Slowtwitch Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 Here's a picture of the Tubb's Blue: Nice!. I still lean more to the purples and greens. Once I can rely on decent weather for shipping I really want to find a nice sized frag of those Milky Ways! If you're really into the blue zoas, check out Legendary Corals page. He's got some really nice ones. Link to comment
Matthewdvm Posted January 28, 2015 Author Share Posted January 28, 2015 I'm not going shopping for frags this week ( ), so I figured the least I could do was post up some photos. Started feeding the corals a bit, and they are colouring up (especially the Ponape, which was very white when it got home) . The Duncan has grown and looks awesome, I think. Hairy green mushrooms are filling in, too. The Duncan. Still only 2 heads, but the tentacles are longer, and the colour is looking nicer: http://s1247.photobucket.com/user/Matthewdvm/media/DSC07418.jpg.html'> One of the first Birdsnests. No growth, but the colour has improved. http://s1247.photobucket.com/user/Matthewdvm/media/DSC07419.jpg.html'> The other original birds nest. Has been in the tank 2 weeks, and the colour is looking great http://s1247.photobucket.com/user/Matthewdvm/media/DSC07420.jpg.html'> Ponape is starting to get the first green, and the faintest blush of pink tips: http://s1247.photobucket.com/user/Matthewdvm/media/DSC07426.jpg.html'> And the forest fire digi is looking a bit better http://s1247.photobucket.com/user/Matthewdvm/media/DSC07424.jpg.html'> Love the see through appearance of the tenuis http://s1247.photobucket.com/user/Matthewdvm/media/DSC07427.jpg.html'> I placed the GSP a little better to get growth across the back glass: http://s1247.photobucket.com/user/Matthewdvm/media/DSC07425.jpg.html'> Need to move the Milky Way Zoas a bit, but they still look pretty happy, and the Super Novas in the background are filling out, and maybe I can pop them off the frag plug soon: http://s1247.photobucket.com/user/Matthewdvm/media/DSC07423.jpg.html'> And finally, the current FTS: http://s1247.photobucket.com/user/Matthewdvm/media/DSC07413.jpg.html'> Link to comment
Slowtwitch Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 Nice looking tank, Doc. Link to comment
Matthewdvm Posted January 30, 2015 Author Share Posted January 30, 2015 Nice looking tank, Doc. Thanks! Here's a couple of pictures of my Arctic Ice Zoas. I moved them with the last WC, and they are more visible now... Link to comment
wildbill79 Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 The tank is looking great! The birdsnest have great color and will take off before you know it. Link to comment
Matthewdvm Posted January 30, 2015 Author Share Posted January 30, 2015 The tank is looking great! The birdsnest have great color and will take off before you know it. I hope so. I stare at it every day looking for growth that isn't there yet. Link to comment
Matthewdvm Posted January 30, 2015 Author Share Posted January 30, 2015 Looking good! Thanks! I'm pretty pleased so far. Link to comment
Matthewdvm Posted February 8, 2015 Author Share Posted February 8, 2015 Got some new frags on Thursday. Tried to do a speed water change and glass cleaning before I went and ended up knocking a bunch of the previous frags (several SPS and my hammer) off the rock. They had just been crazy-glued on, and fell off when I bumped them. I sort of effed some of them up trying to quickly re-glue them, got glue on the the polyps. Thankfully, it was not my favourite SPS that got damaged, and I hope they recover. Only time will tell. Anyway, I picked up 4 rics, a green micromusa and some zoos and palys. Ric garden will be going in on the left side of the tank (visible from room side). Not sure where the zoos will all go. Right now they are hanging out on the sand until I figure out where they want to be. And now, a huge picture dump: The New: The beginnings of a Ric Garden. 2 green/teal and 2 with pretty excellent multi-colour under the actinic: The Green Micromusa: 3 heads of Green People Eaters Stardust People Eaters: Green and Stardust People Eaters and some zoas (Caribbean Checker is the 3rd one back, I think) to boot! Unknown Zoa (Any Ideas???) A few not great pictures of the new rics: The OLD: My Duncan is getting good and big - no new heads, but the 2 heads he has are big and sassy! The Green Hairy Mushrooms are also flourishing! The Acan appears to be winning the propagation war, with 4 new heads below the main ones! The Ponape Bird's Nest is still quite white, with just the faintest tinges of green. Not sure what is going to do... Not much growth from the Forest Fire Digi yet... Some polyps visible, and perhaps some re-shaping, but nor growth yet from the Red Plating Monti The UGLY: The damage inflicted on one of my bird's nests (fortunately NOT my favourite) b an overzealous crazy glue application... And NOW, for the FTS: Under full lighting: Under 50% Actinic: And the side view, with the Ric Garden, Hammer and Duncan (as well as the other damaged Bird's Nest): All for now... Link to comment
