OP
OP
courtneykeeps
Community Member
Quite a few are, I believe Codium sp. is, Caulerpa lentillifera and Ulva lactuca also. Whether they taste good is a different story.
Salty Fingers
- Build Thread
- Thread starter courtneykeeps
- Start date
- Tagged users None
OP
OP
courtneykeeps
Community Member
Fanning the flames
I feel like since I started my marine tank, the local fish shops have 'unlocked' entirely like a video game and now I can make use of the whole shop! Previously I would look at the freshwater section, maybe peer at the saltwater but not really take any of it in, because I knew I couldn't keep it.
Somehow last weekend, a trip to pickup tortillas for a BBQ became a trip to refill my CO2 canisters and also visit one of my LFS .
What better way to beat the heat, than to buy yourself a literal fan?
Latest tank shot:
I feel like since I started my marine tank, the local fish shops have 'unlocked' entirely like a video game and now I can make use of the whole shop! Previously I would look at the freshwater section, maybe peer at the saltwater but not really take any of it in, because I knew I couldn't keep it.
Somehow last weekend, a trip to pickup tortillas for a BBQ became a trip to refill my CO2 canisters and also visit one of my LFS .
What better way to beat the heat, than to buy yourself a literal fan?
Latest tank shot:
OP
OP
courtneykeeps
Community Member
Thank you!
OP
OP
courtneykeeps
Community Member
Blatantly Complacency
I had a slight mishap recently with the tank.
The clown goby was just starting to eat (hallelujah) but I got too complacent with the fact that it liked to stay in one place on the substrate. I removed the lid, thinking I was safe. Low and behold, it jumped out and became fish jerky. I was annoyed at the situation and annoyed at myself because it was totally avoidable.
So I took another break from adding anything to adsorb the lessons learnt. The tank continued to flourish but I couldn't help feeling it was incomplete.
Nothing but a pipe dream
I decided to take a trip to Advanced Aquarium Consultancy with @RosehipScapes to patch the void. I have to say, the crew in there always give stellar customer service and a great chinwag.
I went there primarily in search of Blue Striped Pipefish. I've wanted them for a long time and I'd heard they were one of the easiest Pipefish to feed frozen food. Well I wasn't disappointed...
I picked up a pair (male and female) which are not only inseparable, but are active and already eating frozen food! They've been picking pods and brine shrimp since the moment they landed in the tank. I hope to keep these guys happy and healthy and now I have a LID. It's an ADA + cling film combo. Not the most ideal but it works.
I also added a nice bright red fire shrimp. I've heard they hide most of the time but so far you can almost always see it. The Pipefish and the shrimp are wary of each other, having mini stand offs when either one gets close but they ultimately leave each other alone.
Lastly, I added a little lemon feather duster to add to my worm collection! My plan is to get a cluster (social feather duster) to finish it off.
Admittedly I haven't done a solid water change in over a month but it still looks pristine, water quality is where it should be and everything is happy and healthy. All in all the tank is going really well.
I had a slight mishap recently with the tank.
The clown goby was just starting to eat (hallelujah) but I got too complacent with the fact that it liked to stay in one place on the substrate. I removed the lid, thinking I was safe. Low and behold, it jumped out and became fish jerky. I was annoyed at the situation and annoyed at myself because it was totally avoidable.
So I took another break from adding anything to adsorb the lessons learnt. The tank continued to flourish but I couldn't help feeling it was incomplete.
Nothing but a pipe dream
I decided to take a trip to Advanced Aquarium Consultancy with @RosehipScapes to patch the void. I have to say, the crew in there always give stellar customer service and a great chinwag.
I went there primarily in search of Blue Striped Pipefish. I've wanted them for a long time and I'd heard they were one of the easiest Pipefish to feed frozen food. Well I wasn't disappointed...
I picked up a pair (male and female) which are not only inseparable, but are active and already eating frozen food! They've been picking pods and brine shrimp since the moment they landed in the tank. I hope to keep these guys happy and healthy and now I have a LID. It's an ADA + cling film combo. Not the most ideal but it works.
I also added a nice bright red fire shrimp. I've heard they hide most of the time but so far you can almost always see it. The Pipefish and the shrimp are wary of each other, having mini stand offs when either one gets close but they ultimately leave each other alone.
