ALNs-Piece of reef

[andi.rahl]

Every time I've gotten live rock for past tanks I've ended up with the tiny brittle stars. Or serpent stars as I called them/heard them called. Not sure if there's a difference but they are awesome little additions to the clean up crew. The second you put food in the tank you'll see their little legs appear out from under the rock to swoop up whatever they can.

I had both micro brittles and serpent stars. I have a picture that I need to upload of one of my brittles grabbing my finger XD I thought they were creepy at first, when I didn't know what they were, but loved them after a while.

[ALNN]

Just a small update

went to get some pellets for the cleaner shrimp and when i dropped a few in the nassarius snails really are like zombies surfacing up from the sand and going crazy was a great sight to watch.

So i got some nice tweezers and a Yuma i believe for a total of 15$ also got some freebies from the owner like, macro brittle stars x2, alot of asterina stars like 5-6, and a mystery zoa.

FTS first i bit washed out
http://s210.photobucket.com/user/aL-n/media/20130511_113808_zps05730194.jpg.html'>

Ric Yuma mushroom (green mouth with orange/blue pattern)
-first in tank picture after drip accumulation and temperature accumulation
http://s210.photobucket.com/user/aL-n/media/20130511_180823_zps8b8fa250.jpg.html'>
30 mins after
http://s210.photobucket.com/user/aL-n/media/20130511_183713_zps6cc6f83c.jpg.html'>
This Morning
http://s210.photobucket.com/user/aL-n/media/20130512_092547_zps8a03a54f.jpg.html'>

Mystery Zoa, opened but cant get a picture of it.
http://s210.photobucket.com/user/aL-n/media/20130511_175947_zps782e60cb.jpg.html'>

Highly recommend these tweezers for anyone with small aquariums
http://s210.photobucket.com/user/aL-n/media/20130512_090249_zps005127d8.jpg.html'>

new picture of my Clearner
http://s210.photobucket.com/user/aL-n/media/20130511_1137020_zpsd342e298.jpg.html'>

[andi.rahl]

gonna name the cleaner? also did you dip the zoa before putting it in the tank or did it randomly show up there? what colors are its face?

[andi.rahl]

and here's when I had life in my tank:

 

http://s1289.photobucket.com/user/shinynic/media/IMAG0280_zps7db59e65.jpg.html'>

 

Not sure why it reached out and grabbed me.

[ALNN]

Haha that's so awesome!! I was cleaning the tank today and my cleaner shrimp was on my hand for the longest time

 

I dripped accumlated the zoa, but I didnt dip it in anything. Is that fine?? As a matter of fact I didnt dip any of my corals just temp and drip accumulation. The zoa came with the yuma .

 

It has I believe orangish outter polyp then blue then dark green the yellowish mouth

[andi.rahl]

Haha that's so awesome!! I was cleaning the tank today and my cleaner shrimp was on my hand for the longest time I dripped accumlated the zoa, but I didnt dip it in anything. Is that fine?? As a matter of fact I didnt dip any of my corals just temp and drip accumulation. The zoa came with the yuma . It has I believe orangish outter polyp then blue then dark green the yellowish mouth

thanks! yeah, they like to do that. I like how it feels except when they go near my cuticles then I'm a bit sensitive about it lol.

 

hmm well it's just a single zoa, right? I don't see anything on it from the picture, but there are nudi's that eat zoas and sometimes they lay little eggsacs that look like spirals on the stems of zoas. the nudi's would fall off in a freshwater dip (just stick in it a little cup of freshwater with same temp as your tank, let it sit for a short period of time, swish it around in the water, then dip it in fresh saltwater before setting it back in your tank - i think the same is what you do for lugols, but I haven't used it) or a dip with a couple of drops of lugols in saltwater.

 

I'm not sure if you can dip yumas with the freshwater method, though. Ugh, I wish I was more experienced with that kind of thing :/ I'm thinking since it's 2 different types of coral, the lugols would be a better choice? I've seen it suggested all over the place to dip if you don't quarantine. It gets rid of nasty hitchhikers apparently. XD

 

Maybe do a search on dipping corals? =] you can decide for yourself what to do from there. I don't want to push you or give you wrong advice.

[ALNN]

I will research for sure!! I did take a close oook at the zoa before putting it into the tank. Also it is a single polyp and a piece of small rubble but ill keep my eye on it for sure

[andi.rahl]

and I'll keep an eye out for more updates from you

[ALNN]

I have a feeling it'll be soon I can see why people have gardens of yuma...so addictive and beautiful with the blue lights on

[andi.rahl]

I love rics and yumas in general! I need a new ric soon.

[lnglostsurfer]

So are the dimensions the same on the fluval spec V as they are on a standard 5.5 AGA aquarium? I've never really looked at that before but saw your picture with your hand and the tweezers and it's gotta be pretty close

[ALNN]

Hmm im not to sure how big the ada tanks tho but I do love how clean it looks

[ALNN]

Small picture update

 

So my yuma decided to move to a better spot by itself. Now I can take better pictures for it.

http://s210.photobucket.com/user/aL-n/media/20130516_190721_zps3430716f.jpg.html'>

 

Mystery zoa frag

http://s210.photobucket.com/user/aL-n/media/20130516_190355_zps2d23137c.jpg.html'>

 

Starfish

http://s210.photobucket.com/user/aL-n/media/20130516_203530_zps65d4529a.jpg.html'>

http://s210.photobucket.com/user/aL-n/media/20130515_124645_zps2963a9c0.jpg.html'>

 

 

[ALNN]

Small update:

did my weekly water change and testing

Sal - 1.026sg
Temperature - 78.2F
Cal- 400-420ppm
DKH-8
Phosphate- 0ppm
Ammonia- 0ppm
Nitrite - 0ppm
Nitrate -5ppm

everything seem to be doing fine the only downfall is that i think i burned out one of my DIY leds...I was soo close to finishing...so im waiting on some backup leds to get in now.

