Kessil

Beignet's 14 gallon nano tank

Beignet

Beignet

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I’m new to BAR and by way of introduction, I thought I’d start a tank thread! I’ve had many fish only aquaria, but I’m totally new to reefing. I’m a fish physiology professor at UC Davis and a friend of Crabby’s (Thanks Crabby for introducing me to BAR and suggesting this thread).

I started a 14 gallon Biocube in late Feb 2012 with stock equipment and added my first corals in mid March. I’ve had very good luck so far and have been dedicated to monitoring my chemistry weekly and performing a 3 gallon water change every Saturday. So far, so good.


Clean up crew:
2 nassarius snails, 4 hermit crabs, a couple of baby brittle stars, 4 black-footed trochus, fighting conch

Corals (forgive me if the names aren’t quite right):
Variety of zoanthids and mushrooms, several ricordia mushrooms, hammer, Kenya tree, plate coral, Christmas favia (please excuse the white putty – new reefer error), candy cane coral, kryptonite candy cane coral, green star polyp, and a montipora of some kind, birds nest coral, and a pink tipped torch coral (courtesy of Crabby about a month ago).

Current fish:
blue-green chromis, purple fire fish, six line wrasse, tailspot blenny, green clown goby, mandarin goby

I’ve made a few mistakes, but luckily none of them have resulted in livestock loss. I’ve battled bristle worms and aiptasia (minor cases that ended with successful extermination, so far), and I have taught the mandarin to eat frozen mysis and frozen brine, both soaked in Selcon liquid vitamins. When I realized I had brought home such a picky eater, I started culturing copepods to keep my tank seeded in hopes my mandarin can stay well fed. So far, she is happy and growing which is great! In the process of teaching her to eat, I did overfeed for a week or so and had some ammonia spikes. Nothing too terrible, but some of the mushrooms and zoanthids didn’t open that week and have mostly bounced back since. I didn’t have the sps corals at that time.

I’m a little concerned that I have too many fish, but so far my water parameters are in check so until they deviate I suppose I shouldn’t worry?

I did recently upgrade the stock lighting with a Rapid Led retrofit kit with 2 dimmable drivers and moonlights. This was a really fun project and has really improved the look of the tank. I am still slowly adjusting the LED intensities and my photoperiod in only 7 hours. Currently, all my corals are healthy and growing, although having no experience with this so it’s hard for me to judge if the growth rate is normal. It seems a little on the slow side, so perhaps once the intensity and photoperiod are both increased growth will pick up. Comments?

I’ve really enjoyed reading the BAR forums, and I look forward to meeting you all (or should I say ‘Y’all’ since I’m from Louisiana) soon. I’m hoping to make the coral coloration lecture August 11.

Here’s a pic of my current tank. Of course comments or advice are welcome. I’ve got a couple of prime locations I’ve been saving for the perfect specimens. Any ideas on a great coral to place on the small front rock to the left of the plate coral or for up top between the montipora and the bird’s nest?

Many thanks!
Beignet




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looks sweet! I'm embarrassed by my disaster 12G nano home tank, but yours is spectacular already! Keeping a nice nano is way harder than a big tank, so you're doing a great job. You should take a photo each month or two to judge growth.
 
Just sit back and relax - watch it grow! Some corals will thrive moving forward, some perhaps not. I think that's how it goes. A great start!
See you in August. Welcome.
 
Great job on the tank so far! We are glad that Crabby pulled you in to the hobby and to our site. :)

May I inquire which species of copepods you are culturing? That sounds quite interesting!
 
Hi lattehiatus,

I'm culturing the ones sold as Trigger Pods by Reed Mariculture, Tigriopus californicus. My production is slow and I think could be better. I'm using a 10 gallon tank, sponge filter and feeding phytofeast. I need to add rock/crushed coral, but haven't picked any up yet. If you have any other tips, I'd love to hear them.

One thing I did learn was that introducing copepods to a biocube is difficult - the fish pick them up like potato chips even if you squirt them into rocks etc. So, I took a clear standpipe tube and put it upright, into a corner of the tank. I could then introduce the copepods into the tube at night, and eventually they made their way out the bottom, through the little grating, and presumably into the rocks where my fish were none the wiser. I also introduced live brine shrimp in this way to train the mandarin. She came to love the standpipe and would sit at the lower grate, eating away, like a rabbit to a water feeder.
 
