Red_Blenny's 12gal *soon to be* Ricordea Species tank.

[Red_Blenny]

Lost a bunch of acros during the heatwave of Early Sep, 2013. Therefore, since I rarely have time for weekly tank maintance, I decided to grow out Ricodea Florida and Ricordea Yumas (see page 3)....

 

 

 

Current FTS shot (07/13/2013):

 

05/01/2013:

(11/07/12):

 

 

 

 

History:

I've been in this hobby for about 3 years. I kept a 30gal tank, attempted to upgrade to a 70gal and a 40gal breeder. Then I decided to downgrade simply because I wanted something manageable. Therefore, I had my eyes peeled for an AIO tank. I looked at Biocubes for a long time but one day, I saw a reefer here selling a shallow AIO nano tank. I had to jump on it and here's my journey:

On 02/03/12

Now that I look back, WTF was I thinking...

02/22/12

I tried to do a 2 island with an arch... too boxy...

06/20/12

Yea, I dunno. When I bought SPS, I realized that this aquascaping can not hold anything.

10/11/12

I redid the aquascaping. Took out the dense rocks on the right side and added some dry rocks I put together with epoxy. Took like a month to finally decide on the look of it. Got rid of the arch to make it more open and added some depth. Fixed the left side of the tank (had huge dense rocks supported by a tiny small rock). However, I wasn't quite satisfied about it... the middle seemed like it was missing something...

11/05/12

Added 2 flat shelf rock in the middle. I also redid the frag and sps colony placement 2 weeks before I took this picture.

11/07/12

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tank Specs: 24"L x 16"W x 10"H AIO tank that's 1/2" thick. Display side is 24"L x 12"W.

Equipment:

• MP10 with battery backup
• Maxi-jet 900 return pump
• Tunze 9002
• Bubble Magus QQ
• Aquaticlife 4xT5 (2X Blue Plus, 1X UVL Super super Actinic, 1X Purple Plus)
• 50w Heater
• JBJ Refugium Light
• Cadlights Biopellet Reactor NR-1 (using gfo in a mesh bag without that output pipe thingy)

My current livestock:

Fish:

 

• Purple Firefish
• Yellow Assessor
• Ocellaris Clownfish (Started to nip at my LPS, started to dig, and started to pick a fight with my other fishes)

Corals:

Zoas:

 

 

• Pink Elephant
• CC Kona Gold
• Pink Zipper
• Armor of God
• WOW paly
• Spectrum/Rumpelstiltskin
• Blue Kisses/Miami Vice
• Blueberry Orange (fake "My Clementines")
• Grandis Paly
• All Delight's Purple Rainbow Delight
• Candy Apple Red
• Unknown Teal Paly with either pink/blue/purple mouth

Mushrooms:

 

 

• Ricrodea Florida/Yumas
• Orange Mushroom (exiled on a small rock, currently not doing so well due to Clownfish 'hosting' it.

LPS:

 

 

 

• Unknown Acan (Orange/Red rim with green mouth).
• Baby Scolyimia (Got him from a reefer who was quitting).
• Purple Rimmed Fungia

SPS:

 

Went through a biopellet crash and here's the one's that is currently alive (mainly Aquacultured). ATM, no more SPS purchases for me:

 

• Pink Lemonade
• Strawberry Shortcake
• Platinum Prostrata
• Hellfire Acropora
• Sunset Prostata
• Tri-color Valida
• Setosa
• Unknown Vivid Acro (Blue polyps with blue/green body, possibly a stag-type. Other half is brown but there's PE and it's still coloring up. I got it from a fellow reefer who was quitting. It was completely bleached out due to the AI Sol.
• Unknown Pink body with orange tips pink tips. Resembles Rose millipora
• Bubblegum Mille
• Unknown Acro that has the color of strawberry shortcake but blue tips.
• Unknown Bright Green acro I got from RAP 2012 that RTN when I bought it back home. Currently holding on by a coralite and began encursting around the end of may
• Unknown tiny SPS that I found hitchhiking on a maricultured SPS plug around December.

