Billy's 18g Caribbean Biotope - Breakdown Complete!

[billygoat]

My gorgonians are slowly recovering. It looks like most of them will make it for sure, but I am still worried about the purple whip and also my larger purple brush gorgonian. Other than that, everything is going well. Pest algae growth has fallen off dramatically since I corrected the light cycle. It feels like things are starting to get back into balance.

 

I moved the Maw (again) towards the back of the tank. It's not visible from this angle, but it's still there.

 

[Nano sapiens]

1 hour ago, billygoat said:

My gorgonians are slowly recovering. It looks like most of them will make it for sure, but I am still worried about the purple whip and also my larger purple brush gorgonian. Other than that, everything is going well. Pest algae growth has fallen off dramatically since I corrected the light cycle. It feels like things are starting to get back into balance.

 

I moved the Maw (again) towards the back of the tank. It's not visible from this angle, but it's still there.

Good to see things are getting back into shape.  Corals are really sensitive to lighting changes (changes that we humans might not even notice).

[billygoat]

On 12/23/2019 at 5:51 PM, Nano sapiens said:

Good to see things are getting back into shape.  Corals are really sensitive to lighting changes (changes that we humans might not even notice).

Corals certainly are very sensitive, which makes it even more amazing that mine are coming back at all. The lighting blunder was certainly a huge mistake on my part! I'm honestly surprised that they didn't just all shrivel up and die after getting microwaved with too much light for 10 straight days. 😥

 

Things are continuing to look better now though. I think the purple whip might pull through. The larger purple plume is still closed up, but the smaller one is 100% back to normal. And everything else in the tank is doing just fine. Here are some pictures.

 

First a left side view. The closed-up purple plume is in the foreground. The tank looks quite lush from this angle.

 

Here is the right side. This part of the tank is mostly mushrooms and other soft, floppy creatures. The slowly recovering purple whip is at the center there. It's showing little polyp nubbins today, which I think is a good sign.

 

Zoanthids at the center. All of these have completely recovered from my mishap with the lighting and are now doing well again.

 

Briareum. I don't think any combination of lighting mistakes could kill this thing. It seems to be completely unfazed by the whole debacle.

 

Oh and this guy is still here too! You can see the Jawfish peeking out from his hidey-hole underneath of my Palythoas. He's still very timid and seems to be having trouble settling down, but he's eating well and I like to imagine that he is calmer than he was a few weeks ago.

 

Okay, that's all I've got for today! Thank you for reading everyone! I hope you all have a happy holiday. 😊

[cosmicbread]

I am in love with this tank!! I've spent the last two days leisurely reading through this thread and it so chock full of knowledge (and really stunning photographs). I also can't wait to follow along with the Alveopora build, as that's also one of my favorites and I was hoping to keep a few, one day. Thanks for so dutifully updating and taking us along for the ride!

edit: I am a Maw fangirl.

second edit: but how is your Kraken brittle star doing these days?? I'd love to see a full body pic of that thing. 

[billygoat]

11 hours ago, cosmicbread said:

I am in love with this tank!! I've spent the last two days leisurely reading through this thread and it so chock full of knowledge (and really stunning photographs). I also can't wait to follow along with the Alveopora build, as that's also one of my favorites and I was hoping to keep a few, one day. Thanks for so dutifully updating and taking us along for the ride!

edit: I am a Maw fangirl.

second edit: but how is your Kraken brittle star doing these days?? I'd love to see a full body pic of that thing. 

Thank you so much for your support, and thanks for reading through all of that! This tank has certainly been through a lot and changed quite a bit over the past year, so I really appreciate you taking the time to check it out. 😊 Unfortunately the Alveopora build is on hold for now - that pico lasted a grand total of 10 days before I broke it down. 😅 I decided I could only really handle one aquarium in my life right now, and of course that's got to be the C-Vue here. Some day I'll have that Alveopora display though! Just probably not soon.

 

Glad to hear the Maw has another adherent. 😉 It hasn't eaten any fish for quite some time now, but then again I haven't added any new fish for awhile either... the surviving gobies that live in the tank seem to have learned to stay away from its devouring jaws.

