25 Gallon Caribbean Reef

[dennis romano]

I am aware of how voracious they can be. We have caught them on rod and reel while fishing patch reefs in Florida. Little guys were 3 inches long and manged to get through a live pogy to a circle hook.

That said, they have amazing personalities.

I found this video of these fish showing spawing behavior



This is exactly what mine is doing minus the color change. My little guy doing push-ups in from of me is pretty interesting. I doubt he wants to spawn with me or my phone, so more than lively an aggressive behavior similar to the breeding dance...

Cool! I was afraid of putting two to a tank. The video may make me change my mind. Mine is with grammas, a yellow assessor, different cardinals and blue stripe pipefish.

 

[ccole]

That’s such a cool tank! The ricordia are so pretty!

 

[michael_cb_125]

Hello everyone.
The little tank is chugging along nicely.
The ricordea are starting to really expand and are getting the nice folded appearance.

So far the snails are keeping up with any algae that is growing, and I have yet to see any.

I had diatoms show up a few days ago, just a very light dusting.

It disappeared in 2 days, not really sure what caused that.

I have had a massive copepod outbreak since bringing in the ricordea. I am talking Crystal clear water that looks cloudy from across the room at times from copepods...
Not sure of the species, but they are barely visible and white. They chill on the glass but also swim in the water column.
I guess the gorgs that I add will be happy if the copepods hang around a little longer. I figure the population will stabilize soon...

Also, I have a few shipments coming later this week.

I am still trying to find all the gorgs that I want from one supplier, so it may take a few weeks.
But in the meantime I have some more ricordea, rock flowers, macros and some random inverts arriving.
I am particularly excited about being able to find polka dot or white clawed hermits!!!!
Also have the final fish for the tank coming.....
It is caribbean, and should get along with the basslet.

~Michael

 

[Green_Lantern]

I really like your scape!

 

[michael_cb_125]

Thanks everyone!

The emerald crab and blue leg hermits that I added are making my ricordea ill at times.
I am going to try to remedy this by raising the ricordea rock up off the sand by between a half and three quarters of an inch.
I am going to use clear acrylic rod to accomplish this, and it should be straightforward since I cut the bottom of the rock perfectly flat.

I think that this will help keep the hermits off and won't look bad. It will also provide good dark area for sponge growth...

~Michael

 

[michael_cb_125]

I finished adding the livestock to the tank about two hours ago.
Everything looked great. The rock flowers were super sticky, the ricordea are very nice and the Cherub angel was eating as soon as she was released from the bag. I fed the tank to preoccupy the basslet while the angel was released.
At first no issues, then the basslet decided to be a d***. I divided the tank with a cutting board to let the angel settle in.

I am back at work now. My wife called to tell me that the basslet found his way to the angel. She said they were not fighting, so I'll keep my fingers crossed till I get home.

I will try to get some photos this evening.


~Michael

 

[michael_cb_125]

 

[michael_cb_125]

 

[Chrisv.]

Love that blue Ric in the last photo!

 

[michael_cb_125]

 

[michael_cb_125]

The little cherub angel is settling in nicely.
She is cruising the tank picking pods off the glass. She did eat several pieces of mysis as soon as she hit the water. The bass is not happy, but he will calm down. As of now he will not let the angel near the center of the tank, but is not attacking.

 

[emilybell1]

Hello everyone.
The little tank is chugging along nicely.
The ricordea are starting to really expand and are getting the nice folded appearance.

So far the snails are keeping up with any algae that is growing, and I have yet to see any.

I had diatoms show up a few days ago, just a very light dusting.

It disappeared in 2 days, not really sure what caused that.

I have had a massive copepod outbreak since bringing in the ricordea. I am talking Crystal clear water that looks cloudy from across the room at times from copepods...
Not sure of the species, but they are barely visible and white. They chill on the glass but also swim in the water column.
I guess the gorgs that I add will be happy if the copepods hang around a little longer. I figure the population will stabilize soon...

