Just because ive never had an Actinic light before I bought a bulb for the 30"
No pictures just yet. Of course now there are shadows but goodness at night when i just have the blue on... wooowww
Stopped by AquaTek for the first time today just to peep around. I think ill be grabbing a few damsels from there.
Then went to RCA and got two 4.99 corals. A leather and a... oh idk. It was neon green. At least I can admit I know nothing. They were even nice enough to give me the ARC premium member discount even though I dont have mt card yet. And had a wonderful conversation about tuetles and what my brother is looking for in a turtle tank with the guy that helped me
Drove home to drop off my $10 snag.. and off to RR to Pham's to get more corals.
He was super nice. I love you guys lol so nice to me even though im a total noob
my RCA corals are kinda open. Just got the Pham corals in.
Pictures of the lights and new babies coming in an hour or two
So I swung by PetCo and got my first nem from Jesse :3
Im broke. But happy. Lol
First the nem decided it would rather roll around like tumbleweed.. then after some internet I found out LTA like to chill in sand. I dug him a hole and stuck his foot in. Made him comfy. Then fed him late last night.
I admit a grabby nem feel super weird. And totally freaked me out.
Of course I now see that my clown is pretty unlikely to hist the LTA.. maybe ill get a BTA in the future
Since yesterday he looks like hes making his way up the front glass.
Eats like a champ.
My cany cane coral enjoys nem feesing time cause food gets all over the place when i turn everything back on. Little feeding tentacles all stretched out.
Even the urchin was scooting around. Normally he stays on the glass close to the top. I did do a 25% water change yesterday and have been dosing with Prime daily just to be super safe since I havent tested my water just yet since last week.
In other news yesterday the spray bar popped off the filter while i was gone. Shot water straight up. Into my light. On the power strip.. out of the tank.
Powerhead was running dry. Tank only lost about 25% water since i luckily decided to stop by the house before work. Otherwise it would have completely drained.
So i cut everything off and went to work. 7 hours later i was able to come back and start working. Superglued the spraybar onto the filter. Added a carbon cartridge as well. Gave them some fresh SW. So they just got a free water change lol
Everyone survived and is happy.
I also got a Watchman Goby and Pistol Shrimp on Tuesday. They were fine. The Goby is tiny. Shrimp is pretty big compared to him. They have seperate tunnels right now.
And of course today my nem decides to get half of his body sucked into the filter. Whoooooo this week was awesome.
Getting some pantyhose or similar when my direct deposit goes through tonight.
Anywho. Pics of my disasters.
Looks like the bar fell on the nem where he used to be. So he moved.
Then got stuck. This was after i massaged him out quite a bit. So far just a very small little cut
And the crab molted. Which scared the crap out of me.
Took the Urchin and big crab to Fish Gallery. I seriously felt sad watching them in that new tank
Get three little blue peg hermits and two little turbo snails Also a 5.5 gallon jug and free saltwater with my jug purchase. Yay i suppose. i feel too attached to my herm and urchin :/
I almost want to go buy them back. But I know they wont do well in as small of a tank as mine is.
I really hoped one of you guys would take the crab. I love that guy. He stands out in the tank at FG.. biggest thing in there. I hope he goes to a good home.
Finally set up that stand I got. I decided to throw the tiny syand on top of the big one. No more bending over to peep on my tank :3
Played with the lights in the living room to all point at the tank.
IDK why im putting so much effort into moving and changing things. Im moving July 1st.
Anywho.
To turn the lights on and off in the living room
Lights out.
Nem is doing a better aftet his accident.
Creepin on the Watchman Goby. Anyone know exactly which kind he is? Hes grey with blue spots.
Evil Pistol Shrimp
Painted and added knobs to the front cover. Going to buy some plywood and get hinges to make a door on the big stand.. maybe add a shelf. Maybe some moulding on the corners/edges
Finally got a refractometer. Need to calibrate it.
Also removed the internal filter. Might just do a nano skimmer for funsies. Ive been pretty religious on 2x weekly water changes so not sure hoe much it will help besides the surface skummage thats filming up the top of the water. Eww
So far everything is swell. Got a new rock from PetCo. And some more hermits. And a tuxedo urchin!!
It was angry with me for moving it. And mad at my brother for "petting" it -.-
New "aquascape" lol moved a small rock to protect the nem from the current after I took the pantyhise off the powehead. Then i went on a hunt for the urchin who was shoved under the big rock. And it ended up getting scooted back. To the front "floor" is open... for corals!
Gonna try feeding the nem for the first time since his second accident. Hopefully his nubby tencacles work.
Also going to spot feed all corals.
Tomorrow that is.
Marley the Clown is a meanie. Thank goodness my class ring distracts him and he targets that instead of my fingers. Hes just mad cause he used to hose the filter and I removed it. Oh well.
Found that neat BG at work in the GloFish section. Got a bottle of SeaView from PetCo.
Decided to do a DIY filter but a but different than most people do in regards to which way it faces. I wanted to be able to stick purigen or a bag of phosguard in there with carbon. This is a pic from the first test with leftover carbon from inside unused filter bits.
Ill take a new pic tomorroe but you can see it in the FTS. I put a filter bag around it because the Carbon bits sometimes try to fly out of the holes on the bottle. This acts as a prefilter and a net to catch anything that tries to escape.
Finally got a decent pic of the Goby as well.
a few months back I had some molly fry that I raised in my shrimp tank. They got big enough to eat baby shrimp and were banished to death by turtle at work. The other day I pulled out all four. About 2" each. Acclimated them to the SW and for now they are hanging out until I find a place for them. Probably with my brothers turtles.
