Mantis Murder Manor

[Ratvan]

6 minutes ago, aclman88 said:

That is a nice timer, I had it before for the lights in one of my planted tanks.  It takes a little faffing around to get it to work, but once you set it up it worked well, especially for dimming and creating a basic sunrise/sunset.

 

PS.  Did I use faffing correctly?  Just a cheeky yank here trying out some biritishisms.  😅

Ah thats good, i assume that it dims as well as a timer?

 

I'm well chuffed with the correct use of Faffing!

[DevilDuck]

5 hours ago, Ratvan said:

Right so I have a plan for the lighting for this tank after having a little chat with @DevilDuck, i will add the blue LED Strips this weekend and also place an order for a dimmer/timer switch for the stock fluval lights. 

 

 

Give one of these a chance since its only a cheeky £10 on amazon at the moment. 

 

Algae bloom seems to be abating after repositioning the outlet nozzles, i must have knocked one out of postion while i was faffing in the tank

 

 

Looks like I have some maintenance to do on the rocks this weekend.

I bought a similar timer and yes it was fiddly! Lots of button pushing to get the ramp just right. In the early ugly stages with my tank, I was adjusting the lighting too much and just got tired of messing with it. I replaced it with a plain old dimmer with a manual dial.

 

Tank is looking great! What else are you planning on feeding this guy?

 

 

[Ratvan]

1 minute ago, DevilDuck said:

I bought a similar timer and yes it was fiddly! Lots of button pushing to get the ramp just right. In the early ugly stages with my tank, I was adjusting the lighting too much and just got tired of messing with it. I replaced it with a plain old dimmer with a manual dial.

 

Tank is looking great! What else are you planning on feeding this guy?

 

 

Hoping that the dimmed lights brings her out a little more in the earlier evening. seems she barricades herself in for the night regardless at roughly 10:30pm each night.

 

Thanks, just letting the uglies burn themselves out.

 

Live Food she loves a feeder shrimp, although i cant add them all to the tank as she does surplus kill 🙄

Frozen I have sliced silverside (not a fan) sliced clam and mussel (loves) as well as frozen mysis (meh) when i have the sliced clam in the turkey baster she is attacking the baster before i can get near her lair. 

 

Also hoping that with the extra blues and dimmed whites can start to get some better videos of her and her actions

[aclman88]

1 hour ago, Ratvan said:

Ah thats good, i assume that it dims as well as a timer?

I believe so! If I remember I was able to get it to dim/control amount of light for various chunks of time throughout the day.

[Ratvan]

@Murphych i will nuke the aiptasia amd post next week 👍 love a cooperative coral

 

 

Sand siphon completed, hermit crabs have been murdered along with the nassarius so will have to top up the CuC. Might try a conch...

 

Also pulled the GHA off the rocks and rubble, cleaned the glass, did a 10Litre water change (20% ish) will take some FTS photos later for the update

[Murphs_Reef]

Nice thanks. 👍🏼

Still got plenty zoas if you ever change your mind 

[M. Tournesol]

1 hour ago, Ratvan said:

hermit crabs have been murdered along with the nassarius so will have to top up the CuC. Might try a conch...

Could you try some Asterina starfish? I don't think the stomatopod would eats them.

[Ratvan]

19 minutes ago, Murphych said:

Nice thanks. 👍🏼

Still got plenty zoas if you ever change your mind 

Thanks, i might try some later on, depends how often she changes the bedding in her lair. She really likes the loose xenia polyps and drags them inside the rock on a regular basis. 

5 minutes ago, M. Tournesol said:

Could you try some Asterina starfish? I don't think the stomatopod would eats them.

Oh she doesnt eat them 😂. Every now and then she goes on a surplus kill spree. Which is why I'm thinking bigger critters and those not as likely to enter her cave. I have a couple trocus snails left still and a astrea. 

