BonesCJ 90 macro setup

[Subsea]

Nice macro display. I see that you have two Caulerpa species with a Feather & Prolifera.

I’d you allow Prolifera holdfast on your live rock, you will never see that rock again. It will be nothing but waving Prolifera. Considering that you will have a healthy sandbed of Prolifera, you will have little contrast in texture and color in your tank. Is this a display tank or display refugium or an experiment? If you like the looks of Oar Grass, Prolifera is a perfect choice.

[BonesCJ]

Its a dedicated Macro tank, I want to see colors and movement and fat and healthy fish and Macro's! Beyond that I am kinda trying to let it just do its thing.

[Subsea]

As I said, Prolifera got its name for a reason. It is easy to thin out in the sand-bed. Your centerpiece rock with differrent coral colors will be green with Prolifera. If you want bright colors of macro only, then get fiery red Dragons Tongue contrasting your emerald green Caulerpa Prolifera.

Top tank for green has GSP, Green Sinularia and a beautiful Feather Caulerpa, Paspoides.
Reds are supplied by Red Grapes and Dragons Tongue.

Bottom tank is a tumble culture of Dragons Tongue.
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/3...=497+3752+3551

[BonesCJ]

Added a Royal Gramma, Blue green Chromis and a GBTA yesterday, will get pictures once everyone settles in... and I clean the glass.

[BonesCJ]

Here are some Updated Pics

This stuff has been a puzzler for me, its this weird yellow snotish type stuff that grows on rock, foam wall and ever some macros. It blows off easily with a turkey baster and I really have not seen anyone eat it (hermits or snails), does anyone have a clue what it is? you'll see it in several of these pictures.


Good ol Full tank shot, sorry about the window in the background, took this during the day.


Shaving Brush plant, these guys grown well in my system, new ones keep popping up out of the sand.


Green BTA I got earlier in the week.


This Gracilaria is a Beast!, this picture was taken after I removed a third of it from the system, I believe its actually out competing my C. Prolifora.



The big challenge lately has been keeping that Gracilaria from out competing everyone else, I want a tank with some variety and right now its threatening to turn into a single species system. I managed to bring my Nitrates up to 5-10 PPM with aggressive dosing and I upped my lighting (running two viparspectra 165's) from 50% blue/60% white to 70% blue/80% white thinking the Caulerpa might benefit from it.

As always thoughts, idle ramblings and critiques are welcome!

[Michael Hoaster]

Yay pics! Looks good.

I'm not familiar with your 'snot' stuff. It looks a little like diatoms with that color. Could be bacterial. I think the trick is to export it somehow. Try blowing it into a net. Netting out clumps of diatoms seems to be helping me get rid of it.

Isn't that the the heavier, 'tree' grasilaria? Congrats on keeping it alive, and so happy you have to prune it! I've tried that plant twice, without success.

I'm having the same issue with my grasilaria trying to take over the tank. I'm keeping it as a close-cropped turf lately, and I export a lot every week.

How does the new royal gramma get along with your fire fish? I ask because I'm considering a caribbean dart fish.

[BonesCJ]

The Gramma and firefish get along just fine, the blue yellow tail and the gramma spar a little bit but its all flashing and posture, everyone really seems to be getting along nicely. I'll admit I have been siphoning out the snot stuff when I do water changes, or I'll run my hang on physical filter for 24 hours and blow a whole bunch of it into the water column, it is decreasing, just taking time.

[BonesCJ]

That Graciliria is definitely robust! I have tissue scissors from propping corals and it still took some effort to cut through, it will sink on its own. Also the Gramma passed away, I have had poor luck with them, the last 3 have all died. I keep pondering a aptasia eating file fish, I have no aptasia, its just a cool looking fish, especially if I get some more caulerpa growing.

[Michael Hoaster]

I wonder why you have bad luck with grammas. No judging, I've killed more fish than anyone! I had one of those file fish and loved it. I would have loved to keep several in my tank permanently, but they go after several other critters that I consider very important.

Having no aiptasia is something to brag about!

[redlobstor]

I wonder if the lack of growth has something to do with the type of lighting being used. I tried a while back ago to do a macro tank with 165w ebay led light. I couldn't get any macros to grow and my nitrates/phosphates were not 0. This light grew corals when I gave up on the macros. I'm looking to start up another macro with t5 lighting so feel free to send some red graciliara this way, LOL. Tank looks nice hope everything starts filling in for you.

[BonesCJ]

I can definitely say the light grow's Macro's, however now that I have cranked it up in terms of intensity I am getting better growth from my greens, reds tend to be able to adjust to a greater range of light. Its funny but that tends to apply to FW plants as well, the brighter green the plant the more intense the light needs to be. Its crazy how well my shaving brush plants are doing, I just found one growing out of LR! not sure if it wormed its way up through the LR from the sand underneath or what.

[Chasmodes]

Sorry to hear about the gramma. The tank looks good though. Interesting about the yellow slimy stuff. I'm curious what it is too.

[BonesCJ]

Update: Lost the GBTA, he disappeared into the rockwork for about a week and a half and I found him laying on the sand last night, looks like it may have been a foot injury. Other than that tank is going nicely, the Caulerpa's have shown a dramatic improvement since upping the light intensity and all the little bits and pieces have really started to flourish. The tree like Gracilaria is still growing and what I believe is Hayi has shown improvement as well.


I wonder what you guys think of my current fish load.
1 O. Clown
1 Firefish
1 molly
1 starry blenny
1 blue yellowtail damsel
1 blue green chromis
1 pajama cardinal

in a really open 90 macro setup this just feels really..... EMPTY!
I miss seeing lots of fish swimming around, I do plan to up the mollies to at least 6, they do good work keeping everything clean.

