Hi guys!
I haven't been around much at all lately. It's been a really busy time in my life. My girlfriend got a promotion at work and we ended up moving to just outside Philadelphia in the suburbs.
The tank moved as well!
In the weeks leading up to the move I have to admit that I neglected the tank a bit. As I said, it was a stressful time and the tank (unfortunately) wasn't high on my priorities list. The good news, though, is that it never got too bad. I got a little cyno from lack of maintenance but other than that....nothing happened. The corals even seemed to grow FASTER in the dirtier water. Regardless, nothing died due to that.
Since my last post, though, there have been some casualties. First, the Yellow Wrasse jumped. I never figured out how he got out of the tank with my egg crate cover....because it's pretty secure. The only thing I can think is that maybe while I was feeding one day and I turned my head. Seemed unlikely. He didn't come out for like three days and I was worried and then my girlfriend found his dried out little body on the carpet. Sad stuff.
Not as sad as my other casualty, though. I am sorry to announce that my Scooter died. She was a terrific fish...always enjoyed eating and swimming around the rocks. She was acting perfectly normal and then the next day she was struggling...wouldn't move and later that night she died and the CBS was eating her (morbid!) I took pics then but I won't share those.
I was at a loss as to what could have caused her death. She had a healthy appetite and nothing changed.....and then I took the lid off and found that a stink bug had drowned in the tank. I did some research and it seems like the likely culprit. I fished it out (no pun intended) and nothing else seemed to be upset by it...thankfully.
The corals are all doing really well. the move sort of set me back. I had everything in terrific shape and looking beautiful and placed well at my old apartment....but when it came to the move everything got ripped apart and driven like 200 miles. It just doesn't look the same now, but I'm confident it will fill in with time.
I am positing some pictures. So the only life in the tank now are the snails, my Spotted Hawkfish (who has been great) and my Blue-Spotted Watchman Goby (who hides all day and occasionally comes out to bask in the light and to eat and my CBS...which is still everyone's favorite part when they see the tank. I've even seen the CBS come up to the hawkfish and clean him....very cool thing to see!
Anyway, here's some pics. I went with Tahitian Moon sand this time because I like the black. Unfortunately, moving in the winter caused some unexpected urgencies when we did everything and while I lost NOTHING in the move (thank goodness), I rushed significantly and there was still a small amount of white sand in the bottom that I didn't have time to remove...so the sand is actually black with white specks everywhere but I don't mind too much.
Let me know what you guys think. As I said, the move is only about a week old now and things clearly have not rebounded completely...but everything is open and doing well nonetheless I believe.
Full-Tank Shot:
Left side of tank now:
Right side of tank now:
The only real casualty from the move:
It started bleaching the day after and it got worse. It seems stable now. I'm hoping it rebounds but it's probably like 80% bleached at this point. It didn't handle the move well at all but so far it's still alive and extending polyps....so you never know.
I will try to post some more detailed coral pics soon. I'm still trying to figure out where I want everything. As you can see on the left I have a lot of frags just sitting on the sand bed waiting for me to decide where to put them. My Acan is really taking off, too....the main head is the same size but there's 8 new heads growing from around it and with time I think it will be very impressive.
Some more notes on the current state of the tank:
I don't have the blow back to where I want it to be at all. I still have the same powerheads but the flow seems uneven and odd to me so I am working on.
You can kind of see the white everywhere.....which is from all the purple coralline I was just started to get when I had to move the tank. Still have a little here and there, though..so hopefully it spreads faster this time than last time.
Of anyone is planning a move soon and wants some advice I can give it.