Dark Side of the Lagoon

[Clown79]

8 hours ago, Subsea said:

With respect to a lagoon biotheme, this is one interpretation.  It is a 75G  grow out tank for Red Grapes, dragon breath, GSP and Green Sinularia.

For me personally I don't want a theme tank.

I don't believe anyone should have to stick to a theme, do what you like if you can provide the right system for the livestock.

My aquariums are chosen according to my preference in corals, I think everyone's should be.

 

I also don't have the room for an additional set up to produce food for certain live stock. Not is everything available here. 

 

[Moorahs]

27 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

My aquariums are chosen according to my preference in corals, I think everyone's should be.

Viva la personal preference, I say. Hats off to people who faithfully recreate a biotope because that’s what they want. Equally, hats off to those who base it on something else.

 

I choose livestock and it’s placement on my tastes and aesthetics, layered over tank logistics (light, flow, neighbors, growth pattern etc). Is it a faithful reproduction of how and where they’d exist in the ocean? Frankly I’ve got NFI - I’ve never seen them there. But in the artificiality of the box of saltwater in my lounge room, *I* think they look amazing and they’re thriving and for me that’s a win. 

[Subsea]

16 hours ago, Clown79 said:

For me personally I don't want a theme tank.

I don't believe anyone should have to stick to a theme, do what you like if you can provide the right system for the livestock.

My aquariums are chosen according to my preference in corals, I think everyone's should be.

 

I also don't have the room for an additional set up to produce food for certain live stock. Not is everything available here. 

 

 

Clown,

 

Your tanks are gorgeous.  That is your theme.  As for tank produced live food, as long as the inhabitants get nutrients and your nutrient sink is  gorgeous corals and fish, your interpretation of beauty is easily seen and is a testimony of your husbandry skills.  

 

One beauty of this this hobby is we can all interpret/express beauty as each of us sees it.  There is no one right way.  I meant Eric Boreneman at a MAST conference in Pittsburg.  We were on the same plane back to Houston and I soaked up his knowledge.  In one of his books, he said, “if someone tells you there way is the only way to run a reef tank, run away from them”.  

 

With respect to live foods, the absolute best is live bivalves.  Are live clams, mussels or oysters available at a seafood market?  I live 400 miles from the Gulf coast, but I get live seafood from Argentina.

 

Sorry to preach.  I meant to compliment your tanks, but used it as an opportunity to lift up my stuff.  It want happen again.

[Clown79]

47 minutes ago, Subsea said:

 

Clown,

 

Your tanks are gorgeous.  That is your theme.  As for tank produced live food, as long as the inhabitants get nutrients and your nutrient sink is  gorgeous corals and fish, your interpretation of beauty is easily seen and is a testimony of your husbandry skills.  

 

One beauty of this this hobby is we can all interpret/express beauty as each of us sees it.  There is no one right way.  I meant Eric Boreneman at a MAST conference in Pittsburg.  We were on the same plane back to Houston and I soaked up his knowledge.  In one of his books, he said, “if someone tells you there way is the only way to run a reef tank, run away from them”.  

 

With respect to live foods, the absolute best is live bivalves.  Are live clams, mussels or oysters available at a seafood market?  I live 400 miles from the Gulf coast, but I get live seafood from Argentina.

 

Sorry to preach.  I meant to compliment your tanks, but used it as an opportunity to lift up my stuff.  It want happen again.

No need for apologizing. I'm sorry if some how I offended.

I like it when ppl share their experiences and tanks. 

I love seeing what others do. 

Your tank is wonderful. The colours just pop. I love the red macro!

 

I agree, there is no real rules to doing a reef besides good husbandry. I never followed the "rules" dictated by others when I started and I did just fine?

 

I just wanted to explain why I set it up the way I did or why I haven't added certain  livestock.