 

~~~~~~

Corals I've lost/sold/gave away:

 

SPS:

• Unknown Blue body acro with pink polyps
• Unknown green acro (Sorta reminds me of a Green Slimer)
• Unknown blue acro (small frag, too early to tell what it is)
• Unknown Green/Blue stag. Currently brown
• Unknown blue/green acro (Too small to tell but I'm thinking Hoeksemai)
• Unknown brown acro with green polyps (too small to tell)
• Unknown acro (When I bought it, it was brown but had a shade of blue tip with burgundy body)
• Red Montipora
• Rouge milli RIP.
• Rainbow Tenuis
• Red Dragon
• Unknown Pink/Blue Tenuis

Zoas:

 

• Hawaiians
• Crazy Ladies
• Clash of the Titans
• Radioactive Dragon
• Lanny's Zoas (Named after a reefer who gave me some)
• Random Yellow cream mouth, icy blue body with green skirt
• Random orange mouth, navy blue body, red/orange skirt. (Color changed depends how

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Refugium side:

 

 

• Flame/Dragon's Breath Algae. Biopellets almost killed them. I'm down to like tiny fragments of it.
• Chaeto.
• Unknown Algae that's thick and squiggly. Dark green and I was told tangs like them.

 

I'm currently dosing 2 part and I do weekly W/C Red Sea Coral Pro DD H2O Salt. I have a 1gal water bottle with baking soda I use for a gravity top off.


Here's some pics of my corals:

The day I bought pink lemonade from a reefer:


Here's a recent pic of it:


Tri-Color Valida:




Pink Lemonade in the front, Sunset behind it, and Rouge behind sunset:


My Reef-A-Palooza Purchase. Platnium Prostrata in the front on the rack, Hellfire to the left of it, Rainbow Tenuis behind both.:


Unknown Blue body with pink polyps. Another Reef-A-Palooza purchase It's a maricultured piece. I fragged it up into because of those algae. You can see the same acro in the middle of the tank and to the left, in front of pink lemonade in my recent FTS.


Crazy Ladies Zoa. My favorite zoa but had a zoa spider in it. The day I got it, I dipped it in Revive for 10min and nothing came out. A month later, I noticed it was looking funny so I did a iodine dip. That's when I saw 2 legs sprouted out of the body and eventually, a zos spider came out of it. I had to frag it up to save the baby. Right now, I'm currently babying it. (Been though a mini-crash during the hot summer and got stung by Rouge Millie overnight). Here's my last pic of it:



I have more pics that I have not uploaded yet. I'm planning to get a DSLR to take macro shots of my corals.

Future plans:

 

 

 

• Buy a controller
• Buy a ATO
• Buy a dosing pump (sorta on the fence about it)

[Asureef]

Tank is looking nice, though I'd suggest adjusting the white balance on the camera or during post processing. In reality, I know your tank should not look all bluish with that bulb combo. Just a helpful suggestion, tank is coming along nicely.

[VeganBrian]

Nice collection you got there. I love the dimensions of the tank. +1^ on the White Balance.

[x3thelast]

Great looking tank man. Loving your sps selection

[Red_Blenny]

Tank is looking nice, though I'd suggest adjusting the white balance on the camera or during post processing. In reality, I know your tank should not look all bluish with that bulb combo. Just a helpful suggestion, tank is coming along nicely.

 

 

Nice collection you got there. I love the dimensions of the tank. +1^ on the White Balance.

 

Thanks guys. I think I'll borrow photoshop from one of my buddies and fix them all.

 

 

Great looking tank man. Loving your sps selection

 

Thanks. It's not much right now since my skimmer crapped out when I was on vacation so many of them browned up *sigh*.

[Red_Blenny]

I love ricodeas and yumas as much as SPS. If I had a bigger tank, it'll be a ricodea/yuma/sps tank with a small zoa garden.

 

Here's some pics of my ricodea/yuma collection:

 

With flash:

 

Old pic:

^These guys are awesome looking. Once I get photoshop, I'll get rid of the blue-ness and show off their colors better. These guys are to the left of that glowing yuma (gained like 2 extra babies) and are starting to split again.

[Jessy-Ray]

Sweet Rics man!, nice tank too.

[Deleted User 4]

Hey you!!! I recognize some of those florida rics and yuma rics!!! You have definitely bought those from me the past..not sure if you remember me but you and your girlfriend came from downtown la.

[Red_Blenny]

Hey you!!! I recognize some of those florida rics and yuma rics!!! You have definitely bought those from me the past..not sure if you remember me but you and your girlfriend came from downtown la.

 

Hey wassup dude. I remember, it was raining that day and I wanted those rics, even if I had to sit though traffic for it lol. I see that you're a major player around here.

