Enderturtle
Guest
Hmmm the video didn't work for me.
Awesome to hear about the mandarins pairing Winfield!
Awesome to hear about the mandarins pairing Winfield!
Hornberson Reef - DSA 90 gallon mixed reef
- Thread starter wpeterson
- Start date
wpeterson
Guest
Thanks! I'd love to check your tank out. Are you going to the meeting on Saturday?
The mandarins have been in the tank a little over two months, the female was added about two weeks after the male. He's about 50% bigger in size.
wpeterson
Guest
I re-wired our Apex breakout box with quick disconnects and a gang terminal for the grounds. I added a magnetic door switch but the wiring was broken and it didn't work. After re-wiring it up I got it working and installed on our cabinet doors. Now the Apex turns on the Refugium lamp whenever the cabinet is open, which makes my life a lot easier doing maintenance on the tank.
Some nice new additions this week. I bought two rock flower anemones in @Merith 's group buy - big thanks to him for organizing. I'm looking after a second Rainbow Acan colony for @Corallus and a Linckia starfish for @jonmos75.
Our Rainbow Acan colony is growing like crazy:
New rockflower anemones, one attached to a rock and the other buried himself in the substrate:
Linckia Starfish:
Some nice new additions this week. I bought two rock flower anemones in @Merith 's group buy - big thanks to him for organizing. I'm looking after a second Rainbow Acan colony for @Corallus and a Linckia starfish for @jonmos75.
Our Rainbow Acan colony is growing like crazy:
New rockflower anemones, one attached to a rock and the other buried himself in the substrate:
Linckia Starfish:
jonmos75
Supporting Member
That is why @wpeterson has my Linkia.... as I got a Harlequin to do some cleanup work and then when the harlequin is done with his duties I might sell him or trade for corals or store credit.
swayd
Guest
Nice, I might just do that same as I have an outbreak of asterinas right now.
Enderturtle
Guest
They're such an eye sore to me.
If you catch an asterina star with a magnetic algae scraper does it scratch the glass? IDK I have an acrylic tank.
If you catch an asterina star with a magnetic algae scraper does it scratch the glass? IDK I have an acrylic tank.
tygunn
Guest
I re-wired our Apex breakout box with quick disconnects and a gang terminal for the grounds. I added a magnetic door switch but the wiring was broken and it didn't work. After re-wiring it up I got it working and installed on our cabinet doors. Now the Apex turns on the Refugium lamp whenever the cabinet is open, which makes my life a lot easier doing maintenance on the tank.
Some nice new additions this week. I bought two rock flower anemones in @Merith 's group buy - big thanks to him for organizing. I'm looking after a second Rainbow Acan colony for @Corallus and a Linckia starfish for @jonmos75.
Our Rainbow Acan colony is growing like crazy:
New rockflower anemones, one attached to a rock and the other buried himself in the substrate:
Linckia Starfish:
Love the star. Are you doing anything special to feed it? I had a beautiful blue one in my old 140g tank. Loved it, but it seemed I never was feeding the right stuff and it slowly withered away. Could have been a poor quality specimen too. Oh the things to get with a bigger tank!
Coral reefer
Past President
What do you think they eat? I have no clue. Some people claim they have seen them snacking on acros. I think it seems like they eat coralline algae?
wpeterson
Guest
I have often had asterina stars in our tanks, but I've never seen a bloom or the large numbers folks complain about. In my experience, I've only see them eat algae and coralline. We have a Tuxedo Urchin, so there's plenty of competition for coralline eaters.
http://reefcorner.com/reef-database-index/hitchhiker-index/asterina-starfish/
There are rumors of them being bad for SPS or soft coral, but I've never seen that or a substantiated first hand account. Like many members of the cleanup crew, if a coral dies, and you find them eating algae off the skeleton you might think you caught them red handed.
On the other hand, perhaps there are more than one kind and some are bad news. I've seen lots of flat worms, but not all of them are AEFW.
http://reefcorner.com/reef-database-index/hitchhiker-index/asterina-starfish/
There are rumors of them being bad for SPS or soft coral, but I've never seen that or a substantiated first hand account. Like many members of the cleanup crew, if a coral dies, and you find them eating algae off the skeleton you might think you caught them red handed.
On the other hand, perhaps there are more than one kind and some are bad news. I've seen lots of flat worms, but not all of them are AEFW.
