Grog

I was not sure where this belongs, but I figured this is the right place. Please move the post if it doesn't fit in this location. I just got back from Ketchikan Alaska. The wildlife was absolutely abundant. These pictures were taken for the dock before I went on a halibut fishing trip. (Caught one halibut, one rock fish, and one king salmon.) So much diversity in the water. I'll give some perspectives. That crab in the first picture is about 7" across. The cukes are really bright orange and brown and vary from 1' to 3' in length. Yes, foot. There were 20 nems and starfish visible. Lots of nutrients in the water down there. Second picture shows reflection of a piling for reference. So, you can see how large the cukes are. I was blown away. Things were about the size of my arm. Tide changes are about 20'. All the docks are floating. You can see closed nems up 4' on the pilings. Pretty crazy. All this just at the dock. Sorry for the low quality. I was 4' above the water, and the water was about 8' deep here. Shows how clear the water is up there. Can't wait to go back. It was between 55-75F daily there. Water was 52F. Maybe I need a cold water tank?

Welcome to the site, and back to the hobby!

Found a crab in the tank the other day. Never seen one like it before. Tried to get pics but it is shy, so I went full redneck and went fishing in my tank. Borrowed one of the wife's cake decorating tools as a sinker. (Don't want to use a lead sinker in the reef tank.) Tied a shrimp to it and lured him out for some pictures. I'm unclear about the species. I suspect it is some sort of stone crab, and a juvenile at that. It definitely eats meat. Hitchhiker on live rock from Tampa. Key points on this guy: He's chonky! Purple shell with black claw tips Black/dark purple and white horizontal stripes on the legs. Shy about 2.25" across FWIW I love this kind of stuff. Not upset that it is in my tank. Just want to know what it is. I love crabs.

Good list of Texas native species with pics. (The crab I'm trying to ID is not there. Rock from Florida so....) Texas Marine Species Identification (tamug.edu)

OK just fed the tank. Didn't have my camera in my excitement. LOL His legs are all the same from what I can tell. long and thin compared to the thick body. Black and white alternating stripes. End in points. No paddle flippers in the back that I can see (like a blue crab would have). Claws are big thick, and have small black tips. I'll try to get a good shot tonight. I think he has been laying low and now is getting hungry so coming out for the meaty foods. Or maybe he helped the angelfish destroy the macros????

Small black tips, kind of like emerald, but pointy. If you've ever caught them at the coast, it looks like a mini rock crab. Purpleish tho. He likes meat. He went nuts when the Rods Food went in.

New hitchhiker found. Purple-ish crab with black tipped claws. Black and white striped legs. Very skittish. Hard to photo as it is deep in the tank. I'm observing for now. Probably a bad actor, but I'm not worried as I have some serious crab-fu.

Checking in with periodic Hollywood Stunner growth pics. Filename bad. I overwrote my old file. Either way, tons of new mouths on the rims.

They are blueish depending on the time of the day. I'm running the standard Tuna Blue 'recipe' that comes wiht it. Amazon.com : Coral View Lens Professional Photography 10 in 1 Kit 2inch Large Reef Lenses : Electronics This $30 gadget will drastically improve your photos. I use the yellow and orange filters. It filters out the blue. Then I do a little post processing in GIMP. I can share my steps if you care.

I had a bunch of the black gulf ones on my rock. They do the job but I'd really like to add one of those tuxedo's as well. They look really cool.

New corals Getting some good colors. Gold hammer, you can see the birds nest in the to and the mystic sunset monti in the back. Gold looks cool and really opened up. Frogspawn and Hammer, orange monti cap in the back. Fire shrimp photobombed me but I'm happy with it. He owns that little hole and won't let the fish in. I LOVE frogspawn.

sold

Its official. I no longer have any macros in the 75G tank. The Lemonpeel angel has single-handedly removed 100% of it in about two weeks. At least I know what he likes to eat. And at least it isn't eating corals.

