Mirya Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 So much for this tank! I really like the pops that you get from your sponges as well. Do you feed phyto or anything specific for the sponges? 1 Quote Link to comment
kimberbee Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 Lily is so cute! Is she a particular breed? 1 Quote Link to comment
gena Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 Gorgeous! Looks like you are out of space now . 1 Quote Link to comment
Felicia Posted July 6, 2015 Author Share Posted July 6, 2015 I promised a new FTS, so here it is! FTS 7/5/15 Left side Middle Right side Fun side shot of the tank. Let's start with the photos of the fish. First off, Draco since he loves to pose for photos. Mushu Mushu and Draco Mushu and Falkor Falkor The clownfish Ok now for some coral shots. Moving these to the new page 3 Quote Link to comment
Felicia Posted July 6, 2015 Author Share Posted July 6, 2015 So much for this tank! I really like the pops that you get from your sponges as well. Do you feed phyto or anything specific for the sponges? Thanks so much, Mirya! The sponges really are a great pop of primary color that you can't really get from corals. Honestly, sponges are so weird. I had a bunch in the seahorse tank and even though they all got fed the same, and were in the same tank under the same conditions, some would do great and others would just die. This was even multiple sponges of the same species. Very baffling. I used to feed a bunch, but at this point I just let them be and hope for the best. The two non-photosynthetic ones I have now have been in my tanks for ages now and just seem to do great. I don't do anything special for them, so they must just feed on stuff in the water. I do feed the tank Acropower twice a week, so they may be eating that. Love the lion fish. Thank you! They are such fascinating and beautiful fish! Lily is so cute! Is she a particular breed? Lily is quite the cutie. She's not purebred since she's a rescue, but we think she's mostly Ragdoll since she looks just like one and has a lot of the personality traits of that breed. Gorgeous! Looks like you are out of space now . Thank you, Gena I pretty much am out of space. I just want to add some nice SPS pieces to the top of the bonsai pillar and then get some more gorgs to intersperse between the corals for more height and flow. Then I'm ready to just let it all grow in. 2 Quote Link to comment
FlowerMama Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 I love the way it turned out and your pictures are so clear!!! 1 Quote Link to comment
RollaJase Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 Looking super good Felicia . I love the giant softy garden, the lions look right at home in there. 1 Quote Link to comment
Felicia Posted July 7, 2015 Author Share Posted July 7, 2015 I love the way it turned out and your pictures are so clear!!! Thank you, Annette! It really has come together lately I've just been using my iPhone 5 to take photos and it does a really good job. Looking super good Felicia . I love the giant softy garden, the lions look right at home in there. Thanks so much! I'm loving the softies too! Planning to add some more SPS soon though, so it should be more of a true mixed reef once its fully stocked. I miss my original 30 gallon mixed reef, so going back towards that. 1 Quote Link to comment
markalot Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 Great pictures, the tank looks really really healthy! Love the slimer. 1 Quote Link to comment
Felicia Posted July 8, 2015 Author Share Posted July 8, 2015 Great pictures, the tank looks really really healthy! Love the slimer. Thank you, Mark! I finally seem to have all the parameters balanced so that everything is doing really well I love the slimer! I am so excited to have it because its from my original colony that was in my 30 gallon reef. Gena grew it out from a frag from my original colony that I lost during my tank crash. I was missing it so much, so I was excited to get it from her when she downsized her tank. Gena is awesome! Not a reef tank update, but how about a quick photo of my freshwater betta tank. Haven't shared it in a while, but its doing really well. I just pruned back a bunch of the plants, so its not as much of an overgrown jungle as it was. Such an easy tank though, since I do a water change like once every 6 months. I find it very zen 7 Quote Link to comment
