Miami‘s Clam and SPS Tank

[ying yang]

My white worm cultures. I will eventually make a video of my fish eating them for you guys.

That reminds me,still need order my starter culture,decided nearly year ago I start one off,thought mrs have problem with me having them in our small 2 bed flat but she didn't say I couldn't so that means yes lol.
Now just need get butt in gear and order and decide where to keep them where 4 year can't get them or my 4 month old puppy lol

 

[Miami Reef]

You don't think that it is a bit early for these? Those are some amazing test frags.

They are not test frags. They are going into my established coral QT and will be staying there for at least a few months before.

I have a few cheap frags that I will use as testers ones the main tank goes through it’s maturation stage and when I’m confident it’s ready for testing.

Here’s my coral QT

 

[Miami Reef]

I even bought an acro from my LFS that was 60% STN/RTN. I paid 10 bucks for it, came home and fragged all the live parts and dipped in coral rx and placed in my QT. They are thriving with more PE than any of the acros there!

Plus I have a happy maxima clam.

I consider my QT as my nano. I take good care of it and I’m positive I can grow anything in there indefinitely.

 

[Sean Clark]

They are not test frags. They are going into my established coral QT and will be staying there for at least a few months before.

I have a few cheap frags that I will use as testers ones the main tank goes through it’s maturation stage and when I’m confident it’s ready for testing.

Here’s my coral QT

Fantastic! You had me on the heels of your video post. I was thinking "tanks not ready". I apologise for my presumptions. That clam...

 

[Miami Reef]

Fantastic! You had me on the heels of your video post. I was thinking "tanks not ready". I apologise for my presumptions. That clam...

Oh yeah, that main tank is DEFINITELY not ready. I am expecting it to get ugly soon

 

[rmorris_14]

They are not test frags. They are going into my established coral QT and will be staying there for at least a few months before.

I have a few cheap frags that I will use as testers ones the main tank goes through it’s maturation stage and when I’m confident it’s ready for testing.

Here’s my coral QT

LOL! what is that urchin carrying?

 

[Miami Reef]

LOL! what is that urchin carrying?

Haha. A bag of carbon

 

[rmorris_14]

Haha. A bag of carbon

that's so funny.

 

[JGT]

My white worm cultures. I will eventually make a video of my fish eating them for you guys.

I’ve successfully grown all kinds of SPS, gonis, LPS. But can’t for the life of me grow white worms. Been through 3 tries and always wind up with a Tupperware full of dead worms and smelly soil.

 

[Miami Reef]

I’ve successfully grown all kinds of SPS, gonis, LPS. But can’t for the life of me grow white worms. Been through 3 tries and always wind up with a Tupperware full of dead worms and smelly soil.

Would you like some advice from a pro? lol

 

[JGT]

Would you like some advice from a pro? lol

Sure, I'll take whatever I can get.
I think it comes down to 2 things: how wet to maintain the soil and the feeding. I think the latter is the bigger of the 2 issues for me. It seems when I feed that the food gets all moldy and kills the worms. I use the bread with yogurt.

 

[Miami Reef]

Sure, I'll take whatever I can get.
I think it comes down to 2 things: how wet to maintain the soil and the feeding. I think the latter is the bigger of the 2 issues for me. It seems when I feed that the food gets all moldy and kills the worms. I use the bread with yogurt.

I actually believe these have the least amount of impact on success.

Here’s my worm environment:

Make sure the worms aren’t dead when they arrive (you’d be surprised). They should be moving as soon as you open the package. If not, chances are they are dead. This has happened to me personally.

Keep them at 55F-60F

Soil should be moist. As long as there is moisture you are fine. Shouldn’t be soggy of course, but anything around damp is perfect.

I have tried fish flakes, pellets. And different brands of each but by far the best feeding response I’ve got was with whole wheat bread and Greek yogurt (Chobani brand is what I use).

If your culture is small then you can feed a smaller piece of bread with Greek yogurt and replace it twice a week.

I personally believe the reason why your worms didn’t thrive was because they arrived dead. Or if your temperature was too high. Also, poke some holes in the lid of the plastic Tupperware and use organic pesticide free soil.

