Wrecking Joel's Tank

[Tylt33]

Despite our best efforts, rumor has it that Joel's tank is still looking awesome. I'm thinking about donating some of my bubble algae or macro algae to help him out.

[missyshrout]

I could probably try and find some Aptasia somewhere to help him out. I hear that they are a very interesting anemone.

I don't think the clown will host in them, but it's worth a try.

[kinghokus420]

yeah i have some hair algae to throw in. how the hell can someone sell off 90% of their goods and still have a 50x better tank than mine?

Originally posted by missyshrout
I could probably try and find some Aptasia somewhere to help him out.

believe it or not the bicycle shop up here in paradise has a 40g aiptasia tank. probably 30+ in there all 4-6 inches tall. not by choice they say just too busy to take care of them at the time and now its waaay too late. it does look kinda cool.

[Twisted]

Kinghokus420! I just got a great idea! Find out if that person at the bicycle shop would have time to maintain that tank if we fixed it back up?

Sort of a community project? We can tear down his tank on a saturday, wipe it down with white viniger to clean it, we can probablly scrounge up 30/30 pounds of live rock, or perhaps 20 pounds of live rock, and 20 pounds of dry rock, to replace his infested rock, and everyone can donate a nice little softie frag?
If we can get half of the people that show up for a meeting to donate a small cluster of mushrooms, zoanthids, a leather, whatever that would be a good 15 frags or so. In a 40 gallon tank that would be a great start.

Hopefully he already has PC lighting, and good filtration.

[kinghokus420]

i asked them about what they were going to do with it. basically they dont want to do squat to it but add water. and barely that. she mentioned something about taking it down. i sure dont want anything from that tank. it was cool to look at but thats all. they dont have enough business anyways to promote the club effectively. fixing a tank to promote the club is a good idea just not on this one.

[Twisted]

Ok, then the search is on. Maybe we should start looking for a tank to work over. I have a few soft corals that can be trimmed for the effort.
I also have another community effort project I am working on getting started, but I really don't want to say to much untill I can actually find the contact information for the person in charge of the building it will be set up in. At that time I will atleast know if it is feasible.

[iairj84]

Originally posted by Twisted
Kinghokus420! I just got a great idea! Find out if that person at the bicycle shop would have time to maintain that tank if we fixed it back up?

Sort of a community project? We can tear down his tank on a saturday, wipe it down with white viniger to clean it, we can probablly scrounge up 30/30 pounds of live rock, or perhaps 20 pounds of live rock, and 20 pounds of dry rock, to replace his infested rock, and everyone can donate a nice little softie frag?
If we can get half of the people that show up for a meeting to donate a small cluster of mushrooms, zoanthids, a leather, whatever that would be a good 15 frags or so. In a 40 gallon tank that would be a great start.

Hopefully he already has PC lighting, and good filtration.

Man sounds like a good thing to do for my tank! haha... Just playing.. I'll be drilling for my bulkheads this week and hopefully getting my live rock and water in it by the end of the week.

[iairj84]

BTW... Did Joel have stuff left?

[Twisted]

Joel took out all of his SPS and LPS minus a couple pieces that were stuck to the walls and such.
He is pretty much leaving his tank up as a softie tank to make it as easy to keep as possible.

[Tylt33]

I say we have a macro-algae trimming party at my house. You can keep your trimmings and use them to infest your own tank.

[Twisted]

I already have bubble algae....in fact I have it pretty damn bad. But I am going to make some pretty big attempts at getting rid of it now.
Looking for a great cure if anyone has one. For now I am starting out with an influcx of emerald crabs, 4 to be exact. Thyen if available I am adding a specific type of sail fin tang that supposedly will eat it too.
Then I will begin removal by hand at an accelerated rate during each water change every two weeks. I was just picking off a piece here and a piece there, but I think I am going to go all Chuck Norris on it now.

[boviac]

Twisted,

I would also suggest you ask Melissa and Dan to borrow their Master Hermit Crab who will scour bubble algae as long as he can reach it (the stuff on PH's stayed) But I noticed after giving him the boot since nothing in there was buttoned down, he knocked it all over - continuously, the valonia came right back.

Last I heard from Dan & Melissa was that the crab was in hiding and now doesn't want to come out for transfer anymore. By the way, he did that in my tank after he finished all the bubbles. I had to rearrange rocks to get him out.

Good luck either way. I never had luck with an emerald crab. Maybe they were good at keeping the smaller ones down but the bigger ones certainly seemed omnipresent.

[Twisted]

The hermit Mellissa and Dan have was actually offered to me at one point, and I had to refuse sadly.

I have some SPS I picked up at the frag swap that ranges from $40 an inch to $80 for a half inch. So far I usually only have to tip them back over if they get pushed over. But a crab that size would most likely unperch them dropping them to my sand bed which tends to be instant death for most SPS in my tank
I don't want to cement the SPS in because when I manage to get another tank I will be moving them to that.
Speaking of which...if anyone collects knives I have some I was trying to sell to purchase a certain tank I know of. They are kinda spendy but beautiful collectors fantasy knives made by the likes of Gil Hibbens, Kit Rae, United cutlery, etc... A few swords and a couple spears too.

[shelbiesdaddy]

Herman has moved up two shells sizes since you had him Chris. While standing in the sand he can reach about 1/4 of the way up the 55g tank. He keeps the fish only tank spotless but I don't think he can ever go back to a reef.

I have not had any luck with the emeralds either. Once they get bigger than a quarter they start doing bad things to the reef as well.

[kinghokus420]

wow thats a big hermit..

[boviac]

Who knew bubble algae does to hermit crabs what spinach does to popeye. I'd bet all the crabs would be doping that green if they knew that.

[iairj84]

Note to self....

Buy a "Master" Hermit crab!

[Tylt33]

I think Joel sent some extra love on one of the frags that I got from him... XENIA!!!! I just see two little heads of it... how do I kill this stuff before it becomes a monster? It's right next to some zoos... I don't want to cut one of them and get poisoned >.<

[kinghokus420]

a sure fire way to kill it is to put it in my tank. i cant grow xenia for nothing.

[boviac]

I suspect you can just let your alkalinity drop a bit and xenia tends to disappear. It's like a canary in the coal mine. First thing to tell you things aren't healthy for it. I've grown it like crazy and then the next thing I can't keep it alive. Doing ok in my 29 gal now. I don't think it spreads that fast and it's not too hard to kill however, usually if any of the flesh remains it can come back.

[boviac]

Joel's tank by the way is looking GREAT!!!!! Very roomy more like a real reef yet still lots of eye candy and a very nice prize yellow piece in the middle now with a nice overall balance of coral colors throughout. Good job and good luck Joel!