Nice shots! I really like the last one.

This tank is really nice - keep up the good work!

Thanks all.

This tank is truly stunning. I'm sitting here reading the thread thinking you were off to a good start. Then I scrolled down!

I can't wait to see this tank grow out.

Thanks, though we have had our share of setbacks.

A couple months ago, my friend picked up a running system and equipment on CL. The package deal came with an obscure RO/DI unit. Having no experience with these or plumbing, I took the unit to a LFS for advice. The young employee sold me new filter materials and told me how to hook it up. For a month, I was surprised at how fast it produced water! A couple weeks ago, I stumbled on someone elses post about how RO/DI produces 4x as much waste as clean water and almost cried. I had been using waste water for top off and water changed for a month.

I had watched 4 different torches melt away to nothing, battled zoapox for weeks, lost 2 emerald crabs, 2 peppermint shrimp, a cleaner shrimp, mandarin, scooter blenny, and a yellow clown goby. I can't attribute all of this to the waste water, but man was I irked.

I haven't documented all of our losses because it can be depressing, but with attention to daily changes in the tank, we've still come along nicely.

Ah NICE! a local!

Great tank and pics! Cant wait to see the tank in a few months!

-dan

Well, I tried the top-down shots but I wasn't happy with them. It's hard to get an angle without reflections of the lights. Also, the top shelf of rock is where I mounted my acro colonies with epoxy putty. From the front and back, you don't see the white blobs so much but they definately detract from the top-down look for now.

Some of my critters were feeling photogenic though so here are a couple of my fav's.

Stopping to smell the roses...


Scarlet


"Tiny Tim" our smallest blue hermit


Skunk cleaner "Jesus" (he walks on water)


"Cloverfield"


"Champeezy"


FTS trio coming soon. Next week will be the 5 month anniversary for this tank! Thanks for looking.

Well, last weekend marked the 5 month anniversary of the birth of our 50g display =)

I figured that I would shoot some pics to mark the date. Pardon the yellowness I was fiddling with the white balance on the camera.

Front side 09/16/09

End

Back side

Acro garden front side.

Acros back side

End 'scape uphill

Green corallimorph collection

Frogs

Zoanthid collection

White sponge on daisies and clovers

Scarlet

We actually spent the weekend away from the tanks on a business trip to Atlantic City. Here's us on the roof of the AC Aquarium.


Thanks for reading =)

So I broke down and bought a Todd's Torch today. It's a pretty hot item here in NY and a LFS had two beautiful ones.



This piece has 7 heads and super long tentacles. 6" so far and it's only been in the tank a couple hours.



It's funny how it steals the show as a centerpiece in the tank even with $100's in Zoanthids and rare SPS. Sorry for the crappy night shot i'll grab a better one tomorrow.

New FTS with the Todd's Torch.

9/22/09

Here are some growth comparisons I put together. When you spend a couple hours a day looking at the tank, you lose appreciation for how quickly things are growing so I like to look back at older pics.



My first SPS, ORA Verde I think - 4 months growth. Fragged twice also.


My second SPS, unkown green acro w/ blue tips - 3 months growth. Also been fragged twice.


Monti Digi - 4 months growth. Frag was remounted vertically and fragged. Colonies on the left are frags of the mother.


Millipora or Prostrata, dunno which. 1.5 months growth.


Birdsnest growth - 1.5 months.


Frogspawn growth - 1.5 months.

Last week was a busy week in our little reef collection. The new 37g hex completed it's little cycle and I moved nearly all the mushrooms over from the 50g. This left many gaps as we had 60+ mushrooms on about 10lbs of live rock so I re-scaped some of the 50g.



I also did some big water changes and serious cleaning. Of course I broke some of the SPS during maintenance and needed to glue and re-home some pieces. Anyways, I babble on... here are pics of the revised 50g and a couple coral pix.



50g front side



End view



Back side



Acro garden. Pretty stoked with the recent growth rate.



<3 my torches. The purple/yellow one on the right is new. The Todd's is expanding more every day. I can't tell if it's continuing to adjust or if it's growth but the tentacles stretch up to 9" now.

