The Narrow Sea - Aqueon Evolve 4

[lkoechle]

Yeah we don't have any close friends up here, so it'd probably be a neighborhood teen watching the tank. I'd trust my college roommate but I'd rather KISS it with a neighborhood kid. lol Right now, my major dilemma is deciding what to feed the little guys. It'll probably be a mix of free-swimming copepod and enriched bbs but I'd really like to be strictly pods. It'll depend if I can keep up with demand. Then my instructions will be pretty simple and just consist of scooping some copepod water out. lol

[LylaPico]

Every once in a feeding, I'll feed my rics a mixture of mysiss and cyclopsees. They love it.

[lkoechle]

Every once in a feeding, I'll feed my rics a mixture of mysiss and cyclopsees. They love it.

The ric seems to really love the rod's food. It's become kind of a parlor trick now for people who think my tank is boring since Meraxes doesn't really do much. They'll be saying something like, "Seems like a waste of energy to me."

"Yes, but have you ever seen a coral eat?"

"O rly?"

They still don't get the fascination after that but its better tolerated. lol Corals are thought of like plants so often that they're surprised its more entertaining than watching a pitcher plant or a venus fly trap. lol

[LylaPico]

The ric seems to really love the rod's food. It's become kind of a parlor trick now for people who think my tank is boring since Meraxes doesn't really do much. They'll be saying something like, "Seems like a waste of energy to me."

"Yes, but have you ever seen a coral eat?"

"O rly?"

They still don't get the fascination after that but its better tolerated. lol Corals are thought of like plants so often that they're surprised its more entertaining than watching a pitcher plant or a venus fly trap. lol

yeah, mine's just a little ric garden so a lot of people are like "you need something flowy".... Everything flowy basically stings, so no. Lol. I like my ric garden. They're subsided when I feed the corals in front of them tough. I haven't watched a Venus flu trap actually. To YouTube I go!!! Lol

[lkoechle]

I like um, I can't remember the name, pregnancy appareantly does a number on your brain. I feel like I have Dementia. But those wavey ones with the little graspy hands. I had those in my 20 and really liked them.

[LylaPico]

 

I like um, I can't remember the name, pregnancy appareantly does a number on your brain. I feel like I have Dementia. But those wavey ones with the little graspy hands. I had those in my 20 and really liked them.

lol. Nice use of pregnancy. I think you're talking about Xenia.

[lkoechle]

Wheeee!!!!!! I love coral sales. Picking up six frags tomorrow. Will post pictures once everyone opens up.

[lkoechle]

Everyone save for two of the six coral are in the tank and pissed off. The two that I'm pretty sure are mushrooms were forgotten so he's shipping them later for free. The reason I say "pretty sure" is there were just lot numbers no names and you had about 10 seconds to call it. lol If they're not and my lights can't handle them, we're in the process of setting up the 10 gallon as a frag tank with the AI lights. So they'll go there. But here are the pictures from the sale, feel free to weigh in on IDs.

 

 

Darth Mauls? (once again, these are all guesses)

 

 

Best guess is some sort of Rasta variation.

 

 

Eagle eyes and Blue Shurikens?

 

GSP

 

 

Blue mushroom

 

 

And I'm pretty sure this is a green spotted mushroom. The GSP and this guy were free.

 

All in all I spent $75. So I'm pretty pleased considering I think I got some very pretty stuff that has been very hard to find in the LFSs around here. No one seems to carry a decent amount, variety, or pretty-ness of coral. And like I said, correct me on the IDs. I find zoa identification so tedious.

[LylaPico]

Everyone save for two of the six coral are in the tank and pissed off. The two that I'm pretty sure are mushrooms were forgotten so he's shipping them later for free. The reason I say "pretty sure" is there were just lot numbers no names and you had about 10 seconds to call it. lol If they're not and my lights can't handle them, we're in the process of setting up the 10 gallon as a frag tank with the AI lights. So they'll go there. But here are the pictures from the sale, feel free to weigh in on IDs.

 

 

Darth Mauls? (once again, these are all guesses)

 

 

Best guess is some sort of Rasta variation.

 

 

Eagle eyes and Blue Shurikens?

 

GSP

 

 

Blue mushroom

 

 

And I'm pretty sure this is a green spotted mushroom. The GSP and this guy were free.

 

All in all I spent $75. So I'm pretty pleased considering I think I got some very pretty stuff that has been very hard to find in the LFSs around here. No one seems to carry a decent amount, variety, or pretty-ness of coral. And like I said, correct me on the IDs. I find zoa identification so tedious.

Where did you get them from?

[lkoechle]

http://www.gonzoscoralfrags.com He is local here on Colorado and had a live sale on the Marine Aquarium Society of Colorado forum. He's moving and didn't want to move some 700 corals with him. lol Earlier in the month he had another sale on reef2reef and moved almost 400. Last night I think 175 or 180.

[Maniu]

Could use some color and variety in my tank as well. Sweet

[LylaPico]

Cool beans. They look awesome. I don't really care about naming zoas either. Just another way for somebody to make money if you ask me.

