Tavarua - my first reef tank

[OnlyGenusCaps]

On 12/16/2022 at 1:10 AM, itsfoxtail said:

My jaw literally dropped at having BRS as your local supply shop.

I'll admit, that part is pretty nice.  No shipping cost, and if I get an order in the night before, or early in the morning, for the most part I can go pick it up in the afternoon.  The down side is how much more I end up spending because of how easy it is to get stuff there!

On 12/16/2022 at 1:10 AM, itsfoxtail said:

Minnesota may or may not have just gotten a little boost on the "places it wouldn't be bad to live" list.

Don't get too excited!  I am still cleaning up from 8 inches of heavy, wet snow after the blade on my snow thrower broke in the first 30 seconds of my efforts to clear my driveway.  So, that's a thing.  😜

Also, after two weeks, the tank finally looks like it has started cycling!!!  🥳🥳🥳  I've never had a tank take so long when I have used bottled bacteria.  And with this one I also used "live" substrate.  Oh well, it's started now! 

[OnlyGenusCaps]

It has taken forever to get this tank cycled.  I used bottled bacteria, and "alive" substrate, but I was unimpressed with the results!  Thankfully it's not cycled!

I don't have much time to post (like 9 in-laws in the house for the holidays - which is awesome!).  But as of yesterday, I was able to add these guys:

Not the best photo, or the most challenging fish, but I am so excited to have them!  That's all, I have to go back to the crowd.  More when I can.

[nabokovfan87]

The one reason, I think for so many of us, to be intrigued into saltwater is for clownfish and some corals.  Beautiful fish.  Very jealous!

[OnlyGenusCaps]

So, I added pods and I've been dosing phyto (from a commercial source) to the tank to feed them and get them established.  What's cool is the some of the algae seems to have colonized the rocks too!

I modified the color so the algae was more obvious; tank is not that red.

Why is algae cool you might ask?  Well, there are some seriously aggressive algae species that can overgrow tanks and threaten corals.  Some of them seem innocuous by the names, like bubble algae.  I mean who doesn't love bubbles?!  My hope is that these algal strains colonizing the rocks will help prevent the more aggressive algae from establishing when they eventually make it into the tank eventually.  I added some coralline spores for the same reason, but those take time to establish.  At the very least these should provide food for the pods I added.

[eatyourpeas]

I remember it took a while for my coralline to get going, but it is a beautiful sight once it likes the tank! Don’t underestimate how quickly pods can decimate the salad bar! 😉

Edited January 16, 2023 by eatyourpeas

[OnlyGenusCaps]

On 1/15/2023 at 11:11 AM, eatyourpeas said:

Don’t underestimate how quickly pods

Don't underestimate how bad I might be at cultivating pods!  😜  So far, no worries about them over running anything.

[OnlyGenusCaps]

It's a miracle!  Well, science.  Which is a miracle!!!!

So, I was adding the phyto to my tank to help get the pods established.  Some of the algae took hold on  the rocks, as you can see in the last update.  Well...  I stopped dosing the phyto figuring the pods now had enough algae to eat.  Check out the rocks now!

I don't know how well it comes through in the image but - Gone!  It's all gone like a week later.  None of the visible algae remains.  Not on the rocks.  Not on the substrate.  Nothing.  The copepods ate it all!  I've started dosing phyto again.

In related news, I now have plans with a live-foods expert in the state to go collecting copepods in FW around here.  We are going to collect, isolate, and try to culture pure strains of benthic copepods with the intent of making this sort of sorcery happen in FW tanks.  Can you imagine starting a tank and dosing FW pods knowing you could skip the diatom stage?!  Or knowing if you got hair algae, or green-spot algae, that you could introduce some pods and not have to think about it again.  That's the dream!  And our goal.

[OnlyGenusCaps]

I am fishsitting some benggai cardinal fish for someone in the club.  He is part of our BAP program with me, and I told him I was going to try to breed his fish before he could while I'm watching them.  And...  Well, I might just.  One of the males was holding a couple weeks ago, but they only lasted 3 days before he ate them.  But this time around he looks way more serious about it based on his behavior.  He is hiding under an overhang, and trying to keep everyone away.  Plus, he is doing a better job of pushing water of them in his mouth.

This time I also got a photo!  It's not great, in part because of my poor photography skills, but also because the clutch is small enough he can mostly close his mouth.  Still, it's exciting!  Here it is (the girl who knocked him up is behind him):

Now I need to go make a fake urchin for him to deposit the fry into if he makes it to term.  Wish me/him luck! 

[OnlyGenusCaps]

Well, that was short lived excitement.  For reasons I can't fully understand, the female murdered the egg-holding male while I was at work today.  She has paired off with a new partner now.  Miss a little, miss a lot!  All the literature said I should be careful as she pairs off that she might kill other subordinated in the tank.  Having African cichlids, I thought I had that managed.  But, nothing told me she might try to kill the male holding her eggs!  Well, not until she was ready to breed again in 2 weeks (it takes 3 weeks of holding for the fry to be released fully developed).  I was ready to deal with that in the future, but not yet.  Clearly!  BTW, don't let me sit your fish.  Clearly, I should not be trusted!