lljdma06 Posted August 23, 2011 Author Share Posted August 23, 2011 Looks great, I love the 2.5's Thank you. I'm having a blast with these tanks... Almost a week in. I haven't bothered testing the water, only the sg. I do a top off every few days when the sg gets too high. I'm starting to get a rhythm for it. Some pictures for you & video. fts I'm starting to get diatoms now and I see a lot of speghetti worms and pods of all kind... Speaking of pods... Hehehe, watch it full screen and my iPhone camera is an HD camera, so looks best in HD, I think. Thanks for looking. llj Link to comment
lljdma06 Posted August 28, 2011 Author Share Posted August 28, 2011 Like the 8g, this tank also got its CUC. I won't be keeping all that I got though. When the 36g is ready, some from here will go there. Here's the 2.5g's acclimation setup. I didn't find a dwarf zebra hermit, so I settled for blue-legged hermits. They are very small. I got four, too many, IMO, but I can move some to the 36g. I had previously wanted scarlet hermits, but blue-legged are also Caribbean so I don't really care. As long as it's Caribbean, it can go in and I imagine these tiny things won't do much damage to anything. LOLOL They are pictured with an astraea. I'm pretty sure the astraea will go to the 36g. Also got some Nassaria snails for this tank too. Pictured with the last hermit. 7 animals, but the hermits are so tiny. I'll probably end up with 1 Nassarius and maybe two hermits and move the rest to the 36g when that tank is ready for its CUC, which seeing how my picos progressed, probably won't be very long. Thanks for looking. Again, taking it slow. llj Link to comment
nickjqz Posted September 6, 2011 Share Posted September 6, 2011 Haha I can't wait to see more! Link to comment
lljdma06 Posted September 12, 2011 Author Share Posted September 12, 2011 Haha I can't wait to see more! Well, here you are... I changed this tank around quite a bit. The blue-legs went into the 36g and I got a scarlet hermit to replace them. Very boring, but he's doing better now. No fts yet, I have to do a fair amount of rearranging, because well, I gots me some corals. Right now, I cannot find NPS to save my life, so this tank for now has turned into a zoanthid garden of sorts. Once I find good NPS, I'll move most of the zoas to the 36g, as they are Caribbean. Protopalythoa (Button polyps, I think in green)These opened up right away. zoanthids. Just added to the tank... Extended... And the prettiest zoanthid. I love how it looks like tiny flowers. Fully extended... Like the 8g, this tank's taking a backseat of sorts to the 36g. I'm going to nix the harlequin shrimp. Not because they aren't cute, but I think the waste is going to be too much for this little tank. They consume entire chocolate chip starfish and while I'm willing to feed them, I don't like the idea of doing so in such a small tank. Will definitely do pompom crabs and a GCG, however. Add more corals, it'll look great. Maybe sexies when the tank is mature. Thanks for looking. L Link to comment
nickjqz Posted September 12, 2011 Share Posted September 12, 2011 I really like the zoas in the last picture. Link to comment
yoshii Posted September 12, 2011 Share Posted September 12, 2011 Ooh! I like the new zoas Excited for the FTS! Link to comment
lljdma06 Posted September 13, 2011 Author Share Posted September 13, 2011 I really like the zoas in the last picture. I do too. They had another group of those, if that or something similar is still around in 2 weeks or so, I'll snap it up for the 36g. Ooh! I like the new zoas Excited for the FTS! I like the zoas too. I'd like one with yellow now. I'm a little concerned though & maybe somebody can clear this up. I want a Green Clown Goby for this tank. It's not true that zoas can catch small perching fish, right? I read that bit of info in Michael's 100 inverts book. Link to comment
lljdma06 Posted September 13, 2011 Author Share Posted September 13, 2011 More peeeechurs! Scarlet hermit crab. Being less of a dork since I got the corals. Still may buy him a buddy, as they stay rather small. Green palys Monochrome5 says these are Eagle-eye zoanthids... Mystery zoanthid. I started a separate thread in the id forum. The HD camera captures the colors so much better. I like the gloomier look. I want a yellowish zoa next, but I'm still concerned about what I read about zoas and perching fish. Link to comment
castiel Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 I have to say, I am constantly paranoid about the things my YCGs choose to perch on! One has made a 'nest' in the torch, the other seems to have made a bed out of my open brain, but also loves to perch on the palys. I am sure one of them (the brain I worry about the most) could yet make a meal out of one ... Link to comment
AnthonyPf Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 I have heard the Scarlets are very social crabs. You should get him a buddy! Link to comment
Builder Anthony Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 My yellow clown used to sleep in the hammer coral.They sometimes nip at it but it sleeps now in the leather and blue clove poyps.They also rest on favia and use these corals to keep themselfs clean of ich and perhaps other parasites. Link to comment