Lastly, I added a little lemon feather duster to add to my worm collection! My plan is to get a cluster (social feather duster) to finish it off.
Admittedly I haven't done a solid water change in over a month but it still looks pristine, water quality is where it should be and everything is happy and healthy. All in all the tank is going really well.
OP
OP
courtneykeeps
Community Member
Rock steady
It's hard to believe this tank is already 6 months old. I believe this is still considered 'young' in reef terms but the tank is rock steady. It's like having a medium-energy aquascape - the bliss of low energy with the intricacies and rewards of high energy. It just sits perfectly in the middle.
I'm happy to report the Blue Striped Pipefish are getting on really well. At first the female wasn't so enthusiastic about eating, and would only visibly eat one or two bites - she was much more interested in hunting pods. Now that the pod population is smaller, they're both incredibly energetic when it comes to eating and I can rest assured that they are getting the nutrition they need.
They also haven't dropped dead like my Clownfish so I must be doing something right lol. I feed them twice a day (morning and night) with a mix of frozen food including; mysis, brine shrimp, copepods, lobster eggs and 'marine nano' which I assume is just a jamboree of foods. I cut the cubes up into several pieces and keep them in a freezer bag so it's easier and I don't have to keep getting the chopping board out. They also 'sleep' in the Gracilaria plume at night which looks really cute so I know they are enjoying the macroalgae.
The fire shrimp is also not as shy as I was expecting it to be. It's not exactly amano shrimp level of boldness but it's always visible and ALWAYS hungry. It will literally trample over every coral, algae and creature to grab a morsel. Totally does not GAF.
Computer Love, and Hate.
I've finally setup an auto doser for my nutrients too. It's only dosing Tropica Specialised at 1ml per week. I would do 2ml but as I'm feeding quite heavily for the Pipefish I don't think it's needed. Since it's only a DD (Kamoer) P1, it also means I'm still having to manually dose Brightwell Chaetogro every week, which I'm not sure is even contributing anything anymore. When it runs out I'll see how the tank functions on Tropica alone. I would love if it could auto dose my phytoplankton too but I don't think such a system exists yet within my space and budget constraints.
The DD auto top up that I'm using is great for obvious reasons but was also getting tripped by my astrea snails and nearly caused a flood several times. I've since fixed that by putting the sensor on a timer which comes on for 5 minutes a day instead of 24/7. I'd have to be reallyyy unlucky for the snails to be covering the sensor at that exact moment. It's not given me any problems since... until this week. I got back from a trip to Italy and my Mum informed me that literally the day after I left, the tank flooded. She told me that she 'fixed it' and I did legitimately feel a slight panic but was relieved when she told me she'd just removed some of the water.
I'll have to keep an eye on it to see what that was about.
Changes are comin'
That 6 month mark is about the time you often get a little itchy and want to make some changes. For me, I need to trim back some of the algae that's grown really wild (Gracilaria and Ochtodes in particular) and give away or sell bits. I also plan to add a Fiji leather once I get hold of one. I'd like to make some structural changes too but I'm not sure yet what would look like. Suggestions are welcome.
Once I have sorted out a proper lid, I'd also like to entertain the idea of a blenny, maybe a tailspot. I don't want a repeat of last time.
All in all, the tank is doing really well.
It's hard to believe this tank is already 6 months old. I believe this is still considered 'young' in reef terms but the tank is rock steady. It's like having a medium-energy aquascape - the bliss of low energy with the intricacies and rewards of high energy. It just sits perfectly in the middle.
I'm happy to report the Blue Striped Pipefish are getting on really well. At first the female wasn't so enthusiastic about eating, and would only visibly eat one or two bites - she was much more interested in hunting pods. Now that the pod population is smaller, they're both incredibly energetic when it comes to eating and I can rest assured that they are getting the nutrition they need.
They also haven't dropped dead like my Clownfish so I must be doing something right lol. I feed them twice a day (morning and night) with a mix of frozen food including; mysis, brine shrimp, copepods, lobster eggs and 'marine nano' which I assume is just a jamboree of foods. I cut the cubes up into several pieces and keep them in a freezer bag so it's easier and I don't have to keep getting the chopping board out. They also 'sleep' in the Gracilaria plume at night which looks really cute so I know they are enjoying the macroalgae.
