Reef Hobbyist 40B

[Corallus]

Those little birdsnest pieces look to have settled in nicely.
Looking good, and as always, great pics!

 

[Nav]

For photography here's what has been working well for me:

Use ORANGE filter when you have full blues & no whites to capture glows
Use BROWN filter when you have a blue/white mix to capture natural colors

(pics above are shot with the brown filter)

 

[Nav]

I decided to switch to manual timers (from auto timers) and after few hours of planning the light schedule, I finally came up with this chart. Its from 10am - 11pm with a 1hr peak between 1:30 - 2:30.

In this one hour peak, I’ve been conservative with all colors other than blues and over few weeks planning to up the peaks of white to 40 & violet/uv to around 50 (only for this one hour)

So far every coral has positively reacted (growth/color/polyps/etc.) Will report back on how the new schedule works.

 

[Nav]

Recently picked up a baby long spine urchin from @California_Reef_Co. Drip acclimated him for an hour but in just 2-3 days he lost most of his longer spines (and I was afraid he'd die) but in just over a week n half, his spines grew back to almost 1.5″ now!

Here's pic from today...

 

[wpeterson]

I'm glad to hear he made it, they can be very sensitive creatures.

 

[Coral reefer]

Did the orange psammacora wind up making it?

 

[Enderturtle]

Wow theyre cool. I didnt know their spines could grow back

 

[Nav]

Wow theyre cool. I didnt know their spines could grow back

Yea even I thought it'd take months for him to recover... I always see him on my overflow box wall, I guess he likes grazing on the coralline algae...

 

[Nav]

Did the orange psammacora wind up making it?

Mike, yes the Pumpkin Patch has been doing well. I glued it on a small piece of rubble and then mounted on my rock work... it has encrusted on the rubble base & also the back (part of the skeleton that was cut). Just took this pic... Thanks again

 

[Coral reefer]

Nice! Just remember, when the time comes, first two frags go to dbtc.

 

[Nav]

Nice! Just remember, when the time comes, first two frags go to dbtc.

Sure thing

 

[Nav]

Some more recent photos...

Yuma from @Enderturtle. Its much greener than in the pic.

Duncan back to normal. As part of the prior partial-crash, this guy stayed as a stone for almost a month (no PE) and I was about to toss him assuming he was dead!

 

[Nav]

With the heat waves, my tank hit 82 deg so picked up a small $8 USB fan from amazon and set on the light fixture facing the water surface. Evap might be lot more but I hope temp doesn't go crazy!

 

[denzil]

It might be better to blow across the surface instead of downward. Also, you're basically pulling heat that's rising and pushing it downward. You may get a slightly cooler tank but I don't think it's the most efficient way. Just some food for thought.

 

[Nav]

It might be better to blow across the surface instead of downward.

Makes sense. Thx for the tip Denzil

 

[wpeterson]

You can use the fans either way - to remove air from a hot cabinet or canopy. I fire both of my box fans down, right at the water surface. My goal is increased evaporation and the cooling of the water itself. In my anecdotal experience this has gotten the most cooling out of my fans.

 

[Nav]

The latest addition is a beautiful male McCoskers Flashers Wrasse. I got him from a local reefer in SF who broke down his 65 reef (he purchased this wrasse from DiversDen).

My big A-hole clown is the reason he has a small cut on his tail! The moment I added the wrasse, the clown went after him, he found a safe spot for the night and today he’s out happy & swimming. Clown kinda got used to him and is fine now...

This is the 5th fish in my tank (2 Clowns, 1 Yellow Tang, 1 Coris Wrasse, 1 McCoskers) and I feel this should be the last fish but my wife still wants a Midas Blenny. I'm going to monitor bio-load for the next few weeks and then see if it makes sense for another fish

 

[Vhuang168]

I was gonna pick that guy up but it needed to be the last fish I add and there are a few more ahead of it so I passed. Glad it found a good home.

I think 1 more would be ok. Neptune has a very nice blue Midas.

The yellow tang might be an issue further down the road I think.

 

[Coral reefer]

It's a yellow coris, and yeah, they get BIG too I think? Maybe I'm confusing them with a different yellow wrasse?
Midas blenny I would think 40 gal is a bit small for IMO, but would probably work.

 

[Nav]

The yellow tang might be an issue further down the road I think.

True, I'm going to swap the yellow tang with something else when he gets big...

It's a yellow coris, and yeah, they get BIG too I think? Maybe I'm confusing them with a different yellow wrasse?
Midas blenny I would think 40 gal is a bit small for IMO, but would probably work.

The Yellow wrasse is Yellow Coris (which I also have in my tank, old pic of my female attached) which probably grew 1/4" in the last year. I previously had a Midas that was very happy and suicided jumping out!