Sublunary's 12 Gallons, now 1 year old! Options

[sublunary]

The Basics:
12gallon NanoCube DX, CREE LEDs from Nanotuners
MJ 900 return pump and new koralia nano
cheato and StevieT submersible fuge light in back chamber
11.5 lbs live rock from 3 different LFSs, 10lbs Caribsea Ocean Direct sand
Coralife salt with distilled water (RO/DI doesn't fit my faucets! waiting for a hose adapter to get here)

Fish:
Archimedes the Flaming Prawn Goby (Discordipinna griessingeri)
Rigel and D'Argo, the Red Spotted Pygmy Gobies (Trimma rubromaculatus)

Corals/Polys/Etc:
assorted zoas and palys
purple mushroom
green striped mushroom (+1 baby)
ricordea yuma (+3 babies)
small frag of tan sea whip
candy cane
encrusting acan
aussie favia
turbinaria
torch
red acan
purple photosynthetic gorgonian

Purchased Inverts:
2 scarlet cleaner shrimp
2 blue leg hermits
snails - margaritas, ceriths, bumblebees, dwarf planaxis, nassarius vibex, collumbelid
ISPF "sandbed clams"
female Pom Pom Crab

Hitchhiking Inverts:
snails - lots of collonistas, baby stomatella, an army of rissoids
several small bivalves
several chitons (at least 2 different kinds)
2 - 1/2 inch unidentified white crabs


Most recent FTS: (yes I know, I have some algae issues...) 7/15/10


Plans for the future:
one more flaming prawn goby
a pair of Trimma tevegae gobies, if my LFS ever gets them in
beginner SPS - maybe a monti cap?

This post has been edited by sublunary: Jul 15 2010, 06:22 PM

[sublunary]

Now that the top post is out of the way; a not so short history of my tank.

This is my first salt water tank. When I was little, I kept a few gold fish (my dentist gave them away as a reward for cavity free checkups), but that's the closest I've come before this. I wanted to start small; I'm in school and don't have my own place yet, so money and space are at a premium.

I bought the tank and stand from an awesome lady who keeps sea horses on Long Island. I thought I might be crazy, driving over an hour to pick up a fish tank I found on Craigs list, but it worked out well. I got a good deal on an almost new tank and a lot of advice.

You probably noticed I don't have much of a 'scape to speak of. I originally toyed with the idea of doing seahorses, for which I would have wanted a more open tank with macros. So I picked out 3 pieces of rock I liked and started with that. Once I decided to put off seahorses, I picked out a few more pieces of rock I liked from a different LFS. Then a few more from a third LFS. This left me with a lot of individually cool pieces of rock that didn't really fit together. It's not as pretty as a lot of 'scapes I've seen, but I like it.

My cycle finished quickly and I added a clean up crew after getting a diatom bloom and an explosion of micro algae. LFS1 sold me 3 margarita snails telling me they were nerites. I'm still a little annoyed at that, but the margaritas are still alive and happy. I also bought 3 blue leg hermits and one of them was torn apart by something a few days later.

In August I ordered some microbrittles and sand bed clams from IPSF. They sent me a free order of "strombus grazers" which immediately started reproducing. I scrape eggs off the glass and powerheads every day and still have hundreds of juvenile snails in the tank.

After that, I ordered 2 peppermint shrimp from Blue Zoo to take care of aiptasia that came in from the rock from LFS1. I also bought 'shroom and zoa frag packs from them. I lost a bunch of zoas to something that looked like zoa pox while I had them in QT, but even after that I had more little colonies than the 4 I paid for, so I really can't complain.

About 2 months ago I found a fourth LFS in the area and bought a really pretty acan frag from them. It did great for the first week, then the heads started receding one by one. Just when I was about to give up all hope, one of the polyps grew back from nothing. I'm not sure if the frag is going to make it, but at least one polyp still looks promising.

My most recent purchase was a pair of flaming prawn gobies from Blue Zoo. Yes, I waited almost 5 months to get fish. Sadly, one of them didn't make it through the trip, and I'm still waiting for a replacement to come in. The second has been in the DT for 2 weeks and looks great. He doesn't seem interested in prepared foods, but I've seen him hunting pods, and I'm going to try hatching some brine shrimp soon, just to see if he's interested.

RIP tiny fishy,



(More pics next post)

[sublunary]

My best photo of Archimedes in QT. (Yes, I had chaeto in my QT. I wanted pods in there in case he wouldn't eat prepared.)



He really liked to hang out in the top corner of the tank by the heater. This freaked me out the first time I came home and couldn't find him on the bottom.



