Dr. Felicia's Back to Basics IM14 - Retired 2/25/2020

[Felicia]

2 hours ago, Justind823 said:

Thank you!! That pretty much settles it for me then. 

 

What is the LFS that carries it down your way? The two stores near me don't carry it and they're really not great stores anyway. I might pick some up coming back from the airport.

Aquatic Collection stocks the Real Reef rock and is where I've purchased it both times I've bought some.  They're my favorite local store and where I generally shop.

[Felicia]

Tank Updates:

 

I got busy this past weekend and didn't get around to doing a water change.  However, I'm now beginning to think that the tank was too clean.  Now that I've let the tank go a few weeks without a water change, everything is looking so amazingly puffy and colorful.  Everything is looking happier everyday.  I guess the softies and gorgs wanted the water a bit dirtier.  Seems like a good sign that I'll be able to go a while between water changes for this tank without any ill effects.

[Subsea]

That is phenomenal with a tank < 3 months.   

 

I got some uncured live rock for you to see.  I like everything on it, but the wire like dark maroon macro is spreading too much.  It gets  soft toothbrush and hydrogen peroxide.

 

This uncured rock has a decomposing Red Tree Sponge that was 16” tall.  I left it alone hoping things would turn.  The nano rock at base of sponge is absolutely gorgeous.

[Felicia]

5 minutes ago, Subsea said:

That is phenomenal with a tank < 3 months.   

 

I got some uncured live rock for you to see.  I like everything on it, but the wire like dark maroon macro is spreading too much.  It gets  soft toothbrush and hydrogen peroxide.

 

This uncured rock has a decomposing Red Tree Sponge that was 16” tall.  I left it alone hoping things would turn.  The nano rock at base of sponge is absolutely gorgeous.

Beautiful rock!  Live rock like that is so beautiful and it is fascinating the watch all the life that pops up on it over time.  I got some really nice live rock from KP Aquatics for one of my previous tanks and it was some wonderful rocks.  However, I've fought pests in my tanks over the years and decided to go the guaranteed pest free route of getting man made rock.  However, there are definitely pros and cons because then you don't get all the variety of life.  I love all those sponges on your rocks and lovely color from all the coralline algae.

[Felicia]

Photo Time! 

I snapped a bunch of photos tonight when I fed the tank.  Ignore the silly diatoms on the sand bed.  Gotta love new tank syndrome.    I'll siphon them out when I finally get around to a water change.

 

First off, here are the two new corals I grabbed Friday from the LFS.  These need to be removed from the plugs and placed into their permanent locations.  Xenia frag with the YWG hanging out.

 

The new fuzzy green mushroom.

 

All right, now just a ton of random photos! 

 

Ricordea Garden

 

 

 

Zoas and Palys

King Midas Zoas - an oldie but a goodie!  I'm loving these. 

 

Cornbread Rainbow Infusions

 

Purple People Eaters

 

Radioactive Dragon Eyes and Unknowns

 

Eagle Eyes and Rastas

 

Blondies, Eagle Eyes, Rastas, Bam Bams, and Goblins on Fire

 

Radioactive Dragon Eyes, King Midas, Purple People Eaters, Cornbread Rainbow Infusions

 

Other Corals

 

Weeping Willow Toadstool - the color on this gets better every day!  

 

So much fluffy!

 

Toadstool and Cespitularia

 

Knobby Sea Rod

 

Green Capnella (kenya tree)

 

Green Capnella Top-Down

 

St. Thomas Mushroom

 

Long Polyp Toadstool

 

Critters

 

The firefish was really posing tonight!

 

 

Pederson's Anemone Shrimp (again, ignore the icky diatoms!)

 

Porcelain Anemone Crab

 

Yellow Watchman Goby

 

And to finish things off...THIS IS THE LIFE!

[Nano sapiens]

I like the natural look that you've created, here.  As a result, the tank looks more mature than it actually is.

[vlangel]

Absolutely beautiful photos!  What a wonderfully satisfying tank.  I love the view from your sofa, (including Lily)?

