Ron Reefman's new 90g build

[Ron Reefman]

For those of you who follow this thread and don't follow the 'Snorkeling & Collecting Discussion' thread, here is some info. My wife and I did 4 days in the Florida Keys and I did some serious collecting. Below is just 1 of 5 posts from that thread. The other posts were about each day collecting (lots of photos). All the animals below ended up in either my 90g DT or my 16g RFA breeding tank (mostly as a temporary spot).

The Collection:
We get home about 2pm and we unpack the car, unhook the boat trailer and the I set up a 10g holding tank with a cheap led fixture and a wavemaker. I bring in the cooler full of livestock and start moving them to the holding tank. As is usual these days, with all the experience I have gained over roughly 50 snorkeling/collecting trips to the Keys, everybody made it home alive.

Here are about 2/3rds of the big Astraea snails I collected. I found some of these at all 3 snorkel sites.

And a closer look. The big one in the middle has a limpet stuck to the side of it's shell. Actually I found a couple like this.

Here is a mix of ceriths. The bigger ones were from Day 3 at the boat ramp and the small ones are from Day 4 at Veterans Beach.

Here are most of the smaller Astraea snails I collected. Most of these were from Day 3 at the boat ramp.

Here are most of the Spiny Astraea snails collected entirely at the boat ramp.

A couple of days later when I was moving livestock from the holding tank to the DT, I always see how quickly snails will decide to attach to the glass after being pulled loose from the tray I moved them in. To my surprise, every single Spiny Astraea snail attached in just 2 or 3 seconds!

 

[Ron Reefman]

I did do a bit of collecting other than snails!;Hilarious

This purple serpent star looks just like one I killed when doing a tank switch and I lost all my stony corals and some other inverts.

This is one of those brittle stars that looks red in bright sunlight and almost black in the tank!

And this brittle star has brown and white bands on it's legs.

I collected one decorator crab on purpose, and as it turned out, I somehow got a second one as a hitchhiker. Both have a few green zoa polyps on their back!

I'm not big on curly-Q anemones, but I wanted one to put in the RFA breeding tank just for fun. And seeing as there are literally hundreds or billions of these in the Keys, I didn't think they would miss one.

This is one of the two Rock Flower Anemones I was able to collect. This one is the size of a nickle and the other one is even smaller. The lack of color is typical of RFAs from shallow water. The colorful Ultra RFAs come from about 20 to 40 feet deep.

This is the second time I've found one of these green headed chitons. They stick to rocks (or your glass) like they were super glued on!

I moved this one to the sand at the front glass. They curl up into a 'C' when you peel them loose. I set this one down and in about 30 seconds it grabbed onto the glass and a minute latter was into the sand.

 

[Ron Reefman]

The last of my collection pics include a couple of small clams. I've found them good survivors in my tank and as filter feeders, they are useful for cleaning the water.

I already have some zoas from the Keys, but I brought this small group home for the RFA breeding tank, just to have a little something different in there.

I assume that this is a sponge, but I wasn't too sure when I collected it. I had not seen anything quite like it in the areas we snorkel frequently. We'll see how well it does now that it's in the 90g DT.

So that's the end of this Keys trip. I have lots of clean up crew now. Yesterday I counted no less than 50 critters working on the glass of the 90g DT!

Somebody asked me about the value of what I collected. To be honest, I never really gave that a lot of thought because most of what I collect are inexpensive critters. I almost never collect fish because they are much more difficult and require time and patience. But since we had a good trip this time, I felt it might be fun to see what the value was.

I haven't bought snails or any of the other things we (I) collect for a long time, and I was surprised to see ordinary Astraea snails selling for $2.99 at Live Aquaria. Or a decorator crab selling for $35.00... YIKES! So I totaled up all that I had and used Live Aquaria prices since they had 90+% of what I had. The total shocked me. The ones I found prices for added up to $450 and after looking around to find prices on less common things like Chitons, Limpets, clams as well as guesstimating a price for the ordinary zoas and the total rose close to $550.

Now that was a big 4 day's worth of collecting. I don't normally bring home nearly as many critters. We are limited to just 20 critters per day per person, and we normally only collect the 2 days we snorkel. This was an unusual trip since we got out 4 days. And had 4 days of great weather.

On the other hand, if I had been a licensed wholesale collector I could easily have collected 20 times that I did, probably even more.

Until the next trip, I hope you all enjoyed this recounting of our great week! And as always, I'm happy to answer any questions you may have (if I can)!

