It has been a while since the last Blog update, so here is a Monster update!

I stumbled across this little guy in a LFS stuck in a corner of a Small Cube tank, never took much notice of him the first time around.  I went back 2 or 3 weeks later and he was still in the same tank and the same place looking worse for wear, at this point I said “Bag him, he is coming with me”.

I wanted to add RBTA to my Propagation list and this was the perfect Specimen, he/she was already a bud from another RBTA, so with that we are half way their to a 100% Propagated RBTA.

Here are a series of pictures taken approximately 2-3 weeks apart, from when I first added him to the tank up to the day he went under the knife.

He/She was growing in a floating basket that i secured to the side of the tank, the basket is around 25cm[L] x25cm[W] x 15cm[D].

I started off feeding around a 1/4 of a large mysis every 2nd day and progressed from there to half mysis and then mixed it up a little with various other food like Artemia,Squid,Mussels and baby Mysis. All the food was soaked in Brightwell Aquatics AminOmega before feeding.

In the beginning I never thought that he/she would make it, but with all the research I had done helped alot, I do not think if it was for all the people out there helping and sharing their experiences he would have survived.

Here he is looking nice and healthy and ready for the Surgery.

So some things that you might require when Propagating a RBTA.

Here is the RBTA on the Operating table.

With a quick and firm stroke of the Scalpal we have given birth to twins!

Dropped them into the small tub of Tank water and let them release all thier Stinging cells etc for about 15min.

Here is a top view of the Twins, you can see them curling up.

Here are the Twins dropped back into the Tank.

1 or 2 hours after the Surgery.

Here they are 24 hours post operation.

They have moved around a little but here they are 1 Week post operation.

Here they are 1 month after the operation and fully healed and accepting food.

The Right Twin.

The Left Twin.

They have both been growing very nicley since the Surgery, they have been accepting food and react to touch.

The twins will be going into Surgery again in early December.

It has been a while since the last update.

Nothing to interesting has happened, although I did get my Sulphur reactor up and running. I converted a Old Deltec Ca reactor to a Sulphur Reactor.

I was having some Algea problems so I thought I would give it a go.

It has been running now for about a month and Algea problem is sorted, just a few small algea patches here and there that are fading very fast..

It is a fairly large Reactor, the Ca Reactor you see to the left in the Pic is a MRC MR2 Ca Reactor. I Mixed 5Kg of Aquamedic Sulphur Pearls with CA Reactor media to add some Ca to the System.

Got one of the new lights up over the First tank.

They put out some serious light!!!

Currently they have the JBL reflectors with 2 JBL Marine Blue T5′s.

Let’s see how things turn out with the JBL T5′s .

Been looking for some Probe Holders for my IKS Aquastar but have not really liked the Price of the ones I found. I then decided to see if I could make some that are fit for purpose.

I had some Perspex lying around.

I then cut some strips.

Got the oven fired up so it is nice and HOT!

Here is a picture of me with the oven mitt on Holding the Strip under the Element, it was quiet warm!

Since this is not a professional outfit I had to use whatever I had available to me, Vise Grips and a Bread Knife!

The end result is not the neatest job but it is Fit for Purpose.

Got some bulbs to test the new Arcadia units with. I got the JBL Marine Blue, heard some nice things about them.

I stumbled across this little beauty the other day, a Silver Speckled RBTA. It is only about 5-6cm across, so he is still a baby.

He seems to be doing great so far, he is eating and looking good.

Here are some pics:

Will keep you updated.

Got some new Light Units over the last week, they are Arcadia ‘I’ Bars. I got 2 Boxes which contain 3 Units. Each Unit can handle 2 54W Tubes.

Some pics of the unboxing.

They will be installed later this Month.

I am getting a Set of the JBL reflectors for T5′s, not sure yet with what T5 Tubes I will be going for.

What you guys think?

During my daily routine inspection of the Frag tanks I noticed something strange wrapped around one of the Bigger Zoanthids on the Rock. It looked like caterpillar eating a leaf. I quickly ran into the house to get the camera but by the time I got back he had gone back into the rock.

It reminded me of this http://oregonreef.com/sub_worm.htm

So with this in mind I dug out the Trusty Snips and started breaking rock up into small parts.

This is what I found:

The worm was about 20-25cm long. From doing some research I believe it is a Eunicid Worm.

You can find some good worm info here.

On the same rock under the Zoanthids I found a Baby Gorilla Crab, I could not get a clear pic of the guy as he was so small, here is a pic from someone else that shows it better.

Air Temprature in the Shed has been rising slowly as the days have been getting  Warmer.

At Midday the temps were starting to get quiet high.

So I have 1 of these Habistat Cool Control devices that turn on when a certain temp is reached.

I also have these Fans that are setup to blow over the surface of the Tanks to take advantage of Evaporative Cooling.

I took the Grid off the Front of the Fans as the tend to rust quiet quickly in a Salty humid Environment.

Most of the Fan is made from plastic so there are no real issues there.

Time will tell if this will work when Summer really start, i will update the Blog on how it works out.

Decided to give the old Mushrooms a Frag to build up more Stock, the Picture does not do the Blue or Red Mushrooms any Justice, they are a Nice Blue with Dots and Also the Red is a nice Deep Red with Dots.

Here is Pic of the Blues, about 15-20 Mushroom Stalks on the Rock.

Tools of the Trade: Scalpal, Razor Blade, Some plastic Containers plus Coral Gravel, Superglue, Mesh and a Chopping board.

Here are the 2 Types of SuperGlue I use, the liquid and the Gel. The gel is alot easier to work with.

The Rock on the Chopping board.

With the Rock out of the water I gave it a good inspection to see which were the easiest ones to cut from the Rock. Once I knew which ones I was going to cut I got the Razorblade and cut the heads of the Stalks. Now the Stalks will grow back into Mushrooms and replace the heads that were cut. I also cut down the middle of some of the Mushrooms that stayed on the rock, they will then grow into 2 Mushrooms.

I was left with this Slippery mess. I cut most pieces into 4 and the Smaller heads I cut in half.  Dumped all the pieces into the Dish with the Coral Gravel and covered it with some mesh and secured the mesh with an elastic band.

I dropped the Tub into a low Flow Area to give the pieces some time to recover and attach the Coral Gravel.

Once they have attached to the Gravel I will glue the Frags to the TilePlugs and let them spread onto the TilePlugs.

So from about 15-20 Mushrooms on the Rock I will hopefully get about 25-30 + the ones I left on the Rock.