My New 75 Gallon Reef Journal
- Thread starter garagebrian
- Start date
I am confused.... I thought on page 1 you had 90 lbs of Floridaliverock.com rock, but you are waiting for some TBS rock to arrive? How much rock did you order from them?
I guess I lucked out... only one bad crab so far, not cirolanid isopods or mantis that I have found. TONS of whelks, but I think I can deal with those as I see them.
It's looking good from what I can tell, but I could use an updated full tank shot
I guess I lucked out... only one bad crab so far, not cirolanid isopods or mantis that I have found. TONS of whelks, but I think I can deal with those as I see them.
It's looking good from what I can tell, but I could use an updated full tank shot
ratherbediving":1b4vbj0h said:I am confused.... I thought on page 1 you had 90 lbs of Floridaliverock.com rock, but you are waiting for some TBS rock to arrive? How much rock did you order from them?
I guess I lucked out... only one bad crab so far, not cirolanid isopods or mantis that I have found. TONS of whelks, but I think I can deal with those as I see them.
It's looking good from what I can tell, but I could use an updated full tank shot
Yep, I got 90 lbs of floridaliverock.com, but one of the rocks was mostly sponge and I had to throw that out, so I'm down to 85 lbs. I ordered 50 more from TBS, so that should fill up the tank how I want it.
Nice that you lucked out, the cirolanids are a real pain. Whelks are easy, you just keep picking them out when you see them and eventually they will disappear or at least be at very low levels in the tank.
I'll work on the full tank shot and hopefully have one up soon.
B.
Last night I was observing some porcelain crabs that a friend had collected for me and one of them walked up to the front of my QT tank and started releasing babies everywhere! There are now like 200-400 babies roaming around my QT.
Is there any way I can try to raise these babies to adult crabs? What do they eat?
My QT only has a filter sponge with airline tubing, so there is nothing in there to mechanically destroy the babies, so it seems it would just be a matter of finding something for them to eat. Of course the parents seem to be frantically feeding and I think they are probably eating some of the babies, but nothing I can do about that until tonight.
Here are some pics:
B.
Is there any way I can try to raise these babies to adult crabs? What do they eat?
My QT only has a filter sponge with airline tubing, so there is nothing in there to mechanically destroy the babies, so it seems it would just be a matter of finding something for them to eat. Of course the parents seem to be frantically feeding and I think they are probably eating some of the babies, but nothing I can do about that until tonight.
Here are some pics:
B.
Cool! Porceling babies. It's possible to raise them , but a PITA to do. Separate tank, barely any flow, tons of phyto...etc.
Back on page one I think, you posted a shot of the thing with arms. That looks just like the filter feeding cuke I had in my tank. Those bright yellow things on page two are sponges. I have several of those growing in my tanks.
Have you tried trapping the matis' yet?
Back on page one I think, you posted a shot of the thing with arms. That looks just like the filter feeding cuke I had in my tank. Those bright yellow things on page two are sponges. I have several of those growing in my tanks.
Have you tried trapping the matis' yet?
Sugar Magnolia":ofl51twr said:
Well, only 4 babies were left when I got home, must have been some hungry adults! Two more adults carrying babies, so I'm going to try again since I bought frozen baby brine shrimp and one of the babies appeared to be eating that.
My tank has been mantis free for a while. I had one rock that still had clicking noises about a month back and I FINALLY got the shrimp out of that one, but it was a pistol shrimp!
Here is the best picture I got of him:
He went into my sump and I still occasionally hear a click, but I haven't heard one for two weeks or so.
I'm getting some TBS rock soon, so I'll probably be mantis hunting again soon.
Thanks for the comments!
B.
ratherbediving":1p9mplcq said:
My macro is OK, actually that picture was taken with the macro looking through a 2x magnifying glass. Unfortunately I bought the wrong camera that has no manual focus and only a 3x optical zoom and I can't control the f stop. There are MUCH better cameras out there for reef photography, a lot cheaper than mine too! DOH!
