danny..I think a great to way celebrate finals being over is to bring some frags over to my house...sounds like fun huh?

Do any of you kids want to go to John's on Sat? I heard he just got a bunch of nice frags in and he is having a big sale on Sat...(not that we dont like aqualife)

Lemme know.

I'm gone all Saturday, I have no room in my tank, and I have no money... which is why free frags kick so much ass. Got another couple cool ones, and my tank is stuffed: 1"x2" neon green M. cap., and a very cool Tricolor A. valida (white/purple/neon-green).

Despite the fact that my tank is WAY stuffed, I still have a guaranteed Cali blue tort frag coming in the next month or two. I also really have a craving for a really bright colored milli frag, ya know, a nice green, yellow, pink, or blue one. something like any of these:






(hint, hint... if anyone has a beautiful milli they want to frag for me, or knows of a place to get one for a decent price... let me know... nod, nod... wink, wink)

Jared

well my blue milli WAS cool ha ha, that clown goby ###ed off alot of stuff so i had to ditch it

WOOT! I got the green milli I was looking for... $20 at Your Reef... minus 25% off. Wow... what a deal! John kick's ass (www.yourreef.com).

Want pictures? Patience grasshoppa.

Jared

FTS please.

OK, some quick FTS. Sorry about the micro-bubbles... They come and go, but will be gone for good when I get the filter sock installed, and reorganize the sump in the next couple weeks. Until then, they are a slight annoyance, but nothing more.

Oh, and the colors are better than they look (even when they look pretty good)... I'm still trying to get my camera skillz down, and I hope to figure out how to use The Gimp image editor over this holiday break.

front


right side


left diagonal


Jared

WINNER WINNER WINNER YAY 05' WINNER

WOW! Awesome tank! Thats the best 2.5g tank that ive seen in the contest so far!

WOW....i had no idea you had so much SPS in it already...cant wait to see the growth form hear on out......anyway...the tank is looking really good....cant wait to see the end result...
-josh

ohh yeah i forgot to say...i LOVE that snail w/ the orangish-redish pinkish shell

thanks all!

looks good, dude.

wow jared...it looks great...I picked up a bunch of frags from John yesterday also.

That's a lot of frags! I don't envy you the task of keeping the warfare under control when they all grow together.

It's looking really great though.

Can you post a shot of the other tank too? I'm keen to know how the algae is coming along.

Best regards

Ann

quick update: my Christmas cheer av is gone, and has been replaced by another symbol of '05 dominance over '04.

Added filter sock, which greatly reduced detritus buildup in the sump.

I added a bright red Trimma goby... he's cool, but not very bright. he got sucked into the overflow chamber hours after being added to the tank... I made a little overflow cover thing out of needle-point mesh, and he's contained int he tank again. he loves' cyclop-eze.

Oh, and on a sad note, the neon green cap and the neon orange cap have bleached out, and the couple of M. dig. frags I got in there don't look great either, while all the rest of the coral looks fine... not sure about it... a water change this weekend will hopefully clear things up.

Jared

IT"S OVER THE WINNER IS: JMORRIS!!!!!! GO '05!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I also have to agree I think we found a winner! Awesome tank...Tigah better come up with a good counter plan!

Whoa... packed!

Thanks everyone! I hope I can give some of the older/more popular members a run for their money. I don't just want this to be a frag tank either, I want to see natural healthy growth and coloration... which is what I have seen for the most part, excluding the damage done by stupid errors on my part (see below). i think this tank will turn out really great by the end of the contest. And give it another year... wow, I can't wait to see it by then!

I figured out what caused the monti bleaching, and probably the death of a blue stag... I did a water change without paying attention to the temp of the new water, and dropped the temp by 4 degrees in a few seconds... oops. Well, live and learn. And hey, there is always something positive to be gleaned from such a situation: I got a replacement orange cap, the dead blue stag made room for the Cali blue tort I'm getting on Sat, and the rest of the monties are looking a little better every day.

I also just realized that by skimming as wet and as much as I am, I'm loosing salt a little faster than anticipated, so I'm adding a little more salt to my ATO water than I had been (a mix of Epsom salts and Reef Crystals, 1 Tbsp each to 2 gallons).

The Chip's acro frag experienced some STN a while back (before the WC mistake), and I had to break off the branch that had the death, and seal the break with superglue. The one little branch that was left has already almost completely re-encrusted over the break point, and is showing good growth and color in general.

Oh, and I also got a cool purple encrusting monti frag today. New Pics in the next week or so.

Jared

What brand of superglue? BTW, where did you order your lighting supplies? I want to look into doing something like this in the future (giving you credit, of course).

OFFICIAL PICO CONTEST NEWS

New Task... Read about it here...
http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=75621

YOU MUST COMPLETE THE TASK!

Wheeww! I was getting worried Gil had forgotten about the contest.

