The Dr. Seuss Tank | Northwest's 29 Gallon NPS Aquarium

[Northwest_Scapes_]

Well here's something interesting I noticed, while the Swiftia came in initially with all dark red polyps, looking around now, I've noticed a good number of light orange polyps. Whether it's a good or bad thing, I'm not sure so I contacted a few of my other marine bio friends to ask. I haven't seen anyone else mention it before.
My 2 guesses are either 1) They're new polyps that will turn red as they mature overtime or 2) some other factor is causing them switch from Red to Orange. It doesn't seem like a malnutrition thing since most of them are still red + the coral is still healthy. Only time will tell, but the contrast does look kind of cool

 

[LeonardTheWrasse]

@Northwest_Scapes_ , how did you start keeping NPS corals? I'd love to keep them, but there's such a steep learning curve.

Could you give any pointers on how to start in the world of NPS? You have an amazing tank, it's really impressive.

 

[Northwest_Scapes_]

@Northwest_Scapes_ , how did you start keeping NPS corals? I'd love to keep them, but there's such a steep learning curve.

Could you give any pointers on how to start in the world of NPS? You have an amazing tank, it's really impressive.

Thank you so much! Hopefully it will look even better here soon haha

I haven't been keeping NPS for that long (I'd highly rec reaching out to Levi Peterson (@/oddballreefer on Insta) and Florian (@/darksidereefkeeping on Insta, he's on here too but I don't remember his user for R2R) as they have a lot more experience than me but for my personal recommendation:

The hardest part is of course feeding, so generally I like to recommend corals that don't need multiple feedings a day, which narrows down to a lot of Large Polyp NPS such as Sun Corals, Dendros (specifically the Fathead Dendro) and true Balaophyllia. There's a few others but I haven't kept them yet so I can't speak for those. These corals have large mouths so they're easy to target feed, and they really only need to be fed a few times a week (everyday if you want good growth) but they can do fine with a feeding every other day or a 2-3x a week. I wouldn't recommend the Black Sun Coral though for a beginner since they tend to be more finicky than the Pink and Orange species.
These are pretty readily available (except for true Balanophyllia. A lot of stores mislabel them, Balanophyllia are generally solitary colonies so they're just 1 big polyp. I'm about to aquire one soon that while the photo matches with Balanophyllia, only time will tell if it grows new heads and turns out to be something else).
For Gorgonians and Seafans, I've found that the Red Sea Whip (mentioned earlier in the thread), Red and Yellow Finger Gorgonians, and Swiftia exserta seem to be really hardy in particular. Mainly because they're polyps are on the bigger side so they can catch a bigger array of foods, but the Red Sea Whip is also stupidly hardy and came back from almost everything for me. These I would lean towards daily feedings but they're pretty hardy.

Temperature wise, the Sun Coral and Dendros tend to do well in normal reef Temps, though if you want to venture into more Gorgonians, I would definitely recommend keeping the water on the cooler side. A good amount of NPS come from deeper waters so they like it cool. Right now I'm running my tank at 74°F and everything is happy. Big Temperature swings will kill off a lot of Coral since they're more sensitive than warm water corals (IE the heatwave that hit me :/ )

Flow is also a big one since a lot of corals like strong flow. Right now I'm running a Nero 3 at 60% with an Aquaclear 70 HOB that puts out about 300GPH so I'm getting about 1500-1600 GPH of flow going on in the Aquarium and the corals like it. Of course it'll depend on your tank dimensions and scape but I would say try and set the flow on the higher side.

For the large polyp NPS, Mysis and Pellets are good. I've heard that PE Calanus might be more benefit for corals than PE Mysis since the shell of the Mysis can damage the mouth of the coral which is something I'll experiment with soon but so far I've had no issues. The Gorgonians it'll depend on their polyp size and just a game of guessing since a lot of species that are available, we actually don't know what they eat exactly so we just throw everything at them and hope they eat something. Generally Phytoplankton is a big staple. Zooplankton such as Rotifers and Copepods is also beneficial. For larger polyp Gorgonians, you can feed fish eggs which seem to be a favorite.

