Billy's 18g Caribbean Biotope - Breakdown Complete!

[billygoat]

7 minutes ago, Firefish15 said:

I'm looking at battery equipment for my upcoming move right now. On Amazon, I found a Marina battery-powered air pump for like $9. Has great reviews. Apparently, a pair of D batteries last a week or so.

Those battery-powered air pumps seem like by far the best solution if you're around your tank a lot. I'm just worried about coming home to a glass box full of dead animals after a power outage hits while I am at work or something, so I think an automatic trickle-charging battery backup is more what I am after.

 

For moving though, I have to imagine that those battery pumps are just a godsend. Are battery-powered heaters a thing as well? I imagine that those probably don't exist since they use so much more power, but anything seems possible in reefing these days. 🤔

[billygoat]

Almost a week since my most recent livestock shipment, and everything seems to be doing alright. Feather duster is still looking good; no signs of distress or disintegration so far. I ordered some Reef Roids, so we'll see how the duster likes that later this week.

 

Still a bit of cyano lingering on the far left side of the tank (see below), but it's not nearly as bad as it was.

 

 

[WV Reefer]

2 minutes ago, billygoat said:

Almost a week since my most recent livestock shipment, and everything seems to be doing alright. Feather duster is still looking good; no signs of distress or disintegration so far. I ordered some Reef Roids, so we'll see how the duster likes that later this week.

 

Still a bit of cyano lingering on the far left side of the tank (see below), but it's not nearly as bad as it was.

 

 

 

Great pic of the Duster. 😀

[thecoralbeauty]

yay to getting the upper hand on that cyano!! 

[Ratvan]

That duster 😍😍

[billygoat]

37 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

That duster 😍😍

 

58 minutes ago, WV Reefer said:

 

Great pic of the Duster. 😀

I know; the duster is pretty cool right? It's honestly a lot larger than I thought it would be. I know that Reef Cleaners occasionally sells Caribbean dusters that are about the size of a quarter, so that's what I expected, but this one from KP is several inches across.

 

55 minutes ago, mwhitelock said:

yay to getting the upper hand on that cyano!! 

Turns out that the combination of water changes and manual removal was pretty effective! I don't expect the cyano to disappear completely anytime soon, but as long as it isn't covering my substrate and macroalgae every day I am fine with it hanging around here and there. Even the nicest tanks have their persistent pests, so I should certainly expect a few in my janky system, right? 😅

[billygoat]

One more picture! Can you tell I have off today? 😁

 

[Firefish15]

56 minutes ago, billygoat said:

One more picture! Can you tell I have off today? 😁

Hey, seems like a pretty good way to spend it! 

[billygoat]

Last night I saw something pretty cool! As the lights ramped down for the day I noticed that the Maw was all scrunched up and acting kind of weird, like this:

 

 

I wasn't able to get a good enough photo to show it here, but upon close observation I noticed that it was releasing a thin milky substance, followed by a bunch of tiny floating bits that resembled Artemia nauplii. It seemed weird that it would be spawning since it's the only individual in the tank, so I was a bit confused at first, but then I remembered seeing @banasophia's video of Tubastrea releasing planulae and I think that might be what this mushroom was doing as well! That or just discharging some eggs? Whatever sort of gametes/offspring it was spitting out, my gobies loved them and gobbled them up 😄

 

TL;DR: some sort of reproductive behavior was going on with this 'shroom, and that's always good to see in one's aquarium.

[banasophia]

1 hour ago, billygoat said:

Last night I saw something pretty cool! As the lights ramped down for the day I noticed that the Maw was all scrunched up and acting kind of weird, like this:

 

 

I wasn't able to get a good enough photo to show it here, but upon close observation I noticed that it was releasing a thin milky substance, followed by a bunch of tiny floating bits that resembled Artemia nauplii. It seemed weird that it would be spawning since it's the only individual in the tank, so I was a bit confused at first, but then I remembered seeing @banasophia's video of Tubastrea releasing planulae and I think that might be what this mushroom was doing as well! That or just discharging some eggs? Whatever sort of gametes/offspring it was spitting out, my gobies loved them and gobbled them up 😄

 

TL;DR: some sort of reproductive behavior was going on with this 'shroom, and that's always good to see in one's aquarium.

That’s so cool!!! I love how there is so much happening in our tanks that we wouldn’t even know if we didn’t look really closely, and there are so many things I’m sure we miss because we can’t see them with the naked eye. Thanks for tagging me...so happy to see this! 🙂🤗

[billygoat]

10 hours ago, banasophia said:

That’s so cool!!! I love how there is so much happening in our tanks that we wouldn’t even know if we didn’t look really closely, and there are so many things I’m sure we miss because we can’t see them with the naked eye. Thanks for tagging me...so happy to see this! 🙂🤗

One of the things I love about this hobby (meaning nano-reefing in particular) is how much it rewards those who pay careful attention to details. There's a whole lot of stuff happening in each of our aquariums, and it's crazy to think that no matter how observant we are, we never catch more than a portion of it! I swear I could stare at my tank for hours and hours. And in fact I do, every time I get a day off! 😄

 

Some new arrivals came in today! I didn't have time to get any pictures before the lights turned off for the night, but I got a few clumps of the green alga Cymopolia barbata and an absolutely gorgeous frag of pink branching coralline algae (genus Amphiroa, I think), both from Gulf Coast Ecosystems. Excellent packaging as usual. The Cymopolia dropped its tufts in transit and arrived in a bag full of brown water as a result, but I think it will color up and regrow its tips just fine. The Amphiroa just blows me away. It looks a bit like a thicker, beefier Galaxaura but it is hard as a rock. I mounted it high in the tank and love it already. Pics tomorrow for sure!

 

In the meantime here are a few gorgonian shots that I took yesterday. The water was stirred up because I was turkey basting the rocks for them, so please ignore the snowstorm in the background. 😁

 

Purple plume (Muriceopsis flavida)

 

Sea feather (Pseudopterogorgia sp.)

 

Rusty gorgonian (Muricea elongata)

 

[banasophia]

21 minutes ago, billygoat said:

One of the things I love about this hobby (meaning nano-reefing in particular) is how much it rewards those who pay careful attention to details. There's a whole lot of stuff happening in each of our aquariums, and it's crazy to think that no matter how observant we are, we never catch more than a portion of it! I swear I could stare at my tank for hours and hours. And in fact I do, every time I get a day off! 😄

 

Some new arrivals came in today! I didn't have time to get any pictures before the lights turned off for the night, but I got a few clumps of the green alga Cymopolia barbata and an absolutely gorgeous frag of pink branching coralline algae (genus Amphiroa, I think), both from Gulf Coast Ecosystems. Excellent packaging as usual. The Cymopolia dropped its tufts in transit and arrived in a bag full of brown water as a result, but I think it will color up and regrow its tips just fine. The Amphiroa just blows me away. It looks a bit like a thicker, beefier Galaxaura but it is hard as a rock. I mounted it high in the tank and love it already. Pics tomorrow for sure!

 

In the meantime here are a few gorgonian shots that I took yesterday. The water was stirred up because I was turkey basting the rocks for them, so please ignore the snowstorm in the background. 😁

 

Purple plume (Muriceopsis flavida)

 

Sea feather (Pseudopterogorgia sp.)

 

Rusty gorgonian (Muricea elongata)

 

Wow, your gorgonians are gorgeous, and look very happy!! Looking forward to seeing some pics of your new arrivals! 

[billygoat]

Not much time this morning but here are some low-quality, blued-out, glarey pictures! 😅 That pink branching coralline has got me falling in love 😍

 

Sponge is acting a bit weird though. I was basting this morning and noticed it blistering a bit and sloughing off its outer layers. I'm not sure if this is part of a natural regenerative process or a sign of immanent death. It's looked good enough over the past week, and has had its oscula extended out into the current which I assume is a good sign. I'll monitor it in case it starts to show signs of deterioration.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[billygoat]

Got a halfway decent shot of my Cymopolia this evening. It's mounted in the back of my tank so it is quite difficult to photograph. Its stalks remain quite pale, so I am a bit concerned that it may have gone sexual during transport and expelled all its chlorophyll (hence the brown water in the shipping bag). It still has some green at the tips, so hopefully it can bounce back and recover.

 

[mitten_reef]

I like the scarlet red hermit.  👍. I tried them multiple times, but often not worked out long term. Have two right now that had been around for the last two months or so. 

[billygoat]

3 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

I like the scarlet red hermit.  👍. I tried them multiple times, but often not worked out long term. Have two right now that had been around for the last two months or so. 

I agree that they are great! They seem to be a bit more fragile than other hermits, but so far this round of them has been doing alright in my system. Though they're from the Caribbean, strictly speaking they are not the most appropriate crabs for my shallow-water biotope, since they prefer to live a little further out on coral reefs... but I like them a lot so I decided to let it slide. 😁

[billygoat]

My EcoTech Marine battery backup also arrived today from BRS. Unfortunately it looks like somebody dropped it at some point; the casing is all bent. 🙄

 

 

Hopefully they will send me a new one.

[TatorTaco]

On 5/7/2019 at 11:45 AM, billygoat said:

Those battery-powered air pumps seem like by far the best solution if you're around your tank a lot. I'm just worried about coming home to a glass box full of dead animals after a power outage hits while I am at work or something, so I think an automatic trickle-charging battery backup is more what I am after.

 

For moving though, I have to imagine that those battery pumps are just a godsend. Are battery-powered heaters a thing as well? I imagine that those probably don't exist since they use so much more power, but anything seems possible in reefing these days. 🤔

@billygoat did you mention that you're in Louisiana?  Do you have Entergy as your electric company?  If so, you can sign up for text notifications here:  https://www.entergytext.com/  It's super helpful in determining if I should prepare for a 5 minute power outage or a 24+ power outage. 