The fire shrimp is also not as shy as I was expecting it to be. It's not exactly amano shrimp level of boldness but it's always visible and ALWAYS hungry. It will literally trample over every coral, algae and creature to grab a morsel. Totally does not GAF.
Computer Love, and Hate.
I've finally setup an auto doser for my nutrients too. It's only dosing Tropica Specialised at 1ml per week. I would do 2ml but as I'm feeding quite heavily for the Pipefish I don't think it's needed. Since it's only a DD (Kamoer) P1, it also means I'm still having to manually dose Brightwell Chaetogro every week, which I'm not sure is even contributing anything anymore. When it runs out I'll see how the tank functions on Tropica alone. I would love if it could auto dose my phytoplankton too but I don't think such a system exists yet within my space and budget constraints.
The DD auto top up that I'm using is great for obvious reasons but was also getting tripped by my astrea snails and nearly caused a flood several times. I've since fixed that by putting the sensor on a timer which comes on for 5 minutes a day instead of 24/7. I'd have to be reallyyy unlucky for the snails to be covering the sensor at that exact moment. It's not given me any problems since... until this week. I got back from a trip to Italy and my Mum informed me that literally the day after I left, the tank flooded. She told me that she 'fixed it' and I did legitimately feel a slight panic but was relieved when she told me she'd just removed some of the water.
I'll have to keep an eye on it to see what that was about.
Changes are comin'
That 6 month mark is about the time you often get a little itchy and want to make some changes. For me, I need to trim back some of the algae that's grown really wild (Gracilaria and Ochtodes in particular) and give away or sell bits. I also plan to add a Fiji leather once I get hold of one. I'd like to make some structural changes too but I'm not sure yet what would look like. Suggestions are welcome.
Once I have sorted out a proper lid, I'd also like to entertain the idea of a blenny, maybe a tailspot. I don't want a repeat of last time.
All in all, the tank is doing really well.
OP
OP
courtneykeeps
Community Member
I've never kept a high end reef but I imagine something like this is much less headache haha.
Thank you.
Thank you!
OP
OP
courtneykeeps
Community Member
Flash! Aaaah
I finally managed to pick up a frag of Yellow Fiji Leather! They canary of leather corals.
I spotted it at a shop on Monday. Ironically, I had been talking to various people about trying to get one and just that morning I was taking trimmings of macroalgae and I cleared a space and said to myself; "when I get a Fiji leather, that's where it'll go" (thinking this could be weeks/months away). Genuinely did not expect to come across it that same afternoon!
It appears to be around 80% open but not fully, although the polyps are out. I'm giving it some time to adjust to its surroundings and I'm hoping the yellow colour returns!
I finally managed to pick up a frag of Yellow Fiji Leather! They canary of leather corals.
I spotted it at a shop on Monday. Ironically, I had been talking to various people about trying to get one and just that morning I was taking trimmings of macroalgae and I cleared a space and said to myself; "when I get a Fiji leather, that's where it'll go" (thinking this could be weeks/months away). Genuinely did not expect to come across it that same afternoon!
It appears to be around 80% open but not fully, although the polyps are out. I'm giving it some time to adjust to its surroundings and I'm hoping the yellow colour returns!
OP
OP
courtneykeeps
Community Member
Wait, what?
I just realised it's been over 3 months since i updated this journal! A decent amount has changed since then... and a lot of photos have been taken.
This is the difference since the early trials of this tank up to now, a difference of 9 months. I remember looking at that first state and thinking 'well this went well...not'! But turns out the key is patience, just like anything else. You'd never know the tank ever looked like that.
Win some, Lose A Lot
I've tried a few different corals in this tank and after losing a few and the money to go with it, if it's not p*** easy I'm not interested. I'll stick with macroalgae. My yellow fiji leather... disintegrated. Colt Coral... disintegrated.
