Turtle's Deep Blue Sea

[SashimiTurtle]

I have a hard time focusing on two reefs. One reef, one FOWLR.

 

[Scurvy]

Yeah man more than 2 and it just gets harder. My 18g will be gone in near the future.

I let my Reefer go on autopilot as everything looked great until i wake up and find two acros RTN’d overnight. Had i simply kept a closer eye on salinity and checked it once in 4 months that doesnt happen. Why? cuz it looked fine, everything seemed happy and i was focused elsewhere.

 

[najer]

I struggle to focus full stop, love my time off work!

 

[SashimiTurtle]

On the way home, but not before actually walking on the beach.

Private pier up from the house a little bit. The wind was blowing out to sea, so it was incredibly flat out there.

Argyle loves the beach!

Jelly that washed up in the waves.

Piles of shells were everywhere from the dredging. Crushed coral substrate anyone? Picked up a few whole shells, and found a few pieces of sponge and even some neat coral skeleton.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Used to be some good flounder fishing back before it filled in with silt. I gotta get back down here with the skiff and test the creeks out since they dredged.

 

[Scurvy]

Gorgeous! Love that part of the eastern seaboard. Delaware south to Savanah is the sweet spot for me

Self invite coming When do we all finally get to meet in person at Turtles beach bonanza?!?

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Hahaha... not this year. Beach house is still under renovation.

Savannah is my favorite city. I love the Historic district. Its smaller than Charleston... Charleston has that huge harbor and all... but the historic city is much better planned and there are bars everywhere and you can walk around with a "clear 16oz container" of alcohol. All the bars have them, you just walk in and ask for a beer or drink to go.

The area Dad and I fish is called Dunn Sound. Lots of that mud, sea grass, and tidal creeks and flats. The intracoastal waterway runs thru part of it so traffic can get busy but most places you don't see another boat for hours. Gotta have a shallow draft and know the creeks to get back in the good spots.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Tank update after the weekend away...

Bad news first I guess. We need a screen top. I found my Cf. pylei with potato chip disease. No idea when it happened. My tank sitter only had very detailed instructions on how to feed by text with pictures. All that went great. Not blaming her at all and I won't even mention it to her. It's all my fault for not having a screen sooner.

The corals are looking ok, but stressed. The tank needs a water change. Digging thru the sand had to have released more of the metals... or something. Its still early, lights have only been on 10 minutes when these pictures were taken.

As a whole tho, the tank is still clear, the fish that didnt jump look great, including the coral beauty which has all of her tail still!

It seems she has found the algae clip, that's good.

 

[Scurvy]

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Maui poked out to say hello very briefly...

 

[SashimiTurtle]

@Brew12, think this is enough sand?

 

[Scurvy]

May be too soon for you but I know this was high on your list before you hit your full stock point. Very happy with the fish i got from them.

https://www.piecesoftheocean.com/collections/poto-fish/products/fish-pintail-fairy-wrasse-supermale

 

[Brew12]

@Brew12, think this is enough sand?

View attachment 734243

1/4 of that would be more than enough. I doubt they will need more than a few grains.

I have a metallurgist that works in my office building with me, but he hasn't been in today. I'll see if I can get confirmation that we can actually test it here in the next hour or two to see if it is worth sending.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Nice @Scurvy, I think isosceles and brunneus are in the same family? Could possibly be some aggression issues. Bonnie and Clyde are about to be moved to the 40b because of how they are treating the coral beauty. They won't let her leave the rocks.

I may have my 14g sold. My friend in H-ville wants an AIO nano... they may be getting an anemone lagoon upgrade. If I sell that tank, that is.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

1/4 of that would be more than enough. I doubt they will need more than a few grains.

I have a metallurgist that works in my office building with me, but he hasn't been in today. I'll see if I can get confirmation that we can actually test it here in the next hour or two to see if it is worth sending.

Cool, I just filled a 10ml beaker with sand and dried it in the sun in an old Rubbermade bowl. Let me know and I'll send it over...

I honestly think I'm going to switch to the Hawaiian black sand tho. After stirring that sand up my corals got worse.

Its not as fine grain as I like, but everyone who tries to tell me black sand isn't the problem, has the Hawaiian. They will argue with me until their gills are blue and as soon as I show them the picture of the bag they're like 'oh, I don't have that sand.'

 

[najer]

Sorry about the wrasse, put getting a mesh cover at the top of the shopping list.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Sorry about the wrasse, put getting a mesh cover at the top of the shopping list.

We are going to order one today. Just need to figure out which one... I think the basic BRS 24" frame with 1/8" screen with extra corners to go around the light mounts will be sufficient.

 

[najer]

Cool, I just filled a 10ml beaker with sand and dried it in the sun in an old Rubbermade bowl. Let me know and I'll send it over...

I honestly think I'm going to switch to the Hawaiian black sand tho. After stirring that sand up my corals got worse.

Its not as fine grain as I like, but everyone who tries to tell me black sand isn't the problem, has the Hawaiian. They will argue with me until their gills are blue and as soon as I show them the picture of the bag they're like 'oh, I don't have that sand.'

Could have set off a mini cycle messing with the sand, a water change will help.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Huh, I forgot about this guy. Evidently he's still alive in the tank somewhere... or that is his remains and not a molt. Its my pom pom crab that lost his pom poms. Looks like a molt to me.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Ok, finally got my shells unpacked and cleaned up. Here's what we picked up... I could have picked up thousands of the olive shells. They are always the most abundant on the beach. I could only find one whole conch/welk shell in the piles of shells. There were several pieces of sponge, which is about the only thing that makes up the "reefs" here. The water is too cold up this far for actual reefs... its really silty too. You're lucky to see your feet in knee deep water. Waist deep and forget seeing the bottom.

I did find something particularly peculiar tho. Two coral skeletons. Likely washed up from some distant reef. Not sure what they are from.