Well here goes, this is my first reef tank and I was going to do it anyway, so why not enter the contest for fun and to help get tips/advice on my new endeavour.

My Specs:
2.5 AGA
AC30
Satellite 18W
Hydor 25W
Catalina Water

Great start. Go slow.

Thanks minimalist,

Here's a pic of the tank set-up with LR and sand. I got both from a LFS and I'm pretty pleased with it. Had a tiny bristle star as soon as I put in the rock, but haven't see it since I put in the sand. All my params read 0, SG 1.023, PH 8.0, temp 79 range, no major fluctuation issues as of yet.

My only issues are that I can't set flow high on the filter, otherwise I get a spot where all the sand blows away.

I wish you luck as I would to any competition. But I must crush you as I am bitter towards Virgina Tech ('01 grad)

All I can say is Hokie Hokie Hokie High Tech Tech VPI, sorry, Frog, good luck to you as well.

Here's an update:

Last reading all zero except very slight (unreadable) nitrite, pH 8.2, SG 1.023

Starting to get just a little bit of debris off the rock, no other issues....waiting patiently for the clean-up crew time.

Nice patience. It will pay off.

Thanks,
The patience thing is the hardest test for me, I'm always impulsive (kind of learned that lesson when I had to tear down and redo my planted FW because I rushed the set-up)!
I think I might run into an evap problem, I think the tank is in a bad spot and the ceiling fan and AC vent are blowing across it making it evap really fast, have to rig up an ATO of some fashion...

OK, rearranged the LR today, just didn't like the old setup, much better now IMO, will have pics to post soon. Also spotted a little hitchhiker, I couldn't get a positive ID, nor get the camera in the right spot for a shot, it appeared to be a little leg, possibly of a star, it was orange and bristley, not like the littel bristle star I first saw though, that one was white/colorless, this was def. orange, I'll keep my eye out for it again. Temp and params still all good, starting to get more die off from the rock.

Here's my beginners question for those who feel like helping a guy out....the white detritus/die off from the rock, should I use a brush to clean it off to help it get filtered out or leave it for the clean-up crew?

Thanks for everyone's inputs for this new endeavour of mine, so far it's been a blast, well, all 3 days of it!

Good Luck

thx,

No new updates, one reading showing for nitrates at 0.25ppm

New LR aquascaping, much nicer


I also set up my gravity drip ATO so I'm on my way

Pics?

And I apologise that I've been kicked out of Stock and can no longer be the one to take you down.

Pics for the ATO you mean? I will get them tonight, and sorry to hear about getting booted, that sucks!

you got the pics up just as I posted that. so it's just a timing problem.

looks good though.

You're off to a good start.

Best regards

Ann

Thanks a lot, this SW reef thing is all brand spankin new to me so I'm taking it slowly, a whole lot different than the FW world I'm used to!

Hooke up my ATO, simple gravity drip system



Also added an astraea, a nassarius, and the dealer threw in a bumble bee that I didn't plan on, I'll keep it unless it gets rowdy

Shouldn't you be watching VT lose to Miami instead of posting pico updates? Just kidding...

AAAAHHHHH yeah I watched it painfully!!!! I told my wife to turn it off or I was going to break something! LOL

Can you post a closeup of what you used to go through the plastic bottle?

Thanks, and good luck!

rjg, no problem, I will get a pic, but basically I bought a 6' roll of airline tubing and it came with 4 little plastic connectors to link lines together. I put a hole in the bottom of the bottle, attached one end of the connector to the airline, the other end I put in the hole and siliconed it.

Woooo, my first coral!! "Enchanted?" zoos, green centers kinda purplish edges. Pics are taken just not loaded yet, will post them. They opened up pretty quicly after putting them in the tank and they look great so far!!!

Pics of my first coral, zoos!!!

Nice Start. I'm liking that Gravity Driven ATO. I have the same exact shape and size zoo frag in my NC12, Love it!

hey hokie, are you in the 'burg?

Thanks, I actually had an ATO incident yesterday and had to remake it, the point where my tube connects to the bottle sprung a leak, so I got a new bottle and made a much better hole/silicon job.



Nope, grajimicated back in '03

Very nice zoos. I want to get some of those for my tank but they are all so brown and blah here.

How about a new FTS?

Best regards

Ann

Got some new coral! GSP, a shroom and trumpet coral. Also, a small pice of LR which the LFS guy thought was a shroom but I think it is a sponge...any input? It's the purple stuff on the pic with the zoos. I also have a crappy FTS.







As you can see the bad glue job on that candy cane I think I'm going to clip off a bit more from the bottom and reposition down in the front of the tank

Tank update! All is going quite well, aquired some new coral, xenia, a red shroom and what the LFS guy said was a micromussa, but it doesn't look like any of the micromussa pics I can find online?...can anyone positively ID this? I know the pic is not the best





I'm also starting to get a noticeable number of flatworms, bot the red/brown ones and the clear ones, does anyone know of any natrual method to get rid of them other than siphoning (i.e. shrimp, etc?)