wildbill79 Posted February 8, 2015 Share Posted February 8, 2015 Looks really good. That Birdsnest should recover. Just leave it alone. It doesn't look too bad. Your zoas are really nice! Link to comment
Red_Blenny Posted February 8, 2015 Share Posted February 8, 2015 Can't wait to see your finished Ricordea garden. You have some nice looking pieces. Link to comment
Matthewdvm Posted February 9, 2015 Author Share Posted February 9, 2015 Looks really good. That Birdsnest should recover. Just leave it alone. It doesn't look too bad. Your zoas are really nice! "Just leave it alone" he says. Easier said than done, as I'm sure you would agree... Link to comment
Matthewdvm Posted February 9, 2015 Author Share Posted February 9, 2015 Can't wait to see your finished Ricordea garden. You have some nice looking pieces. Coming from you, that is quite the compliment - yours are quite awesome! They are small, but hopefully will be happy with medium light and low flow and grow in to their surroundings. Of course, I will be hard pressed to wait patiently, and will no doubt add more when I find them (though Rics seem to be hard to come by in Toronto). I took the two smaller ones off their frag plugs tonight and tried to attach them to the rock (in slightly different positions). One looks stable and happy, but the other had no rocky part to glue to, and it just slid off the epoxy/crazy glue sandwich. He's hanging on by a thread, so I dialled back the flow in the tank (unplugged the Koralia) to hope he gets a foothold and hands on. Link to comment
Red_Blenny Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 Coming from you, that is quite the compliment - yours are quite awesome! They are small, but hopefully will be happy with medium light and low flow and grow in to their surroundings. Of course, I will be hard pressed to wait patiently, and will no doubt add more when I find them (though Rics seem to be hard to come by in Toronto). I took the two smaller ones off their frag plugs tonight and tried to attach them to the rock (in slightly different positions). One looks stable and happy, but the other had no rocky part to glue to, and it just slid off the epoxy/crazy glue sandwich. He's hanging on by a thread, so I dialled back the flow in the tank (unplugged the Koralia) to hope he gets a foothold and hands on. If he gets loose, put the loose Ric in a shot glass with some rubble rock and put some mesh netting (like nylon stockings) over the shot glass so it won't get blown away by the current of the tank. Link to comment
Matthewdvm Posted February 9, 2015 Author Share Posted February 9, 2015 If he gets loose, put the loose Ric in a shot glass with some rubble rock and put some mesh netting (like nylon stockings) over the shot glass so it won't get blown away by the current of the tank. Great suggestion. He flip off and is hanging out upside down in a little nook right now. I'll put him in a shot glass tonight. Any idea how long it will take for it to attach to the rock rubble? Link to comment
Slowtwitch Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 Looking good, Doc. I really like the zoas you are finding. I wish I had access to things like that around here. The Stardust FTW! Link to comment
TheElysia Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Lovely display. Definitely daring, can't wait to see the SPS fill up the tank! With my very limited experience, I'll offer three pieces of advice: 1. Hammers are notorious for their aggressiveness. He looks fine for now, but as they grow quite large, they may start attacking mates in a small aquarium. Make sure to keep the flow a little lower, as higher flow apparently stimulates the production of attacking sweeper tentacles. 2. The bleached birdsnest may, may, recover if given a little less light. I don't know why it got bleached in the first place, but that may help. 3. Increase the diversity in the tank. This isn't a must, but I think that makes for an overall livelier and more beautiful display, to have more little shrimp, brittle stars, macroalgae, and sponges in the tank as well as fish and corals. Just my (lengthy) two bits, I wish you many happy years with this display! Link to comment
Red_Blenny Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Great suggestion. He flip off and is hanging out upside down in a little nook right now. I'll put him in a shot glass tonight. Any idea how long it will take for it to attach to the rock rubble? Depends on how stubborn they are. I had one that reattached itself in less than a week and another that took about a month and a half. Link to comment
