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Rain's Reef Tanquito: New additions! New pics! :D


Rain24

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1 minute ago, Weetabix7 said:

Sounds good all around, and kudos to the hubs!!

Remind me, what light are you using again?

He thinks he has nothing to do with this project, but I see him wander over to help every so often. ;)

 

I'm going with the Par 38 Tuna Blue LED but I need to find a light fixture for it. I don't have a light over the jar yet. I figured I still have time while I'm waiting for the rocks and sand to do their thing.

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On 3/12/2017 at 3:25 PM, Rain24 said:

I really was surprised at how big the rocklooks now. I'm going to live with it for a bit and see if I want to take some out. My immediate impulse was to see if I could find a bigger bowl. LOL.

That could very quickly get out of hand :) following along! Awesome thread and tank!

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7 hours ago, money88 said:

That could very quickly get out of hand :) following along! Awesome thread and tank!

 

Right? I was thinking that I could get a larger bowl and then maybe a little 4g tank a little ways into the future. About an hour after that, I was checking out how to retrofit LEDs into my old Biocube hood. LOL.

 

Must. Focus. Reef Jar!!!

 

*****

 

And now we're just going to catch up on some documentation for posterity.

 

Tank Journal Entry

 

 

We are now IN the reef jar!

 

March 12, 2017 - I was so restless today. Just knowing I had sand in a bag kept me moving with a purpose. I made sure to rinse and dry the jar first. Then, I spent a good part of the morning re-learning how to use my hydrometer. The water in the bucket was at 1.028 SG. 100ml of distilled water brought it down to 1.026. Washed the sand thoroughly until all that cloudiness cleared up. Found a few pretty large pieces of shells and debris that I fished out. Once it was all clean, I scooped the sand in, moved the live rock into the jar, added the heater and powerhead and crossed my fingers. There was also some super gluing of vermetid snails before the rocks went into the jar. The heater dial is still set at 67F on the 50W Hydor Theo heater and it's keeping the jar at 78F. Despite the powerhead, there wasn't that huge of a sandstorm in the jar and it finally cleared up after a few hours.
 
image.jpeg
 
I also finally ordered my bulb, air pump, airline, check valve and flow valve. Oh, and some CoralRx for dipping. They should get here by Tuesday or Wednesday. Still no fixture for the bulb.

 

     Our little hitchhiker.

 

As soon as I got the live rock in, my husband took a look at the jar and found a snail zooming along the inside of the glass. Our "abalone" survived the car ride home with no water on the live rock and just wet newspapers wrapped around it. I finally got a good look at our little guy and it isn't an abalone - it's a stomatella snail! Thank goodness it is also reef safe. He's small, about 2/3rds of an inch long with his foot, and my husband has already named him Benjamin. :wub: This may or may not have been due to the latest episode of The Walking Dead.

 

image.jpeg

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On 3/25/2017 at 5:33 PM, Weetabix7 said:

How's it looking in the Reef Jar??

 

Oh...things are HAPPENING! :D

 

 

Tank Journal Entry

 

 

Another Hitchhiker:

 

March 19, 2017 - I finally took out the powerhead and added my airline tubing! I wasn't sure how everything went together, so I did air pump to a check valve, then on to a flow controller, and then into the tank. I also moved the rock so it would sit taller in the jar. Well guess what? I found another hitchhiker that was face-down in the sand all this time. It's a white tipped ball anemone (Corynactis). SG at 1.025. Maybe I'll call it "The Thing."  Anyone know if the stomatella snail will be in jeopardy if the corynactis's tentacles touch the snail?
 
March 26, 2017 - Checked my SG, and it was at 1.028. I wonder if that's why the corynactis is nothing more than a pale little lump? I added about 50ml of distilled water to bring the SG back to 1.025 and fed the tank some old Cyclopeeze that I still had in hope of coaxing the poor ball anemone to eat. The sad lump reacted a bit. Maybe there was a mouth in there, but it basically looked like a shapeless mass of tissue. I was thinking that maybe I don't have to worry about Benjamin vs. The Thing anymore. I'm sad though.
 
Changed out all of the water for the first time.
 
Added some "Test Frags" and Benjamin was spreading "JOY" around!

 

March 27, 2017 - We went on a hunt for a floor lamp for the Par38 Tuna Blue bulb. Nothing at IKEA looked promising. I was pretty bummed. I am also not inclined to go back to IKEA again. There was just not enough parking! We stopped at a LFS for some water (different water from the one that went into the tank). My goal was to find some cheap "test" frags. Or at least that's what I told my husband. Hahaha.
 
I wanted a small colony of acans but got a "No, you said you were getting test frags to make sure the tank is ready." Phooey. Why does he remember everything that I say?
 
