New Nano Reef Diary, the sequel

[Swimfins]

Looks gr8. I was wondering how you'd arrange the rock but I see you went with the piled configuration. I know about the stink. I pulled out my toadstool to sew it to a piece of rock and wooooohoooooo, ick, its nasty.
Kitty's are big help aren't they except when you step on their tail. And I don't know why they have to be underfoot when your digging in the tank lol What's ya planning for the 14g now lol

 

[Blinky]

Thanks guys
SF, I actually wanted to go with an atoll layout, the rock just worked out this way. I'm pretty happy with it even though it's not exactly what I envisioned; there are loads of open spaces - most of the back actually doesn't touch the glass so there's good circulation back there. Purrfect is actually really good, knows to stay out of the way, but for a while there were a few pieces of her hair floating in the tank, lol.

I found a hitchhiker last night, a teeny weeny crab about 1cm across including legs. Looks like a mithrax, but I only saw it for a few seconds by flashlight. I'm not worried about any potential distruction, this thing is so small my snails could take it on

 

[Swimfins]

Watch out for that crab, some of the hitchiker ones can be nasty. It would be cool if its an emerald though. I just got a mithrax and an anenome crab but my wrasse discovered the tiny thing and made short work of it. However the mithrax is alot smarter and hides all day until she ducks under the sand after suppertime to bed, then its his time to play. My next anenome crab will go into sump or fuge.

 

[Blinky]

SF, that sucks! Anemone crabs are really cool.

I got a much better look at the tiny crab tonight - looks like a 'bad' crab, he's whitish with black spots on his legs and pointed black tips on his (proportionately) large front claws. He's busily eating off the LR, not bothering any corals so far (good thing too, I doubt I'd be able to catch him easily!)

I found a new critter that looks like a fraternity scarf, LOL. It's probably some sort of worm. Flat, about 1/2cm in width, fuzzy and has thick alternating red and yellow bands. I've only seen about an inch of it coming out of the rock, I suspect from the width that it's pretty long *shudder*

This afternoon I made my first attempt at fragging Xenia by cutting it off the rocks and securing it to shells/rubble using toothpicks, so far the results aren't bad. I've got the frags in a tiny 2g tank with a little HOB (they were getting blown around in the big tank) and they've started pulsing, but don't look too thrilled. One of the larger pieces in the tank was stung by a tulip anemone today, the little beasts (there are four) are on the move! I removed said anemone from the rock with a sharp stick - take that, evil little thing! The Xenia looks unhappy but fine.

I'm happy to report that the unknown LPS hitchhiker is taking food and showing small signs of improvement. The tissue is plumping up and there's a little colour in the tissue. No changes that would show in a photo yet, but it definitely looks better to me (though still very ill). I also found what looks like a baby non-photosynthetic LPS (carnation coral?) next to it.

 

[Swimfins]

All is well, cool. I hope the flavite hangs in for you. I got a skimmer today, I got a weipro (50% off the price so....why not?) MY LFS has a big one running on there 120 and its working nicely. I added a an 800L/h pump and tonight I see the start of skimmate..cool. Lucky the guys at the LFS set it up for me so I only had to come home with it and plug and play lol or I'd of never got it going. I was after the coralife 3000, but took the weipro on sale...always looking for a bargain. And I can barely hear it, but there it is foaming away. If it works, don't fix it eh? I was tired of those big water changes too. :bowing:

 

[Blinky]

I think it's just you and me reading this thing now, SF

The little hitchhiker is showing noticeable signs of improvement. I can see tissue growth, and the little mouths are much more defined. Looks like there are six polyps out of about nine that should recover.
It's adorable the way they open up when they smell food in the tank, but not so adorable the way my cleaner shrimp stands on top of the coral waiting to steal its food when I try to target feed

The Xenia frags in the 2g look well, pulsing like mad in their little shells. I threw in the last of the rics, either they were miserable and going for 'walks' or being eaten one by one, so hopefully I can save the last one. There are a few tiny pieces of LR in the tank for filtration and the substrate is made up of large pieces of crushed coral - I want to be able to throw frags in and have them attach wherever they feel comfy, so I figured I'd make the entire bottom a suitable attachment point for things like zoas, individual shrooms, Xenia etc. We'll see if it works. Maybe with time I can get a pod population going in this tank to seed the 30g; the goby and wrasse are devastating the population!

I've got a pair of baby oscellarus clowns on hold at work. I've been looking for a fish to meet pretty strict criteria, they seem to fit the bill:
- Reef safe
- Tank raised
- Pretty to look at (my hubby doesn't dig things like lawnmower blennys, lol)
- Open water swimmer at least some of the time
- Will get along with a shrimp goby, wrasse and clown goby
- Won't eat my inverts

I really did vow never to keep 'nemo' in my tank, but they really are pretty and from what I've read they can be hilarious pets.

 

[mogurnda]

I think it's just you and me reading this thing now, SF

Maybe some of us are just lurking and enjoying

Nice to hear the hitchhiker is recovering.

 

[FreddytheFish]

sounds like you have very good live rock- you have a lot of neat hitchhikers!

 

[reiverix]

I think it's just you and me reading this thing now, SF

Nah I'm still lurking.

 

[LordsSoilder]

Definitely lurking...