[CUSTOM] Ann

[ecotoxlady]

Your tank looks amazing Ann! Love the updated FTS shots!

[Ann]

Thanks everyone.

 

I can't decide if I'd rather be in [CUSTOM] or [sTOCK], there are so many great looking tanks in both categories.

 

Best regards

 

Ann

[Gilman]

OFFICIAL PICO CONTEST NEWS

 

New Task... Read about it here...

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=75621

 

YOU MUST COMPLETE THE TASK!

[Ann]

Task completed

 

 

 

Equipment

Standard UK glass tank (12 x 8 x 8)

DIY glass ‘refugium’ (12 x 4.75 x 8)

Micro-jet 450 pump

50W Hagen Tronic Heaterstat

Fluval 1 plus internal filter (containing carbon and polyfilter)

Lighting: 2 x 18W 50/50 compact T5 tubes (over the main tank) + 1 x 18W Daylight tube (over the refugium)

50mm case fan to keep things cool

Aquadoser set on a timer for freshwater top off

 

 

Livestock

Various zoanthid colonies

2 colour morphs of Ricordea florida mushrooms

Ricordea yuma mushroom

Red Discosoma sp. mushroom

Fungia sp.

Blastomussa wellsi

Blastomussa merleti

Bubble coral, Plerogyra sinuosa

Hitchhiker pink tunicates

2 dwarf blue-legged hermit crabs, Clibanarius tricolor

2 Dove snails, Euplica sp.

Stomatella sp. snails

Chaetomorpha sp. algae in the refugium

 

Not a lot has changed here since the last update although I have finally moved the Bubble coral to the refugium for safe keeping.

 

Best regards

 

Ann

[ecotoxlady]

Wow! Looks gorgeous Ann!!

[ZooGirl]

Wow Ann, your tank is absolutely stunning! I love it!

 

Will you be keeping it after the contest is over?

[Ann]

Yep, unless the corals put on a super growth spurt in the next 3 months I think that there'll be plenty more room for expansion after the contest is over. I'm a 2.54lyfe reefer.

 

Best regards

 

Ann

[debbeach13]

Great job Ann that tank is beautiful

[Maxvan1]

Wow! Easily the best tank in the contest so far! What are those leafy looking things on the left and right? I assume some sort of macro algae, but do you know what type?

[Ann]

Thank you so much for the kind words.

 

The algae is Sargassum sp., a very common live rock hitchhiker. Some of the clumps are getting quite big now so I've begun pruning them which is very easy to do. Out come the scissors and snip, snip. If only all algae were so easy to contain

 

Best regards

 

Ann

[Nednai]

I don’t know what the judging rules are but your tank looks fantastic! Good luck in the contest.

[fras]

Looking really nice Ann, it'll look amazing when it starts to fill out.

[fras]

I've just realised I don't get how your plumbing works, I can see the 2 returns and what i'm guessing is the inlet in the middle, but how does it all work off 1 circulation pump without an overflow?

[Ann]

It's all down to an imbalance in atmospheric pressure.

 

Basically water siphons through the tube in the middle of the tank to the refugium and is pumped back in again by the Micro-jet via the outlets in the top left and right corners. Simple eh! It took a bit of trial and error to work out what size pipework was best suited for the job. Too small a diameter pipe for the outlet and the Pico ends up overflowing. When the system is running the difference between the two water levels is an inch. In the event of a power or pump failure then the two water levels just equalise ie the Pico level drops half an inch.

 

No drilling of glass tanks for me.

 

Best regards

 

Ann

[ZooGirl]

So it's just a basic siphon pulling the water out? That's interesting. So I guess you have to watch your evaporation so as not to break the siphon huh, otherwise it would overflow.

 

I'm surprised you'd be nervous to drill glass, you drilled your rock.

[Ann]

That's right, it's all down to the siphoning effect, if it's lost then everything would definitely go pear shaped. The water level would have to fall a fair bit before the siphon is lost however (so the SG would be pretty screwed up anyway), but the risk is there nonetheless. This is one of the reasons why I have an auto top off of sorts. Fresh water is dosed each day by a pump set on a timer which keeps the levels more or less constant. I just need to do a bit of fine adjustment every now and again to keep the salinity in line. So far it's worked perfectly and, touch wood, it will continue to do so.

 

Best regards

 

Ann

[ZooGirl]

Ah..."Touch wood", I like that. Us Americans are so vulgar we say "knock on wood". Heh.