islandreefing Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 nice tank!! somehow that green paly really catches my attn. ive been looking at those lights ure using... deciding whether i should or should not get it. after seeing how healthy ur corals are im a 99% go! so thank you!! ill be using it for my 2 gallon tank keep up the gd work n update us more! Link to comment
lljdma06 Posted September 15, 2011 Author Share Posted September 15, 2011 nice tank!! somehow that green paly really catches my attn. ive been looking at those lights ure using... deciding whether i should or should not get it. after seeing how healthy ur corals are im a 99% go! so thank you!! ill be using it for my 2 gallon tank keep up the gd work n update us more! I've only had the corals for a week or so. Give it a little time before you make that decision. Link to comment
islandreefing Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 well the fact that ur frags are opening up is a good sign. if the lights didnt work then theyd be closed. the question now is how long before these LEDs will die on you. i have a friend who can pick one of these up locally for me, so for the price ill be paying, these should be good investments even if they last half a year to one year. do you find that the 30 LED is bright enough? im thinking of getting the 42, its 36-8000K and 6-12,000K. what do you think? my tank is only 10" L x 6.5" W x 7.5" H Link to comment
lljdma06 Posted September 15, 2011 Author Share Posted September 15, 2011 well the fact that ur frags are opening up is a good sign. if the lights didnt work then theyd be closed.the question now is how long before these LEDs will die on you. i have a friend who can pick one of these up locally for me, so for the price ill be paying, these should be good investments even if they last half a year to one year. do you find that the 30 LED is bright enough? im thinking of getting the 42, its 36-8000K and 6-12,000K. what do you think? my tank is only 10" L x 6.5" W x 7.5" H My zoas and paly don't seem to be complaining, but I also have a bit of natural daylight in the room. But that goes away at night and they are still open and seem happy. My tank is 12" by 6" by 8" I think. The standard PetsMart 2.5g that comes with the glass cover. Awesome for evap by the way. I top this tank off a lot less. There's one a PetsMart that has an extra row. It's not as lovely a fixture, but it looks interesting to me as a possible replacement should this one crap out on me. Costs exactly the same. Question, there's one zoa polyp that seems almost detached. He opens fine and seems ok, but it seems that he's almost detached from the colony. Who knows how it happened, as he was that way when I got him. Is it possible to completely detach him and start a colony using a bit of LR and epoxy? I've got plenty of rubble. If it's not possible, I'll leave him be. You might be able to see him in this picture. It's one of the eagle eyes. Towards the top, one of the larger polyps, though honestly, you can't really see that he's almost detached. Link to comment
islandreefing Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 do let me know when u get a chance to add an LPS.. like a hammer or somehing i wana b sure those would be okay too. r u buyin ur current frags or taking them from ur other tanks? they seem like really big pieces in a pico thats why i ask. Link to comment
lljdma06 Posted September 16, 2011 Author Share Posted September 16, 2011 do let me know when u get a chance to add an LPS.. like a hammer or somehing i wana b sure those would be okay too. Wouldn't those get too big? r u buyin ur current frags or taking them from ur other tanks? they seem like really big pieces in a pico thats why i ask. I'm buying them from right now a lfs, but I'm scoping out for more interesting species available for swap or for sell by other hobbiests. They are big aren't they. Welcome to Miami. An off-shoot of the local marine club is having a frag swap Sept. 25. I may take the day off from work (I sing alto at a church choir) and head over. A frag swap would be much more fun. Link to comment
islandreefing Posted September 17, 2011 Share Posted September 17, 2011 yea the LPS will get big, but not overnight. eventually EVERYTHING becomes too big for a pico... hahaha. thats when you can sell it and buy a smaller frag and restart fresh! keeps things interesting in the tank. Link to comment
lljdma06 Posted September 27, 2011 Author Share Posted September 27, 2011 Time for an update... Been a while since I've updated. I've purchased more frags for this tank. Looks like this is definitely becoming a zoanthid garden for now. Still have no fish. I'm waiting on a Green clown goby and my pompom crabs. $6 frag of zoas... They hadn't fully opened yet. Another frag, about $10 This was $10 too. Hehehe, whoops, aiptasia... Gotta zap him soon. He came oughta no where! I've got about a gazillion pods in this tank, the 8g has a ton too. It looks like the rock is moving. Also, totally random, some of my frag polyps have broken loose and are opening and finding new spots in my LR. Looks like I'll have some new colonies soon. My frags with my scarlet hermits dining on a pellet. That's how tiny the frags are. Still crammed with polyps though. I love zoas. Full tank shot. I need to get some actinics or some blue LEDS, when I shine a blue LED, the zoas get awesome neon colors, but my my lights are more designed for growth rather than showing off, and I'm seeing quite a few new polyps. Thanks for looking. This is turning into a nice little teeny reef. I'll update the other tanks soon. All have had some cool developments. L Link to comment
