Building my 56 gallon Column reef tank

monsinour

monsinour

Active Member
So the whole adventure started with this thread
 
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/forum/thread/379818/new-aquarist
 
And once the stock list got sorted out, we moved on to equipment
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/forum/thread/379879/what-tank-and-equipment-to-use
 
Then, when getting the LR to start things off, I kinda made a mistake
 
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/forum/thread/380328/kind-of-an-emergency
 
And now, I am less than 12 hours away from actually placing the rock into the tank and adding sand and water. So this will be the build thread and eventually the show off thread maybe. Right now, all i can do is describe the LR and post pictures of it. I have some basic coraline rock. i think thats what he said. it has some basic algae and whatnot on it but nothing fancy. No pics of these pieces. But I did get a cool piece of it. It is sorta trianglular in shape with a almost perfect round hole all the way through it. It will make a perfect cave/hideout for the critters. I then bought 3 pieces of some very decorative LR. I believe these pieces are from florida and have all kinds of good things on them. I know for a fact that there is an alive clam on one as he squirted me when i had the rock out of the water. All 3 of these pieces had those small, black urchins on them. I think it was one urchin per rock. One of the urchins tried to make a getaway but we caught it in a bucket and moved it into the tote. All 3 pieces have very abondant life on them and 2 of the 3 pieces have coral on them already. On to the pics!
 

 
This piece is still in the bucket and this is a top down view. At the very top you can see what appears to be some coral. At the bottom right is some algae (i believe) and all kinds of other neato stuff.
 

 
I believe this is on the side of the piece up above. The question i have is, that green piece in the middle of the picture, is that a clam?
 
continued....
 
 
monsinour

monsinour

Active Member
 

 
This is a top down view of a piece I plan on making a "bridge" out of. It is kind of flat and rather long. As you can see, it is loaded with life and has plenty of neato looking things on it.
 
The pic below is of the piece of LR that I would consider as the best piece in the bunch. It has all kinds of stuff on it. At the top right you can see what I would call a "tree coral" with the fluffy stuff pressed against the stem. I have a better shot of it coming up.
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
Top rock....center....directly left of your little urchin....is that aptasia?
 
Don't know what the green thing is
 
Be careful....some urchins will eat coral.....hard to tell what type yours is...it's too small, and IDK enough about urchins
 
Are you getting excited yet
 
monsinour

monsinour

Active Member

 
This is a closeup of that 3rd piece. I have no idea what that green thing is in the lower left corner. It looks like 2 pringle chips put together to make a "duck bill"
 

 
This is some of the coral on that 3rd piece. In the lower left corner you can see another piece of the "tree coral" coming at the camera. Its out of focus as I was attempting to get the 2 round pieces in focus. Cool aint it?
 
continued.....
 
monsinour

monsinour

Active Member

 
This is a closeup of that "tree coral" that is on the rock. It was actually open in the bucket but I didnt think to take a pic of it in the bucket. Once this piece is added into the tank, It will open up and be totally awesome. I am loving this piece of LR more and more as I look at it.
 
 
This is a top down view of the big piece I think. I kinda lost track taking all these pictures and right now, everything is a blur. But, all in all, I wanted to show everyone what pieces of cool LR i got at my LFS.
 
monsinour

monsinour

Active Member
As far as the bad aitisia (spel chek plz) yes it is. I think 2 of the 3 pieces had some on it. The LFS salesman said that he had some on the LR he put in a display tank without peppermint shrimp. After 3 months they disapeard and it did not multiply. He said it was some kind of carribian stuff that was not as bad as the "really bad stuff." Out of all the LFS in my area, and all the salesmen at all the LFS in my area, this guy comes highly recomended by my local message board. I can tell he knows quite a bit about the hobby and while I dont take his word for everything as gospel (he did say that i might not have a cycle in the tank because of all the life on these rocks) I do take his word for most things. Once the rock is in the tank, I plan on dealing with the aitpsia (spel chek agan plz) in some fasion. These things are attached to the rock yes? I cannot simply turkey baster suck them off right?
 
And absolutely Heck YEA i am getting way too excited over rocks. I cant imagine how I will be when the pair of clowns are introduced to the tank. Heck I just might go a little nuts when the partial CUC gets introduced to the tank. Woooo Hoooo, imma needing a smoke break.
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
All of that green plant stuff is halimeda......you may want to google it.....a lot of people like it, BUT...IT is a very FAST growing invasive plant
 
can't tell what the tree is...lol...put it back in the water and take another pic
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
It's APTASIA.....haha
 
I would get rid of it now if you could....you can inject lemon juice in it's mouth....or pick up some Joe's juice...that is what worked best for me. They multiply REALLY FAST by releasing spores
I have never heard of a good Caribbean type though
 
monsinour

monsinour

Active Member
2 questions:
 
#1. Would you move the algea to the refugium where it can be better kept under control as opposed to the DT? If so, how would I go about moving it?
 
#2. My wife and I are concerned that in all of the rocks 5 minutes of air time, nothing fell off into the buckets underneath. As stated before, there was a mantis shrimp on one of the rocks that came off in the LFS. Is this normal and we shouldnt worry? Or is this abnormal that no other hitchhikers were on the rocks, atleast didnt drop off in the 5 minute window?
 
monsinour

monsinour

Active Member
Real quick, smaller grains of sand go in the refugium and the sand bed should be about 5 to 6 inches right?
 
sparty059

sparty059

Active Member
You really don't need anymore than just 3" of sand. Anymore is just overkill IMO. Grains also shouldn't be an issue... I have aragonite sand in mine which is a mixture of small grains and medium sized grains.
 
S

smartorl

Guest
Looks like a gorgonian of some type, although most that I am familiar with would have the polyps receeding into the base. In the one picture you posted it looked like they were squishy on the outside. Let me look around.
 
If it is a gorg, I have them in all my tanks, they clean up the excess food and personally, I like the way they look.
 
S

smartorl

Guest

 
I'm not seeing anything "just" like it, but they come in so many forms, shapes, sizes, colors but here is one that's close.
 
monsinour

monsinour

Active Member
For the 5 to 6 inches, i was refering to the refugium. Dont I want a deeper base in there than the display tank?
 
Here is a good pic of 2 of the 3, or is it 4 now, urchins that came along for the ride on the LR. I think we counted 4 when moving the rock from the tote to the tank.
 

 
I am soo geeked to have something alive in the tank that is not algea or sponge. These things are moving around and trying to get off the rocks as I place them into the tank. Its soo cool, and mesmerizing, to look at these little things and watch them move. I am about 25 pounds of LR short for the tank so in a week or 2 I will get some more and add it into the tank.
 
Not to brag, but does anyone want to guess what I paid per pound for all these pretty pieces of LR?
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
Looks like it could be a purple urchin, which is a good thing....LOL...MIne never touches the corals and is a voracious algae eater
 
and as far as the sand...I knew you meant the refugium
 
 
Live rock....let me take a stab and say $4.99
 
monsinour

monsinour

Active Member
So with these algea eaters, does that mean i will need to cut back on the size of my CUC, assuming these guys make it past the first couple of weeks?
 
And no, $4.99 a pound at a LFS would be a dream for those pieces of rock. It was more than that, but not by much. I did get 3 different kinds of LR. One of the kinds, not pictured, I did pay $4.99 for. When the dust settles I will take a pic of the tank and post it pointing out the 1 piece that has the hole in it that was $4.99 a pound.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top