Observations
Date	Note
7/17/2006	Brown algae has begun to grow over everything -- it has turned the white rocks and the Oreo colored substrate an ugly mustard color
7/19/2006	Noticed possible green hair algae growing on one rock
7/21/2006	Noticed several unknown larvae looking worms floating on the surface of the water -- will have to keep watch on them
7/21/2006	Found several dead baby spiders floating on the surface -- any relation to the larvae?? Neither the larvae or spiders were there last night…
7/24/2006	Came into work to find that the larvae and dead "spiders" (actually little flies of some kind with long legs) had exponentially multiplied -- about 30 larvae and dead flies were removed -- wonder why they would hatch and instantly die? All of them were removed with the trusty turkey baster and hopefully this little problem will disappear now.
7/25/2006	Brown Algae has begun to disappear
7/25/2006	Discovered three small tube worms on the top left rock, the first visible critters in the tank!
7/25/2006	Discovered a very small, thin worm crawling on the back of the tank -- finally some life is emerging from the live rock after nearly 2 weeks!
7/25/2006	Discovered one of the "flies" alive and flying very, very quickly, millimeters above the surface… very strange
7/25/2006	Event stranger, I turned off the powerheads to get a better look at the fly and discovered tiny little specks that move in short bursts towards the surface and then drop down towards the bottom again
7/25/2006	While the power heads were off I also saw my first amphipod/copepod scurrying across the same rock the tube worms are on
7/28/2006	Found a Stomatella varia snail today (named him Fred), which freaked me out at first because I thought it was a sea slug or nudibranch, which can become pests
7/28/2006	Starting to notice the first traces of cyanobacteria (slimy red spots on the rocks), which I was really hoping I wouldn't get. It will probably take over my entire tank over the weekend and will most likely take months (and many water changes) to get rid of.
7/31/2006	Hermits seem to be acting strangely. All 5 haven't moved from their spots all day and they aren't eating -- two are hiding in cavities in the rock and all you can see is their shells. I almost thought they were stuck for a minute.
7/31/2006	I found a second Fred (Stomatella varia) today, which hopefully means they'll breed and I'll have many soon
8/1/2006	Hermits still aren't eating much during the day, but they seem to be a lot more active -- one actually managed to climb up to the top of a power head and have his shell half sticking out of the water
8/3/2006	Discovered tiny little worms that live in tunnels they created out of really fine sand on the surface of some of the rocks (mostly the base rock) -- once in a while they stick there heads out to look for food
8/5/2006	The shrimp I placed in the tank to help cycle it has finally disappeared after nearly 2 weeks
8/7/2006	Discovered a very tiny green bubble on a rock -- could be bubble algae
8/8/2006	Came into work in the morning to find there was a major outbreak of the little flies the night before -- Hundreds of them were at the surface, there seemed to be a lot of larvae too -- I'll have to think of new ways to combat this problem, as scooping them out with a fishnet doesn't seem to be working effectively as I'm not here at night
8/8/2006	The larger emerald crab was walking along the glass for a better part of the morning -- maybe it was looking at its reflection
8/9/2006	It appears as though one of the crabs got to the bubble algae -- I hope they didn't pop the bubble so it doesn't spread
8/11/2006	The Gramma loreto is not eating the food I bought, but seems to be eating pods in the water column and on the glass
8/13/2006	The Gramma loreto refused flake food as well -- I guess it'll have to live off copepods.