 

As for the Terror Star, well it's still in there, and it's still very, very large. It spends most of its time during the daylight hours hidden away under a rock, but at night it emerges and cruises the tank for scraps. Sometimes I catch a glimpse of it spread out on the glass after the lights are out, and I am always amazed to see how large it has gotten. It must be 10" from arm-tip to arm-tip! Honestly it's way too big for my tank and I suspect that it has been eating some of my more inattentive hermit crabs, but I can't seem to bring myself to rehome the thing. It fascinates and horrifies me with its giant, mindless, implacable ways. I'll try to snap a photo of it the next time I see it prowling around at night.

[teenyreef]

Fingers crossed that the gorgs recover from the lighting overdose. This is such a cool tank 🙂

 

[billygoat]

On 12/27/2019 at 8:25 AM, teenyreef said:

Fingers crossed that the gorgs recover from the lighting overdose. This is such a cool tank 🙂

 

Thanks @teenyreef! I really appreciate the encouragement. It means a lot to me. 😊

 

I'm pleased to report that the large purple plume is back in action! It was closed up tight for more than a week, but suddenly started showing polyps again yesterday. I'm very happy because this was the first gorgonian I put in the tank and I'd be sad if I lost it. Not 100% sure what I did to make it feel better, but I'm glad that it's acting normally. 😅

 

 

The purple whip continues to struggle, but it's showing a bit more polyp extension every day. Hopefully it will pull through as well.

 

 

A few other things are still a bit amiss: I noticed that a few of my green zoanthids have been closed up for the past couple days. Only the ones at the top of the pile are closing, so I think it might be a delayed reaction to the whole lighting episode. That or they are tired of brawling with the cup coral next door (the cup coral seems to win). I will perform a water change today and see if that helps them out.

 

Also there are a few Aiptasia growing here and there, so I'll have to melt those soon. I'd love to try another peppermint shrimp but I am worried that it will go after my rock flower anemones. That or the Maw will just eat it (again).

 

Oh and speaking of the Maw... I think it ate another one of my masked gobies. 🤔 I only saw one this morning at feeding time. The missing goby is the more timid of the two, and in the past he's hidden himself away for days at a time for whatever reason, so I won't count him out just yet. But something about the way the Maw looks today just gives me a bad vibe... it's almost like the thing is gloating.

[mitten_reef]

15 minutes ago, billygoat said:

Thanks @teenyreef! I really appreciate the encouragement. It means a lot to me. 😊

 

I'm pleased to report that the large purple plume is back in action! It was closed up tight for more than a week, but suddenly started showing polyps again yesterday. I'm very happy because this was the first gorgonian I put in the tank and I'd be sad if I lost it. Not 100% sure what I did to make it feel better, but I'm glad that it's acting normally. 😅

 

 

The purple whip continues to struggle, but it's showing a bit more polyp extension every day. Hopefully it will pull through as well.

 

 

A few other things are still a bit amiss: I noticed that a few of my green zoanthids have been closed up for the past couple days. Only the ones at the top of the pile are closing, so I think it might be a delayed reaction to the whole lighting episode. That or they are tired of brawling with the cup coral next door (the cup coral seems to win). I will perform a water change today and see if that helps them out.

 

Also there are a few Aiptasia growing here and there, so I'll have to melt those soon. I'd love to try another peppermint shrimp but I am worried that it will go after my rock flower anemones. That or the Maw will just eat it (again).

 

Oh and speaking of the Maw... I think it ate another one of my masked gobies. 🤔 I only saw one this morning at feeding time. The missing goby is the more timid of the two, and in the past he's hidden himself away for days at a time for whatever reason, so I won't count him out just yet. But something about the way the Maw looks today just gives me a bad vibe... it's almost like the thing is gloating.

love the full-bloom gorgs. I think the RFAs and the rics are loving the light upgrade, they have better colors on them (that, or the tank is just brighter for the camera to pick up colors 😄).

