Finally back!

[nmotz]

After several years out of the hobby, including an ill-fated attempt to start a nano tank, I’m finally back in business with a juvenile Peacock mantis that I found at my LFS. His name is Orion and he’s 3.5 inches long.

Here’s the setup details, pics as soon as I have time:
-20 gallon long tank VERY minimally aquascaped
-about 1/2 inch mixture of reef sand & Aragonite
-IM wavelink pump, ~1000GPH on surge mode
-undersized Aqueon heater always on at 78F
-1.5” diameter PVC burrow to be upgraded to 2” PVC shortly
-cheap LED lamp
-Auto aqua smart ATO lite
-Fluval 207 canister filter running carbon and about 20 marinepure biospheres
-Red gracillaria macro (Fern caulerpa will also be added)
-Livestock: just the mantis!
-Salinity 1.025
-Nitrates: less than 5ppm

This will be a simple tank and will more closely resemble a refugium as it matures. I plan on adding a couple photosynthetic Gorgonians and maybe a Pulsing Xenia. But the concept is about openness and good water quality while minimizing maintenance requirements. I intend to add an in-line UV sterilizer specially made for the Fluval series canister filter.

Right now I feed live (and sometimes frozen) Coquina clams which I personally collect on the beach. Also live brine shrimp and a live crab about 1x/week. I have an order of snails and hermits on the way to mow down the inevitable “new tank diatoms” but they will likely be consumed as well.

So far activity is decent for a new Peacock. He molted the night before I picked him up from the LFS so I was pretty worried he wouldn’t make it. I dosed Seachem Prime daily for the first couple weeks just to be sure. I also struggled to get the Gracillaria established so I had a high nitrate (up to 40ppm) problem initially.

I’ll add a few more posts as I have time, thanks for reading!

 

[vetteguy53081]

 

[DapperCuttlefish]

Welcome back to water!

 

[Zach B]

Welcome back

 

[G Santana]

Welcome back

 

[nmotz]

Some pictures from tonight a bit heavy on the blues. My solitary AI Prime does a 1:30h ramp up/down and I have it set to 14500K at 35% strength. It’s not exactly the Kelvin temperature or it’s natural habitat, but not terribly off.

The burrow was not always so concealed but Orion built around the entrances a great deal. Piling sand and rock all over so you can’t even make out the other entrance.

I’ve had some difficulties with cloudy water and I think it’s a bacterial bloom. Eventually I’ll hook up an in-line UV sterilizer and take care of it. But I’m running filter floss in the canister filter too.

A word on the canister filter decision - I understand not everyone would do that, but I’m trying to show a different way to run a Peacock tank. I cleaned it the other day - coffee brown water after I rung out those sponges!

Gracillaria still pulling out nitrates, currently sitting around 2-3ppm.

 

[nmotz]

A word on LED lighting for a peacock tank…..while it is true you can run LED lights I would certainly not recommend it. As soon as funds become available I’m going to try to find a small cheap fluorescent lamp to put over this aquarium because he just doesnt enjoy the uber intense light. Orion was a bit more active before I set up my AI Prime and now he mostly sits in his burrow. I think he will adjust eventually like my old mantis shrimp Neptune did, but it does take a while and it’s clear they’re just not into full spectrum lighting. It isn’t the worst decision to make for a peacock tank, I just believe that to get the very best experience you have to go with fairly dull lights.

Removing strong lighting, however, will introduce some challenges because I want to grow macroalgae to absorb nitrates in this tank. Without strong lights, I can’t do that so it’ll be a challenge to find a light that can continue to grow some Graclliaria without bothering Orion.

And growing macro has been extremely successful for me so far. Before I added the gracillaria I had an outbreak of diatoms, but that was completely eliminated and the gracillaria is now growing well, nitrates at around zero ppm even though i’m using a canister filter. An order of dwarf ceriths didn’t hurt with the diatoms either.

 

[nmotz]

Updates! Felt his burrow was too small to allow for a proper molt. They have to be able to jackknife and turn inside the pipe when they molt. I also added some macroalgae and a photosynthetic gorgonian. I coated the pipe with epoxy and gravel and also superglued some pieces of shell and rock around both entrances.