What he said was a micro is actually a blastomussa.

Great tank considering it's your first!

Thats a great tank in general, i love the aquascape! I would be cool if you added some coral at the mouth of that tunnel.

Very impressive and that's a nice lil frag of Blastomussa merleti too.

Best regards

Ann

Help! I posted a thread in the coral forum but might get more attention here. Long story short, the other day I noticed the new blasto not opening right, so the next day it was still closed, I checked params, and AHHH SG down to .020, my bad with too much top off! This morning it was totally retracted into the skeleton. So, I am slowly raising SG, moved the blasto to a lower light/flow area and already after moving it only 1 hr ago I can see some flesh. But, I am also seeing strange marks on my candy cane and its looking more wrinkled than usual! Here are some pics of the black marks on the canes. If anyone has any advice please let me know...BTW, SG is now a right about .022, pH 8.2, Nitrates 0, Nitrites 0, Ammonia 0-.25? (AQ Parm test kit hard to read sometimes), temp 80

The candy cane doesn't look in too bad a shape. I can't tell what the black marks are exactly from that pic though, are they holes in the flesh or just a pigmentation change? Bring the SG back up again slowly and hopefully all will be well again.

Best regards

Ann

Thanks! The black marks don't look quite like full blown holes, they look like stretch marks actually. I have been slowly raising SG and the blasto is looking MUCH better than it was, still has room for imporvement though. Now it's just time to watch carefully and hope for the best!

That's good news. Fingers crossed that everything bounces back again.

Best regards

Ann

OFFICIAL PICO CONTEST NEWS

New Task... Read about it here...
http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=75620

YOU MUST COMPLETE THE TASK!

I'm finally getting off my lazy butt to post some new pics. A lot has changed in my tank, including the addition of some new coral, and a minor aquascape change. I am concerned about my candy canes lately. During the day only one head really opens, and very lopsided at that, the other two small ones are very barely open and sometimes a little shriveled. At night, they dont' extend their feeders like they used to. I'm wondering if the neighboring mushroom has grown to much and is stinging the polyps? The small ones when they do open keep the bottom parts of the polyp closed, the part that the mushroom is closest too. Before a week or so ago they were looking fantastic. I had to reglue the coral because it fell, so I attributed their behavior to being handled too much, but now over a week later they still aren't back to normal. I will post all the pics next and you can see them there. My little single blasto is also not opening, but my new grey candy canes are just fine along with everything else so I don't think it's a water problem. Any ideas? Also let me know what you think of the latest tank shots!

I know they aren't the best pics, sorry
New FTS


Trouble candy's



New candy's


Fire & Ice

hey bro, the tank looks great. i really like the new scape and all the coral look huge and really growing good job none the less

Yo! Thanks! I finally thought I would post the pics. I think the mushrooms are getting too huge though, they block a lot of other stuff, maybe I'll make some cream of mushroom soup?

yeah mushroom soup would be good... it could feed alot of people lol... just dont eat the zoos haha

Yeah good idea

nice growth! i can never get my shroom to grow big like that. they just pedal produce instead.

i agree, they look huge in that tank!

thanks tiny, you can trade with me, I'd rather not have them this huge!

Really, really nice looking tank. I love the big mushrooms, very healthy looking. It's interesting that you seem to have a problem with your little B. merleti, mine didn't open properly too. I took it out last week and it's looking fine again in my big tank. I wonder what the problem was, perhaps yours is stuggling for the same reason?

Best regards

Ann

Ann,
Thanks for the compliments, I was beginning to feel like my tank was not up to par. The blasto is very strange, it's been about 85% open teh past couple days, seems to have no rhyme or reason to it's behavior, oh well! I just did a good cleaning/water change so the tank is looking tip-top. I will take some pics and post new ones!

Ok, well here is my final post! I had a total blast of stupidity last week so I erased a bunch of pics off of photbucket, so all my old posts are now pictureless. I scrounged up what I could, not the best pics, but here are some photos that show a pretty good history of the tank, hope you all love it and vote for me!!

November


December


January


February (or closest to it)



March


April, taken today


My latest edition is the frogspawn in front

Even I'm surprised by the change my tank has undergone. I didn't realize until now when I put all the pics together. For my first SW tank ever I am pleased with my results. It had it's ups and downs but overall I love the tank and it definitely got me hooked. I wish I had some more room for coral but that's why they make bigger tanks Over the 6 or so months I think my biggest obstacle was a short bought of algae overgrowth and the still persistent flatworms (I still have an unused FWE that I bought but figure unless the worms are chocking coral why risk it?!) Well, now it's up to the judging. Hopefully my tank has what it takes to get some votes! Thanks to everyone on NR for helping me along in this new endeavor!

Ken

hey the tank looks really good, so much different then when i saw it in january. looks good tho...hopefully mine will look like that....maybe if you frag me some when you come you can bring some (no shipping charge) haha looks good none the less good luck bro

The tank looks great Ken! Nice colors.