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South Florida Tide Pool Biotope


Sword

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I recently set up a 5.5g rimless AGA with hand collected flora and fauna from a South Florida tide pool . This is predominantly a macroalgae system with a crap ton of invertebrates (and one little blenny fish).

 

Equipment



JBJ Picotope 9w 50/50 Light - Going to upgrade this when money permits.

Cascade 150 Power Filter - was on clearance for $9.99.

 

Soon to have a NanoMag, Hydor Theo 50w Heater, and a new light.

 

Occupants



Macro algaes - will have to get them ID'd as I get better pictures of them.

 

Goby - Ctenogobius boleosoma

 

Dozens of snails - limpets, little tiny cerith snails, nerites, a BIG Turbo with awesome macro on his shell, predatory whelks, and probably other sorts in there as well

 

Dozens of hermit crabs - red and blue legged - various sizes - one big man, probably 1/4 of the size of my big turbo snail

 

Spotted Sea Hare - little guy - this tank was set up around him

 

Crabs - little sand crabs, some crazy rock crab thing, crabs covered in macro

 

Nudibranches - look like hair algae caterpillars - I had at least two. Not sure if they've made it into the tank yet or are still waiting to be sorted in the bucket.

 

Starfish - little brittle or serpent stars.

 

Dozens of Micro Sea Urchins

 

Red compound tunicate with purple dots.

 

White mass: Sponge? It's smooth

 

Pods Pods Pods! All sorts - lots of little critters scurrying about. Most life I've ever seen.

 

Pictures



taken with my iPhone. Will take better pictures in time.

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mxstunter

TATS awesome u collected all this stuff from a tide pool!!! awesome. i would find a different method of filtration tho, ur prob better off with a hang on back. unless thats what u have :D

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The Cascade is a HOB. Just attached it, so it hasn't had much time to clear the water.

 

I eventually want to turn this into a 10g SAIO.

 

the anenome thing looks like a thomas mushroom.

Do you have any pictures? It's somewhere between a RBTA and a sponge in appearance.

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Going to put them to use, no worries. I could easily put what I have left in my tank, but I didn't want it to be cluttered. Likely going to set up a 2.5 AGA for my bedroom or use some of the macro for my fuge when I drill my picotope.

 

It's mostly stray macro and hermit crabs that fell out when I was picking the choice pieces.

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Slightly better pictures! Blurry, but the best I can do for now. Click for full size

 

Tunicate?

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Big Turbo (?) Snail with his macro algae hat and urchin friend.

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FTS

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From above-ish

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Butters, the Spotted Sea Hare, munching on some red macro

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Smooth, white growth on rock.

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Macro in the corner

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FTS

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The fiber wrapped around the intake is to keep the sea hare from getting injured. It also works as a prefilter and keeps the bits of macro out.

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Anyone have any resources for identifying macro algae and other critters? I'm trying to figure out exactly what everything is.

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So it turns out my blenny is not a blenny! After digging around fishbase, I've discovered that it's a darter goby.

 

I really want to set this tank up properly as a Rimless 10g AIO.

 

The Sea Hare has carved through all of the red macro algae in the tank. It's appetite is insatiable. I hope it starts eating on the other types or he might be going back to the tidepool.

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The tank is in relative shambles compared to how it looked originally. The sea hare was more insatiable than I thought. It ate all of the pretty red algae I had. The thinner hair looking algae never took hold under the poor lighting. Tank is still running, with only the various Caulerpa sp. growing and spreading. I'm still finding new stuff in there every day. New crabs, starfish, snails, etc.

 

Going to set this up as a 10g SAIO with DIY 70w MH. Hopefully I can start that project in the next few weeks. Going to either see if a local reefer needs the sea hare or return him back to his tide pool (which should be fine since everything in the tank, including the water, is from the same spot).

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