Where the Wild Things Are: 100 Days (rezing the thread)

[Boggers]

On 6/22/2017 at 3:58 PM, lkoechle said:

I know one is photosynthetic, the others I treat as NPS and one I am 90% sure is NPS.  I feed either phytofeast or reefroids every other day and dose KZ SpongePower (1 drop) and Brightwell Silica SpongeExcel (3 drops) daily.  I also pour in the thawed water from mysis and stuff since I read they like the "milk".  I will say they have a strong feeding response for sure.

 

ETA: this is also a pretty high flow tank.  and with the gorgonians specifically, I notice they prefer it for shedding their skin.

 

Thanks!

 

1 hour ago, kimberbee said:

Seriously my favorite tank right now. Loooove the colors. I'm sure you've said it before - what do you use for feeding the nps gorgs, how much, and how often? 

It was just at the top of the page.

[lkoechle]

1 hour ago, Boggers said:

 

It was just at the top of the page.

 

@kimberbee Thanks for the compliment!  I love it.  I think I love it more than my SPS tank.  Shhhh... lol

 

 

[lkoechle]

These gorgs this morning!

 

 

and I am joining the rock painting craze lol

 

 

 

[Weetabix7]

I love this tank. 

I love how lush and full of life it is. 

[Boggers]

I think one of the lost arts of reef keeping is taking a little hunk of ocean rock and putting in your tank. All to often people use dry rock, dry sand, and water and try to build it from the ground up. (me included) This tank celebrates all the creatures that live in the ocean as part of they ecosystem, pests and all.

 

This might be a great way to go for those looking to get instant reef look in the shortest amount of time possible. Provided they know how to take care of the possibilities.

[William]

I love that gorgonian, did it come in the package? Know the species ? 

[lkoechle]

3 hours ago, Weetabix7 said:

I love this tank. 

I love how lush and full of life it is. 

Thanks! Me too!

 

3 hours ago, Boggers said:

I think one of the lost arts of reef keeping is taking a little hunk of ocean rock and putting in your tank. All to often people use dry rock, dry sand, and water and try to build it from the ground up. (me included) This tank celebrates all the creatures that live in the ocean as part of they ecosystem, pests and all.

 

This might be a great way to go for those looking to get instant reef look in the shortest amount of time possible. Provided they know how to take care of the possibilities.

I agree.  I always start sterile.  So this was a huge departure from the norm for me, but I figured it'd be a perfect experiment for a contest tank.  I have a lot of animals I otherwise would've never thought of keeping.  I absolutely love it.  I think one of my future tanks will be doing this in a sumped 40B with dwarf lionfish and an eel like Felicia's tank.  

 

I absolutely adore how wild everything is in this tank.  I love it.  And I love what a learning experience it has been with the care for so many unexpected creatures.

4 minutes ago, William said:

I love that gorgonian, did it come in the package? Know the species ? 

Everything in the tank came with the package   I think it's a Red Finger Gorgonian.  But I'm not sure.

[lkoechle]

Tank was very happy this morning.  Red gave me a molt heart attack but he is alive and well.  I moved the corky fingers because they didnt seem to ve doing as well as a smaller frag I had at the end of the peninsula, so i moved them over there and i epoxied the soonges at the end of the arch down.

[lkoechle]

 

FTS 9

 

 

Still chuggin along.  The nitrates are always fairly high in this tank do i ordered some XPort NO3 Cubes since @metrokat seems to have had good things to say about them.  That will come in Friday.

 

 

 The NPS gorgs have turned a corner, when i got them every single tip had skeleton showing.  Now most of the tips are covered in flesh again.  I am pretty stoked about that.  still havent seen any noticeable recovery in the more heavily damaged branches, but it isnt progressing. So thats good.  The are also open far more often now.  The sponges have also showed signs of increased growth.  So all is well it seems.  fingers crossed it keeps going!

 

[Weetabix7]

14 minutes ago, lkoechle said:

 

FTS 9

 

 

Still chuggin along.  The nitrates are always fairly high in this tank do i ordered some XPort NO3 Cubes since @metrokat seems to have had good things to say about them.  That will come in Friday.

 

 

 The NPS gorgs have turned a corner, when i got them every single tip had skeleton showing.  Now most of the tips are covered in flesh again.  I am pretty stoked about that.  still havent seen any noticeable recovery in the more heavily damaged branches, but it isnt progressing. So thats good.  The are also open far more often now.  The sponges have also showed signs of increased growth.  So all is well it seems.  fingers crossed it keeps going!

