Dragonface Pipefish

I purchased two Dragonface Pipefish on January 25th from Liveaquaria. They arrived with no issues. I originally bought them to control Red Bugs. These are great fish and they are very interesting to watch. They instantly paired up and always hang out together. Like Mandarins they won't eat what is introduced to he tank. They'll only eat what they find on the live rock. My Mandarin has gotten nice and fat so I figured it was worth a try.

Unfortunately, one of the Pipefish has gone missing over the last few days. These guys always hung out together and now the survivor is alone. Maybe one got too close to my anemone. I also have a lot of stinging LPS corals whch are not recommended for a safe Pipefish environment. After more than a month in the tank I was starting to get more positive about the chances of survival for these fish.

I never have seen the Pipefish go after the Red Bugs. Even if they don't tese are really cool fish for a mature tank. If the surviving fish lives a few more months I'm going to try another one.

Change in Lighting Cycle

I decided to reduce the amount of time my lights are on. I noticed my corals colored up when I replacing some higher PAR bulbs with actinics. I figured I'd reduce the amount of time the lights ae on and observe the results.

Before
Actinics: On 9:30 am, Off 11:00 pm, Total 13.5 hours
Rest: On 10:00 am, Off 9:30 pm, Total 11.5 hours

Now
Actinics: On 10:00 am, Off 11:00 pm, Total 13 hours
Rest: On 11:30 am, Off 9:30 pm, Total 10 hours

Frogspawn Update

It appears that I have stopped the progression of dying heads on my frogspawn by fragging the dying branch off. I'm convinced that leaving the ranch with the dying head would have caused the spread from one head to the next. The piece I cut off had one head that was still alive. I tried dipping it in iodine but it did not save it.

Dead Heads

Three heads on my frogspawn have died. The most logical explanation is that I dropped some dried salt on the edge of the tank into the tank when installing the net lid. The frogspawn sits in the middle of the tank directly under the center brace. Per Occam's razor, the simplest explanation tends to be the best one.

Tank Lid

I decided to make myself a lid for my tank after reading the trigger I bought last week is a notorious jumper.

I started with just egg crate cut to the size of the tank. This blocked too much light and was hard on the eyes because it was so bright when looking at the tank from above.

I then started removing some of the egg crate material to open up the size of the holes using wire cutters. It was a long process. I stopped before getting half way through one side because my hand started blistering.

I thought about plan B and came up with using deer or bird netting that is draped over bushes or flowers to prevent the deer from eating your plants. I bought a roll of bird netting at Home Depot for $7.

The next thing I needed to think of was constructing a frame. I wanted to find some plastic rods but I couldn't find any at Home Depot or Michaels (craft store). So I decided to use 1/4" hardwood dowel rods instead. I needed 5 of them at $.59 each or $3.

I cut the dowel rods to the proper size and wove them through the netting. I connected the dowel rods with pieces of airline tubing. The tubing is tight so I had to stretch the tubing by inserting some needle nose pliers into the tubing and expanding the pliers to stretch the tubing.

Stopping Carbon

All but one polyp of this coral started lightening up around the end of last year. I thought it may have been because I moved it up just a little into the rock work. So, a few days ago I moved it back down. The lightening started occuring prior to my anemone getting caught in the powerhead so I can rule that out. The only other change was the addition of carbon and the carbon reactor.

Therefore, as of this morning, the carbon reactor has been taken off line.

I thought I had noticed some increased growth in some of my acros since adding the reactor. Additionally I have definitely noticed my green open brain starting to expand more and more lately.


When I first got it would always be expanded. For the last yer or year and a half it stopped expanding. So this is a definite change and perhaps a benefit of carbon.

Also this morning a few heads of my frogspawn are retracted.


My chaeto has also started to brown a little. Perhaps because the carbon is removing some of the nutrients needed by the chaeto. Perhaps the browning chaeto is causing the stress in the tank.

This is the latest in a series of unfortunate events. Is it due to carbon? I don't know. However, it is easy to take the carbon off line and observe what happens.

Fragile Digitata

In the past I've been clumsy and have broken off a branch of my orange digitata while performing maintenance on the tank. This morning, I woke to find a good size branch sitting on the sand bed propped up by my maze brain and green trumpet. I'm guessing the trigger brushed up against it and broke it.

The break is visible in the center of the coral. The piece that broke off is simply propped up against the rock behind the coral.