Mirya's Floridian Flower Garden - All kinds of new things!

[RollaJase]

That piece is pretty amazing.

[Felicia]

Just got caught up on the last few pages. Wow that move sounded like a ton of work and stress. Glad it all went so well! I can't wait to see your new tank set-ups in the future. Sorry to hear about Stevie though Hopefully your new coral shipments can cheer you up!

[teenyreef]

Wow, so exciting for your new corals! I can't wait to see them filling up your frag tank

[Mirya]

Quarter to 10 UPS arrived with my first two packages:

 

As soon as I finished unbagging all those corals and putting them in a CoralRx bath, FedEx pulled up. They had my surprise prize pack from Legendary Corals:

 

F-ya JF Day Glow Favia!

 

Everything looked great in all their shipping bags from each of the deliveries. Heading to work now. Excited to see what everyone looks like all fluffed out when I get home tonight. I'm psyched!

[vlangel]

 

Quarter to 10 UPS arrived with my first two packages:

 

As soon as I finished unbagging all those corals and putting them in a CoralRx bath, FedEx pulled up. They had my surprise prize pack from Legendary Corals:

 

F-ya JF Day Glow Favia!

 

Everything looked great in all their shipping bags from each of the deliveries. Heading to work now. Excited to see what everyone looks like all fluffed out when I get home tonight. I'm psyched!

And I am psyched to see your pics of all this cool stuff!

[Mirya]

There was a rush to head home today... and it wasn't just to see my coral. NCSU decided it will be closed tomorrow -- as is most of Raleigh -- so everyone was out to hit grocery stores and whatnot before the winter storm hits tomorrow. Roads were packed! (Being a Midwesterner who also spent time in Canada, I'm kinda dubious about how bad this storm is going to be, but I think it is probably going to end up more icy than snowy. That will suck. Particularly given the lack of winter infrastructure here.)

 

Corals were looking great when I got home. I'm not sure where my RFA that I bought from AquaSD is though. It walked off from where I had placed it. I took a couple of pics to share... ignore the detritus. I know I need to clean the tank, that also means I need to set-up the RODI unit which has not been a priority compared to other unpacking...

 

First, my new Blasto that I got at The Reef Farm, one of the LFS I visited over the weekend. It is in the bottom center with the yellow ring:

 

Here's the rack of new frags!

Left to right, bottom to top.

First row is all AquaSD stuff. Freebie chalice. 2 freebie Favias. A Favia I bought. An Acan I bought. Below the Acan is a button Scoly I got.

Next 2ish rows is Legendary Corals. Sunrise Blasto. LC Toon World Acan. JF Day GLow Favia. JF Klepto Lepto. LC Blue Diamond Stylo. Strawberry Merletti. LC Mastermind Acan. LC Pit Viper Leptastrea. All of these were from the pack I won last month except for the Stylo which I asked them to add on for me.

Bottom row is all Pacific East Aquaculture. The Blasto group that made me place the order in the first place. A Florida Ric. Add a nugget mushroom. Favia.

 

And here is that nice Trachy I got hanging out with the Indophyllia.

It looks small in that picture, but the reality is, the Indo is loving this new tank and has gotten SUPER FLUFFY HUGE.

 

Then a couple random shots from around the tank... the fish were all photobombing because I had the pumps off to take pictures and they were wondering why I wasn't feeding them!

 

[vlangel]

Thats a lot of beautiful coral!

[Felicia]

Wow, that's some serious candy! Enjoying having work off tomorrow and being stuck inside staring at all that new goodness

[teenyreef]

Holy cow, what an amazing haul! The pictures are fabulous, too

[kimberbee]

I'm too impressed with the ORANGE rfa!!

[FlowerMama]

Really nice set of deliveries! Glad you got them before the storm. I got a foot, how much did you end up getting?

[Slowtwitch]

Nice Haul. Those are some really pretty new corals!

[Mirya]

The Trachy has gotten really happy and inflates to a size equal to the Indophyllia. I love it!