8/14/2006	There are several worms on the glass that appear to be flat worms of some kind -- they're clear though, so they probably aren't bad flat worms
8/14/2006	Found a molting of the smaller emerald crab -- It scared me at first because I thought he had died, but when I cracked the shell open it was empty
8/14/2006	The Gramma loreto appears to have Ich -- I'll have to find a way to set up a quarantine tank so I can treat him
8/16/2006	The Gramma's condition has gotten much worse -- it does not appear to have Ich, however, as it has clear, rice-shaped worm looking things hanging off its head and tail section -- I have set up a QT tank that I will treat with hyposalinity for several weeks, along with giving the fish fresh water dips every other day for a week or two
8/16/2006	During the fresh water dip given to the Gramma, I noticed approximately 20 oval shaped, paper thin worms falling off of him -- possibly some kind of marine trematode, such as fluke
8/17/2006	The Gramma's tail fin is almost completely gone, most likely from complications caused by stress
8/17/2006	Discovered a tiny, white brittle star fish on one of the rocks
8/20/2006	Gramma loreto finally died -- poor little thing was suffering quite a bit…RIP
8/20/2006	Witnessed one of the Freds spraying sperm/eggs into the water column 5 or 6 times -- hopefully I'll get little baby Freds soon
8/22/2006	Found 2 small, red feather dusters on a rock
8/28/2006	Spotted a bristle worm of some kind, it was, as best I can tell, approximately 2 inches long with a clear/white body with a few black markings
8/31/2006	Noticed a second small colony of Zoanthids missing -- The main suspect is the Camel Shrimp, which will be removed as soon as I figure out how to remove it
9/1/2006	Discovered that one of the emerald crabs (the smaller one I believe) molted and now has MUCH larger claws (twice the size they were before) -- I believe that means it is a male
9/5/2006	Despite removing the camel shrimp, more zoanthids appeared to be missing this morning -- time to lose the bigger emerald crab I guess
9/7/2006	Found a small clam in my original colony of Zoanthids that appears to be alive -- it closed its shell when a pod crawled over it
9/11/2006	The last of the Zoanthid colony is now gone -- It died from a bacterial infection I believe
9/12/2006	The remaining, smaller emerald crab seems to have taken residence under the large red mushroom, which he sleeps under like a blanket
9/19/2006	Found a strange tube worm of some kind that has a hard tube and a barely visible head that secretes some kind of web that I assume it uses to catch plankton floating in the water -- it is located directly to the left of the peanut worm hole
9/21/2006	One of the Ricordea floridas that was just placed in the tank expelled its guts out of its mouth and small pieces of it detached -- not sure if this is really bad or normal
9/22/2006	The Ricordea florida that expelled its guts seems fine, as do all the other corals that might have been hit by pieces of gut
9/22/2006	Caught my 2 Freds in the act of mating and was able to get pictures of them -- They should be available in the gallery shortly
9/22/2006	The Ricordea florida that expelled its guts before is doing it again, but both polyps this time -- same time of day as last time too, 3:30 PM
9/25/2006	Watched one of the Freds shoot eggs into the water again, but this time they were different -- The eggs had a yellowish tint to them, they were larger, and they appeared to stick together as a string a little before breaking up and scattering around the tank
10/2/2006	The palythoas died over the weekend and it looks like the Green skirts with blue center zoanthids aren't going to make it either -- I suspect they were DOA
10/9/2006	The base rock is really starting to color-up with pink and pastel green coralline algae -- I can't wait to see it in a month or two
10/13/2006	Came into work today to discover that something has been eating my Neomeris annulata -- Hopefully the affected stalks heal themselves, but I doubt they will since they're pretty badly damaged
10/13/2006	Caught one of my scarlet reef hermits eating the Neomeris annulata and removed it from the tank and placed it in the QT tank
10/18/2006	Came into work this morning to discover that the powerhead on the right side of the tank slipped down and landed on the hairy mushroom and the hydor-flo deflector, which spins, grinded through it -- there is now a sizeable hole in the mushroom and it is in pretty bad shape, but should recover
10/23/2006	Another powerhead slipped over the weekend (the one on the left this time), but luckily it didn't really affect anything -- I'm stringly considering the MJ mod that uses magnets to keep it in place
10/28/2006	Caught another scarlet reef hermit snacking on my Neomeris annulata algae -- I guess there's nothing I can do to prevent it now short of removing all of my scarlets, which isn't an option
11/17/2006	Looks like I'm starting to have a Cyanobacteria problem on the substrate -- great…
11/29/2006	The percula (named Sushi) took food from my fingers for the first time today -- I think he's finally getting used to his new home and he's eating like a pig
12/14/2006	Today is a sad day -- I discovered the empty shell of one of my Freds… hopefully my other Fred is ok but I haven't seen him in a week or so now…
12/20/2006	The cyano problem seems to be subsiding, surprisingly -- I can hardly find any traces of it today
12/23/2006	The last of the Neomeris annulata has been eaten by the scarlet reef hermits -- man I hate crabs sometimes!
