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

[Mirya]

Yummy .

 

This is the most eye candy I've seen in one thread......like EVER .

 

 

 

Those blastos. All of it. Amazing, Mirya!

I know! I was thinking the same thing. If I was gonna start burgling, I would start with Mirya's house

 

 

hey is that a little baby RFA in with the grandis palys???

 

Yup! Only baby I've ever found so far, but I have nursed him along! When I first found him he was micro-zoa sized. Now he is between a quarter and half dollar in size. I think he is confused though and imprinted on the Grandis Palys and thinks he is one of them!

[ReefWeeds]

 

 

 

 

 

Yup! Only baby I've ever found so far, but I have nursed him along! When I first found him he was micro-zoa sized. Now he is between a quarter and half dollar in size. I think he is confused though and imprinted on the Grandis Palys and thinks he is one of them!

 

i totally missed him at first because he does blend so well! that's awesome.

[FlowerMama]

Those lps are larger than what I thought. Once you had the context I saw how huge they are!!!! Many colorful pretties!!!

[Mirya]

My project for the evening:

 

[teenyreef]

My project for the evening:

 

Great idea! Dosing containers? I did something similar with contigo water bottles that hold a plastic straw. All I had to do was attach the dosing tube to the straw

 

Inorite?!?

 

Sticks are kinda cool, but I"m such a sucker for poofy LPS! Just look at them!

 

 

Here's my whole current Blasto obsession collection, newest ones are middle of the bottom row:

 

 

Awe thanks! My aquascaping isn't much of anything while things are holding in this frag tank, but I can't wait til we buy a house and I set up the new tank and play with the scape!

 

I feed my RFA some of the same food I feed my fish a few times a week. I feed frozen to my fish, Mainly LRS Fish Frenzy. In fact, I feed LRS Fish Frenzy to my Blastos and other LPS too!

 

Here's pictures of everything that is currently chillin' in the frag tank. I swear I had just cleaned the tank the day before I took these pictures, but it never ceases to amaze me how quickly detritus will reaccumulate. And yes, even though my emerald crabs did great on most of my nuisance algae, they never touch the GHA (jerks) so I do have some of that, mostly on the racks.

 

So first off, some top down shots of the tank to give you a general lay of the land. Top down towards the left, this is the brighter side of the tank:

 

Top down towards the right is the dimmer side of the tank. There is the corner for filtration equipment and my NPS corals live in the darkest side.

 

Speaking of NPS, here they are along with a photobombing Basslet! They include Hidden Cup Corals, a fathead Dendro, and a Balano. The Balano gets amazing when lights are out. When I took the pictures he was all retracted.

 

I have a row of Acans (although I suppose I should call them Micromussas now, their taxonomy was just changed) along the front of the tank:

 

Top down showing the pinkish Acan as well as my button Scolies. The red button is pretty new. I got it from AquaSD last month:

 

After I had fed the fish, the red button definitely was "smelling" food and hungry!

 

I plunked the Elegance in my old wrasse den, so it isn't stinging anything nearby. My favia collection is down below and RFA rock and Ricordea rock are behind it:

 

Top down:

 

Close up on some of my favorite favias:

 

My popular P grandis, trumpet collection, Duncans, and baby plate coral:

 

And finally, my green banded serpent who lives in the dark corner back by the skimmer comes out when I feed. Here he is mooning you!

This awesomeness needs to be on a new page

I can't believe the colors you've got. The acans micromussa are just incredible

[Felicia]

Awesome idea for dosing containers!

[spectra]

My project for the evening:

 

 

Ok so I see 3 ? The DOS only has 2 ?

 

Great idea though so clue me in

[Sunstar]

Yes after looking I figured it might be a Gorgonian as I think I actually have that one in my tank now....

 

Thanks for the article.

those GSP look like something I retrieved from the dying tank at work... ( reefcleaners article) the coral has very thick, hard to cut skin - felt very gritty, wheras the GSP I have seems very thin skinned. Much deeper in colour than the stuff at work (although that could be the piss poor conditions it was in.

[spectra]

those GSP look like something I retrieved from the dying tank at work... ( reefcleaners article) the coral has very thick, hard to cut skin - felt very gritty, wheras the GSP I have seems very thin skinned. Much deeper in colour than the stuff at work (although that could be the piss poor conditions it was in.

 

Have any pics?

[Sunstar]

Have any pics?

I will get some tomorrow.

 

 

Several hours later:

 

 

sorry about the ugly tank, Its getting a WC tonight. I was thinking it was a gorg, but it has bumpy skin, so likely a GSP. But the skin is really hard. Its really tough like cardboard. Flexible, but not soft. It is under a PC bulb - but still in quarantine. The stiffness of the skin and the fact it curls in and around makes me think flatworms could have eggs that are hard to find.

[FlowerMama]

Ha! I had that same thing happen. A rfa in my grandis paly patch.

 

[Mirya]

Great idea! Dosing containers? I did something similar with contigo water bottles that hold a plastic straw. All I had to do was attach the dosing tube to the straw

This awesomeness needs to be on a new page

 

Thanks for the page bump, Teeny! Yup, I made dosing containers out of the VOSS bottles. Got "fancy" with using John Guest Bulkheads:

 

Then I decided to hit it with some Krylon Fusion paint:

 

Ok so I see 3 ? The DOS only has 2 ?

 

Great idea though so clue me in

 

So I decided on a DOS for the Ca/Alk and a BRS doser for the Mg. Figured I'd try them both out! And the real sexy thing is... even though Apex items are hardly ever on sale, you can get 10x points on them if you participate in the monthly N-R BRS Group Buy. So I have a ton of points on BRS now!

