Sandcruiser's 3G Eclipse

[.Newman.]

looks good!

 

the acan is probably a warcoral or favia. doesnt look like an actual acan species.

 

the maiden's hairgrass is cool, I kinda want that macro

[sandcruiser]

i'll have to learn up on warcoral/favia stuff

 

I'd be happy to swap part of that macro for something else. Not sure if it is worth it to mail stuff. are you in the Bay Area? that would be convenient.

 

 

looks good!

 

the acan is probably a warcoral or favia. doesnt look like an actual acan species.

 

the maiden's hairgrass is cool, I kinda want that macro

[.Newman.]

no sorry i am on the opposite coast xD

[Gatotsu77]

I seem to be a bit late to the party here... but I'm tempted to vote that the "trochus" is actually a margarita snail. (trochus snail shells seem to be slightly more conical... margarita a bit more smooth/round)

 

Pretty nifty little tank though You using a Homer bucket as your sump? How do you have it set up? I had never considered such a thing... but heck, I just might do that with my 7g if/when I fire it back up.

[sandcruiser]

I think that you're right on the margarita. It is a moot point now as the snail didn't survive the time it spent in the sump while I was drilling the tank (I think it got a little bit of a salinity shock)

 

in any event: the bucket is a simple white 5g plastic pail. I got it when I bought my LR/LS, from the guy who sold me the rock/sand. I let it sit w/ salt water (dirty) for several days, then rinsed it well w/ the hose and scrubbed w/ a clean brush, then rinsed w/ RO water.

 

that's about it. Not fancy, but basically free and very space-efficient.

 

I'll snap another photo if you like. It makes a fine sump, though I'm thinking of upgrading to rubbermaid container, 18gal, maybe. I think it'll fit and.... 18g is a lot more space. Just makes it so much easier to keep the 3g happy when it has 20g of water in it!

 

 

 

I seem to be a bit late to the party here... but I'm tempted to vote that the "trochus" is actually a margarita snail. (trochus snail shells seem to be slightly more conical... margarita a bit more smooth/round)

 

Pretty nifty little tank though You using a Homer bucket as your sump? How do you have it set up? I had never considered such a thing... but heck, I just might do that with my 7g if/when I fire it back up.

[sandcruiser]

Darn those local fish stores....

I went in to refill my salt water jug and walked out with a really beautiful frogspawn frag w/4 heads for $27.

 

I saw an even nicer octo coral earlier today at another store, half green, half purple. awesome. but he wanted 35/head and that was just a little too rich for my afternoon. $27 for 4 heads? much easier to get excited about it!

 

also exciting: my toadstool leather seems to be perking up. It isn't looking *good*, but it has some polyp extension and sloughed off some slime. So I suspect it is on the mend.

 

FTS sometime this weekend.

[Siren's eye]

Very nice little tank! I really like the new aquascape, and the bucket is a great idea for a sump.

[sandcruiser]

FTS 20 September

 

 

note the new Frogspawn, seems to be doing very well, but stinging the 'shroom above it.

And the toadstool leather is starting to perk up, which pleases me.

 

I added a crappy crumpled-paper background. It looks better than seeing cords and filters, but it doesn't look good. I keep scraping corraline algae off of the sides, sooner or later I hope it'll encrust the back. I'll likely change out the paper for a different background, but it is not high on my list.

 

Now I get to sit back and watch and enjoy for a little while!

 

(though I am pining for a little more color... anyone want to trade a chunk of fuzzy green macro for a few random zoanthids or shrooms?)

 

*To come:

• [*}put the LEDs back on (includes adding fan to hood)

[*]get some zoanthids in there

[*]break up the LR that is in there now, put some in sump, replace others with pretty stuff

[*]get a light on the sump to grow chaeto w/ reverse photo-period

[*]add wine-bottle ATO

[*]maybe pick up the cool green/purple octo coral I saw in Hayward last week

[*]find some red macro algae, or the cool blue stuff

[*]add powerhead on timer to make surge every few hours, just to keep stuff from piling up in the corners. maybe put phead in sump, to increase flow through whole system.

 

as always, your comments may not seem interesting to you, but they are always interesting to me, so share your thoughts freely!

[yoshii]

Neat frogspawn, it looks nice

 

Hey if you're going to Hayward, stop by Atlantis Aquarium in Union City

[sandcruiser]

that's actually where I got the frogspawn and the leather! It's a nice place and they seem to know what they are talking about.

