My Grateful Journeys Tank

Merthynia · Mar 15, 2024

ESABOE said:
Hi Jesse! Glad we found each other. Thank you on liking my lil reef; I’m nowhere near your level on selection and placement of corals, but it’s like a never-finished piece of canvas.

Yes, clean the glass and take those pictures!

You are giving me WAAAAYYY too much credit. My coral placement is all over the place and I’ve got a couple beautiful grown out frag racks.

It helps that my tanks are very small, so things look pretty filled in quickly at least.

ESABOE · Mar 15, 2024

Merthynia said:
You are giving me WAAAAYYY too much credit. My coral placement is all over the place and I’ve got a couple beautiful grown out frag racks. It helps that my tanks are very small, so things look pretty filled in quickly at least.

I think the frag rack is cool

ESABOE · Mar 15, 2024

metrokat said:
Yay! I found you! Or actually you found me first on IG. Thank YOU for your kind words, I can't believe nobody pinged me about your post. Come on R2R!! @revhtree

You said it exactly right - this is a journey. It's utterly rewarding to see every little asternia starfish crawl out of nowhere, the challenges, the successes, the joy, oh the joy! I'm excited for all the firsts you have no doubt discovered and those that are still to come.

-Kat

Thank you Kat.

tbrown · Mar 16, 2024

ESABOE · Mar 18, 2024

Fish Update:

All fish seem to have settled into a pecking order and how they like to spend the day.

OG to the tank, the clowns (Loki & Sylvie): live in their own lovey paradise together, exploring tank when in the mood and unfazed by all the new neighbors. They have almost doubled in size and their markings continue to mature as they become more Orca-like and unique. Now, just to get them to host any one of the anemones….

My Valentines’ Day additions, the Diamond Goby and the Melanurus Wrasse:

Diamond Goby (Lawrence); This guy! Came in like a boss and continues to secretly be the boss without the younglings even knowing it! He could care less that the Tang chases him away from “perceived” food treasures; or that the Mel steals his meaty morsal mid-flight back to his lair. He eats more then everyone- swimming 2/3 up water column during feeding frenzy, hunting the rock scape grabbing tidbits and sifting sand 24/7. The sand…. He has created a huge lair that is constantly being updated and there is a fine dusting on top of everything throughout DT. Small price to pay for his efficient sandbed cleaning service! He has also filled-out even more into a chonky citizen and his blue diamonds continue to increase in intensity.

Mel Wrasse (The Puppy): Personality-wise, the toddler of the group. Was first attached to his LFS tank mate, Lawrence; but now is best buddies with Frankie, the new Tang. He was clueless about hunting/pecking rockscape for food until he started mirroring whatever Frankie did. They swim together and the puppy will try and cuddle (total lovebug). They play wrestle maybe once a day, but actually eat together off sand bed. The Puppy is like clockwork on waking/sleeping time - as soon as lights come on, he pops out of bed and usually can’t wait till lights out and jumps into bed 5-10 minutes before. He has also grown quite a bit and is def in the chonky group. His juvenile spots have gone already and his tail markings and overall body colors continue to mature beautifully.

Latest Addition 3/7/24 - Orange-Shoulder Tang (Frankie): This will be the only Tang and also the largest fish I will have in the 75gal. My rockscape, while quite open, with lots of swimthroughs, takes up a lot of space and I want to ensure Frankie has a nice long swim pattern for exercise.
Frankie is a shy boi, and many things scare him still; however, it’s just 14 days since he arrived so not unexpected. He rushes back and forth from under the big rock cavern when it’s feeding time and gets very angry at the overflow bubbles when feed-mode and/or maintenance mode turn off. He likes to chase the goby away from ‘food areas” yet usually doesn’t actually grab it. He is posturing and it’s hilarious cause the goby could care less and gets the big chunk of food anyway. Frankie eats everything offered and is becoming quite efficient pecking at rock and glass. He has even filled-out a bit.
I got the IM Gourmet Grazer so he would learn to eat Nori and allow him to graze and not feel so protective over food. Problem is, the holder is a bright blue and big!! Looks like a big scary blue fish. While everyone smelled the nori when I placed it in tank, nobody was bold enough to get close. I’ll keep training.

I’m going to be very patient with Frankie and not disturb DT as much as possible over the next few weeks. I even pushed the 30% monthly water change forward a week and delayed setting up AI Blades a week in order to get him more comfortable.

My philosophy all along is to go very slow on fish additions. My priority is that they start to buildup their immunities and begin thriving as quickly as possible.

Oh and I do plan on getting some great photos in the next week of all the fish. Gonna ask Dylan to take the pics, since I’m still figuring out iPhone settings. I’m really really excited to get these pics so I can truly track their progress.

Merthynia · Mar 19, 2024

Your fish sound like quite the entertaining bunch to watch! I love those big gobies, but my favorite coral are scolymia. They just don’t match very well since they really don’t like being buried in a layer of sand!! Oh well.

ESABOE · Mar 19, 2024

Merthynia said:
Your fish sound like quite the entertaining bunch to watch! I love those big gobies, but my favorite coral are scolymia. They just don’t match very well since they really don’t like being buried in a layer of sand!! Oh well.

Thanks Jesse! They are quite the little group of characters and I’m glad to have them as part of MY crazy family,

tbrown · Mar 19, 2024

Merthynia said:
Your fish sound like quite the entertaining bunch to watch! I love those big gobies, but my favorite coral are scolymia. They just don’t match very well since they really don’t like being buried in a layer of sand!! Oh well.

