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WarEagleNR88

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boy awesome job and great thread I had started here. made my comment then went back and read entire post. realy cool! I am going through some changes right now and starting a large reef but now I know what I am going to be doing with my 26G bowfront or my jbj 12 cube once they ere empty. Thanks and the dog will be traveling along

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simply amazing! cant say anything really other than im really impressed as to how that tank looks, and that im really really impressed about the whole moon cycle thingy...... that's just disgusting (in a good way) how you took the time to do all that. ;)

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WarEagleNR88
WAR DAMN EAGLE...if your talkin about my Auburn tigers
War Eagle! Are you originally from alabama?
Originally from Tennessee. My internet alias originally started a long time ago when I first started using the internet and comes from something completely different than the Auburn slogan/fight song. On a related but unrelated story, I did consider going to Auburn nearly 7 years ago for engineering when I was browsing for a college. Great school! However, I did not go there. My alma mater's mascot ended up being a falcon.

 

i cant believe the eco complete worked so far! nice job war eagle! :)
The Eco Complete has been fairly uneventful. At least I've not been able to tell any difference with this tank so far with that particular substrate. The mix of substrate that I used appears to keep the candy striped pistol shrimp happy. The different sized rocks lets him construct very elaborate tunnels without them collapsing underneath my live rock.

 

boy awesome job and great thread I had started here. made my comment then went back and read entire post. realy cool! I am going through some changes right now and starting a large reef but now I know what I am going to be doing with my 26G bowfront or my jbj 12 cube once they ere empty. Thanks and the dog will be traveling along
simply amazing! cant say anything really other than im really impressed as to how that tank looks, and that im really really impressed about the whole moon cycle thingy...... that's just disgusting (in a good way) how you took the time to do all that. ;)
I haven't died on you guys. I've been incredibly busy this last month and am finally getting around to getting my tank back in order again. I'll be getting some of the December pictures up shortly (tomorrow night maybe) as I know some of you are ready for some new pictures and to actually see some progress with this 10G.

 

A little sneak peek. Corals--mushrooms, zoanthids, palythoas and small polyp stonies! Algae--removed that mega mass of green caulerpa. It literally overgrew my tank in early December. Then it began to go clear so I got it out right away. I picked up some more much slower growing algae and it's taking a while to take hold and grow. The caulerpa was going to prove to be a difficult hassle in this size tank but I'm enthusiastic with how it looks now. Hopefully you'll feel the same. Check back again for another update with pictures for December.

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That's one nice looking Randall's goby you've got. The whole tank looks spectacular. I have a ton of algae in one of my tanks, but it's all...well, green microalgae. And some Caulerpa. So while your tank looks like a wonderful forest or jungle, mine looks like someone's front lawn. :lol: Nice job on the tank.

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I guess we'll have to be patient and wait for the December update, then :D I'm greatly looking foward to it.

 

Have you considered getting one of those chunks of huge dried barnacles for the blennies to sit in? Just a thought. They'd look really nice once they got encrusted with coraline, might provide a focal point. Plus, I'm totally in love with your barnacle blennies.

 

Great job so far!

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WarEagleNR88
That's one nice looking Randall's goby you've got. The whole tank looks spectacular. I have a ton of algae in one of my tanks, but it's all...well, green microalgae. And some Caulerpa. So while your tank looks like a wonderful forest or jungle, mine looks like someone's front lawn. :lol: Nice job on the tank.
I trimmed it up quite a bit and put all of the caulerpa in another 10G tank with 4x10W 6500K power compact bulbs and a Rena Filstar XP3 on it. The Caulerpa spp. in that tank fill an entire 10G aquarium from side to side and top to bottom now. I'm going to sell it for some more stuff!

 

I guess we'll have to be patient and wait for the December update, then :D I'm greatly looking foward to it.

 

Have you considered getting one of those chunks of huge dried barnacles for the blennies to sit in? Just a thought. They'd look really nice once they got encrusted with coraline, might provide a focal point. Plus, I'm totally in love with your barnacle blennies.

 

Great job so far!

No need to wait any longer. I know this was way overdue and please accept my apologies. If you only knew my particular situation, I'm pretty sure you'd understand. Thanks for the good comments on the little blennies. Sadly, now there is only one. I'm actually -1 blenny, -1 sexy shrimp and -1 emerald crab. They disappeared during the caulerpa overgrowth. No corpses, just one day they were there and now they're not. And when I bought the blennies the LFS actually gave me 3 small barnacle shells for them. Though, I found they prefer living in the holes in the live rock--maybe more comfortable?

 

Enough talk, below you'll see some of best pictures I've taken on my digital camera yet! And they're fairly self explanatory as you'll see some of the same 10G crew.

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Ah, too many pictures! I have more but I can't post them now. They include a FTS!

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Fishfreak218

why cant u post them? if the site is telling you to many just wait 30 seconds and then post again ;)

the tank looks great. I have some of that sargassum in my 10g. too

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Well, sometimes the nano-reef is not the most important thing in life. I'm sure all of us understand that.

