Granite’s Dropoff Poopico: New Light!

[MainelyReefer]

EXCITING NEWS!!!!!!!

The Green Banded Gobies bred and the tank is full of babies!

hopefully the babies are still swimming when I return from work so I can try to get a better picture before they become coral food.  

Heres a shot of one center frame all you can see are the small eyes and maybe an organ or two haha

so excited maybe I will set up a second rearing tank, I wonder if ORA shared their successful feeding regimen for these fry?

update later today with a video!

[Wingy]

How cool.  

[Ratvan]

9 minutes ago, GraniteReefer said:

EXCITING NEWS!!!!!!!

The Green Banded Gobies bred and the tank is full of babies!

hopefully the babies are still swimming when I return from work so I can try to get a better picture before they become coral food.  

Heres a shot of one center frame all you can see are the small eyes and maybe an organ or two haha

so excited maybe I will set up a second rearing tank, I wonder if ORA shared their successful feeding regimen for these fry?

update later today with a video!

That is amazing

[ef4life]

That’s awesome. 

[debbeach13]

Wonderful news! I bet it was hard to leave and go to work.

[seabass]

Sweet!

 

58 minutes ago, GraniteReefer said:

I wonder if ORA shared their successful feeding regimen for these fry?

Obviously, due to their size, sourcing food for the fry is likely the biggest challenge.  I feel that I've read something about it, but can't remember any details.  I'll see if I can find anything which might help.

[Ratvan]

9 minutes ago, seabass said:

Sweet!

 

Obviously, due to their size, sourcing food for the fry is likely the biggest challenge.  I feel that I've read something about it, but can't remember any details.  I'll see if I can find anything which might help.

Would rotifiers be small enough?

[seabass]

They are all female at birth; but when adults are paired up, they can change sex (which takes about a month).  Seems there is a decent amount of info available on similar species:

Quote

 

Taking on projects with the goal of raising new species of ornamental marine fish is a vital component of the daily operations at ORA.  Recently we have focused our efforts on the Masked Goby, a species with a reputation for being hardy, peaceful, showy and a great choice for today’s popular nano tanks.  The Masked Goby may be new to us, but they were first raised by Todd Gardner in the late 1990’s.

 

Like Todd, our initial trials with C. personatus larvae were unsuccessful. They simply would not accept rotifers as a first food.  It wasn’t until Todd started to offer a small ciliate that he succeeded with this species.  Here at ORA we offered the larvae cultured copepod nauplii under 75(!) microns and we were pleased to see them settle out around 30 days post hatch.   While small, these fish are pretty quick to mature, we were amazed to see fertile spawns produced by individuals of this species that are barely 100 days old!

 

- https://www.orafarm.com/blog/2014/05/02/masked-goby/

 

Some other links:

• https://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/1/breeder
• https://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/5/breeder
• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0044848605001912

 

[MainelyReefer]

So the fry likely turned into the dropoff’s morning snack but I did manage this video before I left this morning.  Don’t mind the poor quality I shot it while holding a baby who you will hear.

I bought some hikari fry food just Incase and fed it to the tank anyways. I know this food is not a likely viable first food but Atleast I tried.  Perhaps in the future I can be prepared to transfer them to a rearing tank I’m sure my wife would love a 6th tank in the house(sarcasm is hard via text)

[MainelyReefer]

Got a new camera filter!  This time I got a bubble magus brand as it was cheap on amazon and it came with the standard orange but also a yellow and 10x macro lens.  I used the yellow for these shots and it’s pretty close to how it looks in person.

LFS Purple(most recent pick up duplicate to another on the crest of the Dropoff)

BSA rainbow I think

Green half of Cornbred Citrus Bomb.

JF Spitfire

LC Lemony lime

LC Luck of the Irish(holy bubble algae balls Batman)

And my personal favorite Pumpkin Spice

Cornbred hell’s fire(more impressive than but very similar to the JF spitfire)

LC burning man with free bubble algae.

LC Emerald Fire

this shot shows the green citrus bombs growth on its left side.

Random topdown.

