Polarcollision's Nuvo 24: March FTS

[FlowerMama]

I just told him to give me odd shapes. And I'm thrilled with all the limpets & chitons that came out of the rockwork.

 

 

 

 

When you order from them, do you get to choose the specific rock shapes or sizes? I love the all the goodies that come in on those rocks. Limpets and chitons are the BEST cleanup crew.

 

[Polarcollision]

Sorry to hear about the pest issues. Been there done that and it can be so defeating. I had chronic issues with red planaria in my seahorse tank and it was so sad and frustrating. Hang in there and stay positive! Glad you already have a plan for moving forward.

 

I love the detailed scape sketch! Its great to plan it out in so much detail! I love my live rock from KP Aquatics, but if you're worried about pests, another great option is the Real Reef Rocks. I used those to add to the KPA live rock that I already had when I upgraded to the 40B. Its manmade rock that is colored with purple to look like nice coralline-coated live rock, then they soak it in water long enough to cycle it and make it live. I got about 10 lbs of that from my local store and plopped it right in when I did my tank transfer. It didn't cause a cycle and it matched with my natural rock really well. Now that its had time to mature, you can't tell the difference at all. Its great because its live rock and has a nice color, but comes with absolutely no risk of pests. It can just be a bit pricey. I believe it was like $8 per pound.

 

Oh man, I remember the planaria. They were really giving you grief. I'm kicking myself over these aptasia because just ~2 years ago there were only 3 tiny ones on the middle column. I could have boiled them or spent more time beating them back, but I was just so tired after studying and taking care of life that I decided to get to them later. By then they were big enough to sequester deep in the rock. I'd take them out but they just came back from a few cells a couple weeks later. Then pom pom crab found one and it was spread everywhere. Seriously. I picture the crab prancing around swinging it's magic aptasia wand, sprinkling new little aptasia everywhere it went. Like a little aptasia fairy. Poof, "I'll plant one here. Tee he hee!, and one here, and one here. Ohhh isn't this a lovely spot for another one! She'll never find it! Oh, just look at my lovely aptasia garden! It's wonderful!" Today I discovered one in the back big enough to eat a fish. Ripped it to shreds and dug out the rock where it's attached. It will come back, but at least it's not able to take my babies today.

 

On the bright side, the tank is pretty overgrown so it's time for an overhaul anyway. I think I'll boil away all the small ones and then frag the corals off the larger rock scape and toss the rocks.

 

Everybody get ready for a coral fire sale sometime between now and september. That will raise cash for the reef rock, plating monti and ricordea.

 

 

Hey, just love your tank + photos.

About the spiraling - fun is, I just read about this in a German forum before I came to this thread 10 min ago.

Consensus for growth pattern was like that:

low flow = vertical + thick (spiral)

high flow = horizontal + thin.

Also placing them low seems to ecourage the vertical growth pattern.

No proof at all, bu maybe that helps.

 

Well aren't you a wonderful gem!! This is why I love N-R! What are the chances that you'd come along and translate an entire german thread for me. Thank you so much for the info. I really appreciate the input and will give it a try. Also luckily the plating cap was planned for the bottom tier of the tank and I plan to shadow it with SPS ledge, so that works perfectly wth their lighting theory. I'll keep the wavemaker off of it as well. We shall see! And happy to have you drop by! Come back and say hello any time!

 

I just told him to give me odd shapes. And I'm thrilled with all the limpets & chitons that came out of the rockwork.

 

 

 

 

I know those exact chitons! They showed up one day and have made themselves at home. They're so small and the white coloring threw me off since the chitons in Puget sound are all rock green-grey colored or bright pink. So it's cool to see that yours are white too. maybe they intend to blend in with white sand. The limpets too. You're really going to like the limpets. There must be 100's of them in my tank. They live mostly at the sand-line on the glass and all over the rock. GREAT algae-eaters.