[Subsea]

Red Grapes, Botryocladia botryoides, is collected by Russ Kronwetter, Gulf Coast EcoSystem.  He collects this macro in 60’ to 120’ of water.  When I receive this macro from the divers, it is a dark burgundy.  Under intense light, it pales in color and loses its flotation balls, very unattractive.  In several of my growout tanks, I am getting numerous sprigs of this gorgeous red macro everywhere especially in high light area.  Does that mean that this low light red macro has adjusted it’s light spectrum requirements.  Is the reason for collection at >60’ that this macro can not compete with more aggressive macros?

 

Dragons Tonge, Halymenia dilatata, is a light lover and thrives with good circulation.  I am presently growing another Red Macro in a 55G tumble culture, Gracilaria Hayi.  I have put cuttings of Halymenia with the Hayi with good results.  It was my intention of operating a second 55G tumble culture with Halymenia alone.  I would double the light intensity over the Dragons Tongue as it produces a gorgeous bush.

 

on the first picture, a bush of Dragons Tongue is on a back wall bracket.  Immediately to the right is a bracket with sprigs of Red Grapes coming up. 

 

The Red Grape sprigs in first picture came from this tank.   Note all the emerging red grape flotation balls that seem everywhere, especially on eggcrate with Dragon Tongue bushes.

 

The third picture shows red grapes grown under different condition.  The pale looking Red Grapes was received last night in a shipment of Gulf live rock.  With the color of these red grapes, I would guess that this rock was harvested in 30’ of water then brought to a holding facility in Tampa that subjected grapes to intense light.

[Polarcollision]

On 10/10/2017 at 6:26 PM, Clown79 said:

Well the transfer is complete! It went pretty smoothly.

 

These are the steps I took to complete the transfer. Hopefully this information can help others who plan on the process.

 

Day Before Transfer:

 

-Washed all containers and buckets with vinegar water and completely dried them

- washed my media basket, washed the filter sock, and put aside for drying

- organized all the items I needed in one area so I wasn't scrambling the day of transfer

- washed sand in tap water, final tap water rinse I added prime and then the complete final rinse was with distilled. I then placed the sand in a bucket with a tight fitting lid.

 

 

Transfer Day:

 

Prep work

 

1 .made room on all my counters and on my table for all the items I would need for the transfer.

2. Started 2 buckets of salt to mix, used powerheads and heaters for mixing (pic 1)

3. ensured my refractometer was calibrated and salinity was correct when I mixed it 

4. Pulled out all my utensils, towels, glue, epoxy, nets, papertowel, and spray bottle and placed it on my table near the tank for easy access(pic 2)

5. Put all my filter media, media basket, filter socks, and additional equipment on my island close to where I needed it(pic 3)

 

 

15g Breakdown

 

1. Filled my tank tupperware containers with water from the tank

2. cont. 1 - all sps removed and added

3. cont 2 - euphyllia and shrimp added

4. cont 3 - plates, brains, hermits, and snails 

5. cont 4 - clowns, their frogspawn and the blenny

 

 - I placed all these containers on my counter

 - I had drilled holes in the lids to run air hoses

 - I used a gang valve to run 4 air lines and air stones to each container so they would have oxygen through the day ( pic 4)

 

6. I drained water from my tank into containers to save for use in the new tank

7. I drained more water into a bucket and removed the rocks from the tank and placed in a bucket (pic 5) This water will not be used in the new tank. Too much detritus

8. I removed a small container of sand to seed my new sand. I washed the sand in tap water until it ran clear, last rinse with prime, and final rinse with salt water.

 

Picture 6 - this is why its beneficial to either wash your old sand completely or start with all new. It's filthy and I vacuum my sand bed completely every week

 

Picture 7 - Why I wear gloves when I work in a tank.. pretty big bristle worm I never saw before

 

25g Lagoon Set Up:

 

- placed the new tank on the stand, ensured it was even and level

 

Aquascaping:

 

- added eggcrate to the bottom of the tank and started adding in the rocks (pic 8)

- started aquascaping

-  while aquascaping I sprayed saltwater(from my tank) onto the rocks to ensure they stayed completely wet. I used a standard spray bottle

- after setting the rocks in place we epoxied them (pic 9)

- we used Aquamaxx reef welder - loved this stuff. It's great to work with.

