my reef GARden frenzY: hermit

2 days ago, I found Coco curling up her crown and thought something was wrong. Later that night, she was back to normal. I also saw something that looked like a small starfish clinging onto the glass. Let's see whether it develops into a full fledged specimen.

I don't often see Hector, but when I did, it was mostly in the day. I don't recall seeing him out in the waters when I am back from work every night. His disappearance act almost fooled me into thinking it was dead. As for Herman the electric blue Hermit Crab, he has been quite active and I am beginning to like him. But tomorrow is time for him to be transferred to my office Pico to help manage the hair algae problem. The poor seahorses were almost bleached white and I wonder how long more they can take it before giving up.

Today I also did what I wanted to do for a while. I didn't manage to buy the green and blue Daisy Polyps that I set out to buy but instead purchased a Sympodium coral, a small rock of red Goniopora and a mixed fluorescent and brown hammer coral and rescaped both tanks. Some of the corals are definitely not happy with me and I am still not pleased with the look for both tanks but it would do for now.

In the 27 litres pico tank 1, there are a few gaps for me to add some interesting stuff later. One is at the left hand bottom corner and one is at the right hand top corner behind the GSP. Both GSPs are not opening up fully but the 2 fluorescent Gonioporas are opening up quite well as I am typing this. When comparing the 2 plates of Sympodium corals, it is apparent that the original plate in this tank is quite bare. This was what I meant when I opined in a previous post that I suspect the Sexy Shrimps were behind this.

The 56 litres pico tank 2 was a mess and I had to clear up the rock of green bubble macroalgae. I transferred the brown mushroom finger coral to this tank and am certain the easy going coral would grow well here. What is interesting is I saw 2 small red corals on the rock although I do not know what they are. The Sympodium plate is definitely looking much fuller and better here. Let's see when it would fully open up. As for the hammer coral, it is still pretty much shrunk up and I am unable to capture its full colour. I guess patience is the key now. And oh, I managed to clear the 2 bubbles on the Zoa plate in this tank but unfortunately dislodged the 1 bubble in tank 1. I hope I won't get a bubble algae outbreak in tank 1.

Well, I will update again in a few days time when things are more stable.

Finally, this is the update at the end of the 3rd month. Let me start off with a photo of what I thought was the corpse of the blue hermit crab that I found in my 1.5 feet tank yesterday. Thankfully, it was just a moult but it sure fooled me until I saw the real hermit crab moving.

Next is the full tank shot (fts) of the 1.5 feet tank showing the amended scape yesterday.

Then it is back to the fts photos, of the 2 tanks, taken just a while earlier. Clearly, there is still a lot of room for changes and improvement and that would happen in this 4th month. Until then, this is the most updated information on the 2 tanks:

Tank 1 (1 ft cube - 27 litres)
This tank had a brown oily film about 2 weeks back and I had to scoop it out during 3 water changes. I suspect this had something to do with the freeze dried Cyclop-Eeze that I fed in copious amounts to the tank because of the Sun Corals. Since I was caught up with other stuff and didn't have time to feed the Sun Corals individually, I realized the oil slick is gone although Sunny the orange Sun Coral doesn't look too happy. I am not sure if the water parameters are good but when I tested for phosphates with the Salifert test box about a week back, it registered 0 although I am still skeptical about it.

On a separate note, I am amazed that there are still 10 Sexy Shrimps around but I lost a brown Xenia and Yellow Polyps and I have a feeling that they may have something to do with it. I bought a grey Xenia recently but just two days in, I realized there were less clumps on the rock and had to transfer the rock over to tank 2. Again I am unsure if the shrimps are the culprits because I haven't been feeding them Mysis Shrimps.

I also observed that the new crown that Coco the Coco-Worm grew seemed to take on a more uniform pinkish crown instead of alternating strips of red and white before the two crowns were shed. I wonder what is the cause of this?

