TBS rocks in

[Safir]

I had already cycled my 46G bowfront tank with 40 lb of LS and 64 lb of LR when I discovered TBS, so I opted for only the second half of "the package"

Rock and critters came in today, so here are some pictures:

Within 20 minutes of going in the tank, the corals were opening up and looking pretty:

 

[Grand Wazoo]

Re: TBS rocks in

Way neat!!!

Nice tank, Safir.

TBS rock is clearly the best I've ever seen...

QUESTION: Did you glue your rock together? If so, what glue...

 

[Safir]

No, i did not glue the rock together - my base rock (as well as the BS rock, actually) had a few pieces that made real good bases and shelves, and fit together very well - everythign is quite stable, and requires a considerable amount of force to wiggle around.

the anenome has moved back and to the left of where it is in that picture, back behind the coral rock that is in teh left front - it seems happy where it is, but it's shrinking down a lot this morning - i hope this is "normal" as it is beautiful and i'd really hate to lose it.

Thank you for the kind words wazoo - the cleaning crew has been going crazy all night, and hopefully i'll have some real nice shots in a few days, my sand and rock had a LOT of diatom algae on them (it loves the MH..) and the TBS rock also had a lot of what i suppose is hair algae on it, but they've been diligently workign away at it... except he sea cucumbers.. they ate a little then crawled up on a rock and haven't hardly moved in over 12 hours heh...

 

[Grand Wazoo]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7094377#post7094377 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Safir
No, i did not glue the rock together - my base rock (as well as the BS rock, actually) had a few pieces that made real good bases and shelves, and fit together very well - everythign is quite stable, and requires a considerable amount of force to wiggle around.

the anenome has moved back and to the left of where it is in that picture, back behind the coral rock that is in teh left front - it seems happy where it is, but it's shrinking down a lot this morning - i hope this is "normal" as it is beautiful and i'd really hate to lose it.

Thank you for the kind words wazoo - the cleaning crew has been going crazy all night, and hopefully i'll have some real nice shots in a few days, my sand and rock had a LOT of diatom algae on them (it loves the MH..) and the TBS rock also had a lot of what i suppose is hair algae on it, but they've been diligently workign away at it... except he sea cucumbers.. they ate a little then crawled up on a rock and haven't hardly moved in over 12 hours heh...

Yeah--if you look at my pictures you'll see a lot of green hair algae too on the rocks. My clean-up crew works hard but some of that algae is just too much for it to handle. I am hoping that with water changes with RO water, the nutirients that are disirable for algae growth will diminish.

I have two cucumbers in my tank that I haven't seen in weeks. They come out sometimes--so I know they are alive. My serpant star never ever comes out. Never see the guy.

Enjoy!

Mike

 

[HowardW]

Nice tank and very nice pics!

 

[Safir]

the cucumbers have chosen to take up residence on teh front of the rock that is right in the center at the bottom there, and the serpent star is currently hanging out under the shelf on the right hand side - the condi is moving back a little towards the center of the far left channel, must not have liked the flow up front, as the output from teh skimmer flows right over that rock when it is running, and the output from a power head curls around there a little...

The lights are on now, so i'll try and snap some more pictures of where the critters are hiding...

 

[rupnow]

Safir,

Glad you found the shipment and that everything was OK. You got some killer rocks!!

As ugly as the serpent star is, once you feed him you'll love him. I was going to feed the anemones each a tiny piece of shrimp the other night. The serpent start came crawling out from behind a rock and attacked the bamboo skewer with the shrimp piece. An awesome sight. After he ate, you could see him moving the little shrimp peice around in his disc. He will get fed first next time.

 

[Safir]

A few more pictures:

Where our condi decided to stay yesterday (it moved again overnight, now o nthe other side of that rock)

I'm having a hard time getting the color of this coral - when it's polyops are extended it' got bright green centers

our cuke's hiding spot, front and center

one of them looked over at me and opened it's mouth:

the serpent star lives on top of this rock, and a shrimp lives underneath it:

and the "baby" serpent star

our largest feather duster - .5-.75" across:

 

[Safir]

Also, i need some critters IDed - any hitchikers i could i stuck in our quar tank until i could determine wether they were safe or not:

and what is this, it was all smooth when the rock was put in the water:

 

[HowardW]

<<< and what is this, it was all smooth when the rock was put in the water: >>>

I have the same on one of my rocks and it did the same thing as yours after a couple days in my tank, and now it appears to also be spreading on the rock. I just thought it was a yellow sponge but I could be wrong.

 

[Safir]

that started to "bubble" like that in less than 24 hours - I also see little yellow "dots" elsewhere in the tank.

the clicking from the pistol or mantis is beggining to drive us crazy.. it's done it a couple hundred times today - we've figured out which rock it's in at least.. the one right in the center, holding everyhting else up of course.

Think i'll try a trap, but the way our stars and eppermint shrimp responded when we fed the tank this afternoon, i think the'll get caught well before that thing ever comes out.

 

[figuerres]

the first pic -- long thin strands -- looks like a worm that should be in the sand, spagetti worm or related.

the "Yellow Bubbles" -- hard to say, might be larve of any of dozens of things... or coral trying to spawn.

the other 2 pictures need to be in water and much closer to try and figure out.

probably harmless and good things....

about the only thing other than mantis and some crabs I'd worry about are large isopods -- some of them feed on fishes.

the isopods look like a cross between a "pill bug" and a flea as best as I can desribe them.
-- not a small flea -- a big giant one :eek2:

ugly things!

 

[Safir]

I found a pair of corolanids (i think that's how it's spelled) white pill-bug looking things with big black eye spots on them.. i remembr reading they're not good, and flicked them off the rock into the same container as all the othr "unknown" hitchikers - now i can't find them again. the second item looks like some kind of tiny clam - i found it by dumb luck when i pulled hat PVC out, and it took off the moment i stuck it back in the quar. tank.

#3 looks like a limpet - it was stuck to teh inside of one of the bags, and stuck itself to that PVC once in quarantine

the long thin red thing actually stuck itself to teh glass in teh Q tank - there is some sand in tehre but it seems to prefer the side glass.

I'd drop everything from there i nteh tank if it weren't for those coralanids.

as for our clicking - i found a broken shell today on top of the rock next to the one the clicking is coming from, so i fear it is a mantis...

 

[rupnow]

Safir,

We have tons of those orange worm things in our 24 ga nano. Also. the more I look, the more of tose little brown limpets? I find. I usually find them when a hermit crab climbs on top of one. They really start moving to try to shake the hermit away.

BTW, I just nailed a mantis (hopefully the only one) using a hardware pickup tool I got at sears this wekend. Check my thread "mantis grabber" for the part # etc. I cant take credit for this, it was suggested by "tspfish" but it definitely works. Considering what we spent on this reef, $5.99 to get the mantis was well worth it.

Thanks again tspfish!!