Tue, 06/06/2006 - 23:45
Today, while I had someone nearby & handy, we worked on the reef tank for a few hours. Some corals were moved, others were fragged for the propagation section, and others were set aside for this weekend's DFWMAS frag swap.
The first coral I ever purchased in this hobby was a Colt leather coral. It has split before over the many years, and shared between two tanks. Due to its massive size currently, it was cut out of the rockwork. The two larger pieces each filled a casserole dish completely. It was thick and heavy and really quite a coral. I saved maybe 10-15% of it in the reeftank.
A Pavona coral that our club fragged heavily in October 2004 has grown steadily in my reef. Today when I lifted it out, I was amazed at how much it had really grown. Here's a picture, with the area marked to denote its original size when I first put what was left of it in my tank. And there's the casserole dish in the background, I see.
Lots of valonia was fed to Spock, cyano blown off where necessary, and red mushrooms & button polyps were cut off the rockwork to assure they wouldn't return in those particular areas.
Here is the tank 3 weeks ago...
And today...
The propagation section has quite a few items in it now. 
That section has some cyano growth as well, and I'm about to treat the tank with Chemi Clean - two packs arrived today along with a new 400w 20,000K XM bulb.
The old bulb was cracked a few days ago...
....and I tried to keep it lit for now while scouring the locals for a used one, but caved in and bought a new one as the UV given off by the bulb was sure to harm some of the corals. I left the bulb off yesteday just because of this. Marine Depot got a new bulb out here beyond fast, to the benefit of the reef. Thanks MD!
...
Sadly, Casper died today. As you may have known, she stopped eating several months ago, unable to snick her food. Somehow she'd stayed alive all this time, basically swimming into food and accidentally inhaling it - I guess. I never did understand how she lived as long as she did. The Kuda seahorse appears fine.
...
A few pictures from above:
A. scripps - growing larger by the day, but the base / core is STNing somewhat. The bulb might have been the cause, and I'm watching it.
A coral from Keith's 135g, before he moved to Atlanta.
A. tenuis
Branching Hammer, recently fragged.
A. valida (Tyree LE)
Tyree fraglets - never waste a bit!
Clowning around in some Frillies
Episode 6 of Reefcast is available for download now. Finally.
Today, while I had someone nearby & handy, we worked on the reef tank for a few hours. Some corals were moved, others were fragged for the propagation section, and others were set aside for this weekend's DFWMAS frag swap.
The first coral I ever purchased in this hobby was a Colt leather coral. It has split before over the many years, and shared between two tanks. Due to its massive size currently, it was cut out of the rockwork. The two larger pieces each filled a casserole dish completely. It was thick and heavy and really quite a coral. I saved maybe 10-15% of it in the reeftank.
A Pavona coral that our club fragged heavily in October 2004 has grown steadily in my reef. Today when I lifted it out, I was amazed at how much it had really grown. Here's a picture, with the area marked to denote its original size when I first put what was left of it in my tank. And there's the casserole dish in the background, I see.
Lots of valonia was fed to Spock, cyano blown off where necessary, and red mushrooms & button polyps were cut off the rockwork to assure they wouldn't return in those particular areas.
Here is the tank 3 weeks ago...
And today...
The propagation section has quite a few items in it now.
That section has some cyano growth as well, and I'm about to treat the tank with Chemi Clean - two packs arrived today along with a new 400w 20,000K XM bulb.
The old bulb was cracked a few days ago...
....and I tried to keep it lit for now while scouring the locals for a used one, but caved in and bought a new one as the UV given off by the bulb was sure to harm some of the corals. I left the bulb off yesteday just because of this. Marine Depot got a new bulb out here beyond fast, to the benefit of the reef. Thanks MD!
...
Sadly, Casper died today. As you may have known, she stopped eating several months ago, unable to snick her food. Somehow she'd stayed alive all this time, basically swimming into food and accidentally inhaling it - I guess. I never did understand how she lived as long as she did. The Kuda seahorse appears fine.
...
A few pictures from above:
A. scripps - growing larger by the day, but the base / core is STNing somewhat. The bulb might have been the cause, and I'm watching it.
A coral from Keith's 135g, before he moved to Atlanta.
A. tenuis
Branching Hammer, recently fragged.
A. valida (Tyree LE)
Tyree fraglets - never waste a bit!
Clowning around in some Frillies
Episode 6 of Reefcast is available for download now. Finally.
