28g JBJ HQI

makana · #1 10-24-2012, 02:46 AM

Well it has been far too long since the last update. I bought a house and moved across town without any losses.

My sun coral slowly deteriorated and died. I'm pretty sure it was from the clown fish hosting it at night when it would open up to feed. Some of the tissue was gone from the skeleton and algae took hold on the bare spots. After that it stopped feeding and I could not get it back. I setup a hospital tank for it but I think by that time it was too late.

I had a serious algae outbreak and am still fighting remnants of it. I tried everything with minimal success. I finally removed half the rock and cooked it, then the second half and cooked that. I have cheato in the display and an ATS I'm trying to get going in the back chamber. In the middle of the battle my skimmer pump melted.

I had an aiptasia problem that I had been battling since day one and I finally picked up a peppermint shrimp that made short work of my problem. My cleaner died shortly after that. I'm not sure if the new shrimp had anything to do with that or not. Apparently they don't live that long so maybe it would have died anyway.

makana · #2 10-24-2012, 02:49 AM

The watchman goby did not survive long. It developed sores and died. It seemed to be out swimming around at the lfs but just hid in my tank. I had to target feed because it would not come out for food.

I have added a crocea clam, maze brain, candy cane frag, and gsp. I have had a real challenge with light acclimation and I think a lot of my corals have struggled with that. My open brain was doing fantastic since day one. Then I switched the bulb to a phoenix last year and I still don't know if it is recovering or slowly getting worse. The red tissue developed green spots that turned almost clear.

The maze brain has done great since I put it in. It has grown a lot from the frag I bought a year ago. The candy cane was up and down a lot for the longest time. Sometimes it would look deflated, like the skeleton was about to break through. It finally adapted to the tank and is now doing great. In the last few weeks it has begun developing another head. The xenia had turned into a small forest that the clown fish called home until I added an urchin with a fondness for wearing xenia. Now it is a little sparse but should come back.

makana · #3 10-24-2012, 02:52 AM

At some point I added a toadstool that seemed to rot around a spot on the stem. I eventually fragged the head and cut off the rot. There are 3 frags from that currently growning in the tank.

Current stock list: Clown fish, purple fire fish, green chromis, blue tuxedo urchin, peppermint shrimp, crocea clam, GSP, xenia, open brain, maze brain, candy cane, toadstool, hermits, turbo snails, nassarius snails.

makana · #4 10-24-2012, 02:55 AM

Now the pictures.

makana · #5 10-24-2012, 02:58 AM

The urchin pushed the clam off about a week ago and now the clam won't grab on. I don't know if the clam is damaged and can't or just won't. Every couple days I find the clam pushed over again, often the urchin is still up there so I know it pushed the clam over again. The clam seems to be doing fine anyway, lots of growth on the shell, extends the mantle nicely.

Hopefully this doesn't cause long term issues of it.

I'm trying to figure out where I want all the corals to go long term. Any suggestions on where I should place the candy cane? Obviously the brains stay on the sand. I need a good location for a toadstool to grow up in as well. The upper portion of the tank I would like to have some SPS in if I ever get the algae issue taken care of. So if anyone can offer suggestions on corals that would go good and where in tank (possibly marked in the FTS), they should go I am all ears. It seems like some of the nicest tanks had the corals picked out for the locations and where just left to grow. I find with my level of experience I end up having to move them around trying to find a place that they tolerate.