Guits' Rose Garden - Fluval Spec V Florida biotope

[Guits]

Hi everyone, I've been on nano-reef for over a year and haven't gotten a chance to post pictures of my tanks. Since I'm moving tomorrow and will be dismantling my tanks and moving them to New York, I thought I should finally post some pictures of my Manicina areolata tank that I've had for half a year. I'm hoping my tanks will survive the 2 day transit for my move!

The inspiration for this tank is to have a "live rock with hitchhikers only" tank. When I first became interested in reef tanks as a teenager, I was fascinated with the idea that "live rock" could come with critters straight from the ocean. I also remember reading in one of John Tullock's books about "rose corals" (Manicina areolata) that come from our very own waters in the US. When I got back into the hobby this year and discovered the availability of aquacultured live rock from Florida, I knew exactly what I wanted to create. The inhabitants that didn't come as hitchhikers are the clean up crew and the blenny.

I hope that you find the tank somewhat unique! Also, please don't criticize the way I keep my tanks, my philosophy is to each his own, as long as the animals are treated well and humanely. I've found that some members are rather quick to criticize =D. I kept freshwater planted tanks and bred Apistogramma sp. for several years and have certain preferences and ideas about tank maintainance and husbandry. Enjoy!

Tank:
Fluval Spec V

Lighting:
Two BeamsWork 1W LED x 9 clip on lights (please don't give me grief about this, I like it more than the "expensive" lighting I have on my other reef tank!)

Nano Box Mini

Filtration:
No mechanical/chemical filtration - I rely on weekly (large) water changes, which is what I liked to do with my planted tanks as well. I do keep is a submersible 12V LED light strip in the filtration compartment and allow filamentous algae to grow on the sides which I remove weekly.
Coralife Biocube protein skimmer

 

Live rock:
All from Gulf Live Rock. I ordered several times to obtain the specimens that I wanted, and removed rocks that did not contain any notable hitchhikers to other tanks or gave them away. It took some patience to get the specimens I wanted and also to find a way to arrange all the live rock to preserve the hitchhikers.

Invertebrates:
Manicina areolata x 9.5 (aka Caribbean rose coral) - "0.5" due to 2 specimens growing right up against each other
Oculina sp. x 3 (aka ivory coral)
Siderastrea sp. (aka starlet coral)
Phyllangia americana (aka hidden cup coral)
Gorgonian (may be Eunicea sp. but I don't know the exact identity)
Cladocora arbuscula (aka tube coral) did not make it from my move from Boston to NYC
Clean up crew
sexy shrimp

spotted anemone shrimp

basket star

harlequin serpent starfish

 

Fish:
Molly miller blenny (I believe they live in the Tampa, Florida, area which is the origin of the rock. I want to keep as close to the biotope as possible)

masked goby x 3

sailfin goby x 2

rusty goby

Macroalgae:
Halimeda sp.
Botryocladia sp.
Gracilaria sp.

Current full tank shot (July 2015):

 

The beginning (February 2014):

 

Full tank shot (July 2014):


Manicina #1 with Molly Miller blenny. This one arrived completely bleached with the flesh mostly dead, but luckily it has started to come around.


Manicina #2. My favorite!


Manicina #3 and #4. The smaller specimen is actually seated on a bivalve mollusk.


Manicina #5 and #6. These I believe are actually two different specimens that wound up growing side by side.


Manicina #7. It is seated on a bivalve mollusk.


Gorgonian with macroalgae.


Oculina #1. Over time it has developed a green hue that I think is quite lovely.


Oculina #2 and Cladocora to the right.

[JR!]

what a beautiful tank you have. well done

[FlowerMama]

I've not even heard of all those corals you have. Cool to hear of and see something different.

[Acielot]

Awesome collection of ivory bush coral and roses. My two favorite Caribbean species.

[Mirya]

Awesome! Such a nice biotope. I hope everything goes well with the move.

[Hexadron]

This is so lush and nice! Great tank.

 

Not sure how much you will 'rescape' as you're moving, but I can't wait to see more.

[JLynn]

Did the move go well?

[Guits]

Did the move go well?

 

The move was ok ... this tank did alright, with the loss of the Cladocora (some polyps withered away and algae took over) and the blenny. My other tank did much worse - unfortunately there was a massive die-off and I lost most of the ricordea that I had carefully been cultivating. I've set it back up with new livestock and it's slowly coming back.

 

I have some additions to this tank, including another rose coral from a new order of Gulf Live Rock, a rusty goby that somehow wound up with a shipment of fish at Petco that I was lucky to spot since it's not a fish that shows up frequently, and 2 masked gobies and a Pederson's shrimp from KP Aquatics. Over the past couple of months, it seems that as the rose corals have settled in that they tend towards having more green in their color, including turning from brown to green. Hope you enjoy the pics!

 

Full tank shot:

 

Various rose corals (you can see color changes compared to previous pictures). I had just fed some of them so you can really see their feeder tentacles:

 

Newest rose coral:

 

Oculina:

 

New livestock:

[Mirya]

I really love your collection of rose corals. The oculina is really different and stunning too. The rose corals all look so happy and I like the green sheen they have all gotten. I really like the one tiny one I have. He is piggy and almost always has his feeder tentacles out. I'd really like to get some more. Did you order the rose coral specifically from Gulf Live Rock or did you order rock with the hope of getting hitchhikers and you scored?

