Cali Kid Corals

Reef Hobbyist 40B

Also added a Halloween Hermit Crab today… he’s very interesting & reef safe!

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My long spine urchin lost most of his spines when I got him and was worried he's going to die! In just 2 weeks again he's got all spines back and they're even longer now! He's happily hanging around (top is 2 weeks ago, bottom is today)

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Yesterday night I glued an acro frag to a piece of rubble and let it sit on the sand bed. The hermit crab came to it since it was new and after an hour I saw the hermit in the exact same place and was wondering if there was something he was munching on... To his stupidity, left his leg deep inside fresh glue and he was stuck and couldn't move (and the glue cured).

Picked the frag and tried shaking him off but was strong and I was worried I had to break his leg to save him.... Took a tweezer and chipped out all glue around his leg and finally was able to pull his leg out w/o any damage. A very tiny bit of glue's still on his leg but he's happily walking around now :)
 
Also picked up DIY Magnesium mix from Alfred yesterday... Its Randy's Recipe #1, Part 3A (3cups MgCl & 5cups flakes). Very economic and can't wait to try it out..

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So funny about the hermit crab and the glue (well, funny because he's ok). I had a fire shrimp run up to "clean" my hand as I was placing a freshly glued frag in my tank, and he got some glue on his claw, which glued it shut. Later molted it off and was fine, but I don't think he was to happy about it for a while. Crustaceans can be a lively bunch...
 
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Update on the JBJ ATO:

The old story is that the ATO very rarely gets stuck with the sensor light on, I've seen a lot such complains and my solution to it was to run it under a mechanical timer where it turns off & on every 6hrs (just to reset it)

The recent problem is with the heat wave and extra fan, the evap is much higher. So when the ATO resets it still doesn't top off all evaporated water and is due to a 3min fail safe timer in it. I use the AquaLifter pump which almost drips into the sump & 3min is not enough for it. Today I found out that this 3min can be maxed to 14min with just a small tweak on the circuit board. Did it and it works awesome now!
 
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Sump updates:
previous update here
  • Circulation pump added for Cheato
  • Added ABS sheet between chamber 1 & 2 so Cheato light doesn't fall on skimmer and grow algae inside
  • Added ABS between ATS & Skimmer (so skimmer cup doesn't grow algae)
  • New mesh on Algae Turf Scrubber
  • Swapped positions of Skimmer & ATS (ATS in the back now)
  • ATO fail-safe timer increased to 14min (from 3min)
  • Mangroves didn't make it :(
  • Removed all LR
  • Purigen is running inside the reactor
  • Impeller replaced on the Atman PH1100 pump (NAC 3.5 Skimmer)
 
DIGITATE HYDROIDS :(

Exactly a year ago, Michael posted on his build that he had digitate hydroids and thats when I even knew there's something like that. Today I was looking at my cheato with a flashlight and found a body that looked exactly the same.

I was stupid enough to use a syringe to suck it out (w/o any research) and looks like the other end of it was holding on to the cheato so although its body was in the syringe, I couldn't get it out... It retracted back out and went missing after! Thats was like 2" visible...

I thought that might be the only one in the system and soon after I observed more under more light, I found 2 other babies (they're like 1-1.5") attached to a piece of rubble that sits on top of my cheato to keep it from floating. So I decided to use my macro lens and was able to capture it at 1:1 (super close to live size) macro.

A member on RC said he had many and that it didn't affect his coral. I remember Michael also mentioned the ones he had didn't disturb coral. I'm wondering whats the best move considering it could be anywhere in the system now... Leave it and see if any coral are stressed out? Toss the cheato? (how sure is it only in the cheato area..?)

Any advise would be appreciated. (pics of the babies)

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I still have some digitate hydroids in my tank. They came, they multiplied, they died on their own.

Theres like one left in my tank. Doesnt bother anything.

Not to be confused with Colonial Hydroids. Those ones are BAD.
 
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They started in my sump and made it to the display tank. They don't swim the just attach to the rock. There's only one left in my tank.

I think you're going to be fine.
 
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