Anyway, all my corals are looking better now, and my check-in is forthcoming (tomorrow hopefully?).

For now, here's a stock and equipment list:

The identification of all specimens below was done to the best of my ability using multiple published and online resources. At the very least, All IDs should be accurate to the Genus.

SPS tank

Fish
1 – Eviotea sp. Goby, red and white w/ blue eye markings
2 – Trimma sp. Goby, solid red

Inverts
3 – orange turbo snails
1 – astrea snail
2 – tricolor (dwarf blue legged) hermit crabs

Corals
1 – Acropora sp., neon yellow w/ neon green tips and polyps
1 – Acropora sp., bluish-purple w/ blue polyps
1 – Acropora sp., “Chip’s Acro”
1 – Acropora sp., (stag) blue/purple
1 – Acropora sp, gold/green w/ purple tips and brown polyps
1 – Acropora millipora, green/yellow
1 – Acropora sp., brown w/ yellow polyps
2 – Acropora valida, "tricolor" (cream/purple/green with yellow polyps)
1 – Montipora capricornis, brown/lavender
1 – Montipora capricornis, orange
2 – Montipora digitata, green w/ orange polyps
1 – Montipora digitata, purple
2 – Montipora sp., encrusting, green
1 – Montipora sp., encrusting, purple
1 – Pociloporra sp., pink with green polyps
1 – Pseudopterogorgia bipinnata (possibly Muriceopsis flavida), purple plume gorgonian
2 – Seriatopora hystrix, pink birdsnest
1 – Stylophora pistillata, pink

Other
Cladophora prolifera

Refugium

Inverts
1 – astrea snail
numerous bristle worms, bivalves, tunicates, and other hitchhikers

Macro Algae
Ulva lactuca
Caulerpa scalpelliformis (possibly C. serrulata)
Padina pavonica
Gracilaria sp.
Scinaia sp.
Halimeda sp.
Chaetomorpha aerea
Dictoyta sp.
Avrainvillea sp.

Equipment

2.5 gallon 8"x8"x9" main tank, and matching refugium, with about 7 lbs LR between them. The main tank has a 4" by 4" external overflow tower which uses a 1" drain and a Hoffer Gurgle Buster standpipe to drain into the 2.5 gallon mini-bow sump The sump holds an additional 3-5 lbs LR, a bag of purigen, an iceprobe chiller, a 100w AGA heater, and a slightly modified Lee's air-driven counter-current skimmer.

Lighting on the main tank is accomplished by a 70 watt MH retrofit (Regent Flood light DIY) powered by a WPI electric ballast; I'm using a 14K Astralux bulb. The refugium is lit by a 27 watt DIY PC retrofit wit ha 6700K Lights of America bulb.

A Mag 5 return pump runs through a 1/2" CPVC horizontal perimeter manifold on the main tank, and a 1/2" CPVC "T" manifold in the back of the refugium. I plan on upgrading to a Mag 7 for the return soon. A Mag 3.5 CLS pump is used for additional circulation, and runs through a SCWD and out 2 1/2" loc-lines each terminating in 1/2" Y fittings.

There's a total of 6 fans on the system (one on the iceprobe, two in the MH canopy, one in the PC refugium canopy, one blowing over the CLS pump, and another blowing over the main return pump). I will soon be adding another fan to blow across the surface of the water in the sump.

The ATO is a 2 gallon reservoir with an aqualifter pump connected to a float switch. I go through 2 gallons top off water every 4 days or so.

And.... There you have it.

Jared

dang, j, you're making me feel real bad about my posting "zoo-blue, zoo-red, zoo-orange/green, etc." for my thread.

sounds great though! get some shots of the fish though. i love the trimma.

you dosing kalk? i only saw rc and epsom, plus your regular changes. i gotta think the stonys are sucking it dry.

I keep my Ca around 440 and my kH around 8 with Zen B-ionic dosing.

I still have to improve pic quality so you can all apreciate how these fish and frags really look.

Eviotea Goby


Trimma Goby


Acropora sp, gold/green w/ purple tips and brown polyps


Acropora millipora, green/yellow


Acropora sp, brwon w/ yellow polyps


Montipora capricornis, orange/pink


Montipora sp., encrusting, green


Montipora sp., encrusting, purple


Pociloporra sp., pink/green with green/brown polyps


Pseudopterogorgia bipinnata (possibly Muriceopsis flavida), purple plume gorgonian


Seriatopora hystrix, pink birdsnest
[img]http://gallery.pethobbyist.com/data/10404DSC01308.JPG[/img]

Enjoy!
Jared

So, did you all like the aquascaping? I sure did... why am I using past tense? Because I had to stick my big, clumbsy, drunk-a$$ hands in there last night when I got home from a party with a couple frags from the host's tank, and try to get them into place. What happened next is just about the worst thing that could have happened to the tank. I pushed the single perfectly shaped piece of rock a little too hard, and broke off the entrie archway/cave behind the sytylophora. all the corals positioned and/or mounted on and around it went toppling, many of them ended up broken also. I spent the next two hours cursing at myself and trying to fix it, butthere is no fixing it. That rock had been shaped by thousands of years of water, burowing animals, and coral growth... and I destroyed it's beatifuly sculpted form in a fraction of a second with one thoughtless movement of my hand.

