Jump to content
Cultivated Reef

Billy's 18g Caribbean Biotope - Breakdown Complete!


billygoat

Recommended Posts

Poison Dart Frog
1 minute ago, billygoat said:

I have not tried it, but I've read about it! I'd be happy to give it a shot if I could get my hands on some. Where did you order it from?

I just placed an order from amazon for it but a lot of other places have it too. I keep thinking of getting some NPS gorgonians but never followed through on it. Maybe this stuff is good enough to keep them alive. I want to try with some photosynthetic gorgs first. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment

Oh, a new baby! It looks a bit like my starlet coral. I can't tell, is it growing up off the rock much, or just spreading across? 

 

That baby RFA right next to it might be a problem as they both grow, though. You should put a flat shell over the half of the nem that's closer to the coral, so the nem will move away a bit and give them both more space. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
2 hours ago, Poison Dart Frog said:

I just placed an order from amazon for it but a lot of other places have it too. I keep thinking of getting some NPS gorgonians but never followed through on it. Maybe this stuff is good enough to keep them alive. I want to try with some photosynthetic gorgs first. 

I haven't yet tried my hand at NPS gorgs either, although not for lack of wanting to - I simply don't have any space for more gorgs! Maybe one day when I upgrade... Make sure you post about it if you end up getting one though! I am eager to hear about your experiences.

 

I think I will definitely toss some of that NutriGorg stuff into my next Amazon order. I've been having good results with Reef Roids and Brightwell PhytoChrom so far, but I am always on the lookout for new foods to try. 👍

 

2 hours ago, Tired said:

Oh, a new baby! It looks a bit like my starlet coral. I can't tell, is it growing up off the rock much, or just spreading across? 

Growth so far seem to be almost entirely just encrusting - no sign of vertical mounding yet. That could just be because the colony is very young, though.

 

2 hours ago, Tired said:

That baby RFA right next to it might be a problem as they both grow, though. You should put a flat shell over the half of the nem that's closer to the coral, so the nem will move away a bit and give them both more space. 

Yeah those RFAs can always be kicked out if necessary. I'm not too concerned about it. In fact many of the 'nems in that photograph may end up getting evicted - I placed a new order with KPA today for some tunicates that I hope to place in that area. Simple hitchhiking sponges have been proliferating in my tank of late, so I decided to try my hand at some other filter feeders. We'll see if it's a doomed venture. 🤞

 

This yellow sponge that appeared on my rocks earlier this year is a good example. Here's a photo of it from May (RIP Atlantic tiger goby 😥), next to a photo from this afternoon:

 

IMG_1308b.jpg.ed02bcfc87f0a6f861696341b12d7789.jpg   IMG_1453b.jpg.2b3f4caafb2226eb896bbda9d5d41861.jpg

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment

If you can figure out a good way to remove the baby RFAs intact, I'm sure you'd have some buyers once they got a bit bigger. You'd probably have some buyers now! But it might be best to let them grow. I know SaltCritters sells a lot of baby ones at about an inch across, and I don't see a lot of complaints anywhere about all the nems people buy from them dying, so I'm thinking that's probably about the size where they're ready to be shipped. 

 

I can't get a good pic of my starlet coral for the life of me. You can find some pics online, though. Mine is just a few polyps embedded in the skeleton of the mostly-dead colony (It was on the bottom of some live rock for quite awhile, long enough to grow a lot of algae on the top, and most of it didn't like that), and isn't growing noticeably. I have another single-polyp-in-skeleton that shows me the growth habit on really small ones, though. Teeny ones, half an inch across or so, look mostly encrusting. Then they start to mound up as they get bigger. I guess we'll all figure out sooner or later what that one is. 

 

Cool sponge. Wonder if you could frag it if it keeps growing. I have a neat white sponge that I got on a zoa frag, that basically didn't grow until I moved a piece of it (accidentally) into an area with lower light and more flow. It's now growing at a slightly alarming rate. Sponges can be trouble, but they're cool as heck, and at least don't sting anything. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
1 hour ago, growsomething said:

Beautiful colors all over that pic.  Are those the bright blue deep water zoas from KP?

Thanks! Not sure if those zoanthids come from deep water or not but they are definitely from KPA. They're the ones listed on their site as simply "blue zoanthids".

 

59 minutes ago, Tired said:

If you can figure out a good way to remove the baby RFAs intact, I'm sure you'd have some buyers once they got a bit bigger. You'd probably have some buyers now! But it might be best to let them grow. I know SaltCritters sells a lot of baby ones at about an inch across, and I don't see a lot of complaints anywhere about all the nems people buy from them dying, so I'm thinking that's probably about the size where they're ready to be shipped. 

Oh I'm definitely going to need to get rid of them once they get large enough, because there's no way my tank can support 15+ fully grown rock flower 'nems. 😅 I'm not entirely sure how to get them out of the tank when the time comes, but I'm sure I can Google it and figure something out. I'm also interested in maybe selling gorgonian frags at some point, since I have so much growth going on. That or just upgrading to a bigger aquarium, but for the sake of my wallet I am trying to avoid all possible excuses to do that. :ninja:

 

It's Gorgs Gone Wild in here, and no mistake. Frags falling and growing all over the place, polyps everywhere, general madness. Not the worst problem to have though, I guess.

IMG_1448.thumb.JPG.6a1a4b3d683983f3a4c9d54a006045b0.JPG

  • Like 2
Link to comment
28 minutes ago, billygoat said:

Thanks! Not sure if those zoanthids come from deep water or not but they are definitely from KPA. They're the ones listed on their site as simply "blue zoanthids".

 

Oh I'm definitely going to need to get rid of them once they get large enough, because there's no way my tank can support 15+ fully grown rock flower 'nems. 😅 I'm not entirely sure how to get them out of the tank when the time comes, but I'm sure I can Google it and figure something out. I'm also interested in maybe selling gorgonian frags at some point, since I have so much growth going on. That or just upgrading to a bigger aquarium, but for the sake of my wallet I am trying to avoid all possible excuses to do that. :ninja:

 

It's Gorgs Gone Wild in here, and no mistake. Frags falling and growing all over the place, polyps everywhere, general madness. Not the worst problem to have though, I guess.

IMG_1448.thumb.JPG.6a1a4b3d683983f3a4c9d54a006045b0.JPG

Would love to buy a couple of those gorgonian frags when the time comes. The tank is looking really great!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
16 hours ago, caas1496 said:

Would love to buy a couple of those gorgonian frags when the time comes. The tank is looking really great!

Thanks! I have some tentative plans to set up a fragging operation, but it might not happen until after I upgrade the tank. My dream is to upgrade to a 40 gallon setup and then use the 18g C-Vue here as a frag growout tank to propagate Caribbean gorgonians, but this is still a ways off (I can't afford it just yet 😬). But if I do end up doing a lot of fragging soon I'll be sure to let you know! 😁

Link to comment
  • billygoat changed the title to Billy's 18g Caribbean Biotope - Changes on the Horizon

Guys I made some choices and I am not 100% convinced that they were the best, but here we are

 

BadDecisions.PNG.34e8d0248ccda7266bbb269a2635e175.PNG

 

I'm excited, nervous, anxious, thrilled, and terrified! 😅:haha:😬😓 But it's happening! I couldn't take it anymore!

  • Like 2
  • Wow 4
Link to comment
11 minutes ago, Amphrites said:

That's tall, kinda makes sense for gorgs.

That is indeed the plan. 😉 The new tank will use the existing equipment on my C-Vue; all I'll need to buy for the upgrade are a bigger heater and some additional sand. My plan calls for a wide open sandbed with plenty of space between the rocks, so I am thinking I will use the rocks I currently have in the tank and probably not add any more. Hopefully my gorgonians will take to the new environment well and grow tall and strong. 💪 My dream is to have big, bushy, swaying colonies like the ones you see in nature (well... maybe not quite that big 😅).

 

Some additional fish, of course, will also be in the cards. But that's likely quite a ways down the line. 

 

The downside to all this is that the C-Vue here is going to get broken down and probably sold to help offset the cost of the new tank. It will be a bittersweet parting, but my livestock will be on to better things, so hopefully it will all work out in the end. 🤞

 

Also I think it's pretty hilarious that this was me literally 6 hours ago:

6 hours ago, billygoat said:

My dream is to upgrade to a 40 gallon setup and then use the 18g C-Vue here as a frag growout tank to propagate Caribbean gorgonians, but this is still a ways off (I can't afford it just yet 😬).

So much for that I guess! 😂 Whoops! 🤷‍♂️

  • Like 1
Link to comment

Ooh, cool!

 

Are you able to set the 40 up without breaking this one down? If so, you could probably just set it up, pick up everything in this tank except the sand, and set it down in that tank. Transfer a few handfuls of sand from this tank to that to transfer microfauna, and you should be good to go with no cycle. Most of the problems that come from moving a tank are from stirring up all the nastiness that can be in the sand, but if you don't transfer basically any sand, you shouldn't have any problems. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
12 minutes ago, Tired said:

Ooh, cool!

 

Are you able to set the 40 up without breaking this one down? If so, you could probably just set it up, pick up everything in this tank except the sand, and set it down in that tank. Transfer a few handfuls of sand from this tank to that to transfer microfauna, and you should be good to go with no cycle. Most of the problems that come from moving a tank are from stirring up all the nastiness that can be in the sand, but if you don't transfer basically any sand, you shouldn't have any problems. 

I am going to set it up without breaking this one down first, yes. However I think I may end up transferring most of the sandbed as well. The sandbed in the C-Vue here is basically perfect, with an extremely rich diversity of beneficial microfauna. It's going to be really hard to replicate that if I don't end up adding any fresh ocean rock, like I did the first time around. I'm going to play it by ear though; if I end up stirring up a huge amount of sludge when I'm trying to move the sand, I'll probably abort that particular mission. I'll be sure to have plenty of sand on hand in case I do end up having to discard the sand from the C-Vue.

Link to comment

Just took a glance at my darkened tank as I strolled past towards the kitchen, and saw this:

 

IMG_1455.thumb.JPG.d753d45bb6fa3e6642ccdd908239ad19.JPG

 

Terror! 😮😅 This thing is definitely going to be happy to have more space to roam around in...

  • Like 2
  • Wow 2
Link to comment

Something you could also try is transferring only the sand that isn't under your rockwork. That ought to be stuff that's been stirred at least a little bit as the tank has been operating. It probably is a good idea to bring over all the good stuff living in it. 

 

Boy, that thing is creepy, especially in that red haunted-house light! All of mine are micro brittles. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
10 hours ago, Tired said:

Boy, that thing is creepy, especially in that red haunted-house light! All of mine are micro brittles. 

Micro brittles are the real deal. I love those guys. This thing, on the other hand... well, it was pretty "micro" too when I first got it, but it definitely didn't stay that way. 😅 It must be more than 10" across now when it's spread out like that.

 

10 hours ago, Tired said:

Something you could also try is transferring only the sand that isn't under your rockwork. That ought to be stuff that's been stirred at least a little bit as the tank has been operating. It probably is a good idea to bring over all the good stuff living in it. 

I definitely want to retain as much of the C-Vue as I can. I mean this about everything - rocks, sand, even the water if possible. This tank has been a godsend of stability and progress, and I want to aim for that same benchmark in the new system. Here's my current plan for the move:

  1. Add new sand and freshly mixed saltwater to the 40g tank, filling it about 3/4 full. Circulate with pump and heater in the display until the water clears.
  2. Transfer water from the C-Vue to fill the 40g the rest of the way. This will drain the C-Vue to about half capacity, but will leave the rocks and sand covered.
  3. Transfer all rocks and livestock into the 40g and place them to one side of the tank.
  4. Transfer as much sand as possible from the C-Vue, one cup at a time, and gently spread it on top of the new sand in the 40g.
  5. Scape the new tank and discard the sludgy water left over in the C-Vue.

I'm hoping that leaving the C-Vue half-full while I transfer the sand will help to reduce the amount of detritus that gets carried over to the new system, since much of that junk will float up into the water during transfer and (hopefully) stay there. The tanks will be right next to each other, so transferring everything should be quick and easy. 🤞

  • Like 2
Link to comment

My Ricordea are going kind of wild. They expand so much that they're starting to overlap each other and press themselves up against the glass in competition for the light. These bright green ones have divided so many times that it's no longer clear how many individuals are in the pile (I think there were originally 2).

 

IMG_1458.thumb.JPG.9ca87c32442a6bf12f6ebee502d6a8ae.JPG

 

These Rics on the other side of the pile are expanding and cupping up more and more too, in this case because they're fighting for the light. The gorgonians above have gotten tall and are shading the Rics pretty heavily.

 

IMG_1459.thumb.JPG.83366ce612cb0add9c9755e800e82e19.JPG

 

These are just the kind of problems that I hope to address by upgrading the tank! 😁 

 

And speaking of which: I made a new thread for the new build! That's when you know it's official. 😎

 

  • Like 4
  • Wow 1
Link to comment
On 9/18/2020 at 11:37 AM, billygoat said:

Oh wow, thank you for taking the time to read all that! I sure hope there is something useful buried in there somewhere! 😅 And thanks for your kind words about my tank. A Florida biotope (which is basically what my tank is; I say "Caribbean biotope" because it sounds fancy, but in reality every single animal in my system came from Florida) is one of the easier ones to set up, since you've got a whole lot of reliable livestock dealers to choose from. Please let me know if you have any specific questions about anything you see in the tank!

I did have a few questions (still reading through the thread so haven't found the answers to all of these yet 😅

 

- How long did it take to fully cycle your tank with the live rock you chose and what was the worst hitchhiker you experienced? 

- How long before you added your first RFA? 

- How much flow would you say you have in this tank?

 

I have a canister filter i plan to add to my 10gallon set up (with regular maintenance schedule so it does not become a nitrate factory) and i plan to split the return or do a small scale closed loop with external pump for additional flow. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
51 minutes ago, kekke1082 said:

I did have a few questions (still reading through the thread so haven't found the answers to all of these yet 😅

 

- How long did it take to fully cycle your tank with the live rock you chose and what was the worst hitchhiker you experienced? 

- How long before you added your first RFA? 

- How much flow would you say you have in this tank?

Sure, no problem!

 

- This tank took 2 or 3 weeks to completely cycle. The worst hitchhiker I've seen was probably a big Eunice worm that ate all my macro algae way back in the day. Not sure what happened to that guy; it may actually still be in there and just eating something else now. And Aiptasia of course! Those are still around for sure. 😅

 

- Looks like I added my first RFA in July of 2019. So about 4 months after I started the tank.

 

- This tank has pretty considerable water movement, I'd say somewhere around 500 gph overall turnover. The flow is turbulent though (due to MP10 Reef Crest mode + Spin Stream nozzle), so sometimes it seems higher or lower depending on what's going on at the moment.

 

Hope this is helpful! Interesting idea with the canister filter too. What kind of tank do you have? Is it just a standard 10 gallon?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
30 minutes ago, lizzyann said:

Love that you went from dream to reality in 6 hours 😂

 

Exciting!!!

I'm as surprised as you are! 😂 But honestly, it was a long time coming. I'd been dreaming about an upgrade for over a year. 🤐

 

A quick status update on the 4g Refugee Cube, aka the Hotel del Maw: it's dirty, but everything is alive!

 

IMG_1465.thumb.JPG.8bbcce109a23c1fe029d2ae76b8e6f09.JPG

 

The Maw has reattached and is acting more or less normal now, but its size is greatly diminished. This is not necessarily a bad thing, since now there is less risk of it eating my fish. I plan to break this tank down as well and add its contents to my 40g setup provided I have enough space, so the Maw will soon be living alongside its old neighbors again.

 

IMG_1464.thumb.JPG.9ede16c885077caa424b18590a29aa72.JPG

  • Like 4
Link to comment

Oh, hey, there's a baby nem that got in there somehow. Surprised it's alive. Glad to see the Maw is okay! I wonder if you could put it away from the rockwork, out in the sand, so fish are less likely to go near it? 

 

Boy, those polyps have been going wild. Any plans for them? Could try and carpet some of the back. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
15 hours ago, Tired said:

Oh, hey, there's a baby nem that got in there somehow. Surprised it's alive. Glad to see the Maw is okay! I wonder if you could put it away from the rockwork, out in the sand, so fish are less likely to go near it? 

 

Boy, those polyps have been going wild. Any plans for them? Could try and carpet some of the back. 

There are actually three or four baby RFAs in there. I am kind of confused as to how they moved over. I think they may actually have hitchhiked on the star polyps, or on the rock that the Codium is attached to. Speaking of the star polyps - I think I am going to try to get them to grow vertically up the face of a slanted rock or something like that, and place them in a high flow location in the 40g. I think they look best when they are getting blown about by a heavy current.

 

The same yellow encrusting sponge that grows in the 18g has hitchhiked over to the cube on the Briareum. It's normally invisible under the polyps though. I took this picture right after the lights came on, so the star polyps haven't extended all the way yet:

IMG_1466.thumb.JPG.47eaaa42c521c2f4de0459bee483d812.JPG

 

 

 

  • Like 4
Link to comment

Last week I purchased an ICP test from CoralVue's ICP-Analysis.com service. I haven't had any issues or anything, I was just curious about my parameters. The test results came through today:

 

347677952_testresults.thumb.PNG.983b8c5650341f1b1b0efc8d266e9919.PNG

 

Nothing super out of the ordinary, except iodine is quite low. Iodine is a major component of gorgonian skeletal tissue, so it makes sense that my tank would suck it up like a sponge. I will likely address this by dosing Brightwell iodide once my tank transfer is completed and everything settles down. I imagine that additional iodine will have a noticeable effect on gorgonian growth.

 

I was also pleased to note that my magnesium levels are still within acceptable parameters. I was concerned that pushing water changes back to twice monthly would lead to depleted levels of Mg, since I rely entirely on WCs to replenish Mg levels (unlike Ca and KH, which I dose regularly). Glad to see that is not the case.

 

All in all I think these ICP tests are pretty cool. I chose CoralVue's test because it was cheap ($30 on BRS website) and because they also test your source water to boot. Their online interface is convenient and easy to use, and allows you to compare your test results to levels at various sites in the world's oceans (Florida, Hawaii, Fiji, etc.). I'll likely perform a few more of these tests later on as my new tank matures. 👍

  • Like 2
Link to comment
  • billygoat changed the title to Billy's 18g Caribbean Biotope - ICP test results p.55

Oh, that's neat. I've been looking for an ICP service anyway, may have to try this one out. 

 

Wonder why they flagged arsenic. Are you supposed to have some? Is it one of those obscure trace elements that things need? 

Link to comment
  • billygoat changed the title to Billy's 18g Caribbean Biotope - Breakdown Complete!

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recommended Discussions

×
×
  • Create New...