I've been spending quite a bit of time on my coldwater tank lately, and last week I decided it was time to mix things up a little. I headed out to see if I could find an Aqua Design Amano Cube Garden, and though I did, another tank caught my eye. I'd never heard of it before, it was called Do!Aqua, and was also made by ADA. Same dimensions as a cube garden, same slick silicone, as far as I could tell, there was no difference. Except that the Do!Aqua was $30 less than the Cube Garden. You can guess which I bought.





So, what to put in it? As it turns out, I actually have a secret tropical tank in my basement that no one knows about, and I have been slowly amassing corals. Many of these were from my ugly 5.5 contest tank. So, rather than do the smart thing and cycle the tank, I just transferred everything over the course of two days. I figured, everything is already in one tank together, so moving it all to another tank should be much of a problem. Turns out, it wasn't! The transition went so smoothly that the tank went through no noticeable cycle.

A few days later I decided I was willing to test my luck and buy a few new corals, because the tank was looking really good. Against my better judgement, I bought and oregon tort frag (yes, acropora in a 3 day old tank, brilliant!) along with some nice zoanthid colonies and a green florida ricordea. Again, things went in my favor, and after acclimation, everything was happy! And it remains so to this day (though it has only been a week).

I give you, my new pico at one week of age (hope it keeps looking good!):


Believe it or not, I was also stupid enough to buy a fish for this tank. It's a little yasha goby, and it, as of yet, has done everything it can not to be seen. This morning, when the moonlights were on, it actually came out and swam around a little, but most of the time you can't even tell it's there. Hoping it becomes more active and less shy!

So, basically, now that I've done basically everything wrong, I'm just going to let this tank sit and mature, after all, this hobby is all about patience.

A few quick stats, then some pics:

5.44 gallons
150 watt, 10K metal halide
2 koralia's for flow
temp: 76-83 degrees ( I know it's a big swing, but one of my local fishstores has convinced me to try it - he lets his tanks swing between 68 and 84, and all his acros are happy, so figured I'd give it a try)
At the moment, this tank has an acrylic lid (ugly = not in pictures), but I'm planning on making a mesh one so it stays cooler during the day.

And here are (some of) the inhabitants:

bubble coral


green ric


trumpet and rics


green zoas/baby leather


oregon tort


b. merletti


new zoa colony


fts plus sunpod


not pictured:
sexy shrimp
yasha goby
orange ricordea
orange crush acan

Pictured, but not previously mentioned
red monti cap frags
big green/brown monti
blue m. digitata (currently looking very brown, we shall see if it colors up)
hydnophora
kenya tree

still to be added:
an ornamental shrimp of some sort
a couple more zoa frags

Looks cool! Do you plan on adding sand at any point or do you have too much flow? Also I hope everything stays happy.

Looks good!

You went pretty fast there man, stocked it in one week?

I'm no sure. I think sand would work, the flow across the bottom isn't super intense, but I'm hoping to get the zoas to grow on the bottom, and just have a multicolored carpet.



Yeah, I know, but since it's mostly transferred as opposed to new stuff I'm hoping it'll be okay. If things do start to go south, I always have the well-established tropical tanks in my basement I can transfer back to.

Wow you don't mess around, looks great!

I wish I had that same option with my coldwater tank...my tube worms are basically all dead

Thanks!



Yeah, well, sorry about that. But you'll get it under control, and then you can get new tubeworms!

That tank really does look great. Love the rimless look.

I hope I can get some more tube worms, I think I will wait a while though, just because of their feeding requirements.

Sweeet tank! Did you buy it online or at a LFS? Everything looks happy in there. So you're not using a heater?

Why no heater? And no sand for a goby = fail for poor Goby ! Gat another fish instead . Tank looks nice for now.

The price difference is because the ADA uses higher clarity glass.

Sounds like a good plan to me!



Lfs, and I am using a heater, just not trying to control temp as much.



hmmm, I wonder if the lack of sand is freaking the goby out - it stays hidden all the time! I've seen them in barebottom tanks before though.

And yes, I do have a heater, I just keep it set low (75) so that the temp fluctuates more. The light really heats up he tank during the day, so I think if the temp was set any higher I would have issues. I will be switching from an acrylic to a mesh lid, which should keep the temp down a little.



ah, I thought that could be it. I haven't really had any problems regarding clarity, so I guess it's fine.



The tank has suffered it's first casualty, and in a very strange way. I was watching my sexy shrimp hang out by my bubble coral, suspecting he might be hosting it. The shrimp then brushed up against the coral, and bam! The coral stung the sh!t out of it and tried to eat it! I pulled the shrimp out of the coral's tentacles, but it was too late. It convulsed for a while, but it must have gotten a fatal dose of venom because it is now dead. Who knew that bubble corals packed such a punch?