Also, I have a few shipments coming later this week.

I am still trying to find all the gorgs that I want from one supplier, so it may take a few weeks.
But in the meantime I have some more ricordea, rock flowers, macros and some random inverts arriving.
I am particularly excited about being able to find polka dot or white clawed hermits!!!!
Also have the final fish for the tank coming.....
It is caribbean, and should get along with the basslet.

~Michael

Have you checked out kp aquatics? They are close by to me and so I’ve gotten several species of gorgonians from them. All have been super healthy and they a great selection as well as being super friendly and helpful.

 

[michael_cb_125]

Emilybell1- yes I have ordered from them before. They are one of the places that I order from, and I too have had good results.

I am extremely happy with the ricordea supplier that I am using. Great colors and almost every mushroom has multiple mouths..

I will get some good photos after work today. I did not want to clean the glass and stress put the angel last night.

 

[michael_cb_125]

This morning all the ricordea looked good. They were in their typical nighttime pumpkin shape as it was 6 o'clock with no lighting.
But it did give me a chance to see the footing and substrate that they came attached to. Very nice coraline crusted rubble, with no visible signs of pests. The first batch that i ordered quite a few of the shrooms were attached to the frag disks. I used a razor blade to scrape them off the disk before gluing to be rock. All of these have completely healed and are starting to attach to the rockwork, this make me feel good about their overall health.

I am starting to get pretty rapid growth of micro tube worms, the back wall is starting to look pretty speckled. This is a good sign in a several week old tank, hopefully the coraline will start on the back wall within the next month or so.

On to a different subject, additives:

For this system I will be using the following products, some I have used for years, others are new to me.

Prodibio (Biodigest/Bioptim) - I have used these products since 2008 and I am a huge fan. For my tank I will add one ampoule of each, once every two weeks.
ATI Essentials Pro - This is a new product to me. I have always use ESV two part. But I like the fact that the ATI has other elements added.
AcroPower - I have used this product since its release. I know it says acro power, but you should see what it does for acans and zoanthids. So I figure the ricordea may like it.
SeaChem Fuel - Another product that I have used for quite some time. A little goes a long way.

I also plan to start a phyto culture and will be adding that to the system as well.


For foods, I feed the following:
Hikari Mysis
Nyos LPS Power
Nyos Instant Plankton


Today I have my snails and White Claw Hermits arriving, should be able to get a few decent photos later today.

~Michael

 

[Green_Lantern]

Beautiful! What camera you shooting with?

 

[michael_cb_125]

I am using a Samsung phone. I forget the model, something ultra... it has the 100x space zoom.

I am not a techy person, so phones, computers, etc are not my strong suit.

That said I figured out pro mode kinda, and I can represent what I truly see with my own eye. That impresses me....

 

[michael_cb_125]

I just added all the inverts from reefcleaners about an hour ago.
Everything came alive except two of the white claw hermits. Not too bad for usps shipping.

All animals added to the tank have started moving about and are active. Overall a good order..

I raised the ricordea rock up about 1.5 inches with pvc coated in sand and rubble. I will keep it this way until the ricordea are fully attached vs just being glued. Hopefully this will help with the hermits and snail bumping them off until they are fully settled.

I hate the look, but will deal with it until the ricordea are stuck..

I will get some hopefully better photos this evening.

~Michael

 

[Green_Lantern]

Nice! John is great at reefcleaners. It took about a week for my hermits to settle in but they are really fun to watch.

 

[michael_cb_125]

 

[michael_cb_125]

This evening almost everything looks great.

The ricordea are doing amazing. The fish and general inverts doing great.



I am a little annoyed with the rock flowers.

Upon arrival they looked good, except three had tears in the foot. I have had these recover from this in the past, and they looked healthy otherwise.

Well two have died and one is still unhappy.

The others look fine, but it is still frustrating.



Here are a few photos, including some 10k or less shots. The plan is for this tank to lean white in spectrum once the ricordea are settled in more.