Perseverance Reef

[Fishy888]

There’s not much happening on the reefing side of things but we got another dog tonight. Jake is on the left and the new dog was named Scrumpy. Kathy’s most likely not keeping that name but she hasn’t decided on a name just yet. There’ll be more pictures of our dogs on here soon.

 

[Mschmidt]

That means dog spam time?

 

[Jedi1199]

Not sure... @Jedi1199 found a great deal on a sump and it never showed up. Not sure what website it was.

Ahhhh.. i kind of recalled that...

He never named the website.

You're right, looks like I didn't. I don't recall what the site was now... it wasn't the one you were looking at though.

 

[Fishy888]

As I’m cracking down on cyano I’ve noticed it growing in the display, particularly on the old rock but on the new too. It’s not growing as fast as it used to though. On the bulk of the rock a green algae is growing. While I hope green cyano isn’t what’s growing; I plan to get more CUC members so that whatever algae/bacteria are growing they can keep it knocked down.

I noticed some asterinas grazing on the new rock. Hermits have also been grazing there since I added the new rock. The asterinas on the other hand only started tonight. I haven’t seen any bristle worms in or on the new rock yet. Most likely they’ll start colonizing it within the next few weeks if not sooner.

 

[Fishy888]

The LaCl I’ve been dosing is doing it’s job. Now I only have to clean the glass once a day. The rocks are getting covered, albeit slowly, with green cyano. As slowly as it’s growing I don’t think it’s taking up enough phosphate to inhibit the growth on the glass.

I started the process of getting the small rubble pieces, shells, and shell fragments out of the sand which I’m throwing away once I’m done. I’ll have to cure what I’m pulling out of the sand of course but once that’s done I’ll sprinkle it over the sand. I’ll avoid sprinkling it where the wrasse sleeps however.

 

[Fishy888]

My hermits are doing a great job cleaning the rocks. I might actually buy a few more hermit crabs. I’m thinking about adding another Halloween hermit. I’m afraid that even with all the rock in the DT they’ll fight over shells and one of the two will die in the process. I still want a tuxedo urchin or two. I also want coralline really badly and don’t want it all eaten. We’ll see how that plays out.

The nem wasn’t too happy yesterday. I noticed it was hiding in its crevice in the rock. It does that briefly from time to time so I thought nothing of it. Later in the evening, about half an hour before the lights went off I noticed that the nem was still hiding. The water level in the sump was pretty low. I topped it off and I could already see the anemone starting to come out of its hidey hole. Hopefully today it’ll come out like normal.

Depending on how finances look in a couple of weeks I’m going to get a new RO membrane and/or a 20000k mh lamp. The old RO membrane is shot. It’s helped me out though so no complaints here.

There are a few things we need for the dogs, particularly Kathy’s dog. Huxley, the new dog, is almost a year old. We’re going to get him some more toys. He needs to get checked out by the vet and to get his rabies shot.

Jake, my dog, doesn’t play with toys per se, but he loves pig ears, rawhide treats that have food on the end, and he likes eating the meat off of pork and beef bones. He doesn’t try to chew the bones themselves as much as he likes the challenge of getting the meat off of them. We’ll likely get him a kong toy and some other treats.

I won’t be constantly posting about the dogs but from time to time I’ll post about them. I don’t mind if you want to post about your dogs too. I hope all of you had an awesome weekend.

 

[Mschmidt]

You say dogs welcome? I know it's not a wall of text, but I hope this is roughly the 1000 word exchange rate...

 

[Fishy888]

There’s not a lot of new stuff happening. One good thing that’s happening is that my phosphates are definitely going down. My hermits have been all over the green cyano since it started coming back. They could eat it down to bare rock but it would be back within six hours. Yesterday (Tuesday) morning I noticed the hermits mowed down the cyano on several rocks. As of tonight, though the cyano is trying to come back it’s still mostly white rock. Here’s the view from my seat as of tonight.

Here’s the view from the front.

There’s a lot more green cyano however as this picture shows. The fact that I haven’t had to clean the glass nearly as much as I was, combined with the fact that the rocks are staying clean longer, makes me think I’m getting close to where I need to be.

 

[Fishy888]

I finally cleaned the glass today. After two days there was less algae than when I started dosing LaCl steadily. At that point I could literally clean the glass and a few hours later it would be back. It was thicker than what I cleaned off of the glass.

I noticed this interesting creature on one of my older rocks yesterday. I snapped a picture of it tonight though. Do any of you recognize what this is? A sponge maybe?

@EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal, @Lost in the Sauce, @fishguy242, @F i s h y, @tbrown3589, @Stang67

 

[fishguy242]

looks like white sponge to me...

 

[tbrown]

+1 looks spongy.

 

[Fishy888]

looks like white sponge to me...

+1 looks spongy.

I thought so but I wanted to double check. Thank you both.

 

[Fishy888]

In two weeks I’ll be getting a brand spankin’ new RO membrane. The DI resin should last until July, at which point I can get new resin. I have two dual TDS meters so I can see what the water right out of the membrane looks like. The one I have is decidedly shot. I can still use it for now but I’ll need to replace it asap. I got a lot of use out of it however.

The sediment filter, though not as white as at a time, is still fairly white. In July I’ll likely buy a new sediment filter and carbon block along with the resin.

And now I’ll leave this here because wrasse.

 

[Fishy888]

Last night I added some sand to the display. Probably 1/8 of a cup worth. It got all over the rocks of course. I blew the sand off the rocks and a good bit of cyano. I netted out the largest bits. There’s still quite a bit on the rocks but tomorrow’s another day.

I plan to scrape the glass today and to do a water change in the sump. There’s plenty of green cyano in there but not as much as usual. I saw two asterina stars on the front glass of the sump last night. The glass is still fairly clear despite the film algae and cyano.

The xenia are pulsing away, looking good as ever. The xenia and other creatures in the sump are probably loving life. They get plenty of nutrients in there. I have one more rock that I have to break up so it’ll fit in the sump. I imagine it won’t take long for the pods, bristle worms, brittle and asterina stars, and perhaps sponges to colonize the pieces.

 

[fishguy242]

Might want to start pulling asterina's now...

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

There’s plenty of green cyano in there

I'm curious, how did you decide it's green cyano and not another algae? (I've not seen green cyano to be very common, but maybe I'm wrong)

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Might want to start pulling asterina's now...

Nah... Let 'em populate and then get a harlequin shrimp!

 

[Fishy888]

I'm curious, how did you decide it's green cyano and not another algae? (I've not seen green cyano to be very common, but maybe I'm wrong)

I never saw before until it until it got a foothold in the system. Someone here ID’ed it for me though I don’t remember who.

It grows in mats and it’s nuclear green. The nuclear green is the only difference between this cyano and the red with which we’re all familiar with.

The good news is that hair algae is starting to outcompete the cyano. I’d rather have the hair algae than the green snot. It’ll be good pod habitat and a healthier snack for my hermits than the cyano.

 

[Fishy888]

Nah... Let 'em populate and then get a harlequin shrimp!

If they ever get that out of hand I will. Kathy loves asterina stars and I do too. So far none of them have gone for my coral but they do help clean the rock. If I catch them eating coral the harlequin will happen for sure.

Do harlequins eat brittle stars?

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

If they ever get that out of hand I will. Kathy loves asterina stars and I do too. So far none of them have gone for my coral but they do help clean the rock. If I catch them eating coral the harlequin will happen for sure. Do harlequins eat brittle stars?

No