15 Watts DIY Fuge light was installed!

I made a fuge light and installed it behind the tank.
Light bulb used: CFL 2700K soft white 15watts / 60wt equivalent

Maint after 2 weeks vacation

Right after I came back I found my tank in dispair, but all corals and fish were alive.
The water was covered by the filmy scum due to the overflow grid being blocked with hair algae.
Immediately I proceeded with pruining the hair algae with my fingers. This resulted in clearing of the scum in a matter of minutes from opening up the overflow grid.

Maint Day: New Intro

Today I added Kenya Tree of a medium size. Put it in a shell next to Pulsing Xenia. We'll see if they will co-exist.
Also prepared tank for my vacation:
1 - bucket PWC
Reduced light cycle by cutting actinic lighting by 2 hours in the morning.
Removed chaeto remains from the back-chamber - there was almost nothing left.
Left my mom instructions on feeding once a week and a bucket of water

Old Air-bubble problem Returned...

At night the problem with airmist spewing from powerhead had returned. I implemented the cure that helped previously and it worked this time too: added more water to the system.

Livestock recount...

So over the past few weeks I have sustained some losses.
Here is the recount of the lifestock as of today:

• Occelaris clownfish - 2
• GBT Anemone - 1
• Hermit crabs - some
• Leather shroom - 1
• Toadstool - 1
• Small mushroom not sure if it is alive.
• Xenia - 1
• Montipora - 1
• Zoa - 1 head & 25+ heads colony
• Green Star Polyps - 3 1/2" colonies - all recovering after fragging.
• Clove polyps - 1 colony with 4 heads were 7 before lost due to algae bloom probably.
• Brittle worms

Lighting Adjustment + Feeding

Today I adjusted the lighting regimen: so Actinic kicks in at 6:30 AM and turns off at around 9:00 PM.
10K kicks in around 10:00 AM and turns off around 7 PM.
Boy those corals color up under actinics! GSP starts glowing bright green and zoa glow dark blueish greeen.
Larger GSP started to spread to the back of the rock.
I'm still combatting GHA (Green Hair Algae), but it seems to be manageable.
Lots of coraline started to pop-up on the glass (maybe in response to more regular water changes and dosing of trace+iodine + buffer?

• Regular morning feeding of corals: 28 drops of phyto.
• Regular morning feeding of clowns: frozen fish food.

Morning Feeding & Status Update

Both Monti corals stopped moving (being knocked over) and seem to be fine.
The ricordea took her rough transfer to new home well and seemed to already expand in her new place.
The yesterday's hitchhiker could not be found (maybe it didn't expand yet.)
The clowns were hungry. I fed them with the defrosted food right after adding 26 drops (1/2 suggested dose) of the phytoplankton to the tank.

PWC, Fragging...

Today I attempted to frag my Monti...

1. Chipped off a less than 1" frag
2. Glued the frag to the back wall of the tank
3. The frag excerted some (burning sensation) white goo.
4. Performed almost full bucket PWC.
5. Re-glued the frag at lower level, but was unsuccessful and glued it by the hardening white goo.
6. Attempted to re-superglue the mother-frag, but was unsuccessful.

What is the goo? Hopefully both the mother and the frag will do fine... I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Questions: what is that white goo and will my frag be alright? - Can I do anything for it?

Photo Show: GBTA, Toadstool, Monti Cap, Leather, GSP, Zoa

My Tank side and front views:

My GBTA:

My Toadstool:

Monti Cap:

My Leather:

My GSP (Green Star Polyp) & Zoa Rock:

My Leather (again) and a small GSP Frag:

My Clove Polyps:

My small shroom (sweetsop):

My Pulsing Xenia:

Ugh,

I think I finally had covered all of my corals... I can not photograph fish as they move way too fast for my sony Mavica. I did not photograph my hermits and my snails because they all hid away.

PWC & Measurements

1 Bucket PWC was carried out.
Ammonia registered at 0!
Temperature was OK = 79 F.
Trimmed the hair algae and scrubbed some rocks clean of it with the brush scrubber.
Cleaned Glass.
Feeding fish with new stuff (they take it more eagerly than the brine shrimps.
Need to test for Nitrates, Nitrites & Phosphates.

