Mr Aqua 22 Long

[YHSublime]

Sump for sure. 

[AlanM]

In preparation for more rock I made a simple DIY refugium box for the sump.  I may regret maxing out the size the next time I need to move something around in the sump, like the skimmer.  But for now this is good. 

 

It's mostly just something to keep the rocks contained in one spot and to toss some macro in so I can start a reverse photo cycle.

 

  

 

[AlanM]

First coral in the tank!  Guess it's not going to be nems and LPS only.

 

My favorite birdsnest: ponape.  I've always thought this one with it's pointy tips and right angle branches looks like more like an alien organism than most corals. 

 

 

Thanks, @flooddc

[YHSublime]

SPS bites hard and fast. 

[AlanM]

13 minutes ago, YHSublime said:

SPS bites hard and fast. 

 

Yes, and I saw that @thakki had a bunch of SPS corals that I'd had in my tank before, so I'm getting those too.  

 

I'll eventually get some torches/hammers in there, if only so that I can see what the current is doing. 8)

 

[flooddc]

58 minutes ago, AlanM said:

First coral in the tank!  Guess it's not going to be nems and LPS only.

 

My favorite birdsnest: ponape.  I've always thought this one with it's pointy tips and right angle branches looks like more like an alien organism than most corals. 

 

 

Thanks, @flooddc

It’s one of my favorite bn as well. It sure looks different when it was in my tank. 

[Aquastudent]

This is fun to watch this come together! I'm excited to see what is going to join your hitchhiking crabs as you build out the stocking 

[Origami]

4 hours ago, YHSublime said:

SPS bites hard and fast. 

 

In for a dime, in for a dollar.

[AlanM]

I think I got lucky with the "premium" rock shipment which is the second of the two shipments, in a way.  

 

I honestly didn't really like the look of the "premium" rock.  I think it had been underwater for a longer amount of time.  It did have a bit more sponges and some kind of coral polyps that look like of like small duncans on it, plus some random stringy macro algae, but it was also kind of covered with silt and very dense like bricks.  

 

So I didn't want to put it up in the main display and I put it in the sump.  A few posts above I'd made a kind of refugium containment system to just basically hold any rocks and macro I didn't want up in the tank, so I put almost all of it down in the fuge box.  

 

Well, I'd been hearing some snapping noises and I had assumed I had a pistol shrimp that had hitchhiked in, but I noticed that it was coming from the sump tonight and went to investigate.  Turns out I have a mantis shrimp down in the sump among the rock I put in there.  So the lucky part is that I put it underneath because it would have been much more challenging to get to it if it was up top.  

 

I'm satisfied to let it live down there for a while, but to be honest I will probably want to get rid of it at some point and it will do better somewhere else, so if someone is interested in one, let me know.  

 

It's about 2 inches long right now and looks cool when it runs around.  It's hard for me to tell the color because I have red/blue LED fuge lights down there so everything looks odd.  It also doesn't stick around for me to get a good look at it.  Given the noise, I assume it's a hammer type rather than a piercer type.  

[YHSublime]

Interested in putting the mantis in my sump

[AlanM]

8 hours ago, YHSublime said:

Interested in putting the mantis in my sump

 

Great. I will see if I can isolate it in some way. It's pretty fast and goes into any little hole. Otherwise you might need to take some big rocks with it, heh.

[Origami]

Here's a great site at UC Berkeley that I perused years ago that can help with identification. As I recall, the one that hitchhiked in on my TBS rock was a Neogonodactylus wennerae (a smasher). It lived for several years in what was a backroom tank (plumbed into the main system) dedicated to it's existence. It was easy to train it to take bits of shrimp and squid off the tip of a bamboo skewer. 

[AlanM]

I'll look over that site.  It's pretty loud in there, so very active.  For the moment it probably has a bunch to do down there in the sump, so I'll try to keep it happy in there until I can catch it for Isaac.  The only hazard will be the venturi intake of the skimmer which is relatively unprotected, but if it stays away from that it should be fine.

[AlanM]

Today on accident I noticed some kind of tiny decorator crab. It's covered with little sand and shell particles. I have no idea what it is or if it's a predator but it's cool.  It's only about one centimeter across.

 

 

[Origami]

Very cool. As long as you're comfortable with crabs as part of your cleanup crew, I'd say it's worth keeping him and seeing how it goes.

[AlanM]

There are still a few crabs in the display of unknown makeup.  I see one under a rock sometimes.  It's small and cute (but hairy and skittish), but I assume it won't stay that way.  I also saw what I'm pretty sure is a 1 inch long mantis shrimp molt in the display tank as well.  If there's a tiny mantis in the display I'm impressed that it's a really good and quiet hider.

