45G Shallow - Considering a Carribean biotope

[DCUEVAS74]

On 1/2/2018 at 8:27 AM, TatorTaco said:

During my 3 day weekend, I was pretty busy with the reef tank.  Here's what I've been up to:

 

1.  Had 2 black saddle-back clown fish.  One jumped a few weeks ago, and i was having a difficult time finding another one locally.  My wife (apparently) wasn't a fan of the non-standard clown fish, so I traded in the remaining black saddle-back clown fish for a pair of (hopefully more docile) plain Jane clown fish.  

 

Out with the old 2017...

 

And in with the new 2018:

That's only 2 fish, but the reflection makes it look like 3.  FTR:  I have no intention of trading in fish on a whim moving forward.  I do think whatever keeps my wife's interest in my hobby is generally a smart call though. 

 

2.  That green plate coral of mine just wasn't doing much for me.  I tried to sell it locally along with my pink montipora for dirt cheap that I got as a freebie (I just wanted them gone) but didn't get any hits.  Long story short, I ended up trading them in for store credit to get the clowns.  Here's a few pictures of what they looked like:

 

To replace the lost corals, I picked up a long tentacle plate coral and a montipora capricornis and plopped them down right where the previous corals were.  I'm very happy with this decision and I hope they both do well in their respective places. 

The Monti Cap is about 6-7" across, so It's already taking up a chunk of real estate, which I wanted. 

 

The long tentacle plate coral's skeleton is about 3-4" and once expanded looks considerably larger.  This is a picture after it was in the tank for a few hours.  I'm excited to watch it fluff up even more like it was when I purchased it. 

 

3.  While I was at the LFS, I picked up a pretty orange mushroom (for way too much money - $30).  I'm blaming it on my unsupervised shopping spree and getting caught up in the moment.  I'm not one to haggle, but I still wish I would have asked for a discount on that one.  You might be able to see it at the bottom left of the picture showing the new clowns. 

 

4.  In the very top aquarium, I did a little mini-jump / fat kid hop to see what critters were on the sand and I happened to notice what I thought was a grandis palythoa.  The manager told me it was a button polyp, and I could have it if I wanted it for free.  Well, I didn't/don't know the difference, but I wasn't going to pass on free stuff.  I understood that nobody wanted button polyps and thought they were just ugly brown zoanthids.  I thought the grandis palythoas were like regular palys but on steroids - very large.  Let me present, this weird big thing.  It was in the sand bed with only it's skirt showing, but when it was placed in the bag, it reminded me of an anemone since it's body was kinda.... anemone like.  I know that's a terrible explanation, but it just looked....weird.  I tossed it in a shot glass solo cup with some dry rock to weigh the cup down.  it has since attached but I think I may leave it like that for a few weeks before I figure out what to do with it.  

 

5.  Lastly, I ordered a BRS screen top for my tank with the clips.  Not sure how it'll work out since my overflow is in the back left corner, but I hope to at least attempt to have something better looking covering my tank than the current solution.  

 

Oh, and I changed the color on my lights from a deep ocean blue to a lighter/whiter sky blue.  It's so nice to actually see the color on my fish while still seeing the glow from the corals.  I have no idea why I didn't do that sooner!  

 

And.... I think I'm done with my tank update. Whew. 

What a great journal of your progress with this awesome build.  What do you think of the Kessil?  I am debating on whether or not to do a single A360 with Aquaticlife's new t5 hybrid or the AP700 like yours.  Sorry to hear about your clowns, the new ones look great.  

[TatorTaco]

2 hours ago, DCUEVAS74 said:

What a great journal of your progress with this awesome build.  What do you think of the Kessil?  I am debating on whether or not to do a single A360 with Aquaticlife's new t5 hybrid or the AP700 like yours.  Sorry to hear about your clowns, the new ones look great.  

Thank you for visiting!  I'm really happy with the Kessil, but I don't know enough about lights to compare it to anything different, and I'm too new to the hobby to evaluate how it grows corals.  I will say it'll bleach my corals at 50%, so I certainly know it has the power for a deeper tank. 

[TatorTaco]

On page 2, I showed off my ghetto carpet surfing prevention screen.  I was on the fence about getting an acrylic lid or a screen lid, so I went ahead and ordered a BRS screen lid kit which came in a few days later.  I put it together on Saturday and I'm super happy with the results. I'll provide a few pictures below. 

