Samuel's new HUGE tank

[CarmieJo]

Very cool Samuel! Do the yellow things look like they could open up?

[Astrivian]

They do look like they could open up a bit carmie. No tenticles that i can see though. Could the be some weird sponges? I will try to get a closer pic and post in a bit.

Oh, i do have to give a shout out to Tampa Bay Saltwater, they were great to work with, shipped quickly (in the same day actually), and i dig the rocks.

Today i am going to get some sand for the display, maybe some glue to hold the rocks together, and possibly my first set of T5 lights (fingers crossed). My wife bugs me about the tank, she wants to know when we will actually get fish I wonder too sometimes, but i need all the various components first, man this stuff gets expensive

[CarmieJo]

Samuel, I'm not sure, they could be some sort of sponge. Do you see any siphons? Think carefully about gluing your rocks together. It makes it hard to change your aquascape later. I favor drilling holes in the rocks and locking them together with rods. You may have already said this but are you going to use stands for your rock?

[Astrivian]

Yes, good point about the glue, i didn't think of that. Carmie, do you mean stands that would hold the rock off of the sand? No, i wasn't planning on doing so but i might reconsider. There will not be much sand in the display, since it is only 18" deep. Actually, i just filled one of the two big black containers in the sump with a DSB (4.5" sugar-fine sand) and spiked it with the live sand from the nano, which is now completely dismantled. However, do you think raising the rocks in the display up off the sand a quarter inch (centimeter) or so would be a good idea anyhow? I suppose it would allow more hiding spaces for smaller critters like hermits and snails. For the most part the display sand is just to add a cushion should the rocks fall and add some padding for hermits, snails, crabs, and maybe the occasional burrowing worm or two. The sand in the display is CaribSea's "select" stuff, just slightly larger than the sugar fine oolitic.

[CarmieJo]

I think that even without a DSB in the display that the stands would help improve flow & prevent dead spots. There are examples in the beginning of Amphibious' tank journal.

[Astrivian]

I finally have an update to the tank progress. My dumb digital camera broke so i don't have pictures just yet, but check out the DIY Closed Loop video for some video of my tank.

The first thing is the lights. I hooked up two daylight VHO T5s over one side of the tank. As i mention in the video, these are all the lights i have at the moment -- see if you can guess which side the lights are on

I am working on more; they are expensive and i have to buy one paired set at a time (set = two lights + one ballast + two reflectors + four sockets + four standoffs). The set up will be two daylights and two actinics on each side. From my research, this will put me around 1,500 to 1,800 PAR when they are all on. Since the tank is only 18 inches (46 cm) deep, i am sticking to shallower corals and fish.

The other major step is my new skimmer! I got a Coralife SS for a 220 gallon system:

This is the image posed on marinedepot.com.

I hooked it up in the sump and am playing with adjusting it. Haven't quite found the perfect setting yet, but from what i gather it can take a few weeks to break it in. It is a needle wheel skimmer so i wonder if the Euroreef mod shown by David Perry and Gustavo would work for this as well.

LIFE! I also have life now! I got two small ocellaris clowns that i absolutely love. Currently they are the only residents of the tank. The yellow tangs keep dying for some reason. Maybe the skimmer will help? I am at a loss with that.

Lastly, i got some locklines for my closed loop/return line (CL/R). I added some locklines and the flat nozzles to the sections on the outsides of the tank, and a rounded nozzle plus a Hydor rotating deflector to both of the middle CL/R lines. I really like the Hydor things so far. I wasn't sure how they worked at first; i thought they were just angled in such a way as to turn as the water ran through them. However, they actually have some gears inside them that move as the water pushes past an impeller of sorts. This seems okay, although i imagine they will require frequent cleanings. Lots of gunk could easily get stuck in the gears and ruin the device.

I will have to post a short video of the things in the tank. Two of them are facing one another and they give a very nice wave effect.

Anyhow, those are my updates!

[Astrivian]

So i finally found my old crappy camera and took some pictures of the tank.

I know i know, it's about time!

So, the first two are some hitchhikers i just noticed. I did some research and was able to nail down what they are pretty quickly. Since they came from my aquacultured live rock from Florida, the species limited down pretty fast to Arbacia punctulata. They do have somewhat of a reputation of mowing through corals, but at the moment i am FO, so no biggie there. When i do start getting corals, i will probably move these two to a separate tank. I kinda like them:





Oh, and there are two of them. These pictures were taken at the same time. If breeding is a possibility, i might look into that some more. Apparently, urchin eggs are considered a "delicacy" by some. Hmm, maybe a delicacy for my corals and fish, but not me!