Since the pistol sounds very similar to a mantis shrimp I wanted him to stay in the sump until I got my next shipment of rock, so I would know that any clicking in my main tank would be from a mantis shrimp.
I'm still waiting on the rock and once it is mantis free I hope to find the pistol and return him to the main tank.
B.
07/13/2005 Update - Day 166
Well, the baby porcelains did not make it as I couldn't get live phyto fast enough, they all died off within 3 days.
Well, I'm still waiting, somewhat impatiently, for my TBS rock to come in, for those of you counting along, that is 110 days of waiting for TBS rock JEEZ!!!
So I've had to find something to amuse myself since my tank is basically on hold until the rock gets here. I decided to take three rocks out that have been rapidly covered in a red hair/turf type algae that refused to die. They are now going through the dark quarantine process, also called "cooking". Here are a couple of pics:
When i put the rocks in the bucket there wasn't enough water, so I went to the garage and brought in some more water. This is where my brain decided to shut off and I added RO/DI water instead of mixed saltwater
So this killed off the urchin that had refused to come off the rock and it also caused my bisma worm(related to Christmas tree worms) to eject itself from its home. For those of you who have never seen them out of the tube:
I also found a couple of cool hitchhikers in recent weeks:
A chiton:
A snail identified by Dr Ron as "It is a trochoidean, probably a small individual of a Turbo haraldi.. "
I also couldn't resist this small frag of zoas. It is currently in my QT tank, but they look better under actinics:
For those asking for a full tank shot...my tank is basically in shambles at the moment with the "cooking" of my rock and some other things going on. I hope to have one soon when my TBS rock finally arrives.
Brian
Well, the baby porcelains did not make it as I couldn't get live phyto fast enough, they all died off within 3 days.
Well, I'm still waiting, somewhat impatiently, for my TBS rock to come in, for those of you counting along, that is 110 days of waiting for TBS rock
JEEZ!!!So I've had to find something to amuse myself since my tank is basically on hold until the rock gets here. I decided to take three rocks out that have been rapidly covered in a red hair/turf type algae that refused to die. They are now going through the dark quarantine process, also called "cooking". Here are a couple of pics:
When i put the rocks in the bucket there wasn't enough water, so I went to the garage and brought in some more water. This is where my brain decided to shut off and I added RO/DI water instead of mixed saltwater
So this killed off the urchin that had refused to come off the rock and it also caused my bisma worm(related to Christmas tree worms) to eject itself from its home. For those of you who have never seen them out of the tube:
I also found a couple of cool hitchhikers in recent weeks:
A chiton:
A snail identified by Dr Ron as "It is a trochoidean, probably a small individual of a Turbo haraldi.. "
I also couldn't resist this small frag of zoas. It is currently in my QT tank, but they look better under actinics:
For those asking for a full tank shot...my tank is basically in shambles at the moment with the "cooking" of my rock and some other things going on. I hope to have one soon when my TBS rock finally arrives.
Brian
Hey all,
I decided to replace my old sump, here are a couple of pics of the old one:
Why did I replace it? The main reasons:
1. The water level was too high in the sump, when I lost power the skimmer and overflow water would actually go ABOVE the plastic trim on the top of the tank. It felt like a few more drops and it would overflow onto the carpet.
2. The input into my skimmer pump was at the bottom of the sump and I did not have enough room to add a elbow and skim from the surface. For those that don't know, organics tend to be near the top of the water column in slow moving water, so the skimmer couldn't get the organics out very well.
3. Despite my baffles, a lot of water bypassed my skimmer and it wasn't nearly as efficient as I would like. It would take 3-5 days to get one cup of good skimmate.
4. My return section was small and ran dry a couple of times from evaporation.
5. A lot of microbubbles would enter the tank as I did not have a bubble trap.
My next post will detail the new sump.
B.
