I almost forgot:

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Only a few drops left in the bottle, started 4 years ago! It has served me very well indeed.

I just bought a new bottle at this year's sale, so I'm good for another 4 years :lol:

:cry: Sad to find my tuxedo urchin passed away yesterday. Spike was added to my tank on Feb 5/2016, so almost 4 years to the exact day. He was an exemplary member of the CUC and will be missed. He had slowed down a lot recently so it wasn't a complete surprise. Luckily, I will be able to keep him forever because his skeleton is pretty cool. I guess I have to find out how to make it all white?

RIP Spike
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I've had time to play around with the camera...

Mirror image
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Now I know why this is named Jedi Mind Trick...far out mannn
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Hello, I like you
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Carolinia finally starting to grow. Not sure why I can never capture the yellow colour in photos. It always looks white or beige? :confused:
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I'm really getting up close haha
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I'm having a lot of fun with the nano tank (25ish gal). My plan is for it to be a temperate softy tank, so I can keep some interesting critters in it. It was easy to set up, and has not gone through the "uglies." In fact it's got a lot more coraline than my main tank, which hardly has any. The modest little light and hob skimmer are also doing a fair job. I threw in a Cali tort for fun and it's growing well with good colour. I really enjoy seeing smaller lifeforms up close. Unfortunately, with the current situation, I haven't been able to add as much to it as I would have liked.

I can never seem to take a nice FT shot. It's not as messy as it looks in photos
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I love hitchhikers. These sponges came in on a frag and I had to be super careful to glue it to my rock.
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Taking a break from being sexy to groom a friend
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This mushroom decided an asterina was delicious
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Little hermit enjoying his perch
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These two fellas are tiny! So-oo cute
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Mel likes to dash out at feeding time.
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Woodstock is fuzzy. So cool. Looks more like a coral croucher than a clown goby? He likes to hide but it's easy to find him in a small tank. He's pretty tiny though
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Great pictures and commentary!

Thanks Wardog. This is not the tank for you though - no sump, no dosers, no doodads :lol:

Checked out most of your build from the beginning last night. You've come such a long way in the hobby. Tank and pics are looking great keep it up!

This one made me laugh. Is that a bezerko cyphastrea? Mine has much more polyp extension which conceals the purple base quite a bit. I wish it looked more like yours (if that's what it is).

Thanks for the encouraging words - means a lot coming from you.

Yes it is a Berserko. I’m not sure why but it does not have the nice PE that it did when I first added it. It’s growing well though; was a tiny frag but now has covered the little rock. I’m trying to feed the tank more but it’s hard to get that balance. Any suggestions? (My SPS have decent PE)

Wish I had some words of wisdom for you! My own PE on a few of my SPS has not been good. In the past and even now, I have often had quite pale SPS. My nitrate tests show zero and so does my Hanna P04 (all I ever get is zero even when battling algae). I don't really trust either result a bunch but I may need more nutrients. I'm going to feed a bunch more and see what happens. Is your cyph on the sand? Mine does well at the very bottom of the tank.

I also had pale corals for a while, but after feeding Reef Chili and feeding more, it really improved the colour. I was also having trouble with zoas shrinking, and that seems to be improving as well. I've been following a thread on R2R by a fellow (Bubba) who has amazing SPS, and he advocates feeding generously.
Yes, my cyphastrea is on the sand. I wonder if it's a flow issue. I have sand and so I don't have a lot of current blasting around.

Sad loss / Vibrant win
 

A couple of big events in the big tank.

First, a sad farewell to my YWG and pistol shrimp, from my original four saltwater livestock. RIP Snape and Blondie, you are sorely missed and I'm so sad to lose you after all we've been through. At the end of March, I noticed Snape was acting weird. I thought he was sick but realized I hadn't seen his shrimp all day, later confirmed MIA. After losing his buddy, Snape just went slowly downhill. Abnormal behaviour, wandering aimlessly around the open sand, staying frozen in one spot for several days even after lights out, never really eating. He was removed twice for treatment (eg. weird white welts on his body, likely caused by stress?) and the last one to treat a clouded eye (Furan worked wonders). At least 3 times, I thought he was dead only to be proven wrong. Went through terrible indecision over whether to euthanize or give him a chance to rally as he had done before. Anyway, sorry for the long story. I couldn't buy another shrimp during this shutdown and I never thought or heard that a goby would exhibit this behaviour. I guess I could say he died of a broken heart (he was healthy and I think that's why it took him 6 weeks to slowly starve to death). Others might say he was just in shock over losing a bonded partner. Whatever the case, I know he kinda broke my heart a little.

First photo together Jan04/2016 after getting them from JL's Boxing Day sale. Snape hadn't turned yellow yet. Man, was I ever excited to see them together lol
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I took this just a few days before he disappeared. Blondie was quite the builder, sometimes elaborate sometimes simple. Here, a piece of rubble perfectly placed in his doorway. Pefection lol. Snape went back to the burrow for a few days and then left again for good.
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The second event might be of interest to anyone having similar issues. The tank went though a Vibrant treatment and I'm happy to say it worked pretty well. I noticed a small patch of bryopsis, forgot about it, and next thing you know, it had grown into a thick forest everywhere. Coral were being smothered. I followed instructions from reading a long thread on R2R, did some manual removal, and went cautiously. After 22 doses (most of them twice weekly, the whole process was about 2.5 months), it's about 99% clean. Just a few tiny wisps of algae in a couple of places. No effects to fish, coral, etc at all although I had to remove macroalgae from fuge. I didn't take photos (couldn't stand how bad the bryopsis looked lol). It was slow at first and you think it's not doing much; then one day you look at the tank and realize your rock is nice and clean. I mean - clean. Slow and steady is definitely the way to go. I might do a maintenance dosage for a bit and then stop it altogether.