Updates on the tank in the garage

So, I decided to forgo anemones for the moment and focus on some corals that I have been having some good success growing. For some reason my ricordeas grow relatively fast in my main tank so I am going to be cutting some and throwing them into the frag tank in the garage. The other coral that I will be putting in will be some xenia. I do not think that they will fight too much but I will run carbon anyway.

I will get some pictures up pretty soon with how I cut the ricordeas in my tank.

Sad..sad news!

So, some bad news!

While I was putting in the eggcrate box into the rose bubble tank I had to take out some water and so had to turn up the heater. I should of turned off the heater but did not think of it at the time. I come back later that night and find that the tank was at around 93 degrees and thus I boiled my RBTA!

An expensive lesson in double checking everything after you change something with your tank!!!

Sebae Anemone cut up

Here are few pictures of the sebae anemone the day after the cutting. They are in the box I mentioned before in my main reef tank. I have no other tank to keep them in so hopefully they will fully recover.

I had one of the cuttings escape out of the box last night and I found it lying on the sand, that pesky sea cucumber. I went to pick it up and it stuck to my fingers which is a good sign! Also, I tried to move the box a bit to get the anemones to move around and they were already stuck to the bottom of the eggcrate! We will have to see how they do this next week. I will keep you posted.

Hopefully this good news will continue!

Sebae anemone has been cut!

I have some pictures here of how I cut up my sebae anemone and all subsequent anemones. I realized after I cut them that I should have taken pictures while doing the act, so I apologize and will take pictures next time.

This is the way I am doing it, I know their might be other ways.

- I bought a cheap plastic cutting board from Wal-mart to easily cut the anemones.

-I also bought a 4" filet knife at a local outdoorsman shop, I asked for the sharpest one available.

-I used a spare tupperware bin and some left over styrofoam as a float.

-I built a special box for the cuttings out of eggcrate(light diffuser) from Home Depot.

-I used coral dip or lugols iodine after the anemones were cut.

Im using this box for my rose bubble tank in the garage. I used a similar box with all sides closed for the cut sebae anemone.

Of course this is the filet knife.

The following pictures are how I float the anemones in the dip/water instead of a 5 gallon bucket. I thought of this so I could regulate heat a bit better right after the anemones are cut. I let the tupperware sit inside the tank and the styrofoam then keeps the tupperware from sinking. You need to let them either sit in a bucket or do something similar for atleast 20-30 minutes post cutting. After the cutting, the anemone will slime up pretty well so you need to let the anemone get rid of the slime. I also use an iodine dip while the anemone is sliming up to help it heal a bit and I put in an air hose/air pump for some oxygenation/water movement.

And the cutting board.

Rose bubble anemone

So, after some issues with being new at this here are the pictures that I had up before.

The tank in the garage running full speed and the rose bubble tip anemone I plan on aqua-culturing.

My first blog!

Well, it has begun. I never thought I would begin to blog about things but I decided to go ahead and join the ranks.

This blog will be devoted to my many endeavors of aqua-culturing many of the organisms that I grow in my saltwater reef aquarium. As you might soon find out, lets just say that I am obsessed with reef tanks or anything from the ocean for that matter.

I hope you all learn something.

Here are some random shots of the grow out tank in my garage. I live in Utah and did not want to have the tank freeze too much in the winter. I used, if I can remember right, 1 inch rigid insulation all around the tank. I guess I will also tell about the tank, the tank is nowhere near what I would like it to be but it works for the moment, its been a frugal approach!

The tanks itself is a left over reef 2 sump that I had laying around, I believe its a 30 gallon.

Lighting consists of 2-40 watt t12 bulbs/fixture from Home Depot, I use the daylight bulb that had CRI of 92 or something.

I use a sponge filter that is rated up to a 80 gallon aquarium, this is used for biological filtration and to some respects mechanical filtration.

I added about 2 inches of sand but I most likely be removing it soon.

I have a 250 watt titanium heater that I use to keep the temperature of the tank at around 80-82 degrees.

I have recently added a hang on the back filter to hold carbon.

Pretty simple right?

Oh yea, don't make fun of my carpentry skills. Lets just say they are lacking quiet a bit!