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Whoever thought up that "once you've fallen...get back in the saddle" **** anyways? Seriously. Obviously someone that's never kept a reef tank



The new yellow fangfish is doing fine. Still a bit scrawny, but he seems to eat constantly. He prefers the Tetra ColorBits that I drop in for the shrimp over the frozen foods and Sweetwater Zooplankton. I'll never understand fish His mouth is smaller than the bits...so he attacks them, bites each one into pieces, and eats them. This is one of the most interesting fish I've ever watched eat. He literally attacks his food like a striking cobra. Fascinating, really. Totally camera shy, too. I will try to get a pic later today when feeding time rolls around.

The corals are doing fine. I still have a nasty cyano bloom, prolly due to the old bulb that's still in there. Yeah yeah, I know, I'm workin up the courage as I type this....

Water parameters:

NH3/4-NO2-NO3 = 0
pH = 8.0
ALK = 3.0
CA = 460
mg = not tested
Temp = 81
Specific gravity = 1.024

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Pic 'o the day! Check the foxy fox Note cleaner shrimp in the corner. Cute things.

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Lesseee...cynarina. Not fully extended in this pic, but still pretty. It seems to be holding it color nicely, too. When fully extended, the clear parts of the polyps are pink.

Yes, nasty cyano..also a couple of new frags, they've been in there since two days after I changed the bulb back. No sign of bleaching, of course.


In case anyone's wondering, the flower anemone has moved out of the way, and is currently in the top right hand corner of the tank, as physically close to the light as it can get. I intend to leave him there. I assume that when I change the bulb again, he will return to the bottom.

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Red brain, currently attempting to take over the world. I believe it may outgrow it's spot soon. Nothing affects this thing. I believe that if a nuclear bomb fell, cockroaches, politicians, aiptasia and red brain corals would all survive it.

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Fungia plate. This coral crawled into the corner when the new bulb was installed, and hasn't budged since. I have no seen any feeding tentacles lately, either. I assume it's totally pissed at me
Note a couple of bleached frags bits in the back corner. I will leave them there, just for the hell of it.

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This is the largest frag. It bleached halfway up, stopped, and hasn't done a thing since except put out polyps and look nice 'n healthy at the top.

Fascinating.

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I took another pic of Engineer Boy, too. Yeah, baby

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A Fangfish Tale.

Once upon a time, there was a hungry Fangfish. Named Fang (of course).

"Oh Great and Powerful Anemone Sun God, please feed a poor starving pitiful fangfish!"

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And the Sun God Anemone was benevolent, and spat out food for the hungry Fangfish.

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And Fang was happy, and pranced and danced with joy!

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And lived happily ever after, snaggin ColorBits and getting fat.

The End! Yeah, I know......We don't score extra points for posting so many pics

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Fine day for a waterchange. I should do more, cyano is back with a vengeance. I keep running out of distilled water, tho On the bright side, when December rolls around I plan to add a skimmer to this baby...this tank is killin me

Todays water parameters:

NH3/4-NO2-NO3 = 0
pH = 8.0
ALK = 3.5
CA = 440
mg = not tested (too lazy)
Temp = 80
Specific gravity = 1.024

Pics sometime soon. My camera batteries are down again. I think I post too many pics, anyways All tank inhabitants are doing well

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Well. It's been a while since I've posted here, it's a busy time of year. Plus, I'm trying to restrain myself with the pics

Todays water parameters:

NH3/4-NO2-NO3 = 0
pH = 8.3
ALK = 4.5
CA = 420
mg = not tested (still too lazy)
Temp = 80
Specific gravity = 1.024

I've been adding Reef Builder in my top-off water on a daily basis to get the ALK up. It has magnesium and strontium added, which is handy. I also add a dash of iodine, Lugol's Solution, one drop per day. Ya gotta love that concentrated stuff Water changes about once a week. I added a new fishie, a Lyretail hawkfish (he's still small, he's about an inch and a half right now). I will prolly need to move him out later on, but that's okay.

