Not much new to report really, everything seems to be ticking along and there have been no new additions. I harvested a load of macro algae from the refugium as the upper half was a completely solid mass. I think I might have been a bit over zealous with my pruning as the algae growth seems to have stalled somewhat since then. A knock on effect being that the nutrient levels within the tank have risen slightly. On the 9th January phosphate tested at around 0.046ppm and nitrate 0.35ppm using the Elos low range kits. When I tested again on the 10th January the phosphate level had crept up to 0.08ppm and nitrate to 1ppm. Hopefully once the algae growth picks up again the levels will stabilise as I don't really want the phosphate level to get any higher. I must get into the habit of harvesting smaller amounts of algae on a more regular basis. I've also been chasing the male pintail wrasse round in the hopes of capturing a decent photo of him displaying to the female but boy, he's really fast! I have multiple shots of just his tail or the rear half of his body, lol. I am very persistent though, thank goodness for digital cameras or I would have probably given up by now. I finally relented and moved the Balanophyllia to the sump, it was on the fast track to coral heaven if I left it in the DT thanks to the Pintail's attentions. It's so much easier to feed down there now, especially during the day as the refugium is reverse lit so it's nice and dark. The good news is whilst the flesh on one side has receded quite badly due to the earlier infection it doesn't appear to be getting any worse and it's certainly happy to start eating again. It's a pale shadow of what it once was, the photo below shows how far the tentacles currently expand (and the receded skeleton). I hope it improves and opens up fully again. The green tentacled corallimorph was looking a little more extended than I usually see it during the day so I whipped out the camera for a quick snap of that too (with flash). It looks like an anemone (and is commonly called a ball anemone) but actually is a part of the mushroom family. It hitchhiked into my tank on a small piece of zoanthid rock and doesn't appear to have spread much in 8 months time, mind you neither have the zoas either, lol. I think it actually looks rather attractive. I'll sign off with another short video. It's not much different than the last one I posted tbh but hopefully still enjoyable to watch.
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When the lights switch off above the display tank there's still plenty of action to watch down below in the refugium. I've been running the ATI disposable carbon dioxide scrubber since the 21st June 2017 during which time I've used up 3 units. The first one lasted for 12 weeks and 2 days which I thought was a decent amount of time for the cost. The tank pH was higher and more stable so I decided the experiment was worth continuing. An additional 2 units were purchased, the second unit lasted for 13 weeks and 3 days, still good, but the third unit exhausted in just 2 weeks! So what had changed (assuming the unit was not faulty somehow)? Well the skimmer was replaced, the windows in the house were closed because it was extremely cold outside and there were a few more people visiting due to it being Christmas. Aside from the lack of fresh air and more CO2 being breathed out the new skimmer pump is clearly pulling a lot more air than the old one and you can see that from the amount of bubbles being produced in the skimmer body.
So what to do? A two week run time for the disposable unit is no longer cost effective for me but I do like the higher pH levels that the scrubber produces (and so apparently do my corals if you take the increase in Alk/Ca usage into consideration). In the end I decided to scrap the disposable idea and try a refillable unit instead. The 4l refillable unit that ATI produces is just too large to fit inside my cabinet so I decided to give the Fauna Marin Skim Breeze a whirl instead. This unit holds 1l much like the ATI disposable version but can be refilled with fresh media when the old stuff is exhausted. It comes complete with 1l media to begin with and when that is used up I intend to refill it with a medical grade CO2 absorber called Spherasorb. I'll see how that pans out and report back later on. Swipes the Porcelain crab has been beefing up! She shed her exoskeleton again yesterday and yet again fooled me into thinking she'd died. The shedding looks so much like the real thing it's incredible. After checking that she was indeed still alive and back in her usual spot I removed the skeleton for further inspection.
Fortunately I had kept a previous shedding from July last year, so I could compare the two to see how much she's grown over the last six months. The first skeleton is bleached and falling apart but you can clearly see how much bigger she is now. As far as I am aware she has moulted twice more in between these, so about 2 months between each shedding. Clearly she's finding enough food to filter out. I first noticed that Acropora #4 was suffering from slow tissue necrosis (STN) in July '17. It was receding at the underside of the base but, as the top half looked good and was growing, I chose to ignore it in the hopes that it would eventually stop. Sadly it did not and in fact continued to the point where I had no other option other than fragging the coral. Since the branches were still short and stubby this proved somewhat tricky tricky to do. In the end I was left with just three tiny branch tips. The lesson learned here is that it's never a good idea to stick your head in the sand and ignore a coral issue (especially for 6 long months *cough*). I do not really know what caused the STN in the first place but the base was fixed into a recess in the rock so perhaps it was down to poor flow? Talking of encrusted bases, remember Acropora (#2), the one that I tried to remove in June '17 after discovering that red bugs were still present on it? Well, the base is still ticking along nicely, growth upwards is slow but there is at least some growth oh and and it's started fighting with the Montipora sp. to the left of it. On a happier note I'm discovering more and more sun coral larvae dotted about the tank. I expect most will not survive as they have settled quite close to other corals (there's not much real estate left these days) and will probably be quickly overgrown. This is probably a good thing else in the future I will have to spend all my free time feeding them. Here's another shot of the Heliofungia from the other side taken during a water change, the only time the top lifts up enough to view the baby buds growing underneath. Finally I'll sign off with a few other random shots, including a (now) rare view of Skip the Nudus goby.
It's been almost 5 months since I first discovered the sun coral had released planula larvae and I am happy to report that they are all still all alive and kicking, if still quite small. One is actually doing much better than the rest, mainly because it settled in a better location enabling it to catch more food. It's actually big enough to feed directly now so I've started offering it tiny bits of mysis and krill. Unfortunately the zoanthids growing below have begun to obscure the view of it from the front so it's becoming quite difficult to photograph. I poke them with a pipette but they are opening right back up again before I've even managed to grab and point the camera. Eventually I expect they will grow right up the rock and maybe smother the sun coral completely which would be a pity, perhaps by then it'll be large enough to fight back? Additionally I discovered today that the original Sun coral has been at it again! There are at least five more new babies dotted about the tank now and I'm sure there are probably more hidden away in there too. It must have happened fairly recently because these larvae haven't even developed any tentacles yet. The one below runs the risk of being overgrown by the Montipora above in a very short space of time. As for the baby Heliofungia buds, they continue to do well and in fact the entire underside of the coral is ringed by them now. I am not exactly sure how many there are at this point but probably at least six. They show no sign of detaching yet.
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AuthorHi, my name is Lisa and I live in Derby, UK. I am a self-confessed reefaholic! Archives
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