Chesapeake Bay Oyster Reef Biotope Tank

Chasmodes · Dec 8, 2022

Thanks Dawn!

Sorry that I haven't posted in a while. In addition to being swamped at work, I've been busy working on a couple projects related to our hobby.

Anyway, I have a very good update showing a much more mature tank. I've also added a fish species and filmed two critters that weren't in the recent videos of this tank. I hope you all like the video:

Paul B · Dec 9, 2022

Chasmodes said:
Sorry that I haven't posted in a while. In addition to being swamped at work,

Good Morning Chas. I used to get "Swamped" at work too. Maybe because I worked in a swamp collecting tuxedo urchins.

vlangel · Dec 9, 2022

Chasmodes said:
Thanks Dawn!

Sorry that I haven't posted in a while. In addition to being swamped at work, I've been busy working on a couple projects related to our hobby.

Anyway, I have a very good update showing a much more mature tank. I've also added a fish species and filmed two critters that weren't in the recent videos of this tank. I hope you all like the video:

GREAT VIDEO, Kevin. Wow, so much life in your tank. Thank you for showing the sump with the refugium. I enjoyed that too and to see how the grass shrimp are reproducing is very cool. No doubt shrimp larvae are feeding those hungry mouths in the display too. Finally I love that your creatures, including some of the fish are spawning. That is super cool. Again thanks for the great video!

Chasmodes · Dec 9, 2022

Thank you Dawn!

Chasmodes · Dec 9, 2022

Paul B said:
Good Morning Chas. I used to get "Swamped" at work too. Maybe because I worked in a swamp collecting tuxedo urchins.

That’s a dream workplace! I could ditch the tux, but it looks great on you!

Paul B · Dec 10, 2022

You have to dress like that to collect tuxedo urchins otherwise they get scared and run away.

Chasmodes · Jan 20, 2023

Here's my latest video, Feeding Time at the Chesapeake Bay Oyster Reef Biotope Aquarium. I hope that you all enjoy it!

vlangel · Jan 21, 2023

Chasmodes said:
Here's my latest video, Feeding Time at the Chesapeake Bay Oyster Reef Biotope Aquarium. I hope that you all enjoy it!

So many fish Kevin and so much action at feeding time which equals so much FUN for you and your family to watch! Great video!

Chasmodes · Jan 24, 2023

Thank you Dawn! I watched them last night for almost two hours (including another feeding time)

vlangel · Jan 24, 2023

Chasmodes said:
Thank you Dawn! I watched them last night for almost two hours (including another feeding time)

Good for you Kevin. Getting to enjoy watching your fish and tank is living the dream that we all aspire to!

Chasmodes · Feb 22, 2023

The tank is evolving, macros are taking over the tank! It's like The Blob horror movie!

I hope you enjoy the update:

vlangel · Feb 22, 2023

I love how the oyster reef is evolving! Since I have a soft spot for macroalgae, I love it's more dominant presence in the tank. I do not know what the green filamentous algae is either. In some ways it reminds me of cheato except much finer. Anyway, it looks nice with the gracilaria, that contrast of red and green.

The striped blennies are my favorite fish. I love how they look but all the activity of the other fish is fun to watch.

Kevin, you do a good job of pointing the camera at aspects and inhabitants and then narrating some of what is going on. That brings the viewer into the aquatic world and creates an interest in the goings on.

Anyway, thank you for the video!

Chasmodes · Feb 22, 2023

Thank you Dawn, much appreciated compliment for sure. The blennies are my favorite as well. They seem to have a grip of what's going on while the others just want food!

Chasmodes · Mar 13, 2023

Well, I went on Vacation to Florida recently, and left the tank for my buddy to care for (top of water and feed once every three days). I increased the photoperiod to 10 hours a day to accommodate his schedule. The result was crazy macroalgae and nuisance algae growth, turning my tank in to an macroalgal jungle, literally, with little room for the fish. All of the fish were healthy and the tank was fine, but with that much light, despite the increased level of macro algae, also had quite a bit of algae growth on the display tank glass. Here's a video about that, before and after the clean up. I also added some cool decor to the tank to make even more Chesapeake Bay authentic!

vlangel · Mar 13, 2023

Such a cool video Kevin. It would never occur to me to show a before and after but that was really interesting. So much macroalgae growth! How long was that vacation? And did you have an automatic feeder set up to supplement what your buddy fed every 3 days?

