ReefGrammie's 90-Gallon Reboot

[ReefGrammie]

Oops!

Thanks for the spam drop! ;Joyful

 

[ReefGrammie]

It's been a fish tank kind of holiday weekend! I was off to the LFS with my cooler of frags. Came home with a fire shrimp, 2 peppermint shrimp, and a royal gramma, plus several new frags to grow out. Would I like to grow this out for the owner? Yes, please!!!!!

I've been eyeing Utter Chaos for a while now and could see the colony in his grow-out tank all the way across the room! It is stunning. I also have several more zoa frags to ID and grow out. I do need to get a new light for my little frag tank.

One of my sons came to town this weekend...he thought he was coming over for breakfast this morning, but ended up helping me change out the Tunze ATO unit. It was still working fine, but I was worried I was on borrowed time, as it's going on 7 years old. The high water sensor was also looking pretty bad. I replaced it with the exact same unit, the Tunze 3155. I will just keep the old unit as a backup now. I also finally dismantled the old Finnex heater (replaced for the same reason - old). It's water change time now, then fill up the ATO reservoir and get ready for work tomorrow...at least the long weekend has been good! ;Joyful

 

[TriggerFinger]

I have some of those too! They are one of the few who earned a spot on the rocks right away. I like them a lot!

 

[ReefGrammie]

I have some of those too! They are one of the few who earned a spot on the rocks right away. I like them a lot!

Yes!! I'm trying to find the perfect place to put mine. They're too pretty to just live in Zoanthid World. The other ones he gave me are a tiny yellow polyp, which is bright yellow with a yellow skirt. They are very small, like LA Lakers. I have no idea what they're called, and he didn't either. Another one is a yellow polyp with kind of a peach/light orange skirt. He also gave me one that looks like Green Bay Packers, but it also has a random blue polyp with a green skirt on the plug. I ordered a better light for my little frag tank and may move the others in there first and let them grow out a bit. I also set up my old Tunze in the frag tank because I'm tired of manually topping it off! It's just 10 gallons and is an old tank I had sitting around, but it will serve its purpose for now. I added a few snails. I don't have much else in there now, but my bright orange ricordia frag attached to the rock (yay) so I definitely want to grow that one!

 

[ReefGrammie]

The dog didn't approve of the Tunze instructions! ;Hilarious

 

[ReefGrammie]

So what do you do with you're stuck in a completely boring 6-hour training class on nothing you want to know...you take pictures and stare at the tank!!

I love my chalices. Avatar is around 3 inches across now. I would love to be able to get a night picture with the sweepers out. It's amazing!!

I deliberately put this cyphastrea under a ledge a few months ago because I saw they would encrust even without much light. It has spread out beyond the ledge and is in the light now. Very pretty! Yes, I do weird experiments! ;Joyful

The pincushion urchin, who I have a love-hate relationship with...I love the coraline cleanup, but I hate the urchin carrying around my frags! Most are glued down now. I see that the urchin has found a limpet shell, a couple of other miscellaneous snail shells, and a few pieces of reef cement. The three-stripe damsel is watching intently.

This amazing to me for several reasons. Most of my hermits arrive very small. This guy has grown and has gotten HUGE. The other amazing thing is I haven't had turbo snails in years because I don't like them! This shell most likely came from my original 46-gallon tank. I upgraded to the 90 almost 7 years ago and I remember tossing some of the turbo snail shells in the new tank. I have NEVER seen one of my hermit crabs living in a turbo snail shell!

 

[TriggerFinger]

Great pics! Love the damsel and urchin pic

 

[najer]

Great pics.

 

[ReefGrammie]

The new royal gramma started out in a cave near the top middle, and a few days ago, I found he had relocated. He picked the exact same hole previously occupied by a blenny...which I thought was interesting in a 90-gallon tank with plenty of live rock.

Hiding in the hole:

Out of the hole...that's not ich on his head!

Back in the hole:

This is what's all over his head...sand. I guess he liked the blenny hole, but still had to redecorate. Maybe he's a she? ;Joyful

 

[TriggerFinger]

It must be a great hole! Beautiful new fish, they have great color and face markings.

 

[TriggerFinger]

Do you still have the towel up, blocking light from the big window? Curious if it helped.