Maint Day

This morning when I woke up the lights were already on. I looked at the lid, and didn't see the BTA. So I started to look for it around the tank and couldn't find it. Then I saw her to the right of the lid all bubbled up! I should say that when I was acclimating and transferring her her tentacles were all long. She looks dark and comphy in her new spot.
I administered feeding of some frozen mysis, but the clowns were not too excited about them.
Then I rearranged the rockwork trying to move rocks away from the glass to make the glass easier to clean.
Scraped the glass a bit at the bottom and the sides. The tank looks awesome!
Once I get out of $6900 debt I'll make myself a gift and will buy a bigger tank.

Addition of Sea GBTA

Tonight when I brought some snails and a Green Bubble Tip Anemone from a friend on Manhattan Reefs home the lights were already out.
The anemone came in a plastic snak can from super market. It convinently attached itself to the lid. So all I needed to do was to dump the water from the cup into acclimator and squeez the lid in. Then I dropped in the snails.
Next, I established a dripper from the tank to the acclimator. In about an hour the water had tripled.
At this moment I took the five snails out and dropped them in the 14G. The anemone was still attached ot the plastic lid. Squishing it off with a finger didn't lead to anything, so I followed an advice by not forcing her off and just put the lid behind the rock where I wanted her to be. The lid floated off..! OK, second try - I lifted the rock and squeezed the lid in between the rock and the back wall. It stayed and I went to sleep.

PWC & (Failed) Attempt to Frag Xenias.

Pre-Change:
SG: 1.024
t = 83.2
A 1 bucket PWC was carried out.
An attempt to re-glue the xenia corals from the back wall to the rock failed (hopefuly NOT resulting in death of both branches...) we'll see later.
I WILL NOT ATTEMPT TO FRAG XENIAS ANY TIME SOON BEFORE I LEARN A TRICK ON HOW TO DO THAT.

PWC & status Update

Over the weekend the sea hare died in my friend's tank...
In my tank:
Both Xenia species are doing great.
Leather is expanding with some bristles on the endges.
Toadstool is sprouting legs.
Clove polyps are fine.
Some zoa heads are opening up.
Fishes are happy.
1-bucket PWC was carried out. The skimmer was adjusted.
Parameters:
Sg: 1.023 - pre-cahnge

PWC & Status update.

The water has film on the top.
1 Gallon PWC was carried out.
Pre-change salinity 1.024. Solution salinity 1.017.
Sea hare, both fishes, xenias and the Pinky shroom are fine.
The toadstool is not expanding after being thrown off its rock, but seems to be fine. The other shroom is expanding a bit.
I want to frag and remount one of the back-ground xenias for DBTC.

Found Sea Hare - He's still Alive!

In the morning I checked my filter part of the tank and found one of the clowns swimming there. In attempt to fish him out he was dropped on the floor and then picked up. I dropped him in the tank and in the evening he seemed fine! - Amazing!

The seahare was clinging to the wall today:

Morning After Intro

One of the clowns I noticed was wobbling around the bottom right cornder. The other was swimming extremely tilted and next to the surface.
Ammonia check using API solution showed 0.50 reading. Will have to make a PWC later on.
Added 10 ml of Stress Zyme.

Clowns introduction

So, this evening I got two clown fishes (tank raised, I'm trying to be reef friendly). I let them float in the bag for a while. In the mean time I was cleaning up the apartment. Then I made a drip-acclimator (an airline connected to a straw with two paper clamps to hold it in place and a flow regulator from a medical thingy. I ensured slow-flow into the bag so they got chemically acclimated rather quickly since it was late already and I needed to go to sleep.

Sunday - PWC

A 1 bucket PWC was carried out and 10 ml of Zyme was used to declorinate it.
Pre-change SG = 1.024.
Zoas started to open-up in their new spot, Cloves seem to be happy too. The Green hydnophora not much so, I'm afraid it is bleaching, but hope it'll be fine.

Tests

Saturday tests showed the NO3 & NO2 to be at 0 level; and Ammonia at .25

Finally the Skimmer is working right! +1 Clove Polyp!

Finally the skimmer stopped overflowing.
So I counted 8 total heads on my clove polyp rock!
Another rock still has only one head

Morning Temperature too high (81 F!)

I noticed that the morning temperature shot up to 81F so I turned the fans on to bring the temp back down.

Moved Zoa

At night after the lights were out I moved the zoa rock over to the algae covered one (closer to the light source. Will check if they will be opening up this way.

Clove Polyps are great Zoas not so much

t= 77.1F

Today I have counted 7 heads on the rock that I want to leave for myself.
Here are they are on rock:


I'm leaving this for myself.





