I received a box of rocks today.

[NY_Caveman]

Great thread, @NY_Caveman ! Tons of entertaining content. I love the double gloves anti-bristle post. I, too, will double glove when working in the unknown for fear of the hideousness.

LOL, I am so uncoordinated and have so many allergies I am usually ultra protected around the tank.

 

[Stonekeg]

LOL, I am so uncoordinated and have so many allergies I am always ultra protected around the tank.

I forgot to mention that every time I see this thread come across my feed I'm instantly reminded of "Rocks in the Box" by the Decemberist. It might not be cheery, but I love that song.

 

[NY_Caveman]

I forgot to mention that every time I see this thread come across my feed I'm instantly reminded of "Rocks in the Box" by the Decemberist. It might not be cheery, but I love that song.

I had heard them, but not that song. It has some really nice violin work and the great solo.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Had a bit of a scare this morning. The gyre had brown strands of hair growing off of it. It looked like bryopsis and came out of nowhere. I pulled it off and was going to grab the microscope, but as I looked closer I saw this

It was a molt! Phew. Yes, Pepper molted. Instead of something terrible, it was something great. Our first molt. A great sign of health. It also explains why Pepper, for the first time, did not come out for the feeding today. My daughter later found him between some rocks and he looked all shiny and new.

 

[Brew12]

Had a bit of a scare this morning. The gyre had brown strands of hair growing off of it. It looked like bryopsis and came out of nowhere. I pulled it off and was going to grab the microscope, but as I looked closer I saw this

It was a molt! Phew. Yes, Pepper molted. Instead of something terrible, it was something great. Our first molt. A great sign of health. It also explains why Pepper, for the first time, did not come out for the feeding today. My daughter later found him between some rocks and he looked all shiny and new.

I get more excited than I should when I see something like a shrimp molt in my tank. I still find that we can have stuff like this happening in our houses a wonder.

 

[najer]

I forgot to mention that every time I see this thread come across my feed I'm instantly reminded of "Rocks in the Box" by the Decemberist. It might not be cheery, but I love that song.

You tubed them, great tune!

 

[NY_Caveman]

I get more excited than I should when I see something like a shrimp molt in my tank. I still find that we can have stuff like this happening in our houses a wonder.

I agree with this wholeheartedly. I chatted with my wife today about adding the first corals on Saturday. Her reaction was “the tank seems full already.” Only live rock, three shrimp, one fish and the CUC and it is just filled with life and action (if you watch and discover it). I am sure if I add nothing and wait six months, unexpected life will still appear and grow. For example, a small feathery tube worm bloomed today for the first time. We were all amazed.

A shrimp molt is something I have seen hundreds and hundreds of times over 40 years and it is still thrills me every single time.

 

[theKoolAidMan]

Hi NY_Caveman. I have a lot to catch up on here and will do my best to get up to speed with your build. First thoughts though are that I like the aquascape. As my wife and I plan out ours we both think we want two islands with overhangs and some sort of cove or cave. So, I like what you've done.

Question about the bare bottom, though. Was that decision made because of aesthetics or for ease of maintenance?

 

[NY_Caveman]

We received our IPSF order today. My daughter Katie shot a video while I was unboxing and adding to the tank. We got ministars, Amphipods (they sent an extra bag full), bristle worms, spaghetti worms and a free bonus Green Toadstool Leather coral.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Hi NY_Caveman. I have a lot to catch up on here and will do my best to get up to speed with your build. First thoughts though are that I like the aquascape. As my wife and I plan out ours we both think we want two islands with overhangs and some sort of cove or cave. So, I like what you've done.

Question about the bare bottom, though. Was that decision made because of aesthetics or for ease of maintenance?

Both really. We like the look and it is easy to maintain. I can also put the flow as high as I wish. I have no interest in sand as I feel it just collects waste. Generally it has to be replaced eventually. The only benefit I see to sand is aesthetics and that is certainly a valid reason. Just not for us.

