I tested the water today using my new test tubes with rubber stoppers and Mohr pipette. It was delightful, as the rubber stoppers work far better than the plastic caps that come with the API test kits. I won’t buy these test kits again, as I again was not …

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My red gorgonian had been opening somewhat consistently when it was in the refugium, but has barely opened since I moved it to the display tank. I’m not sure if that is related, or if it has to do with other changes I made. I received another gorgonian, but yellow, last week, and it had been opening in the display tank till a few days ago. I tried moving them to very high flow and then to low flow to no avail. I think I’ll move them to the refugium now.

A feather duster peaking out of the tube a few days after he popped his crown off, I think due to stress from my experimenting with different powerhead placements.

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I have gone through half a dozen lettuce sea slugs, so I guess I need to call it quits for now. The first one, which was the largest, died in December at Alan’s place. It probably did not have enough algae to graze on in that tank. Then I got a few smaller ones from Aquarium Depot, Live Aquaria and the local store, 6th Avenue Aquarium. I lose two or three due to getting sucked into pumps and getting attacked by the sponge decorator crabs. Then I isolated the last ones in the hang on box full of hair algae and other food, but they still managed to die within a week or two. I knew they would not be easy, but I hoped my abundant supply of algae would make the difference. I’ll reconsider once the tank is mature.

I discovered the lettuce sea slugs either crawled or got sucked into a water pump. I took him out and seemed to be doing fine, but later died, probably because of insufficient food. :-(

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Feb. 20 I noticed between 20 and 30 white spots on the front of the display tank. I had noticed some on the back of the refugium a few weeks ago, but I’m not sure what happened to them. I assumed these were due to the five “tapestry nerite snails” I got from Aquarium Depot.

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Feb. 16 at 9:48 a.m. I received a combined delivery of two orders and replacements for previously DOA items from Aquarium Depot. It was a little nuts dealing with all the pieces, but I’m pleased with the result for the price paid.

I fell prey to Aquarium Depot's half off coral sale, so I got most of these for about $5. I placed them all in a bucket and then drip acclimated to the water in my small quarantine tank.

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Last week while mesmerized by my tank’s visible plankton, I spotted something that looked and moved like a jellyfish. It was probably half a millimeter, and quickly disappeared. Today I found another one, or possibly the same one, but larger. I captured it with a pipette and photographed it under a microscope. It measured about 1.0 mm.

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I isolated the pregnant decorator sponge crab from Aquarium Depot in a 2.5 gallon heated and aerated tank at the point her eggs seemed to be lightening in color. A few days later, she did indeed expel the eggs all over the tank Feb. 13.

I put her back in the refugium and left the eggs to hatch. As of nine days later, the eggs seem not to have hatched. They lightened in color to the point I cannot tell if they are even present any longer, but I have seen no live babies as I saw in the initial shipment.

I put the pregnant split nose decorator sponge crab in a small separate tank so she would lay the eggs in safety. She did indeed lay the eggs, as seen here, but they unfortunately did not seem to hatch. They lightened in color till I could not see them anymore, but I saw no signs of life after two weeks.

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After waiting two months for the tank from Windrider Creations and seeing it still had not shipped, I ordered a similarly sized tank from Marine Depot instead. I received it Thursday at 12:54 p.m. and spent the rest of the day figuring out my plumbing setup.

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Reading Friedman’s book The World Is Flat more than a decade ago inspired my interest in the global community. I’ll have to read his newish book, Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations! He talks about it in this clip, and then comments on Trump…

[youtube OTMHFjkk674]

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I initially used two types of sediment, with the finer stuff on top. I noticed water was not penetrating more than an inch down, and the entire layer of thicker substrate was untouched. Also, the snails were unable to move in the fine stuff. I tried to stir it as gently as possible in an effort to bring some of the coarser sand to the top, but even after just doing a small area, the water clouded pretty badly. That unfortunately led to my amphipods and smaller porcelain crabs being unable to breathe apparently, for they all died.

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I received a crab Aquarium Depot markets as a “lavender sponge crab,” and the bag contained hundreds of what I initially thought were some sort of pods, but later identified as baby crabs in the initial stage, zoea. I’m not sure they survived my tank, but after a few days the crab is apparently again carrying tons of eggs.

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I meant to write more, but again, here are some miscellaneous photos from January.

Another DIY light fixture for my refugium. The strips are bright white LEDs and the black enclosures are blue COB LEDs

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