Sinistard's 68.8 Acrylic Tank Journal [Photo Intense]

[Sinistard]

I went out today and made my first big purchase other then clean up crewmembers.

Here are some Pictures. Some of the corals are pieces I moved over from my nano and they been in the tank for 2 weeks now some a little less and they are doing all great.

First the pieces I moved over from my nano.

Red and Green Open-Brain (Trachyphyllia sp.)

Green Monti (Montipora capricornus)

Orange Monti (Montipora capricornus)

Green and Pink Frogspawn (Euphyllia divisia)

There were also a couple a small zoas I moved over from my nano but I have not snapped a picture of them yet

I won this in a raffle at a CORA meeting a few weeks ago.

Blue and Green Florida Ricordia (Ricordia florida)

I picked these up when I got my clean up crew a few weeks back

Purple Pincushion Urchin (Lytechinus vaniegatus)

Orange Tonga Mushroom (Rhondactis sp.)

 

[Sinistard]

And these are the pieces I picked up today.

Pearl Coral / Bubble Coral (Plerogyra sinuosa)

Yellow and Pink Sun Coral (Tubastrea faulkneri)

Blue Acropora with Blue polyps (Acropora sp.)

The Acro had a Acro Crab as a Hitchhiker

Acro Crab (Xanthasia sp.)

Rose Bulb Tip Anemone (Entacmaea quadricolor)

If any of my critters look misidentified or if you have a more complete ID feel free to let my know. I tried to figure out the scientific name of each piece of live stock as well as the common name.

The pictures of the corals I got today are about a half hour after I added them to the tank so they are not fully open. I added the frogspawn at the same time. The rest have been in the tank for at least a week.

I was going to pick up a new fish as well but I could not decide on what to get. I want to go with one larger fish then several smaller fish. I was considering a Sail-fin tang for a Purple tang as the bigger fish but could not make up my mind. I think I will be able to get away with one tang in my tank. The 2 smaller fish I was considering today were a coral beauty or a flame angel.

That's it for now I will try to get some better pictures once everything has settled down.

 

[Sinistard]

Everything seems to be doing well today.

Last night every polyp on the Sun Coral opened and I feed it a mix of Mysis and cyclop eeze. It has a ton of mouths to feed. I also feed the RBTA. It has inflated to over twice the size it was in the tank at the store.

The lights had not come on this morning before I came to work so I don't know if the acro has extened it's polyps yet. I'm hoping it will by this evening.

 

[Kinetic]

your tank is still fairly new, you may wanna dose a bit of phytoplankton like DT's to up your increase your zooplankton population for your acro etc.

also having phytoplankton swarming around in your tank, your zooplankton will become more active and the acro should love it

 

[Sinistard]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7501516#post7501516 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Kinetic
your tank is still fairly new, you may wanna dose a bit of phytoplankton like DT's to up your increase your zooplankton population for your acro etc.

also having phytoplankton swarming around in your tank, your zooplankton will become more active and the acro should love it

Thanks for the advice.

I mixed a bit of DT's phytoplankton in with the food I feed the Sun Coral last night. I also added a bit of home grown phyto from a local reefer a while back.

I'll be sure to dose some DT's on a regular basis.

 

[MyMonkey]

Yet again, great pics and beautiful tank.

 

[rdmpe]

Great stuff! I love how you tucked the sun coral back in the cave - I guess that's more their natural enviro right? Very cool. Thanks for posting the names of the corals - I'm still trying to learn them... I never know what the heck I'm looking at when visting the LFS.

 

[Sinistard]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7502184#post7502184 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MyMonkey
Yet again, great pics and beautiful tank.

Thank you.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7502272#post7502272 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rdmpe
Great stuff! I love how you tucked the sun coral back in the cave - I guess that's more their natural enviro right? Very cool. Thanks for posting the names of the corals - I'm still trying to learn them... I never know what the heck I'm looking at when visting the LFS.

