Hey! Summer Summer! Smedric Shmiggory's - an ADA 60-F - reef ledge style!

[milk]

Here's some pics of the non photo pieces LFS had for sale -

 

The more yellowish one was supposedly a liminadia (sp?) some sort of carnatian coral I believe

 

 

 

 

some awesome blueberry gorgonians

 

[milk]

and to top it all off- you vacuumed your carpet to take these pictures!

 

I know what you mean, i keep thinking about your bulge... and how potentially dangerous a situation it could become.

but mostly i just think about your bulge

 

I hear that! : P

[jgilvey]

Wow...really nice. How high are the lights? Got a FTSWT (With Lights)?

[milk]

Wow...really nice. How high are the lights? Got a FTSWT (With Lights)?

 

 

The lights are pretty dang high, close to 3 - 4 feet off the sb - I bought the par38 off of another reefer and he wasn't sure if it was a 60 or 40 optic. I had some bleaching problems when I shocked the milliepora under a par30 in my old tank, but it started to bounce back when I raised the lights significantly.

 

Didn't want to repeat that in the new tank.. I'll gradually lower them to maybe 2.5' off the sb. I'll get a shot up later

[pismo_reefer]

On a side note, I've always loved featherdusters and I was thinking I might start collecting them so that one day the entire bottom of the tank would be a giant, fused feather duster colony, constantly opening and closing in various binary-like ways. A feather duster garden. I've heard that feather dusters can attach to SPS so I'm not sure if it would be a problem. I have 3 already (petco has them $10, plus my discount )

I really like this idea.....

[milk]

I really like this idea.....

 

The collection has begun

 

Here is a photo of how the tank looks low tide - I had to turn off the pump to double up the sump with another rubbermaid bin because I was scared about how much it was bulging.

 

 

 

 

Here's a chiton? I have a few of them that scoot around the rock - always pleased to see them.. they are almost invisible though! exact same color as the rock..

 

[siwelk]

"Low tide"

 

lol

[castiel]

haha I liked that too.

 

Chiton - you mean the stomatella?

[milk]

haha I liked that too.

 

Chiton - you mean the stomatella?

lol thanks... I forgot what those little gangstas was called - i would love love some chitons in the tank though, they look so ancient

[milk]

Lots of new happenings since last update -

 

Midwest Coral Farms had a real nice event for chicagoreefs dot com. Wonderful $10 frags that were buy 2 get 1 free. $27 mini sps colonies - 25% off all fish.. The event ended with yours truly winning a $75 gift certificate that I could use at the store. With my tank already running out of some room, I only picked up a small staghorn crab shell coral lol!

 

Also picked up an awesome new naked clown which has paired with the other, but not until it almost got ripped in half by the older and much bigger, now Mrs. Clown. Grabbed a fire shrimp ($20 was a great deal) 2 sexy shrimp and called it a night.

 

Earlier that day in a trade with a local, I also picked up a dendro head (didn't realize how bright they were) , a small unknown yellowish sps frag and a tiny carnacian coral!

 

A friend also hooked me up with some feather caulerpa which was a nice touch to the tank~

 

Everything banging right now, couldn't be happier with how its looking.. (isn't that great?)

Acclimating new things

 

 

light rig for now now lol - don't worry its drilled through and secure

 

new acro - unknown?

sexy as hell

New clown!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mpsti05]

Wow had no idea there was even a Chicago reef club! Damn and also had no

Idea about the Midwest coral farm. May have to take a trip there to pick up some frags. Seems

Like a hike from schaumburg but may be worth it.

[JayPagi]

Looks like a pretty good party going on in this last picture!

[milk]

Wow had no idea there was even a Chicago reef club! Damn and also had no

Idea about the Midwest coral farm. May have to take a trip there to pick up some frags. Seems

Like a hike from schaumburg but may be worth it.

 

 

Yeah pimp. midwest coral farm is a great store - maybe even the best one I've been to in the chicago area -

I think it would be worth it - theres some other stores in that general area (over by ohare and such) so maybe make it a rendezvous.. trill

 

Looks like a pretty good party going on in this last picture!

 

and I was the first to pass out lol

[jgilvey]

This is looking great! Thanks for the light pics...damn that looks bright even that high.

[JayPagi]

LOL

[littlelactose]

is that an aptasia i see on your rock?!

 

that midwest coral farm sounds to me like a place to take your special lady friend.

or maybe you could just shoot me a message

 

hoo ha!

 

just kidding about the aptasia though

[milk]

is this like the first time romance has began on nano reef? hot golly!

 

little lactose! any prom pics?

 

DId I mention how cute the new little clownfish is/was?

