Way over due update...

So it's been some time since the last update to everything or even a just a general post on something haha. Things have been pretty busy around here with work, moving my roommate out and finally getting things back in order in the apartment. The last post I did revolved around the baby rock flower anemones that I had, ~120 in total. Sad to say they didn't make it. Due to a huge hair algae outbreak in the tank, they were smothered and the ones that made it past the outbreak got lost in the rocks because they were to small for me to save.

When the outbreak started, I didn't think it would be that big of an issue. I moved what babies I could reach to a dish in the tank so I knew where they were and could target feed them when I fed the rest of the tank and they would, hopefully, stay away from the algae that was covering the rest of the rocks. Soon that wasn't even enough. As I fought the algae, I moved the babies to a breeder box on the side of the tank. That was a bad move. Soon the algae was in there as well. I then decided that I would move the remaining babies to their own 3 gallon tank. I don't know if it was the move or something else, but they soon disappeared...

I dismantled the 20 gallon in attempt to rid it of hair algae. I had some nice rock that was curing in a bucket that I decided to use. New sand was bought and an internal filter was made using acrylic and put into the tank. There's the overflow compartment that I can put a filter pad and a Phosphate remover pad in. Under that is an area for Cheato, since it's growing like a weed in the sump of the 75 Gallon, then there is the return section with a powerhead for a return pump.

The goals in doing this:
To be able to house the cheato in the tank to help with the algae.
Get rid of the ugly HOB filter.
Increase flow in the tank to kick crap out of the rocks and keep it suspended to get sucked into the overflow.
Give the tank a "cleaner" look.
Most of all: set the tank up the right way from the beginning...

When I first set this tank up I did so in a rush. I wanted an awesome Rock Flower Anemone garden. What I ended up with was a massive headache and a major mess I was always trying to clean up. Learning my lessons, I let the tank go for a month without anything in it. Then added the Cheato when I started to see algae growing on the rocks. ~20 small Limpets and ~30 small unknown snails were added to the tank shortly after that from the 75 display to start reproducing and help with the algae. After I was sure everything was good to go, I added the anemones to the tank with a couple other snails to clean up the remaining algae and keep it gone. One month later, everything is going great and will hopefully stay that way.

I'll be looking to add to the 6 Anemones in the tank to make a nice little colony of them with the hopes of them reproducing again and being able to raise some of them to maturity. Not much is out there as far as breeding these guys in our tanks. Most of it is just luck. I'm hoping to be able to put my experience with it all on here to help those who might want to do it as well. These little guys really are a great addition to a tank for people from expert hobbyists to the new people getting into the hobby.

Baby Rock Flower Anemones!!

So as I've said in past posts, I want to breed Rock Flower anemones. Well it seems that that has happened! Over the past month I've found 7 small baby nems throughout the tank, all different sizes. From what I've read of others experiences they will be different colors then the adults. I'm still not sure who the parents are, but I have an idea about the fathers since I've only seen two of them spawn and those are the big red one and the big green one.

Some of these babies are tiny! The latest one I found is about he size of the end of my dropper for my refractometer haha. They all seem to be doing well and I've corralled them in a small dish with rubble and sand to keep them from disappearing. The bigger of the two are big enough to accept a small Omega 1 pellet, but the other 5 I'm still feeding plankton. They aren't showing any real color yet, but I figure it's still early and the two bigger ones with start showing some soon since their pattern is developing.

I was trying to get them to spawn this spring, reading that they normally spawn around the spring solstice (some time around March 20th), but that hasn't happened and I'm not sure if it will. Both of my males seem to be a little stressed for some reason that I cant find. The big red one has it's stomach all puffed out and has been that way for about a month or more. It's still looking good besides that and accepting food. The large green one just keeps standing tall and wont calm down and flatten out like he should be. The only thing I can think of would be the lights, but the other nems I have in the tank all seem fine, nice, flat, and open.

At some point I will do a write up of all my experience with these guys as well as what I've collected from around the net for my reference as well as sharing this collection of information since I've see lots of others interested in getting these gorgeous little guys to breed.