 

I did also stop in at Aquatic Collection in Hayward, very nice stuff! but I had a few more hours to work so I didn't want to buy anything and have it sit in the car.

 

Maybe next week I'll take a cooler.

 

Neat frogspawn, it looks nice

 

Hey if you're going to Hayward, stop by Atlantis Aquarium in Union City

[.Newman.]

nice frogspawn! how much was it?

[yoshii]

that's actually where I got the frogspawn and the leather! It's a nice place and they seem to know what they are talking about.

 

I did also stop in at Aquatic Collection in Hayward, very nice stuff! but I had a few more hours to work so I didn't want to buy anything and have it sit in the car.

 

Maybe next week I'll take a cooler.

Only because I work there ;D

 

Yeah, Aquatic Collection has some cool stuff!

Awww that stinks

[sandcruiser]

the frogspawn (4 heads) was $27, if I recall. or 25? or 29? something like that, anyway.

[sandcruiser]

26 September I added:

 

1 green striped 'shroom

 

1 plug w/ 7 or 8 zoanthids (green, orange, green w/ yellow

1 small rock to which I glued 2 zoanthids that fell off in transit

[.Newman.]

good luck with them

[sandcruiser]

also added some oolitic sand over the last week, to both the sump and the display.

trying to get some more depth in the rear of the display and also trying to add some more variety for the pistol shrimp to use in building it's burrow(s)

 

 

last night I installed a small 6LED light (5mm white leds) to the sump/fuge

eventually I plan to change over to maybe a small CFL or something brighter

in the mean time, I'm trying to get some algae growing down there to feed 'pods and whatnot

I plan to add chaeto when I get some. I may just add some of the green bushy anchored macro

eventually I'll make it reverse-photo period as it makes more sense to me to have the fuge balancing CO2 uptake at night but not competing during the day.

 

 

also need some more zoas and shrooms. I think I may frag the 'shrooms I have. Not because they are particularly large, but just to get some more stuff on the rocks!

 

also re-vamped the sump return, including a U so that the flow is directed more downwards toward the rear of the tank opposite the aquaclear. The leather is already showing signs of liking it (more polyp extension) and the frogspawn isn't getting beat-up as much, which I hope will entice it to extend its polyps some more

 

I'll snap photos tomorrow.

 

side note: the 'fuge light sort of acts like a bit of moonlighting. the tank isn't pitch-black at night anymore. I still want to get my blue LEDs back on there as a "real" moonlight... but I'm sick of running so many timers! Need to get a controller of some sort.

[sandcruiser]

I added 5 nassarius snails

I only planned to add 2 or 3, but circumstances dictated 5 was the magic number

 

so I've got 3 in my display and 2 in the sump (which has more water than the display, but less sand)

 

 

also discovered some cool new macro algae that is coming in (rhodophyta). Pics to come.

[yoshii]

I don't think you need that many nass, remember they won't eat algae! Mainly just leftovers

[.Newman.]

1-2 nass for a 3 gal. ignore the sump.

[sandcruiser]

oh, I agree, I don't *need* that many

it's just how it worked out

 

If the ones in the sump don't make it, I'll feel bad, but I suspect they will find enough to chow on for a little while at least.

 

sooner or later I'm likely to get a bigger tank and/or a display 'fuge. Which will make the system more like 8 or 9 gallons instead of 6 or 7.

 

*right now it is a 3g tank and a 5g sump, but the sump has extra space left over.

[sandcruiser]

here's a shot of one of my new snails

after reading up on Nassarius vs. Whelks, I'm inclined to believe that this is a Nassarius, but mostly via just plain wanting it to be.

 

Any thoughts?

[.Newman.]

where did you find it? mud snail lol. nassa snail. maybe nassarius snail, or whelk. very hard to tell from that pic.

[sandcruiser]

got it from a local reefer. two young men who had about 100 in their predator tank. they "bought too many"

 

and were selling 'em off. I asked for 2, they gave me 5. It was late and I was happy to head home.

 

Now I'm feeling like it wasn't such a great thing. Maybe. hard to tell. But I would certainly get rid of at least 2 if anyone in the Bay Area wants them. For sure they would work in a FOWLR tank, proabably fine in a reef (I hope!!!)

 

I'll snap some better pics soon.

[.Newman.]

the worst that can happen is that its an opportunistic snail, like the nassa snail, and it decides that sessile coral is fair game..

[sandcruiser]

here's a nice shot of the hitchhiker red algae that is growing in

as well as a shot of the snail on the glass... not under sand.... during daylight. Which makes me wonder about leaving them in there.