Lula Mae's 1.6ish gallons of whatever I want to put in it--tank updates and news and stuff

[TinyOcean]

Does the Pompom have a name yet?! Did I miss that?

[Lula_Mae]

5 hours ago, hedgeclipper2 said:

 

 

Haha, I just finished a huge remodeling project (I work in real-estate foreclosures and I also flip houses on the side) so my personal life is just getting back on track with a couple of projects coming to a close.  The poor pico tank was just sand and cycled rock for several weeks.  I just got around to putting in a few frags I picked up from a LFS in my area (DFW) and putting them in yesterday.  I went with: Green Star Polyps, Kenya Tree, Devil's Hand Coral, Green Glove Polyps and a Green Mushroom for now (mostly cheap stuff just in case the shrimp get crazy and eat it!).  I did read that the sexies like to munch on Zoa skirts so I skipped out on any of those for that tank.  I guess I should start my own tank thread and stop hijacking this one.  Let me go take some pictures  

Gonna check out your thread momentarily, hijacking mine is no problem!

 

So I just unpacked my box of rics from the ebay seller.  I'd ordered five ricordea.  I kept pulling bags out and stopped to count...there are SEVEN bags in the box!  I looked more closely, two said "Gift!" on the side...and each gift bag has at least THREE frags each!  Holy cow!  Looks like all ricordea from a quick glance as I put the bags in the tank to temp acclimate.  Told my husband I am gonna stop complaining about the cost of the shipping cuz these freebies more than make up for it! Also told him the fun thing about little tanks is sometimes you have to do your temp acclimation in shifts lol.

 

I'll snap a few quick pics but am gonna leave the lights off for tonight to give them some time to adjust.  Hopefully will get a chance to take some pics tomorrow.

[gena]

That is so awesome!  Can't wait to see them .

[hedgeclipper2]

Looks like imma have to check this Reefgardeners website out.

 

Ugh, I have so blown my budget this month for tank stuff.

[Lula_Mae]

Sad news from ReefGardener--one of the St. Thomas mushies I ordered has pulled a vanishing act!  She thinks it melted.  So the order is on hold until I decide what I want instead lol.  But at least I got the pretties in today!

 

Here they are temp acclimating in my tank.  Pushed the water level up high enough it was about to overflow where the bubbler is lol.

 

Pre-Lugol's dip.  The five I purchased are on the left and the mass of freebies are on the right lol.  They're all babies but they will grow!  The purchased ones are a very nice size for the price I paid ($20-30 bc they were on sale!).  

 

I moved the rubble from the left hand corner and put all the rics there for the moment.  This is lit by a floor lamp beside the tank as the tank light is off.  I can't wait to turn it on tomorrow and see what they look like for real!

 

 

[Weetabix7]

Glorious Wonderfulness!!!!!!!!!!

[Lula_Mae]

23 minutes ago, hedgeclipper2 said:

Looks like imma have to check this Reefgardeners website out.

 

Ugh, I have so blown my budget this month for tank stuff.

Well, today starts a new month, right?

[Lula_Mae]

3 hours ago, TinyOcean said:

Does the Pompom have a name yet?! Did I miss that?

Sorry Tiny, I just saw this!  I have not named her yet.  Taking suggestions!

[money88]

Awesome little tank you have going here. And sweet deal on the frags!

[Lula_Mae]

9 hours ago, money88 said:

Awesome little tank you have going here. And sweet deal on the frags!

Thanks!  I agree, I'm pretty stoked about it!

 

I just turned the lights on so here's a quick peek at sleepy mushrooms!

 

Side view:

 

My purple ones don't look very purple yet but I expect they'll color up.  And my yellow/orange one is MUCH bigger than I expected lol.  Hopefully these guys will open up some more as the day goes on and I can get better pics later.

 

[hedgeclipper2]

Beautiful!

[Rain24]

New things! This is so exciting! Love that you got freebies. Cannot wait to see them color up.

 

I'm going to stare at the Reefgardener's website even though shipping to our area is the most expensive. Peeking can't hurt, right? I don't have a tank yet so I can't get into too much trouble, right?

[Weetabix7]

SO pretty, this is going to look SO good once they really settle in!!!

[cms90740]

Wow, those look awesome!

[hedgeclipper2]

Lula do you know what those blue-green polyps are called you have?  I love the coloring.

[Lula_Mae]

6 hours ago, hedgeclipper2 said:

Beautiful!

Thanks!

 

6 hours ago, Rain24 said:

New things! This is so exciting! Love that you got freebies. Cannot wait to see them color up.

 

I'm going to stare at the Reefgardener's website even though shipping to our area is the most expensive. Peeking can't hurt, right? I don't have a tank yet so I can't get into too much trouble, right?

Me either!  They look like they could be very nice pieces!

