pepetj

Today I went to my coastal spot to do some snorkeling. I ran away for a short dive (if wandering around at shallow shore qualifies as one) and brought home two small fragments of corals. One is a beautiful Zoanthus species (which I carefully detached from its colony) and the other (a recently detached piece I found at the bottom) I believe is a Fire Coral (Millepora complanata). So now I am keeping three species of corals in my Nano Reef tank.

As a "bonus" I got my share of stings from black urchins on my left hand and both feet (ouch!) so I found out that those black PVC coated "protective gloves" as well as the light weight street sneakers I've been using are no good at all against the spines of these awsome but scary animals. I saw one black urchin the size of a softball. I need an underwater camera!

I broke two floating glass hydrometers during this week as I rebuilt my surge bucket system (using a plastic drawer now) that I am still fine-tuning. A white deposit-like film (not precipitated carbonates) is developing in my glass tank but I figure it's part of the process of new tanks. It goes away with the magnet cleaner (but requires several passings).

I managed to slowly raise the specific gravity from 1.023 to 1.025. The alkalinity is the only variable that is giving me a hard time (fluctuates within the 11 DKH-7dKH range). My target is specif gravity of 1.026 with 9dKH. The Brittle "snake" stars are doing great. I suspect that the last limpet I reported as dead was actually devoured by someone in the tank. No fish in it yet.

Pepetj
Santo Domingo

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pepetj

Last update: Fish arrival!

With this post I intend to end this thread (please don't close it until I upload a couple of pics).

Today a pair of juveniles (tank raised if the LFS info is correct) Clown Fish (still to be determined if False or True Percula) and a (very difficult to keep) Mandarin Dragonet male.

I decided to bring the Mandarin home since I have to this day a bit over 80lbs of live rock in the Main Tank, with several "no fish access" spaces were tiny crustaceans thrive. I figure I have to have plenty of codepods species among those tiny-tiny but numerous inverts. I'll keep introducing fresh macroalgae (twice a week, from the wild) as I set-up an additional refugium (aiming at DIY phytoplancton reactor) to produce live enriched food on a constant basis (got this gorgeous Mandarin Fish so I'm ready to get him what he needs to have a happy life!)

What's next? I believe the answer is obvious: I'll keep learning as I enjoy keeping my first SW tank but sooner or later MTS is likely to take over (SW version of it).

Pepetj
Santo Domingo

PS I placed the order today for a PinPoint's salinity monitor and nitrate monitor.