12/27/2006	My first Ricordea yuma is already putting out a foot that will likely turn into a new yuma shortly
1/2/2007	The yuma's foot has already broken off and started to form a new yuma -- it is amazing how quickly that happened
1/10/2007	The Kenya tree that fell into my ricordea garden and stayed there overnight appears to be dying from the contact with the ricordeas -- amphipods are crawling all over it and it hasn't opened in a couple days
1/16/2007	Today I found an unknown coral growing in a hole in the live rock with no idea how it got there... It looks like it could be either kenya tree or xenia -- I guess a piece broke off while I was acclimating them and ended up in that hole in the rock
1/18/2007	I noticed my emerald crab busily eating something and upon closer inspection it appears as though he may have been eating part of my remaining Stomatella varia snail -- I hope it was just the tail section and that the snail is ok -- I guess I know what happened to my other Fred now...
1/19/2007	It has been confirmed, my last Fred is dead -- I assume killed and eaten by the emerald crab… what a shame
1/24/2007	My baby yuma has disappeared -- I noticed that it was no longer opening fully the last two days and today I came in to find it missing
1/26/2007	My favorite Ricordea florida (the purple, orange, and blue one) finally grew a second mouth after having not grown much at all since I received it -- woohoo!
2/5/2007	Found a very small (~2mm) snail on my glass this morning -- I thought it may have been a pyramid snail, but further research leads me to believe it is a rissoid snail since it was found on my glass and the whorls on the tip of the shell are not rotated 90º
2/7/2007	I think one of my scarlet reef hermits got in a fight (probably with the emerald crab) and lost badly -- it is missing 3 or 4 legs, including a claw
2/7/2007	A little while after feeding the tank some cyclopeeze and mysis shrimp soaked in selcon, I noticed a small clam/scallop half burried in the substrate -- I guess it was under the sand the whole time and came up for dinner?
2/26/2007	I believe I may have discovered a slow leak in the refugium -- one of the joints in the tank where two sheets of glass are held together by silicone was caked with salt residue
3/2/2007	Watched an orange creature, which I believe may be a foraminiferan, quickly grow on the front glass, doubling it's size and number of "arms" in a matter of hours
3/9/2007	The larger frag of birds nest I received at the Frag Fest has completely bleached and appears to be RTNing -- what a shame
3/28/2007	I found a parasite on the eye of my new Valenciennae puellaris goby that appears to be the same fluke-like parasite that killed my Gramma loreto -- the goby has since been moved to the refugium in preparation for a freshwater dip
4/4/2007	I watched the new goby make himself at home today by relandscaping -- he was taking big mouthfuls of sand and spitting them ontop of the big rock in there -- it was quite entertaining to watch
5/25/2007	The red fungia appears almost dead and it is started to lose it's flesh on one side -- what a shame…
5/28/2007	I came in today to find my tank crashing (not sure why yet) -- All of my Ricordeas are very ticked off and it looks like many of them won't make it (the purple yuma is melting away and the orange and blue one isn't looking good at all and will probably be melting by tomorrow -- my acan lord is almost dead, and all of my red mushrooms are gone -- zoos are all closed up
5/31/2007	Crash Update: All of the ricordeas are still closed up, especially the yumas, the two birds nests have RTN'd quite a bit but one still has half it's flesh, the Acan lord looks terrible and some of the flesh has peeled away but a few tentacles on one polyp are extending finally which is a hopeful sign, all of the red discosoma mushrooms are gone without a trace, the red fungia is completely dead and just a skeleton, all of the zoos and other corals not mentioned seem to be fine
