Perseverance Reef

[Fishy888]

So I topped off the tank last night, not realizing just how low I got. I added 8 gallons of make up water (and I have plans to add an ATO since acros especially won’t tolerate making up 8 gallon deficits in a 2 hour period).

Kathy and I got busy with housework this afternoon and I made breakfast for dinner (bacon and eggs). Other than to feed the fish I didn’t look closely at my corals or anything until this evening. I also didn’t get the rock into the DT yet but after I get a few other chores done tomorrow I’ll get it in.

When I did look closer I got a surprise, and this time a good one.

I couldn’t get a good picture of the green and red encrusting monti but polyps are out on it.

The purple digi is making more headway although algae is forming on the skeleton where live tissue meets the skeleton. It’s not directly on the live tissue. I’ve been scared to try to clean it for fear that I’d do it in. I’ll have to do it tomorrow since I don’t want want the algae on the live tissue.

This image was of the upper branch from Tuesday evening.

Here it is tonight.

It’s starting to wrap itself around the top towards the back.

Here’s the bottom branch.

On the main trunk it also appears that some gains are being made. I’ll have to look at older images to see.

Now I know that none of my SPS is out of the woods yet but this is highly encouraging. All the more reason to make stability my focus.

 

[Fishy888]

It appears that my Hawaiian feather duster might died. His tube looks like someone pinched the end of it. I have been looking for it for several days but no luck. The rock it was on is getting moved tomorrow. I’m hoping he just built a new tube and I just don’t see it but it’s been several days now.

With the bad news out of the way my nems are doing good despite the scare one of them gave me today. It completely disappeared into a crevice it usually just keeps its foot in. I know they can do that but this one’s never done that before.

I think Dory has either taken a liking to chaeto or she’s figured out that pods are food (from my research they’re mainly zooplanktivores but they definitely eat some algae too). This particular chaeto ball had thin chaeto and even caulerpa mixed in at one time but I don’t think it’s been alive for a year give or take.

At any rate she’s ripped the ball apart. I had planned on taking half of it out anyway. I’m going to salvage about half of the healthy chaeto and make a couple of smaller balls. I have some plastic netting if needed to hold the shape of the new balls. I’m going to loosely tie the strands together in loose knots so they twist and grow together like normal chaeto balls. I could also try to salvage all of it and make enough smaller chaeto balls to give away to anyone who needs them. I’m probably only going to save half since I need some nitrate in the system.

As for the corals, they’re plugging along. The graying is limited on the reverse Superman and the green digi, and there’s been no spread either. Even though the colors faded a bit on the reverse Superman monti it’s still got the red. It hasn’t gotten any worse.

The green digi has some gray at the tips on the tissue itself but all the polyps are green and they’ve been out.

The red and green encrusting monti is by far the most effected by the gray color but since turning mostly gray it hasn’t gotten any worse and it still has red polyps.

My purple digi’s getting some deeper brown in its new tissue and more new tissue is forming on the bottom section of trunk between the two branches. I couldn’t get a good image of it but the new polyps are also a darker brown and look bigger.

All the softies and my LPS are doing great too.

 

[Fishy888]

I accidentally “fragged” my purple digi today. I went clean it and hit it against the lip of the DT. I’m going to glue it onto the same rock the original piece is on. That’s tomorrow’s project.

I was able to get the pieces of chaeto and the debris attached to it. I also got the green digi cleaned off. I still have to clean off the reverse Superman and the red and green encrusting monti.

I suspected that Dory was eating the algae off of the rock my Kenya tree’s on but I caught her in the act. She’s come a long way since she was rescued by my friend who had her for a month. She was maybe 3 inches long including her tail when my friend rescued her. She grew another inch longer but now she’s filling out too. She’s easily put on twice the mass she had when she was rescued. Now she’s not so emaciated.

We got a loveseat and recliner this afternoon. Here’s the new view from my new seat.

 

[tbrown]

I've got a ROAB (Reefer on a Budget) Digi that has two fat branches and a dead skeleton base. I'm considering "fragging" one of the branches and having 2. I wonder which Digi yours is...

Purple with what color polyps?

 

[Fishy888]

I've got a ROAB (Reefer on a Budget) Digi that has two fat branches and a dead skeleton base. I'm considering "fragging" one of the branches and having 2. I wonder which Digi yours is...

Purple with what color polyps?

Purple… that is until some dummy put it in light too intense for it. It’s now brown with brown polyps. Except for where it’s white. Frag number two has the most white but that’s because it was originally the top half of frag number one, the original frag.

I harvested half of the chaeto ball tonight, at least what was left of it after Dory figured out that pods and algae are food. There’s a fairly loose but healthy softball sized frag left. I almost tossed it all but there were a ton of amphipods in it and I want them to breed. Especially with Dory being as voracious as she is now, I have to keep enough to sustain her. I also need enough to get my mandarins but since Dory’s health and mental well being matters much more to me than fish I don’t even have, I’ll likely do without the mandarins.

I also need more bristle worms among other creatures, but then again my micro brittle stars are doing really well. That’ll get addressed though. I can’t wait to see my asterinas again. I saw one newly fissioned clone on the glass so I think they’re doing ok.

