Turtle's Fairy Tale

[SashimiTurtle]

Beautiful rock! Lots of potential there.

Right? I was pleasantly surprised with them. I think I've found a go to dry rock from now on. Especially how quickly the branch cycled in my tank. Probably due to being completely man made with no bound organics or phosphates and seeded with spored bacteria.

The only two that had any sort of algae on them were the two that I put in with the fish because my rubber made tote was full. Those two collected almost two months of feeding fish with no filtration other than live rock and a filter pad in a HOB. I dont wanna know what the phosphates were in that tank. Even then, the GHA was contained to those two rocks and cleared up within a few months of keeping low nutrients and the bryposis that snuck in was an easy cure with the fluconazole.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Ok guys, had a rough morning... had a tooth hit me like an ice pick last night and had to go to the dentist to get that taken care of. Not going to let that get in the way of my fun tho... oh no, mouth numb or not we got the new rocks in.

So, here's the tank now. I stacked the large cave and the smaller cave/ring so that the cave was more open than if it was sitting by itself. Then I placed one arch on the right, reaching to the branches and one on the left going down to the sand. I pretty much made a bigger cave out of my cave. A cavey-er cave.

Yea, those are crappy pictures. I kinda mixed up the sand pretty good getting the rocks set. I'm about to get some better ones now that the tank has settled. I'm not happy with the rock on the left. The Y branch. It just looks out of place. I'll probably add it to the sump with the other couple branches I had no where to put. I thought about stacking them on top of the shapes, but I likes the look of the shapes rock on the left blending into the branch rock on the right.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Now that the T5 are off and the Kessils are halfway between blue and white...

I give you Turtle's Fairy Tail 3.0 and the October FTS. I'm going to go to quarterly FTS instead of monthly. That post is going to get really cluttered, quick. So, Our next FTS post will be at the end of December. Y'all remind me I'll forget.

So I decided the two Y branches on the left needed to go. That opened up the cave without moving it. Now you can see into all of the glorious caveness and there is plenty of room up top for mounting some sticks once we get that far.

On the right, we have our branches and most of our LPS. I think the trachy and Skully are going to switch places. It likes having room to stretch out, and will actually stay retracted if it's too close to the rocks. Surprisingly all corals are back open and happy except for the green acan. I've seen it do that before and it needs more flow. I'll have to find it a better spot.

 

[siggy]

Thats a good natural look, lots of space for corals and fish cribs

 

[SashimiTurtle]

If anyone is wondering about the porosity of this man made rock, it's been in the tank for 4 hours... and it's still releasing air.

View attachment 20181025_182052.jpg

 

[Katrina71]

I'm liking the natural look. A lot.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Post 2 and 3 updated to correctly represent stock list and equipment. The H. iridis has been missing for several weeks now. No sign of him and no possibility of a potato chip.

I'll be taking recommendations for acclimation boxes so these issues can be avoided in the future.

 

[Brew12]

Post 2 and 3 updated to correctly represent stock lost and equipment. The H. iridis has been missing for several weeks now. No sign of him and no possibility of a potato chip.

I'll be taking recommendations for acclimation boxes so these issues can be avoided in the future.

I absolutely love the new rock! It is a more dense version of what I went for. Very nicely done!

As for an acclimation box, I have one of these and I think they are fantastic.
https://octoaquatics.com/the-shu/

Very well build and magnets instead of suction cups. Expensive, but worth it imo.


Oh, and on a less important note, hope your tooth is feeling better!

 

[Scurvy]

Bummer about the Iridis and your tooth. Scape looks good. I cam attest to Octo aquatics gear being quality. Didnt get the acclimation box there but did get a heater holder and biocube lid prop and like them both. I got my acclimation box from marine depot. Medium size. Decent but Octo is probably built better.

 

[Katrina71]

+1 Octo. Never been disappointed.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Looks like Octo it is. I think "The O'Reily" will be a good size.

 

[mta_morrow]

Looks like Octo it is. I think "The O'Reily" will be a good size.

Awesome!

I have an Octo heater holder and adjustable skimmer stand.

Worth every cent! Super quality.

 

[NY_Caveman]

"cavey-er cave" and "glorious caveness?" You are speaking my language! Honestly, I would not have thought your aquascape could look better, and yet it totally does!

 

[najer]

Loving the new scape, hope your tooth is better.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

The tooth issue is resolved. Just some soreness that is being managed quite effectively with otc ibuprofen. No need for the Rx lortab I didn't fill.

As for the scape, I'm totally in love... I think this is the one guys. Lol.

Oh, that Stylo that was having some issues a few weeks back before we removed those old rocks. Two water changes later, and two rescapes, and this was it a few minutes after removing it from the tupperware bowl and gluing it to it's new home.

It doesn't have STN, it has shadows... or, whatever was bothering it the parts that were shadowed weren't strong enough to survive. It's doing well now and has nice color and PE. I'm going to give the 3 SPS pieces a little while to get comfortable and see what they do. If everything looks ok, I'll add a few more in a month or two.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Random fish attacking TLF Sea Veggies on the clip, pics.

 

[mta_morrow]

Random fish attacking TLF Sea Veggies on the clip, pics.

I really like your new tang addition. How is he behaving with the others?

 

[SashimiTurtle]

He's not completely new. I've had him since this spring in the 35g cube, right before I shut it down. I believe he was just 1 7/8" long when I got him, now he's maybe 2" or just over. He is very timid and leaves everyone alone, altho he does take his position at the veggie clip.

(Photo from Beep Dlue)

(No, I will not say that name again. It is cursed.)

 

[Katrina71]

He's cute!

 

[SashimiTurtle]

So, I have a good way to measure him. In the second photo he is straight with the glass, and camera, as is the nori. Using a ruler on the computer screen I can measure each and compare to each other. He comes in at 3" and the nori at 2", so he is 50% longer than the nori is when folded. Then, using that refrence, measure an actual piece of nori folded in the same way and do a little math and get a close approximation to his current length. I think it's closer to 2 1/2" to 2 3/4". I was looking at the picture of him beside Bonnie and he's as long if not longer than she is.