dshnarw BIOTOPE

[Professor]

He would have except I took his computer away from him for awhile. I had some work to do on the valentine frag swap thread. You ought to consider participating, everyone seemed to enjoy it last time.

 

I will look into it. Thanks.

 

-Prof

[dshnarw]

We know the tank is far from mature! How can we follow along without pictures? Great idea!

 

When we go to the cabin in Maine this summer, I might be able to get you some sea grass. One of the ladies (90+) pulls it out where it is taking over her beach area. If she already has it pulled up, is it against the law if I rescue it from death?

 

I'd post the pictures, but all you'd see would be grey from the dust It should be ready for it's first photo op tomorrow

 

MAINE!! My undergrad thesis was on the geology of Vinalhaven Island. Spent a summer up there doing field work, wouldn't have minded staying, if it hadn't been for Amber.

 

Is it against the law to take seagrass up there? I know Florida is offlimits...

 

 

Awesome concept and an amazing amount of research. Can't wait to see the tank.

 

BTW, Where in MD/DC are you? I have a macro that is very sea grass-like. I have no idea what it is, looks similar to a short turtle grass. Grows via runner and grows fast. Let me know if you are interested. I am in Maryland too.

 

-Prof

 

PM SENT!!!! THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I give 5 mins at the most before you get a PM from him!

 

45, smarty pants! (all Amber's fault)

[BibleSue]

I'd post the pictures, but all you'd see would be grey from the dust It should be ready for it's first photo op tomorrow

 

MAINE!! My undergrad thesis was on the geology of Vinalhaven Island. Spent a summer up there doing field work, wouldn't have minded staying, if it hadn't been for Amber.

 

Is it against the law to take seagrass up there? I know Florida is offlimits...

 

It is against the law in both places! I figure since she pulled it out, I could rescue it from death by sending it to you! Our own personal "Save the Seagrass" project!

[c est ma]

Daniel,

 

SWEET THREAD!! Love the set-up and research info...and the pics you provided of the community you're emulating. It always interests me to see anemones everywhere periodically inudated by sand...And the pic of the nems and the algae was fascinating, each nem in its little "clearing." Do they repel algae/seagrass? I've spent a good deal of time tracing your links and meandering on side-trips they led me on...

 

Can't wait for further installments!

 

--Diane

[adinsxq]

gasp!

[Toomin]

lets see if duncan wanna goes with me.

we are fellow friends from singapore!

[Professor]

PM SENT!!!! THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

PM returned!

 

-Prof

[nUgZ]

This is going to be amazing. I can't wait for the pics.

[HappyPlaty]

lets see if duncan wanna goes with me.

we are fellow friends from singapore!

I'm not your friend ?

 

Haha just kidding, btw cant wait to see those pics

[AdriftQuasar]

The anticipation is agonizing. I'm really excited about seeing this tank.

[BlackSumbel]

Werd. Let's see some pix, yo!

 

Or, something like that. This thread excites me.

[dshnarw]

Fish:

 

The seagrass lagoon has nearly as much fish diversity as the reef. Many species overlap both areas: damsels and clownfish, cardinalfish, wrasses, groupers, perchlets, rays, and butterfly fish just to name a few. Other fish include the various toadfish and frogfish, some scorpionfish, pipefish, and seahorses.

 

[dshnarw]

Inverts:

 

Starfish and snails are probably the most common inverts. Starfish include the popular sand-sifting star, brittle stars, and chocolate-chip star. Population density for starfish is extremely high in lagoonal areas for the same reason seagrass is – waste produced by the reef is left in the lagoon to provide tons of food. (This doesn’t, however, mean that the water is any less quality than at the reef, but that the sandbed is very high in nutrients).

 

 

Snails include Cerith, Nerites, and Nassarius – the typical sand/intertidal inhabitants. More exotic species include the spider conch, many cowry species, and the moon snail.

