I'm using a different product for my culture medium so I was quite curious! Would you be so kind as to continue to update the status of your phytoplankton?

Bizarre creature found...
 

I was doing a bit of gardening on this unusual coral (I still have no id on this, but I suspect it is a type of gorgonian). You can see in the photo below that the coral has some sort of hairy red algae growing in/on it. I was in the process of carefully tweezing that stuff out of there with 2 foot tongs when I found...it...

First, on the extreme left side of the following picture, on the tips of the branches...you can see white blobs. Those are nudibranchs of some kind. It turns out that there are probably 10+ of them on this particular coral. (unfortunately, I suspect they are killing the coral...but we'll see)

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/000_0058.jpg

But have a closer look at that photo. Look directly in the centre. There is a highly disguised ______? (crab?) It has 8 long legs, and no perceivable body. (sea spider would be a good description)

Here's a close up for the hard of seeing....
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r.../000_0058a.jpg

OK, confirmed that this is a sea spider. Here is an excellent article about them.
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-01/rs/index.php

It looks like a sea spider for sure. Check one out here... http://www.captbluefin.com/mysterious_creatures.htm Kinda looks like the one you have. :mrgreen:

I woudn't describe your "crab" as a sea spider. I would just call it that. sea spiders have some cool biology about them but are generally frowned upon in home aquariums. most feed on corals and or anemones i believe so yes i do believe it is munching your coral there. I read on wiki (how much do you trust that site? lol) that although they feed on anemones in a similar fashoin to a mosquito sucking blood, the anemone will almost always survive unscathed. Don't knw bout corals.

sorry, can't say anything bout the nudis.

I'll get a better shot of the nudis. Depth of field wouldn't allow me get both the spider and the nudis in focus at the same time.

I hope that the coral can take his feeding as I would certainly like to keep both in the tank.

Oh...I have a third mantis now. Another large, red, Wennarae. I haven't seen the smaller one now for 3 or 4 days...But I don't consider that to be unusual.

So that's mantis, gogonian eating nudis, too many gorilla crabs to count...and now a blood sucking sea spider. The tank is living up to my reputation nicely!

I spent about an hour observing the nudibranchs on that coral. It wasn't too difficult to see that they were in the process of decimating that coral. The larger of them was easily ingesting polyps at a rate of about 1 every 2 minutes and they were very mobile.

So...spent another hour or so picking them off the coral with tweezers. I haven't tried to exterminate them, but I have removed 6 or 7 of the largest ones.

At the same time, it was convenient to watch the sea spider a bit more. He is also eating this coral, but the pace at which he does it looks much less destructive, so he's going to remain.

It seems that if you stare at anything in this tank long enough, you'll see something new. There are at least 3 of what appear to be mantis fry attached to this same coral.

wow your tank already sounds sweet! i love the weird inverts. never did understand why so many people hated sea spiders. I think they look pretty cool. and that guys camouflage is great too. took me a while to find him in the pic.

hehehe sounds like you've got the beginnings of a mantis community! unfortunately the mantis fry (if that's what they are) will almost certainly die for various reasons. oh well, what can ya do?

are you sure they're not pods? here's a pic of a mantis larvae at different ages...
http://www.imagequest3d.com/pages/cu...stomatopod.htm

That link to the mini mantis is awesome!

looks like something right out of the Alien movie, very cool...

and the spider.....they are only around for about 2 months of the year, early spring, then they disappear, so you got lucky getting one, they are such a cool critter!
Richard TBS

These are certainly not 'pods' as most of us know them. Actually, they look pretty much like the mantis fry in that link. Here's my best shot of one.

They hang onto the branch with their back end. It's pretty much impossible to get a really good picture of one as the coral moves about in the current. In this shot, it is dead centre of the frame, leaning toward 10 O'clock. You can see both of the large raptorial appendages that lead me to believe that is what these are. This critter is probably 7-8mm long.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r.../000_0068a.jpg

The sea spider also gave me a better pose. Here it is again.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r.../000_0074a.jpg

I might have missed it but how did you actually transport the rock up here ? was it in water the whole time ? i got the driving it up from Seattle. where abouts is the rock actually from. How did you manage to get the rock without any of those corals breaking off ?

Kyle

I just picked up on this thread today after someone had asked me if I'd been following along with your progress. I know I will now. :wink: This is a very impressive set up you have and will I'm sure become an equally impressive reef. Well done and good luck. Thanks for sharing.

The rock is from Tampa Bay Saltwater... www.tbsaltwater.com

The rock is packed in water for the entire trip. As for how the gorgonians made the trip, I would attribute that to good packaging, flexibility and an overall short travel time.

A fish!
 

I could stand it no longer...I've added a fish. Here is the first fish in the 400 - a Blonde Naso Tang. He (?) has been happily grazing on the plentiful macroalgae and is very adept at removing the grapes from the grape caulerpa.

This is actually a view from the back of the tank. It does provide a first look at where I'm headed with the rockwork.

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/100_0213.jpg

He's about 5-6" long. I thought that was pretty big until I put him in the tank. He looks pretty small in there.

looking sweet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Looking really good, your blond Naso will gorw to be quite the large fish in that tank

I certainly hope so!

:cool:

rock
 

I have to say that is the "liveliest" live rock I have ever seen. Quite amazing. Really!!! I'm so used to the local, almost barren live rock you get here.

i got no idea what to make of those "mantis fry". could very well be mantids, but i can't see very well. you know what that means don't you? I have to stop by! *sigh*:biggrin: if only i didn't have finals... stupid SFU, school freakin... *mumble mumble*

Fat!
 