 

[Ron Reefman]

My wife found a tube anemone when we were walking the shallows at an estuary a couple of weeks ago. That got me thinking about the fact that I've always wanted one. And now I'm buying live baby brine shrimp for an LFS every week because a friend passed his Copper Banded Butterfly Fish to me and that's his favorite food. So I'm at the LFS and what does he have in a tank... several pink fluorescent tube anemones. And they were at what I felt was a very fair price, so I got one.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I'm in the process of making 2 big decisions.

First I think I want to do my rockscape over again. Yes, this would be the 3rd rockscape in a year. But I'm just not at all happy with the current look. I've contacted Premium Aquatics and asked if they could pull out 3 to 5 'shelf' rocks that are a foot long. If I get them, I'll absolutely do the new rockscape.

I'm thinking of an 'L' shape layout. Kind of tall along the back of the tank (up the overflow) and with an 'arm' along the right side glass. That's the side of the tank that is away from our viewing perspective in the living room and is over the counter top. Where as the left side is at the end of the stand and easier for viewing. Here's a very eary pic so you can see the layout. The tank in the middle was a temporary holding tank and is not there anymore.

Second, I'm not happy with the results I've had in the 16g RFA breeding tank. So I'm seriously considering moving all 35+ RFAs to the sand in front of the new rockscape. They would be toward the left and front glass where they would be well shown off.

Part of this decision is due to the fact that when I had the RFAs in the old DT, I had several spawns and 12 to 24 babies from each. In the breeding tank, I've had 2 spawns and only a couple of babies from each and they didn't survive. I've learned a few things about RFA breeding, but the Breeding tank isn't really pretty to look at and 35+ RFAs aren't cheap to own just to be lab rats. I'd rather have them in the DT and make the DT look awesome!

Comments welcome.

 

[ScottR]

I'm in the process of making 2 big decisions.

First I think I want to do my rockscape over again. Yes, this would be the 3rd rockscape in a year. But I'm just not at all happy with the current look. I've contacted Premium Aquatics and asked if they could pull out 3 to 5 'shelf' rocks that are a foot long. If I get them, I'll absolutely do the new rockscape.

I'm thinking of an 'L' shape layout. Kind of tall along the back of the tank (up the overflow) and with an 'arm' along the right side glass. That's the side of the tank that is away from our viewing perspective in the living room and is over the counter top. Where as the left side is at the end of the stand and easier for viewing. Here's a very eary pic so you can see the layout. The tank in the middle was a temporary holding tank and is not there anymore.

Second, I'm not happy with the results I've had in the 16g RFA breeding tank. So I'm seriously considering moving all 35+ RFAs to the sand in front of the new rockscape. They would be toward the left and front glass where they would be well shown off.

Part of this decision is due to the fact that when I had the RFAs in the old DT, I had several spawns and 12 to 24 babies from each. In the breeding tank, I've had 2 spawns and only a couple of babies from each and they didn't survive. I've learned a few things about RFA breeding, but the Breeding tank isn't really pretty to look at and 35+ RFAs aren't cheap to own just to be lab rats. I'd rather have them in the DT and make the DT look awesome!

Comments welcome.

Nothing beats a carpet of RFAs in the front. Awesome stuff Ron. Following along.

 

[SMSREEF]

I'm in the process of making 2 big decisions.

First I think I want to do my rockscape over again. Yes, this would be the 3rd rockscape in a year. But I'm just not at all happy with the current look. I've contacted Premium Aquatics and asked if they could pull out 3 to 5 'shelf' rocks that are a foot long. If I get them, I'll absolutely do the new rockscape.

I'm thinking of an 'L' shape layout. Kind of tall along the back of the tank (up the overflow) and with an 'arm' along the right side glass. That's the side of the tank that is away from our viewing perspective in the living room and is over the counter top. Where as the left side is at the end of the stand and easier for viewing. Here's a very eary pic so you can see the layout. The tank in the middle was a temporary holding tank and is not there anymore.

Second, I'm not happy with the results I've had in the 16g RFA breeding tank. So I'm seriously considering moving all 35+ RFAs to the sand in front of the new rockscape. They would be toward the left and front glass where they would be well shown off.

Part of this decision is due to the fact that when I had the RFAs in the old DT, I had several spawns and 12 to 24 babies from each. In the breeding tank, I've had 2 spawns and only a couple of babies from each and they didn't survive. I've learned a few things about RFA breeding, but the Breeding tank isn't really pretty to look at and 35+ RFAs aren't cheap to own just to be lab rats. I'd rather have them in the DT and make the DT look awesome!

Comments welcome.