 

That recovery and growth is so exciting & says a lot for your husbandry!!

Maybe you'll become the new "go to person" for sponge and gorgonian care.

[lkoechle]

24 minutes ago, Weetabix7 said:

That recovery and growth is so exciting & says a lot for your husbandry!!

Maybe you'll become the new "go to person" for sponge and gorgonian care.

ha! doubt it. lol We will see how it stands the test of time.

[lkoechle]

besides, you know hoe high my nitrates are, my husbandry is not very good... 

[Boggers]

You don't have as high Nitrates as I do, and my gorgs like it fine. I moved a bunch of things around the other day, I will have to post a pic. 

The toadstoods are just about done shedding so it is looking much better again.

[lkoechle]

17 minutes ago, Boggers said:

You don't have as high Nitrates as I do, and my gorgs like it fine. I moved a bunch of things around the other day, I will have to post a pic. 

The toadstoods are just about done shedding so it is looking much better again.

dont believes. lol mine are somewhere between 20 and 50.  (red sea doesnt show in between that lol)

[Weetabix7]

1 hour ago, lkoechle said:

besides, you know hoe high my nitrates are, my husbandry is not very good... 

  

Hmm.

I think it is wiser to use the health & happiness of your tank inhabitants as the barometer for how good your husbandry is, rather than whether or not you have "perfect numbers".

Besides, what if we're wrong about what "perfect numbers" are?

I have been in the past.

However, it's not hard to look in the tank and see whether things look happy.

[lkoechle]

 

[Boggers]

I haven't tested in a while but use to be 80. Should get a baseline again.

[lkoechle]

8 hours ago, Boggers said:

I haven't tested in a while but use to be 80. Should get a baseline again.

I guess you win on nitrates 

 

21 hours ago, Weetabix7 said:

  

Hmm.

I think it is wiser to use the health & happiness of your tank inhabitants as the barometer for how good your husbandry is, rather than whether or not you have "perfect numbers".

Besides, what if we're wrong about what "perfect numbers" are?

I have been in the past.

However, it's not hard to look in the tank and see whether things look happy.

Yeah considering how everything looks in the tank, I am surprised by how high nitrates are.  I really didn't think they would be up like that without seeing more impact.  I mean, thatd good though lol.  Gives me some wiggle room to not have to micromanage outside of my weekly water change.   I would really like to go every two weeks though.  Thats what I am hoping the Xport cubes will help with.

[metrokat]

Just amazing. How are things going with all your tanks?

[lkoechle]

13 minutes ago, metrokat said:

Just amazing. How are things going with all your tanks?

Really well.  I have been meaning to test the sps tank... probably need to start dosong. I keep forgetting but everything is going well with everybody and the new clownfish is eating like a clownfish. only a few more weeks before the sps tank with have fish again!  Yoshii's tank just looks boring but he constantly moves crap around and rearranges so he cant be trusted with any cool corals.  I am thinking about making his tank a pest tank like @Islandoftiki with mojanos such.  i mean, I already have clove polyps, a kenya tree and gsp in there. might as well commit.

[lkoechle]

WEEK 10 FTS

 

Nothing super new here.  We added a screen and I glued the NPS gorgs to a piece of rubble.  I did just have them buried.  But Maru, the urchins, and possibly Red all decided in the same week they didn't like that anymore so I had to glue them lol

 

I did add the Xport, so we will see friday how thats working and if I can skip a water change.  Other than that, things are just dandy!

 

 

[Boggers]

Any possibility to get a pic of the other side of this tank? I knew there are some sweet things on that side too. I know it is not as easy to get a good pic however.

[lkoechle]

7 hours ago, Boggers said:

Any possibility to get a pic of the other side of this tank? I knew there are some sweet things on that side too. I know it is not as easy to get a good pic however.

most of the sweet things are in the front.  but I can backside shot tomorrow. lol

[gogeta]

Tank looks amazing great job so far!

[lkoechle]

First loss.  I woke up to this 

 

There was no salvageable part of the sponge I could cut.  I dont know what the cause is.  it looked great yesterday.

 

Really bummed.  I dont have time to do a full battery of tests right now, but nitrates were good yesterday when i tested.  I will test after church.

 

Super super super disappointed right now.

 

Sponges are dumb.