40 Breeder Project

[Nano tanker Nick]

I'm following along. I am in the process of setting up a 40b as well. Looks good man.

[koteckn]

Awesome. Sounds great. Let me know when you begin your build thread so i can follow along as well. Also, i'm rather new to the saltwater system but if you have any questions, feel free to ask and i'll let you know anything from my elementary experience.

 

Update: Green hammer looked semi ok when purchased and the following day, we realized it was not. It started to cover itself in brown slime so we dipped it a few times over the past few days with no luck. Yesterday, we were down to about 1/3 of our original piece and instead of throwing it out we decided to dip, frag it, and then dip again before adding it back into the DT. If it lives great, if not, it was worth a try to frag it. I say this because it was a wall hammer and it seems like they are rather hard to frag out without killing the animal. I guess we'll see what happens. If the brown slime is back when i get home from work, we will have to scrap the piece because i also have a frogspawn that i'd rather keep than let this bacteria take it over as well.

 

The corals have all started to open. We target fed everything yesterday and it seemed to make everything happy and extend more. The frogspawn closely resembles what it looked like when it was purchased already and the dendro's are beginning to open. The dendro's is what i'm most excited about because the LFS said it may take 1-2 weeks for this thing to start to open. The chalice has one large and one small eye and also ate.

 

Plan to let the tank go now for a few weeks before adding anything else. I'll update as necessary.

 

- N

[Steensj2004]

Awesome. Sounds great. Let me know when you begin your build thread so i can follow along as well. Also, i'm rather new to the saltwater system but if you have any questions, feel free to ask and i'll let you know anything from my elementary experience.

 

Update: Green hammer looked semi ok when purchased and the following day, we realized it was not. It started to cover itself in brown slime so we dipped it a few times over the past few days with no luck. Yesterday, we were down to about 1/3 of our original piece and instead of throwing it out we decided to dip, frag it, and then dip again before adding it back into the DT. If it lives great, if not, it was worth a try to frag it. I say this because it was a wall hammer and it seems like they are rather hard to frag out without killing the animal. I guess we'll see what happens. If the brown slime is back when i get home from work, we will have to scrap the piece because i also have a frogspawn that i'd rather keep than let this bacteria take it over as well.

 

The corals have all started to open. We target fed everything yesterday and it seemed to make everything happy and extend more. The frogspawn closely resembles what it looked like when it was purchased already and the dendro's are beginning to open. The dendro's is what i'm most excited about because the LFS said it may take 1-2 weeks for this thing to start to open. The chalice has one large and one small eye and also ate.

 

Plan to let the tank go now for a few weeks before adding anything else. I'll update as necessary.

 

- N

My Yellow torch coral had the same thing. It is likely a bacterial infection that can spread to other LPS or,"Brown Jelly Disease.

 

http://reefdreams.de/lang_eng/info_13_eng.html

[koteckn]

Brown Jelly was back after work so we had to scrap the hammer coral. Hopefully the frogspawn isn't infected... we'll have to keep a close eye out on it now.

Steens, thanks for the link.

 

- n

[atrox]

Pineapple sponges are great I literally have hundreds in my sump and overflow. If you have them it indicates parameters of a healthy system. They will help in natural filtration of the water. If you keep a nutrient rich tank they will multiply rather quickly, but will level themselves out in time. Many people complain they do not like them as they are "ugly", but they are positive inhabitants to have.

[koteckn]

Already starting to open after only a few days. Got this guy for $39.99 and it has ten heads... Pretty decent deal if you ask me.

 

Is anyone able to specifically ID this? I know it is a dendro (sun coral) but I also know that there are a few different ones...

Thanks,

 

- N

[thesmallerthebetter]

thats Dendrophyllia arbuscula

[koteckn]

Thanks again.

- N

[koteckn]

Long overdue update:

 

A few days ago we, my brother this time, purchased a crazy yellow/orange plate with extending tentacles that have blue, purple or green tips. Not sure of the name, but I do know that this picture gives this thing no justice whatsoever.

 

We also bought a blue sympodium frag, a single florida ricordea that seems to about to split (2-3 mouths on one head) and a lettuce nudibranch to combat the little but of GHA that we are experiencing.

 

Any information about our new additions that may be of some help would be great. Everything, minus the electric green hammer that went down to brown slime, is doing well and growing already.

