critter count so far!
- Thread starter redwarrior77
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redwarrior77
New member
Everybody seems nice and happy in the tank today...no more deaths/suicides!
My sea cucumber is beginning to move a little bit more...I get the feeling those guys just are the speediest. I saw my peppermint shrimp today, probably showing off his shiny new carapace. My diatom bloom has definitely begun, but it's staying reasonably under control with the help of my diligent cleaners. My red mithrax crabs are getting big!
Ammonia remains 0...I need to test my 'trates and 'trites as well now. I'm just so happy to see things flourishing! I saw many spaghetti worms in the tank today and those iny white eggs are all over the back of the tank...I'm sure my critters will enjoy the food. I've been pretty occupied at work today, but I still enjoy glancing over and seeing all the life in there!
My sea cucumber is beginning to move a little bit more...I get the feeling those guys just are the speediest. I saw my peppermint shrimp today, probably showing off his shiny new carapace. My diatom bloom has definitely begun, but it's staying reasonably under control with the help of my diligent cleaners. My red mithrax crabs are getting big!
Ammonia remains 0...I need to test my 'trates and 'trites as well now. I'm just so happy to see things flourishing! I saw many spaghetti worms in the tank today and those iny white eggs are all over the back of the tank...I'm sure my critters will enjoy the food. I've been pretty occupied at work today, but I still enjoy glancing over and seeing all the life in there!
redwarrior77
New member
Everything is stable and seems to be thriving. I saw my mantis shrimp again today and he appears to be growing...he gave me a suspicious look as he was banging on a barnicle shell and the huffed off.
My sea cucumber is shrinking...or more like getting longer and skinnier...I can't think this a good sign...or is it? My new koralia nano should be in this week to add some extra flow and other than that, I'm just letting everything get used to its new home.
Richard - when my ship comes in and has a bigger tank on it for home, I'll definitely be emailing you...I'll never use fiji or tonga!
My sea cucumber is shrinking...or more like getting longer and skinnier...I can't think this a good sign...or is it? My new koralia nano should be in this week to add some extra flow and other than that, I'm just letting everything get used to its new home.
Richard - when my ship comes in and has a bigger tank on it for home, I'll definitely be emailing you...I'll never use fiji or tonga!
OgreMkV
New member
Heh, you won't ever use Fiji (I think) anyway.
One of the two islands, I forget if it was Fiji or Tonga, has banned live rock harvesting starting (again, I think) September 1.
You'll enjoy the nano. It's a great little powerhead. If it makes any noise at all, disassemble it and reinstert everything. If the prop and the guide rod are even slightly out of alignment, they make horrible noises.
One of the two islands, I forget if it was Fiji or Tonga, has banned live rock harvesting starting (again, I think) September 1.
You'll enjoy the nano. It's a great little powerhead. If it makes any noise at all, disassemble it and reinstert everything. If the prop and the guide rod are even slightly out of alignment, they make horrible noises.
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13045199#post13045199 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by redwarrior77
Everything is stable and seems to be thriving. I saw my mantis shrimp again today and he appears to be growing...he gave me a suspicious look as he was banging on a barnicle shell and the huffed off.
My sea cucumber is shrinking...or more like getting longer and skinnier...I can't think this a good sign...or is it? My new koralia nano should be in this week to add some extra flow and other than that, I'm just letting everything get used to its new home.
Richard - when my ship comes in and has a bigger tank on it for home, I'll definitely be emailing you...I'll never use fiji or tonga!
they are very elastic, they can stretch and they will change size as the eat.
redwarrior77
New member
I think I may also add a hydor flo deflector for my intake pump...it creates an awful lot of flow in just one spot and it might be nice to break that up just a bit. I've heard mixed reviews on them...people either seem to love them or hate them!
I've been keeping an eye on my mantis shrimp today and I think I'm going to try building the "pop bottle" trap this weekend and see if I can make one that will fit in my tank. I'd rather not tear everything apart trying to catch him and my coworker has already said he would be welcome in his tank, so he already has a new home waiting if he cooperates!