[billygoat]

19 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

love the full-bloom gorgs. I think the RFAs and the rics are loving the light upgrade, they have better colors on them (that, or the tank is just brighter for the camera to pick up colors 😄).

I agree! The RFAs and Ricordea seem to have taken very well to the lighting upgrade. Ar first I was a bit concerned about frying the Rics, but actually they are massively expanded every day and seem to be loving it. This green and golden RFA at the front of the tank looks particularly good.

 

 

In fact the RFAs have been doing so well that I'm considering adding a 3rd one. There's a spot near the front right of the tank that I've left empty on purpose to entice the jawfish to move in and burrow there. He seems happy enough where he's at though, so if he doesn't move within the next week or so I will probably order a new red RFA to put down here.

 

 

I also spotted this porcelain crab yesterday afternoon. It has been in the tank for quite some time now and seems to be doing well. Its eyes look cloudy, which I believe is an indication that it will molt soon. 👍

 

[Pjanssen]

5 minutes ago, billygoat said:

also spotted this porcelain crab yesterday afternoon. It has been in the tank for quite some time now and seems to be doing well. Its eyes look cloudy, which I believe is an indication that it will molt soon. 👍

 

Nice find! But what about that bristle worm down there?! EEK! I know I know, it's not a fire worm, but after my experience with them I'm weary of anything that even resembles a fire worm.

[A.m.P]

I think that's a starfish arm

[billygoat]

1 hour ago, Pjanssen said:

Nice find! But what about that bristle worm down there?! EEK! I know I know, it's not a fire worm, but after my experience with them I'm weary of anything that even resembles a fire worm.

 

1 hour ago, Amphrites said:

I think that's a starfish arm

Yeah that is indeed one of the arms of my giant orange brittle star. I do have plenty of bristleworms though, and some of them are pretty big! I haven't seen any fireworms so far, but honestly who really knows what is living in this system. 😅

[billygoat]

Happy new year to all my fellow reefers! 🥳🎉 2019 was a good year for me, and I hope that it was for you too. Hopefully we can make 2020 even better. 💪

 

Here are some views of my tank from the first day of the new year. First the right side:

 

Left side:

 

And a fresh FTS:

 

Here's another interesting thing I've noticed: over the past few days these zoanthids have been developing weird bulbous protrusions on their stalks. I have had these particular zoas for a long time and they've had their ups and downs in the tank, but I've never seen anything like this before. Perhaps they had a few too many during their New Year's Eve celebrations? Besides the strange skirtlike bumps they look quite normal and are showing good expansion, so I am not concerned about their welfare - I'm just thoroughly confused as to what they might be up to. 🤨 Also note the cool branching coralline algae underneath this group of zoas. That is another hitchhiker! It's been growing quite well over the past few months.

 

And one for the road: a shot of some Caulerpa verticillata in the morning sun. I recently learned that this species is illegal to import to California. Oops! It came in on my live rock, I swear! 😂

 

Okay, that's all I've got for now! Thanks as always for reading. 😊

[banasophia]

6 minutes ago, billygoat said:

Happy new year to all my fellow reefers! 🥳🎉 2019 was a good year for me, and I hope that it was for you too. Hopefully we can make 2020 even better. 💪

 

Here are some views of my tank from the first day of the new year. First the right side:

 

Left side:

 

And a fresh FTS:

 

Here's another interesting thing I've noticed: over the past few days these zoanthids have been developing weird bulbous protrusions on their stalks. I have had these particular zoas for a long time and they've had their ups and downs in the tank, but I've never seen anything like this before. Perhaps they had a few too many during their New Year's Eve celebrations? Besides the strange skirtlike bumps they look quite normal and are showing good expansion, so I am not concerned about their welfare. I'm just thoroughly confused as to what they might be up to. 🤨 Also note the cool branching coralline algae underneath this group of zoas. That is another hitchhiker! It's been growing quite well over the past few months.

