Saying "Hi" to MR - new arrival

[techreef]

Well, here is the one crummy pic i managed to snap of "Part I delivery night." Amazing what starting work on your tank at 11:30 does for your patience...

Here are three pics of my closed loop system. I had not completed it at the time of these pics, but it's finished now. (Ran return pipe w/ a true union ball valve from the pump up to the CL manifold sitting on top of the tank)

I'm currently hunting mantis shrimp and gorilla crabs while I'm waiting for the water to cycle. I haven't ever gone above 0.5 ammonia or nitrite, so I'm completely happy and a believer in the TBS rock and their shipping methods. The down side is the bad hitchhikers. I've nabbed 2 mantis (found a third, 1/4" one, but couldn't get him out) and 1 gorilla crab so far. I see at least 4-6 more gorillas in there, and hear what sounds like one more larger mantis. I'm trying to hurry, as I don't want to lose all the cool barnacles that are alive on the rock. Here's a pick of yesterday's safari results.

Another neat hitchhiker(s) I found is a 4" sea cuke, who crawls around the glass after hanging out on a rock for two days. The neat thing is, is that the cuke has a small whitish crab clinging to him, which is the size of a pea. I can't tell if the crab is harming the cuke, or eating algae/etc. from the body of the cuke. Anyone have any ideas here?

 

[Deanos]

Another neat hitchhiker(s) I found is a 4" sea cuke, who crawls around the glass after hanging out on a rock for two days. The neat thing is, is that the cuke has a small whitish crab clinging to him, which is the size of a pea. I can't tell if the crab is harming the cuke, or eating algae/etc. from the body of the cuke. Anyone have any ideas here?

Cucumber symbiosis

 

[scarf_ace1981]

great thread. that closed loop is crazy. thanks for the idea. now you have me thinking :scratch:

 

[techreef]

Cool article, Deanos. While my cuke's crab doesn't look like the swimmer crab pictured in the article, i guess you cleared up that mystery. what a cool thing to get to see!

 

[masterswimmer]

Tech, looks awesome. If you still have those Mantis, LMK I could be willing to take a larger one off your hands.

Have you fired up your closed loop yet? What kind of pressure are you getting out of that pvc? Depending upon the pump you're using, that many outlets, with such a large diameter pvc, you might not get the flow you were hoping for. If it is an issue, you can step down the size of the pvc at the exit port. It'll act more like an injector and flow with more force.

swimmer

 

[techreef]

Swimmer,

LOL! -cry- I am nearly certain that I will be finding another mantis, as I still hear one (could be a pistol, but i'm a pessimist) in the tank, and this is only Part I of two parts of my live rock order, so it's likely that I'll get more mantis shrimps w/ the second load of rock. I'll PM you if/when I find more. They are cool, and they have got some great colors.

 

[masterswimmer]

Thnx tech. That would be great........for me. However, being the concerned aquarist, I hope for your sake you don't get anymore :hug:

R

 

[beyondnp]

Wow, really cool thread. I need to replumb my 92 gallon reef and now have some good inspiration. Keep sharing your progress and welcome!

Nick

 

[techreef]

PITA safari tally to date: 2 Mantis, 6 Gorillas, 6 Whelks. Cover me. I'm going back in!

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

tech's plumbing looks high tech. Tell us how well it works though.

 

[techreef]

I don't have many corals in there right now, Wingo, so I'm not sure. (how well the plumbing works) I'm getting the 2nd half of my live rock package this Saturday, and then I'd like to wait a couple weeks and let things settle out. My first batch of rock came w/ orange and purple tunicates, sponges, what I think are 2 colonies of orange cup corals, two magenta-colored branchlike things that maybe are Gorgonians? (they have white tentacles that extend out from the branches when feeding) and some green macro algae that includes caulerpera (sp?) and something else. With the closed loop running, everything in the tank moves around pretty well. I will say that the side nearer to the exhaust from the Marlin pump does have higher flow. Ideally I would have connected the return line of the CL to the middle of the manifold that sits on top, and maybe even run another pipe across the center of the manifold, thereby changing the "zero" shaped manifold into a rough "8" shape. I think that center pipe would distribute the flow from the pump to all 9 nozzles more evenly. But all in all, I kind of like having different levels of current in my tank. Once I start populating the tank, I can locate low-flow organisms over on the right hand side, and higher-flow stuff over near the left. And really, even the "low-flow" right hand side has nice currents. Nothing ever settles in the water column. But I don't see plants or feather dusters getting pushed around in the current like they do on the left side.

