Turtle's Fairy Tale

[SashimiTurtle]

Hey, so I was just flipping thru the old gallery on my phone...

12-21-18, freshly glued

2-5-19

 

[najer]

My tank seems to be finally getting mature enough to keep the more delicate corals alive at 9 months old. I'm also learning how to listen to this tank and what it's telling me when this or that thing happens. Every tank is different and speaks a different language.

Observation, the number one (only) test I do! ;)

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Very nice. That Sympodium is beautiful. Has it grown much? You have had it a while now. I know it usually grows slowly.

As promised... sooo, its grown A LOT since this tank has been up. It was the size of this frag in June. Still nothing I would call invasive.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Managed to sneak a pic of Ahi... he HATES the camera, and he is FAST!

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Bonnie, however, is very photogenic... you could say she's a camera hog.

She's one of the biggest ocellaris I know of. Very close to 4" long and very stout.

 

[Katrina71]

Bonnie is a BBC!

 

[NY_Caveman]

That is beautiful. Thanks for all the good info.

 

[NY_Caveman]

BTW, 4” is crazy.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

BTW, 4” is crazy.

She is huge. Head on profile of a bulldog. Just held the tape measure up as close as I could get and my best guess around 3 1/2", maybe 3 9/16" ;)

 

[sfin52]

Tank is looking so good. After the tank of death this has to be rewarding

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Tank is looking so good. After the tank of death this has to be rewarding

Having living corals is kind of nice. Keeping it algae free has been a challenge these past few months. I think I'm on the other side of that ugliness.

Tomorrow I'm going to do a bunch of maintenance work in the sump. Vinegar bath for the skimmer and return pump, shop vac the bottom of the skimmer and return chamber, 20ish gallons of fresh salt water...

Then it's off to the LFS. I got an itch for a new coral. Oh and I need nori. I feed one sheet of nori on Sunday and, well one of the dogs ate the rest of mine.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

So, I've decided on a new maintenance routine for the tank. The whole no water change thing is going out the window. First chance I get at the beginning of every month I'm going to empty the sump, clean and refil with new salt water. Too many variables that cannot be tested for, simple water changes can correct 99.9999% of them. Is only 20-30 gallons a month, I can handle it.

The skimmer was disgusting. I mean, that is its job and all, but it had green coraline all over the base and algae was growing inside the body. It got ran in a vinegar and hot(water comes out my tap almost boiling, it will burn you... yay gas hot water heater) and scrubbed really well. Thing looked almost brand new going back in.

Harvested a large chunk of chaeto. Left a loose football or very densely packed softball in the sump.

Didn't get around to testing today. By the time I got finished cleaning and filling everything back up, we had to leave to go eat dinner with my family over at my parents house. Mom is starting a monthly family dinner, you know how moms are always wanting the family together. I'll run all my tests tomorrow.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

After cleaning pics... oh and we got the new corals at the LFS today.

New corals!

Seriatopora caliendrum. You're looking at the not as pretty side. This was a huge frag that actually had a branch growing too the rack.

Right, Rainbow stylo. Left, ORA Birds of Paradise. The rainbow is a pink base with green polyps, its really pretty but I seem to have turned it blue. I'll get better pictures tomorrow before I glue them.

 

[sfin52]

I've gone your route and added a 48"corallife t5 fixture. Added to my two fluval led. I'm hoping I get growth like yours now

 

[SashimiTurtle]

I've gone your route and added a 48"corallife t5 fixture. Added to my two fluval led. I'm hoping I get growth like yours now

I wish mine was faster than it is. Impatient Turtle is impatient. I need to get a good picture of the elkhorn monti for comparison. It's grown a lot. Looking at it every day you don't see it grow like seeing a picture every few weeks.

 

[sfin52]

That's true

 

[Katrina71]

Hug your mom for me! I think she is a smart woman!!!

 

[Brew12]

After cleaning pics... oh and we got the new corals at the LFS today.

New corals!

Seriatopora caliendrum. You're looking at the not as pretty side. This was a huge frag that actually had a branch growing too the rack.

Right, Rainbow stylo. Left, ORA Birds of Paradise. The rainbow is a pink base with green polyps, its really pretty but I seem to have turned it blue. I'll get better pictures tomorrow before I glue them.

Those are some nice frags!

My Rainbow Stylo turned purple as soon as it went into my tank and has pretty much stayed that way.

 

[Katrina71]

I think I might need an Elkhorn monti after looking at yours.

 

[ngoodermuth]

I love your eel, hope he gets the hang of feeding time soon.

My pintail wrasse gave me a scare like that in QT recently. I thought the same exact thing as you, he must’ve pushed the top up and my dogs ate him.

My H ended up finding him hiding in the filter [emoji15] It was turned off, and apparently quite cozy...