 

And one for the road: a cool shot of some Caulerpa prolifera in the morning sun. I recently learned that this species is illegal to import to California. Oops! It came in on my live rock, I swear! 😂

 

Okay, that's all I've got for now! Thanks as always for reading. 😊

Happy New Year, @billygoat!!! 🥳 Glad you had a good 2019 & best wishes for an even better year to come! 🤗

 

Your tank’s looking great!! Those bulges on the zoas seem unusual... curious to hearing what people think may be going on. 🤔

[billygoat]

24 minutes ago, banasophia said:

Happy New Year, @billygoat!!! 🥳 Glad you had a good 2019 & best wishes for an even better year to come! 🤗

 

Your tank’s looking great!! Those bulges on the zoas seem unusual... curious to hearing what people think may be going on. 🤔

Thanks so much @banasophia! I can't wait to see how your new BioCube comes together in 2020. I think this will be a very exciting year! 😊

 

As for the zoas... yeah it's honestly really strange. If they were any other sort of soft coral I would guess that they are trying to split/branch/asexually reproduce in some way or another, but as far as I know zoanthids don't really do that, so... 🤔 We'll just have to see what happens I guess!

 

[Tired]

Love the tank! Looks amazing.

 

The zoanthids... maybe some of them DO reproduce asexually. I've never heard of that happening, but I don't see why they couldn't. Maybe this is a new species that does. Or maybe they have some sort of collective weird cancer. I'm sure it's harmless to everything else, the question's just what it'll do to the zoas.

 

Hey, we have some of the same hitchhikers. I have that branching coraline (which seems to be doing well, thankfully), and I used to have C. prolifera. My pods ate it all after the snails cleaned the tank too much and left them to go hungry, though. Maybe it'll have some spores in there somewhere. I like the texture of the stuff, and since it's so tiny, it's less likely to harm anything if a patch of it goes sexual. 

 

I absolutely adore those darker blue zoanthids you've got in there. Are those the KP Aquatics ones? 

[WV Reefer]

1 hour ago, billygoat said:

Thanks so much @banasophia! I can't wait to see how your new BioCube comes together in 2020. I think this will be a very exciting year! 😊

 

As for the zoas... yeah it's honestly really strange. If they were any other sort of soft coral I would guess that they are trying to split/branch/asexually reproduce in some way or another, but as far as I know zoanthids don't really do that, so... 🤔 We'll just have to see what happens I guess!

 

I have some on an island that do that when they have no where else to grow.  I thought they might release the heads or something but they never have. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[billygoat]

23 hours ago, Tired said:

Love the tank! Looks amazing.

 

The zoanthids... maybe some of them DO reproduce asexually. I've never heard of that happening, but I don't see why they couldn't. Maybe this is a new species that does. Or maybe they have some sort of collective weird cancer. I'm sure it's harmless to everything else, the question's just what it'll do to the zoas.

 

Hey, we have some of the same hitchhikers. I have that branching coraline (which seems to be doing well, thankfully), and I used to have C. prolifera. My pods ate it all after the snails cleaned the tank too much and left them to go hungry, though. Maybe it'll have some spores in there somewhere. I like the texture of the stuff, and since it's so tiny, it's less likely to harm anything if a patch of it goes sexual. 

 

I absolutely adore those darker blue zoanthids you've got in there. Are those the KP Aquatics ones? 

Thanks @Tired! It's amazing how many different varieties of coralline algae you get when you start off with a bit of good ol' uncured rock. I'm curious to see what growth form your branching coralline hitchhikers take, because mine at first were primarily encrusting. They started to branch only after I bumped up my light intensity a few months ago.

 

Also, those blue zoanthids are indeed from KP Aquatics. I actually got them as a freebie with one of my orders, but I believe they are the variety listed on their site as simply "blue zoanthids." They're very cheap, and KP even ships them by priority mail.

 

23 hours ago, WV Reefer said:

I have some on an island that do that when they have no where else to grow.  I thought they might release the heads or something but they never have. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Hmm interesting... those zoas definitely have plenty of space to encrust the rock they are on, so I wonder what they might be up to. I will continue to keep an eye on them and will report about any changes I see.

