dgphelps Posted February 23, 2015 Author Share Posted February 23, 2015 That was more difficult than I thought but it ended up working out in the end. The 5 gallon is TALL! I had to play some creative rock work to get the height I wanted with the stability I needed. The new sand is blowing up a storm but that should settle in a day or two. At least the crab looks happy in his new digs. Link to comment
dgphelps Posted February 24, 2015 Author Share Posted February 24, 2015 Tank is all cleared up today and I was able to target feed the crab and the majano anemone. The anemone has started to move around the tank a bit higher up on the rock leaving the zoanthids alone. I also noticed a few of the nudibranchs moving around on the live rock so they made it through the transfer too. Since this is a pest tank I'm planning to leave them be and do as they will with the zoanthids. Link to comment
uwdanno Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 Looking good. Awesome that you are enjoying the pest. Things get stressful quickly if you don't take a second to appreciate even the enemy's of the reef! Link to comment
dgphelps Posted February 25, 2015 Author Share Posted February 25, 2015 I definitely am! Nervous my maintenance schedule will prove to be to clean for the anemone! Hoping good lights and target feeding will encourage it to clone and do well. The crab's main body is about the size of my thumb nail, so maybe 1/2 inch or 1.25 inch with claws extended. I also noticed the nudibranchs from my main tank are all on the rock work and strangely I have seen none on the zoanthids since I set the tank up. I think I ended up with 7 before I did the dip, the largest is maybe 2mms long. I'd like a bit more life in here, might go for some Xenia or star polyps to get some nice growers that are robust enough to withstand the crab and anemone. Link to comment
dgphelps Posted February 26, 2015 Author Share Posted February 26, 2015 Full water change today. After I did that I noticed the tank walls had several happy and larger looking nudibranchs than before. Things seem to be going well but I do feel like I need more life on the rocks. My son agrees! I may wait the month out to see how things develop on their own and then take it from there. Link to comment
dgphelps Posted March 4, 2015 Author Share Posted March 4, 2015 Things are leveling out a bit in here, I am mostly watching for cloning of the majano anemone or mushroom coral. The zoanthids that are more brownish seem to be the feeding ground of the nudibranchs, they don't open much if at all. However, the greenish zoanthid polyps near the anemone are looking very nice. So nice I want to find a way to frag them out, ensure no pests are on them, and bring them into my main tank. I really like the color they are getting. But, I may just wait things out a bit since they are actually looking nice and they and the anemone are the only nice things besides the fan worms (they are ALL red in this tank). The crab is nice and happy, it was doing some weird vibrating 'twerk' between two rocks last week - they vibrated but stayed put thankfully. No real nuisance algae seen in this tank. I wish that was the case with the other one. Link to comment
dgphelps Posted March 8, 2015 Author Share Posted March 8, 2015 My wife and son convinced me to get a small pincushion urchin for this tank yesterday despite feeble attempts to say no. The LFS said it was a red tuxedo urchin but I doubt that. I tossed in all the macro algae i could find after manually removing it from my 5 gallon tank and plan to supplement with nori (raw sheets) and ulva. That said, it ate the algae on the rocks and started in on the chaeto ball today. Similar to the larger tank, I skipped a water change and have been feeding on the same schedule as that tank, just smaller amounts. I target feed the crab, anemone, and now the urchin. It didn't seem to mind the meats mixed with the veggies in the DIY food I use to flurry the tank with. I added several small frags of star polyps to this tank, and today got a frag of waving hand anthelia coral to add in. I also added two nassarius snails to grab anything the other critters miss during feedings. I basted like crazy, added filter floss, and have a water changed all prepped for tomorrow. Still seeing lots of worms and pods, in fact the pod population is growing more in this smaller tank despite the same live rock used to seed and food and maintenance schedule as the other tank. The pods LOVE the urchin poo it seems, they were congregating under it while it sat happily in a corner most of the day munching the cheato. Link to comment
dgphelps Posted March 15, 2015 Author Share Posted March 15, 2015 Did a heavy feed tonight after moving the rocks around to let the crab and urchin move about a bit more freely. I also took some time to glue down the frags of polyps the urchin kept moving. When I started feeding I noticed a long worm come out from deep inside the rock work. When I looked closer I noticed it wasn't a normal bristle worm but was actually a hobbit worm! It has the white band, cool jaw structure. While it actively took target feeding, I wasn't able to go grab my camera and get a photo. It looked exactly like the photo below and I had family over who confirmed. I will try to get a photo of the actual one in my tank soon. Glad this is in the pest tank and not my main tank. Link to comment
dgphelps Posted March 17, 2015 Author Share Posted March 17, 2015 Tank update Two tanks side by side: Link to comment
dgphelps Posted March 27, 2015 Author Share Posted March 27, 2015 Oof, waited too long to change water! Finally got around to it today and did a 100% WC. Everything was open and happy an hour later. Link to comment
dallas306 Posted March 30, 2015 Share Posted March 30, 2015 Wondering how you like the light over this tank? I ordered 2 of these for my 10 gallon frag/growout tank but realized that I havent found anybody using these bulbs (exept you). How do you like the color and do your corals seem happy? Link to comment
dgphelps Posted March 30, 2015 Author Share Posted March 30, 2015 I think they are great though I'm liking the larger 21w version more. The link to that one is on my 5 gallon tank thread. In fact I've been thinking about getting another of the 21w bulbs to put over the 5 gallon, not because it isn't enough light but because the tank is tall and I would like to arrange them to cover more of the nooks in the rock. You might feel 2 isn't enough for a 10 gallon after some time. I have nothing highly light dependent in there but everything is doing and looking great. I added some green palys recently that opened the first day. I have Lps and sps in my 5 gallon and they are growing and looking great! Great price for a basic bulb, ultimately I will probably upgrade to something with some varied colors to make the corals glow a bit more like violet and maybe go with a storm controller but Im years from that at this point. Link to comment
dgphelps Posted April 6, 2015 Author Share Posted April 6, 2015 Kinda a bad week for this tank - the urchin lost all spines overnight and even with quickly removing him to a quarantine setup he didn't make it. Up until then he was extremely active, happily accepting target feedings, and overall looked good. Nothing else was impacted but I think I found the cause. When I went to tweak the flow I noticed it was reduced. I took the pump out to rinse it and the intake was clogged with detritus and chaeto. The flow was essentially cut in half. The temp and parameters were all normal, but perhaps the lower circulation messed with the oxygen or something? I added a nice large green/brown paly frag but otherwise no changes to the tank. The anemone is moving around but still no splitting even with heavy target feedings and frequent water changes. Oh well! Oh, I should also add that the zoanthids that had previously remained tightly closed since I got them have been opening more and more. They are not very colored but have green fringes. I hope they color up a bit with some light and overall nutrients from feedings. The bobbit worm and crab are happy to accept target fed foods and seem to leave each other alone. I have seen the crab hanging out in his cave entrance with no issues yet - though I realize that won't always be the case. Link to comment
dgphelps Posted April 14, 2015 Author Share Posted April 14, 2015 Couple new tank shots, I picked up some nice looking majano from a local reefer and they took to the rocks quickly! Original majano: New majanos: I really love these things: Like, a lot! Link to comment
dgphelps Posted April 15, 2015 Author Share Posted April 15, 2015 Bad news tonight. Went to do my lights out check after putting the boys to bed and found the crab belly up on the sand. Everything else looks great and except for the eyes, nothing was eaten. Either the bobbit worm got it, it died of natural causes (how long do hitchhiker crabs live!), or something's up. Just did a water change on Sunday, the temp and salinity are all fine, nothing obvious out of whack... Have to tell my son tomorrow, after the urchin not sure he's going to take it well. He really liked this crab. Link to comment
dgphelps Posted April 16, 2015 Author Share Posted April 16, 2015 Ha! It was just a molt. It was so intact that I was certain I had removed a dead crab but then there she is chilling happily in the tank this evening. I was all set to deliver the bad news but instead I got to teach him about molting. Whew! Link to comment
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