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Nano Sapiens 12g - Ye Olde Mixed Reef


Nano sapiens

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Thanks. Yes, the red one is quite unique and good observation. I asked the source where it came from and they said the Indo-Pacific, so definitiely it's not a St Thomas Ric though it does look similar. It appears that the Calgreni, Neglecta, St Thomas Ric and Rhodactis species share some close common anscestry, even though they are now seperated in different oceans.

 

I'm finding that the Rhodactis are more like Ricordia in that they don't multiply as wildly as true Discosoma do, so much easier to manage in a small nano tank. They do pack some powerful weapons, though, and the single Rhodatis I have in with the Ric garden has no problem making the Rics shrink away. Anything that causes Rics to retreat is a pretty mean customer!

 

Interesting. I figured that the Ricordea species are closely related to anemones but didn't know how closely related they are to the other common mushrooms we see in the market today.

 

And I noticed that one of my Rhodactis found a ric nearby and causing it to shrink. That surprised me; I figured rics have a stronger 'sting' than Rhodactis. In fact, when my gf and I was aquascaping the tank, one of the ric stung my gf's finger. Even that stickyness rics have when they touch my skin sorta intimidates me.

 

Touching a Rhodactis on the other hand... nothing. Just slimy feeling.

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Nano sapiens

Mushrooms such as Ricordia are kind of inbetween Anemones, but have more in common with Scleractinian Stony Corals. They share a lot of similar morphological features to Scleractinians, just without the skeleton.

 

I noticed that the first time my one Rhodactis contacted my Rics it contracted for a few days, then came back with full force and did some damage. With repeated contact Rhodactis develop potent nematocycsts in the tips (Acrospheres) at the area of contact. Rics seem to have the nematocysts at the ready, but perhaps can't concentrate them in one particular area like Rhodactis can (or can't do it as effectively). The slime of some corals is full of stinging nematocysts and sometimes digestive enzymes. Not sure if Rhodactis use slime in this way or rely strictly on nematocycsts. Another possiblility is the extrusion of messenterial filaments from various body sites which can also contain potent nematocysts.. Rhodactis seem to extrude these much more readily than Ricordia which is something they have in common with Discosoma, but I have yet to see them used specifically against another coral.

 

I don't seem to have any issues with Ricordia stinging my skin. The only coral that used to get me every week was Acanthastrea bowerbanki...which I don't have anymore ;)

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Nano sapiens

Hardware Updates

 

Pump: After 6+ years of reliable, if somewhat intermittently noisy service, I upgraded to a Tunze Silence 1073.008 return pump. The Tunze is rated at 210gph vs. the stock pump at 250gph, but in reality there is no output difference between the two (checking the number of seconds it takes for the Hydor rotating head to make one full revolution is how i can compare true pump output and the time to complete one revolution is exactly the same with both pumps). The Tunze pump is much quieter, but I can still here a bit of a hum. Certainly a big improvement, though.

 

Lighting: I swapped out my LEDGroupBuy solderless 'Bridgelux' NW and RB chips for solderless Cree XT-Es. The Bridgelux are great for color rendition, but are relatively inefficient and produce a lot of excess heat when higher intensity is required. The goal is to provide more intensity without producing additional heat.

 

I made a PAR map at the current intensity settings with the Bridgelux emitters and then adjusted the LED array intensity to match after installing the Cree emitters The difference is not insubstantial, considering that only 8 emitters in total were swapped out:

 

Before:

Front strip (w/Brigelux NW & RB): 50% intensity

Rear strip (w/Brigelux NW & RB): 75% intensity

 

After:

Front strip (w/Cree XT-E NW & RB): 40% intensity

Rear strip (w/Cree XT-E NW & RB): 60% intensity

 

To my eye the Cree XT-Es NWs and RBs produce a bit more of a 'crisp' light, so not quite as warm. I anticipated this, so I also ordered a few Cree XT-E WW that I may try out later which should warm up the array a bit.

