Randy's Tank and Learn Thread

[lubeck]

Sorry you are correct. It does not appear to be a gorilla crab. I don’t see the black pinchers in the video. Both my gorilla’s and stone crab’s have big black pinchers. Lucky! You might have got some good guys!

How have your stone crabs been? I’ve got a couple and seem to be fine other than getting bigger. They stay in the sand.

 

[lubeck]

Could the crab in the video not be a red mithrax?

@LiverockRocks

Red Mithrax Crab - TBS farm

Ruby Mithrax Crabs arrive as live rock hitchhikers from the TBS farm.

tbsaltwater.com

Ruby Mithrax Crab

Resides : Rocks and horizontal surfaces Consumes : Hair Algae, Complex Macroalgae and Turf Algae Max Size (Carapace): 1 or 25mm Origin : Caribbean Availability:...

www.reefcleaners.org

Agreed. That’s what I have. No issues

 

[dwest]

I dunno. A few years ago I had a McCoskers wrasse that always had torn fins. I found a couple “reef safe” crabs from liverock hitchhikers ( mithrax looking) and removed them. The wrasse's fins grew back and never had another fin issue.

 

[jonelder68]

How have your stone crabs been? I’ve got a couple and seem to be fine other than getting bigger. They stay in the sand.

Mine are in a remote refugium tank. So nothing much to worry about. But they constantly move mountains of sand. I installed the TBS sand then rock. So they dig out below rocks and well everywhere. So rocks have all fallen and moved around. They’re super strong and will actually move rubble pieces around blocking around there tunnel entrances. Only issue they’ve caused is they buried some gorgonia’s in sand.

Main issue is the gorilla crabs. They ravaged my gorgonias first night they were added. Not even eating them just ripped limbs off every where. I’ve hopefully got all the crabs removed now from the refugium. 12 total. The last one had grown to about 2.5” size. And still was impossible to find in the 20L tank.

I seeded my macro’s aquascape DT rocks for months with the TBS live rock in bins. Im just now starting to find gorillas in the DT. Thought was one but saw 3 last night before lights out. They’re such a pain to catch. Never come out always remain by there hole in the rock and will super fast dart back in with any motion they see.

 

[Arthur_Dent]

Thanks for sharing!

 

[afboundguy]

I ordered some mixed phyto and apocyclops pods from dinkins aquatic gardens. I hope to get them established and ready for a pair of tank raised mandarins shortly after the second rock delivery. I picked that pod type since seems among the more likely to become self sustaining.

I have gallons of mixed phyto weekly if you want some sir! Not sure how far of a drive you were but you could have plenty for free.

I am harvesting tomorrow or Monday and I have 3 gallons still left over from last week that I'll be tossing down the drain to make room for this week's harvest since it doesn't really sell and I can't seem to give it away on our local club :rolling-on-the-floor-laughing:

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I have gallons of mixed phyto weekly if you want some sir! Not sure how far of a drive you were but you could have plenty for free.

I am harvesting tomorrow or Monday and I have 3 gallons still left over from last week that I'll be tossing down the drain to make room for this week's harvest since it doesn't really sell and I can't seem to give it away on our local club :rolling-on-the-floor-laughing:

Thanks very much, but I’m good for now. Surprised more people don’t buy it. I’ll keep it in mind for the future!

 

[rishma]

Thanks very much, but I’m good for now. Surprised more people don’t buy it. I’ll keep it in mind for the future!

next time i start a tank I’ll use gulf live rock again like TBS and dose phyto from day 1. Remember that thread @Miami Reef reef started that showed how sterile our rock gets over time? Mine is mostly smooth coraline covered rock now. I feel like more diverse live would thrive if the food web was more complete

 

[afboundguy]

Thanks very much, but I’m good for now. Surprised more people don’t buy it. I’ll keep it in mind for the future!

No worries sir! I could also ship it since it would be "overnight" shipping with just simple ground shipping.

And it amazes me that more people don't buy it! I have noticeably less nuscience algae and great pod and coral growth!

 

[lacrosseboss18]

The light mounting hardware in place:

 

[Sophie"s mom]

What was your first SPS attempt and what are you growing now ?

Same one just a different cut, but it is a PC rainbow acro.

