Billy's Deep Sandbed Experiment

[billygoat]

Hi! It's been a minute since I updated my journal, but don't worry - this tank is still going strong! I started a new job a few months ago and have been extremely busy as a result, so I do almost no maintenance on this system... which seems to be fine? Here is a picture of the present state of things:

 

 

My beloved HOB filter is running again, as you can see... 😒 The water surface develops a gross biofilm if I don't agitate it enough, so that filter will be staying on there for the foreseeable future. As an act of protest I have refused to change the filter floss in it for about a month now. I may end up just running it empty, but the gunky floss provides a nice habitat for various little creatures so I might also just leave it as-is. 

 

Speaking of little creatures, you may notice that my seagrass has gotten quite sparse. Amphipods seem to be eating it. This is a difficult situation because the pods are pretty great for the tank overall, and also because they would be entirely impossible to get rid of. I'm pretty much fine with the seagrass slowly declining as there is a lot of other stuff going on in here that I really enjoy observing. I added some gorgonian frags from my other system to try and fill up the vertical space, but even if they don't take I think I will be okay with it.

 

All the soft corals are thriving. The Anthelia you see in the middle of the picture above got completely out of control at one point, with gigantic polyps that stretched almost an entire foot from the base of the coral and took up a tremendous amount of space in the tank. I had no idea that it could grow so large! I ended up pulling about 80% of it out of there to free up more space - probably something I will have to do on a semi-regular basis. Thankfully it peels off the rock quite easily, so trimming it down is a simple business. Smells terrible once you get it out of the water though. 😅

 

As for maintenance, I top the tank off daily with RO water and monitor calcium, KH, and magnesium to ensure proper levels. Once per week I add a small amount of iodide solution, and I perform a small water change once every 2-3 months. I feed liberally: a variety of flakes, pellets, and occasionally frozen foods for the fish as well as about 10 mL of liquid phytoplankton supplements twice a day for the clams and tunicates. Sometimes I add powdered plankton preparations like Reef Roids as well.

 

Anyway that's all I've got for now! I will try to get some close-up photos of stuff later today.

[billygoat]

I'm about a week late with those additional photos but it's better late than never! 😅 This tank is quite difficult to photograph because of the light coming from my other tank (behind the camera) and the light reflecting off the wall in back. But here goes!

 

Leathery friends: Sinularia and Sarcophyton. The purple blob in the foreground is an encrusting sponge.

 

A small gorgonian frag, fully extended in strong current. The sharknose goby lives inside of that shell.

 

A flame scallop peeks through the forest of Capnella on the left side of the tank, with large solitary tunicates in front.

 

I attempted to zoom in on this very large "aiptasia" anemone. It has grown enormously over the past six months but has yet to reproduce at all. I suspect it may be something other than your run-of-the-mill aiptasia, though it's clearly very closely related. Possibly a young corkscrew anemone?

 

Side view looking down the length of the tank.

 

Here is an FTS from today. I changed the aquascape a little bit. Soft corals rule this little reef. I'm thinking about getting rid of that Anthelia in the corner and replacing it with something a bit more tame, maybe a Lobophyton or something along those lines. Even GSP would be easier to manage!

 

Almost everything in the tank is doing very well. The only problem right now is the runty chromis. He somehow developed an air bubble inside of his good eye, which means his vision is now severely impaired. I've got him eating masstick for the time being (which he can locate by smell, since it doesn't move around), but I certainly hope his eye gets better soon so he can get back to eating normally. The poor little guy sure has been through a lot! 

 

That's all I've got for now! Thank you as always for visiting my journal, and happy new year to all of you!

[Critteraholic]

How long have you had the flame scallop?

[melson]

How long have you had the sharknose goby?

 

Did you ever consider going with a pair of them? If so, why not?

[billygoat]

15 hours ago, Critteraholic said:

How long have you had the flame scallop?

 

9 hours ago, melson said:

How long have you had the sharknose goby?

 

Did you ever consider going with a pair of them? If so, why not?

Looks like I added the sharknose goby on September 9th, and the flame scallops about a week later. So both of those have been in the tank for almost four months now. The flame scallops I bought from KP aquatics, but the sharknose goby was a donation from one of my friends who was breaking down her tank. I actually never intended to put fish in this tank at all (since it doesn't have a lid), but a few refugees ended up making their way in anyway. 😅

[billygoat]

Hi everyone! It sure has been a minute since I updated, and I am sorry about that. I got a new job (as an aquarist; surprise) and it has kept me really busy! So I don't post as much as I used to, but don't worry - my tanks are still going pretty strong! This particular system actually looks great right now. It has filled in really well since the last time I posted. I will share some photos with you.

 

Here's a terrible FTS from my wonderful iPhone 6.