 

[tbrown]

Browning out is usually a sign of too low of a PAR rather than too high.

 

[Fishy888]

Browning out is usually a sign of too low of a PAR rather than too high.

Yes but in this case all the areas that were directly in the light bleached. Only what was shaded survived. It’s coming back, especially frag number one. Once the last remaining new polyps go from white to brown I’ll get it into higher light.

My green digi still has its color. The reverse Superman needs more light. Tomorrow or the next day that’ll get moved into more direct light. After the bleaching I put all my montipora into semi shade out of the direct rays.

Plus picking up the chaeto ball released a lot of the crud it was holding when I took it out of the water. Because of that and pretty much harvesting half of it, I’m pretty sure my nitrates have spiked a bit. I’m going to find out soon. Come to think of it I need to test ALK again soon.

Remember what I said about not having bristle worms? I finally got to see two of them right after feeding the denizens of the deep just a few minutes ago. I know it’s crazy but as I’ve said before the micro life matters to me as much as the macro life. In fact I want to start taking more microscopic pictures of creatures in my reef but that’s another story.

I hope to upgrade my microscope so I’ll be looking for a good deal but I still have dry goods to buy so that’s something that’s going to have to wait until spring.

 

[Fishy888]

The long awaited final aquascaping began last night. I still have more to do but I’m about 3/4 of the way done.

The rocks touching the front glass will get put into place tomorrow. The xenia and mushroom rock will go in the center once I clear a space for it.

The main structure on the right hand side is done though thankfully. The left side will remain as it is, especially since that’s Dory’s cave.

Once this is done I get to get my parameters stabilized and my fish, corals, and other invertebrates can rest easier.

 

[Fishy888]

Other than the fact that I broke two branches off my green digi (and polyps are very much open on it), things look pretty good this morning with the new scape. A bit later I’m going to finish up then I’ll sit back and enjoy the new scape.

As I expected Dory isn’t amused with me today. All the more reason to get this done asap. In a couple of days she’ll be back to her normal self though. She ate for me but she’s in skittish mode today and understandably so.

 

[Fishy888]

Almost exactly what I’m going for. I need some two part or even J. B. Waterweld to do what remains to be done to the scape. The central arch in particular needs some although it’s surprisingly secure even without it. I just want the arch to rise slightly on the left hand side. One of the two nems is also pretty close to the left hand side of the xenia and mushroom rock that forms part of the arch.

On the right hand bommie you can see I have the digis and the reverse Superman high up. I also have the lights towards the back instead of in the center. Even though they’re in more light than they were they’re not getting blasted by any means at this point. Tomorrow I’ll be getting more of the glass cleaned. Stability is coming. It’ll take time but it’ll be nice to not have my hands in the tank constantly. I’ll actually be able to enjoy it, knowing that stability is one step closer each day.

Oh and Dory didn’t stay skittish long today. She was out this afternoon, acting normal like the rest of the fish.

In October I’m going to get the rest of the bulkheads and some plumbing to use temporarily to allow the tank to be filled the rest of the way. They’re going to be doing an inspection at our apartments most likely in October. I don’t want it to look so unfinished. Hopefully in November I can get the overflow itself. At that point I’ll drop the water level back to where it is now and put the real plumbing in.

 

[Fishy888]

So far there haven’t been any issues with any digis bleaching in the higher light levels. Actually none of my montis are bleaching in the higher light levels. Somewhere along the line during the aquascape though I managed to scrape my reverse Superman monti but thankfully it’s not actually bleaching anywhere else.

I can tell the montis are struggling though. Things abruptly changed during the aquascaping such as flow pattern, the increase in nutes from the algae scraping (and I have plenty more to go but I want to move slowly on that), and the light levels changed.

Of course there will be changes; there’ll have to be. After all I still have a sump to plumb, an ATO to build, and there’ll be new additions over time. The aquascaping however should be the last time stability gets thrown off to such an extent so rapidly, barring an emergency such as another catastrophic failure (although the seams on the 210 are still good, especially the structural seams which look amazing) or a tornado or a fire.

Hopefully nothing like those incidents will happen, including the catastrophic failure that happened to the cube. This tank is more than twice the weight of the cube, it’s not on a party wall and it’s like 18 inches from the wall it’s on so that should dampen any vibrations. As for tornadoes and fires, I doubt we’ll have to worry about either but it’s certainly possible that an emergency can pop up.

Anyway I took some pictures of the montis tonight. The green digi is wide open. As for the others, they are either semi open or closed altogether. I’m never letting myself get in this predicament again. I’ve learned my lesson!

This is my not so purple at the moment digi.

The next image is of the reverse Superman.

The top of it is about an inch below the surface so I couldn’t get a good picture of it.

The next image is of the green and red monti which is now brown and red.

And finally we have the green digi. It likes its new digs methinks.

If they all make it long enough for things to stabilize hopefully they’ll color back up. They should from what I’ve been reading.

 

[Fishy888]

My purple digi is open today as is the reverse Superman and the green digi. I’m going to leave the lights the way they are then after a week I’ll move them an inch closer to center. Rinse and repeat, while making sure there are no signs of bleaching and/or polyps closing and just staying closed.

