I bought a piece of LR that had some GSP on it along with some Grape Caulerpa. I bought the rock for $20. I but the GSP and rock in my QT for a week. Nothing exciting. I put the algae it's special place. After a week I put the rock into the display. Then last night I noticed a crab. About the size of a dime. Tan/sand colored. The legs are kinda hairy but not nearly as hairy as the emerald crab pics I have seen. So the crab made residence in one of my rocks last night. He actually took spare hermit crab shells and built a little cubby and now I can barely see him. I would take a picture but he isn't visible. What king of crab do you think it is and is it reef safe?

So after a lot of research I have decided the crab is a mithrax crab. It has curved, flat tipped claws. It has red eyes and has not come out of the lair it built. I moved a lot of my coral frags off the sand bed. It looks so much cleaner now. I'm trying find some neon green torch coral. Not having much luck. I will post some pics as soon as things settle down.

nice tank...thanks for the reply on my thread...ill track this thread for a while to see how ur tank matures and see if it would be a good tank for me...thanks

Good work on the crab ID. Chuck, of the "Chuck's Addiction" website, has this to say about Mithrax:

The Mithrax Crabs ( Cling Crabs) None of which I would consider to be reef safe, members of this family include the popular "emerald" crabs that are used for algae control, which may be fine for awhile, but with all crabs being omnivores, it is usualy only a matter of time before these crabs discover that there are meatier items to be had within your aquarium.

( http://home2.pacific.net.ph/~sweetyummy42/hitchcrabs.html )

That said, I'd be tempted to give it the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise, but I'm in the minority here (maybe because I haven't yet had a harmful crab hitcher. I have, tho, had an emerald who killed a plate coral!). Nevertheless, you might want to read up on various crab trapping methods, just in case!

--Diane

I love the aquascaping very nice. Also nice job on mod.

Thanks for all the complements. I really enjoy this hobby thus far and the tank was a huge hit over the holidays.
Well here are some new pictures. I got some good deals on some corals at my favorite LFS. He was selling stuff at 20-30% off for tax reasons.
FTS

FTS-R

FTS-L

Hitchhiking Mithrax Crab, Best pic I could get.

This shell was white a few weeks ago.

Blue Knuckle, pullin' the hood down low.

Neon Shroom

Acan

GSPs are new.

Ric with my new GSP

Algae does WONDERS!!!

Whams

New red Star and Radioactive Dragon Eyes.

Tube worm

Green Implosion Palys

Dragon Eyes.

Is your algae on a soap dish? Also, how often do you have to trim that stuff? I am thinking of adding one to my set-up.

Yea, it's just temporary. I just added it last week. Since then the small amount of diatoms I would have after a full day of lights were gone. I was battling some red slime too but a flow direction change and a good cleaning of my bio balls and chemi-pure bag pretty much cured that. The grape algae has been growing the fastest. I will trim it up at the end of the week. I plan on doing some 'fuge work next weekend.

Nice new specimens and pics, Dood. Your new fts's look great!

--Diane

Thanks a lot!

hey Dood, how are you. Happy New Year. Your tank has come a long way since we first started talking about it. Looks good. Keep a close eye on your parameters and keep up with your husbandry. I like the looks so far. Good stuff.

I wouldnt trip on your crab I had 1 in my tank for about 5 months before I finally caught him. Needless to say he didnt bother anything at all. On the other hand I also had a Blue knuckled hermit that took out about 5 of my snails. Tank looks awesome keep up the work.

tanks looking nice..the pink tips on that spawn are sure r purty!


I wish I could get me some of that grape algea. I love the color and texture it can add to a tank. Are you going to keep any in the display or is it going into a fuge?

I have not quite decided yet. When my tank was new I thought I might want some color in it. Now my tank has so many colors I might just leave it in the 'fuge. I'm still a little undecided. My biggest concern is that it will grow out of control and in places impossible to prune.


As you may or may not have noticed in my last set of pictures I have a firefish. It's name is Ember. There is a little story around this fish I would like to share.