 

Sadly, now there is only one. I'm actually -1 blenny, -1 sexy shrimp and -1 emerald crab. They disappeared during the caulerpa overgrowth.

 

Carniverous caleurpa? It's invasive, and now it eats small animals. :scarry:

 

Well, on the bright side, your missing critters probably helped your algae growth.

 

Good macros. Now that I'm trying to take photos, I can appreciate how tricky it can be. I like that brown algae! Did that grow out of the LR? The sawblade caleurpa is nice too.

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WarEagleNR88
why cant u post them? if the site is telling you to many just wait 30 seconds and then post again ;)

the tank looks great. I have some of that sargassum in my 10g. too

Awesome, here we go! Thanks, fishfreak. **edit: Oh and Rene, too!**

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
NICE! You have quite a few different macros in there! Would you mind listing your current plants?

Well, they're not too fantastic. I have some geometrically different Caulerpa spp. (I think C. scalpelliformis and C. serrulata along with a particular species of C. racemosa), a few branches of Halimeda sp. (that's not been doing well since I removed the monster caulerpa spp. bunch btw), the few strands of Botryocladia sp., a few shoots of a Penicillus sp., a very nice ball of Codium sp. I picked up in December, and quite a few algae that I cannot identify.

 

For the un-ID algae, there are quite a few. I have the purple/red bunch alga that grows unlike any algae I can find. I've had it since early November and it doesn't look like how it did when I bought it. There is the encrusting green bubble-like alga that actually looks very nice I think, another slow grower. At least its better than the dreaded Valonia--a few bubbles of these, too. I have the Sargassum-like alga/plant--which is slowly distributing itself across the live rock, again another slow grower. There's the many different varieties of coralline algae--brown, red, pink, purple. And there's even a branching coralline/calcareous sp. growing among a patch of the Sargassum-like plant. And that's about it as far as I can tell. I'm still looking for others.

 

I've added nothing but water, food, and a few nutrients since the last post early this month. Look for another picture post later this week. Oh, and my birdnest and acropora corals are growing. SPS + Bio-wheel = wtf? Talk amongst yourselves. :D

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how are your readings with the biowheel and macros?

 

seabass (for his seagrass tank) may be better off going with a biowheel than CO2 injections if your readings are balancing themselves out.

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Sorry this may sound really stupid but i would really like to start a planted saltwater tank. Ive been looking at them for a few months now and so far your thread is the most informative ive found. Anyway, do you think using tap water would be alright in a macro tank as long as you had a lot of algae eating livestock to feast on the micro algae (the cows of the salty world)?

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  • 2 weeks later...
how are your readings with the biowheel and macros?

 

seabass (for his seagrass tank) may be better off going with a biowheel than CO2 injections if your readings are balancing themselves out.

For the readings, I'll have to get back to you. But as far as CO2 goes, I think the Bio-wheel does combine CO2 and O2 into the water. I don't notice very many bubbles coming out of the filter so it may mix it well before letting the water come out. I do notice the bubbles on the algae throughout the day almost as thought it is pearling oxygen bubbles a little. You'll see on the brown algae in the pictures below what I'm talking about.

 

Sorry this may sound really stupid but i would really like to start a planted saltwater tank. Ive been looking at them for a few months now and so far your thread is the most informative ive found. Anyway, do you think using tap water would be alright in a macro tank as long as you had a lot of algae eating livestock to feast on the micro algae (the cows of the salty world)?
I think it's a great idea to set up a salty planted tank. My advice, set it up and just don't touch it except for water changes and minor changes in tank. Try a few species of algae and a few corals. Let it all grow. If you get caulerpa, just be careful on letting it get out of control. As far as the tap water, it depends on the minerals in the tap water. Soft, dechlorinated, tap water should be fine if you decide to use it on a tank with algae export. Hard or water with nitrates or heavy phosphates may prove to be cumbersome. But use it at your own risk. I use RO/DI water.

 

Observations over the past month. That little sprig of hair algae on the mushrooms and palythoas/zoanthids in the picture earlier this month went away very quickly. I'm not sure if it is hungry 'pods, snails, or hermit crabs that got rid of it so quickly. Pod population is still significant. Occasionally I will get some hair algae and diatoms growing out of the filter exhaust but within a week something has eaten it. I'm not sure if it is a small brine population that slowly munches on it through the week or if it is a super snail that wipes it all out. I do notice it disappears shortly after and sometimes during one of the astrea's multi-day trip across the outlet of the filter. Light feeding right now and minimal maintenance at this point. Coralline is growing well as you'll see in the FTS and other pictures below.

 

Alright, January pictures, enjoy!

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I still have to get a few better pictures of the other animals and algae in the tank. Look for those soon. Questions? Thanks for looking.

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  • 4 weeks later...