Overall, I am quite happy that the tank is quite stable and the fishes, invertebrates and macroalgae include:

1 Clown Fish (Candy)
1 Hector's Goby (Hector)
1 Six Line Wrasse (Wendy)
1 Diagonal Bar Goby paired with 1 red and white Pistol Shrimp
1 Cleaner Skunk Shrimp (Chris)
1 Fire Shrimp
10 Sexy Shrimps
1 Pom Pom Crab (Penelope)
3 Turbo Snails
2 Nassarius Snails
1 small Yellow Cucumber
1 Coco-worm
3 big and 2 small (yellow and red) Feather Duster Worms
3 pieces of Green Star Polyps
1 orange Sun Coral
1 pink Sun Coral
1 branched Sun Coral
1 Stick/Tree Coral (transferred to 1.5 feet tank)
2 frags of green Palm Tree Coral
1 frag of orange Palm Tree Coral
1 branched Goniopora
1 fluorescent Goniopora with white eye (with a bubble algae)
1 fluorescent Goniopora with pink eye
0 Candy Cane Coral (remaining 1 was brought to the office to make space here)
1 pink Cauliflower Tree Coral (1 clump moved to the rock formerly with Xenia)
1 plate of brown Daisy Polyps
1 plate of red Actinodiscus mushrooms
1 plate of blue Actinodiscus mushrooms
1 plate of Ricordea mushrooms
1 branch of Rhodactis mushrooms
1 orange Ricordea yuma mushroom
2 frags of green Zoanthus (5 small plugs, 1 medium plug and 2 plates transferred to 1.5 feet tank)
1 Mushroom Finger Coral
1 Acropora Coral
1 unknown coral (not sure if it is Sympodium) with a small piece that broke off and it is still not opened up yet
1 rock of red bamboo macroalgae, 1 plate of red bubble macroalgae, 1 plate of red wavy macroalgae and 2 clumps of red branched macroalgae

The casualties are:

1 Red Spotted Goby (Renee) - committed suicide by jumping out of the tank when I was away in Taiwan
1 Fire Shrimp (Felicia) - disappeared after I came back from Taiwan
1 Xenia (presumably eaten by Sexy Shrimps)
1 rock of Yellow Polyps (it just slowly disappeared even though I fed it occasionally with Mysis Shrimps while the one in the office which is unfed is still growing)

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 Beamworks LED light (31 white, 2 blue) - just a supplement for viewing
1 Tunze Osmolator Nano

Tank 2 (1.5 feet cube - 56 litres)

In comparison to tank 1, I am kind of disappointed with this newly setup tank. It is up for nearly 2 weeks now and the inhabitants are not happy and are not really feeding. Diatoms are appearing everywhere, on the glass and sand. Just the other day, I was sad to find 2 dead Cleaner Skunk Shrimps and a dead Tree Coral. One was actually carrying eggs. When I touched the water, it was so warm. I dipped my hand into tank 1 and surprisingly, the water was cooler. I immediately turned off the skimmer because I was worried the running submerged skimmer pump might have contributed to the heat. I guess I need to do something about this before adding any more shrimps.

These two days I also had to clear the carcasses of 2 dead Six Line Wrasses, which were absolutely gorgeous when I bought them. The remaining 3 Tigertail seahorses are very emanciated and I suspect their ends are near. They have taken on a pale yellow look but I could still make out their bony exoskeleton and their heads looked brown as if diatoms were growing on them. I do know that they can get infection easily in warm waters.

I have 2 clumps of Caulerpa (a feather and a bubble) and because of that, alternated the turning on of two sets of lights in my bid to prevent them going sexual. However, I am not sure if this is a permanent solution. The bubble is looking kind of strange now and if it does die on me, I may not grow anymore Caulerpa in the tank. Anyway, I doubt having the lights on almost 247 is the cause of the high water temperature.

A plate of Zoanthus in this tank and a Goniopora in tank 1 were purchased from Go Octopus and both are sprouting bubble algae. I have to find some means to remove the bubble algae sometime. By the way, all the Zoas have opened buttons here. So I suppose the Sexy Shrimps were the cause of them not opening up in tank 1 previously.

To end this post, here is the list of fishes, invertebrates etc: