90 Gallon Macro Tank

[Heres_doe_]

Here is some pics of the tanks inhabitants. I must note that my iphone photography skills are awful and these pics don't do the livestock justice.

Blue Hypnea (I recently fiddles around with the color setting on the A80 and the hypnea's color looks much better now)

The recently added Blue Scroll Algae frag

King thorn algae

Skunk Cleaner Shrimp

Regal Damsel

Post latest blue hypnea pics

 

[reddevilant]

Post latest blue hypnea pics

Unfortunately, the picture with of the power head that was covered in it is the most recent picture. I haven't had too much luck with it. It'll grow like crazy then gets so dense that the middle dies of from no light which kills most of it and then it'll just repeat that cycle. Recently I only have tiny bits that aren't growing much (which kind of makes me think it may actually be blue ochtodes because I think I've heard that it's seasonal but I'm not sure). I suspect my lighting is a little too under-powered right now to keep it successfully. I only have two kessil a80s and a cheap LED strip light from petco.

 

[reddevilant]

My string of perals algae has grown phenomenally. I think I’m going to start selling some pieces to fund some equipment for a grow out tank so that get even more algae!

 

[reddevilant]

For size reference, that yellow blotch in the background of the second pic is my citrinis clown goby who's about 2 inches lol

 

[reddevilant]

Also, I think I've discovered a way to slightly alter the morphology of the string of pearls (SoP going to start referring to it as this because its a pain to type that out every time lol). Both of the those huge pieces started off as ~4-5 inch pieces that broke off from the original piece that I had bought and were placed in two different sides of my tank. They are at just about the same elevation so they get the same amount of light. The only difference is the flow rate. The one in the first picture was placed in an area of lower and slightly turbulent flow, enough that it just barely swayed back and forth. This one developed longer, more oval-shaped pearls. Meanwhile, the one in the second picture had stronger, more laminar flow on it. This one developed smaller, rounder pearls. Interesting! Maybe I could play around with this when I start the grow out tank.

 

[reddevilant]

I just made a new instagram account for all my reefing and marine adventures! Feel free to follow me! My username is reddevilmacro. If you have a reefing insta lmk so I can follow you too!

 

[reddevilant]

Haven't updated this in a while but I'm going to try and be more consistent now that school is just about over for the fall. In the meantime, here's a little photo dump from the past few months. Enjoy!

Seale's Cardinalfish


My favorite little guy


Trochus Snail


Cerith Snail laying eggs


A macro that @WheatToast and I believe to be Batophora


Iridescent Dictyota (this piece is not very iridescent because it deeper in the tank, farther from the lights)




When I bought this it was named red titanophora but I believe it is actually a species of Cryptonemia. I do not believe it is Cryptonemia crenulata as the morphology is slightly different as it had smooth-edged "leaves: rather than the serrated ones you typically see on Cryptonemia crenulata.


My pride and joy. The most recent pictures of my two string of pearls macro that are about the size of my head lol. I'm currently selling some because I have so much! Check out my classified ad page for more info:
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/string-of-pearls-macro.874643/

 

[reddevilant]

Another little photo dump




String of Pearls


Cryptonemia


One of my many Porcelain Crabs

 

[reddevilant]

Skunk Cleaner Shrimp



Seale's Cardinalfish


Longspine Cardinalfish


Citron Clown Goby

 

[reddevilant]

So I'm in the process of planning my 30 gallon grow out tank. Hopefully after Christmas I'll have everything I need to finally start it. Today I decided to look up DIY frag racks because I want to do this in the most efficient way to grow different macros that have different lighting and flow requirements. I came across a post from @ReefRondo where he showed his really nice looking frag rack made from egg crate and pvc pipe. I really liked the way it look so I'm using his as inspiration. You can find his rack here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/frag-rack-egg-crate-ideas.750368/post-7858369

I want to build on his design and make it a multi leveled set up. I normally don't do DIY stuff so please excuse my very crude illustration of my plans lol. The drawing is just of the pvc frame. It'll consist of five 5" x 8" platforms. The two on the far left and right will be about 4 inches tall, the second is 8 inches (with a support pipe) and the middle platform will be a foot tall. The purpose of different platforms is to be able to have places that are near and far from the light. I also wanted platforms on both sides so that I can focus powerheads to one side for macros that enjoy more turbulent water. Hopefully this will allow me to really experiment with the macros to find the best spot for each species in regards to light intensity and water flow. I will likely also add egg crate to the vertical sides for more places to attach macros.

So for anyone reading this, tell me what you think! Have any suggestions to make this design better or tips for making DIY frag racks? Thanks!

 

[reddevilant]

I was feeling under the weather for the first half of this week so I wasn't planning on getting this done for another week. But, I was so excited and felt back to 100% yesterday that I went to Lowe's, got all the supplies and built my DIY frag rack! I'm very happy with it and really proud of myself because I don't normally do DIY stuff like this. I think I may still put some egg crate on the vertical sides to have more place to attach algae.

 

[reddevilant]

Unfortunately I caught COVID on Christmas . But, at least that gave me plenty of time to start my grow out tank!
I got an Aqueon 40 gallon tank that has a Seachem Tidal 110 for filtration, an old 24 inch Aqueon LED strip light with white and blue lights and a Kessil H80 for lighting, a Hygger powerhead for water flow, and my DIY frag rack. The strip light actually came from my 90g display because I upgraded and got a 48 inch Hygger light for it.

I ghost fed just to be sure, but the tank is already cycled. About a month ago I jam packed my Tidal filters on my 90 gal with extra media knowing I was going to start this new tank. So, when the 40 gal tank was ready, I used a big bag of media and a couple sponges that have been established for a year from the 90 gal to basically insta-cycle the new tank. So like I said, I ghost fed and tested for a few days and sure enough no Ammonia or Nitrites detected and Nitrates were at about 1.0 ppm.

Since everything looked good, this past weekend I dosed some extra Nitrates, Phosphates, and other elements, and added some frags of different macros that I have! I have more macros that I could put in but I'm going to wait a little bit to make sure what's in there right now is doing ok.

I might also add one of my Seale's Cardinals to the grow out because the larger one has been kind of aggressive lately to the slightly smaller one. They've been together since the beginning and haven't any problems till about a week ago. It also doesn't bother my Longspine Cardinals at all so I'm not sure what changed. The Seale's have grown quite big since I've had them so maybe it's just flexing it's muscles and asserting dominance but I'll keep an eye on them. If the aggression dies down soon I will start looking for something else to put in the grow out tank to have a constant natural source of nutrients for the macros. I was thinking a small puffer like a Valentini but some places list them as omnivores and I don't know if they can be nippy. And since I'll constantly have my hands in there that might be an issue. Any suggestions are very much welcomed!

Now here's some pics! Enjoy!



Here's the tank with macros frags. Hopefully within a couple months I'll have a few other species to sell along with my String of Pearls algae!

 

[reddevilant]

Finally some new additions to my 90g!!! There's so many things I want to add to my tanks but obviously with the cold weather here in NY, I can't order anything online. My LFS is redesigning their setup so they have limited stock and usually didn't have the specific fishes I'm looking for in stock. BUT, I was able to get some new adorable fish the past couple weekends.

First up, last weekend I added two new clown gobies! I got a Green and a Black Clown Goby. Together with my Citron, these little guys are seriously becoming my favorite fish. I absolutely love watch them swim in and out of, and perching on all the macros in the tank. Here's a nice pic of the Green Clown Goby perching on some of the String of Pearls algae. At this point it's almost impossible to get a pic of any of the fish without the String of Pearls somewhere in frame lol.



Next up, I added to my small school of Cardinalfish! Just yesterday I got one very small Yellow-Striped Cardinalfish to join the Seale's and Longspines. It is so cute and it was so interesting to watch it assimilate into the group with the others. When I released it into the tank, it swam right over to the Cardinals. Instantly my largest Seale's Cardinal, which is about three times the size, came over and started flaring its fins to show who's boss. The Yellow-Striped went along with it and showed no signs of being stressed or scared. This went on for maybe 30-45 minutes and then all was fine and they all went back to swimming freely. It was really cool to see how dominance was establish without any real aggression. The Yellow-Striped is so small but it is already eating well and it will be really cool to see it grow up.
The dominant Seale's recently produced eggs for the first time but unfortunately the other one is also a female so nothing came of it. But, if the Yellow-Striped is male, maybe we could have some hybrid Cardinals since it is in the same genus (Ostorhinchus) of the Seale's. That would be quite interesting. Here's a pic of the little one!



Finally, the most interesting new addition. This past Saturday I had the pleasure of meeting @Paul B and seeing his beautiful 125g tank! I had contacted him on here about the blue photosynthetic plating sponge he had because I've been looking to venture into the world of sponges to go along with my macros. Paul, my mother, and I had a wonderful conversation and he gave me a bunch of the beautiful sponge. Here's a pic of my favorite piece that is right up in the front of my tank. The rest of the pieces I scattered around or put in my 40g grow out tank to try and find the best place for them in regards to lighting and flow. I have plenty of pineapple sponges and one spiderweb looking sponge in the holes of one of my rocks. But, this is my first time (intentionally) adding sponges and since my tank is much younger and not nearly as established as Paul's, I figure I'm probably going to have to play around with the placement to get the best growth. Sincerely, thank you @Paul B!!! I really love the sponge and if this goes well I'll have to start searching for other cool species to add!

 

[Subsea]

Finally some new additions to my 90g!!! There's so many things I want to add to my tanks but obviously with the cold weather here in NY, I can't order anything online. My LFS is redesigning their setup so they have limited stock and usually didn't have the specific fishes I'm looking for in stock. BUT, I was able to get some new adorable fish the past couple weekends.

First up, last weekend I added two new clown gobies! I got a Green and a Black Clown Goby. Together with my Citron, these little guys are seriously becoming my favorite fish. I absolutely love watch them swim in and out of, and perching on all the macros in the tank. Here's a nice pic of the Green Clown Goby perching on some of the String of Pearls algae. At this point it's almost impossible to get a pic of any of the fish without the String of Pearls somewhere in frame lol.



Next up, I added to my small school of Cardinalfish! Just yesterday I got one very small Yellow-Striped Cardinalfish to join the Seale's and Longspines. It is so cute and it was so interesting to watch it assimilate into the group with the others. When I released it into the tank, it swam right over to the Cardinals. Instantly my largest Seale's Cardinal, which is about three times the size, came over and started flaring its fins to show who's boss. The Yellow-Striped went along with it and showed no signs of being stressed or scared. This went on for maybe 30-45 minutes and then all was fine and they all went back to swimming freely. It was really cool to see how dominance was establish without any real aggression. The Yellow-Striped is so small but it is already eating well and it will be really cool to see it grow up.
The dominant Seale's recently produced eggs for the first time but unfortunately the other one is also a female so nothing came of it. But, if the Yellow-Striped is male, maybe we could have some hybrid Cardinals since it is in the same genus (Ostorhinchus) of the Seale's. That would be quite interesting. Here's a pic of the little one!



Finally, the most interesting new addition. This past Saturday I had the pleasure of meeting @Paul B and seeing his beautiful 125g tank! I had contacted him on here about the blue photosynthetic plating sponge he had because I've been looking to venture into the world of sponges to go along with my macros. Paul, my mother, and I had a wonderful conversation and he gave me a bunch of the beautiful sponge. Here's a pic of my favorite piece that is right up in the front of my tank. The rest of the pieces I scattered around or put in my 40g grow out tank to try and find the best place for them in regards to lighting and flow. I have plenty of pineapple sponges and one spiderweb looking sponge in the holes of one of my rocks. But, this is my first time (intentionally) adding sponges and since my tank is much younger and not nearly as established as Paul's, I figure I'm probably going to have to play around with the placement to get the best growth. Sincerely, thank you @Paul B!!! I really love the sponge and if this goes well I'll have to start searching for other cool species to add!

Now, I am jealous. I have exchanged emails & text with @Paul B for > 15yrs. I have family on LI at Patchogue and some further out where Paul lives near the Hamptons. I want to go collecting with him during warmer weather in Long Island Sound.

I will be up that way during the last week in August, when very large Tuna are caught off Montague Point, Ask Paul to tell you about a striped bass farm at Montague that had more money crop in amphipods but the owners didn’t realize the value of live food to marine aquarium hobbiest.

 

[reddevilant]

Now, I am jealous. I have exchanged emails & text with @Paul B for > 15yrs. I have family on LI at Patchogue and some further out where Paul lives near the Hamptons. I want to go collecting with him during warmer weather in Long Island Sound.

I will be up that way during the last week in August, when very large Tuna are caught off Montague Point, Ask Paul to tell you about a striped bass farm at Montague that had more money crop in amphipods but the owners didn’t realize the value of live food to marine aquarium hobbiest.

Oh cool! I'm from Stony Brook so it was a pretty quick drive to Paul.

 

[Subsea]

Very nice picture of Green Clown Goby against Red from String of Pearls.

 

[reddevilant]

Haven't posted on this thread in a while but I'm bored at work so I figured I'd post a list of the livestock (that I could find sources for) I'm looking forward to ordering over the next few months now that temps here in NY are finally starting to go up. In no particular order:

Fish:

Blue Assessor Basslet (Assessor macneilli)
Randall's Assessor Basslet (Assessor randalli)
Yellow Assessor Basslet (Assessor flavissimus)
1-2 Ochrestriped Cardinals (Ostorhinchus compressus)
1-2 Margarita Cardinals (Ostorinchus margaritophorus)
1-2 Ring-tailed Cardinals (Ostorhinchus aureus)
1-2 Redspot Cardinals (Ostorhinchus parvulus)

Inverts:

Tiger/strawberry conch
Assorted smaller conches from Reef Cleaners (specifically Strombus gibberulus and urceus)
Dove Snails

Macros:

Blue Hypnea pannosa (my orginal batch of it died months ago when the tank was still young)
Flamingo Feather (Heterosiphona gibbesii)
Jointed Tuft (Cymopolia barbata)
Bryothamnion
Botryocladia
Galaxaura
Caulerpa cupressioides