[Parker0824]

Good looking tank.

[Deleted User 4]

Hey wassup dude. I remember, it was raining that day and I wanted those rics, even if I had to sit though traffic for it lol. I see that you're a major player around here.

 

Lolol yeah. This site is awesome.

 

Those rics I sold you are doing awesome!!! The florida tri-color ones are doing really well according to the pics.

[Red_Blenny]

Lolol yeah. This site is awesome.

 

Those rics I sold you are doing awesome!!! The florida tri-color ones are doing really well according to the pics.

 

Yea, the tri-color rics are splitting. My other ricodea collection have like 2-3 mouths per mushroom, but they rather stay fat than split. The other ric/yumas I picked up from you are doing fine too. Here's a pic:

 

Overall View:

^I split the tri-color rics into two pieces, the smaller ones are to the right of that green ric.

 

The other 2 yumas are in my refugium, I'm trying to fatting them up before I put them in the main tank.

 

 

Here's a quick shot of my tank:

 

Platinum Prostata:

Top View:

^Can never get it to show that blue body for the 2 longer branches. At least he's super hairy.

 

Sunset Prostata

^Picked this guy from Steve Garret. Love his corals, hate his glass plugs. This acro hasn't grown much because he's encrusting downwards. I should frag him up and stick him on the rocks next to Platinum.

 

Top down shot of my favorite acros:

From bottom left to right: Setosa, Rose Milliepora, unknown blue acro from Vivid Aquariums (browned out), Unique Corals Rainbow Tenuis, unknown acro from Reef Raft, unknown acro that has green body/violet coralites/pink polyps/blue tip

 

Here's another quick side shot of that unknown acro:

^I picked this up from a reefer and his colony has the color of Strawberry Shortcake Acro, but with blue tips. I have a slight idea what this unknown acro might be, but I'll wait till this little fella grows out first.

[Deleted User 4]

Hmmm yeah the tri-color floridas and orange/green yuma were my fav's at the time. Glad it went into a great reefkeeper's tank.

[Red_Blenny]

Decided to update my tank build. Added a new skimmer (Bubble Magus QQ around Janurary and I also added Biopellets because I got greedy trying to lower both Nitrates and Phosphate at the same time. By the end of Feburary, I killed off nearly all my Maricultured acros (along with Rouge Millie RIP) and extreme paleness/lack of PE/STN on my Aquacultured ones. Basically, I had high PO4, 0.00ppm NO3

 

Around March, I got rid of Biopellets and things got better. I moved some acros around and decided to let things settle down. Things are coloring up and I'm getting some PE..

 

 

Bad pic of Strawberry Shortcake (left), Sunset Prostata (middle), Pink Lemonade (right). Shortcake LOVES being next to the mp10 and was the fastest acro to color up:

 

Closeup of Shortcake:

 

Top down shot of Shortcake:

 

Closeup of Pink Lemonade:

 

Top down shot of Pink Lemonade:

 

Right side of the tank. Platinum Prostata (right front), Bubblegum Millie (got it around 12/10/2012, the tiny frag next to the output return. I'm so happy I got a piece and did not die), Rainbow Tenius (top middle, horrible pic), Hellfire Acro (another horrible pic, in front of my Tenius), Unknown Frag from Vivid (left of Hellfire), Unknown acro (front of Vivid, got it around 12/10/2012):

 

Top down shot of Platinum Prostata:

 

Looking at my tank from the right side:

 

Tri-color Valida. 1 of 3 current Maricultured pieces. Super hardy and a fast grower. It's currently encrusting over the dead skeleton parts. Setosa in the background, looking sad but it's starting to encrust over the dead patches:

 

 

On the plus side, My R. Florida/Yumas are doing fine. Added more rock work for them to grow out. Also added 2 more yumas (Gold/Blue with 3 tiny babies by a fellow reefer and an Orange Hot Pink from Socal Tropical Fish (aka, Sexycorals). Horrible pic though, gotta learn how to use Adobe Lightroom better...

 

 

 

What did I learn from this experience:

 

• Biopellets are better off for tanks that have Nitrate issues and if I want to go back to it, I better have Potassium Nitrate/Sodium Nitrate on standby
• Aquacultured Acros do SOOOO much better than Maricultured ones.
• Bubble Magus QQ is so much better than Tunze 9002
• R. Florida/Yumas are sexy
• I suck at Adobe Lightroom.

[lilopop11]

nice ricordea collection ..

[blizzardscout2]

I also suck at Adobe Lightroom (just learning). Beautiful tank. I love those yumas. I had an outstanding one until my heater decided to commit suicide. Didn't know it for a few days and my reef was an icecube.

[Red_Blenny]