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Nano sapiens

Been looking into specific data regarding fluorescent red and pink pigments. Much of the data was sifted from Dan Riddle's articles. Compacted and noted here so I don't loose the info:

 

DS-Red (fluorescent): A common protein pigment found in many red corals. Originally ID'd from a Discosoma in a Moscow aquarist's reef aquarium. Emission 583nm, excitation 558nm. Photoconversion from 583nm to 595nm possible by exposure to ~570nm spectrum. Some DS-Red pgiment types respond well to blue light fields. Many related DS-Red type pigments have been produced in the lab. Both blue and green light can promote DS-Red type proteins, depending on type. Conjecture: LEDs lacking in sufficient 'green' spectrum (typical cool white/royal blue arrays) can have red fluorescent corals fade and/or turn a different color, such as orange, while T5s with their inherent green spike (~530-570nm, depending on bulb) tend to maintain or enhance many red fluorescent pigments.

 

'Deep Red' (fluorescent): DS-Red type pigment with an excitation of 575nm and emission at 620nm.

 

Pink (fluorescent): Protein originally found in P. damicornis and S. psitillata. CP-560 (absorption at 560nm, 'Greenish-Yellow'). Once again, a pigment typically maintained by T5 bulbs, but can be dulled or lost under CW/RB LED arrays.

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Nano sapiens

*cough* lime *cough*

 

Rebel%2520and%2520ES%2520lime%2520PCambe

 

 

The mercury spike of fluorescent lamps is 546nm.

 

"The mercury spike of fluorescent lamps is 546nm."

 

Well, I was 'in range' :)

 

From what I deduce, Lime and PC Amber provide higher intensity in the ~560nm excitation spectrum for DS-Red than neutral and warm whites. Clearly, less Lime and PC Amber emitters would be needed vs. the NW and WW to provide a specific intensity level in this spectrum since a good part of NW and WW output is in the blue spectrum. Cool whites by themselves are obviously deficient and one would need way too many to provide any meaningful intensity in this green/green-yellow spectrum.

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Nano sapiens

Mushies 'warmed up and fluffed out' under the new Cree emitters. Still ramping up intensity and the orange Rics are just starting to turn a very nice 'orange-red' on the tentacle tips.

 

Crowded much? B)

12gMushies082714_zps26389ff7.jpg~origina 

 

12gMushies2082714_zps8926aff2.jpg

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Nano sapiens
The Cree XT-Es' are doing exactly what I had hoped for in that they produce and project less heat into the tank. The tank used to consistently run 82F and sometimes even higher with the 'Bridgelux', but at an even slightly higher intensity I've yet to see anything above 80F. Canopy stays cooler, too, which should help everything in there last a bit longer.

 

 

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Nano sapiens

Same layout and all (pics on Pg. 33), just swapped the NW and RB 'Bridgelux' for Cree XT-Es.

 

Keeping with the simplistic theme of the tank, this lighting setup is really simple with just a dimmer on each LED strip (no individual channel control). It works due to combining the appropriate number and ratio of various emitters (spectrum and intensity considerations are paramount).

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Mushies 'warmed up and fluffed out' under the new Cree emitters. Still ramping up intensity and the orange Rics are just starting to turn a very nice 'orange-red' on the tentacle tips.

 

Crowded much? B)

 

12gMushies082714_zps26389ff7.jpg

 

12gMushies2082714_zps8926aff2.jpg

 

They are just beautiful!

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Pesciolino69
Mushies 'warmed up and fluffed out' under the new Cree emitters. Still ramping up intensity and the orange Rics are just starting to turn a very nice 'orange-red' on the tentacle tips.

 

Crowded much? B)

 

12gMushies082714_zps26389ff7.jpg

 

12gMushies2082714_zps8926aff2.jpg

 

Your Ricordea are fabulous, so hope to be able to have them in my tank.

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Nano sapiens

They are just beautiful!

 

Thank you.

 

Your Ricordea are fabulous, so hope to be able to have them in my tank.