 

All parameters are in check, minus our slightly high ALK, but I believe this is only because our tank is only ~2 months old. Will continue to monitor this.

 

Will post more pictures when the tank starts taking more shape or a cool addition is added.

Thanks,

- N

[koteckn]

Does anyone have any ideas on some additional corals we could add to the system that will compliment the pieces we already have? We have a lot that are either near the substrate, or do not have long tentacles which we would like in our next two or so pieces. Tanks about 2.5 months old at this point.

 

Have already:

1. Dendros (10 heads)

2. Blue Sympodium (frag)

3. Yellow/Orange Plate (~3" diameter)

4. purple/green frogspawn (2 larger heads with branches starting)

5. Florida Ricordea (1 shroom, green, blue and purple)

6. Purple/Orange Chalice (frag)

7. Feather duster

8. zoa colony (~100+ total heads of eagle eye and dragons eye)

 

Possibilities we want to end up with in the future (if the 40B size DT is large enough as things begin to grow):

1. torch coral

2. branching hammer coral

3. more zoas/palys

4. scoly

5. duncans

6. birdsnest (once wavemaker is upgraded)

7. clam of some sort

8. another crazy plate

9. acan lord (thinking rainbow)

10. .... any other suggestions...?

 

Thanks

[koteckn]

8.11.14 update

Added a purple firefish and toadstool to the mix. Tube worm doubled at least. Everything seems to be doing quite well. Sorry about the low quality cell pics.

Let me know what you guys think.

- N

 

 

[717Tank]

Looking good! Toadstools are one of my favorite, and mine has grown like crazy in just a few months.

[silent1mezzo]

I'd get a duncan and some more zoa's. Tank looks awesome!

[koteckn]

haha I actually almost bought a duncan last night but decided against it until I have some time to research them more. Our 8.14.14 purchase consisted of:

 

1. 1 Branching green hammer with purple tips (about 8-10 smaller heads currently) - $40

2. 2 more small ricordea - $10 a piece

3. 3 purple and red mushrooms (unsure of type) - $10 a piece

4. 1 eyed frag of a miami hurricane chalice - Free

5. maroon yellow striped clown fish

 

Hoping the clown hosts with the toadstool because after more research, i'd like to not have an anemone in my tank unless we are unsuccessful with the toadstool/clown combo.

 

The last 'main' fish we plan to add (in another month or two) is a dwarf angle. Any and all recommendations are needed as i'm unsure what is out there that would fit well with my current stock and 40b tank size. I'm aware of a flame, coral beauty and the other more popular dwarfs but if anyone knows of something different, please let me know.

 

Will post pics when everything settles in and starts to open back up.

 

Thanks,

- N

[koteckn]

11.1.14 update

 

added corals

1. headlight trachy

2. 4 sunshine yumas

3. frags of war favia, yellow hornet zoas, purple/orange zoas, green palys

4. large single green frogspawn head (right side)

 

added fish

1. flame angel

 

Lost our Lubbock's wrasse to suicide. squeezed out of the smallest little gap... not sure exactly how he/she did it to be honest. We now have 3 fish (purple firefish, maroon/yellow clown and flame angel.

Lost a few snails/hermits etc. so we need to add a few more back into the crew. I believe we have 1 large hermit that is the murderer so he/she will be removed the next time i notice any aggression.

 

Tons of pods in the main tank and our refugium is full of tons of different kinds of life.

 

Keeping an eye on:

1. toadstool as it has been rather droopy over the past week or so. I believe this is normal from our research, but we are still keeping a close eye on it to make sure it is in-fact just growing and being grumpy.

 

Would like some more ideas of compatible tankmates with these 3 as i plan to only add 1 or 2 more fish in total.

 

Let me know what everyone thinks. It's really starting to come along and everything is growing very quickly.

 

- n

[NanoFever]

Tank is looking great Kote! Noticed you were from the Burgh! What LFS you getting all these nice looking pieces from?!

[koteckn]

Just about 10 months in. Ended up getting a Flame Angel (that I couldn't catch) that nipped corals and got to the trachy, plate and toadstool before I could nab him.

 

Stock (complete):

6-line wrasse

hippo tang

maroon/gold clown

purple firefish

2 skunk cleaners

 

 

3.18.15

3.18.15

3.18.15

[koteckn]

Above are a few updates on the coral/fish that have been growing consistently. Let me know what you think.

 

- N