I've been keeping an eye on my mantis shrimp today and I think I'm going to try building the "pop bottle" trap this weekend and see if I can make one that will fit in my tank. I'd rather not tear everything apart trying to catch him and my coworker has already said he would be welcome in his tank, so he already has a new home waiting if he cooperates!
divemonster
New member
the mantis shrimp (really stomatopods) is a fascinating creature. Once upon a time I felt they had no place in my tank. That sort of attitude is wrong IMO because they do provide a service to the reef and they have their place in the food chain. Yes, it will hunt and kill the "good" crabs, but it will also hunt and kill the "bad" crabs (which are ALOT more destructive than the mantis).
I enjoy watching my mantis alot. It will even let me hand feed it.
I enjoy watching my mantis alot. It will even let me hand feed it.
redwarrior77
New member
My sea cucumber died today. 
When I added my new koralia nano to the tank, it pretty much disintegrated and started leaking white snot strings all over the place. I removed it, put in a clean filter, and I plan on doing a water change later today when I have time. So, no more cucumbers and I'm down to only 2 snails. I think I'll be ordering more snails this weekend to help out the hermit crabs.
My next major mod is going to be underwater LED's for my chaeto refugium in the back. Then I think a hydor-flo deflector. Hopefully by the time I'm done with all these crazy equipment upgrades, I'll be ready to add some corals to the mix. For now, my cup corals seem to be doing very well and I even have a couple of babies. My tube corals seem to also be on the mend.
Lighting - when is it ok to go to 11 hours of light? Is 11 hours of light a good amount or too much? What do you guys do?
When I added my new koralia nano to the tank, it pretty much disintegrated and started leaking white snot strings all over the place. I removed it, put in a clean filter, and I plan on doing a water change later today when I have time. So, no more cucumbers and I'm down to only 2 snails. I think I'll be ordering more snails this weekend to help out the hermit crabs.My next major mod is going to be underwater LED's for my chaeto refugium in the back. Then I think a hydor-flo deflector. Hopefully by the time I'm done with all these crazy equipment upgrades, I'll be ready to add some corals to the mix. For now, my cup corals seem to be doing very well and I even have a couple of babies. My tube corals seem to also be on the mend.
Lighting - when is it ok to go to 11 hours of light? Is 11 hours of light a good amount or too much? What do you guys do?
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13051577#post13051577 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by redwarrior77
My sea cucumber died today.
My next major mod is going to be underwater LED's for my chaeto refugium in the back. Then I think a hydor-flo deflector. Hopefully by the time I'm done with all these crazy equipment upgrades, I'll be ready to add some corals to the mix. For now, my cup corals seem to be doing very well and I even have a couple of babies. My tube corals seem to also be on the mend.
Lighting - when is it ok to go to 11 hours of light? Is 11 hours of light a good amount or too much? What do you guys do?
well IMHO there are different ways to do lighting.
do you want a "Gulf" biotope or a more "tropical" one?
do you want a "shallow" or "mid" or "Deep" one?
for example around florida where this rock came from daylength varies thru the year, water vis changes also. to make a very gulf like system you will want to alter lighting to match.
if you want a more tropic setup then daylenght is more constant thu the year.
so first work out what kind of coral, cirtters and part of the world you want, then match that.
divemonster
New member
Question: Do you get 11 hours of pure daylight in your area of Florida? We don't here in Texas, although we do get quite a bit of heat this time of year
Honestly we do get about 9-10 hours as the season approaches the longest day of summer season. But there are days where cloud coverage will block the sun for several day on end. Knowing how murky the Gulf can be and how unpredictable the weather with all fronts moving around, I've decided that a restricted "light" schedule is probably a good idea until my tank finds its biological/chemical balance.For now I am lighting the tank 6 hours a day. During the winter months I may change it to 8 when it is cooler outside, and then when the wonderful Texas summer comes back around I may lower it back to 6 hours just to keep the heat under control. A bit of a reverse to natural conditions but at least the reef is experiencing seasons (albeit artificial seasons). Any experienced reefkeeper advice is MORE than welcome. This tank is meant to be a Gulf reef tank.
