Blacknifes 50g Battle of SPS learning

[blacknife]

Thought i killed the anemone earlier..


but i think its going to pull through.


lesson learned don't siphon anywhere near the mucous tube it gets picked up pretty easily

i ripped a small chunk off of it while cleaning but it is back out fully extended 20 mins later. tough little bugger I guess.

picked up some LR today and one piece had an aiptasia on it well once the kids were in bed I boiled up some water and with my 2 oz seringe I took the rock out and dose it little bugger. it is now completly white and I believe dead may have lost about 1 inch of LR. meaning everything within 1 inch maybe dead but better 1 inch dead than a tank full of aiptasia. I am keeping my fingers crossed as I could not get the little bugger out of the crevis it was in.

Bill

[blacknife]

Added a phosban and carbon reactor and a k2 a couple days ago. I think I can see a difference all ready. Did a 1 bucket cleanup water change and sucked up all the red slime, usually it is grown back thin the next day… it's not growing back at all.

everything is growing good, green rodidactis split again, perhaps ill take some update pics and some old pics for the evolution page, I know every time I look back at how it looked when I started I want to laugh.

the little crab is long gone from the christmass tree coral, and it is still the same size or perhaps a touch larger than when i got it. the little hitchhiker has plucked many of the spikes off each polyp, i hope not for the worse, and the challice at the base of it is slowly regaining color and meat.


I want to add a few more small fish, but I'm not sure what.

[blacknife]

Last week the girl noticed the ato was not working right and decided to fill the tank up.. . saw some white stuff in the bottom of the water container so stired it all up<kaulk> and poured it in till it was full then sends me a text a while later saying the tank looks like crap and she thinks its her fault.


Christmas tree coral is now near death, it looks all melted on the outsides and really shrank down. and at least one snail died.. everything else has slowly bounced back.


I missed out on the store tours yesterday but its probably a good thing, work is kind of sketchy lately and christmas is coming so i have to pinch every $ i can for a bit. did my own mini store tour today but bought nothing. even though i was really tempted.

after i got back i looked in my refugeeum and my cheato is all full of HA agian, if i knew that i would have grabbed some fresh stuff from one of the stores if they had any. It is not really spreading around the tank any more but it has not stopped growing. I need to do more water changes but i have been slacking on that a bit lately due to the pain of having to pick water up all the time. hopefully santa can afford a RO unit for the holidays after he is done brining the kids presents.

[blacknife]

All this time sittin around the house ive been having my hands wet way to much for the gf's liking...

had the AC running cleanup duty the last few days since i keep randomly going in and plucking out HA.

i barely redid some rock and coral placement today moving some zoa's off the little shelf peice on top and moving them down so I can try some sps up top.

now that the AC300 isnt sitting on the front of the tank and i have it cleaned up a little I will have to take some pictures.

I hope the zoa's still grow good where i moved them cuz they were looking pretty good where they were.


really wishing i had a little bit bigger tank though there is just not enough real estate in this one

[Myka]

Got some pics??

[blacknife]

I tried taking some pics but the girl has her camera with her, and the lense i have on my slr does not do the tank justice.

and the lights went out just after i took these.

Shot from late this spring for comparison


FTS from today


Left Side


Right Side


I got a couple more up in my album too.
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/album.php?albumid=160

I stoped by AI tonight too and got a couple little things i wanted, was going to stop at blue world too but i never made it in time, dammed traffic. the roads were crap on the drive back to Leduc.

[blacknife]

I figured I should put these here as well as the fts thread so i can find them easier later.





Might have to take a few close ups if the kids give me time after supper.

I have a sump sitting around ready to replace the one i cant stand, and glass cut silicone removed from the 40b in the garage, just have to reseal it to put it in place of the 20.

I still want to upgrade to a bigger tank but christmas has ruined that plan for a few months.

I hooked up a small fuge a few weeks ago and the light leaks out all night i think thats where all the bright green algee on the underside of the rocks on the main tank is comming from but i will probably just rearange everything when i have the new sump in so it can keep doing that for now.

[blacknife]

Pulled my fuge offline yesterday as per zeo forum advice, halved the cheato and threw it into a 20g tank i am cycliing for a holding tank for whatever when i do the tank rearangement<swap out the sump and swap the 20 g for a 40b>, but I am also debating temporary downsizing. squishing everything into the 55, selling any lps that i am not digging getting rid of some of the fish clutter, and getting a bigger tank. My plans for the tank are so scattered its not funny heh.

I did notice one thing today though. Both my maricultiured acros that did have crabs still have crabs, but one frag/mini colony that has been in my tank 2 years and never had a crab now has a crab, that doesn't look like one ive seen yet, but is a typical acro crab looking guy.

colors are looking good, had lots of film algae yesterday after the cheato was pulled but today is about normal. I just figured by now that the cheato should be not growing but instead its been growing like crazy lately possibly competing with the zeo, only one way to find out. hopefully nothing crazy happens.

my skimmer which was doing a good job for a month or more is being finiky again.. which does not make me happy. might be the next big upgrade if i don't get a bigger tank.. and will need to be upgraded for a bigger tank anyways.

anyways, the little one is crying so this is enough of an update.

[reefermadness]

Nice stuff......great persistence and hard work. It's going to pay off for sure.