 

I was thinking it was a gorg, but it has bumpy skin, so likely a GSP. But the skin is really hard. Its really tough like cardboard. Flexible, but not soft. It is under a PC bulb - but still in quarantine. The stiffness of the skin and the fact it curls in and around makes me think flatworms could have eggs that are hard to find.

 

Funky! The color makes me think of encrusting gorgonian (Briareum sp), but the polyps look like some type of GSP. Although I just did a little Googling and it seems that GSP and Briareum are closely related... so, the answer is yes?

 

In other news, I bought a coral today. One of the LFS was having a sale so I had to stop by... They have this nice long zero edge tank, in which I saw I kinda sad looking black sun coral cluster. I was mildly tempted, since I have kinda wanted one after seeing this thread, but I know they are tough. I decided I'd pass, but then as I walked around to one of the other tanks, I saw a magnificent black sun coral with green highlights. So yeah, that came home with me. Here it is after dipping:

 

And sitting with the rest of my NPS:

 

The lights are ramping down on the tank as I write this, and it is starting to get some PE. I have some food ready and waiting for it.

 

Look closely at the picture of the NPS. See something on the right hand side of the picture? Along the seam of the tank under the Ammonia-Alert badge? It doesn't look like much of anything, does it. Maybe some detritis:

 

But with my blue flashlight:

 

It's a RFA baby! I offered it some cyclopeeze, which it happily gobbled up. Since it is hanging out with my NPS, it'll be sure to get target fed every other day, so hopefully it will grow fast. Its smaller than a zoa right now.

[spectra]

Nice on the Sun Coral I picked up a black one also...... is that a Balano next to the sun coral ? I had one but it would not open and eat and withered away

 

Let me know what you think of the DOS I want one

[Mirya]

Nice on the Sun Coral I picked up a black one also...... is that a Balano next to the sun coral ? I had one but it would not open and eat and withered away

 

Let me know what you think of the DOS I want one

 

I'll let you know about the DOS once it is set up!

 

Yup, the pink NPS is a Balano. I picked it up from AquaSD some time ago. It has done great for me. Before the move it lived in my Nuvo8. In that tank it would open up during the day since I had it in a little cave:

 

Since its been in this tank since the move, it tends to only open at night.

 

The orange one is a fathead Dendro. That guy is open for me 24/7. The clear ones are Phyllangia americana. The brown ones are some other unidentified Caribbean NPS, maybe some other species of Phyllangia.

[FlowerMama]

Yeah!! a baby! I miss cyclopeeze. Does anyone carry it anymore? I thought I heard there was a drought but that was like in the summer, didn't know if the population came back?

[spectra]

 

I'll let you know about the DOS once it is set up!

 

Yup, the pink NPS is a Balano. I picked it up from AquaSD some time ago. It has done great for me. Before the move it lived in my Nuvo8. In that tank it would open up during the day since I had it in a little cave:

 

Since its been in this tank since the move, it tends to only open at night.

 

The orange one is a fathead Dendro. That guy is open for me 24/7. The clear ones are Phyllangia americana. The brown ones are some other unidentified Caribbean NPS, maybe some other species of Phyllangia.

 

I picked up a Dendro and the Balano from Aquae SD also.....My Dendro is open also all the time shoot 2 inches or more on the arms.....the Balano yes did not make it and was not happy. I even tried to shade it but nope......

[Mirya]

Yeah!! a baby! I miss cyclopeeze. Does anyone carry it anymore? I thought I heard there was a drought but that was like in the summer, didn't know if the population came back?

 

This is an old freezerburned package of Cyclopeeze that I've had for awhile... IDK if it ever came back on the market.

[FlowerMama]

That makes sense. Gosh everything liked that stuff and the nems got all contorted in the mouth when they got it, they were uber excited.

[jedimasterben]

 

I picked up a Dendro and the Balano from Aquae SD also.....My Dendro is open also all the time shoot 2 inches or more on the arms.....the Balano yes did not make it and was not happy. I even tried to shade it but nope......

They're NPS, so they don't need shade, they grow on the reef crest just as well as they do in shade, some species and strains just need immense flow to get them to extend.

[spectra]

They're NPS, so they don't need shade, they grow on the reef crest just as well as they do in shade, some species and strains just need immense flow to get them to extend.

 

Mine had plenty of flow but did seem to open only at night when the lights were off. Not really sure why but that is the reason I think it did not make it. I just can not feed during the dark hours......

[Sunstar]

What exactly are john guest bulkheads?

[jedimasterben]

What exactly are john guest bulkheads?

Bulkheads that have John Guest push-fit connections.

[Mirya]

What exactly are john guest bulkheads?

 

 

Bulkheads that have John Guest push-fit connections.

 

And John Guest push-fit connections let you securely push in tubing the the connection and it locks in place (yet is still removable. RO/DI units typically have John Guest connections on them.

 

[Sunstar]

And John Guest push-fit connections let you securely push in tubing the the connection and it locks in place (yet is still removable. RO/DI units typically have John Guest connections on them.

 

OH! those things. Okay, I understand now. I didn't know their name, but found them pretty neat. Thanks for the explanation. I thought it was some sort of poofy name brand (like calvin klein), not actually a name of a type of product <3 probably the inventor, no doubt.

 

edit: well calvin klien probably designs the underwear too, but really how innovative can you get on a pair of underpants? I mean, if they had it so you could slip the legs in, use a chuck-thing to keep the legs secure and prevent a man from having gas escape, then we might be onto something. Or even so it keeps the underpants up, so plumbers butt is no longer an issue, wow take my money - I got coworkers who can use a pair - they could use belts or their pants stapled to their hips. I mean Calvin Klein - they might be nice underwear but unless the butt in it is nice, they are probably gonna look as attractive as a cheaper pair...

 

...

 

Sorry for the weird ass rant.

[FlowerMama]

ha ha ha....