ReeferMonkey Posted March 9, 2004 Author Share Posted March 9, 2004 Well, I went to Mark's Marine and picked up 2 tiny blue leg hermits, 2 small star snails (astrea), and 3 smallish margaritas (nerites). With a little "encouragement," they've begun their work on the front glass. Hopefully by the time I get up tomorrow for work things will be looking cleaner. Link to comment
ReeferMonkey Posted March 22, 2004 Author Share Posted March 22, 2004 Some major additions to the tank since my last post. On Thursday (March 18) I picked up three frags of zoanthids and a small orange monti frag from a local reefer. The best looking zoanthid is has peach centers and chartreuse skirts, they are incredible! The other two frags are more blah, one has cyan centers and orange skirts, the last is sort of greenish centers with brown skirts. Everything was pretty happy, most of the polyps opened up after about 30 minutes in the tank. The monti had full polyp extension after about 3 or 4 hours in the tank. I did kind of jump the gun. I tested and I'm having a hangup going from nitrite to nitrate. I performed a small WC after the frags went in to help manage water chemistry. I also added a Surface Skimmer attachment for my AquaClear 200. Good stuff! Went to Lafayette to check out the Tropical Fish Bowl and was pleasantly surprised! They had a good selection of corals, inverts, fish and rock. I ended up buying a lettuce nudi, a blue porcelain crab, five nassarius snails, two more hermits and some Aragamilk over the course of two days. The porcelain is great to watch, and the lettuce nudi has already made a good dent in my hair algae. The nassarius seem right at home and the two new hermits (one a red leg, the other a peach/blue mix, sold as an "algae hermit") have done more work in the time since their addition than the two blue legs have done in the last two weeks. I've been adding Aragamilk to buffer up Ca so the monti will stay happy. My levels have been in the 300ish range so I figured it was time. Hopefully the GSP and the coralline will pick up too. So now I have placed myself on a moratorium on new additions for a week or two. Must do some WCs and get the chemistry stable before I add anything else, lest I have a disaster on my hands. I'm talking with a local DIY-guy in the club about making a custom hood for the minibow. Look out halide, here I come! Pictures to come tomorrow or Tuesday, when I can get some time. Link to comment
ReeferMonkey Posted March 24, 2004 Author Share Posted March 24, 2004 Lettuce nudibranch Link to comment
ReeferMonkey Posted March 24, 2004 Author Share Posted March 24, 2004 Cyan zoanthids with orange/rust skirts Link to comment
ReeferMonkey Posted March 24, 2004 Author Share Posted March 24, 2004 My favorite, purple zoanthids, neon green mouths and neon green stripes on the discs, purple skirts Link to comment
ReeferMonkey Posted March 24, 2004 Author Share Posted March 24, 2004 My clean up crew is finally knocking out some of the algae and other miscellaneous funk in the tank. About time. I took other pictures, but they all came out crappy. I'll try again and post the results before too long. Things to take pics of include: Montipora frag Really cool peach zoanthids with chartreuse skirts Brownish zoanthids with green skirts Everyday rusty brown zoanthids Porcelain Crab (he hides all the time, little bastage) Link to comment
redrocket Posted March 29, 2004 Share Posted March 29, 2004 Whats up reefermonkey? Hows everything looking? Link to comment
ReefMad1967 Posted March 29, 2004 Share Posted March 29, 2004 Hey yall! Sorry it's been 4eva. I've been busy with school and baseball. I will try to post some pics later tonight. Thnx, Mike Link to comment
ReeferMonkey Posted March 30, 2004 Author Share Posted March 30, 2004 Pretty good, I'm getting great polyp extension on the digitata (and it's starting to turn green! woot!) and the monti cap. seems happy, getting some polyp extension. I worry that I won't be able to keep it's color up (rather I know I won't) so I'm trying to justify getting a 70w halide in the near future. I'm also looking for a frogspawn head and maybe a leather. If I can get one or the other I'll go ahead and pick up a perc or ocelaris clown, a small one, so I can have some activity in the tank. Will take some more pics after I do a much-needed WC and move some stuff around. How're those zoanthids doing for you Casey? Link to comment
DSparks Posted March 30, 2004 Share Posted March 30, 2004 Get teh 70W. It'll be the best purchase you've made for your tank. I LOVE mine. If you do, spend the extra cash and go with the Aqualine AB 10,000K bulb. The color is outstanding. Link to comment
ReeferMonkey Posted March 30, 2004 Author Share Posted March 30, 2004 Honestly, I'd really like to find a 20k bulb. It's sad that Radium doesn't make 70w bulbs, from all the pics I've seen they give the best coloration to corals. Link to comment
redrocket Posted March 30, 2004 Share Posted March 30, 2004 RM, post a wtb section looking for 70w 20k bulbs, and let me know because ill buy one and split shipping with ya. lata Link to comment
ReeferMonkey Posted March 30, 2004 Author Share Posted March 30, 2004 Woot! Got my federal return today! Going to gear up for halide shopping soon! Link to comment
redrocket Posted March 31, 2004 Share Posted March 31, 2004 Sent you a email reefermonkey. Link to comment
ReeferMonkey Posted April 7, 2004 Author Share Posted April 7, 2004 Well, many things have changed in the last week. One of the local club members, Doxyman here on NR and RC, built me a KICK ASS hood, all for the cost of materials. He also gave me some really nice frags. I've got a 70w halide on order from LampDr, it should be here in a day or two, and an actinic lamp and a reflector for the halide are coming from HelloLights, although they take a LONG time to pack a really simple order up (48 hours.. what gives?). Here are the pics Doxyman took of the canopy... it's so sweet! I can't wait to get my halide up and running, but it will probably be a week or so, I have to get glass, rails, prime and paint it, etc. etc. In a little while I'll post some recent pics of my new additions and the tank. Link to comment
ReeferMonkey Posted April 7, 2004 Author Share Posted April 7, 2004 Ultra Green Frogspawn frag, 2 heads plus 3 tiny heads at the base, $15 at Aquatic Specialties in Kenner, LA Link to comment
ReeferMonkey Posted April 7, 2004 Author Share Posted April 7, 2004 Tiny heads coming in on frogspawn Link to comment
ReeferMonkey Posted April 7, 2004 Author Share Posted April 7, 2004 Single head of Candy Cane (Caulestrea sp.), color is off on this pic, came out a little too green. I like this piece, just can't find the right place for it in the tank yet. Link to comment
ReeferMonkey Posted April 7, 2004 Author Share Posted April 7, 2004 Finally got a good pic of my Montipora digitata. The pic looks pretty brown (and it still is) but the polyps are taking on a greenish tint. The mother colony this one came off of was green, it was freshly fragged and unattached when I bought it. It's starting to encrust the base now, and I expect the color to vastly improve under the halides. You can see my rics in the background. Link to comment
ReeferMonkey Posted April 7, 2004 Author Share Posted April 7, 2004 Big ole blue/purple shrooms. I'm hoping that with the addition of true 03 actinic instead of 7100k blue, these will go more blue than purple. They look like they're making an effort, but I'd like to see BLUE shrooms rather than purple. We'll see. Link to comment
ReeferMonkey Posted April 7, 2004 Author Share Posted April 7, 2004 Pretty neat zoanthids, purplish with cyan rings, cyan skirts. I did a REALLY bad job mounting these, they came off of the rock the blue shrooms were on. Bad monkey! Link to comment
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