I also suck at Adobe Lightroom (just learning). Beautiful tank. I love those yumas. I had an outstanding one until my heater decided to commit suicide. Didn't know it for a few days and my reef was an icecube.

 

Thanks! I think if I set my camera to take pictures in RAW, then the edited pictures will probably look better. Sucks your heater died on you but you'll probably come across an even better yuma than before.

[BadCrab]

Awesome build thread, I really enjoy your Ric garden - especially the Yuma in the bottom center of the first two pics on this post. Split it and send me half

[Red_Blenny]

Awesome build thread, I really enjoy your Ric garden - especially the Yuma in the bottom center of the first two pics on this post. Split it and send me half

 

Thanks man. Had to beg the LFS owner (Sexycorals) to sell it to me. Good thing my gf was with me and the owner gaved in (whooo).

 

I'm trying to fatten it up so it can split and give a baby back to him. I'll put you on the waiting list though if you're ever in Socal. I'll update a picture of it (more fatter than ever) once I figure out how I can expand my mushroom garden

[Lovelia_renatha]

nice collection

[BadCrab]

Thanks man. Had to beg the LFS owner (Sexycorals) to sell it to me. Good thing my gf was with me and the owner gaved in (whooo).

 

I'm trying to fatten it up so it can split and give a baby back to him. I'll put you on the waiting list though if you're ever in Socal. I'll update a picture of it (more fatter than ever) once I figure out how I can expand my mushroom garden

 

Please do update a picture! And yes, add me to a wait list. I'm in Phoenix and I wouldn't mind a drive to LA to pic that specimen up. Or to pay something absurd for overnight - w/e.

[Red_Blenny]

Please do update a picture! And yes, add me to a wait list. I'm in Phoenix and I wouldn't mind a drive to LA to pic that specimen up. Or to pay something absurd for overnight - w/e.

 

Once my point-and-shoot camera finish charging, I'll do a quick update. I redid the mushroom garden again. Now all I gotta do is figure out is how to make Yumas split (without the rubber band method).

[BadCrab]

Not positive but could you

? Personally I would just feed meaty frozen food heavily until it divides itself.

[Red_Blenny]

Not positive but could you

? Personally I would just feed meaty frozen food heavily until it divides itself.

 

Yup, I rather feed them and let them get fat and split. Cutting them up scares me.

 

 

Current FTS 05/01/2013. Updated my 1st post about my tank. I also destroyed the middle rock where my old Setosa was at (had bryopsis). I moved the SPS arch more to the left, which gave me more room to scape my mushroom garden:

^gotta scrape off the coraline in front of Valida/mini-zoa colonies

 

Here's some pictures of corals I have in my tank that I rarely show off:

 

Rrandom acans. I picked these up when it was the size of an eraser head. Now it's fat:

 

Spectrum or Rumpelstiltskin (not too sure, but came from zoanthids.com). Slow grower and hard to photograph the color. Green skirt with peachy center but it sorta comes off like a rainbow.

 

Baby Scoly or Acan Maxima (it was sold as an "Acan Maxima"):

Old pic. Had bryopsis around the base:

 

Current pic. Used epoxy and covered the whole base to kill off the bryopsis:

 

And here's the seller's picture:

^That coral went thorough a random tissue necrosis (allelopathy is my guess) sorta after the whole biopellet issue I had. I dipped it in revive and it healed over the skeleton quickly. Lost that teal ring it had but it's alive and fat. Has a slight shade of green but it's red overall.

 

 

 

 

Now for my Ricordeas. Some of these pics are about ~month old, before the mushroom garden was re-aquascaped:

 

I traded one of my tri-color Florida for this baby blue/gold Yuma (most recent aquired mushroom, 4/6):

 

A pic of my mushrooms eating Fauna Marin:

 

They tend to get puffy when they touch each other. I like the look, but some of the Floridas have like 3-4 mouths and I decide to spread them out so they can split:

 

Here's a recent current picture of my new mushroom garden. They're more spread out now:

 

The one in the tiny cup is a yuma I picked up a long time ago and I'm trying to save it. Before, it was smooth lookiing and it didn't have any of those 'tentacles'. Now, it currently has a few and it happily eats a crushed Fauna Marin pellet

 

 

Baby gold yumas:

 

 

And photo dump for my favorite yuma:

 

Current color atm:

^The yuma tends to turn bright orange under high light.

 

Here's a "stock photo" from Sexycorals (it's the same yuma too). Love him or hate him, he has some nice corals. You have to see it to believe it:

[1.0reef]

Sweet tank! I love the fish choice, assessors are so cool!