30g Nano Cube

[michika]

Originally Posted by 'Ol Nobodaddy

I can't SEE the CORAL there is a slimy thing in the way!!

There you go, the actual coral!

[michika]

Quick update on the battle with hair algae.

I've officially given over to trying other living options, since it seems like I've expended all the others. I have added a seahare, and a super tiny foxface.

Neither the seahare, or the foxface seem to be doing much, but they both are pretty! The foxface will be going to a new home when I upgrade this tank in a few weeks, assuming he hasn't touched the hair algae.

So...well this officially marks the end of my list of options. If nothing else works, I just don't know what to do!

[Delphinus]

I'm sorry to hear that. FWIW, when I added a rabbit and an urchin to my cube, it was a big green hairy mess as I had given up on trying to fix my nitrates at that point. They didn't do much for a few weeks, but all of a sudden I saw both just going at the stuff on the glass. Sooo .. I dunno. Maybe yours will still come around? Hang in there, there's a solution, one way or the other (even if that solution is starting over in a new tank. ) Good luck!

[michika]

Thank you!

I know the urchin isn't a dud, but so far the foxface, lettuce nudibranch, and seahare seem to be. Although I'll give them some time and hopefully they will come around and start cleaning off all the horrid algae.

At least I know there is still hope that one of the three new additions will do something!

[michika]

Quicky update:

GHA
- The urchin is still eating like nobody's business, slowly but surely he is doing is job.
- Lettuce Nudibrance is eating the GHA, he has grown, probably added about 1/4 of his original length. He, Noddles, is active and looks healthy.
- It also occured to me that my Calcium reactor may be putting phosphates into my system. I'm looking to do something along the lines of Chin_lee's idea, running the effluent through a phosban reactor.
- The foxface is officially a dud, albeit a cute one. He readily accepts all foods, and occasionally picks at a rock or two, but nothing to be considered useful.

I can also finally say that I've gotten my green clown goby to eat prepared foods. He will eat brine, mysis, ocean plankton, blood worms, and small pellet foods.

I also won Gold's contest. I'm going to be starting to dose and document the use of Aqua Connect's Energy Elements. That should be starting next week or so. Growth is taking off in my birdsnests, digitatas, and a cap. I'm happy to see the growth, and the color, but excited to see what Energy Elements can do.

Overall the tank has been holding stable which is nice for a change. Sorry no photos. There was a puppy vs. camera incident in which the puppy won. New camera this coming weekend with photos!

[michika]

I'm testing out a new camera, Nikon D40x so I'm snapping a lot of shots over the next few days. I figure I might as well share some of them:

My hitchhiker plate coral:


Noodles the nudibranch or seaslug, whatever she/he/it is:


Sixline wrasse:


Kole tang:

[Delphinus]

[michika]

Since my last update I've had a few mishaps. One of my favorite clams passed away, and that was sad. I also sadly have to report that my foxface killed one of my fishes with its poisonous dorsal spines.

I'm finally starting to see the color returning to my frags. In my despiration to get rid of the GHA I picked up some rowaphos (GFO) and immediately dosed according to the label. It bleached the color right out of many of my frags and colonies. There was some tissue resession on at least 5 frags. I also saw the death of one frag. Lesson learned, used much much less the then recommended dose.

The tank has also reached what I would term Critical Mass and then some. I have too many frags and its starting to cause some issues in the tank. If you look at the tank wrong something will fall. Lately everything seems to find its way into the grasp of the hydnophorna, which by the way is far from all other frags to prevent this. Needless to say Elkhorn is evil!

Now onto the photos. There are previous photos for most of these frags earlier in the thread if you would like to see a more pronounced progression of growth.

Snappy's Purple Passion Digitata:
September 7th


Today


Sphelp's digitata, it was originally blue with brown polyps, but its turning a bit purple...


Birdsnest:

September 7th


Today


Guysmiley's Neon Green Acro

August 3rd


Today



My hitchhiker coral
June 10th


October 2nd.


Today:




Note pronounced color change, 1st from moving it from the top of the tank, and then from the GFO.

This is a photo of one of the pieces I picked up from Reefwerkz closing sales. This one was completely browned out, and it had more tissue resession then it does now. I'm happy its coloring up with purple and navy tips. The tissue seems to be reclaiming the skeleton, or in the very least there is no more tissue loss happening.



Finally another shot of my mandarin making a rather odd face