Dave and I are doing a 23 day motorcycle road trip this summer through Canada to Skagway, Alaska. My sister is willing to help me out with the fish. I was thinking of her giving them frozen food once every 3 or 4 days to supplement the flake food they will get daily from an auto feeder. She will need to check top off water and the overflow teeth to make sure they are free of algae or debris.

Maybe I should do a before and after video also?

Paul B · Mar 13, 2023

I love it.

Chasmodes · Mar 13, 2023

vlangel said:
Such a cool video Kevin. It would never occur to me to show a before and after but that was really interesting. So much macroalgae growth! How long was that vacation? And did you have an automatic feeder set up to supplement what your buddy fed every 3 days?

Dave and I are doing a 23 day motorcycle road trip this summer through Canada to Skagway, Alaska. My sister is willing to help me out with the fish. I was thinking of her giving them frozen food once every 3 or 4 days to supplement the flake food they will get daily from an auto feeder. She will need to check top off water and the overflow teeth to make sure they are free of algae or debris.

Maybe I should do a before and after video also?

That's exactly what I did Dawn. I had him top off the tank every 2-3 days, and feed the fish frozen food on his visits. I only asked him to feed the river tank, but if he wanted to feed all of the tanks, it was OK. He chose to do that. I figured it would be more fun, so I'm glad he did that. I had an automatic feeder dump in one daily dose of flakes/vibrabites into all three tanks (oyster reef tank, river tank, and my little blenny tank).

In my tank, the algae should have been pruned, but I didn't think it would grow that much. I was gone 10 days. I went from having to harvest about 1/10 of a bucket to over 1/3 of a 5 gallon bucket!

It would be interesting to see how much your tank changes over time. My "before" was after I got back, and meant before harvesting and cleaning. Maybe you could to three segments, before the trip, when you return, and after cleaning. For my tank, the previous video would have been my "before" the trip. I should have incorporated that into the video too...great idea. Next time I go on vacation, I might do that.

Which gives me another cool idea. What about a progression video, kind of like we do with pics on our build sites, from start to finish maybe? It would be a bigger project, but, it might be pretty cool to show the YT world how our tanks evolved over time.

Chasmodes · Mar 13, 2023

Paul B said:
I love it.

Thank you Paul! Do you need another skilletfish

vlangel · Mar 14, 2023

Chasmodes said:
That's exactly what I did Dawn. I had him top off the tank every 2-3 days, and feed the fish frozen food on his visits. I only asked him to feed the river tank, but if he wanted to feed all of the tanks, it was OK. He chose to do that. I figured it would be more fun, so I'm glad he did that. I had an automatic feeder dump in one daily dose of flakes/vibrabites into all three tanks (oyster reef tank, river tank, and my little blenny tank).

In my tank, the algae should have been pruned, but I didn't think it would grow that much. I was gone 10 days. I went from having to harvest about 1/10 of a bucket to over 1/3 of a 5 gallon bucket!

It would be interesting to see how much your tank changes over time. My "before" was after I got back, and meant before harvesting and cleaning. Maybe you could to three segments, before the trip, when you return, and after cleaning. For my tank, the previous video would have been my "before" the trip. I should have incorporated that into the video too...great idea. Next time I go on vacation, I might do that.

Which gives me another cool idea. What about a progression video, kind of like we do with pics on our build sites, from start to finish maybe? It would be a bigger project, but, it might be pretty cool to show the YT world how our tanks evolved over time.

Ha ha, a progression video would be cool. Your videography skills are better than mine. Can you take multiple videos and meld it into one progression video? I like how you add text in your videos also, I don't have a clue how you do that!