Banasophia’s Biocube 16 & IM Nuvo 10 ☀️

[banasophia]

Oh and a few shots I forgot to post from a couple days ago:

 

 

 

[banasophia]

[Jackal227]

14 hours ago, banasophia said:

I love the colors on those RFAs.

[banasophia]

25 minutes ago, Jackal227 said:

I love the colors on those RFAs.

Thanks, @Jackal227. They really stood out last night since all the corals around them were closed up. Hopefully they will stay put... I have a BTA and a different RFA that are on the move right now, and I’m on standby, ready to move corals out of the path of destruction haha. 

 

 

[Sancho]

You pick anything up today?

 

[banasophia]

1 minute ago, Sancho said:

You pick anything up today?

 

No, luckily the LFS I went to sold their weeping willow leather since last weekend, so I won’t have to figure out how the heck to squeeze it into one of my tanks haha.

 

Tried to convince the hubby today that I need another tank, but it’s still a no go, at least for now. Maybe if I start it out as a QT tank, then somehow transition it to a regular tank... or, maybe if I convert my pod cultures into jar reefs he won’t notice... hmmm. 🤔

 

Need.more.reefspace. 

[banasophia]

Emerald Crab

 

 

[Daniel91]

Single life is treating that crab good. Does not even shave her legs anymore 😄

[banasophia]

35 minutes ago, Daniel91 said:

Single life is treating that crab good. Does not even shave her legs anymore 😄

I thought that was a sign of being a married crab haha 😂 

 

And you are very observant... must still be single 😜

[Daniel91]

2 hours ago, banasophia said:

I thought that was a sign of being a married crab haha 😂 

 

And you are very observant... must still be single 😜

Ha! I wish... jk.. 

[banasophia]

 

Some pics of the Nuvo 10:

 

 

 

[banasophia]

Peek a boo mama, me and the nem are back here now 😂

 

[banasophia]

Neon green sinularia 

 

 

[banasophia]

And under the white lights

 

[banasophia]

My new hybrid coral, clavuanthid 🤔😂

 

[banasophia]

Love this new picture my daughter did at school. I don’t think it was her intention, but it looks like a torch to me. 💛

 

[Daniel91]

10 hours ago, banasophia said:

Love this new picture my daughter did at school. I don’t think it was her intention, but it looks like a torch to me. 💛

 

Very pretty!

[banasophia]

My suncoral biotope is progressing nicely haha

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sancho]

I love those sun corals! I’ve tried a few times to keep them but I’m too damn lazy to feed enough to keep them happy. 

[banasophia]

1 minute ago, Sancho said:

I love those sun corals! I’ve tried a few times to keep them but I’m too damn lazy to feed enough to keep them happy. 

There may be a happy medium... based on the fact they are taking over my tank, I may be feeding a little too much. 😬😂

[FlytheWMark]

1 hour ago, banasophia said:

There may be a happy medium... based on the fact they are taking over my tank, I may be feeding a little too much. 😬😂

I am adding some Sun corals this weekend (about a 15 head piece).  I love yours in your tank.  Can you share how much you feed, how often, etc since yours are doing so well?

[banasophia]

7 minutes ago, Mark L. said:

I am adding some Sun corals this weekend (about a 15 head piece).  I love yours in your tank.  Can you share how much you feed, how often, etc since yours are doing so well?

Thanks! ☺️ Sure, basically it’s a smorgasbord in my tank haha... used to feed twice a day, now only once a day in the evening. I use coral frenzy and reef roids powders, mixed with a variety of frozen. I also feed my tank pellets, zooplankton and phytoplankton, as well as fresh hatched baby brine shrimp and pods. I’ll post up the details tonight. Obviously if you feed that much you have to work to maintain appropriate nutrient levels in the tank, so I have a pretty high maintenance system. 

[LeoB]

What is the orange "thing" next to the rock flower anemone in the bottom pic?

[banasophia]

9 minutes ago, LeoB said:

What is the orange "thing" next to the rock flower anemone in the bottom pic?

Maybe the red tree sponge? 

[banasophia]

18 hours ago, Mark L. said:

I am adding some Sun corals this weekend (about a 15 head piece).  I love yours in your tank.  Can you share how much you feed, how often, etc since yours are doing so well?

So the main thing with the suns in my experience is whether or not they easily open.... the two I have are very different, which is interesting to observe. The orange one in the cave has a fairly flat structure when it’s closed up, and it can be more difficult to get it to open. The yellow ones that are attached upside down under the ledge have a cylindrical stony structure to them even when closed, and they open easily on their own, without coaxing.

 

• When I feed my tank in the evening, I turn the powerhead and pump off
• Sprinkle 4 pinches of sustainable aquatics hatchery diet pellets on surface (two pinches whole, two crushed) for fish 
• Pour in some fresh hatched baby brine shrimp from my Shrimpery, if I have some to harvest  (3 days/week) for fish
• Prepare my little bowl with frozen - reef frenzy nano, cube of marine cuisine, a mini cube of coral gumbo/baby brine shrimp/or copepods
• Add some tank water to the bowl and a pinch or two of either powdered food - coral frenzy powder of reef roids
• If the orange sun isn’t open yet, suck up some of the water with powdered food and squirt all over the orange sun to stimulate feeding response
• Wait 15 minutes for orange sun to open, if the orange sun still isn’t open, turn on powerhead for 15 minutes, but leave pump off to swirl food around
• After 15 minutes of sitting plus 15 minutes of swirling, the orange sun is usually open
• Turn powerhead back off, target feed orange and yellow suns with the now thawed frozen foods mixed with tank water, making sure to squirt some over all heads
• (Also feed a small meaty chunk to emerald crabs and rock flower nems)
• Let sit 15 minutes, then powerhead only 15 minutes, then pump back on
• I also add maybe 1/2 ml of phytoplankton and zooplankton to tank once or twice/week depending on how my pod population and nonphotosynthetic gorg are looking

 

If you have a sun that opens easily, you won’t need to do all those steps and just turn the pump and powerhead off and target feed. The good thing about suns is you can pretty easily tell how you’re doing with them by watching their tissue... if it gradually starts to retract, just feed that head more. When I first got the yellow one it had some retraction, plus damage from fragging into pieces, so it was fun to nurse those heads back to health. 

 

As as you can see, I feed a ton... and I used to do all that twice a day, for the benefit of my suns and my mandarin. Now that my mandarin is older, I am working on cutting back the feeding to see how everything does.