jcolliii's IM25 Lagoon journey - MASTERTRONIC up and running!

[jcolliii]

9-7-20 Update:

Open brain continues to be quite pale, but other than that is doing well. I feed it every day, and after lights out, it usually has feeding tentacles out.

Coralline is growing everywhere and algae is becoming harder to find. Only algae in the tank at this point is the stuff that grows on the glass and a weird little patch of some sort of kinda neat looking red bubble algae. It's on one plug only, and that plug has been in there for 8 months with no algae growth before now, so that's a little weird.

Went to petco yesterday, and bought their last striped blenny - so next time I have the camera out you can say hi to New Kenny. He's settling in nicely and exploring all over the place. He and the fairy wrasse seem to get along well, but the damsel is a bit pushy with everyone, so he shies away as expected. He's just as weird as old Kenny, and last night slept in exactly the same place as Kenny did - on the Flipper algae scraper. Kenny used to sleep on the top side - kind of wedge his fins in to keep the current from moving him around. New Kenny slept on the underside of the magnet, using the same technique! Kind of funny. Lovely little fish, fang blennies.

Corals are growing really nicely now that I have the nutrients where I want them and the pH up a bit with the CO2 scrubber. Will get some pics later this week. Colors on everything just astounding.

Got the needle wheel impeller for the Sicce Nano in last week as well. Need to build a volute chamber sometime soon and give that a try in the skimmer to see how it goes. Really hoping that it works out because a more reliable pump for this skimmer is definitely needed.

 

[TheWB]

9-7-20 Update:

Open brain continues to be quite pale, but other than that is doing well. I feed it every day, and after lights out, it usually has feeding tentacles out.

Coralline is growing everywhere and algae is becoming harder to find. Only algae in the tank at this point is the stuff that grows on the glass and a weird little patch of some sort of kinda neat looking red bubble algae. It's on one plug only, and that plug has been in there for 8 months with no algae growth before now, so that's a little weird.

Went to petco yesterday, and bought their last striped blenny - so next time I have the camera out you can say hi to New Kenny. He's settling in nicely and exploring all over the place. He and the fairy wrasse seem to get along well, but the damsel is a bit pushy with everyone, so he shies away as expected. He's just as weird as old Kenny, and last night slept in exactly the same place as Kenny did - on the Flipper algae scraper. Kenny used to sleep on the top side - kind of wedge his fins in to keep the current from moving him around. New Kenny slept on the underside of the magnet, using the same technique! Kind of funny. Lovely little fish, fang blennies.

Corals are growing really nicely now that I have the nutrients where I want them and the pH up a bit with the CO2 scrubber. Will get some pics later this week. Colors on everything just astounding.

Got the needle wheel impeller for the Sicce Nano in last week as well. Need to build a volute chamber sometime soon and give that a try in the skimmer to see how it goes. Really hoping that it works out because a more reliable pump for this skimmer is definitely needed.

Congrats on New Kenny, I know you were bummed so a new one is just the ticket. I’ve never had a blenny but one might make a good addition at some point.

 

[jcolliii]

9-13-20 Coral Update:

Have not had to re-dose PO4 since my initial dose - it's stayed between 0.1 and 0.03ppm ever since that one initial dose. Color and growth are fantastic - the wife said last night, "Wow, the corals are the most colorful I've ever seen them!", so a bit of PO4 seems like it can make a difference. My ALK usage has also skyrocketed. Not super surprising with the increased coral growth and all of the coralline growing everywhere. I have given up trying to keep the coralline off of the starboard bottom. I definitely don't like the polka-dot look with all of the little blebs of coralline on the starboard. I'll give it a chance and see how I like the bottom in solid purple. If I don't like it, I will take out the starboard and go with just glass on the bottom. Won't look as good, IMO, as the clean black starboard looked, but I will be able to keep it scraped clean!