[billygoat]

1 hour ago, TatorTaco said:

@billygoat did you mention that you're in Louisiana?  Do you have Entergy as your electric company?  If so, you can sign up for text notifications here:  https://www.entergytext.com/  It's super helpful in determining if I should prepare for a 5 minute power outage or a 24+ power outage. 

Sounds like a great resource to have! But sadly I am in Los Angeles (the other LA), home of random brownouts and lengthy outages with no advance warning. I wonder if a similar service is available in my area though? I will have to look into it.

 

In tank news, a few updates this morning.

 

I believe my sponge is succumbing to a bacterial infection. I may have manhandled it a bit while placing it, which probably opened the door for an infection to take hold. It's a bit difficult to see in this photo, but about midway up the sponge there is a clearly visible line above which the tissue seems firm and healthy and below which it is pale and loose. I will continue to monitor it for the rest of the day, but if it continues to decline I will likely just pull it out and toss it before it fouls my tank. A shame, but as I mentioned before it was more of an experiment than anything else!

 

 

Not all the news is bad though. This morning I saw a red chiton! I have long known of two or three such hitchhiking chitons in my system, but it's been a long time since I've seen one since they are primarily nocturnal. They are very small, smaller than a dwarf Cerith snail.

 

 

I also did some trimming of my rooted macros to clear the view in the front of my tank, and decided to clip my large sea fan since it was beginning to die off. It had quite an interesting shape.

 

 

[billygoat]

So I decided to toss the sponge. I considered cutting it and attempting to rejuvenate the undamaged part, but it was deteriorating very rapidly and I didn't want to risk it. Guess that experiment turned out to be a failure! Oh well, now I know to steer clear of things that are obviously too delicate for my brutish ways. 😓

 

Here's a new, sponge-less FTS. The Maw is looking a little stressed, but it tends to get cranky whenever something gets added or changed. I think it will be back to normal soon.

 

 

 

 

And here's this guy again. After over a week in this spot it hasn't ditched its tube, popped its top, or disintegrated into paste, so I think it must be reasonably happy where it is. I fed it some Reef Roids for the first time today and it seemed to dig that.

 

 

[billygoat]

Things are getting serious! Today I decided that I will begin adding kalk to my ATO water starting later this week. I noticed that in the few days following a water change my calcifying algae seem to undergo a "growth spurt," which leads me to believe that calcium is a limiting factor in their growth. I purchased BRS's kalkwasser starter package and a few testing kits, so I'll raise my Ca/Alk/Mg levels to where I need them to be, monitor them for awhile, and then mix kalk to an appropriate concentration to keep them there.

 

For a long time I thought that I wouldn't have to worry about dosing because I don't have any corals, but with all the calcifying and coralline algae I have in there now it's hard to imagine demand for Ca being low! I imagine that I should see a considerable increase in stability and growth once I get my levels up to where they ought to be.

 

Some pics from around the shallows. Happy weekend!

 

 

[lizzyann]

Those gorgs look beautiful! 

[Maddie]

Love those gorgs! I need room for a couple more in my tank! 

[billygoat]

10 minutes ago, lizzyann said:

Those gorgs look beautiful! 

 

10 minutes ago, Maddie said:

Love those gorgs! I need room for a couple more in my tank! 

Thank you both! They seem to do very well in my tank, so I have convinced myself that there is room for a fourth one... I just haven't figured out exactly what kind of gorg I want next, or where I am going to put it. 😅

[WV Reefer]

On 5/10/2019 at 1:29 PM, billygoat said:

Sounds like a great resource to have! But sadly I am in Los Angeles (the other LA), home of random brownouts and lengthy outages with no advance warning. I wonder if a similar service is available in my area though? I will have to look into it.

 

In tank news, a few updates this morning.

 

I believe my sponge is succumbing to a bacterial infection. I may have manhandled it a bit while placing it, which probably opened the door for an infection to take hold. It's a bit difficult to see in this photo, but about midway up the sponge there is a clearly visible line above which the tissue seems firm and healthy and below which it is pale and loose. I will continue to monitor it for the rest of the day, but if it continues to decline I will likely just pull it out and toss it before it fouls my tank. A shame, but as I mentioned before it was more of an experiment than anything else!

 

 

Not all the news is bad though. This morning I saw a red chiton! I have long known of two or three such hitchhiking chitons in my system, but it's been a long time since I've seen one since they are primarily nocturnal. They are very small, smaller than a dwarf Cerith snail.

 

 

I also did some trimming of my rooted macros to clear the view in the front of my tank, and decided to clip my large sea fan since it was beginning to die off. It had quite an interesting shape.

 

 

 

That red Chiton is awesome!! 😃