 

 

Others:

 

Shrimp: anemone and pistol

Stomatopods

Octopus

Clams

Worms: Fan/Tube, Bristle, Eunice

Sponges

Crabs

Cucumbers

Urchins

Nudibranchs

Crinoids

 

[dshnarw]

“Plants”:

 

Seagrasses and macroalgae include:

 

Caulerpa

Chaetomorpha

Halimeda

Neomeris

Ulva

Halymenia

Padina

Dictyota

Cymodocea

Thalassia

Halodule

Halophila

Sargassum

 

 

Tank Build:

 

I have been working on the idea for this tank for several months, since my first shipment of mini carpets came in. With a lot of research and a great deal of help from fellow nano-reefers, I came up with the tank you’ll soon see. To those reefers, I say thanks. To Amber, who has dealt with my obsession and pushed me to finish the build, thanks and I love you.

 

The basic stand was made following adin’s design, with slight modifications since I don’t own a saw, and Lowe’s refused to do fancy angled cuts. Better pics of the design can be found at the beginning of his tank thread.

 

My photos will start with the water test, which was a great deal of worry and headache. I currently live in a second floor apartment, making the water test extremely hazardous. My sink has already flooded the kitchen below me, and I didn’t feel it a good idea to flood their living room as well. So….water testing happened in the bathroom, with a tarp and some rope:

 

 

After much begging, pleading, and headache, I finally found someone willing to drill 5 holes in a 30 gallon tank. This was, unfortunately, the most time consuming effort in the whole ordeal, and 3 people backed out when I refused to let them drill less holes. Why 5? Because I plan to have NO powerheads in this tank. Too many anemones, and they like to move. Just after drilling:

 

 

(You’ll notice the top plastic trim has been added back on. While I’m fairly certain the glass is fine without it, I need the extra area for the light fixtures currently on the tank). Since this pic, The plumbing was painted black and completed. The spray bar at the bottom is the return from a closed loop system running ~850gph. The sump is returning ~300gph, and contains all the equipment – heater, ASM Mini-G skimmer, and ~20lbs of live rock.

 

Hopefully this will tide you over until I can take and upload pics into photobucket.

[adinsxq]

SPIDERMAN TANK!!

[arwndsh]

I have been working on the idea for this tank for several months, since my first shipment of mini carpets came in. With a lot of research and a great deal of help from fellow nano-reefers, I came up with the tank you’ll soon see. To those reefers, I say thanks. To Amber, who has dealt with my obsession and pushed me to finish the build, thanks and I love you.

 

love you too

[Toomin]

I'm not your friend ?

 

Haha just kidding, btw cant wait to see those pics

 

aye.you can join us too!

[dshnarw]

Finally, some shots from the tank:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh....were you waiting for a FTS??

 

 

Things I considered:

 

Sand: I like black, and although the majority of pics from the blogs had white/mixed sands, black sand would not be a stretch. The geology of the area includes several ancient igneous bodies, including gabbro "sheets" within granite intrusions. Gabbro is a black rock, equivalent in composition to basalt, and localized areas of Singapore would, at least in the past, have had black sands similar to Hawaii.

 

Rock: Is a mixture of what small amount of Indo live rock I could get with some various aquacultured rock from around the Pacific. Singapore does not export live rock, and Indo live rock is becoming very hard to come by.

 

Corals: May come from various parts of the world, aquacultured or wild. In most cases, I can ID the corals to species level, but some I can't (Acropora and the encrusting gorgonian, for example). In those cases, I got as close as I could to the morphology of species in the images I've come across. A couple of corals have been "hidden" from view because they don't occur (or I haven't found some evidence that they occur) in the area. These corals will be removed as soon as my office tank is set up again.

 

Fish: Currently, I have 2 clarkii clowns and a yellow clown goby. Clarkii do not occur in Singapore - only Tomato and Ocellaris. For now, these guys will stay in the tank in place of the naturally occuring species because I am attached to them, after 6+months of them swimming around in my cramped 15g. Hopefully, they will trigger my being allowed to have another tank (yes, Amber...I said ANOTHER TANK), where they can happily fight, and I can replace them. The YCG is also awaiting the office tank (and will be sorely missed - the only fish smart enough to stay away from the anemones). Other fish are still up for debate (if anyone has suggestions, please tell!)

