Eatfrenchfries

Generally the coral they host would be porites or cyphastrea. Porites you'll get some more of the other inverts. Cyphastrea just has the worms usual. Colored feather dusters will multiply on your Christmas rock. They may spread to other rocks in proximity but fish can eat them then. Generally the tan/red small common variety will outcompete the colorful christmas wormsover time. I suspect the coral may be vital to keep the original seed. I always end up with one or two colors over time. I have a few blue feathers but mostly tan throughout my rock scape after having a Christmas rock. It's a fun balancing act of NPS care on an SPS coral that appreciates light.

I should be there with a couple of BRS dosing units. Maybe some T5 fixtures and a few prototypes.

Depending what you have on your Christmas rock will relate to its difficulty. Feather dusters are great and do good with fine foods but some of of the shrimps may get picked off by your fish. The little crabs should be fine, if the coral starts to decline they may look for something else to colonize or die in their hole. Mine got picked off by the puffer when they fled their shelter. The organisms it comes with need care (fine food like phyto, marine snow, pods, etc). The porite itself is easy to keep. The hard part is keeping everything growing in balance. Coral has to grow at a rate that the symbiotic organisms won't overgrow it. Feeding the organisms may cause them to grow faster than the coral causing them to damage it. Spider sponges are a similiar premise in keeping the symbiotic organisms in balance. Lots of times one will kill the other inadvertently since the conditions needed to keep them both don't have much leeway. You should do it though. People keep them for quite a while before they lose some of the "Christmas" from their rock. Bit of an ebb and flow.

Broke my heart selling my original set of mangroves before the move here but I am of the firm belief that a captain (mangrove) goes down with the ship (tank). Easier than reconditioning them. Started in August with 80 Red mangroves. 4 were tossed, 30 sold, 10 traded. October I started with 20 black mangroves. 6 tossed, 2 sold. November I received 5 white mangrove seeds. *Thread will be pictures of mangrove growth procession and pruning. Hopefully others will show off their own here too. Been toying with the idea of a higher brackish - lower marine tank to house diamond terrapins for my dream build. This involves playing with varying levels of salinity to see what kind organisms will supplement this intertidal zone. Have a few palms and a hala tree I feed with my water changes for this scape. My 29gallon cull/growout tank is where I play with chemistry, diy gadgets, cultivating techniques, etc before moving on to my main systems. Been running for over a year now. Specs: No mechanical filtration. Two powerheads. Heater. ATO. AI Prime 16s at 5500k, 100%. Mangroves supplemented with led grow lights once they got too tall. Will be floating T5s for better coverage. Sloped sandbed starting at barebottom with live rock rubble and shifting to 5-6 inches. Maintenence: 15% water change weekly + DIY continuous phyto reactor/doser, still working on it but that reminds me one of my friends recently launched a patreon for projects which are pretty interesting. Hoping to be able to tweak it for different strains. https://animoto.com/play/QJHCotkk4Gojq81g95390Q Livestock: Guppies, mollies, green spot puffer, fighting conch, assorted macroalgae (red, blue, brown), hermits, nerites, trochus, collonista, stomatella, cowries, strombus maculatus, ceriths (few varieties). 26 red, and 9 black mangroves. The rest are in my main display. Chemistry: CA - high 400s, Alk - 8 Mg- high 1400s Phosphate - 0.7 Nitrates - 25 I harvest algae weekly and generally use it to fertilize the tank again if it isn't desirable. High in, high out but always moving. Never stopping. Mangrove Pruning: After the the second set of leaves come in I'll cut them off right above the first set to keep them bushy. Just did it at the 7th month mark for the reds. Apparently blacks are a lot easier to work with. Haven't trimmed the roots yet since I'm planning to bonsai them. Any plants that go into shock get put into lower brackish water to recover since they don't have to waste energy on salt but still be able to swing them back to marine. Got some orange mangroves sprouting in full salinity which will dispersed between my tanks soon.

Anyone have some available in the Portland area? Willing to commute within reason. I have macroalgae to trade if interested dragons breath, rhodopeltis, fauchea, halymenia dilatata. If all else fails, $. Also if anyone has gracilaria mammalaris I'd love to trade for it. For some reason my puffer like to shred that but nothing else.

