Jump to content
Coral Vue Hydros

Of Urchins and Odd Couples :)


MyJasmineRose

Recommended Posts

MyJasmineRose

Hi all,

Figured I should probably start one of these instead of sticking to the beginner's forum. As some of you know, I got into this hobby by accident. The labs where I teach were being renovated and while all the freshwater fish were able to find homes easily, the stone crabs were not as lucky. Mama crab (a 6-8" monstrosity the likes of Godzilla) was homed to a friend, while I took the younglings. Well, Warp is the surviving youngling (Warp says hi!)

eenJx39.jpg

However, since Warp is a jealous and wrathful overlord (meaning he isn't reef safe as he eats anything that moves, except for copepods which somehow manage to scare him away from his own food :P), I've held off on trying corals until now. The tank is a little over a year old now, started with just a chunk of live rock, gravel, and Warp from the old tank (a 120gal) to a free tank they had (5.5 AGA), but with a purple coralline crusted live rock addition which I'm hoping will eventually spread.

My build is:

5.5 gal AGA with cover

Rio Aqua pump/powerhead 50

Jr. Aquatics Model 10575 heater (not at the moment, summer does a fine job keeping temps up :P)

Wave Point High Output Clamp Light-6" 8 watt Micro Sun LED

Air pump with air stone (I know, apparently a total newb thing but I like bubbles and it's easy to tell if the powerhead is working :) )

General tank pic (don't mind the dice cube in the corner, was a temporary iso chamber...story to follow!)

CoXUGUg.jpg

So, with the tank being over a year old I decided to try my first frag, a set of zoas, since I want to try a variety to see what the lights can handle and these seemed to be a good beginner coral. They came with a banded aiptasia, but as it's not as invasive a species I'll be leaving it for now as it really is pretty (purple with white bands). The zoas are happy in their new home, nice and bright orange (I am awful at pictures)

hPKztED.jpg

 

Now comes the fun, of course when everything else is going well some stress needs to happen. This past weekend I stopped by the LFS to check out chillers/fans, and fell in love with this poor guy who apparently has been rather unwanted as both species have totally different light preferences. He's a green star polyp/montipora frag. Pic is just after getting him settled for GSP isn't out yet twsk6L5.jpg(the black bit isn't rot, its a water spot on the outer glass)

 

Now...this poor frag is so stressed out and I can understand why. Whatever material the frag is made out of (I think it's just stone, but maybe just too smooth), it would not bond no matter what we tried using (glue, epoxy..), but finally we were able to bond an epoxy cradle to the live rock for him to sit in. I walk away for 5 minutes and come back to see a "baby" starfish wandering off. Now, being that Warp is, well, Warp, this set off a Mission Impossible style rescue mission. Once wrangled, the star was placed in a drilled dice cube for the night before a dip and pour iso chamber was acquired yesterday, drilled, and placed. Now what do starfish need? Algae. So I picked out a pebble covered in it from the back most corner of the tank. DSO was able to get it, but it slipped just as it was over the monti frag.....*facepalm* So I had an emergency lesson on the internet of how to frag montis, and attached the broken bit to the pebble for the starfish, and plopped it in there. Hoping that at least gives both bits a fighting chance >_>

YXeE0J2.jpg

And the appreciative star

0h6gUsi.jpg

Well I think that's all, hope you enjoyed my adventures so far :P

Link to comment
  • Replies 67
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Very cool. I actually started out with a crab tank too. I had a 29g that I kept some monster hermit crabs, gorilla crabs, porcelain crabs, and an occasional blue crab in. It was a blast since they all had so much personality.

 

Good luck with Warp, he sounds like an amusing character.

Link to comment

I have Hermit the Horrible in my sump. He used to live in the display but he was a wreaking ball to corals, hence the reason for his banishment! He's been there for years now so I guess he doesn't mind. There's live rock to climb on and pellets to eat plus whatever goes over the overflow.

Link to comment
MyJasmineRose

Yay :) I'm not the only crazy crab person!

Happy GSP last night, was excited to see it when I got in from work still open, now to get a species ID on the monti so I can figure out what it's supposed to look like >_> I think I can see the polyps on the frag in the starfish isocube but everyone else's seem to have polyps that are a different color than the flesh so I guess not

BEp2YDX.jpg

Link to comment
MyJasmineRose

Tried to get one last night when I got home from work at 10, but everything was mostly closed for the night >_> Will probably be easier after tomorrow's WC/glass cleaning, though Reason #165242 why I need a bigger tank, camera refused to focus on it because of the starfish iso cube :P

Link to comment
MyJasmineRose

::sadface::

It's so pretty, think I'll wait to see if a second one pops up, then I'll nuke them >_> (famous last words)

Do they? That makes a lot of sense then, I was wondering why they said the frag had been there for a while if the only problem was the light reqs. Thanks :) (edit-went to visit the lfs store since we just moved, they're amazing, much higher quality livestock, and they had a ~16-20" clam! I totally thought of your thread :) )

Link to comment

This is my fav picture of all time of a banded.

