10 Gallon Rock Wall

[Tony Bologna]

I love that frogspawn. It really grew!  I can't wait to see what comes next. Your RFAs are very nice too. This is a great looking reef.

[growsomething]

1 hour ago, Tony Bologna said:

I love that frogspawn. It really grew!  I can't wait to see what comes next. Your RFAs are very nice too. This is a great looking reef.

Thanks!  It's dirty, no filter, somewhat along the idea of wvreefer and others.

It's so bare without the xenia.  Now I wish I hadn't cleaned it out, I want to use it in the contest tank.

[growsomething]

Here's something that has been growing under an rfa.  During feeding time it is uncovered.  Looks  like macro to me, maybe red grape?  I had put a piece I found at the beach in there maybe 2 mo ago.

 

 

 

For context, it is on the right lower hand rock in this pick.  It is tiny.

 

[debbeach13]

Nice find.

[growsomething]

Lfs gave me store credit $25/head at 12 heads for the frogspawn 👊🏼

I asked for a few of their most aggressive zoa types and picked out a few to combat the invasive little green zoa.  There are no acans, and a limited selection of everything.

I'm at my parents every night to help take care of my dad who is on Hospice care.  The old nursing career finally paid off a little.  So, I have no pics of the tank this eve, but the open center is refreshing for a change.  I can picture the back wall completely covered, then rfa and gorgs on the floor.

Something that makes me reconsider the floor rock plan is how much they'll give me for lps, and how quickly my dirty tank grows them.  They say they have trouble growing frogspawn.  Pbly their system is very clean for sps?  I asked what is in demand since my tank likes them, and they suggested a gold/purple hammer, I think.  I want to think about it before I get another LPS.

 

 

[growsomething]

New phone so new photos and jumbled spelling.

Dad passed the past wknd, so I hadn't done anything with this tank or the contest tabk, but I may still do the contest, not sure how much time I'll have before Dec1st.

Here's a full tank pic without the frogspawn.

 

 

Those pesky Xenia are cropping back up.

 

 

 

Valonia everywhere

 

 

Here's a cute pic or those tiny things that have popped up under an rfa

 

 

Finally, here are the zoa the lfs recommended as aggressive enough to compete with the invasive green zoa.  Got them off the plugs this evening and glued in place.  They told me their names but I can't recall them.

 

 

 

Thats all till I get a contest tank going.

[A.m.P]

The lower first zoa looks like fairy dust/nirvana/"pink and golds"; they have a million names, from what I've read they'll rapidly take over anything at all they get placed on.

Very sorry to hear about your father passing, there will be other contests and we'll certainly stick around for delayed updates if you need the time, just happy to have you share your tank and such in the first place.

[debbeach13]

Sorry about Dad. Prayers for you and your family. 

[growsomething]

Hey, thanks all. He needed to go, bcs cancer 👎.  Frued said you can't become a man until your father dies.  It already feels different, no one above you to talk to, or even complain to, who knows you intimately.  He taught me finish carpentry and how to put meals on the table from the saltwater👍

 

Amp that sounds great, since I don't want the green zoa and they have smothered almost everything except xenia.  Still hoping to put acans on the back wall, we'll see.

 

[kimdawg]

   Sorry to read about your father.  I hope you got to spend some quality time with him during hospice care.  I stayed with my parents after my father came home with hospice.  When he was lucid we got to spend a lot of quality time.  I am in tears thinking about it but will always cherish the extra time together. 

   You tank is doing great and the contest tank may still be a good idea if you have time.  I plan to enter the contest to get my mind off of a few medical problems I am having right now.  I am going to focus on RFA, zoas, and riccs.  Your tank has inspired me.

[growsomething]

" I plan to enter the contest to get my mind off of a few medical problems I am having right now. "

 

That is actually a good idea.  Busy is a good idea in certain instances. 

 

Your experience is close to mine,  my boy and I spent almost every evening there with the parents.  He got to know grandpa well, even if he won't remember him (20mo. old) and it made grandpa very happy.  It will also have some kind of positive effect on his psyche, and the importance of fatherhood has been magnified to me.  Thanks for the comments, see you in the contest!

[growsomething]

Stopped by the lfs for some therapy this afternoon.  My purpose wasn't to buy anything, but with my store credit...

 

 

picked up a white (silver) nps gorg, that red blade macro, and some sort of porites.  Here's a closup of the porites.

 

 

In the store it was royal blue, but I keep forgetting they run much bluer lighting than I use/prefer.  The white gorg/blue porites looked great together in the store.  The gorg still looks good here under more daylight spectrum. 

In my opinion it looks much more like a reef than it did when I had the frogspawn, but that's my Fl bias.  They still want me to grow some more frogspawn bcs it is a best seller and not enough is aquacultured.

