FarmerTy

Yeah, I've switched to darn these days. I wonder if it censors dagnabit!

Great video! The best part is he's already in the bigger shell... he just wanted to take the other shell for a quick inspection to see if it's any better. I had hopes the brittle star in the background would get involved and make it interesting. Btw, our aiptasia theory holds sound... he's got one at the bottom left of his rockwork.

The Full Apex should have two ports for running dual pH probes Sascha, you just need to buy an additional probe for it. The breakout box is nice but you can DIY if you're handy and make one for 1/3 the price. I was going to do that but a used one came on the market and I aborted my DIY plans for that. If you have Jaebo pumps, getting them hooked up to the Apex would be nice. Victoly can make you a cable or I believe Jaebo is selling an Apex cable these days for their pumps.

The initial dialing in is always fun! I hope you have a lot alk reagent laying around Jestep! FWIW, I recently switched to Reborn media by TLF after 3 years of using ARM media after hearing reports of the ARM media quality going down and some people having problems with it. The big one was hearing that BattleCorals (big time SPS supplier on another forum) switch after having problems with his stock and everything looked better after the switch. The Reborn media looks like dead coral skeleton branches where the large ARM media looked like they harvested and crushed large concretions of aragonite. I'm only 2 months in so I'll let you know how it turns out.

I think your superglue idea may be the ticket... the worry is are there any more you can't see.

I've tried the spreading my fins to look bigger when threatened but I'll have to add the open mouth too next time around... it seems quite effective. AEFW is sadly more common than I think most people realize. If you've collected 20 pieces of acros in the last year, I'm sure at least one or two frags had AEFW. I found Bayer to be highly effective against them but the eggs are the issue... as they will survive the Bayer dip. I actually prefer frags unmounted so that there are no possible areas which eggs can come in on the plug or on dead coral at the base of the frag. There are some that will break off the encrusting portion of the frag and dip the coral in Bayer, then reglue on their own "safe plug". My best preventive for them is a Bayer dip and vigorous shaking of the frag in the solution. Then doing the same in the rinse water. The Bayer only stuns them for the most part so the swishing in the water I feel is key to dislodge them from their coral host. I then monitor the new frag and also my resident frags/colonies for bite marks. The best time to view the bite marks is actually at night, when the lights are off. Just get a bright light source... I find my LED light on my phone to be the best option, and shine it at your acros and look for little oval bite marks (look like faded spots on the acro skin) about the size of a pinhead and a little larger. Honestly, if I even see one bite mark anywhere, I'll dip the whole population of acros in the tank for safety. That involves 3 separate dips of the entire population... day 1, day 4, and day 9. Day 1 to knock most of them off, Day 4 to catch any stragglers, and Day 9 to take it to any that may have hatched from any eggs missed. I dip and replace in tank if anybody is curious and don't bother using a QT tank during this procedure though it might be ideal to do. Hope it helps.

I'm pretty sure it's in their DNA to setup shop on the lowest rock at the bottom of your stack of liverock.

I think your sandbed qualifies as a frag rack more than a sandbed these days Pham!

I can tell from the auto-skimmate doser you call a skimmer there.

I'll throw my skimmate in your tank if it helps you rekindle the interest! [emoji12]

