Rough day for the Pearl Berry
Yesterday I posted that the urchin uprooted the pearl berry frag and dropped it into a torch coral. I had placed it on the sand bed, hoping that would give it a safe place to start to recover until I could spend a bit more time securing it after I got home from work. Wrong! Got home late last night and checked the tank… what did I see? A conch pushed the frag into a hammer coral! Wonderful!! Grabbed some epoxy and the frag, and have it pretty well secured back in place on the liverock. The tips look pretty beat, but the tissue looks to be mostly intact and there were polyps visible towards the base of the coral. Really glad this was a good-sized frag and not a 1″ single branch, because I think the multiple branches saved the base of this coral from any damage.
We’ll see how it starts to recover…
SPS + Torch = ?
On my way to put on my shoes this morning I decided to shine a flashlight into the tank and see what was going on. I was hoping to see improved polyp extension on the new bonsai and baby’s breath corals (and I did) but what really caught my attention was the Pearl Berry behind one of the torch corals! Only one suspect came to mind, and sure enough the urchin was stationed on the live rock right where the pearl berry had been placed. I wanted to be upset, but I’m more surprised at how it had been able to get the plug out of the rock… I couldn’t tell how much of the Pearl Berry had made direct contact with the torch, and only had time to grab it and place it on the sand bed where it will hopefully start to recover until I can put it in a more permanent spot again later tonight or tomorrow…
New SPS, and Pics
Yesterday I picked up two new pieces on a whim from a local reefer. One of the frags was on our to-get list and the other I decided to take a chance on – a purple bonsai and a baby’s breath acro. Both are browned out, the baby’s breath much moreso than the bonsai. But after I got home I did an online search for the baby’s breath and the one image I found was a really pretty light lavender color. Hopefully this frag gets there too.
Here’s the bonsai:
Purple Bonsai
And here’s the baby’s breath. Those yellow/white dots are polyps and some mesenterial filaments. Looks a bit like red bugs at first, right?
Baby's Breath Acro
Not really seeing polyp extension on either frag, even after the lights went out last night, but I’ll give it some time.
And from my pickup the other night, here are the Red Planet, Pink Lemonade, Pearl Berry, and blue mille. The locations I put them in the tank didn’t afford me the best angles for taking photos, so a couple are pretty blurry. These corals are a lot healthier though, great polyp extension and colors (they need to adjust to my placement still).
Pink Lemonade
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Red Planet
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New SPS Frags
Picked up some new frags last night from a local reefer. Got a Tyree Pink Lemonade, ORA Pearl Berry, ORA Red Planet, and a blue millepora. The Pearl Berry has the best coloration at this point. He said he hasn’t changed his MH lamps in about 2 years, so I’m hoping they all color up nicely in the upcoming weeks. I’ll try to get pics soon.
Also got in touch with another local reefer and may pick up another coral or two in the next few days.
You really have to admire the ability for corals to adapt and grow. It’s amazing to me that in a stable environment a 1/2″ branch of coral can grow to a baseball size and beyond in the span of a year, if not months in some cases. Puts some perspective on the magnitude of damage that has been done to wild reefs.
Wow, long time no update
I can’t believe how much time has passed since I’ve updated this blog! I guess I’ll skip some of the boring routine maintenance that I’ve done, and jump straight into some observations, changes, and tonight’s maintenance to get things back up to date.
The tropicana twister montipora (see photo to right) suffered pretty badly this week. A blue caulastrea had a growth spurt and in the span of two nights killed off more than half the montipora with its sweeper tentacles. Today I broke off the montipora as best as I could and moved it to another spot in the tank. I wasn’t able to get much of it; about 2 thirds of what remained came off, the other third stayed in place next to the caulastrea. Unfortunately, about half of the 2/3 broke as I removed the coral… so I am left with two small slivers of the coral. That’s more than enough to continue growing, but this one is such a slow grower I’m not sure what success I’ll have.
Annie has been getting a bit aggressive towards the female pajama cardinal. Can’t remember if I’ve posted that yet or not. The aggression is limited to swimming over to the PJ and hovering next to it for 10 minutes at a time. Subtle cues, but real.
The male pajama cardinal is carrying eggs, by the way. Several days into this batch, I forgot to note when I first saw him carrying. It had been a while since the last batch. Like updating this blog, I wasn’t as regular at feeding the tank every night for a couple weeks and I’m sure this was a primary reason in their not breeding.
In anticipation of less time to spend on the tank once our baby arrives, I am starting to put together an autofeeder. It will utilize a dosing pump and liquid foods to feed the tank several times over the course of the day. I will still plan on feeding with Rod’s food at least every other day, since it offers such a balanced nutritional mixture. I’ve bought the dosing pump already, and next materials on the list are a reliable and small fridge to hold the food, and a couple timers to control the pump. Pretty simple solution, which I’ll describe in more detail when the system comes together.
These past two weeks I’ve removed a considerable amount of algae from the tank. Caulerpa and turf algae, primarily, with a few bubble algaes too. The turf algae comes up easily enough in clumps, leaving bare exposed rock below. The caulerpa had really built up in the crevices of the rockwork – pretty easy to see where I have lower flow in the tank. I have also been replenshing the GFO media every two weeks. I am hoping that by using the GFO to pull phosphates out of the water, and exporting nutrients by plucking the algaes, I will continue to pull the phosphates out of the rocks. I still believe they are saturated – or at least holding some amount of phosphate – and are driving the algae growth. Especially since algae seems to reoccur on the same rocks, while others have always remained algae free.
Tonight I replaced the hose on the discharge of the return pump. I blew out the detritus in the sump, and noticed that there was a leak where the old hose was pushed onto the pump discharge. I have a few feet of 1/2″ black tubing in the closet, and that was a perfect replacement.
Also did a 10-gallon water change tonight, with a GFO changeout. Mixed a little extra salt in the new water to raise the salinity a bit – reading 1.025 which is just a bit low. This is from topping off fresh water with what the skimmer removed – slowly lowers the salinity in the tank a bit. Speaking of, cleaned the skimmer neck and cup tonight too.
This week will bring some new corals – hopefully Weds evening. Picking up some frags from a local reefer or two. I will also keep an eye on the caulerpa in the tank, maybe pluck a little more out a couple evenings when (if) I see it in large clumps.
