Cthulukelele's hodgepodge softy and anemone 120g

[Slocke]

I like the new aquascape. The house looks very realistic

 

[Mschmidt]

No fish news, but I removed 10 5-8' hedges and heavily pared back 2 more

in front of my house today using only a lopper and my undying hatred for them

Undying hatred is one of the strongest forces known to man. Still though 75% the power of a woman scorned.

 

[Cthulukelele]

I got to explain how sea foam and protein skimmers work at a family gathering at the beach. Just got home. Some of my corals have really taken off in the last month. The green sinularia, gorgonian, and finger leather are all growing like crazy. Cabbages are slow growers for me but it looks happy. Toadstool and clove polyps keep getting bigger. Also all the3 bubble tips look great and are growing. This is the biggest one maybe 7" across now

 

[Cthulukelele]

There's been an exciting development! APPARENTLY a new new locally owned fresh and salt fish store that's making waves in the Triangle opened less than 10 minutes from my house! It's closed today, but I'm off tomorrow and am going to check them out!

 

[Cthulukelele]

Here's my review!

Owner? 10/10 100% hobbyist own 1 man passion project.

Selection? 6/10 some interesting stuff (first regal slipper lobster I've ever seen irl) but mostly a freshwater shop and GREAT for that.

Prices? 10/10 they're basically giving things away rn to get foot traffic and word of mouth.

Creature health? 8/10 some stressed creatures and a lot of dead or dying sps. They should stick to lps and softies. Most things very happy tho

 

[Cthulukelele]

Was gonna do lots of tank stuff on my break, but I've spent a few days dealing with my water heater catastrophically failing and almost burning my house down. My house has old aluminum wiring and apparently had my water heater on a 40a instead of 30a circuit. The heater was 30 years old, had a mechanical failure, and burned through the top of the unit. Some new wires, a new switch, a new water pressure regulator, a new water heater, and 3k later I should have hot water again in a few hours after many calls to the city and contractors dealt with

 

[nuxx]

Wow that's scary!!!

 

[Cthulukelele]

Wow that's scary!!!

Seriously! I was terrified. My whole electrical system flickered, the water wasn't warm anymore, and when I went into the the supply closet it was filled with smoke and smelled like electrical fire. Flipped off the wh breaker and it was actually miswired and turned off my range. So I swapped the range off and that turned it off. Electrician should be sued. It burned right through the top panel.

 

[Cthulukelele]

My clowns are attempting to get my toadstool to host them. It hates it lol. Luckily they don't seem to mind sharing the toadstool with the clown goby.

I decided to beef up my clean up crew as I have a very light snail stocking for a 120 at a pincushion, 3 or 4 turbos, a half dozen or so hermits, and a handful of astraea/tent/trochus snails.

I ordered from reef cleaners UPS overnight for Tuesday delivery! I ordered the following:

-30 dwarf ceriths
-15 Florida ceriths
-10 limpets
-10 zig zag periwinkles
-5 nerites
-5 ox tongue nerites
-5 money cowries
-5 dwarf planaxis
-2 zebra turbo snails
-2 male pitho crabs
-1 juvenile rock urchin
-1 giant knobby creeper
-1 tiger conch
-some extra empty cone shells

The things I almost bought but didnt:
-some trochus snails
-a serpent star
-a fuzzy chiton
-a pencil urchin
-more hermit crabs

The trochus were around the same price as my LFS so I passed. The other 4 kinda felt like gambles so I passed.

Will let everyone know how the order goes! Very reasonable price. Had I not gotten the juvenile rock urchin and gone for usps priority mail it would have been right at 100 bucks. Decided to do the safer 1 day shipping so it was a bit more, but you absolutely CANNOT beat the price

 

[tbrown]

My clowns are attempting to get my toadstool to host them. It hates it lol. Luckily they don't seem to mind sharing the toadstool with the clown goby.

I decided to beef up my clean up crew as I have a very light snail stocking for a 120 at a pincushion, 3 or 4 turbos, a half dozen or so hermits, and a handful of astraea/tent/trochus snails.

I ordered from reef cleaners UPS overnight for Tuesday delivery! I ordered the following:

-30 dwarf ceriths
-15 Florida ceriths
-10 limpets
-10 zig zag periwinkles
-5 nerites
-5 ox tongue nerites
-5 money cowries
-5 dwarf planaxis
-2 zebra turbo snails
-2 male pitho crabs
-1 juvenile rock urchin
-1 giant knobby creeper
-1 tiger conch
-some extra empty cone shells

The things I almost bought but didnt:
-some trochus snails
-a serpent star
-a fuzzy chiton
-a pencil urchin
-more hermit crabs

The trochus were around the same price as my LFS so I passed. The other 4 kinda felt like gambles so I passed.