It starts on day 4. I was at Petco checking things out. I was still new to salt and new to this site. I was told it would be ok to add fish since I bought cured LR. So I bought a Ocellaris and a Green Chromis. Those two fish lived through the cycle but I never really saw any Ammonia or Nitrite spike. About 22 days in I bought another Ocellaris. This fish vanished after a couple of days. I was told it might be a bristle worm. So I set a trap and caught a few. One was new 10 inches long. Five days after the disappearance I bought another Ocellaris from the same hatch. I named him Rupert. At about 6 weeks I bought Ember the Firefish. After a week Floyd died. I couldn't find a reason why. The next day I picked up a new Percula. Four days (nearly 8 weeks total) since I introduced the Percula I noticed a white dot on Ember. I thought it was Ich. So I set up my 10 gallon QT and got the parameters close to the display's. I took the two clowns, chromis, and firefish out and gave them a FW dip before putting them in the QT. The next day I found the Ammonia levels unsafe. So I moved the fish back to the display in a breeding cage. I reset the QT. The chromis didn't make it. After the QT was reset with more bio I went to put the fish back in the QT. As I lifted the cage out of the water Ember jumped back into the display. I put the clown into the QT. The next morning the tank was cold. The cheap heater I bought for my breeder tank long ago finally gave up leaving both clowns dead. So Ember lucked out. I decided to leave him in the display till he either died of Ich or lived to tell the tale. That was 4 weeks ago. Ember is still alive and still has the same white spot on his side. Amazing fish.

Yesterday I decide to buy some fish. I bought a Yellow Clown Goby and two baby black Onyx Ocellaris'. The babies are misbars. Both were tank raised. One from Phoenix and one from Tucson. Why Misbars? Because they are different. Seems like most people like the full bars and I'm not most people. The owner of the store said that all the full bars went first. These fish have been in the LFS store since I bought my tank. They have grown quite a bit since then and I decided that the weaklings have probably been weeded out by now. So here some pictures. No names yet.

Better picture of the Mithrax Crab

The new Goby


Blue Knuckle Hermit

Frank and the Ric Rock.

Ember and his new roommates.

The big one is about 1 inch. The small one is about half that.

Compare the size to my Scarlet Hermit

Taking pictures of fish is hard.

But a flash sure helps.

After some reading I have discovered that my clowns are Black and White Ocellaris. Fun!!!

That crab is no mithrax, I would yank that sucker in a second. I have had that species in my tanks before and they get big and become bulldozers. Never actually harmed any coral directly but flipped quite a number of frags and colonies over, destroying them in in the process.

What kind of crab is it? I'm having troubles ID-ing it.

Well I finally managed to kill the crab. But not before he murdured one of my blue knuckle hermits.

Sorry 'bout the hermit. You're lucky to have been able to dispatch the crab! They're usually pretty wily.

--Diane

I have been waiting to get him for a while. The picture I got of him was when he was impossible to reach. I'm not entirely sure he killed the crab. That particular hermit "slept" in the same place. I'm wondering if he got his shell stuck in his "bed" because there was nassarius slime around his shell and it was still in the "bed". Either way I stuck him with a steak knife. After that Sparks, the fire shrimp, took over finishing the carcass.

I also bought a used Nanocustoms 4.36 modded hood with the fan upgrade. Now I can step it up a bit!

January 22nd, it's been three months. I just added a 4.36 Nanocustoms hood. It needs new bulbs though. They are on order. 1-10,000k, 2- Actinic, 1 50-50. I bought the hood from Alias and a couple of things broke during shipping. I was able to use my stock hood for parts. I did not complain about the parts I just told Alias how it went and then Alias refunded some cash to me without asking. Awesome person. I used the money towards bulb replacement.

I also bought a 6-Line Wrasse. This fish is busy and since I dropped him in 2 days ago has a plump belly. My other fish are doing great. The Clowns are growing fast. I'm sure 3 feedings a day is helping a lot. My Yellow Clown Goby got it's name last night. My girlfriend really likes him so I let her name him. He is now Gilbert. I still have not named my clowns yet. Nothing has really come to me. I was looking at the Wrasse and thought he looks like he ate something sour so I thought about naming him either Pucker or Sour Pus. I also bought some corals from a SF guy. The zoas are doing great but the palys and other zoas never took off. I'm not sure why. Everything else is doing great. One of my rics now has 4 mouths. My FS started with 6 heads and now has 7. It working on it's 8th. I have a new Mushroom growing. The candy cane is about to split. And my hitch hiker paly has grown about 6 times it's original size.

Here are a couple of pictures. Enjoy!!!


FTS

FTLR

FTSL

Red Star (The USSR)

Candy Cane

Gilbert and the 4th mouth Ric.

Acan

New Xenia

FS

New zoas.

My little weeds.



Look at the gut on this guy.

Hi Dood. Long time. Tank is looking nice. Good to see after a somewhat rocky start it is settling in to something you can be proud of. I have a sixline now too, what a great fish. They have loads of character.