[got2envy]

Hello! the last two are Chalice corals (LPS)

They can let out long sweepers so be careful putting corals too close to them.

[lkoechle]

Hello! the last two are Chalice corals (LPS)

They can let out long sweepers so be careful putting corals too close to them.

damn you're right. Okay, time do some moving around in the tank then. lol

[lkoechle]

I think when I get the now chalices I'm going to take them for the LFS for a credit. I bought one for $5 and the other was free, so it's no big deal. If my tank wasn't so small, I'd keep them. But realestate is a premium in this tiny thing. I'm hoping I can get a good enough credit to get the ricordeas and sexies I really want. lol If not, there's a frag swap in two weeks and I can hopefully get what I want then.

It's a shame my tank is so small. But, as I said, land is at a premium.

[lkoechle]

Bored and tired of my camera not doing the colors justice. So instead of an FTS, I made FTV lol. None of the corals are in their final spot except for the ricordea and the GSP. I'd really like the GSP to crawl up the back wall. We'll see.

 

 

http://youtu.be/VMKcNFRp7SU

 

[LylaPico]

Nice!!!! Is that gsp attached to the back wall?

[lkoechle]

Nice!!!! Is that gsp attached to the back wall?

 

No, it's just leaning against. I'm hoping the mat will decide to grow over it.

[LylaPico]

No, it's just leaning against. I'm hoping the mat will decide to grow over it.

I have a small disk attached to my back wall. It spread like wild fire, so I'm sure yours will.

[Hockeynut]

Ooooo it will, and probably take over your tank! GSP grows like weeds

[Ceece]

Love the video. I just got an Evolve 4 also. Petsmart had it on clearance at my local store for $28. I can't wait to get it up and running.

[lkoechle]

Love the video. I just got an Evolve 4 also. Petsmart had it on clearance at my local store for $28. I can't wait to get it up and running.

Thanks! I've had a lot of fun with it so far. Put up a thread for yours when you get it going!

[lkoechle]

Yay! Chalices just arrived. The person at the LFS says, "What kind of fish are they?" "They aren't fish, they're corals." "...Um, we're getting an order of fish today so I can't tell you if we can take them or not. Can you call back in like 30 minutes?"

 

This conversation would normally make LFS look bad except I've dealt with this particular employee before. I have no idea why they hired him because when I came in to pick up Meraxes, I said Green Clown Goby and he took me to the clown fish And then when I said, "Rod's Food, Original Formula." He pulls out PE Mysis and says, "Is this it?" Um, can you read? They actually do have a very informed employee who I work with but I always have the luck of calling when this guy is on duty. lol

 

Anyways, we've decided to not go the LFS route with the chalices since the frag swap is only a week out. Husband though, really likes the green one so green stays for now and the blue is going for the swap. I'll have to use a portion of where the ric garden was suppose to be and hope the feeders can't go that far to the rics. If it can, then husband will have to say goodbye.

 

Question about chalices: Will sexy shrimp be okay with them? And, because I bought the frags so cheap, I'm concerned about the shrimp since they're more expensive. lol The chalice will be occupying the space where the ricordea garden was suppose to be for the sexies.

[lkoechle]

So chalices didn't make it. Well, the green one definitely didn't and husband didn't like what they were doing to the tank. The green one was majorly sliming and I thought it could make it since the color was good. But then it started fouling up the tank and all my softies were super piss. After a water change and putting in Purigen, I moved it over to the reefgently acclimate so it could still be in the tank's water with the tank's filtration without fouling up the water. Ultimately though about four hours later it was almost completely dissolved. It was just not right from the moment I opened the bag. With the blue one, it wasn't quite so severe and may have made it. But my husband at that was point was totally freaking out about the zoas (which are his babies I thought I loved those things, clearly not as much as he does) beyond comfort despite the fact at this point the tank has gone through about a 40% water change and the zoas were opening back up. (The reefgently pulls water out of the tank, into the chamber, and out into a drainage bucket. We had it set to about a half gallon per hour.) So, husband decides that chalice corals are not for this pico and dispatched both of them. -sigh- At least it was only $5 but I definitely think of corals as living organisms so I feel like a murderer. Husband tells me better to kill the $5 and free one then the ones we paid for.

 

The Fedex person didn't even ring the doorbell, so I have no idea how long the corals were sitting on my doorstep. We speculate from the level of stress they were in that it may have been delivered yesterday (by yesterday I mean the 11th). But the weather's been cool at about 67 so, I don't know. Not for this tank I guess.

[Lucubration]

Darn, sorry to hear that. I've always liked the look of those plate coral.

 

When I start buying coral for my tank, I'm planning on running a stripped-down little 2.5g to put frags in for quarantine and observation (for at least a week or two) before moving them to my display. Something to think about that might prevent that kind of tumultuous acclimation with new specimens.

 

I suppose, on the bright side... at least you have the plot back for your ric garden? Heh.