10 Gallon Rock Wall

[growsomething]

This was a fragging and scaping weekend.

The leptoseris and superman monti were broken up and glued up high last night, and the zoa today.  The monti has never looked good all week and the lepto has.  Several other things also got moved around and fastened.

 

The sea fan has left it's tube and is in the sand beside it, hope it survives.  Do I remove the tube?

 

 

I'm thinking of putting either a bubble coral, a sponge, or a cabbage coral here, along with a little red grape calurpa in season.

 

 

This below was attached to the zoa colony rock.  It hung from the side and the rfa had it's tentacles on it for a week.  When I fed reef roids it stood straight up but never changed appearance.   There is a twig-like tube attached to the side of it.  I am hoping it's not one of those nasty palys.  Glued it in place for now.  Any ideas?

 

Every polyp counts 😎  Notice the lone guy below left.

[growsomething]

Featherduster came out, and it has 3 or 4 layers to it.  In the LA pic it had one.  I guess I'll leave the tube in for now, it pbly isn't hurting anything yet.  Did a small water change and the zoa are liking it.

This thing came out of the twig I mentioned before and is floating in the current by a string.  Wonder if I need to get rid ofnit or if it's a harmless fan.

 

[growsomething]

Things are looking settled in.  At the moment bcs we are in construction, and don't know how the economic slowdown will effect us, watching this grow in is all we'll be doing for a while.

There are some green projections I thought were macroalgae all over the KP rock, which came in on this snail from them.  It looks almost like a tiny fan to the immediate left of the snail.  I hope they aren't vermetid snails.

 

 

Almost all the zoa are opened.  Only half are pink, all of them are from a pink ray colony I ordered from LA.

 

 

There are several new polyps budding, although they could have already been there and were just closed up like the rest.  This one has tripled in size.  I didn't dip this frag.  😬  Had every intention to, but life is busy right now.  I just have to dip it in hope...

[growsomething]

Well, working as many hours as possible in case we get shut down, and spending $0 on the tank has brought us to this update.  No nsw water changes in 2 weeks bcs of the beach access shutdown.  I have enough for 1 50% or 2 25% changes left.  The fauna and flora seem to love nsw.  Zoa multiplying and pods are like lice all over the glass, and larger ones occasionally zoom around.  I suppose that is what the rfa are eating as they close every now and then. Surprisingly, the macro has grown the least, and the monti the most.  Maybe not surprisingly, since there are no nutrients going into the tank with no fish.

Monti (superman) already beginning to encrust over the broken frag edge and onto the rock.  This is an 18w nemolight with no real color control.

 

The lepto has also grown a smaller amount.  Notice the coralline already on the dry pukani.  Never had algae to speak of, maybe 3 days of I think diatoms, dusty brown stuff on the sand below the intake.

 

 

This is the coolest hitchhiker imo

 

 

This is the weirdest one.  They are all over the snails and one piece of LR. Looks like macro until they grow a fan at the end.  Maybe a green fanworm?

 

 

Mushroom migrated to the back of the tank, and a cool fan popped up beside it.

The pencil urchin is the only real live stock (well, the rfa too), has doubled in size.  Wonder if I should take him to an lfs, if he eats zoa or just macro.  I really like him.

 

 

 

 

[MainelyReefer]

On 2/16/2020 at 10:38 PM, growsomething said:

Well it got splashed today.  Used a 4 y/o+ bag of caribsea arag-alive, seriously doubt anything was alive in it. Running empty in the back save for some polyfill from Wallmart to help clear the sediment.  It's still very cloudy from the sand this morning.   The gulf water was very clear prior to filling.  I didnt rinse the sand as I thought we arent supposed to if it is seeded. 

Waiting on the KP live rock, want everything running beforehand. I suspect 10 lbs may be more than I want in the dt, so i may just put the rest in the back center chamber, as well as the media basket.

 

The new old spinstream leaks at all seams and does not spin.  I saw a vivid aquatics random flow thingy with no moving partsI will pbly replace it with. Plenty of dead silent flow with the Sicce 1.0 👍  Maybe that's why the ss wont spin?

Reading through for the first time isn’t this spinstream on backwards? Upgrading to the RFG is a good idea though

[debbeach13]

Good morning. I hope you and your family are doing well. Any updates on the tank?

[growsomething]

On 4/27/2020 at 7:55 AM, debbeach13 said:

Good morning. I hope you and your family are doing well. Any updates on the tank?

Hi Debbeach, the family is doing well, work is at an alltime high.  Thank God for the 1% 😉  

After receiving the maricultured zoa rock i had successive outbreaks of bryposis then a bubble algae.  Had to get an emerald crab, and that put an end to my macro plans.

The zoa have exploded in number, the superman monti and lepto are plating nicely. Since the wife wanted to get a form of gsp my lfs says they have found less aggressive,  the tank will change.  Back wall with glued rock will be my invasive zone with gsp and xenia.  Hope to keep the top sps rock clear of them.  Moving the kp live rock together away from the wall and add acans, goni, etc to them.  Just picked up both with the gsp Sunday.  Goni is looking iffy, everything else is great.

Still doing nsw, no mechanical filtration,  and all kp live rubble in the back. Have one tuft of gha.

