Kaybee's 65gal Reef

[Trillianne]

Absolutely beautiful! And that is the same size as our current freshwater tank. I was just saying to my bf that it would be a good size for us to try saltwater when we upgrade.... your picture is quite a wonderful inspiration in that direction.

[Cliff]

Thanks everyone, I appreciate all the kind comments!



Good catch! I forgot to list the acans!

I've got three different types of acans in the tank but none are in the lower right hand side. What coral(s) is the coral you're inquiring about next to? At the bottom right (left of the green open brain and below the light colored toadstool) are some common red mushrooms.

By chance did you mean lower left hand side?

Actually, the one I was looking at was next to the blue shroom & green candy cane. Your red mushroom is colored like some one my favorite acans. I did notice your other acans tho.

I was going to ask if you were doing any to help keep there red color. Mine is fadding a bit and I'm a little concerned. I'm going try a liitle lower light and feed him some more.

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

Kaybee, that is an incredible looking tank. Definitely something to be proud of. Goes to show just what you can do without a sump. :D

[kaybee]

Thanks ILMGB. Yep, not all reef set ups require sumps, and I'm actually using a canister filter which is typically not advised for SW tanks (though I don't have it configured as I would if it were on a FW tank.

Trillianne, I find the 65gal tank to be a decent size tank for SW it's not too large and not too small, plus has adequate height and width.

Actually, the one I was looking at was next to the blue shroom & green candy cane...

Oh, ok. I think I know which one you're talking about. My blue mushrooms are on the far left. The blue corals you must be referring to which are near the green candy cane are actually blue snow flake polyps.

I believe the coral you're inquiring about is my 'super red' blastomussa, a fleshy polyp'd LPS. The camera is washing out its true color a bit in the photo, in person it's the color of tropical punch or cherry kool-aid:


I've got a larger blastomussa colony (the common red variety) in the tank as well (its obscured from view in the rear right corner of the tank).

Indirect lighting may help prevent the lightening of color with some acans.

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

Yep, not all reef set ups require sumps,

Nope, they sure don't. :) My new 75 doesn't have one either.

[labnjab]

Very nice set-up kaybee I hope ours looks half as nice in 5 years.


My main reason for a sump is I absolutely hate HOB equipment. If I had the cash I'd have a sump/wet/dry on all of our freshwater tanks, lol

[kaybee]

Size comparision:

Green elephant ear mushroom adjacent to small and normal-sized common red mushrooms


Sometimes the elephant ear will expand to the extent that it completely conceals the red mushrooms and even the nuke green paly's on the adjacent live rock.

[kaybee]

I moved my green torch to a different area in the tank (to the upper far left) section of the tank. Under the larger frogspawn one of the heads was getting deprived of light and the torch was a little too close to my blastomussa.

There was a crevice that held the torch's skeleton base very nicely. It fit very well wedged in. But my darned damsels dislike changes and kept bumping it out from below, forcing me to epoxy it in place, but not in the position that I wanted.

I also relocated some excess candy cane, xenia, palys and anthelia to a different reef tank.

Here's a close up of my orange leptastrea frag (a small-polyped LPS coral, if that makes any sense). Green-centered leptastrea can be seen in the background:



My most recent addition, a small pink lobophyllia:


I'm observing something with my green-polyp toadstool leather coral that may be of concern:


It's been retracting its polyps for maybe 4 to 6 hours about every 2 or 3 days. It seems that the last one or two polyps don't completely retract, instead they're being ejected and detached into the water flow (the entire 'stem' and polyp head).

It seems to producing new polyps at a rate equal to or greater than the loss so it's not visibly missing any polyps. Is this normal? Is this a form of reproduction? I'm going to try to capture one of the detached polyps and place it in a different tank to see if they live.

[Cliff]

I love the pink lobo, I've actually been looking for one like that but havn't been able to find a pink one (wife's favorite color).

Wish I could help with the leather. Mine has only done that a few times

[kaybee]

I had been planning to revisit my very brief journal (posted in 2011 when my reef tank was entering its 5th year of establishment) with an equipment & coral update, now that tank is approaching its 12th year, and also discuss a particular multi-year tank issue which nearly caused me to lose all interest in reef-keeping and almost made me want to leave the hobby.

I'm still planning to do an update, but instead let me start with this:

I had perhaps the most startling experience I've ever had with any of my aquariums while my hands were in the water, which I will sum up with two words: huge. bristleworm.

I was aware that this creature was in my tank in 2009, and wrote about it in this 2010 post:
http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/aqua...122#post746122

My sightings of this beast were rare and to the best of my recollection I may have seen it once or twice in 2012 and then nothing. Out of sight, out of mind, the years pass by, perhaps it died, and I forgot all about it...until yesterday.

I'm doing some minor reorganization and decide to move a coral which is growing on a palm-sized clam shell from the sand bed to a place higher up on the rocks. With the coral on a clam shell in my hand in the tank I am about to relocate it when I take a glance at the underneath, and there it is! The bristleworm is curled underneath the shell and is in panic mode trying to find its way out from the situation.

I try hard not flinch or drop the coral (which could damage it or any corals beneath it), and wonder if my composure will hold up if this thing touches my finger (it was getting restless). I place the coral with shell on the rocks and call it a day. I had no idea this thing was still in my tank! This beats the suprise I had last year after Hurricane Irma, when after a day and a half without power this larger-than-an-acorn sea urchin which I had never seen in my tank before revealed itself.

Most bristleworms of the hitch-hiking variety are about half the length of a toothpick. I couldn't grab my camera due to the situation yesterday, but this is what it looked like in 2010:

bwfw1.JPG

bwfw2.JPG

The flash of the camera is washing out the bright red lines where the bristles come out from.