Donya's 55-Gallon

[MBOU]

Wow... i keep telling people that clowns are so thick that your average goldfish is 10x more intelligent... now your clown has just proved my point! They honestly are a bit dim! I had to take my clowns out my tank temporarily when they decided that hosting the mushrooms wasnt challanging enough and decided trying to host my gorgonian would make life a whole lot more interesting They also had habit of swimming fast into the glass and getting fixated.

Would love to see photos once you get the nem settled or even before lol

 

[lljdma06]

So liking my gramma right now.

Donya, why didn't you catch this on video? I love your stories. They are the best! "OMG you monster you took my woman again!"

Mixed nems? Haha, was so entranced by the shenanigans of Mr. & Mrs. Moron here that I didn't notice. Taboo? Maybe, but IMO, you don't advance in the hobby until you take risks in the hobby. Tell that to the guy who now makes a load of money customizing LED lights. 10 years ago, he was probably called a moron by halide and florescent users. Now everybody wants LEDs and the technology seems to be working well. Will having mixed nems work, I don't know in your particular situation, but at least you know what you're going into and I have a lot of respect for you as a hobbyist. I've seen mixed nem tanks before. The one I was most familar with was a small pest nem pico. All aiptasias and majanos. But it was very lovely. It's not new to me. Lots of carbon I hear. Hope it works for you. No, no lecture from me. I've been through my share of them. "no! you can't have a school of chalk bass!" or "no, you can't have an nps pico!" or "no! you can't do such large water changes!"

 

[Donya]

Man...my last post was only 8 days ago? My how time flies when stuff goes to crud. Not this tank though. In two other tanks I lost 6/7 fish (the 7th of which is surviving but has behavioral ticks now), 4/5 sea urchins, a bunch of snails, and all peppermint shrimp. I'm pretty sure it was an unhappy Dolabella sea hare at the root (probably D. auricularia, but no way to prove it without dissection); it's a very odd-looking one despite getting an ID confirmation on it from someone who is a Gastropod taxonomy wizard. Two tanks were nuked because I made the decision to break down the first one when it was heading south and re-home surviving livestock. I was SO unbelievably close to putting the sea hare in my 55gal...so glad I didn't, but man, it was little better than a coin toss. If I'd chosen differently, I would probably have an empty 55gal now except for a handful of corals. How scary is that. In case anyone is wondering, this is the animal that I believe was responsible:

The pic is many months old, but the animal still looks like that, just much larger. It was about 4" in the pic and is now closer to 8". The Gastropod guru said he'd never seen one like that (they are usually brown/green). Neither had I...part of why I got it. I have had many of the usual brown/green individuals over the years and never run into this even with inkings from injury, but sadly deaths followed this sea hare where it went in a way that leaves me with no other conclusion.

But enough of that. Things are going well in my 55gal that is the main subject of this thread. Clowns are hosting happily, BTA is looking great, all oyster madness has ceased. I guess that's one hypothesis confirmed. The mixed anemones are happy, although my H. aurora stung the snot out of my hand a few days back. Potent beast when it wants to be; probably because I hadn't fed it for a few days and it is a big eater compared to what people typically think of for anemones. I have decided to leave the BTA+clowns in a breeder basket because my big female hermit molted and has now reached a size I didn't think possible for the species until I saw it.

Pics/vids will be a while...my camera's focus is completely shot and blue has started showing up as magenta.

 

[lljdma06]

Donya, if you want to make friends, posting pictures of your poopy on the internet isn't going to get you very far.


Just teasing you. That is one yucky sea hare. Ewwwwwwww! And it inks? That's just gross. Sorry it nuked your other tanks.

Looking forward to pictures of the 55g. Glad Mr. and Mrs. Clown are settling in. How's Mrs. Clown? She back to normal?

The most interesting things happen in your tanks, Donya. Just an observation.

L

 

[Donya]

Oh you Well if you think that looks scatological, I would argue it at least has eyes, which is a step up from this:

http://reefguide.org/carib/pixhtml/donkeycucumber2.html

When I get my sea hare tank set up (which I gotta do today...argness) I will be sorely tempted to put something like that in, since it would be a rare opportunity to have such animals without risking deaths of other things like fish/shrimp.

Mrs. clown is doing great. Looks 100% healthy. One cheek spine is about 1/2 the length it should be, but hey - not bad after having one's head smashed. She hasn't given the oyster a second thought or anything else in the tank for that matter since she got her nem and acts like a completely normal clown now. I think my cardinal likes this too, since the portion of the tank that is a "no swim zone" is much smaller now LOL.

I'm still trying to figure out if I can salvage my 12-year-old camera out of its magenta-filled funk or if this is my cue to get a new one. The magenta thing seems like something I should be able to tweak with settings, but applicable ones don't seem to exist in its limited menus. I am at a loss on the auto-focus issue too. Doesn't seem to have a manual option. Of course, when I inherited the camera, it did not come with a manual for me to check on these things.

The most interesting things happen in your tanks, Donya. Just an observation.

I just wish it was limited to positive interesting things. Although as you've mentioned, there is no advancing without heading into the unknown, and there's never a guarantee of good things in that. It's a hazard of curiosity I suppose.

 

[lljdma06]

Oh you Well if you think that looks scatological, I would argue it at least has eyes, which is a step up from this:

http://reefguide.org/carib/pixhtml/donkeycucumber2.html

When I get my sea hare tank set up (which I gotta do today...argness) I will be sorely tempted to put something like that in, since it would be a rare opportunity to have such animals without risking deaths of other things like fish/shrimp.

Yay! New thread! But I dunno, I've seen donkey's poop, it don't look like that. It does look like poop though. Wow!