 

Reef Welder:

 

the trick is getting the water very hot.

 

- I boiled water in a kettle

- added it to a small container

- added the epoxy beads to the water

- once they started going see through, I stirred them with tweezers, once blended, I pulled out some, blended it more and then applied to the area on the rock

- if you make a mistake, just place the chunk back in hot water.

 

There was no smell, no stickiness, no flaking of epoxy.

 

9. Started adding sand to the tank, I used about an inch, I didn't want a thicker sand bed. then added my cup of sand from the 15g.

10. placed ammonia badge in the tank

11. then we started pouring in the newly mixed water, then I mixed another bucket(my salt only takes 30mins to mix), then added the old water. added final bucket of water to the tank..started everything up

12. Checked salinity

13. cleaned while I waited for the tank to clear and reach proper temp

14. tested alkalinity as it's the one parameter that really effects corals

 

 

After 1.5 hrs my tank was clear enough to start adding things

 

I started with adding my corals and gluing them in place.

 

Once that was done, I added my fish and their frogspawn.

 

everything went pretty smoothly. Took about 8hrs from start up to clean up.

 

My only hiccup was I broke my monti in 2 pieces, I wasn't happy as it had grown quite a bit but now I have 2 pieces. My new 75watt jagger heater wouldn't fit so I'm using my 50watt until my 75watt cobalt arrives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love your aquascape and choice of corals. The little cave is a nice touch. And I enjoyed reading how you secured the rocks to each other. I've always used the reef epoxy and superglue but it has always felt a little sketchy for holding the weight from grown out SPS. I think I'll use your method if the stars ever align for a 125 gallon tank. I think I see a teal birdsnest? (I need glasses...) Will always have a soft spot in my heart for that one. :-) Thanks for reminding me about leather and SPS. Also, you are very smart to host your clowns on one side of the tank! I read about so many problems with aggressive clowns once they start having babies and it made me anxious. Luckily they only seem to defend the small area around their home, leaving the rest of the tank for everyone else. yay!

 

Keep updating us, I'd love to see more. This is going to be a lovely fluffy flowy tank as it grows out.

[Clown79]

Thank you so much.

 

I had sps mixed in with leathers in my 10g and the sps went downhill quickly. There were no other issues, so I attribute it to the leathers.

 

I have 2 birdsnest. 

One has very fluorescent polyps that are yellow/green, the other one has changed as it's grown. It used to have an orange body with a light blue polyps, now the body is yellow and the polyps, well I call them ice because I'm not sure what colour they belong to.lol. 

That birdsnest is a monster, it just keeps growing.

 

I will update things soon. Been really sick, so I'm behind on things.

[Polarcollision]

On 11/30/2017 at 6:10 PM, Clown79 said:

Thank you so much.

 

I had sps mixed in with leathers in my 10g and the sps went downhill quickly. There were no other issues, so I attribute it to the leathers.

 

I have 2 birdsnest. 

One has very fluorescent polyps that are yellow/green, the other one has changed as it's grown. It used to have an orange body with a light blue polyps, now the body is yellow and the polyps, well I call them ice because I'm not sure what colour they belong to.lol. 

That birdsnest is a monster, it just keeps growing.

 

I will update things soon. Been really sick, so I'm behind on things.

Well, I hope I didn't do something stupid, but I moved a leather over from the 8 gallon before shutting it down. The Clownfish is warming up to it so much that I'd feel guilty pulling it out now... so I refreshed the carbon and purigen just in case there's any chemical warfare going on.

 

It must be the yellow/green bird I honed in on. It's beautiful.