6/14/2007	After 2 weeks things are finally starting to look back to normal -- during a water change tonight I managed to find the largest of my red mushrooms, the original one that came on the frag disk, floating around in the back of the tank -- also, both Acans have avoided death and are making slow recoveries, and it appears as though the very tips of one of the birds nest frags may survive
8/15/2007	I discovered a hydroid on the rock that the blue Ricordea florida resides and I promptly removed the rock from the tank, tweezed off the hydroid, and then used a steel file to remove that area of the rock completely -- I really hope that's the last of the hydroids in my tank
8/15/2007	While removing the hydroid I also removed the halimeda that was growing on the rock as well, even though it was growing extremely slowly
8/31/2007	The xenia stalks that are growing closest to the Acan Lord and the Acan Hillae look sick and are most likely dying -- They are probably being attacked by the Acans
9/10/2007	When I came into work this morning there was half of an asterina star on the glass -- I guess it came in with one of the zoanthid frags
9/12/2007	Came into work today to find the baby purple yuma snacking on a Rissoid snail -- I wish I had my camera on me
10/30/2007	The xenia near the acans are melting away and will likely be completely dead by tomorrow -- I'm kind of sad about it… that was a pretty nice colony of xenia for a while
10/30/2007	The yuma polyp I bought at the frag fest is also melting away it appears -- It has been looking terrible for about a week now -- not sure what the cause of the meltdown is
11/14/2007	While target feeding corals some mysis shrimp I noticed a rock in the back of the tank that a frag came on was covered in Valonia sp. (bubble algae), so I removed it from the tank and threw it away -- as far as I can see it did not spread to other rocks thankfully
12/3/2007	After looking very unhealthy for months now, my formally large and beautiful green/purple Ricordea yuma has begun to melt away -- I blame the faulty A/C unit this summer for its slow decline
1/9/2007	Discovered the first Asterina sp. sea star on my glass today -- I almost wonder what took so long for one to show up -- hopefully it's the harmless scavenger variety
1/11/2007	I found a colony of hydroids today and couldn't tear them completely off the rock with tweezers so I was forced to drain the tank down to their level and put a huge glob of super glue gel over them in an attempt to kill them -- I hope I didn't make the problem worse while trying to rip them out
1/11/2007	I was feeding my corals tonight when I happened to see a bunch of what appeared to be baby shrimp swimming around in the tank -- my guess is that some of my hermits spawned
1/29/2008	Today I found one of my Freds (a Stomatella varia snail) upside down and slightly curled up, but still alive next to my Duncan, which was slightly closed -- I guess the Fred fell off a rock and onto the Duncan, which stung it rather severely -- I moved him to my refugium and I hope he survives
2/20/2008	Today I found that one of my annoying astreae snails had knocked one of the new Ricordea floridas onto one of my Acanthastrea echinata frags -- it looks like they both did a real number to each other, but the Ricordea looks far worse off
3/15/2008	After nearly a month the Ricordea above is almost completely healed and the Acan looks like nothing ever happened -- gotta love hardy corals!
3/18/2008	Apparently my heater has gone haywire and became stuck in the on position and the tank temperature rose up to 83.6º, but luckily nothing in the tank seems stressed -- I unplugged the heater and cleaned it off, which seems to have fixed it for now, but I'll keep a close eye on it from now on
4/14/2008	Today I noticed the start of what appears to be a major hair algae outbreak -- I will try to combat this outbreak by pruning back my macro algae, cleaning out the pre-filter sponges on my powerheads, performing extra water changes, cleaning the sand with a siphon, and feeding my corals less -- this is the first such outbreak in the entire life of the tank so far so I'm considering it to be an indicator that something hasn't been quite right about my maintenance lately