[Tired]

That's mine. I"m still in the "ugly algae kinda happens" stage, and some of it is ON the other algae, of course. You can see this is definitely surrounded by encrusting coraline, so it may be the same stuff. I think the white sections are just from being out of water for awhile when I rescaped. It seems to be growing some, and I'm fairly sure it wasn't like this when I got the rock- I would have noticed. Maybe a little sprout. It definitely wasn't in bright light at first, but it is now. Curious to see if other coraline starts branching like this. 

[CD_Scapes]

On 1/1/2020 at 6:05 PM, billygoat said:

Happy new year to all my fellow reefers! 🥳🎉 2019 was a good year for me, and I hope that it was for you too. Hopefully we can make 2020 even better. 💪

 

Here are some views of my tank from the first day of the new year. First the right side:

 

Left side:

 

And a fresh FTS:

 

Here's another interesting thing I've noticed: over the past few days these zoanthids have been developing weird bulbous protrusions on their stalks. I have had these particular zoas for a long time and they've had their ups and downs in the tank, but I've never seen anything like this before. Perhaps they had a few too many during their New Year's Eve celebrations? Besides the strange skirtlike bumps they look quite normal and are showing good expansion, so I am not concerned about their welfare - I'm just thoroughly confused as to what they might be up to. 🤨 Also note the cool branching coralline algae underneath this group of zoas. That is another hitchhiker! It's been growing quite well over the past few months.

 

And one for the road: a shot of some Caulerpa prolifera in the morning sun. I recently learned that this species is illegal to import to California. Oops! It came in on my live rock, I swear! 😂

 

Okay, that's all I've got for now! Thanks as always for reading. 😊

That caulpera looks almost like Caulepra verticillata, still a cool species but could take over...send me a frag, I want more caulerpa species lol

[billygoat]

2 minutes ago, Northwoodsreefer said:

That caulpera looks almost like Caulepra verticillata, still a cool species but could take over...send me a frag, I want more caulerpa species lol

Actually, it is C. verticillata! Caulerpa prolifera is definitely a totally different thing; I'm not sure where my head was at when I wrote that. I'll go back and edit it now! 😁

 

Ironically, C. prolifera is indeed legal to import to California... unlike C. verticillata here. I'm glad I at least got that part right. 🙄😂

[CD_Scapes]

54 minutes ago, billygoat said:

Actually, it is C. verticillata! Caulerpa prolifera is definitely a totally different thing; I'm not sure where my head was at when I wrote that. I'll go back and edit it now! 😁

 

Ironically, C. prolifera is indeed legal to import to California... unlike C. verticillata here. I'm glad I at least got that part right. 🙄😂

There are too many caulerpas to keep track of 🤣

[cosmicbread]

1 hour ago, billygoat said:

Actually, it is C. verticillata! Caulerpa prolifera is definitely a totally different thing; I'm not sure where my head was at when I wrote that. I'll go back and edit it now! 😁

 

Ironically, C. prolifera is indeed legal to import to California... unlike C. verticillata here. I'm glad I at least got that part right. 🙄😂

Haha...I began doubting whether I had actually put prolifera in my own tank when I first read that. Verticillata is very pretty though. So delicate.

[billygoat]

7 minutes ago, cosmicbread said:

Haha...I began doubting whether I had actually put prolifera in my own tank when I first read that. Verticillata is very pretty though. So delicate.

Haha, no it was totally my mistake! I think I had C. prolifera on the brain because I was considering adding some to my display. I eventually ruled this plan out though, as I don't think I have enough leftover space in the tank to allow it to grow properly. 

 

Caulerpa verticillata is very beautiful and is actually a fairly common hitchhiker on aquacultured Florida live rock, but unfortunately it seems to be eaten by a very large variety of common aquarium inhabitants, so often it doesn't last too long. Emerald and Pitho crabs will annihilate it, as will various decorator crab species. I think larger snails such as turbos will likely graze on it as well.

