13.5 gallon macro softie nano

[Common Blevil]

As you can see on my previous video, my xenia finaly established itself and pulses even in moderately high flow Hope it grows.

I set one pump on a timer, so at night flow is not as high. It is something I've seen in nature and tank seems to appreciate it.

Also I've seen my blenny biting chunks of the dragon's breath, but only from one of the pieces, that it uses as "personal fashionable red comfy couch"(it can be seen on the photos above). I suppose growth tips are not really comfy, so blenny bites them off. Never really seen him bite any other macroalgae.

Ps: added video of my biggest xenia colony, it is located in the area with least flow

 

[Common Blevil]

I forgot, i bought nassarius and it is funny. That's all for today!
PS: Video is 10x speed

 

[Common Blevil]

Tank update, all is good. Moved rocks a little, so there's more hiding spots and secure areas.

Also i do not know, if i forgot to say this, but i sold second clown goby and then bought a nassarius. Gobies did not want to pair up and bigger male started showing aggression not only to second goby, but also to a tailspot. At this moment i knew, it was enough so i now have only one goby. Both goby and blenny seem to appreciate the absence of the tyrant(or as i started calling him - "Zlodij" or villain in translation)

 

[Common Blevil]

I've added background lights(old dim cheap light from AliExpress), now tank looks more fancy

 

[Common Blevil]

My tailspot decided to jump out yesterday... I found where and closed the gap, so nobody will ever jump out, but for blenny it is too late... I'm feeling really sorry for him... Gave him his last ritualistic meal and will bury him in a few days... Remember, guys, gaps with blennies leads to disasters...

 

[Common Blevil]

The tank waiting for the new inhabitant, that loves to eat algae and detritus...
I also now dose nutrients, because my nitrates were at zero, that algae did not like at all. You can see color change on the dragon's breath halymenia

 

[Common Blevil]

New updates

Conch is still living, it became more active after i added a cheap SunSun 110 pump for more flow, which was appreciated by every tank inhabitant.

I've got another tailspot, which is a baby, instead of planned segmented blenny, i think it is best for me and the tailspot (it sat in the shop for a month, finally got a home) Baby is sweet and i called it Microelement after my phone autocorrecting "microblenny", when i was typing about it. It has lots of algae, copepods and LBB to eat, and even without the baby brine it's belly is always full, as is the goby's.

I did a rescape to make tank look more appealing visually and practically (hiding spots)

Also to combat sun heating up the tank i installed two computer coolers on the top of the tidal, they keep the temperature down to 25 C° or "I don't know how much in F°, probably 77-78"

I also bought 2 new species of algae( caulerpa racemosa and gracilaria), dosing really helps to keep algae in the "not dying" state.

 

[Common Blevil]

New stupid idiot waiting to be added - Amblyeleotris wheeleri. I wanted that fish for so long, and finally, i got one...

 

[Common Blevil]

New stupid idiot waiting to be added - Amblyeleotris wheeleri. I wanted that fish for so long, and finally, i got one...

He was very shy at first and very sad without shrimp(he was at the LFS for a while and sitting with a pair of tiger shrimps, but then LFS swapped him with YWG and he was sitting depressed in nearby tank for a few weeks.
I do not know if he eats frozen food, but somehow he still has a full belly and after i added the shrimp he was very active and started being more outgoing. Still afraid of me, but at least he is no longer hiding for a whole day.
The candy cane shrimp is like 1/4 or 1/5 of him, but lives and thrives. I thought he it but found it at night with a flashlight. The shrimp is weird, because despite being candy cane and digging burrows, she also hides in the live rock it resides under, so when i picked the rock up to see, if it was alive i did not find any traces of the shrimp(also, i think if it was eaten, there would be pieces of the carapace and legs/claws, even with bristle worms or something present, at least if the kill was fresh) and thought for the bad. So, if you have a big goby and a small shrimp and they are of compatible species - i think most of the time there will be no problems.

 

[Common Blevil]

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Tank is looking great!

 

[Common Blevil]

Tank is looking great!

Thanks)

 

[CD_Scapes]

Updates?

 

[Common Blevil]

Updates?

