Greybeard's Wide, Shallow Peninsula

Greybeard · Dec 17, 2023

So... took one bommie, rock and all, covered with nems... probably 15 of them, to the LFS. Traded for a box of purple painted reef rock, dry, in the box. Yeah, he's coming out ahead on this, but in a small town like mine, getting rid of a tank full of nems is a real problem. This is better than dumping them in the creek.

So, one bommie replaced with new rock. I'll give that a month or so, and do 'er again, with the other bommie. Eventually, I'll be nem free, ready to restock with corals. Still haven't decided the best path forward on that... but I'll probably just call WWC and see what they can do for me. Big mixed frag order, they usually send pretty healthy stuff, from what I've seen.

Greybeard · Jan 13, 2024

2nd Bommie done. Took another 18 or so Nems to the LFS. Got another box of dry, purple painted rock. Did a quick structure... I think it'll be fine. Also donated my 'pair' of clowns... a female cinnamon and a male maroon. They've been laying eggs together for years. In fact, the rock I traded with the nems on it also had a patch of clown eggs

. Thought they'd probably do poorly in a nem free tank, after having a tank full of nems to live and play in, so I went ahead and gave them to a friend, along with a couple nems.

No, I don't glue rocks, and I'm not interested in fantastic NSA architecture. Yeah, it's cool, but I prefer something that looks more natural. IMHO, this suits.

What few corals I had left are there. Added a small fighting conch they had at the LFS. Oh, that net box of rubble is for a friend setting up a new tank. Just some starter rubble. It'll be there another week or so.

So... Got a 15lb bag of sand from US Live Rock coming to reinvigorate the tank's micro biology. Sent in a sample for ICP testing. Let everything settle for a month or so, and I'm going to be ready for a boat load of frags.

Wanting some montipora, plating, branching varieties. Always have had good luck with them. Wanting some encrusting corals... leptoseris, cyphastrea. Some euphyllia of some sort. Maybe a pretty echinopora. Couple clams... preferably squamosa or deresa. Gigas, even... never had much luck with maximas. Probably some sort of capnella and sinularia. I've always liked them, good space fillers.

Greybeard · Mar 17, 2024

Ok, tank is once again stable, parameters look just as I like 'em... Time for some coral.

Went to SLASH's, really Reefing USA these days, spring show in STL yesterday. Eh. Maybe 15 vendors, prices pretty high... I bought a few things out of one tank and moved on. Picked up a tiny cyphastra frag, a pretty little zoa frag, a green finger leather, and a very pretty, if tiny, aqua-cultured gonipora.

Pics below, didn't catch the name of the vendor, sorry.

On to the next stop. New place in the loo, Liberty Reef, way out in OFallon. Been seeing good looking stuff from them, and saw that the owner was USMC vet, injured. Semper FI... Let's go. New shop, 3 months or so. Owner's been working out of his garage for some time. Light on dry goods and such, but his coral selection was excellent. Not so great if you're wanting stix, but LPS? Oh yeah... and prices were quite good.

Picked up a fairly large long tentacle variety Fungia, a nice looking little duncan, a bit of caulastrea, went a bit overboard on the euphyllia... 3 hammers and a frog spawn

. Oh, and a very nice 5" clam.

On that clam... Don't Maximas generally have smooth shells? This things got flutes like a squomosa. Doesn't really matter, I suppose, as long as he's healthy. Looks great to me.

I'd say it's a solid start on re-establishing my reef

Still need to get a batch of SPS. Want some montipora... branching, plating, encrusting... always been a favorite.