 

The sump mantis is still kicking and doing well, seemingly.  I'll try to get a natural light picture of it at some point. I put a chunk of Rod's food down there and saw him grab it and drag it away.  I'm running the red/blue LED fuge light on a reverse photo cycle and the macro algae that is in there seems to be doing pretty well on it.  It looks like mostly feather caluerpa and one other plant with flat and round leaves.  

 

I'm having an issue with red cyano on the sand, rocks, walls, and frag rack.  It's interesting how despite getting completely live rock I'm still seeing a bit of "new tank" type effects.  The nitrogen cycle is in full swing, I assume, and I measure nearly 0 phosphate and nitrate, but there are just so many other bacterial cycles that work themselves out when the livestock, rocks, and sand are suddenly exposed to a new environment.  I assume these rocks and sand are getting way more light than they had been getting on the bottom of Tampa Bay.  Also the nutrients that they are getting as I put small amounts of food and reef roids in there are totally different.  

 

I plan to wait until mid-April before putting in fish.  I'll probably only put in a couple.

 

Here's a current FTS.  Still some rock arranging to do and then some mounting of corals.

 

[tpallas]

Awesome! Are you adding fish? I am tempted to set up a tank with just this rock and let it grow to see what happens. I have a pretty cool pencil urchin from my rock in the fuge.

[AlanM]

9 hours ago, tpallas said:

Awesome! Are you adding fish? I am tempted to set up a tank with just this rock and let it grow to see what happens. I have a pretty cool pencil urchin from my rock in the fuge.

 

Yep.  I'll add some fish in April after spring break.  We are heading out of town and I don't want to make any large changes until we get back and will have a few months at home.  

 

 

[YHSublime]

I’m tempted to just setup this rock in my fuge, predators and all, and just add diversity to my tank. Kinda like what you did with robs old sweater box of sump stuff. Then again, my rock is 7 YO at this stage, and established already. 

[AlanM]

If you want diversity (and a mantis) for your refugium you could just get this:

 

https://tbsaltwater.com/product/mantis-box-florida-mantis-shrimp-with-sand-rock-snacks/

 

It ships overnight to your house so you don't have to go to BWI to get it.

[Origami]

2 hours ago, AlanM said:

If you want diversity (and a mantis) for your refugium you could just get this:

 

https://tbsaltwater.com/product/mantis-box-florida-mantis-shrimp-with-sand-rock-snacks/

 

It ships overnight to your house so you don't have to go to BWI to get it.

 

It's kind of cool how Richard has made a package out of what, for many that buy his rock, is a pest. For me, way back when, the G. wennerae was a curiousity that lasted in its own, dedicated tank for several years. I regularly fed it a bit of squid or shrimp placed at the end of a bamboo skewer when I didn't have some pest snail or crab to deal with. 

[AlanM]

1 hour ago, Origami said:

 

It's kind of cool how Richard has made a package out of what, for many that buy his rock, is a pest. For me, way back when, the G. wennerae was a curiousity that lasted in its own, dedicated tank for several years. I regularly fed it a bit of squid or shrimp placed at the end of a bamboo skewer when I didn't have some pest snail or crab to deal with. 

 

Yep, I think Richard is still an advisor, but he sold the business during COVID, by the way.  Someone else is running it now.  They're pretty good to communicate with and the airport pickup process is much easier than I had pictured, but it's expensive.  If it's going to the airport for same day arrival it ends up being around $120 per shipment, so larger shipments are better.  It's a flat rate up to around 100 pounds.

[Origami]

Richard was good to work with. He's been in the business forever it seems. I've retired so I guess it makes sense that he may have also. My air freight pick up was at Dulles years ago. Like you, I found it easy despite never having picked up anything at an airport freight office before.

[YHSublime]

14 hours ago, AlanM said:

If you want diversity (and a mantis) for your refugium you could just get this:

 

https://tbsaltwater.com/product/mantis-box-florida-mantis-shrimp-with-sand-rock-snacks/

 

It ships overnight to your house so you don't have to go to BWI to get it.

word, that’s a cool option. I’d like to be picky and request a peacock, I wonder if they can cater to that, I might reach out.

[AlanM]

Got the meeting frags all mounted. It looks like doodoo at the moment but I'll post some pics tomorrow. I'm psyched to start getting coral permanent homes.

 

I put the torches on one end and hammers on the other end. Anemone and sps in the middle mostly.