400 gallon project

Red_Six · #1 06-07-2007, 02:15 AM

Nice tank.

I have the package as well. I had one red sponge that dissolved away in about 4 months. After doing some research I came across this article by Randy Holmes.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issu...03/feature.htm

In it he says, "Sponges are the second largest consumer of dissolved silica in the ocean." I would be interested in seeing if the addition of silica to your tank lets them survive.

untamed · #2 06-08-2007, 11:47 PM

Thanks, Red Six....I watched your tank build for a long time during my planning stages.

It is interesting that Holmes-Farley wasn't able to keep his particular sponge alive for long regardless of his attempts with Silica. Nevertheless, if HF recommends Silica additions, that's enough recommendation for me!

untamed · #3 06-14-2007, 05:54 AM

Even I have a limit as to how large I let a crab get before he makes me uncomfortable. I never saw this crab kill anything that caused me concern. (just some hermit crabs, which was quite entertaining...), but he reached a size that began to worry me. I'm sure that at some point he was going to graduate to larger prey.

So...he's moved into the sump. I hope he will be OK there. Certainly food travels into the sump all the time.

Capture was pretty easy. I small piece of shrimp in a tall glass just as the lights went out. (He was obviously hungry, because he slid in in less than a few minutes)

Corbin · #4 06-14-2007, 05:56 AM

creepy, great pictures!

justinl · #5 06-14-2007, 06:28 AM

tee hee, what a lil cutie pie

in case you're interested, from the secnd pic i can tell you it's a boy.

skylord · #6 06-22-2007, 05:56 AM

Wow......having followed this thread from the beginning I was privileged to see this system up close. Nothing is left to chance with this system. The tank room is very organized and the rock work and bar look a lot better in person than the pictures here. My wife found it facinating (well...not the tank room. She could care less about the hardware). She was amazed at the diversity of this display. She could have sat there for hours.....on wait...she did. lol

Thanks Brad...and thank your wife for allowing us to visit.

Scott

untamed · #7 06-22-2007, 04:53 PM

I've proven that if you dose silica, you can grow diatoms. This did make the tangs happy as they are back to grazing the rocks again. Unfortunately, growth of diatoms hasn't caused the cyano to slow any....I just got both.

So I'm temporarily suspending the silica experiment until I can get the cyano under control.