Can you share the environment your worms were in? Temp? Were they moving ever?

 

[Miami Reef]

This is where I bought mine:

I purchased it when temps were cool. When I purchased from a different vendor in the summer, they all arrived dead and molded on me without me realizing why. Then I ordered from this Amazon link to give it one last shot and was surprised to see the worms actually moving on arrival.

 

[JGT]

I actually believe these have the least amount of impact on success.

Here’s my worm environment:

Make sure the worms aren’t dead when they arrive (you’d be surprised). They should be moving as soon as you open the package. If not, chances are they are dead. This has happened to me personally.

Keep them at 55F-60F

Soil should be moist. As long as there is moisture you are fine. Shouldn’t be soggy of course, but anything around damp is perfect.

I have tried fish flakes, pellets. And different brands of each but by far the best feeding response I’ve got was with whole wheat bread and Greek yogurt (Chobani brand is what I use).

If your culture is small then you can feed a smaller piece of bread with Greek yogurt and replace it twice a week.

I personally believe the reason why your worms didn’t thrive was because they arrived dead. Or if your temperature was too high. Also, poke some holes in the lid of the plastic Tupperware and use organic pesticide free soil.

Can you share the environment your worms were in? Temp? Were they moving ever?

They were definitely alive. In fact, they started to multiply at one point. Some migrated to the Tupperware cover . Tupperware had holes in the top. Kept them in a dark cabinet. Temps were in the 60's. Only thing I didn't do was swap out the bread 2x a week. As it would decay I would mix it into the soil. I saw that from other posts on culturing white worms. I also microwaved the soil before putting in the worm culture. I found that this killed any of the motes that would grow. So, not sure. Think it was the food that crashed the cultures.

 

[Miami Reef]

Yes, I also sterilized my soil before placing my worms. I don’t have any mites whatsoever.

I drowned the new worms in tap water (any mites should float) and I drained and repeated until I got only clean worms from the bottom of the bowl. Then I placed them into my oven sterilizer soil (not hot of course).

Hmm. I’m thinking maybe it was the burying of the moldy food the caused an ammonia crash. The worms evacuating the dirt was an indicator.

 

[JGT]

Now that spring is almost here will try again. Good temps for shipping. Maybe 4th time is a charm.

 

[Miami Reef]

that's so funny.

Today’s victim. I swear these corals/clams/snails go through hell with these urchins in a 20 gallon.

 

[Miami Reef]

Rocks turning brown!! I like me some diatoms.

 

[Miami Reef]

My goal is to post weekly pictures of my display. It will be going through so many changes and I want to document them all so I can look back and be proud of my entire creations.

This week was very “traumatic” for me. Basically, my skimmer doesn’t fit because of a miscommunication issue with the manufacturer. I will let you know what the solution will be. Either we get a Regal 200 skimmer (which will still work good for my system), or we get a new sump built.

The new sump is going to cost $500 solely for delivery and uninstalling the old one. They apparently aren’t charging me for any of the glass of materials - just for delivery. They said if I can drop off the old sump and pick up and install the new one myself it will be free. Wait time is about 4-5 weeks.

The regal 200 skimmer costs a little over $700.

Since this was mainly a mistake on their end, they should be responsible to pay for it, but they aren’t completely admitting it that it was.

So once they talk it over with the team they will let me know what they decide…

Until then, here’s today’s update picture and video. Yes, the rocks are starting to turn brown, and it appears the tank is cloudier today since my UV is turned off (my entire sump and return is off because the manufacturers tried to fix the skimmer issue yesterday but couldn’t.)

I cannot turn the sump on yet because I don’t want them to tell me they need the sump dried for uninstalling/repairing it. It was a pain to completely dry it the past 2 days.

So. I wanted to be open because having a new tank (even when you spend money to have it custom built) sometimes doesn’t go perfectly. I am struggling and I have been feeling really sad and anxious lately. I need better coping skills for sure. This has not been easy on me if I’m being completely transparent.

 

[Sean Clark]

Thank you for sharing the good with the less than good. I know this is frustrating for you. This would be hard for anyone to handle well and you are handling this with poise. Thank you again for sharing.