I decided to replace my old sump, here are a couple of pics of the old one:
Why did I replace it? The main reasons:
1. The water level was too high in the sump, when I lost power the skimmer and overflow water would actually go ABOVE the plastic trim on the top of the tank. It felt like a few more drops and it would overflow onto the carpet.
2. The input into my skimmer pump was at the bottom of the sump and I did not have enough room to add a elbow and skim from the surface. For those that don't know, organics tend to be near the top of the water column in slow moving water, so the skimmer couldn't get the organics out very well.
3. Despite my baffles, a lot of water bypassed my skimmer and it wasn't nearly as efficient as I would like. It would take 3-5 days to get one cup of good skimmate.
4. My return section was small and ran dry a couple of times from evaporation.
5. A lot of microbubbles would enter the tank as I did not have a bubble trap.
My next post will detail the new sump.
B.
So I took my old 20L sump out of the system on Sunday July 17th and let just my SEIO handle the circulation in the main tank. The new 29 gallon sump went in last night (20th).
Here is the 29 gallon getting the first baffle of the bubble trap:
I had to silicone this in place first as siliconing this between the other two "down" baffles was not an option with my big hands.
Brian's helpful DIY tip #564: Unfortunately I used old silicone and I had to remove most of it and silicone it again with a chopstick after the down baffles were in place. Always use fresh silicone when doing projects like this, mine was only 3 months old, but still no good. Also, silicone should not be stored in temps above 80 degrees, who knew I actually was supposed to read the storage instructions on a tube of silicone!
Then I worked on the skimmer pump modification. I bought a threaded 90 and drilled some holes in PVC that would be covered by the original sponge that came with the pump:
Here is the skimmer with the new pump mods installed:
This is where I ran into my first and only major problem My skimmer would fit HOB style, but the input and output pipes were below the lip of the tank. In order to have the skimmer HOB style, I would need to drill the side of the tank. Deciding that wasn't an option, luckily for me my skimmer can run in sump. So it was placed in the refuge section and it takes up about 1/3 of the section reserved for cheato and frags. But I gain the benefit of if the skimmer ever develops a leak, it will leak into the sump, not onto the carpet, so a fair tradeoff. I'm all about avoiding leaks and wet carpet.
Here is the skimmer installed in sump under the tank:
Here is the right side with the skimmer pump and refuge section and the bubble trap on the left side:
Here is the left side with the much larger return section and bubble trap:
After running the sump for a couple of hours I noticed that some micro bubbles still get into the return, but considerably less than in the old sump. We'll see how it goes after the sump slimes up.
Here is a picture this morning of the collection cup after only 8 hours of running:
VERY COOL 8) There was even about 1 inch of liquid in my overflow bottle. It doesn't show in the picture, but the liquid was a dark green, so it looks like the skimmer is doing a much better job already. Of course the main tank was skimmerless for 4 days, so that may have something to do with it. We'll see how it goes after a couple of weeks.
You'll also notice in the last two sump pics that the wires are all zip tied, man zip ties rock! I think I'll go around my house and zip tie anything loose
B.
Here is the 29 gallon getting the first baffle of the bubble trap:
I had to silicone this in place first as siliconing this between the other two "down" baffles was not an option with my big hands.
Brian's helpful DIY tip #564: Unfortunately I used old silicone and I had to remove most of it and silicone it again with a chopstick after the down baffles were in place. Always use fresh silicone when doing projects like this, mine was only 3 months old, but still no good. Also, silicone should not be stored in temps above 80 degrees, who knew I actually was supposed to read the storage instructions on a tube of silicone!