He disappeared for about an hour but came out and was sliding in and out of the rock work. His belly was super fat after day 2. He is cool to watch. He is already following me around the tank.

Super new shots, Dood. Your tank is looking great! I esp. like the first & second shots: the one of the tank "in situ"--looks real nice in that corner, on that stand--and the first fts. Everything seems nice & healthy. Hey, maybe that six-line's a gal!



--Diane

Well it has been a couple of weeks. Not much has changed. Well the fish and corals are growing like weeds and my weeds are... well you know. I haven't checked my parameters in a while. I just do my water changes and dose my chemicals on a strict schedule and every thing is thriving. Thanks for looking.

Just checked out the pics from the 22nd. Your tank looks like it is coming along great and awesome new addition with the six-line. I had one in my 55 gallon and he was my favorite fish. It ended up getting a little aggressive with the clownfish so unfortunately he had to go. They are amazing fish in that they are always in graze-mode and they are very active.

I really like your selection of corals as well. That frogspawn looks great and reminds me of the soccerball size one that I used to have. I got it when it had 5 heads and sold it with 20+. It looks like it is doing great in your tank.

Keep up the good work....

Hey dood, how is the red linkia doing?

So far, good. It like to hang out on the loc-line and even the hydor-flo.

I bought a used Nanocustoms 4.36 hood a little while ago and decided to run the old bulbs for a while. Every 4 days for the last couple of weeks I have changed one bulb. Kind of a PITA but I didn't want to fry everything. Last night I changed the last bulb. I'm running 1-10,000k/1-50-50/2-actinics, the added blue is great everything is much more vibrant including the fish. So here are just a few pics of the tank on day 108.
FTS

The new torch

The calupera is doing well. This stuff is super easy to prune.

Gilby on one of his rics.

So I'm bored today and thought I would do a timeline of my FTS shots. Enjoy!
Week1

Week1

Week1

Week2

Week2

Week3

Week6

Week9

Week12

Week15

Week 17

Very nice looking tank!!!!!

I hope our tank looks half as good as yours in the next few months. Keep the great pics coming.

Hi Dood!
Looking good!

Thanks! I'm waiting patiently for a Yellowhead Jawfish to come into my favorite LFS. They had a Bluespotted Jawfish come in that was down right b!tchin' but I couldn't bring myself to spend $100+ for a fish just yet. I'm also thinking about getting some SPS now that my lighting is doubled and my tanks seems to be very stable. I did have some Zoas die on me but they never really made it through the shipping process. I bought some Palys on the same ticket and they are just now starting to open up. It's been like 3 weeks.

The GSP is spreading well and my Xenia is going nuts as you can see from the pics. It started as 1 stalk and has spread to 5 in 5 weeks. My FSpwn is now at 8 heads, started at 6. The Torch I bough a couple weeks ago has me concerned though. It started with 5 heads and one head died. I think another one is about to die because it's doing the same thing as the last one that died, which is just not coming out. The torch also was in contact with my very first coral which was a Paly hitchiker and it has been closed for a week as well.

I did do my parameters for the first time in like a 6 weeks last week and everything was PERFECT!
AMM. = 0
'trite = 0
'trate = 0
Phos = 0
pH = 8.4
SG = 25
Cal = 460
Alk = 8

I have been doing 3 gallon WCs every sunday as well as 1 drop of Lugol's Iodine.
Every other day I do 1/2 the recommended dosage of B-Ionic, One dose of trace elements, one dose of Chromaplex, 1 dose of live phytoplankton.
I feed the fish 2 times a day with Cyclopeze and on Saturdays they get a Brine/Mysis/Krill mix soaked in 5 drops of Garlic.

All the critters are fine. I did lose one hermit a day ago and 2 nassarius snails have passed in the last month. No hard feelings there though. Slimey bastards. One of my blue legs did take residence in a nassarius shell and I must say it suits him well.

Thanks for looking!

Great looking tank!!! Nice and colorful!! Keep up the great work!

There is a LFS that is having a moving sale. I bought a Black onxy clown, 2 acro's, a blue clam, and a free zoa frag for $120!!! I will be going back next week to get some more, cheaper corals. He has some hammers and some brains I might grab. I might have to get some more Acro though. Just too cheap to pass up. I will post pics when I get the tank organized.

Well the clam didn't make it. Not sure why. It happens I guess. Everything else is doing great right now. I'm going to go back to that LFS this week to see what he has left. He has to move out by the 29th so maybe I will get a good deal if I wait till he is desperate.

the scape with the clownfish in the bottom right of the pic looks the best IMO

the scape with the clownfish in the bottom right of the pic looks the best IMO

I liked that one too but ti was unstable.

