My 90g RR/30g custom sump

[VacavilleFC3S]

couldn't figure out why all the macro's in my refugium were slowly diminishing over the last few weeks, first the ulva, almost all the gracilaria is gone. i turned the light on a moment ago to find my decorator crab with a 3" stock of gracilaria in it's claws and munching down.

he gets banished back to the non-display refugium on my next day off.

 

[VacavilleFC3S]

busy busy as usual,

i'm setting up another tank,15H with black seals, 1" bulkhead in the side, and draining into the 10g display. i had intended to use a 10g but i dropped a bottle of vodka on it today and it exploded. 15H was sitting in the garage.

bunch of new things scheduled to arrive this week also.

from reefcleaners:

mangroves
caulerpa prolifera
short codium
red gracilaria
mixed grade gracilaria
ulva
halimeda
halymenia
12 limpets
a variety of hardy sponges i asked john to collect

from Sea life Inc :
2 O. havanensis Mantis shrimp <-- 1 for new tank, 1 for sump
1 ball sponge with encrusting zoanthids
2 spiky astrea snails
2 sand sifting cucumbers

 

[VacavilleFC3S]

i'm going to reinforce the stand with a few 2x4", but it should be just fine.

 

[VacavilleFC3S]

my new stomatopods arrived this morning in wonderful condition.

i'll have pics up when i get home from work.

 

[VacavilleFC3S]

got a free cleaner shrimp from work tonight, someone must have dropped it off yesterday.

 

[VacavilleFC3S]

cleaner shrimp was dead the following morning,

also both mantis shrimp have died, 1 jumped out of the 15g and is MIA, the little one was found dead and being eaten my a hermit. who knows what happend. all other inverts are fine.

 

[VacavilleFC3S]

new macros just getting settled into there new 15g

 

[VacavilleFC3S]

so i've decided to go a new direction with my 2 smaller tanks, i believe i'm going to find a new home for my sargasssum angler. rescape that tank to a florida biotope and house my new mantis in there, the 15g has no occupants since the other mantis passed away so i'm going to give breeding dwarf seahorses a try (ordered 5 pair) . this tank is absolutely perfect with very little flow and lots of macros will be growing in for them to hitch on.

placed another order with ccritters,

10 purple hornet zoanthids (looks like the real thing to me, we'll see what i receieve)
http://www.ccritters.com/catalog/i36.html

6 mixed palm plants
1 Red tree sponge
1 Red ball sponge
1 Sea Squirt Colored
2 Sea Squirt black
5 Florida ricordea green/blue
5 PAIRS of dwarf seahorses
1 Mantis Shrimp (white/stripe)
2 atlantic grey cowries
4 assorted feeder crabs (usually decorators)
1 assorted gorgonian

 

[VacavilleFC3S]

order from dana will be arriving tomorrow, she needed a week to collect the sea horses.

 

[Tilmo2180]

Sweet man, cant wait to see some pics. What do you plan to have in your Florida Biotope?

 

[VacavilleFC3S]

i just realized both small tanks are florida biotopes. 15g is macros (C.prolifera,halimeda,gracilaria,ulva,shaving brush) with the sea horses, and the 10g a mantis shrimp, mangroves, with feather duster worms, sponges gorgonians growing underneath

everything has come from either Reefcleaners, Sealife.inc and CCritters.

 

[VacavilleFC3S]

package arrived about 11am, no leaky bags, temp seems good,

order i placed:
6 mixed palm plants
1 Red tree sponge
1 Red ball sponge
1 Sea Squirt Colored
2 Sea Squirt black
5 Florida ricordea green/blue
5 PAIRS of dwarf seahorses
1 Mantis Shrimp (white/stripe)
2 atlantic grey cowries
4 assorted feeder crabs (usually decorators)
1 assorted gorgonian

order i received :
4 large zoa frags, 25 polyps each. no idea on color till they open
6 mixed palm ( 3 halimeda 3 shaving brush)
1 red tree sponge
1 orange tree sponge
5 ricordea (5 different colors each has 3-4 mouths!!) WOW
2 grey cowries
4 emerald crabs
1 mantis shrimp
6 pairs of dwarf seahorses

 

[VacavilleFC3S]

 

[VacavilleFC3S]

oh how time flies..

i had purchased 5 banggai on my birthday july 2nd, 1 died almost immediately, 2 more survived about 3 days before disappearing. these last 2 seem like survivors, both are eating mysis, 1 has finally started sampling dried foods as of today.


wild caught cardinals are a total PITA. took 12 pajama cardinals to get the 4 hardy ones i've had now for almost a year.

 

[VacavilleFC3S]

it's been a good and bad week.

2 banggai still alive and eating my pellet mix now

2 new neon gobies in my 15g

2 new ORA false perculas in the 90g ( had to buy them 11.00 each on sale + my discount. 1 is a very interesting yellow with no dark like the usual do.

 

[Bamm Bamm]

Well besides the few deaths everything seems like there doing good I like the macro tanks those are pretty cool.. Be careful w cowries in your reef I had one eat a large colony or strawberry garden zoas

 

[VacavilleFC3S]

cowries are down in my sump.

i believe the deaths come from being wild caught.

 

[Bamm Bamm]

Yeah I agree I hate thr aspect of this hobby

 

[VacavilleFC3S]

I am no longer working for petco

 

[jubjub]

ugh oh what happened?