Here's the beginning of my 2nd Pico - my first was a 1/3Gallon that was impossible to keep stable - this 5.5G is already a joy. Here's the first Front Tank Shot we need for the contest, nearly 20 of us bought or built the same custom acrylic 12"x12"x9" cube All-In-One with built in refugium.

Quick background:
I started with saltwater 15yrs ago with a standard 55g fish only - kept many types of fish but loved the wrasses/parrots the most. From there worked in a LFS and then the National Aquarium in Baltimore as an aquarist assistant for the 3000G pacific reef tank. One day after we trimmed a 5G bucket of Tree Coral I was asked if I wanted to take it home vs putting in the garbage and that (along with VHO) started my reef keeping journey in which I've personally kept as large as a 150g and as small as a 1/3g and also started my own business, Creative Aquaria, where I've looked after many species of marine fish. After a long hiatus I am back in the game with a Nano and Pico and wondering when Actinodiscus became Discosoma, where were Rics and Zoa's in my day, and why does the best color coral have to be across the globe in Australia?

Hardware:
Erik custom acrylic 12x12x9 with built-in fuge
MJ900
CurrentUSA Dual Satellite 2x18w
JBJ Pico 7w fuge light
Loc-line plumbing
Koralia-Nano
<free> JBJ ATO/Aqualifter AW-20
<free> Corallife dual timer
<free> PC fan

Livestock
Green Clown Goby- died:-(
Juvenile Perc Clownfish - $15
$10 1lb aqualcultured live rock w/ algae
$7 1lb live rock w/ orange corraline algae, sponge, feather duster worms

$30 LPS
1 baby fungia

$55 Mushrooms
morphs $5
1 purple mushroom
1 red mushroom
1 red mushroom
2 superman mushroom
1 electric green mushroom
1 green spotted mushroom

yuma/rics $10
1 orange/green yuma
1 blue ric

$10 Cloves
1 blue cloves
1 cloves

$5 Xenia
1 red sea xenia


$13.8 NO NAMES Zoas($.30/pp)
10 ugly drab green zoas
8 green button polyps
20 orange zoas
8 brown zoas

$111 COMMON Zoas($1/pp)
7 fire and ice zoas
14 green people eater palys
30 whammin watermelons zoas
45 eye of ra zoa
12 great gatsby palys
3 radioactive dragon eyes zoa

$335 NICE Zoas($5/pp)
15 armor of gods zoas
23 Red People Eater Paly
9 nuclear greens
20 black lotus eater palys

$4 Macros-
$4 red macros
lots of free hitchhiker macros

$6.70 CUC and Invertebrates
5xAssorted hermits- $.69 each
5xCeriths- $.25
2xAstraea snails- $.25 each
2x Nerite snails- $.75 each
3x Sexy shrimp-died :-(
1x Porcelain crab- hitchhiker :-)
1x Decorator crab - hitchhiker :-)


Contest thread here:
Unofficial nano-reef 12" cube contest

FTS 3/15/2010 (final)



1/25/10 Pico PAR readings FTS with dual Satellite 36w total


3/8/2010 FTS
2/22/2010 FTS
2/8/2010 FTS
1/25/10 FTS
12/28/09 FTS
12/14/09 FTS
11/30/09 FTS
11/16/09 FTS
10/18/09 FTS
9/26/09 FTS

finally started nice...

Here's what it looks holding my temporary rock - might evolve from this or change completely based on what happens in my nanocube - since the NC is MH and this is 36W PC it makes sense to move over corallamorphs and zoanthids.

FTS before


FTS current


Green Clown Goby


Sexy Shrimp

Looks freakin' sweet so far

Holy macros!



What she said!

Looks good, cuttings? My emerald crab made a feast of the macros I ordered for this contest while I was on vacation

I purposely got a tiny emerald crab like you in my NC which is molting like every 2weeks and is double sized already - equipped with newly hardened scraping claws I thought he'd keep my rock clean till I caught him today pick up a whole clump of feather caulerpa out of the sand and munch it down while hanging off the rock - amazing! I'll keep the macro farm going on the side and he'll get a constant supply - might swap him out for a Ruby Crab and or Purple Porcelain though?

Can't wait to see this hitchhiker pom-pom molt again - he's only 1/4" right now so we'll see how he comes along - try to get photos when he ventures out.

WOW. Great start

I like it, can you move the glass thermometer & what appears to be a temp probe to the back compartment? Get it out of the display? Nice use of macro though to hide the loc line.

If the ruby crabs are the same as red mithrix (I think they are) then they will do the same as emeralds. Sadly I had to get rid of my emerald because he did more than just clean my rock.

That is a crazy looking tank your got there. I love it! +1 to moving the probe to the back chamber.

Nice!

Your wish is my command
Much in this tank is just temporary so expect alot of changes - I appreciate any/all suggestions.

Here's my actual goal for the loc-line - I have a zoa covered loc-line output I want to add and hope to add more colorful zoa's up the entire loc-line as my rock gets settled.

Looks GREAT!

(FYI - going price for Sexies in most people thread is $10/ea.)

