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My other hobby

RamPuppy

Moderator
Moderator
I decided to show you all a peek of my other hobby. The page is only temporary to make viewing images easier. Oh, and since the detail is kind of needed for the specimens in the picture, the images can be large sometimes... broadband connections are a good idea!
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My Digital Reef

I hope to start posting pics of my plants up again soon. I have a pot totally overgrown with various forms of D. Binata
 
OH, I guess some explanation would be good.

The 'creatures' in the shot are all either coral, or what is known as a coralamorphine (somewhere between a coral and an anemone biologically.)

These corals all host a symbiotic algae known as zooanthelle in their cells, this gives them their amazing colors.

And proof that the apple does not fall far from the tree, many of those corals are infact carnivorous, with the orange and blue rhodactus mushroom having been known to eat the occasional fish.

Not to far removed from my carnivours plants... it's a new form of gardening, under water, and with a heck of a lot more light.

(That tank is lit with 120 watts of power compact light (50% 10K daylight, 50 % blue actinic, as well as a 175 watt metal halide bulb (10K) )

By the end of this year I will also have replaced this tank with a 115 gallon cube tank, lit with 300 watts (4 x 24" tubes) of VHO, mostely blue actinic and a 400w 13K metal halide.

I still love my CP's, but have run out of room indoors, so they are kind of in a holding pattern until the family greenhouse goes up on the ranch.
 
Great other hobby there RP
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That first unknown coral form “Sam” is a species of Hydnopora.  They have a very powerful sting and long sweeper tentacles, so watch that you don't have it too close to your other corals.

That second unknown from “Sam” is  a species of Caulastrea.  Commonly called Candy Cane Coral.

There are loads of references to both if you do a Google search.

Both are rather hardy corals to have and should mostly open their tentacles at night.

So how about telling a little of your setup?

As for me... I'm heavily involved in marine aquariums as well.  I was Prez, then Vice Prz and now stepped down, form a local marine aquarium society.  I also run a small part-time business making filtration equipment for the Australian market.

My main area of interest is collecting/propagating SPS corals, though over the last 9 months my fulltime job and part-time business have meant little time has gone into the hobby.

Good to see another reefer
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Aaron.
 
I love reefs! Unfortunately your page won't load for me.
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Since I couldn't see the page do you have any fish or just inverts? I'm really fascinated with the huge variety of non-fish life forms in marine aquariums and was my biggest draw to starting a reef which had to be abandoned when I lost my job in 2001 so I turned it into a terrarium and now I'm a nepenthes maniac...!
 
Steve, You're back!
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Beautiful, man. Beautiful!
 
yeah, I am back, sorry I haven't been around much... as the mods can attest, I am working some insane hours... I have tome to read up on a lot of what goes on here, just not post in it.

A little about the tank, there are two pj cardinals in it right now, but they are soon to go, I am finding I care more about the invertebrate population than the fish, and they were temporary place holders, as I wanted either a pair of maroon clowns, or a black pair of perculas (maroons are mean and very territorial, perculas are nicer, the bonus of hte maroon is that it naturally hosts in the anemone I have on back order (A purple tip rose buble anemone, captive bread).  THe PJ's have decimated my population of copepods and amphipods... one bonus, in their place i have tons of mini-stars, bristle worms, and other little goodies.

The tank is currently a 30 gallon hexagon with about 40 lbs of lalo and tonga live rock. FIltration consists of one Magnum 350 running carbon, cleaned 2 times a week (I don't want it for mechanical filtration, I only want the carbon, but you take what you get!
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)  and a remora pro w/mag 3 for a protien skimmer.  THey keep the water crystal clear.
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lighting is described in an earlier post. for flow, I am now using a sqwd on a small pump (SQWD's flip outlet of water to make 'wave action'.)

The new tank will be a 115 gallon cube tank, w/ a 4 port Oceans motions on a closed loop for wave action, a custom built sump, refugium, skimmer and calcium reactor from a talented fella in my local aquarium society.

