Llj's 4G Now 5.5G... A Little Patch Of Sun!

[MBOU]

Named after a poor gerbil?? Lol

Don't think I can face gorgonians ever again lol

 

[lljdma06]

Named after a poor gerbil?? Lol

I know, but as soon as I tried to wrap my head around how this goby managed to get into the fuge, I could picture him hobbing up the intake tube, and then Lemmiwinks sprung to my head. Dunno what to do now as he's as happy as a clam in a fuge full of pods! He's fatter and has better color. I kind of have a dilemma now. No fish in the main display, which is what I want. I can either put him back and take the risk that he'll try to get back in there and not survive. Or I can keep him in the refugium and get another fish for the display.

Don't think I can face gorgonians ever again lol

Gorgs are a challenge, I won't lie. My diodogorgia is still being stubborn, my echino is always open. Go figure. It's tricky to find the right balance of food and water quality. Right now, my orange & red suns are really sulking, but my black one is stunning. I had to tupperware feed the orange one for a bit. I still stand to lose polyps.

I'm going to get another black sun (big fan of these) and I'm trying a balanoplyllia species. They are on hold for me at the LFS. Think of balanos as a poor man's Dendro. I'll have to move out some mushrooms in the process. I may have my first corals to sell or swap. I like mushies, but the tank is a nps tank and the mushies are taking up real estate right now.

Some pictures of Lemmiwinks, the refugium beast! That sounds so dramatic. LOLOLOL

L

 

[lljdma06]

Going to move Lemmiwinks back into the main tank tomorrow. He's a silly billy and needs to be where I can watch him all day cause he's too cute. Also...

I'm bringing sexy back.

 

[Shovelman]

Going to move Lemmiwinks back into the main tank tomorrow. He's a silly billy and needs to be where I can watch him all day cause he's too cute. Also...

I'm bringing sexy back.

lol Lemmiwinks....classy...

 

[lljdma06]

Going to move Lemmiwinks back into the main tank tomorrow. He's a silly billy and needs to be where I can watch him all day cause he's too cute. Also...

I'm bringing sexy back.

lol Lemmiwinks....classy...

I know, I love the name. It stays. I love the song too. I'd link to it, but it has some really objectional material. LOLOLOL

Ok update time!

I got me some stuff...

Balanophyllia and Tubastrea macrandra

Oh, and look how tiny teeny! Sexy shrimp; Thor amboinensis

On a gorgonian

Closeup

Sexy Video (hehe, how funny to say)


Black sun is already extended

Balano is taking a little longer, but extending too. Great coral. Like a poor man's dendro. Dendro's are like $30 a head. This looks almost the same and it cost me less than three dendro heads and it has a bunch of them.

Video of my nps, diodogorgia is still being stubborn. Sulking orange sun is improving. Tupperware method helped. May try tupperware method on the diodo. Echinogorgia is doing AWESOME! Black suns are consistently fabulous.


Fts - but this won't stay like this. I think I want to move out the mushies and replace them with the gsp that I have. I think they chemical warfare quite a bit and it effects the nps, IMO. So only a few will be kept. The rest will go into the 36g temporarily until the new biocube is ready for hardy corals. Or I may do my first sell/swap with corals. I'm no longer scared to ship and receive things, so I'll be purchasing some heatpacks and start giving back to the hobby. A newbie will appreciate it. People have been very generous with me.

Thanks for looking. I appreciate all comments.

L

 

[Shovelman]

Me gusta.

 

[-Nemo-]

When reading up on sexys before, people have problems with them eating corals if they aren't fed well. Otherwise they are adorable!!

 

[lljdma06]

Me gusta.

Thank you, I changed the tank around a bit, though.

When reading up on sexys before, people have problems with them eating corals if they aren't fed well. Otherwise they are adorable!!

The advantage is that this is an nps tank, so there is a ton of food in this tank. I'll keep watch, however.

Like I said, I did some shifting around on Saturday. Another hobbyist had brought it to my attention that it didn't look like I was getting enough flow out of my Rio 90. I remember that I had a directional nozzle that comes with the power head. So while I was feeding, I grabbed it, but before I took some pictures and video.

Also, video prior to the power head adjustment.



Ok, so fts now showing the new location of the power head.

But the real different is in the video. Oh! so much better flow.



And because it's sooooooo purty when extended, the balano

It's funny how such a little adjustment can make such a big change. Suns are open a lot more now.

 

[Man of fish]

This tank looks really good! It was funny reading about the panda goby. Lol

 

[lljdma06]

This tank looks really good! It was funny reading about the panda goby. Lol

Thank you. Lemmiwinks has gone AWOL again. Either he's back in the fuge, or he's really sulking because I put him back into the main tank. Or he's dead. One of them, I'll figure it out when I'm done with work today.

L

 

[lljdma06]

This tank looks really good! It was funny reading about the panda goby. Lol

Thank you. Lemmiwinks has gone AWOL again. Either he's back in the fuge, or he's really sulking because I put him back into the main tank. Or he's dead. One of them, I'll figure it out when I'm done with work today.

L

Found Lemmiwinks again, he's ok, just sulking. Pods in the fuge, however, are doing a fishy/pod happy dance.

Oh...

I'm a picture whore...