OK welcome back! It's the end of February and I'm fairly pleased with the tank so far. The macros are growing well and the animals are doing well--all except the black clown. About mid-month, one day I didn't see it swimming around. On closer inspection, it was lying underneath the rock dead. Not sure what happened. Crabs and snails made short work of the corpse--and any freed nitrogen only fueled the macros. A LFS had a sale on some baby clowns and I picked up a 1/2" ocellaris clown for the replacement. I've been working on fattening him up so he can eat the pellets the other fish eat. He's only on some finely crushed flakes and sweetwater zooplankton. :mellow:

 

All the other animals are thriving. I've noticed the Randall's goby doesn't hang out with the shrimp during the day--and if it does only on a rare occasion. At night he disappears with the shrimp into its caves and the shrimp snaps at night. Both sexy shrimp have molted. Coralline is growing on a steady basis. This past glass cleaning took a little longer as many spots had sprouted all over. And I've yet to touch the Bio-Wheel or the cartridge.

 

But, enough of the chatter. Here are some update pics for the month of February.

 

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And there we enter the last month. Thanks for stopping by and more pictures to come!

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Nice tank WarEagleNR88. I wish my seagrass was progressing as well. I really like your mixed macro/coral reef; but if you don’t mind a suggestion, a little more beach up front might make your aquascape look a bit cleaner. Keep up the good work.

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WarEagleNR88
Nice tank WarEagleNR88. I wish my seagrass was progressing as well. I really like your mixed macro/coral reef; but if you don’t mind a suggestion, a little more beach up front might make your aquascape look a bit cleaner. Keep up the good work.

Yeah Seabass, I'm not sure what is going on with your seagrass. I bet it has something to do with a nearly nutrient free substrate. In a planted FW tank, the nutrients in the substrate provide the plants food and keep them flourishing. But there's a funny coincidence that happens when you first put a planted FW tank together. Its almost as though the substrate must age a little before the plants will take hold and begin to flourish. I think what the seagrass needs is the environment it comes from--an environment rich in nutrients plus lots of sunlight. In a 10G tank, very difficult to do. Maybe March will be the month it trips it's nutrient level in your substrate and you see some growth. Good luck!

 

Yeah I'm trying for the beach up front, but the caulerpa has other plans. I'm trying to keep it low instead of letting it climb all over the place. We'll see how it goes.

 

Here a couple of more pictures from February.

 

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:lol: Hope you like that coralline growth! It's already growing on the front glass again less than a week later.

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Fishfreak218
tank looks realy nice, wats the green stuff growing under the pink palys and were can i get some !

its Codium.. as far as where to get it.. www.floridapets.com has it sometimes

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  • 1 month later...
WarEagleNR88

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End of March Entry

March has been a very busy month for me personally, please excuse the late entry for March. The tank has been doing well. So far things are looking good, the algae is still growing and the tank is still maturing. Being only its fifth month in existence, I feel it is becoming fairly stable. Parameters have been consistent over the past couple of months and the temperature and salinity have been rock solid. This is truly my best work with an aquarium as far as maintenance and upkeep are concerned. Here are the parameters as of today:

 

Temp 78 degrees ____ (Coralife digital thermometer)

Salinity 1.024 _______ (Coralife Deep Six hydrometer using Instant Ocean mix)

Ammonia 0.0 ppm ___ (Red Sea Marine test kit)

NO2 0.0 ppm _______ (Red Sea Marine test kit)

NO3 ~5 ppm _______ (Hagen Nitrate test kit)

Alk ~3.2 meq/L _____ (Red Sea Marine test kit)

pH 8.2 ____________ (Red Sea Marine test kit)

KH 140 ppm _______ (Hagen GH/KH test kit)

Ca 460 ppm _______ (Hagen Ca test kit)

 

The Caulerpa again rose up and began to take over the tank again this month like it did in December. After a good trimming, I was able to shape it up to look presentable. Again during March, the front of the glass was covered with coralline and the fish have been eating well. 'Pods are numerous and everything is looking good. Here are the end of March pictures. In the next post I'll display the final entry and compilation.

 

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WarEagleNR88

Contest Summary

This has been an interesting contest. It was my first aquarium contest and it is slightly different from anything I've ever seen. I don't think in the Reefkeeping magazine Tank of the Month contest you'll see a macro-algae dominated aquarium anytime soon. I've enjoyed toying with the aspect of growing plants in a saltwater environment and mixing in a few colorful animals to aid the picture. While I don't think I had complete success learning how to grow algae and corals in an environment such as this, I think given the circumstances and restrictions in the stock category I did fairly well--but the voting will be the measure of that.

 

What would I do differently if I had it to do over again? Well for one, I'd not add Caulerpa racemosa-like species to an aquarium this small. I'd pick a single type of algae and a single type of coral. Perhaps only Halimeda and Ricordea? I think the combination of those two would be striking. Maybe throw in a little Botryocladia and add a few branches of Frogspawn to complete the pattern of shapes and sizes. Closely monitor the calcium levels and keep the water changes consistent and regular.

 

I look forward to the end of the contest and to the winners, congratulations! Here are some of my favorite pictures from my aquarium over the past ~6 months and I threw in a never-before-seen picture. I hope you enjoy all and remember me when you go to the polls.

 

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For a list of fully updated tank specs, please Click Here. You will be returned to the first post of my entry that I have kept updated with all of the plants, animals, equipment, supplements and monthly entries categorized by month. Again, thanks for stopping by.

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