The little guy is developing a light case of shell rot but he’s getting closer to a molt within the next month and should be ok. I’m going to dim the lights a bit and increase feedings to 2x/day.

 

[polyp_craze]

Welcome back!

 

[nmotz]

Molt time! Orion refused food and has barricaded himself in the burrow.

 

[PeterC99]

Welcome back!

 

[Karen00]

Welcome back to the salty side! Great to have you! Are you going to post pics of Orion? I look forward to reading more about your tank!

 

[nmotz]

Welcome back to the salty side! Great to have you! Are you going to post pics of Orion? I look forward to reading more about your tank!

Yeah I’m really bad about getting pictures of him. He’s a little guy, and has been a bit more shy than my other Peacocks. I think that’ll change once he molts a few times.

I also regret not filming some of the emerald crab feedings. The last one was a bit larger than usual and Orion had a pretty epic fight with him all over one side of the tank. Normally when I take video he settles the matter in just a few whacks, but this was a full-fledged rumble.

I mostly feed coquina clams and freeze dried krill soaked in Selcon. I also offer the occasional brine shrimp swarm and small virgin nerite snails.

The tank is a 20L and I do have some corals now so it is a mantis-reef tank. I use a low dose of kalkwasser in my ATO to help my stony corals gets established, and I have one purple candelabra (gorgonian) which I feed reef roids. I run a solitary AI Prime LED at 30% power but I’m slowly ramping up. I have a small green encrusting montipora sp., a blue montipora digitata, and a green Porites from World Wide Corals. I also have a really nice Golden Leptoseris from Tidal Gardens.

Otherwise, it’s a planted tank with very high flow. I have gracillaria which I gathered from the ocean, a slowly opening mangrove propagule (also from the ocean), Dragons Breath, and some botryocladia or red grape algae.

I just got a new pump - the Magtool ZKSJ. It’s tiny and noiseless, but pushes 2100GPH. I actually think it’s probably less than that but it does move a surprising amount of water. I have 8 different wave modes programmed which run 3 hrs each. My canister filter is set at ~200GPH so I have about 100x turnover per hour.

Parameters
Salinity 1.025
Temp 78F
Alk 9
Ca 450
Mg 1420
Nitrate 5-10ppm (I do a water change if it hits 10)

 

[atomos]

 

[Karen00]

Yeah I’m really bad about getting pictures of him. He’s a little guy, and has been a bit more shy than my other Peacocks. I think that’ll change once he molts a few times.

I also regret not filming some of the emerald crab feedings. The last one was a bit larger than usual and Orion had a pretty epic fight with him all over one side of the tank. Normally when I take video he settles the matter in just a few whacks, but this was a full-fledged rumble.

I mostly feed coquina clams and freeze dried krill soaked in Selcon. I also offer the occasional brine shrimp swarm and small virgin nerite snails.

The tank is a 20L and I do have some corals now so it is a mantis-reef tank. I use a low dose of kalkwasser in my ATO to help my stony corals gets established, and I have one purple candelabra (gorgonian) which I feed reef roids. I run a solitary AI Prime LED at 30% power but I’m slowly ramping up. I have a small green encrusting montipora sp., a blue montipora digitata, and a green Porites from World Wide Corals. I also have a really nice Golden Leptoseris from Tidal Gardens.

Otherwise, it’s a planted tank with very high flow. I have gracillaria which I gathered from the ocean, a slowly opening mangrove propagule (also from the ocean), Dragons Breath, and some botryocladia or red grape algae.

I just got a new pump - the Magtool ZKSJ. It’s tiny and noiseless, but pushes 2100GPH. I actually think it’s probably less than that but it does move a surprising amount of water. I have 8 different wave modes programmed which run 3 hrs each. My canister filter is set at ~200GPH so I have about 100x turnover per hour.