The green slimer that had been relatively stalled prior to all of this has taken off. It's got nubs headed upward and outward in all directions now. The bubblegum digi is growing nicely again as well - over the past week, it's grown about 2mm, so it's spooling up. It's got those beautiful green tips back again as well.

But the real show-stopper is the CB Valhalla. This thing has never stopped encrusting, even during the slow period - but it was super gradual then. It's laying down new growth, and thickening that growth almost faster than anything else in the tank! Two weeks ago, the sides of the frag plug were nearly completely exposed. Now:

It is really hard to get a good picture of this coral and all of the subtle colors it has going on - the new growth is yellow, the body color is purple, but there are patches of blue, and some of the corallite bumps - especially the ones on the new growth - are orange. It looks like it may be forming some larger corallites as well - hopefully some new axial ones and branching will start soon! High hopes for this little guy.

The open brain is continuing to improve as well. Colors are definitely improved, and polyp extension continues to be excellent. It is in a slightly shaded area on the left side and gets light largely from only one led cluster now.

The little 'lemonheads' critstata that the wife bought herself from LA Reefs when she bought me the brain is doing fantastic. It gets fed a couple times a week with a 50/50 mix of roids and chili, and seems like it might be starting to grow a new head on one side (I'm seeing a bunch of tiny, new tentacles). Although, the color is beginning to be a bit more on the orange side than the yellow side - it's looking more like a 'tangerine heads'. The dragon soul torch seems to have lots of small tentacles around the margin on one side as well - so maybe that one is splitting as well.

Algae continues to be difficult to find. Dunno if the main factor in dooming the algae/cyano was balancing the nutrients, or removing the substrate, but am glad that I did both!

 

[jcolliii]

11-1-20 Update.

It's been a bit! Been working on the Mini Cooper a bit now that it's mostly off the road for the winter - built a rear seat delete, and just ordered some bespoke seats that will save nearly 50lbs over the stock ones that are made of lead and rocks (although they are fairly comfy). I've shaved nearly 150lbs off and bumped the power up to around 220 or so. Love that little car. I've also started downsizing my vintage audio collection as we will be building a small (not a micro) house that will be as close to zero net energy as possible within a few years and it's time to start downsizing - don't worry, the reef is staying! Just broke down my DIY Altec horn-based system yesterday to the components and starting to sell those off. Makes me a bit sad, but will be transitioning to a decent headphone setup. I may sell one of my tube preamps, but my beast Harman Kardon Citation II 80lb tube power amp is going nowhere. I may build a dummy load so I can turn it on periodically and just watch those big 6550 power tubes glow.

Anyhow, I digress. On to the reef!

The reef has been on auto pilot for the past month and a half or so since my last update. The nitrates are self-controlling at this point. I chalk that up to the Seachem Matrix in both intake chambers. I was hesitant when I started seeing the nitrate drop because denitrification requires partial anoxia, and with the flow through the side chambers being so rapid, I could not see how that could happen, but I am at a loss to explain it otherwise. AND I see abundant bubbles in my filter floss every time I change it every other to every third day. I make sure to get all of the bubbles out every time I add new floss, so that must be nitrogen bubbling up and getting trapped in the floss from the matrix that is directly under the floss on both sides. My nitrates almost never go above 5ppm and I am now doing 4 gallon water changes only every 3-4 weeks.

I do have a couple persistent patches of hair algae. It self-sustains due to its ability to baffle and trap detritus I think. i blow it off whenever I remember to, but it's not spreading and it doesn't really bother me all that much. I did remove the black starboard from the bottom. It bothered me that the coralline had nearly covered it and that I could not scrape it because of the texture. So, rocking a true bare bottom now. Cleanup is a snap as all of the detritus collects in two small quarter sized vortices, and I just suck it out with a coral feeder every couple of days.