The pics of the others sucked I’ll try getting better ones in a future update for all 19 but lights are out for the night now.  Water is murky after a huge coral feeding two days ago without a WC until tomorrow so it was hard to get some shots.

[MetaTank]

1 hour ago, GraniteReefer said:

Got a new camera filter!  This time I got a bubble magus brand as it was cheap on amazon and it came with the standard orange but also a yellow and 10x macro lens.  I used the yellow for these shots and it’s pretty close to how it looks in person.

LFS Purple(most recent pick up duplicate to another on the crest of the Dropoff)

BSA rainbow I think

Green half of Cornbred Citrus Bomb.

JF Spitfire

LC Lemony lime

LC Luck of the Irish(holy bubble algae balls Batman)

And my personal favorite Pumpkin Spice

Cornbred hell’s fire(more impressive than but very similar to the JF spitfire)

LC burning man with free bubble algae.

LC Emerald Fire

this shot shows the green citrus bombs growth on its left side.

Random topdown.

The pics of the others sucked I’ll try getting better ones in a future update for all 19 but lights are out for the night now.  Water is murky after a huge coral feeding two days ago without a WC until tomorrow so it was hard to get some shots.

Wow! They all look super happy, great PE! And the filter is working fantastic! Really beautiful photos!

[Pjanssen]

what are you ding about the bubble algae?

[TatorTaco]

If any survive, put me down on the list to buy a couple from ya!

[MainelyReefer]

51 minutes ago, Pjanssen said:

what are you ding about the bubble algae?

Removal with narrow pointed tweezers during a WC, then spot treatment with hydrogen peroxide.    Refill water will be dosed with fluconazole and vibrant which should reduce chances of spores successfully settling.  If it seems possible I may remove the plugs entirely to be absolute,  of course the algae is only on plugs now so this may be the best bet.  Issue is I tried plug removal when I put the corals in and some had encrusted so much I deemed it too difficult/detrimental to the coral.  I will likely remove the plugs from the tank before removing the bubbles to lessen chances of spores spreading.

[MainelyReefer]

Photo comparison of my filters.

unfiltered

yellow filter

orange filter

I kind of prefer the yellow filter but in person the spectrum is between the orange and yellow filter.

[seabass]

I think the yellow filter creates a more familiar reef photo (IDK, maybe best for full tank shots).  The orange color probably shows off the corals best (you might try using for macro shots).

[Pjanssen]

Can you stack your filters?

[MainelyReefer]

I think another batch of babies has been born... or there is a bunch of survivors from the last batch that hid and are now out.  I think the first scenario is more plausible but either is awesome!  The babies seem bigger than before and have more distinct features this time but that’s opinion.  It could be they are the same babies just older and more developed or perhaps it’s a new batch that is healthier and more robust. Here’s the best photo I can get of one

there is about 15-20 swimming around, and they are strong enough to swim against the current. I am broadcast feeding the hikari first foods which is a fine powder that disperses well.  It seems I can see similar colored food in their bellies so perhaps they ate it.... or something colored the same haha.  Best thing is the wife has green lighted a rearing tank to try to grow some of these out to actual fish.  Let’s hope the batches of babies keep coming by the time I have it set up/cycled.  I am also keeping the adults well fed with pellets in hope they won’t eat their young.

[MainelyReefer]

I’m 99% sure one of the GBG’s died as during a WC yesterday I sucked up a large piece of meat with visible stripes.  The other two are still active and eating and I’m almost thinking it may have been the odd fish out with the breeding pair remaining.  Within a week or so if more babies show up I will know the two breeders are still present.  The large Goby has been pretty defensive of the Dropoff but since the two smaller ones were so similar I think I have been unable to notice he was harassing a single specimen and not both.  

Both surviving fish.  Neither have any signs of stress and both have fat bellies.

Clean tank right after the WC

[MainelyReefer]

A week after the last post about a GBG dying the dominant GBG died too, the lone survivor is fine though.  I was unable to locate the second body which caused a parameter spike(untested but water was cloudy). This killed off a few leptastrea.  Luckily none of the high end specimens died.  I put a small carbon filter on the liftpipe to help buffer the water and have been doing WC’s.  12 specimens are 100% ok.  4 specimens have receded but might make a come back.  3 specimens are 100% dead.  Survival of the fittest on the Dropoff.