That's ok, she wants Wrasses too - specifically Halichoeres Wrasses which will also bury them.

Merthynia · Mar 19, 2024

tbrown said:
That's ok, she wants Wrasses too - specifically Halichoeres Wrasses which will also bury them.

It is SO true!! Poor little coral just can’t handle sand blankets

ESABOE · Mar 25, 2024

Tank Update:

Calmwaters said:
What is the coral in the 7th picture called?

missed this post… That is a Shrek Goniopora from @TopShelfAquatics - it’s been doing great and the color is literally neon all day long!

ESABOE · Mar 25, 2024

Projects with Sam said:
morning!

My own build thread notifications dropped-off, like really!?

Calmwaters · Mar 25, 2024

ESABOE said:
Tank Update:
missed this post… That is a Shrek Goniopora from @TopShelfAquatics - it’s been doing great and the color is literally neon all day long!

I love it!

ESABOE · Mar 25, 2024

Tank Update:

Tank parameters continue to improve and are at a stable lvl. I think I got this feeding schedule/quantity down finally.

I’ll be interested to see in the next week how adding the pre-seed bioballs last week from @TopShelfAquatics and their Reef Genetics Live (Tisbe & Apocyclops) Mixed Copepods for the first time (had been using a different brand prior); helps in overall biological filtration and diversity.

Also, AquaBiomics Live Sand was added two weeks ago. Once I do the second AquaBiomics tank tests (waiting on 1st report results first); we will see if any of these things have helped enough to show up on the report.

Tank has recovered from the FluxRX treatment that was done a few weeks ago and looks pristine (see pic). I have 2-3 GHA clumps on coral frags that do not get enough flow (see pic), in fact, an entire row doesn’t get good enough flow but the row above and below do, so I will just move those few frags vs. playing with gyres again.

I also got one quarter-sized blob of cyano as an after-effect of Flux treatment (see pic under Euphilia); but that has been there for 2-weeks and is actually getting smaller now that I replenished CUC and biome overall. Again, trying to manage small issues naturally vs hammer solution of chemicals every time.

Have had a big uptick in coralline growth all over rockscape - Finally! Excited to see what it’ll look like in 30 more days.

Overall, very pleased with progress, and while being patient isn’t easy, continuing to go slow, has always been the correct choice in this build. I.E., Not adding more corals (and I do have a list rdy to go); or adding more fish too soon or impulse buy of fish not even on list but I thought was sooo cute but didn’t belong in the neighborhood (I’m talking to u baby orchid dottyback).

kevgib67 · Mar 25, 2024

Wow Jen, looks great! Really coming along nicely. For some reason gha has an affinity for my zoa plugs. I pop them off and place them in 2/1 water/ 3% hydrogen peroxide for about 8 minutes and within a couple days the plugs are sparkling clean. Zoas do get ticked off for a day or two and then return to their previous glory.

ESABOE · Mar 25, 2024

kevgib67 said:
Wow Jen, looks great! Really coming along nicely. For some reason gha has an affinity for my zoa plugs. I pop them off and place them in 2/1 water/ 3% hydrogen peroxide for about 8 minutes and within a couple days the plugs are sparkling clean. Zoas do get ticked off for a day or two and then return to their previous glory.

Thanks Kev! Yes, I do the same with peroxide- works like a charm. I’m a bit behind as I couldn’t climb ladder for last 7 days; hoping to get to it this afternoon.

ESABOE · Mar 31, 2024

Fish Update:

My new fish (Rosy Scale Wrasse)Arrived 3 days ago and has been in acclimation box. Eating the TDO-soaked pellets (Vitachem, ROE, Oyster Feast); and also frozen PE Mysis. He is very small but he is in full transition color-wise, in fact colors are off the charts. Tried to get photos in different lighting, but can’t truly capture his depth of color.

I’ve never seen a saltwater fish like this in-person!

ESABOE · Mar 31, 2024

New Fish Update:

Let the Rosy Scale Wrasse out of acclimation box an into DT this morning. Very calm, and first fish that wasn’t afraid of me walking by tank. The Mel Wrasse “puppy” got aggressive for the first time having him. I fed extra times so he would relax a bit. But he was being a poop. What really helped was inbetween feedings I stuck a couple @Nutramar Foods shots on the glass and both wrasses had to concentrate and peck away at them. It worked well so I will continue throughout the week. That stuff is so versatile, it’s becoming a key part of my feeding regimen!

Made a little cave with some of my sump TBS rubble rock and put under left-side scape. That way Rosy has a true place to hide if needed, and also sleep in. A work in progress.

Need to get the next wrasse in soon to balance out the hierarchy and will get one closer to Mel’ Wrasse size; Rosy Scale is just too little and Mel is ultra focused on him.

kevgib67 · Apr 1, 2024

ESABOE said:
Fish Update:

My new fish (Rosy Scale Wrasse)Arrived 3 days ago and has been in acclimation box. Eating the TDO-soaked pellets (Vitachem, ROE, Oyster Feast); and also frozen PE Mysis. He is very small but he is in full transition color-wise, in fact colors are off the charts. Tried to get photos in different lighting, but can’t truly capture his depth of color.

I’ve never seen a saltwater fish like this in-person!

An absolute stunner Jen! Beautiful fish, I might have to take a quick drive to CA on Thursday to see it in person!