Well the move went well, I didn't drop the tank or anything although I think at one point it was pretty close. Of course getting all the rock back in the same way, or thinking I would be successful at it, was hopeless. I ended up with less real estate as usual but everything fit eventually. I don't know what I would have done if I hadn't gotten rid of a few colonies before the move. Mind you I've gotten a few more frags since then so I suppose I had room in there somewhere! I did notice a fair few corals lost color after the move, not sure whether it attributed to the water temperature or that some were out of water for quite awhile while I got the rocks arranged etc. My big tan colored cap lost its purple rim and a couple others were very pale looking, the color is starting to come back though.
So during the tank move I decided to take the opportunity to look for the "creature from the deep". Thank god a less squeamish buddy was helping me move or I don't know if I could have dealt with it on my own. It turned out to be a 2 foot black worm which I believe was an Eunicid worm that feeds on soft corals. this certainly explains why my zoos and ricordeas went missing prior to setting up my nano tank. He broke in half while he was "oozing" out of his rock. Totally gross! This was the rock that my tan cap was attached to, it was out of the water for at least 15 minutes while we flushed the worm from its hole.
Suffice it to say, I didn't catch whatever was making the clicking sound in my tank. I suppose I can live with it though, it hasn't killed any of my fish so I would imagine its probably a pistol shrimp.
Even with the tank move being so quick (relatively) and the rock not being out of water at all, the tank is still experiencing some algae bloom, which I believe may be in part to my not running my phosban reactor with phosphate media. I chucked the old stuff and forgot to get new. I ended up using half new water anyways but I guess there is something in there for the algae to feed on. The fish are liking it. Unfortunately I seemed to get a bad batch of Kent salt that never really cleared in the bucket, making the tank rather cloudy looking (calcium and alkalinity were on target but I have no idea why it just didn't mix up). I think it might be affecting my snails which were in "slow" mode for awhile. Most seem to have recovered though and I've switched back to IO.
Ok so on to the photos. Here is the tank today. As you can see its directly across from a window now so I suppose I will be taking photos in the evening so the window blinds don't reflect off the glass.
Hmm I can't really remember what frags I was bringing home in the last post. I suppose at some point I should really calm down with the frags, but some of them are just so damned nice, and well, theres just a tiny bit room to squeeze a couple more in there. I'm not sure whats going to happen when they all grow out though. I'm a terrible gardener too "they don't really have to be planted at least 6 inches apart do they? I can just cram them together". Hehe.
This one is new. I managed to resist it for 3 whole weeks at the store before someone started taking frags off it because it was losing its color. You know you're addicted when you keep thinking about corals all the time. I just couldn't resist it anymore (besides, it was such a nice colony, it was a shame to see it fragged up).
Another new one that I waited out at the store. It was a gorgeous blue when it came in but browned out pretty quickly. I can't wait to see it come back to blue.
I really liked the colors on this one, it was a deep pinky color on the tips and then a yellow color towards the base. Of course its mostly browny now but we'll see how it goes.
I thought this was kind of a cool photo. This bloody vermetid worm has been a total pain in the butt and I have tried to get rid of him several times. He has grown with the coral and the coral is now growing around his tube. Works for me as hopefully I can catch him unawares and cut him and his tube off of the coral. That nasty net he casts every day is a pain in the arse.
Nano update: Its been awhile, I did treat the tank with flatworm exit. Didn't kill them all though so I'll have to retreat. Hmm, I really need to update the nano info a little more often. I got a coralife hangon 150W HQI in January that I put on the tank and quite quickly discovered that it was just too much for such a small tank. The tank sure looked nice though. Many of the zoos just got really pale. I guess who needs that many zooxanthellae when you've got that much light! I did get ahold of a 20K bulb that worked a bit better for the tank but now that I'm in a new place, everything is running on the same circuit and I'm trying to conserve power so I'm back to the original coralife 2x18W unit. However one bulb is burned out so the tank is really hurting. All of the ricordeas are really reaching for the light, I've put in an order for new bulbs but if they don't come soon I'm going to have to attempt the 150W again.
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