Coral reefer
Past President
That is kinda my theory too. Either people are wrong about them eating corals or there are multiple types
jonmos75
Supporting Member
Well I am in the grouping of they have multiplied way too much in my tank now and have become an eyesore....I have not notice any destruction by them....
wpeterson
Guest
The current cleanup crew that's growing out of control for me are the small 1cm-2cm white brittle stars, thankfully I think they're great and friendly. There's probably about 200 of them in my refugium whenever I first turn the lights on before they hide. They seem to do a great job of cleaning the chaeto forest in there. Hopefully, they're not eating all my pods - but since the mandarins are getting fat off of frozen food now, I'm probably OK.
wpeterson
Guest
@Nav dropped by this afternoon and I gave him a big hunk of chaeto full of brittle stars, snails, and pods. There are so many brittle stars in the sump I'm happy to share and the chaeto is still growing like crazy under the big full spectrum CFL grow light. Best $14 I ever spent. I was surprised how many baby snails there were, 2-3mm in size in the chaeto when we looked at it in the container. Plenty of stomatella, but curious of the cerith or trochus are able to grow up in the refugium as well. I've been promoting the adult snails up to the display tank when they get over 1cm or so.
Ive been manually feeding live phytoplankton and frozen zooplankton (cyclopeeze) in the tank so far, but now that I have a doser with four heads I put some bottled phytoplankton on a small feeding once a day a few hours after lights out. It'll be interesting to see how that works out.
I've been worried that my water changes might be exporting useful critters from the sump. Usually when I do a water change, I turn off the return pump and pull the return stand pipe from the overflow to fill my sump to it's max level. Then I pump the water in the sump out and replace it with my water change water, usually around 25g. The sump only holds about 20-22gal because of rocks and equipment and how low I'm able to pump the water level, so I usually pump all the new water in and then pump 2-5 gal out after it all mixes. I've been sticking the pump inside my filter sock when I'm pumping out the sump to try and prevent sucking out critters from the refugium and sump area, seems to be working a little better.
Ive been manually feeding live phytoplankton and frozen zooplankton (cyclopeeze) in the tank so far, but now that I have a doser with four heads I put some bottled phytoplankton on a small feeding once a day a few hours after lights out. It'll be interesting to see how that works out.
I've been worried that my water changes might be exporting useful critters from the sump. Usually when I do a water change, I turn off the return pump and pull the return stand pipe from the overflow to fill my sump to it's max level. Then I pump the water in the sump out and replace it with my water change water, usually around 25g. The sump only holds about 20-22gal because of rocks and equipment and how low I'm able to pump the water level, so I usually pump all the new water in and then pump 2-5 gal out after it all mixes. I've been sticking the pump inside my filter sock when I'm pumping out the sump to try and prevent sucking out critters from the refugium and sump area, seems to be working a little better.
wpeterson
Guest
Vinegar is amazing stuff. I mixed a bunch of vinegar/water together in a 5 gallon bucket to soak/run our return pump in. Having that already mixed up, I wanted to clean as many things with it as possible. @Nav pointed out how much algae growth there was inside my skimmer body - about half of it was totally covered in different types of coralline. It's so weird to see a totally white/clear skimmer with clear water in it. I took the time today to breakdown the remaining pumps in the sump and the skimmer, run them through a vinegar bath, and scrub them down.
Beyond what seemed like half a pound of algae, I found some debris blocking stuck inside needle wheel impellor on the skimmer. Glad to get that cleaned out and working again, this is the first time I've broken it down since I set it up 8-9 months ago. Given we're going away for a long vacation in August, it's good to get all the big things done while I have a few weeks to make sure I'm not breaking anything.
Sump:
Here's a full tank shot from yesterday:
Acans and red rock flower anemone:
Flame Angel
Ricordeas are doing well, biggest split off two babies:
Orange Linckia hogging the spotlight:
Beyond what seemed like half a pound of algae, I found some debris blocking stuck inside needle wheel impellor on the skimmer. Glad to get that cleaned out and working again, this is the first time I've broken it down since I set it up 8-9 months ago. Given we're going away for a long vacation in August, it's good to get all the big things done while I have a few weeks to make sure I'm not breaking anything.
Sump:
Here's a full tank shot from yesterday:
Acans and red rock flower anemone:
Flame Angel
Ricordeas are doing well, biggest split off two babies:
Orange Linckia hogging the spotlight:
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