Considering people have walked straight into very clean glass thinking there was nothing there i'm assuming a non low iron glass is fine

If you don't mind, how much did that tank run? it's pretty sweet.

39.95. Compared to the nearly identical cube garden, which was ~70, I thought it was a pretty good deal.

random side note - today I was downstairs rooting around in my other tropical tanks looking for a peppermint shrimp, because I'm finding more and more baby aiptasia in this tank. I flipped over a rock and something jetted out. A little bright green mantis shrimp! I don't think I'll move him into this tank, too dangerous, but it was a cool find nonetheless. I may set up a display fuge for this tank someday with cool macro's and a mantis!

I did eventually catch the pepp, too, and he's now in the new tank. Hopefully he eats the aiptasia, and nothing else!

You mentioned that the guy at your LFS lets his temps swing quite drastically. Is there a specific reason why he does this? I've always read that stable temps are the best.

I guess it depends on what you want to keep. SPS corals, which typically come from very shallow water are exposed to large temp swings in the wild. At low tides they are nearer to the surface (or sometimes even out of the water entirely) where it is warmer, and at low tides they are in deeper water, which is cooler. That's not the entire explanation, but it gives you some idea of his rationale. I talked to a marine biology professor who studies coral reefs extensively on the subject, because I was likewise skeptical, and he assured my that shallow water corals can experience temp swings of 10 degrees over the course of 1 day in nature. The problems start when the high part of the temp swing gets into the 87-88 degree range - that's when corals will bleach. Many other corals - many softies, mushrooms, and some zoanthids, come from deeper water, and are not adapted to temp swings, and they won't react favorably to big changes in temperature.

So, I guess he just wants to simulate what the corals would experience in nature. That, or he just wants to lower his electricity bills.


Took some more macro pics today:

Holy moley, very nice, Jamie!

Hmmm, keeping a reef hidden from us eh?




















Looks like a great start Jamie!

not much to update:

Peppermint shrimp has yet to eat my aiptasia; yasha goby has yet to come out from his spot under the rock. Every once in a while I see a fin sticking out, but that's it. Lani needs to send me some of her new fishes?

Gah! The bubble coral has claimed it's second victim, my peppermint shrimp! I didn't see the shrimp actually get stung, but I found it next to the coral, having the same sort of spasms as the sexy shrimp did when it was stung. That was last night, and this morning the shrimp was dead, and for no apparent reason, also in two pieces. The tail was visible, but I had to move some rocks around to find the head/thorax.

While I was rescaping a bit to get the shrimp out, I decided to move some rocks around to try and get a view of my elusive yasha goby. I removed most of the loose rubble, so I can see basically everywhere in the tank, under the rocks, etc, and there is no goby to be found! While there is a slight possibility that the goby is hiding in the one little spot I can't see, I'm getting the feeling that it's not in there anymore. I haven't seen any trace of it in the past few days, but I don't know what could have happened to it. I have a tight fitting lid, so jumping out of the tank is unlikely. Still, I check my desk and floor every day, I've looked in the vent on my floor, under my bed, etc. and I haven't found it. It's a wood floor, so a dead fish would be pretty easy to spot. I suppose it's possible my dog ate it, but she's not the type of dog that eats anything that might be food, and I don't think she wouldn't have considered it.

I can't think of something that would eat it that lives in the tank either. The bubble coral might be able to catch it, but it would create a pretty obvious lump, because the fish is bigger than the coral. If I had a mantis or something I'm sure I would have heard it - it's on my desk, where I'm often doing homework, and it's the same room I sleep in, and I've never heard any noise coming from the tank.

It's a mystery! Anyone have other ideas I'm missing?

It seems to be a pretty perilous tank for anything that moves, but all the sedentary residents are quite happy. I can see new growth on the monti's, and the blue tort is already beginning to encrust a little around the epoxy. I am baffled that the corals are doing so well, yet anything I add that isn't coral promptly dies or vanishes. :sigh:

Sorry about the shrimps.
Hope you can figure out what happened with the goby.

Nice little tank. I think I would get rid of the bubble coral as it seems to be taking out your tank mates.

sorry to here that...i had the same thing happen with my sixline when i transfered to my new tank...but keep hope alive

+1 to getting rid of the bubble coral. I really like the look of this tank. And sweet about the mantis find.

Thanks all.