All of the fish are porkers. I have an auto feeder that does its thing with just a tiny amount of food twice per day and I augment once in the evening when I feed the brains. New Kenny is almost as big as original Kenny now - he's nearly as weird too. Kenny used to sleep on top of my algae magnet. New Kenny sleeps UNDER it - how deja-vous is that? Starsky (the starkii) is a bit aggressive, but only to Hutch (the wrasse) and no one else. I think I need one more fish to act as a dither. REALLY want a Kamohara blenny, but scared to order one because it's starting to get cold and if I get a really tiny one I don't want to worry about it getting bullied. I have not seen any damage on Hutch - and he swims SOOO much faster than Starsky, he'll probably never get bitten (knock wood).

The brain coral has regained all of its' color and looks fantastic. In fact, all of the corals look positive radiant. The colors are super bright, and growth has been very rapid. The Valhalla acro has three new branches, and two of them are nearly a half inch long and growing at 1/8" or so a week. The Bubblegum digi is going gangbusters right now, and all of the maze brains are putting on tissue like nobody's business. My All-For-Reef usage is now 3x what it was during my slow period (before I pulled up the PO4 a bit). With the windows closed now, I am using CO2 media in a reactor that feeds my skimmer - that's been keeping pH stable around 8.25 or so during the photoperiod and around 8 just before lights on.

Doing pretty well. Camera is upstairs and wifeis already in bed for the night, so just a couple of quick cell phone pics for tonight. Hope everyone is doing well and staying safe.

Awful photo with flash, but my orange filter is upstairs. This coral is so glowing under the blues it's just not funny.

The orange echinata. It has changed color to be mostly a deep true red. Eats like a pig, and is definitely starting to grow. Popped off of his rock today - need to go to the dollar store to get more super glue... have a couple that need to be reglued. May put this guy up a bit higher to see if the orange tint will come back.

 

[TheWB]

11-1-20 Update.

It's been a bit! Been working on the Mini Cooper a bit now that it's mostly off the road for the winter - built a rear seat delete, and just ordered some bespoke seats that will save nearly 50lbs over the stock ones that are made of lead and rocks (although they are fairly comfy). I've shaved nearly 150lbs off and bumped the power up to around 220 or so. Love that little car. I've also started downsizing my vintage audio collection as we will be building a small (not a micro) house that will be as close to zero net energy as possible within a few years and it's time to start downsizing - don't worry, the reef is staying! Just broke down my DIY Altec horn-based system yesterday to the components and starting to sell those off. Makes me a bit sad, but will be transitioning to a decent headphone setup. I may sell one of my tube preamps, but my beast Harman Kardon Citation II 80lb tube power amp is going nowhere. I may build a dummy load so I can turn it on periodically and just watch those big 6550 power tubes glow.

Anyhow, I digress. On to the reef!

The reef has been on auto pilot for the past month and a half or so since my last update. The nitrates are self-controlling at this point. I chalk that up to the Seachem Matrix in both intake chambers. I was hesitant when I started seeing the nitrate drop because denitrification requires partial anoxia, and with the flow through the side chambers being so rapid, I could not see how that could happen, but I am at a loss to explain it otherwise. AND I see abundant bubbles in my filter floss every time I change it every other to every third day. I make sure to get all of the bubbles out every time I add new floss, so that must be nitrogen bubbling up and getting trapped in the floss from the matrix that is directly under the floss on both sides. My nitrates almost never go above 5ppm and I am now doing 4 gallon water changes only every 3-4 weeks.

I do have a couple persistent patches of hair algae. It self-sustains due to its ability to baffle and trap detritus I think. i blow it off whenever I remember to, but it's not spreading and it doesn't really bother me all that much. I did remove the black starboard from the bottom. It bothered me that the coralline had nearly covered it and that I could not scrape it because of the texture. So, rocking a true bare bottom now. Cleanup is a snap as all of the detritus collects in two small quarter sized vortices, and I just suck it out with a coral feeder every couple of days.

