Thanks!



It actually can be problematic. Sometimes, if I move the pumps just a little bit the flow will start blasting my montipora too hard in a specific spot, and it'll get mad. I also have to be careful where I put my lps' so they don't get ripped up by the flow. I was having trouble with the trumpet, but I fragged it back and everything's good now.

Well, I guess this will serve as the first half of the 5 [edit - 4] month update! I'll have to get some more pictures tomorrow because the lights went off for the night, but I'll be back tomorrow.

It's been a busy month for the tank on account of new christmas moneys. I made some good purchases - a cool new tiger goby, and a nice acro frag. I also made what is probably a really stupid one - a clam. It's a baby crocea, about 1.5 inches long. The lfs had it for a long time before I bought it, and it looked really healthy, so I thought I'd take the risk. I've only had it for a few hours, but so far it looks pretty good. I'll keep updating on how it's doing.

Here are a few pics with the new lens I got for christmas! More tomorrow.

the acan is finally in a spot where I can photograph it


new acro




the damsel








red montis


clam nestled into the montipora (difficult place to photograph, acro is right in the way)




older acros




that's all for now - current fts and more pics tomorrow

This looks beautiful! do you mind if i ask how much the tank costed?
and where did you find it?!

Thanks! I think it was $40. I got it at a local fish store, but you may be able to find them online.

nice that seems like a great deal comparing to gla

well it's not the same as other ada tanks, it's made with a lower quality glass, but it seems fine to me.

more pictures to complete the 5 [edit - 4] month update.

the new maxima (I said crocea earlier, I was misinformed/a noob)


left bottom


right


left top


right


fts


tropical tank contrasts nicely with the fresh snow outside


Thanks for looking!

Awesome tank man! Are you gonna participate in the pico contest?

When are you going to college? Didn't you say you had to downgrade your coldwtaer tank? Are you taking this tank with you? It would be a ton of work but this tank looks sooooo awesome!

This is my senior year of high school, and I'm not really sure what I'm going to do when I leave next fall. I was planning on having my parents take care of this tank, but then I started testing and found out my calcium and alkalinity are way off (dKH = 5-6, Ca = 560 - currently dosing two mL kent alkalinity buffer daily, but I might have to up the dose if it isn't cutting it). If it was just water changes they could handle it, but I don't want them dosing. So, I might try to sell it to a fish store to keep on their front desk, or I might see if any local nano reefers want to take care of it for a few years. Or I might just break it down. We'll see. I'm going to college in so cal, so I can't really transport it back and forth, but if I end up doing an internship down there my summer junior year (which would be really cool), then I could bring it down for junior and senior year - that's a long way off though, I'm just going to see how things play out.

My other idea was for downgrading my coldwater tank to something tiny (like, 1 gal), that was acrylic and had a sealable lid. If everything in the tank was cemented down, I could just screw on the lid and put it in my suitcase to take with me wherever I go - that might be easier than trying to take this 5 gallon beast with me.

hlander - yep, but coldwater, not tropical

macro picture time!

This guy is browning a little, but seems pretty happy, so I'm just letting him go with it. It is about time to replace the lights though...


red montis


green monti is taking over!


dwarf halimeda keeping the frogspawn at bay


amazingly, these guys get along - no stinging!


I have yet to get a clear, really close up picture of the samsel, but here are a few close calls




Softies!











Thanks for looking!

Awesome Pics!

thanks!

my gosh that's a great tank and the pics portray laser detail and color. I can tell by the growth its aging really well, wow on the sps color retention for sure and the plating growth. the rimless look is awesome killer tank
B

very very very cool tank.

Thanks guys!



Yeah, I got a new lens for christmas, and I'm really loving taking macros now.

I don't know if I'm more jealous of the tank or the snow.

haha, thanks. It was nice, but unfortunately it happened over break, so it didn't cancel school. :sigh:

good and bad news


good: new baby acan



bad news - my new fishy has ich!

he's finally coming out enough so that I can get a good look at him, and I just noticed today. Looks pretty bad.







Any ideas of treatment. There's no way I could catch him fo a dip - I even doubt that a trap would work - he's really easily spooked. I've heard cleaner shrimps can help - I've been thinking about getting one for aesthetic purposes, but worried my bubble will kill it. If it could help the goby though I'd give it a shot. Opinions? other ideas?

Well, I decided that I didn't want to study for my discrete math final tomorrow, so I set out to get some good fish pictures! Here are the results (along with a few other random shots)

dwarf halimeda and froggy


asterina



left side



fish!

Awesome Pics Jamie! Sorry about ur Tiger Goby. I was thinking of getting a pair for my 125G when it's up.

Awesome Pics Jamie! Sorry about ur Tiger Goby. I was thinking of getting a pair for my 125G when it's up.

Awesome Pics Jamie! Sorry about ur Tiger Goby. I was thinking of getting a pair for my 125G when it's up.

lol, thanks. I think you might have gotten a little trigger happy with the "add reply" button though.

I guess whenever I'm able to convince my parents to loan me the money I'll get a cleaner shrimp. The goby has been toughing it out so far, hopefully he can make it another week or two!

Wonderful pictures Jamie!

Love the shot of the tank with the window in the backround.

Thanks for posting all of them! Enjoyed those very much.

Thanks! Looking back on it, I probably should have cleaned up the window seat first. Airline tubing, towel, fan two books stacked on top of it - not to mention the defunct tank that I still haven't cleaned up (fortunately not pictured).

btw, you need to update your simple wonders thread!

lol I had over 10 thought I deleted them all.

