Mirya's Mini Garden (Nuvo 8) - Yasha Love Shack

[Mirya]

New nems are looking more and more settled every day. These guys haven't really walked at all from where I initially placed them in the tank... which is nice but also makes me wish I took a little more care with how I arranged them!

 

I'm still waiting for my Ricordea to attach so I can get that plastic cup outta my tank. Oh well, patience.

 

I swear I'm normally not a girly girl, but I do browse Etsy from time to time. I found a cute little dish to keep my bar of Reef Sudz in. The potter is right here in Columbus, so I went over to her house to pick it up. She has some other beachy stuff and lots of cat stuff if anyone else is interested: Firecat Pottery.

 

[FlowerMama]

Yeah, etsy is where I found my metallic wall art. Pretty little dish.

[Mirya]

Hurray, the Ricordea has attached, so plastic cup is outta the tank. Definitely helps with the clutter!

 

This morning I was up pretty early, before there was even any ambient light filtering in from outside. I happened to catch Zed and Borneman with their faces tucked up, sleeping. They don't always do that, but I get a chuckle out it when I catch them sleeping that way. Of course as soon as I turned on their light to take this photo they starting unfolding themselves.

 

 

In other news, I got to play with a PAR meter tonight. I got to borrow it from my reef club. Boy, that was eye opening! I'm going to post my results down in the Maxspect Razor Owner's thread, but the short story is that the 120 optics significantly dampen PAR output (although they have much better aesthetics IMO). Also, I lots of room to crank up my lights from where I have had them set (slowly of course).

[natalia_la_loca]

niiiiiiiiiiiiiice

 

I love that all your nems have names, lol

 

My fish have names, but I would have a hard time naming all my zoas...allow me to introduce you to Mortimer the whammin watermelon and all his clone pals--Mortimer, Mortimer, Mortimer, Mortimer and Mortimer

[Mirya]

This was a gorgeous weekend. Mid 70s and sunny! It made up for all the rain we had during the week. Now that the grass is starting to green up, it is getting easier to forget how awful this past winter was here in the Midwest. I got some good running in outside -- good thing because the half marathon I'm training for is 3 weeks away! Enjoying the weather, running, and the subsequent post-run nap, meant that there isn't much to update in regards to the tank. However... I do have some DIY plans in store and thus made a trip out shopping this afternoon:

 

I did pick up a tiny frag of unnamed Zoas while I was out picking up supplies. They are already starting to open back up. Hopefully the Sexy Shrimp ignore them. Despite target feeding them Omega One Shrimp Pellets, I see some of my other Zoas have, uh, sparse skirts...

[FlowerMama]

Wow, a half marathon. That's great. Seems like it was wonderful everywhere. Today was sunny and upper 70s. My friends & I went to an LFS 2 hrs away and I bought a zoa, and a favia, and a diamond prawn orange goby.

[Steensj2004]

This was a gorgeous weekend. Mid 70s and sunny! It made up for all the rain we had during the week. Now that the grass is starting to green up, it is getting easier to forget how awful this past winter was here in the Midwest. I got some good running in outside -- good thing because the half marathon I'm training for is 3 weeks away! Enjoying the weather, running, and the subsequent post-run nap, meant that there isn't much to update in regards to the tank. However... I do have some DIY plans in store and thus made a trip out shopping this afternoon:

 

I did pick up a tiny frag of unnamed Zoas while I was out picking up supplies. They are already starting to open back up. Hopefully the Sexy Shrimp ignore them. Despite target feeding them Omega One Shrimp Pellets, I see some of my other Zoas have, uh, sparse skirts...

Screen top and a DIY skimmer?

[Mirya]

Screen top and a DIY skimmer?

 

Yup! I'll post some pics of the projects tonight.

[FlowerMama]

Cool, I'll have to look for sure. I saw one person's DIY skimmer video on NR somewhere a few wks ago and it made me think I could make a little one for each mantis.

[Mirya]

You know how I was just glowing over the fact that the weather was so nice this weekend? I should have known better as I paid for it today. Woke up to snow. Temps in the 30s are putting a crimp in my plans to spray paint my DIY projects!

 

I got these heads of trumpet coral for free a few weeks ago. They've never looked as "fluffy" as I thought they should, but they always showed a good feeding response. Yesterday I wondered if their green tissue wasn't extending down on their skeletons as much as it had been, but thought I was imagining things. Today though it is super apparent that the tissue on all the heads is dieing off/peeling off. No feeding response from them today either. Should I:

1) let them be and see what happens

2) dip them in CoralRx or something else

3) chuck them before they foul the tank

 

[Felicia]

I love your tank! You, Gena, and Annette have me wanting rock flowers now! I ended up ordering 3 tiny, not so colorful ones from Salt Critters and then I kept seeing all your guys' colorful ones and just had to place an order with VIP Reef! I love all the different ones you have. I'm going to be following along

[gena]

Wow! You picked up some really pretty and colorful anemones from VIP!!!!!!

 

I was looking at the photo you posted 3 days ago and the trumpets are fine in that photo. I see you have a ginormous anemone (closed in that photo) that is near them. I BET that anemone burned the flesh on those trumpets and that's why you are seeing that receding. Move the trumpets to a different location, if possible. They should recover. I wouldn't bother dipping.

[Mirya]

I love your tank! You, Gena, and Annette have me wanting rock flowers now! I ended up ordering 3 tiny, not so colorful ones from Salt Critters and then I kept seeing all your guys' colorful ones and just had to place an order with VIP Reef! I love all the different ones you have. I'm going to be following along

 

Mwahahaha, I'm glad we have gotten another addicted!

 

Wow! You picked up some really pretty and colorful anemones from VIP!!!!!!