[Ann]

 

 

Time for a brief update now:

 

My Dove snails are parents, I spotted this little 'un when feeding the Blastomussa last week. Mum (or is it Dad?) can be seen out of focus in the background on the back glass. I just think it's so cool when stuff reproduces successfully.

 

 

Now, moving on to some possibly not so great news. I found an empty crab shell in the tank yesterday morning, where the heck did that spring from? I haven't seen the slightest hint of a hitchhiker crab in this tank up until that point and I stare at the rockwork a LOT. I wonder where it's owner could be residing?? I mean it's a Pico for goodness sake, there's not exactly vast quantities of rock to conceal oneself in.

 

 

Hmm, thinking about it now perhaps I should stop blaming the hermit crabs for all the coral er, rearrangements, that I've discovered in this tank since it was set-up.

 

Best regards

 

Ann

[ZooGirl]

Aww...that baby snail is so cute! I found a tiny snail like that on the front of the glass and was so excited until I realized it was a sundial.

 

I bet Mr. Crabs sits and watches you as you stare at the tank. As soon as you look away he knocks over a coral! Heh.

 

Funny you haven't seen him, how big is he?

[tinyreef]

that baby snail's amazing! you've got the magic touch!

 

good luck on the crab. it might not be a problem. have you noticed any coral or zoanthid damage? i'd suggest you eventually get rid of it but "no harm, no foul".

[fras]

aha I syphon, I see now, thx for the explanation.

Can I ask where you got your plumbing from? It's a nice small size.

 

Took me a while to see that baby snail, I was looking at the coral thinking I've never seen a snail look like that before!

You could try the tasty morsal in a glass trick for the crab, I caught a hairy one in my display with that method - it did take a few days though, the hermits got trapped most of the time.

[Travis]

Ann, that crab shell is the molting of a Teddy Bear Crab. I would try and get it out, if you can. I had one hitchhick on my LR, and it basicaly was a shrimp eater. It ate a Peperment, and two Skunk Cleaners before I knew what was causing their deaths.

[Ann]

It's presently not that big, about half an inch, so it's probably still a baby. Ahh! No obvious signs of any coral damage....yet, there are just a few knocked off corals every now and again that it could have a claw in.

 

I'm a great believer in innocent till proven guilty so I'll wait and see how it all pans out. Not that I could remove the little devil even if I wanted to, I haven't seen hide nor hair of it and I have been doing some late night reconnoitring ever since I found the skeleton. Ho hum, when it's a 5 inch coral ravaging monster I'm sure that I'll be able to spot it.

 

fras, it's Aquamedic pipework and I mail ordered it from Anglia Aquatics. They give a top notch service.

 

Best regards

 

Ann

[Ann]

The fun never ends with a reef tank

 

Quick, call Spiderman, there's a Pycnogonid in my tank!!

 

This morning whilst checking all my stock out I happened to notice a small wriggly thing on the sand, at first I thought that it was some sort of worm but on closer inspection I discovered that it was a Sea Spider. True to form I just had to get a picture of it so I gently removed it to a Petri dish for observation.

 

Now the poor thing was obviously struggling otherwise I doubt that I would ever have discovered it. Its colour perfectly matches that of my red/orange zoanthids, a fact that is surely significant I think. No doubt it hitchhiked in on them and has most likely been feasting on them too. I have no actual evidence of this of course, just a sinking feeling that it's true.

 

It appears to be missing a rear leg, possibly more as I just don't know that much about these guys really (there's generally 4 pairs of legs right?). How it came to lose the leg/s I have no idea, perhaps my mysterious hitchhiker crab ate them?

 

Anyway on to the pictures, arachnophobes beware.

 

First to give you a sense of scale here (the coin is a 1p piece and measures 2cm across for you US folks).

 

 

Getting up a bit closer, this is the 'top' side and the 'head' is pointing to the right (I think that I have it correct).

 

 

This is the 'under' side.

 

 

And one more showing the er, 'head' end a bit better.

 

 

As much as I like diversity in my tank, I haven't put this guy back in again. Most Pycnogonids are predatory so the risk is too great IMO. I doubt it that this guy would have survived long anyway, it looked too damaged and was not acting like a healthy critter really. Now I wonder if it has any friends still in hiding.......

 

Best regards

 

Ann

[tinyreef]

that's awesome! no fair, you always get the good 'uns.

 

but i disagree with you, i'd put it back in. i thought your zoos are doing great. so even if it's feeding on them i think it's a sustainable population for the little guy.

 

while i guess it could be a coralivore/parasite, i thought most sea spiders were predatory against motile livestock. e.g. worms, microcrustaceans, etc.

 

it just keeps getting better and better, ann!