I'll have to think of more pointers but that's what I have for now. I hope you enjoy it! It's definitely a big headache with the learning curve but it pays off for its uniqueness and beauty. If you have any questions, just let me know!

 

[Northwest_Scapes_]

I'm super excited to show off the latest and last fish additions to the tank; a trio of Randall's Anthias! (Pseudanthias randalli) (1 M / 2 F )
After my last experience, I knew I had to find ones that were already eating. I ended up getting a trio from Seahorse Savvy since they're Pre-QT'd and already eating prepared foods (I haven't tried pellets yet but they were eating PE Mysis and Reef Nutrition ROE so already a better step than the last group) so big shoutout to Alyssa again.
They came in fat so that was a good sign. I'm so happy to have a healthy group. I'll have to send Matt Wandell these pics since he heavily influenced me to go with these guys.
They're already out in the open and schooling, and even better is that the Possum Wrasse is out more now because of them. I wanted to get these guys now since the weather here is getting into the freezing temps (it's been around 38F these past few mornings and doesn't get over 60F anymore) so I knew I had to get them fast. If you haven't seen this species before, while I think both are stunning, the males look insane when they're fired up so I'm excited to see that happen.
My next step is to up my CUC from Reef Cleaners soon, and then I'm going all out on coral.

 

[Northwest_Scapes_]

I'm currently taking down some old tanks that were taking up space so that FTS should be soon!
In the mean time, here's more shots of the Randall's Trio! So glad these guys are doing well. To make them feel more comfortable, I've lowered the intensity on the lighting to match their Deepwater origin. I'm not sure why I didn't do this earlier for the Possum Wrasse but everyone is a lot more active now.
I did see a nice Balanophyllia on Corals.com which is kind of tempting me since I really love that species and it's not very pricey either ..

The male has some super nice color on the fins

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I'm currently taking down some old tanks that were taking up space so that FTS should be soon!
In the mean time, here's more shots of the Randall's Trio! So glad these guys are doing well. To make them feel more comfortable, I've lowered the intensity on the lighting to match their Deepwater origin. I'm not sure why I didn't do this earlier for the Possum Wrasse but everyone is a lot more active now.
I did see a nice Balanophyllia on Corals.com which is kind of tempting me since I really love that species and it's not very pricey either ..

The male has some super nice color on the fins

Can't wait to see the FTS, Amazing pictures as always!

 

[Northwest_Scapes_]

Can't wait to see the FTS, Amazing pictures as always!

Thank you! There is currently a Sun Coral and Balanophyllia on Corals.com I know for sure I'm going to snag once a sale goes live. My LFS also has a Pink Scleronepthya colony they got in as a filler Coral that I'm a little tempted to pickup since it's not very expensive but they're pretty difficult so I'll probably pass.

 

[Slocke]

I am still following just busy as I have been deployed but got to go on a dive on my day off and actually saw a bunch of NPS gorgonians. Really pretty and reminded me of this tank of course. Keep up the good work. Your tank is still the coolest I follow.

 

[Northwest_Scapes_]

I am still following just busy as I have been deployed but got to go on a dive on my day off and actually saw a bunch of NPS gorgonians. Really pretty and reminded me of this tank of course. Keep up the good work. Your tank is still the coolest I follow.

Aye thank you! That's awesome to hear especially from you. I'm not sure how much more space I have in here but I know I definitely want to leave room for another A.Isoxya, another Blueberry Gorg since I'd like a second try with a bigger colony this time, a __nepthya of some sort. Probably not Dendronepthya, but Scleronepthy or Chromonepthya I'd be open to trying a little down the road once I have a bit more confidence. The cup corals I could probably stock more of since they're not as big but I definitely want to fill out the rest of the tank with some cool species!

 

[Northwest_Scapes_]

Not much to update, mostly waiting for my LFS to get back to me on some Gorgs I was looking at from ACI + some Black Friday sales to go live.
I may have touched on it earlier but I had thought a while back the Yellow Finger Gorg had died since it wasn't opening up for a few weeks. Turns out after looking closer at it, there was this film algae on it where the color matched almost exactly with the coral so I didn't notice it for the longest time. I gave it a good scrub with a toothbrush and a few days later its back open! I also took my camera in with me Wednesday and got some shots from our Mesphotic / NPS Reef. The wire corals are still favorite, sucks that I can't take one home especially since the pink variety grows really quickly.

