2 Year Old 90 Gallons of Addictive Stress

[Pau Hana Reefer]

It has been about a year since my tank fully cycled and the family is growing! My one spot foxface, yellow coris wrasse, 5 scarlett hermit crabs, 5 trochus snails, 5 nassarius snails, and a micromussa coral have arrived!

I had a minor scare with the delivery... yet again. I got an email from UPS informing me that my delivery from LiveAquaria arrived and left at my rear door. Noooope! I called UPS to inform them and over an hour later, my local UPS location called to let me know that the driver had scanned the wrong package and that my package was on the way. An hour later, my package arrived.

I did call LiveAquaria as soon as I called UPS to inform them of the issue. They really appreciated the heads up and told me they would also escalate on their end. The customer service rep (who I've spoken to regarding past orders as well) was incredibly friendly and helpful as usual. Props once again to LiveAquaria!

Pictures to come later today or tomorrow.

 

[LiveAquaria]

Family is growing! My one spot foxface, yellow coris wrasse, 5 scarlett hermit crabs, 5 trochus snails, 5 nassarius snails, and a micromussa coral have arrived!

I had a minor scare with the delivery... yet again. I got an email from UPS informing me that my delivery from LiveAquaria arrived and left at my rear door. Noooope! I called UPS to inform them and over an hour later, my local UPS location called to let me know that the driver had scanned the wrong package and that my package were on the way. An hour later, my package arrived.

I did call LiveAquaria as soon as I called UPS to inform them of the issue. They really appreciated the heads up and told me they would also escalate on their end. The customer service rep (who I've spoken to regarding past orders as well) was incredibly friendly and helpful as usual. Props once again to LiveAquaria!

Pictures to come later today or tomorrow.

Thank you for your order! Look forward to your update.

 

[Pau Hana Reefer]

Thank you for your order! Look forward to your update.

Thanks LiveAquaria! I called a few hours ago to let you know that UPS figured out what happened and got me my order this afternoon.

Everything arrived alive and has been acclimated... the one spot foxface is in my 20 gallon QT (I think it's stressed... it's the mottled brown color), the yellow coris wrasses looks healthy and is swimming around in my 10 gallon QT, and the snails, hermit crabs, and coral are in my DT.

Thanks again for the great customer service today!

 

[Pau Hana Reefer]

The yellow coris wrasse and one spot foxface are doing well one day after arriving. Both are from LiveAquaria, with the yellow coris wrasse from Diver's Den.

Here is the yellow coris wrasse in a 10 gallon QT. This guy is small, only 1.5"!

And here's the one spot foxface in a 20 gallon QT. I think it's pretty cool how the spot on one side is more like two spots.

 

[Pau Hana Reefer]

About a year after starting my tank... and I think coralline is starting to appear in my tank!!!
I added a hermit crab back on 1/22/19 that had coralline all over its shell. I figured at that time, "coralline will probably start appearing within the next few months." Nooooooope!

I suspect two things were keeping coralline from appearing:
1) tank wasn't mature and stable enough
2) lights were too intense

After joining a thread here on R2R with others who use the same black box LEDs, I adjusted my settings. I raised my blues from 28% up to 38% (targeting 50%) and lowered my whites from 12% down to 5%.

I have some phone filter lenses coming and will take pictures in a few days to share.

 

[Pau Hana Reefer]

Updates on Yellow Coris Wrasse and One Spot Foxface

Yellow coris wrasse (aka Taco) is doing great in the 10 gallon QT. He was under general observation for the first two weeks. He got his first Prazipro treatment this past Saturday and will be getting the second treatment on Friday. If all goes well, he should be going into the DT about a week from now. The little guy has personality and is not afraid of me being around the tank.

The one spot foxface (aka Foxface Killah) has been a different story. He does not like anyone around the tank, especially our dog. He's dealing with ich and is currently on day 4 of therapeutic levels of Copper Power. He'll be in the 20 gallon QT until early March... 35 days of Copper Power to be followed by two rounds of Prazipro. I got a lot of help from R2R in this thread. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/help-flukes-or-ich.680767/

I do not think it's coincidence that the yellow coris wrasse is doing well while the foxface is dealing with ich. The yellow coris wrasse was purchased from LiveAquaria Diver's Den and the foxface came was from LiveAquaria's California (non Diver's Den) location. IMO, I think it's worth the extra money to purchase from Diver's Den.

BTW, I tried saving some money by getting the API Copper Test Kit. I should have saved that money and just purchased the Hanna Copper Colorimeter. API Copper Test Kit works if you don't need exact measurements. But it's hard to determine exact copper levels with confidence. I ordered by Hanna Copper Colorimeter which should arrive by next Wednesday.

 

[Pau Hana Reefer]

New Aussie Torch Coral

After my wife mentioned that she really liked aussie torch corals right after Christmas, I went on a mission searching for particular type she liked. On January 10th, I found one at my favorite LFS. I find this coral so extremely relaxing to watch. I've probably stared at this coral for at least 2 hours since bringing it home. My wife just mentioned tonight that she wants a purple one now. Lol.

Following pictures are taken with my iPhone X using my new Reefing Art Coral Lens Professional Photography 6 Lenses Kit. Will share my thoughts about this lens kit in a future post.