 

Go for it!

 

Wow, those orange Yumas really pop.

 

My old camera doesn't do them justice, really. Imagine 50% more fluorescence and you've about got it :)

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Nano sapiens

'And now for something completely different...' (got to be some Monty Python fans out there!). Gather ye reef keeping bretheren around my virtual aquarium... :)

 

Way back in the early days of my 12g Nano I found a little frag bleached and forlorn at a LFS. I took it home and glued the 1/2 pinky-nail sized piece to a rock up high under normal output 12" quad T5s. As one would expect under such modest lighting, it didn't take long before I had an attractive 'hat-shaped' coral that eventuall grew into a true 'brimmed hat' that extended 1/2" all the way around the rock pinnacle that it was glued to:

 

PolypExtensionSide123109.jpg

 

The object of particular interest here is a fairly well known coral that science has named 'Pavona maldivensis'. A rather wide ranging coral in nature, found all over the tropics worldwide in a variety of forms and reef habitats. It can be stunningly attractive as it is often found in fluorescent metallic copper, gold and green. Here's where things get interesting...

 

So, as LEDs strips were added and intensity started to increase I noticed that the coral was changing shape by increasing the 'mounding' shape somewhat and growing straight down the sides:

 

Gold Pavona Flor 031713.jpg

 

Compare the lightly domed coral above to the much more pronouced domed and undulating structure that it has become about 2 years later (top, right) under intense lighting:

 

Pavona maldivensis_020415.jpg

 

As time went on the original flattened hat shape that used to overhang the rock disappeared and a much smaller mound that completely hugged the underlying live rock took it's place. All appearances indicate that a radical transformation via decacification and recalcification of the underlying skeletal structure had occured. The question is how does this coral achieve the transformation? Does it create a localized acidic condition that promotes partial decalcification? Once decalcified, does gravity and flow cause the weakened skeleton to gradually 'droop' and then recalcification occurs to reattach the coral to the underlying substrate and restrengthen the previously decalcified area?

 

Calcification in photosynthetic corals has been often studied, but I can find precious little information regarding self-imposed decalcification used to produce morphological changes in coral. I have to wonder if this is an important facet of coral adaptive behavior that has been largely overlooked and understudied.

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More than likely what you are seeing is the hat that grew down to meet the rock and looks flattened out. Once calcified it is quite unnatural and difficult to decalcify coral skeletons. This is why they make up the base of large barrier reefs. I am not going to say for sure this can't happen, because as a scientist I know better than to make absolute statements, but current understanding is that decalcification is not caused by the animal itself if anything.

On a separate note, I seem to recall some years ago you had issues with slime algae that just persisted on sand bed and rocks. It sounds like I have the same beast currently. Do you have any tips for dealing with this? Having no filter makes it much more challenging when trying to fight these issues.

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Nano sapiens

More than likely what you are seeing is the hat that grew down to meet the rock and looks flattened out. Once calcified it is quite unnatural and difficult to decalcify coral skeletons. This is why they make up the base of large barrier reefs. I am not going to say for sure this can't happen, because as a scientist I know better than to make absolute statements, but current understanding is that decalcification is not caused by the animal itself if anything.

 

 

On a separate note, I seem to recall some years ago you had issues with slime algae that just persisted on sand bed and rocks. It sounds like I have the same beast currently. Do you have any tips for dealing with this? Having no filter makes it much more challenging when trying to fight these issues.

 

The original 'hat' was 2" across, but it is nowhere to be seen now. The exact same area where the 'hat' was is now a 3/4 - 1" half-dome. The morphing is just too extreme to be some type of illusion IMO. This type of morphological change may be specific to particular types of coral and appears to require a lengthy period of time to occur. As a survival strategy, corals having the ability to modify their underlying structure to better suit changing conditions would be advantageous.