[gena]

Wow...GORGEOUS tank!!!!! I'd like to do something similar one day .

[Jackal_Knight]

wow great job for a second there i thought this was a large tank with large lps colonies then i looks at the first post and saw spec V. so congrats for blowing my mind

[teenyreef]

Wow, what a beautiful tank! I love the macro algae together with the rose corals. And nice job on catching a pic of the rusty goby. I have one too and thought I'd never get him to come out of the shadows to get a picture.

[FlowerMama]

I've never seen Rose corals. I like.

[JLynn]

I'm so glad to hear that! It is really neat to see the rose corals coloring up; I never knew they did that. I wonder why they aren't more popular? (Collection prohibitions aside.) The oculina is looking good as well. It seems to have grown a bit. Nice fish, too!

[otest82]

Great tank. Gulfliverock.com is the best!

[Guits]

I really love your collection of rose corals. The oculina is really different and stunning too. The rose corals all look so happy and I like the green sheen they have all gotten. I really like the one tiny one I have. He is piggy and almost always has his feeder tentacles out. I'd really like to get some more. Did you order the rose coral specifically from Gulf Live Rock or did you order rock with the hope of getting hitchhikers and you scored?

 

Thanks for the compliments everyone! I'm really happy about this tank because it was my vision to have as "authentic" a tank as possible sticking with only corals that naturally grow in our US waters. The only exceptions I've made are with the fish and shrimp (not sure if they are really from the Tampa region where I think the live rock is harvested from, but at least they do actually live in Florida). After several months I really did want to add some fish/shrimp and decided to order from KP Aquatics.

 

When I ordered from Gulf Live Rock, I specifically asked for pieces with lots of hitchhikers, with an interest in rose corals. It took multiple orders to achieve this (usually Dan will try to accomodate your requests but they aren't always present as hitchhikers) and I had to be pretty patient. I also wound up with a bunch of live rock that was great live rock, but I gave it away/started a different tank because it didn't have hitchhikers I wanted. So yes I ordered rock hoping to get the hitchhikers I wanted but Dan also tries his best if he sees something you might want.

[Dryland]

Very cool, I love the natural look and all those meaty brains everywhere. The finger gorgonian and the oculina really top things off. I look forward to following along!

[gena]

When I ordered from Gulf Live Rock, I specifically asked for pieces with lots of hitchhikers, with an interest in rose corals. It took multiple orders to achieve this (usually Dan will try to accomodate your requests but they aren't always present as hitchhikers) and I had to be pretty patient. I also wound up with a bunch of live rock that was great live rock, but I gave it away/started a different tank because it didn't have hitchhikers I wanted. So yes I ordered rock hoping to get the hitchhikers I wanted but Dan also tries his best if he sees something you might want.

Awesome! I'm filing this information away for a future tank .

[metrokat]

Looks fantastic. The gobies are perfect for this tank. The roses are just beautiful, I didn't get as many varieties as you from my shipments from Dan but the ones I did get are lovely.

[Mirya]

When I ordered from Gulf Live Rock, I specifically asked for pieces with lots of hitchhikers, with an interest in rose corals. It took multiple orders to achieve this (usually Dan will try to accomodate your requests but they aren't always present as hitchhikers) and I had to be pretty patient. I also wound up with a bunch of live rock that was great live rock, but I gave it away/started a different tank because it didn't have hitchhikers I wanted. So yes I ordered rock hoping to get the hitchhikers I wanted but Dan also tries his best if he sees something you might want.

 

Thanks for the info. Something I will have to keep in mind as I would love to get more roses down the road.

 

How often, if at all, do you direct feed your roses? I feed mine fairly frequently since he almost always has his feeder tentacles out, but I don't want to overdo it.

[Guits]

Thanks for the info. Something I will have to keep in mind as I would love to get more roses down the road.

 

How often, if at all, do you direct feed your roses? I feed mine fairly frequently since he almost always has his feeder tentacles out, but I don't want to overdo it.

 

I used to have the time to do very frequent water changes, so I used to feed almost daily. Usually mine seem to expel waste about 24 hours after feeding. I feed all kinds of food, from mysis shrimp to scraps from Omega One Marine Carnivore formula frozen cubes to New Life Spectrum small fish formula pellets. I like to feed pellets because they are a good size for their mouths and they are easy to squirt into the tentacles using a pipette. I now feed maybe about twice a week because there is some hair algae in addition to the "desireable" macroalgae I've been cultivating and I want to decrease some of the nutrient import into the tank. Nevertheless, I still think that overall I feed them pretty heavily, partly because I enjoy feeding them =)

[markalot]

Wow, just found this. Great tank and I'm glad to see it continue after the move.

 

I was lucky enough to have a Rusty Goby for almost a year before it vanished. I would only see it when I fed, a flash zipping out and back, and occasionally it would take up a perch where I could see it. I hope yours lasts longer than mine, such a cool little fish.

[teenyreef]

We should start a Rusty Goby fan club. I don't have much imagination so I named mine Flash. He really is entertaining.

[ninjamyst]

wow! this Spec V looks sooo good!

[BriFran9]

Great Spec V tank, i have a freshwater spec V, seeing this tank makes me wanna go buy another one and set it up as a nano reef