tyty's Miami Beach Biotope with Ocean View

[tyty]

Most Recent FTS

 

Tank Intro

I started this tank in January of 2010 with a nice long cycle due to live rock that was extremely alive from Sealife Inc (which I highly recommend). I did my best to minimize the cycle to keep as many of the live rock hitchhikers alive as possible. The tank is a Biotope type tank that aims to recreate the FL/Caribbean ecosystem in Miami. That ecosystem is approx 500ft from the tank location, reminds me of the dentists office in Finding Nemo where the fish can see the ocean (first and last Finding Nemo reference, I promise) The water here is full of tons of life. I frequently see Angels, Butterfly fish and File fish from a nearby jetty. At low tide, the rocks are covered in snails, limpets and Zoas. After storms I see gorgonians, sea fans and sponges covering the beach.

 

View of the ocean from the tank

 

Current List of Contents

This list will be updated as the tank progresses

 

Equipment:

Tank: Oceanic Biocube 29

Light: Sunpod 150w MH

Bulb: 14K Phoenix reef optic

Filtration: InTank Media Basket with filter floss and ChemiPure Elite

Filtration: InTank Refugium with Chaeto and underwater lights

Heater: 100w Stealth

Flow: Rio 6HF (noisy), Koralia 2

Live Rock: 30 lbs SealifeInc (recommend to everyone, tons of hitchhikers)

Water: Ocean water collected at high tide

Sand: Collected at low tide

 

Fish

Pygmy "Cherub" Angelfish Centropyge argi

Atlantic Chalk Bass Serranus tortugarum

 

Hitchhikers

2 Favia

3 FL Porites

Encrusting Sponges

Ringed Anemone Bartholomea annulata

Nudibranches

Pistol Shrimp (took almost 2 months to spot this guy)

Spider Crab Libinia dubia

Brittle Stars Amphiura stimpsonii

Spaghetti Worms

 

Inverts

Lots of assorted FL Zoas

Barnacles

Purple Plume Gorgonia Muriceopsis flavida

2 Rock Anemones Anthopleura krebsi

Yellow Sea Whip Pterogorgia citrina

2 Green Ricordea Ricordea florida

Yellow Ricordea Ricordea florida

Large Cinnamon Brown Zoanthids Protopalythoa grandiflora

1 Peppermint Shrimp

Coral Banded Shrimp

[tyty]

Hitchhiker Favia

 

Hitchhiker FL Porites

 

Zoas and Zig Zag Periwinkles

[tyty]

Biotope Inspirational Photos that I have taken while diving

All of these pictures were taken with an Olympus Point and Shoot camera rated to go down to 33 feet, but I have taken it down to 68 feet without a major problem.

 

Lots of life in this one

 

 

Big Sponge with Cherub Angel inside

 

 

Not sure what kind of coral this is

 

 

 

 

Really cool sponge

 

 

Four Eye Butterfly

 

 

Big Sponge, Slipdick Wrasse and a Yellow Wrasse

 

 

Tang

 

 

A few more:

 

 

 

 

 

 

If I mis-identified any of these, please let me know and I will correct, thanks

[tyty]

Now that all of that is out of the way, I want to ask for any website recommendations for Caribbean species. Currently, I plan to buy from sealifeinc.net or tomscaribbean.com for fish/corals, but I am particularly interested in finding a good source for different varieties of macro algae for the display.

[MedicBMC]

to Nano-reef!

 

Your off to a great start. I like the originality of going with your local eco-system.

 

It's mandatory within my lifetime to visit Florida and the keys and go diving. Good luck I'll be tagging along on this one.

 

EDIT: check out reefcleaners. org they have some nice macro

[Sword]

For macro you should check out http://reefcleaners.org

 

 

Neat looking hitchhiker corals

[clownfish14]

wow great job and awesome pics i wish i knew how to dive so that i could go and see stuff like that

[cruiZe]

Awesome setup !! So cool that the real thing is only 500 ft away

[urbaneks]

Great rock work. Must be nice having that view and the inspiration right there. When I look out my window I see Cacti.

[tyty]

wow great job and awesome pics i wish i knew how to dive so that i could go and see stuff like that

to Nano-reef!

Your off to a great start. I like the originality of going with your local eco-system.

It's mandatory within my lifetime to visit Florida and the keys and go diving. Good luck I'll be tagging along on this one.

EDIT: check out reefcleaners. org they have some nice macro

 

There really is some decent diving right here in FL. I have been diving in a lot of places, including the Great Barrier Reef, and diving in the FL Keys is definitely worth the air.

 

 

For macro you should check out http://reefcleaners.org

Neat looking hitchhiker corals

Reefcleaners is great, I will probably put an order in with them. They are located about 100 miles north of me on the same coast of FL, and I assume that is also where they collect. Maybe I will get the snorkel out this weekend and see if I can find some macro. I will, of course, double check the regulations first, I know things like seagrasses are illegal to take.

 

 

Awesome setup !! So cool that the real thing is only 500 ft away

Great rock work. Must be nice having that view and the inspiration right there. When I look out my window I see Cacti.

I agree, I have actually caught puffers/files while trying to catch bait from the jetty just a short walk from the pic. I will try to get my underwater camera out and take a picture of the ocean from actually inside the tank this weekend.

[acme54321]

ty- what fish is that in your avatar?

 

I think your tank is screaming for a jawfish! Looks great.