If I need to take longer though please tell me.

I’m glad to see signs of improvement but I know they have a long road ahead of them. My money will be going into the dry goods I need to get my sump and closed loop both up and running. I won’t be buying any corals again anytime soon. I might buy some zoanthids after new year’s but no more SPS until things stabilize.

 

[Fishy888]

Tonight I cleaned a little more of the back glass. The algae/cyano mat is thicker than I thought so I’m cleaning small sections of it at a time so as not to destabilize things any more than I have to.

In the process I found some coralline and some spots that might’ve been coralline getting ready to form before all the chemical craziness began.

I don’t remember seeing the spots on the side glass any time within the last couple of days honestly but hopefully it’s developing coralline. It may well be dying coralline but I’ll find out soon enough.

There’s a living patch I discovered while cleaning the back glass. I had a hard time trying to get a good picture though so tomorrow I’ll try again.

 

[Fishy888]

I made some progress with project MPRGA. Good ol’ project Make Perseverance Reef Great Again.

I cleaned another small section of the back glass. I also pulled some algae from a couple of rocks and I scrubbed one already with a regular toothbrush. I’m taking it slow but steady.

I’m considering waiting on the temporary plumbing idea until I do a total cost analysis of what my overflow box and plumbing would cost. If it’s not significantly higher in cost I’ll just bite the bullet and get it done now. My system needs a skimmer desperately but until I get my sump up and running it’ll be useless.

Here’s a picture of Dory, because Dory. The clownfish are great dither fish as is my yellow tailed blue damsel. I don’t think she’d be doing so well if not for her three besties. I’m not sure if she’d even have the appetite she has without them.

 

[Projects with Sam]

I made some progress with project MPRGA. Good ol’ project Make Perseverance Reef Great Again.

I cleaned another small section of the back glass. I also pulled some algae from a couple of rocks and I scrubbed one already with a regular toothbrush. I’m taking it slow but steady.

I’m considering waiting on the temporary plumbing idea until I do a total cost analysis of what my overflow box and plumbing would cost. If it’s not significantly higher in cost I’ll just bite the bullet and get it done now. My system needs a skimmer desperately but until I get my sump up and running it’ll be useless.

Here’s a picture of Dory, because Dory. The clownfish are great dither fish as is my yellow tailed blue damsel. I don’t think she’d be doing so well if not for her three besties. I’m not sure if she’d even have the appetite she has without them.

you could make a temporary overflow out of PVC ceiling tile like I did for my frag and nem tank for dirt cheap just to get things going.
Its easy to hand-cut with a utility knife and a thick metal ruler as knife guide.

 

[Fishy888]

you could make a temporary overflow out of PVC ceiling tile like I did for my frag and nem tank for dirt cheap just to get things going.
Its easy to hand-cut with a utility knife and a thick metal ruler as knife guide.

That’s a good idea. Thank you. I figured out that to get the pipe and fittings including strainers will cost like $90. I’m definitely going that route. It might as well be up and running properly instead of spending $60 and having to redo it later.

I might add a small manifold to the mix but that’s something I don’t need yet. I doubt I’ll need it for at least a year or two though, if even then. It just depends how quickly my system stabilizes and how quickly after that I get enough growth that I’d need reactors to supplement with.

Now getting a skimmer up and running running is a huge priority. Since I’ll be able to get what I need to get my sump up and running in about a week I’ll be able to add a skimmer shortly thereafter.

 

[Fishy888]

Today I did…. absolutely nothing to the tank except to feed the fish. I have the back glass mostly cleared off but I’ve been light headed (I really need to put the Dr. Pepper down every once in a while) and have a head cold at the same time. My temp is a little high but not fever territory. Still have 1.5 degrees to go for a true fever. Well I have reefing fever, does that count?

In all seriousness I can tell my nems are looking better than they had been for a couple of weeks now. Of course I’ve kicked up a lot of crud in the DT lately with pulling lyngbya and other cyano types of the rocks and scraping it off the back glass but I’ve been fishing it out and honestly I can see some real progress being made.

It looks like I’m getting an ASM G3 skimmer around the end of October. It’s going to be a game changer. That and the sump together will help tons with stability. Now I just hope there’ll be a good sale on salt around Thanksgiving or Christmas.

 

[Projects with Sam]

 

[tbrown]

 

[Fishy888]

I got a little more glass and rock cleaning done so far today. My system isn’t exactly TOTM material but there’s definite progress.

Sadly I’m not so certain that my reverse Superman monti is going to make it. It’s definitely bleaching up top despite my moving it back down several days ago when I noticed it fading somewhat quickly. My digis are hanging in there. My green monti actually looks good although it’s brown. I made some stupid rookie mistakes with my newest corals but lesson learned.

Once things are stable and dialed in I’ll try SPS again. Even though I started this system a couple of months ago; I figured the rocks were aged enough in the old system to mature my new system. Obviously that didn’t quite work the way I was hoping it would.

The good news is that I’ll have some new to me equipment to aid in the quest to find stability. That and another 6 months or so should get me where I need to be.