For the first 2 days in the DT, this was his favorite hiding place. Now he found a darker cave where I can only see his tail most of the time. The damn fish found his way into the back chamber this weekend, so now every time I look at the tank I have to find him to alleviate my paranoia. This is much more difficult with his new hiding spot.



On a sadder note, I lost one of my peppermint shrimp last week. They were a mated pair and hugely entertaining. They were fairly large when I got them, so I assume they're on the older side. I woke up one morning and the larger one was completely white. She was dead the next morning.


Remaining shrimp spent two days just staring at me.



He's back to normal now, running around, eating and poking everything in sight. I've debated getting another one, but I think I'm going to wait until he dies and replace him with a scarlet cleaner.

[bwhyit]

Good looking tank.

I've got a 12G Nano thats about 3 months old.

I have a question about your pump upgrade? Do you have the MJ900 powerhead or utility pump? I'm looking to upgrade my pump and I'm not sure which will workbest.

Also did you notice any difference in the noise level of the stock pump vs the MJ900?

Thanks.

[sublunary]

The MJ900 is the powerhead here. This is the first time I've come across the utility pump, so I'm not sure how it compares with the powerhead.

I put it in so long ago, I don't remember how noisy the stock pump was, but the MJ isn't that loud. There's a low hum, but it's not loud enough to bother me. My biggest noise issue is water trickling into the back. I use the surface skimmer and if I leave it too close to the top the water level in the back chamber drops enough that it gets noisy.

[animalmaster6]

I love your Flaming Prawn Goby so much!

Awesome TanK!

[weeber]

has ur flaming prawn goby come out yet and has he strted eating prepared food yet?

[sublunary]

Yay comments!

Thanks, animalmaster. I love him too! I'd have a tank full of these fish if they were easier to get a hold of.

weeber - He comes out every once in a while, but seems to know when I'm looking at him. I'll see him jumping around out of the corner of my eye and by the time I turn my head to look straight at him he's turned around and retreating towards the rocks. I've been squirting cyclopeeze at his cave, but I can't tell if he's eating it or not and I don't want to try too hard to watch him, because then I know he won't eat. I have seen him hunting pods on the back wall where he thinks I can't see him though. It's pretty funny actually. He'll hop up near a group of pods, slowly wave his fins for a few seconds, then whip his head to the side and snatch one off the wall.

Today I was searching around for more flaming prawn goby info (since that's what I do with my free time) and I found a site with pictures of another Discordipinna species. Pictures! I want to be able to buy some of these so badly!

[animalmaster6]

Yay comments!

Thanks, animalmaster. I love him too! I'd have a tank full of these fish if they were easier to get a hold of.

weeber - He comes out every once in a while, but seems to know when I'm looking at him. I'll see him jumping around out of the corner of my eye and by the time I turn my head to look straight at him he's turned around and retreating towards the rocks. I've been squirting cyclopeeze at his cave, but I can't tell if he's eating it or not and I don't want to try too hard to watch him, because then I know he won't eat. I have seen him hunting pods on the back wall where he thinks I can't see him though. It's pretty funny actually. He'll hop up near a group of pods, slowly wave his fins for a few seconds, then whip his head to the side and snatch one off the wall.

Today I was searching around for more flaming prawn goby info (since that's what I do with my free time) and I found a site with pictures of another Discordipinna species. Pictures! I want to be able to buy some of these so badly!

That other prawn Goby is awesome!

Talking about Prawn Gobies makes me think of District 9 lol

[sublunary]

I did some cleaning today and even though the water was a bit too cloudy for a new FTS, I decided to take some other pictures. I'm still learning how to take decent tank pictures. I'm not sure why some of them turn out so blue when I have the daylights on.

When I got my ric, it was attached to a few pieces of rubble. While cleaning I sort of knocked it over and it looks like 2 small pieces of it split off at some point and are growing on one of the rocks. One of them is sort of visible in the pic, but the other is on the bottom side of the rock. I'll have to break the rock to move them and see if the little blobs grow into new polyps. Baby rics would be exciting. Sadly I don't really have any tools to do that at the moment and I'm not too sure what I need...




Does anyone know what the deal is with inverts and powerheads? All of mine seem to have some weird fascination with my koralia. My bigger hermit has been hanging out on it for two days straight and there are usually snails all over it. Twice today it started making a scary noise and when I looked over a snail shot out. They actually climbed in while it was on and got flung out. Twice.



Today I finally got a picture of the tiny crab that lives in my front rock. It's not a great one, but it's more than I've been able to get before. He's about half and inch long, light tan or white with some darker brownish spots. I've wanted to get him IDed for months, but I don't want to pull him out. I'm worried if I chase him out of his home, he'll pick a new one out of sight and get into trouble.