Not far! A little town called Berwick - about 90 miles southwest of NOLA, on the Atchafalaya River. I'd love to hear your favorite Cajun restaurants in the Bay area?
 
Beignet said:
Hi lattehiatus,

I'm culturing the ones sold as Trigger Pods by Reed Mariculture, Tigriopus californicus. My production is slow and I think could be better. I'm using a 10 gallon tank, sponge filter and feeding phytofeast. I need to add rock/crushed coral, but haven't picked any up yet. If you have any other tips, I'd love to hear them.

One thing I did learn was that introducing copepods to a biocube is difficult - the fish pick them up like potato chips even if you squirt them into rocks etc. So, I took a clear standpipe tube and put it upright, into a corner of the tank. I could then introduce the copepods into the tube at night, and eventually they made their way out the bottom, through the little grating, and presumably into the rocks where my fish were none the wiser. I also introduced live brine shrimp in this way to train the mandarin. She came to love the standpipe and would sit at the lower grate, eating away, like a rabbit to a water feeder.
Click to expand...

Very cool feeding pipe idea! That is a smart dragonet you have. :)

May I ask what salinity and temperature you keep the T. californicus culture at? Frequency of phyto dosing? I don't know much about culturing them, I am just curious about any insights you may have about optimal culture conditions. Feeding live foods that have a proper nutritional profile is always positive! I hear that Reed Mariculture maintains their cultures at 35 ppt.
 
There's a great cajun restaurant in Berkeley: Angeline's Louisiana Kitchen. http://www.angelineskitchen.com/

It's close to campus. You could take the Davis-Berkeley shuttle bus!
 
I'm just following the basic copepod culturing procedures outlined here:

http://reefnutrition.com/tigger_pods_care.html

The culture tank has been running at 33ppt, the temp has been 75-80F, and I've been feeding phytofeast a few drops a day or more if the water gets clear. This matches my reef tank closely and I've had the copepods live for several days in the feeding tube before finally exiting - a good sign that maybe they'll populate the tank?

What they don't really talk about on the reed mariculture site is the use of any sort of biological filter. Because doing water changes is a bit of a hassle because you have to separate copepods from gunk from water (and my ammonia has spiked several times), I recently decided to stick in a sponge filter. I'm still waiting for it to be conditioned before I can comment on it's effectiveness.

I have a series of sieves (64 micron mesh) to make it a bit easier to separate copepods from water. The copepods are quite 'sticky' so watch to make sure all of your hard work in growing the critters isn't lost in siphon tubes or stuck in pipette bulbs.

If I learn any new tricks, I'll be sure to post.

Beignet
 
We have had one meal there - following the Berkley vs Arizona State softball game in May. The food was good but I'm still on a quest for the perfect 'Beignet'. I'm starting to think it can't be recreated outside of NOLA, and I suspect it's the humidity difference!

Thanks for the tip!
 
While culturing rotifers I have never been much concerned about ammonia or biological filtration, instead relying on ChlorAmEx/Prime as ammonia neutralizers. I also re-use the rotifer floss (also from Reed Mariculture) when I do a 90% water change on the rotifer culture, I suppose it has some additional surface area to support some nitrifying bacteria. I typically do a 25% water change every other day while harvesting rotifers, but I have also let the cultures go for days at a time without harvesting and haven't had a crash in the past few months now. Just thought I would share in case there's anything applicable to your copepod culture.

On the MBI site there is an anecdotal recommendation that T. californicus cultures experience better growth in blacked-out containers (as opposed to clear glass aquariums) - not sure why this would be the case, but could be worth investigating if you are so inclined. :) BTW there are multiple culture journals for T. californicus there is you want to read up on how other hobbyists are maintaining their cultures.
http://www.mbisite.org/Forums/tm.aspx?&m=70268&mpage=1
 
Hi all,

Just a quick picture update on my nano. It's running great, although I did lose my mandarin to an ick outbreak a while ago. I was totally bummed as 'Mardi Gras' was a great little eater.

Apologies for the frag racks. I have lots of corals waiting for the new larger tank (see the leaky bulkhead thread in the equipment forum).

Best wishes,
Nann

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How did you do that? I looked for a way when I uploaded but couldn't find anything. I thought that was weird as no one else seems to have this problem. Thanks for the help.
 
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