Megabite's 180 Reef - Round 2

MegabiteOG · Mar 1, 2026

skey44 said:
They are pretty inquisitive and I’ve seen where Randy @Randy Holmes-Farley is trying to trap one in his tank with a jar. I’m not sure if his daughter ever caught it or not. Good luck, definitely more of a sump critter than a main tank critter. also, there are two types and also known as a “thumb splitter” so don’t go grabbing it with your hand. If you were going to try that you never know

Don't tell me what to do and what not to grab!

Thanks man. Yes I do know that and have read some on the subject. I will put up a trap sooner or later and see what happens. I will likely catch everything but the Mantis.

Red_Beard · Mar 1, 2026

MegabiteOG said:
Don't tell me what to do and what not to grab!

Thanks man. Yes I do know that and have read some on the subject. I will put up a trap sooner or later and see what happens. I will likely catch everything but the Mantis.

"I'll be whatever I wanna do" -Philip J Fry

MegabiteOG · Mar 1, 2026

Random iPhone photos from around the tank today. I used the photo app Moments and took the pictures in RAW and did a little post processing in Lightroom. I didn't realize how much better the iPhone pics could be with the app.

skey44 · Mar 1, 2026

MegabiteOG said:
Don't tell me what to do and what not to grab!

Thanks man. Yes I do know that and have read some on the subject. I will put up a trap sooner or later and see what happens. I will likely catch everything but the Mantis.

My LFS employees won’t grab a lot of things that I would grab. He’s been doing it a long time and probably has learned the hard way. It stinks to have little cuts and scrapes on your hands all the time especially when you’re reaching into saltwater 20+ times a day. I would be the one to try to pick up a mantis shrimp. I’m an idiot about grabbing critters

I’m over here like “why don’t you pick it up and just put it in the bag.”
They must love the side commentary!
Actually, my wife was doing that to me when we were catching the fire shrimp. I really loved it.

MegabiteOG · Mar 1, 2026

It can be dumb, but I bare hand most things in the tank. Years and years of saltwater fishing, diving, spear fishing, lobstering, etc. and only used gloves on rare occasions. This is not an endorsement not to use PPE in your tank! It’s just that I’ve been poked, scraped, and burned (fire coral) for decades while diving and lobstering with no reaction and may have a false sense of security. Who knows.

I will leave you with a pic of me eating some lobster in the Bahamas that I caught (no gloves). I do miss the ocean and our old place in the Keys. Hard to believe that was almost 24 years ago.

skey44 · Mar 1, 2026

MegabiteOG said:
It can be dumb, but I bare hand most things in the tank. Year and years of saltwater fishing, diving, spear fishing, lobstering, etc. and only used gloves on rare occasions. This is not an endorsement not to use PPE in your tank! It’s just that I’ve been poked, scraped, and burned (fire coral) for decades while diving and lobstering with no reaction and may have a false sense of security. Who knows.

I will leave you with a pic of me eating some lobster in the Bahamas that I caught (no gloves). I do miss the ocean and our old place in the Keys. Hard to believe that was almost 24 years ago.

Awesome memory! So cool.

steveschuerger · Mar 1, 2026

Great thread. I miss the 90 I had. But space constraints when I moved meant that I’d have to go smaller.

MegabiteOG · Mar 2, 2026

Thanks. I’m really enjoying getting back into it.

That Crusso Kid · Mar 2, 2026

MegabiteOG said:
It can be dumb, but I bare hand most things in the tank. Years and years of saltwater fishing, diving, spear fishing, lobstering, etc. and only used gloves on rare occasions. This is not an endorsement not to use PPE in your tank! It’s just that I’ve been poked, scraped, and burned (fire coral) for decades while diving and lobstering with no reaction and may have a false sense of security. Who knows.

I will leave you with a pic of me eating some lobster in the Bahamas that I caught (no gloves). I do miss the ocean and our old place in the Keys. Hard to believe that was almost 24 years ago.

Can I make a request? Next time you post a picutue of yourself, can you please warn us, right at the beggining of the post, so that we have more time to brace ourselves before having to see your mug? Thank you kindly.

MegabiteOG · Mar 4, 2026

MegabiteOG · Mar 4, 2026

Feeding time action.

Red_Beard · Mar 4, 2026

MegabiteOG said:

Dude, how did you get that tang glued to a frag plug?!

MegabiteOG · Mar 4, 2026

Red_Beard said:
MegabiteOG said:

Click to expand...

Dude, how did you get that tang glued to a frag plug?!

The tricky part is to have it sit still long enough for the glue to set.

MegabiteOG · Mar 7, 2026

I've been printing a few things for the tank. Among them are door bins to organize my stuff and ATO water level sensor holder. I was going to go magnetic for adjustment, but I will likely never need to adjust height and a magnet is another thing that can rust. Been going through a lot of orange.

Red_Beard · Mar 7, 2026

MegabiteOG · Mar 9, 2026

Printed one more thing for the tank. Holds the 3 Hanna's I use the most. Also included my home office/ work station.

MegabiteOG · Mar 9, 2026

The tank is officially 5 months old today! I did some light maintenance over the weekend and rearranged some stuff in the tank to make room for the contest corals from Battlecorals. Tank is running really stable for such a young tank and hope the corals do well in the contest.

@Red_Beard - @skey44 - @jonelder68

Looking forward to the competition. Already set up a nice shady spot in the back corner of the tank for the contest corals.

May we all do very well.

Quick iPhone pics from today to mark the 5 months. I will try to get a full tank shot today. Lots of windows in my house so it's tough to do with all the reflections.

MasterClassReefs · Mar 9, 2026

MegabiteOG said:
It can be dumb, but I bare hand most things in the tank. Years and years of saltwater fishing, diving, spear fishing, lobstering, etc. and only used gloves on rare occasions. This is not an endorsement not to use PPE in your tank! It’s just that I’ve been poked, scraped, and burned (fire coral) for decades while diving and lobstering with no reaction and may have a false sense of security. Who knows.

I will leave you with a pic of me eating some lobster in the Bahamas that I caught (no gloves). I do miss the ocean and our old place in the Keys. Hard to believe that was almost 24 years ago.

Back in the day we had to worry about MH burns.

About as fun as some of the critters we may get a handful of in the tank.

MegabiteOG · Mar 9, 2026

MegabiteOG said:
The tank is officially 5 months old today! I did some light maintenance over the weekend and rearranged some stuff in the tank to make room for the contest corals from Battlecorals. Tank is running really stable for such a young tank and hope the corals do well in the contest.

@Red_Beard - @skey44 - @jonelder68

Looking forward to the competition. Already set up a nice shady spot in the back corner of the tank for the contest corals. May we all do very well.

Quick iPhone pics from today to mark the 5 months. I will try to get a full tank shot today. Lots of windows in my house so it's tough to do with all the reflections.

@kingranch2003 - Forgot you. You're in this one too. Good luck!

MegabiteOG · Mar 9, 2026

TheMadFragger said:
Back in the day we had to worry about MH burns.

About as fun as some of the critters we may get a handful of in the tank.

Ouch! I love the MH's though. I still have the 3 - 250W HQI's with reflectors in my building. Every once in a while I consider making a box to hang them over this tank. It's hard to beat the shimmer and performance of MH's. Specially if they are complimented with some LEDs.

From my old tank. In addition to MH's, I was running T5's and Reefbright LEDs.