The new sump I built to go under my 29g was installed this evening. It is working just as planned, and looks great! I made a new webpage with all the details and pictures.
Overall, everything is doing fine. The mating of the two mandarins doesn't appear to be likely, at least for now. The green Target is still very aggressive toward the orange female Target Mandarin. She continues to seek food, but the male will suddenly swoop in with a burst of speed, his dorsal fins fully extended -- and she darts into the rockwork for safety.
By 9pm Friday night, the bird's nest coral was completely white. Man, was that fast. :(
It looks like something took a big bite out of the Hammer Coral. I wonder if it was the Urchin, as it eats coralline algae - calcium-based algae. Hammer corals have a calcium base that the polyps grow upon. I may have to remove the Urchin, as it does tend to knock over corals I care about.
I haven't seen my large bristleworms in the 29g's refugium in about a week. I wonder if I just am looking at the wrong time, or if the mud crab decided to make a meal of them.
Here are a few nice shots taken recently.
First, my Maxima. It has been in my 29g reef under 165w PC lighting on CC substrate for 16 months.
Some Orange Bytor Zoanthids. I'm proud of this shot. They are in my 55g reef with MH lighting.
For a brief moment, the two mandarins were swimming together, but then they went their separate ways. Since adding the Orange one, the Green Target Mandarin is not out as much. I'm not sure why yet. I fed the tank with live Brine Shrimp to make sure the new mandarin has some live food to eat, and everyone in the tank was excited to chase this live food for once.
Today, I only saw the new Mandarin twice, and the Porcelain Crab once. Hopefully all will go well in the days to come, and they'll be less shy and easier to find.
Here are a bunch of new pictures that I took recently:
This is the view from the right side of my 55g reef tank.
View from the left side of the same tank.
This first picture was taken in the LFS before I bought it: Orange Target Mandarin in a tank
Wow, it's been over a week since I added any news....
The Lobophylia lost one of its two polyps. When you have a coral with only two, and one dies, it is quite a loss. It had been receeding and I was target feeding it to help it heal, but for some reason the fish all decided that it was better as a tasty meal than as a recovering coral. :( I watched the Coral Beauty and the Hippo Tang both pick it clean within a 12 hour period. Thankfully they've not touched the other polyp and it still looks healthy and happy.
Last night, I picked up a tank raised True Percula from Gary. It was chased out of his display by some mean clowns, and was living in his sump. Very small in size, I think this is part of Andy's first brood of clownfish.
I added it to my 29g late last night after lights were out, and after a few hours checked to see what was going on. The 6 year old True Percula was guarding his anemone and pretty much chasing the baby clown away. However, I think that is part of the dominance thing, and finally went to sleep.