All of the fish are porkers. I have an auto feeder that does its thing with just a tiny amount of food twice per day and I augment once in the evening when I feed the brains. New Kenny is almost as big as original Kenny now - he's nearly as weird too. Kenny used to sleep on top of my algae magnet. New Kenny sleeps UNDER it - how deja-vous is that? Starsky (the starkii) is a bit aggressive, but only to Hutch (the wrasse) and no one else. I think I need one more fish to act as a dither. REALLY want a Kamohara blenny, but scared to order one because it's starting to get cold and if I get a really tiny one I don't want to worry about it getting bullied. I have not seen any damage on Hutch - and he swims SOOO much faster than Starsky, he'll probably never get bitten (knock wood).

The brain coral has regained all of its' color and looks fantastic. In fact, all of the corals look positive radiant. The colors are super bright, and growth has been very rapid. The Valhalla acro has three new branches, and two of them are nearly a half inch long and growing at 1/8" or so a week. The Bubblegum digi is going gangbusters right now, and all of the maze brains are putting on tissue like nobody's business. My All-For-Reef usage is now 3x what it was during my slow period (before I pulled up the PO4 a bit). With the windows closed now, I am using CO2 media in a reactor that feeds my skimmer - that's been keeping pH stable around 8.25 or so during the photoperiod and around 8 just before lights on.

Doing pretty well. Camera is upstairs and wifeis already in bed for the night, so just a couple of quick cell phone pics for tonight. Hope everyone is doing well and staying safe.

Awful photo with flash, but my orange filter is upstairs. This coral is so glowing under the blues it's just not funny.

The orange echinata. It has changed color to be mostly a deep true red. Eats like a pig, and is definitely starting to grow. Popped off of his rock today - need to go to the dollar store to get more super glue... have a couple that need to be reglued. May put this guy up a bit higher to see if the orange tint will come back.

Everything looks great. It’s nice when you can get to the self sustaining stage. I’m not there currently.

 

[jcolliii]

Finally got the camera out before the wife went to bed.

FTS 11-7-20

A bit closer in...

 

[jcolliii]

Really liking the BB for both the ease of cleaning up the detritus that collects in two small spots, but also because the food pellets that I feed in the evening just roll around on the bottom until they are eaten up by the fish that have learned to find them there. I may do away with flakes altogether.

The one thing that bothers my OCD eye a bit is the wrinkly texture of the grey foam mat under the tank. I may , at some point this winter, take everything out of the tank for a day or so and paint the bottom of the glass black.That will give me the time to trim one branch that is just a bit too long in the front as well.

And HOLY WEEDS Batman! Those Palys are growing like Japanese Knotweed down the NE interstate corridor. (Japanese Knotweed is no joke). Both my AOG's and my Bloodshot Kracks are going crazy. The AOG's have made the jump to the rockword - I don't think the Kracks are there yet, but there have to be 12 or 14 polyps there now too. Stuff is growing well.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

With the windows closed now, I am using CO2 media in a reactor that feeds my skimmer - that's been keeping pH stable around 8.25 or so during the photoperiod and around 8 just before lights on.

Curious about using a CO2 scrubber with a nano skimmer. I was thinking about trying it but worried that it might restrict the air flow too much with such a small pump. What size media reactor is working for you?

 

[jcolliii]

Curious about using a CO2 scrubber with a nano skimmer. I was thinking about trying it but worried that it might restrict the air flow too much with such a small pump. What size media reactor is working for you?

There was no detectable difference in flow. I grain size of the media is quite coarse, so the air goes through it pretty easily. I blew through it to test when I initially installed it and it was super easy to blow through. Keeps the pH nicely elevated even with the house shut up tight. My evening pH is typical just a smidge over 8, but the daytime pH stays over 8.2. When I see the trend in daily pH begin to drop to less that 8.15 or so, that's when it gets replaced. On my tank, I'm getting a good long time between replacement of the media right now. Like over a month. That may shorten as the winter goes on and the house is shut up for longer, but I'm pretty happy with that. Corals are growing great and the tank is using quite a bit of All For Reef, so I know they're laying down carbonate.

