William’s Socially Distant Mantis

[William]

Some updates: 

I turned down the flow rate of my return pump (filter floss was getting clogged in a day and tank was at risk of overflowing) and purchased a Hygger DC wavemaker. It seems to be a mini version of an AI Nero 5 knock off.  Right now I am running it at its lowest settings, and I’m getting really good broad flow. 

 

I also added some coral I got from a fellow NYC Reefer:

• Red Milliepora 
• Forrest Fire Digi 
• 2x orange/red jawbreaker mushrooms. 

[William]

Also, I have gotten so spoiled with my APEX and Trident on my Waterbox 70:2 that I’m seriously contemplating adding on to my Nano.... 

 

though I should probably wait until I see what my bonus will be .... #reefaddict 

 

 

my biggest wish would be for Neptune systems to produce wireless Modules (like Ekoral) so that I could have a satellite PH/Temp probe and power bar controlled by my main apex. 

[William]

Went back to the LFS today, bought another 6 hermits And three nasarius snails for the Mantis’ larder. I also purchased another blue eyed cardinal and neon green ricordia for the mantis tank. 
 

My LFS (Manhattan aquariums) often has SPS colonies that have browned out for sale at crazy low prices ($10). Today they had a huge green/blue monti digi colony for sale with two acro crabs living in it for $10. I decided to buy it. I did a quick (15 sec) freshwater drip. No nudibranchs came off. I inspected it under a magnifying loop and saw no evidence of eggs or destroyed tissue. Since the mantis tank has

no montis I care about I put it in there, hopefully the coral itself will protect the acro crabs from the mantis . 

 

[William]

One of the blue eyed glass cardinals has

gone missing and the shrimp is “clicking” quite a bit. I knew it was a risk. So I will likely not attempt to put other fish in this tank. 

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

That sucks - I'm certain mine got a six line too. They played nice for about a month... But Mantis got to Mantis, man! 

[William]

7 hours ago, NoOneLikesADryTang said:

That sucks - I'm certain mine got a six line too. They played nice for about a month... But Mantis got to Mantis, man! 

Yea there is still one left and it mostly stays among the gorgonia. I think what happened is that that mantis extended his home to include the rock on the right and the cardinal did not notice. The cardinal liked to hang out by that rock and I’m guessing the mantis grabbed it. 

[William]

So as far as supplementation is concerned, should I use Tropic Marin All-for-Reef, or kalkwasser? 

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

I wanna see some pictures of the tank and the mantis as well as the digi colony and acro crabs!!!

[William]

34 minutes ago, EthanPhillyCheesesteak said:

I wanna see some pictures of the tank and the mantis as well as the digi colony and acro crabs!!!

The digi colony was moved to mg main tank,  and the mantis is currently walled up in his rock, molting.

The digi colony 

[A.m.P]

55 minutes ago, William said:

So as far as supplementation is concerned, should I use Tropic Marin All-for-Reef, or kalkwasser? 

You can DIY All for reef for like 25% the cost if you feel inclined to do so, seems to work well for quite a few folks.

[William]

47 minutes ago, Amphrites said:

You can DIY All for reef for like 25% the cost if you feel inclined to do so, seems to work well for quite a few folks.

I know BRS has a kit, I don’t use enough of it yet to warrant the hassle,

but I may start doing it 

 

*** edit, All for Reef  seems to be sold out everywhere 

[coryscritch]

Sweet tanks man! How is manhattan aquariums? I’m close to pacific aquarium so I usually go there. 

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

What’s the acro crabs look like? Are they just the normal red trapezia crabs?

[William]

2 hours ago, coryscritch said:

Sweet tanks man! How is manhattan aquariums? I’m close to pacific aquarium so I usually go there. 

It’s ok, it’s a 15 min walk so that makes it easy. Is pacific aquariums back open? I tried to go once and they were closed. 

2 hours ago, EthanPhillyCheesesteak said:

What’s the acro crabs look like? Are they just the normal red trapezia crabs?

Yes 

[William]

Today I set up my WiFi controllable Inkbird temperature controller on the Nano and set up a DIY Kalk reactor/doser. I was going to run Tropic Marin All-for-Reef on this tank but it was sold out online and I had all of the parts to make the Kalk reactor on hand. 
 

Parts:

• Kamoer X1 dosing pump 
• BRS DIY Kalk drip Kit 
• watertight container
• magnetic Stirer 
• RODI resavoir 
• Kalkwasser 

here is a picture with it assembled. I’m going to start off dosing 50ml of saturated solution a day and go up from there. 

 

I use the Innovative Marine RODI continaier to feed my FW planted nano, my mantis Nano, and my KALK reactor. 

 

The magnetic stirer is on an amazon smart  outlet and comes on four times a day for 15 min. I have each of those time set to be right after a dose, do that there is at least an hour for it to settle. 

[PokeReefX]

Super cool!

[William]

8 minutes ago, PokeReefX said:

Super cool!

Thanks, I will eventually get a nicer looking container, but the all glass one I bought shattered, so made do with what I had. 

[William]

Still need to clean it up a bit. 

[coryscritch]

1 hour ago, William said:

It’s ok, it’s a 15 min walk so that makes it easy. Is pacific aquariums back open? I tried to go once and they were closed. 

Yes 

I’ll have to check it out. Pacific is not open yet. There’s actually a really sick shop in queens, I think it’s called New York reef aquatic. 

[William]

47 minutes ago, coryscritch said:

I’ll have to check it out. Pacific is not open yet. There’s actually a really sick shop in queens, I think it’s called New York reef aquatic. 

I kgees to check it out as well 

[Fryguy0201]

Looks amazing alone but with that planted tank above it wow 😍. The titos tho 🤢

[William]

So how would

we feel about a Colorado sunburst anemone ...

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

15 hours ago, William said:

So how would

we feel about a Colorado sunburst anemone ...

Thinking about going expensive are we? Your gonna be flexing on the rest of us😂

But yes, I like that idea

[William]

So my mantis has been secluded for the past three days with no clicking. I know it is probably molting, but I’m beginning to get worried. I am purposely keeping SPS in the tank to ensure good water quality. 

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

I think ours molted for about a week recently. It's probably doing just what you suspect, but it's definitely nerve wracking though. The worst part of having a mantis (other than them killing tank mates) is the whole not knowing when they molt.