12in Rimless Eye-candy Cube

[jjjo]

I have recently been bitten by the acan bug, and have decided to setup a tank dedicated to only acans (and a few other corals that I would like to hang onto).

 

The tank itself is a 20 gallon rimless aquarium. I drilled a 1.5 inch hole in the top right corner to fit an overflow box. The overflow box is a modded eshopps (Spelling) HOB overflow box. I used only the interior black box (2.5 inches wide, x 8 inches long x 5 inches high -ish). The box has a hole drilled in the back to line up with the hole I drilled into the tank... allowing it to sit flush in the top right corner of the tank. Inside the box, I built baffles around the hole, and put a lid over the baffles for the water to help quiet things. The water goes through the teeth, over the lid, to the outer edges of the box, down - underneath the baffles, and then finally through the bulkhead. By the time the water reaches the bulkhead, most of the air is gone, so the water flow is nearly silent I originally had a kit built by "glass holes" however, due to my stupidity, I drilled the tank using the template that comes with the kit... not knowing the template was made for a rimmed aquarium (so in result, the aquarium was drilled too high up).

 

 

Lighting will be a 24 inch tek light... if I can find one. I have a 4 bulb 36 inch tek (practically brand new) That I could trade for a 24 incher (hint hint)

 

The sump is just a basic 10 gallon aquarium with a skimmer, filter sock, heater, and soon, a GFO reactor and a carbon reactor. The return pump is a mag 700... which will provide hopefully all of the flow necessary to keep acans alive (which dont need too much flow... and dont appreciate high flow at all).

 

The tank will be home to mainly only acanthastrea lordhowensis, of all colors. from the basic red or green ones, all the way to the highest end rainbows. I will be using black fine grained sand to highlight the color.

 

Anyway, here are a few teaser pics, until I get this tank rolling.

 

The tank (mind the temporary light)

 

Some of the acans going into the tank

 

 

And here are some previous tanks:

The 18 gallon DIY

 

the 30br

 

the 20h

 

 

Thanks for looking,

jjjo

[animalmaster6]

This is going to SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!

[jjjo]

Thanks.

 

Most of the corals have been moved into the new tank. (there is my old live rock in the sump, so I'm not overly worried about a cycle.

 

 

I plan on just keeping rolling hills of acans on the bottom (once I sell or trade everything else) and having fish in the water column.

[animalmaster6]

Looks Awesome.

 

I love that bright red Flower Anemone.

[spanko]

Tagging along. Strange but interesting idea. What fish do you think you will add?

[Weetabix7]

So you will have little to no rock in the display?

 

Beautiful corals and nem.

[jjjo]

I ended up only using a little bit of rock. I plan on covering all the rocks, and most of the sandbed with acans. Also replaced the black sand (after hearing bad stories about it) with white sand.

 

Here is where things are so far. The rock nems were moved to another tank, with many of my other corals. (since i only want acans in this tank)

 

teaser

 

-dan

[Arkayology]

Sweet tank. When those things grow out, it is going to be awesome!

[Nemo Niblets]

The lower the light, and the bluer the light, the nicer they will get. Just to help out if you didn't already know

[boosted chemist]

I dig your acans.

[Giga]

I dig your acans.

 

 

 

Thats' what she said

[RyanR1212]

wow sweet acans man! i just got one of those acan maximas (what some people call them) pretty much a huge single acan polyp about 2" diameter... its pretty cool

[nikeSB]

i really like the white and orange ones. lookin good

[Paleoreef103]

Those are some awesome acans. Why aren't you cutting the the frag disks though? Are you worried they will grow funny off the edges?

[jjjo]

Those are some awesome acans. Why aren't you cutting the the frag disks though? Are you worried they will grow funny off the edges?

 

Most of my acans came right from the colonies seen here:

 

Most of the acan colonies on the left were grown from frags about the same size as mine. In a few years, all of my acans should be nice round colonies like the big red one I have... and the disk will be invisible.

 

the disks are also tiered, meaning there is a smaller disk on top of a larger disk, on most of my acan frags, so they will grow nicely. too many times, I see tiny acan frags on one large disk, and they just grow into a ball, and dont really encrust well to the disk.

