New babies always take time away from reefing, what's up with that anyway?

Thank you all. Ya know, my new babies do tend to take a little time away from reefing but then as soon as they're old enough they "help" with all sorts of things on my tanks that I do/don't want them to. . I'm sure this baby will be just as into the critters as my first two are.

Bill

"help"

do this faster....

Yeah really, Psh...
Haha! Great job!
I'll be following

Awesomeness is forthcoming Pismo, you have my word.

Bill

"Thou shalt not doubt the word of Bill!"

- Lost commandment.

gonna borrow that for a bit

No kidding, why can't I get my wife to buy in on that one?

Bill

So for those of you out there who have Acro experience what species/types would you recommend for this particular project? I am by no means an acro expert and have had success with the species but limited experience in their diversity. I know now a tabling type just because of my tiny space but is there any species you can think of that would be better suited to this? I'm working in a small space with good light and relatively high flow. I would think shorter tentacles and a tolerance for the presence of other acros is important. A high growth rate is nice in a "normal" tank but again I have limited space so it's not really a necessity. I can trim as necessary if the tips go out of the water or whatever but that's major best-case scenario. I'm still sticking with encrusting montis for the back wall at this time although cyphastrea interest me more and more. I simply lack experience with that particular coral. Color-wise I'm not particularly picky at the moment. I have 2 types of green acro in the 75, a miami orchid with nice purple and an unknown with some hints of blue so I'm up for whatever in this tank. It's not so much about keeping all-ORA or LE craziness as it is positive growth and a natural look in a small space.

Bill

4000+ views, thanks for tagging along everyone.

Any ideas out there on acro species?

Bill

Getting some type of "dwarf" or "bonsai" frag would be nice.

I had been looking at torts and things like that. I've seen lots of reviews from people that the ORA Red Planet encrusts like crazy before growing upward but that's because it's actually a tabling type of coral. Thought that would look really neat if it encrusted over a good portion of the bottom of the tank but don't want to limit its growth since it's a tabler. I like stags as well but I was worried since they tend to grow straight up and don't branch all that often. I've only got a few inches of vertical space to work with. Maybe something like a pink birdsnest? That's more of the growth form I was looking for. Clustered growth with lots of branches. Vertical growth will inevitably happen but I'd like to be able to fill the space as evenly as possible instead of just 4 branches sticking up from the bottom. Would be kinda neat to see how a stag-type responds to this environment though. I'm sure they'd grow the few inches vertically rather quickly and then to watch the branching growth would be interesting.

Bill

Go deepwater. I have a Purple Bonsai under LEDs that looks great.

ooooo! That looks like a cheap local source for a float switch. I wish I had seen that before I bought the $40 kit. I didn't want to ship a $2 switch and couldn't find them anywhere.

I think a strawberry fields acro would do nice in your tank.

Thanks for the input everyone.

Bill

5000+ views! Thank you for tagging along on the new project everyone. I will stop being lame and post updates as soon as possible. Baby leave is over so back to working like a real person again.

Bill

I went ahead and entered my little tank here in the Pico Methodology contest. I think it's a very interesting concept for a contest and can't wait to see how it all plays out. It looks like there are a good number of participants so it should be alot of fun. The basic jist of it is that I'll have until August to get this tank up, running and stocked and then I have to leave it alone to see how well my system does. A good test of the design aspects of different types of picos and nice to see something long-term so a project doesn't get shelved after it loses "newness". I myself have been very slow to get this project going because of all sorts of other issues but I hope to change that and participate fully in the contest. Should be alot of fun.

Bill

FTS

The shot at the very top of the first post is what the tank looks like currently. I haven't stocked anything yet. I did pick up two acro pieces at our local club's frag swap recently but they're living in my 75 at the moment. One is a deepwater type as I've heard they look sweet under LED's and the other is a tort of some kind that is solid purple at the moment. I'm sure it will end up like most tri-colors with some green in there as it encrusts and whatnot but it's pretty neat looking right now since it's all purple.

Bill

6000+ views. Thank you all for checking out the project and good luck to all those in the Pico Methodology contest.

Bill

Glad you got into the Contest Bill -- With 33 contestants it should be interesting.


Charles

I think a stag starting at the bottom and growing all the way to the water line would add alot of character.

c_k - Thanks, I completely agree. Can't wait to see how all of these different ideas and tank-types turn out.

Nemo - I do want at least one stag-type for that straight shot vertical growth. I think it will be very easy to show growth through pictures with a coral of that type and I'm also very interested to see what happens when the coral hits the surface. I want to see the reaction. Does it thicken up? Does it branch out? Will the branched growth be nearly as quick as the vertical growth? Will it simply encrust and then push up another vertical branch? It should be really interesting. I'm thinking probably four pieces on the floor of the tank right now with two, maybe three encrusters on the back wall. I'm leaning toward small chips of monti for the encrusters but I may have to throw a cyphastrea in there for good measure. I want to have the plumbing running for a bit before I decide on the encrusters though as it looks to be fairly turbulent so I want the coral type to fit the flow it's going to catch. Depending on the hidey holes and whatnot available I would also love to see an acro crab make it's home in this tank. That will likely come farther down the line and closer to the August deadline so as to have good growth for it to hide in and feel comfortable. Don't want it wandering around four little sticks and some snail shells.

Bill