Finally Reefing! - Standard 10g (Carribean Inspired) - Gorgs, Rics, Macros and more!

[pmang6]

On 9/24/2018 at 7:08 AM, Lula_Mae said:

You're off to a nice start! I've gotten some lovely gorgs from GCE. I definitely would stick to photosynthetic ones. They are a good source for macros too, with generous portions. The tank you have planned sounds lovely. 

 

Your peacock gudgeons are adorable! They're a fish I've had an interest in for a long time. I'd recommend keeping their tank going for now rather than converting to a reef because the 10g will quickly become a money sink and in college you don't need too many of those lol. 

 

Thank you! I love my gudgeons, I ended up breaking down their tank because the particle board stand it was on started to bow, but they are now fat and happy in the 20 gal. Its actually pretty close to their natural habitat as far as aquariums go. Going to hold off for now on the 5g reef haha. You are right about money sinks, need to get my multiple tank syndrome under control.

 

GCE is definitely the next thing on my list. I wouldve ordered some stuff from them already, but im going to be staying 20mins away from KPaquatics this weekend, so I figured id wait to get some stuff from them.

 

On 9/24/2018 at 8:26 AM, Pjanssen said:

Yep, Gulf Coast ecosystems is a great resource. I would probably use them over KP for Macros

 

Im a bit terrified of macro growing out of control and going sexual, but some of the species on gce are described as slower growing. They have all kinds of cool stuff!

 

On 9/24/2018 at 12:02 PM, vlangel said:

This looks to be a fun interesting tank.  I think you are off to a very good start.

 

Thank you!

 

Update:

 

Pump stolen from my spec v came to a screeching halt, literally. It randomly started making a noise that I couldve sworn was a woman screaming outside my window one night while I was sitting on my computer. Scared the crap outta me. Im considering going totally filterless on this tank, except for maybe some floss after water changes. Do you guys think I could get away with just one koralia nano as the only source of flow? My other option was two of the "hydor pico evo mag" at 180gph each, adjustable. 

 

Light came in, It is satisfactory, but I can totally see why people pay good coin for controlability now. The spectrum and intensity adjustment on this is super clunky. You basically put it on max for both blue and white channels and then you can back down the intensity of each channel one tick at a time with the touch controls. Pretty much impossible to jump between different spectrums (namely All-blue and my normal mix) without counting the number of "ticks" down from max for each channel. I like the spectrum though, so I can live with it. better than a par 38 bulb in terms of controlability i suppose. Oh, by the way, if you plan on using this thing on a rimmed tank, you are going to need to do a bit of modification, mine would not fit over the rim in its stock form. Removing the lower lip (with a pair of garden clippers no less) was enough to get it to fit.

 

Now for the exciting part

So, I added a cleanup crew consisting of 4 cerith snails, 2 margaritas and a peppermint shrimp. Have since learned that margaritas are temperate water snails and will only live a year or so at best in my tank. Kinda leaves a bad taste in my mouth about the lfs that recommended them. Want to get a trochus or two once these guys go, but they and the ceriths seem to be doing a decent job at suppressing film algae so far. Getting a nice coating on the rocks though.

 

I also picked up a neon goby ,which will likely be the only fish in this tank unless i can find a green banded goby or other biotope appropriate tiny fish, and something id like to call my canary coral (as in canary in a coal mine), a relatively plain 20$ acan frag. My idea here is that an acan is probably on the level of the most difficult/sensitive coral i will keep in this tank (read: not that sensitive), so if i was able to keep this thing alive and open for a few weeks, then i would probably be in good shape to add any softies i want. I am happy to report that it is doing very well after almost 2 weeks! At least as far as i can tell lol.

 

Pics!

 

 

 

 

I was very pleased that everyone came out for the picture!

 

[pmang6]

On 9/23/2018 at 8:39 PM, Pjanssen said:

KP Aquatics is great. You can always add a piece of live rock to your tank if you have a way of keeping it alive during transport. There is always all kinds of life on it, some you may not want but will have to learn to deal with. Currently I'm trying to get rid of a couple of fireworms. I'd stick with photosynthetic gorgs, as nps need a lot of feeding. Ricordea are a great way to add color. I chose to only have one RFA because I don't want to deal with babies. Macro algae will help with nutrient export, but I had a hard time keeping most of them. I suspect my mithrax crab munched on them. 

I use the Smart Nano ATO top off system and am very happy with it.

 

 Gonna grab some stuff from KP this weekend in person. Yea, im a big fan of natural ocean rock with all the goodies still attached. Definitely want to add some to this tank. Going to be strictly photosynthetic for gorgs. I absolutely love rics and rfas, and that is part of the reason there is a pile of rubble on the right side of the tank. Thats gonna be my little Ricordea/rfa/shroom garden. Smart nano is looking like the best option at this point.

