A Year Ago this week

[divemonster]

It's been a year since I ordered The Package and begin my journey as a novice reefkeeper.

Here is the tank as of yesterday:

Tube coral coral 1 year ago:

Same coral yesterday:

The base of the Candelabra gorgonian has grown onto the rock:

The Atlantic Cup coral has managed to survive all this time

 

[Yogre]

Very, very nice!

Your gorgs in particular look like they're doing very well!

Do you dose anything at all? (Like kalkwasser?) What do you feed? I'm still trying to get a handle on all this.

 

[divemonster]

Gorgonians are much easier to grow than sponges. Although I have gotten much better with sponges there are a couple of old ones in the tank I need to take out. They were exposed to air and are shrinking. I keep hoping they'll make a comeback but it doesn't seem very likely at this point.

I don't dose with kalkwasser. The only thing I do regularly is add marine buffer to the top off water and the change water before I mix in the salt.

I alternate between feeding the tank Phytofeast and PhycoPure every other day. I also feed with homemade food because I don't like the phosophate factor of commercially prepared foods. I use my food processor to chop fresh oysters, shrimp, fresh fish like yellowtail or red snapper, fresh squid, clam or conch, and whatever else looks good at the market, plus a specific kind of seaweed (starts with the letter "A" I just don't remember the name right now) that I soak in RO water before adding to the mix. The anemones get finely minced shrimp or other saltwater fish like red snapper every friday. Of course the serpent stars come out of hiding to get their fair share.

The gorgonians are thriving. I was worried about the MH lighting being too intense but they have adapted very well. The silver plume gorgonian has become one of my favorites. Richard said it was very sensitive wich caused concern about the bare places on some of the branches. Those bare sections are grown over now. YAY! Richard also said not to frag it. But there was a small piece that had broken off at a bare spot and was laying on the sand. I saw the polyps out so I glued it to a rock hoping it would survive. It has actually grown and no longer has any skeleton or bare areas. I'll try to post a picture later. The blue reef chromis spend alot of time swimming among the branches of the silver gorgonian.

A year later I still find myself staring at my tank for long periods of time when the store is quiet or no one is around.

 

[shadowbearwv]

All I want to know is how have you been able to keep your greenery alive. Every plant/macroalgae I stick in my tank in gone in a matter of weeks. The hermits and urchins seem to take turns at nibbling em.

I'm hoping with the larger tank this won't be much of an issue. An I haven't been able to keep many polyps or mushrooms cause the decorators think they look lovely in them hehe.

I hope my new tank turns out just as well as yours.

SB

 

[divemonster]

SB, you're right about greenery. It is does seem to disappear quickly. My caulerpa went asexual on me a long time ago (I was trimming it weekly, too) and the long spined urchin took care of it in the sump. The shaving brush plants get eaten up. I had a big one that had grown a shoot at the base but the crabs wanted fresh greens that week The plants that look like cedar bushes seem to be less palable since I still have at least 3. One mermaid's fan is still intact, but one of them did get eaten. Richard sent a huge shrub of red macro which got close to extinction, but it has survived somehow and has started growing again. I've seen it growing on the rock in other spots as well.

I had some very cool decorator hitchhikers, but the mantis shrimps took care of them some time ago. I do have a big one (it is sort of triangular shaped) right now that is sporting yellow tube sponge. None of the decorators used polyps only sponges and macro, but maybe i was lucky. There was one little decorator that was my favorite. It used hair algae for its camo!

There is a macroalgae called chaeto-something-or-other and it is unpalatable to greenery munchers. Most hobbyists keep it in the refugium. It looks kinda ugly to me, like a tangled mass of green wire. It is aquacultured so it would fit your theme. I don't keep it because it's not Gulf/Caribbean (yes, i'm that anal about my biotope)

Your new tank will turn out better than mine.

 

[noahm]

VERY NICE!!! Its always nice to see a TBS tank no only looking good, but THRIVING after a year. Good job.

 

[divemonster]

Richard has a great product! I owe my success to him and his advice.

 

[Trandall]

Questions for Teri

Questions for Teri

Just looking through some threads and saw the beautiful pic of your tank. It's really gorgeous. What size tank is it?

I see you've positioned your Koralias on the back glass instead of on the ends. May I ask why? I've seen others do this as well and wondered if that was best.

