BrittaniPearl
Active Member
Hi all,
So while I'll be focused on my nano in 90 build for a bit, figured Warp would like some love. A little background, I got into this hobby by accident. The labs where I teach were being renovated and while all the freshwater fish were able to find homes easily, the stone crabs were not as lucky. Mama crab (a 6-8" monstrosity the likes of Godzilla) was homed to a friend, while I took the younglings. Well, Warp is the surviving youngling (Warp says hi!)
However, since Warp is a jealous and wrathful overlord (meaning he isn't reef safe as he eats anything that moves, except for copepods which somehow manage to scare him away from his own food
), I've held off on trying corals until now. The tank is a little over a year old now, started with just a chunk of live rock, gravel, and Warp from the old tank (a 120gal) to a free tank they had (5.5 AGA), but with a purple coralline crusted live rock addition which I'm hoping will eventually spread.
My build is:
5.5 gal AGA with cover
Rio Aqua pump/powerhead 50
Jr. Aquatics Model 10575 heater (not at the moment, summer does a fine job keeping temps up
)
Wave Point High Output Clamp Light-6" 8 watt Micro Sun LED
Air pump with air stone (I know, apparently a total newb thing but I like bubbles and it's easy to tell if the powerhead is working
)
General tank pic (don't mind the dice cube in the corner, was a temporary iso chamber...story to follow!)
So, with the tank being over a year old I decided to try my first frag, a set of zoas, since I want to try a variety to see what the lights can handle and these seemed to be a good beginner coral. They came with a banded aiptasia, but as it's not as invasive a species I'll be leaving it for now as it really is pretty (purple with white bands). The zoas are happy in their new home, nice and bright orange (I am awful at pictures)
Now comes the fun, of course when everything else is going well some stress needs to happen. This past weekend I stopped by the LFS to check out chillers/fans, and fell in love with this poor guy who apparently has been rather unwanted as both species have totally different light preferences. He's a green star polyp/montipora frag. Pic is just after getting him settled for GSP isn't out yet
(the black bit isn't rot, its a water spot on the outer glass)
Now...this poor frag is so stressed out and I can understand why. Whatever material the frag is made out of (I think it's just stone, but maybe just too smooth), it would not bond no matter what we tried using (glue, epoxy..), but finally we were able to bond an epoxy cradle to the live rock for him to sit in. I walk away for 5 minutes and come back to see a "baby" starfish wandering off. Now, being that Warp is, well, Warp, this set off a Mission Impossible style rescue mission. Once wrangled, the star was placed in a drilled dice cube for the night before a dip and pour iso chamber was acquired yesterday, drilled, and placed. Now what do starfish need? Algae. So I picked out a pebble covered in it from the back most corner of the tank. DSO was able to get it, but it slipped just as it was over the monti frag.....*facepalm* So I had an emergency lesson on the internet of how to frag montis, and attached the broken bit to the pebble for the starfish, and plopped it in there. Hoping that at least gives both bits a fighting chance >_>
And the appreciative star
Now the GSPs seem much happier!
And better pic of my banded...
Well I think that's all
So while I'll be focused on my nano in 90 build for a bit, figured Warp would like some love. A little background, I got into this hobby by accident. The labs where I teach were being renovated and while all the freshwater fish were able to find homes easily, the stone crabs were not as lucky. Mama crab (a 6-8" monstrosity the likes of Godzilla) was homed to a friend, while I took the younglings. Well, Warp is the surviving youngling (Warp says hi!)
However, since Warp is a jealous and wrathful overlord (meaning he isn't reef safe as he eats anything that moves, except for copepods which somehow manage to scare him away from his own food
My build is:
5.5 gal AGA with cover
Rio Aqua pump/powerhead 50
Jr. Aquatics Model 10575 heater (not at the moment, summer does a fine job keeping temps up
Wave Point High Output Clamp Light-6" 8 watt Micro Sun LED
Air pump with air stone (I know, apparently a total newb thing but I like bubbles and it's easy to tell if the powerhead is working
General tank pic (don't mind the dice cube in the corner, was a temporary iso chamber...story to follow!)
So, with the tank being over a year old I decided to try my first frag, a set of zoas, since I want to try a variety to see what the lights can handle and these seemed to be a good beginner coral. They came with a banded aiptasia, but as it's not as invasive a species I'll be leaving it for now as it really is pretty (purple with white bands). The zoas are happy in their new home, nice and bright orange (I am awful at pictures)
Now comes the fun, of course when everything else is going well some stress needs to happen. This past weekend I stopped by the LFS to check out chillers/fans, and fell in love with this poor guy who apparently has been rather unwanted as both species have totally different light preferences. He's a green star polyp/montipora frag. Pic is just after getting him settled for GSP isn't out yet
Now...this poor frag is so stressed out and I can understand why. Whatever material the frag is made out of (I think it's just stone, but maybe just too smooth), it would not bond no matter what we tried using (glue, epoxy..), but finally we were able to bond an epoxy cradle to the live rock for him to sit in. I walk away for 5 minutes and come back to see a "baby" starfish wandering off. Now, being that Warp is, well, Warp, this set off a Mission Impossible style rescue mission. Once wrangled, the star was placed in a drilled dice cube for the night before a dip and pour iso chamber was acquired yesterday, drilled, and placed. Now what do starfish need? Algae. So I picked out a pebble covered in it from the back most corner of the tank. DSO was able to get it, but it slipped just as it was over the monti frag.....*facepalm* So I had an emergency lesson on the internet of how to frag montis, and attached the broken bit to the pebble for the starfish, and plopped it in there. Hoping that at least gives both bits a fighting chance >_>
And the appreciative star
Now the GSPs seem much happier!
And better pic of my banded...
Well I think that's all