 

Hope you're feeling better

[TatorTaco]

This whole thread is awesome! 

 

Thank you for the detailed write up on how you switched tanks.  My wife wants to replace the flooring throughout the house and I just can't wrap my head around how I'd empty the tank, move the tank, and then put it all back together again.  Preparedness is valuable and how you planned this out (and explained it) will be incredibly beneficial when my time has come. 

[SantaMonicaHelp]

This is such a good thread! Keep it coming!

 

-Kamran

[squamptonbc]

Lovely build. You did a really nice job, very pleasing to the eye.

[flatlandreefer]

Tank is looking good! You have a very diverse aquascape, kind of a different mix of corals that is unique and cool.  Love your plate corals and the feather dusters mixed in. 

[Subsea]

On 10/17/2017 at 4:06 PM, Moorahs said:

Viva la personal preference, I say. Hats off to people who faithfully recreate a biotope because that’s what they want. Equally, hats off to those who base it on something else.

 

I choose livestock and it’s placement on my tastes and aesthetics, layered over tank logistics (light, flow, neighbors, growth pattern etc). Is it a faithful reproduction of how and where they’d exist in the ocean? Frankly I’ve got NFI - I’ve never seen them there. But in the artificiality of the box of saltwater in my lounge room, *I* think they look amazing and they’re thriving and for me that’s a win. 

You made me laugh “big time” with NFI.  

 

PS.  THIS IS LATE Saturday night live

[Clown79]

Thank you to everyone.

 

Tank has been doing great. I have had very few issues.

 

Santa was really good to me 

 

I got for christmas the Aqamai Wavemaker, media basket, coral viewer/ magnify glass, and Alk hanna Checker. So happy!

 

I took my Jebao out and replaced with the aqamai.

 

love this wavemaker.

You can customize your water movement throughout the day or choose a preset program. All with my phone.

There is a lot of choice and control with this wavemaker.

Its very powerful but the movement is gentle. My corals seem to really like it.

I am currently using a preset program but I hope to customize one soon. I'm monitoring the corals during various settings.

The size and shape is great. It doesn't stand out, blends really well. I love the magnet on it. I can direct the PH in so many directions.

 

Hanna Checker - this tester is great. Its so easy and takes no time to do a test. no more guessing colours. I want more of them.

 

Coral viewer - this is great. I can view my corals top down, the magnify glass is removable, and it makes taking top down photos easier.

 

 

I had a small algae issue start up and I now have it under control. I had a small amount of algae developing in 2 of my chambers. Very odd. I clean them every week and there isn't anything in there.

I drained them, wiped the algae off and then spot treated with 3% peroxide.

 

I changed out my Purigen too.

 

It's already helping.

 

 

I have moved some things around

 

I moved my poisen ivy acan from my 10g into the 25g. I purchased 2 additonal frags that were on sale for $5, they were not in good condition but they have repaired and grown already.

 

My ricordea have grown and split. The birdsnest is growing like crazy.

 

I added a chalice as well. I had to have it. it's a crazy bright orange.

 

 

[Flexin]

Hi there, please post the coral viewer and wavemaker...  These are great pictures!!

[Clown79]

2 minutes ago, Flexin said:

Hi there, please post the coral viewer and wavemaker...  These are great pictures!!

Thank you.

 

Ok heres the aqamai in the box.

 

 

[Clown79]

Here's the aqamai in tank and the coral viewer

[Subsea]

I reread the whole thread going backwards to find out how you put the arch together.   How did you do it?   Very nice picture of it.  What kind of coral is that on the arch?  I like the picture you took looking up to the surface.  The glimmer lines as the water ripples are very pleasant to see.