 

[LiverockRocks]

Looks like a gorilla crab and Pom Pom algae? My hitchhiker gorilla crabs never ate my Pom Pom growing in refugium. But they would pick at it assuming like you suggest grabbing something else. Only issue I had was they would constantly move it around the tank. The stone crabs would move sand everywhere creating tunnels.

I’d catch that crab when you can and toss him. Mine would double in size every week. You probably have 20-30 more as well. 6 months in and I’m still catching them. One in my DT got a hold of one my clowns and scratched him up pretty good.

The crab is Ruby Mithrax.
They prefer to eat algae, when mature if hungry it may sample other things...like sps coral polyps.
Rubies are easy to catch using this method: Glass Glass Trap

Mine are in a remote refugium tank. So nothing much to worry about. But they constantly move mountains of sand. I installed the TBS sand then rock. So they dig out below rocks and well everywhere. So rocks have all fallen and moved around. They’re super strong and will actually move rubble pieces around blocking around there tunnel entrances. Only issue they’ve caused is they buried some gorgonia’s in sand.

Main issue is the gorilla crabs. They ravaged my gorgonias first night they were added. Not even eating them just ripped limbs off every where. I’ve hopefully got all the crabs removed now from the refugium. 12 total. The last one had grown to about 2.5” size. And still was impossible to find in the 20L tank.

I seeded my macro’s aquascape DT rocks for months with the TBS live rock in bins. Im just now starting to find gorillas in the DT. Thought was one but saw 3 last night before lights out. They’re such a pain to catch. Never come out always remain by there hole in the rock and will super fast dart back in with any motion they see.

HIya, have you tried this method of removal? Glass Glass Trap

Another option for trapped predator crabs is to crush them up and feed the tank. Starfish, wrasses and other crabs will happily polish it off.

next time i start a tank I’ll use gulf live rock again like TBS and dose phyto from day 1. Remember that thread @Miami Reef reef started that showed how sterile our rock gets over time? Mine is mostly smooth coraline covered rock now. I feel like more diverse live would thrive if the food web was more complete

You got it!
Dosing phyto in combination with turkey basting detritus into the water column are beneficial steps to keep filtering organisms happy.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

The crab is Ruby Mithrax.
They prefer to eat algae, when mature if hungry it may sample other things...like sps coral polyps.
Rubies are easy to catch using this method: Glass Glass Trap

Thanks very much!

 

[jonelder68]

The crab is Ruby Mithrax.
They prefer to eat algae, when mature if hungry it may sample other things...like sps coral polyps.
Rubies are easy to catch using this method: Glass Glass Trap

HIya, have you tried this method of removal? Glass Glass Trap

Another option for trapped predator crabs is to crush them up and feed the tank. Starfish, wrasses and other crabs will happily polish it off.

You got it!
Dosing phyto in combination with turkey basting detritus into the water column are beneficial steps to keep filtering organisms happy.

Yes I’ve tried the glass and water bottle traps. They won’t hardly leave there holes. Also the holes are at the sand level so the angled glass didn’t work as it’s high up on the rocks. Not even a short whiskey glass :expressionless-face: I just wait for them come to the opening of there holes and spear them. The wife’s gotten pretty good at it. She has more patience it seems.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Readying Old Rock for New Tank

Last fall, when getting ready for this new tank, I was not sure if I would need my old rock, so I processed it just in case, and have now decided to use some in my refugia as homes for bacteria, pods, sponges, etc.

The rock in my old tank came from multiple sources. The initial rock came from TBS in the days of wild rock collection. I also won a full setup in a raffle at the 2004 MACNA, and it had what I assume was Tonga branch rock. Later I got some big pieces from Walt Smith when the tank upgraded to 120 gallons.

When I took the tank down, much of the rock was donated to the Boston Reefers for one of their fund raising auctions. For reasons I cannot recall, some ended up just being placed on the ground out behind the garage. I’m not sure what the original source of this left over rock was, but it may be from all of these sources.

When I went to look for it, some was literally buried under soil. Other rocks were covered in moss. Clearly, some work was needed to use it.

First step after digging it up was to hose off as much dirt and such in the driveway:

It was a pretty good amount, about half filling a 44 gallon brute can.