 

I'm tempted to order the rock. Very tempted. Wonder if anyone in Seattle area would want to split an order. Don't think I need as much as the minimum.

[FlowerMama]

Yeah, maybe someone in your local club or something wants to start up a small tank. You can see how colorful my rock is in my Bloomin' thread. I couldn't believe how cheap it was.

[teenyreef]

Your pom pom aiptasia story cracks me up

 

KPA will ship less than the minimum live rock, it's just that you have to pay for Fedex overnight instead of the air freight cost. I only needed ten pounds so I took that option. Shipping via Fedex is much more expensive per pound, but still less than the minimum air freight order.

 

So it all depends on how much you need. The break even point is somewhere above ten pounds but I forget how much. mmaybe about twenty pounds or so.

 

One other pointer: if you do Fedex, have them ship to your local Fedex office instead of straight to the house. You usually can pick up the shipment by ten or eleven in the morning. I forgot to do this with mine and the truck didn't bring it to my house until seven o'clock that night

[Felicia]

Sorry to hear about the aiptasia, but your description of it made me laugh out loud. Good to have a sense of humor about it! I've definitely been there, where I see the issue where its still small and fixable, but I'm just too busy or worn out to deal with it. Then I end up regretting it later. This hobby just has to keep us on our toes at all times!

[Polarcollision]

Sorry to hear about the aiptasia, but your description of it made me laugh out loud. Good to have a sense of humor about it! I've definitely been there, where I see the issue where its still small and fixable, but I'm just too busy or worn out to deal with it. Then I end up regretting it later. This hobby just has to keep us on our toes at all times!

 

I got a second wind. Will try one more time and boil them before injecting with aptasiaX/salt/vinegar. Hopefully the hot water will kill any demon spawn they try to release.

 

Your pom pom aiptasia story cracks me up

 

KPA will ship less than the minimum live rock, it's just that you have to pay for Fedex overnight instead of the air freight cost. I only needed ten pounds so I took that option. Shipping via Fedex is much more expensive per pound, but still less than the minimum air freight order.

 

So it all depends on how much you need. The break even point is somewhere above ten pounds but I forget how much. mmaybe about twenty pounds or so.

 

One other pointer: if you do Fedex, have them ship to your local Fedex office instead of straight to the house. You usually can pick up the shipment by ten or eleven in the morning. I forgot to do this with mine and the truck didn't bring it to my house until seven o'clock that night

 

OK, 10 lbs is roughly how much volume? Maybe I need to ask KPA. Having trouble visualizing how much I might need. Good point about the time delay. I use a UPS store near my office for shipping. They can't ever claim being unable to get in the building. Ha!

[Polarcollision]

Random question about the Gulf Live Rock: Is anything known about the(any) effects of the BP oil spill on the aquaculture location?

[FlowerMama]

I never heard anything, all I know is the rock I was given was ultra fresh. Gulf Live Rock has much more vegetation but not as porous as KPA, but it has more critters. If there was a way to merge that that'd be fantastic.

 

 

 

I can't believe this was the rose coral.

 

 

 

And the sponge that inflated.

 

[teenyreef]

 

I got a second wind. Will try one more time and boil them before injecting with aptasiaX/salt/vinegar. Hopefully the hot water will kill any demon spawn they try to release.

 

 

OK, 10 lbs is roughly how much volume? Maybe I need to ask KPA. Having trouble visualizing how much I might need. Good point about the time delay. I use a UPS store near my office for shipping. They can't ever claim being unable to get in the building. Ha!

Here's a picture of my 10lbs sitting in the tub before it went in the tank. The tub is about two feet long, for scale.

20160601_183513.jpg by TeenyReef, on Flickr

 

Here's what it looks like in the 40g tank. It's pretty easy to see what's live rock and what's dry rock

But there is one piece of dry rock underneath the live rock on the left, you can see it in the reflection.