 

Anywho FTS

 

And sime of the GHA free rocks 

 

Next job is scrub the surviving snails

 

Cyano patch is receeding

 

And yes a Xenia barricade

[Ratvan]

So birthday celebrations start tonight

 

Edit: not my hotel F@#K

[Kindanewtothis]

21 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

So birthday celebrations start tonight

 

Edit: not my hotel F@#K

Happy birthday!

[Murphs_Reef]

Happy birthday man

[Ratvan]

🤘

[Ratvan]

[Ratvan]

Back home for a quick feed and waterchange

https://www.instagram.com/p/CWx01vfsEHz/?utm_medium=copy_link

 

[Kindanewtothis]

Just now, Ratvan said:

Back home for a quick feed and waterchange

https://www.instagram.com/p/CWx01vfsEHz/?utm_medium=copy_link

 

Really nice, will you be add a fish eventually? First try did not go well if I remember correctly.

 

I like the fact that you are in the UK, you post early in the day where I am when I'm up with the kids 😄

[M. Tournesol]

6 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

Back home for a quick feed and waterchange

https://www.instagram.com/p/CWx01vfsEHz/?utm_medium=copy_link

 

You should buy a tripod. It was the best investment I made to film my aquarium. Bonus, I can film for hours.

[Ratvan]

1 hour ago, Kindanewtothis said:

Really nice, will you be add a fish eventually? First try did not go well if I remember correctly.

 

I like the fact that you are in the UK, you post early in the day where I am when I'm up with the kids 😄

I know its great having an international forum,  can always find someone who has posted throughout the day.

 

I want to try fish again, might see if i can grab a couple of guppies to try in the tank. Keep it cheap

1 hour ago, M. Tournesol said:

You should buy a tripod. It was the best investment I made to film my aquarium. Bonus, I can film for hours.

There are lots of things i should buy, waiting on the light controller/dimmer at the moment. 

[Ratvan]

Sorry @Kindanewtothis dont know what happened there 😂

 

Ahem. 

 

Snowday

 

 

Creepy snowman placed in odd places?

Check

[ａｗａｋｅｄॢ]

ENVY U!!!!! 😍😍😍😍😍 I LUV SNOW~ 😍

ugly snowman btw! hehe~🤪

 

[Ratvan]

I love snow too, mainly because everyone is an idiot 

 

Anyways, noticed that the way i had my nozzles pointed made a spotlight effect on the area where the cyano was forming

 

Moved the nozzle slightly 

Hopefully that should sort out the issue

[Kindanewtothis]

1 hour ago, Ratvan said:

I love snow too, mainly because everyone is an idiot

Do you use winter tires in UK?

[PeterU]

25 minutes ago, Kindanewtothis said:

Do you use winter tires in UK?

Reminds me, I need to call the tire shop.

[Ratvan]

So a bit of an update on the tank, coming up to 6 months old so should finally see things settle down a bit. 

 

As we know the stock pump in the fluval is underpowered so have been having some Cyano issues along with the lighting spotlight issue. Added a 900LPH pump to lessen areas of deadspots and cyano issue has "cleared up" 

 

Mantis is growing and that is reflected in the rock at the entrance to her lair, all entrances are being widened, of course she could also want to drag a hermit in not 100% sure. 

 

Xenia is dropping like crazy and starting to take over and take off, also i have some aiptasia kicking around on that rock and the sandbed

 

GSP has started to grow over more rubble, want some more pieces before i attach to the back wall

 

And some CUC close ups

 

 

[Ratvan]

Just for reference,  when added to tank

 

Today

 

 

[Ratvan]

So much happier with the extra blues and the dimmed down whites, really nice to see her out and about much more. I have the whites on the fluval evo dimmed down to approximately 30% and have added a single strip of the actinic blues. 

 

As an extra on this she has also taken her first Hermit Crab last night, looks a lot like a moult except that i watched her push it into a corner and go to town, sadly by the time i had grabbed my phone and got ready to film the crab was murdered and was being consumed in the open. While this was going on the snails and remaining hermit fled to the top of the rock

 

Still have a few tiny aiptasia in the tank which i am waiting on to grow in size so that i can again treat.