Paul's 40 Gallon Reef

[paul87]

Eggcrate?, the foam stuff or the plastic grid cover for lighting? Sorry to sound like a dolt

No, egg crate is what is commonly called 'light defuser'. It is cheap stuff that is used commercially to cover up fluorescent lights in buildings. Basically plastic squares. I have it under my sand bed, as a cover for my tank, and made frag racks out of it. Pretty useful stuff if you look at it. The sizes of the holes are JUST right.

Bingo. Sniper beat me to it. Handy stuff indeed.

 

[paul87]

Lookin good Paul, been awhile since I stopped in. I have that same species of blasto. It grew like crazy after it was acclimated for a few weeks. Of course then I lost a few thousand bucks in SPS and LPS when my power failed for a couple days while I was out of town. Actually the blasto is one of the few that survived, and I am hoping it'll come back. I think initially, it grew a dozen heads in about a year.

I like the rearrangement, and the tank looks great!

Thanks! Glad you stopped in, haven't heard from you in a while. Yea I like that blasto, hope for it to do well. Sorry to hear about the loss man. How is that 50+ rimless tank doing now? It's been a while since I seen it. It was very nice last time I saw it.

 

[fort384]

Aside from my massive SPS colonies and my nice LPS colonies all dying during the power failure (not to mention all the fish except 1 clown) it is doing really well. What did survive has for the most part come back with a vengeance and the zoa colonies have exploded. There must be a thousand head of zoa in the tank of varying varieties.

I started restocking the SPS and LPS a month or two ago, after letting the tank just settle and recover for several months after the big shock. Lots of new fish -- Pajama cardinals and a bunch of chromis, bicolor blenny, all friends with the remaining percula. All in all it is doing well. I'll have to break the camera out one of these days.

 

[paul87]

Aside from my massive SPS colonies and my nice LPS colonies all dying during the power failure (not to mention all the fish except 1 clown) it is doing really well. What did survive has for the most part come back with a vengeance and the zoa colonies have exploded. There must be a thousand head of zoa in the tank of varying varieties.

I started restocking the SPS and LPS a month or two ago, after letting the tank just settle and recover for several months after the big shock. Lots of new fish -- Pajama cardinals and a bunch of chromis, bicolor blenny, all friends with the remaining percula. All in all it is doing well. I'll have to break the camera out one of these days.

It sounds like the outage did quite a number on the tank. Don't worry man you'll get it back. I wouldn't mind seeing what you got going on with it after the disaster. Best of luck with it!

 

[Bdonaldson]

Hey Paul, how often did you feed your harlequin shrimp

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[paul87]

Hey Paul, how often did you feed your harlequin shrimp

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Mine mostly fed on the asterinas in my system. After that I fed an arm and once that was gone a gave it a few days the another arm. I froze the starfish arms. Most people would drop a whole star in and let them have at it. I would feed it a full star a month. They help to keep the starfish alive as long as they can during the feeding. More than likely you will have to clean out a little bit of left over starfish when they are done.

 

[Sniperhank]

Mine mostly fed on the asterinas in my system. After that I fed an arm and once that was gone a gave it a few days the another arm. I froze the starfish arms. Most people would drop a whole star in and let them have at it. I would feed it a full star a month. They help to keep the starfish alive as long as they can during the feeding. More than likely you will have to clean out a little bit of left over starfish when they are done.

It isn't everyday where people that keep these shrimp have a good plan and are successful at it. Here when I was still a budding member of this community, there was another member who was chronicling this journey with them. He basically had a large system, with a mated pair if I remember correctly, and a sump FULL of chocolate chip starfish. What he would do is simply grab one, cut an arm off, and throw the arm in. Would simply rotate the stars he was disarming and thanks to the sheer number he was able to keep it didn't become an issue over time.

 

[paul87]

It isn't everyday where people that keep these shrimp have a good plan and are successful at it. Here when I was still a budding member of this community, there was another member who was chronicling this journey with them. He basically had a large system, with a mated pair if I remember correctly, and a sump FULL of chocolate chip starfish. What he would do is simply grab one, cut an arm off, and throw the arm in. Would simply rotate the stars he was disarming and thanks to the sheer number he was able to keep it didn't become an issue over time.