If you want the diversity but not a huge risk of odd hitchhikers. TBS will ship rocks that are basic overnight. You can get an 8# shipment. (They call it a Treasure Chest or Rubble Rocks or something.) Those rocks won't have as much cool critters, or bad critters. These have been less porous 'base' rock from the shipments I've received. Less visible stuff but lots of 'bugs' that really clean up a tank. I may have a few of rocks I got from them available in ~two weeks. Not a ton but like 2-4 pieces. If you are interested PM me, and let me know. Thinking of rearranging a bit and not yet decided on how I want to place things. (These are more porous rocks with more 'stuff' on them. About football sized +/-....) Could be good for tank diversity, but no pressure, your call, HMU if you like the idea. On the RODI, the BKM to me, is to run a float to stop the flow, not start the flow. When starting RODI processing the filers and system takes a few minutes to 'stabilize'. TDS at the start will be very high and your RO membranes and DI media would be blasted with high TDS. Best is to start it on a purge line, with the initial turbulent water being expelled. Then look at your inline TDS meter. once they are low. (I usually say 50 PPM) I switch to production. (Open clean water line and close purge line) It will save you a lot of media. BRS sells all that stuff. Bypass valves, relays, inline TDS etc. You could skip the inline TDS and save a few bucks and just say I'm purging for 8 minutes then switch to production. It would be a 90% accurate solution IMO. And probably is what i do most of the time.

Love to see pics when it gets going. And I agree. Nano is tough. I can totally see how a 14g could have heat issues. Little things matter a lot in nano tanks. IMO 65 will be much more manageable, especially with the Kessil as lighting. You may need a heater at some point, depending on what target temp you want. I run a small eHeim heater in my 40 breeder with that same light over it. It doesn't kick on much, but it does now and again and keeps the tank stable. (I keep the house at 71 when I'm home.)

One of the hitchhikers was trying to worm in underneath the galaxea. The hitchhiker doesn't look so good this am. And yes, i'm not-so-secretly rooting for the galaxea. Kinda mean, but it saves me from having to deal with the nems. 😅

Hollywood Stunner update. I like this thing. Seems to be doing good in its little corner of the tank. There is a row of new mouths on the left side. Neat how that side is growing outward and the right is curling upward. Side note: I'm much happier with my recent photos.

Tank is coming along nicely. Added a clown. Cool colorations, almost all black with an orange snout. The clown and the chromis did their jobs and have brought the angel and fox face out into view. This may be it for livestock for the tank. I may still add the fairy wrasse but I can go either way. Angel is definitely destroying the macros. There will not be any macro in a month. Found some additional light bulb anemones, or curley que anemones. Debating on removal. Kinda don't want to tear out the rock work. Blah. Part of me is wondering if the galaxea will kill them. Pic of the new clown.

BTW I love that light. Power went out the other day. When the power came back on, the thing automatically resumed where it left off on the time schedule. Automatically connected to WIFI etc. Top notch light. Zero complaints about it. 10/10

My AP9X is mounted way higher than I thought would be OK. Tim and I measured the PAR and it is strong, and mine is what? 18"-20" over the water? I cannot measure now, I'm down at the coast for the weekend. If you are worried about heat, raise it up. Their power penetrates. It's almost too strong.

I love how the tang gives you the full shot. Nice to see the stylos large. I have something to look forward to.

Purple Milka Stylo as promised. Just noticed it is starting to encrust the frag plug. Decent growth since I got them a few weeks ago.

A few additions and pictures. Coral pics are taken under the actinic LED phase of the day with minimal processing. Just cropping, sharpening, and a yellow filter on the camera. The fish picture is basically raw, just cropped. I'm happy with this cheap Amazon yellow filter lens kit. I'll be done adding things to this tank for a bit. Let things settle out. I may add a mandarin in a month or so, or a midas blenny. I'm open but gonna wait. I didn't take pictures of the purple stylos. I'll do that tomorrow. New Chromis added. Moved the fireworks clove polyps into here and mounted them. These are funny. They take a day or two to to acclimate to any movement. Very easy to irritate these guys. Mushroom rock is loving it. Even reproducing. Gonna be easy to 'frag' this I think as the newbies are dropping i to the sand bed. Woot! The green on these is strong under the actinic.

Thanks! I've ordered from TBS several times and always am super happy with all the things I find. I know random stuff in reef tanks isn't everyone's bag, but I like a challenge.

Oh, And new addition. Lemonpeel angel. Thing is a chonk! It is kinda buddies with the fox face. super active.