180 Gallon Florida Coral Reef Aquarium Build at the Ocean Discovery Visitors Center

[Brandon McHenry]

You have some very good connections! The research You folks are doing now will be needed in the future.

Yes that’s one of the perks of being a student/researcher at Harbor Branch lol. And yes all of the research being conducted here is incredibly important across many fields and I’m just trying to bring light to a small portion of it.

Outstanding work Brandon!

Thank you so much!

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Sorry for the delayed update, things have been hectic! So the refugium is doing well, the caluerpa is getting settled in and putting up new blades.

I’m also excited to say that I’ve stocked the tank today with a batch of live food. I’m hoping to get them established before the fish go in. I got 4 varieties of copepods from Algagen which just so happens to be about 10 minutes away from us here at Harbor Branch so I got to go pick them up myself fresh from the tap! I can’t wait to see them take off! Enjoy!

 

[siggy]

Nice...Gota feed the food Brandon will you have to continualy feed the pods or will waist fish food do the job? also what is the time frame or schedule for adding live stock? CUC, corals and fish?

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Nice...Gota feed the food Brandon will you have to continualy feed the pods or will waist fish food do the job? also what is the time frame or schedule for adding live stock? CUC, corals and fish?

Thanks! I am hoping that once we get some livestock into the tank the waste will be enough to suffice. But until then I will be supplementing with the Phycopure. As for a timeline I hope to place an order for a clean up crew at the end of this week for early next week. In terms of fish we will probably stocking in late August or early September. Corals I am planning to add at various times. With my clean up crew order I am thinking of getting a few Florida zoanthids and ricordea as well as gorgonians. The hard corals will come later once the tank is pretty steady and I have lined up the donations. So seeing as it is pretty spread out I should always have updates!

 

[Brandon McHenry]

So I placed an order today for some inverts that should arrive Wednesday. On the list we have:

40 Astrea Snails
40 Cerith Snails
50 Blue Leg Hermits
15 Maroon Hermits
10 Scarlet Reef Hermits
3 Assorted Gorgonians
6 Ricordea (various colors)
6 Caribbean Mushrooms
2 Green Rock Anemones

Looking forward to their arrival!

 

[Lilmatty5dimes]

Wow great build like everyone else that arch is awesome can't wait to see all the local corals especially the ones we can't have that are protected.

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Wow great build like everyone else that arch is awesome can't wait to see all the local corals especially the ones we can't have that are protected.

Thanks! Yes the arch has been a hit and it seems to have become a photo op lol. I am very excited as well to have the opportunity to care for some local coral and to see how the grow in captivity. No hard coral just yet but we do have a few ricordea, other mushrooms, zoanthids and gorgonians arriving in our order today. Stay tuned for pictures!

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Just got our first batch of inverts today! Just wanted to share a couple of quick pictures that I took. I will keep everyone updated on how they progress. Enjoy!

 

[Lilmatty5dimes]

It's coming together very nicely.

 

[Brandon McHenry]

It's coming together very nicely.

Thanks! Glad you like it. I’m looking forward to seeing everything grow.

 

[Craigb350]

Wow, build is insane, will follow this, in my favourite vacation place too!

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Wow, build is insane, will follow this, in my favourite vacation place too!

Thanks! I’m really excited about this build! It’s great to be able to use all of this high-end equipment and keep Florida corals. And you should definitely stop by the Visitors Center next time you’re in town to check us out!

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Just wanted to share a quick FTS I took today.

 

[Lilmatty5dimes]

Wow!!! Looks great.

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Wow!!! Looks great.

Thanks! I’m glad you enjoyed it! I’m very excited about this build!

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Just picked up the new Coral View Lens from Polyp Lab over the weekend and got to break it out for a few minutes today. I have to say I am very impressed with both the macro lens as well as the color filters. This product definitely lets you take better quality pictures straight from your phone.

The unboxing

No filter

15000k filter with macro lens

Will be posting more pictures as I take them. Enjoy!

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Two quick gorgonian shots with the Polyp Lab Macro lens and 15000k filter.

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Got some cool new additions from a colleague of ours. Check them out!

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Here are some more shots of the tank and new coral.

Occulina diffusa is a really neat hard coral that is local in our area. It has the ability to survive off of capturing particles in water column as well as through photosynthesis, so it can be found on both deep-water and shallow-water reefs.

We also got three branches of Acropora cervicornis, or Florida Staghorn coral. This is a protected species of coral that is suffering from bleaching and disease and has declined dramatically throughout Florida. It’s very exciting to be able to care for such an amazing species. Thanks to our collaborators at the Smithsonian Marine Station for providing us these incredible corals and for doing what they do for coral conservation.

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Check out this video of our Long Tentacle Sea Whip waving in the current. Make sure to watch in HD!