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13054694#post13054694 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by divemonster
Question: Do you get 11 hours of pure daylight in your area of Florida? We don't here in Texas, although we do get quite a bit of heat this time of year
For now I am lighting the tank 6 hours a day. During the winter months I may change it to 8 when it is cooler outside, and then when the wonderful Texas summer comes back around I may lower it back to 6 hours just to keep the heat under control. A bit of a reverse to natural conditions but at least the reef is experiencing seasons (albeit artificial seasons). Any experienced reefkeeper advice is MORE than welcome. This tank is meant to be a Gulf reef tank.
to get 11 or 12 hour days you have to be very near the equator.
I think in tampa we do get to 10 hrs part of the year.
but for gulf style we have summer storms that cloud things off and on..
Yeah, I am not saying how long to run the lights, just what the natural lights are like, after that one has to make some choices.
like keeping in mind the inverse square law of light, how water depth modifies the light and so on...
I think a lot of folks have locked on to an idea of a reef as the top 24 inches of the reef.
might be fun to build a deep-reef where the only light is the blue stuff and it's more sponges and soft corals and low-light stuff.
I know there are some fish that look nice but do not like stong light. as I recall there's one called a "hamlet" that's got a nice color but stays around caves?
just a thought....
redwarrior77
New member
I guess I need to think more about the future of this tank, then.
I am planning primarily soft corals and mushrooms so that I can stick with the stock lighting. I'm not sure if I'm going to go for any strict biotope, though. I think about the most challenging things I'd like to keep as far as light is concerned is a frogspawn...other than that, I'd like some rics and some pretty mushrooms. I may get some zoanthids at some point, but I'm not sure. :/ I'm still trying to decide on fish...if I can get Mr. Mantis moved to his new home, then I may get a pair of clowns and see if they might like hanging out with my anemone, even though they are from different parts of the globe.
My main idea is to stick as much as possible with aquacultured stock. I feel like I did a good thing going with aquacultured rock, so I'd like to keep going with that. So that will probably mean nothing incredibly rare and mostly frags from the tanks of reef club members.
I am planning primarily soft corals and mushrooms so that I can stick with the stock lighting. I'm not sure if I'm going to go for any strict biotope, though. I think about the most challenging things I'd like to keep as far as light is concerned is a frogspawn...other than that, I'd like some rics and some pretty mushrooms. I may get some zoanthids at some point, but I'm not sure. :/ I'm still trying to decide on fish...if I can get Mr. Mantis moved to his new home, then I may get a pair of clowns and see if they might like hanging out with my anemone, even though they are from different parts of the globe.
My main idea is to stick as much as possible with aquacultured stock. I feel like I did a good thing going with aquacultured rock, so I'd like to keep going with that. So that will probably mean nothing incredibly rare and mostly frags from the tanks of reef club members.
redwarrior77
New member
I figured it was time for a little update and some pictures! I had another death today...a red mithrax crab was found missing a couple of limbs in the sand and didn't move when I picked him up. I suspect that the mantis shrimp may have been involved, but there wasn't enough evidence to convict. Other than that, the tank seems great today. While it's not quite as colorful as it was when I first added part 2, having lost the sponges, the rock itself is coloring up amazingly fast with corraline everywhere.
This rock definitely looks great a lot quicker than most live rock.I plan on devoting a decent part of my weekend to trying to trap Mr. Mantis and relocate him to another tank. I'm sure he'd enjoy his new home since it is filled with yummy snails! :lol:
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13062615#post13062615 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by redwarrior77
I figured it was time for a little update and some pictures! I had another death today...a red mithrax crab was found missing a couple of limbs in the sand and didn't move when I picked him up. I suspect that the mantis shrimp may have been involved, but there wasn't enough evidence to convict. Other than that, the tank seems great today. While it's not quite as colorful as it was when I first added part 2, having lost the sponges, the rock itself is coloring up amazingly fast with corraline everywhere.
I plan on devoting a decent part of my weekend to trying to trap Mr. Mantis and relocate him to another tank. I'm sure he'd enjoy his new home since it is filled with yummy snails! :lol:
Crab: not a moult ??
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13062496#post13062496 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by redwarrior77
I guess I need to think more about the future of this tank, then.