I had some spare time tonight so I snapped a few with the actinics on. Sorry for the poor color balance as a result.



Friends! Cyphastrea and Spongodes.





Hungry candy cane frag.





Frogspawn duo.





Chalice duo.







"Octo Mom". We picked up this zoanthid as a single polyp back in April. The resulting colony has also been fragged 3 times...





Zoa compilations.









Thanks for looking!

Shameless update, nothing new I just love taking pics.






Front side

Back side

This tank is beautiful. Great growth shots!

Wow! I wish I would have seen this sooner, those are some great shots. Love the tank!

Beautiful reef!! Nice growth too!

Thanks Maria and JZ~

I'm really working on refining the scape and coral placement. I've re-done my acro garden twice this week as well as my monti's and a few zoas. I want the tank to look totally different depending on if you view it from the front or back.

Right now the front is 90% pink or green corals (my gf's favorites) and the back side is 75% red, orange, and yellow (my fav's). Of course, red, orange, and yellow are harder to find and more expensive. I did pick up a nice orange torch last week and have been shopping for some sun corals, dendrophyllia, and balanophyllia so we'll see how that goes...

Cant wait to see how your new aquascape turns out. Its really looking well put together and youve had nice growth and color on a lot of nice pieces! What is your dosing regimen?

Dosing regimen atm is:
35ml BRS 2-part cal/alk each daily
strontium twice weekly
magnesium tested weekly and dosed accordingly (BRS)
3 drops of Lugol's per week
vitamin c, amino acids, garlic elixir "soup" made for a frozen & freeze dried food soak and broadcast fed daily

Well, today marks the 6 month mark for the 50g. I snapped a couple pics to mark the day in my photo log. I did do some minor re-scaping and found new homes for the acros on the top shelf. I think I've nearly got a look that works asthetically.

FTS 10/11/09

Back side

Couple people eaters

Green cap with purple polyps

Healing monti, either pokerstar or rainbow, we'll see

Orange torch I picked up for the red/orange side of the penninsula

Haven't updated recently but we picked up some new pieces, namely 3 non-photosynthetic frags. We also nabbed a sick mushroom and a couple more acros. I'll shoot a few pics when they settle in more but here's a teaser for now.

One of our new sun corals.

Some new actinic shots...

Rainbow Monti looking much better every day


New Rhodactis


Two new acros one highlighter yellow (foreground) one green tip Marshall Island something (behind)

your superman ric is awesome!


i love yer aquascape too!

wow totally amazing
i would take pic`s allday if my tank looked like that too!!
sun coral gorgeous lost for words(and that doesnt happen often)

Thanks all. I do love snapping pics.

I need to shoot some of the acros again, I was cruising through a bunch of pics from July and they've grown a ton.

On a side note, I've moved up to weekly 6g water changes, added a powerhead to the 'fuge, started skimming a bit wetter and all my cyano in the sump is now gone woohoo.

Here's some growth comparisons shot today. Notice all the timeframes are 2 months or less. Staring at these stony corals every day, it often feels like they aren't growing at all. It's another reason I take so many pictures.

ORA Verde - 2 months growth.


Blue Tort - 2 months growth


Red milli - 2 months growth


Birdsnest - 1.5 months growth. The zoom hides the actual size but this one has doubled.

Caught the clowns hosting my frogspawn and torches for the first time. Very cool to see them finally doing it in my own systems. Very uncool when they rub off tentacles that become ballistic missiles and burn dead spots into my SPS colonies.

Wow! awesome torch
My torch also stings anything near it It is amazing how long they can stretch!

Yeah the problem is I've cleared plenty of space for the torch to sway in the flow, but when the clowns rub up against the skeleton, a tentacle will occasionally break off.

I have a nice bald spot in my Red Planet colony from where a tentacle landed...

The torch and clown pics are just wonderful!!

Don't usually like Rhodactis but I must say this one is the best I have seen.....

You have a simply amazingly colorfull tank! Great photo skills, what camera are you using?

Sorry if stated earlier but what lighting do you have on this tank?

Thanks!