My lamp broke, I'm waiting for the replacement to arrive. So enjoy temporary warm plant lights)



Tank thrives, but out of 5 species of macroalgae only 3 are not dying. These are Gracillaria, Chaetomorpha and Caulerpa lentilifera. Caulerpa taxifolia decided to die almost completely, only few patches left. Dragon's breath was slowly dying this whole time, so i ripped what was left from the rock and had thrown it in crevise on the left, between anthelia and xenia. When i started dosing seachem flourish and CaNO3 the 3 algaes took off, others just stayed as is. Gracillaria, which was an inch long piece is now a few little bushes i fragged, and i hope it will fill the niche of red algae, that dragon's breath occupied. Lentilifera has 2 distinct populations. First is on the left, looks like a chaeto, but lighter and edible. For whatever reason did not grow it's spheres back. Another population is on the central goby rock, looks good. It strated from one piece of original algae that had spheres on it. Chaeto i thought i eradicated, but it spread through spores and started growing everywhere, plus i had a few broken branches. When i did a rescape, i collected all chaeto, and instead of throwing away decided to keep it. It is now in the back left corner, where it was originally.



Fish are doing ok. Clown goby named (if translated roughly) Fat Yolk thrives, blenny Microelement is doing ok, but he has some weird bump on the belly, that i thought would kill him. It has gone 1 month already and he doesn't care and still lives and active. Wheeler's goby is not afraid of me anymore, which is good, but i still need to spot feed him, because he is as dumb as a rock he lives under. I call him Grandma Wheel, because i did found out that goby in polish is the same word as for elderly woman/granny.



Inverts are ok. The boom of munnid isopods stopped when i started cleaning the glass, now when i stopped because of laziness, their niche is occupied by pods, which is better, cause they do not climb out of the fish's mouth and my babies can eat them whenever. Dove snails are not overtaking, but thriving. Same for dwarf turbo snails, there are 2 adults and a lot of babies. There were only babies because i got rid of adults in though that they eat macroalgae. In short, they don't, because the person i bought algae from keeps them with algae, and there are like hundreds of them. And my algae did not feel any difference when i removed the adults. Conch is living. I can't say anything about him, because he is dumb. But at least he is not dead now, so I don't think he will any time soon. As i read, they either die in the first 6 months, or live indefinitely. Pistol shrimp exists, sometimes levitates near the goby, when he is out and makes noises at night.... It eats... Something... Maybe... I don't know... Blue hermit crab i got is stupid, because once a month he likes to find a new shell and starts to hump it with loud knocking sounds that drive me mad. And he bulldoses the rockwork at night and at day sleeps in a cave. Cool critter. Bumblebee snail, the first animal in the tank, still lives. Same for brittle stars and bristle worms, the latter can now challenge some medium sized anacondas.



Corals are thriving, anthelia and xenia are battling for space on the left rock and anthelia is winning. Yellow polyps are now a small but colourful colony. Even some of zoanthids recovered and i have like 12 of them now in a crevise. I also have 2 other color morphs of them on a piece of ceramic, but they still did not recover. I do not remember if i posted something about gorgons here, but they did not grow, something took a piece of flesh from them, and because the frags were so tiny and poorly fragged i just scraped them off and siphoned with a waterchange. Also i have a bit of small aiptasia, but I don't care.

All in all i left the tank alone and it thanked me with it's vibrance. Because of poor light i have i use sunlight as an additive and it reminds me of wild black sea, where i was catching blennies a year ago...

 

[Common Blevil]

At last, i have the lamp. I also have reef crystals salt from aquarium systems which is better than aquaforest reef salt. Unfortunately my Gracillaria started to die out in the conditions that i had with no good lamp, and i also found out that my nitrate test was not working properly and i wasn't dosing enough nitrate. I hope that in a month i will be here posting about how cool my tank is because i finally understood the main problems i had.

 

[Common Blevil]

Tank is ok, after a waterchange with new salt some corals were semi closed(photo), but now they are all fully opened. I'm pleased to see opened zoanthids, hope brown and red ones will grow like greens did. Got a but of algae on the sand because of nitrate overdose, but nothing seems to mind. I think everything enjoys this, because i usually don't have enough nitrate.

 

[Flameback Pair]

@Common Blevil what country are you in? Subscribed

-Mitchell.

 

[Common Blevil]

@Common Blevil what country are you in? Subscribed

-Mitchell.

I'm studying in Poland now. Thank you for following)

 

[keepingfishwithnoidea]

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try this light for more corals it can grow softies to sps

 

[keepingfishwithnoidea]

Found this thing, the people on the forum told me, as i hoped, that it is a brittle star) Aquarium becomes more and more alive and diverse!

why does that scarily look like a brissle worm