Bad news: the birdsnest didn't stop bleaching, I lost the colony. I've been dealing with a nasty cyano bloom, too. It cleared up for a while, then came back, I think because I was overfeeding the corals to try and make up for the low light provided by the old bulb. Grr. Anyways, I FINALLY changed out the old bulb a few weeks ago, and am now running a Ushio 10K bulb. I did it right this time, and nothing bleached *prance*


Good news: cynarina and new frags are doing really well! The cynarina touches (overlaps) the plate coral when they are both expanded, but I see no sign of either one stinging the other. Kewl.
Red brain keeps getting bigger, same with the fox. The platygyra has receded a bit lately, but stopped once I started adding the iodine. The leather is growing so fast I can't believe it. The half-bleached acro is still okay, with new growth showing.

My crap-ass camera keeps giving me grief, but I managed to grab a few shots before it rebelled on me again. Useless thing.

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More The flower anemone moved further around the tank, and settled in the upper back right hand corner. It's been there since I changed the bulb a few weeks ago, and seems to be content there. Good thing, too, cuz the original spot it was in has been taken over by the cynarina and I don't want to move it.

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Weekly update, and some nonsense about what NOT to do with a nano reef

Note: Lyretail hawkfish are by far THE most voraciously hungry fish I've ever seen. This guy takes the cake. (Well, he would, if he could breathe out of water long enough to crawl to the kitchen counter, LOL) What a complete and total HOG. When the food hits the water, he moves so fast you can't see him. Not a bit of it is allowed to descend past an millimetre of depth. And the noise? The slurping and gulping when he attacks the surface...it's like listening to pigs at the trough, I kid you not. Wow. Mind you, he expends quite a lot of energy trying to entice me to throw food at him, so, no wonder. I didn't know hawkfish could vibrate like that

I've been pondering for a while now what to do with this tank when this contest is over. I was thinking about simply transferring everything over to the larger tank, but it's such a pretty little set-up that I hate to do so, even though it would make my busy life that much easier First thing I will do is add a protein skimmer, then I will take some time in January to plumb in a 15g sump, with an overflow box and a huge amount of chaeto.
I need to get control of the algae problems that have plagued me on and off. I'd prefer to hook it up directly to my larger tank, but that's physically impossible without doing a complete teardown and re-set both tanks back up...not gonna happen. A larger sump won't fit, the biggest tank I can cram in down there is 15 gallons, so...so be it.

A list of things about nanos that I have learned The Hard Way:

-metal halides can evaporate more water than your nano tank actually holds in one day
-brain corals belong in larger systems. Admit it, and move on.
-toadstool leathers grow too fast, and belong in larger systems. Admit it, move on!
-ditto cynarina. Move on!
-a coral that didn't work well at all in the nano tank: the turbinaria, yellow scroll coral.
-six line wrasses can and will eat cleaner shrimp, you knew it beforehand!!
-convict blennies are the best fish on earth but do not belong in nano tanks cuz they get too big... you knew it blah blah blah...
-coral banded shrimp become aggressive. You knew it beforehand! Blah.
-never use secondhand lighting unless you are willing to buy new bulbs for it first
-always plan for a protein skimmer.
-I love snails

Things I now wish to experiment with:

-Closing in the top to reduce evaporation. I wish to find the perfect combo of reducing evaporation and heat retention. This otter be fun I need enough evap to maintain ca and alk topoffs, but not so much that the tank runs dry.
-The coral swap...which corals grow slowly, are not overly aggressive, and will tolerate the fluctuations of a nano tank? Stay tuned. I intend to move out the fast growers, and replace them with, hopefully, corals that grow slower.

Todays tank parameters:

NH3/4-NO2-NO3 = 0
pH = 8.3
ALK = 4.6
CA = 400
mg = not tested. Bah.
Temp = 80
Specific gravity = 1.024

I've decided to try and limit myself to one pic per week. Really, it's like an addiction.

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Today's tank parameters:

NH3/4-NO2-NO3 = 0
pH = 8.2
ALK = 3.5
CA = 360
mg = pfffft
Temp = 80
Specific gravity = 1.024

I have been SO frikkin busy lately that this tank has been neglected, as you can see by the low parameters. I have done water changes, but been a bit slack in the CA and ALK additions. It shows. I am still battling green algae, it seems to be winning but now that the busy season at work is almost over, I can get my schedule back to normal and hopefully catch up on some maintenance. As I mentioned, I will add a skimmer to this tank, and in a few weeks, a sump. Can't wait

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More

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Last pic! Acro frags. Well, maybe monti frags, I can't recall what the hell these were tagged as when I got them