Christy's 180 build

[JDigital]

Originally Posted by christyf5

And just because I love it so and its growing like a weed. My pink lemonade MINI COLONY!!!!

That is VERY nice christy! Grow it BIG!

[Greenmaster]

Originally Posted by christyf5

And just because I love it so and its growing like a weed. My pink lemonade MINI COLONY!!!!



I can grow SPS! Who knew!!??!

If you ever decide to prune that "weed" let me know I would love to come and help ... some time after I get my tank set up.

[christyf5]

Just got back from 10 days vacation and everything looks good for the most part, no corals lost but my royal gramma and one of my pyjama cardinals is missing. I'm hoping the gramma is just ****ed off and hiding somewhere, I've had him for almost 4 years I didn't have high hopes for the cardinals as I bought 3 of them and they were having difficulties with the current and hiding next to the wavebox in a low flow area. As a result they need target feeding and well, they're pretty stunned fish.

The tank will need some work, it hasn't had a waterchange in about 3.5 weeks and the coral coloration isn't as bright as it used to be. With the reactors all offline the algae growth has surged and I see bunches of caulerpa and some sort of other algae which I know the name of but I'll be damned if I can remember which book I saw it in.

No pictures, I just finished working on the tank for about 3 hours and my back is done.

[Greenmaster]

Glad to hear that you didn't come back to a disaster.
How was the vacation?

[Lance]

Welcome back Christy! The PJ's will come around. I've had one for going on 3 years and he was like yours at first. After awhile though he learned to come out and get his grub at feeding time. They lose a little timidity after awhile.

[christyf5]

The vacation was great, we went to my husbands family cabin at a lake near Fernie, the weather was damned near perfect (which equals sunny with a breeze so I don't die of the heat) except for a couple stormy/rainy days which were kind of neat.

Its funny, the pyjama cardinals come out when the lights are out so it must not necessarily be a flow issue as nothing gets changed at night, I guess with all the big fish they figure they might end up as a snack so they only come out after everyone has gone to bed.

Found my royal gramma, he came out to eat a few minutes ago!!!!!!!!!

[Lance]

Originally Posted by christyf5

Its funny, the pyjama cardinals come out when the lights are out so it must not necessarily be a flow issue as nothing gets changed at night, I guess with all the big fish they figure they might end up as a snack so they only come out after everyone has gone to bed.

Found my royal gramma, he came out to eat a few minutes ago!!!!!!!!!

PJ's are naturally a nocturnal fish. They will change this in captivity though. Hurray! Glad you found the R.G.

[Greenmaster]

Yay! It's always nice when you find a lost fish.

[christyf5]

Another update as I've decided to start ultralith and today is the day. Looking at the tank, the nutrient load is just far too high, rampant algae, majanos, vermetid snails etc have got to go or at least get toned down some. My previous use of ultralith eliminated brown wafer algae and well, most algaes except for coralline and caulerpa. It also seemed to eliminate vermetid snails. I can't remember if I had aiptasia or majanos at the time but hopefully it slows their growth too.

Looking at some of the corals, they've really lost a lot of color due to the excess nutrient load. Its nothing that can't be fixed via waterchanges and due diligence with feeding but its the algae that bugs me the most, that and the majanos which I think I counted about 50 more pop up while I was gone. So much for the killing spree.

This is a crap photo but you can sort of see the corals have diminished in color some from last month:

July 30


June 11


Ugh those are terrible photos and you can't really see much of anything. My "indicator coral" which tells me how happy the tank is and how happy I am with the tank is the big pink Pocillipora damicornis on the left hand side. Here is a closer shot:



Its spent most of its life being the funny shade of browny pink it is today and I've spent most of its life trying to make it the lovely pink it was on June 11th. I'm determined to get it back there.

Some comparison photos of coral coloration:

June 11th


July 30



June 11


July 30


And just some shots of various pests I want gone from the tank for later comparison:

Wafer algae:


Halimeda:


Majanos:

[Lance]

In the FTS comparison pics the Regal tang is in almost exactly the same position.
Good luck with the ultralith. I hope it works for you.