Just swing by some water whenever you want Shawn and I'll test phosphate for you until December rolls around. If I'm not around, just drop it off at the front door and let me know. I'm not too familiar with leathers but I've seen some look half dead come right back. I'm sure it's like what everyone is saying, they are just adjusting to the lights and will spring back to life once acclimated. I do like to give my fish some variety but my staples are mysis shrimp mixed with either some type of mixed meaty frozen food (LRS, Rods, or my own mix) or bloodworms. I'll throw in some of the Pappone's recipe (easily googled) or BRS reef chili every night I feed frozen for some finer foods to feed the corals and sponges. For nights that are not frozen food night, I feed an assorted variety of NLS pellets, flakes, and nori. I'd see if your fish will start accepting some NLS pellets. They are a good source of nutrition, dense, and high in calories (little water weight compared to most frozen). When I had a nano, I feed more pellets and only gave frozen foods as a treat as I worried about the amount of phosphates in the frozen food. I fed phytoplankton back when I had a nano too but I'm not sure I would recommend it with a nano. I just think with the limited water volume, it tends to foul water quality more than feed as the export systems on nanos tend to be more limited due to space limitations. I ran it back then in my upstart years because it was the newest thing out there and everybody raved about it. Maybe someone can chime in about its usage in nanos but in my large system, I get a good amount of zooplankton and phytoplankton just within my own system so I don't bother dosing.

It's a pencil wrasse James. There have been a lot of different varieties of them popping up in LFSs lately.

I could almost smell that skimmate through the phone Robb! 1 PPM of phosphate?! Wow! I hate to beat a dead horse but adding coral I feel like is a pretty roundabout solution to a pretty straightforward problem. You have excess phosphate... GFO removes phosphate. It's definitely going to be much more effective at removal and will be a lot of quicker than coral uptake. I'll drop the notion from this point on but just wanted to mention. I know there's more than 1 way to skin a cat in this hobby.

Thanks guys! Agreed Jestep, I'm waiting for the moment when the yellow tang realizes what a pest the PBT is!

That's a real shame Dena! Copperbands are great tank inhabitants... they just have abysmal survival rates... they're so sensitive to everything.

You can thank Triton! [emoji23] I'm kidding of course. Thanks bud! I think the yellow tang has the beginnings of an afro and my naso tang is sporting a wicked mustache. Keeping it cool!

Here's a video of the first day the powder blue was introduced. The yellow tang was letting it know where it stands in the pecking order. Now on day 2 of habitation, the yellow tang hardly looks at it anymore and the chocolate tang only occasionally chases it. Warning... it comes with the standard FarmerTy cheesy background music as usual.

How's your phosphate levels in the tank? Nitrate?

Yeah, I remember your webcam you had setup. Hope it's been helping a bit while you are traveling more. You know when your tank is mature, is when it pays it's bills on time. Bwahaha, I crack myself up! But really, my tank does pay for its own upkeep so I'll give it a thumbs up in the maturity department. There's not a definitive line when the tank is mature but I typically go with any tank over 1 year that has been stable over most of that time. Awesome! Halloween urchins will clear anything off the live rock... even a frag plug or two if you have rookie frag glueing skills. The birdsnest is looking happy. I'd watch the base and see if you can see growth on the frag plug. It's sometimes hard to tell if the tips are growing as much but you can always tell when the base has growth for the most part.

Blasphemy!

One can be mightily surprised at what you'll catch when you put a fish trap into someone else's tank! Checking out the view behind his safety glass. What a bunch of animals out there! If I swim with them, maybe they won't notice I'm new. So far so good!

Is that a pearly jawfish? One of my first fish I ever bought. What a beauty and tons of personality.

Jestep, just a thought I had this morning. How long ago did you add the Cermedia block to your sump? I've just been reading on other forums lately and there was a correlation of higher aluminum levels in tanks that had one of those blocks. This is assuming that the Triton test is at least able to discern high and low concentrations of Aluminum. Not everyone who had a block had higher aluminum levels but interestingly, a lot did. Only reason I mention is because you had an issue with randomly stning corals this past summer even though all your measured parameters were in line. Once I corrected my salinity and lowered my nitrates, I had random STN for awhile too and it only stopped here lately. I wonder if it's time to pull my block.

I'm sure most LFS would take a trade on it. I have a fish trap that I caught my 7" sailfin tang in once if you want to try to use it. You can grab it anytime Monday if you want to try it. Just PM me.

I know... I feel like such a newb! Gemmifera for monticulosa! What was I thinking! [emoji57] You got to keep me in check Victoly!