I hope you get the Cleaner!

haha, nice. I also have to worry about buying a new halide bulb - this one's getting pretty old. gah! I need moneys. I'm gonna have to start selling frags or something.

in other news, more pitchers!!! I've been really busy procrastinating, as you can probably tell. I tried some top downs today, they didn't turn out great, but not terrible.

I tried to do a panoramic top down, but I realized I don't have any pano software. >.< Oh well,

left


right


the ric garden


sps macros




September


January


As you can tell by this comparison, the blue tort, despite good polyp extension, has not been following the "lots of growth" trend.

Awesome Pix!

The SPS are looking good!

Yeah, they all seem pretty happy!

The green monti is actually getting kind of annoying - it grows too fast. It's overgrowing everything else, and at the moment it seems to be trying really hard to kill my red montis. My original idea for this tank was to just let everything grow naturally, but I may have to prune the monti a little if I want anything else to survive.

That's probably the best idea. I heard montis grow crazy!

You are still in the Pico Contest right?

yep yep, about to make my thread.

Ah, it's so hard to keep everything neat and tidy when were always tinkering isn't it?



Very true, and I have delayed poor Weetie long enough. I'm on it

Most excellent.

Well, it's over a week late, but here it is, the six month [edit- actually five] update!

Things have been going pretty well, though sad to say I have been neglecting this tank. I've been pretty much consumed with school work, and, until yesterday, I hadn't done a water change in three weeks! So yeah, the acropora's are looking less happy than usual. The one in front that used to be white with blue tips is now poop brown, but that's probably also due to my bulb that needs replacing. I'm seeing a little less polyp extension on the other acro frags too.

The green monti is happy as ever, and it's actually incredibly annoying. I keep beating it back, but it just seems to keep growing back more quickly. I don't know if it is visible in the pictures, but it's rapidly overtaking my red monti's, the blue tort, and the poop brown acro.

The softies and lps are pretty happy, but there's so much competition that none of them are growing too much. I'm gonna need a bigger tank soon!

I haven't seen the goby in a few days, so I'm thinking that maybe the ich finally got the better of him.

blah blah blah, here are the pictures:

(green walls...)




getting crowded!






happy acan


damsel


if only I could have gotten his tail in the frame!


assorted macro's








baby clam


thanks for looking!

Wow nice shots! The open mouth fish is awesome. And that clam is a beaut!

Wow, that clam is perfect for that tank size! Looking great still, even without the water change.

Beautiful. I wish my corals looked so lush.

I likez da tank!

How much are you dosing each day?

Awesome little tank. I love it. Clam is so damn cute

Thanks!



Thanks. Hopefully with more water changes, it will look even better.



But they do! And these are kind of your corals, or, were at one point.




Thanks!




2mL of kent dkh buffer daily



Thanks. I like him too.

Well, it looks like I got a little excited in the past few updates, and got ahead of myself with the month numbering (fixed now). so here it is, the actual six month update.

I've been completely neglecting this tank. I did the first water change today in far two long (edit - looks like since last update), and I've been dosing kind of whenever I remember to. It all started when we had to have our pipes redone, and the tap water went bad for a few weeks (yeah, I use tap water - it's really clean here in oregon!). Then I just got really busy and stuff. But I had a little free time this weekend, so I got it all cleaned up. Not looking too shabby!

Tiger goby is confirmed gone, which is too bad, but the damsel is doing well. Coral growth is good, though the monti is completely taking over. I haven't had the time to beat it back, so it's made it's way through part of my red monti and some of the brown acro. The clam is doing well, which I'm really happy about, because I was worried it wouldn't. No new additions, just sorta letting everything grow out.

On to the pictures:

Fts in the sun




Monster ric is not nearly fully expanded in this picture - it can make it all the way over to those red zoas on the left. Shading out my orange ric.
















froggy's growing fast (getting kinda close to that acro, too)




clam/blurry fish top down


full tank top down


fts


Thanks for looking!

How does this tank not have more followers not only is it stunning, but the picture quality is amazing. Every time I see an ADA cube it makes me want to ditch my picotope and start a cube. I never thought I could like sharp edges so much more than curved

Wow! how did i not see this earlier? thats one awesome pico. Just reaffirms my opinion of your reefing skill. Wish my tank looked as good after 6 months.

Sorry about the goby, but everything is looking good.

This.

Very nice Jamie!

Thanks all! The goby's death was kind of expected, so I'm not crushed, but it's too bad. I don't think I'll be getting any more fish, but I might need a peppermint shrimp (hopefully this one will survive more than a day) and a mithrax crab, because my aiptasia and bubble algae are getting out of control!

are you at all concerned that the mythrax and the shrimp might dine on your corals?

Definitely. That's why I haven't added them yet, but manual removal of bubbles isn't working, and I've injected the aips with everything imaginable (lemon juice, dkh buffer, vinegar, etc) and they seem immune to death. So I'm considering it. The bubble coral seems to kill all inverts that I put in this tank (notice that there are no shrimp or hermits) so I don't know how long they'd last anyway. I haven't decided if I'll add anything yet, but I'm considering it.

too bad
the inverts you require are both really cool. I'm really concerned about my corals as well, so I'm kinda wrestling on getting a pep shrimp for my tank...

If I haven't said it yet, the tank looks incredible. maybe you could get those inverts and once they're done and start eating coral, you could place them into another tank? or return?

Thanks, that's what I'm thinking. They can be difficult to catch, but I should be able to make some sort of trap.