So much for zen, dumba$$!

sorry to hear that, j.

the tank didn't crack or anything, right? maybe you'll like the new aquascape better. <sigh>

ahh im sure it is worse than it sounds, youve got a great tank goin there

No updates, as there's nothing but bad news to give. The Pink stylophora frag that has been bleached since I got it, finally died. Everything was looking OK, then I did a water change last night (all parameters adjusted to be the same as the old water- pH, Alk, Salinity, Ca, Temp) and this morning, everything looks like crap... we'll see what pulls through. Please wish me luck, even if your my competitor, because if this tank is a total crash, my wife may kill me.

Jared

Noooooo! Sorry to hear of the your tank troubles. How big of a water change did you do? Really big changes are always stressful no matter how careful you are to match the SG etc. I hope all the other corals make it. You have such a great system going on there.

How's the algae tank doing these days? Nothing has crashed in there has it? I'm wondering if perhaps one of the algae species is releasing toxins.

Fingers crossed that all goes well for you.

Best regards

Ann

Oh no! I am so sorry. That's terrible! Hang in there, don't give up hope. I have my fingers crossed for you!!

The WC was about 2 gallons, so pretty big, but not even 50%... and like I said, all parameters were matched carefully... I have a feeling it is all allelopathy/competition, despite skimming and chemical filtration... who knows... maybe I'm even keeping the tank TOO clean (skimmer, purigen, and refugium, on a BB tank with TONS of water flow and frequent WCs... that's probably pretty unlikely too though, since I'm feeding and adding amino acids regularly. I may have to restock quite a bit, but I wouldn't yet call it a total disqualifying crash.

The algae tank is doing well (lots of tunicates and bivalve hitchhikers).

Cheers,
Jared

You're probably right, with small volumes of water it's hard to get a handle on the chemical warfare thing. When I added the Seriatopora I did lots of water changes and agressively filtered the water over carbon and polyfilters but none of it was enough. It was easy for me I just had to remove the SPS to solve it, not sure how you are going to sort out your tank since it's all SPS. Perhaps just stick with all Montipora or all Acropora?

I'm dying to see pics of your planted tank, especially if it's got lots of tunicates etc. Any chance of some pics? Are you dosing anything for the filter feeders?

Best regards

Ann

Algae tank still looks good... the sps tank, however, is completely devoid of all coral life... it has officially crashed.

I believe I'm out of the runing. It's a sad day.

Jared

man thats horrible. i'm very sorry to hear about ur tank. did all of the corals just die after the water change? man, i feel for ya.

Sorry to hear about this.

Best regards

Ann

sorry to hear that, j. i thought it was just the one seria frag. everything popped or just the sps? (i thought you had some other corals)

have you checked PO4 levels? that did in lunchbucket's 20H monster tank. it crept up on him (nothing obvious) and before he could check, all his colonies went kaput.

can you still stay in with something else? obviously, the mrs. will be looking over your shoulder on $$$ but maybe it could still fly with another format, i.e. soft coral, species, or algae (i'm serious, i've seen some very beautiful algae tanks on shorgy for instance).

sorry to hear about your stony crash though.

All my frags are dead. All the chemistry says there's no reason for them to be dead: PO4 is 0, NO3 is zero, Ca is 440, Alk is 7.5, pH is 8.2, Salinity is 1.026 (with a calibrated refratometer), temp is 79-81F.

I'm confused and frustrated.

Wow that sux lots! So sorry for you. I can't imagine loosing my reef and not knowing why.

NOOOOOO!!!



This is awful man. I am truely dissapointed to hear this.

Well, contest or not... this is still an awsome set up. Re-group and get things going again when you can. I'm still looking forward to what this will look like when it's grown out.

man that is a bummer...I have frags for you (lots) if you want to give er' a go again...Im really sorry to hear about the crash...man you had had this competition competely wrapped up.

i just saw your official resignation, j. sorry about that, just bad luck. maybe you can re-do the setup for the next contest?

did you ever figure out what happened to cause the quick bleaching? it wasn't rtn, was it? temperature, po4, contaminant, parasite, etc.?

is there any possibility of copper or some other metal contamination?

oh man.. mag 5, mag 3.5 for addition flow..

MH..
this PICO is loaded =D

The death was caused by allelopathy as far as I can tell. I had well over 20 varieties of corals in the tank, and their competition was just too much. That is the best explanation I can come up with. By the way, three corals came through: two unidentified acros, and one purple plume gorgonian.

Thanks for the sentiments folks,
Jared