addict
Well-Known Member
Well, over the past couple of days, we've added some new stuff for our reef, so I thought I'd share.
The first batch of stuff we ordered through coralfanatics.com, a great little site that has some nice stuff.
Then we decided to finally take the LFS tour of Sacramento, CA that we've always talked about, but never actually got around to, since the kids were spending the night with grandma.
We visited about 8 LFS in the Sacramento area, and our favorites were "O" St. Aquarium, Capitol Aquarium, Paradise Aquarium (all in Sacramento), and Aqua Life (in Rocklin).
Anway, enough banter... here's the pics.
Acanthastrea lordhowensis
I've wanted one of these ever since seeing the first one Luis posted here oh so long ago... it's not a whole colony, but a 14-polyp frag will do me just fine. I got this one at Paradise Aquarium.
Acanthastrea lordhowensis
Got this one at Paradise Aquarium too... it's a bright orange/green morph that glows like crazy under actinic lighting.
Paradise Aquarium looks like a little hole-in-the wall shop, but the owner has a direct connection to somebody that flies to Indonesia to hand-pick all his specimens, then he goes over and hand-picks from that lot. Really nice stuff.
Acropora aculeus
This is the famous "Blue Bomber" aculeus from coralfanatics.com. I was pretty sad when my first frag (which had grown into a small colony) rtn'd and died, so I decided to give it another go. This guy is about 1-1/2" tall.
Hymenocera picta
A pair of Harlequin Shrimp... I just had to copy Woodstock, since these little guys are so darn cool.
I got these at Aqua Life in Rocklin.
You can kinda seem them in the cave sharing a linkia leg... we're going to arrange something with the LFS to get us some chocolate chip stars on a regular basis, and we're going to try our hand also at linkia regeneration (i.e. trimming a leg and then letting it grow back). It was pretty unnerving watching the linkia leg crawl around on it's own for a while before the shrimp decided to eat it. :columbo:
I also made sure that we got both male and female, though I think they're different species. The female has purple tips on her swimmerets (under her belly), and the male's are clear... though at this time the female is about twice the male's size... she's a big momma!
Ricordia florida
Just some common Florida ricordia, though in green and blue morphs. Nothing too spectacular. Got these from coralfanatics.com
Tridacna maxima
Just your common, ordinary, everyday Teardrop Maxima.
We got this guy at Capitol Aquarium, and it's about 4-1/2".
You can kinda see the irradiance on it's mantle, but it's kind of an orangish-purple... really cool.
The next shots are just some zoanthid colonies I got, so I'll just post the photos and where I got them.
Got these guys at Capitol Aquarium
Got these from coralfanatics.com
Also from coralfanatics.com
Third time's the charm... also from coralfanatics.com
We also added in a couple of 1/2" Randall's pistols, since we lost two of them as we were redoing the tank, and our Yasha Haze looked a bit lonely without his shrimp (the other gobies claimed the remaining two).
We went a little bit crazy, but everything is really small, except for the Maxima, so I don't think their will be any sort of undue change on the bioload... plus our tank is pretty bare at the moment, so there's plenty of extra capacity.
I ran a battery of water quality tests this morning, just to make sure everything is in line, and all appears to check out good, though my calcium may be a little low... my two test kits disagreed on the exact level... one said low and the other normal (350-400ppm). I'm topping off with kalk though, so I'm not too worried about it.
I also ordered new lighting the other night. I'm taking out the dual 400w and dual 250w halide systems, and going to a T5/HQI combo.
I'll have eight 36" 39w T5's (6 actinic/2 11K Aquablue) and a single 250w DE 10K HQI mini pendant on an ARO electronic ballast... which should help cut down dramatically on electricity consumption... the last 140 kwH on my electric bill cost me about $.33/kwH, since I was over 300% of baseline usage. :bugout:
Plus my bulb replacement costs will be halved (at least)... right now it's about $350/yr to replace the four bulbs (two Ushio 20K 400w and two Ushio 10K 250w), and it'll only be about $250 every 18 months with the new setup.
