Perseverance Reef

[Nate Chalk]

I've always wanted to set one up with dumpies or milks or both. I don't know if they get along....

Dumpster milk would be the offspring

 

[Fishy888]

I found a few long, thick branches a couple of weeks ago. After cutting them to the right size a major vivarium redesign took place.

Here’s how it looks tonight.

There’s room for a couple more plants as you can see in the image above.

Tomorrow I plan to tie down the vines so they can attach to and climb the branches. A couple of begonias need to be supported better as well.

 

[Fishy888]

The frogs are growing. They will soon have new accommodations however. That’s because……

I’m baaaaaaack! I got gifted a 75 gallon tank with an awesome sump, an aquamaxx skimmer (most likely CO-1), a 500 watt Hygger heater with a digital thermostat, probably 50ish lbs of live rock, and a Hanna salinity tester along with the calibration fluid which I used. :) The tank is half full right now but I’m still making water. More info to come later.

I am keeping the frogs still but they will be split into a couple of smaller tanks. I’ll still post about them too.

 

[Fish Styx]

The frogs are growing. They will soon have new accommodations however. That’s because……

I’m baaaaaaack! I got gifted a 75 gallon tank with an awesome sump, an aquamaxx skimmer (most likely CO-1), a 500 watt Hygger heater with a digital thermostat, probably 50ish lbs of live rock, and a Hanna salinity tester along with the calibration fluid which I used. :) The tank is half full right now but I’m still making water. More info to come later.

I am keeping the frogs still but they will be split into a couple of smaller tanks. I’ll still post about them too.

Christmas came early this year!! *~*WOOT WOOT*~*

 

[Fishy888]

Christmas came early this year!! *~*WOOT WOOT*~*

Yes it did. I just found out that my friend caught the clowns. My wife also got a system gifted to her as well. Someone was getting out of reefing and gave my friend a bunch of tanks and equipment and she didn’t have room for it so she gave it to us.

 

[Fish Styx]

Yes it did. I just found out that my friend caught the clowns. My wife also got a system gifted to her as well. Someone was getting out of reefing and gave my friend a bunch of tanks and equipment and she didn’t have room for it so she gave it to us.

That's awesome. Congrats!

 

[Mschmidt]

Welcome back!

 

[F i s h y]

I found a few long, thick branches a couple of weeks ago. After cutting them to the right size a major vivarium redesign took place.

Here’s how it looks tonight.

There’s room for a couple more plants as you can see in the image above.

Tomorrow I plan to tie down the vines so they can attach to and climb the branches. A couple of begonias need to be supported better as well.

Remind me what type of Frogs you have? I want to set up for Dendrobates at some point. So much conflicting information on mixing types. Looking at probably a 60 breeder or 75 for them in my office. I already have a bunch of plants and such. But its still a long ways from reality. 2025 financial plans have already been made, so maybe 2026.

 

[Fishy888]

Remind me what type of Frogs you have? I want to set up for Dendrobates at some point. So much conflicting information on mixing types. Looking at probably a 60 breeder or 75 for them in my office. I already have a bunch of plants and such. But its still a long ways from reality. 2025 financial plans have already been made, so maybe 2026.

I have Phyllobates Terribilis currently but I have had Dendrobates leucomelas before. I personally don’t mix frogs because some can interbreed. Considering how few exist in the wild of most species, with many species existing only in areas that are 1 to 2 square miles in size in the wild, we try hard to keep them like they were if that makes sense. They’re all captive bred now of course but we won’t be getting any wild caught ones anymore so preserving what we have is of utmost importance.

 

[Fishy888]

Which varieties of frogs do you have? I'm considering a vivarium. I have many of the needed pieces already. I like the dendros and the mantellas.

What did you mean by "I know many frown upon the way I'm doing things"?

Seems every dart keeper out there says not to mix species or morphs and I don't understand that. Every zoo exhibit and aquarium exhibit I've seen mixes.

Although quite late I finally noticed this post. :face-with-hand-over-mouth:

The reason some would frown on the way I keep my frogs is something they call “cohabitation”. They don’t like it when you have anything but isopods and springtails with them. They believe it’s wrong to keep other animals with the frogs since they don’t directly benefit the frogs and admittedly some animals could harm or kill the frogs. The creatures I keep with them though have astronomically small chances of causing harm or transmitting diseases to my frogs.
Like with a reef tank where we’re trying to come as close as possible to creating an ecosystem, I’m attempting that in a vivarium.

I keep Phyllobates terribilis which get to 2 inches plus. They can eat things as large as 1/2 inch crickets and baby dubias (which I am breeding for that purpose). As a result I keep smaller beetles and at one point I had two Hawaiian mourning geckos in the vivarium but they escaped sadly. That’ll get rectified in the new setups though.

Zoos get away with mixing frogs by having massive vivaria. The frogs they house together are totally unrelated so they can’t interbreed. I believe the biggest concern is preserving the frogs wild type genetics and phenotypes since most are endangered in the wild, especially since many species and subspecies are only found in areas as small as a square mile or two. I agree with taking precautions to protect the frogs. I do feel that many froggers are a tad over the top though.

 

[Fishy888]

Perseverance Reef is rebounding nicely.

These clowns are a bonded pair. They’re doing pretty good so far. They’ve been pretty active.

These are my two GSP rocks. I took a closeup image and a zoomed out image so that both colonies would be fully visible.

Here’s the mushroom rock. I think these are Rhodactis mushrooms but I’m not 100% sure on that. It’ll give me something to research. ;)

This is a Kenya tree of course.

It looks like I also got a cabbage leather coral.

I didn’t take pictures of the Xenia but there’s a small amount in there too.

 

[F i s h y]

Although quite late I finally noticed this post. :face-with-hand-over-mouth:

The reason some would frown on the way I keep my frogs is something they call “cohabitation”. They don’t like it when you have anything but isopods and springtails with them. They believe it’s wrong to keep other animals with the frogs since they don’t directly benefit the frogs and admittedly some animals could harm or kill the frogs. The creatures I keep with them though have astronomically small chances of causing harm or transmitting diseases to my frogs.
Like with a reef tank where we’re trying to come as close as possible to creating an ecosystem, I’m attempting that in a vivarium.

I keep Phyllobates terribilis which get to 2 inches plus. They can eat things as large as 1/2 inch crickets and baby dubias (which I am breeding for that purpose). As a result I keep smaller beetles and at one point I had two Hawaiian mourning geckos in the vivarium but they escaped sadly. That’ll get rectified in the new setups though.

Zoos get away with mixing frogs by having massive vivaria. The frogs they house together are totally unrelated so they can’t interbreed. I believe the biggest concern is preserving the frogs wild type genetics and phenotypes since most are endangered in the wild, especially since many species and subspecies are only found in areas as small as a square mile or two. I agree with taking precautions to protect the frogs. I do feel that many froggers are a tad over the top though.

So if there are no plans to breed them or raise any froglets.... is that a big deal? I do not plan on breeding them. I def don't have the time for that.

 

[Projects with Sam]

I do feel that many froggers are a tad over the top though.

the point of the game is to get to the top! :D

 

[Fishy888]

So if there are no plans to breed them or raise any froglets.... is that a big deal? I do not plan on breeding them. I def don't have the time for that.

I personally don’t see the issue with it. Others, well, they have issues with everything.

 

[Fishy888]

the point of the game is to get to the top! :D

I miss Frogger.

 

[Fishy888]

I personally don’t see the issue with it. Others, well, they have issues with everything.

I forgot to add that you don’t want to mix frogs from the same genus since they can interbreed. I could see mixing, say, Phyllobates terribilis and Oophaga pumillio ‘blue jeans’, otherwise known as the strawberry dart frog. They even occur in the same area.

 

[Fishy888]

I got a few more reefing tasks accomplished today. I cleaned about 75 lbs worth of sand, got a temporary light out of storage for my wife’s system, and after looking at the plumbing for my sump I decided that I’m redoing the plumbing entirely.

There are too many 90 degree bends among other issues. I mean there would have been four 90 degree elbows altogether if I went with the original plumbing. There were a couple of pieces missing so if I’m in for a penny I’m in for a pound.

That’s not a complaint at all, just my rationale for redoing the plumbing. I’m very grateful to the reefer who gave the setup to my close reefing friend, who gave it to me. If I wanted to buy all this new I’d be looking at 3 grand easily. Even used (like new though) my system would be a good 1500 bucks if I had to buy the equipment from eBay as well as the rock, two clownfish, one of which is a designer clownfish, and the corals like I have. I’m not counting the used sand towards the system’s value.

