Yardboy's Jetties Nano

[c est ma]

This should be fun!

 

--Diane

[Sexy Shrimp]

OMG definitely one of the top tanks on the site. Well done! I'm tagging along too.

[Sexy Shrimp]

Oh forgot to mention that the oyster you mentioned earlier?? Check out ebay - people sell the kind you can buy from the supermaket!! Cheeky bastages!!

 

We need a new FTS by the way - hasn't been one since page 4!

[yardboy]

Sorry to take so long between posts. I've been busy selling and trading frags and working on Ghetto Beauty, but the Jetties Nano is just cruising along. Biggest change is the Montipora or whatever it is. It began to ride up on the gorgonians behind it so I moved them, the blue knobby just up and to the left, the red spiny all the way over to the right of the tank. The sponge is still slowly getting smaller,there are a few more anemones (really need to get a butterfly) but other than that everything is do fine. Note that the cucumber is still well and in the tank for quite a long time (some said they wouldn't survive) He just moves around and poops sand, must be something nutritious in there. Anyway, here's the FTS for 6/17/08

 

Keep your fingers crossed for the tank. I'm leaving next week for the Philippines and have a neophyte topping off every three days, and that's it. I'm in the middle of big water changes for every tank now, and have number for emergency backup if it's needed. Hopefully the next full tank shot everything will still be fine!

[lakshwadeep]

Beautiful tank yardboy! It is just as realistic as any tank I've seen at my state's public aquarium.

[yardboy]

As a reminder that the jetties are really part of the ocean, and that my little tank is only a very small slice of the possibilities, there was a big excitement there recently when three hammerheads decided to visit. The area behind the rocks defining the channel is called the "kiddie pool" since the water is normally quite shallow but tourists snorkel along the edge of the rocks, protected in general. No one harmed, but note that no one is snorekling along the rocks in these pics!

 

 

No I won't be puting a shark in my ten gallon nano!

[spanko]

While there are many kinds of macroalgae on the rocks, the only ones I've had any success with are this guy, and I don't know what it's name is, and Halimeda.

 

Was just looking here Yardboy. I think this is Codium edule

 

[SbCaes]

tank is looking as good as always =)

[Captain]

sweet tank. =)

[yardboy]

Thanks Spank. I appreciate your reading the thread, getting kinda long, I know. Funny that all the Codium has been reduced by long spined urchins since the spring, at the jetties.

I appreciate the kind words guys. I'm thinking about another fish or two. The gobies are cool, but keep low profiles. I had one neon for about a week then he disappeared. Any suggestions for another fish?

[gulfsurfer101]

I am really impressed with this project. I have a ten gallon full of different stuff i find here in the gulf on the Texas side but nowhere near as impressive as the things you find over there.

[on_ice]

Awesome tank! I too am making a tank with livestock from my area. So far everything in my signature (except the GSP and YSP) has came from bridges, inlets and shallow reefs from Jupiter Florida and the Keys.I need to do more research on the corals available here, as the only ones I have ID'd are the Zoas I have, and the Oculina you have.

 

Here is a frag I found not too far from the inlet, probably 300 polyps total before I borrowed this little chunk.

 

[yardboy]

Very, very sweet addition I'd say on_ice! And particulary nice that you didn't "loot" the whole colony but just took a frag. If it grows well then you didn't need the whole thing, and if it dies, you'll be really glad you didn't take it all. That is one fantastic color pattern though I really wish there was something similar to that here, but I just have to be happy with what I've got!

Thanks so much for the kind words. I'll be looking for your thread to enjoy for myself!

[Crabbeo]

Hey Yard heres that little piece I picked up last dive.Not much but different.

[yardboy]

And that's why it's sometimes called "Ivory Coral". Must have come from a shaded place. Having it out in the light for awhile will eventually turn it brown.

 

Here's pics of the two cup coral colonies I scored off some Tampa Bay Liverock bought. The same or nearly so to what is seen here at the jetties. Getting it off aquacultured liverock is the only way to harvest it legally.

 

[gulfsurfer101]

Those are very cool looking zoas. Florida seems like a really nice place to live. I stayed in destin shortly and didn't do much other than work. Didn't see those till after my original post. Those are equally as cool.

[on_ice]

Yeah, I have a few spots I saved that I want to hit with the tank and get more stuff but right now I am away at school so it will have to wait. And the thread for my tank will be soon....I just need to take control of the GHA in my tank.....next time I am at the sand bar I need to find a sea urchin and more snails.

[bluenassarius]

I'm a big fan of your tank bro. The growth on that coral is just amazing. I can't wait to see what it looks like in a year. are you using natural sea water for water changes or salt mix?

 

Thanks Blue. Prompted me to take a few more pictures. It's really growing rapidly.