Like I said in a post above, I bought an onyx clown. She is a touch bigger than my other clown and a lot bigger than my baby BW Ocellaris. I watch them quite a bit and am fascinated by the constant badgering the baby clown is giving the new clown. The problem is that the new clown is beating the little guy up. Not bad but he does have a small chunk from his tail missing. The other BW clown and the Onyx seem to get along well. I don't plan on keeping both of the BWs in there forever. I thought about getting a small pico LRWFO and putting the clown in there till I sell it or trade it in. The boss of the tank is the Wrasse. He constantly forages for food and is quick to charge if he feels encroachment. Nobody bothers the YCG or the firefish. Crazy critters.

Love the progression of your tank. Hows that starfish? Looks great, wonder how it would do in a 12G.

Also, what coral is on the bottom center? A torch? Looks great too!

Dood,
the tank is coming along nicely! can't wait till i get all my stock transfered to the 29, hope it looks as great as yours!

Thank you all!

I have some good news and bad news.

Bad news is my firefish, Ember, passed last night. Another MDS(mysterious death syndrome) victim.

I went back to the LFS that is moving and got some more stuff. To be honest I'm not actually sure what I got. I know I got a rock with 13 yuma rics on it. A Canycane with 10 heads. A Toadstool Leather and some other leather with it. A rock with Favia on it. And a free Acro frag that had a branch dying. Not sure of the names. All for the sweet price of $80. As soon as photobucket stops being stupid I will post up the pictures.

Maybe you all can help me ID some of this stuff.


The starfish seems good at the moment. Looks healthy anyway. And that was a 6 headed torch. Now it is down to 2 but it looks like it's going to make it.

Here are some pictures!

Candy Canes, Don't know the name.

Leather? With Barnicals!

Toadstool?

Ric rock with 13 yumas on it.

Favia? NAME?

This Paly frag had 15 heads when I got it.

I got this frag in a BOC sale from Zoanuts. Acan?

A Watermelon alone in some green zoas.

These Palys were closed for 2-3 weeks after I got them. Looks like they're ok now.

Acan.

Acro

New clown

Halloween Hermit.

FTS

FTS w/FLASH.


Bonus pic! My 120g fresh water.

pic fest!!! Sweet


I think that is a toadstool.


That hermit is so cool...and nice pic


You are putting together a nice colletion of corals...keep up the good work and thanks for sharing all your pics

Dood, what a treat to find so many new pics! As Tud said, you've got some wonderful specimens there. I'm not too good at ID'ing stonies, so I'll let someone else help you with that.

13 yumas?! That should have been >$80 all by itself! Man, you made out like a bandit.

That is one of the prettiest candy cane morphs I've ever seen--I've never seen one those colors, for that matter.

RE the coral with the barnacles (cool!) in it--are you sure it's a softy? Just because I often see barnicles in encrusting sps...

Your fts's are looking great, as they have been for quite a while now.

--Diane

PS: Oh, and thanks for the shot of the FW tank. What all have you got in there? Much as I love the look of the planteds, it's nice to see an "old-fashioned" FW that actually has visible fish.

i love your BC29
check mine out.\i have a bunch of coral and stuff also.
what mods have you all done to your cube?
im just using the stock pump as of now. why the need for so much flow inside of your tank?

I have some Mollies, platties, tinfoil barbs, bala sharks, tiger barbs, columbian sharks, gourami, pleco, rosy barbs, and some others. It's cool because it is so low maintenance.

To keep dead spots away, where waste gathers and SPS alive you need good flow. I have a Rio6HF in place of the stock pump, opened the dam between 1 and 2, ditched the false floor in 1 and 2. Used a bulkhead and the stock pump to run loc-line in chamber 1. This eliminated the bulky koralia2 I have. I don't use the stock filter instead I have floss on the drip tray. At some point I will turn #2 into a 'fuge.

What a gorgeous tank!

I have a question though... Is the stock lighting still hooked up in the tanks hood (no mods or anything)? Just planning ahead if/when I get a biocube (hopefully 29) and plan on getting frogspawns and torch corals aswell. They are my favourite corals, and I would love to be able to have them and not have to do any crazy mods lol.

Flick

The stock lighting will support most LPS and softies. I do have an upgraded hood but that's because I wanted to do some SPS.

Oh ok thanks, I wasn't sure what your lighting was...

Quick question that I forget the answer... would you be able to give me some examples of:

LPS
Softies
and SPS

I forget what corals fit in which category