The bubble has some nice zoas growing on the shell, so I'll have to try to frag those off. Hopefully I can break the rock up without damaging the bubble but I guess if I do, it kind of deserved it.

edit: if that was confusing, the shell I was referring to was the shell that the coral is growing on. It made it sound like the bubble has some sort of protective casing.

A bit of a picture update, but no news regarding the tank.

money!






baby leather


expanded ric garden

Awesomeness.

Looking great!!

thanks!

Ok, so, it having been several weeks since the yasha was last seen, I decided I needed a replacement fish. This time I decided to go with something a little less shy and a lot less expensive. Damsel!









kinda dark pictures, hard to get him in focus on a slower shutterspeed.

Way to "show up" my 5.5g with a tank thats only been set-up for less than a month

Nice, did you pick the most pathetic and picked on damsel in the tank like i did feeling sorry for it? Looking great man!

YELLOWTAIL!!! your gonna love that guy. i would have to say they are among the most tame damsels, right after the Blue/Green chromis.

All i have to say about your tank is... WOW. no fuge no skimmer and your keeping a beautiful mixed reef with SPS...total AWESOMENESS. keep up the good work, ill be tagging along.

Well, he was the most picked on, but I picked him because he was smallest! Makes my tank look bigger than it really is



Yeah, I had one a long time ago. It was always a great fish. One day I saw him pecking at an acro and netted him out and got rid of him. Turns out he was just eating red bugs, an then I had an infestation on my hands. I'm hoping that this one will eat flatworms, because i have more of them than I'd like, but I'm not expecting that he will. I can hope though!

SAND! Decided it would look better with sand so I added a super thin layer.



other than that, not much to update, everything is going well, and I love the damsel! He's super friendly, and doesn't destroy things, which is nice. The oregon tort is getting really pale on the underside (the illuminated parts are still nicely colored, however, and it is growing), is this okay? I'd hate for it to get rtn or something, just making sure that's not a sign.

Looks waay better with sand IMO.

sand looks awesome in the tank.

agreed.

This post should serve as a 1 month update. (I'm going to try to do them monthly, we'll see how that goes).

Everything has been going great, fish is happy, corals are growing. I may be developing an aptaisia problem, however. I still have the bubble coral, so I've been hesitant to get another shrimp. I've basically been ignoring them and hoping they go away. The flatworm problem seems to have been entirely resolved by the damsel, I haven't seen any since a few days after I added it.

pics:

tort is beginning to encrust, monti's have maybe put on 1/4 inch of new growth around the edges


the killer


baby leather, growing


fishy


looking up


looking down

That looks super awesome! I love your bubble coral! I am gonna include one in my school's aquarium; its gonna have a lot of room to inflate, because im putting it on super isolation. i hope it works out! i would also like a small one for my home aquarium. I love them. The new england has a super nice one in one of their jellyfish tanks (my av). Thanks for sharing!

Oh wow, that looks great!

Wow your green monti looks great!

I hope your gonna bring this tank to college! Also, stop showing up my 5.5g

yeah, it's a really nice looking coral. I think it may just be this individual, but it seems to readily kill shrimp, so watch out for that. I know there's a type of shrimp (Vir sp.) that hosts them, so maybe I've just got a weird one, or I just haven't tried the right shrimp yet - dunno.

thanks lani and jacob!

and j - simple solution, make yours better! j/k, yours actually looks really good, and you have way more sps than I do!

oh, and I'm not bringing it to college, but my mom said she would take care of it while I was away.

Way to set a good example for beginners .

Your tank looks really good. Great job! But how do you keep a clean? Or is it since you just have corals you have no waste output?

I guess you could say that the tank has a fixed level of nutrients. I have a fish, but I don't feed it (it has to fend for itself , it seems to do fine), so whatever waste the fish produces is mostly eaten up again by the pods and algae. I also do weekly 1 gallon water changes and siphon out the detritus. That's it!

Nice. Makes me want one .

then get one!

not really an update, but we had a power failure two nights ago. Fortunately, we have a generator, so the tank only got down to 73 degrees before I woke up and got it running again - everything is fine.

getting some natural sunlight (this guys always has his feeder tentacles out, but I never feed him, )

sweet save w/ the generator!

Sorry if this has been asked before, but where did you get your tank from? I could only seem to find it in Austrailia...

Thanks!

Hey Jamie this is kinda a weird question, but why do you have a generator? I mean you live in a pretty big city, just not that common hahaha

tank looks awesome, great shots of everything, it takes alot of dedication to your tank when its 5.5G, you have to watch it alot more. i could never do it, minimum tank size is at least 20G for me. nothing bigger than 50 though. i cant wait to see this tank mature, it looks so good already. i will watch this one for sure.