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The water test results for the day were:
12 Gallon Tank: 77.1 degrees F, 1.026 SG, pH 7.60
6 Gallon Tank: 77.6 degrees F, 1.025 SG, pH 7.56
Make up water: 74.5 degrees F, 1.025 SG, pH 7.80
The water test results for the day were:
12 Gallon Tank: 78.0 degrees F, 1.025 SG, pH 7.74
6 Gallon Tank: 78.5 degrees F, 1.025 SG, pH 7.50
Make up water: 74.5 degrees F, 1.025 SG, pH 7.71
The water test results for the day were:
12 Gallon Tank: 77.8 degrees F, 1.025 SG, pH 7.48
6 Gallon Tank: 77.6 degrees F, 1.025 SG, pH 7.50
Make up water: 74.8 degrees F, 1.025 SG, pH 7.64
The water test results for the day were:
12 Gallon Tank: 78.6 degrees F, 1.025 SG, pH 7.22
6 Gallon Tank: 77.5 degrees F, 1.025 SG, pH 7.32
Make up water: 74.9 degrees F, 1.025 SG, pH 7.53
The water test results for the day were:
12 Gallon Tank: 78.5 degrees F, 1.025 SG, pH 7.36
6 Gallon Tank: 78.5 degrees F, 1.025 SG, pH 7.42
Make up water: 75.3 degrees F, 1.025 SG, pH 7.60
The water test results for the day were:
12 Gallon Tank: 77.4 degrees F, 1.025 SG, pH 7.21
6 Gallon Tank: 76.9 degrees F, 1.025 SG, pH 7.26
Make up water #1: 73.8 degrees F, 1.025 SG, pH 7.34
Make up water #2: 71.8 degrees F, 1.025 SG, pH 7.34
Make up water #3: 67.6 degrees F, 1.025 SG, pH 7.32
I did the 12 gallon first. I drained off half of the water in to two buckets. I started to collect animals in one bucket. Once I got the animals that I could, I removed live rock. With each piece, I removed as much algae as I could by hand and then put the rocks in the other bucket of clean water. I broke off the old, dead Duncan coral that I loved so much. It had 17 heads on it. Once I got to the bottom, I removed the smaller pieces of shells and so on and set them aside. I stirred up the gravel and put it in a bucket with fresh saltwater to rinse it and then in a bucket once rinsed. I got everything out of the tank. I cleaned behind and to the side of the tank which I forgot to do when I did this two years ago. Boy was that glass and table dirty! I cleaned all the filters. I put back the gravel followed by the bottom piece of live rock and added some fresh saltwater and fresh aragonite gravel on the top. I then put in the rest of the live rock and old saltwater from that bucket. Then went in all the remaining animals, the rest of the saved old water, and then topped off with new water. It pretty much went as planned. I did find one strange yellow sponge in the live rock (at an angle that I couldn't see except when out of the tank) and took photos. The following animals remain alive in this tank: Nemo, 2 Astraea snails, 2 cerith snails, 2 hermit crabs, green star polyps, a few zooanthid colonies, and the newest corals that I put in a few weeks ago. Both of the nassarius are gone; in fact, the new hermit crab moved in to one of them.
I then did the 6 gallon for the first time since it was set up almost four years ago. The method was the same as above. I found Fireman, 2 Astraea snails, 2 nassarius snails, Scary (my crab who had just molted), green star polyps, mushrooms, and zoos. The shrimp are all gone (which I knew). I will have to get some more. I took out the two fake starfish and the fake Acropora coral. This freed up a lot of room in the tank. I had some trouble getting the live rock back in in this tank because I couldn't remember how the rocks were sitted. I also made the mistake of putting in water with the live rock instead of sitting the rocks dry. The water was opaque from the new aragonite so I could only set rocks by feel; I couldn't see. Both tanks were clear by afternoon. For the 6 gallon, I had mixed in a cup or two of fresh aragonite with the pink sand instead of just putting it on top. That way, I could retain the look of the sand but add volume. The water movement sculpted the sand in to some interesting shapes over the next few days.
For the 12 gallon tank:
1 Mexican turbo snail
2 Nassarius vibex
1 Dwarf zebra hermit crab (to replace Zeby)
1 Dwarf yellow tip hermit crab
1 Electric blue hermit crab
For the 6 gallon tank:
2 sexy shrimp
For both tanks:
One soft coral pack (4 tiny corals)
One nano polyps pack (5 mostly zoos although I might get a button polyp in there)
They should arrive Tuesday.
For the 12 gallon tank:
2 Mexican turbo snails - one huge guy and one small guy (I really did not want two!!)
2 Nassarius vibex - so tiny that I couldn't figure out what they were at first!
2 Dwarf zebra hermit crabs - at least I think so; these are the smallest two hermit crabs that I have
ever seen
1 Dwarf yellow tip hermit crab
1 Unknown hermit crab - this free crab has blue legs and yellow tips but is not the same species
as my dwarf blue leg hermit crab
1 Electric blue hermit crab - this guy was attacking all the other crabs, trying to rip them from
their shells
1 Unknown coral - it is either a thin finger leather coral, tree coral, or Kenya tree; it would not
stick via reef epoxy to the live rock so it ended up on the floor; it has tiny white polyps but has
only rarely opened; I don't think it will make it. I will just call it a tree coral.
1 Dead coral stick with about four zoo polyps on it that have yet to open (think they are yellow);
I broke off the other half of the dead coral using a vice as it had no zoos but instead it had two
majano pest anemones on it!
1 Zooanthid colony of half a dozen polyps on a half clam shell; they are red with brown
edges
1 Little stray zoo that I don't think will make it
For the 6 gallon tank:
2 Sexy shrimp - super tiny; both looked near death but survived their first few days
1 Green striped mushroom coral (that folded over on itself and may not make it); this piece of
live rock also has a ton of strange and scary tube and feather worms; one large tube has shiny
tendrils coming out
1 Green star polyps (certainly didn't need that one!); I just set it on the floor until I come up with
a better plan
1 Yellow polyps; these are nice; a few feather dusters on the dead coral stick too (this time two of
the corals were on dead coral sticks which are hard to place)
3 Nice zooanthid colonies; all have green edges; one center is light pink; one is light orange; and
one is light purple; they seem to change daily though; I glued these to the top of the live rock
Unpacking and acclimation took a little over an hour. I couldn't get anything to stick with the reef epoxy in the 12 gallon due to the algae but it seemed to work in the 6 gallon. The Mexican turbo snails which were the whole reason I did an order are moving around and eating but hardly deleting all the algae from the tank in days as had been claimed on various web sites. If the algae runs too low to feed the huge guy, I will bring him to a pet store and give him away for free.
The water test results for the day were:
12 Gallon Tank: 79.9 degrees F, 1.025 SG, pH 7.33
6 Gallon Tank: 78.6 degrees F, 1.025 SG, pH 7.36
Make up water: 77.4 degrees F, 1.025 SG, pH 7.62
Hooray! The electric blue crab showed back up on 5/22/12. I had not seen him since 5/17/12. He changed shells. One of the tiny hermit crabs also has a new shell two times too big for him.
The water test results for the day were:
12 Gallon Tank: 80.2 degrees F, 1.025 SG, pH 7.23
6 Gallon Tank: 78.7 degrees F, 1.026 SG, pH 7.36
Make up water: 76.9 degrees F, 1.025 SG, pH 7.65
I did it! On 5/29/12, I saw the nudibranch again and used large tweezers to remove him from the tank! I tried to take photos and video but it was so small that I don't think they turned out (will find out later). I kept him in a cup for a day to show family and then washed him away. I hope it was the only one!
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