Almost dead purple leptastrea 

Feeding time for the survivors

In this photo you can see the white spot where I removed the plug the dead leptastrea was on.

Ill do a better happier update soon

[MainelyReefer]

Its been about two months since I have updated, but nothing exciting has really happened and I’m in the rule breakers category so I had no need to update.  My lights are starting to lose diodes which is affecting the corals I think, I have lost a few more Leptastrea most certainly due to laziness and not adhering to my weekly water changes.  The tank itself is progressing nicely though and has very little nuisance algae and great coralline growth and film algae.  Still one lonely green banded Goby, a bunch of snails and a few hermits.  I never see bristleworms in this tank which is a first for me, maybe they are under the gravel filter.  Not the proudest photos with some dead/dying coral skeletons but the few stragglers have proven themselves resilient 

plan is to upgrade the light, see how the Leptastrea react in a few months time and reassess the situation then, I seem to remember the reef bowl went through a time of struggle and it’s now my best tank so I keep reminding myself to be patient.  Atleast this time I learned and hopefully remember don’t put a ton of money into livestock until after ~6months-1year 

[seabass]

I wish mine exhibited that kind of coralline growth.

 

49 minutes ago, GraniteReefer said:

I learned and hopefully remember don’t put a ton of money into livestock until after ~6months-1year

Then you're just about ready to start stocking.

 

Yeah, putting off stocking can be tough, especially when participating in a 6 month contest.  I'm glad this tank is still plugging along.

[MainelyReefer]

Upgrade! I think?!? Normally I’m a name brand reefer especially when it comes to lighting but I opted to save money and risk buying a junky light. This black box has arguably become a known brand though.... the hipargero aquaknight

Low initial impressions of the hipargero are set by the low quality feel to the housing, as expected the touch controls are junk and may be the eventual point of failure, but with that in mind I will be cautious when touching the light.  The manufacturer sillily made the bracket system angled at 45 degrees rather than a logical 90.  So I took the piece of the bracket that connects to the light and bent it to a 90 degree angle.  This allowed me to mount one of the other bracket pieces to the wall then fasten the lights bracket to that and get the light about 1” off the wall with an easily adjustable height.  I have the lighting bracket set at the lowest spot to reduce spill.

Given the similar footprint of the light to the tank it made sense over a single puck light like an A80 or ai Prime.  The spectrum isn’t all that bad on the hipargero I’m running 70% blue 40% white, hoping to end up at 100% on the blues and 70% on the whites.  

Maybe I will build a hood to conceal this light and the air pump and stop all light spill, but for now the hype on a new light offering a new look is good enough.

While installing the light I also changed the airline and airstones for the first time, the amount of visible detritus below the UG filter was alarming but I guess I was warned earlier in this thread by one of the seasoned reefers(forget who but thanks!).  So in the future water changes I will attempt to stick a small diameter tube under there to siphon what I can, today I turkey basted out what was visible down the lift pipe.

[MainelyReefer]

Good reaction at the end of day one with the new light! Here is a few photos so you can get an idea of the recession in a few of the surviving specimens.  A few unscathed ones too. 

I even have the power supply of the hipargero plugged into the old current ramp timer pro and then the hipargero light is plugged into channel one on the current ramp timer.  I have to leave the channel at 100% or the hipargero makes a horrible humming noise.  So I have it set at 100% 8am to 8pm and the hipargero will just resume it’s own set intensity upon start up. For $63 I’m satisfied so far let’s hope it can grow corals.  

[Christopher Marks]

Howdy @GraniteReefer! Can you believe it has been 7 months already? It's been fun following along with the drop-off pico reef!

 

This is a friendly reminder to post your final competition FTS and a 1 to 2 paragraph recap of your experience in the pico reef competition. Be sure to share your future plans for your pico reef as well, will it continue forward or get an upgrade? The competition ends on Sunday October 27th at midnight!

 

Thank you for being a part of our "Rule Breakers" Old School Pico Reef Competition! ❤️