The rock below I plan to pass on to the next member:




The photo below is of my Zoas and of some bug (that is said to be a pod) on the glass:

Clove Polyp Frag doing great!

This morning I checked on the Clove polyp rock that I found some Clove Polyps on. They all expanded to about 1/3" from 1/4" and became thicker and healthier looking.
The Zoas were still closed in the morning. So I took their rock and moved out to the out most left corner of the tank. I'll see if they will opend duringthe day.

Swap back to original Oceanic PH

When I came home at night I noticed that the powerhead I put is making way too much noise and vibrations. I swapped it back for the original Oceanic powerhead.

Stopping Coralia Powerhead problem solved!

Today the Coralia powerhead stopped spinning again!
I disconnected the pump to check the flow and it was pretty fine.
Then I checked the head intake nozzle and it turned out to be all clogged up wiht chaeto!
So I cleaned it out with a toothpick. Hopefully it'll be fine now - will check in the evening.

Pump upgrade

This morning when I woke up I found out that the coralia head stopped spinning.
I had swapped original oceanic water pump (140 gph?) with MaxiJet 600 rated 160 gph and the head started to spin again.
I also found out that I need to buy a sponge for filtration to be inserted in the output chamber.
The only sponge currently in the filter is the one on top of the filter basket.

Enjoyment time!

Today I had a chance to enjoy all my hard work!


The Zoas opened up, the Leather is showing off some bumps, Kenya Tree expanded - all seems to be good; the only thing - I'm not sure if Green Hydnophora is OK after being re-glued. It is electric green, but I don't see any bumps except for two on top right:

During the hike later in the day I coudn't hold myself from thinking about my tank. Now I have something I'm proud to show off!

Glueing & Observing Zoas Close with 10K off

So, today the pleasant discovery was that on of the Kenya Tree frags on the coral plug survived and opened up to 1/4"! (Look at the plug to the left of Leather)



I had arranged the new arrivals: Leather was put on a rock, zoas were super-glued to a bigger rock; Hydnophora was re-glued in place.

The toadstool is doing well in my opinon (it is expanding at least some polyps on its previously smooth surface.
I counted about 35 zoa heads on the frag I gotten. Some of them actually opened up today and I could notice sweeper tentacles.

Green hydnophora is also doing well I saw some new bumps on it (probably expanded tentacles too).
Interesting: the zoas closed almost right after the 10K lights went off!

In the evening I noticed some whitish worm living in one of the live rocks. I hope he's not harmful to the corals...

New Arrivals: Zoas & Leather

Today I bought two new corals: a rock of Zoas and a Leather looking like toadstool.
I brought them home and acclimated:

1. Floated bags in the tank for about 1 hour
2. Put frags into plastic containers with their own water
3. Started to increase water voume in plastic containers by adding the water from the tank.
4. Once about 50% of water was changed (on a stretch of about 1 hour) frags were deposited into the display tank. by firstthrowing them in separate containers and then i

Adition of Filter Cartridge, PWC

Today I found out that my tank should have a filter cartridge from Petco employee. So I bought one for $10.00 at Petco.
In the evening I had carried out a PCW of one almost full bucket. Then removed all the liverock rubble from the intake chamber and installed the filter cartridge into it. I had placed the rubble back into the display portion of the tank.
There is still trickling noise caused by the the mid-chamber being not full and still algae presence on the tank glass dure to recent ammonia spike and ammonia staying at .25 level.

PWC Day

After addition of more live sand the green hair algae took off again!
Katy is gone :-( but Hydro is doing well or so it seems.
I still see no point of using the skimmer though as it doesn not collect anything (everything gets spilled over.
1-bucket PWC was carried out today.

Morning t= 79F

The Green Hydnophora is doing well I see the polyps reappearing. Katy (older Kenya Tree frag is mysteriously gone. Lights function properly

Addition of live sand

Added livesand from the bucket where had been stored back into the display tank. Will have to check the water parameters tonight to ensure Ammonia didn't spike-up.

Kenya Tree's (Katy's) Disappearance

Today I noticed that Kenya Tree Katy disappeared. I wasn't a good daddy because I didn't look her up... I'll have to do it tomorrow night. Skimmer is behaving strangely - it produces lots of soft foam that disappears as soon as the cup is taken off. The cover from the cup is being blown-off almost right after the cup is placed back on the skimmer. Will have to investigate why this happens...
The green hydnophora is... well it is green, but I don't know if it is doing well

Tank upgrade to 14G

Today is the big day!
I got a 14G Oceanic Biocube tank!
It is a major upgrade as the tank has separate light conrols for each light (Actinic, 10K and Lunar); it also has a skimmer and a mid chamber can be used for chaeto as the back is clear glass.
The tank came with some live sand and some rocks.

