Quiet Times
Things have been status quo the past few days, hence no updates on this blog. Over the weekend I spent most of my freetime refinishing a table in the house, so no tank maintenance. The past couple days has been nothing other than feeding the tank at lights out. I did an early morning feed today, just for kicks.
Chaeto seems to be growing well in the sump. There is very little algae on the tank walls, but it’s tough to say whether there is a significant decrease happening on the live rock. Patience and persistence. All else seems to be fine.
The new(ish) plate coral, the pink/purple one, has moved itself further into the light and is slowly fading in color. I noticed that with our green one as well. I move it under a ledge, it regains a nice deep green color, but it slowly moves itself back into the light and fades again. Beats me!! My ultimate goal is to have an SPS coral of some type on the vertical rock above the pink plate, shading it partially from the intense MH lamps. That’s a couple years out most likely, so for now I’ll move it back into the shade by hand.
What a pretty anemone! And more pests!
Ooops, nope, that’s a pink aptasia! Spotted one in the sump last night, must have come in with the chaeto. My first reaction was to pull it, but then I thought to myself… “it’s a pretty good filter, and it’s in the sump and not in the display tank… maybe I should let it be and alllow it to help clean the water.” So that’s my plan. Leave it be and let it do its thing. Hope I don’t write a post 6 months from now reporting that I have pink aptasia in the display tank and I regret not dealing with the issue when it was easy…
Speaking of, I noticed some flatworms recently in the display tank, and last night in the sump! Great. Not the red planaria flat worms, and these apparently survived the treatment of flatworm exit. Don’t have a positive ID on these yet and need to get some photos. I’m hoping they’re not as invasive. So far they are staying very very small – less than a 1/16th of an inch in length for the largest I’ve seen. I may try to capture a few and test a treatment of flatworm exit in a separate container before treating the reef…
Some Maintenance, Update on the Eggs
The snail eggs are starting to hatch. Actually, they started Thursday or Friday night. No idea what happens to them after they leave the egg sack, but they must still be tiny. There’s not any apparent growth while they’re in the egg sacks, just coloration changes. At least, under 10x magnification. I’m sure I’d see more dramatic changes under a microscope!
Routine maintenance over the weekend. Made some water Friday, changed some water today. Did 10 gallons of water change this evening, including changing out the phosban and carbon media. Also cleaned the skimmer and emptied the collection jug. I fed some pieces of shrimp to some LPS – bubble corals, a duncan, a plate coral, and the anemones.
Still seeing cyano in the tank. It seems to cover areas with hair algae, leading me to wonder if the algae is slowly dying off and the cyano is feeding off of it. I’m going to be patient and continue to monitor.
New Coral Has Arrived!!
Unruly really outdid herself! She picked up a fantastic torch coral from Cherry Corals that was delivered today. From what she tells me they were very accommodating around delivery dates too. It’s a sweet piece, I’m excited to grab some photos of it soon.
Thanks P!!!
:D
Water Change, Algae Plucking, Snail Egg Update
Did a 5-gallon water change last night. Siphoned a lot of red cotton algae and detritus out of the live rock, and also a small patch of bubble algae I saw growing. I still like this method of target-siphoning, although I may go back to the method I tried a few weeks ago – following it up with blowing out the live rock with a power head and siphoning out whatever I can.
Tonight I saw that the rainbow acan had fallen out of the live rock, so after gluing it in place with superglue I started to pluck some algae off the live rock with tweezers. This stuff is like what I have seen described as turf algae. Using the edges of the tweezers to scrape the rock as I close them, it comes off pretty cleanly. It would be a really time-consuming task to try to do the whole tank by hand like that, so I’ll let this act as a starter for the clean up crew and phosban reactor.
Seeing some changes in the snail eggs, finally. With any luck I’ll snap a clear photo sometime this week. They are starting to change color, or more accurately – from what I can tell with the x10 loupe they are developing dark brown or black spots, one per egg. They are till tiny.
The new coral unruly bought is scheduled to be shipped Thursday. Can’t wait!
Trouble in Paradise
Since I set a precedent when I posted about a reef-meets-art exhibit back in May, today I bring you a series of “exhibits” from the Schoenbrunn Zoo in Vienna. [No, I am not fortunate enough to have seen this first-hand and taken these photos.]
Schoenbrunn Zoo, Vienna
In an effort to bring the public’s attention to the human impact on the natural world, the zoo has developed “Trouble in Paradise”. Railway tracks across their bison enclosure, a Benz sunken in the rhino’s pool, and toxic waste containers in the reef.
Schoenbrunn Zoo, Vienna
[/caption]
I didn’t find any information on the zoo’s website, but other sites have picked up the story and have some more information on the artists who pulled this together with the zoo.