 

As you can see, seagrass is unfortunately very much a thing of the past. A few sprigs of it are still growing here and there, but I have entirely pivoted over to corals, bivalves, and a few other interesting filter-feedy things (like tunicates!). I guess I should probably change the name of this journal, since the seagrass is long gone! 😅

 

Here is a closer view of the center of the tank. The clam is a Tridacna derasa from ORA. I just got it a little while ago, but I love it! It is super beautiful! The photo really does not do it justice. It took a few days to adjust to my lights but now it is consistently opening all the way and seems to be doing well. I hope it continues to thrive for a long time.

 

The mystery "aiptasia" anemone in the photo above is anyone's guess. I think it might be a curlicue/corkscrew anemone but it looks quite a bit different from the pictures I have seen of them. Its enormous size and total lack of asexual reproduction have pretty much convinced me that it is not an aiptasia nem, but it's very beautiful, whatever it is!

 

This green Goniopora is another new arrival. It has only been in the tank for about 48 hours. It's a bit of a rescue case - the bare skeleton at the bottom was all gross brown jelly when I got it, and it has a couple of bald spots up on the crown. There's a high chance that this sensitive coral will not survive, but I will do my best to nurture it back to health. I think this level of polyp extension is not bad considering how new it is.

 

Here is a top-down view of the tank. It's hard to photograph, but this is still one of my favorite ways to view this aquarium. It's like peering into a little tide pool! You can see my flame scallops peeking out from under a rock on the left hand side, and the brown blotch below them is an encrusting fire coral.

 

 

That's about all I've got for now! This tank teems with extremely interesting tiny life forms, and I really wish I had time to share pictures of each and every one! But we will get to them in time. Thank you all for checking in with my little aquarium.

[Firefish15]

Looks like it’s doing great! Thanks for the update!

What are you doing at your new job? Tank maintenance?

[Christopher Marks]

Great to see you and the reef @billygoat! Congrats on your new job!

[melson]

Whoa that's a lot of corals in one tank! Nice job @billygoat!

[billygoat]

Thank you all for your kind words! It is pleasant to be so warmly received after being gone for awhile. And @Christopher Marks I love what you've done with the site formatting! It looks amazing.

 

I agree @melson, it's kind of a lot of corals for such a little tank. It's funny, my plans for a new aquarium always seem to include "a nice wide-open sandbed and plenty of negative space"... and yet less than a year later, I end up with this instead: stocked to the gills with invertebrates, haha.

 

20 hours ago, Firefish15 said:

What are you doing at your new job? Tank maintenance?

That's basically the gist of it! I work as a husbandry aquarist at a public aquarium (actually it's the California Science Center, which includes numerous aquatic exhibits), so I am responsible for the care of various displays as well as things like food prep, collections, and of course exhibit maintenance. But, yeah... it's a lot of what we do as hobbyists, just scaled up quite a bit.

[Ratvan]

On 2/22/2022 at 12:51 AM, billygoat said:

Hi everyone! It sure has been a minute since I updated, and I am sorry about that. I got a new job (as an aquarist; surprise) and it has kept me really busy! So I don't post as much as I used to, but don't worry - my tanks are still going pretty strong! This particular system actually looks great right now. It has filled in really well since the last time I posted. I will share some photos with you.

 

Here's a terrible FTS from my wonderful iPhone 6.

 

As you can see, seagrass is unfortunately very much a thing of the past. A few sprigs of it are still growing here and there, but I have entirely pivoted over to corals, bivalves, and a few other interesting filter-feedy things (like tunicates!). I guess I should probably change the name of this journal, since the seagrass is long gone! 😅

 

Here is a closer view of the center of the tank. The clam is a Tridacna derasa from ORA. I just got it a little while ago, but I love it! It is super beautiful! The photo really does not do it justice. It took a few days to adjust to my lights but now it is consistently opening all the way and seems to be doing well. I hope it continues to thrive for a long time.

 

The mystery "aiptasia" anemone in the photo above is anyone's guess. I think it might be a curlicue/corkscrew anemone but it looks quite a bit different from the pictures I have seen of them. Its enormous size and total lack of asexual reproduction have pretty much convinced me that it is not an aiptasia nem, but it's very beautiful, whatever it is!

 

This green Goniopora is another new arrival. It has only been in the tank for about 48 hours. It's a bit of a rescue case - the bare skeleton at the bottom was all gross brown jelly when I got it, and it has a couple of bald spots up on the crown. There's a high chance that this sensitive coral will not survive, but I will do my best to nurture it back to health. I think this level of polyp extension is not bad considering how new it is.

 

Here is a top-down view of the tank. It's hard to photograph, but this is still one of my favorite ways to view this aquarium. It's like peering into a little tide pool! You can see my flame scallops peeking out from under a rock on the left hand side, and the brown blotch below them is an encrusting fire coral.