20160609-untitled-002-Edit.jpg by TeenyReef, on Flickr

 

I agree with Annette about KPA vs Gulf Live Rock. The rocks themselves are better from KPA, but the live stuff is better from Gulf Live Rock. However, in my last tank, I had very good luck asking KPA specifically for rocks in interesting shapes, with as much coral and macro algae growth as possible. I would definitely recommend calling them.

[Polarcollision]

Those pics are fantastic. I really like all the critters growing in the GLR. The rocks can be chiseled to fit my scape so I think I'm sold! Now to get ready. I'm going to have to sell some coral soon just to make room for the new scape.

[RollaJase]

Absolutely stunning!

[metrokat]

Those pics are fantastic. I really like all the critters growing in the GLR. The rocks can be chiseled to fit my scape so I think I'm sold! Now to get ready. I'm going to have to sell some coral soon just to make room for the new scape.

GLR has always been my vendor of choice. Don't be afraid to tell Dan details about the rocks you want - sizes, shapes, porous, etc.

[blizzardscout2]

I am with you, the scrolling Monti is spectacular. I am curious too if there is a certain monti or if it is by chance.

[Polarcollision]

I am with you, the scrolling Monti is spectacular. I am curious too if there is a certain monti or if it is by chance.

 

Well, with all the input it seems like it is related to waterflow. Some say more flow makes more curls, others say less flow makes curves... I'll probably get a frag from a local reefer with a scrolling monti just in case it's genetic too. There is something called scroll coral that comes in brown and yellow locally, just not sure it is colorful enough for center[ipece, ya know?

[markalot]

Scroll is pretty bland.

[metrokat]

Scroll is pretty bland.

agreed

[reeferbrownies]

Just spent a few hours perusing this thread and man is it great! Excellent photography and I can't wait to see the new scape. I'm thinking about starting a dwarf seahorse tank soon and I may be on vacation a few times this year. Is there any chance you build a automatic brine hatcher for me cheap?

[Polarcollision]

Well, I did it.

 

Took out all the rock on the left side of the tank on Wednesday, fragged off coral and put in new rock by Friday. I'd say there were at least 100 aptasia on the tossed rock. On the impossible to reach back side, some were big enough to eat fish.

 

Last night I pulled the frags off the sand and removed close to 40 more baby aptasia with boiling water.

 

Caught my wrasse-hole leopard wrasse after he went to sleep and will be finding him a new home too.

 

Somewhere between fragging and sand disturbance all my acros and montis lost color. Kind of a bummer, but I have a renewed interest in the tank now that it seems possible to beat the aptasia.

 

Here's the new scape.... Wednesday at midnight. It's a mess!

 

[FlowerMama]

A starting over of sorts! Aptasia BE GONE!!!

[Polarcollision]

A starting over of sorts! Aptasia BE GONE!!!

 

Tell em, sista!

 

It felt awesome this morning dreaming up 2.0

[teenyreef]

Congratulations! That's got to be a great feeling

[Polarcollision]

Congratulations! That's got to be a great feeling

 

Dreaming up the zoa garden... and maybe rics... and, and...

 

Actually, I'd love suggestions for colorful, peaceful fish.

[metrokat]

Yellow clown gobies. Possum Wrasse. Gold assesor.

[FlowerMama]

Well I tell you this Long Nose Hawkfish is very peaceful. It's pretty with its red pattern and it's very personable. It does not hide at all. My friend's had a goby pair up w/ theirs so when it's perching the orange spotted will come up & lay next to it or lay across part of him and he doesn't care.

[Polarcollision]

Yellow clown gobies. Possum Wrasse. Gold assesor.

 

Was just looking at the green clown goby. And striped hogfish. The assessor looks great!

 

 

Well I tell you this Long Nose Hawkfish is very peaceful. It's pretty with its red pattern and it's very personable. It does not hide at all. My friend's had a goby pair up w/ theirs so when it's perching the orange spotted will come up & lay next to it or lay across part of him and he doesn't care.

 

That's super cute! I think I saw one at the LFS