The urchins were taken in their favorite feeding spots: one loves to devour my coralline and the other loves the bryopsis. If i could only train both of them on the hair algae...

The next pic is my two ocellaris clowns:



Did you see them? "Stay still so i can tank your damn picture!"
Obviously they are quite energetic.

This last fish related picture is of my new Coralife SS skimmer. It has been working quite well (notice all the sludge in the cup). It took a lot of practice to get the thing adjusted correctly. The first few attempts just left the cup overflowing with water. Talk about wet skimming! So, i played around for a while and now i think i am in business.



I recently purchased some Turbo snails.....which were the coldwater ones i guess as they are all dead now. Stupid snails. I swear its not me! The urchins and other various hitchhiker snails are all doing quite well. So, all the skimmate taken in this pic is likely dead snail parts. DEAD SNAILS SMELL SOOOO BAD!

Lastly, i have some bonus pics for you all. This is the reefkeeping dog:



I am thinking of dying his fur green on Halloween and calling him "Hair Algae"

[lReef lKeeper]

HA HA !! i have a POM too (but he is solid black) !! i guess great minds really do think alike !!

[CarmieJo]

LOL! Hair Algae! And what will the cat be?

[Astrivian]

HA HA !! i have a POM too (but he is solid black) !! i guess great minds really do think alike !!

See if you can get him to fall asleep around a clear plastic pipe, so his furry feet are wrapped around it. Then you can call him "skimmate."

[Astrivian]

LOL! Hair Algae! And what will the cat be?

Actually, i think at least one of the cats would be the urchin She seems to take a bite of dog hair as often as possible, typically from his face (high fiber i guess).

[CarmieJo]

Poor puppy The cat is probably bigger that he is. The SPCA is probably going to get on you when you dye the dog green and the cat purple!

[BrianPlankis]

So, the first two are some hitchhikers i just noticed. I did some research and was able to nail down what they are pretty quickly. Since they came from my aquacultured live rock from Florida, the species limited down pretty fast to Arbacia punctulata. They do have somewhat of a reputation of mowing through corals, but at the moment i am FO, so no biggie there. When i do start getting corals, i will probably move these two to a separate tank. I kinda like them:

Those could potentially be Arbacia punctulata, but those are not frequent hitchhikers on aquacultured rock. I would say you have a higher chance of having an Echinometra species, probably Echinometra lacunter or a closely related species. But it will be easier to tell once they grow larger

I recently purchased some Turbo snails.....which were the coldwater ones i guess as they are all dead now. Stupid snails. I swear its not me! The urchins and other various hitchhiker snails are all doing quite well. So, all the skimmate taken in this pic is likely dead snail parts. DEAD SNAILS SMELL SOOOO BAD!

I know some sources for warm water species that do really well in tanks, some even reproduce easily

Brian

[Small Fry]

I'm expecting the pictures now on halloween i hope you know. If you don't post, i'll send the dreaded pic police....

[Astrivian]

Those could potentially be Arbacia punctulata, but those are not frequent hitchhikers on aquacultured rock. I would say you have a higher chance of having an Echinometra species, probably Echinometra lacunter or a closely related species. But it will be easier to tell once they grow larger

I know some sources for warm water species that do really well in tanks, some even reproduce easily

Brian

Brian! How are you! You said you took a look at the thread every know and then, i am glad to find an invert subject for you

I think i will take you up on the DIBS turbo and trochus offer. PM me when we can do that.

As for the urchin, lets take it outside!.............and go to DIBS
I posted a thing on the urchins there, which you have probably seen already. I was basing my thing on pictures, but you are probably right, it will be easier to tell when they are bigger. They make reaching into the tank quite interesting! I get that moment of shock when i realize i don't know where they are.

[nay,kid]

please forgive my ignorance but whats an abaka?

[CarmieJo]

please forgive my ignorance but whats an abaka?

Do you mean Arbacia?

[Astrivian]

No worries, abaka is not a well-known term

The word derives from the Greek abacus, which was a slate used in education, math education in particular (think of it as an early dry erase board). In Religious Spiritualism the abaka consists of a circle, square, and two opposing triangles overlaid. The square and circle are an Alchemical symbol signifying the unification of heaven (the circle) and earth (the square). The opposing triangles, are male (upward triangle) and female (downward). Thus, all four symbols overlaid signifies the the unifying All, the Source, the Void or blank slate from whence all Earthly forms are derived.