I am planning primarily soft corals and mushrooms so that I can stick with the stock lighting. I'm not sure if I'm going to go for any strict biotope, though. I think about the most challenging things I'd like to keep as far as light is concerned is a frogspawn...other than that, I'd like some rics and some pretty mushrooms. I may get some zoanthids at some point, but I'm not sure. :/ I'm still trying to decide on fish...if I can get Mr. Mantis moved to his new home, then I may get a pair of clowns and see if they might like hanging out with my anemone, even though they are from different parts of the globe.
My main idea is to stick as much as possible with aquacultured stock. I feel like I did a good thing going with aquacultured rock, so I'd like to keep going with that. So that will probably mean nothing incredibly rare and mostly frags from the tanks of reef club members.
with Power Compact lights @ the right settings you can keep a *LOT* of leather and soft coral.
I had a 55 with PC for the first several years and some of the corals I had included:
Yellow Fiji Leather, zoanthids, shrooms, frogspawn, candycane, two kinds of brain coral, bubble coral, doughnut coral, tbs brown gorgonians.
note that bubble, brain and some others are LPS corals.
really the MH lights are for when you want to do acropora and other SPS type corals.
also when looking at lights there are some tradeoffs you can make.
stronger light for a shorter time can be equal to a lower strength light for a longer time. within some limits that is.
and there are the non-photo corals that can look amazing but many have never been kept in a captive tank.
I did see a story here a while back that one or two folks keeping some of them... some day we might see a "lights out" reef coming around.
redwarrior77
New member
I have heard that sun corals (ironically enough) are non-photosynthetic, which is why you have to be sure to feed each little head. I'm thinking one of those would be a great addition if I can make the commitment to feed it every day.
I forgot who mentioned it, but I also have those thin white "tubes" growing on one of my rocks...not sure what those are, but they've been growing quickly. Other than that, everybody seems happy this week!
I forgot who mentioned it, but I also have those thin white "tubes" growing on one of my rocks...not sure what those are, but they've been growing quickly.
Other than that, everybody seems happy this week!
divemonster
New member
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13085442#post13085442 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by redwarrior77
. . . I forgot who mentioned it, but I also have those thin white "tubes" growing on one of my rocks...not sure what those are, but they've been growing quickly.
It seems quite a number of folks have the white "tubes" on their rock and no one knows its identity.
Whatever it is, it's non-photosynthetic. It seems to grow on nutrients in the water...nitrates perhaps based on when its growth begin to escalate (at least in my tank).
I've spent ALOT of time on using Google and <a href="http://www.wetwebmedia.com/marine/index.htm" target="_blank">WetWebMedia.com</a> trying to ID the stuff. Using <a href="http://www.algaebase.org/index.lasso" target="_blank">Algaebase</a> is not any help without at least a phylum or subphylum to start a search (if it is an algae).
Has anyone else had any luck IDing the stuff? I do wonder if it will disappear over time.
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redwarrior77
New member
Whatever they are, I think they are probably a good sign seeing as they seemed to sprout about the same time as I started seeing a lot of corraline growth.
I'm also a Mommy again! I spotted a baby keyhole limpet on one rock and a baby decorator crab has decided to hang out on the tube of my giant feather duster all day. They look just like mini versions of my full-grown critters, so I'm pretty secure in their ID's. My red mithrax crabs are getting huge and have been doing a great job getting rid of that bit of hair algae that had started growing. I may have to feed my tank a bit more to keep up with all my cleaners since my rocks are looking picked clean lately.
My rocks have pinked up nicely and I'm even seeing some corraline start on the back wall...this is amazing for a tank this young! Richard's rock rocks!
I'm also a Mommy again! I spotted a baby keyhole limpet on one rock and a baby decorator crab has decided to hang out on the tube of my giant feather duster all day. They look just like mini versions of my full-grown critters, so I'm pretty secure in their ID's. My red mithrax crabs are getting huge and have been doing a great job getting rid of that bit of hair algae that had started growing. I may have to feed my tank a bit more to keep up with all my cleaners since my rocks are looking picked clean lately.
My rocks have pinked up nicely and I'm even seeing some corraline start on the back wall...this is amazing for a tank this young! Richard's rock rocks!