Probably cause they aren't counting shipping - I got mine from the LFS who is charging me shipping+ but I got to pick them out and no more bag stress for them :-)

Speaking of stress the first night with the new Green Clown Goby (hereafter known as GCG until he's named) he must have jumped over the divider wall or went over the overflow and I hate to fish him out of the pump section of the sump:-(
I decided to make a screen hoping it wouldn't happen again and found that a $1.99 black fish net cut to fit works perfectly - I used the seam on the top with one side of the net on the front and a slightly longer portion of the net on the back of the overflow - works great but probably will need to be cleaned during water changes. Also took some clear plastic and laid it ontop of across the sump acrylic so nothing can jump back again.
Fun.

I've named him Fred after the Flintsones' open window homes

great pic`s
love fred!!!!
tagging along to this one
looking forward too this tank
brill!!

Fred is lucky to have a nice home like that. Benny (the blenny) has a ledge he hangs out on and thats it. It looks ghetto but he looks happy lol.

Great job on the DIY fish saver. I lost a shrimp to my overflow without one. Glas to see Fred survived.

nice tank!



its a great start, but im too OCD for all that clutter in there.....

yeah - it's a hospital tank right now for those electric green mushrooms - and cause it's only a week old soon the macro algae will be covered with micro algae and will have to pruned back -
BEFORE anyone talks about cycling or such - the chaeto, rocks, and sand were cycling in a 3gal container for a month with a dead snail to get things going.

v2 of this tank could be fun - just hope to get some growth within 6mths

That orange on the rock is of the chizzain

Looks fantastic so far

Thanks!
Once all three sexy shrimp decided to jump in the QT cup and walk all over my healing mushrooms I decided hospice time is done. Pulled that and all hardware and added a few zoa's. I'll add more once I'm sure the params are stable. Most interesting part is the delicate macroalgae thats till not identified/ not the red or green grape- had a small ring of brown algae that it's outgrown from the cycling - you can read it like an ice core.
Aparently my tank is from the late Palyozoaic era

FTS 10/5/09

hahah im liking fred man! haha looks great!

Fred is getting more comfortable as he's more often perching on his rooftop lounge - often on his mushroom couch just sightseeing.

I'll try to catch him but my fast camera is in Europe with the wife so all I have is my iPhone - slow photos - best closeup I could get is my sexy and mini-blue hermit stealing Fred's food - boohoo

sweet pico! sexy shrimp are so much fun to watch

October 18th -
Green Clown Goby is more confident now and spending more time on his rooftop lounge with his mushroom couch (which gets feed now as well) and amongst his Halimedia stalks - he love them as much as Acropora.

- fished 2 sexy shrimp from the fuge
-added paly/zoa, macros, and more CUC
-removed some Caulerpa verticillata that went sexual after leaving the lights on for too long
-water change and evacuate the detritus from the fuge area
- found some red cynobacteria back there so more cleanings and less feedings
- need to get tank on timer with all the caulerpa in there
- more corralimorphs coming in later this week

SG 1.024
Temp 77.5
PH 8.3
Calcium - still need to test

FTS 10/18/09 -notice Fred hanging out among the Halimeda?

i want some of those palys in the lower left....

theyre dead SEXY!@

I'm not such a fan - under the PC maybe they'll fade to blue but they have alot of brown in them still - trying to work the blue/purple against the nuclear greens beside them and the orange paly's going in soon.

Here's my healing Paly's swallowing pellets whole y'all



And a hitchhicker red macro (Gracilaria) that's gonna take off

Those paly's eating is crazy! Do you dose anything for your macros? Like Fe?

nom nom nom...I feed my palys and zoas mysis and cyclopeeze
I am gonna try pellets!!

Thats crazy! I dont feed my palys and zoas anything but phytofeast and they do great. Then again if I fed them anything else my nitrates would probly spike like my other tank lol.

Haha dang that halimeda turned into a forest. Mine has taken off too. I see two or three new buds every day.

Nice life on those rocks!

Yeah - understatement looking back at those first photos - the brown Dictyota is getting a 2nd removal along with a thinning of the Halimeda this week while the red algae up front got cut and thrown in the fuge last night
Picked out some nice pico rocks for ledges to move the Zoa's/Paly's up on to.
Actually trying to mix similar pattern but contrasting colors together so FruitLoops next to Eagle Eyes, green mouth PE's next to green skirted PE's, and Fire & Ice near their opposite... good luck to me.
Click to view attachmentClick to view attachment

BTW - Botryocladia is by far the easiest red macro to keep in check

Check out the gracilaria in my tank. It grows incredibly fast. I'm doing round two of trimming this weekend.

!!!!MACRO MONDAY!!!
Here's "Thor" fighting the "Green Monster" for a piece of Rod's food - little does he know that I saw a cousin of this discosoma today that was 6"+ yeah he can eat what ever he wants!



and here's "Fujiya"(Miyagi not shown) after he's had his butt glued to a small piece of rumble - sounds mean but he's happy to stay put now

lol just like the bottom line in my sig

Nice pics BTW

fun little movie of pom-pom xenia pulsing

http://web.mac.com/cmalone/reef/xenia/xenia.mov

More pix!

Nice!

What kind of pellets are they that the zoas are eating, that is pretty cool.

Hikari Marine S
now that I have a juv clown in there they get what falls- nothing better then a bed of palys to catch left over food pellets!!!

final 3/15/2010 FTS:


Selection shots-

'

Why would you use 2 pictures of things that died for judging?

A- I'm overbudget so there shall be no judging
B- those are my fav shots
C- education - put an ATO on your pico and have an empty QT tank nearby

Just asking, Didn't realize you got DQ'd