[Astrivian]

Okay, i finally got a slightly better shot of the clowns:



I made some changes to the sump too. most of the water was going down the left side and not over the DSB. So, i changed the plumbing and some of the boxes and ended up increasing TWV by about 30 gallons and sending 100% of the water over the DSB. This should cut down on the damn hair algae.

Oh, and what are the white things under the rock at the bottom of the pic? They look like little corals but don't seem to grow in the light.

[CarmieJo]

Oh, and what are the white things under the rock at the bottom of the pic? They look like little corals but don't seem to grow in the light.

Sponges?

[Astrivian]

Yay! I finally got some new critters for my tank. After battling the damn hair algae, which i think i finally have under control, i added some new inhabitants.

• 10 Cerith snails Cerithium litteratum
• 12 scarlet hermits Paguristes cadenat
• 1 tonga fighting conch Strombus gibberulus
• 12 Nassarius snails
• 2 scarlet cleaner shrimp Lysmata debelius

I will grab some pics of these new buggers this evening. It i so nice to see some life in the tank! All i have had are some hitchikers and the two clowns. Not saying the clowns are bad, just that the tank was too empty with just those two small things in there.

The two scarlet shrimps immediately found homes in low caves on mirror sides of the tank. When i added them, they spent the first couple of hours figuring out what to do with the plethora of food all over the place. So much cleaning to do! This morning one popped out to see what i was doing and must have smelled the food. The other might have been catching up on some zzzz's; it was a long flight for those little things.

The nassarius snails vanished into the sand almost immediately. I added some to my remote DSB to keep the sand stirred up a bit. This morning they appeared like the undead from the sand when i added some crab for them to munch on. I keep thinking of 28 Days Later whenever i seem them arise from their subsurface coffins and prowl the sand.

The hermits seem to be having fun exploring the tank. Some have found homes to hide in while other were scared s#$tless by the clowns' curiosities. It has been a while since the clowns have seen hermits; they thought the little red critters were food at first, until they hid in their shells. I think the scarlet cleaners have hired the hermits to help clean and the shrimp are just overseers of the hermits' work.

Conchs are strange. It ended up on a rock when i added the fighting conch, and i figured it would eventually make its way down to the sand. It hasn't moved much however. I have seen it's tenticled eyes pop out from under the shell every now and then, and it slithers a few inches or so. Probably still adjusting to its new world.

[CarmieJo]

Yeah! More critters.

[doctorthompson]

Actually, to keep things organized we might want to head over to my tank building thread. Since we are off the hair algae topic

Done

Xenia were the only ones i knew of off hand that climbed glass, but i like the mushroom idea better. How would i get mushrooms started on the glass? Could i pull some off rocks and use some coral glue to stick them to the glass?

Glue works about as well as spit for securing soft corals.

Leave them in a low flow area in a jar of coral rubble and they'll start attaching themselves to it, then you can use crazy glue gel (or any brand of cyanoacrylate) to secure the rubble to the glass (fairly easy to remove/peel off later if needed). Once they're growing you can take a razor and cut a crosshair or X into the tops of the largest ones to make them split into 4 on their own (don't cut into the base, just 2 deep cuts across the mouth on the top).

[Astrivian]

Will super glue cure underwater? That stuff is amazing. I was just watching a "Modern Marvels" show on the History Channel about adhesives too!

Not to press you too much on this, but what species of fungus would climb the glass? I know identifing a corallimorph down to species level is nearly impossible, so maybe genus would suffice. Are we talking Discosoma type stuff?

[doctorthompson]

Will super glue cure underwater? That stuff is amazing. I was just watching a "Modern Marvels" show on the History Channel about adhesives too!

Not to press you too much on this, but what species of fungus would climb the glass? I know identifing a corallimorph down to species level is nearly impossible, so maybe genus would suffice. Are we talking Discosoma type stuff?

Watch Rob's various fragging vidcasts. Cyanoacrylate will start curing almost instantly when saltwater hits it. You might have to be quick and do the gluing during a big water change.

I think the Discosoma taxa was actually renamed ... or was it Actinodiscus? I can never remember and I'm in the process of moving so all my books are in a box somewhere ... regardless, I've found Rhodactis sp. to be more tolerant of higher light levels and more willing to "climb". But keep in mind I've only kept maybe 6 or 7 different species of mushrooms personally - probably worth investigating with at least a few other people (or call one of the big public aquariums!)