Camera is a Cannon Digital Ixus700 point n shoot. I just use the underwater whitebalance, -2 exposure, and "flower setting" (I think its a close or macro setting, I never read the manual).

Lighting is a 4x39w Nova Extreme t5ho (geismann actinic+, geismann aquablue+, geismann pure actinic, KZ fiji purple) as well a 6 strips of Powerbrite 460nm LEDs. Royal blue LED's really do redisulous things to coral colors, if you have not seen them im person, I would go out of my way to see an LED lit (or supplemented) tank. Planning on ordering a 6 bulb ATI Sunpower next week woooohoooo.

Spanko- here's an encore shot, the mushroom was much happier today.


That one was actually $25pp at one of our LFS.

Great job with a point and shoot, I got some learning to do... I have a cannon point and shoot and my shots dont even compare...

I also have two strips of the powerbrite LED 460nm LEDs. My problem with these is that they are mounted directly to the inside of my red sea max hood, so they are real close creating a spot like effect. I actually plan on taking them apart and removing the reflectors, just no time... kids and all.

Who said you need MH to get great growth and color in SPS was dead wrong your tank is proof of that. I also have great success with color and growth under the stock RSM lighting. Check out my tank thread, just need better skills with the camera....

dude tht green torch is awesome!! i wish i could get my hands on one

also those sun corals are cool... ive never seen them with that stripe design around the mouth

Great tank and especially nice pics - Really enjoyed your thread.

Update:

I work up at 5am to let the dog out and check on the puppies and my 50g was a warzone.

My "Shatterproof, Guaranteed for Life" Marineland Stealth Pro 300w heater has literally exploded in my sump, sending all sorts of metals and pollutants out turning all the water milky white. The skimmer was overflowing from pulling so much out.

At this point, it looks like a total loss. All my SPS are bleached and RTN'ing. Torches are pulling off the skeletons. Chalices are showing skeleton. I've been cleaning and doing water changes for 5 hours now and I set up a hospital tank for corals to try and save some. If any heavy metals were leached as I suspect, the live rock, sand, sump will all be trash.

If anyone has a Sunday contact for Marineland, I obviously want to pursue a large compensation. All of my efforts have just lead to answering machines and emails. I can be reached at (714) 580 9153 - Aaron.

Dude I'm so sorry.... That sucks so bad...

Good luck with the compensation with Marineland...

OMFG!!!! That sucks soooo bad, dude im sorry. I sure hope you can get something from marineland.

For those who were interested, Marineland informed me I could file a claim by sending in the defective heater with a write-up on my system information, maintenance schedule, heater use and installation as well as before and after pictures, and a lost livestock appraisal signed by a saltwater specialty store owner. They will test the broken heater for 2-4 weeks and get back to me about compensation.



Here is my before/after collage I am sending as a part of the package. RIP all my beautiful corals.

!!!

wow. sorry to hear.

i'm eyeing my own stealth now and thinking of replacing...

I've actually been contacted by 4 people in our regional reef club who had the same experience. 4 people just in upstate NY...

If you can afford it, I wouldn't hesitate.

Ugh that is a bummer. I'm sorry to hear about that.

Good luck man. I'm so sorry to hear about this.

I am so sorry for your losses. I hope you are amply compensated by Marineland for their faulty heater. I have to say that your tank before the tragedy was so inspirational and thank you so much for sharing your progress. I am going to be doing a peninsula tank also next year - currently gathering the equipment for it - and I loved your rock placement and pieces. Your corals were just amazing. Good luck with everything.

The pix make me wanna cry
I really hope everything gets compensated for...I stick with my Jager

Well...

Here are some shots of the post apocalyptic 50g...

Keep in mind 100% of my acros and montis died. I restacked the rock and I love SPS too much, so I decided to re-try with them. However, I'm getting a lot of larger colonies this time instead of small LE/ORA expensive frags. Some of the colonies and frags look giant and out of place, but as the tank fills in, it will look better.

Here goes

Stealths are horrible heaters one of mine did that while my hand was in the water with it needless to say I was not happy with either of the two i had