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Cream City Reef: New Macro Photos!


wow.such.chris

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wow.such.chris

Tank's not doin so hot. I was moving my hammer coral and it broke in half. I decided to trim some zoas and trade them in along with half the hammer. Acquired a big yellow fiji leather and some zoas. Aaaaaaaaannnnddd zoa pox...

 

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As well as some cyano...

 

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I also managed to smash my red monti cap. while trying to clean some glass.

 

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Got some methods started to fix some of these issues. A new container of phospure, new set of t-5 bulbs, and all new filters for the RODI. We'll see if that takes care of it. I think a lot of the algae issues are from old bulbs. Only time will tell but I'm not too worried. I did stir into the sand recently when doing a water change which I hadn't done in a while. I've started planning to upgrade in the next 6 months to a year.

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wow.such.chris

How do you know if you have zoa pox?

 

Im not positive I've got it but a lot of my zoas won't open right now and many have white nodules on them. Look at the top down pic and you'll see a streak of them closed down the middle, also in the closer zoa pics you can kinda see the white spots on the closed polyps. Got aome furan2 in the mail yesterday which I'll be trying out

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wow.such.chris

Good luck and thank you for answering my question!

 

No problem. I actually saw it coming into my tank on frag. I thought that it could be zoa pox but I've seen budding polyps look really similar. Kinda put it in the back of my mind until it started spreading. I figured my usual dip of CoralRX would deal with it but it turns out that isn't the case. I'll be sure to update on my success/failure.

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Hehe so I initially started reading this thread thinking it was a recent tank... Not many threads that get 2 years of updates let alone in 8 pages! And with pics!

 

Anyways, great job keeping the updates coming! It was really nice to read through without being too long or off topic.

 

Some observations of mine:

- It seems like you had a pretty tough time getting things going and keeping stuff alive - I should have written down the questions I was thinking to ask but I forgot already. It truly does happen to most people though - where for one reason or another we find ourselves with a dead fish and wondering why.

- I liked the foam wall, but I like the new scape much better. The great foam wall tanks of 5 years ago are pretty cool - but I think there's a reason they're less popular now (no room to grow out corals!).

- You made a good change when you went to the T5's. It seems like the color and growth of your corals got better.

- You got a better camera too ;)

 

Anyways, Just wanted to say I enjoyed the read it really shows some of the things one can expect when setting up a new reef tank in a nice and easy package. Do you still work at the aquarium? I will be in east WI over Thanksgiving so I might have to stop by if I get some time!!! Also I should probably start a tank thread :slap: .

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wow.such.chris

Hehe so I initially started reading this thread thinking it was a recent tank... Not many threads that get 2 years of updates let alone in 8 pages! And with pics!

 

Anyways, great job keeping the updates coming! It was really nice to read through without being too long or off topic.

 

Some observations of mine:

- It seems like you had a pretty tough time getting things going and keeping stuff alive - I should have written down the questions I was thinking to ask but I forgot already. It truly does happen to most people though - where for one reason or another we find ourselves with a dead fish and wondering why.

- I liked the foam wall, but I like the new scape much better. The great foam wall tanks of 5 years ago are pretty cool - but I think there's a reason they're less popular now (no room to grow out corals!).

- You made a good change when you went to the T5's. It seems like the color and growth of your corals got better.

- You got a better camera too ;)

 

Anyways, Just wanted to say I enjoyed the read it really shows some of the things one can expect when setting up a new reef tank in a nice and easy package. Do you still work at the aquarium? I will be in east WI over Thanksgiving so I might have to stop by if I get some time!!! Also I should probably start a tank thread :slap: .

 

Thanks, the updates don't come as often as they used to but I'd never forget about nano-reef. My interest or rather my effort in the aquarium wavers but I try and keep up. I don't think I've missed more than a couple of weekly water changes in the tank's life. This thread probably shouldn't be in beginners discussion anymore...

 

That wavering I'm talking about has led to this string of problems I ran into recently, and I was just starting to think that the tank was broken in and pretty stable. That being said, I HATE SAND now! It's like the same problems I had with the rock wall. I think the rock wall left lots of room to mount corals, but it trapped detritus behind it and I couldn't get control of the bubble algae on it. A water change or two ago I dug into the sand bed after leaving it be for a few months. After stirring up the sand the small amounts of hair algae that already existed took off and I saw cyano for the first time in a long time in a quantity this tank hasn't ever seen. My lack of effort as of late has really caught up to me.