 

BEFORE:

 

NOW:

 

Seeing the comparison, I'm pretty embarrassed to show what it looked like for a couple weeks.  I'd highly recommend this kit to anyone thinking about it.  

 

Not relevant to the post at all, but I swung by a local petstore and ran in to this thing chilling on the ground:  

Some dude was petting it, but I wasn't about to squat down that close to it's mouth.  The tiles are 12" x 12" for size comparison.  Super neat to see though. I think it's a sulcata and you see them at some zoos when they look like a scaled down Volkswagen Beetle. 

[Kayman]

Nice, that screen top looks like it came out great. Great scape too!

 

You are correct on that being a sulcata. I used to work at a small zoo and we had two of them. The male was about 100lbs and the female around 80lbs, was fun having to move them around 

[TatorTaco]

What would you do if your goby died and left the pistol shrimp solo?  

 

I believe my Hi-Fin Red Banded Goby crossed the rainbow bridge, leaving my pistol shrimp all alone.  I'm sure I have more than enough live rock (and water volume) to not crash the tank.  However, I would like confirmation he's a goner and remove him if possible. 

 

If I remove the rock that sheltered them, what are the odds I'll smash my pistol shrimp?  Since I now have 0 fish in the tank, if I somehow "encourage" the shrimp to relocate, I can't guarantee he'll get fed elsewhere, whereas I can hand feed him in his current location. 

 

Thoughts or opinions? 

[SeaFurn]

Did you check your overflow? 

 

What are the chances that you'll never find it because the shrimp cleaned up the body? 

 

I think if you simply lifted up the rock they were under he'd probably move - and hopefully off the rock you pick up if it is in fact on it. 

 

But your tank can probably handle the loss so you may want to leave things as they are so you can keep feeding the shrimp. 

 

Not much help am I? 

[LeoB]

i have a dead damsel and a dead fire fish somewhere in my 32 gal biocube for the past 4 months without ill effects (probably were bullied to death, sadly, rather than diseased). just too much trouble moving rocks to look for them.

[TotesMaGoat]

That looks like a mind blowing paly. I love mine

 

[TatorTaco]

Hey y'all!  I haven't updated since February because my wife said no new fish in the tank until we move. So... I'm now a first time homeowner as of May(ish). 

 

Before I get on with the pictures, my previous clown pair quickly passed due to brook.  No QT = mistake.  Tank ran fallow for months, except for my pistol shrimp and a few snails and 3 hermits.  I purchased a QT tank after the move (and actually used it).  I now have 2 clowns, a Tailspot Blenny, and a Yellow Watchman Goby.  All arrived healthy from LiveAquaria, but my young YWG that I ordered ended up being an adult female so it's quite large a gray instead of yellow.  That's a huge bummer, but I didn't feel right about pushing it back on LiveAquaria. 

 

Here's the tank as it stands today:

 

 

The YWG has called the rock in the back center with the monti cap above it home. 

 

However, when I took these pictures (immediately after a water change), it appears he actually found my pistol shrimp.  That's a little shrimp for such a big YWG, and the YWG sure does like to swim throughout the entire tank.  Maybe she's just not the monogamous type?  Here's a couple pictures that I took during my excitement. 

 

 

 

Now, I've always had this rock towards to the back - right (to the right of the monti cap) that is concave.  I had my hammer coral there, and after a year, it's grown exactly ZERO more heads.  That's bull crap if you ask me.  I was thinking maybe it was getting too much flow, so I dreamed about what I wanted to put there.  I've always wanted a devil's hand/finger coral and thought that'd be as good as a place as any.  Since it's a shallow tank, I have depth, but no height to work with.  Ended up with this monstrosity yesterday.  It's the first time I've fragged a leather coral.  I might have killed it during the process, but if I didn't, I'll be happy with it there (I hope).  Ended up chopping about 3" of the base to shorten it, and I might have needed to take off more.  Wasn't sure what to do with the cut base, so I just tossed it front and center of the tank for now.  It's ugly, but it won't be permanent.  I'm hoping it will shadow that concave part of the rock and maybe I could toss some mushrooms there?