 

Did a water change over the weekend and vacuumed up a lot of detritus that had built up. Man, BB tanks sure are eye opening for the amount of grunge that collects. It doesn't help that I don't have any mechanical filtration in the tank though. That is about to change though. There is a gross biofilm on the water surface since there is no overflow or surface skimming. I'm going to DIY a surface skimmer from a water bottle and a powerhead though. I'll post pictures when I make it.

 

In other news, I ran for the first time in over a year tonight. While I was winded, it was also fantastic. I started running about 3 years ago and really fell in love. Started with 5ks, then eventually progressed to half marathons. I really should have stuck with that, but decided I wanted to run one marathon just to say that I had run a marathon. At the same time, my work started sucking my soul and as a result I didn't train properly for the marathon. Ended up getting a stress fracture -- this would have been Sept '14 -- but ran the marathon a month later anyways, thinking it was just shinsplints. Stress fracture was diagnosed a few weeks after the marathon. Haven't run since as its been a b1tc4 to heal. But, finally did it tonight and there was no loud snapping sound as I ran. Success!

 

I'm hoping this means I can lose the weight I've put on with my forced inactivity. I am trying to eat healthier. I made the following over the weekend, and really loved it. This is saying a lot cause I hate cauliflower with a passion!

 

Cauliflower Buffalo Wings

 

I omitted the butter and used Frank's Red Ht Buffalo Sauce. I only baked the cauliflower for a total of 25 minutes (instead of the 40 min in the recipe) and ate them without letting them cool off. I used a greek yogurt based blue cheese dip to accompany. I'm definitely making this for the Superbowl!

[Slowtwitch]

Congrats on getting back to running. Take it slow and don't re-injure yourself.

My mom used to make "buffalo style" cauliflower when I was a kid. For some reason she called them buffalo shrimps. Maybe to get us to eat a vegetable? They were delish. Going to try this recipe.

[FlowerMama]

Hurray for no popping!! That's wonderful. And we've definitely had the mild weather.

[spectra]

Franks Wing Sauce I love that stuff.......especially on chicken wings I do like cauliflower so I might have to try that one. Definitely better than the real thing.....

[Mirya]

I have a big head of cauliflower in the fridge for preparing (and eating) for the Superbowl tomorrow.

 

Here is my DIY surface skimmer (sorry, I felt too lazy to get out an orange filter to shoot its picture):

 

I took a plastic water bottle, cut off the bottom, then put it over the intake of a MJ400. It fits on snug. Stuffed some filter floss in the inverted bottle. The cut edge of the bottle is just under the surface of the water. When the pump is on (its off for feeding in this picture), it sucks in the meniscus of the water around it. Works pretty slick. I had initially used a MJ1200 since that is what I had on hand. It was a tad too powerful. Switched it out for the 400. A 600 would probably work perfect.

[teenyreef]

I have a big head of cauliflower in the fridge for preparing (and eating) for the Superbowl tomorrow.

 

Here is my DIY surface skimmer (sorry, I felt too lazy to get out an orange filter to shoot its picture):

 

I took a plastic water bottle, cut off the bottom, then put it over the intake of a MJ400. It fits on snug. Stuffed some filter floss in the inverted bottle. The cut edge of the bottle is just under the surface of the water. When the pump is on (its off for feeding in this picture), it sucks in the meniscus of the water around it. Works pretty slick. I had initially used a MJ1200 since that is what I had on hand. It was a tad too powerful. Switched it out for the 400. A 600 would probably work perfect.

Nice! Very clever setup.

[FlowerMama]

I may have to do that for my 10g, maybe Gertie's tank too. Since they're just 10g and 20g and I can't see spending money on them.

[vlangel]

I have a big head of cauliflower in the fridge for preparing (and eating) for the Superbowl tomorrow.

 

Here is my DIY surface skimmer (sorry, I felt too lazy to get out an orange filter to shoot its picture):

 

I took a plastic water bottle, cut off the bottom, then put it over the intake of a MJ400. It fits on snug. Stuffed some filter floss in the inverted bottle. The cut edge of the bottle is just under the surface of the water. When the pump is on (its off for feeding in this picture), it sucks in the meniscus of the water around it. Works pretty slick. I had initially used a MJ1200 since that is what I had on hand. It was a tad too powerful. Switched it out for the 400. A 600 would probably work perfect.