4085260658_0f97ea9b7e_o.jpg

 

But google showed many that look like yours so maybe you are right. I have one also, it looks like this but with a white oral disc:

Anemona_Bunodactis_Verrucosa.jpg



Actually more like this

lightbulb_anemones.jpg

Link to comment
  • 2 weeks later...
MyJasmineRose

Well good to know it might not be horrible :) Guess I'll wait and see if it grows. Warp decided the zoas needed to be in his rock garden and ripped the frag off and scooched it to his garden. Rescued it and put it in with the starfish for now, it seems to be recovering but haven't seen the anemone since. Though, super exciting, my zoas have a new bud and it's a new morph :) Lime green skirts instead of orange! I'll get a better picture after I clean the glass tomorrow with the WC

New tank! Setting it up for a contest on another site, but wanted to show it here and get feedback if anyone has any :)

Jebao WP-10, API test kit, and chemipure elite arrived today, water tomorrow, then live rock coming in on air cargo from FL Friday!

It's meant to be a pseudo-AIO, with a compartment for filters/reactors/macro and one in the front for any fun pests or non-reef safe hitchhikers I get

l2vZIuh.jpg

XgP9Rx2.jpg

Lighting is a 6 bulb T5HO unit with LED moonlights, 3 10k, 3 actinic

Also, Warp says hi!

FfP3lAd.jpg

Link to comment
MyJasmineRose

Warp knows the live rock is coming in today and has set up offerings to Cthulhu to get a badass hitchiker buddy....sometimes I wonder about him :P

uzWX0kl.jpg

Link to comment
MyJasmineRose

My new live rock is gorgeous!! Now, I know, critters don't survive the cycle that often, but I have some gorgeous (all moving, and really reactive) clams, and will be doing my best to keep them and all the pretty corals around :)

HiTIeWo.jpg

E9xQv7k.jpg

Above is one of the clams, he wears a hat of red macro, his name is Ron Weasley

OalIBq3.jpg

UCnfV3f.jpg

oEfOU7S.jpg

Link to comment

Greetings from across the hudson! Looks like this will be an interesting adventure =)

 

 

GSP packs a powerful punch. It could be the reason the monti is pissed off.

 

Really? does it even have nematocysts?

Link to comment
CounterCurrent

I would really recommend that you add a protein skimmer to the mix. You can of course control the pollution the live rock die off induces by water changes *but* depending on how much un-cured live rock you have introduced may not be an effective way to mainain keeping the water at acceptable levels. Also if you see the aiptasia starting to multiply and get out of hand (and they will) you can get a small container of kalkwasser mix it with some RO/DI water. Get a small syringe (maybe and old one from a test kit) and draw it up. Then just locally treat the ones you want to eliminate. That way if you choose to keep one or two you can keep the situation under control.

 

Fun tank.... good luck! And for heavens sake have fun

Link to comment
MyJasmineRose

Countercurrent thanks for commenting! I really don't think it's an aiptasia (have one of those in my other tank) but I'll definitely keep an eye on it! A skimmer is my next purchase I think, I just can't seem to find a smaller one that doesn't have an abundance of "it does nothing" reviews!

Link to comment

I purchased the smaller Hydor SlimSkim Nano back in April and it seems to be doing what it needs to. It is constantly pulling dark green skimmate, runs very quiet, no bubble issues... and this is without an ATO to keep it at "proper" level. My tank sometimes goes 2 days withuot getting water added, so up to an inch variance. I can tell if I let it go for the 2 days that its not as efficient.

Link to comment
MyJasmineRose

Awesome, thanks for the recommendation! Going on Sunday to the LFS to pick up water for a WC anyway so I'll see if they have that one in stock or can get it in ASAP.

Link to comment
MyJasmineRose

I do not, I recently moved up to Milford CT. I'm just in the Bronx working on my PhD :) (speaking of things I should change on my profile...)

So I was having an idea, I know I want 2 clowns but I like a lot of different color morphs and types. I haven't seen any hitch hikers that aren't reef safe yet, so my hitch hiker compartment might be empty. I'm thinking this way if I try a pairing and they don't end up bonding, I can put the smaller one in the 7 gal compartment....thoughts? (edit-Nothing crazy like skunk and occy, things like white+black, most people seem to have no problem but some do, so I want a backup plan in case)

Link to comment

I'm not an expert on them, but I did just add a black false to my tank that already an SA Orange false. I had the same concerns as you, but since the orange was still a juvie, and aquacultured to boot, I figured so long as the new one was smaller than it, it wouldn't feel threatened. That has seemed to work out as the are getting along great. Once the new one was in, I was actually more worried about my Bangai getting aggressive. It calmed down after about a day though, and they all hang out like buddies now, 2 weeks later.

Link to comment
MyJasmineRose

Yep :) Have my bachelor's degrees in biology and chemistry, now working on my cell and molecular biology doctorate :)

Link to comment

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recommended Discussions


×
×
  • Create New...