Then I worked on the skimmer pump modification. I bought a threaded 90 and drilled some holes in PVC that would be covered by the original sponge that came with the pump:
Here is the skimmer with the new pump mods installed:
This is where I ran into my first and only major problem
My skimmer would fit HOB style, but the input and output pipes were below the lip of the tank. In order to have the skimmer HOB style, I would need to drill the side of the tank. Deciding that wasn't an option, luckily for me my skimmer can run in sump. So it was placed in the refuge section and it takes up about 1/3 of the section reserved for cheato and frags. But I gain the benefit of if the skimmer ever develops a leak, it will leak into the sump, not onto the carpet, so a fair tradeoff. I'm all about avoiding leaks and wet carpet.Here is the skimmer installed in sump under the tank:
Here is the right side with the skimmer pump and refuge section and the bubble trap on the left side:
Here is the left side with the much larger return section and bubble trap:
After running the sump for a couple of hours I noticed that some micro bubbles still get into the return, but considerably less than in the old sump. We'll see how it goes after the sump slimes up.
Here is a picture this morning of the collection cup after only 8 hours of running:
VERY COOL 8) There was even about 1 inch of liquid in my overflow bottle. It doesn't show in the picture, but the liquid was a dark green, so it looks like the skimmer is doing a much better job already. Of course the main tank was skimmerless for 4 days, so that may have something to do with it. We'll see how it goes after a couple of weeks.
You'll also notice in the last two sump pics that the wires are all zip tied, man zip ties rock! I think I'll go around my house and zip tie anything loose
B.
Hey all,
Well after a short wait of 117 days or so, the rock finally arrived, here are the pictures!
Here is the start of the pictures. I got around 40 good ones from the process, I might not be able to post all of them until later. It was the best Christmas ever!
And so we begin....
Unpacking
Deco Rock - gorgeous shapes and much lighter weight than my "other" florida rock. I'm TONS happier about the weight and shape.
Rock1
Rock2
Brian
Well after a short wait of 117 days or so, the rock finally arrived, here are the pictures!
Here is the start of the pictures. I got around 40 good ones from the process, I might not be able to post all of them until later. It was the best Christmas ever!
And so we begin....
Unpacking
Deco Rock - gorgeous shapes and much lighter weight than my "other" florida rock. I'm TONS happier about the weight and shape.
Rock1
Rock2
Brian
The photo parade continues:
Deco Rock 3 - This was the only rock that was "football" shaped in the whole order, but it is a very good base rock for the right side of my tank to hold up the bigger rocks.
Required shot of the sand:
The beginning of my coral rock - I got 20 lbs of the coral rock:
A nice star coral:
Hitchhiking brittle star
Coral rock 2
Coral rock 3
MY AWESOME CORAL ROCK WITH 3 BRAINS
By far my favorite rock in the order, of course the reason I ordered from TBS was the brains, and I got three on one rock! One looks pretty sick, but I hope it makes it
B.
Deco Rock 3 - This was the only rock that was "football" shaped in the whole order, but it is a very good base rock for the right side of my tank to hold up the bigger rocks.
Required shot of the sand:
The beginning of my coral rock - I got 20 lbs of the coral rock:
A nice star coral:
Hitchhiking brittle star
Coral rock 2
Coral rock 3
MY AWESOME CORAL ROCK WITH 3 BRAINS
By far my favorite rock in the order, of course the reason I ordered from TBS was the brains, and I got three on one rock! One looks pretty sick, but I hope it makes it
B.
Anyway, I can't tell you how excited I am about the 3 brains rock. I was originally planning on having a shelf shaped piece of LR with SPS as my centerpiece, but the perfect arch shape of that rock and the the brains (and two small star corals too), makes it the perfect center piece. Richard was very nice to me for my wait All the rocks were the sizes I requested and I know that had to be difficult with their lack of diving.
Star coral in my tank:
The good hitchhikers - I got quite a few in the water, but also quite a bit in the live sand. I carefully looked through the live sand and water in the boxes to see what I got. I got a bunch of brittle stars and featherdusters. I even found one nassarius baby snail I also saw one small porcelain crab, very pretty with purple and red
The bad guys - I found quite a few bad guys, but so far I haven't seen any cirolanids. I can handle mantis, gorilla crabs, whelks, I just don't want to get any more cirolanids. I know I'm paranoid about them...but having them for 6 months from the "other" florida rock will do that to you! I found one euchinid(spelling) worm and he won't be going in the tank. I found some whelks and a few baby gorillas.
