I have a feeling of guilt if I leave a sick fish at the store, going to die, when its on my list for the tank. I am a RN, and enjoy seeing them recover, get healthy, and change color/patterns. Similar to corals i guess.
The ember blenny was really pink and photogenic today, will slightly change colors/shades, the mood ring in the tank. This fish was a divers den purchase, has never looked like their picture, but i think its starting to look amazing (better), and its hard to capture with my phone.
Well, add another tank to the thread, also an AIO, Red Sea 250. A local offered it to me for $100. Complete, with a chiller and stand, but i just wanted the tank. The chiller connection leaked, for a long time, and lots of salt creep built up, definitely corroded some things, and shorted the hood, etc. So with the hood being a primary issue with these tanks overheating, the chiller not needed, they are scrapped, as well as the stand where it began to break down from the leak. I have it leak testing now with the pumps it also came with on the floor of my patio, everything cleaned up nicely in vinegar, including a nice auto top off!
No pictures of it yet, i spent most of the day scraping very mature and prolific coraline algae, and silicone off from de-rimming the front panel. It has euro-bracing for the front and right side, i think to help support the lid only? Not sure if i will remove these, and havnt seen too many who have.
Anyway, this tank is for the clownfish and that purple sebae in the nuvo drop off tank. A proper place, and placement for them finally. Here are some shots of the drop off inhabitants in their final months before the big upgrade.
In JBJ news, dat wrasse, is looking improved. Fins arent as clamped or ragged, and it has already put on some weight from recent heavy feedings. Time will tell, cant wait to see if it transitions as well! Some crappy pics, sorry!
Stand is almost done, needs some finishing, will be getting the new tank filled soon!
Also, not the light i will be using, havnt decided what to go with yet (i have 3 seperate 36" LED fixtures i may build a bracket for).
Getting the RSM 250 cycling!
Used some water changes from my other two tanks, live sand (also a handful from my tanks), and traded a chiller for one nice piece of liverock from the LFS. Had a few fake tonga branches to look like old mangroves, and some oysters that had fallen from my dock. Should be enough bacteria to have just a mild cycle. Just wanting to get the balls rolling. Not even using heater, dont have ATO reservoir yet. Water temps have been pretty cold outside anyway, and the house is still 75.
Its crazy how fast these oyster clusters clear up the water. Did some rescaping today, will probably only be using liverock from one of my tanks, and magnet rocks for the rest of the display.
Here are some more pictures. Shows the oysters have much more life to them, like mussels and barnacles. Really cool seeing them all fanning at night.
Progress notes: we have diatoms! Also, built a floating dock dock recently, and collected a bit more seagrass that drifts by and looks like it can still grow.
Diatoms are slowly fading away in the RSM, i cleaned a pretty good bit of algae from the glass, still has some ammonia but I have been feeding the oyster clusters, so im switching that to live phyto instead of reefroids for a couple weeks. Hopefully it will be ready for the anemone and clownfish after another week.
Of course the anemone has settled and not moved from its location for the past week, front and center of the drop off, perfect!
RSM is cycled, and some livestock transferred from the little drop off. Relieved to have the clowns and anemone in a more appropriate sized tank, and the filefish will enjoy the new space.
This left me to do some rearranging of the drop off, going with a rubble zone down below for a pair of pistol shrimp coming. Added sand up top with the tonga rocks and mushrooms. Really like the new scape so far.
The JBJ is chucking along beautifully, found one of my Randall pistols is carrying eggs, so theyre happy with the high fin gobies so far! One or two of the peppermint shrimp are pregnant as well, they have left only one of a hundred aptasia and pest anemones, happy that they did work on them (hitchhiker anemones from the gulf live rock). Maybe a sexy shrimp will start spawning soon, theyre also looking good with the bubble tip still!
My RBT anemone finally split the other day, after several years, and it appears to continue to do so. I will not know which is the original and which are clones, but will treasure them all! (Jk will probably be using some for store credits lol)
And now, each sexy shrimp can have its own host, i wonder if that were the anemones inentions?
The anemones that split a month ago are doing well, healed up and growing, still sticking together though (good luck!) If one starts to wander its walking all the way to the LFS.
My ember blenny croaked a couple weeks ago, found fat in one of his dens with a nassarius snail on his eyes. No signs of infection, no stress, was a good blenny, maybe age... anyway, replaced him fast with a DD gem:
The JBJ is doing really well overall, i have added a skimmer, HOB one, has raised the temp two fragging degrees... but corals seem to be doing fine, as well as clams, so whatev.
My favorite times of day when the spectrum of the mitras are, 'just right'. Love the way it makes the corals (and FISH!) look, but it really does spotlight red and green beams hard sometimes.