Matthewdvm Posted February 10, 2015 Author Share Posted February 10, 2015 Depends on how stubborn they are. I had one that reattached itself in less than a week and another that took about a month and a half. Cool. It actually found a little indent that appears to have little to no flow where he is happy sitting right now. I'd be fine if he just chose to attach himself there. Link to comment
Matthewdvm Posted February 10, 2015 Author Share Posted February 10, 2015 Lovely display. Definitely daring, can't wait to see the SPS fill up the tank! With my very limited experience, I'll offer three pieces of advice: 1. Hammers are notorious for their aggressiveness. He looks fine for now, but as they grow quite large, they may start attacking mates in a small aquarium. Make sure to keep the flow a little lower, as higher flow apparently stimulates the production of attacking sweeper tentacles. 2. The bleached birdsnest may, may, recover if given a little less light. I don't know why it got bleached in the first place, but that may help. 3. Increase the diversity in the tank. This isn't a must, but I think that makes for an overall livelier and more beautiful display, to have more little shrimp, brittle stars, macroalgae, and sponges in the tank as well as fish and corals. Just my (lengthy) two bits, I wish you many happy years with this display! Thanks for the input! The hammer was one of my first corals and I didn't know about their aggressiveness when I bought it. I have him down in the front left where he is hopefully not going to sting others, but in a tank of this size, it can never truly get far enough away. I'll be keeping an eye on him. I think he is in fairly low flow right now, so that may help reduce his sweepers. The birds nest is off to the side a bit, and not in the brightest light, but I might move him down anyway and see what happens (he might look good between the green hairy mushrooms, and have more room to grow there, too). Agreed on the diversity issue. I would love to get some shrimp, crabs and more snails in there. Still not sure if I am going to add fish or not. There seems to be a lot of mixed advice about which crabs and shrimp are good in such a small tank. Anyone have any advice? Link to comment
Slowtwitch Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Any crab CAN be opportunistic eaters. Red leg reef hermits and emerald crabs have a pretty good reputation, but even they have been known to munch on a coral from time to time. Are you looking for cleaners or just crabs to have in the display? You can look into Porcelain crabs or Anemone crabs if you get the correct host for them. Link to comment
TheElysia Posted February 10, 2015 Share Posted February 10, 2015 Agree, many crabs have the potential (though not necessarily all are certain) to eat corals. I like the idea of a porcelain or anemone crab, if they've got an LPS, anemone, or even tentacle-y soft coral host, like Anthelia or a leather coral, the crab will hang out there and filter feed, pretty cool. I also like the idea of getting a Trapezia or Tetralia crab for your SPS when they grow bigger. They can help improve the health of the coral, I think. When your tentacle-y corals get bigger, I'd recommend getting a Periclimenes or Ancylomenes shrimp for them. Not necessary but it looks cool. Fish are definitely controversial, even the notion of them in a nano display like this one. I'd say that if you want fish, a smaller goby, maybe even a pistol shrimp and goby pair, should be fine. For other fish, I think that others' experience might add to the fish debate. I kept a clownfish in a 4 gallon (bad noob mistake) and therefore I'd want to err on the safe side of nano fish to avoid causing any fish possible crampiness. Link to comment
Matthewdvm Posted February 12, 2015 Author Share Posted February 12, 2015 So we had some shrimp for dinner last night, and before I cooked them, I chopped a little bit off of one and macerated it, then fed it to the corals. Below is the result (first time trying to video the tank, so I have some things to learn): Link to comment
CronicReefer Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 Great video dude. I swore I was watching a preview to a new series on discovery channel about corals. Keep up the good work . Link to comment
Matthewdvm Posted February 12, 2015 Author Share Posted February 12, 2015 Great video dude. I swore I was watching a preview to a new series on discovery channel about corals. Keep up the good work . Thanks, Cronic! I had to do some editing to remove my kids' fingers and heads from some of the hairy mushroom shots, but altogether, I'm pretty pleased with the results! Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.