Fed the nem again yesterday. It gets fed every three days or so. And eats like its starving. Its tentacles are growing back as well
Everything else is swell. I keep seeing brittle star arms poking out from the rocks. Yay!
my Candy Cane coral isnt dead yet even though half of it got ate by my old urchin. It actually seems like it might slowly be healing.
I also found a baby turbo snail running around and some of those tiny fat starfish every once in a while.
Haha so theres a depressing story behind my "cabinet build" that im sure is TMI and nobody cares.
So my parents are divorcing. It shouod be final any day now. We lost the house then my mom got it back temporarily. So i decided to find my own place. I make $800 a month. I could not afford it i have no friends to room with. Im a loner.
Anywho I decided to shack up with my mom as my roommate in the place we just signed the lease for. Im a huuuge daddies girl.. and dont telp anyone but he told me I was his favorite. But.. yeah. Hes mad at me for being with my mom. Understandable. I havent spent much time with him and I was a jerk on fathers day because I was mad at him.
So yesterday we meet up to talk. He told me the worst thing any father can tell a daddies girl. i dissapointed him. He said ive made bad decisions hed never expect from me.
Then he said in ten days (nine now) hed be cutting me off from his health insurance.. car insurance.. and family phone plan. Okay. That hurt. Alot.
So rather than crying about it ive been trying to prove that I can handle things and do things to impress him. Any time ive done projects hes helped. Today I decided on a whim with NO power tools availible and one screwdriver id build this ugly cabinet door. And I did. And im proud.
I sent him a pic of it. Normally he never replies to my text.. or replies late. Hes a busy man. He texted back "nice"
And ive never been happier. I was expecting him to criticise my priorities like he always does. But he didnt. He even offered advice on how to make it better.
So thats the story behind the door. Ill probably be stashing one of the few photos of my and him on the inside of it.
But I have a new place. move in date is the 27th :3 its in Pflugerville off 1825. Just a 2 bedroom apartment but itll be "mine" and ill finally have adult responsibilities. And im ready for it.
Annnnd all of my creatures were super ****** off. Apparently while I was napoing before the move yesterday someone disturbed the nem enough to get him to detatch and land upside down on the toadstool :c so he stung the crud out of it. Poor thing was droopy and black
then i was only halyway done mixing 5 gallons of SW and had peft it to churn before testing.. knowing itd be a bit low. So my mom decided to haul that container to the apt. Awesome.
So thanks to poor planning amd a lot of fails I had to save as much old water as possible to tide me over till I finish mixing new water -.-
Everyone got seperate bags and buckets. And I took out all but like half an inch of water and we were off
Apparently whoever was driving the car the tank was in fails at driving. It sloshed and stirred up the sand :c
So the tank was DISGUSTING by the time we got it up on the stand. And smelled horrid. I used that little half inch of water to rinse the rest of the sand and get it stirred up and ccleanish.
I was in a rush so just took a paper towel to the glass. Still need to scrape.
Anywho. This is what it looked like when I woke up this morning. They had comolete darkness all night cause I left the lights outside with the dog before ai went to bed and didnt want to battle him through the door.
Sad toadstool. Who has since perked up. No longer bendy and has some feelers out and green.
Nem that refuses to attach to anything and is a PITa when I try to bury his foot. He just sticks to me for dear life and wont let me do it.
Unhappy Kenya tree and my fallen powerhead
Shrooms acted like nothing happened
Zoas and palys faired really well up there
Cinnamon granis was ******
As of right meow everyone looks a lot better. Tank looks like total crap. Water is cloudy and the glass is nasty. Ill have to toss in my DIY bottle purigen and carbon holder for a few days.
I was battling some serious algae. Everywhere. On the sand.. glass.. rocks.. etc.
Finally tested for Phosphates with an API kit I had from my FW tank. Annnnd it turned dark blue the moment I started adding the second drops.
10% water change daily for a week.. and broke down and got a little Biowheel 100. Remived biowheel and got a sponge being sold for an intake cover smfor a Fluval tank and shoved it on the intake. Added my Purigen that ive had laying around (after I recharged it) and as of now there no detectable phosphate with the API kit.. so less than 1ppm which is way better than before.
And I havent been having to clean the glass and sand every day. Woot woot! Water clooks more clear. Everyone seems happy besides the nem who decided hes going to hide in a desolate corner and not come out. He looks fine. Just acting like hes throwing a fit. So ill let him be. Might feed him later today or tomorrow.
My red people eaters have grown 4 new polyps within the last few weeks. Woot woot!
Marley the clown is getting more and more agressive. Very nippy.
Friday evening as im laying on my bed I hear a rustling behind the stand. Ignored it for a bit then decided I should look for Marley. Sure enough he wasn't in the tank. He had jumped behind the stand wayyyy in the corner, where I can't reach.
Needless to say I used the handle of a net to drag him across the dusty floor. And after about 30 seconds he swam aeound just fine.
Sometimes I hate him. But I hope he learns his lesson.
My Green birdsnest frag isnt quite colored up just yet but I also have fail lighting so well just wait that one out. Polyps open every day so im not too worried. I moved it up to where the zoas were and moved them down to the sand.
My toadstool did it sheddy thing. And is slowly starting to maybe want to loosen up a bit.
The nem is finally planted. Every morning he pops up all big spreading homself out and fondling the Kenya Tree and shrooms. Them at night he tucks away again. The other corals so far dont seem hurt by him touching them. Pretty weird.