Currently using portable USB powered air pumps from DHgate at $1.78 a unit and I've had them for over a year with no issues. Paired them with a USB charging splitter to manually control each one. I bought 30 my first time around and I'm using almost all of them continuously for projects. They are also available on Amazon for a few dollars more.

You would need S-type rotifers instead of L type. S-type is sometimes referred to as SS (super small) rotifers. They are raised similiar to L with the main difference being the temperatures they reproduce at. Damsel fry mouth is a different size than clowns so the microns required for each stage vary. Paramecium or organisms that contaminate infusoria would be an ideal size as well to get them past the first few days. Parvocalanus naupli would be useful since the instars match with the micron upsize. Clowns would get by with parvocalanus, L type rotifers, and fresh baby brine, tdo pellets.

Thank you for the write up. I hope people do take the time to read this. A lot of hobbyists don't realize just how important knowing the journey that coral took from its place in the ocean to your tank is. Knowing import/export laws is key. Coming over from herpetoculture (venemous) myself you can see the damage supply and demand + misinformation can do to a hobby. Hobbyists wield a lot more influence than they know. USFWS is no joke and they keep really good tabs once they started cracking down in the pandemic. There was a guy that used to trade with traveling hobbyists in Oregon that got busted on selling veneomous insects brought in illegal from Germany. The trail made its way to a SoCal wholesaler that had already moved the goods not knowing any better (reptile expo). I surrendered what I had before I moved to Oregon from California but have been checked up on twice since then for proof. Wouldn't doubt it if I got another check up after I move from my apartment to a house. Having multiple hobbies just makes them more inquisitive as to what you are doing.

@talkalot82 I go back and forth between Portland and San Francisco for work regularly. DM me.

@goldenbasketreef you are correct. They are listed on CITES II. That grey area of regulations with importers, exporters, and retailers needs to be expanded upon and a little more widespread knowledge throughout the hobby in my opinion. It's passed by so many hands by the time it gets to the hobbyist. @obrien.david.j there's a lot of NPS corals not known in the US since they are deepwater from China, Indonesia, Java and CITES is strict with it. Some of the best NPS tanks I've seen are from China and Japan.

@obrien.david.j they are rhizotrochus. A very large polyp NPS coral that is now illegal to bring into the US. There are only a few in circulation and I managed to snag a couple colored variants to add to my collection when someone retired from the hobby. Cost me more than I'd like to admit. They do not produce more heads but instead trigger a spawning event where some more may appear. I haven't lucked out yet. I started collecting dendrophyllia and tubastrea before moving on to hidden cups.

@obrien.david.j thank you for the kind words but I am no means a master yet. We all had to learn from someone and even I'm still not where I want to be. More than happy to help any along with their cultures and provide what guidance I can. @Yourmedic, always willing to chat whenever. For me it is occam's razor and if you want something done right, DIY. Apparently my phone quality is too high so I need to either resize images or take a screen shot. The picture included is the reason I got into live foods. Crown jewels.