One good thing did come of all this though. In the search to figure out why those corals reacted the way they did, I discovered that I my alkalinity was rock bottom! At one point it measured 5.4. Considering my salt mix naturally hangs around 9-10, that's quite a drop. I started to increase my water change frequency from never to once a week and then tapering off to once every two weeks, whilst also dosing Tropic Marin All for Reef to help. The alkalinity is now back in range, but I'm not actually sure how much impact it was having on this system because nothing appears to have changed.
I went to Chicago in October and Scotland in December and during this time the feeding of phytoplankton was a bit haphazard. By the beginning of December I had stopped dosing it altogether. Turns out it's important I'm pretty sure it's one of reasons my yellow feather duster up and left. It initially dropped it's crown and regrew this small one, but now the whole thing vanished. I lost the big beautiful white one due to it being smothered by macroalgae. So now I'm on the lookout for decent sized healthy feathers.
I battled a short lived aiptasia infestation too. Initially I would smother the ones that popped up or remove them, but then they started appearing in places I couldn't. I didn't want to use chemicals as I prefer to use natural methods where possible and I'd heard mixed results with products for killing aiptasia.
I noticed Advanced Aquarium Consultancy got in a shipment of 'true aiptasia eating peppermint shrimp', so I thought I'd give it a go. My expectation was that this shrimp would graze on the aiptasia and over time they'd slowly disappear. Within the first day of adding the peppermint, it ate 99% of my aiptasia. I was shocked! Happily shocked. I've now not seen any since the shrimp went in some months ago.
My most recent battle was with flatworms aka Red Planaria. Normally I would just let it be, but I have plans to distribute this macroalgae to other hobbyists and institutions and so I wanted to make sure it was clean.
It appeared that the au naturale method wasn't going to cut it this time. From the countless things I read and videos I watched, the best way seems to be just nuking them to high hell! The problem is they release toxins when they die so it was a bit more involved.
To nuke them, it seems you have to overdose the treatment slightly. I had to siphon out as many flatworms as I could myself to reduce the impact of the toxins, remove the fish and inverts and keep them in a bucket overnight, add the Flatworm Exit and wait an hour, add carbon to the filter and then do a large water change before adding everything back in. So far everything's survived the treatment and it's like nothing ever happened, just minus the flatworms. I will need to stay vigilant for eggs and juveniles as I've heard they aren't as affected by it.
Nudis and Newbies!
In this time my friend Hiep over in Texas also set up his FIRST saltwater aquarium, and it's beautiful! I hope he doesn't mind me posting it, but this is the idea I was going for when I set mine up. Not just random rocks here and there but an actual defined scape, and he's pulled it off so well. Go check him out on Instagram; @ultum_hiep.
(Photo Credit: Hiep Hong)
I've also been hit by the seemingly Pokémon-worthy diversity that is Nudibranch. They're such fascinating creatures and the fact that they all look so unique and crazy and eat such specific diets gives them a super hero like quality in my opinion. I enjoy coming across new ones and hopefully I'll be able to keep some at some point.
(Not my picture)
The picture below is of Babakina anadoni which has been spotted off the coast of Cornwall this summer - a first time sighting for this species in British waters. The fact that anything like that lives around us is incredible to me. I hope we discover more!
(Not my picture)
I just realised it's been over 3 months since i updated this journal! A decent amount has changed since then... and a lot of photos have been taken.
This is the difference since the early trials of this tank up to now, a difference of 9 months. I remember looking at that first state and thinking 'well this went well...not'! But turns out the key is patience, just like anything else. You'd never know the tank ever looked like that.
Win some, Lose A Lot
I've tried a few different corals in this tank and after losing a few and the money to go with it, if it's not p*** easy I'm not interested. I'll stick with macroalgae. My yellow fiji leather... disintegrated. Colt Coral... disintegrated.
One good thing did come of all this though. In the search to figure out why those corals reacted the way they did, I discovered that I my alkalinity was rock bottom! At one point it measured 5.4. Considering my salt mix naturally hangs around 9-10, that's quite a drop. I started to increase my water change frequency from never to once a week and then tapering off to once every two weeks, whilst also dosing Tropic Marin All for Reef to help. The alkalinity is now back in range, but I'm not actually sure how much impact it was having on this system because nothing appears to have changed.