Parameters
Salinity 1.025
Temp 78F
Alk 9
Ca 450
Mg 1420
Nitrate 5-10ppm (I do a water change if it hits 10)

Wow, very nice! I definitely want to see pics (and video) when you have time. Some creatures need video to show them in all of their glory! Having said that I'm bad at getting pics /video as well. Actually I haven't even done my build thread yet and my tank (4 months old) is my first saltwater tank! (As I lower my head in shame admitting that). LOL

I'm always quite amazed to see some of the battles that go on between creatures. I just saw a YT video of two pom pom crabs duking it out. I'm mean these guys are tiny but the battle was epic! It made me gasp a few times! Haha.

I will be sure to follow your build thread when you get it going (no pressure).

 

[nmotz]

Molt complete! But he did lose a smasher so that’s a bummer. Just hoping his shell rot is gone. I’ll have to wait until he comes out in another day or two.

 

[nmotz]

UPDATE: I haven’t had time for pics or video but wanted to pass along lessons learned so far.

Having a 20 gallon tank is really not that hard but it is true that changes happen a bit faster than I’d like. I use kalkwasser and that has gone pretty well but the change in alk/ca took a while to stabilize. Others might not agree but I think corals in the aquarium learn and adjust their growth rate based on the expectation of available minerals. Because I’ve feared the ph change in case of a kalk overdose I only use a 1/4 tsp per gallon kalkwasser concentration. So the corals grow slowly and that’s fine bc everything has at least stabilized. Alk about 10, Ca 450

As for the canister filter, I love the room for marinepure spheres and a bag of carbon. It’s a pain to clean it once per month but maintenance is a pain anyway. Whatever nitrates it leaches out are soaked up by the macro now and the relationship is stable unlike in the first couple months.

My tank did go through a period of unsightliness as algae took over the sand bed and rocks. I bought a medium tiger conch hoping its tough shell would hold up to a mantis - nope! But I doubled water changes for about a month and vacuumed a lot and now the tank is not producing as much nuisance algae. No snails survive aside from dwarf ceriths which makes things harder. But the sand bed is spotless now and i’m going to scrub the rocks before cmas.

My macroalgae got coated in nuisance algae too and wasn’t doing much for a while, but things began to rebound since I added a mangrove which sprouted and helped absorb excess nutrients. The red gracillaria has spread in a few places across the tank, but my red botryocladia has not done all that well so far. Not sure why.

As for Orion, his bout with shell rot was thankfully short-lived. I fed daily with freeze dried krill soaked in Selcon to force a molt and now his shell is clean. Nitrates we’re the likely culprit originally as I struggled to keep them under 10ppm for a short time. But new tanks are like that. It’s been 4 months now and the break-in period is over and it should be smooth sailing for a while. Old tank syndrome doesn’t begin to set in until closer to the 2 yr mark, sometimes later.

Orion has a less open personality than my last Peacock so far but he is very aggressive and tries to kill anything I put in the tank. He loves small clams, live or frozen. I feed him a crab about twice per month and freeze dried krill soaked in Selcon about once per week. He did rip out my blue montipora digitata and even beat it up for some reason. It wasn’t doing well anyway.
My golden leptoseris, green encrusting montipora and green Porites look good despite slow growth. The gorgonian is fine too.

All things considered, been a good tank so far.

 

[motocross]

I guess I got lucky because my peacock tossed a helmet crab out of his den the other day. Doesn't bother the fish or corals either. He also only eats every two to three days. When I try to give him food every day he tosses it back to me in less than a minute. Go figure.

 

[nmotz]

Mine usually will eat daily if the portions are small. He’s also missing a smasher so they eat more often to force a molt whenever that happens. This is the first time i’ve ever had a mantis bother my corals. Oh well!

 

[nmotz]

New video coming soon. Tank is doing great. Nuisance algae gone. Macroalgae thriving. Nitrates zero. Coral growing........verrrrrrry slowly.

Orion has killed every living mollusk or crustacean in the tank except the dwarf ceriths. Even these he harasses constantly, taking them into the burrow for a few whacks before throwing them out again, haha. He loves coquina clams, the small bivalves native along the beaches here in Florida.