[A.m.P]

Looks like it could be gracilaria hayi, doesn't look quite rounded enough to be curtissae or frilly enough to be tikahavae. Could also be some kind of non-florescent species of local halimenia.

And I think the porites might be "sand dollar" porites.

[growsomething]

19 minutes ago, A.m.P said:

Looks like it could be gracilaria hayi, doesn't look quite rounded enough to be curtissae or frilly enough to be tikahavae. Could also be some kind of non-florescent species of local halimenia.

And I think the porites might be "sand dollar" porites.

Yes, that's what they called the porites, now that you've said it.  The algae is a cartilageous horizontal "plating" type that is the lfs' pride and joy.

[A.m.P]

Wait this?


What you're describing almost sounds like some of the really sweet species of fauchia and other exceedingly-hard to find macros, they're right to be thrilled about it and I may have to buy some off you if it grows out well lol!

I'll see if I can hunt down some of my old links.

I doubt they'd be proud of dictyota even though it's beautiful, it's definitely a pest

Martian rose used to be popular but has vanished

Fauchia Lineata is temperamental, beautiful, and slow growing

Fauchea itself supposedly looks fine, never seen a meaningful photo of it grown-in

Mesophyllum is wild

 

[growsomething]

11 minutes ago, A.m.P said:

Wait this?


What you're describing almost sounds like some of the really sweet species of fauchia and other exceedingly-hard to find macros, they're right to be thrilled about it and I may have to buy some off you if it grows out well lol!

I'll see if I can hunt down some of my old links.

No, that is my little patch of cyano!  It's in the bottom left of the tank, but it is not horizontal bcs I just set it there, and it is blowing around.  They said at the lfs they looked around for it for a while.  I'll take a pic of it at the lfs sometime, they have gardens of it.  Coolest macro I've seen. All parts strictly grow horizontal.

[billygoat]

18 hours ago, growsomething said:

picked up a white (silver) nps gorg

That looks like a silver bush gorgonian (Muricea laxa). It is photosynthetic, and will display brown polyps that mask its silver color when it settles in.

[growsomething]

45 minutes ago, billygoat said:

That looks like a silver bush gorgonian (Muricea laxa). It is photosynthetic, and will display brown polyps that mask its silver color when it settles in.

Good to know, I almost didn't get it bcs they said it was nps, but one of the easier ones.  Up next, more gorgs and sponges galore.  The sand dollar porites will go on the flat lower part of the rock, not sure why I got it bcs it doesn't fit my overall scheme.  I just had too much store credit, it looked good, and they have no sponges and 2 gorgs in stock.

[growsomething]

The bucket is back!  No sign of red tide in the bay, just in the beaches.  

Colorful things have started to repopulate again.  

 

 

 

 

This little guy fell off the side...

 

 

There are so many arthropods the surface is alive with them.

 

 

 

[growsomething]

And here you can see 2 or 3 little fishes zipping around in there.  The one swims like a tiny, less colorful 6 line wrasse.  I didn't disturb them enough to check them out.  Probably they were just baby pinfish, which are used for bait, and the most plentiful fish in the bay (I think).

 

It wouldn't let me upload a 1 sec clip, and I'm not going to make a YouTube video for it, so I screen shot part of the vid.

 

[LazyFish]

Love the bucket lol. You could almost build a tank around that thing it's got so much life on it.

[growsomething]

@A.m.P you were right, it is dictyota.  I suppose you don't want any 😄

The form is more easing than any red macro I've seen, but I've learned from experience how pesky cool things like xenia can be.

Hermit crab has destroyed it.

 

 

[A.m.P]

Yeah, hermits won't touch most macros in the families people consider more "friendly", like fauchia or halimenia, not particularly-great tasting it seems, although larger crabs like emeralds will absolutely still chow down and I've even heard some tangs love dragons breath lol.

FWIW, it really looks like gracilaria mammilaris or curtissae to me, but I haven't seen the parent.
 

[growsomething]

Somehow in one week my serpent starfish is losing almost all its legs, near the base.  The only thing besides fish in the tank is this filtering porcelain crab.  The fish are a clown and a tsb.  Anyone seen this before?  Do they eat their own legs?  Would an rfa suddenly decide to break them off after nearly a year?

 

 

Look at that red turf algae and sweet bubble algae!

 

[growsomething]

Since I can't seem to get my new phone to not turn all pics blue, here is an odd filter that shows incredibly fast growth over the plug/superglue base of the new "nps" gorg.  Been feeding rr 2x/week, and it shows.  Also exponential red turf, valonia, and brown cyano(?) on the rocks/sand.