 

On 9/25/2018 at 11:12 AM, PaulKendrick said:

Wow those freshwater tanks are super cool looking

 

Yea its a really really neat side of the hobby. Planted freshwater tanks have numerous parallels to reefs, at least thats what i tell myself so i can pretend I know what im doing with this stuff. 🙂

 

On 9/25/2018 at 12:17 PM, Firefish15 said:

Any updates on livestock @pmang6?

 

Yes! Look above!

 

On 9/25/2018 at 12:24 PM, Euphylin me said:

by the way (i always comment on this stuff) i have the aquaknight light that you are looking into and although i cant speak for the longevity of the light (ive had it for 3 months) i can say that all of my corals are loving it so far and i have some decent growth thus far. In the past month i have 3-4 new bamm bamm polyps. my trumpets doubled from 4 to 8. and one of my frogspawn has developed a new head. i do really like the light.

 

Very good to hear that, looking forward to seeing some results, seems to be keeping my one little acan happy so far.

 

 

Sorry for the double post, still havent figured out how to multi quote on an edit after like 10 years of forum use across different sites lol

[Lula_Mae]

For macros, a few I'd recommend are botryocladia (red grape), dragon's breath, codium, C. barbata, dragon's breath, gracilaria, C. prolifera (keep out of the rock work lol), blue scroll, halimeda (lots of different forms/shapes available).  Not all of these at once, necessarily, but these are some that I like and have enjoyed in the past.

[vlangel]

Also KPAquatics has shaving brush and maiden fan which can be very nice.  They do have a die off time but then they come back.

[pmang6]

Should be here some time next week.😀

[Euphylin me]

55 minutes ago, pmang6 said:

Should be here some time next week.😀

thats awesome! please let us know how the coral turns out as i would love to order from them but the priority mail shipping kind of scares me lol

[pmang6]

1 hour ago, Euphylin me said:

thats awesome! please let us know how the coral turns out as i would love to order from them but the priority mail shipping kind of scares me lol

Im like, 120mi from their facility, so i should be in pretty good shape. Thought about making a day trip out of it but id end up spending way more on gas. I imagine they wouldnt reccomend priority if they didnt have success with it across the country though. 

 

Also, for anyone wondering why i didnt go with direct pick up from kpa like i had planned, it turns out that their facilities are in tavernier, about half way down the keys. I misread their site, which says they ship airfreight from ft lauderdale, thinking thats where they were actually located. I wouldve ordered from them, but they require 40$ overnight on gorgonians (not corals and some shrimp though, strangely) and their prices were a bit higher. 

 

Update on the tank: A snail knocked my acan out of the rock and it landed upside down at some point during my 4 day absence. Not sure how long it was there but its looking pretty rough rn, showing quite a bit of skeleton.

 

Got a replacement powerhead. 

[Firefish15]

Sorry to hear about the acan! You going to glue it?

[pmang6]

On 10/5/2018 at 5:02 PM, Firefish15 said:

Sorry to hear about the acan! You going to glue it?

I want to wait and see if it comes back before i glue it, but yea, i shouldve had it glued in the first place.

 

 

Some really cool inspiration I found, worth a watch if you are into the whole gorgonian/macro/soft coral thing:

 

[pmang6]

Big update. The order from GCE is in!

 

 

I only have this pic of the unboxing/acclimation process because I was at work when the package was delivered, and I didnt know how long it had been sitting, so I wanted to get the stuff in ASAP. Everything came in looking amazing, aside from the Halimeda, which has since colored up quite a bit in the tank, this was expected. Im very pleased with my order overall, and I would reccomend GCE to everyone. Lots of really cool hitchhikers, including a few paly/zoa polyps on a piece of halimeda and an array of tiny starfish.

 

Current fts:

 

 

 

The gorgs, full polyp extension from all of them minutes after being in the tank (they were even extended in their bags!). The thick one with big polyps did not like being exposed to air.:

 

The rics (small, but to be fair, they were 4$ a piece and they were advertised as 1" polyps. I will likely be making an order from KPA for some more rics and other corallimorphs at some point.):

 

Hitchhiker polyps, there are several more than the one visible here:

 

 

 

 

So, I just kinda got everything in there for now, I still want to move some stuff around; It isnt exactly a careful aquascape. Im considering upgrading this tank to a 20L, as a buddy has been eyeing my freshwater setup and Id like to focus my efforts on one ecosystem for now. This order of livestock has filled up this tank quite a bit, and it is only a fraction of what I want to keep, so I feel like i need the extra space. Also thinking about going filterless a la WVreefer's 12g long, I ordered two of the new powerheads in the event I end up doing this.