Aaron, thanks for the ID, i had that written down but lost it on the way home from the hobbyist I got the frags from, I just got in contact with him yesterday and got the ids, though I had no idea the hydnopora had sweepers!  Glad I posted, I will be sure to keep everything away.  I have allready put my anemone on hold, as I think he would have a hard time navigating the small tank full of corals allready... gonna wait to have him shipped when the 115 comes on line.

Oh, and other inverts in the tank would be:

Amphipods and Copepods (not observed in months, but pretty hard to get rid of!
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)

Mini-brittle and mini-sea stars

3 different kinds of bristleworms


I have a ton of little sessile mollusks that spit out mucous, catch stuff, and haul it back in... I forget their names...

about 5 Dwarf Zebra hermits, and one emerald mithrax (also soon to go, I have decided to do only indo-pacific species)

And various Trochus, Tongan Super Nassarius snails, and one turbo that I for the life of me can't figure out how he got in my tank (probably came on a coral, live rock is all indo pacific, as is the sand)

I also have some keyhole limpets I am watching with a wary eye, but so far, they are behaving.
 
oh i LOVE reefs!
the ONE coral i could never grow was a goniopora.. i wonder what the secret is?
 
Some stars I think are really neat are basket, feather, African, and blue linkia. I'm not sure how they will do with corals. Other cool inverts are slugs: purple, tricolor, gooseneck barnacles, purple long-tentacled anemone, colored carpet anemone, banded coral shrimp and its golden version, clown shrimp, green plate coral, goniapora, x-mas coral, and feather dusters from Hawaii. Now this is from a wholesaler's pespective - bring 'em in and move 'em out.
 
..... I HAVE NO IDEA what your all talking about
 
  • #10
ha ha... it's a language all it's own finch, just like cp'ers talking about trigger hairs and so on...:p

most star fish are actualy coral predators, linkia stars are nice, as are harlequin shrimp, which i just couldn't bear to keep, something about taking a sea star out of the ocean just to feed a couple of shrimp bugs me.

I am playing it 'loose' with my invert stocking, I definately want to keep it all indo pacific, but I want to keep my options open and stock as I go, that is half the fun of the hobby, you never know when you'll run across something amazing.

As for fish though, that is mostly decided, the 115 will have a pair of mated mandarin dragonettes in it (Trank bread and raised if I can find them) and a pair of either maroon clowns or black ocillerius, I keep flopping on those, as I am intrigued by the maroons and they are the natural symbiotes of the bubble tip anemone (One of the few hosting anemones in the trade, and the easiest to care for, not to mention, in most peoples minds, the most beautiful). However, black ocillerius will host in a bubble tip sometimes, and they aren't bullies... that is a real concern with the mandarins in the tank.

THe only other fish I have pegged down, are a lemon peel tang, and a helfrichi firefish... (For those that haven't seen the hellfrichi, it is stunning, you'll have to take my word for it, or do a google search!)

I have another tank up and running, to seed my fuge with when I get it going, int he long run, that tank will be home to a. Maculatus, the warty frog fish... (Can change colors to match it's environment.) finding them around here is hard, and I would like one with a genetic base color of red rather than yellow, makes it triple hard to find... but worth it.

Another interesting thing, when I build my greenhouse, I am now thinking of having a section (other than the carnivorous plants) for corals, some rubbermaid tubs sunk into the ground, propgate the coral in mother natures back yard.... others have done it, don't know how well it would work though. I would have to have the air pushing away from the plants towards the salt water and out of the greenhouse though, I am sure the majority of CP's would not like salt air, though I know some are adapted to it.

Interesting that you mention 'slugs' as well, I had aptasia crop up in my tank a few weeks ago from some frags I got from a friend. Another friend will be dropping a berghia nudibranch off for me later this week, the aptasia hunter killer!
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when he's done his job, out he goes to another aptasia riddled home.
 
