Update
Update
My "TBS" tank, 65 gal with 40 gal refugium/sump, has been running now for 9 months since I put the first part in. T5 lighting.
The primary critters are:
6-line wrasse and royal gramma, both around 3 inches long that I bought, plus critters that came with the rock:
two serpent stars
a pistol shrimp
a peppermint shrimp,
a mantis (~2+ inches long),
two red mithrax, one pretty big
2-3 remaining gorillas, small
1 sea cucumber
and the usual assortment of stuff that come on the rock.
I originally had 3 cucumbers. One of them died within a few months and I was able to pull him out. The 3rd I have not seen since the start, but I never found him dead, which I fear means he is/was rotting amongst the rock somewhere. Maybe he's just reclusive. The one that I see moves around a lot.
I added another batch of hermits and snails about a month ago.
I've got a small brown scopas tang quarunteeing at the LFS.
There was an anenome (big beautiful white one at the start), and two gorgonians, and a sea fan - all died within 6 months.
Some of the tubastrea that came with the rock bleached about 3 months ago - 3 patches of them, one really nice bifurcated one
, but there are 4 or 5 patches that seem to still be doing well.
I took 10-15 gorillas out at the start, and think I got all the big ones. The ones that are there now, I rarely see, although I can sometimes entice them out to compete for a food scrap. And they done seem to be bothering anyone, they hide all the time, at least during the day.
I don't have any corals for anyone to mess with at this point. Once I get a better handle on the algae, I intend to add some more corals.
So far the mantis doesn't' seem to be bothering anyone. He/she is beautiful looking. Eyes like a lobster that move independently on the end of "arms". And he can move fast. I've seen him peck at others getting too close when he's got a piece of food in his mouth. He takes food from me with tongs readily if I don't' scare him off. I have tried several times with two different types of commercial traps to trap him, to no avail.
Others have said the mantis click, but only the pistol clicks, and not very much, although fairly consistently when the lights first go off at night. I know it's the pistol because he was in there with part 1, and the mantis wasn't, and the clicking started with part 1. I've never heard dual clicking, or clicking with a different sound quality to it.
Everyone is cohabitating well.
Now if I could just get rid of the algae in the display. I've got a garden of green hair algae, which I have yet to do wholesale manual cleaning of, and it is out of control. Some brown. Same cyano. I had a lot of cyano at one point, it died back, and I've seen just a little coming back recently. Ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, and phopsphate are all 0, and I do a monthly 5-6 gal water change.
Tell me again about your tank?
I am going to post this on the TB forum. And will post some pics once I get some of the hair algae out.
Update
My "TBS" tank, 65 gal with 40 gal refugium/sump, has been running now for 9 months since I put the first part in. T5 lighting.
The primary critters are:
6-line wrasse and royal gramma, both around 3 inches long that I bought, plus critters that came with the rock:
two serpent stars
a pistol shrimp
a peppermint shrimp,
a mantis (~2+ inches long),
two red mithrax, one pretty big
2-3 remaining gorillas, small
1 sea cucumber
and the usual assortment of stuff that come on the rock.
I originally had 3 cucumbers. One of them died within a few months and I was able to pull him out. The 3rd I have not seen since the start, but I never found him dead, which I fear means he is/was rotting amongst the rock somewhere. Maybe he's just reclusive. The one that I see moves around a lot.
I added another batch of hermits and snails about a month ago.
I've got a small brown scopas tang quarunteeing at the LFS.
There was an anenome (big beautiful white one at the start), and two gorgonians, and a sea fan - all died within 6 months.
Some of the tubastrea that came with the rock bleached about 3 months ago - 3 patches of them, one really nice bifurcated one
, but there are 4 or 5 patches that seem to still be doing well.I took 10-15 gorillas out at the start, and think I got all the big ones. The ones that are there now, I rarely see, although I can sometimes entice them out to compete for a food scrap. And they done seem to be bothering anyone, they hide all the time, at least during the day.
I don't have any corals for anyone to mess with at this point. Once I get a better handle on the algae, I intend to add some more corals.
So far the mantis doesn't' seem to be bothering anyone. He/she is beautiful looking. Eyes like a lobster that move independently on the end of "arms". And he can move fast. I've seen him peck at others getting too close when he's got a piece of food in his mouth. He takes food from me with tongs readily if I don't' scare him off. I have tried several times with two different types of commercial traps to trap him, to no avail.
Others have said the mantis click, but only the pistol clicks, and not very much, although fairly consistently when the lights first go off at night. I know it's the pistol because he was in there with part 1, and the mantis wasn't, and the clicking started with part 1. I've never heard dual clicking, or clicking with a different sound quality to it.
Everyone is cohabitating well.
Now if I could just get rid of the algae in the display. I've got a garden of green hair algae, which I have yet to do wholesale manual cleaning of, and it is out of control. Some brown. Same cyano. I had a lot of cyano at one point, it died back, and I've seen just a little coming back recently. Ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, and phopsphate are all 0, and I do a monthly 5-6 gal water change.
Tell me again about your tank?
I am going to post this on the TB forum. And will post some pics once I get some of the hair algae out.
