No one ever correctly guessed this one... it's Green Star Polyps growing on an old gorgonian skeleton.

I was excited, thought someone might of discovered pulsing xenia that glows green!

Tank is looking great as always, sorry to hear about the Pintail! If it makes you feel any better I found my last mystery wrasse crispy ON TOP of my mesh screen. Starting to get the feeling that wrasses can teleport on command...
Levi

Looks like things are trucking along. That gsp is trippy!

It's looking AMAZING!

I am going to order more of it from that supplier. :biggrin:

I want one!

It gets everyone. They're like, "Is that a gorgonian?" I'm like, "Yep." They're all, "What kind?" Me, "Special GSP kind." Them, "Woah, it's branching GSP?" Me, "Nope, it's special kind."

I know, eh?! :D I knew I saw potential.

I'll make frags someday, if not, maybe Dan will get his paws on more. :D

Well, 10 weeks after the mini-crash (ugh, it's been a long haul) I think I'm finally starting to enjoy the tank again. I've been adding some corals - 3 wild Aussie Acros (inc the one above), and a few maricultured mini-colonies. With a few bigger pieces interspersed it's starting to look nicer - you can actually see corals, not just rock! http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/im...es/grlaugh.gif I just did this week's water change and glued down frags/mini-colonies that are doing well. I've had some trouble adding frags, but my mini-colonies are all doing really well. Everything is pale though as nutrients are nonexistent. I'm not doing anything to "fix" this other than feeding the fish 4-5x per day. I've seen a patch of green cyano near the anemone and diatoms are a bit more lush than I'd like, so I added a half dozen Ring Cowries a couple days ago. I still have a fair bit of Bubble Algae as my two Emerald Crabs who almost had it cleaned up perished during the mini-crash. I found a little haven of Aiptasia anemones in a nook that I nuked - hopefully they won't rear their ugly head again.

I tested alkalinity a couple days ago, and it was 6.85 dKH so I dosed up to 7.2 dKH, then another up to 7.6 dKH. That's the first time I've dosed alkalinity for 12 weeks! Finally, the growth is superceding my water changes again. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/im...lies/smile.gif

All I'm dosing these days is 3 drops per day Sponge Power which I've been doing for the last 3 weeks.

I'm almost done a bucket of H2Ocean, and I'm going to order up a bucket of Aquaforest Probiotic Reef Salt which I'm excited to try out.

I added a Gyre XF150 to the mix, and I've been able to run it on a quick pulse at 50% with some careful positioning. PE has improved significantly since this addition after a couple days of them getting used to it. I still have the two 6055 running full blast too. With the Gyre supposedly pushing 4200 gph at 100%, I guess I have it somewhere around 2000 gph? Plus 3000 gph from the two 6055. So, ramping 3000 to 5000 gph total? Or 45-75x turnover. Sounds nice to me. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/im...lies/smile.gif

I'll try to get some pics tonight when the lights are on full.

Here's some pics from tonight of new goodies.


Humilis from Coral Master
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...%2019%2019.jpg



A maricultured piece. I haven't tried to ID it yet. The tips are actually very bright blue, but my white balance took it out.
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...%2019%2014.jpg



This it a frag from a maricultured piece that I'm told looked like an SSC when it came in. I'm interested to see what happens. Everything in my tank is pale, but it's pink with blue tips.
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...%2019%2025.jpg


This is a brand new maricultured piece. It has faded quite a bit in the few days I've had it. At the LFS it had lots of pink/salmon in the tips, orange corallites, and green base. I can't wait for it to color up - I think it could be a real stunner.
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...%2019%2026.jpg


This is a wild Aussie Acro. I haven't ID'd it. I got half, and Scythanith got the other half - appears to be a tabler. Solid lime green for now - not too exciting.
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...%2019%2017.jpg



Maricultured "Wolverine".
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...c%2019%206.jpg


Another wild Aussie Acro - tenuis I believe. It arrived at the LFS very pale. I was pretty sure it would RTN on the first night, but it's hanging on. Scythanith has the other half of this one too. The blue that is on the tips is cobalt color, and the center of the corallites is lime green. Lots of polyp extension near the base, but not much at the tips.
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...%2019%2012.jpg

Looks good . Nice stuff !!!
Any full tank shots lately ?