lkoechle Posted July 8, 2015 Share Posted July 8, 2015 Thank you, Mark! I finally seem to have all the parameters balanced so that everything is doing really well I love the slimer! I am so excited to have it because its from my original colony that was in my 30 gallon reef. Gena grew it out from a frag from my original colony that I lost during my tank crash. I was missing it so much, so I was excited to get it from her when she downsized her tank. Gena is awesome! Not a reef tank update, but how about a quick photo of my freshwater betta tank. Haven't shared it in a while, but its doing really well. I just pruned back a bunch of the plants, so its not as much of an overgrown jungle as it was. Such an easy tank though, since I do a water change like once every 6 months. I find it very zen I have a planted betta tank in an evolve 4 with a purple crowntail. Not going to lie, I forget about him when I need a sitter. And I'm just like "throw in some pellets, he'll be good" sitter: "sooooo nothing else?" me: "I guess you can look at him if you want.. but yeah. that's about it" I might give it some love this weekend... spen $10 bucks and add a few plants. freshwater prices vs saltwater prices make me want to bang my head against a wall. $1 for a plant $100 for a coral of the same size. lol I absolutely love you tank btw. I hate looking at it. Everytime I see it, I turn to my husband with big puppy dog eyes and then he tells me to go look at my tank and be grateful. lol Some day... Some day... 1 Quote Link to comment
FlowerMama Posted July 8, 2015 Share Posted July 8, 2015 What's his name? Yeah, one day I'll get my betta a bigger tank and put an AC30 in there but right now I am broke. Love your set-up. Looks so comfortable for him and natural. 1 Quote Link to comment
Felicia Posted July 9, 2015 Author Share Posted July 9, 2015 I have a planted betta tank in an evolve 4 with a purple crowntail. Not going to lie, I forget about him when I need a sitter. And I'm just like "throw in some pellets, he'll be good" sitter: "sooooo nothing else?" me: "I guess you can look at him if you want.. but yeah. that's about it" I might give it some love this weekend... spen $10 bucks and add a few plants. freshwater prices vs saltwater prices make me want to bang my head against a wall. $1 for a plant $100 for a coral of the same size. lol I absolutely love you tank btw. I hate looking at it. Everytime I see it, I turn to my husband with big puppy dog eyes and then he tells me to go look at my tank and be grateful. lol Some day... Some day... I tend to forget about my betta tank too. My tank sitter says its his favorite of all the tanks I've had so far because its so easy. Just throw in some pellets every other day and that's about it Gotta love how easy they are and they're super relaxing. Glad to hear you have a little FW planted tank as well. And yep, plants are so cheap compared to corals. We have two really good local stores for FW planted tanks here, so that makes it even more fun to plant shop. Sounds like you just need a lionfish I think you have too many small fish that would be snacks though. If it makes you feel any better, I'm jealous that you have a bigger tank for exciting fish like the rabbit and tangs. We're all such addicts in this hobby, always wanting more What's his name? Yeah, one day I'll get my betta a bigger tank and put an AC30 in there but right now I am broke. Love your set-up. Looks so comfortable for him and natural. His name is Sonic No worries about the small home. They honestly do just fine. Its just with this tank, I only have to do a water change once every 6 months or more. The betta I had for 5 years in Florida lived in a 1 gallon glass cube with some pebbles and 2 shoots of lucky bamboo and that was it. No heater, filter, light, etc. He was happy and healthy and lived to be 5, which is a long life for a betta. This betta was originally in a 2 gallon glass cube with a tiny filter and then I decided I really liked the live plants and wanted space for more of them, so I upgraded his tank. Also, my betta has a small green dragon bristlenose pleco and 3 corydoras as tank mates, so that wouldn't have worked in a tiny tank. 1 Quote Link to comment
Reef_Suds Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 Beautiful tank love all the softies! 1 Quote Link to comment
Felicia Posted July 9, 2015 Author Share Posted July 9, 2015 Beautiful tank love all the softies! Thank you so much! I definitely think softies are under appreciated. They're easy and beautiful Here are a few fun lionfish shots from last night. The lions seem to really love perching on the green nepthea. 7 Quote Link to comment
vlangel Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 Felicia, i love that pop of color from your sponges. I know you said some would do well but others did not. Any recommendations on what kind have better chances than others? I have considered getting red tree sponges and the yellow ball sponges from KP aquatics. What do you think? 1 Quote Link to comment