That should work nicely for you!

[FlowerMama]

I tried some cauliflower like that once and it was exceptional, it wasn't buffalo but it tasted like deep fried chicken with a BBQ sauce and it was incredible. It was a vegetarian restaurant, just don't remember where/when. What's the recipe??

[Newstead]

We are vegetarians (since 98 - unfortunately, ethical not healthy ones!) but have never seen this - putting it on the list for tomorrow! Thanks for sharing!

[Droy008]

I love the setup, what are the large green and red coral in the pic below the RFA?

[spectra]

I have a big head of cauliflower in the fridge for preparing (and eating) for the Superbowl tomorrow.

 

Here is my DIY surface skimmer (sorry, I felt too lazy to get out an orange filter to shoot its picture):

 

I took a plastic water bottle, cut off the bottom, then put it over the intake of a MJ400. It fits on snug. Stuffed some filter floss in the inverted bottle. The cut edge of the bottle is just under the surface of the water. When the pump is on (its off for feeding in this picture), it sucks in the meniscus of the water around it. Works pretty slick. I had initially used a MJ1200 since that is what I had on hand. It was a tad too powerful. Switched it out for the 400. A 600 would probably work perfect.

 

Any other filtration in the tank?

 

I am trying the cauliflower tomorrow but also have some wings to go along with it oh and some home made pretzels and beer cheese dip.........

[Mirya]

I tried some cauliflower like that once and it was exceptional, it wasn't buffalo but it tasted like deep fried chicken with a BBQ sauce and it was incredible. It was a vegetarian restaurant, just don't remember where/when. What's the recipe??

 

This is how I've been making them:

 

Ingredients

• 1 head cauliflower, chopped into bite size pieces
• 1 cup garbanzo bean (chickpea) flour
• 1 cup water
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2/3 cup Frank's Red Hot Buffalo Wings Sauce

Directions

Preheat oven to 450F. In a medium size bowl, combine flour, water, garlic powder and salt. Whisk together until smooth. Toss cauliflower into batter making sure to coat each piece completely, then place battered cauliflower on a lightly greased, non-stick baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes, turning half way through. When cauliflower is done, remove it from the oven and gently toss it in the hot sauce. Place cauliflower back on the baking sheet and cook for an additional 10 minutes. Serve with your favorite dressing.

I love the setup, what are the large green and red coral in the pic below the RFA?

 

The red and green coral on the left is a Trachyphyllia geoffroyi aka "brain coral." (Sometime people call Trachys that have a round skeleton Wellsophyllia radiata, as that was their old name.) Here is a nice video from Tidal Gardens regarding these corals:

 

The green coral on the right is an Indophyllia macassarensis aka "meat coral." Most corals that are called meat corals are Acanthophyllia. Indophyllia are a rarer import. Indos and Cynarinas are suspected to be related. Here's an older article on these corals. Since it is over 10+ years old, some of the taxonomy names have changed since writing.

 

Both a super fleshy, nonaggressive corals. That being said, it is fun to feed them. They pop out their tentacles than contort their whole body to engulf food dropped on them. They like indirect flow. Both have been happy with moderate to high light, though interestingly the Indo is a deeper water coral.

 

 

Any other filtration in the tank?

 

I am trying the cauliflower tomorrow but also have some wings to go along with it oh and some home made pretzels and beer cheese dip.........

 

I have a protein skimmer, media reactor with Chemipure Blue in it (Avast Marine's new Spyglass reactor), and live rock. There isn't a sump or even an overflow into a back chamber with the protein skimmer and media reactor. They are just sitting in a corner of the tank, cordoned off with some eggcrate. (That my peppermint basslet ignores and swims back there all the time anyways.) In a few months we'll be moving into a house we buy, so then things will be more properly set-up with a sump, etc. In the meantime I was lacking mechanical filtration and surface skimming in particular. Ghetto FTW!

 

Home made pretzels sound amazing...