Will let everyone know how the order goes! Very reasonable price. Had I not gotten the juvenile rock urchin and gone for usps priority mail it would have been right at 100 bucks. Decided to do the safer 1 day shipping so it was a bit more, but you absolutely CANNOT beat the price

My Money didn't do well, I've heard really good things about the Ox Tongues, Trochus are a good addition if you can get some at your LFS.

 

[Cthulukelele]

My Money didn't do well, I've heard really good things about the Ox Tongues, Trochus are a good addition if you can get some at your LFS.

I have 2 or 3 trochus snails. I love them. Had a ton back in the day because they would spawn in my tank pre crash. Never had to buy snails after the first time!

I've heard money cowries do best when they have some hair algae to munch on and the first few months are really critical, but when they do well they can be incredibly long lived and thrive in home aquaria, so I took a chance. Also I've always loved cowries.

 

[tbrown]

I have 2 or 3 trochus snails. I love them. Had a ton back in the day because they would spawn in my tank pre crash. Never had to buy snails after the first time!

I've heard money cowries do best when they have some hair algae to munch on and the first few months are really critical, but when they do well they can be incredibly long lived and thrive in home aquaria, so I took a chance. Also I've always loved cowries.

Mine was cool! I'm pretty sure my Wrasse kept bumping him and he eventually just stopped eating.

 

[Cthulukelele]

Mine was cool! I'm pretty sure my Wrasse kept bumping him and he eventually just stopped eating.

I really hope they do well. Tbh my desire for a cowrie is what pushed me over the edge to go for the order haha. I don't have any snail bullies really. My halloween hermit will eat a snail if it accidentally falls, but other than that no meanies. Though sometimes my lawnmower blenny does seem to just thrash a nassarius snail trying to clean its shell lol

 

[ralquist]

Beautiful setup, very cool and a lot going on in there! Following along and glad you didn't get burned down...what a mess

 

[Cthulukelele]

Beautiful setup, very cool and a lot going on in there! Following along and glad you didn't get burned down...what a mess

Wow I had to do a double take. I commented nearly the exact same thing on your build at the exact same time! What a coincidence! I enjoy how different our reefs are. It really highlights the wide range of looks and different types of beautiful you can achieve in tanks depending on stocking choices, lighting, nutrient levels, and flow!

 

[ralquist]

Wow I had to do a double take. I commented nearly the exact same thing on your build at the exact same time! What a coincidence! I enjoy how different our reefs are. It really highlights the wide range of looks and different types of beautiful you can achieve in tanks depending on stocking choices, lighting, nutrient levels, and flow!

Wild! haha It's very cool to see the differences! Looking forward to following along and picking up some tricks from a seasoned vet such as yourself!

 

[Cthulukelele]

My toadstool is finally opening back up even with some major jostling from the clowns that want the toadstool to host them. Also theyve accepted the clown goby into their thruple for now.

The coral show corals have settled in and taken OFFFF. The gorg and leathers are growing gangbusters.

I'm intentionally not scraping the glass for a few weeks so the new inverts from Reef Cleaners have a feast to acclimate on, so sorry for bad photo quality.

 

[Cthulukelele]

Exciting news in Andrew's 120land (Andrew is my name and it feels weird to refer to myself by anything other than my name). I splurged on a discounted magtool 4200gph gyre! Replaced my 2 small hygger wavemakers on the right side. Attached is a photo of it. It moves water like a beast have it on random at 60% max with my icecap 3k gyre constantly doing a tide up to 100%, then holding, then going back down. Ignore the massive algae sheet on the walls my Reef Cleaners order comes in tomorrow and I'm still trying to be maximally successful with it so no really scraping. That order should arrive before 10:30 AM tomorrow! Going to unload it then go to work. Will document that tomorrow!

 

[Cthulukelele]

Overall I'd say great experience with @reefcleaners ! 2 DOAs (1 juvenile urchin 1 pithos crab), but everything else was much more lively than what I usually get from my LFS. John immediately refunded the 2 DOAs.

My notes:

overbuy on dwarf ceriths! If I had a time machine I would have gotten 30 more dwarf ceriths. They're TINY (which is good clean all the little nooks and crannies)

If they have limpets, nerites, zebra turbos, tiger conches, or ox tongue nerites buy them! They're LIVELY compared with the ones I've gotten from my LFS immediately moving around. In particular I'm happy with the limpets. I was NOT looking forward to getting them off the packaging and into the tank, but all 10 were happily clung to a clam shell and dispersed into my rockwork the moment I laid the shell down.

Higher order organisms like crabs and urchins are hit and miss with shipping. This is to be expected, but it's something to consider when you put your order in. Consider adding 1 or 2 extra of these to account for this.

Pithos crabs devour hair/turf algae. The 1 that made it immediately started gorging on some turf algae. I'd definitely say they're a good choice if you have a problem with that sort of algae. Considering buying a few more!

 

[tbrown]

I'm preparing to place my second order. Haven't told my wife yet.