....look at his big fat belly!:biggrin:

Richard TBS

That rock is awesome, you dont have any room for corals.

:biggrin:

There's going to be penty of room for SPS. The real challenge seems to be that in order to build up a little height I need to put a rock on top of another rock. Every rock has such nice stuff on it that I can't stand to doom it by covering it with another rock.

hey just wondering how the tank is any updates?

Kyle

Busy Day...
 

Yesterday, I started in Atlanta. I spend a couple of hours at the Georgia Aquarium. Here's a shot of their famous whale shark display. It's been mentioned before, but 2 foot thick acrylic is pretty impressive!
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/100_0011.jpg

After milling around for a while, I was fortunate enough to go on a behind the scenes tour. Here is a back room look at GA's Reef setup. I believe they said they had 18,000W of MH, supplemented by natural sunlight.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/100_0031.jpg

Here's a small portion of the filtration system dedicated to the reef tank.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/100_0029.jpg

You know...for all that money and technology, their reef still has a long way to grow up to. Awesome dump bucket system, though. I was also very surprised by the small size of their coral propagation area.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/100_0027.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/100_0042.jpg

The highlight of the tour was the backroom view of the whale shark display. You get to stand on the catwalk that reaches directly over the tank and the sharks swim directly under your feet. Stunning animals...
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/100_0075.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/100_0077.jpg

I made a note of these schooling fish. Really tight school. Definitely on my fish list now.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/100_0024.jpg

Finally, I flew from Atlanta to Seattle and met up with my final shipment of rock from TampaBay Saltwater. Some airport delays, 2 hr drive, 3.5 hours to get all the rock and critters unpacked and the end result was a day of about 36 hours with 1 hour of sleep! All worth it though, as you will see shortly...

Nice pictures! Thanks a lot! What kind of schooling fish is that?

They were called "pigmy sweepers".

Hmmm.. a whale shark aquarium, if i only had a little more room!

In my next life, I want to come back as you. :biggrin:

Pics?
 

Ok wheres the pictures??:biggrin:

links dead for pics

Kyle

Power Costs
 

Must have been a temporary problem with Photobucket. Seems ok now.

I've just received my first electrical bill since I fired up the system. It would seem that the tank is "currently" using about $50/month in electricity...actually better than my expectations, although I plan to run the lights for a few hours more per day than I am presently.

Mantis observations
 

I have now seen the mantis within reach of a small fish on many occasions. The mantis has never shown any interest in attack. (Mantis and fish are about equal in size - 1.5") One time, the fish landed right on the back of the mantis. The fish has also evicted the mantis from one of his holes, so it would seem that the fish is the boss.

Last night, I also watched one run right into a group of a dozen camel shrimp. I expected to see some real natural hunting behaviour but....They were nose-to-nose for a few minutes before the mantis decided to move on. The shrimp didn't seem the least bit concerned about him.

I hear them hunting, but I have yet to see what they are eating. I suspect that they are taking hermit crabs and snails.

OK, here's a tank shot to keep people's interest up...

I'm still not finished. I think I'll move a large piece from the right to the left and from the left to the right. If there is anything nice about aquascaping this tank it is that each piece weighs 30lb - 50lbs...no cement required!

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/100_0250.jpg

Soon...I get to add the sponges. Here they are, in the sump waiting.

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...100_0225-1.jpg

tank is coming along quite nicely! so you're one of the few who still use bioballs huh? make sure you rinse those once in a while... though im sure you know that already.

weird about the mantids. do you feed them other stuff intentionally? maybe you just have hippy mantids!

Wow that's a lot of sponge! Where are they from? What's their care requirements, I thought they were phytoplankton feeders? Or is it zooplankton?

Nice to see most if not all of the gorgs are still with us! :)

reply
 

You're really going all out with this tank! If you are putting this much into your softies already I can't wait to see what SPS peices you come across.

The bioballs were placed to create some first bio filtration so that the rock would have an easier time when it first entered. I've actually been removing the bioballs slowly over the past few weeks. As of yesterday, they are all gone.

I do feed the mantis, because it is fun!

Yes, the photosynthetic gorgs are doing great! I'm less positive about the others...

The sponges are part of the TBSaltwater rock shipment. As for sponge care requirements...good questions that I can't find an answer for. One source suggests that they feed on bacteria. I am feeding a huge variety of phyto, zoo, fine particulate food etc...but the survival rate for sponges of this kind is very low.

A little excitement in the tank...
 

Always have a camera ready by the tank...

Last night as I was watching TV, there was some very loud "whacking" and I could see a blur of movement across the front of the tank.

It seems that one of the mantis found a crab and was in pursuit. I managed to snap a couple of photos of the brief battle, which was front/centre of the tank out on the open sand. The crab withstood only 3 blows. The mantis then grabbed his prey up and swam away back to his favourite hole.

Now I know what their primary food is. (This might be a good time to mention that I've also allowed the dozens of gorilla and other crabs to stay in the tank along with the mantis)
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/100_0255.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/100_0257.jpg


At the end, I shot a quick video. Unfortunately since the Sopranos was on TV, the background audio portion of the video is...well...not postable here....

I would say the sound track would be perfict for someone getting "wacked" :wink: