My 75G starfire display refugium feeding by gravity my 150G starfire reef tank build up

[basile]

where did you put that sponge bag in your system?

I didn't, as i said in the video i had already seeded my tank, and i didn't want to over do it. That was just a demontration on how to do it. I would put it in the over flow like i did before. This way, it goes first into the sump where sponge grow usually in the dark, remember we're talking about individual celles here, that will travel all over your system, so some will go in your skimmer some in the return, and populate your tank. I have some already growing in dark places but don't over do it either once is enough. They may not be the same colors either. And that i can't explain. I left that bag for about 24 hours and then took it out and dump the sponge matter clean my bag. and reused it for the video you saw.

I found some of that sponge under some of my rock structure and right between my GSP , its growing in there and don't bother the coral, it follows the skin of the coral, because the GSP is right in the jet of the powerhead and sponges likes that. Hope that helps.

 

[basile]

A new direction

I have a lots of caulerpa right no and lots of extra growths for many types, and throwing them away after paying through the nose make me GRRRRRRR. So i've collected them in a small tank and having lots, i want to put that in my main tank. Lots of people are nay sayers.


For one they say i've got a good formula that work, yes it does.Then they say it wont work because the tangs will devour everything before it grows again. Then they say if it invades, well make up your mind, if the tangs and fox face eats it before it takes root it wont invades. As a matter a fact they do eat it and i'll put only stuff that they eat.


Some are asking why, AHH thats the question!!


I've turned my GFO OFF, and the macro's are picking up very nicely, but in the main tank i have bubble algae growing. Althoug tang eats it and my emeral crabs do i'd like to replace it with nicer algaes and, i'm very fond of those tanks looks;

I like the very natural look and less planed or artificial .


My tank;

Has a lot of room and potential, you see that tonga branch where nothing will ever grow, i'll be strapping a couple of mangrove half way, the roots will grow downwards while the shoot upwards will be taken care of by another light above the razors when the time comes. I'll also have a few of those mangroves on the backwall and from the external overflow. the result should be like this;

The rest of the tank has lots of backwall and space for the macro to grow and the grazers to graze. ;

Anyway i think its worth a try.

​

 

[427HISS]

Hey Basile, I've been following and the tank look wonderful !

Just to let you know, I get a update email's about you tank, which includes not only a link here on R2R, but also individual links to each photo you post,
so when I clicked on the first photo link that sent me to your photo website, I got a pop-up window from my security company saying it stopped a "Attack Web" potential virus".
I tried again, and the other links and this time all was ok. No,...problem bud ! It happens.

Keep your beautiful tank updated coming !
Kevin

 

[basile]

Hey Basile, I've been following and the tank look wonderful !

Just to let you know, I get a update email's about you tank, which includes not only a link here on R2R, but also individual links to each photo you post,
so when I clicked on the first photo link that sent me to your photo website, I got a pop-up window from my security company saying it stopped a "Attack Web" potential virus".
I tried again, and the other links and this time all was ok. No,...problem bud ! It happens.

Keep your beautiful tank updated coming !
Kevin

LOL ok you like to live on the edge hihihi thanks for the kind words much appreciated.

 

[basile]

a visitor

Hi guys last weekend i had a visitor from the state who came and visit me, or should i say, see my set up. He of course was also here to see is daughter , but this is what he wrote on RC about his visit ;


Old Yesterday, 08:53 PM #27
Fredfish
Registered Member

Join Date: Oct 2000
Posts: 2,174
Hi Chris. Thanks for letting me drop by to see your system. It really is impressive!


Folks. In person, the aquascaping on this tank is stunning. You could sit there for hours staring at the tank. Wait, I did.


__________________
Advice is like a firehose. Be careful how you drink.


you can view it here; Would you turn OFF your skimmer - Page 2 - Reef Central Online Community

 

[basile]

A little something to read about transporting inverts




Acclimation (All Animals)-Long shipping.


1. Float the bag in your tank to get them used to the temperature in your aquarium.


2. Wait 15 minutes.


3. Add contents to tank. Discard Water and Paper towels if any.


Important: Snails may go through shock during shipping, and be closed when they arrive. You should give them plenty of time to come out of their shells and move around before deciding they didn't make the trip. Ceriths may go dormant for up to 3 days.


You may find this to be different than the acclimation procedure you are used to carrying out. Snails and crabs live intertidally, and can handle drastic swings in ph/salinity without a problem. However, what they can't handle is toxic levels of ammonia. During the shipping process, ammonia levels in the shipping bags build, while the ph level goes down.
As the ph goes down the toxicity of ammonia also goes down. However, when your tank water with normal ph is introduced to the shipping bags, and the ph rises, so does the toxicity of the ammonia, and you will be poisoning the livestock. Please don't do this.

 

[kevantheman35]

I've been watching your YouTube updates for awhile, first time seeing your build thread. Love your setup and the rock work in your display tank!

 

[basile]

I've been watching your YouTube updates for awhile, first time seeing your build thread. Love your setup and the rock work in your display tank!

Thanks for the kind words.

 

[basile]

Practicing photography

Some updates and adds on;


i've been tweaking with the camera too , the skimmer, a new DC 5500 pump , my salt and my after shave.




A man's den with no appologies, i did my tank for me myself and I. Its not a show piece for a boudoir, or a fancy living room, i live inside a Borg Cube, welcome to the Assimilation Chamber.

The tripod is for my new photo shoot practice.

I was shooting this little guy before the sun and the lights came on he's a chili coral NPS filter feeder, swells up for the evening till early mornings, about 3 times its day size, like a sponge he pumps water inside his body and opens up his polyps to feed.

here he is retracted

My new salt and its ingredients all marked down for convenience so i can test it and compare .

A tiresome cleaner Fromia seastar has been on that glove coral for the past week, you can see the abundance of "getgo" its an algae term used by some. An algae that is also very popular with pods, amphipods , its their food. Nothing to worry about. Actually if it disapear from your tank, your in trouble.

She's got such a nice complexion

Can you see the fish, the frogfish look for a rock you'll se the fish.lol

I had to force feed this guy. First when i put the live fish in his mouth he let it go. Then i push it in with my pincers i guess you call them . He finally swallowed one and i gave him another.

I'm finally starting to understand this dwarf lionfish a little better. These guys have such a low methabolism that they don't need much food per month. I mean they never move. I'm serious the frogfish never bouge. The lion fish a bit more, so i know now how he was able to survive on pods alone.

I've got mangrove pods comming for that soon.

​

 

[basile]

New Photo shoot part 2

Got a new teacher on lighting and contrast

This guy has decided to stick GSP on his back......gues what its growing there and its stuck.....i'm letting it grow there and making a record of this, Coral Magazine here i come LOL. Not only will i have the first GSP that moves, but one that actually gets rid of nuisance algae.....How's that for genetic manipulation, actually , its a cover up LOL.

I started to decorate my stalactite with the easiest things really.

My new moon

​

 

[basile]

Practicing photography 2

Made an experiment, i've put some new rocks in the drain compartment of the sump for a week. Then i did a water change. My God.... the junk that was stuck in and between those rocks and the filt..... that didn't make it into those filter sock added to my nitrate count that was way up. Conclusion, keep the socks in to trap and remove as much matter as possible, dont ever put any oblastacles in your sump to trap these particules of food or debris. So SAND, ROCKS, anything that can cause a trap. i'm actually . activly looking for an alternative to my skimmer support that has a debris trap. With all the picture i take you'd think i'd take a picture of that mess.....not:nuts:

A few natural sponges are growing in my tank as well. Must be all that good food i put in lol.

Nerites snails making out, living only a year if they reproduces they're excellent cyano and diatom eaters. Good diversity to have in.

A rare one in the hobby, Plexaura flexuosa.

I bough 7 new ones after my urchin have taken out a few. Since these guys feast only a fews days per weeks you can add ots in a tank to make sure the vaccum is passed all over becausr they don't come out every night , not all at the same time, and they rarely go after the same areas. So at present for my 150G i have 12 and its not too much, and i at least see one and i'm satisfied. And i don't say , **** it i never see one, thats because yours is digesting for days what you have in fact months ahead for it to eat. So add on they wont compete.

She's a pole dancer, nice hairdoo too, i got to stop taking those pills man ...

She's daylight delight to see

​

 

[kevantheman35]

So much diversity!

 

[basile]

Diversity

I like diversity and from the mouth of Albert Thiel ; too many tanks are devoided of it, its hermiths and snails and corals , and most of the little guys are forgoten .


People are so obsessed with their parameters, low nutrients and cleaning their tank, that they remove everything from the bottom, including the living creatures from their sandbed who help in the natural cleaning of the tank itself.


He said to me , he ask's people at night what do you see on your sandbed? And most say nothing. And that's sad because in the ocean its full of crawling things and a good sanbed contains that , and have crawling things at night for you to see.


But most of these people have are prize winning corals with artificial colors and a dead tank. And they think they have a great system..... lol


That was one of my exchange with him as we where setting up the venue for the next day event in Ottawa.


Any how these are my addition to my little world.


Its called a Fuzzy chitton algae eater, snail

The big ones are nassarius Vibex very small nassarius in fact, and the minuscule ones are Zig Zag periwingkles

Those are limpets flat snails with a hole at the center of the shell, i've put them there to see if they move in the next 3 days they hybernate when transported like this apparently.

