Derbird Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 That is looking awesome I have to admit I'm more than a little suprized by how nice it looks. Most of this stuff we strive to eradicate from our systems and here it is hanging out and looking good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pledosophy Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 Keep it up. Cyclops is your friend for the pests you have there, water changes to keep the nitrites in check, don't worry to muchabout nitrates unless they breach 100. I was able to get an aiptasia to 3 inches across before I knew it was a bad thing. I was target feeding it a cube of brine shrimp twice a day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted April 4, 2012 Author Share Posted April 4, 2012 Yeah, I'm target feeding the aiptsia and majanos with enriched mysis shrimp right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted April 4, 2012 Author Share Posted April 4, 2012 Here's the little tantrum my mantis shrimp threw right after I put him in his new tank last night. He was pretty torqued about being moved yet again... Mad enough to PUNCH THE GROUND! GRRRR! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted April 5, 2012 Author Share Posted April 5, 2012 Here's a funny little joke pic that I posted on Nano-Reef the other day. It nearly created a sh*t-storm of angry comments, so I added the troll face to people would realize it was a photoshop job. This is my pest tank back when it was a proper reef tank (minus the tangs, obviously) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted April 5, 2012 Author Share Posted April 5, 2012 And then somebody started a meme thread and I came up with this. I'm really kinda like an adult child sometimes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted April 5, 2012 Author Share Posted April 5, 2012 Oh, and the anti-joke chicken meme.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pnkrcklives Posted April 6, 2012 Share Posted April 6, 2012 HA HA HA.... That picture of that tank with the tangs in it freaking cracks me up. I bet the world almost came to an end once the tang police saw. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gill Posted April 6, 2012 Share Posted April 6, 2012 If you ever get up to WA I have a big majano I think - I haven't killed it because I'm not positive that's what it is, and he behaves... When he does a water flush, he's green - he was there when we got the tank, and I'm thinking he's just a big majano... Looks just like my green/brown bubble tip anemones. I bought mine because of the white spots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gill Posted April 6, 2012 Share Posted April 6, 2012 I have a nice frag of purple cloves for you and I have some Young Love palys. I really wish I had never put the cloves in my tank DOH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted April 6, 2012 Author Share Posted April 6, 2012 I have a nice frag of purple cloves for you and I have some Young Love palys. I really wish I had never put the cloves in my tank DOH! Awesome, I was just thinking yesterday as I was adding the green/red majanos that I wanted some clove polyps for this tank and I'll happily throw in some more palys. *your private message box is full, PM me and let me know a convenient time I could get some of those from you. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted April 6, 2012 Author Share Posted April 6, 2012 Here are a couple pictures from tonight. The xenia is healing nicely from being fragged. The majanos are moving around and finding where they want to be. The palys are opening up, and the seafoam zoas that Kimberlee gave me are settling in. I expect them all to be open by the end of the weekend. The mantis shrimp is doing well, but set up shop behind the rockwork. I'm going to try covering the front of the tank for a couple days in hopes of getting him to set up home in the tube I built for him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted April 8, 2012 Author Share Posted April 8, 2012 A big thank you to Gill for donating some additional goodies to the pest tank. I now have some purple clove polyps and young love palys... and another thing that I can't identify. What was that thing? I also conned the Mantis shrimp into spending time in the home I made for him. I moved all of the bits of coral rubble from the back of the tank to the front so the entrance to the tube is partially obstructed. I then covered the front of the tank. 1/2 hour later, he was setting up shop in the tube... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted April 8, 2012 Author Share Posted April 8, 2012 And here's a full tank video I took after adding all of the goodies that Gill gave me. We met up at Hollywood aquarium and ended up chatting for quite a while. I also scored a good handful of bubble algae as well! Thanks! Full tank video with guest appearances by Shadie the mantis shrimp! I wish I had started a pest tank sooner! This is so much fun! And forget quarantining anything, you might miss a good pest! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted April 13, 2012 Author Share Posted April 13, 2012 Scallops, it's what's for dinner! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteRock Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 Thats great, I love it. Keep em coming. Team Shadie FTW! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omarortiz Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 That's cool that the mantis casually comes out for for the food. I was wondering: does the mantis ever beat on the glass or is he satisfied with his lot? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted April 13, 2012 Author Share Posted April 13, 2012 That's cool that the mantis casually comes out for for the food. I was wondering: does the mantis ever beat on the glass or is he satisfied with his lot? He's usually pretty satisfied with what I give him. He usually gets a decent sized chunk of food. Either enriched mysis shrimp, chopped up scallops, chopped up prawns, fish or even pellet food. He also has a few dwarf cerith snails in there if he gets the urge to have snack--which he does from time to time. He comes out to see you every time you come up to the tank. He also spends a large portion of his day doing things. He's very active, often moving armloads of gravel from place to place. He always looks like he's thinking about or planning something. He hasn't hit the glass yet, but he was beating on the end of a chopstick earlier when I was cleaning the glass. He's got a pretty good hit, but I don't think he would be able to hit hard enough to break skin like the bigger ones. It would probably be about like getting snapped pretty hard with a rubber band at point blank range. And there's no way he can hit hard enough to break the glass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted April 17, 2012 Author Share Posted April 17, 2012 Ok, I'm thinking about final stocking to for the competition Mantis/Pest tank. Here's a list of what I have in there so far: More Green/Red tipped majanos than you can shake a stick at. A small handful of brown majanos... two different varieties. Brown Aiptasia that is starting to multipy. Seafoam green palys that are starting to go nuts. Poop brown palys that are starting to grow rapidly. Poop brown zoas that are starting to color up green. Young Love Palys that are in full effect. Boring red mushrooms that are somewhat invasive. Boring green mushrooms that are somewhat invasive. Purple Clove polyps. A mat of GSP glued to the back wall of the tank. Caulerpa of some sort. Very fast growing, already thinning it. Bryopsis--not doing well, really. Red macro algae... starting to grow. Tons of bubble algae. Black Mantis shrimp Mexican Red leg hermit Dwarf blue leg hermit Dwarf cerith snails(Aka: Snacks) Still interested in any oddball stuff that you might have... Probably no crabs/shrimp as the mantis will just kill everything eventually. Bristle/fire worms, invasive mushrooms, zoas or palys. Encrusting corals that are invasive or ugly. Anything unwanted that will survive in this tank. Anything you wish you had never put in your tank. There isn't much room left for stuff, so small frags are best, but I'd like to fill out any remaining spaces as much as possible. If you have anything you think might be fun or weird, let me know! Cheers! John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derbird Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 My tank has some Astrina stars (I have no idea how to spell that DOH!) They are a pest but I think of them as CUC (laugh) If your coming to the meeting I can bag a few up for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted April 17, 2012 Author Share Posted April 17, 2012 I should be good on asterea stars. There are a handful in there already, and I've been throwing any that aren't pure white from my main tank into this one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted April 17, 2012 Author Share Posted April 17, 2012 I should be good on asterea stars. There are a handful in there already, and I've been throwing any that aren't pure white from my main tank into this one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted April 18, 2012 Author Share Posted April 18, 2012 Does anybody have a small frag of Yellow colony polyps? You know, the ones that can be pretty invasive? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Islandoftiki Posted April 19, 2012 Author Share Posted April 19, 2012 New goodies arrived for the pest tank today. As I've probably mentioned, this tank runs on the warm side. With the upgraded pump and the fairly warm LED lighting, it can easily head for the mid 80's when the ambient temperature gets above 75 degrees. So, I'm going to be adding a peltier chiller. I guess it would be safe to say that it's a little bigger than I expected it to be, but I have a couple possible solutions in mind. Easiest is going to be to just plunk it into the filter chamber in the back of the tank and call it a day. Although I have a thought to drill a hole in the bottom of the stand that it's going to be sitting on and feed the probe up through the bottom and attach it to a large heat spreader that will contact the bottom of the tank. Here's a picture of the thing on top of my freshwater version of the same tank. The chiller, heater and lighting will be controlled by a RKL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burningbaal Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 that things a beast! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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