Mrs. clown is doing great. Looks 100% healthy. One cheek spine is about 1/2 the length it should be, but hey - not bad after having one's head smashed. She hasn't given the oyster a second thought or anything else in the tank for that matter since she got her nem and acts like a completely normal clown now. I think my cardinal likes this too, since the portion of the tank that is a "no swim zone" is much smaller now LOL.

That's unreal that she's doing ok. But I'm glad.

I'm still trying to figure out if I can salvage my 12-year-old camera out of its magenta-filled funk or if this is my cue to get a new one. The magenta thing seems like something I should be able to tweak with settings, but applicable ones don't seem to exist in its limited menus. I am at a loss on the auto-focus issue too. Doesn't seem to have a manual option. Of course, when I inherited the camera, it did not come with a manual for me to check on these things.

May be time to get a new one. I may have one, but it's old and I've lost half the stuff for it.

The most interesting things happen in your tanks, Donya. Just an observation.

I just wish it was limited to positive interesting things. Although as you've mentioned, there is no advancing without heading into the unknown, and there's never a guarantee of good things in that. It's a hazard of curiosity I suppose.

Exactly. You never know until you try.

 

[Donya]

AAAAaagggggghhhhh! I hate not having owner's manuals to equipment. It ends up taking me ages to figure out something stupid like that "WB" buried in the menus on my camera means "white balance." I am a noob. But at least I am now a noob without magenta-filled photos. No idea how the settings got screwed up so badly. Now to see if I can also debug the auto-focus issue.

 

[lljdma06]

AAAAaagggggghhhhh! I hate not having owner's manuals to equipment. It ends up taking me ages to figure out something stupid like that "WB" buried in the menus on my camera means "white balance." I am a noob. But at least I am now a noob without magenta-filled photos. No idea how the settings got screwed up so badly. Now to see if I can also debug the auto-focus issue.

Why didn't you ask? I could've told you that.

I've gotta do some adjusting myself. LEDs are making my new tank look blue. LOLOL And I got some funky salmon coraline, so that can't be blue.

L

 

[Donya]

In truth it was a 3-stage bout of stupidity that went somewhat like this.

Phase 1: I have no idea what's caused this and can't seem to fix it myself, I give up.

Phase 2: *finally on google* oh look, there's something like my problem that was solved using white balance. But fudge, I've never seen a white balance option so I can't do anything. <-- point at which a manual with an index would have made me not be dumb.

Phase 3: Surely there HAS to be a white balance opt-OH THERE IT IS @#$%#$%@#.

I blame the fact that I have a conference submission due in two days. After that I will probably get this 12-year-old camera sorted out again and have pics for a change. Then I can get a slug-arium thread going too.

 

[lljdma06]

In truth it was a 3-stage bout of stupidity that went somewhat like this.

Phase 1: I have no idea what's caused this and can't seem to fix it myself, I give up.

Phase 2: *finally on google* oh look, there's something like my problem that was solved using white balance. But fudge, I've never seen a white balance option so I can't do anything. <-- point at which a manual with an index would have made me not be dumb.

Phase 3: Surely there HAS to be a white balance opt-OH THERE IT IS @#$%#$%@#.

I blame the fact that I have a conference submission due in two days. After that I will probably get this 12-year-old camera sorted out again and have pics for a change. Then I can get a slug-arium thread going too.

obviously camera was sorted as we are now graced with a delightful thread just for Mr. Toxic.

 

[Donya]

Indeed! The focus thing just stopped all of a sudden. It's now back to being only as awful as I am at taking photos/vids.

So, here is one such rubbish vid LOL.



The magenta thing is apparently not 100% sorted out when I switch it to video mode...that awful pink reflecting off the top of the water does not look pink. I've got my hand blocking the reflection in part, but you can see it alternates white-pink-white-pink...should be white-blue-white-blue in the order of the bulbs.

 

[lljdma06]

Indeed! The focus thing just stopped all of a sudden. It's now back to being only as awful as I am at taking photos/vids.

So, here is one such rubbish vid LOL.



The magenta thing is apparently not 100% sorted out when I switch it to video mode...that awful pink reflecting off the top of the water does not look pink. I've got my hand blocking the reflection in part, but you can see it alternates white-pink-white-pink...should be white-blue-white-blue in the order of the bulbs.

That actually looks super cool. Whoa!

L

 

[Donya]

WARNING: the following photo contains graphic amounts of hair algae. Viewer discretion is advised.

What caused this: my fuge mysteriously crudded out and I didn't remove the dying chaeto in the vain hopes that it would regrow. Nope! Phosphate bomb instead, since all that stuff it had soaked up went back into the water. That was the first time I have ever registered any phosphate on a test kit with this tank, but it has almost completely disappeared. I can't be too upset about the fuzz when I realize that it's basically being my stand-in fuge and how healthy the tank is even if unsightly. So don't hate on hair algae too much; it can do you a favor even if it's fugly. My animals are all happy and continuing to grow, and that is the important thing. I just have to make sure I don't let the fuzz deprive anything of light, which has not been too difficult thus far. The big nasty hermits eat quite a lot of it anyway.

Of course, I want the fuge back up and running, so I will have to knock the hair back. If I don't, the small clump of chaeto I have added may well get out-competed for nutrients, since I get zero everything on this tank. I have a small army of herbivores acclimating to help me with this gradual task.

 

[lljdma06]

Holy Hair algae Batman!

Yes, we definitely want the fuge back up and running.

Wow!

Did you see that my tank leaked and I had to rescue nps corals from eminent disaster?

L

 

[SaltNoob]

Wowsers. Quite a bloom of algae for sure. I love cardinals. Beautiful fish.

-Tyler