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.