But back to the good guys. I got a rock with what looks like 4 bisma (Christmas tree worms) on it! Including one that is blue with orange in it, the best color combo that I was hoping for!
B.
Star coral in my tank:
The good hitchhikers - I got quite a few in the water, but also quite a bit in the live sand. I carefully looked through the live sand and water in the boxes to see what I got. I got a bunch of brittle stars and featherdusters. I even found one nassarius baby snail I also saw one small porcelain crab, very pretty with purple and red
The bad guys - I found quite a few bad guys, but so far I haven't seen any cirolanids. I can handle mantis, gorilla crabs, whelks, I just don't want to get any more cirolanids. I know I'm paranoid about them...but having them for 6 months from the "other" florida rock will do that to you! I found one euchinid(spelling) worm and he won't be going in the tank. I found some whelks and a few baby gorillas.
But back to the good guys. I got a rock with what looks like 4 bisma (Christmas tree worms) on it! Including one that is blue with orange in it, the best color combo that I was hoping for!
B.
Sick brain I hope it recovers!
All the shots of the rock out of the water were taken by my wife, I was trying to minimize the time it was out of the water. She is excited, not as much as me, but she was very helpful in taking the pics and I have to give her props for the quality of those pics!
B.
I hope it recovers!
All the shots of the rock out of the water were taken by my wife, I was trying to minimize the time it was out of the water. She is excited, not as much as me, but she was very helpful in taking the pics and I have to give her props for the quality of those pics!
B.
On top of getting the TBS rock on Friday, the following day was our local club frag swap! It was my first one and I went a little crazy, but everything looks good so far in the QT as I wait for the cycle to end in my main tank.
Frag swap results
Hey all,
No more pics of the rocks right now, hopefully more in a couple of days, but here are some pics from the frag swap I went to. Man I got some good stuff!
Here is the haul:
3 - 150 gal boxes of Crystal Seas BioAssay salt - $81
1 - SEIO 820 - $55
12 red trochus snails + 1 electric blue hermit(should have been a red trochus, but guess what, he killed one, stupid hermit) - $25
1 yuma ricordia (supposedly purple, looks brown right now) with 2 polyps - $15
1 - mag float 125 - $7
7 zoa frags - $5 each
1 brown mushroom with green highlights - 3 polyps - $5
1 blue polka dot mushroom - $5
1 metallic green mushroom - $3
2 red spaghetti worms - $2
1 cup live sand - free
1 frag pink zoas - free (swap for mantis)
1 frag blue mushroom - free (swap for mantis)
1 frag pink center/orange skirt - free (swap for fire coral frag)
I think that is it Total for the day - $233 bucks Not too bad huh?
Here are the pics:
Can you believe this frag was $5? I'm going to frag this for the next frag swap easily:
B.
More in a sec....
Frag swap results
Hey all,
No more pics of the rocks right now, hopefully more in a couple of days, but here are some pics from the frag swap I went to. Man I got some good stuff!
Here is the haul:
3 - 150 gal boxes of Crystal Seas BioAssay salt - $81
1 - SEIO 820 - $55
12 red trochus snails + 1 electric blue hermit(should have been a red trochus, but guess what, he killed one, stupid hermit) - $25
1 yuma ricordia (supposedly purple, looks brown right now) with 2 polyps - $15
1 - mag float 125 - $7
7 zoa frags - $5 each
1 brown mushroom with green highlights - 3 polyps - $5
1 blue polka dot mushroom - $5
1 metallic green mushroom - $3
2 red spaghetti worms - $2
1 cup live sand - free
1 frag pink zoas - free (swap for mantis)
1 frag blue mushroom - free (swap for mantis)
1 frag pink center/orange skirt - free (swap for fire coral frag)
I think that is it Total for the day - $233 bucks Not too bad huh?
Here are the pics:
Can you believe this frag was $5? I'm going to frag this for the next frag swap easily:
B.
More in a sec....
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