More coral fragging

The first cutting I made has grown nicely and attached it's self to some of the substrate.
So I've moved it back into the main display section . The picture below shows it in its new home.I've taken 2 new fraggs, one of which I've cut into 2 fraggs with a sharp blade, and I've put them into the resting area in the sump.
This next picture shows the original stems left on the rock

A couple of interesting pictures of mushrooms

The first picture shows a mushroom closed over it's self, I believe it's caught it's self a meal.
The second picture shows how well the cut mushroom is developing following the frag

Response about previous picture

I've had a response on reef central.
It turns out that my mushroom was stressed and the white mass was it's guts.

Its a normal response and it will be ok.

Strange mushroom coral activity

What sure what's going on here.

One of the corals had a white mucus comiong out of it's mouth with long strand like feelers waveing over the tank.
I've asked on Reef Central for advice on whats going on.

Little Snail ID'ed

In this post and this post.

I showed pictures of a hitch hiker snail - it has been identified on reef central as a Turbinid snail.

First mushroom frag ;-)

I've made My first mushroom frag, I got a shape blade and cut underneath the head of the mushroom, because it's my first frag I haven't cut the head any further - I'm nervous with out splitting the head into quarters.
So far things are looking ok. The first picture below is a shot of what was left on the rock - already it is starting to resemble the beginning of a new mushroom head.

The second picture below shows the frag sitting happily on a piece of live rock inside a

protective caseing made from a cut plastic bottle.

Hitch Hiker identified

the Hitch Hiker mentioned in the previous post has been identified on Reef Central it's a Stomatella snail.
Completly harmless :-)

Slug Hitch Hiker

This slug came in on the live rock. I'm trying to identify it.

Motion capture video of live Rock

Last night I set up my Web cam and focused it on the biggest piece of live rock.
I set up the camera to record movement - the video below is the results.
watch out for snail and worm action

Missing feather duster

One of my feather dusters has gone missing, the first picture taken yesterday shows 5 dusters

The second picture taken today only shows 4....1 has vanished without trace

More pictures of the hitch hiker snail.

Here are 2 new pictures of the hitch hiker snail.

Picture 1: taken in a dishPicture 2: taken in the tank

Video of Coral

Here's a quick video of the first coral in the tank

New Rock and first Coral.

Over the weekend I've added another larger piece of live rock into the tank. Its looking pretty good at the moment although perhaps a little more aquascaping is in order. ;-)

The Big news is that I've added my first Mushroom coral into the tank.

It's quite a well populated piece of rock with several mushrooms on it. There are also several feather dusters.

2 of the feather dusters fell off the rock on the journey back home - so I picked them out of the bag and housed them on a piece of rock in the sump.

So far the mushrooms look happy and are fully opended whilst the tank light is on.

Tank Life

Here's a couple of pictures of some of the hitch hikers that came in on the new batch of live rock.

1) Bristle worm stretching out through the rock

2) A pretty red snail.

More live rock and the tank comes to life.

We added some more live rock to the tank tonight including a few larger chunks, and almost straight away we started to spot life.
To date we have seen:

• Bristle worms
• 1 green snail
• 1 red snail
• Mite type things!
• and 2 tentacles sticking out from around a hole.

Unfortunately they are too small to be captured on camera but the tank has become very interesting.

The tank now looks like this:

I can see clearly...

The water is clearing nicely as the sand dust is settling, in this picture you see the rock background I have on the outside of the tank....you couldn't see it in yesterdays pictures

Teaching school children about underwater environments

Now this is a good idea. The only hope our wonderful ocean world has is for our children to have a good understanding of:

• How wonderful it is
• How fragile it is
  
  
  

News: Heavy coral concentrations found off Canada's east coast

Picture of the display area 08/10/2007

This is how the main display area looks on 08/10/2007 (Day 1 ;-)

The Sump

This is a picture of the sump which houses the powerhead and heater. The power head pumps the water into the main display section of the tank. Water returns through a gap in the top of the sump partition wall.
Over time the sand bed will be made deeper and live rock will be added. The sump will also be used to home baby mushroom frags.
The glass infront of the sump will be covered up to hide it away.

Everything in place

**Drum roll**

All the water is in place and all the hardware is fixed into place in the sump.

This marks the end of day 1 of my tank.

This is the view of the whole tank.

From little Acorns mighty oaks grow

Yesterday I went to town with a shopping list, and came back with:

• A bag of sea salt
• A lighting unit and bulb
• A container of RO water
• A bag of Coral sand
• A small amount of Live rock

And I started to put it all together.

It wasn't without difficulties I didn't have enough RO water to fill the tank. I've more water coming tomorrow but to tide me over I've kept the power head and the heater in the main display area of the tank and mixed in enough salt to give the water in the tank the correct salinity.

Also the Bulb I had for the tank was to big for the hood. I didn't want to use a smaller hood so I made a slight modification to the hood.

I've placed the live rock in the main display area.

and I've left the tank running.

Tomorrow I'll get the new batch of water, fill the tank and place all the hardware in the sump area.

I've also placed a 3D rock background against the outside of the back of the tank to provide a backdrop

It's very new and still much work to do but I now have my own piece of the ocean ;-)

The below is a shot of the main display area.

One little gap

So nearly there.
I've just tested the sealent around the sump wall and found one small pin sized hole along the bottom of the wall.

So I dried the tank off and resealed along the wall edges again....this time using the opposite of the wall.

I filled the sump about a third full of water and the wall looked to holding strong.

Can Fluoro fish fight cancer?

I found this clip from Reuters, I had always heard many reasons why we shouldn't have genetically modified fluoro fish and I've always believed that it's wrong. but watching this clip does offer a reason why the research behind them might actually be a good idea. Of course this may just be the company trying to put a positive spin on things.

My Mushroom Coral DIY Stage 1 - building the sump wall

When setting up my first marine tank I decided that there should be no visible hardware to the eye.

So to assist this I decided that the tank should have a built in Sump to host the equipment, the sump could be covered so that the display area looks clean.

The tank i'm using is 2 foot long and will not house any fish. The goal is to have a mushroom only tank but a few other invertibrates may find their may in there as well.

To create the sump partition:

• I purchased a plastic tank cover and cut it to size.




• I dont want any harware to be visible so I cut a hole in the wall where the powerhead nozzle will fit



• I Cut a section in the top of the wall where water will flow back into the sump.
  
• I used silicon gel to fix the wall in position and I'm now waiting until the gel is fully set.

Sad news about fish leaving a coral reef

I came across this sad news story on the web,

Welcome to my view of the ocean

I've always loved fish and for many years have kept fresh water tropical fish.
Marine tanks have always intrested me with their vivid colours and strong characters and I recently decided to start a marine tank.

Setting up a proper reef tank is going to take time so whilst I get myself prepared properly I decided to set up a small mushroom coral tank to start myself started in the hobby.
This small tank wont be home to any fish.

This Blog will track my process in the world of marine aquariums and to provide a place for me to post any other information that interests me.