your rock now

[LeeSheehan]

I just thought I'd start a thread about what your rock looks like now. You know, what type of hitchikers you've found since you thought you had seen them all, what type of die off did you have, how was your cycle, etc, etc, etc. I thought it would be interesting to find out how things have developed/changed/grown in everyone's tank.

 

[LeeSheehan]

rock development

rock development

I figure I'm about the fetal stage for my rock- still in the cycling process and experiencing lots of sponge die off from a rough shipping and a 50 pound rock that started out covered in sponges. I'll celebrate when my ammonia gets to under 5.0 (and this is with daily water changes of about 15%-25%). I've decided not to remove any hitchhikers and just to see what happens with what I've got (this includes Nessie, my stowaway toadfish and Magilla my gorilla (crab). And wow despite my predators, I am still finding new life every day.

Yesterday I noticed that several barnacles had opened and were feeding, I have at least two porcelain crabs, and several really tiny crabs as well. I also saw a brittlestar come out of the sand. Today, it's a large red mithrax crab, that I think might give Magilla a run for his money. I might have even found the hiding place for the mantis shrimp (or at least one of them) that I have, though the clicking is still very frequent. Today I also found that I have a few more hermits and a limpet that was grazing on hair algea. The rock is showing its true shape and I am very excited by what was under the sponges. As nice as the ball sponge, black sponge and liver sponges were (while they had color) seeing all the tunnels in the front of the rock is neat two and Magilla put on a wonderful show- displaying his purple and khaki striped legs while he grazed.

I am truly impressed with my skimmer and am grateful that it does it's job. My husband didn't know what to think when he saw it clear yesterday (after asking me WHAT I could possibly have done in the bathroom that made my entire hall reek of yucky smell) and today half filled with green sludge water. The yucky smell was, of course, my emptying the skimmate and cleaning the cup- and WOW was it odiferous! But all in all this rock has been a wonderful experience so far.

 

[ybenormal]

Hey LS, I noticed from one of your other posts and your profile that you live in Arlington and are new to the reef scene. There are hundreds of reefers in the area and two very active reef clubs, WAMAS and CMAS. If you're not already a member, drop in on the forums and say Hello!

 

[Untamed12]

I'm very interested in how you do with your "leave everything in there" strategy...because that is what I intend to do with the tank I'm building up as well.

I've taken a similar strategy with my first tank. I'll warn you, that strategy sometimes can be frustrating. (Like when you purchase a brand new fish or coral, and something EATS it in the middle of the night)

You learn to accept that there are some things that you won't be able to put in the tank and make peace with that. I believe it makes for a far more interesting tank in the long run. Those critters were in the rock in the ocean, right?

Finally, don't condemn a critter unless you truly catch him in the act. It's too easy to blame that crab or mantis for a death, when all they really may have done was claim the body.

You end up with some spectacularly unique things that no one else has, which I think is cool.

 

[HowardW]

<<< I'll celebrate when my ammonia gets to under 5.0 (and this is with daily water changes of about 15%-25%). >>>



Is that 5.0 or .5

If your free ammonia is really 5.0 that's way way too high and lethal to most things. It's most likely being caused by sponge dieoff and you may want to carefully examine your sponges and remove any that don't look good. Many people will also remove rocks from the tank (not too long out of water though) and give them a quick sniff as dead and dying sponges will usually give off a really bad odor and should be brushed or picked off the rock.




<<< and Magilla put on a wonderful show- displaying his purple and khaki striped legs while he grazed. >>>

That sounds like it may be a stone crab from your description. If it is, I'd get him outa there ASAP as they grow fast and are reef terrorists in my opinion, much worse then gorilla crabs and mantis shrimps.