It's going to be a fun spring and summer this year! I'll probably only get one of each of the Cardinals because that seems like a lot of fish for a 90 gal but we'll see. I feel like with the amount of macro algae I have there's some wiggle room because I have a lot of nutrient export. I struggle to keep nitrates above ~7.0 unless I dose. I might also look into getting a few of the different types of Eviota and Trimma gobies from BIOTA but I'll probably wait a while because they only have a couple species available right now and they're on the pricier end for gobies. Plus saving up for the assessors is my priority because I'd like to try and get all three at the same time. I also already ordered some Lyretail Black and Gold Mollies that I'm going to acclimate to saltwater for the 40g macro growout tank. They were supposed to be shipped Monday but unfortunately I haven't gotten any emails from LiveAquaria. Hopefully they get shipped today because I'm home all day tomorrow.

For the inverts, I just wanted more diversity. The conches are mainly to stir up the sand to prevent the small amount of cyano I get every now and then. The nassarius snails have don't move around nearly enough to do anything to the sand.

Finally some more macros! I've had Hypnea, Bryothamnion, Botryocladia, and Galaxaura before but that was when the tank was very young and I was still getting the hang of keeping macros. So I'm excited to get them again now that the tank is more established, I'm more experienced, and I've found a good dosing schedule fir nutrients and trace elements. I'll finally be getting some green macros! I've kind of strayed away from most greens because I've been scared that I couldn't keep up with the nutrient requirements of the faster growers until I get more livestock. I also feel like a lot of the greens are very commonly seen and a quite a few of them resemble terrestrial or freshwater plants so they're a little less interesting to me.

 

[Eric R.]

Very cool! Following along. I'm setting up a macro tank this summer, will likely be interested in buying and trading macros.

 

[reddevilant]

Spent all day doing maintenance and cleaning because I finally had a day off and I've been so busy lately. Here's some updates since I've last posted:

-Coralline and other encrusting algae has been spreading like crazy since I started a regular dosing schedule for calcium, iron, and other elements. I just received today some plating red Peyssonnelia from ebay. The two frags I got were just encrusted in red algae and no plates so I hope they start forming plates soon!

-The plating blue photosynthetic sponge wasn't doing great its first month in my tank. Some portions died off or receded and it turned a brownish color. BUT, this past month it has been doing so much better! It's a beautiful deep blue again and is finally starting to spread. I don't have any experience with corals but I think the sponge probably would've benefitted from a slow acclimation to my lighting set up like how I believe reefers do with new corals.

-I have SO MUCH String of Pearls algae!!! It's not in any of these pics but I had to build a DIY acclimation box of sorts out of eggcrate just to put all the pieces that I trimmed or have broken off. I have a classified ad on here to sell some of it but honestly I think I need to start looking at ebay or etsy as selling options because I just have way too much.

-I got some new macros but because I've been so busy I haven't really looked after them and found the best spots for them, so some of them died. Unfortunately, the Rolled Blade algae and Flamingo Feather I got perished. Not sure what happened to the rolled blade algae because there was a lot of pieces the placed all around to find the best lighting/flow placement for it, but they all withered away. As for the Flamingo Feather, I think it got too much light but I'm not too sure. But I'll get some more and try again sometime soon. I did also get some jointed tuft algae and cactus caulerpa which seem to be doing well. I was also able to get Halymenia dilatata again and it's looking good! I originally got it a year ago but I was too new to macros and it broke up and mostly died.

-I got a small conch and wow does it make a difference in the sand. I would get a lot of cyano in some sections because of slow flow but the little guy has done wonders keeping everything clean. I'll probably get a second one soon because this one is pretty small and generally stays in the front and right sides of the tank.

-I permanently moved the black and green clown gobies to the 40 gallon. They were always hiding in the 90 and I never really saw them. Plus I really needed to put some livestock in there other than macros.

-I also successfully acclimated a lyretail black and gold molly to saltwater and it's been doing great!

-My Yellow-Striped cardinal is doing amazing and growing so much! It was so tiny when I got it but it's now half or three-quarters the size of my Seale's.

-Speaking of my Seale's cardinals, both are definitely female and have been consistently producing eggs every month! I'll take that as a sign I'm doing really good with the tank and pat myself on the back lol.

That's all the updates I can think of right now. But, it's going to be a busy summer! I plan of really adding to the livestock and getting plenty more fish over the next couple months! This tank is too big for just 6 fish.

 

[Tamberav]

I love where this tank is going. Macros are my fav thing ever even tho I don’t have a macro tank currently. Some types can actually be quite picky and hard to keep.

I been thinking about setting up a macro tank as I have a few spare tanks around