Lypto's Jellyfish Project

[yoshii]

Wow this is such an interesting thread! I can't wait to see more updates! 🙂

[Lypto]

After a long break, I'm happy to announce that I'm restarting the project! 

The Jellyfish tank I built and my polyp culture have gone, and due to some unfortunate events a large portion of my aquaria equipment is gone as well.

 

But after some work, I've salvaged 3 polyps and a tank.

I'm not giving up on jellyfish quite yet, but I think I need to change my methods. I plan to work more closely with experts If I can and build a system that has higher quality construction. I've learned from the mistakes and am ready to try again.  I also hope to get ahold of some new species once I'm ready, so that's something to be excited about.

Thank you from those who have supported me so far!

 

[Christopher Marks]

Glad you're be restarting your jellyfish project @Lypto, I love following along! Maybe we can get @JellyChris back to help 🙂

[Lypto]

Alright everyone! An essential piece of a jelly keepers arsenal is their brine shrimp hatchery, and today I whipped one up and used perhaps one of the more expensive components at my disposal, a nice tube of grade 2 titanium! I always break those thin acryllic ones, so perhaps this will be a nice change.  You might see those tubes again when I make the chiller.

 

[Lypto]

Here's a little update:

Hatching brine shrimp is pretty easy, but separating them can be tricky. It's pretty harmful for marine life to eat the cyst's shells the shrimp leave behind when they hatch, but while the shells are more buoyant than the shrimp, some shells always seem to get mixed up with the shrimp. In response, I've decided on another way, one that doesn't use buoyancy. This isn't a new idea, but I'm working on a way to 3d print something to separate them using their attraction to light. All I have is PLA, so I hope it won't degrade too quick.

here's a sneak peak:

 

[Lypto]

Here's the next iteration: I'm trying to figure out how to make it more reef safe as well as water tight. It's a little difficult when I can't make it the size I'd like due to it needing to reside in another container.

 

[BlennyBoi]

On 12/30/2017 at 1:16 PM, Lypto said:

The polyps are Aurelia aurita , and are seemingly very resistant to ammonia, it was near 4ppm without any issues. I replaced the water (this was before feeding) and they got a little larger, but otherwise seem to be indifferent. Once they settle in a bit more I'll see if I can get them to strobilate.  they are around 67*, which is higher than this species is used to, but they don't seem to mind much.

aurelia aurita are by far the easiest jellies to keep and are common in the wild, thats why theyre the most popular jelly

[BlennyBoi]

On 10/1/2018 at 4:12 AM, Lypto said:

Here's the next iteration: I'm trying to figure out how to make it more reef safe as well as water tight. It's a little difficult when I can't make it the size I'd like due to it needing to reside in another container.

 

looks like a skimmer

[Lypto]

I've been having troubles with heat for a while, my polyps got up to 90*F as my heater got stuck on.

 

It does kind of look like a protien skimmer, I made it clear so I can see inside when I'm modelling it, the final version will be black I think. The walls for a sort of simple maze the brine shrimp swim through, they're attracted to higher and higher levels of light. I think I'm scrapping that design though, too small and just not very good. I'm going to try something a little less clustered, and hopefully watertight.

I've been playing around with making HDPE custom parts out of recycled milk jugs, and after some experimentation, I found a cool way to make plastic live rock. While HDPE floats, it's reef safe and I think it'll do well.

If I can 3d print a mold and cast aluminum for it, I might want to start making more permanent brine shrimp separators out of HDPE.