Swiftia still looking awesome

Yellow Finger Gorg Back Open !

Looking at the camera :eyes:

The 2 species of Black Sun Coral we have, they don't seem to be bother each and grow right next to one another.

The light green Sun's & some Wire Corals

The Pink Wire Corals :heart:

 

[Northwest_Scapes_]

Well, I did go crazy with the Pre-Black Friday sales haha. Maybe a little too crazy...
First off I got 3 new Hanna Checkers: ULR Phosphate, HR Nitrate, and Alk. I lost my Phosphate checker a while ago (I think it fell off my shelf and into a box I threw away). I've never had the Alk or Nitrate ones though so I'm excited to use those.
Second, i did grab the Sun Coral and Balanophyllia but I also grabbed a third thing that I wasn't planning on getting but the deal swayed me over. Those should be here this week

In the meantime, I think this is the first time I've posted about this Coco Worm. I got this one at the same time as the Possum Wrasse but it came in super tiny. It's been growing steadily which has been cool to see. I'm hoping I can get another 2 and make a small Coco Garden. Also a pic of the Fathead Dendro since it was looking super sweet last night

 

[Northwest_Scapes_]

Hey Everyone! Hope you're all doing well, Happy Thanksgiving week for those in the US. I thought it was time to show off some of the newest additions! So this past I ended up getting:
-Another Sun Coral Colony (Australia) (Corals.com)
-A Balanophyllia (Australia) (Corals.com)
-Another Christmas Tree Rock! (Australia) (Corals.com)
-A Yellow Knotted Seafan (Tonga) and I'll dive into a little bit about each of the more obscure ones. (LFS)

Balanophyllia: This is one I've wanted for a while. These are solitary cup corals (sometimes you'll colonies listed as "Balanophyllia", that's false and most likely another species of Dendro or similar). They're very easy (with a catch) as they only need to be fed about two times a week so comparable to a Fathead Dendro and look pretty nice. However, the catch is they only come out at night or when there's no light. And as far as I know talking to other people who have kept them, they're very difficult to train to open up during the day so I've only seen mine either late at night or early in the morning. Which is a good thing they don't need to be fed often because that would be a pain to feed them every night at 1 in the morning haha. Hopefully soon I'll be able to get a proper picture of it fully extended.

Christmas Tree Rock: Well this one was not on my list to pick up but the sale was too good so I grabbed it. This is a smaller rock than my current one, but has twice as many worms! These are bigger, more colorful, and I think a different species since some have different body characteristics than others but it could just be an individual thing. This one has no crabs which I don't mind since the other one does, so now i have a little Christmas Tree Garden? Patch? Field? Anyways, I'm super happy. I've always wanted one, and now I have two! The coolest worm on here is definitely the first one pictured. Not only is it's body stretched so it's more "tree like", it's actually got Christmas Colors! Dark Green, Red-ish Pink, and White. It's super cool and hopefully these guys do well like the others.

Yellow Knotted Seafan: This one was a species I never knew of until a few days ago. My LFS had gotten it as a filler coral from Tonga and it was only listed as "Seafan", no other context clues. When the pictures came in, it wasn't really anything to boast about since it was just a light orange Gorgonian, but the shape interested me since it was something different. Thankfully my LFS was also having a sale so I went in and grabbed it, and low and behold, I think I got something special. I did some research and this is definitely a species from the genus Melithaea, iNaturalist has it listed as "Melithaea ochracea" (it looks like there's a couple different color forms if true), though I can't tell for sure from a visual standpoint. This is a super striking Seafan, the base if a light orange but it has red streaks running throughout. I thought from the pictures the red was missing tissue, but it's just the coloration of the coral. The polyps are small and a light redish-purple color which makes it super stunning. They're about the size of Leptogorgia polyps so it should be eating what I'm already feeding. A piece did break off from the rock it came on so now i've got two colonies, i'm not sure what I'll do with the smaller one, I'll maybe see if we want it at the Aquarium since it does come from the Indo-Pacific near Australia which fits the locale of our new expansion.
I've never seen this one available before, so I'll try and document how it does. It could either be okay or die in a few weeks, you never know with NPS!
I should hopefully get an Updated FTS later tonight since everything has been open recently!