There was clearly a lot of non marine bacteria and other organisms on the rock. Since I was in no rush to use it, and since I did not want these bacteria contaminating the tank, I added a large amount of bleach (maybe 1/2 gallon of cheap grocery store bleach) to the Brute along with tap water to cover the rocks. Too much bleach, as the basement smelled strongly even with the Brute lid on and holes in the can plugged.

After several days, I removed each rock one at a time (with gloves), rinsed it for maybe 1-2 minutes per rock under a strong stream of cold tap water in a basement sink. Way too much bleach smell. If the weather were better, I would have done it outside.

Each rock then got a few minute soak in a mix of food grade ascorbic acid in water to neutralize the bleach. Maybe a cup of ascorbic acid in a few gallons tap water in a salt bucket. The usual dechlorinator would likely have been fine, but I wanted to try this.

Each rock then got a final tap water rinse and was stored on an open shelf in what would become the fish room, ultimately drying out over several months of the winter. They smelled faintly of bleach for a while, likely from bleach deep in pores, but that faded over time and certainly none remains now several months later.

Yesterday, I took several of the largest pieces and placed them into Brute #1, where 3-4 new tbs rocks also now reside. I moved some macroalgae from Brute #3 (the current refugium Brute) and set it up with a single led light shining into these new and old rocks plus macroalgae through a hole cut into the Brute lid.

I may also add more old rock to Brute #3, effectively putting rock at the bottom and macroalgae on top of this more brightly lit Brute. I’ll make that call after seeing the remainder of the new TBS rock. :)

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Crabs Eating Algae

The little crabs seem to have done a good job cleaning microalgae off the macroalgae I added to the display. The before and after pictures show it:

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

initial Fish Plan

It’s a ways off still since I want the second tbs rock and cuc batch to arrive first, but the initial fish plan is:

1 tank raised yellow tang
1 pair tank raised mandarins
5 green chromis

All will come from Dr Reef who has kindly offered to provide them at no cost to me. There are some thread, such as this one, on green chromis from him that convinced me to go with him;

Dr. Reef Quarantined Chromis: A Review

I had started a thread a couple of months ago asking specifically about Dr. Reef's quarantined chromis. Earlier this year I had done an AquaBiomics TankDNA test that found no DNA evidence of uronema (or other common fish parasites/diseases) and I would really like to keep it that way! I had read...

www.reef2reef.com

Next phase fish will likely be some damsels and clowns (probably only once I have an anemone).

Beyond that, we will just see what is happening, and what might be needed in terms of pest management, etc. :)

 

[jonelder68]

initial Fish Plan

It’s a ways off still since I want the second tbs rock and cuc batch to arrive first, but the initial fish plan is:

1 tank raised yellow tang
1 pair tank raised mandarins
5 green chromis

All will come from Dr Reef who has kindly offered to provide them at no cost to me. There are some thread, such as this one, on green chromis from him that convinced me to go with him;

Dr. Reef Quarantined Chromis: A Review

I had started a thread a couple of months ago asking specifically about Dr. Reef's quarantined chromis. Earlier this year I had done an AquaBiomics TankDNA test that found no DNA evidence of uronema (or other common fish parasites/diseases) and I would really like to keep it that way! I had read...

www.reef2reef.com

Next phase fish will likely be some damsels and clowns (probably only once I have an anemone).

Beyond that, we will just see what is happening, and what might be needed in terms of pest management, etc. :)

I hope you have better luck with chromis. I always end up with one after a while. Such peaceful fish except amongst one another :(

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I hope you have better luck with chromis. I always end up with one after a while. Such peaceful fish except amongst one another :(

Yes, I’ve had that happened too, though I was never sure if it was a fighting issue or a health issue. Hoping it was the latter. I never saw significant fighting. Uronema seems to be a substantial issue in new green chromis and a qt treatment mag help.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Phyto and Copepods

Today was supposed to be the day to add the pods and start daily phyto. One of the things I found particularly desirable about the Dinkins web site is the ability to pick an arrival day. That’s especially important for me since I’m in and out.

Unfortunately, the pods apparently decided they wanted to spend more time in Texas and UPS has delayed delivery while they tour the state. Hopefully this one day delay does not get extended again, which will become a more serious problem..