 

As far as slime algae goes, it sounds like you are referring to Cyanobacterial mats. In this tank I've encountered a 'coca-cola' colored dinoflagellate (or cyano?) strictly on the sand bed and the red cycano that we all know and 'love'. Both were caused by excess nutrients in the system. The process that I use is consistent water changes along with detritus removal (wherever it is found) and manual cyano removal. Since fish are still being fed, nutrients are always being added so getting 'ahead of the curve' in an unfiltered tank takes a bit more time (often many, many months). The plus side is that nutrient reduction occurs slowly so the tank and the organisms have plenty of time to adapt accordingly. If nutrient export is greater than import, eventually the bloom will have to subside as the algae become nutrient/element limited.

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jedimasterben

As far as slime algae goes, it sounds like you are referring to Cyanobacterial mats. In this tank I've encountered a 'coca-cola' colored dinoflagellate (or cyano?) strictly on the sand bed and the red cycano that we all know and 'love'. Both were caused by excess nutrients in the system. The process that I use is consistent water changes along with detritus removal (wherever it is found) and manual cyano removal. Since fish are still being fed, nutrients are always being added so getting 'ahead of the curve' in an unfiltered tank takes a bit more time (often many, many months). The plus side is that nutrient reduction occurs slowly so the tank and the organisms have plenty of time to adapt accordingly. If nutrient export is greater than import, eventually the bloom will have to subside as the algae become nutrient/element limited.

I can concur the disappearance of thick matting species of cyano by manual removal of detritus - I did a 'deep clean' on my tank, stirred up the entire sandbed and siphoned into a 1 micron filter sock and within a few days it disappeared.

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Nano sapiens

I can concur the disappearance of thick matting species of cyano by manual removal of detritus - I did a 'deep clean' on my tank, stirred up the entire sandbed and siphoned into a 1 micron filter sock and within a few days it disappeared.

 

That's a quick result! I suspect that the smaller the tank the longer it takes to resolve due to the (typically) increased biomass to water volume ratio.

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jedimasterben

That's a quick result! I suspect that the smaller the tank the longer it takes to resolve due to the (typically) increased biomass to water volume ratio.

The fight had been ongoing for a couple of months. I tried everything I could think of, used what was left of a bottle of Dr Tim's Waste Away mixed with KZ coral snow, stirring up the sandbed, and running a large amount of Phosguard (and I believe that out of all of that the Phosguard is the most likely candidate to eliminate it), but with no results. But about an hour or so of siphoning all of the sand with a gravel vac (I did the entire sandbed at once) and blowing all of it off the rocks and such as possible and into that 1 micron sock (which filled up completely after about 10 minutes, so I had to keep taking it outside and rinsing it out with the hose) and then one last dose of Coral Snow and I haven't seen it since. I've increased feeding by quite a bit, too.

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Ricordia florida: Bumps and 'Forked' Tentacles?

 

I found this morphological change interesting in a Ricorida florida that I have had for over 5 years and I wanted to get a record of it here. This specimen was one of many included in Coralmorphologic's '10-pack' back in the day, so Florida origin is confirmed. Up until fairly recently, it had always displayed the classic 'globular' tentacles typical of this species.

 

Under lower lighting conditions, I noticed bumps on the tentacles and even some mild forking all the way around the rim on this blue specimen for the last 4-5 weeks and the central tentacles have become more elongated. To my eye, when viewing the polyp as a whole, there is now some resemblance to a Rhodactis 'Hairy Mushroom'. From all that I have read (confirmed in Sprung/Delbeek's 'The Reef Aquarium, Vol 2) these types of tentacle changes are not seen in Ricordia florida:

 

Ricordia florida Tentacle Bumps & Forks_083114.jpg

 

Since it's not localized to just one specific area on the rim, I can rule out damage as a possible cause. So this is a bit of a mystery and begs certain questions:

 

1. Are there other documented cases of Florida Rics that have morphed their tentacles' characteristics in the aquarium?

2. Can these Florida Rics acquire characteristics over time in an aquarium that wouldn't normally be seen in nature?

3. Are all Florida Rics really the same species?

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