 

As a Subsea Engineer on drilling rigs, if we used guidelines to run underwater blow out preventor, then it was my job to run Subsea inspection camera of marine riser down to BOP and Subsea wellhead.  As an avid fisherman,  I always brought mai mai and tuna home.  So, when I operated underwater camera, I scouted for fish.  I would go down 100’ and then pan camera up.  The waters were so clear a 2 square acre of iron looked to be floating in air.   On one particular location, there were hundreds of barracuda amongst the underwater structure of our semi-submersible, but I could not see them.  Then the sun came out.

[Clown79]

6 minutes ago, Subsea said:

I reread the whole thread going backwards to find out how you put the arch together.   How did you do it?   Very nice picture of it.  What kind of coral is that on the arch?  I like the picture you took looking up to the surface.  The glimmer lines as the water ripples are very pleasant to see.

 

As a Subsea Engineer on drilling rigs, if we used guidelines to run underwater blow out preventor, then it was my job to run Subsea inspection camera of marine riser down to BOP and Subsea wellhead.  As an avid fisherman,  I always brought mai mai and tuna home.  So, when I operated underwater camera, I scouted for fish.  I would go down 100’ and then pan camera up.  The waters were so clear a 2 square acre of iron looked to be floating in air.   On one particular location, there were hundreds of barracuda amongst the underwater structure of our semi-submersible, but I could not see them.  Then the sun came out.

I gotta give my hubby the aquascape credit. I design it, but he figures it out. Lol.

Luckily the rocks seemed to fit perfectly, like lego and we used epoxy for reinforcement.

 

On the top of the arch there is 2 birdsnests and on the side a monti cap.

 

Thank you so much for the kind words. I have always liked photography and try to get weird angles for different views.

The glimmer reminds me of the ocean. Snorkeling and looking up when you go further down.

 

Your job must be very interesting! The experiences would be quite a story.

 

It's amazing what you can and cannot see in the ocean, all depends on depth and light

[Subsea]

I enjoyed my journeys as a Subsea Engineer.  On one Dynamic Poisitioned drillship, I was given a budget to stock and maintain  a reef tank. It took a little arm twisting on my part.    When I petioned for morale sake, my company said it was not in the budget.  Because the Operator, in this case it was Shell, leases the rig, the operator mandates to the contractor what they expect.   So, when an environmental engineer came on the rig for a couple of weeks, I had an opportunity to plant the seed of reef tank using water that we were floating in.  What better testimony to environmental quality control than a reef tank as a bioindicators.

[Clown79]

1 minute ago, Subsea said:

I enjoyed my journeys as a Subsea Engineer.  On one Dynamic Poisitioned drillship, I was given a budget to stock and maintain  a reef tank. It took a little arm twisting on my part.    When I petioned for morale sake, my company said it was not in the budget.  Because the Operator, in this case it was Shell, leases the rig, the operator mandates to the contractor what they expect.   So, when an environmental engineer came on the rig for a couple of weeks, I had an opportunity to plant the seed of reef tank using water that we were floating in.  What better testimony to environmental quality control than a reef tank as a bioindicators.

Now thats a great job perk!

[Subsea]

Talking about depth and light in the ocean, things can get mixed up.   On one shallow location, near the mouth of the Mississippi River, their was so much light attracted things of all shapes and colors, I would lower underwater camera without lights on.  After lights were on, at best, there was 5 seconds of viewing time before every kind of squiggly shape and color blocked view.

[Subsea]

16 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

Now thats a great job perk!

Initially, the tank was placed in a section of the galley that was not normally used.  As time went by, I noted more and more, people occupied tables near reef tank.  I did mostly filter feeders and sponges, it was a great job perk.  Often, if I had trouble sleeping, Inwould watch the tank.

 

I am so much enjoying my 120G new build.  It got wet on dec 20.  So, it is one month old today.

[Indiana Reefin]

I love your Scape!! 

Really mice work I’ll be following this thread 

[Clown79]

6 hours ago, Indiana Reefin said:

I love your Scape!! 

Really mice work I’ll be following this thread 

Thank you?