[Firefish15]

Wow, that looks really filled in already! I can't wait to see it in a year! I probably won't be adding corals in mine for another few months, so I'm jealous!  I want to find a deal like that on ricordeas too.

[pmang6]

23 hours ago, Firefish15 said:

Wow, that looks really filled in already! I can't wait to see it in a year! I probably won't be adding corals in mine for another few months, so I'm jealous!  I want to find a deal like that on ricordeas too.

Yea I didnt realize how much of the macros they were going to send. Im planning on moving all this stuff into a 20L because i just need more space, plus Id like to have a nice area of open sand. I highly recommend Gulf Coast Ecosystems though, great prices on the rics and they also have wild zoa colonies (6$) and RFAs (8 or 15$ depending on color). 

[pmang6]

So, bit of an emergency at the moment: my caulerpa has gone sexual overnight. I noticed some bits of the caulerpa had lost color, but it was my understanding that Ashmeadii didnt go sexual like prolifera and other caulerpas. Dumb mistake, shouldve pulled it immediately upon seeing color loss. Lesson learned. 

 

The tank currently looks like pea soup, and of course this happens the day after i decide to remove my mechanical filtration. 

 

 

Headed off for an emergency distilled water run, i wonder if ive paid for an rodi unit worth of distilled at this point between this 10 and my fw tanks. 

[Lula_Mae]

On 10/5/2018 at 2:52 PM, Euphylin me said:

thats awesome! please let us know how the coral turns out as i would love to order from them but the priority mail shipping kind of scares me lol

There's a number of corals that do just fine with priority--I've had GSP, zoas/palys, mushrooms, toadstool, gorgonians, macros and snails all make it through priority mail.  GCE is good to order from, their portions tend to be generous lol.

 

On 10/9/2018 at 10:39 PM, pmang6 said:

Big update. The order from GCE is in!

 

 

I only have this pic of the unboxing/acclimation process because I was at work when the package was delivered, and I didnt know how long it had been sitting, so I wanted to get the stuff in ASAP. Everything came in looking amazing, aside from the Halimeda, which has since colored up quite a bit in the tank, this was expected. Im very pleased with my order overall, and I would reccomend GCE to everyone. Lots of really cool hitchhikers, including a few paly/zoa polyps on a piece of halimeda and an array of tiny starfish.

 

Current fts:

 

 

 

The gorgs, full polyp extension from all of them minutes after being in the tank (they were even extended in their bags!). The thick one with big polyps did not like being exposed to air.:

 

The rics (small, but to be fair, they were 4$ a piece and they were advertised as 1" polyps. I will likely be making an order from KPA for some more rics and other corallimorphs at some point.):

 

Hitchhiker polyps, there are several more than the one visible here:

 

 

 

 

So, I just kinda got everything in there for now, I still want to move some stuff around; It isnt exactly a careful aquascape. Im considering upgrading this tank to a 20L, as a buddy has been eyeing my freshwater setup and Id like to focus my efforts on one ecosystem for now. This order of livestock has filled up this tank quite a bit, and it is only a fraction of what I want to keep, so I feel like i need the extra space. Also thinking about going filterless a la WVreefer's 12g long, I ordered two of the new powerheads in the event I end up doing this.

That's so cool that you got such neat hitchhikers!  Were the starfish asterinas or little brittles?  I really liked my order from GCE and want to order again soon.

[pmang6]

3 hours ago, Lula_Mae said:

There's a number of corals that do just fine with priority--I've had GSP, zoas/palys, mushrooms, toadstool, gorgonians, macros and snails all make it through priority mail.  GCE is good to order from, their portions tend to be generous lol.

 

That's so cool that you got such neat hitchhikers!  Were the starfish asterinas or little brittles?  I really liked my order from GCE and want to order again soon.

They appeared to be tiny little brittles. Yea, I will be making another order from them at some point, I was really impressed. Want to try KPA next though, I hear they like to send freebies.

[Firefish15]

Hey, how'd the caulerpa situation go? Things cleared up again? 

[TatorTaco]

I'm curious about the caulerpa too.  The GCE order really helped turn this into a Caribbean biotope quickly. 

[Firefish15]

How're things going with the tank? I was just wondering how the broke young people 10g reef squad was doing.

[vlangel]

1 hour ago, Firefish15 said:

How're things going with the tank? I was just wondering how the broke young people 10g reef squad was doing.

We've all been there at one time or another.

[HookedOnAquariums]

Also want to see how us 10 gallers are faring in these tough winter months.