 

I'm planning an upgrade that I'll hopefully have running within a year. 34 gallon, sand-free display (if i can find one), sumped with a big skimmer so I can feed the way I want, and DIY LED. I think my laziness with controlled feedings has contributed this nutrient buildup I'm experiencing.

 

I no longer work at Discovery World, I started grad school and a week later they offered me a full time aquarist position... ugh. I still volunteer but I'm getting working on my masters at UWM's School of Freshwater Sciences studying aquaculture, population genetics, and fisheries biology.

 

And I got a good deal on the camera. Never was really into photography but have had fun playing around with it. Here's some non-reef related pictures I've taken this summer.

 

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Thanks for your interest, questions, and comments. Looking forward to checking out your soon-to-be thread!

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  • 2 weeks later...
wow.such.chris

Got a cheap little reverse mount for my camera. Macros to follow. This was just a little test and I figured I'd upload everything. Still some zoa pox after 3 treatments. Left them rest and will try again soon, too busy ATM.

 

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wow.such.chris

What camera/lens are you using? The pictures look great!

A Samsung nx2000 with the kit lens mounted reverse. 20-50, at 20mm f3.5 forgot shutter speed. Got a real good deal on the camera, its alright.

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  • 1 month later...
wow.such.chris

Lovely pictures and zoas!!!

 

Thank you. Glad someone likes the zoas 'cause they're frustrating the hell outta me at the moment. Zoa pox...

 

I've treated the zoa rock with a packet of Furan-2 almost a dozen times now, 2 boxes! I did 5 days of treating every day along with a 5 gal (20%) water change. You know how much that sucks with a 75gpd RODI system in an apartment? A lot! just got rid of the entire frag that the pox came in on rather than trying to save it after the week of furan. I finished off the box on my weekly water changes and have been continuing to treat. It seems a few, small, lone orange bam-bams and maybe a green polyp or two still have it but the blue colony closest to the front have gone downhill in the past couple days. At first it was just a sole little polyp that still had obvious pox, then after my most recent water change and furan treatment even more of the blues got it and have been closed up. After I'm done with finals I'm doing another 5-7 day, everyday treatment cycle. then finishing up this box during weekly water changes. Sh*ts frustrating!

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  • 9 months later...
wow.such.chris

I haven't updated this thread in over half a year, but I'm going to try and update at least once a month again. The tank recently had it's three year birthday in August but it has had so many drastic changes it really doesn't look as grown as it could for a three year old tank.

 

Since the last update:

  • I made some major rock changes. I sold the big rock with orange yumas and blue mushrooms and replaced it with a whole bunch of dry rock which really chnaged the scape.
  • I also removed the sand... a choice I'm now regretting but might change eventually
  • Got a sweet custom overflow box for my AC70 from OceanboxDesigns. Its siliconed into the corner.
  • The anemone and a few other corals really didn't take well to the changes and have been recovering since. The anmeone has been doing well recently but is only about half the size it once was. I thought for sure that I was going to lose it a while back though.
  • Some corals have been added but not much. Mostly just one order from saltcritters, mostly zoanthids.
  • I have no clean up crew currently. I've had a polyclad flatworm problem that killed my clam and all snails but I'm sure it's been starved out now so I will be getting some snails soon.
  • The filefish died. It was eating the night before it went missing and had been doing just fine. Happened around the same time I removed the sponge guard from my mp10, but I'm not convinced that was the cause.
  • Killed my pocillopora colony, broke the branches off my digitata, and sold my caulastrea colony.
  • I modified my nanobox duo and integrated it into my old 4 bulb t5 fixture. It's now a 2 bulb t-5/nanobox duo hybrid and I love it.
  • I'm also now using a mame skimmer.

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wow.such.chris

Some recent additions as of Saturday

 

2 sexy shrimp

1 porcelain crab

1 lettuce sea slug

1 tiny black urchin which died yesterday, so 3 days only. It was doing fine but I woke up to find it dead. Saw my emerald crab picking at the remains and I know it was eating algae right where this crab hides so maybe it was death by crab, maybe not. This happened with my last urchin; I lost it within the first month or two of owning it. I attributed that loss to an OD of kalk causing an all spike but Im not so sure now.

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  • 2 months later...
wow.such.chris

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This last shot is a 30 day old yellow perch from my research lab.

 

For anyone interested, my instagram is cmos.topher

I shoot corals and a lot of SE WI and Milwaukee.

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