 

Speaking of mushrooms, the base rock the leather coral was attached to came with the rock and had about 8 small mushrooms my wife loved.  Unfortunately, [COUGH] I butchered every last one trying to remove it from the rock.  Read between the lines on that one.  Youtubers said to put them in a low flow area of the tank with rubble rock for them to attach.  This was the best I could come up with keep them from floating away.  I intend to ignore the cup for a month or so and then take a peak and see what survived.  

 

I also ordered a feather worm on Live Aquaria.  It wasn't a WYSIWG, and that was a mistake.  I've only seen it out 2 times in the last couple months I've had it.  Doesn't appear to have bailed and relocated.  

 

I had the worst "crap" on my rocks.  It was nasty detritus that I could scrub off but it'd appear a week later.  Not cyano.  Anyway, I knew I was low on snails because my 3 hermits are jerks, so I bought about 20 and now my rocks look much better.  I'm monitoring this now that fish have all been added.  

 

I still want to add more zoanthids - nothing fancy.  Just some that grow quickly and aren't mostly green to cover some more rocks.  I'm also wanting a little ricordia garden somewhere and then rock flower anemones maybe on the middle rock. 

 

I guess that's about all I've got for now.  Hope you enjoyed the pictures. 

 

If you have any coral suggestions (and where to place them) I would certainly appreciate it!

[TatorTaco]

Karma is a dirty, smelly whore.  I was impatient and wanted to see if the mushrooms I fragged over the weekend had attached to any rocks so I could get the cup out of my DT.  I pulled the cup out with a couple bowls on the kitchen counter to seperate what mushrooms had attached vs not attached.  Oh. My. God.  It smelled so rank and quickly stank up the whole house.  I suppose removing mushrooms from a rock requires more finesse than a drunk orangutan?  Thankfully, I already had carbon in the tank as I was worried the new devil's hand coral would cause troubles.  Maybe that's why I didn't notice until they were out of the tank?

 

Needless to say, my wife didn't get to keep any mushrooms that she thought she'd get.  

 

I'm still thinking I want to downgrade to a smaller tank.  My wife is not happy about the idea since she likes the bigger size and the fact that I wouldn't recoup hardly any money for a new setup vs what I already have.  I suppose I'm just going to sulk for a while. 

[TatorTaco]

Could you suggest where I could rearrange either the Monti Cap rock or the Devil's Finger Coral rock?  My YWG has a home under this rock now and I'd prefer to not move it, but if it won't bother the YWG, then I'm cool with moving it.  My devil's finger coral in the top right has been relocated to the MS Paint black circle and is right next to my monti cap.  I think I'd like to move one of these two rocks somewhere else so I don't have 2 large corals side by side. 

 

Because this is a shallow tank, I'm lacking a bit contrast and want something that will continue to grow upwards. I also plan to purchase my first few photosynthetic gorgonians in the next week or so.  

 

Any suggestions on coral placement for the Monti Cap rock or the Devil's Finger Coral rock would be appreciated.  Also, where do you think gorgonian placement would look the best?  I know they're a med-high flow item. 

  

Edit:  the pink circles are a torch coral I'm going to end up tossing and a huge chunk of Devil's Finger Coral stalk I removed to shorten it.  Thought if I left it in the tank it might regrow (dumb experiment) so they can be removed or moved at any time. 

[TatorTaco]

Still seeking aquascape suggestions.  Tossed the dieing frags and cleaned up some sand bed.  I've been researching all weekend, and I'm really thinking about pulling out my LPS and aiming for an Atlantic biotope - maybe around the Florida keys or Carribean?  

 

Thoughts or suggestions appreciated. 

[Travis]

A Caribbean theme would be sweet.  I woukd keep the scape low like you have it. Use some gorgonians to bring the scape up virtically. 

[TatorTaco]

2 hours ago, Travis said:

A Caribbean theme would be sweet.  I woukd keep the scape low like you have it. Use some gorgonians to bring the scape up virtically. 

That’s a great point! 

 

I’ve never been diving, but I think I could recreate what you’d see just by snorkeling- low tide items.

 

Maybe use a bunch of negative space using just a little rock (my skimmer is oversized).

 

Throw gorgs in the sand bed and anchor them with buried rock rubble?

 

Build a ricordea garden the size of a small dinner plate?

 

Sea grass or some kind of plant?

 

Get a couple jawfish?

 

I’m going to search YouTube for peoples’ snorkling trips. 

[Travis]

Sounds like a good plan!