Full Service Shell Station

[Subsea]

I just did find Caribbean Flame Scallops and have added them to my interpretation of a Caribbean lagoon. I am especially happy with ornamental sponges from Gulf of Mexico & Caribbean habitat. Included with Red Tree Songes, Yellow Ball Sponges & Orange Elephant Ear sponges are decorative & uttilitarian macros with my favorite Christmas colors of red & green with two favorite; Gracilaria Parvispora & Caulerpa Paspoides.

NOTE: Blue Legged Hermit is “Cruising on Top” of bi-Vale Shell.

 

[brandon429]

that is really great setup, it looks the most like a real section of a reef dive than any tank on the site

the rest look like pro aquariums, that really looks like a dive slice

the live rock to the left/abutting it is the highest surface area structure on the planet lol

 

[Subsea]

that is really great setup, it looks the most like a real section of a reef dive than any tank on the site

the rest look like pro aquariums, that really looks like a dive slice

the live rock to the left/abutting it is the highest surface area structure on the planet lol

Eighteen months ago, I set up two 55G tanks to culture 200 lbs of GOM diver collected live rock & 40 lbs of live sand. I removed bottom tank 2 months ago, then set it up 10 days ago as second stage of quarantine & sanitize. The top 55G tank has unique cryptic zones including plenum in reverse flow undergravel filter and high flow canister filter. This tank also has an Aquaclear 70 HOB filter modified into a macro/zooplankton generator of pods using a par 38 pink grow light at 18W.

Because I decided to thin out live rock overgrown with GSP from 25 year mature mixed garden display I needed to sanitize before selling it..

@brandon429
When you get down to Austin, come visit. I live near the Salt Lick in Hays County.

 

[Drewerd7]

I just did find Caribbean Flame Scallops and have added them to my interpretation of a Caribbean lagoon. I am especially happy with ornamental sponges from Gulf of Mexico & Caribbean habitat. Included with Red Tree Songes, Yellow Ball Sponges & Orange Elephant Ear sponges are decorative & uttilitarian macros with my favorite Christmas colors of red & green with two favorite; Gracilaria Parvispora & Caulerpa Paspoides.

NOTE: Blue Legged Hermit is “Cruising on Top” of bi-Vale Shell.

Hey Subsea,
How long have you had your red/orange tree sponges?! They look beautiful.
I have a single rod of orange tree sponge, but the top of it is fading/dying out a bit.. I want to save it before it's too late! I know my nitrates and phosphate are extremely low, due to macroalgae intake, but I'm not convinced that's the reason I'm not seeing growth.
Do you have any experience adding silica?
Or perhaps it's just feeding Phytoplankton?!
What pointers do you have for long term success with sponges?!
Thanks so much. Happy New Years!
Cheers, Drew

 

[Subsea]

Yes, ornamental sponges require silicates. My makeup water comes from Trinity Aquifier which used to be an shallow inland sea with high silicates. So I don’t need to dose silicates. I can’t claim great success as 6 months for red trees before they started deteriorating I just started culturing phytoplankton with heavy phyto dosing because of flame scallops I don’t think high nitrates & phosphates are required but I don’t measure. Sponges like heavy flow. When sponges accumulate film algae, I use turkey blaster to blow detritus off and for stubborn algae I use a toothbrush to remove accumulation. Both algae Blennie & hippo tang graze on sponges when algae accumulats. I also operate my systems without heaters with temperature less than 75 degrees.

The lights just came on this 75G which is my oldest display at 25 years set up.

 

[Subsea]

that is really great setup, it looks the most like a real section of a reef dive than any tank on the site

the rest look like pro aquariums, that really looks like a dive slice

the live rock to the left/abutting it is the highest surface area structure on the planet lol

Brandon,
As a youth from 10-17 years old, every summer each week my father, dubbed by Readers Digest, ”The Golden Rule Banker” would take his 6 boys 200 miles south of Lafayette, Louisiana into the Gulf of Mexico. During these trips into “blue water”, I would often get seasick so I would transfer by swing rope from 32’ Bertram onto an unmanned oil platform. I found myself peering down to see this undersea world. Fast forward 30 years and I am a subsea engineer on the Transocean “Discovery Seven Seas”, a dynamically positioned drill ship which set the deep water drilling record of 7500’ in 1977. In that capacity, I viewed the undersea world for 30 years from under the sea using high resolution cameras & manipulator arms on ROV (Remote operated vehicle).

I do enjoy my Reefing addiction after 51 years.

Note: Yellow Ball Sponge being cleaned by Blue Leg Hermit & Peppermint Shrimp evaluating his food source of Aptasia.

 

[TokenReefer]

Is that branching gsp on the back wall to the right?

 

[Subsea]

Is that branching gsp on the back wall to the right?

It’s GSP. When it runs out of room to expand in horizontal plane, it branches into the third dimension of XYZ.

Look at back glass on 75G set up for 25 years

 

[brandon429]

So shocking beautiful!

 

[Subsea]

So shocking beautiful!

Nature is beautiful. While I enjoy the comforts of technology, I find peace & beauty along with wonderment on how things work in nature. As a marine engineer and a municipal waste water superintendent, I see both the macro and the micro of how nutrient management works in both science and in nature.

In talking about how nature works, I once titled a thread, “Elegance in Simplicity”. While I emulate nature as much as possible, I do not think that Nature is Simplistic. As I learn more, I realize how little I know and how amazingly complex nature is.