 

6 hours ago, Weetabix7 said:

SO pretty, this is going to look SO good once they really settle in!!!

I can't wait!

 

2 hours ago, cms90740 said:

Wow, those look awesome!

Thanks!

 

2 hours ago, hedgeclipper2 said:

Lula do you know what those blue-green polyps are called you have?  I love the coloring.

I do not know if they have a name.  The LFS I got them from told me they don't really do all the designer names. 

 

I'm trying to get a couple of pics from this evening up but Photobucket is not cooperating with me. I'll try again in a bit.

 

[Weetabix7]

I approve of stores with a "no designer names" policy. 

[Lula_Mae]

Ok, finally got it working lol.

 

I took another picture of everyone opened up while ago.  If you'll notice, the ric on the right decided to get a little friendly with the zoas lol.  I nudged it away a bit after I took the pictures.

 

FTS:

 

2 hours ago, Weetabix7 said:

I approve of stores with a "no designer names" policy. 

 

Yeah, I like that they don't charge per polyp or by designer name.  That's how I got the zoa frag for $20 lol.

 

I gotta shout out to Morgan aka Reef Gardener.  She worked with me to find a replacement for the MIA St. Thomas mushroom out of her new stuff going up on the site in the near future (a few things are already up) and I ended up getting several more items than planned.  They'll arrive either the middle or end of next week!

[Weetabix7]

I thoroughly approve of the new Coral Carpet in the front left corner of the tank, it looks GREAT!!!

 

I noticed there's a couple spots of hair algae though, you might wanna go after those with some peroxide before they take hold and change your beautiful Coral Carpet to Shag Carpet. That look really isn't in style. 

[Lula_Mae]

12 hours ago, Weetabix7 said:

I thoroughly approve of the new Coral Carpet in the front left corner of the tank, it looks GREAT!!!

 

I noticed there's a couple spots of hair algae though, you might wanna go after those with some peroxide before they take hold and change your beautiful Coral Carpet to Shag Carpet. That look really isn't in style. 

Haha yeahhh there's some developing and some on at least one piece of the rubble I picked up.  The rocks on the right have always been bad for hair algae.  Not sure what they're made of but I'd bought them out of the rubble bin (dry) at an LFS several years ago because I couldn't find enough small live pieces for the tank I had at the time.  Been thinking about replacing them, actually, or maybe just removing them.  Not sure yet lol.

[Lula_Mae]

So I went to look at my tank and admire it, and then looked a bit closer, and what did I see?

 

Why, somebody has come out to play!

 

Hello, there!

 

You are too cute!

 

Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to scare you!

 

[Weetabix7]

You have a really cool Pom-Pom, and it's really looking nice with all the new stuff!!

Did you say you have another order coming soon?

 

Also, I can't remember, what light are you using over this?

[Lula_Mae]

24 minutes ago, Weetabix7 said:

You have a really cool Pom-Pom, and it's really looking nice with all the new stuff!!

Did you say you have another order coming soon?

 

Also, I can't remember, what light are you using over this?

Thanks!  I'm loving it!  And yeah, I have an order with Reef Gardener coming this week (got delayed when one of my St. Thomas went MIA lol). 

 

This is the light I'm using, the Finnex Stingray.  I bought it when I was on a super budget and planning to do a macro only tank lol.  Now that I'm adding coral, I'm kinda just watching to see how stuff responds.  I think I need just a touch more blue, so I'm not sure if I want to supplement with a blue LED strip or something, or just replace the light altogether.  Might look at something like this.  I looked at the tuna blue light that Natalia uses but it's a little too blue for me--I want something in the 10-14k range max as I like a whiter light, and I think my choice of corals will do better under whiter light.

[hedgeclipper2]

19 minutes ago, Lula_Mae said:

Thanks!  I'm loving it!  And yeah, I have an order with Reef Gardener coming this week (got delayed when one of my St. Thomas went MIA lol). 

 

This is the light I'm using, the Finnex Stingray.  I bought it when I was on a super budget and planning to do a macro only tank lol.  Now that I'm adding coral, I'm kinda just watching to see how stuff responds.  I think I need just a touch more blue, so I'm not sure if I want to supplement with a blue LED strip or something, or just replace the light altogether.  Might look at something like this.  I looked at the tuna blue light that Natalia uses but it's a little too blue for me--I want something in the 10-14k range max as I like a whiter light, and I think my choice of corals will do better under whiter light.

I love the Nanobox Mini Tide I have, adjustable since you like the whites (I like the whiter light as well )

[Lula_Mae]

26 minutes ago, hedgeclipper2 said:

I love the Nanobox Mini Tide I have, adjustable since you like the whites (I like the whiter light as well )

Lol I'd love to try a Nanobox buuuuut it's out of my budget for now.  Maybe in the future.