Life is good 😎

[growsomething]

Oh yeah, got a plain, natural style ocillaris clown Sunday for the wife.  I don't care as much about the fish 😏

 

I ha ve so many pods and harmless flatworms, wanted a goby or blenny, but...

[debbeach13]

That's great so glad everyone is good Things are moving in the right direction. Sounds like you got some nice additions. 

[growsomething]

[growsomething]

Got an anemone shrimp and the wife wanted frogspawn at the last lfs visit.  Dont think the goni are going to make it, everything else growing in nicely.  Emerald crab ate all algae, including hair algae.  Will keep doing bi-weekly wc w nsw, no filter. I'm allowed to buy a fish come father's day sale at the lfs.  The screen will be installed this time!

 

[growsomething]

Well, the invasive back wall is off to a good start in just a few weeks.  Surprised by the zenia detaching and attaching wherever the stalks or heads touch.

Lots of mat growth from the gsp.  This is the clump from the picture above, after being moved to the wall.

 

Zenia detached from base and reattached on the rock, the sand, and one on the zoa rock which I've tried to murder, hard to get at in the crevice.

 

 

I've glued a loose zoa to a snail 😎

 

[growsomething]

I had forgotten about this contest since the world went crazy.

 

 

The sea is angry today my friends.  Got some moshed up water for the Nuvo.

[growsomething]

Here is a topdown update pic.  The invasive back wall is really taking off.

This was supposed to be a zoa back wall tank with a macro floor but had to get an emerald crab bcs of bubble algae, also had bryopsis in one macro.  My wife liked the yellow gsp "palm trees" in the lfs lighting, and the frogspawn and this is how it's evolved. 

The goni are continuing to shrink, everything else is happy.

Im also happy with it given how little maintenance it requires.  Still 30% w/c 2x/mo with nsw.

Next tank will be very shallow, maybe a 3x3 or 4x2 rimless with locally collected inverts, macro, fish, misc, along with a few biotope appropriate selections from KP Aquatics.  Maybe next year...maybe.

 

 

[growsomething]

My cerinths are reproducing.  The 2 little ones are the size of the copepods.  And a weird worm that's been cruising around.

[growsomething]

Just a few update pics. Moved the one rock with green zoa down a little, more room away from the zenia back wall.  Still no fish, still no algae to speak of.

 

[growsomething]

Dirty tank update.  Nothing new, zoa just keep multiplying.  Nature telling me this is going to be a zoa tank.

[growsomething]

Some pics from wade fishing this morning.  Just a pole, one topwater lure, pliars and an hour to restore my mental wellbeing 😎

 

Pics taken 15 min apart at sunrise with my old android and no filter.

 

 

 

Lots of baitfish being busted by snook

 

 

Hermit crab in the fighting conch shell on the rock.

 

 

That's all folks. Nuvo 10 is holding steady, no big changes.

[growsomething]

Haven't cleaned the glass in 4+ weeks.  I feed a pinch of rr and 1/2 an algae wafer 2x/wk.  Almost makes me want to stick with no fish as I'm sure there'll be an explosion of algae on the glass.

You can see the resident anemone shrimp on the rfa, and there is a gorilla and 8 mini mithrax crabs in there somewhere.

 

 

[growsomething]

Fts to celebrate the end of summer.

 

 

The frogspawn is outgrowing everything in the tank.  I'm letting this tank tell me what it wants to be, so maybe add torches to the list.

 

 

The zoa have stopped growing and some have started growing algae they've been closed so long. I believe this is due to a spaghetti worm that has taken residence in their rock.  Spotted a few 1-1.5" arms like blackworms waving around the top it.  Never more than 2 appendages at a time, though.

 

 

Leptoseris has started growing, but mostly on the underside of rock, away from the light.  That surprised me, thought they needed to be as close as possible to this weak lil' nemo light.  You can also see alarge patch of green coraline algae under the outcropping.   Here is also a shot of green coraline at the bottom of the wall.

 

 

[growsomething]

Well, i think it's green coraline,  never tried scrapping it.

 

On another note, I've completely forgotten about the 365 tank competition this summer.  How do I change my thread title?  I can't find that option but I'm sure threads i follow have edited theirs.

[debbeach13]

32 minutes ago, growsomething said:

On another note, I've completely forgotten about the 365 tank competition this summer.  How do I change my thread title?  I can't find that option but I'm sure threads i follow have edited theirs.

I think you posted every month except one so I imagine if you want you are still in. If you do want to edit the title just click on it and make changes.

[growsomething]

[growsomething]

Went to get a gorg growing on a chair in the water I saw from a dock at work 4 weeks ago.  

Here is was then...

 

 

Here is what 4 weeks of extremely low tides w East wind did to it, exposing it to air for hours at a time.  Harvested it this morn.

 

 

I trimmed it down and stuck it in the back of the tank.  We'll see how it does.

 

 

Everything is growing well, including the very fast growing green zoa which were accidently introduced with the pink ray zoa.  The pink ray have withered away to almost nothing at the same time.  There has been an explosion of spaghetti worms waving their arms out of the rock, sabd, everywhere.   They only seem to bother the pink zoa.  The only zoa I want!

 

 

 

[growsomething]

Little half-dead harvested gorg is recovering.  Lots of polyps extended after feeding and w/c last night.