Am I off the mark? Does this feel like a really light load of fish?

[Michael Hoaster]

Planted tanks like lots of fish. Go nuts!

I see several fish on your list that could be in schools: fire fish, blue green chromis and the pajama cardinal. You could also add another clown and get some bow chicka bow wow action…

[BonesCJ]

Yeah the cardinals and chromis are high on the Add to List, not sure on the clowns, I'm trying to keep the tank really low key and frisky clowns can get mean as well.

[Michael Hoaster]

I agree on the clowns. I forget who posted it, but they said they can't put their hand in the tank without getting bitten! I like low key too. I want to RELAX when I look at my tank, not worry about aggression. That yellow tail damsel may cause trouble too.

In general, more fish means less dosing and less work to keep your plants happy.

[redlobstor]

Originally Posted by BonesCJ

Update: Lost the GBTA, he disappeared into the rockwork for about a week and a half and I found him laying on the sand last night, looks like it may have been a foot injury. Other than that tank is going nicely, the Caulerpa's have shown a dramatic improvement since upping the light intensity and all the little bits and pieces have really started to flourish. The tree like Gracilaria is still growing and what I believe is Hayi has shown improvement as well.


I wonder what you guys think of my current fish load.
1 O. Clown
1 Firefish
1 molly
1 starry blenny
1 blue yellowtail damsel
1 blue green chromis
1 pajama cardinal

in a really open 90 macro setup this just feels really..... EMPTY!
I miss seeing lots of fish swimming around, I do plan to up the mollies to at least 6, they do good work keeping everything clean.

Am I off the mark? Does this feel like a really light load of fish?

Sorry about the GBTA. If interested in keeping anemone try the rock flowers and from what I've been reading they can naturally be found with seagrass. I have 7 and they are really cool. For a macro tank I don't think you have a high bioload and could use some more fish.

I like to keep fish in pairs. Be careful with more chromis as I have heard often that you end up with just 1.

Firefish do better in pairs or schools of 7 or more.

Pj cardinals do well in groups.

You may have to do something with damsel as they can be aggressive.

If you want something different that will be good for macros and compatible with your fish try a white ribbon eel(Pseudechidna brummeri.) This is not a color variant of the difficult black and blue ribbon eel(Rhinomuraena quaesita). The white ribbon eel is hardy, easy to train on frozen, and has small mouth so won't eat your fish. They also are good as a pair. Only downside is food needs to be small chunks and I'm not sure how they are with shrimp.

HTH Jason

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[redlobstor]

Originally Posted by BonesCJ

I can definitely say the light grow's Macro's, however now that I have cranked it up in terms of intensity I am getting better growth from my greens, reds tend to be able to adjust to a greater range of light. Its funny but that tends to apply to FW plants as well, the brighter green the plant the more intense the light needs to be. Its crazy how well my shaving brush plants are doing, I just found one growing out of LR! not sure if it wormed its way up through the LR from the sand underneath or what.

Thanks for the info. Maybe I will pull mine back out and try again. I never ran the whites above 50% and the blues above 75%. Maybe I need to push the whites up closer to 100%.

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[BonesCJ]

Thanks guys! All good info, one fish I am tossing around would be a bristletail filefish, from what I read they naturally live in seagrass and algae flats so this would be a little slice of home. I am just concerned that he would eat my macro's

[BonesCJ]

Picked up 5 black and dalmatian mollies last night, I really like their look in the tank and do a great job picking at the stuff growing on the macro's. This way my lone black molly will not be so lonely.

[Michael Hoaster]

Hey Chris K. If you are referring to the aiptasia-eating file fish, they are safe with macros. I loved the one I had!

Mollies are great too. Do you have males and females? If so, you're going to have a lot more soon. The babies are great feeder fish for any carnivore big enough to eat them.

[BonesCJ]

Yep, that is the file fish I am referring to, great to hear! Yeah I made sure and get a mix of M and F's

[BonesCJ]

Finally the tank looks full of fish! I pulled the trigger on the file fish about a week and half ago and he has settled in nicely. Real fun fish to have in the system, he's always hunting for food and has a strong response when I feed, actually took food right out from in front of my Starry blennys face! (he's the tanks "Boss"). Its funny when you can actually see the WTH! expression on a fishes face. The new molly's have settled in as well and the 2 chromis are getting along nicely.

My C. prolifora is finally starting to take off, I was just running my tank too lean and too dim, I've kept the nitrates at 10 PPM or so with heavy feeding and cranked the lights almost up to max, this has made for more hair algae but that's done nothing but make my starry blenny and Mollies happy as they have more to graze on.

[Michael Hoaster]

That's awesome, Chris! It is kind of an adjustment, keeping nutrients high, after so many years of keeping them low, huh?

It sounds like you've got a great fish community now! Pics?

[redlobstor]

Originally Posted by BonesCJ

Finally the tank looks full of fish! I pulled the trigger on the file fish about a week and half ago and he has settled in nicely. Real fun fish to have in the system, he's always hunting for food and has a strong response when I feed, actually took food right out from in front of my Starry blennys face! (he's the tanks "Boss"). Its funny when you can actually see the WTH! expression on a fishes face. The new molly's have settled in as well and the 2 chromis are getting along nicely.

My C. prolifora is finally starting to take off, I was just running my tank too lean and too dim, I've kept the nitrates at 10 PPM or so with heavy feeding and cranked the lights almost up to max, this has made for more hair algae but that's done nothing but make my starry blenny and Mollies happy as they have more to graze on.

That's Great! You will be happy with the filefish. I like they way they orient themselves head down sometimes in between the blades of C. prolifora. Did you buy the mollies already adjusted to seawater or did you have to acclimate yourself?

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