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Reeftank Log 01/99

Tuesday, January 05, 1999

A lot has happened over the past month. I started adding a capful of C-Balance A and B every three days to both 20-gallon tanks and it seems to be doing a good job. In the 20-gallon high tank, the coralline algae on the front of the aquarium really started growing. It's definitely much easier to add C-Balance than kalkwasser. I purchased a new 20-gallon long tank since the inside top of the one Ken lent to me had a length of only 29 inches vs the normal length of 29.5 inches. Not a big problem except the CPR BakPak 2 produces bubbles which burst and coat the light fixture with salt spray. The glass cover I have only fits a length of 29.5 inches. I used four 5-gallon buckets to transfer the live rock from the old 20 long to the new 20 long.

I moved the green open brain coral from the 20 high to the 20 long since I noticed some tissue recession on the side which was touching the green star polyps. I purchased a Rubbermaid small plastic breadbox, filled it with four inches of Carib Sea aragonite and put the green open brain in it. I then put the breadbox in the 20 long. I hope the tissue grows back over the exposed skeleton. Too often, I see the distinctive bare skeleton of an open brain coral at pet shops.

I also moved the brown star polyps to the 20 long since the green star polyps were starting to grow on the rock with the brown star polyps. From previous encounters, it appears that the green star polyps overgrow brown star polyps and it didn't want it to happen again. Some red mushroom polyps also hitched a rid to the 20 long.

Purchased a brown-green bubble-tip anemone on 01/02/98. Put it in the left front corner of the live rocks where the green open brain was positioned. Clownfish ignored the anemone at first. 30 minutes later when I looked back at the tank, both clownfish were swimming in the anemone. I guess since the clownfish had no problem hanging out in the green open brain that a bubble-tip anemone would be an easy host for them to acclimate to. The next morning, the bubble-tip had moved a little bit up and to the right so that it was deeper in the crevices among the live rock. Some of its tentacles now reach the green star polyps. It will be interesting to see what happens at the intersection of these two invertebrates.

Tentacles of the bubble-tip over the past two days don't look as full as when I first purchased the anemone. Perhaps the anemone is just adjusting to the tank conditions. The tentacles on the anemone also don't have as much of a bubble tip. The tentacles are fully extended though. I love how the clownfish are snuggled in the anemone at night. What a magical sight.

Photoperiod of 20-gallon high is 6 hours now. From 5 PM to 11 PM.

Photoperiod of 20-gallon long is 10 hours now. From 1 PM to 11 PM. Two 20-watt Aquatinics and one 20-watt GE Chroma 50 provide the lighting.

Presently, I have a glass cover over the 20-gallon long which helps keep the heat in and the evaporation down. Already noticed some salt creep where the two glass panes of the glass cover touch each other.

 

Thursday, January 07, 1999

I had a bit of a scare yesterday afternoon when I went home to pick up my wallet and show the new anemone to my sister-in-law, Betty. The bubble-tip anemone was all tightly drawn up in a crevice and the tentacles were very shrunken. But it was something I didn't have to be concerned with since when I arrived at home last night, the anemone was back to normal. In fact, it appears to be regaining some of the expansion in its bubble-tip. I going to try to feed it some Formula 1 tonight. I noticed this morning that I hadn't plugged in the heater when I did the transfer between the two 20-gallon tanks this morning. Thankfully, nothing seems to be worse for the wear. The green open brain looks like it's growing back over the recession area. I probably would have noticed earlier except the thermometer on the tank is one of those inexpensive color-change thermometers which isn't as easy to read as the digital readout ones.

 

Monday, January 18, 1999

Both 20 gallon tanks are doing  well. Green open brain coral and Bubble-tip anemone didn't look every expansive on Friday night. After adding ½ tsp of CombiSan, RE Iodine and RE Strontium, both specimens were fully expanded the next day. I think they both need the trace element additions. I think I'll start adding ¼ tsp of the three supplements in the middle of the week to both tanks. Concerned a little bit about the watermelon mushrooms since they seem to have a slightly faded color. I think both tanks just need a water change. I should also change the carbon in both tanks. I also increased the photoperiod of the 20-gallon high to six hours.

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