Fine. Back to the marked down frag tank. We settled on a birds nest coral that my husband liked, a "smashed hammer" that we both liked, and a tiny frag of pocillopora that caught my eye, and 10 more gallons of mixed saltwater. The girl at the counter gave us the pocillopora for free because it was so tiny. Hurray! Free frag!
 
Back home again, I was determined to try to do things the right way. I treated parts of the frags with hydrogen peroxide (just the 3% kind from the drug store) and then dipped them in CoralRx for 5 to 10 minutes and rinsed with saltwater. EVERYTHING looked mad when I put them in the tank. The hammer was closed up tightly and the birds nest produced some slimy strings. I hurriedly set up the Tuna Blue bulb in an old floor lamp of ours that I stole from my husband. (It was his reading lamp.)
 
After a while, I saw the stomatella going towards the pocillopora. I thought that maybe I missed some algae and he was going for a snack. But then Benjamin was acting strangely. He kept standing up on the back part of his foot with his feelers extended WAY up. I figured that the newcomers maybe smelled different? So I called my husband over to check it out. Well, Benjamin apparently welcomed the newcomers by spawning! Joy all around! Alas, he looks like the only stomatella in the jar.
 
Guess what though? The corynactis came back to life after sitting there like a lump this whole week! I see tentacles again! The birds nest polyps were all extended and the pocillopora was following suit. The hammer? Nada.

 

Finally, some photos!

 

March 28, 2017 - I have my photoperiod set for 10 hours at the moment. About an hour after the lights went on, the hammer finally poked its tentacles out. I'm starting to think it isn't called a "smashed hammer." Maybe that girl meant that it was a hammer coral that got smashed? Some of its tentacles look a little worse for wear. That's okay though - these are my rescue corals! :lol:
 
March 29, 2017 - Oops! I realized after some late night browsing last night that the girl at the LFS probably said SPLATTER hammer, not smashed. LOL.
 
Bird's Nest Coral
BirdsNest_2017-03-28.jpg.37d01be1cc73c5210fb092e326e8e6a0.jpg
 
Pocillopora
Pocillopora_2017-03-28.jpg.863a81dbeac8707cd4cd7872e5a10902.jpg
 
Hammer Coral
HammerCoral_2017-03-28.jpg.18b07b0a4bef3dccf8f3993cdc307eb0.jpg
 
The Rescue Corals
RescueCorals_2017-03-28.jpg.aebf984eb51625fc8daec745bb2a1620.jpg
 
The Ball Anemone (Corynactis)
Corynactis_2017-03-28.jpg.4442427b3d5b2b563441e6205f36f82e.jpg
 
The Whole Gang
FJS2_2017-03-28.jpg.0626178d3f2ef72e34db453c5f88feb1.jpg
 
FJS_2017-03-28.jpg.e5c2a0ab4bcf0c8e279cf98724bff953.jpg

 

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Nice frags!  That ball anemone is super cool.  I once got some species of cup coral type thing with clear dotted tentacles and it was SO COOL!  Wish I'd known about feeding in those days.

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2 minutes ago, Lula_Mae said:

Nice frags!  That ball anemone is super cool.  I once got some species of cup coral type thing with clear dotted tentacles and it was SO COOL!  Wish I'd known about feeding in those days.

 

Thanks! I'm so glad the ball anemone is still sticking around. I just don't know what to feed it. And I don't know if the ball anemone going to eat the stomatella!

 

I'm ordering some Reef Roids for the tank and hoping to find a place locally that sells frozen mysis cubes. Do you think the big box pet stores carry frozen mysis?

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I know Petco does cuz that's where I got mine. :lol: Dunno about Petsmart.  Look for their freezer either near fish or reptiles, it'll have a clear glass door.  And you can cut the frozen cubes into smaller amounts cuz one will be waaaaaaay too much lol.

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Lots of exciting things happening here!!

That Hammer doesn't look too bad to me. 

I saw one spot where a tentacle might have had a tear, but that can heal. It's extending well, which is a good sign. 

I love that you are already dipping additions, that's great!!

What parts of the frags did you use peroxide on?

That was so thoughtful of Benjamin to welcome all the newbies with a special celebration. :lol:

On the little ball anemone, I honestly don't know if Ben could be hurt by it, never thought about it before. 

I expect if he felt it's sting he'd draw back quickly, I've seen snails do that before when inadvertently touching stinging corals. 

I think it would eat just about anything as long as it's not huge meaty pieces. 

Most places should have frozen Mysis and you could shave a little off a cube, dissolve it in water, then give the Nem one or two of the smaller pieces of Mysis. 

Wouldn't hurt to see if the Hammer would take a piece of Mysis as well, I feed my Frogspawn frag pieces of thawed Mysis & it takes them happily. 

(same coral family as Hammer, Euphyllia.)

 

I started out borrowing my son's floor lamp for the Tuna Blue bulb in the beginning, but I just recently got an Architect's Lamp off Amazon and like that better. 