[Subsea]

Your right about the pest.  

 

I think there might be something wrong with me.  I enjoy  hunting Aptasia.  Maybe some kind of  repressed cave man thing.  

 

My  favorite Aptasia control is Peppermint Shrimp.  It’s like watching gladiators at the Roman collasium.  I like peppermint shrimp in general for the way they feed and swim.  I have had them spawn in a mixed garden tank that I had.  For me, better than Peppermint Shrimp are Glass / Grass Shrimp.  In my early reefing days, I would feed my tank with these omnivores by netting them in near by grass flats.  I will make an exploratory hunt for grass shrimp today in the Colorado River here in Austin.  In my growout tanks,

I adjust fresh water mollies to full strength salt, but I have caught green mollies in salt water estuaries.

 

https://www.livebrineshrimp.com/ShrimpJanitor.htm

 

These Shrimp fit into a long range goal of growing live food for marine aquarium hobbiest.  I initially experimented with outdoor aquaculture in three 150 Rubbermade tanks buried in the ground for geothermal transfer and insulation from ambient air temperature.  When maintaining system above 60 degrees, it got expensive in the winter.  I have adjusted my game plan on live food to include green mollies, sheepshead minnows and pods.  At this time the macro that I am going with are Grape Caulerpa and Caulerpa Prolifera.  Russ Kronwetter suggested I go with Ulva.

Added to the diversity in the 450G growout system was 100 lbs of uncured live rock.  This uncured live rock is sitting on top of 100 lbs of Edwards Plateau dry limestone, which is sitting on top of 100 lbs of CaribSea aroggonite.  I hope to seed this system with diversity.  The 90 lbs of cured rock will go into a new 120G tank build after Thanksgiving.

[Biglex]

nice tank set up!

[ninjamyst]

looks great!  love all the different zoas, especially king midas.  it's definitely one of my favs

[RollaJase]

The tank is looking fantastic Felicia, a lot has changed since I checked in last. I have been keeping up with your videos on YouTube though . Reefapalooza and Halloween looked like so much fun!

[teenyreef]

Great update! I'm with you on the dry rock. I tried it in my 30g frag tank, and not only did it take forever (it's still not completely in balance even 10 months later), but I still got pests in the tank when I brought in frags from my other tanks. I would have been better off starting with some variation of cured or uncured rock.

 

I started both my 10g and 40g tanks with uncured rock from KPA and was very happy both times. I'd rather deal with pests, since they seem to hitchhike in no matter what, in exchange for the far better biodiversity you get.

[Felicia]

On 11/8/2017 at 12:29 AM, Nano sapiens said:

I like the natural look that you've created, here.  As a result, the tank looks more mature than it actually is.

Thank you!    I'm definitely going for the really natural look in this tank.  And yeah it may look mature because I filled it up already, but its definitely not.  Its like 2.5 months old now, so I'm still on watch for any new tank issues.  So far its been reasonably smooth sailing...knock on wood! 

On 11/8/2017 at 4:48 AM, vlangel said:

Absolutely beautiful photos!  What a wonderfully satisfying tank.  I love the view from your sofa, (including Lily)?

Thank you, Dawn!  I'm really liking being able to spend more time just enjoying this tank and less time doing maintenance.  The 6-month break from the hobby was very refreshing, but I definitely missed the nice view of the tank from my couch.  Its nice to have that view again but in a smaller, more contained, and simpler package.  I'm actually working from home today, so I'm working from my couch again with Lily curled up on my legs and a nice view of the tank.   Its starting to actually get chillier here, which is nice since I don't have AC.  Lily gets so much more cuddly when its a bit cooler.

On 11/8/2017 at 5:52 AM, Subsea said:

Your right about the pest.  

 

I think there might be something wrong with me.  I enjoy  hunting Aptasia.  Maybe some kind of  repressed cave man thing.  