 

[ReefGrammie]

It must be a great hole! Beautiful new fish, they have great color and face markings.

Thank you! I actually wondered if he didn't make it because he popped out of the top cave for days. I have no idea when/how he decided to migrate, but he sure has latched onto that blenny hole. I'm just glad it's in the front of the tank so I can watch (and take pictures). I've always had a "thing" for royal grammas. I love it when I can keep a fish in my tank that I've actually seen while snorkeling....other than damsels because they are everywhere!

 

[ReefGrammie]

Do you still have the towel up, blocking light from the big window? Curious if it helped.

I do, and it has made a huge difference!! I'm so glad I caught it before I had some major damage to the corals. The sunlight has already shifted more and I think it will be completely off the tank again in a few weeks. The purple acro started coloring up almost immediately after I put up the towels. The turbinaria still doesn't look too great, but I'm seeing polyp extension, so I'm still hoping it will be okay. The acro that looked the worst is starting to color up again on the tips. Thanks for asking...I meant to post an update on the sunlight situation! It must have been blasting that one section of corals pretty bad...ugh. ;Sour

 

[TriggerFinger]

Do you have a pic of the turbinaria? I think I have a purple one

 

[najer]

I moved my 5 - 6 inch turbin yesterday, so far so good.

 

[ReefGrammie]

Do you have a pic of the turbinaria? I think I have a purple one

I'll work on that! I tried to get one earlier, but I need better light...will try again this evening. It looks pretty unhappy. This is the section that must have taken the biggest hit from the direct sun. I first noticed the purple to the left rapidly turning white on the tips. Thankfully, it has colored back up. The acro on the right is more of a pink/peach/green. It still looks pretty bad, but every day I check it with my magnifying glass and I'm seeing more of the pink/peach. I hope it will be ok!

 

[ReefGrammie]

More random pictures. The first one is a blast from the past. This is Baby Clown from November of 2008 in my first tank, the 46-gallon bowfront. He's the same clown as my avatar picture, which was probably taken 5-6 years ago. The 2nd picture is of him today.

Other than making me mad when he throws sand on my chalices, he's been a great addition and is my lone survivor from the original tank almost 12 years ago.

And of course, Squiggles, the survivor of 2 trips into the overflow and down into the sump (the first time, it was several weeks before I found him) and also the survivor of being sucked out during a water change and landing in the bottom of a 5-gallon jug. Both issues were corrected to prevent future mishaps, but I'm sure he'll think of something else...

Zoanthid World as of today, which changes pretty much weekly!

Azure damsel. A lot of people don't like damsels, but I do. They're always out in the water column and I've never had much trouble with them (plus I can catch them). This is such a pretty fish and adds a lot of color. I also have a black/white three-stripe damsel.

 

[ReefGrammie]

Been missing for a bit. We had to shuffle our vacation plans because of Hurricane Sally and ended up getting a last minute place on Hilton Head Island. We had a WONDERFUL trip with one of our sons/wife/grandson. It was the baby's first beach trip and he just had a blast! We are exhausted because we were chasing a 16-month-old all over the place. There was no time for fish forum talk because bedtime for the baby meant emergency intravenous cocktails for the adults!

I had the tank automated all week and it did well. I hate to put in the auto fish feeder, but it keeps everything alive at least. I had my camera on the tank so I was able to spy on everything, plus check the light on my ATO and watch the auto feeder do its thing.

We came home yesterday and the baby hadn't seen the tank in a while. He just loves it! Only my grandbabies are allowed to smear their grubby little fingers all over my glass. I drew the line, though, when he tried hitting it with Tinker Toys...

He makes the cutest little popping noise when he sees a fish...toy fish, real fish, any fish. As soon as he saw the tank he started pointing at the fish and making his popping noise. Soooo cute!!! ;Shamefullyembarrased Our son said before the lights came on this morning, he was pointing and popping at the tank. Time to rest up (I need another week), and back to the work grind tomorrow. Oh well, it was a great week!! ;Joyful I miss the little guy already!

 

[najer]

Blowing kisses at the fish, I am 58 and all my fish get blown kisses!

 

[TriggerFinger]

Fantastic pic!! I’m glad everyone had a good time on vacation!!