Phischy's Project PtIII: Actually have corals!
- Thread starter Phischy
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Phischy
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Well, the peppermint shrimp is doing a great job of controlling my aips...on the right side of my tank. Apparently he's not venturing over to the other side, and neither are my fish. They all favor the right side of the tank. I think the false perc has buddied up with the yellow clown. The clown stays pretty close to my pink shrooms. Even the orange brittle star stays only on the R side of my tank.
This could be due to the mantis shrimp that was on the L side. Well, I couldn't get him out by attempting to trap him and I got fed up with his antics, so as of yesterday he is now entombed in my LR. I squirted some B-Ionic (part A) into his cave so he hid way up in there, then I epoxied him in. Here entombed be Jimmy "Mantis" Hoffa. The first permanent resident of my tank.
Still debating on doubling my lights. Feeding everything with mysis/Formula 1/Cyclops-eze/phyto and after feeding yesterday everything was very happy.
Got a gravity feed drip line for water top-off and Nate gave me 3 more 5gal jugs. So with 5 of 'em, it keeps me out of the LFS and from keeping me from purchasing too much. Plus Matt (another friend of Nate's) is thinning out his tank and has said he has a bunch of frags for me. Woo-hoo!
Will post pics this week.
This could be due to the mantis shrimp that was on the L side. Well, I couldn't get him out by attempting to trap him and I got fed up with his antics, so as of yesterday he is now entombed in my LR. I squirted some B-Ionic (part A) into his cave so he hid way up in there, then I epoxied him in. Here entombed be Jimmy "Mantis" Hoffa. The first permanent resident of my tank.
Still debating on doubling my lights. Feeding everything with mysis/Formula 1/Cyclops-eze/phyto and after feeding yesterday everything was very happy.
Got a gravity feed drip line for water top-off and Nate gave me 3 more 5gal jugs. So with 5 of 'em, it keeps me out of the LFS and from keeping me from purchasing too much. Plus Matt (another friend of Nate's) is thinning out his tank and has said he has a bunch of frags for me. Woo-hoo!
Will post pics this week.
When we had the 55 set up. Most of the fish liked to stay on the side of the tank that the overflow was on. I never did figure out what the deal was. It wasn't a mantis, cause we never heard popping noises, and the tank was in our bedroom. Until we got it stocked up fully, and everyone was crowded everyone stuck around the rocks near the overflow. I thought perhaps there wasn't enough flow on the other side of the tank, so we put in powerheads...Didn't fix it. Put in another powerhead on the other side of the tank...Didn't fix it. Just put in a crapload of fish...Ahhhh. That fixed it.Phischy said:
:lol:
Good job on trapping the little bugger.
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Phischy
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It's food. Just about everything eats cyclops-eze, they're little frozen amhipods that are fortified with vitamins for your fish. Very heathy stuff. Formula 1 is another prepaired food that comes in gell cubes (both are in your LFS freezer). I'm not 100% sure I'm using this correctly, I sort of take a small pieces and chop it up into even smaller pieces so it will be eaten. My fish/inverts avoid it but the shroom did eat a piece, if I"m using it wrong then I may have spiked it with whatever.
The correct use may be to blend it up with other fresh seafood to make a "seafood slurpee" so that the vitamins are incorporated with the seafood. I need to make a post on sdreefs to see how they use it. I'm not going to use it again until I know what hte hell it is I"m doing. I'll just stick to mysis shrimp/phyto/cyclops.
The correct use may be to blend it up with other fresh seafood to make a "seafood slurpee" so that the vitamins are incorporated with the seafood. I need to make a post on sdreefs to see how they use it. I'm not going to use it again until I know what hte hell it is I"m doing. I'll just stick to mysis shrimp/phyto/cyclops.
This is basically the way I feed. I do place ALL my frozen food into a small cup of tank water and let it thaw first, then use a turkey baster to squirt it all around the tank. It's VERY easy to over feed with cyclopeze because it's so small a lot of it will get wasted by being sucked into the filtration before it can be eaten. I was pretty shocked the first time that I turned off the pumps and fed, and saw just how much of it was in the water column, and realized how much of it must get sucked into my overflow before the fish or corals can get it. Now I try to turn off the pumps before feeding with it.Phischy said:
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Phischy
New Member
candy canes
I picked up a 6 headed candy cane for $7 bucks today off of my local SD forum. One of the local stores has a 3 headed frag for $10. Just got to give props to all the local reefers that undercut the stores prices.
Ok, questions:
Where in my tank should I put this? I've got 110watts of PC ligth in a 23" tall tank, so about where should I put it to get the right light and flow?
Also, what do they eat? I know I should do research in advance, but when a hot item comes through, you just have to jump on it. I'm pretty sure I've got everything, but right now I target feed everything so I want to make sure it's getting what it needs.
Thanks
I picked up a 6 headed candy cane for $7 bucks today off of my local SD forum. One of the local stores has a 3 headed frag for $10. Just got to give props to all the local reefers that undercut the stores prices.
Ok, questions:
Where in my tank should I put this? I've got 110watts of PC ligth in a 23" tall tank, so about where should I put it to get the right light and flow?
Also, what do they eat? I know I should do research in advance, but when a hot item comes through, you just have to jump on it. I'm pretty sure I've got everything, but right now I target feed everything so I want to make sure it's getting what it needs.
Thanks
Phischy
New Member
Pic Updates!
Ok, long promised new pics of my tank:
The two other rics are right behind the big mother one, and my zoas while happy, still aren't growing.
My alveopora. Big and happy.
My latest, new candy cane. Will be moved off the substrate higher to the lights tomorrow.
