World of Mayja

The Chromis Wars

Posted by Mayja | Posted in Reef Tank

I have officially become a contributing writer for AquaNerd.com! Check out my first published article. It's all about my crazy experience with my Blue-Green Chromis.

The Chromis Wars

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Building a reef is not as easy as one might think. It takes careful planning and research. Corals can be very hostile to each other, especially if you put two different species too close together. They will begin a full out chemical warfare against each other until the dominant coral wins. Besides the possibility of WWIII breaking out in my tank, I also must consider the needs of each individual coral. They need certain amounts of light, water flow and nutrients. Once all of this information is processed, the purchasing and placement of corals may begin.

But it doesn't stop there...

Once the corals are purchased, there is a process of acclimation and cleansing that must occur to keep the main display tank safe and to keep the corals happy with the changes in water quality. Each coral must be adjusted to my tank water so they get used to the change in temperature and salinity. Then they must be dipped in a solution of tank water and a product called Coral Rx to cleanse the coral of any unwanted hitchhikers that may be hiding on the coral. After all this effort is done, the corals will be glued into place inside the tank. The end result is displayed in the following photos:

Devil's Hand Leather

Lobos

Orange/Purple Zoanthid

Hammer

Frogspawn

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A View Into My Reef

Posted by Mayja | Posted in Reef Tank

Greetings everyone! I know it has been a while since my last tank update. Between our 14th anniversary and both of us getting over illnesses, things have been pretty busy. So, this video highlights new additions to the reef. In addition to the clown fish are three green chromis. The corals you will see (in order) are candy canes, green/orange zoanthids, frogspawn, and a purple mushroom. That mushroom used to be the size of a dime when I first got it. Now, it almost covers that entire rock it's on.

Enjoy!

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Two New Corals for Free!

Posted by Mayja | Posted in Reef Tank

I decided on Wednesday (3.13.13) after work to drive down Van Dyke to Reef Solutions and check out their store. I've been reading a lot about them on the Michigan Reefers forums and it was all positive. Plus, everyone said that they have an excellent display of corals and fish.

Immediately after entering the shop, I was greeted by Marie, who is one of the owners. She was placing newly shipped corals into different dipping buckets to remove bad hitchhikers before placing them into the display tanks. I was the only one in the store and we starting talking about my new tank, what I hope to do with it and the like. The next thing I knew, she was bagging two tiny little corals for me for FREE! She simply said, "Let's see how these babies do in your tank."

The top photo is from the day I placed it into the tank. The bottom photo is how it looks today:

Purple Mushroom

Green Zoanthid

As you can see, they are small... for now. They should get bigger, especially that mushroom. It's already starting to spread pretty well across that rock.

Thank you Reef Solutions for two awesome starter corals!

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Sand Sifting Starfish!

Posted by Mayja | Posted in Reef Tank

He decided to surface and cruise around the tank yesterday. Enjoy!

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From FOWLR to Reef Overnight

Posted by Mayja | Posted in Reef Tank

I went into another one of the LFS in town cause I needed some nassarius snails. I got my 10 snails and a sand sifter starfish (he's just too cool!) and I was walking past the corals to pay...

But I stopped (first mistake).

I started browsing (second mistake).

I started asking educated questions (third mistake).

The LFS guy said that he would sell me a candy cane for $30 (11 heads total-some are in the back that you can't see).

I couldn't resist.

I came home, got the snails/starfish acclimating, and then tried to figure out where to place my frag. This is how it looked once I finally got it situated:

After a few hours, this is how it has opened up:

Can anyone ID this and tell me exactly what these are? I know they're LPS candy canes, but I don't know if they're anything more specific (still searching via Google).

It's official - I have switched from FOWLR to reef in a matter of minutes.