Been a while since an update - a few corals were placed, things were removed, some things placed here and there. Not too much changed though.
I did get a new fish last week however. She's in QT and doing very well.
Introducing my little Centropyge potteri (Potters dwarf angelfish):
Sorry for the crappy pics, but in the second one you can see how nice the colours are on her.
She's in week two of qt, and so far so good. She's getting fatter and eating pellets and macroalgae, but nothing out of the water column yet. I've found that she loves to eat filamentous algae, so she gets a frag plug/rock covered in it every few days. I'll be putting some LPS and zoas in with her to see if she eats them, or if she's going to ignore them for now. Yesterday I gave her a FW dip, and today the cleaner shrimp and her are buddies, so she's finally getting the cleaning she's been wanting the last few days.
While 20g is on the small side for a centropyge (most places recommend a 30g), I think she has plenty of rock to forage off of, and the rock is mature with lots of macro algae growth on it. I'm also able to supplement with more macros (not chaeto) from the fuge, as well as offer lots of foods
She's small in that she's about 2.5" - a bit bigger than the (timid) six-line wrasse in the DT. I'll introduce her slowly into the DT isolating either her or the sixline and let them get used to each other first. She should ahve no issues with the jawfish and vice versa.
In terms of nipping at corals, not too worried about my zoas - she can eat them all if she wants :P LPS, I only have 3 kinds, so no big loss. If she takes a chunk of clam, no harm done. But if she's becomes a SPS nipper we may have a problem.
The display tank is looking good - noticed after a WC that the water looked slightly yellow so I changed the carbon (1 cup) and the GFO at the same time (to absorb any phosphates leached by the carbon). At the same time I refilled my Alkalinity buffer solution - 3.5 L lasted me since April or May. At this rate 1 kg will last about 1.5 years. The ca and Mg solutions aren't running anywhere near low.
So without further ado, here are a few shots from tonight:
The Jawfish:
Picked this up from reef raft. used to be all brown, but the new growth is pale blue or purple, and the rest of the coral is starting to turn a lighter colour too:
Since I started to do WCs regularly again (1/week, 5g) the christmas millie has really coloured up. Pink is coming back, and the lower areas are greenish! Pink, green, white/brown polyps says it's christmas time!
Here's a top down of the back half of the reef wall. kinda dark, but I like the top downs, and the back half isn't one I usually take:
Close up:
FTS:
