Nano Sapiens 12g - Ye Olde Mixed Reef

[Nano sapiens]

I like this tank. I see my corals in it.

 

LOL...yes, that's true! Master of Zoas and Palys, what do you think? Is that a 'Valentines' Paly you gave me a long while back?

 

Up until the lighting upgrade the Zoas and Palys would survive and bud once and a while, but never really take off. Much better now

[buddythelion]

LOL...yes, that's true! Master of Zoas and Palys, what do you think? Is that a 'Valentines' Paly you gave me a long while back?

 

Up until the lighting upgrade the Zoas and Palys would survive and bud once and a while, but never really take off. Much better now

That's from me?! Master of zoas and palys. Hmm... I like it. Haha, but far from that. I just went through all my old FS threads (wow, trip down memory lane! Cool to see how I started all of this. ) and couldn't find it. But I think you should be cool referring them as "Organism Palys."

 

I too also got a young yuma from a pink mother! A random koi shop had it in their tank and I was lucky to run into the owner of the tank before leaving the store. The young is also red like yours. Hope it turns pink, pink yumas that live are about one in a hundred! I think that overly inflated area might be the start of one of those white lines that yumas have. If so that's even more awesome! You can see it on the back of this yuma I just googled:

 

[Nano sapiens]

I think I'll just call it the 'Darwinian Dream Paly' . They were a pair of little orange-red 'free-bee' Palys about the size of a pea.

 

Nice, glad to see you picked up a Pink Yuma, too. I've seen some gorgeous full grown ones come in shipments to the LFSs over the years, but finding one that didn't melt was extremely rare. You could be correct that the 'bubbles' are the start of the white lines in this Yuma.

 

Interestingly, my Yumas and Floridas used to shrink from the Cool White/Blue only type spectrum, but now, even with more PAR, they are reaching for the full spectrum lighting. This little orange-red Yuma is getting around 145 PAR (and a bunch more PUR) for at least a few hours a day until the other Rics partially shade it. Looks like we still have more to learn about what really makes these guys tick and especially why they seem to be so hyper-sensitive to shipping stresses.

[jball1125]

Sapien, wanna build me an LED fixture.

[Nano sapiens]

Sapien, wanna build me an LED fixture.

 

Easy, peasy (well, not always...depends on how elaborate you want to make it)

 

Are you still running the AI Sol Blue?

[jball1125]

Easy, peasy (well, not always...depends on how elaborate you want to make it)

 

Are you still running the AI Sol Blue?

 

YEas, I'm not happy with the color of the corals.

[Nano sapiens]

Cool Whites and Blues can only do so much. Many corals can grow under them, but some of the pigments either won't express or will only express weekly.

 

There are a number of good options depending on what you are looking for. I wanted to keep my Stunner Strips since they provided a decent base spectrum and full coverage of light for the tank (no shadowed areas to speak of). A single DIY strip down the middle is providing a nice boost in intensity and the additional spectrum is helping coral pigment expression and growth.

 

On the commercial front the Nano Razor with its more full spectrum is perhaps the best choice for the money right now. The 'Nano Box' is perhaps closer to what you'd see in a good DIY unit, so that's another option to seriously consider.

 

Or just find an appropriate canopy and do a DIY

[metrokat]

Bump for updates

[jball1125]

Yes please

[Nano sapiens]

Thanks for asking, Kat. I don't have any new gadgets, fish or corals, so it's the same cast of characters. Most important to me is that nothing has perished in a really long while and they all still look good. But I do need to constantly play 'referee' each week by establishing borders to prevent some of the less aggressive species from being wiped out.

 

One of the most interesting things for me right now is working with a little Rose Yuma I acquired a few months ago. These usually don't live long after being shipped, so I'm attempting to gain some insight into what makes this one tick. I've managed to increase growth quite a bit (from a dime to the size of a silver dollar with near daily feedings and more intense/longer duration lighting (145 PAR/8 hrs), but coloration is still rather orange-ish, with just some hints of pink. Pink Yumas may change color once they get larger (or so it has been reported), so I'll have to patiently wait until it's fully grown to see how it turns out. Not sure yet, but it may turn out that lighting and/or nutrition (or even something else) is at play in producing this pink pigmentation.