 

[Northwest_Scapes_]

Here it is, a FTS! I'm currently breaking down the 2 tanks that were in front of it hence the weird angle, and also just did a water change so the water was a little hazy but most of the corals were open so I thought it was a good time to take one.
I'm planning on moving the Sun Coral to the right structure since I'd like to make room for 2 more Seafans on the left (the A. Isoxya and maybe a Blueberry). Besides that, the other corals I want to add are Black Sun Corals and a Chromonepthya.

Full from a Baby Brine Shrimp dinner

One thing i also noticed was as I was checking out this Sponge on the base of the Menella, I saw this baby polyp! I'm not sure where it came from since I haven't seen any spawning. The only corals in the tank that have that polyp shape are the Swiftia and Yellow Finger. I guess time will tell with what it turns out to be. I did see some white dots coming out of the Swiftia a few weeks ago that i assumed were ROE pieces it had caught but perhaps it was something else.

 

[Northwest_Scapes_]

Nothing but good updates so far! I've actually gotten a lot of questions about what I feed the tank so I thought I'd make a post about what kind of foods go in here. I try to be as diverse as possible since you don't what the corals are eating specifically unless you do polyp analysis which only happens when the coral dies so the "Shotgun Approach" is the best method, which is just throwing everything at them lol. I just placed another order with Reef Nutrition for some Apex Pods to get my pod population up, and I'm also trying out the Arcti-pods since I think the fish and LPS will love them. So this makes my feeding regime:

Refrigerated / Liquid Foods
Reef Nutrition PhytoFeast
Reef Nutrition OysterFeast
Reef Nutrition RotiFeast
Reef Nutrition ROE
Reef Nutrition Pac-Pods
Reef Nutrition Arcti-Pods

Live Foods
Live Baby Brine Shrimp (Artemia)
Reef Nutrition Tigger Pods (attempting to culture so I can feed more regularly)
Reef Nutrition Apex Pods (reproduce in tank and the corals snack on them)

Dry Foods
Reef Nutrition TDO small pellets
BRS Reef Chili (dry zooplankton mix)

So about 11 foods total for 1 tank.. it's crazy to say that out loud haha. 90% of it is made by Reef Nutrition since they just have some of the best foods, the results don't lie. I am interested to see, and I need to do more research, if any of the new Phytoplankton that TSA has been culturing will have any effect on the corals. Rhodomonas is a color enhancing phyto which i'm kind of interested to see if that would have any effect on the Swiftia since the polyps do change color sometimes so maybe that's an important Nutrional factor that causes it. T-ISO has a lot of good fat in it which could help the Seafans and Gorgonians. They're really affordable too so I may just get some to try out.

Other Updates

I've been told that Melithaea is actually a pretty tricky species (most likely because of the small polyps) so hopefully this one does well long term. So far so good (fingers crossed), it's always got max polyp extension for both pieces and looks like it's eating.

I thought I had lost my Orange and Green Tube anemone but turns out it just was walking around and I found it in the back of the tank! I'm going to try and move it towards the front again, this such a cool creature so I'm happy I still have it.
I finally got a pic of the Balanophyllia, it's not very good but at least it has some polyp extension haha. This coral is like a vampire, as soon as I shine some light on it for a photo, it'll shoot right back into it's skeleton. I think the most I'll be able to do is have it come out under blue light, however I don't think they're able to be trained to come out during the day.

 

[MoparMike97]

What a cool thread! I've always been fascinated with NPS corals, I've kept a handful of LPS varieties Dendros, Tubastrea, Balanophyllia and probably my personal favorite Truncatoflabellum veroni.

I've always loved the colors of the NPS gorgs and softies but knew better to attempt them haha. Look forward to seeing future updates!

 

[Northwest_Scapes_]

What a cool thread! I've always been fascinated with NPS corals, I've kept a handful of LPS varieties Dendros, Tubastrea, Balanophyllia and probably my personal favorite Truncatoflabellum veroni.