Felicia Posted July 16, 2015 Author Share Posted July 16, 2015 Felicia, i love that pop of color from your sponges. I know you said some would do well but others did not. Any recommendations on what kind have better chances than others? I have considered getting red tree sponges and the yellow ball sponges from KP aquatics. What do you think? Hey! Sorry for not seeing this earlier. Haven't had time for NR for the last few days. Honestly, I've had it be hit or miss even with the same type of sponges (ie get two of the same kind and lose one while another does fine), so I'm honestly not sure which ones to recommend. Basically, I think all the ones KPA sells are easier and have a reasonable chance of being successful, but I'd say its like 50/50. Right now, the two I've had long term are a red ball sponge and a yellow frilly sponge. I had a couple red tree sponges that did good for quite a while and then slowly started dying off. I'd say just make sure you put any you get in a high flow area. That's definitely key or they grow algae which smothers them. They also need good flow in order to get particulate food out of the water. If you can, I'd recommend feeding a liquid food that says its good for sponges. Other than that, I think its just kind of luck! 1 Quote Link to comment
Felicia Posted July 16, 2015 Author Share Posted July 16, 2015 Alright, sorry for not being around! Life got a bit hectic again, but I've got a quick update tonight. I worked on the tank tonight to get it all nice and clean, so tomorrow evening I'll try to take a new FTS if I have time. Anyway, I placed an order with KPA because I wanted to get a bunch of nice gorgonians to intersperse throughout my scape to give the tank that lush, gorgonian forest feel. I thought the lions would look really cool swimming in between and perching on the gorgs. Basically, I wanted to make this take a combo of the things I loved from my mixed reef tank and the things I loved from the seahorse tank. I got 6 of the medium sized gorgs from KPA (purple angular sea whip, knobby sea rod, purple plume, purple sea rod, purple sea feather, yellow sea feather) and some blue leg hermits to augment my clean up crew. KPA delivered as usual! They sent some really lovely, big gorgonians! How about some preview photos before the new FTS reveal tomorrow? Let's start with lions perched on my favorite of the new gorgonians. Knobby sea rod and a glimpse of the antennata The antennata really loves perching on these new gorgs. Yellow sea feather Little bit more of the lions! Mushu with a Draco photo bomb (fin in the upper left). Draco being a ham. Ignore the stuff floating on the surface of the water. I had just fed and its bits of food that got skimmed up as soon as the return pump kicked back on. I also took a few shots of some of my other tank inhabitants. One of my two huge red mithrax crabs that do a great job eating algae. I call this one Godzilla Haven't photographed my two starfish before. One is a nano serpent star from KPA that I got a while back. The other is a huge monster of a harlequin serpent starfish that I got a few months ago. I needed some critters that would help pick up any food bits off the sand bed since I can't have any shrimp in with the lionfish. When the lions eat, they suck in the food so fast it sort of blows up and little bits go everywhere. The hermits and starfish do a great job getting those bits off the sand bed. Wish I could get a full shot of this guy but he's shy and usually only comes out all the way after the lights shut off. One of my two trusty fighting conchs. The two of them are like Roombas for my sand bed. Awesome critters and very hardy since I've had both of mine for quite some time now! And finally, Falkor the eel and Mushu in the background. 7 Quote Link to comment
Felicia Posted July 16, 2015 Author Share Posted July 16, 2015 Oh, and in other exciting news, I won a few ebay auctions today for some nice SPS frags. Here's what I got: 1) Sky blue tort 2) Yellow sunset mille 3) Powder blue tenuis 4) Purple horrida 3 Quote Link to comment
kimberbee Posted July 16, 2015 Share Posted July 16, 2015 That purple w/ white gorg is lovely!! Is that true to color and do you remember which that was? I have a lighter purple with tan, but now I want some of that! 1 Quote Link to comment
Mirya Posted July 16, 2015 Share Posted July 16, 2015 Love the Gorg forest! I have some gorgs coming from Zia this week, so I'll be enhancing my gorg collection too. 1 Quote Link to comment
metrokat Posted July 16, 2015 Share Posted July 16, 2015 Your tank is amazing Felicia, every angle has so much color and health. Great job. What is the purple gorgonian in the front of this picture? And I hope Lily is well also. 3 Quote Link to comment
HarryPotter Posted July 16, 2015 Share Posted July 16, 2015 Wow! Where did you get those Gorgonians? These pictures are making me want to try a Gorg so badly!!!! I like how the "New" Gorgonians are also huge- thats always a plus over tiny frags 1 Quote Link to comment
ReefWeeds Posted July 16, 2015 Share Posted July 16, 2015 Looks beautiful, Felicia! 1 Quote Link to comment
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