First other than corals inhibitants spotted!

The Kenya Tree is not doing very well after being glued to the rock in the middle of the tank probably due to stress, but maybe due to reduction in lighting because of the chaeto...
The baby Kate is not doing well as well as she was knocked off during the move and glueing of Katy... I'm dreaming of a large (16") tank...

Today I found other life forms on the front of my glass. Some white 1/4" long "bugs" were crawling on the front window. I keep wondering what are they?

In the evening 3/4-bucket PWC was carried out. Some more foam was put into the first chamber of the filter. The heater was moved to the right. And a handfull of chaeto was removed to provide more light to Katy. The picture above was taken prior to chaeto removal.

Temperature drop

The temperature dropped this night to 75 F which still was within normal parameters. I'm starting to eye a tank upgrade!

Corals Gluing

Tonight, I have turned the lights back on since I came home late.
Then I took the Superglue Gel and glued both Kenya Tree (to the branched rock) and Green Hydnophora to the back rock. Right after the procedure I turned off the powerhead as I was advised on one of the forums. Sure I turned off the lights as well.
A side note: either dosing some burbon or intro of chaeto have helped tremendously to reduce the hair and slime algae.

Addition of Green Hydnophora ($8)

A 1-bucket PWC was carried out.

Today I bought off MR member a piece of Green Hydnophora. I had acclimated it by placing the bag into the tank and then pouring water into the bag with a small scoop over time.
Then I had placed the coral on top of the rock, but it was leaning against the glass so I had it relocated on another rock in the center of the tank. The coral feels soft to touch with a stony core.
I didn't see it under "daylight" yet

Dosing of Bourbon

After some heavy dosing of alcohol in myself I decided this morning to dose some into my tank as well. I measured approximately.25ml into a syringe and sprayed it into the tank. On the forums it was said to help grow bacteria and reduce green hair algae.

Addition of water

The problem with the surface skimmer over this weekend resulted in the water level drop in the exhaust chamber. I had to manually lower the skimmer cup down to allow for refill of the three chambers.
Then I had added the water mixing up fresh with pre-mixed salt water.

Major Change in Flitration

As I was told multiple times biorings in marine aquaria cause issues with Phosphate etc. Phosphate in turn feeds green hair algae. My tank is being overrun by gha.
So, to combat this issue:

1. I had removed all biorings from the middle chamber of my filter along with filter pads.
2. I took one of the gha covered rocks from display and crushed it with wire cutters placing the rubble in the middle chamber. I had filled it up by use of another ugly rock from display.
3. I had placed the the filter pads into the left (intake) chamber of the filter where the heater is.

Hopefully the change above will help with stabilizing the parameters and bringing them back to norm

Day after Intro

Evening temperature is around 80F
That is the upper limit for my corals.
The high temperature is the result of having the PC lights on during the day time.
The Katy & baby Kay are doing great.
Xenia seems to be OK in her new spot on top of the rock, she is pulsating, but not expanding her polips. I don't know if this is "normal" behavior or not. Will have to give it another day.
My parameters are not 100% good after all and she could be still stressed after short exposure to the air (in attempt to silicone her to the rock) or after being pinched by a rubber band when the sliconing attempt failed.

Got Xenia Coral - my second coral!

Got Xenia coral today.
Acclimating it by placing in a small box and squirting water out and in with a syringe.
1st 5ML
2nd 10 ML until I get 50% water changed.

Dumped some Chaeto

Got some chaeto yesterday and dumped it in the tank. Hopefully it will help with the brown slime on the glass and with hair algae on the rocks. Will arrange it tomorrow.

Attempt to re-wire the ballast

Opened ballast box.
Found 9v LL adaptor.
Will cut feeding cords from adaptor and replace them with the new feeding cord leading out of the box through a square hole.

3rd Attempt on Kenya Tree Fragging

So I found a small branch next to my Katy. I picked it up. Then I cut a cork short and slit it in the middle. I opened the cut with a screwdriver and inserted the leg of a frag into the opening. The only problem was that the cork... well... it floats up! So I secured it at the bottom with a piece of rock. In the morning the frag was still there unlike in all other cases!
Hopefully it will grow big.