I like that I have the option of moving it up or down, gives me a little bit of controllability, and I can move it around as far as angle too. 

I got this one that is 26" tall & I like it, but I saw one that is 35" tall & I might have liked that even better just for more range of movement up or down. 

Ooh, I found this, this would work: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00RXSRQCC/ref=psdc_1063292_t1_B002ZKHZC4

That's the same brand as the one I got (and like), but it's taller. 

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Awesome new additions! Really like to see the way the tank is coming along. Dipping is always good practice from everyone I have talked to. A lot of my reefer friends use Bayer Advanced Complete Insect Killer. 

 

If you google Bayer Dip you will see quite a bit of information on it in case you choose to use it in the future as a cheaper alternative (I think its like $13 at Lowes for 32 oz). More or less just put enough Bayer to water to make the water turn a milky color then dip for 10-15 minutes before putting in some tank water that is set aside for another 15 minutes. It should kill the living organisms but not any eggs so be sure to still inspect the coral using a small magnifying class (one with a light on it is pretty neat and handy for this situation). 

 

I like that Hammer, it will be really awesome looking when it fills out

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natalia_la_loca
3 hours ago, Weetabix7 said:

I got this one that is 26" tall & I like it, but I saw one that is 35" tall & I might have liked that even better just for more range of movement up or down. 

Ooh, I found this, this would work: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00RXSRQCC/ref=psdc_1063292_t1_B002ZKHZC4

That's the same brand as the one I got (and like), but it's taller. 

 

OMG!!!  I was just thinking how I wished I didn't have to put my lamp on top of a pile of books to have it at the right height above the water line.  This lamp looks like the perfect solution :)

 

BTW, Rain, those are some fantastic coral picks  :wub:  Loving how your jar is taking shape.

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7 hours ago, Lula_Mae said:

I know Petco does cuz that's where I got mine. :lol: Dunno about Petsmart.  Look for their freezer either near fish or reptiles, it'll have a clear glass door.  And you can cut the frozen cubes into smaller amounts cuz one will be waaaaaaay too much lol.

Oh good! There's a Petco around here somewhere. I'll check there. Thanks! I did learn about cutting the cubes from your tank thread, actually! :happy:

 

By the way, is this the Lugol's solution that I should get? I wonder if I should have some on hand just in case.

 

5 hours ago, Weetabix7 said:

Lots of exciting things happening here!!

That Hammer doesn't look too bad to me. 

I saw one spot where a tentacle might have had a tear, but that can heal. It's extending well, which is a good sign. 

I love that you are already dipping additions, that's great!!

What parts of the frags did you use peroxide on?

That was so thoughtful of Benjamin to welcome all the newbies with a special celebration. :lol:

On the little ball anemone, I honestly don't know if Ben could be hurt by it, never thought about it before. 

I expect if he felt it's sting he'd draw back quickly, I've seen snails do that before when inadvertently touching stinging corals. 

I think it would eat just about anything as long as it's not huge meaty pieces. 

Most places should have frozen Mysis and you could shave a little off a cube, dissolve it in water, then give the Nem one or two of the smaller pieces of Mysis. 

Wouldn't hurt to see if the Hammer would take a piece of Mysis as well, I feed my Frogspawn frag pieces of thawed Mysis & it takes them happily. 

(same coral family as Hammer, Euphyllia.)

 

I started out borrowing my son's floor lamp for the Tuna Blue bulb in the beginning, but I just recently got an Architect's Lamp off Amazon and like that better. 

I like that I have the option of moving it up or down, gives me a little bit of controllability, and I can move it around as far as angle too. 

I got this one that is 26" tall & I like it, but I saw one that is 35" tall & I might have liked that even better just for more range of movement up or down. 

Ooh, I found this, this would work: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00RXSRQCC/ref=psdc_1063292_t1_B002ZKHZC4

That's the same brand as the one I got (and like), but it's taller. 

I'm so glad you think the hammer is extending well. I swabbed peroxide on the skeleton of the hammer and its frag plug, but stopped about a centimeter short of the tissue. There were some pointy little growths at the bottom of the skeleton that I wasn't sure about, so I put peroxide on that too. I hope it wasn't anything neat. LOL. I also swabbed the bony part of the pocillopora since that didn't have a plug. Neither did the bird's nest. I didn't peroxide any of the bird's nest. It looked free of algae, so I just dipped that one straight into Coral Rx.

 

I hope Benjamin just pulls back from the nem without too much damage. fingerscrossed

 

Oh, I have this 5 year old can of Cyclopeeze that's still nearly full. Is that still okay to use? I have Reef Roids on order too. I'll be picking up some frozen mysis hopefully soon.

 

I like that light! I don't have much room on my tank stand though - it's from my old Biocube 14 so it has a small footprint. But I might try it out. At worst, it becomes my husband's reading lamp since I stole his. LOL. I was hoping to find a floor lamp at IKEA similar to SeaFurn's, but no such luck for us.