Meet the suns.... Just fed cyclops ease

Orange suns... My first one is so much better now. Huge improvement since I increased the flow and removed the cleaner shrimp. Lost some polyps, but the ones that are left are growing and getting fatter.

Balano

After eating mysis. hehehe, they piggy.

Video



And... Remember T-100, who lost his legs in a freak, "I'm stuck in the uptake tube while I'm molting" accident, well, look who got them back!



I'm done for now. Hehehe Thanks for indulging me.

L

 

[MBOU]

Hehe photo whore!

They are looking sooo good! They almost make me miss my sun coral! Almost

They are such hard work when it comes to keeping tank clean lol, made it more hassel than it was worth for me.

I love how you have several species, they look great! I honestly never considered there were numerous species beyond 'yellow' and 'black'.

 

[lljdma06]

Hehe photo whore!

They are looking sooo good! They almost make me miss my sun coral! Almost

They are such hard work when it comes to keeping tank clean lol, made it more hassel than it was worth for me.

I love how you have several species, they look great! I honestly never considered there were numerous species beyond 'yellow' and 'black'.

Thank you. They are hard work. No lie. I've put a lot of effort into this little tank. I've got a nice little rhythm now that I increased the flow. Below is the current feeding schedule. Having the refugium helps a lot as do the frequent, large water changes. I may also consider adding another small filter with chemipure elite or purigen to the mix as well. It may help me along, especially since I plan on just increasing the load of nps that I have and phasing out the other types of corals. I'd like to include the following to the group.

1 Echinogorgia, I really like them. They are fragile (I've killed a few spots due to mishandling ), but the rest of the coral is doing great and I see some tissue regrowth.
1 Terrazoanthus, interesting species.
1 Dendroplyllia, maybe 2-3 heads
1 Tubastrea coccinea, it is colored like my yellow suns, but long necked like my black sun.

Feeding schedule...

Every Morning (lights out) - 2ml of either phytoplankton, or two zooplankton of various sizes. I alternate between the three.

Night feedings - done on alternate days, while the lights are on, I just call them night feedings cause it's nighttime.

Light night feeding - Cyclops ease and another squeeze of a plankton of some type, different than the one I used in the morning.
Heavy night feeding - Cyclops ease, a squeeze of a plankton, and 1-2 of mysis or other frozen food and each polyp is target fed.

I alternate between heavy night feedings and light night feedings. So the suns will get target fed every other day basically. EVERY polyp gets something. Very hard to do. It's getting easier now that every polyp is extending after the cyclop ease. This wasn't always happening and I was struggling until I changed the direction of the power head. I no longer care if they are open while the lights are on. Now that I have the refugium (on an opposite photo period), there is now enough light to enjoy the corals when lights are out too. Right now, they extend from me feeding the cyclops ease (at around 7pm or so) up until the main display lights turn on at about 1pm the following day. So, you know what? That's not too bad and I'm not complaining. I really thought I was going to lose my first sun coral, but no, he's back and extending again.

I love this tank. It's cool what you can do with a pico.

L

 

[lljdma06]

Tank is leaking... AGAIN!!! ARGH!!!!!

 

[lljdma06]

First let's remember, how beautiful it was.

fts

sexy shrimp

Black suns & echinogorgia

Orange suns

Balano

So, this is how things went. About a week ago, I saw that the water level was way down. I first figured, you dork, you put the water level too high and you've flooded the filter out, so I lowered the water level and cleaned up the mess. Ok, thought the problem was solved. Uh... no. Water level has been decreasing again. I check the filter, nothing is leaking, I check where the equipment meets the tank, no leakage or seeping. Underneath the tank is seeping of water.

I put WAY too much effort into my nps corals to not risk losing them and putting them into the Biocube 8g, a tank that didn't even have a CUC was a bad idea. Putting the nps into my 8g and 36g was bad too. Both tanks have too much light. I found a cheapie, ugly AGA at my LFS for cheap and proceeded to move things over.

So sad, so sad.

draining the tank

I set it down, onto a table and dried it off. The tank on the surface wasn't wet, but when I lifted the tank, I saw this... water seepage

The 4g is undergoing a leak test now, but it could be that the seams in the bottom are weak and poorly made. Perhaps this tank isn't well-designed for a SW tank where corrosion is an issue.

Last critter caught. Lemmiwinks, my panda goby. What a life of adventure! Never a dull moment for this little guy. Will be gutted if he dies, he's soooooo tough.

Sad critters

Sad corals

New tank being prepped. Had to add another Aquaclear as we are going a bit bigger, may replace this with another Rio 90 on the other side, but may run Purigen on this tank for a spell. Luckily, I had a tank cover that I was planning for something else, and an extra LED light fixture that I had lying around.

New tank setup.

It's ugly, I really don't like it, but at least my corals are safe and the echinogorgia is extended as are the black suns. Haven't fed cyclops-ease yet.

More shots, though I'm not happy right now.

At least nothing is dead and a major disaster was averted. You never know, with leaking like that, the tank could just fall apart and I'd lose all my nps corals. Then I'd REALLY be gutted.

I may look into getting a Mr. Aqua bowfront, or even an ADA tank eventually, but right now, that's not happening.

Thanks for looking, what a lousy update.

L