Cali Kid Corals

Crispy's 150

Thanks blue. Just curious, but when do you consider a tank to have a heavy bioload? I know of that 1" per 3 gallon rule for fish, but what about soft corals?
 
I'm positive those snails aren't Nassarius spp. snails -I believe one of the trademarks of Nassarius spp. is the presence of a siphon on, and the lack of a radula.
They look like cerith snails to me ... after all, I don't think ALL cerith snails need to look identical down to the shell all the time.
Tanks looks awesome so far crispy! I think more rocks would be cool, as it would give more for your fish (and your fish in the future) to roam around in.
 
I also think a little more LR would be cool. I think you can still keep your wide open space look and add a little more rock. It's looking good though!
 
I like the minimalistic look. Of course it's a metter of personal taste.

My advise is to get Xenia off the base rock. If it starts spreading - you'll have hard time containing it. You probably can postpone it till you add more rocks later. Just make sure it's not on any of the base rocks hard to remove). Same with some palyzoa on the left.

Also, when I see setups with heaters in the sump it makes me wonder what happens if your return pump stops - no heat in the main tank.
 
Thanks guys.

Just a quick update, but the plate you saw in the pics has passed away :(. Within just three weeks, 3/4 of its flesh had melted off. When I went to pick it up last night, the tentacles were totally unresponsive and more flesh melted off.

Anthony: The snails do not have siphons, that's definitely true. They also have some sort of trapdoor that seals off their shell if they fall over. I'll see if I can get a picture of them as such. I checked a couple pitures and articles online, and they may very well be ceriths.

Jeff: Agred, I will be adding more rock as time goes on. Budget is very tight right now tho. I plan on building up the center rock formation and leaving the sides open.

Zepplock: Believe it or not, I want this to be a Xenia-dominated tank :p. That said, tastes do change and I'll make sure that it spreads on the rock I add. Also, are palyzoa's the same as zoanthids? As for the heater, good point. I wanted to keep as much equipment out of the main tank as possible, but I could find a hiding place for the heater somewhere.

Thanks again guys.
 
Personally I would run two pumps to my main tank for redundency in the scenario of a pump going out... before I'd put heater bars in my main tank... IMO.
 
Also... for LR really look at craigslist. I've often found it at around $2 a pound. Some will look like junk when you go to look at it but sometimes it's a real score. Back in March of this year I was able to score about 160 pounds of nice LR for only $120. The deals are not always there but if you keep an eye out you can find some great rock for cheap.
 
Hey all,

I'll be updating with pics soon, but here's a brief primer:

The smaller of the two clowns disappeared a few nights back. Last week, I noticed it was missing and discovered it in the filter sock. Because my sock is shaped like a 16" tube, I ended up having to cut through the sock to remove the clown. It took me about a minute to remove the clown from the sock, but I think the damage was done. When I added the clown back to the display, it had a difficult time swimming and was staying on the sandbed. I monitored it for a couple more hours, but I had to hit the sack.

The next morning, the clown had disappeared again. I removed the new filter sock, expecting it to have gone into the overflow again, but it wasn't there. My thoughts are that it did not make it and was consumed by the snails and hermits :(.

LESSONS LEARNED:
1) Get some aquamesh/eggcrate!
2) I'm thinking about making a cone-shaped filter sock instead of the standard tube. I figure a cone-shaped sock will be easier to flip inside out than a tube.

There is some good news, however. The massive diatom bloom I had is petering out. The sand is almost all white again and the macros are growing at a very rapid rate.

The gramma and other clown appear to be healthy and are fattening up nicely. The gramma is such a character; when I stick my face up to the tank, it comes right up to my face (literally an inch away), as if to say "WHAT?!". I am a bit bothered that the other clown has no "home" to go to. It currently wiggles around the tank, usually sleeping ON the side of the overflow.

That said, I am thinking of getting a E. Quadricolor for the clown and am doing some research on them. I have had a BTA before, it actually split three times in my old tank. That said, my main concern would be lighting: I currently have one 96 watt 10,000K PC and one 96 watt deep blue actinic from AH Supply. My research is turning up some conflicting reports, some people have been able to keep BTA's for years with standard NO lights, others claim that BTA's need excellent lighting and PC's would not cut it. I must admit that my last BTA was under a low-light PC environ, and I was persuaded by Dr. Ron Shimek's study of the anemone; his claim was that BTA's can do well under low-light conditions, so long as they are fed regularly.

Unfortunately, I haven't found any updated information from Dr. Shimek, so I'm not sure if his BTA experiment yielded further results. That said, what are your guys' thoughts on a BTA in this tank?

Thanks,

Mike
 
1/10/2009 UPDATE

I finally got some time to make some minor upgrades and additions to the tank. Here are some photos of the tank; you may be wondering why everything is in actinic..I'll get to that.

Full shot. I added some more LR, basically splitting the middle of the tank. The Xenia is now basically on the sandbed. It stopped pulsating but i'm not sure if that's because of a change in current, location, light or what. It seems to be doing OK though.

I also attached eggcrate to the overflow teeth.
 
Here's a shot of the Xenia in its new location with the clown. The clown is not hosting the Xenia AFAIK. It actually seems to be hosting the locline return :p.
 
Here's a rather bad shot of the eggs I think the Ceriths have been laying. Does anyone know if these actually hatch or if they rot away? I noticed that after a few days, the eggline becomes stringy and eventually disappears.
 
Here's a picture of the CPR Bak Pak I just added to the sump. It was horrible trying to fit this into the sump! That's another lesson learned, get everything you need in one shot :p.
 
Here's a picture of the collection cup. The skimmer has been on for about 30 minutes at this point, and you can basically see the waterline about an inch high on the cup. It seems to be skimming pretty wet, but if anyone has any experience w/ this type of skimmer, please let me know if this is normal.
 
Here's a full shot of what's going on under the tank. I added a 5 gallon bucket in preparation for an ATO in the future. BTW, you can see one of the best purchases I've ever made...aquagloves :D. With my skin, I absolutely cannot touch the water w/o these gloves.
 
Thanks to Jeff and his tank thread, I've decided to add a powerstrip under the tank as well. It definitely keeps the exterior cleaner and I think it's a bit safer too.
 
Finally, the reason why my tank is currently "actinic only". When the lights went on, only the actinic showed. I took out the 10K and i saw a crack down the middle of the bulb.

Does anyone know why this bulb cracked? It's less than a month old :(.
 
My bak pak used to get a real wet skim mate; a brownish green sludge -just raise the level of the collection cup if you don't like the consistency of the skim mate
 
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