 

My  favorite Aptasia control is Peppermint Shrimp.  It’s like watching gladiators at the Roman collasium.  I like peppermint shrimp in general for the way they feed and swim.  I have had them spawn in a mixed garden tank that I had.  For me, better than Peppermint Shrimp are Glass / Grass Shrimp.  In my early reefing days, I would feed my tank with these omnivores by netting them in near by grass flats.  I will make an exploratory hunt for grass shrimp today in the Colorado River here in Austin.  In my growout tanks,

I adjust fresh water mollies to full strength salt, but I have caught green mollies in salt water estuaries.

 

https://www.livebrineshrimp.com/ShrimpJanitor.htm

 

These Shrimp fit into a long range goal of growing live food for marine aquarium hobbiest.  I initially experimented with outdoor aquaculture in three 150 Rubbermade tanks buried in the ground for geothermal transfer and insulation from ambient air temperature.  When maintaining system above 60 degrees, it got expensive in the winter.  I have adjusted my game plan on live food to include green mollies, sheepshead minnows and pods.  At this time the macro that I am going with are Grape Caulerpa and Caulerpa Prolifera.  Russ Kronwetter suggested I go with Ulva.

Added to the diversity in the 450G growout system was 100 lbs of uncured live rock.  This uncured live rock is sitting on top of 100 lbs of Edwards Plateau dry limestone, which is sitting on top of 100 lbs of CaribSea aroggonite.  I hope to seed this system with diversity.  The 90 lbs of cured rock will go into a new 120G tank build after Thanksgiving.

Aiptasia don't really both me too much, since at least from my experience they're relatively easy to control.  As long as you get rid of them as soon as you start seeing them, they seem to be controllable.  I agree that its fun to get inverts and fish that are predators for the pests and watch them go to town.

On 11/8/2017 at 5:57 AM, Biglex said:

nice tank set up!

Thank you! 

On 11/8/2017 at 6:23 AM, ninjamyst said:

looks great!  love all the different zoas, especially king midas.  it's definitely one of my favs

Thank you!  I only had a few varieties of zoas in the 40B, so I figured with this smaller tank it would be fun to get a variety of nicely colored zoas.  I've always like the King Midas zoas, but I've never had any before.  I love that they're a nice bright yellow color even under my very white lighting.

20 hours ago, RollaJase said:

The tank is looking fantastic Felicia, a lot has changed since I checked in last. I have been keeping up with your videos on YouTube though . Reefapalooza and Halloween looked like so much fun!

Thank you, Jase!  Yeah, I moved pretty quick with stocking this tank since I knew exactly what I wanted.  Glad to hear you've been watching the videos.  I always feel like you get a better sense for a tank from videos than just still images.  Also I really enjoy putting together the videos.    RAP and Halloween were both a blast!  Its too bad its almost another year until I get to go to another reef conference/convention.  I already purchased my ticket for MACNA next year in Las Vegas.  

7 hours ago, teenyreef said:

Great update! I'm with you on the dry rock. I tried it in my 30g frag tank, and not only did it take forever (it's still not completely in balance even 10 months later), but I still got pests in the tank when I brought in frags from my other tanks. I would have been better off starting with some variation of cured or uncured rock.

 

I started both my 10g and 40g tanks with uncured rock from KPA and was very happy both times. I'd rather deal with pests, since they seem to hitchhike in no matter what, in exchange for the far better biodiversity you get.

Yeah I've been able to cycle tanks and then have them reach the balanced/mature state so much faster with live rock compared to dry rock.  And its true you can just end up introducing pests anyway!  I've been trying to be super on top of pest prevention in this new tank by giving every single new frag a soak in Revive.  Its not 100%, but it at least helps.  Granted, I noticed a bit of bubble algae on the frag plug at the base of one of my gorgonians yesterday.  Kill it with fire!  I love the KPA live rock, so I'd honestly use either that or Real Reef rock in any tank.  There are pros and cons to both.  For this tank, I just decided the Real Reef Rock was a better option because I could get it locally, which meant I could pick out the exact pieces (sizes/shapes) I wanted to design the scape.  I also didn't need all that much for this tank, so it was cheaper/easier not to have to pay shipping for a small quantity.  I do miss some of the biodiversity with this rock compared to actual live rock, but I have to say that I do not miss the vermatid snails one bit!  Those things were all over my 40B and were such a pain!

[ninjamyst]

i have vermatid snails all over my 75 gallon and i started with dry rock...so you may still get "lucky" and score some =P.

[gena]

Everything looks wonderful .

[Felicia]

22 hours ago, ninjamyst said:

i have vermatid snails all over my 75 gallon and i started with dry rock...so you may still get "lucky" and score some =P.

Oh yeah, it's definitely still easy to get those annoying little things! I just know I had a bunch to start with on my live rock. It seems like with each new tank I've set up, I seem to get a different irritating pest. We'll see what I end up with in this tank. 

21 hours ago, gena said:

Everything looks wonderful .

Thank you, Gena. It's so relaxing and easy so far...I'm like waiting for the other shoe to drop! 

[Minidoll]

Felicia, I'm in love with this tank of yours! It's absolutely stunning, hard to believe it's still so young. Simply amazing!

[pappadumplingz]

Tank looking great as always!  I wish I could own florida rics legally, heard if you have them here your tank gets bleached if fisheries finds out. Lovely watchman goby too. Got lucky and saw a few in the wild a month ago, paired up with pistol shrimps.

[Rene]

This looks like a really relaxing tank to watch. All those softies swaying in the current. Good job on the careful composition and selection here. 

[Subsea]

Papa,

living down under and to go diving on the Great Barrier Reef.  What a way to round out the hobby!  To see where they come from.  You are most fortunate.

 

When collection of Florida corals was banned in 1991, permits were issued to offshore lease holders who dumped  > 5 million tons of dead limestone on a smooth sandy bottom in 30’ of water.   I am very familiar with three of these rock farmers, all out of Tampa.   Two are in 30’ of water 10 miles offshore and one is in 50’ of water and 20 miles offshore.  Corals attached to these rocks are considered aquacultured and as such did not fall under definition of wild corals.

[Felicia]

Sorry for the delay in responding, everyone!  Work has been busy and I haven't been on much!  This time of year everyone is trying to get things done before the holidays and we tend to get pretty crazy.  It has slowed down substantially this week and then will be slow again over Christmas/New Year.  I'll try to be around a bit more!  

 

On 11/11/2017 at 6:59 PM, Minidoll said:

Felicia, I'm in love with this tank of yours! It's absolutely stunning, hard to believe it's still so young. Simply amazing!

Thank you so much!   Yep, it still is very young.  It'll be much more impressive if it still looks like this once its had some time to mature.   The tank is now right about 3 months old.

On 11/11/2017 at 7:05 PM, pappadumplingz said:

Tank looking great as always!  I wish I could own florida rics legally, heard if you have them here your tank gets bleached if fisheries finds out. Lovely watchman goby too. Got lucky and saw a few in the wild a month ago, paired up with pistol shrimps.

Thank you!  That's too bad that Florida ricordea are illegal in your area.  Are ricordea yuma legal?  I bet seeing watchman gobies in the wild was fascinating!  Their symbiotic relationship with the pistol shrimp has always fascinated me.

On 11/11/2017 at 7:54 PM, Rene said:

This looks like a really relaxing tank to watch. All those softies swaying in the current. Good job on the careful composition and selection here. 

The tank is really very relaxing!  Part of that is the swaying softies/gorgs and part of it is just that its low maintenance/stress,   Thank you!  I stocked it really quickly, but that was because I had in mind exactly what I wanted to make it have the look/feel it has and to make it easy to care for.  I still have a few things on my list of wants, but the tank is mostly stocked.

[Felicia]

On 11/11/2017 at 8:09 PM, Subsea said:

Papa,

living down under and to go diving on the Great Barrier Reef.  What a way to round out the hobby!  To see where they come from.  You are most fortunate.

 

When collection of Florida corals was banned in 1991, permits were issued to offshore lease holders who dumped  > 5 million tons of dead limestone on a smooth sandy bottom in 30’ of water.   I am very familiar with three of these rock farmers, all out of Tampa.   Two are in 30’ of water 10 miles offshore and one is in 50’ of water and 20 miles offshore.  Corals attached to these rocks are considered aquacultured and as such did not fall under definition of wild corals.

There's another of those rock farmers in the Florida Keys - KP Aquatics.  They've got a plot of the dead limestone they aquaculture somewhere in the Florida Keys.  Also, not all Florida corals are banned from collection.  All the stony (LPS and SPS) corals are banned from my understanding (with the exception of the aquacultured live rock plots).  I think a bunch of the sea fans are also illegal to collect.  However, many of the gorgonians, ricordea, mushrooms, zoanthids, and anemones are legal to collect with a permit and in specific quantities in Florida.

[Felicia]

Tank Updates

1. I'm a slacker!  Work has been busy so I have done nothing except feed the tank and change the filter pad when it got really clogged.  I FINALLY just did a water change last night.  I believe the last water change was on October 22, so it was almost exactly a month that the tank went between water changes and it was doing just fine!  No nuisance algae except for a light growth on the glass, and all the corals/inhabitants were still looking happy and healthy.  The diatoms on the sand bed have also mostly cleared up.
2. Since I did a water change, I'll try to get some photos and a new video ASAP.  I'm staying in town for the holiday weekend, so I'll have 4 days off from work to enjoy my tank and hopefully take lots of photos and video.
3. I'm a bit concerned something happened to the firefish.  She was doing great, but then she's been MIA for almost a week now.  She's not in her usual hiding place and she hasn't come out for food.  I'm not sure what could have happened because I have a tight fitting lid and she seemed perfectly healthy.  I haven't entirely given up hope, but its been long enough that I think she's probably gone.  That's a bit frustrating, but it is what it is sometimes with fish.  If she doesn't turn up soon, I'll get a replacement and try again.  She was such a beautiful fish.
4. I had another scare with the pom pom crab, but luckily everything is ok!  Two nights ago I found what was either a molt or a dead crab.  I removed it from the tank and looked at it closely and was convinced it was a dead crab.  It was 100% intact and just looked like an entire crab, and not like a molt.  I thought maybe the porcelain crab had killed the pom pom crab, because a few days ago, the porcelain crab up and relocated from his usual spot into the pom pom crab's territory.  I saw the pom pom crab smacking at the porcelain crab with his anemones a few nights back, so I was worried they'd gotten into a fight over territory.  Then last night when I fed the tank, out came the pom pom crab.  He had molted and is just fine!  Still has both his anemones following the molt, too!  Him and the porcelain crab appear to be sharing the same territory now.  Weird critters.
5. All the corals are doing wonderfully and I'm definitely seeing growth.  I finally removed my two newest corals (xenia and green fuzzy mushroom) from the plugs and got those glued in place last night before the water change.

[Subsea]

One thing nice about tanks that are in harmony with nature, they need little attention from us.

 

You are a brave person to put the Xenia into such a productive small tank.  I had a Dutch Systems Aquarium with a 6’ wall of the silver Pom Pom from the Red Sea.  Absolutely gorgeous.

 

 

[Felicia]

15 minutes ago, Subsea said:

One thing nice about tanks that are in harmony with nature, they need little attention from us.

 

You are a brave person to put the Xenia into such a productive small tank.  I had a Dutch Systems Aquarium with a 6’ wall of the silver Pom Pom from the Red Sea.  Absolutely gorgeous.

 

 

I was on the fence about whether I wanted to add xenia, since it can get out of control.  I decided to go for it since I had some in the predator tank, which was full of nutrients.  The xenia in that tank never got out of hand and just stayed as a nice little colony and never bothered any other corals.  We'll see what the xenia does in this tank.  I however do refuse to add GSP because I've had that become a giant pain with growing into/smothering adjacent corals.  GSP is almost impossible to get rid of once its established.  Xenia is odd because it can grow like a weed, but its also touchy in certain ways.  I feel like if it becomes a problem, its much easier to get rid of than GSP.