Thanks. I plan of sticking some Sun Coral in the other cave as well, not nearly as big of a piece but I'm sticking it on a small shelf in the cave and I hope it spreads onto the cave wall. I know that Sun Coral does grow in caves but I am not sure that's the only place it grows.

While on my Honeymoon last year to St. Johns we went snorkeling in a place called the "caves" located around one of the British Virgin Islands. Both caves were full of Sun Coral. The ones farther back in the cave were open even in the middle of the day.

Here are a couple of pictures.

Closer to the entrance

Farther back in the cave

If you want to see other pictures from the trip here is a link to a thread where I posted several pictures.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=617189&perpage=25&pagenumber=1

I am going to try to post names of everything I add to the tank. This will help others with IDs as well as help me remember what all I added to the tank Like I said before If anyone sees a misID or can make a beter ID please let me know.

 

[rdmpe]

omg those are incredible pictures!

 

[Sinistard]

Here is a shot of the updated sump area.

My mangroves don't seem to be doing all that well. I think 2 were pretty much dead when I got them and the other 2 have shown no sign of growth. Not sure whats going on there.

 

[melev]

They really prefer to be buried in sand.

 

[Sinistard]

Thanks melev.

Here is a full tank shot from today. Since my Sun Coral is in the cave parts of it stay open most of the day.

click to see a bigger version


The montipora digi on the right will get moved I just have not decided where yet.

 

[MyMonkey]

Nice camera work on your vacation pics. Where were you for most of those? I have been to St. John a few times and have seen nice corals but never an anemone or much of the things pictured. Nice work.

 

[Sinistard]

Thanks MyMonkey, The pictures are from snorkeling off the beaches around St. Johns and Scuba Diving a bit farther off the main island.

From what I can remember the anemone shots were all taken while snorkeling. I only saw a couple anemones the whole trip.

 

[Sinistard]

I forgot to post this guys picture before. I added him with the cleaning crew.

Skunk Cleaner Srimp (Lysmata amboinensis)

Also here is a macro I took of my Blue Acro which has been best IDed as a Acropora gomezi

 

[Pacific Reefs]

WOW! Thats a perfect setup. Great work.

 

[reefNetWork]

Hey great looking tank. I love the rock work it's so nice. looking at your tank is making me jealous. Nice work.

 

[Sinistard]

Thanks Pacific Reefs and reefNetWork.

 

[Sinistard]

Well today was not the best day as far as my tank goes. I had my first casualties.

I found the skunk cleaner pictured below dead stuck to the closed loop intake late last night. I don't know what happened to him, just yesterday he was out and eating. I had noticed him hiding a bit more then normal but he seemed fine the last time I saw him. There were no signs of abuse so nothing else in the tank was picking on him.

The other casualty was a new fish I got on Sunday. A Blue Spotted Jawfish.

Here is a picture of him being acclimated on Sunday. He was a very cool fish.

I never did get a picture of him in the tank.

He was doing fine all of Sunday. Monday morning before work I could not find him but figured he was just digging a hole somewhere. I still could not find him last night when I got home and then this morning. I moved some rocks around in the tank and looked around behind the tank and did not see him.

I posted a thread about him today and someone said I should look around on the floor since they are notorious jumpers so I went back and looked some more. I found him under the tank inside my stand. I guess he bounced off a run of PCV just right that he ended up in the stand. He as pretty dried up so I guess he was there for at least a day.

I guess I assumed since they spend most of there time on the bottom jumping would not be a problem. I did some research on them and did not see anything about jumping. I guess I need to read into them more. I will not make this mistake again and I'm sorry a fish had to die for me to learn.

I am in the process of making 2 lids out of egg-crate that will fit into the holes on top of the tank. I will post some pictures once they are done. I think they are going to block a little bit of light but It should not be enough to effect the tank.

Like I said not a very happy day for reefing.

 

[rdmpe]

Sorry to hear about the deaths, that is a bummer.

On the mangroves, I think you should just stick them in some sand and forget about them for a while. Sometimes they will take a really long time to sprout roots and leaves...