A Crazy College Reef- $200 Stocking ideas?

[CD_Scapes]

4 hours ago, Ratvan said:

Central defense is much more fun, you get to boot the strikers all game long. (Studs down the back of the calf 😉) really winds people up. 

 

Guess where I play 😀

Central defense??? 

[CD_Scapes]

Some days I hate living in the dorms becuase I got a text saying my package arrived at 10:30am today, but I can't get packages until 4:30pm AT THE EARLIEST!!! 

[Tired]

That shouldn't hurt anything, as long as the package is inside. 

[CD_Scapes]

4 minutes ago, Tired said:

That shouldn't hurt anything, as long as the package is inside. 

I know, I just want my critters 😝

[Ratvan]

4 hours ago, Northwoodsreefer said:

Central defense??? 

Started as defensive midfielder but was "too dirty" so got put in centre defence. More of a sweeper now though

[CD_Scapes]

29 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

Started as defensive midfielder but was "too dirty" so got put in centre defence. More of a sweeper now though

Yeah, we had a game vs a D3 "JV" team and I sort of steam rolled a guy in the corner but we had no refs 

[CD_Scapes]

November 23rd/24th, 2019:

Well, the tank is fine. Temps are finally stable around 77 in morning and topping at 78 degrees. The zoas are fine, some are open some are shut. The problems come with the Gracialira parvispora, "Moss ball" algae and some of the snails. The G. parvispora is bleaching, but I think its slowing down now. I ordered in some Chlorodesmis and what I got was chaeto....not Ideal but its all good. The flordia cerith, 2 speckeld ceriths and the limpet are dead, idk why but they never fully "opened up" and the limpet went rock hard. Another thing is the rigid coralline brought in 4 aiptasia  but all that aside, I think I'll pick up a damsel or something.  The other thing about this tank is that I'm probably getting a cluster of rigid coralline, lots of wild zoas, maybe kenya trees and G. hayi; after that I think the tank will be fully stocked. 

 

Picture time!

 Here is a before and after shot (Saturday night and today)

I forgot some of the other pics (acclimating and closeups)

Gulf Coast Ecosystems Order

Lots of G. parvispora

Closed up zoas

Rigid coralline

More G. parvispora

ReefCleaners order

Wild zoas under blues

[Tired]

Nice! IMO too small for a damsel, though.

 

Don't assume that the snails are dead just because they aren't open yet. Sometimes they take a little while. Unless it reeks of rotting things, give it a try. 

[CD_Scapes]

2 hours ago, Tired said:

Nice! IMO too small for a damsel, though.

 

Don't assume that the snails are dead just because they aren't open yet. Sometimes they take a little while. Unless it reeks of rotting things, give it a try. 

They reeked from rotting shellfish...also I know people say its too small but i've seen so many of the nano tanks that have damsels in them..better than a clownfish 🤷‍♂️

[CD_Scapes]

November 25th, 2019:

Well after taking out the dead snails, I brushed the semi-transparent gracilairia and it pretty much "exploded" into tiny frags. So I took it out today and will be doing a 60% water change then allow the tank to sit over Thanksgiving break untouched (other than my roommate doing top offs). In other news I could be getting a KP Aquatics gift certificate, which would allow me to get more wild zoas. Maybe I'll do a wild zoa tank with some coralline clusters as "elk coral" or other illegal Florida hard corals.

[Bailyfox]

1 hour ago, Northwoodsreefer said:

They reeked from rotting shellfish...also I know people say its too small but i've seen so many of the nano tanks that have damsels in them..better than a clownfish 🤷‍♂️

In one thread of mine I asked for livestock suggestions if you wanna take a look, tank is a similar size. Some fish species I'm considering for mine are tanakas pygmy possum wrasse, pink streaked wrasse, gramma linki, swalessi basslet, or geometric pygmy perchlet. 

[Tired]

People put baby damsels in picos, and that's probably okay at the start, but they don't stay baby for long. And it's not generally a great idea to get fish with the intent of exchanging them when they get too big, like I know some people do. Better to get a fish that you're either putting into a tank you already have (i.e. it's in the tiny tank as a growout), or something that can live there long-term.