 

 

 

i really like the white and orange ones. lookin good

 

Thanks!!!

 

wow sweet acans man! i just got one of those acan maximas (what some people call them) pretty much a huge single acan polyp about 2" diameter... its pretty cool

 

That's awesome! Do you have any pics?

 

I'm currently just sticking with Acanthastrea Lordhowensis acans.

 

The lower the light, and the bluer the light, the nicer they will get. Just to help out if you didn't already know

 

Yes you are correct. low light. thanks!

 

However, currently im just running a single 22k t5 lamp, and I fear it wont be good long term. so I plan on running 2 22ks, a pure actinic, and a fiji purple in a 24 inch tek light sometime in the future.

 

Sweet tank. When those things grow out, it is going to be awesome!

 

Thanks!

 

-Dan

[jjjo]

Anyway, One more tank shot from the front.

 

Colors are a bit bad due to the low amount of light on the tank.

 

(and the fact that the tank is fairly new, and looks too sterile)

 

Just to show the rockwork so far. ^^ dunno if i like it though :/

 

-dan

[animalmaster6]

Wow that's amazing!

 

Is the CliMAX Acan in there?

[jjjo]

Yeah the climax is the acan all the way to the right of the tank.

 

It's still a bit pissed off from all the new stuff (aquascaping, tank etc). It should be opened in a few days.

[Nemo Niblets]

Siiiick. I can imagine acans all over the tank, covering the entire rockwork. You always make me jealous.

 

Have you thought about trying the new Fauna Marin LPS food? Are you planning on feeding much?

http://reefbuilders.com/2010/03/19/fauna-m...lps-grow-color/

[chuilan]

Just out of curiosity....what bad things did you hear about the black sand?

 

Annie

 

 

 

I ended up only using a little bit of rock. I plan on covering all the rocks, and most of the sandbed with acans. Also replaced the black sand (after hearing bad stories about it) with white sand.

 

 

-dan

[jjjo]

Thanks for the link Nemo Niblets. I will have to read up on it

 

Hopefully there will be a 4 bulb tek light, lighting this tank up soon. the single t5 I have illuminating the tank now is sub-par at best.

 

I also am deciding whether to add a single oddball coral, such as a nuke green torch like I had in one of my previous tanks.

 

Just out of curiosity....what bad things did you hear about the black sand?

 

Annie

 

Sand rusting over time, although I have a suspicion that they used sand for "planted aquariums" which would be a substrate enriched with iron (where in a reef tank, would rust very quickly)

 

It also just got white stuff from my rocks, and detritus from fish and uneaten food VERY fast, and looked bad within 1 day. I could only imagine how bad it would look after algae got all over it etc.

 

So to save myself future headaches, I went with arag alive sand (fine grained sand).

 

-Dan

[pyronus]

This is going to look awesome.

 

I was wondering if there were any other people from Upstate on these boards. I guess I just found one, I'm right up the road in Penfield.

[animalmaster6]

Nemo that link is awesome, thanks a ton! For the 125 I actually might try that.

 

jjjo- Imo it should be a complete acan and favia tank. It would look awesome.

[bottyfish]

omgoosh those acans look really nice *drool*. With the black background those colors really stand out

[jjjo]

Update time:

 

I decided to keep much much more than just acans.... and am converting the tank to a mixed MODERN type reef aquarium.

 

The tank is lit now by a tek light:

bulbs:

blue plus ATI

reef wave purple bulb

KZ fiji purple

blue plus ATI

the coral poppage is CRAZY! Definitely no need for powerbrites. I also tested PAR readings for both the ATI blue bulbs, and the KZ fiji purp, and it should be enough light to support a mixed reef.

 

I have added a lot of different type for acans, zoas, LPS etc.

I plan on putting some high end mushrooms, a new ultra rock anemone, some blastos etc to the tank in the near future.

 

The only other drastic change, is the rockwork. I sold all of my old totoka rock, and replaced it with a single tonga branch rock... and a smaller tonga branch rubble rock.

 

Here are some FTS shots under the lighting:

 

low left

 

low right

 

high right

 

front

 

thanks for looking,

jjjo