I'll post more pics after this Saturday. I still hear clicking coming from my display tank, even after catching a pistol shrimp and dropping him into my sump last week. Safari numbers at this point are: Mantis (2), Gorillas (13) and whelks (11).

 

[masterswimmer]

Strange how the pix aren't showing
You've been told we're pic whores! :lol2:

swimmer

 

[techreef]

yo, give me a break! I've got muffin fans and 'fuge lights arriving, i'm cycling my tank, hunting gorillas 'til I drop, trying to plan out an auto top-off system... I'm tryin' here!

Pics on Monday. Honest Indian.

 

[scarf_ace1981]

your closed loop is awesome but you may find that it's pretty much not as strong as it can be. you can change the diameter of the pvc or change the number of outlets to about half like masterswimmer suggested.

what have you done w/ all the hickers? are you gonna make gumbo this weekend :biggrin:

 

[techreef]

yeah, i know that there may be additional work to do on the CL in the near future. I'll worry about tweaking things after I get all the basics into the tank (rocks, sand shifted to where I want, some removed around the Megaflow overflow where it's blocking the lower row of slits in the black plastic wall, etc.) I think I may reduce the nozzles at the end to a smaller size to up the pressure that comes out. rebuilding the entire CL with smaller diameter pipe is not what I feel like doing! :headache:

the various nasties have, um, been given a tour of our backyard. off of our 5th floor balcony. into the grass. which was mowed last week. just after the heat wave...never mind. I'm a heartless SOB. Which surprised me to find it out about me, but I absolutely don't want predators in my tank. LOL. In order to have a peaceful, relaxing tank, I'm going all Rambo on them! :smash: :tank:

 

[drunktank]

yes another NJ memember

 

[masterswimmer]

yo, give me a break! I've got muffin fans and 'fuge lights arriving, i'm cycling my tank, hunting gorillas 'til I drop, trying to plan out an auto top-off system... I'm tryin' here!

Pics on Monday. Honest Indian.

:hug: Just looking to share the joy!

swimmer

 

[techreef]

Okay, okay!! Two days of mental guilt have finally gotten to me. Here! Take the pictures!! Stop haunting me!

TBS sent me 20lbs of extra rock for free, because Richard lugged up a single flat mutant of a rock that weighs 50lbs by itself. You can see it in the first two pics below. It has a couple of corals and some yellow sponges/shrooms? on it. It measures about 2' by 1.5', and Richard was afraid that I wouldn't be able to fit it in my tank, hence the extra 20lbs of rock. But he didn't TELL ME that there was more than what I needed in the shipment, so like a good little packrat, I dutifully crammed it all into my tank. So yeah, there is a need for some aquascaping. I started last night, and literally stood in front of the tank for an hour. In the end I moved one rock, put another small piece down in my sump, and left the rest for tonight!

On to the interesting stuff. Critters! TBS was very generous with me. I want primarily slow-swimming fish in my tank eventually, like a green mandarin, so I didn't want any anemones in my TBS shipment. (they generally include some for free) I mentioned it to TBS, and boy did they work with me! Of all the animals and plants I'm about to list, only the hermits, snails, shrimp and cukes were part of the order that I paid for. Everything else was gratis. Thanks again Richard.

-45 mini blue leg hermits
-45 trochus snails
-2 peppermint shrimp
-4 sea cucumbers
-1 tiger goby (a companion for the one that hitchhiked on the first half of my rock order 3 weeks ago)
-1 porcelain crab (found 2 more as hitchhikers on the rock)
-3 shaving brush plants
-2 halimeda plants
-1 10" purple gorgonian sea fan
-1 white branching coral w/ purplish polyps (ID anyone?)
-1 bright orange tree sponge

Here are the pics that I took acclimating everything in the sump that night.

There are colonies of various corals on the rocks as well, but I still have my canopy (which has my lights mounted in it) off of the tank, so I haven't been able to light them up and watch them open up to ID anything yet. I hope to finish aquascaping tonight and reassemble, hopefully for the last time in awhile, the display setup and gradually increase the photoperiod of my lights.

Whew! I feel like a load has been lifted from my shoulders now. :splitspin

 

[masterswimmer]

Looks nice tech. Did they send you a zip code for that rock? Wow, that's one helluva piece. Nice pix too.

swimmer

 

[techreef]

One thing that occurred to me re: the corals on that huge rock; how much can I derive from their spacing on that rock? In other words, are the spaces between those corals on the rock indicative of how far apart I should be placing corals in my tank, so that they don't sting each other?