 

1 hour ago, Tired said:

That's mine. I"m still in the "ugly algae kinda happens" stage, and some of it is ON the other algae, of course. You can see this is definitely surrounded by encrusting coraline, so it may be the same stuff. I think the white sections are just from being out of water for awhile when I rescaped. It seems to be growing some, and I'm fairly sure it wasn't like this when I got the rock- I would have noticed. Maybe a little sprout. It definitely wasn't in bright light at first, but it is now. Curious to see if other coraline starts branching like this. 

I think my system is pretty much permanently in the "ugly algae kinda happens" stage. 😅 I've come to terms with this though, and I am honestly pretty pleased with the wide variety of hair and turf algae that have colonized my rocks over the past year. The great diversity of different "pest" species seems to prevent any single type of algae from gaining an upper hand, so the system as a whole remains in balance. I certainly have a lot of different kinds of coralline growing too, and some of the growth forms have become very beautiful. I will try to put together a photo reel of coralline shots the next time I have a day off.

 

Did you get any Halimeda hitchhikers @Tired? I have a clump of what I believe to be H. discoidea that came in on my rock and has been slowly spreading for the past ten months or so. It's nice to see such a great variety of species growing and thriving in my tank.

[Tired]

I did! It looked dead at first, a tiny, algae-encrusted stem of nothing, but it grew into a little branch. I think it's just the "standard" kind that everyone seems to have, not sure what species that is. The rock at my LFS definitely has at least one halimeda species. 

 

My C. verticilliata didn't last long at all. My micro decorator crab loved it and used it in a costume, which I think it would have survived fine, except that he later abandoned it (guess he realized there wasn't much of it in there to hide in) and the assorted cleanup critters bulldozed over the stumps. May see if I can grow a large enough patch of some in the back of the tank somehow, I really do like the texture of it. 

 

I'm vaguely concerned about an algae surge because of my too many snails clearing a lot of my rock almost clean, but hopefully the remaining biodiversity will help. There's a couple species of what looks sort of like short, thick turf algae, one green and one red, that are behaving themselves well. The orange coraline died out, which I've read is pretty common in reefs, but the other kinds are doing pretty well. I'm interested to see what happens with this new dry rock I've added, and how the algaes spread onto it. So far it's just that first wash of green algae. 

 

Oh, and a polyclad. I have a polyclad somewhere. Little guy, about an inch long, pretty slow-moving. I caught it and put it in a floating cup, and it crawled out of the water to escape, so apparently they do that. Note to self: get one of those betta cups, make sure the lid is on tight, and put him in THERE next time. Hoping to rehome the fella instead of killing him. He hasn't eaten any of my snails yet, so I don't know if he's just on my bristleworms or what. Hoping (probably in vain) that he's some kind of non-predatory flatworm. Even when I was chasing/sliding him up the back wall with a spoon, he wasn't moving very fast, so I don't know how he'd catch snails. My nerite is faster than that. 

 

I also got a small reddish sea squirt that seems to be doing okay so far, an assortment of little bivalves (I lost a 2" turkey wing clam in the early days, it probably starved, but the little ones are fine) including some rock-boring ones that I only found when I chiseled a rock open, two starlet corals, a cup coral that may or may not still have some flesh clinging to its skeleton, a good five or so different types of loose worms, two types of amphipods, loads of copepods, hydroids (which haven't spread yet), several types of tubeworm, some spaghetti worms, at least two types of chitons, keyhole limpets (which I'm removing as I see them), some type of tiny unknown snail, a type of snail that I think is a clam-eater, and a Mysterious Clicking Noise.

I thought the pump was clicking, but I no longer have that pump, and I still hear occasional clicking. It's very soft, half the volume of my 3/4" pistol shrimp, so I'm not concerned. Either it's an incredibly tiny mantis shrimp, or an incredibly tiny pistol shrimp that lives in the rockwork and doesn't disturb the sand. Maybe I'll get lucky and catch whatever it is when I'm trying to trap the polyclad. I very likely won't remove it, at that size it can't possibly be a threat to much, but I'm curious what it IS.