Guits' Caribbean Rose Coral Tank

[guits]

Hi everyone! I wanted to share with everyone my reefing "interest" since my return to the saltwater hobby over a year ago. I wanted to establish a Florida biotope nano tank (Fluval Spec V) and after doing lots of research I thought it would be a neat project to start a tank with solely corals that live naturally in the areas where our aquacultured live rock comes from. I also loved the idea of getting live rock from our own USA "backyard" and letting the hitchhikers grow naturally. Specifically, I thought the Caribbean Rose Coral (Manicina areolata) would be a great coral to focus on after looking at online forums and pictures of specimens that fellow reefers have obtained as hitchhikers on aquacultured Florida live rock. The challenge for my biotope tank would be obtaining specimens, since hard corals from Florida can only be obtained as hitchhikers from aquacultured live rock. After a lot of aquacultured live rock orders from a Florida and a lot of patience (with a good bit of quality live rock that didn't have any coral hitchhikers being given away) I have established a tank I really enjoy and that has matured quite nicely. Additional coral hitchhikers I have been able to obtain include a gorgonia and 2 varieties of oculina. The fish (various gobies from the Florida area) and cleanup crew are the only additions to the tank that did not hitchhike on the live rock. Anyways, I hope that you LPS lovers enjoy the pictures!

Start of tank February 2014



Photo of tank July 2014 before move from Boston to NYC



Photo of tank November 2014 (unfortunately the Cladocora did not do well after the move)



Various shots of corals and fish









Rusty Goby



Tiger Goby



Masked goby guarding eggs (recently my pair spawned after I increased frequency of feedings)

 

[stagcrazy]

very beautiful tank

 

[guits]

very beautiful tank

Thanks!

 

[chinchalice]

nice! how did you do the move? imma have to do one soon!

 

[guits]

nice! how did you do the move? imma have to do one soon!

Moving was a real pain, but luckily the corals in this tank are very hardy. On the morning of my move, I packed every specimen in individual bags with enough water to cover the entire specimen. I stacked the bags into aquarium buckets that I had. There was a day between when I could pack and unpack, and during that day the buckets were put in a shady spot at room temperature at my in-laws' place. I unpacked quickly once we got to NYC and made fresh saltwater. Most of the corals did ok. The things that did not make it were the shrimp in my other tank, and the molly miller blenny was weak and never recovered.

 

[joshky]

Do you know the name of this coral? Some kind of favia sp.?

Nice tank.

 

[Mussin]

Awesome brains...

 

[guits]

Do you know the name of this coral? Some kind of favia sp.?

Nice tank.

Thanks! The "y" shaped coral is an Oculina sp. I believe. The fleshy corals are Manicina areolata, also referred to as Caribbean rose corals.

Awesome brains...

Thanks!

 

[guits]

I was able to observe the masked gobies spawning again earlier in the week and posted a video on YouTube. Enjoy! They spawned on Wednesday and today is Saturday and I can see tiny eggs inside the eggs, so I suspect they will hatch soon.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/X6rUXaV3u9c" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Picture of female guarding eggs

 

[TheSaltySnailer]

i was able to observe the masked gobies spawning again earlier in the week and posted a video on youtube. Enjoy! They spawned on wednesday and today is saturday and i can see tiny eggs inside the eggs, so i suspect they will hatch soon.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/x6ruxav3u9c" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

picture of female guarding eggs

awsome picture!

 

[Mussin]

Do you have any power heads in that tank?

 

[guits]

awsome picture!

Thanks!

Do you have any power heads in that tank?

Nope, I actually just use the stock pump that comes with the Fluval Spec V. The flow is probably lower than ideal, but it seems like the inhabitants don't need especially high flow.

 

[Dekon70]

Great looking tank.

 

[guits]

Great looking tank.

Thanks!

 

[JoelA7]

Very impressive.

 

[guits]

Very impressive.

Thanks! I'm out of town for 2 weeks I hope the tank does ok under the care of my significant other!

 

[griss]

Guits, very beautiful tank, I'm envious. I'm digging this thread back up because it's an awesome tank and you share my passion for Caribbean livestock. My tank looks nothing like your's at this point. It's just some Reef Rocks base rock with Haitian live rock on top. I also have a Caribbean Gorgonian, several R. Florida, Caribbean Zoas, 3 Rock Anems, 2 Condys, and a Porites that popped up out of nowhere.

That said, your success with obtaining Caribbean LPS and SPS has inspired me to purchase some aquacultured rock from Florida. As soon as the weather gets better, I plan to purchase small amounts (10-20 lbs) of aquacultured rock at a time from various vendors. Hopefully, over time, I'll have a tank that looks as nice as your tank does.

 

[tah532]

Where did you purchase your Caribbean corals? Or were they all hitchhikers?

 

[stinkyreef]

nice piece of the ocean there. Everything looks happy and healthy

 

[guits]

Guits, very beautiful tank, I'm envious. I'm digging this thread back up because it's an awesome tank and you share my passion for Caribbean livestock. My tank looks nothing like your's at this point. It's just some Reef Rocks base rock with Haitian live rock on top. I also have a Caribbean Gorgonian, several R. Florida, Caribbean Zoas, 3 Rock Anems, 2 Condys, and a Porites that popped up out of nowhere.

That said, your success with obtaining Caribbean LPS and SPS has inspired me to purchase some aquacultured rock from Florida. As soon as the weather gets better, I plan to purchase small amounts (10-20 lbs) of aquacultured rock at a time from various vendors. Hopefully, over time, I'll have a tank that looks as nice as your tank does.

Thanks! All 3 of my tanks are Florida based. This tank only contains corals from live rock, and my other 2 have almost all their specimens from KP Aquatics. I highly recommend KP Aquatics for stock from the Florida Keys.

It took a lot of single-minded dedication and many orders of live rock to stock the tank in this thread - as you can imagine it's really hit or miss, and aquascaping can be quite difficult since the hitchhikers are already attached. Good luck!

Where did you purchase your Caribbean corals? Or were they all hitchhikers?

For this tank, none of the corals were purchased. I don't believe any of the stony corals can be purchased as specimens, they can only be obtained as hitchhikers. It took many orders of live rock, and each time I asked the vendor know I was specifically looking for hitchhikers.

nice piece of the ocean there. Everything looks happy and healthy

Thanks! Unfortunately, after my 2 week vacation to Asia, I returned to my tiger goby covered with ich. The large one has sadly passed, and the other ones have ich as well. I live in a small apartment and logistically am unable to have a separate quarantine tank. I'm trying "Ick Shield" pellet food from New Life Spectrum since I can't medicate the entire tank. I'm not very optimistic but we shall see!