EDIT: Forgot one thing - if you use a BRS reactor like I am, the blue tint of the outer cylinder and the white tint of the inner chamber combine to make it pretty tough to see the purple tint that the exhausted media gets. With a flashlight you can maybe just see a tiny bit of purple color - it starts at the bottom. When I see purple up to about half way, that is when new stuff goes in. For the normal size reactor, each of the BRS media bags will fill one reactor with about half leftover - so you actually get three reactor fills for every two bags of media.

 

[jcolliii]

11/27/20 Update.

Corals continue to grow like weeds. Well, most do. I have had to do a bit of moving things around because some corals were getting a bit out of control and blocking out the view of some things further back in the tank. The AOG's for example, are OUT OF CONTROL. I started with a frag of those that was maybe 4 polyps - easily over a hundred polyps now - and they are all still crowded on their frag plug - so moving that one was super easy. It just moved one branch back. Moved a couple of the sticks to get better light and flow - the Anacro moved to the left side upper, and I slightly repositioned the slimer. Speaking of the slimer - it maintains good color and polyp extension, but that sucker grows in fits and starts for me. It will do nothing for a month or two and then grow an inch in a month. Meanwhile my other acro is growing a quarter inch per week and my bubblegum digitata is going at about the same pace. Weird. The slimer was really close to my torch though, and that torch has really grown - both heads are in the process of splitting. So, I suppose that the slimer may have gotten stung, but no obvious outward signs of that - no dead patches, light colored rings, etc. I moved its position slightly, and also moved the torch a bit further away, so hopefully that will get the slimer growing again. Was finally able to count the polyps on the rainbow Micromussa lord. I have - started as a single polyp 7 months ago. It's now up to 14, and the polyps on the sides are perhaps a bit more colorful. It may be in too much light, but we'll see.

Just changed out my CO2 media - was just short of a month this time. My lights off pH was at 7.95; 10 minutes after the change pH was at 7.99. I've never gotten great color change out of this BRS media - for me it just changes to a very pale lavender that is very hard to see through the reactor side. I feel that the addition of the CO2 scrubber (output goes directly into the air input from my skimmer) has made a very significant difference in growth rate in my tank (together with slightly bumping up PO4 and NO3 to around 0.1 and 10ppm respectively). If you struggle with low pH, I highly recommend adding a CO2 scrubber - not all that costly at all and you can run only during 'closed house' parts of the year.

Will post a couple pictures later when the lights are on and the sun is down.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

11/27/20 Update.

Corals continue to grow like weeds. Well, most do. I have had to do a bit of moving things around because some corals were getting a bit out of control and blocking out the view of some things further back in the tank. The AOG's for example, are OUT OF CONTROL. I started with a frag of those that was maybe 4 polyps - easily over a hundred polyps now - and they are all still crowded on their frag plug - so moving that one was super easy. It just moved one branch back. Moved a couple of the sticks to get better light and flow - the Anacro moved to the left side upper, and I slightly repositioned the slimer. Speaking of the slimer - it maintains good color and polyp extension, but that sucker grows in fits and starts for me. It will do nothing for a month or two and then grow an inch in a month. Meanwhile my other acro is growing a quarter inch per week and my bubblegum digitata is going at about the same pace. Weird. The slimer was really close to my torch though, and that torch has really grown - both heads are in the process of splitting. So, I suppose that the slimer may have gotten stung, but no obvious outward signs of that - no dead patches, light colored rings, etc. I moved its position slightly, and also moved the torch a bit further away, so hopefully that will get the slimer growing again. Was finally able to count the polyps on the rainbow Micromussa lord. I have - started as a single polyp 7 months ago. It's now up to 14, and the polyps on the sides are perhaps a bit more colorful. It may be in too much light, but we'll see.

