Skimming the Surface

I was playing in the surf today with the dog and the foam reminded me of my protein skimmer of all things, basically the same concept of removing waste from the water...so I thought an update on the tank was in order.

Things are looking up in the reef tank since I added the Aqua C Remora to the setup. It's pulling a ton of crap out of the water and my nuisance algae growth has subsided and hopefully will disappear completely soon.

Pearl the Jawfish has settled in nicely. She just rebuilt her burrow for the third time and did a mighty fine job on it this time if I do say so myself. She's inching closer and closer to the front. And in true jawfish fashion she covers up her burrow hole every night to go to bed - its fascinating to watch.

The BSJ (still unnamed) on the other hand, has a horrible wreck of rubble that he calls his home. I am half-tempted weekly to just tar it apart so he will rebuild it. he does not cover himself up to sleep and in fact I have never seen him sleep. He must right? Well, as soon as the nightly moonlights go on he is swimming all over the tank. He must not like his home either because he rarely is in it. He confuses me...maybe he needs a name to settle in and calm down.

The Scampi and Alfredo had babies again...which the cardinals and clownfish chowed down. That is the second spawning I have witnessed. Not sure if Hoover & Dyson will take to that routine soon or not. Its great protein for the fish though...love it.

Zeus & Hera lost their October 7th clutch. But Zeus is carrying a new egg sack now...only I have no idea of the mating date. I am assuming we are looking at around Election Day for the fry to pop out of his mouth. Karen at Aquatic ordered a breeder's box to attempt to save the fry. I'll update if it happens.

Nothing else to report with the fish...everyone is doing fine, except I guess for poor little Leto. I have been unable to catch her yet to move her to Matt's tank so she continues to get harassed daily by Hera. She looks ragged and stressed.

My majanos have gotten bigger so its about time for me to spend a week trying to kill off this anemone infestation. They are growing like weeds.

All the corals look good. The green open brain I recently got hasn't really opened up to eat so I may move it to the sandbed. Sometimes placing them on the reef rock itself causes stress on the underside.

My pink star polyps are taking off. I wish everything grew like that. I'm hoping it will soon start growing on adjacent rocks so I can get new colonies growing. I have a very small green star polyp frag growing, but it looks like that could take years to actually turn into anything...its tiny.

The ricordea rock that Matt and I are going to split is looking good, but super duper sensitive to light changes. I am hoping that for Xmas or my birthday I can upgrade my lights to metal halide and these will begin to take off and color up. But just raising the hood for a few seconds causes them to immediately retract. It was a great buy though.

Lastly, the purple and pink coralline algae is really starting to come in. I seeded the tank with some scrapings from when Matt took down his established 20 gl and it seemed to help. Plus, I think my regular use of the SeaChem additives has helped stabilize my calcium and alkalinity levels...which is just helping everything to grow. But I am scrapping the front and side glass now because the little coralline clusters are getting established everywhere. I will be so excited when all the rock and rear wall is covered in coralline - it will make it all look so gorgeous.

That's my reef update. Everyone should own one at least once in their life...aquacultured of course.