A bit disgusted with myself and hearing how often and how much people pay for copepods + phytoplankton. I keep running cultures of Tisbe, Apocyclops, and Tigriopus pods. If you're interested in Amphipods or Mysids. I keep them on the back burner for finicky new sires. (I can show you pictures of setup for proof of cultivation if needed). *Please don't ask me for parvocalanus, that is exclusive to breeding and high density feeds. If you're interested I can split my cultures at one of my harvests for you to be able to cultivate your own. I can add in a 2L pop bottle of phyto blend to keep you going until you can cultivate your own phytoplankton. I keep as of now 17+ different cultures (phyto, cyano, dinos, diatoms, zooxanthellae). I'm willing to split Tertraselmis or Nannochloropsis at harvest to cultivate your own if you can't source it. Rotifers I have L-type and S-type. (Primarily used for breeding projects). *these are meant as starter cultures for seeding your own separate culture. Not advised for feeding your tank or seeding your tank (unless you have a refugium or other functional pod breeding ground). If you need something specific for a breeding project or unique organism I'd be more than interested to contribute. (Proof of project required). Each pod culture would be in a 16oz bottle for $15 of a blend (4 types). All three types in separate containers we'd call it $45 even. The feed phyto blend bottle (12 types, what I use for my tanks) in a 16oz bottle you can add for $5. Individual phytoplankton cultures will be available for $20 in a 2L pop bottle. Live phyto will be 16oz for $5 until the blend changes with the addition of porphyrium. Rotifer cultures will be $8 each for a 16oz bottle (I'll flush a 3 gallon culture through a sieve and you'll get that in the bottle). *Red Flag* - I can realistically only service one or two orders every couple of weeks or it will be too thin. So this is not meant for feeding or subscription services. This is meant for you to do the cultivation yourself to save money in the long run. Nearest crossroad is SW Oleson Rd x Scholls Ferry. Shipping not ideal but I can make it happen. Picture is of Enteromorpha Intestinalis aka gutweed. Popular in waterfall algae turf scrubbers in the UK. Doesn't fragment and cover your whole tank like ulva lactuca. Looks more like long flowing seagrass and edible by everything. Thought I'd make it available to locals in the PNW before spreading it around. Open to trade for other macros.

Tetraselmis is much more nutritious. You can grow it in your poseidon system the same way. You'd just have to learn it's color palette and possibly give it a little more rest to light. No change in degree of difficulty other then your sterilization techniques to avoid cross contamination are paramount to keeping different strains. Airborne transmission happens. Tetraselmis will absolutely outcompete your Nannochloropsis. Motile vs nonmotile. Your tisbe pods may eat the dino but will die not long after, keeping it still in your tank. Dinos respond to predators. They are known to wipe out copepod, amphipod, isopod populations. Filter feeders are shown to be much better consumers of dinos. I culture a couple for that exact reason. Dosing dinos will not beat dinos, you'll just have a diversity of dinos. The issue would be figuring out how to suspend the dinos from the sand (diamond goby, pistol shrimp, etc). Your filter feeders (bivalves are awesome) would consume dinos from your system. That in addition to dosing phyto may tip the single cell organism balance in your tank away from the dinos. I keep macroalgae themed tanks. Dinos are pretty much damning since they'll melt away the tissue and disintegrate the macros. Nutrient imbalances coupled by not enough biodiversity were my biggest hurdles. Dinos are ever present in your reef, the key is to keep them at low numbers.

Research gate is my go to. Chances are if there's something you need access to. Just reach out for permission. Hydrospace LLC pointed me towards some good literature for my projects too. Dinkins, Reef Nutrition, Tommy's, Jay's pointed me towards other directions that broaden my scope but didn't narrow my field enough either. They would rather show you the direction to take then the way itself. I'll tell you that added N will lead to a higher curve values than limited P. You're also best off keeping a journal for reference. I keep a log for each strain in my collection and another for those in production. Majority of people I know haven't dabbled in them and those that do guard trade secrets closely because they paid for research grade samples. They're not cheap or easy to work with. $125 - $200 for a 5mL - 100 mL sample. Possibly at the next meeting I can bring some of my journals + notes for you to look over. If growth curves are your language then you should look into a dissolved oxygen meter and pH meter. It'll help you calculate the curve. I have them both if you need. Higher pH means bigger phyto boom. Lower pH means a phyto decline. Dissolved oxygen will vary between night and day. It is important to see how much the o2 the phyto is pulling night vs day. Obviously you want it pulling during the day. If it's pulling more at night then it is contributing to your busts. Picture is of nanno at a lower magnification because I was looking for zooplankton. Obviously parvocalanus don't eat nanno but I heard they eat Thalassiosira in addition to their staple Isochrysis. Had to give it a test though to see if a diverse blend would be better than two or three big fatty motiles.

Nanno should be round. Anything oblong would a bacteria. Nothing should be moving. Your microscope is more than enough to do the deed. The only other thing I can think of is your 2nd F/2 boost is pushing the culture past the exponential growth curve and into another decline and then the next curve.