Just changed out my CO2 media - was just short of a month this time. My lights off pH was at 7.95; 10 minutes after the change pH was at 7.99. I've never gotten great color change out of this BRS media - for me it just changes to a very pale lavender that is very hard to see through the reactor side. I feel that the addition of the CO2 scrubber (output goes directly into the air input from my skimmer) has made a very significant difference in growth rate in my tank (together with slightly bumping up PO4 and NO3 to around 0.1 and 10ppm respectively). If you struggle with low pH, I highly recommend adding a CO2 scrubber - not all that costly at all and you can run only during 'closed house' parts of the year.

Will post a couple pictures later when the lights are on and the sun is down.

Great stuff! Sounds like everything is working really well. I just installed a CO2 scrubber a couple days ago and my pH went from 7.8 to 8.1 shortly after. I've never had a pH over 7.8. It's like a running joke. Will I check my pH today? Why? It's 7.8! I hope I get the same lifespan out of the media. I'm using the IceCap media so I'll be curious to see if the color change is any more noticeable. Thanks for the great tip!

 

[jcolliii]

Man - just got a notification that my not-so-local FS had a Kamohara blenny in today. I sooooo want one of these guys and it was an ORA. Probably gone by now. Two hours each way. Tough to justify.

Anyhow, a FTS from just a few minutes ago.

 

[jcolliii]

12-13-20 Update

Notalot to report, but some interesting things chemically, I suppose. I've just added my 3rd dose of my DIY trisodium phosphate PO4 supplement. I think I can tell when the PO4 starts to drop to very low levels (below 0.03ppm) because my 'indicator patch' of green hair algae begins to expand. It seems that in this tank, with the very clean bottom, LOTS of biomedia in both chambers, and decent fish load, PO4 gets consumed fairly quickly. My nitrates have been staying quite low as well - I do believe this is due to the big bags of Seachem Matrix in both corners. I always see trapped bubbles under my filter floss when I change it out and I am super careful to make sure I get all of the bubbles out when I add new floss 2x per week now. Tank continues to do very well. Am using around 5-6ml of All-For-Reef every day and I scrape the coralline once a week off the back and bottom and siphon the debris out. Coralline is growing great on all of the rocks. Corals continue to grow well. Digitata is doing 1/8 to 1/4" per week (but I just broke off the fastest growing branch).

I really think this set of parameters, equipment, and supplements is the sweet spot for this tank. Very little algae growth, I scrape the glass once or twice a week, and it's still on cruise control.

For folks who have not read through all 9 pages (wow... they add up fast), I maintain my PO4 around 0.1ppm (maybe even a bit higher than that) and my NO3 around 7-10ppm. I maintain my major elements (Ca, Mg, ALK) with AFR and rarely ever test anything other than ALK - as the others are always spot on using AFR. I skim fairly wet with the IM nano skimmer, I have a BIG bag of Seachem matrix in each corner (as much as will fit and still be able to get my floss holder on top), and have filter floss on top of that. I do CO2 media into the air intake of my skimmer and that keeps the pH above 8 at night and in the 8.2-8.25 range during the day. I change 4g every 3-4 weeks, and I have no substrate. I feed 3-4 times per day (fish) and I feed the corals reefroids every other to every third day. I have 5 fish and one shrimp. The only 'controllers' I run (I WILL NEVER PURCHASE ANOTHER ONE EVER UNTIL THEY STOP THE LUDICROUS PRICE GOUGING - YEAH NEPTUNE< I'M TALKING TO YOU) are a Pinpoint pH monitor and an Inkbird temp controller. I have an IM UV as well that I had used before when I had a substrate and a dino problem - but I have not see a *SINGLE TRACE* of dinos period since I removed my substrate - I think dinos may be linked in some way to substrate problems. Anyhow, this set of conditions, parameters, and equipment work for me wicked good (yep, I am a masshole).

Mentioned 5 fish, bu those of you who may have been reading along might only see mention of four - a lined blenny, pj cardinal, yellowfin wrasse, and a Starki damsel. Just recently added a clown and a yellow banded shrimp. The shrimp is fairly small as the yellow ones typically are, but so far the wrasse has shown zero interest, so that is good. So far things continue to get along well - if anything the clown acts a bit as a dither to the Starki damsel - he chases the wrasse quite a bit less now. Don't have a good photo in the tank yet, but here they were acclimating. Not a super fancy clown, but a pretty nice one. I am not a clown guy, but my wife likes them, so this one was for her.