Nothing much else have changed with the tank as work has been busy but when i get paid alot of it will be going to coral and the tank

[andi.rahl]

I look forward to more pics. Seems like everything is going well.

[ALNN]

Well some post-good news. I fianlly finish doing the housing on the light and wiring which shouldve been done weeks ago, to maintain that stock look. I have 2 more 3up cree leds coming to replace the 3 leds in thr middle which are natural white-blue-cool white so that there will be less disco happening. I also have a feeling the ultta violet is a bit much but ill see after I get the 3ups in the balance out the light

 

Have the driver running at 15-20% and its already brighter then the stock light.

 

Before

After

 

Hope the coral enjoys it.

[lnglostsurfer]

Wow man, looks great. Did you get a picture of how everything looks inside that stock mounting bracket?

[ALNN]

 

Wow man, looks great. Did you get a picture of how everything looks inside that stock mounting bracket?

 

i'll take a picture of how it looks like for you soon

 

-----------

 

After work took a few photos of the corals on the new light and they seem happy will wait a weak before increasing the power on the leds.

 

monti cap, expanding

http://s210.photobucket.com/user/aL-n/media/20130526_204450_zpsc061a7bd.jpg.html'>

 

mystery Zoa

http://s210.photobucket.com/user/aL-n/media/20130526_204516_zps7271e19c.jpg.html'>

 

Xenia

http://s210.photobucket.com/user/aL-n/media/20130526_204500_zps072b9d00.jpg.html'>

 

Yuma opening up really nicely

http://s210.photobucket.com/user/aL-n/media/20130526_204359_zpsbbb2fb09.jpg.html'>

[ALNN]

just a small update today.

found out i have flatworms...but good thing they arent they brown/tan ones. These ones are clear and has a forktail and i caught one eatting a copepod! pretty cool. Heard these guys are harmless to coral but will go after my pod population.

http://s210.photobucket.com/user/aL-n/media/20130530_203040_zpsd7893f62.jpg.html'>

Also with the new LEDs, the growth and colour on the monti cap has been visibly better and i can see alot more "mouth" growing.
http://s210.photobucket.com/user/aL-n/media/20130531_200312_zps90dd485d.jpg.html'>

All levels are in check and smooth

[lnglostsurfer]

Very nice, I'd still try to get rid of those flatworms though. If they are the kind that reproduce quickly enough, they can cover your corals and irritate them...even cause them to die. I dealt with a flatworm problem in my evolve 4 tank, made sure I completely got rid of them before I setup the 5.5 gallon tank. They CAN cause way too many problems down the road so you are better off getting rid of them now while their numbers are low.

[ALNN]

Very nice, I'd still try to get rid of those flatworms though. If they are the kind that reproduce quickly enough, they can cover your corals and irritate them...even cause them to die. I dealt with a flatworm problem in my evolve 4 tank, made sure I completely got rid of them before I setup the 5.5 gallon tank. They CAN cause way too many problems down the road so you are better off getting rid of them now while their numbers are low.

 

Yah whenever I see them on the glass and I can kill it or take them out I do. Goof thing its not the kind that smother s coral (brown/tan) type.

But ill keep my eye on them forsure since they are just the "better" type to have lol.

 

I also got new 3ups leds shipped to my house last night so ill be taking the light apart and replacing the temperary leds to the 3ups.

Ill have picture of the build with the upgrade

[ALNN]

Well I got some time so I finally spent some of my money to get some coral ended up picking this little guy up.

 

Rainbow encresting montipora

http://s210.photobucket.com/user/aL-n/media/20130601_170215_zps28c86193.jpg.html'>

http://s210.photobucket.com/user/aL-n/media/20130601_170349_zps932e01e4.jpg.html'>

 

Going to cut the fragplug off and super glue it back to a piece of rubble. But now im letting it settle first

[ALNN]

will be getting a yasha goby from seaumarine (LFS) on tuesday. They said they are going to be on display this week. Anything i need to prep for, for the incoming yasha? Quarantine? etc?

since i never had fish in the tank yet i wanna make it have the highest success rate of surviving i already have pellet and frozen mysis shrimp for it and also a lot of caves for it to hide in. Will be getting the pistol shrimp later on since they dont have any.

what are your thoughts and concerns on this matter, feel free to let me know

As for coral i ended up getting another yuma to add to the "future garden" pictures on that later on

[ALNN]

Pictures of my new neon yelloq ric yuma

http://s210.photobucket.com/user/aL-n/media/20130602_183627_zpsd77d9fb5.jpg.html'>

 

Algea eatting buddies

http://s210.photobucket.com/user/aL-n/media/20130602_183759_zpsc6b8c7a3.jpg.html'>

 

[lnglostsurfer]

I love the colors on the ricordia, and the closeup of the snail is awesome. What kind of camera setup do you have?