 

[Pau Hana Reefer]

My "new" nightmare zoa seems to be really happy in my tank. I purchased it back on December 27th and it has grown a lot of new polyps in the past few weeks.

First pic below is from January 8th. The second pic is from the other day.

 

[Pau Hana Reefer]

Whoa... just realized that a couple days ago was the 1 year mark of when I received my first saltwater fish (my two clownfish). It's been one fun, frustrating, exciting, stressful, rewarding, awful, awesome year.

 

[Pau Hana Reefer]

So my yellow coris wrasse "disappeared" in the 10 gallon QT last night. I wasn't around all day and went downstairs to feed all my fish, and he wasn't swimming around.

There are some small gaps in the lid, so I searched everywhere to see if he possibly jumped out. I didn't spot him anywhere.

Though I have yet to see him burrow himself in the tupperware with sand I put in there since I got him 3 weeks ago, I'm hoping he finally decided to dig in to sleep. Fingers crossed.

 

[Pau Hana Reefer]

So my yellow coris wrasse "disappeared" in the 10 gallon QT last night. I wasn't around all day and went downstairs to feed all my fish, and he wasn't swimming around.

There are some small gaps in the lid, so I searched everywhere to see if he possibly jumped out. I didn't spot him anywhere.

Though I have yet to see him burrow himself in the tupperware with sand I put in there since I got him 3 weeks ago, I'm hoping he finally decided to dig in to sleep. Fingers crossed.

Yeeeuuup, he was back out swimming around when I got home from work. Looks like he finally decided to sleep in the sand bed that I made him in the quarantine tank.

 

[Pau Hana Reefer]

I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve... can't sleep because I'm too excited about tomorrow.

I have 6 corals coming tomorrow, including another torch and my first SPS coral!!! Plus this is my first time ordering from Aqua SD.

And on top of all this, my yellow coris wrasse is moving from my 10 gallon QT to the DT. I'm holding my breath and hoping my red head solon won't be a jerk. He can be a little bit of a bully.

 

[Pau Hana Reefer]

My new corals are here! First time ever ordering from Aqua SD. I'm drip acclimating them right now and going to start dipping in about 30 mins.

They even threw in a free coral!

 

[Pau Hana Reefer]

It was a looong, but exciting day. I spent a couple hours getting the new corals from Aqua SD into my tank, including my first two SPS corals. A capped off the day by moving my yellow coris wrasse (aka Taco) from his QT to the DT.

Big shout out to Aqua SD, I am absolutely impressed. I ordered 6 corals (pics below), not a single pest fell off during the dipping process. The corals on their website are very vibrant and I was curious how closely the colors would match, and they were dead on! Plus, they even threw in an extra freebie... I think a flowerpot.

After 4 weeks in his 10 gallon QT, the yellow coris wrasse took to the DT well. I had some concerns that the red head solon was going to give it a hard time, like how it has with every other fish. But he stayed on the opposite side of the tank and was flashing his fins the whole time. My helfrichi firefish came over to check him out and they were hanging out for a bit. Once the whites went off, Taco disappeared... I imagine he tucked himself in the sand.

And here are pics from today...

Taco (yellow coris wrasse) right after he was added to DT. The helfrechi firefish came over and they were hanging out for a little bit:

Gold Tips Aussie Torch Coral. Tips look more pink with just blue lights on:

Peach Storm Favia:

Thousand Island Mycedium (top left) and Nuclear Eye Candy Cane (bottom right):

ORA Purple Stylophora:

White Ants Montipora:

 

[Pau Hana Reefer]

Yesterday was really productive. I finally got around to some "cord management" that I've been meaning to get to for over 6 months. I still have cords going here and there under my tank, but they're now zip-tied and not as chaotic.

Also finally added the second Reef Octopus Octo Pulse 2 to the tank. I purchased it back during Black Friday sales after being so impressed with the first one that I purchased Black Friday 2018. So I now have 1 on each side of the tank.

 

[Pau Hana Reefer]

Sigh... I think Taco (yellow coris wrasse) has lymphocystis. He has a white thing on his tail. It doesn't look like ich. I'm guessing he got stressed in the move from QT to the DT.

Gonna look into some vitamins and welcome any recommendations.

 

[Pau Hana Reefer]

So after a little over a year of joining R2R, I decided it was time to be a supporting member. I signed up for a 2 year supporting membership last night. This site has provided me so much valuable information over the past 2 years and I know it'll continue to be a huge asset in the coming years, it's $40 well-spent, IMO.

 

[PacoPetty]

So after a little over a year of joining R2R, I decided it was time to be a supporting member. I signed up for a 2 year supporting membership last night. This site has provided me so much valuable information over the past 2 years and I know it'll continue to be a huge asset in the coming years, it's $40 well-spent, IMO.

Excellent thread! Thank you for sharing. This is without a doubt the most amazing and informative for him I have ever been a part.This is without a doubt the most amazing and informative forum I have ever been a part of.

 

[PacoPetty]

*Forum

 

[Pau Hana Reefer]

Excellent thread! Thank you for sharing. This is without a doubt the most amazing and informative for him I have ever been a part.This is without a doubt the most amazing and informative forum I have ever been a part of.

Thank you and not a problem! This really is an amazing forum, isn't it?

I was using a number of forums during my research and building stages. Lurked for months before choosing to join R2R over any other reefing forums. Plus I love how the moderators help keep this place calm and enjoyable.