Wow! Wow and wow! Gorgeous! :wink:

Thank you! I was thinking I should post a fts soon. I'll do that soon.
Thank you, it's starting to come along.

Wow Mindy great job a true labor of love! With the x-mas break right now catching up on tank journals and getting excited to resurrecting the bio cube with mucho modifications. Great job and awesome tank and journal!

looks awesome! What did you end up using for sand?

Thank you for your comments. :) The tank survived my being out of town for 6 days even though the top off chamber ran out of water (surprisingly), and the return pump wasn't really pumping anything anymore.

Funny you ask because a week ago I gave in and added about 4 cups of a random coarse mix I had laying around. The coarse mix is about half crushed coral (a smooth, round type), and half Caribsea Super Reef. I added that to the 3/4" or so of Caribsea Special Grade that's in there (which I found too uniform looking).

The rocks have a bunch of bacteria on them, as if I was overdosing a carbon source, but I'm not dosing anything except Sponge Power. The rocks have had this bacteria bloom for probably 6 weeks now, and it's getting annoying. The water hasn't been super clear in a long time, and the filter pads feel slimy when I change them out. I'm not sure what's causing, but hopefully it will cycle out soon. I'll dose some CoraL Snow tonight and see if that helps.

A few FTS from just now.

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...026%202015.jpg

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...202015%202.jpg

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...202015%204.jpg

http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...202015%203.jpg

Looks good, but don't let Brad see those frag plugs.

Haha, those aren't glued down. I remove the plugs when I glue them down. My pics aren't very good though, I've never been good at FTS, pics always look washed out.

As do all serious reefers...

Sheesh.

In time, young Jedi, you will learn :)

I think you meant Padawan.

:biggrin:

I'm new at this, gimme a break!

Here's a pic of the bacteria growth on the live rocks. I'm not doing any carbon dosing, so I'm kinda wondering if this growth may be due to my using a very small amount of live rocks (only 28 lbs). I bought a couple liters of Siporax in October, maybe it's time to get that online. I dosed 3 mL Coral Snow last night (80 gallons net), and it seemed to knock the bacteria back a bit this morning, and there is better PE today than yesterday.

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/12...ec7f881a78.jpg

FTS look great !

Tanks looking good Mindy!

A member from another forum and myself have both had the 'white fuzz', it eventually went away after a few weeks without much effort or worry about it. Though I did add a few scarlet hermits to the cleanup crew. I wouldn't panic over it, but holding off on the dosing is a good idea.

I also had the white fuzz. It was worse in low light areas. Lasted a month then just went away. Never did find out what it was

Thanks guys. :)

Some of the guys over on RC think it's an alga, not bacteria. I'm not sure. To me it looks just like what happens when you dose too much MB7 or VSV. I have lots of Scarlet Hermits in the tank - none of my CUC touches it.

This is different then, it's only in lit areas.

Curious. The plot thickens! Keep us posted on it.

Last night I added a big male Pintail and a really nice Carpenter's Wrasse to my QT. The Carpenter's Wrasse has really nice coloring and was eating at the LFS, but it's in very rough shape. I give it 50/50. They'll both get a FW dip today.

So I skipped the last two nights of Sponge Power dosing, and that along with the two doses of Coral Snow seem to have knocked the bacteria (alga?) back quite a lot (60-70%?) compared to last weekend. Today is WC day, and now I think of it, I've also been dosing Prodibio BioDigest which is due today, and I will not dose it.

Some pics from New Years' Day. :) I took the closeup pics and then proceeded to do a water change and big clean up; I took a toothbrush to the rocks scrubbing and siphoning the Bubble Algae, and the bacteria (algae?). I also scraped the back wall real good and cleaned the powerheads. Plus I did another round of glue/epoxy/glue to the frags that have been doing well and I've decided where to put them. After that cleared I took a new FTS at the end.


