Free Reef - World Citizen

[World Citizen]

@shcrimps It needs a lot of cleaning glass, but it's worth it. I love all the angles I can look into it. It also has it's challenges but we deal with them.

I suppose all our current aquarium projects are trails for the next one, so yeah, I dream of the size you have seen in the shop. I'll test this concept for 5 years and maybe... the next one... is bigger.

I love all the funny, weird, different and often hard to keep life. I hope to do this with the overpowered filtersysteem and low fish stock. Keeping those delicate life is a risky so I tried to invest smart.

The cat(s) are Bies and Look. Translated in English that would be Chi and Ves. :)

 

[World Citizen]

Some pics!
I took a magnifying glass and tried to make something of it. A DIY not so good macrolens. :)

 

[World Citizen]

 

[World Citizen]

I have a snail which is pretty big. 5cm high and a foot diameter of 4cm.
On it's shell is growing a lot of life. A made a shot of 3 (supposed) anemones (anemonies? not native English here :) ).

It's fun to see that a snail shell is hosting a whole spieces of life. And there is more. The whole shell is also covered in some sort of sponge. They look like tubes, pics of those will folow.

For now,
Magnified High Zoom picture of a snail shell with anemones.

 

[NickHolmes]

Great pics, are you using extension tubes attached to a macro?

 

[World Citizen]

Great pics, are you using extension tubes attached to a macro?

I wish :)

This a Canon 250D with 18x55 kitlens.
I zoomed in on the camera and then held a plain old magnifying glass in front of it.
Works only if things are really close to the glass.

 

[NickHolmes]

I wish :)

This a Canon 250D with 18x55 kitlens.
I zoomed in on the camera and then held a plain old magnifying glass in front of it.
Works only if things are really close to the glass.

Thats even more impressive

 

[World Citizen]

Check it out! This is bizare, looks like a item from the film Alien :).
Look at the way the stem grows and forms particles. I am completely whacked by these images.

Same camera, same magnifying glass.

Acalycigorgia

 

[World Citizen]

I am trying to get a picture and video from the stomach of a starfish.

Some of them eat with their stomach. They push it out into a shell and eat the animal inside.

I can't seem to get this on tape, but today I was lucky and saw the edge.

In this picture you see the edge of the stomach that is protruding out. He is eating a clamp.

 

[World Citizen]

5 months is, and it starting te clear up nice. I am happy with the way it is going.

 

[World Citizen]

Alive food:

I have been feeding clamps to my starfish. This is working out great. The starfish needs clamps and all other life is crazy about it to. Fish, urchins, snails.... they all dive in to it. Even corals seem to pick up small parts and don't spit it out.

I used to be pretty clinical with my feeding and tank, but after being forced to feed clamps for the starfish, and seeing al the other life benefit... I am willing to test out some other stuff.

Clamps are dirty:

I was feeding the normal European clamp. Black shell, white or orange flesh. The problem with these claps is there transport and how they survive. They start to eat their own flesh and will keep the wast inside the shell. They are polluted in a sense. I could drive up and down to the coast since it is not so far, but I rather deal with it by diversification.
Besides that, it has been claimed they have a substance int them that could be harmful to fish when feeding them a lot of it.

WC is going to eat nice tonight:

So I went to the best shop in town with the most fresh assortiment, and bought myself and the fish some Oysters, Cockle, Razo Shell and a not to polluting fish Red bass.

Sure, it won't all find the tank, and I am going to have great supper this evening... but we are going to test with other types of food.

Chelmon Rostratus:
I noticed my 2 Chelmons are crazy about clamp. They tear it apart and eat as much as they can. That is great except I am not happy with that particular clamp.

So I tried one of the Razor clamps and BAM.... they are going nuts. The clamp is fresh from the store, alive and goes directly in the tank. I don't tear it or anything.

 

[World Citizen]

It is going. Things have changed and I am dealing with to much food.
I am getting grips on it, but it's not all great for corals who like a low nutrient aquarium.

For no some pics.

 

[World Citizen]

It is going slowly still. I think I have gone to low on biological filtering. There is not enough rock. I also don't have sand on the bottom and my sump was pretty much empty of live rock.

I started to see the consequences. It was limping along and couldn't truly handle all the bioload.

So I added a bunch of rock in the sump. About 5 or 6 weeks ago. I notice it a lot. Finally I am getting to the point I can call it "balanced". In the sense that it can handle the bioload.

For now I am waiting for Winter. I'll hope to finish the stocking around this time.

 

[World Citizen]

I got my DSLR back. I already got a new 35mm fixed lens, so whohooo..

 

[World Citizen]

 

[World Citizen]

A few more!

 

[World Citizen]

 

[World Citizen]

Oke, since I stood in front of it and had the chance to buy it, I took the risk.

I have 5 test pieces of SPS. Not the hardest, but 5 different kinds. They all did well, so I was planning to buy my first real SPS piece within a month or 3.

Now.... lets hope this all goes wel. At least I hope it stays alive. Losing colours can be sorted.

 

[World Citizen]

I am going to say goodbye to my old an trusty Nikon D5100.

So here are some last shots.

And a shot from my new Urchin.

 

[World Citizen]

Small update:

Testing some light hoods. The light in the room was bothering me a bit. I don't know what Ill use eventually, but this seems about right.

And I got a new camera, so the first shots are fired. I am learning still, so not the best.

Starting to look like a workingspace instead of my livingroom....