Moving your crew back to the display will be awesome. I can’t wait to see what you come up with.
Sorry you didn’t have luck breeding them in the 16gal, but at least you tried and learned in the process.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Back home from a morning beach walk at Bunche Beach which is right in front of a big estuary. We were surprised to see that the massive grassy bottom we walked through a couple of months ago is gone! In it's place is a scraggly looking area of algae. And where before, if I put my dip net in the water, I got a dozen or more stomatella snails, now even dragging the dip net for yards and yards doesn't net a single stomatella. Right now I'm assuming it's the change in the seasons.

On the other hand, we did collect a couple of adult blennies and a couple of juvenile blennies. Elaine also netted a couple of small file fish. I got a tine flounder and a handful of other tiny fish. BTW, the tiny fish I collected last time is still very much alive in the 16g RFA breeding tank along with a clownfish. We also netted a few decent size shrimp which I'm going to try and keep alive in the DT. There are a few in there already and a few smaller ones in the 16g tank.

I collected 2 oddities. I pretty sure the first one is a small tunicate colony. The second is stranger. It looked like a hollow tube and I think something is living inside it. In fact I'm sure something is inside it as it was tangled up with some macro algae I brought home and in the holding tank, I can see something moving at one end. It's probably just a hermit crab living in a hollow stick or root. ;Hilarious But I'll leave it alone for now as everybody is acclimating to half water from their home and half water from my DT.

I'll try for photos later.

 

[Ron Reefman]

These photos aren't much to look at, but I have to admit, I'm quite happy with how well the tiny fish are doing. Here are 6 small, and I mean small, fish along with an unexpected find in the macro algae, a nice pipe fish. But I've never had much luck with small, wild collected pipe fish. They are like sea horses, very slow and deliberate eaters. And I have no clue what the small fish are. A couple of small shrimp went into the RFA breeding tank as well.

We did collect a couple of small local blennies and a few file fish along with a couple of bigger shrimp that all went in the 90g DT.

And as a side note, Premium Aquatics has shipped me 5 Marco Rock shelf rocks. When they arrive I'll start working on a new rockscape and move all my RFAs back to the DT. I miss having all their color and fluorescence in the big tank.

 

[rcmike]

Very cool! I wish I was closer to the ocean so I could collect things for my reef. It’s starting to cool off here and I’m missing the Florida weather bit it doesn’t look like we will make it down there this year.

 

[swul_benben]

beatiful tank!

 

[Ron Reefman]

Very cool! I wish I was closer to the ocean so I could collect things for my reef. It’s starting to cool off here and I’m missing the Florida weather bit it doesn’t look like we will make it down there this year.

Mike, good news. I've been told that the Florida Keys, Sanibel Island as well as Elaine and I will all still be here next year too! Hope you can get away then. Meanwhile, I'll keep posting stuff here. I hope that helps?

beatiful tank!

I need to get a current photo of the tank. It's starting to look pretty good as the corals are covering more and more of the rocks. But soon I'll have some Marco Shelf Rock and will do my rockscape over and then I'll move all 35 of my RFAs from the 16g breeding tank to the 90g DT. It's killing me to have all those colorful nems in that little tank that makes viewing less fun. I look forward to the new 90g rockscape having a big window into the 35+ anemones and the fluorescence light show under lots of blue leds!

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Hi,

Been a while since I checked in. Tons of progress. Looks great. Can’t wait to see the rock.

It is amazing the diversity you are getting pulling from the local area. It would be interesting to see an Aquabiomics test done on the tank to see the bacteria bed you have. I bet you have a great eco system going on in there.

Now you know my position on the nems. I would be wearing a helmet at night. I am telling you, they are crawling out of that tank at night searching for brains. Tonight’s Halloween, be careful ;Woot

 

[Ron Reefman]

Hi,

Been a while since I checked in. Tons of progress. Looks great. Can’t wait to see the rock.

It is amazing the diversity you are getting pulling from the local area. It would be interesting to see an Aquabiomics test done on the tank to see the bacteria bed you have. I bet you have a great eco system going on in there.

Now you know my position on the nems. I would be wearing a helmet at night. I am telling you, they are crawling out of that tank at night searching for brains. Tonight’s Halloween, be careful ;Woot

I've always been of the opinion that because I bring in a lot of critters that I've personally collected in the wild (Gulf of Mexico & Florida Keys), that I probably have some different bacteria and other pods and microscopic 'stuff' than most tanks that the typical reefer keeps. In 20 years I've never had any fish diseases or parasites. I did take in from a friend who was getting out of the hobby, a mature pajama cardinal that had a big 'growth' below it's mouth. The fish did OK in my tanks, survived for 8 years and after about 3 years the growth slowly shrank to the point you wouldn't know anything was wrong with it.

Does somebody actually do a test to tell you what bacteria you have in the tank? I've never even sent any water out to have water parameters checked.

Anemones in general, and RFAs in particular are probably my favorite thing in a reef tank or to find and watch when we go snorkeling. I've even picked up (and kept) a few anemones that we found on the beach when we've done beach walks!

As for the nems searching for brains...

And Halloween...

And then there is my all time favorite Halloween movie star hero...

 

[rcmike]

Mike, good news. I've been told that the Florida Keys, Sanibel Island as well as Elaine and I will all still be here next year too! Hope you can get away then. Meanwhile, I'll keep posting stuff here. I hope that helps?

Even better news! I found out last night that our family probably will be going down there after Christmas! It has been a rough year and my parents really acted like they didn’t want to go.

They went down there this spring with some friends and dad got a vibrio vulnificus infection in his hand and spent two weeks down there in the hospital. He went through several surgeries but luckily they got it all. He’s going through physical therapy and is getting more and more use out of it.

A little over a month ago mom fell and broke her wrist and it basically twisted around backwards. She had to have surgery to repair it and is starting physical therapy on it now.

Any time anyone mentioned going they both acted like they didn’t want to go, which I understand 100% considering. My wife had asked them since she has to plan vacations well in advance and they didn’t want to go but she scheduled a vacation during that time anyway. Last night mom texted her and asked her when her vacation was so they could get a house for that week.

We will probably be bringing our ‘74 20’ Mako down like last time and do some fishing. Maybe we can get together some time while we’re there.

 

[Ron Reefman]

OK, here is the current look of both of my tanks as I start a new rockscape and combining the 2 tanks.

The 90g DT (36" x 30" x 20") as it sits today.

Front FTS

Left side

Right side

All these anemones will also go into the 90g DT.

The DT has an egg crate 'shelf' on pvc pipe legs under some of the rock to create an open but protected space. I think the shelf will go away or at least be changed. I have a box full of dry rock. It's heavy enough that I can barely lift it and I wouldn't try carrying it!
I also have this new Marco Shelf Rock I got from Premium Aquatics (special order).

My intention is to make a big rock structure along the back of the tank and piled up against the overflow. Then an arm of rocks about 25% to 33% as tall as the back rocks will extend out toward the front just off the right side glass. That will leave the left front corner with open sand where I'll place most of the RFAs.

As I start working some ideas out with dry rocks I'll post them here. And I'll do my best to take photos and show the step by step progress for the entire process, from moving out the current rocks and coral through the very end.

 

[Sniff]

Hi! You have a beautiful collection of anemones "Rock Flouwers". Tell me, do they breed in your aquarium? I see that they are large individuals, and their condition is excellent.

 

[imchuco]

corals look amazing!

 

[Ron Reefman]

corals look amazing!

Thanks, they looked even better in my old 40g tank. But in January I set up a new 90g tank I made so I'd have more room. This tank is just starting to look good, but now I'm going to mess with the rocks... again!

Hi! You have a beautiful collection of anemones "Rock Flowers". Tell me, do they breed in your aquarium? I see that they are large individuals, and their condition is excellent.

Thanks. There are a couple of rare ones in there that are really cool. One has a deep reddish purple face which doesn't fluoresce, and very gold colored tentacles (not yellow, gold) that have flecks of green in them and the tentacles fluoresce like crazy.

Some of these I've had for 6 years now. They reproduced twice in my old 120g DT. They didn't reproduce for 2 years in my crowded 40g tank. When I set up the current 90g tank in January, I also set up the 16g RFA breeding tank. They have reproduced 2 times already in 2020 and one just spawned 2 evenings ago. But they produced more babies when they were in the 120g tank? I'm not sure why. But I'm more interested in having them on display in the 90g tank than breeding in the 16g tank. So they will move as soon as I get a new rockscape built.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Today I did a complete water change in the 5g tank I'm keeping my algae in while the Fluconazole is in the DT. That emptied a Brute that had old tank water I saved for use with the algae.

I have 25g on new saltwater ready to go and tomorrow I'll do my first of at least 2... maybe 3 water changes in the 90g DT (115g system). That's before I start the work to prepare for the rockscape. I'll also get out tomorrow and buy more salt so I can have a couple of Brutes filled to keep corals and encrusted rocks in one, fish and other critters in the other.