RuralReef 2.1

[BlueAbyss]

You can't really see it well in the pic, but there were a few yellowing spots on the uppermost parts of the coral. They got progressively yellower over the next 3 days, so I moved him. He now resides very close to the glass on the far left corner... fully expanded and looking hungry today, I'm glad because three rocks fell on him when I rescaped.

FTS... I scrubbed and smashed the Florida rock because I was tired of looking at brown fur. Looks much cleaner, hopefully the rocks turn green and purple now rather than going brown, I think the brown was dead stuff from the Bryopsis days.


The firefish is pretty aggressive for an unaggressive fish He keeps the goby in line but doesn't seem to do more than take a run at him once in a while. If I add any more fish to this tank it will have to be something that can hold it's own when coming into a tank of established territories. Goby has a little round belly so I know he's getting enough food... the firefish has cleared the water column of any swimming beings and always looks full.

The orange zoas are likely done for, I fragged the colony so I could try putting a few in different places. One polyp may survive, it looks sort of half open. Everything else looks good, I'd say my shopping was a success!

Thanks so much, everyone that helped me out in the stores, Thanks Red Coral, Elite, and Gold!

[Snaz]

Originally Posted by BlueAbyss

The orange zoas are likely done for, I fragged the colony so I could try putting a few in different places. One polyp may survive, it looks sort of half open. !

Zoas can be moody. For no reason they look like death's door and after a few days they look as fine as ever.

[BlueAbyss]

Grrr, just when thing are going great... and also, just when you think they're over for good...

So I lost both zoa frags behind the rockwork since they aren't glued down (I'll be tracking some sort of glue down this weekend). This necessitated moving the rocks to retrieve them... and then I couldn't make the rocks fit the same, so I needed to rescape.


I like this the best yet and everything is more stable than before. The frags reside on the front sandbed for the moment. Green palys are putting on another bud, everyone is eating well and looking good (the open brain eats greedily every day and doesn't seem to be regurgitating at night, score! ). Things looked so good after cleaning the glass (and missing a spot) and the water change that I decided that I will be doing more frequent water changes... the old water was slightly yellow, probably since I feed relatively heavily for a 10 gallon. Things looked so good, though, that I decided to make a FTS video.

Oh yeah I keep forgetting... the orange zoas are recovering and at least one polyp from each frag is opening now.

[BlueAbyss]

My tank has come alive...

I've suddenly noticed some new growth on things (and things growing where there were none). The pink zoas are budding, with pink sponge growing on the back of their rock, and a bubbly looking red algae growing from the top. The blue algae on the red-ringed zoa rock has added some growth, as has some greenish brown ferny looking macro. There are fanworms everywhere... even a purple one on the Vanuatu rock, in a hollow. The back of the tank has covered itself with little calcareous spirals. There is a pineapple sponge growing near the top of the tank, where the flow from the filter moves across a rock. I saw my little Asterina star, he's grown 2 more legs (so now has 5). And an unidentified snail that I will post a pic of here when I figure out what he is.

I have a 5.5 gallon waiting to turn into a `fuge for this tank. In the process of figuring out how to work it... more to come on this.

[BlueAbyss]

Pics...

The snail has been IDed as a Stomatella... I thought these guys were small, this guy is almost an inch long fully extended!


FTS: about 2 hours ago.



Happy brain coral...


Miscellaneous coral pics... I finally got the frags mounted on individual rocks. No glue. This way they aren't attached to the live rock (well, on rubble pieces).




And Apollo. I tried to get a shot of Toby but the lights went off.

[BlueAbyss]

Things looked really great after the water change yesterday, so I thought I'd share a few pictures.

FTS:


I have another 10 gallon, a 5 gallon, and a 2 gallon Tupperware container that will be set up as a display 'fuge and 'nursery' tank, a 'bubble breaker' tank, and a CSD, respectively. I would like to add some of the easier SPS to this tank, but I'm not sure if SPS and the brain coral can coexist... I feed heavily since I really want him to do well. There are a few spots with somewhat turbulent flow on some of the higher spots in the tank, I would like to try them there. We'll see how things progress.

Pics!

I've been having trouble getting good pictures of these pink zoas. This is as close as I have come to getting a good representational photo of them. They are multiplying though






I call these orange zoas 'Evan's orange zoas of wonder' They haven't started multiplying yet, but they have colored up.


This macro, Dichtyota spp., popped up and has added some much needed color variety to the tank...


Featherdusters of all colors and sizes are also making their home here.


EDIT: OOO! I forgot this one (but it's just a texture shot of the Vanuatu rock).

[BlueAbyss]

So, over time a few of the pink zoas have shriveled and started looking 'moldy'. I moved them to a spot with a lot more flow and light a few days ago, in the hopes that whatever it is that is affecting that colony will work itself out... I have not been able to ID any of my zoas or palys, so I don't really know if they should be in low flow or high flow, low light or high light. All of the polyps are open and the flow from one of the filters runs right through the colony, and I have noticed some change in polyp size (to be fair, they are now basking around 4" from the MH bulb and I'm surprised that they have fared so well... no photoinhibition, so maybe they like high light?).

I fragged my green paly colony, ending up with a frag with 4 polyps, the original colony of 7 polyps, and a single polyp. I used a sharp knife to cut the mat where it was encrusted on rubble, but one of the polyps was sort of hanging in no man's land (just has a tiny chunk of rock it's encrusted to) so I have given it a place of it's own. Another couple months and I should have 3 nice little green colonies.

I also fragged some of the 'red ring' zoas (which might be a really small paly by the way the polyps look attached... just like the paly), and I discovered some of these same zoas attached to another rock, I lost these polyps a while back and now I discover them at the back of the tank Sweet. These zoas will peel off the original colony rock with some work, since there seems to be coralline algae underneath the polyps. Strangely, they are also attached to each other quite strongly but didn't need to be cut apart. So, zoa or paly?

I've also been working on evenly bending plasic pipe. I need to make a 1.5" U tube to connect the 10 gallons together, and BAM!... instant fuge. I'll move some of the rock rubble from the rubble pile to that tank, and give it a scoop of sand (and some new sand). It will also get some new rock, and a 10K DIY MH, and some macroalgae. And not much else, maybe when the tank gets going Toby will move in.

No pictures yet, I haven't gotten that far

[christyf5]

Don't forget you'll need a final pic for December 1, thats next Tuesday!

[christyf5]

Final tank pic due tomorrow December 1st (if no final pic, the last FTS in this thread will be used).