Z's All New 28g JBJ HQI Adventure

[zcatzmeow]

Time for a tank update because I cannot think of anything else to do, lol. This Friday night is a perfect example of why I need to downsize my tanks. Why? Well, it is Friday night. I got the babies off to bed and since then I've been playing with my tanks.

- Observed copepod culture tank..with magnifying glass...fed phyto.

- Stared and fretted a bit at the 140g. Offers are coming in slow for the tank and the one sale that was good to go has now been pushed back. My pair of discus decided now would be a lovely time to spawn again . I purposefully held off on water changes to discourage them but no luck. So now I have a tank that really needs a water change but there's not much I can do. *sigh*

- Performed partial water change on the 29g JBJ. I've had a sudden outbreak of cyano and diatoms and I can't figure out what is going on. Ammonia is 0, Nitrates/Nitrites are 0, Phosphate is 0. Will take water in to be test by LFS tomorrow. Suctioned out as much cyano as possible, then created a "storm" for about a half hour (turkey baster to rock to really stir things up), and added mechanical media to clean up after the storm.

- Stared an fretted at the HOB refuge. Several days ago I accidentally nuked it. I was doing a flatworm treatment (which I've done before) but I guess I added to many drops. Next morning I woke up to a layer of dead amphipods and a big mess I then did a big clean up of the fuge to get rid of as much dead pods as possible and since then I've been waiting for the population to grow again. Very disappointing. But a word of caution to other pod cultivators...make sure the macro algae you add to pod area is free of flatworms. Do a dip if necessary. There is one species of flatworm that specifically eats pods. I've watched them eat the pods and I watch the pods run from them. To date, I have not been able to get rid of flatworms entirely.

- Performed simulated rainy season water change on the 29g zebra pleco tank to try to stimulate spawning. I've been dropping the temp slowly over the last 24 hrs, turning down flow, hiding their tank from view a little bit. So tonight, close to 50% water change with cooler water, trying to get down to upper 70s, turned back on all air stones and Koralia with high flow, all lights are off. For kicks, I even through in some simulated lightening to try and make a more realistic cold rain storm. Tomorrow I will start raising the temp back up to the upper 80s and see what happens!

(Wow, this sounds like a blog. So sorry, just bored)

Items in tank of interest (because I like to collect unusual or difficult to keep species) :

- Blueberry Gorgonian (trying to revive it)

- Dendrophylia - it's doing great, stays nice and open all day, has started a new polyp, and loves to eat mysis, even the baby polyp tries to shove them in, lol

- Blue Cespitularia - doing great and has doubled it's colony since I've had it

- Pink Carnation - finally have it in a happy spot, shady area & hanging upside down, really pretty pink coral that expands and deflates tremendously

- Yuma - finally has attached to the darn rock and is growing

- Assorted ricordeas - these creatures have it out for me, they are difficult to get attached to rubble and seem very picky about placement, they just detach and leave , several have been placed in jar with rubble to ensure attachement

- Green Bubble Tip Anemone - it's happy! yay! It made it's move around the rock and ended up in a pretty cool spot, sort of center in the tank, it now has it's very own friend, an anemone crab that is the coolest thing ever

- Duncans - ginormous, I think I need to stop target feeding them for a bit

- Mandarin (Beemer) - eating all the time

- Mandarin (Beemette) - too much of an impulse purchase and I did not ensure she was eating before purchase, I don't have high hopes for her but I'm trying


Wish List

- Sun coral - I have a perfect shady cave area
- Ricordea - pinks or yellows
- Yuma - multi-color


And that's it because I've run out of room!

[Hamp]

I would be glad to trade that ric for a frag of oregon tort, and frag of the prism favia when/if you frag them out. I am in no hurry to get rid of it, so check with me when the time comes.

[zcatzmeow]

Yep, it's update time There have been a few changes since my last update.

- Beamette was rehomed to a large established tank.
- Small tank remodel was completed to get more flat surface area to take advantage of the 150w 20k. Oh my, that was a sight to see. I'm glad my tank is still alive, lol. But I made the rocks fit and that's what was important, heehehee
- I've continued to slowly collect more zoas and palys and a few sps frags.
- My love of ricordea has resulted in a designated ricorea rock. Zoas and palys have to go across the way.
- Added gorgeous fish! I looooves him! He is a Fiji Yellow Sailfin blenny. And he's bright, bright yellow, good little algae eater and gets along fine with my tailspot blenny.
- And one other new addition.... a pipefish. He's very cool looking and he chows down on frozen cyclopeeze.
- The cats attacked and destroyed my pod culture tank Those little F'ers sent it crashing down to the tile floor only to be discovered the next morning.
- I'm loving my clams and find them fascinating creatures.

And finally, new pictures! Blenny will give you a little preview


If blenny has you curious and you'd like to see more go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/zcatzmeo...rNano28gJBJHQI

Start at about the 4th row to see the very recent pics. And sorry, my camera focuses on whatever it wants to. We do not get along well at all, so please excuse the quality of the pics. And to do something new, I tried to label some of my corals & the vendors they came from

[addboy]

UNBELIEVABLE.......I was just thinking about getting a Tail-spot Blenny.....Tank looks awesome.

[dustint21]

Very Nice!!!!

[Aquapod24]

Any updates? Let's see some pics.