Turtle's Fairy Tale

[SashimiTurtle]

Well, he's moved. I know, what are you talking about, Turtle?

Aku, my golden dwarf eel. He was a little bit too friendly with his tank mates in the menagerie... Hannibal Lecter "I'm having an old friend for dinner," kind of friendly. He didn't eat anyone, yet. Everyone in here is too large to eat, and he's already found a pretty awesome home.

Its behind the trachy, under the trumpet. It's one of the shapes rocks that made a pretty nice cave.

Other side of cave rock thing

 

[SashimiTurtle]

I meant to post this last night. Guess it didn't go thru.

For those of you concerned with Aku's transition... he ate a piece of shrimp at feeding time and then went exploring.

The location I feed the fish, and where his cave is are on opposite sides of the tank. Some food gets over there but the main frenzy is in the front right corner. His cave is on the bottom left of the tank. I'm sure with time he will learn where I feed the fish, but in open water he's not all that great at aiming or lunging.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Well, it's that time of the month again...

No, I'm a guy, Turtle... hush.

Yep, water change weekend. It's been 4 weeks. My schedule has been working out well for me, but this one I can tell it's due. The past few days my trumpet hasn't been its fullest. Probably because I've been feeding a bit heavy the past week. I went over board with the spot feeding of reef roids on the LPS. They enjoyed it tho. It had been months since I spot fed them.

I know, that one dead polyp is still sticking out there like a sore thumb. I could trim it off so you dont seeit, but it reminds me of what happens when you skip water changes. I'll let the coral cover it up naturally. I'm not really grabbing the words I want, but it'll prove a point to me when I no longer see that dead branch without cutting it off.

Making water now to mix up the last of my Red Sea blue bucket... then, we'll be switching salts. With the recent videos on different salts that BRS has been doing, I've decided that since there is really no cost difference in the major brands I'm going with the Brightwell Neomarine simply because it's close to my parameters and is lab made. The Red Sea is good salt and has served me well, but you should see the dirt left behind in my Brute can.

 

[Scurvy]

That was a big reason I changed salt mix as well. The bottom of my Brute was g g gross.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

This is why I do water changes... day after and my canary is singing again. Oh, and the chaeto was full of reef roids. It's kinda the only mechanical filter I have on this tank. I rinsed some out, I'll get it good and clean when I harvest next month. Refugium is almost full.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Might as well... ell pee ess

 

[SashimiTurtle]

How 'bout some uh that there darn ess pee ess man...

 

[Matt Carden]

You convince the melanarus and both leopards, and probably soon to be Aku, they do not need sand. Oh, and make blue yoga mat look like sand... :p

That's why you use the black mat

 

[Matt Carden]

Your pictures are top notch!

 

[Matt Carden]

Your tank looks great now that you started doing water changes.

 

[Matt Carden]

I have the same tank from Steve!! Love the layout of the “cube” 90g. Switched my locline out also, made a template and routed the acrylic to fit perfectly. Made a ghetto cover until I can get in some 1/2” thick black acrylic to make a proper fitting one. Suggestion, change out the bulkheads they send you with the tank, they’re alright but very crumbly. Get some good solid ones from BRS.

I have the SCA 150 and I had a mishap that caused my emergency bulkhead to break. With my busy work schedule it took me a week to get my sump running again. I got some cheap bulkhead off Amazon, maybe I should check out the BRS bulkheads.

 

[That Crusso Kid]

I have the SCA 150 and I had a mishap that caused my emergency bulkhead to break. With my busy work schedule it took me a week to get my sump running again. I got some cheap bulkhead off Amazon, maybe I should check out the BRS bulkheads.

Here is a very good place for all your plumbing supplies...

https://flexpvc.com

 

[SashimiTurtle]

That's why you use the black mat

Well, ya see at the time I needed to get the tank running yesterday, and all Walmart had was blue, or pink yoga mat...

Black yoga mat still doesn't look like sand. ;)

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Your pictures are top notch!

I blame the camera on the S10+... thank you.

Your tank looks great now that you started doing water changes.

Amazing, isn't it? I could tell this last time I went a little over board with the Reef Roids. Especially since there was orange dust ALL IN my chaeto. No reef roids this month since I didn't get all of them cleaned out of the chaeto. It should slowly release nutrients into the water keeping nutrients at a good level.

I did test alk the other day. I haven't tested anything but salinity in a while, but everything looks good. It's still 8.4, only 0.1 off from last check a month ago or so and within my 8.0 to 8.5 range.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

My ASD Rainbow Milli is struggling. Not because of me, I was doing great. It's been knocked off the rocks twice this week. The second time I was out of super glue, so it sat on one of my racks until I got home from work the next day with more glue. It seems to be recovering, so that's a good thing. I also used a very large amount of glue to hold it down. Maybe now that crab won't be able to pry it off the rock.

 

[Matt Carden]

Shrimp are evil... guess I have an evil refugium overlord for when I get my tank set back up. Contemplating putting him in the display tho.

Yes, both of his claws grew back, again. So far no fighting with the snowflake eel.

I found my Peppermint eating one of my snails. It was one of the stupid Nerites. Not smart enough to right themselves. Seemed like the snail was still alive when I caught the shrimp trying to eat it.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

I found my Peppermint eating one of my snails. It was one of the stupid Nerites. Not smart enough to right themselves. Seemed like the snail was still alive when I caught the shrimp trying to eat it.

That guy is still in the sump. I've had it for 2 years now. I agree that nerite snails are dumb, but mine can right themselves. They just don't do anything. At all. They just sit in the corners of the tank at the water line. All day.

 

[That Crusso Kid]

That guy is still in the sump. I've had it for 2 years now. I agree that nerite snails are dumb, but mine can right themselves. They just don't do anything. At all. They just sit in the corners of the tank at the water line. All day.

You cats are funny. What would you like or expect a snail to do? Maybe a little Moonwalk or some other dance moves! Lol

 

[SashimiTurtle]

You cats are funny. What would you like or expect a snail to do? Maybe a little Moonwalk or some other dance moves! Lol

IDK... eat algae? Move from the one spot once a month? My ceriths and the one astrea I have left from 2 years ago are all over the tank, nerites... Nope. They all sit at the top of the waterline in the corners of the tank. Big groups of 10+ sometimes in one spot. Never move, I can pull them off and dump them into the sand, and the next day they are back in their spot.

 

[Scurvy]

I agree, Nerites are pointless. If they ever moved they climbed out of the tank. The ones that went behind the tank, died behind the tank. The ones that came out the front turned into dog treats. Didn’t have a lid at that point but since they didn’t do anything anyway I’ve never gotten more.