 

[GoVols]

The girls did a great job with the video!!

Love the pods and the worms are really cool.

 

[Fudsey]

Nice bonus ! ! !

Great vid

 

[NY_Caveman]

I was not planning on any softies in this tank, but so far between the IPSF order and the live rock, they are the only corals we have. Nice colors in them and they were free, so they get to stay.

Green Toadstool Leather

Palythoas

FTS

 

[reacclimating 2 the hobby]

It's kind of surprising(and scary) when you put it all in a spreadsheet... still need the items not in bold... house closing on 8/17

 

[NY_Caveman]

It's kind of surprising(and scary) when you put it all in a spreadsheet... still need the items not in bold... house closing on 8/17

Nice. Half of your cost is for lights, Apex and flow. I am up to about $2,500 now, but plan on recalculating this weekend as I will be mostly done for a while.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Okay, one more post. At 4pm the whites came off of the LEDs. I only have been running that channel for 3 hours a day. There is 9 hours of total light from 10am-7pm.

Here is the schedule

• 10a - Moon channel, Violets, 420nm
• 11a - Blue channel added, 395, 420, 450nm
• 12n - Moon and Blue levels increase
• 1p - Whites added, mostly 14k, 20k and some specific colors
• 4p everything begins to ramp down in the exact reverse until 7p

At the peak for 3 hours, the PAR at the water surface is only 120. The level where the corals are (10-11” below the water line) is around 50-60 PAR. The peak percentages are only

• Moon 10%
• Blue 6%
• White 2%

So, it is very low. Tomorrow after we shop for some more corals, the lights will begin increasing very slowly over time.

Here are some pictures of the softies under the blues today right after 4pm

 

[NY_Caveman]

Ugh, reefers.

I did something that was dumb. We picked up our first LPS corals today as expected. I had a job in front of me (acclimating / dipping / mounting corals) and when I got home I thought I would just make a simple change to the aquascape. That simple change ended up not being so simple. I ended up with two competing jobs all while trying to finish before dinner.

First thing, we added three corals from Manhattan Corals in NYC (sister company to UniqueCorals.com)

• Alveopora sp.
• Caulastrea furcata (green)
• Duncanopsammia axifuga

I completely removed the plugs, dipped them in Bayer, rinsed and then superglued them onto pieces of rubble or shelf rock. Nice to see nothing came off in the dip. The Duncans and Caulastrea popped right off the plugs. The Alveopora looked like it would to, but the skeleton was much more brittle and I cracked it a little. The skin stayed together, so hopefully superglueing it to the rubble will help and it will be fine.

Second thing, the aquascape. The white rock in the front of the cave often seemed out of place to me.

I also felt the animals were hiding out too much in the cave. I felt if I removed that piece the cave would be intact, just more open in the front.

That was the simple part. Then I decided to use that piece to augment the right structure. This is where my problems started. It took me a long time to get the main rock supported securely. I just could not piece them in right with the aesthetic I was going for.

Before

After

FTS Before

FTS After

I will get a better sense tomorrow when the lights are on. I may have to reposition some of the bottom shelf pieces a little. I will post some pictures of the corals tomorrow when they open. We also have tons of video from Manhattan Corals that we might try to put together.

 

[Raege]

I like the look of the shelf rock in front of the cave and how it opens it up. Look more natural somehow tank is really looking great

 

[jsker]

Your production crew did a great job on the video, I vote to bring them back!!

 

[NY_Caveman]

I like the look of the shelf rock in front of the cave and how it opens it up. Look more natural somehow tank is really looking great

Thank you! I think the left does look better, but the right may need some work.

Your production crew did a great job on the video, I vote to bring them back!!

LOL, she is great for 10 years old. She got some great video today of their tanks. Like most great videographers you end up with one great minute out of every 10 minutes you shoot. I am trying to teach her how to edit, hold the phone landscape, and not shoot video of me in my robe when I first wake up.