75 Gallon Stocking List

Since I've got a little more room with the 75 gallon now and a good sump going so far, I decided that I could stock a few more things to give the tank a more real "mixed reef" look. Here's the livestock list so far:

Fish:

2x Clownfish (1 regular Ocellaris and 1 snowflake)

1x Regal tang

1x Flame Fin Tomini Tang

Inverts

1x Large Banded Brittle Star

Mexican Turbo Snails

Cerith snail or two

Micro Brittle stars (white and banded)

Limpets

Corals

Purple Mushrooms

Yellow Yuma

Orange Yuma

Blue and Orange Ric Florida

Capnella

Neon Candy Cane

Green Candy Cane

Purple Candy Cane

Acan Bowerbanki

Green Plate

Green Tongue

Maricultured Red and Green Millipora

Orange Montipora

Purple Chalice

Pink and Green Chalice

Deep Water Acro

ORA Purple Nana

Green Porcillopora

Misc Green Acro

Red Stylopora

Yellow Cup Coral

Purple and Green Hammer

Green Torch

Galaxia

War Favia

Bleeding Heart Favia

Maze Brain

Blue and Green Zoas

Rasta Zoas

This may look like a lot, but when the pieces are still small and the tank is this big, there is always 

75 Gallon Tank Build!!!

So for the past few months (actually since about July of last year) I've been working on a 75 gallon tank to replace the 40 gallon breeder that I had set up. A little over a month ago I finished it, set it up and now it is fully running with a few more additions then the 40 gallon had. Mostly some corals, but a few new fish as well. Links are at the bottom of the post.

The stand is the same one that the 40 was set up on that I refurbished awhile ago, adding more support and a top for the stand. I also added a nice dark mahogany stain and new hinges on the doors.

This setup started with a 75 gallon tank that I got from a garage sale for $15. Damn good price for a tank that needed a little work and I was going to do a few other things to it as well. I got it all cleaned up and the first step was to get all the silicone out and put a new seal on the tank since I didn't trust it and had no idea how old it was.

20 Gallon Long Stand Build

Now here was a fun project. I built this up a few months ago because I was running out of room in the 10 gallon frag tank I had and wanted to upgrade to a 20 long. The thing I like about this stand is because I custom made it to my needs, I got to built it out of whatever I wanted. So I decided to go with pallet wood except for the 4 4x4's for the corners.

Dimensions were a little hard to decide on. I wanted something that was going to be sturdy enough to handle the amount of weight I was going to put on it, yet look nice and even possibly be used for an upgraded tank later on in the future. I decided that I would make it big enough that, if I wanted to later on, I could put up to a 40 gallon breeder on it. 

It sits at just about 72" in height and about 37" wide and 18" deep. 

The inside can hold two 5 gallon jugs and the shelf on the inside is holding fragging supplies and chemical tests.
Total Price on this stand was around $25- $30.

$4 Anemone frag/ Mushroom Frag Basket

So at the last frag swap I went to I found a RBTA that I just couldn't pass up buying. The seller had accidentally fragged one of them and was selling both frags for the price of 1 haha.  In the past I've kinda stayed away from buying anemones because I had a mixed reef tank and didn't want to add them to it just to have them move around and kill a few corals before they found their spot. Rock Flower anemones are a different story though since they usually don't move around a lot. Well since I couldn't resist buying the RBTA I had to come up with a spot to store them in the frag tank without them roaming around. This is what I came up with: a $4 basket that hangs on the side of the tank.

Long Overdue Update

So it's been a long time since I've done anything with this blog. In my defense things got a little busy... I got a job offer from a company in Chicago, had to find a place and move within a month, go to some training within that month, take down all the tanks and get everything ready for the move. All while still working and going to school haha. It's been about a year since I've actually posted anything. There have been some losses and some gains during the whole process. I lost the vast majority of frags I had in the frag tank from the move. My fish died from being kept from new water for to long. My banded brittle starfish almost kicked the bucket, but I got to him just in time. Here's the newish setups.

40 Gallon Breeder
This tank has mostly remained the same. Same corals, same livestock, everything. The few changes that were made include moving the hang on breeder box that was on the 20 gallon over to here as a refugium, building a small frag rack for the side of the tank and keeping all the surviving frags over here. The fish have been replaced and are all doing amazing. Yes, I know... People will say that a blue tang belongs in a bigger tank. Well there is plenty of room for him to swim around, plenty of places for him to hide and we've become very good buddies haha.