 

I was looking at the photo you posted 3 days ago and the trumpets are fine in that photo. I see you have a ginormous anemone (closed in that photo) that is near them. I BET that anemone burned the flesh on those trumpets and that's why you are seeing that receding. Move the trumpets to a different location, if possible. They should recover. I wouldn't bother dipping.

 

Thanks Gena! Moving them right now. Though, you know, moving something so it is not in range of nems in this tank is challenging! I honestly hadn't intended to get any trumpets, but one of the stores I visited the other weekend was giving them away with every purchase.

[Mirya]

DIY project #1, a mame-style skimmer, is pretty much done. I hadn't intended to put a skimmer on this tank, but when I saw the mame-style skimmer it looked like something cheap and easy to throw together, so I thought I'd give it a shot. First, I had the vacuum end of a siphon hose laying around. Then I cut the top off an oval plastic bottle, and cut the "shoulder" off of that:

 

I trimmed the shoulder into a baffle to put inside the tube to help direct the foam:

 

Here is the baffle in place inside the tube showing how it should direct the foam into the outflow tube:

 

And finally, here is the whole thing put together:

 

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to test it yet. The plastic adaptor at the end of the wood airstone broke so it doesn't have a good seal. When I hooked the skimmer up to an airpump, big bubbles come out the leak in the seal. Right now I have a glop of silicone covering the leak and I'm waiting for that the cure before plugging everything in again.

 

DIY project #2 is a screen top. I've assembled the frame, but I'm waiting for the weather to warm up so I can spray paint it black. Then I'll put the screen in and put it on the tank.

[FlowerMama]

VERY cool. I heard that tall skimmers were the best! that it just works better, sucks out more.

[Felicia]

Mirya, how do you acclimate your rock flower anemones? Do you just temperature acclimate? Or do you drip acclimate them as well? I've got my order from VIP Reef coming tomorrow and I want to make sure I do it right since its $200 worth of nems! Also, how do you keep them from attaching to the container during acclimation?

[Mirya]

Since most of my nems have sat in their shipping containers awhile (a bunch came from frag swaps that were a few hours away or from VIP Reef) I figured they'd want to be out of their shipping water sooner rather than later... so I just did as VIP Reef suggests -- take them out of their shipping container, put them on a clean surface for a few minutes to let them purge their shipping water, then plunk them in the tank. (And I turn all circulation off in the tank for 10-20 minutes.) The two nems I obtained locally (so they spent <30 minutes in the bag) I did drip acclimate. It is relatively easy to peel them off plastic if they attach to your drip acclimation chamber. Just be gentle. I find if you hang them upside-down they tend to release pretty easily.

 

I don't feel like I have appreciated any difference in how the nems have done with the two methods. Honestly the first one is so easy I'd probably do it with locally obtained nems.

[Felicia]

Since most of my nems have sat in their shipping containers awhile (a bunch came from frag swaps that were a few hours away or from VIP Reef) I figured they'd want to be out of their shipping water sooner rather than later... so I just did as VIP Reef suggests -- take them out of their shipping container, put them on a clean surface for a few minutes to let them purge their shipping water, then plunk them in the tank. (And I turn all circulation off in the tank for 10-20 minutes.) The two nems I obtained locally (so they spent <30 minutes in the bag) I did drip acclimate. It is relatively easy to peel them off plastic if they attach to your drip acclimation chamber. Just be gentle. I find if you hang them upside-down they tend to release pretty easily.

 

I don't feel like I have appreciated any difference in how the nems have done with the two methods. Honestly the first one is so easy I'd probably do it with locally obtained nems.

Thanks for the info! I hate dealing with drip acclimating, so I'd prefer to just plop them in. That's how I handle most corals, but I wasn't sure if anemones were more sensitive and needed to be drip acclimated.

 

Mine should be delivered any minute!

[gena]

 

 

 

Thanks Gena! Moving them right now. Though, you know, moving something so it is not in range of nems in this tank is challenging! I honestly hadn't intended to get any trumpets, but one of the stores I visited the other weekend was giving them away with every purchase.

I don't think I could pass up a free coral...as long as it looks nice . I love trumpets!

[FlowerMama]

I temp acclimate for about 20 mins then take them out and put them on the styrofoam for a few mins and then pop them in the tank and if going on a rock, hold it there for like 30 sec and half of it is usually already suctioned down.

[Mirya]

I plugged my skimmer in this morning. Its bubbling away now with nice fine bubbles. I'll give it a few days to break in before I do any tweaking, but I suspect I may need to play around with the height of the tube.

 

The trumpets are looking worse, but still hanging in there. I'll keep giving them time and see what happens, but I'm worried they aren't going to make it.

 

Zed decided to move today. I think he finally got fed up with being in the partial shade of Borneman. I've been hoping Gimp would move though since he is in even more of Borneman's shade. We'll see, maybe by tomorrow night Gimp will be in a new location. If not, then there is space on the rockwork now for another nem. (Time for another VIP Reef order! ) I kid! I'm just going to wait and see how the musical chairs plays out.

 

Anyways, Zed is no longer shading the rainbow so I got a nice picture of him:

 

And here is a top down view of Borneman and Zed, being buds with their shrimp friends:

 

 

[FlowerMama]

yeah, your Zed is like my mama in the 34!

[Felicia]

Love that rainbow one!

[DaveFason]

Awesome stuff! I should be receiving more this week too.

 

Curious, what are you feeding them?

 

-Dave

[FlowerMama]

Awesome stuff! I should be receiving more this week too.

 

Curious, what are you feeding them?

 

-Dave

 

Dave, where do you have pictures of yours? I must've missed them somewhere. Do you have a thread?