I went to Chicago in October and Scotland in December and during this time the feeding of phytoplankton was a bit haphazard. By the beginning of December I had stopped dosing it altogether. Turns out it's important I'm pretty sure it's one of reasons my yellow feather duster up and left. It initially dropped it's crown and regrew this small one, but now the whole thing vanished. I lost the big beautiful white one due to it being smothered by macroalgae. So now I'm on the lookout for decent sized healthy feathers.
I battled a short lived aiptasia infestation too. Initially I would smother the ones that popped up or remove them, but then they started appearing in places I couldn't. I didn't want to use chemicals as I prefer to use natural methods where possible and I'd heard mixed results with products for killing aiptasia.
I noticed Advanced Aquarium Consultancy got in a shipment of 'true aiptasia eating peppermint shrimp', so I thought I'd give it a go. My expectation was that this shrimp would graze on the aiptasia and over time they'd slowly disappear. Within the first day of adding the peppermint, it ate 99% of my aiptasia. I was shocked! Happily shocked. I've now not seen any since the shrimp went in some months ago.
My most recent battle was with flatworms aka Red Planaria. Normally I would just let it be, but I have plans to distribute this macroalgae to other hobbyists and institutions and so I wanted to make sure it was clean.
It appeared that the au naturale method wasn't going to cut it this time. From the countless things I read and videos I watched, the best way seems to be just nuking them to high hell! The problem is they release toxins when they die so it was a bit more involved.
To nuke them, it seems you have to overdose the treatment slightly. I had to siphon out as many flatworms as I could myself to reduce the impact of the toxins, remove the fish and inverts and keep them in a bucket overnight, add the Flatworm Exit and wait an hour, add carbon to the filter and then do a large water change before adding everything back in. So far everything's survived the treatment and it's like nothing ever happened, just minus the flatworms. I will need to stay vigilant for eggs and juveniles as I've heard they aren't as affected by it.
Nudis and Newbies!
In this time my friend Hiep over in Texas also set up his FIRST saltwater aquarium, and it's beautiful! I hope he doesn't mind me posting it, but this is the idea I was going for when I set mine up. Not just random rocks here and there but an actual defined scape, and he's pulled it off so well. Go check him out on Instagram; @ultum_hiep.
(Photo Credit: Hiep Hong)
I've also been hit by the seemingly Pokémon-worthy diversity that is Nudibranch. They're such fascinating creatures and the fact that they all look so unique and crazy and eat such specific diets gives them a super hero like quality in my opinion. I enjoy coming across new ones and hopefully I'll be able to keep some at some point.
(Not my picture)
The picture below is of Babakina anadoni which has been spotted off the coast of Cornwall this summer - a first time sighting for this species in British waters. The fact that anything like that lives around us is incredible to me. I hope we discover more!
(Not my picture)
Eric R.
Well-Known Member
Beautiful looking tank! Hope my macroalgae tank gets there, (though I've been very lazy with it so far...) I'm really just using it to QT snails and try to breed E. crispata.
Sorry about losing your corals and feather dusters :/
Sorry about losing your corals and feather dusters :/
Gumbies R Us
Another Fish in the Sea
Tank is looking really good!!!
OP
OP
courtneykeeps
Community Member
Thank you! Do you have a build thread for your macroalgae tank?
It's ok, I've made my peace with the corals before it got too expensive EZPZ corals from now on! The feathers is sad and nobody seems to have them in stock at the moment so I might be waiting a while until I get more.
Thank you for your support!
Thank you! Recently the macroalgae has slowed down. Currently investigating whether that's nutrients or lighting. Usually it's one of the two.
A Young Reefer
Valuable Member
calling you a genius is an underestimate to what you have achieved.
You have literally built a freshwater tank using saltwater creatures, the sexy shrimp in there reminds me the most of FW planted tanks.
love the pipe fish.
You have literally built a freshwater tank using saltwater creatures, the sexy shrimp in there reminds me the most of FW planted tanks.
love the pipe fish.
OP
OP
courtneykeeps
Community Member
You have some species that I would love to get! It's nice to see variety.No, I'm not great at taking pictures, your's are amazing though!
Here's a somewhat recent photo:
Similar threads