 

For a tank this size, you want perching fish. A perchlet, maybe. Tiny gobies, some of the smaller blennies, or a coral croucher 'goby' (actually a scorpionfish relative) are about your only good long-term options. 

 

Too bad the macros went funky. Maybe they got too cold in transit? I wouldn't be surprised if you had spores survive and pop up somewhere. 

[CD_Scapes]

18 minutes ago, Tired said:

People put baby damsels in picos, and that's probably okay at the start, but they don't stay baby for long. And it's not generally a great idea to get fish with the intent of exchanging them when they get too big, like I know some people do. Better to get a fish that you're either putting into a tank you already have (i.e. it's in the tiny tank as a growout), or something that can live there long-term.

 

For a tank this size, you want perching fish. A perchlet, maybe. Tiny gobies, some of the smaller blennies, or a coral croucher 'goby' (actually a scorpionfish relative) are about your only good long-term options. 

 

Too bad the macros went funky. Maybe they got too cold in transit? I wouldn't be surprised if you had spores survive and pop up somewhere. 

For sure will be looking for a perchelt or similar fish, I saw a few blennies that looked cool too. I'll have to see what is around me. A fish won't happen for a while though, maybe in the summer.

 

Yeah, the water was mid sixties when I got them. I temp acclimated for about 45 minutes, but probably should have gone longer. Oh well, maybe some spores will pop-up and create more natural growth habits.

[CD_Scapes]

November 26th, 2019:

Tank

Well, I did a second round of removing as much of the melted gracilaira last night. After doing that I mixed up around 3 gallons of saltwater to do a larger water change today, it was roughly 60%. Following the water change I decided to add the last of my TurboStart and remove my carbon from the filter. I think the carbon was messing with the cycle process which could have been another reason for the melting and some of the snail deaths.

Job

Other news is that I got a part-time job making sandwiches at a regional sandwich shop (Erbert and Gerbert's for those who are curious). I start after Christmas break which is exciting, I might also go back to Subway over Christmas break to get more money as well.

leaving

Lastly I'm leaving my tank for 4 days, this will be good as I can't mess with the tank while I'm gone. Hopefully this will allow the bacteria and other things to re-settle/stabilize. While I'm gone my roommate will be doing top offs and I put my light on a timer from 12pm-8pm. 

[CD_Scapes]

Festive Goodies:

Well I am 1000% thankful for local hobbyists and my LFS for sure! I gave a chunk of gracilaria hayi to a local reef keeper and apparently they kept it growing for the past 3 or 4 months. Got a text from her asking if I wanted any, so I go over there and get around a pint or so of free hayi. That's not all she then cut a 3-4" frag of a grubes gorg and 3 1" sections of a purple ribbon gorg ALL FOR FREE! She kept asking if I wanted anything else, but since my tank is newer I declined. After that I went to sell ~10 lbs of dry rock to get some LFS money. So, I went to the LFS and holy cow did they change, they used to have live rock troughs and just a single frag tank. Now they have 2 lowboys, 2 smaller frag/display tanks, and the larger frag tank, It was awesome to see. The owner let me rummage around the tanks (I used to intern there) to find some "uglies" as he calls them. All in all I left with:

• A shell covered in greenish/blue payls that have a faint "bowtie" pattern
• Chunk of green tuft algae (I like natural looking tanks with some algae)
• Small urchin SHELL for aesthetic
• 2 polys of yellow parazoanthus
• small nub of purple plating sponge
• 1" section of matting corky fingers
• micro brittle stars
• Sundial snail
• and the only thing I payed for a 3' Kenya tree frag for $5

Here is a pic of the haul, for now I put all the bags in an old Gulf Coast Ecosystems insulated box with a handwamer to keep the temps up. I added a picture of the haul down low too

[Tired]

Are you sure you mean a sundial snail? Those are zoa-eating pests. 