I have also noticed that there is quite a bit of light blockage around the edges due to the screen top - it's quite a bit brighter in the corners when I have the lid off doing maintenance. I've been looking at the clearview lids for quite a while, and I finally bit the bullet and bought a Tsunami-style clearview lid. No idea how long it will take to get here - hoping that because this one may be a common size they might have them in stock and ready to go. They say on their website that the lead times can be pretty substantial. Anyhow, will post some photos when it comes in. I guess that's all for now.

 

[jcolliii]

I just found what looks like a baby torch polyp tucked between a couple of rocks. I don't have any mojanos - been very careful, and I think I'd have seen them by now. No new corals in the tank since 7-26-20, and those were all dipped and bottom scrubbed. It's a tiny polyp with very bulbous tips. Looks like the tips are either yellow or orange. Think it might be from this guy... ('Lemonhead' cristata).

That's what it looked like when it went in. The two heads are completely separated now and each is growing a baby. Will try to get a picture tomorrow, but it's in a hard to see spot.

 

[jcolliii]

Okay, so no orange filter, so looks like scope mouthwash, but take a look at the images below. The first is a tiny polyp that is growing in a crevice between rocks, and the second is what I think it could be from - an orange tipped cristata torch.

Lil guy.

Big guy.

Bear in mind, not a single piece of solid material has gone into this tank since July. Have added a couple of fish, but no water from the bag ever gets into my tank. All corals get dipped and aggressively scrubbed and scraped when adding. I have never had pest anemones, flatworms, red bugs, etc. (in *this* tank). The lil guy has orangey tips that are a bit bulbous. It does look somewhat like a majano, but I've never had them, nothing has gone into this tank since July, and I closely examine this tank for at least 20 minutes every night.

I've been looking for info on what baby torches look like - and I can't find a thing. Anyone ever see a baby torch grow from a larva?

 

[jcolliii]

Did find this on reefbuilders...

 

[ScubaEthan]

Wow! That one large piece of rock you put together is amazing. A work of art!

 

[TheWB]

Okay, so no orange filter, so looks like scope mouthwash, but take a look at the images below. The first is a tiny polyp that is growing in a crevice between rocks, and the second is what I think it could be from - an orange tipped cristata torch.

Lil guy.

Big guy.

Bear in mind, not a single piece of solid material has gone into this tank since July. Have added a couple of fish, but no water from the bag ever gets into my tank. All corals get dipped and aggressively scrubbed and scraped when adding. I have never had pest anemones, flatworms, red bugs, etc. (in *this* tank). The lil guy has orangey tips that are a bit bulbous. It does look somewhat like a majano, but I've never had them, nothing has gone into this tank since July, and I closely examine this tank for at least 20 minutes every night.

I've been looking for info on what baby torches look like - and I can't find a thing. Anyone ever see a baby torch grow from a larva?

You’re little guy does look like the 1 month stage shown in the picture on the next post there doesn’t it?

 

[jcolliii]

Wow! That one large piece of rock you put together is amazing. A work of art!

Thanks, man - that's what I was going for! Makes coral placement tough sometimes, but I think it's growing in well!

You’re little guy does look like the 1 month stage shown in the picture on the next post there doesn’t it?

It does - but the tips look different - seems to be a visible nematocyst in the center of each tentacle - the 1 month pic from RB doesn't show that... but different species I suppose...

 

[TheWB]

Thanks, man - that's what I was going for! Makes coral placement tough sometimes, but I think it's growing in well!


It does - but the tips look different - seems to be a visible nematocyst in the center of each tentacle - the 1 month pic from RB doesn't show that... but different species I suppose...

Well it’s something anyway, can’t wait to see what.