Anyway, I gotta get runnin for now.
The first batch of stuff we ordered through coralfanatics.com, a great little site that has some nice stuff.
Then we decided to finally take the LFS tour of Sacramento, CA that we've always talked about, but never actually got around to, since the kids were spending the night with grandma.
We visited about 8 LFS in the Sacramento area, and our favorites were "O" St. Aquarium, Capitol Aquarium, Paradise Aquarium (all in Sacramento), and Aqua Life (in Rocklin).
Anway, enough banter... here's the pics.
Acanthastrea lordhowensis
I've wanted one of these ever since seeing the first one Luis posted here oh so long ago... it's not a whole colony, but a 14-polyp frag will do me just fine. I got this one at Paradise Aquarium.
Acanthastrea lordhowensis
Got this one at Paradise Aquarium too... it's a bright orange/green morph that glows like crazy under actinic lighting.
Paradise Aquarium looks like a little hole-in-the wall shop, but the owner has a direct connection to somebody that flies to Indonesia to hand-pick all his specimens, then he goes over and hand-picks from that lot. Really nice stuff.
Acropora aculeus
This is the famous "Blue Bomber" aculeus from coralfanatics.com. I was pretty sad when my first frag (which had grown into a small colony) rtn'd and died, so I decided to give it another go. This guy is about 1-1/2" tall.
Hymenocera picta
A pair of Harlequin Shrimp... I just had to copy Woodstock, since these little guys are so darn cool.
I got these at Aqua Life in Rocklin.
You can kinda seem them in the cave sharing a linkia leg... we're going to arrange something with the LFS to get us some chocolate chip stars on a regular basis, and we're going to try our hand also at linkia regeneration (i.e. trimming a leg and then letting it grow back). It was pretty unnerving watching the linkia leg crawl around on it's own for a while before the shrimp decided to eat it. :columbo:
I also made sure that we got both male and female, though I think they're different species. The female has purple tips on her swimmerets (under her belly), and the male's are clear... though at this time the female is about twice the male's size... she's a big momma!
Ricordia florida
Just some common Florida ricordia, though in green and blue morphs. Nothing too spectacular. Got these from coralfanatics.com
Tridacna maxima
Just your common, ordinary, everyday Teardrop Maxima.
We got this guy at Capitol Aquarium, and it's about 4-1/2".
You can kinda see the irradiance on it's mantle, but it's kind of an orangish-purple... really cool.
The next shots are just some zoanthid colonies I got, so I'll just post the photos and where I got them.
Got these guys at Capitol Aquarium
Got these from coralfanatics.com
Also from coralfanatics.com
Third time's the charm... also from coralfanatics.com
We also added in a couple of 1/2" Randall's pistols, since we lost two of them as we were redoing the tank, and our Yasha Haze looked a bit lonely without his shrimp (the other gobies claimed the remaining two).
We went a little bit crazy, but everything is really small, except for the Maxima, so I don't think their will be any sort of undue change on the bioload... plus our tank is pretty bare at the moment, so there's plenty of extra capacity.
I ran a battery of water quality tests this morning, just to make sure everything is in line, and all appears to check out good, though my calcium may be a little low... my two test kits disagreed on the exact level... one said low and the other normal (350-400ppm). I'm topping off with kalk though, so I'm not too worried about it.
I also ordered new lighting the other night. I'm taking out the dual 400w and dual 250w halide systems, and going to a T5/HQI combo.
I'll have eight 36" 39w T5's (6 actinic/2 11K Aquablue) and a single 250w DE 10K HQI mini pendant on an ARO electronic ballast... which should help cut down dramatically on electricity consumption... the last 140 kwH on my electric bill cost me about $.33/kwH, since I was over 300% of baseline usage. :bugout:
Plus my bulb replacement costs will be halved (at least)... right now it's about $350/yr to replace the four bulbs (two Ushio 20K 400w and two Ushio 10K 250w), and it'll only be about $250 every 18 months with the new setup.
Anyway, I gotta get runnin for now.