 

Nice haul! The micro brittles should be helpful with getting detritus cleaned up, and it's fun to try and spot them.

[CD_Scapes]

41 minutes ago, Tired said:

Are you sure you mean a sundial snail? Those are zoa-eating pests. 

 

Nice haul! The micro brittles should be helpful with getting detritus cleaned up, and it's fun to try and spot them.

Wait I think it’s a collonistas snail, and yeah I’m excited for the micro brittle stars

[Tired]

Collonista snails are fine. They're round and snail-shaped, whereas sundial snails are kind of like a crooked UFO. Collonistas are nearly inevitable to have turn up, and are harmless detritivores. Not really big enough to do much in the way of cleaning, but they won't hurt anything.

[CD_Scapes]

7 minutes ago, Tired said:

Collonista snails are fine. They're round and snail-shaped, whereas sundial snails are kind of like a crooked UFO. Collonistas are nearly inevitable to have turn up, and are harmless detritivores. Not really big enough to do much in the way of cleaning, but they won't hurt anything.

definetly Collonista then

[CD_Scapes]

December 2nd, 2019:

Well, well, well...Things have happened to my tank while I was gone. If you recall I did a "soft reset" after the Ogo melted, this consisted of removing nearly all Ogo and doing a 60-70% water change while adding 3x the regular dose of Turbostart. I think it worked cause I came back to a tank of brown and green !!! I know, it's weird that I wanted algae but that meant the tank must have been stable enough to grow some algae and my zoas were fully open too! So, what I did was float the bags for 45 mins-1 hour and added livestock. I left everything unattached overnight as I got back to my dorm around 1am after hanging with friends...oops. Today I mounted/positioned the grogs and hayi and overall it looks decent. A zoa cluster slipped and is sort of on/off the rock, I lost my yellow parazoanthus and plating sponge, my micro brittle stars were dead as well as the collonista snail. I might need to get more small snails for the sand and some for the rocks. Anyone know of a smaller snail for my rocks? Besides all of that my roommate took great care of the tank, so thankful for him. 

FTS:

Left:

Right:

Zoas:

 

Sump or No?

When I was home I found my old 3 gallon cube and thought "maybe I could add a sump". I know it's a lot of work but I REALLY want a display sump. I love the look of the display sumps here on NR, it's like having 2 tanks in 1. So the plan would be (Over the summer) getting a nano internal overflow, drilling the tank, and then getting the sump setup. This all depends on whether I become a PAA (Peer Academic Advisor) it's basically an RA without all the enforcement of rules. PAAs get their own room and I feel like it would be a nice element to add and then I wouldn't have to worry about crappy roommates. Also I get free food and housing. Anyways, the sump would have macro for nutrient export and then some RFAs with sexies which would give me a simple Caribbean biotope as well. Now, I feel like I should add some baffles to keep the sexies/RFAs in and not go to the pumps. I'll think about this more throughout the year

[A.m.P]

Nerites and virgin nerites, dwarf ceriths too, about the smallest snails you can find.
Also you can DIY an overflow with PVC pipes, check out DIY joey on youtube.

[CD_Scapes]

10 minutes ago, Amphrites said:

Nerites and virgin nerites, dwarf ceriths too, about the smallest snails you can find.
Also you can DIY an overflow with PVC pipes, check out DIY joey on youtube.

I will look into the King of DIYs video later today or tomorrow and as for snails, I would go with nerites, but there eggs are annoying at times...

[Tired]

Nerite eggs can sometimes hatch in saltwater, so they wouldn't stay eggs for long. 

 

Dwarf ceriths are probably about your best option. If you order from ReefCleaners, he often has limpets, so you could get one of those as well. 

[A.m.P]

Maloney will hook you up with a "couple" dwarf ceriths for sure.

[Tired]

Yeah, I ordered 8 and he sent me 50, a couple of other tiny snails, two hermit crabs, and two peanut worms in cerith shells. You will get a lot of snails. He's also good for macros and rare critters- I think I saw you mention a micro decorator crab earlier? I got one from him, and I love it.