Both Frags found

This moring I found the cause of the high temperature in my tank: PC lights!
I also have found both frags of Katy. They do not get attached to pegs with the floss. I have to find another way. The polyps on both frags do not expand as they used to when they were still part of the tree. We'll see if they make it into new trees as people say KT is hard to kill.

Morning after Fragging

Morning t= 75.7
This time the frag remained in place. After the lights were turned on both Katy & Baby Kay were still shrug, I'll check on them in the evening.
The

1/2 Successful Fragging

Tonight I couldn't hold myself from the second attempt at Fragging Katy.
This time I decided to use scissors to snip off a larger branch from the back of the tree.
So with scissors I did snip off a branch.
Then I took a cup and put some tank water into it to keep baby Kay dump at least.
Tieing it to a peg was a pain, I used old tie trick with a self tightening tie knot. that seemed to hold her in place. So I put the peg in te sand covering the base of the coral.
Like after the previous attempt the polyps on both, mother and daughter had shrug.

Fragging Failed.

Sure enough the baby Kay didn´t make it. It was either that she didn't survive the time out of water or was carried away by the current and is going to re-attach herself somewhere else in the tank. I'm going to attempt frag Katy again this weekend.

Day After fragging: Not so good

t= 77 F
This morning after the lights came up the Katy was shrug and baby Kay was laying on the sand. We'll see in the evening.

Fragging Day

This morning KaTy was flown off the rock, so I decided to replant her back into the sand in the center of the tank.
Morning t was around 75 F.
I had fed Katy with phytoplankton.

Evening: I noticed a small branch at the base of Katy. I pinched it off and tied baby Kay to the old coral peg with a piece of floss. Baby Kay was out of the water during the operation. Post operation the polyps on both corals shrug. We'll see how will they do tomorrow...

Tank Downgrade (Aesthetic upgrade)

So today I decided to change my setup.
I got a 12G Biocube DX off Manhattan Reefs user.

1. The 12G was put on a chair and the water was put in it (1/2")


2. Water was taken out from 10G into a bucket from salt.


3. Rocks & heater were placed in the bucket


4. Coral was placed in the bucket


5. Sand was brushed to check for worms. - No worms were discovered


6. Sand was transferred over into the 12G.


7. Rest of the water was partially saved in a filter (Previously emptied)


8. 10 G was taken off the stand


9. ALL Biomedia from canister filter (foam blocks and biorings) were placed in the back chambers of 12G.


10. 12G was put on the stand.


11. Rockes were placed in 12G


12. Water was poured back into 12G


13. Coral was placed back into 12G.


14. Heater and water pump were plugged in.

Cons:

1. Overall system volume was reduced. (I no longer will use a fuge with this setup nor will I use the canister filter


2. Lights have to turned on and off manually and need to be rewired if to be controlled separately.


3. Fans make a bit of noise.


4. Size too small: I could fit 14 G biocube in its place.

Pros: Aesthetic appeal of the tank improved greately! There is no longer a filter next to it.

Conclusions: I will stick with the 12G biocube for now and will tryto upgrade it to the 14 Gallon in the future.

Top Off

Topped off the tank with fresh water (1/4 bucket). Want to get my 12 gallon nano-cube today. Hopefully will.

KaTy expanded her branches this morning, so I shot another picture of her, this time under the actinic light.

KaTy expanded her branches this morning, so I shot another picture of her, this time under the actinic light.

Coral's behaviour

In the morning KaTy was expanded nicely again, but in the evening eventhough the lights were still on and the temperature was OK she had contracted leaving only branches with buds out. I don't know if that is normal....
After the lights were out I took a picture of KaTy with a flash on my mom's Sony camera.
Morming shot:

Maint Day

Morning:
t= 74.7
Ph = 8.2
Alk = Normal
NH3/NH4 = 0!
SPG = 1.026

Since Ammonia was at zero I decided to skip filter maint till next week.
However I added 14 drops of iodine (1/4 of recommended weekly dosage).
Also sprayed Kenya Tree with phytoplancton, but KaTy had shrug under it.
Will feed it next mid-week with chopped shrimp (frozen).

First day after ReIntroduction - Doing well!

t= 74.4
SP G 1.024
Light: Actinic
Morning: Added Water (1/4 bucket @ SPG 1.018, which did not affect salinity of the system).

Both of the parameters above are withing normal for the coral.
KT had expanded its branches! She is doing well.
Got some offers for Xenia and other corals, will think about adding them.