Melev's new 280g Starfire tank thread
- Thread starter JohnL
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melev
Well-known member
Absolutely, Bryan. I must have thousands upon thousands in there. When I fed last night and the pumps were off, I saw little arms poking out of every crevice imaginable.
The big black one is different, obviously. When I got the little guy, it looked like this, size-wise:
And as you can see in the picture posted yesterday, it has grown considerably.
The big black one is different, obviously. When I got the little guy, it looked like this, size-wise:
And as you can see in the picture posted yesterday, it has grown considerably.
original-reefland
Reefer
Well, its not exactly what your thinking. We call them baby brittle stars... but the picture Melv posted the "babies" are full size adults. They are not the same as the larger brittles that grow 8 to 12 inches across. Think of them more like mini-brittles (midget-brittle might offend someone
)steve the plumb
In Memoriam
I have harlequin starfish that reproduced.One is in my sump the other is in my main tank yet I have babies in my main tank but they are very small and I only see them at night when all lights are off.
original-reefland
Reefer
Full size (normal, typical) brittle stars usually do not. Rarely they do by dropping an arm and growing a new sea star. But even if you have a star that does this, its typically a one time thing. It is not a normal type of reproduction for the larger brittle stars. I happen to have one that did that.
The baby or mini-brittle sea stars do reproduce in our tanks. This is very common and should be expected if introduced. But at 1.5 inches tip to tip they are full sized adults.
melev
Well-known member
Today, while I had someone nearby & handy, we worked on the reef tank for a few hours. Some corals were moved, others were fragged for the propagation section, and others were set aside for this weekend's DFWMAS frag swap.
The first coral I purchased was a Colt leather coral. It has split before, and shared between two tanks. Due to its massive size, it was cut out of the rockwork. The two larger pieces <b>each</b> filled a casserole dish completely. It was thick and heavy and really quite a coral. I saved maybe 10-15% of the coral and left that in the reeftank.
A Pavona coral that our club fragged heavily two Octobers ago has grown steadily in my reef. Today when I lifted it out, I was amazed at how much it had really grown. Here's a picture, with the area marked to denote its original size when I first put what was left of it in my tank. And there's the casserole dish in the background, I see.
Lots of valonia was fed to Spock, cyano blown off where necessary, and red mushrooms & button polyps were cut off the rockwork to assure it wouldn't return in those particular areas.
Here is the tank 3 weeks ago...
And today...
The propagation section has quite a few items in it now.
That section has some cyano growth as well, and I'm about to treat the tank with Chemi Clean - two packs arrived today along with a new 400w 20,000K XM bulb.
The last bulb was cracked a few days ago...
....and I tried to keep it lit for now while scouring the locals for a used one, but caved in and bought a new one as the UV given off by the bulb was sure to harm some of the corals. I left the bulb off yesteday, just because of this. Marine Depot got a new bulb out here beyond fast, to the benefit of the reef. Thanks MD!
I've got a few Top Down pictures I'll post in a little bit.
...
Sadly, Casper died today. As you may have known, she stopped eating several months ago, unable to snick her food. Somehow she'd stayed alive all this time, basically swimming into food and accidentally inhaling it - I guess. I never did understand how she lived as long as she did. The Kuda seahorse appears fine.
The first coral I purchased was a Colt leather coral. It has split before, and shared between two tanks. Due to its massive size, it was cut out of the rockwork. The two larger pieces <b>each</b> filled a casserole dish completely. It was thick and heavy and really quite a coral. I saved maybe 10-15% of the coral and left that in the reeftank.
A Pavona coral that our club fragged heavily two Octobers ago has grown steadily in my reef. Today when I lifted it out, I was amazed at how much it had really grown. Here's a picture, with the area marked to denote its original size when I first put what was left of it in my tank. And there's the casserole dish in the background, I see.
Lots of valonia was fed to Spock, cyano blown off where necessary, and red mushrooms & button polyps were cut off the rockwork to assure it wouldn't return in those particular areas.
Here is the tank 3 weeks ago...
And today...
The propagation section has quite a few items in it now.
That section has some cyano growth as well, and I'm about to treat the tank with Chemi Clean - two packs arrived today along with a new 400w 20,000K XM bulb.
The last bulb was cracked a few days ago...
....and I tried to keep it lit for now while scouring the locals for a used one, but caved in and bought a new one as the UV given off by the bulb was sure to harm some of the corals. I left the bulb off yesteday, just because of this. Marine Depot got a new bulb out here beyond fast, to the benefit of the reef. Thanks MD!
I've got a few Top Down pictures I'll post in a little bit.
...
Sadly, Casper died today. As you may have known, she stopped eating several months ago, unable to snick her food. Somehow she'd stayed alive all this time, basically swimming into food and accidentally inhaling it - I guess. I never did understand how she lived as long as she did. The Kuda seahorse appears fine.
melev
Well-known member
Here are the top down pictures.
A. scripps - growing larger by the day, but the base / core is STNing. The bulb might have been the cause, and I'm watching it.
A coral from Keith's 135g, before he moved to Atlanta.
A. tenuis
Branching Hammer, recently fragged.
A. valida (Tyree LE)
Tyree fraglets - never waste a bit!
Clowning around in some Frillies
A. scripps - growing larger by the day, but the base / core is STNing. The bulb might have been the cause, and I'm watching it.
A coral from Keith's 135g, before he moved to Atlanta.
A. tenuis
Branching Hammer, recently fragged.
A. valida (Tyree LE)
Tyree fraglets - never waste a bit!
Clowning around in some Frillies
Lordhelmet
Active member
great pics! and sorry to hear about casper.
bheron
Active member
Hey Marc, great pics!
Rich, thanks for clearing up my brittle star question!
Marc, was just browsing melevsreef.com and was looking over your phytoplankton culturing section. Are you still doing this? Is it still workiing ok? What benefits can dosing phytoplankton provide to a reef tank? (I know thats a general question, and you talk about just that on your site, but Im trying to decide if it would benefit my tank).
Rich, thanks for clearing up my brittle star question!
Marc, was just browsing melevsreef.com and was looking over your phytoplankton culturing section. Are you still doing this? Is it still workiing ok? What benefits can dosing phytoplankton provide to a reef tank? (I know thats a general question, and you talk about just that on your site, but Im trying to decide if it would benefit my tank).
Lunchbucket
Premium Member
great pics marc! i'm sure you frag swap is gonna be awesome. how your bulbs always break??
Lunchbucket
Lunchbucket
melev
Well-known member
Bryan, dosing phytoplankton is beneficial in that it feeds tiny stuff and items that eat tiny stuff. Thus, if you want copepods in the reef for your mandarins to dine upon, feeding phyto to the copepods is a good idea. Some corals take up phytoplankton. Due to the issues I've had with phosphate, I've all but stopped dosing it over the last few months. Just today, though, I was thinking how many of my zoos looked painted on the rock instead of being nice and fluffy like they've been in the past, and I was actually musing over the fact that they aren't getting any phtyoplankton. Since I moved about 6 types of zoos into the prop section where no fish can get to them, I'm curious to see if they fluff up in appearance or not.
Eric - splashing by fish, mainly. The Lemon Meringue Wrasse jumps often, causing the bulbs to get wet. Cool water on a hot bulb...
Thanks for the nice words, y'all.
Eric - splashing by fish, mainly. The Lemon Meringue Wrasse jumps often, causing the bulbs to get wet. Cool water on a hot bulb...
Thanks for the nice words, y'all.
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