What makes it most valuable though is that it now has sentimental value because two local reefers I hold in high regard and consider mentors made it possible for me to get back into reefing by gifting me the system (and a 20 gallon with 10 gallon sump for my wife as well as another smaller but still sizable GSP colony).

Thank you to all of you who have been there for me even while I didn’t have a reef. You all mean more to me than you know. I consider all of you to be close friends and esteemed mentors as well. I mean it. I’d tell you if you weren’t. Believe me, more than a few people have been told.

I’m excited to see this reef blossom. I’ve got big plans for it. Right now it’s rebounding from being moved and being set up again. The rock in my system has a good chunk of coralline already as does the back and side glass (both sides). Once the mini cycle ends I’ll get the CBSs (the coral banded shrimp I gave my friend when I converted the old reef into a vivarium). They’re still a bonded pair like the clownfish.

I hope to do a nitrate and phosphate check today, especially with the weather being crazy. I suspect my phosphates and nitrates are low although I haven’t added the sand to my system (or my wife’s) yet. Despite running clear when I rinse it now I’m sure there are still some nitrates and phosphates in it.

Strangely my clownfish aren’t eating the flake food I’ve been feeding them. I know it’s time for me to make them some frozen. I think they’ll love that.

 

[Fishy888]

Whelp as usual I tried to do too much too fast. No not with the reef tank, at least not directly. That said…..

It’s coming along!

My female has some fin rot but now that she’s in a clean system she should start healing. I am a little worried that they haven’t eaten yet but I chalk that up to a mini cycle. It shouldn’t last much longer though.

The male looks perfect though, at least fin wise.

I’m starting to get cyano growth now. It’s not severe by any stretch but if I don’t get ‘trates n ‘phates up a bit, dinos will come. I’m not going there if I can help it.

 

[Fishy888]

Yesterday afternoon I discovered my female clownfish dead. It took almost 20 minutes to find her. I knew something was wrong when I didn’t see her swimming. She was alive and swimming just a couple of hours prior. I thought she had fin rot but I noticed what looked like a bite mark taken out of the male’s tail fin. After a bit of research on fin rot in marine aquaria I read that true fin rot is a rare phenomenon in marine fish and that it’s more likely torn fins from a territorial squabble.

The male is more active and inquisitive than I’ve ever seen him. Despite having had a small piece of his tail taken (actually two and both look like bite marks) he looks vibrant. At this point I bet it was aggression.

The male is a designer clownfish I believe. Normally I like my fishes to be with wild type characteristics but this one has me rethinking that. He will soon be a she and a beautiful one at that.

I didn’t test my water yet but today I hope to get that done.

I haven’t discussed my game plan for this tank yet. Part of the reason is because I have a couple of ideas in mind and they would be difficult and very long term goals. The third would be something like my last setup only smaller.

My two most difficult but most interesting choices would be two different variations of the same idea, which would be an ocellaris clownfish harem and anemone tank. I think you see where I’m going with this. I would prefer a magnificent anemone but I would also consider S. gigantea or S. mertensii. I really like the H. magnifica anemone the best out of the three.

I guess I lied. One other potential idea would be BTAs and maroon clowns potentially. It’s a distant third place at the moment but it would be far easier than the other choices. Well, except for the idea of doing a montipora heavy sps dominated tank.

As much as I have a tendency to want to move too fast sometimes I want to do things more slowly, enjoying the milestones an up and coming tank would achieve. I’m going to have to go slower especially if I want a magnificent (or carpet) anemone. We all know these nems are difficult even for some expert reefers out there. If I do commit to one of my first two anemone choices I have the advantage of building the system around the needs of the nem.

I will likely only be able to keep ocellaris clownish in this system if I go with my one of my first choices of anemone. I realize that so I need to think carefully about what I’m doing. My friend is giving me back my CBS pair. I might not be able to keep them long term if I do the clownfish/anemone thing.

One last thing. I found some small leaks in my plumbing so I need to seal those. I hope to get that done today as well as the testing.

 

[Fishy888]

So far my lone clownfish is doing good, especially considering what he’s been through lately. He’s eating more and seems more active and less stressed.

I now have a working sump and skimmer. With the sump now working I added the hygger heater inside the skimmer section.