I'm liking where this one is going:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...02016%2029.jpg



I don't care what anyone says, I love the blue and green contrast on the Montipora "crapitata".
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...02016%2026.jpg



For a mariculture piece, it has really held it's color well. Only faded a sniff at first, and I think it's back to the color it was when it came out of the bag at the LFS. I need to try to get an ID on it, and maybe get another one with different color:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...02016%2024.jpg



A bit bleached and not sure why.
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...02016%2021.jpg


Hawkin's "Echinata" mostly recovered from the mini-crash:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...02016%2011.jpg



The corallites on this papillare are neon, but my camera didn't pick it up well:
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...202016%209.jpg


This SSC has always been super fussy for me - the first one to lose color and the last one to gain it back, but it's tough as nails! At least it's showing some color again. It's been turd brown ever since the mini-crash and grows sooooo slow that it hasn't covered the STN'd tips yet.
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...202016%202.jpg



FTS after scrub/clean.
http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...02016%2032.jpg

Looking good always nice to see the pieces come back after

See Warren? Frag plugs were removed when mounted on the rocks! ;) Except that one papillare that's not glued down yet (I can't find a happy place for it), and it fell off the rocks now anyway and is back on the sand. :lol:

What kind of lighting do you guys keep your SSC (Strawberry Shortcake) under? I have it at the top of my rock formation on the right-hand side. After reading "The Farm" journal on RC and seeing the most ridiculously neon yellow Acro ever, he mentions BLASTING yellow Acros with light to get the nicest color. So I'm kinda thinking I want to put a yellow Acro in that top spot where the SSC is. The left side is only for tabling Acros, so a Wolverine or other bush-type yellow would have to be on the right. I have stags mingled around in the back of the tank, so a yellow stag could go on the left and be blasted, but they grow upright so fast that I don't think yellow is a good option for a stag. Plus, I still want an exquisita for a stag, and I've never seen a yellow exquisita. I'd love to find a Banana Lokani.

Oh, and how the heck do you guys get nice FTS???? This has ever eluded me! Mine always look washed out, never colorful. My tank looks a lot better than my FTS.

Yes, it sure is! There are a couple others that STN'd almost to death, but still have like a dime-sized patch growing. :lol: I've been taking pics to follow their progress too.

I noticed :)

Looks good!
I'm assuming that the "algae" was feeding on the silicates in the sponge power?

As for yellow acros I put my pink lemonade at the highest point I could and it has gone crazy yellow and exploded with growth.

Keep the pics comming

If it was/is algae, then yes that's the likely culprit. If it's bacteria, then I'm not sure what the culprit was/is. If it is algae, I do wonder why the Coral Snow had such a reducing affect on it.

Pink Lemonade...hmm, yeah that's a good yellow one if it stays yellow. I know it's green and pink for a lot of people. I was trying to avoid the Pink Lemonade since it's fairly similar to the SSC (especially if it tends towards green rather than yellow) and I have limited space, but yeah if it's really yellow that would look good.

I would almost speculate that the coral snow was being caught buy the "algae" and with the particulate holding organic matter may have feed the bloom.
But I'm only guessing

You may find it cheaper to switch to food grade bentonite rather than coral snow.
A $9 bag from Amazon has lasted me over a year

Maybe I'm misunderstanding you, but the Coral Snow seemed to knock back the algae/bacteria, not fuel it.

Bentonite, eh? I've never really looked into what was in it. I assumed it was something calcium-based. From Wiki: "Bentonite is an absorbent aluminium phyllosilicate clay consisting mostly of montmorillonite." Where did you get this information? I'm assuming it's a "best guess" sort of a thing since Zeovit won't actually say what's in their products.

My bad I read in your post that you stopped the sponge power and coral snow. (misread)

It was reef central where I originally found out about bentonite. Some holistic people also eat it as a way to clear toxins from digestive tract