The open green brain that almost didn't make it. Now really fat and happy and growing.
Pink Shrooms and Yellow Clown Goby.
My purple people eater polyps. Also nice and big, just moved to get more light. This was a frag.
And last but not least, the Tomb of the Mantis. I can still hear it clicking in there a week after I walled him up. I hope it's the only one!
I re-aquascaped the left side of the tank today to get more 'shelfs' to put corals on. I think it turned out well. And this is my update.
Ok, long promised new pics of my tank:
The two other rics are right behind the big mother one, and my zoas while happy, still aren't growing.
My alveopora. Big and happy.
My latest, new candy cane. Will be moved off the substrate higher to the lights tomorrow.
The open green brain that almost didn't make it. Now really fat and happy and growing.
Pink Shrooms and Yellow Clown Goby.
My purple people eater polyps. Also nice and big, just moved to get more light. This was a frag.
And last but not least, the Tomb of the Mantis. I can still hear it clicking in there a week after I walled him up. I hope it's the only one!
I re-aquascaped the left side of the tank today to get more 'shelfs' to put corals on. I think it turned out well. And this is my update.
OMG
wow phichy: I'm impressed, you have some really nice things in your tank. i like how bright your pink shrooms are. I didn't have luck with that yellow gumdrop, he wandered too close to my whisper 10 and it got sucked up *poor dude* I already took care of that problem so it'll never happen again. I have a green shroom right now, but I may pick up a pink one being how nice they are. Oh and bro I love that last picture, it was my favorite. The tomb of jimmy the "mantis" hoffa. What a crack up. He's probably eating on whatever is left in that hole. It's too bad we'll never see his dead carcus, lol .
Mr. phischy I have a few questions for you. I noticed your alveopora, really nice, are they hard to care for? Are they in the same family as the flower pot? I was thinking of picking up a tiny frag, or some Pogada that my brother has. They look kinda the same. Well I'll catch you later. real nice how your tank is coming along.
wow phichy: I'm impressed, you have some really nice things in your tank. i like how bright your pink shrooms are. I didn't have luck with that yellow gumdrop, he wandered too close to my whisper 10 and it got sucked up *poor dude* I already took care of that problem so it'll never happen again. I have a green shroom right now, but I may pick up a pink one being how nice they are. Oh and bro I love that last picture, it was my favorite. The tomb of jimmy the "mantis" hoffa. What a crack up. He's probably eating on whatever is left in that hole. It's too bad we'll never see his dead carcus, lol .
Mr. phischy I have a few questions for you. I noticed your alveopora, really nice, are they hard to care for? Are they in the same family as the flower pot? I was thinking of picking up a tiny frag, or some Pogada that my brother has. They look kinda the same. Well I'll catch you later. real nice how your tank is coming along.
Phischy
New Member
I got the alveopora off a friend who left the state. I hear both it and the gonorpora are the 'forbidden' corals where they seem to do well for about ayear and then just up and croak. There seems to be a lot of negativity about their purchase due to their low survival rate. And apparently they are very difficult to breed. So, I won't ever buy one again but this one just sort of came to me. It is pretty but...I would have to disagree with keeping something that has a low long term well known survival rate. I hope this doesn't make me a hypocrit.
Everything is really doing well now that I target feed everyday or every other day. I'm just really waiting for things to start reproducing. I'm going to build the whole tank off of 2nd hand corals or frags, I won't buy anything in the store and I don't think I've paid retail for anything yet. Other than the yellow clown goby, but it was only $7.
So I continue to slowly build this tank.
My next big question is what is all the multi colored stuff growin in my substrait and how do I get rid of it?!?!? I'm still having issues with green algea on my acrylic but nothing really major. Thanks for the compliments!
Everything is really doing well now that I target feed everyday or every other day. I'm just really waiting for things to start reproducing. I'm going to build the whole tank off of 2nd hand corals or frags, I won't buy anything in the store and I don't think I've paid retail for anything yet. Other than the yellow clown goby, but it was only $7.
So I continue to slowly build this tank.
My next big question is what is all the multi colored stuff growin in my substrait and how do I get rid of it?!?!? I'm still having issues with green algea on my acrylic but nothing really major. Thanks for the compliments!
Sugar Magnolia
New Member
That's looking really good phischy!
I'm really surprised those zoos aren't growing for you. I've got those same zoos and they grow really fast for me.
I'm really surprised those zoos aren't growing for you. I've got those same zoos and they grow really fast for me.
Phischy
New Member
Got my lights today and met another cool reefer in SD. It'll take me a week to figure out how to cram these in my hood and to get all the new necessary electrical stuff in there. But I"m pretty stoked to get 220w in there, I hope it'll encourage my corals to breed like rabbits.
I've also got a line in to buy some xenia frags from him at $5/stalk and some orange shrooms from another guy I bought the purple polyps off of a few weeks ago.
I'll also have to get some fans to keep this thing cooler. I think two, one for the lights and one for the water. I also really need to set up a 'fuge w/ tons of macro algea to deal with my nutirent load, but I can't figure out how I'm going to do that in my sump just yet. So more planning. And once I get all that done I'll be onto Phase IV of my threads.
Woo hoo, this is so much fun!
I've also got a line in to buy some xenia frags from him at $5/stalk and some orange shrooms from another guy I bought the purple polyps off of a few weeks ago.
I'll also have to get some fans to keep this thing cooler. I think two, one for the lights and one for the water. I also really need to set up a 'fuge w/ tons of macro algea to deal with my nutirent load, but I can't figure out how I'm going to do that in my sump just yet. So more planning. And once I get all that done I'll be onto Phase IV of my threads.
Woo hoo, this is so much fun!
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