I've always loved the colors of the NPS gorgs and softies but knew better to attempt them haha. Look forward to seeing future updates!

Thank you! That Truncato is so cool, if I see one I'm 100% grabbing it. I remember Austin Aqua Farms got some in a year or 2 ago but haven't seen one since.

 

[MoparMike97]

Yep, that one was from AAF. They're super unique corals, not very colorful but the feeding response was amazing and the shape reminds me of one of my ultimate "forbidden fruit" corals, Rhizotrochus.

Sold that veroni and the rest of my NPS when I moved, still kicking myself since I haven't been able to find any to replace it haha

 

[Northwest_Scapes_]

I believe I mentioned it earlier but if not; It looks like one of the female Randall's Anthias actually transitioned and is now a Male anthias. I think this happened because I didn't buy the anthias as a group, I bought them separately so they didn't figure out the dominance hierarchy. I asked around and common consensus seems to be that I should swap out one of the males since even though they're not fighting right now, they will as they get more mature which I don't want so I'll be looking to see which of the two I should swap and then add another small female to make the ratio back to 1 M / 2 F.
Other than that, I believe I can get away with a 5th fish that doesn't have a big bioload since I've been thinking and I may upgrade the filtration on the tank to a Fluval Fx4 if Petsmart still has their 50% off sale, and maybe make the Aquaclear a refugium for pods and Chaeto. I'm still working out the details on that. But I've been looking at maybe adding a Helfrichi (I guess Lavander Blushed if I want to use the new name) Firefish in here since it would add a lot of color.

I also put in an order with Reef Cleaners so this tank will have a proper CUC now. Cerith, Astrea, Turbo, Nassarius, Dwarf Cerith, and a Money Cowrie should be on the way soon : )

 

[Northwest_Scapes_]

I believe I mentioned it earlier but if not; It looks like one of the female Randall's Anthias actually transitioned and is now a Male anthias. I think this happened because I didn't buy the anthias as a group, I bought them separately so they didn't figure out the dominance hierarchy. I asked around and common consensus seems to be that I should swap out one of the males since even though they're not fighting right now, they will as they get more mature which I don't want so I'll be looking to see which of the two I should swap and then add another small female to make the ratio back to 1 M / 2 F.
Other than that, I believe I can get away with a 5th fish that doesn't have a big bioload since I've been thinking and I may upgrade the filtration on the tank to a Fluval Fx4 if Petsmart still has their 50% off sale, and maybe make the Aquaclear a refugium for pods and Chaeto. I'm still working out the details on that. But I've been looking at maybe adding a Helfrichi (I guess Lavander Blushed if I want to use the new name) Firefish in here since it would add a lot of color.

I also put in an order with Reef Cleaners so this tank will have a proper CUC now. Cerith, Astrea, Turbo, Nassarius, Dwarf Cerith, and a Money Cowrie should be on the way soon : )

I managed to snag a really awesome and pretty rare species from NY Aquatics live sale this morning. Maybe shipping out this week but we'll see, I wanted to keep the Mesphotic theme going and even though the Helfrichi would've been an awesome addition, it wouldn't have really been a good fit theme wise. I found a species that A) Fits the Mesphotic theme & B) is really colorful. Very excited about this one

 

[Northwest_Scapes_]

Good news and Bad news: The bad news was the fish I picked up passed away on Day 3 due to some internal parasites it looked like since it was pooping out white strings which is usually a sign of something internal and wasn't eating. It was a Multilined Basslet (Liopropoma multilineanum) but it was the Yellow Phenotype so instead of a red body, it was a bright yellow and so stunning. Wish I could've treated it faster. Maybe I'll try again in the future but it's being sorted out now. I would still love to add a final fish to the tank, however I'll wait since I want to make sure the current fish are still doing well and they didn't catch anything.

The good news is I have some super awesome new soft corals on the way. I'll talk a little more about them once they come in, but I have two color varieties of the Chromonepthea on the way. A fairly new species in the hobby, it's related to Dendronepthea, but so far from those who have had it, seems a bit hardier and not as difficult as the Carnation Coral. I've been wanting to add more softies to the tank so these two will be the main focus. Here is the Reef Builders article on them from my friend who was the wholesaler for these