melev

As the reef turns 14 months old today, it's nice to be able to share good news overall. The reef is looking healthy and colorful, and the fish seem happy.

Last weekend I got a few new frags, but after dipping them and mounting them to frag plugs, three died within 36 hours. The others seem fine. Strange.

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A few weeks ago one of the local fish stores posted to our club forum indicating that anyone wanting to purchase a laser to zap aiptasia could be added to their waiting list. I'd already read threads about using lasers before, and watched some videos. Sign me up! I've used all sorts of products over the years to get rid of pest anemones, but not a laser beam.

Last Friday I got a call letting me know mine had come in, and Sunday I made the drive to Dallas North Aquarium to pick it ...

One of the easiest things to set up is the Durso Standpipe. It's all I've used on all my tanks for over 10 years. The 60g has been gurgling slightly under the lid, and the lid was actually adding sound akin to an echo. I decided I needed to make a small adjustment, and it worked perfectly. The video discusses it:



I also received a bunch of frags from a friend yesterday, so they had to be dipped and secured to something. Using some Ecotech ...

My main reef has some valonia here and there that Spock can't get due to their location, so I decided I wanted to add some emerald crabs. However, I have a Melanurus and a Mystery wrasse and my concern is that they'd be devoured as tasty snacks. I did some homework via Google and the articles I read didn't indicate a problem, so I'm going for it. I'll be sure to update y'all if in fact one or both of these wrasses hunt down my new emeralds.

I bought them before the LFS closed, ...

From time to time, something tiny catches my eye. This guy less than a 1/4" was holding onto the side of a Hammerhead AlgaeFree cleaning magnet. It's a chiton, totally benign/reef-safe. You'll usually see many of these on the rockwork after lights out if you look closely enough.

Using a tripod, remote flash, remote trigger, delayed countdown, macro lens with extension tube... this was the best I could get. And it was quietly moving, hence ...