I think I remember you saying you were using MH lighting? I have been a bit worried that my light might be too intense for some of my package inhabitants considing the tank is only 18 inches deep and wide and I have 2-250 watt MH bulbs.

The heat isn't really a concern as I do have a chiller but worry about the light intensity.

Just curious about your successes in your beautiful tank. I'd love for mine to be half that pretty in a years time.

 

[divemonster]

my main display

my main display

My tank is a 55gallon Oceanic made in '92. It actually once housed my red tailed boa, but that's a story for another time.

The koralias were on the sides when I first set up the tank, but the flow seemed to be ineffective. After having much better success with good flow in the 6g nano (the koralia on the back of the tank) I decided to try moving the powerheads in the big tank to see if flow would improve. The koralias on the back of the tank aim the water at the front glass which seems to create more flow. With the improved flow, the gorgonians extended polyps and began growing new branches. Ok, so is it better? Yeah I thought it definitely improved the overall health of my biotope.

On the lighting...i have 150w MH lights. The tank is 24" deep so it's not as shallow as yours. I thought the reef would freak out with all the light so I started with a "short day" schedule of 6 hours a day, and slowly increased the time (15 minutes a week) to an 8 hour day. With those lights of yours you could have a very happy Tridacna squamosa Are you wanting to keep a specific biotope? Or will you have a little bit of everything on your reef?

My tank is not all that pretty to the indo-pacific snobs who think the colors are rather drab since I don't run actinics or any of that stuff that shows florescent colors.

 

[Trandall]

Well I think it's very pretty. The whole reason < when I first thought of setting up another tank> was for a clam or two. That's why I aquascaped it with sort of an island on either end and kept the middle open, to show case a clam or two and why wanted the 250 MH in this tank. Have always wanted to have clams. I really like the look and feel of my tank now that I've at least *tentatively* arranged the rock, corals, etc. and I still have room for a clam or two in the middle. I also thought the island of rock at either end might buffer the flow a bit for the clams.

But now I'm thinking I better get rid of the Mantis, whelks, etc before I even think about adding a clam.

My fixture for this tank does not have actinics either. Just the two 250 watt MH and lunars.
My big tank has 3- 150 MH as well as actinic, T-5's, lunars, etc and I think the color is every bit as nice in this tank.

Perhaps I should back off my light for a bit. I've been running the MH for 9 hours the past couple days. Might be a bit too much. Especially with it being a shallow tank.

Thanks for all your input! I appreciate it!

 

[divemonster]

Poor stomapods!

Poor stomapods!

The mantis shrimps really never bothered anything other than the cleaning crew (at least in my tank). They would thump the occasional anemone that would cover or get too close to their holes but their thumps NEVER penetrated flesh or injured the anemones.

Most of my woes came from stone or gorilla crabs that I had missed from the beginning that grew into King Kong's cousin. Geez, those guys wreak havoc :mad2:

 

[Trandall]

Hi Teri. Can you be more specific as to what kind of problems the gorillas, etc caused? I know I have a few that I missed.
The one Mantis that I know I have is getting bolder. At first he hid and I only heard him. But after I rearranged the rock, etc he seems to have found a lair he likes now and often perches outside his crevice. To be honest... I could probably get to him now just by removing his rock but I am sort of fascinated watching him watch me!

 

[divemonster]

I had a beautiful Neon Goby that started looking like it had been in fights...missing scales...torn fins...and then one day it went missing. My fairy basslet had torn fins alot. My tiger gobies are MIA for a long time now. A sea cucumber developed a big gash that kept getting bigger. My haitian mushrooms have chunks missing from the edges.

That's when I realized I needed to watch the tank late at night long after the lights had gone out to see what was going on. That's when I found the gorilla crabs. One of them was sitting on a sea cucumber merrily ripping away at it.

I should've realized it what was going on and done something sooner. Too bad there isn't a smilie with a dunce cap on.

 

[Trandall]

O.k. Yikes... Good to know. I will be watching for and banishing the gorillas. The few I caught initially, I fed to my trigger and puffer in the big tank. They loved 'em! I figger....why just squish 'em when they can go out a more natural way? Come full circle sort of.
Thanks.

 

[redwarrior77]

Your tank looks fantastic, divemonster and is a testament to both your patience and persistence and Richard's good advice and great rock.