Soulpatch's build thread (ongoing)

[soulpatch]

my crabs have been model citizens and one of the only guys who actually eat bryopsis. I am not attached to them so the second they outlive their need or that they touch a coral they will have a BBQ skewer to the head and be removed. Such is life. That said they have been awesome thus far clearing rocks I cant take out to dip.


Glad you had success with the lights. And yes should I wish to remove the puck and put in 4 strips in my tank for more output it is a simple mod though honestly if I went to spend money on lights again it will be for a unit to hang above the tank like a radion or perhaps (gasp) a mh/t5 fixture....

 

[new2sw776784]

Very nice.

 

[homer1475]

A note on the crabs,

I have 3 emerald crabs in my tank, not a one of them has even so much as looked at my corals. Are they known to eat corals? From what I read they are pretty much algae eaters and may rip a polyp or 2 off being so clumsy, but will not eat the corals for food. Am I wrong in this assumption?

Ok I'm looking at train tickets, but where is here soul? I am going to a frag fest next sunday, so hoping to find what I'm looking for there.

 

[ReefWreak]

With the emeralds, it's been a while since I did a lot of research on them, but I believe that they're herbivores when they're young, and then they switch to omnivores as they get older, and. They have been known to eat polyps and lps flesh.

Honestly, I don't trust anything but snails anymore.

 

[soulpatch]

Easy enough to get rid of them should they switch to the dark side

Went to a frag swap today and got some more cuc, acan, blue acro, and a maxima clam. Better pics later but here is some

Still waiting on the acro to open back up and extend polyps.

 

[ReefWreak]

Yeah, acros can take a while to get polyp extension, if ever. I have a bunch of amazing acro frags that I picked up last weekend and a few of them are still not showing any PE.

How did you change your lighting for acclimation? Looks like a nice specimen. Same with the maxima. Very cool. More excellent additions. Now we just have to get that bryopsis and cyano taken care of!

 

[soulpatch]

just bryopsis in there and I keep it in check with dips and such. tomorrow is water change day and I will probably make some paste up to hit some of the trouble areas.

And wow those pics looked much better on my phone when posting. I think tomorrow I will have to break out the DSLR to get some quality shots. Perhaps talk the wife into taking pics as she is MUCH better then I.

 

[soulpatch]

How did you change your lighting for acclimation?

Honestly I dont too much. Almost everything I get comes from tanks with LEDs so it shouldn't be much of a change for them. I also add in the afternoon after the peak intensity in my tank. This allows them to get used to my water a bit more till the next day that they are hit.

I dont have my whites on full power either so I think this helps some. Either way I have yet to have a coral not pop out within a day.

 

[soulpatch]

To add to my equipment/enjoyment of the tank I got a mini fridge yesterday to sit by the tank. It will house my frozen foods and of course beer/soda for viewing pleasure. Now I dont have to go upstairs where the wife can get to me to do something.

 

[homer1475]

Becoming a regular man cave down there. Got myself some frogspawn yesterday, Finally! Just a small frag. Dipped and put in last night, just waiting for it to open up. Don't think it liked the direct flow I had it in yesterday, So while I did my water change oday I tried a different location, and its finally just starting to reach up.

 

[soulpatch]

Yeah low to moderate flow for the frogspawns. They like moderate light as well so dont blast them.


It is the no wife cave. The floor space down there is pretty much split between the toddler and I.

 

[homer1475]

Was thinking of sticking him down in the sand with my hammer, who's super happy there, but I need more stuff up on the rocks.

 

[soulpatch]

I have mine on the outer rocks on the lower portion of my tank. The hammer/frogspawns are on one side and the torch on the other. This keeps them out of the main "cone" of light.

I had them on the sand initially but saw a large change when moving to rock with terms of new growth. I think the shifting sand "pelting" them slowed their growth. Since going to the rock I have a good number of heads coming in. Could be coincidence of course but I will take what I can get. Once these few heads on my smaller frogspawn come in I will most likely take him in as a trade in on some more SPS.

 

[ReefWreak]

FWIW I also have my frogspawn out on the outer/lower portion of my rocks too, with similar lights to soulpatch. Mine seems much happier with my new lights, opening up nicer than previously. One of the side benefits of having it on the front side is that it's right under the feeding hatch, so when I toss pellets in, sometimes it will catch one which it consumes. That makes it really happy for a few weeks.

My only problem with that placement is that the vortech creates quite a bit of flow, so if I turn it past 50% the flow gets too high, even though it is on the side of the tank with the powerhead on it, and is nowhere near it. Just from the undertows pulling towards the MP10 it's enough to shrink the frogspawn. My fungia in the sand also doesn't like the laminar flow, however pulsated it is, and shrinks up too when I turn the vortech up.

If you're running the stock PC lights though, I would probably hesitate in putting the torch too low in the tank. I guess if your hammer is fine down there then maybe it's fine? I've just never been shy on lights.

 

[soulpatch]

Try flow issues with a gyre130 and a rw4 in there. I had to really play with the rock work and such to keep my LPS happy while also getting the flow to the SPS on top. Just yesterday I had to move my branch looking rock tot he sand bed to help stop erosion of my sand bed and it blowing into my brain which is currently the show piece in the tank.

 

[soulpatch]

My brain was hungry last night after the water change. He has 3 small mysis shrimp in his mouth and 2 pellets ready to go in next...

 

[BarryV]

Looking good. Got any new photos of your tank?
Barry

 

[soulpatch]

Not till tonight. The wife needs to go down with the DSLR as cell phone pics can not do anything justice. I need to get her to dial in to d2mini's camera settings too since we have lightroom to process the pics as well. Just hard to find the time with a toddler and crazy work schedules.

I did a water change last night as well which had things closed up some.

The other thing I finally started last night was the peroxide paste method on some of my trouble spots as well as dosing peroxide to the tank in a minimal amount. I am hoping the cleaner shrimp pulls through without issue given my low dosing of peroxide but it has to be done. I need the bryopsis dead throughout the tank so it stops spreading.

I will spot treat again tonight and tomorrow night with paste before I go away this weekend golfing with buds. Wondering what I need to do for the wife for her to dose my tank in my absence...

 

[homer1475]

Setup plastic baggies with the proper dosing, or any closed container. For example if you do 3 doses a day, setup 6 baggies/vials (2 day weekend?), old test vials work great for this if its a small amount. I do that for my wife and food, otherwise she would feed them 100 times a day. She thinks they are always hungry because they look for food when you get near the tank. lol

 

[soulpatch]

Its not the dosing size but the speed at which you need to dose so you get even coverage and not a "hot spot"

I dont care about the carbon dosing but I dont want the peroxide to be in a stream in the tank... I might just forgo the peroxide while I am away as it is not necessary and just pick it back up next week after my Monday water change.

Oh and feeding I have the AFS for that so no worries there.