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Austin's 15g Long - AI Sol, NEW FTS OCT2


AustinV90

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So I guess I should post my tank!

 

Current FTS:

 

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IMG_8670 by AustinVav, on Flickr

 

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IMG_8673 by AustinVav, on Flickr

 

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reef march 19_11 by AustinVav, on Flickr

 

Equipment:

Aquaillumination Sol Super Blue with Controller

96w T5HO fishneedit customized with 2 40mm PC fans on left side

Vortech MP10 on Reefcrest mode at 35-45%

Current Subcurrent overflow box (to hide stuff and skim surface)

50w Heater

Ecoxotic Stunner Strip Blue for moonlights

 

Filtration:

30lbs of liverock give or take

Chaeto

2 - Mangroves

 

Livestock:

Fish:

1 - Yellowtail Damsel

2 - Tank Bred False Perc Clowns

1 - Sixline Wrasse

 

Invert's

1 - Emerald Crab

1 - Porcelain Crab

4 - Hermit Crabs (1 Scarlet, 1 Unknown, Blue Legged, Green Legged)

2 - Turban Snails

2 - Nassaurius Snails (thanks Dana)

1 - Mexican Turbo (hitchiked on a coral)

1 - Strawberry Conch

2 - Maxi Mini Anemones

 

Coral:

Zoo's and Paly's = pretty colours

Duncan coral

Branching Monti

Pokerstar Monti

Red Monti (thanks Adam)

Green Hairy Mushrooms

Red Mushrooms

Flame Red Mushrooms

Random Mushrooms

Chilli Coral

Toadstool Leather

Cup Coral

Pulsing Xenia

GSP

Pocillopora - Green and Purple/Pink

Yellow Polyps

Birdsnest frag (thanks Adam)

 

 

I am a fulltime university student! I have had multiple freshwater tanks over the years and finally decided to give a reef tank a try. I have always been creeping the reef central forums for years looking at all of the huge tanks and nano's, so I decided on a 5g tank because I had one and built a false wall:

 

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Reef 7 Nov by AustinVav, on Flickr

 

Things were going good: :D

 

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Reef 20-1 Nov by AustinVav, on Flickr

 

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IMG_4414 by AustinVav, on Flickr

 

Until one day I heard a drip... For whatever reason my tank started leaking from the bottom. I had a 10g around so I just dumped everything in there while I decided what I wanted to do. :huh:

 

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IMG_0078 by AustinVav, on Flickr

 

I decided I mine as well upgrade to a larger tank. I had to factor in a lot of costs for the upgrade so I sold anything I would not be using from my old tank and other random thingamabobs! So I bought a standard 15g long from Big Als and put whatever rock and coral I had in it.

 

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IMG_0106 by AustinVav, on Flickr

 

About a month later after purchasing some rock and curing it, plus hours and hours of scaping we had this:

 

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IMG_4677 by AustinVav, on Flickr

 

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maxi mini anemone by AustinVav, on Flickr

 

Thats my reef story!

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NICE!!! Beautiful scape on the current FTS!

 

 

Thanks a lot! I have been following your tank by the way.

 

The scape is far from done, still needs some tweaks. I make changes once a week. I try not to piss of my corals to much.

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DimePieceReef

Yo dude that's some bomb ass scaping! You managed to make the rock look like two coral trees Some times good things come out of a tragedy. Awesome job and good luck with everything!

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Yo dude that's some bomb ass scaping! You managed to make the rock look like two coral trees Some times good things come out of a tragedy. Awesome job and good luck with everything!

 

 

Thanks a lot! I spent a good 8 hours with superglue and epoxie to get the rocks together like that. Aquascaping is hard when you see so many amazing tanks on here.

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I like it. I've always been something of a fan of the whole two island idea, but it seems like most of them just become two piles of rock with sand in-between them. Yours though is interesting, especially because you've made it work in the long tank. I love the fact that you put in the overhangs along with the little center island.

 

Do you have any specific plans of where your going from here?

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Great job on that aquascape! You're making me want to change mine. :lol:

 

 

Are you kidding! I was going to try and replicate your 15g. I have been creeping on this forum for years before ever posting.

 

Makes me shed a tear that my scape wants to be replicated

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I like it. I've always been something of a fan of the whole two island idea, but it seems like most of them just become two piles of rock with sand in-between them. Yours though is interesting, especially because you've made it work in the long tank. I love the fact that you put in the overhangs along with the little center island.

 

Do you have any specific plans of where your going from here?

 

The picture does not show it but there is two pathways through the center so my conch can get cleaning done and the back is all empty.

 

I am actually going to be removing that little island with the monti on it and epoxing a small rock island together out of rubble. That way I have more space in the front and can really put it in the center without making it an eye sore.

 

There is going to be a maxi mini dominated left side on another rubble piece I am making, it keeps them happy and will stop them from moving!

 

Overall I will be lifting a lot of the rocks that are on the sand bed to create more caves and stuff especiall under the overhang on the left.

 

Good luck with you pico, I can't wait to see it wet.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Wow man your tank looks great. As others have said the scape looks awesome. I'm interested to see what you do with the scape. Do you have a pic of the paly's you said might be dolphins or whatever lol.

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Wow man your tank looks great. As others have said the scape looks awesome. I'm interested to see what you do with the scape. Do you have a pic of the paly's you said might be dolphins or whatever lol.

 

I will try to take a closeup for you!

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  • 1 month later...

Wow, it's been said many times already but I love your aquascape. I'm keeping track of your tank!

 

How's the bioload with two clowns in your tank?

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  • 2 months later...
  • 1 month later...

I will post an update once I do some house keeping on the tank.

 

Wow, it's been said many times already but I love your aquascape. I'm keeping track of your tank!

 

How's the bioload with two clowns in your tank?

 

 

Honestly I believe in water changes and doing things slowly so having a little more bioload in a tank is ok if you keep up with the maintenance. Unfortunately one of the clowns just disappeared. I believe it was eaten by one of my large maxi-mini's since she was fairly small.

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  • 2 weeks later...

That Ai is sexy, I need to get my 40 up and going so I can get my LEDs going too :)

 

Your coral choice is excellent, everything really goes together.

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