Tank Journal

Aiptasia has started showing up in the tank, so I picked up three berghia nudibranchs to deal with it. These tiny sea slugs eat aiptasia and nothing else, which makes them one of the cleaner biological solutions — no risk to corals or other inhabitants. They're almost impossibly small when they arrive, so the main challenge is just making sure they don't get sucked into a powerhead before they've had a chance to do their job. Hoping three is enough to handle what I've got.

Won four frags at a Shopify auction this week — a nice mix of zoas, GSP, SPS, and LPS.

JC Magician's Zoanthid — picked this up for $23. Colorful named morph; placed on the lower rockwork where it can spread at its own pace.

JC GSP (Green Star Polyps) — $10 for a frag of this fast grower. Mounted it on its own rock so it has room to carpet without taking over the main structure.

JC Neon Stylopora — $22. A vivid green branching SPS. This one will need good flow and light — placed it higher up in the rockwork.

JC Neon Green Splatter Hammer — $22. A striking green/gold Euphyllia. Placed it with some space around it; hammers can sting neighbors with their sweeper tentacles at night.

Restocked the cleanup crew this week with a solid mix of snails and hermits — 154 animals total.

74 Dwarf Ceriths — tiny but mighty. Their slim profile lets them reach crevices and substrate areas that larger cleaners miss entirely. These will work diatoms, cyano, film algae, hair algae, and detritus across the rocks and sand.

23 Florida Ceriths — the larger cerith cousin. Heavy substrate workers, also active on the rockwork and glass. Mostly nocturnal; they'll do a lot of their work quietly overnight.

15 Antillean Nerites (Nerita fulgurans) — hardy, longer-lived nerites. Great at film algae, diatoms, and cyano. Nocturnal; they may need a week or so to acclimate to the tank.

21 Nassarius — the cleanup crew's first responders. They'll bury themselves and erupt out of the sand the moment food hits the water, scavenging leftover food and stirring the substrate to prevent dead spots.

21 Assorted Hermits — a mix of red leg, left-handed, jade, white claw, and blue leg crabs. Omnivores that'll work the rockwork for hair algae and cyano, and clean up any food scraps the fish miss.

Picked up a green discosoma, a purple rhodactis, a red mushroom, and a spotted teal cluster. Placed them on the lower rockwork — they seem happy with the flow and light levels.

Everything looking stable this week.

After several weeks of wandering, the BTA finally found its spot on the left rock structure and hasn't moved since. Both clownfish took to it almost immediately.

Brought home the foxface after a long quarantine period. Immediately started grazing on the rockwork. Zero aggression toward the other fish.

Needed a project during lockdown. Decided to get back into fishkeeping — and somehow ended up deep in a mixed reef. First livestock was a pair of ocellaris clownfish. It's been growing ever since.