Christy's Reef

Got the CO2 tank refilled and ready to roll. I'm kind of surprised the tank didn't really decrease in Ca over the week the reactor was off. Seems sort of odd as I thought the tank was using more than that. I didn't measure it right away when I got home though, I measured it a day and a half later so maybe they had only dipped a little. Anyway, everything is up and running again. I'm quite impressed at how much coralline algae I have on the tank and I've left one side of the glass to become covered with coralline dots (and some sort of green algae the fish like to nibble at). If I clean the glass too much on that side my bangaii becomes very enamored with himself as it acts like a mirror. Either that or he thinks its some other fish that he's keeping an eye on.

So I was scoping out the tank tonight, the colors are mostly off esp in the pink corals. The birdsnest is not as pink as it has been previously and my nice pink Pocillipora damicornis is looking rather ruddy. I'm not sure what thats in aid of but I have noticed that since I cleaned my reflectors and took the bulbs out to do that, the lights aren't the same color specturm, they're actually a bit yellowy. I don't beleive in that whole nipples up and down (on the bulbs!!!) but perhaps theres some truth to it? The bulbs are coming up on almost a year old so perhaps its time to get some new ones. I think I'll still stick with ushios, I really like the color. Then again maybe I'll go for something with a bit more blue. Time to do some research.

Anyway, I was looking in the tank at my big yellowy birdsnest and lo and behold theres a little black crab in there. His claws were reminiscent of an emerald crab but without the really flat-tipped pincers. There were many polyps missing in the area he was hanging out in so I took the whole colony out (its the one sitting on the tank bottom on the left hand side of the tank. Anyway I got him out of there. I was going to throw him in the nano but I guess I wasn't careful enough getting him out and he just laid there for awhile after I removed him. I think I must have pierced his carapace with my forceps. Anyway, one crab down who knows how more to go. Just when I think I've gotten them all another appears. Oh well, at least they're not doing any major damage.

The STN has definitely slowed in most corals and I haven't lost any pieces this week. A freebie I got from wicked frags is on its way out but the STN is top down which makes me suspect it isn't linked to the problems I've been having lately. Likely its some other issue. Here is a photo of the damage done to one of my largest colonies. It seems to have stopped.

I uploaded a short video to photobucket showing my blue milli. Somewhere in the upload it got totally overexposed and is a very odd teal color. That wasn't in the original. I tried it on youtube but it says the video is unavailable so this is what you get. Anyway, the polyp extension on this coral is pretty unreal, its like hair blowing in the breeze. The polyps must be pretty sticky as it often catches mysis in them. I don't think to coral eats any of it but it sticks there for awhile until one of the fish comes along and pilfers them.