castiel Posted September 28, 2011 Share Posted September 28, 2011 Looks great, llj! I wondered what you had been up to, fairly busy by the look of things. Link to comment
lljdma06 Posted November 8, 2011 Author Share Posted November 8, 2011 Looks great, llj! I wondered what you had been up to, fairly busy by the look of things. You don't know the half of it. Time for a gigantonormous update!! About time too! This will be done in phases... Phase 1 When I first setup this tank I wanted it to be an nps tank. The problem is that not many stores sell the easier nps and I'm not ready for gorgonians yet. Dendrophyllia's sell for about $30 a head in Miami and I can't afford that yet. No sun corals to be found in my usual LFSs, so this tank became a zoanthid garden for a while. Had fire and ice and the ones you saw above. A fun video of my scarlet hermit eating. Things were going well for some weeks, but the light was never designed for zoanthids to thrive. They were growing, but growing taller and their colors were not as vibrant. Doing ok, but not thriving. I was in the process of considering a lighting upgrade when I went to a new LFS that had just opened (about 5 minutes from my house!). This is what I found... Which leads me to phase two... Phase 2 - Embracing the original concept A lovely specimen of Tubastrea aurea (Sun coral). The owner of the LFS was training it to feed while the lights were on. I told her about my tank and my ideas and she offered to put the sun coral on hold for me. Then I waited. And waited. And waited some more. Put the coral on hold October 1. I finally was able to pick it up last Thursday. So she held it and trained it for about a month. This is what greeted me when I picked up the Sun coral 11/3. Along with my sun coral, I got a package of frozen mysis shrimp, an IV rig for acclimating, a portion of cyclops-eeze, and a pipette for target feeding. Acclimating... Floating the bag... In the bucket, drip-acclimated for about 2 hours. This is an lps, so not some zoanthid you can toss about. Was very careful. There was some conflicting information on acclimation, so I went with the most conservative. Sun coral in its new home... Opening a little FTS, still with zoanthids at this point. But, the more I thought about it... Phase 3 - ditching the zoanthids... My 8g has a MH lamp, with a 14k bulb (haha, that's the last update!), a much better environment for zoanthids. So, I moved all the zoanthids from this tank to my 8g. I also thought, what's another sun coral? This time, in black. I also have a red one on hold. She has to train that one like she trained the others. I want a yellow one too and then once I keep these thriving for a while, a small gorgonian frag may be in order. Another note. Sun corals are not for everyone. You must be willing to feed it regularly. It takes commitment and good husbandry as you must be willing to do more frequent water changes to compensate for the messy feedings. When they are well-fed and extended, they are breath-taking. My open sun coral. I'm very happy I'm getting it to open and eat. I only know of one other that pound for pound possibly eats more than this sun coral! It is a human, by the way. I'm very happy that I discovered that new LFS. They will be ordering my pompom crabs and a panda goby for this tank. They are very consciencous and the owner is a dedicated hobbiest. Yes, everything is in shades of oranges, reds, and blacks. Thanks for looking, L PS: will post more video laters. Gots sun coral videos. Oh! Soooooo purty! Link to comment
castiel Posted November 8, 2011 Share Posted November 8, 2011 Wow, that is stunning! And I was looking at the black one recently too, would love to see some more pics of that. Now I need to go and see if you have updated your other threads =0) Link to comment
lljdma06 Posted November 12, 2011 Author Share Posted November 12, 2011 Wow, that is stunning! And I was looking at the black one recently too, would love to see some more pics of that. Now I need to go and see if you have updated your other threads =0) Let me oblige you. Close ups of the black sun... video... Another video of the orange sun coral. They just ate today. The Orange ate less than the black which opens everyday now. The orange has been less consistent, so it's back to daily feedings for that one until it opens more consistently. Hahaha I should be happy it's opening at all considering this is a new environment is for it. Another teeny update. My panda goby and pompom crab arrived on Monday. I'll be picking them up on Sunday, or even Monday. Panday gobies. I get my pick of the group. Pompom crab Thanks for looking, L Link to comment
iball1804 Posted November 12, 2011 Share Posted November 12, 2011 at the Panda gobies! Get the one in the middle. It is the fattest! Link to comment
lljdma06 Posted November 12, 2011 Author Share Posted November 12, 2011 at the Panda gobies! Get the one in the middle. It is the fattest! I like the panda gobies too. I'm excited, I've seen how they move and the rock work in my tank is perfect for that movement. My inclination is to pick the biggest and the fattest. The smallest one won't be sold by my lfs until it gets large enough. It's a good practice. Same people kept my sun corals for over a month, and trained them to eat before they let me have them. Link to comment
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