The old has to make way for the new. Dead cells will clump to form detritus which is helpful in moderation. It feeds bacteria that produce co2 and recycles the dead cell walls to an extent. Too much and the bacteria will overtake your culture leading way to competition. Your nanno will bounce back but it always runs the risk of coming back mixed with something else. Cultures that go clear and back to color make me wary since phyto isn't that fast reproducing (greens at least, a golden might with appropriate carbon, usually othe single celled bacterias can do what you are describing). Tinted like tea is fine. Yellowish tint is fine. But clear or cloudy gives me reason to pause. Especially if it goes back to green within the next day. Only my cyano strains grow that fast. Usually a day to three to get a new batch. Reviewing your journey I would say your nanno culture could probably run even denser which would help your initial harvests. Itd keep other things from outcompeting your phyto. Retiring phyto and giving cultures breaks is a good idea too. Microscope would help too to make sure your culture is still relatively pure. Lots of peoples cultures get lost over time but still produce similiar product results for feeding pods. Not so much for tank dosing. *amscope is my favorite brand for microscope in terms of quality and price.

I really wish I knew how to breed strombus maculatus in numbers. If you got tips I'd be more than happy to send some your way. I've only been able to have a few of them in my tanks at a time. My favorites are dorvilleidae worms for my macro mulm and these little hitchhiker cukes that inhabit my macro. Never seen one bigger than an inch or two at best

When test for fertilizer you're not looking for zero. Just looking to see that you are indeed using majority of the fertilizer. I use the redfield ratio as frame of reference to see what is being residually added to my tank. Key factor for me since I keep various macroalgae. No real guess how many days after fert the culture will crash. Could be a day or hours depending on light/heat. More realistic would be your culture being on the decline and just trying to harvest before all the goodies are gone. Not sure if Poseidon fert is proprietary but I know they all follow the Guillard recipe with slight modifications based on personal findings. From the measurements you're telling me it sounds like the fertilizer was just diluted a bit more. I think Fritz does it the same. The amount of fert is related to the density of culture desired in the final total volume of water. Your culture age(density of old to young, rest or active) is also a factor. These are all things to fine tune your harvests but if you're using Poseidon systems then I would follow their guide. The owner did a great job and offers great support for a streamlined product. Their guarantee is pretty awesome too. Maybe see if the fresh batch of fert will keep you from doing an extra squirt into your cultures. Something I took the time to dial in because managing 17+ separate cultures isn't something that leaves a lot of room for error.

For the longest time I used a 3D printed dremel attachment to spin cultures for testing the water. Just got myself a used centrifuge for cheap on FB that is nice but no real need for it. I spin the culture till it separates and then I test the clear portion. Works like a charm. Just make sure it is the clear portion and not the phyto itself. The color will ruin your test. Even better would be sending that water to be tested to see what residuals your phyto didn't consume. Poseidon ferts come separated to prolong shelf life since they come premixed. Mixing your own removes precipitation issues and guarantees ratios for consumption. Whenever I start my phyto culture I use a 1 (culture) : 5 (medium) to start up. Certain prolific ones I start at 1:3. Usually for Nanno since it is nonmotile and prone to failing thru contamination I use a denser culture to start it. They thrive in density. I recommend 1:3 or 1:1 even. I prefer tetra in bulk but I keep nanno going because it is useful. Your cells would be dying right around the time you re-up them on fertilizer. They're using that fertilizer + decayed cells (carbon) to fuel further growth. Phyto thrives on density. Dilution leads to problems (except spriulna + synechococcus, all bloom no bust).

Great work on the thread + phyto + pods. Just curious about doing the fertilizer boost to thicken your harvest. Did you ever test for excess fertilizer? I had to alter my carbon ratio to light duration to avoid a boom/bust cycle of adding f/2. Nanno oculata is a great strain but long term continuous yielded headaches for me that led to me doing batch cultures for ease of maintenence. I do continuous cultures on pretty much everything else minus those that require silicates (batch gives me greater controll of excess nutrients).

@Mooseman_Sal just cleared my inbox. Also tried to send you a DM but unable to.

Please DM

Sold out of pods for this harvest. Should have more in 10 days. Still got plenty of phyto to go around though.