[milk]

so...... went on a very nice trip to southern california and did some hiking and climbing in joshua tree national park.. Gone for a week - entrusted someone to take care of the tank with detailed instructions..

 

I came back to my all my sps dead and bleached - one clown went carpet surfing, some dead hermits and auto top off bone dry with a very high salinity..... LOTS of bubble algae in the sump but fortunately none in the display due to my handy algae scrubber..

 

She somehow unplugged my mp10 and unplugged the lights from the timer and was turning them on manually every day (she thought they were like plants?!)

 

She also fed about have a bag of rods food - my algae scrubber was several inches thick with algae - almost filled up an entire dinner plate.. I only have a clown and a tailspot blenny and some hermits...

 

Long story short -- trust no one to take care of your tank.. or make it automated as possible. They don't understand.

[josh4107]

That really really sucks, its never fun when u have to go through something like that. Hopefully u won't give up though. And i agree with not trusting anyone with your tank. It seems like unexperienced people can make the dumbest mistakes which can wipe out a whole tank

[milk]

yeah thanks, i'm sure a lot of us can relate - its really one small change of anything will do it - its kind of crazy to think, but basically if someone isn't an experienced hobbyist, there almost guaranteed to do something wrong that will light the fire...

 

Recovering - but I think I'm going to take the tank in a different direction at this point.......

 

LOTS of anthelia!

[Reef Casa]

has the tank bounced back since the crash?

Looks like the SPS is bleaching

[milk]

has the tank bounced back since the crash?

Looks like the SPS is bleaching

 

Yeah; lots has happened since LP... That sps was originally bleached in an older tank when i shocked it from t5s to leds.Ill post some updates later.. But basically I upgraded with an ro.di unit so no more 10pm walgreens runs for distilled water lol. Have picked up some nice hairy shrooms, a new cup coral, xenia and such.

 

Also got a yellow cuc filter feeder that is pretty much a coral bc it stays in the exact same spot on the glass.

 

A small rescape with the addition of a few mo rocks. Cant really call it a bommie anymore.. More like a reef ledge

[Deckoz2302]

For future reference - obviously you already know, a controller is a must. And while your on vaca use a temporarily bigger ato resovoir. For food - take the ammount you want fed for each day, buy one of those weekly pill boxes old people use so they don't forget what they took/what day it is, and put the ammount of food in each day's box. That way all the person has to do is come over - push feed button and plop the designated ammount of food in and the controller takes care of the rest. Sorry for your luck, stay strong, do some waterchanges and don't remove your coral it will come back, give it time, light and spot feed it with a bottle, even though it looks as if nothing is there.

 

Ps - ge rid of that anthelia asap, it will take over, and it smells like mullet(bait fish) and is more ruthless then aptasia

[milk]

For future reference - obviously you already know, a controller is a must. And while your on vaca use a temporarily bigger ato resovoir. For food - take the ammount you want fed for each day, buy one of those weekly pill boxes old people use so they don't forget what they took/what day it is, and put the ammount of food in each day's box. That way all the person has to do is come over - push feed button and plop the designated ammount of food in and the controller takes care of the rest. Sorry for your luck, stay strong, do some waterchanges and don't remove your coral it will come back, give it time, light and spot feed it with a bottle, even though it looks as if nothing is there.

 

Ps - ge rid of that anthelia asap, it will take over, and it smells like mullet(bait fish) and is more ruthless then aptasia

 

 

Thanks for the advice big homie... I guess its time to invest in a controller if I plan to do anything productive away from my tank lol. Maybe I'll invest in a remote webcam too so I can monitor the tank live.. I want to invent/wish there was/ probably will be in the future... a small hi-def camera that you could 'swim' around in the tank and explore the crevices and inspect polyps close up and such - although something would probably try to eat it LOL!

 

That pill box idea is brilliant - I'll definitely incorporate that for the next adventure.

 

Water change schedule has been updated - my sump was just overflowing with algae.. it was rather amazing actually, it looked like a tide pool... but NONE in my display!

 

I've heard that about anthelia and xenia.. we'll see.. I haven't put any antehlia in just yet, but a friend of mine has a really nice tall skinny rock that is growing with anthelia.. but in such a small tank, I doubt I could keep that rock isolated...

[Deckoz2302]

Anthelia is like xenia, it easily reproduces and will end up on the other side of the aquarium, with none in between, it won't split like most coral, but instead just take over...plus your tank will smell funny...go smell some of his anthelia..I'm certain you'll change your mind lol. You could always do an idea that I had for a camera and setup a cnc style rod & actuator motors with a camera on the mount...