[tyty]

ty- what fish is that in your avatar?

 

I think your tank is screaming for a jawfish! Looks great.

I've been thinking about what fish to add and a jaw fish is definitely on the probably list. I need to come up with a lid for the tank first though. I'm thinking about a trip to Home Depot tomorrow to pickup materials for a lid and also for a jaw fish condo.

 

I actually don't know what fish it is in my avatar, I took a pic of it on a dive in Grand Cayman, here is a slightly bigger version, maybe somebody can help ID it?

 

EDIT: It is an Indigo Hamlet

[tyty]

Murex Snail Kill Count (that I've seen):

1 x Astrea Snail

1 x Nassarius Vibex Snail

 

Here is a pic of the super-evil predatory not-reef-safe murex snail. It spends most of the day tightly suctioned to a rock, but goes hunting at night. You can see in the pic that, proportionally, the foot is a lot bigger than that of a lot of other snails.

 

Here it is doing work on a Nassarius Vibex Snail:

[Sword]

When I first set up my South Florida biotope tank I had a bunch of predator rock whelks. Good times were had by all, except the limpets that they ate.

[tyty]

When I first set up my South Florida biotope tank I had a bunch of predator rock whelks. Good times were had by all, except the limpets that they ate.

I only have one in the tank right now. I'm not concerned about snail replenishment though, so I will probably add more. I wish I could train it to only eat the ones that climb out of the tank though.

 

I found a limpet on my sunpod this morning, he is going to become serpent star food if he tries that again...

[tyty]

Currently there are a lot of inhabitants that only come out for pictures at night. Here are some shots with flash.

 

Emerald Crab

 

Sally Lightfoot Crab

 

Starfish (Can anyone confirm whether or not this is a Caribbean species? If it's not I will move it to another tank to maintain the integrity of my biotope)

[acme54321]

That's cool. I think a jaw and a couple of small sergeant majors might be cool. I can't think of too many fish that stay small enough to keep in a nano and still look cool. As long as you have a couple inches of sand and the rock is set on the bottom of the tank you don't really need a jawfish condo IMO. Just make sure there are some pockets or caves in the rock under the sand for him to dig into. Mine is chilling like that and he's fine.

[tyty]

Look what I found washed up on the beach today:

 

Purple Sea Feather

 

Polyp Extension

 

I thought for sure that it was dead when I picked it up, but it looks like it is still alive!

[KMG]

TyTy, those pictures make me homesick. Beautiful.

 

I'd watch out for the SL crab--I've heard they become very predatory once they get a little size on them.

 

I'd also check out Gulf Coast Ecosystems for plants and macros. They collect and culture a wide variety, all of which are FL/Caribbean/Gulf of Mexico species.

[tyty]

That's cool. I think a jaw and a couple of small sergeant majors might be cool. I can't think of too many fish that stay small enough to keep in a nano and still look cool. As long as you have a couple inches of sand and the rock is set on the bottom of the tank you don't really need a jawfish condo IMO. Just make sure there are some pockets or caves in the rock under the sand for him to dig into. Mine is chilling like that and he's fine.

 

I went snorkeling yesterday and spent an hour trying to catch some sergeant majors... If anyone has any tips for catching fish, I would GREATLY appreciate them. After snorkeling, I got my fishing gear out with a tiny hook and attempted again to catch them in the spots where I knew they were hiding... they just constantly stripped my tiny hook. I almost caught one, but he jumped off the hook before I got him over land. I did catch one fish while snorkeling that I kept in my tank for about 24 hours. He was just too big for the tank though, so I released him back into the ocean today. I really wanted to keep him, but he never would have been happy in such a small tank. I did get to take some pictures of him first though...

 

Spiny Boxfish/Striped Burrfish (Chilomycterus schoepfi)

 

 

 

TyTy, those pictures make me homesick. Beautiful.

 

I'd watch out for the SL crab--I've heard they become very predatory once they get a little size on them.

 

I'd also check out Gulf Coast Ecosystems for plants and macros. They collect and culture a wide variety, all of which are FL/Caribbean/Gulf of Mexico species.

 

That link is awesome. That is exactly what I have been looking for!

[tyty]

I took some more pics of the tank contents today...

 

Limpet checking out the ocean (out of focus in the background), this guy somehow climbs up to this same spot on top of my Sunpod almost everyday.

 

A couple pictures of some FL Porites hitchhikers that came on my live rock from Sealife, the second one didn't fare so well during the cycle, but is making a comeback

 

FL Zoa colony that I transferred over from another tank, this started as just 5 polyps!

 

Scroll Algae (found this while snorkeling) it looks a little rough, I will have to keep an eye on it

[got2envy]

Awesome tyty! check out my tank and maybe we can do some trading

it is to cold to snorkel lately lol

 

The Caribbean Queen

[tyty]

Awesome tyty! check out my tank and maybe we can do some trading

it is to cold to snorkel lately lol

 

The Caribbean Queen

 

I am all for trading. The air was a bit cold on Saturday, but the water was ok.

 

I know a good spot for collecting Zoas at low tide, you don't even have to get wet! Unfortunately we can only take 5 polyps per day, but they grow like weeds.

[got2envy]

PM me where u go...maybe we can meet up one day and snorkel

[animalmaster6]

Very Very nice tank tyty!

 

I am really interested to see what fish you get in here!

 

Tagging!