 

CUC: hitchhiking stomatellas, my prized money cowry (distribution fits the tank!) whom I only see when re-scaping, and myself. This is how the 15g has been running for more than 6 months, without a very nasty buildup of algae. Planning to get some nerites, ceriths, and nassarius to help out.

 

Others: brittle star, hitchhiked in on the purple rim monti

 

anemones: 40+ mini carpets, a Heteractis the clowns have been hosting since I've had them, and 2 Borneman anemones, which are quite similar to some found in the lagoon at Singapore.

[Matty1124]

40+ mini carpets

 

 

your tank look great

 

 

EDIT: what light are you using? t5?

EDIT #2: now that i look at the FTS again it looks like 2 MH

[TJ_Burton]

Do mini carpets harm corals? I saw some I could get from an LFS (tank is covered in them) and they are about the size of a bottle cap. But I know they spread pretty fast, and would be a pain to remove if it came down to it.

 

I want one (as I would get charged 5$) if they are safe.

[arwndsh]

40+ mini carpets

your tank look great

EDIT: what light are you using? t5?

EDIT #2: now that i look at the FTS again it looks like 2 MH

 

I can answer that for you one is a 70w MH and one is a 150w MH.

 

And Daniel only gets another tank when we get a house.

[Matty1124]

^ husband, wife?

[arwndsh]

^ husband, wife?

 

Will be as of June 1st.

[dshnarw]

YAY!! REPLY POST:

 

It is against the law in both places! I figure since she pulled it out, I could rescue it from death by sending it to you! Our own personal "Save the Seagrass" project!

 

Oooh..I like it!! We need an official-like logo I suppose if they don't see you pull it, they probably can't do anything

 

Daniel,

 

SWEET THREAD!! Love the set-up and research info...and the pics you provided of the community you're emulating. It always interests me to see anemones everywhere periodically inudated by sand...And the pic of the nems and the algae was fascinating, each nem in its little "clearing." Do they repel algae/seagrass? I've spent a good deal of time tracing your links and meandering on side-trips they led me on...

 

Can't wait for further installments!

 

--Diane

 

TY Diane! I'm not sure if they repel algae and seagrass or not, but I have noticed a couple of things:

1. They will eat, or attempt to eat algae (and everything else they get near). I suppose if the algae gets too close, they'll just attempt to consume it.

 

2. When I put a couple of them into deep sand, they dug out the sand beneath them to reach a solid structure (the glass). This ended up making a small mound around them. I would assume that having to continually do this when periodically inundated with sand keeps algae/seagrass at bay around them.

 

3. Some of the smaller anemones actually live on the seagrass, including small S. tapetum. I guess that lacking a hard substrate to grab on, they'll live on any "solid" structure they can find.

 

Just a few observations, and some possible reasons.

 

(Good luck with chasing the rabbits....er....links...lately I've been feeling quite a bit like Alice, running around lost with all the various links)

 

aye.you can join us too!

 

JUST TAKE PICS FOR ME WHILE YOU'RE THERE PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

40+ mini carpets

your tank look great

EDIT: what light are you using? t5?

EDIT #2: now that i look at the FTS again it looks like 2 MH

 

Using 2 MH fixtures - a 150w Sunpod, 14K and a 70w Sunpod, 14K (70w on the right). The lights were taken off my 12g aquapod and my 15g tank that were combined to make this tank. Hopefully my next big purchase will be a T5 fixture, as I don't like the look from 2 MH fixtures and the heat they're putting into the living room.

 

Do mini carpets harm corals? I saw some I could get from an LFS (tank is covered in them) and they are about the size of a bottle cap. But I know they spread pretty fast, and would be a pain to remove if it came down to it.

 

I want one (as I would get charged 5$) if they are safe.

 

Mini carpets can harm some corals. I'm not sure about softies, as they've never wandered over there, but LPS will retract from them and can lose tissue over time. SPS corals seem fine with them. The best option is to have a species tank for them, or just learn to live with the losses. In my case, the setup is to display the mini carpets, and there just happen to be corals for a background - I'm okay with a few corals receding if one of the minis parks itself there.

[Professor]

Emailed pics of the Macros. Let me know what you think.

 

-Prof