Lastly, here's where my fish has been hiding – between the rock and back wall, where it's all shadowy. He stood still just long enough for me to get one blurry pic of him next to a collonista...



Then turned around and hopped out of sight...

[animalmaster6]

That crab is cool. Wish I could ID it for you.

I can't get over the Flaming Prawn Goby. So awesome!

[weeber]

sweet pics i wish u best of luck with him and hope u can find another one. how big is he? also the other species u posted i dont think is in the trade.





























YET......

This post has been edited by weeber: Jan 18 2010, 07:20 PM

[sublunary]

I think I had some success this past week with feeding - twice when I fed the tank, the goby came out into the open to investigate. Apparently he's more interested in food in the morning. He's also been out and about more often in general. I'm convinced that the secret to being able to see these guys is giving them a tank with lots of cover and without any bigger fish. Of course he is still afraid of the camera...






The little blobs on my Yuma rock are definitely baby rics. The one that was on the bottom of the rock migrated out to the edge, so it's not stuck in the sand any more.



This is a bit blurry, but my green striped mushroom has also sprouted a blob that looks like a baby mushroom.


Grr. I had a few more pics I wanted to add, but my SD card is refusing to work. More eventually...

[weeber]

this makes me really excited to get mine because when i went to the lfs to get water, for the pico tank in the pico contest that i plan on having a flaming prawn goby in, that he had a flaming prawn goby in and it was the first one he has ever had and thats not all i asked him how much it was and expected 90-100 dollars but it was only 50!!!!!!!! so long story short i asked him to hold on to it and should be piking it up this weekend if he doesnt loose it.
good luck with urs.

[sublunary]

Awesome! $50 is fantastic, I'm jealous! I'm still waiting for one of the LFSs around here to get one in so I can get a second one. Sadly none of the employees I gave my name to had ever heard of the fish before, so I don't hold much hope.

I'll be watching your pico thread - here's hoping yours turns out to be less camera shy than mine!

[weeber]

Awesome! $50 is fantastic, I'm jealous! I'm still waiting for one of the LFSs around here to get one in so I can get a second one. Sadly none of the employees I gave my name to had ever heard of the fish before, so I don't hold much hope.

I'll be watching your pico thread - here's hoping yours turns out to be less camera shy than mine!

bring in a picture of the fish because i have heard the called a bunch of different names like my lfs called it a hi-fin blenny? he did know some of the other names though. also the fish showed good chances of being pretty outgoing because wheni looked at him up close like my face was on the glass he didnt seem to even notice but this might not mean anything.

[animalmaster6]

bring in a picture of the fish because i have heard the called a bunch of different names like my lfs called it a hi-fin blenny? he did know some of the other names though. also the fish showed good chances of being pretty outgoing because wheni looked at him up close like my face was on the glass he didnt seem to even notice but this might not mean anything.

Odd name for a Flaming Prawn Goby


Sublunary- I really like those mushrooms. I'm a hufe mushroom fan!

[sublunary]

Yeah, it is weird they'd call it a blenny. I've come across a bunch of names for them, but that's a new one. I think my favorite is Flame Dragon Goby. Sounds much more majestic than flaming prawn, but then really no one would know what I'm talking about.

Sublunary- I really like those mushrooms. I'm a hufe mushroom fan!

Thanks! This one is my favorite...



No idea what kind it is though...

[animalmaster6]

Yeah, it is weird they'd call it a blenny. I've come across a bunch of names for them, but that's a new one. I think my favorite is Flame Dragon Goby. Sounds much more majestic than flaming prawn, but then really no one would know what I'm talking about.




Thanks! This one is my favorite...



No idea what kind it is though...

That's a really cool shroom!

There's a really nice Rhodactis Mushroom Rock at my lfs that is really awesome!!!

It has over 15 mushrooms. I really like my Purple Mushroom Rock.

For the 125G it's going to be a completely mixed reef.Most of the corals I will have will be acros, Candy Canes, Frogspawn, and lots of mushrooms. All my favorite corals!

[sublunary]

Haven't posted yet this month, so i'll throw on a couple of pics.

I'm entirely entertained by the baby yumas. The two I took pictures of before have fully formed tentacles and mouths now. And the parent left a blob on the rock next to it that looks like it will turn into a third. Yay.


The halimeda I had hitchhike in on a zoa frag has pretty much doubled in size. I went to look at it today and there was this weird white fuzzy stuff growing on it. I posted this pic in the ID forum... I hope it's nothing bad. I usually don't worry too much over weird growths, but this one just looks evil.



And this is entirely unrelated to reefing, but someone I know has the best job ever and I am jealous. My dream pet (which, yes, is endangered and pretty illegal to own privately...):


This post has been edited by sublunary: Feb 8 2010, 10:22 PM