That little periwinkle made it all the way to the top of the sculpture and his nearing the fromia seastar on the right, lol

Got a new nice fox coral

A nice Auzi scolie lol

My elegant is recoop from some flat worms grrr

My leather stool is very happy there it seems

AH HA!! My mangrove shoots, you can see the bottom part that i've strapped on the tonga branch, with a zip tie

The surface tips of 2 of them

I have 3 more near the return and on the ceramic backwall so when all the roots grow, some will be on the wall some on the tonga sculptures.

​

​

 

[basile]

D2

You can see the root of one near the return in the background on the wall.

One of my very few sps

An escapee

​

 

[leptang]

Awesomeness!

 

[basile]

My continuing learning curb about sponges.

[video=youtube;s8TVnOe3BW8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8TVnOe3BW8&index=15&list=PLk_Pw-jAYdFfzK1jNhN7rAilGwHaEzvH5[/video]



[video=youtube;j8zeD0DCASU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8zeD0DCASU&index=16&list=PLk_Pw-jAYdFfzK1jNhN7rAilGwHaEzvH5[/video]

So slow he can't find his food, sorry the angle of the camera , it was on the far side of the tank

[video=youtube;RfhiYIqhMQE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfhiYIqhMQE&list=PLk_Pw-jAYdFfzK1jNhN7rAilGwHaEzvH5&index=17[/video]


Observation is key don't you agree?

​

 

[basile]

Well i got some

Sometimes you come across these weird deals and you just go with it.


I was going for crabs and hermith because i had to get rid of my buddy. My seahare was getting too big and was eating all my macroalgaes now . He got a good portion of it before i found a good home for him; of course i just didn't dump it on the street like a homeless hobo, poor little guy. He was one of my favorites. He got a great home a huge fuge full of useless macro to eat , about 75 LB of it no kidding lol so he's good lol. plus the guy gave him some dried algaes and he eats it too. I hate to see the coffin lol....


Ok so anyway i went for hermiths to replace buddy and came across this

Either a Comanthina schlegelii or a Antedon mediterranea ; Both particules eaters and very difficult to keep. The store owner knows my tank and practically begged me to take it.


She apparently had more arms when she came in but these species when confronted with food shortages eat their own arms. and skrink to deadth how poetic. So i did at the condition to get 50% off an aligator pipefish that i'd seen earlier lol . So i got what i wanted.

This is her before she disapeared, they are night crawlers AGAIN... yes i'm good at picking those lol. Since i dose multiple supliments of planktonic sizes for my sponges, gorgonians, my NPS and clam ;she does have a chance. Time will tel.

I also pick up another strange fella, a Dardanus megistos hermit;White-spot Hermit


Range: Indo-Pacific Ocean


Natural Environment: Shallow lagoons and bays


General Husbandry: Has a temperature range of 70 to 83°F (28.33°C) (21 - 28°C). Not suited for the reef aquarium as it will eat small invertebrates, and constantly on the search for food day and night. Will often attach stinging anemones to their shell to protect from predators

His name is KEVLARR a good KLINGON name for my 6 foot long overflow he's perfect. And entertaining. At $9 it was a steal and only 4 were available so i picked one up for a friend of mine who has the same overflows. They had never received that kind of hermith before and didn't know too much and i knew that they would be badly treated. so i gave all the info to the manager.

About 2"1/2 now he'll reach his 4" wide in a few years

I've got some spare shells for him already.

My buddy takes him in his hand to watch the hockey game , its his mascott. I'm not that personal with mine he stays in the water.


By the way my lionfish that took 9months to become visible during daytime, now eats , everyday , daytime and sometime twice a day no less....

A worm that i'm trying to ID furry little buger, tey're everywhere, in the tank, seem to be doing a good job. Anyone have any ideas ??

A very bright morning and i took some pictures, very natural colors;

​

 

[basile]

A few new guys.

Did a bit of a photo shoot when i saw my feather seastar right in front of my sculpture, under the plates. Tonight i'll be doing a survey to see how she eats and behave.

My Foxface here all puffed up , called him Mulder, Fox

A new commer blue moon, he had ich, i left him in , he got over it! And so did i. Good nutrition + vitamins, no QT, i'm finished with that nonesense. Big "Z" on the left.

A new commer as well

He's very inquisitive and funny to watch. Doesn't have a name yet.

My new cleaner wrasse, she digs my home made food very well. In the store i asked the guy to feed her with flakes in front of me before buying it. For $18 she made a good clean up of the other guys too, even the file fish gets his skin cleaned up lol.

One of the natural sponge from the spawning of my yellow sponge ball .

​

 

[leptang]

Vary nice, how old is your main tank?

 

[basile]

Vary nice, how old is your main tank?

11 months now

Very nice setup

Thanks. A few things i'd like better but thats in every system i guess lol.