 

It is so exciting to have coral again! I'm wondering how long to wait on these test frags until I can add more? Two weeks? :D

 

4 hours ago, money88 said:

Awesome new additions! Really like to see the way the tank is coming along. Dipping is always good practice from everyone I have talked to. A lot of my reefer friends use Bayer Advanced Complete Insect Killer. 

 

If you google Bayer Dip you will see quite a bit of information on it in case you choose to use it in the future as a cheaper alternative (I think its like $13 at Lowes for 32 oz). More or less just put enough Bayer to water to make the water turn a milky color then dip for 10-15 minutes before putting in some tank water that is set aside for another 15 minutes. It should kill the living organisms but not any eggs so be sure to still inspect the coral using a small magnifying class (one with a light on it is pretty neat and handy for this situation). 

 

I like that Hammer, it will be really awesome looking when it fills out

Hi money! Thanks so much. I'm hoping the hammer fills out nicely. There were nice, fuller hammers in the LFS. But again, I was gently reminded that we needed to get frags we didn't mind losing in case the tank isn't ready.

 

I've been reading about Bayer too. I'm just trying to find out whether once you dispose of it, that it doesn't somehow linger in the waste water and impact other things somewhere down the line. I've been learning about water and watersheds and I'm trying to be mindful of what I put into it when I dispose of water from maintaining the reef jar.

 

1 hour ago, natalia_la_loca said:

 

OMG!!!  I was just thinking how I wished I didn't have to put my lamp on top of a pile of books to have it at the right height above the water line.  This lamp looks like the perfect solution :)

 

BTW, Rain, those are some fantastic coral picks  :wub:  Loving how your jar is taking shape.

 

Thanks natalia! I'm wondering if it looks like I have too much rock though? It's pretty big and tall in there. I was going to move it around but the corynactis hitchhiker would wind up face down in the sand again.

 

Question for you about the ABI Tuna Blue bulb. I just noticed today that when I look at the middle 5 LEDs, either one is a lot dimmer than the others or it's dead. Do any of yours look dim?

 

 

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On 3/29/2017 at 1:33 PM, Rain24 said:

Oh good! There's a Petco around here somewhere. I'll check there. Thanks! I did learn about cutting the cubes from your tank thread, actually! :happy:

 

By the way, is this the Lugol's solution that I should get? I wonder if I should have some on hand just in case.

Yep, that's the Lugol's I use!

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Looking great Rain! I don't think you have too many rocks.  And love the Hammer.  

I'm wondering how long I should wait to add a birds nest to my bowl.  I'd really like to get one sometime.  

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Tank is really coming along! :) I like the mix of different corals you went with. I second money88's recommendation of the bayer coral dip method, I've had really good luck with it. Corals seem to tolerate it really well, versus Coralrx which seems to have some negative effect on corals while its taking care of the unwanted critters.

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On 4/1/2017 at 6:24 PM, Lula_Mae said:

Yep, that's the Lugol's I use!

Thanks, Lula Mae! I'm going to pick some up soon. :)

 

On 4/1/2017 at 7:45 PM, SeaFurn said:

Looking great Rain! I don't think you have too many rocks.  And love the Hammer.  

I'm wondering how long I should wait to add a birds nest to my bowl.  I'd really like to get one sometime.  

Thank you! I was just wondering if it was too tall and too broad, not much room around the foot to add my acans. LOL. I also didn't want it to impede flow too much. I might run a second air line in there for more flow.

 

I didn't realize that you had to wait to add a birds nest. :unsure: They told me at the LFS that it was an easy coral as long as I had the right light. The polyps are extending well, so I'm hoping!

 

On 4/1/2017 at 10:12 PM, tinyforest said:

Tank is really coming along! :) I like the mix of different corals you went with. I second money88's recommendation of the bayer coral dip method, I've had really good luck with it. Corals seem to tolerate it really well, versus Coralrx which seems to have some negative effect on corals while its taking care of the unwanted critters.

Thanks! I'm enjoying having corals again!

 

I still have to do more research on dips. I'm still on the fence about Bayer mainly because I'm trying not to put anything into wastewater that might not get filtered out. I've been taking some classes that touch upon the environmental impact of what we put in our wastewater and that's making me consider how I'm going to approach pest control in this tank.

 

21 hours ago, HammerLover said:

Love all those new sps frags! And Im digging that hammer too (my username isnt obvious right?) :wub: 

Thanks, Hammer! I hope my little hammer fills out eventually. He's such a teeny frag. It's a splatter hammer according to the LFS. I didn't know what she meant at first until I saw pics later on the internet. The pattern of the fluorescent tips are splattered sometimes, not always uniform. So, he's just a little different from your average hammer. :happy:

 

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