 

 

That's about all I've got for now! This tank teems with extremely interesting tiny life forms, and I really wish I had time to share pictures of each and every one! But we will get to them in time. Thank you all for checking in with my little aquarium.

Regarding the Aiptasia Anemone, possibly something similar to a Ringed Anemone (Bartholomea Annulata)?

 

[billygoat]

On 2/24/2022 at 3:29 AM, Ratvan said:

Regarding the Aiptasia Anemone, possibly something similar to a Ringed Anemone (Bartholomea Annulata)?

 

Yeah that's what I was thinking too. I think I will feed it until it grows to enormous proportions, then we can get a better handle on what exactly it might be.

 

After almost a week in the tank the new goni is looking quite a bit better. Good extension today, the question is whether it will be able to reclaim lost tissue around the base or whether it will continue to recede over time. Fingers crossed! 🤞

 

 

 

Here are some other interesting filter feeders. That white sponge is a hitchhiker that started off as a tiny nub and has since grown rather large. Hard to see but there is also a large solitary tunicate right smack in the center of this picture (it is mostly covered in green cyanobacteria).

 

I tested nitrates in this tank this morning, just out of curiosity. I was expecting them to be fairly high since this is a heavily-fed tank with no real mechanical filtration that gets a water change about once every three months. The result surprised me though: <1 ppm. I suspect this is due to significant denitrification that occurs inside the tank's gigantic sandbed.

[DevilDuck]

Fingers crossed for the amazing goni colony! 

[billygoat]

I moved the goni over a bit now that it is extending consistently, to get it away from the glass and give it some more space and light. This tank brings me great joy.

 

[billygoat]

Here is a view of this tank in the morning, with sunlight coming in from a nearby window. I moved the toadstool leather out of the center of the tank to give the clam some more space.

 

[DevilDuck]

I'll ask what everyone really wants to know...

 

How are the star coral "boobs" doing? Are they growing? 

 

Your welcome!

[billygoat]

On 3/2/2022 at 10:46 AM, DevilDuck said:

I'll ask what everyone really wants to know...

 

How are the star coral "boobs" doing? Are they growing? 

 

Your welcome!

Ah yes! The Twin Colossals. ⛰️⛰️ How could I forget? 😂 Ironically they are one of the few things in this tank that currently are not doing well, despite their hardy nature. Here is a photo:

 

 

I have identified two reasons for their decline: oppression by nearby soft corals and limpets. I used to have my Capnella (Kenya trees) close to these corals, and when the softies retracted for the night their polyps would brush against the coral boobs. This sounds exciting (🤫) but actually caused the stony corals to regress and die. I have since moved the Capnella rock to the other side of the tank so this is no longer an issue, but limpets remain a concern: I have three of them in this tank (all nickel-sized hitchhikers that started out the size of a pinhead) and they occasionally graze on the edges of these corals, which causes the Colossals to retract and gradually recede. They're not dead yet though, so who knows - maybe they will stage a comeback!

 

Here's a photo of the other side of the tank from midday today. At this point I think it's safe to say I am pretty well-stocked with corals. 

 

[billygoat]

More photos! I moved the toadstool back into the middle, as it was not happy with being overshadowed by the Kenya trees.

 

This tank is stuffed. 😂

 

 

 

 

[Firefish15]

Gorgeous, looks nice and natural.

[billygoat]

Hi friends! Been a minute since I posted, but since I finally got a new phone I figured I should share some recent pictures! Just these photos for now, I will add some more words later. 😅

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks as always for checking in!

[billygoat]

Some more photos from today. Everything in this tank continues to do very well. I recently went on vacation for a week and cleaned the powerhead right before I left, which seemed like a prudent idea at the time but in retrospect was not: I ended up putting too much flow on the Goniopora, which caused part of it to melt. I moved the Goni a bit and it has bounced back nicely, but its long term fate remains uncertain. 

 

Sorry for the blue pictures btw! I got a new phone recently, which is very nice! But my old clip-on gel filter doesn’t cover the camera on this one. 😅

 

 

 

Oh, and on the subject of long-term fates being uncertain… I recently accepted a job in Hawaii and will be moving there in a few months. This is great news for every part of my life except for my aquariums! What will happen to them is not clear, but I have a plan to keep at least this tank running in my absence. So hopefully I will not have to break it down. 

[debbeach13]

Congratulations on the new job. Sounds exciting. 

[debbeach13]

It's been a while. Did you move, how's the new job, do you have a tank set up or a bucket or tote? 

[Bluelobstor]

Nice looking tank. Hate to see the seagrasses go but everything looks amazing. How is it going in Hawaii and do you still have this tank up and running? I am getting back into saltwater and want to raise seagrasses for a seahorse tank. When you added the fertilizer to the substrate, did you notice an increase in growth of the grasses at the time? Hope you are doing well. Jason

[Sharbuckle]

Anxiously awaiting an update on this tank!