[jball1125]

Sounds like an interesting little experiment you got going on. Look forward to hearing more and GL.

[Nano sapiens]

Thanks, jball1125. I'll try to get some decent photos up soon.

[Nano sapiens]

Packed rock pinnacle:

 

 

 

Undata recovering from a near total wipout:

 

 

 

...and yet another one of the Blasto pair, this time on the other side of the tank (excuse the worm, he just couldn't resist getting in the picture!):

 

[jedimasterben]

The fireworm is like OOOOHHH DRAW ME LIKE ONE OF YOUR FRENCH GIRLS

[jball1125]

Those blastos are so puffed, they must really like that spot.

[Nano sapiens]

The fireworm is like OOOOHHH DRAW ME LIKE ONE OF YOUR FRENCH GIRLS

 

LOL...

[Nano sapiens]

Those blastos are so puffed, they must really like that spot.

 

This spot has slightly less PAR than the previous location, so they are doing even better. The one in the rear is getting close to 3" and they are both ravenous eaters.

[markalot]

Did you have a picture of the PAR readings over this tank and some of the corals? I'd love to see them. I swear when first going over this thread I saw something about it but searching for PAR using the 'This Thread' option comes up with nothing.

[Nano sapiens]

Previous page has my most recent PAR readings (50% DIY LED intensity):

 

[jball1125]

Hey NS, how do you have your rics attached?

[Nano sapiens]

Most of them came with a very small piece of LR attached, so it was a simple matter to super glue them onto the larger LR. From there, they did their own thing and reproduced by splitting.

 

For any that didn't have any base material attached to the foot, I just let them hang around a calm area of the tank for a few weeks and they would naturally attach to small pieces of rubble or shells.

[Nano sapiens]

Updates:

 

Lost one of the two heads off a Pink Lobo. Overnight, 1/3 of the head was missing and the area around it looked partially digested. Only coral close enough to do damage was an Ultra Lobo ~1/3" away. Lobos usually play well together, but this time maybe not so much. In a small tank, large decaying heads need to be removed immediately, but at least I have one still:

 

 

 

 

Turf Wars: There's a lot going on here. After the Montis and Acros went at it for a while the 'Bad Boy' Leptastrea has muscling his way up into the fray. I had to scrape out a 'no coral zone' to prevent total annihilation of the M. undata (damage has already been done). The little green 'Red Planet' micro frag in the middle has perked up and nuked the Orange Setosa a few times, but the Setosa is countering with an 'over-the-top' manuever. Interestingly, the RP doesn't even bother with chemicals on the Undata to the left, just over-tops it. This close combat stony coral interaction is really interesting to observe as the strategies used by the same coral on various victims may not always be the same since it depends on who the victim is:

 

 

 

 

When I acquired a 'Superman Blastomussa' I thought it had something to do with the bluish center and reddish mantle, but I think it's more about sheer pumped up size. Top down size comparison of the two Blasto polyps to a 3" diameter Ulta Lobo:

 

 

 

 

The 'XMAS Tree Acro' (for lack of a better name) has been slowly encrusting it's rock for 10 months and healing from wounds at the LFS, but not much else. Very recently the left side has started to extend out. Odd thing is the coral isn't branching out towards the light, quite the opposite. The coral is getting more flow on this side since it is closest to the glass and flow tends to shoot between it and the aquarium side wall, so I think that is the cause. Quite happy to see this modest growth and it would be cool if it branches upwards eventually:

 

[jball1125]

Your title should be changed to "The Colosseum".... Hehe....

 

I would say sorry for the loss but the wars for turf usually come with increased growth so I'm not sure it's a bad thing.

[Nano sapiens]

True. Whether in nature or in an aquarium, competition strategies will be deployed. The choice I have is whether to intervene or let a few dominant species dominate.

[metrokat]

I have a chance of getting a pink Yuma and I thought of you. Are pink Yuma's difficult or rare or both?

 

And I recently purchased a Florida Ricordea. I have successfully kept Yuma's for over a year but not the Florida Ric's. How can I give it the proper care?

 

My rics in the past have all been pissy and never fluffy.