New Guy in Erie

#1
Well, er... I've been lurking around Elite Reef for a week or two now, I inherited a 75gal reef tank a few weeks ago.

I guess I should introduce myself?

My name is André-Pierre (or just André),... I moved to Erie from LA about 2 months back. I am the owner (and one of the producers) of The Stonefield Studio, which is currently being set up in Erie. I specialize mainly in Progressive Metal / Classical genres, but have produced a huge amount of indie-folk styles as well,...and a little reggae...

I've run it for about 3 years now, and before then I worked for the Center for Coastal and Watershed Studies branch of the United States Geological Survey for 5 years...in Tampa. We did a bunch of reef conservation work, the majority of my time spent on changing the laws (that NOW protect) Looe Key in Florida.

I'm originally from South Africa, I went to Cambridge College in Britain before transferring to Georgia Tech...never finished though, music is way more fun than sitting in a lab all day!

So...anyway, a friend was getting rid of his 75gal bow-front reef tank that he's had set up for years,...and one thing led to another and I now have it sitting upstairs in my studio.

Currently in the tank: a little snowflake eel, a slightly larger than a fist sized colony of Eagle Eye Zoas, a forearm sized colony of Green Star Polyps, a 5 inch diameter Green Trumpet coral, a 3.5 inch diameter orange/redish chalice (got on auction from Elite Reef Fest last weekend), a flame scallop, a Maxima Clam (also from Elite Reef's auction), a 5 inch rose bubble tip anemone, this weird thing (it looks like a mushroom that you'd eat in some pasta, but it has little green tipped tentacles that come out the top...I have NO IDEA what it is), a bunch of hermit crabs and snails... a black long spiny urchin and a pin cushion urchin...and a little green/blue chromis, and what looks like a half-black ocellaris clown...a sand-sifter starfish, and some sort of orange/red starfish that sits on the front glass and rarely moves...a coco tube worm, a Tiki-God named "Kanaloa", and lastly some sort of filter-feeding crab that I have deemed "untrustworthy" (if someone knows how to catch this guy, feel free to PM me, even if he is "trustworthy" his days are numbered)...

So... I'm making a vague attempt at turning this into a Predator tank, because its in a Recording Studio and well...predators are "f'ing metal" haha...

I ordered a Radiata Lionfish (Pterois radiata) from Elite Reef because I've been fascinated by them for ages,...anyone have any suggestions for critters that will NOT be eaten by said Lionfish? I plan on keeping the snowflake eel, he's pretty cool...but I need to get rid of the Clown for something bigger than won't get eaten.

It'd be a shame, he's a pretty active / cool little clownfish, my priorities just lie on "badass" not "adorable"... If someone wants to help me catch him, and trade me some sort of interesting frag I'd greatly appreciate it.

Also...anyone want to come teach / help me frag the Star Polyps, Trumpets, and Zoas? I'd be willing to give you a small frag as payment, and maybe we could trade? I'll take anything interesting.

I'll post pictures in the tank pictures forum later, currently my cell phone camera makes everything look green and fuzzy.


Oh,...and this is me! Although my hair is a little shorter, and my tattoos have expanded (this always seems to happen...)

 
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#3
Here are some pictures of my tank! Feel free to critique my placement, I'm doing huge amounts of research because I'm anal like that,...but everything is just kinda vaguely arranged right now with no real sense of order. I put things in various light levels depending on what specific care sheets said, and I've been hand feeding just about every coral / clam / whatever with a syringe full of phytoplankton stuff (every other day or so...), as well as adding phytoplex to the water twice a week. I feed the chromis and the clown fish dried worm things, and the anemone / eel Elite Reef's mixed bag of "Goo"...

Anyway...PICTURES!

Whole Tank -- Day


Whole Tank -- Night


Bruce Dickinson the Maxima Clam


Mark Everett the Snowflake Eel


Weird thing?


James Maynard the Eagle Eye Zoa colony, and the worm


Steve Howe the Green Star Colony


Dr. Rockso the Rock n' Roll Clownfish


Portnoy the Anemone


The currently unnamed Chalice - if anyone has a famous musician that relates to a red chalice somehow... I'm open to naming suggestions...
 

Cake_Boss

Blue Whale
M.A.S.C Club Member
#4
Welcome!
The of thumb on crabs; pointy claws are bad while round claws are safer, with regards to a reef tank.
Anything that won't fit in the lionfishes mouth would be safe to keep with him, think it's 2/3 his body size and smaller is considered "in danger."
You can keep the crab in, he'll eventually get eaten.
Pics are great around here!
Red hot chili pepper chalice?

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk
 

KhensuRa

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#8
Yes a rugby fan and a reefer, big fan of the the all blacks. Welcome to Coloardao and to the site. Cheers...
 
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