Candy)
• 1 Hector's Goby (Hector)
• 1 Six Line Wrasse (Wendy)
• 1 Blue Neon Goby (Bernard)
• 1 Red Spotted Goby (Ralph, I haven't seen it for a few days now)
• 1 Cleaner Skunk Shrimp (Chris)
• 1 red and white Pistol Shrimp (Paul)
• 1 Pom Pom Crab (Penelope)
• 2 Turbo Snails
• 2 Nassarius Snails
• 1 small Yellow Cucumber
• 1 Coco-worm (Coco)
• 3 big and 2 small (yellow and red) Feather Duster Worms
• 3 pieces of Green Star Polyps and 1 mat of gsp
• 1 pink Sun Coral
• 1 red Acan Brain Coral
• 2 frags of green Palm Tree Coral
• 1 frag of orange Palm Tree Coral
• 1 fluorescent Goniopora with white eye
• 1 fluorescent Goniopora with pink eye
• 1 rock of brown Daisy (Clove) Polyps
• 2 plates of red Actinodiscus mushrooms (1 is bleached)
• 1 plate of blue Actinodiscus mushrooms
• 1 plate of Ricordea mushrooms
• 2 orange Ricordea yuma mushrooms (1 from office tank)
• 1 frag of green Zoanthus (cannot find 1 frag)
• 1 plate of Sympodium Coral (not opened completely)
• 1 rock of red bamboo macroalgae, 1 plate of red wavy macroalgae (Ulva) and 2 clumps of red branched macroalgae

The casualties are:

• 1 Diagonal Bar Goby - never see after introduction into tank
• 10 Sexy Shrimps
• 1 Turbo Snail
• 1 branched Goniopora
• 1 Acropora Coral

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 Tunze Osmolator Nano

Tank 2 (1.5 feet cube - 56 litres)

This tank has gone through a really rough patch and I am still trying to solve the high phosphate problems.

The updated list of fishes, invertebrates etc are:

• 1 Tigertail seahorse
• 2 Banded Pipefish
• 1 Yellow Wrasse (Yogi)
• 1 Six Line Wrasse (Selena)
• 1 Hector's Goby (Henry)
• 1 Fire Shrimp (Felicia from tank 1)
• 7 Turbo snails
• 2 Nassarius snails
• 2 electric blue and 1 red Hermit Crabs
• 1 big and 1 small (yellow) Feather Duster Worm
• 1 purple Clam
• 1 orange Sun Coral (from tank 1)
• 1 rock of Xenia
• 1 red Goniopora with pink eye (from tank 1)
• 1 rock of fluorescent green and blue Goniopora
• 1 Elegance Coral
• 1 fluorescent Bubble Coral
• 1 rock of Finger Mushroom Coral
• 1 branched Candy Cane (from office tank)
• 1 Leather Coral (from office tank)
• 1 pink Cauliflower Tree Coral (from tank 1)
• 1 Coco Worm (Camelia)
• 2 rocks of Chili Corals
• 1 rock of Clove Polyps
• 1 rock, 2 plates and 6 plugs of Zoanthus
• 1 mat of Green Star Polyps
• 1 rock of Green Star Polyps (covered with nuisance algae and growing Halimeda macroalgae)
• 2 green Ricordea mushrooms
• 1 branch of Rhodactis mushrooms (from tank 1)
• 2 frags of orange Palm Tree Corals
• 1 red Bamboo, 1 big and 1 small (from tank 1) red Bubble macroalgae and 1 red branched macroalgae

The casualties are:

• 2 Tigertail Seahorses
• 2 red spotted Gobies (never spotted them after the introduction)
• 1 blue Neon Goby and 1 yellow Neon Goby (quarantined in Satellite breeding box but died)
• 1 Banded Pipefish
• 2 Turbo Snails
• 1 salmon Tree Coral
• 1 Tree/Stick Coral (regained fluorescence slightly but died subsequently)
• 1 branched Sun Coral (from tank 1 but removed subsequently)
• 1 purple Rhodactis mushroom
• 2 red mushrooms
• 1 green feather Caulerpa 
• 1 green bubble Caulerpa

The technical details are:

• Eheim 2213 external canister filter
• Tunze 9004 skimmer
• Green Element LED (12 white 12000k and 8 blue 460 nm)
• 1 Sunon fan
• 1 wavemaker
• 1 Satellite breeding box

DAYS 103-108

I was too lazy to do any updates since the last post. These are the photos I took 2 weeks ago before I do the monthly update. Apparently, lots have changed since then because I moved some corals here and there and discarded some that were dead due to my poor husbandry in maintaining tank 2.

Anyway, the 2nd photo captures the Feather Duster Fan Worm on the right and I felt it looked like fireworks. I moved Felicia the Fire Shrimp over to tank 2 since it seemed to be bullying all the mobile inhabitants in tank 1 when it comes to feeding time. So far, she is still doing alright here. I added a Cleaner Skunk Shrimp that I bought from Sea Life into tank 2 but hours after introduction, I noticed there were black spots and patches developing on its head. The following morning, it moulted successfully but hours later, I found it dead. The Tree Stick Coral that I transferred from tank 1 into tank 2 started to show its fluorescence again and this is apparent that tank 1 did not provide sufficient lighting to it. But I had a serious bout of diatoms and brown algae in tank 2 and I finally discarded the coral when I found that it probably died after being suffocated by the nuisance algae. Camelia, the red Coco Worm in tank 2 also shed its crown when I was at work and I came back to find the discarded crown. I hope it would recover soon. I bought 3 starfishes for tank 2 but 2 slowly died from within.

I am sure the water parameters for tank 2 are very bad with all the nuisance brown algae, diatoms and cyanobacteria. There also seems to be inadequate flow throughout the aquarium, which explains the sudden proliferation of cyanobacteria on the sandy substrate and all corals. Anyway, I finally bought a Eheim 2213 external canister filter to replace the 2 hang-on-back filters and I was astonished to find that I only had a few bio-rings in the filter. I didn't realize that there weren't sufficient media to actually filter and cleanse the aquarium effectively until now and I am really really embarrassed to admit it. Sadly, I am not too pleased with the current flow in the tank too but I guess I have to monitor it for a while before taking further steps. I am happy that Calvin the Clam is doing well.

Separately, I finally installed the Phosban Reactor 150 in my office tank and am running the NP biopellets. I am not sure if it is psychological, but I felt the algae situation is more under control now.