Yea, I don't see why it wouldn't work. As long as the starfish are healty to begin with, they can recover and regenerate over time. My last choc chip I fed my Harley I cut one arm off and left the rest of the star in my sump. The wound on the star healed over rather quickly and it didn't seem to phase it for more than a couple days. However I don't know how long it would actually take for that arm to regenerate. This does seem like the 'smartest' plan for these guys. They truly are an amazing shrimp.

 

[paul87]

Another new addition today! Picked up a ORA green polyp birds nest to go with my ORA purple one. I think nest one on my list is a decent size frag of strawberry shortcake that I've had my eyes on for a while now, just haven't had the money. My guy has had it for a while now and she is a beauty. Here are some photos of the new guy along with another photo dump of some older guys.

New ORA Green Birds Nest

My little SPS thing

Red Monti Cap (growth)

Purple & Gold Leptastrea (finally bouncing back with a couple new polyps!)

Orange/Green Lobophyllia

Sunburst Acan

Section of the Zoa Garden

SR Hermit in bottom section of Zoa Garden

Silly Clown hosting Trachyphyllia

 

[bribo12]

Nice pickup Paul and looking good as always ! I'd be quite jealous if you get a piece of strawberry shortcake! That's been on my list forever


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[paul87]

Nice pickup Paul and looking good as always ! I'd be quite jealous if you get a piece of strawberry shortcake! That's been on my list forever


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Thank Bribo. I know its just a birds nest, but hey I told you I was gonna get into some SPS's! LOL. Only one Acro as of now. That shortcake he has is a really nice piece. Fully encrusted.

 

[fort384]

Sweet. Love the lobo. Acans look nice too. Now I have a good tank to chase with my restoration


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[paul87]

Sweet. Love the lobo. Acans look nice too. Now I have a good tank to chase with my restoration


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Thanks man. I absolutely love that scan, it has always been my favorite one. Unfortunately it is the hardest coral I own to photograph. It throws the camera for a loop no matter what. I'll be following along in your restoration!

 

[Bdonaldson]

Mine mostly fed on the asterinas in my system. After that I fed an arm and once that was gone a gave it a few days the another arm. I froze the starfish arms. Most people would drop a whole star in and let them have at it. I would feed it a full star a month. They help to keep the starfish alive as long as they can during the feeding. More than likely you will have to clean out a little bit of left over starfish when they are done.

Ok thanks for the info Paul.

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[Bdonaldson]

Another new addition today! Picked up a ORA green polyp birds nest to go with my ORA purple one. I think nest one on my list is a decent size frag of strawberry shortcake that I've had my eyes on for a while now, just haven't had the money. My guy has had it for a while now and she is a beauty. Here are some photos of the new guy along with another photo dump of some older guys.

New ORA Green Birds Nest

My little SPS thing

Red Monti Cap (growth)

Purple & Gold Leptastrea (finally bouncing back with a couple new polyps!)

Orange/Green Lobophyllia

Sunburst Acan

Section of the Zoa Garden

SR Hermit in bottom section of Zoa Garden

Silly Clown hosting Trachyphyllia

Nice looking birds nest. That has been on my list as well.

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[paul87]

Nice looking birds nest. That has been on my list as well.

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Got them both from Andrew (BAM) for a very good price. He's got plenty.

 

[paul87]

I'm really wanting to see this purple & gold Leptastrea frag start encrustig back. I think I have it in a great place for it. It's not a big fan of strong light. I believe thats what almost wiped it out when I got it. It's stunning under the actinics.

Also I still haven't seen my Orchid Dottyback. I assume he is dead and gone. I don't have the slightest clue why.

 

[Bdonaldson]

I'm really wanting to see this purple & gold Leptastrea frag start encrustig back. I think I have it in a great place for it. It's not a big fan of strong light. I believe thats what almost wiped it out when I got it. It's stunning under the actinics.

Also I still haven't seen my Orchid Dottyback. I assume he is dead and gone. I don't have the slightest clue why.

Dottyback's are normally aggressive. I'm surprised you can't find him. Maybe he is hiding. Or maybe the change in tanks stressed him out to much.

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[54seaweed]

check around the tank he may have went carpet surfing mine always loved to jump till the one day he jumped to far

 

[paul87]

check around the tank he may have went carpet surfing mine always loved to jump till the one day he jumped to far

Yea I've checked a few times. I have hardwood floors so he really has nowhere to hide.