Diane, I'm sorry if I got you hooked! After you've went through them a few times (say, like 50) you'll begin to have at least an idea of which families are in which volume so you can get to what you want to look at quicker! After you read the chapter on distribution don't be too envious that I'm going next month practically to the middle of the Indo-Pacific Center of Diversity!

 

Here's the coral on 5/17

 

I think this is the "owned" shot. Using a baster to get that bit of detritus off his surface, the polyps retracted revealing the pattern on his skeleton and the purple rim. Pretty definitive of a Montipora. Doubtful of any Atlantic coral anyway, it's growing so fast, they usually don't.

 

[yardboy]

Thanks Blue, I'm amazed at the growth on that coral also. As it began to climb up the two gorgonians, I was concerned it might kill them, so I moved them. Here's the most recent shot

 

 

I do use some salt water from the jetties, it's so full of life that I might get something else to settle there, but there are also plenty of nutrients in it even though I try and collect water during high tide. As a result I only use about 20% fresh sea water, the rest is IO.

 

Ouch gulfsurfer! Going to Destin and only working is certainl no fun. The jetties there are just as nice as Panama City, there's plenty to see. Maybe next time you can have more fun than work! Hopefully you made lots of money for that sacrifice!

[CorvetteJoe]

AWESOME thread, I just found this one off your sig link.

My wife's entire family is from PC, so we are up there every year for a week.

A couple years back some friends took us out on their boat into St Andrews Bay, I got to snorkel around for a few hours. I absolutely loved all the cool stuff I saw. I was not into reefing yet (I only started a few months ago) so it didn't mean as much to me as it does now. We also got a chance to go pet the dolphins that came up to the boat on the gulf side. I saw lots of pinfish, urchins, crabs, nice sea grasses, etc, but nothing fancy.

 

I can't wait to go back up there at the end of Aug. I think I will be at the beaches every day snorkeling instead of hanging around the grandparents house.

 

Great pics, I am so stoked about going up there again now that I see what all there is to see that I didn't know was even there!

 

on_ice... I think I will be making a trip down to Jupiter before the summer is over. I've lived in FL all my life (30+ years now) and had no idea how much of this stuff was so close to me. I always thought i had to go down to the bahamas or something just to see anything cool. I guess not!

 

I've taken a few trips to DeSoto and the clearwater area to snorkel, but there is nothing like what you guys are showing pics of there!!

[iglowce]

that sps growth is amazing. and i LOVE your FTS

[Professor]

Looking good YB. Looking forward to the next update as always!

 

-Prof

[SeeDemTails]

You shoulda thrown a lure in front of those sharks, that would be awesome to catch one in front of all those people.

 

Tank looks good! All the corals I got from you are doing great!

[yardboy]

SeeDemTails, I'm glad the corals are doing great. The ones I got from you are also. I'll be posting to the Ghetto Beauty about it's growth when I was gone, the red monti frag I got from you that's in there is growing phenomenally.

 

 

Sorry for the long hiatus. Between taking care of other tanks, taking off for three weeks on vacation and trying to overcome jet lagwhen I got back, I've been busy. It would have been easy to imagine the jetties nano could have crashed while I was gone. The only thing done to it was topoff every two days, but amazingly it did well. It did have more algae and corraline growth than any of the other tanks, but after a perfunctory cleaning, it's looking better. The main thing was the halimeda nearly took over the whole tank. It was amazing. As a result, I removed entirely the biggest plant in the middle of the tank, so maybe the corraline on the rocks won't continue to decline. I add calcium and alkalinity supplements regularly, but confess to never having tested the parameters of this tank.

 

This is what came out:

An here's a fairly bad shot of what it looks like now. Note the purple sea blade is shedding, maybe as a result of the water change.

 

The sps is still growing quite rapidly, adding several plates in my absence.

 

My reasons for setting up this tank were more experimental than aesthetic, and I was surprised at what a heavy nutrient load it has. I'd like to reconfigure the tank, with an external overflow and sump, maybe new lighting, since I think I've learned a lot about the way things go with this tank now, but from my past experience, I know that if I tried moving this tank I'd never be able to arrange the rock the way it is set up now, and to me that is one of the greatest accomplishments of this tank, it's aquascaping. I am really challenged on aquascaping and rarely get a setup that I or others can really like, so for now I'll just continue with this one the way it is. I am going to begin dilegently searching for filtering alternatives though, and maybe some other inhabitants that may can survive in it. The orange sponge is not long for this world, so surprising since sponges that came on the rock are doing great. I did see a tunicate that might work well in it, but I just have to find a small enough specimen now.

Thanks for continuing to watch this thread. I'm really hyped on my Philippines trip right now and so will be working mostly on the thread of that trip, but one of the things I promised myself is to go diving more here with my camera so that when I go back to the Philippines I'll be better prepared to get better and more shots.

[iglowce]

your aquascape is one of the best looking and most natural one that i have seen. dont change it.. and welcome back. cant wait to come back for more pictures