  • #11
oh god, aptasia are a NIGHMARE, i feel your pain. i used to kill them with kalkwasser past. i had a blue linkia star once, i spent THREE hours aclimating it, then the next day i found a huge piece of live rock on it. what irony.
 
  • #12
that's not irony, that just plain sucks! Aptasia are a pain, but with a little berghia in the tank, they are nothing more than food!
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  • #13
ever tried copperband butterflies to take care of them? they work GREAT.
 
  • #14
my tank is a little small cor copperbands... the berghia will be far better suited... even now though, I think I have decided, since it is just two I am going to lance them with a needle and inject kalk... if they pop up in the 115, I will probably get the berghia... the copperbanded butterfly is a gorgeous fish, I just have no interest in it.
 
  • #15
WoW! nice hobby, ive always wanted a reef... maybe when i older...
 
  • #16
i think you should wait untill you get a job, unless your lil'bow wow or lil' romeo.. or some other lil'...

it's extremely expensive.
 
  • #17
expensive is not a joke. I have a fiarly decent position at a fortune 500 (the only reason I don't like the job is I work nights and weekends) and It takes me a while to get up the cash for these guys...

Case in point:

115 Gallon Cube Tank ~$425.00 (reef ready, after tax)

Oceans Motions 4 Way wave generator ~250.00 after shipping

quad VHO and metal halide lighting ~550.00 (What your CP"s like is NOTHING compared to a reef!)

Custom made Protien Skimmer - 200.00

Custom made sump / refugium - 250.00

Stand and Canopy (home made) - 250.00

Titanium Heater - 30.00 x 2 (always run 2 smaller heaters instead of one large)

Digital Thermometer - 10 bucks, radio shack

Test Kits (salifert) around 100 dollars

Salt mix 49.00 200 gallon bucket of oceanic

if you have poor water quality, 150.00 RO/DI system

there is more.. need I go on? Reefs will bleed you dry in setup costs, I did not even include Live Rock and Arragonite Sand (hoping to get some Southdown sand)

the fish are the cheap part... ocillarius clowns? 40 bucks a piece (ORA captive bread, never by wild caught unless nothing else is available) 2 Mandarin Dragonettes? avg 8 bucks a piece here, probalby more expensive as I want tank raised.

And of course, before you put any fish or corals in your tank... they should go in a quarantine tank... but most reefers have an old 10 or 20 gallon laying around for that purpose, so it's not much MORE of a setup cost.
 
  • #18
That's why I do CP's, now, instead of fish. A $2 SASE here and there, plus a lot of generosity, has done well by me.
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But I sure do miss my fish and inverts! BTW, we had a "system" of interconnected tanks for the fish. Man, did it make difference in the morning after mortality rate! We never had massive sudden tank death or cryptocarion.The system allowed for ~4x as many fish to be brought in. The individual tanks were always a crapshoot, the morning after a shipment - especially the corals and anemones. Ya never knew if you had ALL of the doa's removed or whether one was week enough to die and cause a chain reaction. With the invert tanks we had several, so that we weren't mixing stars with corals or anything that would be a bad food chain move in a small environment.
 
  • #19
sound slike a nice setup Jim, I am excited that the new tank is going to have a refugium, I am using a talented acrylics guy down here to build me a nice, yet relatively inexpensive phyto-plankton reactor, which will feed not onlly corals, but zooplankton as well, I will still have to feed the tank, but I am trying to get the tank to 'feed itself' as much as possible.

I agree that CP's give you much more bang for the buck MUCH MUCH MORE! I have considered having my plastics guy make me a nice 'terrarium' for my plants. would much rather have a greenhouse, but, well, we all know how those plans go... they stay plans for far longer than any of us would like.
 
  • #20
Man, you have gone significantly beyond my technological expertise! Wow! I would give up half my kingdom...
 
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