| |
| |
 State of the Tank: (cont.) |
|
It just looked like a Frogspawn Ghetto over there and didn’t seem to work with the rest of the tank like the old ‘Three Amigos’ arrangement I had. But logistically speaking, in order to go back to that, the odd coral out would have to be the brown one. And as you know, I’ve had that one for many years now! I guess one of my problems is that I get too emotionally attached to these things. I’m like the guy who can never get rid of a piece of clothing even though it’s clear that he’ll never actually wear it again.
Come to think of it, I AM that guy.
Anyway, after several days of whining and indecisiveness, I finally moved the piece to the refugium…but only temporarily. Once this fuge is converted to a separate auxiliary/frag tank, I want to keep it there permanently, as long as the new lighting doesn’t bother it. If it does, there’ll most certainly be more whining. But right now (under 96W of fluorescents), it’s doing very well. And in the tank, in its place, we built a little rockwork shelf and placed the Echinopora mammiformis there. This gave the open space under the efflo back to the fish (mainly Attila), and got the ‘mammajamma’s’ sweepers further away from some of the other acros.
Another big decision was finally having to give away my entire huge Torch Coral (Euphyllia glabrescens).
|
|
|
This one hurt. But as much of an attention getter as this piece was, I was simply in dire need for the room in order to give space to the Montiporas, Echinoporas, Acantastreas and other lower light stonies that were growing dangerously close to it. In fact, it was already killing the M. hispida growing beside it. I still have the Frogspawns for ‘movement’ in the tank but it’s getting to the point that really tough decisions are going to have to be made in regards to what can be kept and what can’t. Trust me, I’m not going to turn into an SPS-only snob though. And if you don’t believe me, keep reading.
We made several other little moves and more fragging also (Acro #16, for example is now fragged down to piece so small, it can no longer be seen in a full tank shot). And the aforementioned M. hispida was fragged to a tenth of its original size, all this work taking the better part of a day. Most of these frags went to a friend who now is an independent buyer and seller so I KNOW they’re going to good, responsible homes. And what do I get out of it? Well, how about THIS  ? This a Micromussa, something you certainly don’t see everyday and, unfortunately, a good candidate to be next on the ‘several hundred bucks a polyp’ fad list, though probably not this particular color morph. But I like it because it’s finally something interesting I can put on the bottom of the tank, meaning it doesn’t take up valuable ‘sps’ room. It would also be nice to see something flourish down there beside mushrooms and zoanthids.
|
|
|
|
|
|
