Hermie's 23 Gallon Nano Build

[Hermie]

Update 6/3:
I've added tigger pods from my culture into the tank... hopefully they can populate in the refugium inside the giant mass of floating chaeto/algae...

I fed the corals again today.
Today was the best response I've seen from the Chalice. It actually opened it's mouths and sucked in mucus containing oyster-debris. Great sign... I did move the chalice from its previous location because it was just annoying me where it was...

The mushroom also ate with the best response so far. It completely closed up into a dome shape with the piece of oyster going into its mouth. Happy about this.
This picture is post-eating. With the meat inside.

I'm planning to get a new light soon.

 

[Hermie]

update 6/7:
EDIT: Some of the corals I thought were favia are probably goniastrea.

Moved my little chalice from QT to DT and, MAN, the eyes pop! They are awesome. Eyes fluoresce under blue:

Also, got 3 new corals at an awesome price and 2 NPS (free). Super exicited about these, they were basically 20 bucks each, including a decent ultron favia frag!
The Cyphastrea might be branching also, but I am not sure, it may have just been growing over some strange rockwork.
These were dipped and put in the QT.

ultron: looks better under actinic

a phat 2 head *goniastrea* with tissue dripping down all sides:

the cyphastrea, fluorescent/neon green under actinic:

Anyone know how to get NPS corals to open up? The guy I got them from did not feed them, so I am worried they will just die. I figured some "oyster juice" in the water would entice them...




my candy cane expelling waste about 1 hour before lights out, getting ready for more feeding:

 

[Hermie]

the nps

 

[Hermie]

the algae gang doing their rounds




aka "the three algae-migos"

 

[Hermie]

update 6/11

Added some new caribsea southseas base rock, and removed a piece of the lava rock on the bottom that had a significant amount of hair algae. (moved it to QT tank)

 

[Hermie]

 

[Style185]

update 6/11

Added some new caribsea southseas base rock, and removed a piece of the lava rock on the bottom that had a significant amount of hair algae. (moved it to QT tank)

In my 40 i have solid black lava rock hand picked by myself lol worked great and its porus n free. Lookin good keep on reefin

 

[Hermie]

In my 40 i have solid black lava rock hand picked by myself lol worked great and its porus n free. Lookin good keep on reefin

thanks for stopping by, handpicked you mean from a volcano? ;Wideyed

 

[Style185]

thanks for stopping by, handpicked you mean from a volcano? ;Wideyed

That'd be a bit toasty hah I'm in central Oregon and it's everywhere... figured I'd save a bit of cash on my build, stuff gets expencive.

 

[Hermie]

6/14: pic update (finally got the RAW drivers for my camera)

my best coral lol

super healthy sponge, fights off algae and always pumping water through its osculum

Larger sponge, still alive and it's eating itself (common for sponges) Also has some pineapple sponges on it

mushroom doing well (I promise I'll use tripod next time)

struggling favia, but it's fighting

2 chalices, the one on the left has been through a lot (sinularia poisoning, algae on its skeleton, broken skeleton)
the one on the right is tiny but one of my favorites, it's been healthy since I got it

 

[Hermie]

fts with rock work adjusted:

 

[Hermie]

6/15 update:

Adjusted the rockwork for hopefully the last time, basically the top piece was changed out with the previously supporting piece on the bottom right, they swapped places.
The chalices are now on the black substrate... I'll see how they do, may have less trouble fighting algae down there

you can see a bunch of pineapple sponges on the right glass, I am definitely encouraging their growth. Ever since the big orange sponge seemed to "degrade" I put a bag of "silica sand" in the sump and now I am seeing sponges proliferate, which I'm totally fine with. And I don't mind diatoms either. Anything that cuts down on hair algae and turf algae is good in my book.

I might get a tuxedo urchin in the future.

 

[Hermie]

got some shells from the dollar store, going to clean and put in for the hermits. I am hoping the zeebra-striped crab swaps shells because it's been in the same shell since I got it... and it's molted at least twice (those pictured are the left-behinds, the good ones are being cleaned right now)

 

[Hermie]

the little chalice is doing great after being moved to the substrate, this is the first time I've seen it's mouths so wide-open:

 

[Hermie]

current favorite coral:

 

[Hermie]

Just took a dremel to my red oxypora... ugh I think I did more harm than good. It's had some exposed skeleton for a few months now that was now growing hair algae... now there's a ton of exposed skeleton... that hair algae will probably grab onto. ;Vomit

Noticed thr orange/neon chalice had receeding skeleton on the bottom, it was sitting on the substrate, so I glued it onto a clean clam shell and it's now suspended above the substrate... hope that helps...

Final note, I also took the dremel to the Favia, and, all-in-all I am happy about that one, the surrounding skeleton had a ton of hair algae, and the coral tissue has been doing good lately, just seemed to struggle against the edges of the exposed skeleton where algae took hold. Hopefully it can overcome... it looks better than the oxypora chalice... still kind of disappointed about the oxypora... 3 months and it's just struggling

tank mood: ;Sour

 

[Hermie]

Update 6/29:
new additions

• 3 cowries (in the refugium, 1 is deep in the muck) may move them into the DT in a few weeks

• 1 pincushion urchin (in DT, lost some spines but doing well now)

thanks to @reefcleaners for the inverts!




FTS

lots of algae but working on it...

 

[Hermie]

FTS key:

 

[Hermie]

update 7/2:

• Have RO/DI system finally set up, mixed up 5 gallons of salt water.
  
  
• Did a 4 gallon water change and working on makign some more for another 4 or 5 gallon WC in the next few days.
  
  
• Cleaned out the skimmer cup.
  
  
• Urchin seems to be doing fine but it's sticking to the back wall. I hope it moves back onto the rocks.
  
  
• The 3 Money cowries have disappeared in the refugium of the sump. I really would like to find them... to confirm they didn't go up the drain tube.
  it's on my todo list...
  
  
• Corals not looking great, I assume it's a result of cleaning the glass and the water change. I was going to feed them tonight but I will wait until tomorrow.

my zebra hermit crab eating some clam meat (Ocean Nutrition half shell clam), this crab's name is "Venom" named by my 5 year old nephew. "Venom" got a new shell recently, you can see it's pearly white atm.

 

[Hermie]

Ugh did another water change tonight but I ran out of salt after I already started and didn't double check the replacement saltwater's salinity a second time (I checked it once then dosed additional salt then assumed it was good to go). I was wrong... the salinity of the WC water was probably 1.021 SG and then I checked the tank and it was like 1.022! I'm annoyed that I let it get so low! I can tell it's affecting the inverts because the sponge is no longer "opening" and the corals aren't inflating like normal.

So far... Salinity has been my achilles heel... if I get a reef-pi, I hope they have a salinity probe because I need one bad... to remind me to not make these mistakes...

Dang it! I have to wait till Monday for my Amazon delivery of salt... I am also peeved I didn't get that 35 dollar deal for the 200 gallon box of salt (Reef Crystals). I know a bunch of people stocked up for life but I missed out and it's sour grapes now. Dang it!!