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ADA 60p Soft Coral Mangrove Peninsular - Long overdue update


East1

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I ordered 3x 10W LEDS with a diffused and a large lens, I'm just going to upgrade the current light, lens it properly and use it for both the mangrove and the tank.

 

Unfortunately I'm in the UK and online services are rather scarce!

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My LED stuff should come tomorrow, which is a free day so I've got that to look forward to!

 

I got myself an iPhone 6+, not going to debate it but it's a very sexy piece of e-ass, and it takes some awesome photos!

 

Vi0pBFM.png

 

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Both are unedited 6+ photos, actual color is a lot closer to morning/afternoon daylight with some bluer shadows. The shimmer from the light being this high is unreal to say the least!

 

This got me into my final iteration of my LED set up, the main blue LED will be replaced with a 30W + reflector set up, but the smaller 3W LED will remain as it gives a lovely sunlight effect as well as providing another element to the shadows and shading around the roots. I'm tempted to T off the return flow and add a small drip line, combined with exposed rockwork and a bit of dremel-ing to create a tiny rock pool. Thoughts?

 

edit:

 

iphone slowmotion gif, looped for 2s or so, sped up 50%

 

https://i.imgflip.com/cmd45.gif

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LED's arrived today! I ended up over-driving one on the driver rather than using 3, with the lens adjusted a bit it works out perfect for the mangrove and tank without splashing light everywhere. I need to get a cpu fan for cooling, the heatsink is at about 5-6\0c at the moment.

 

I'm not going to say much more. It's ghetto and looks appropriate for my student budget (just broke 200$ on this whole setup today), but it works and the shimmer is unreal.

 

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the lily pipe creates a very high frequency standing wave which creates a lovely ripple. I took a video in slowmo of it.

In other news, I really /really/ want a blue stripe pipefish or something similar for this tank. I don't know if it's viable space wise, but my biopellet + skimmer can handle the load easily.

 

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In other news, I really /really/ want a blue stripe pipefish or something similar for this tank. I don't know if it's viable space wise, but my biopellet + skimmer can handle the load easily.

 

I have a blue stripe pipefish in my Fusion 20 but before she was in a 4.5 gallon ADA tank for a few months. I did have an algae issue I think as a result of feeding live baby brine shrimp twice a day but I had only a canister filter, no skimmer so maybe that wouldn't be an issue for you.

 

The bigger concern I think is whether the tank is big enough for the fish and in my opinion unfortunately I believe it isn't. I have found my pipe Twiggy to be quite an active swimmer and I think she really enjoys the bigger tank. In doing research before I got her, I read that they are not that active and hang around in a vertical position a lot but I haven't found this to be the case at all. I hate to be a bummer but I think it really wouldn't be good for the fish. And this is coming from someone who had a pair of spotted mandarins in an 8 gallon cube for months.

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I have a blue stripe pipefish in my Fusion 20 but before she was in a 4.5 gallon ADA tank for a few months. I did have an algae issue I think as a result of feeding live baby brine shrimp twice a day but I had only a canister filter, no skimmer so maybe that wouldn't be an issue for you.

 

The bigger concern I think is whether the tank is big enough for the fish and in my opinion unfortunately I believe it isn't. I have found my pipe Twiggy to be quite an active swimmer and I think she really enjoys the bigger tank. In doing research before I got her, I read that they are not that active and hang around in a vertical position a lot but I haven't found this to be the case at all. I hate to be a bummer but I think it really wouldn't be good for the fish. And this is coming from someone who had a pair of spotted mandarins in an 8 gallon cube for months.

 

In all honesty I expected this, while it would be :the dream: I don't want to upgrade any time soon and I have to agree with you in terms of activity, they're written out to be very sedentary fish, but most pipe species I've seen don't seem to actually be that way . I think stocking is going to continue to be a number of small pico gobies

 

 

Can't see the video. Set to private..

 

 

youtube is difficult, should be fixed

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I've added some live rock and my first inhabitants! Keeping the surprise, however, the biopellets provided a really quick cycle, which allowed me to purchase cured liverock and keep a lot of biodiversity. I added a larger amount of synthetic liverock because the shapes and cost/colors were unbeatable, with a smaller amount of cured liverock.

 

It was extremely tempting to to get a small SPS coral, because there is a point in the scape that's perfect for a small coral-frag bommie.

 

Pics shall be up this weekend. The scape is my personal bes, so you've got that to look forward to

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Still holding off on a picture!

 

I added a small coral last week and it seems to be doing fine (ooh secretive), parameters are pretty stable at reef levels but obviously there isn't much in the display at the moment. Biopellets are doing biopellet stuff, skimmers skimming and the tank isn't leaking so we're making headway. I get about 1 litre of evap a week, which was my main concern. I think having a lid on the sump definitely helped here.

 

I did have a small Perclimenes shrimp for a few days, it was similar to a pedersoni but had red spots instead of blue, but he jumped out a day ago :(

 

Stocking plans are still underway, so far on the confirmed 'must have' list:

 

  • Elegance Coral
  • some SPS, I really want a flourishing coral 'bommie' in here
  • trimma tevegae - if I can find a pair or trio of these
  • Probably a cleaner shrimp, if not a trio to a 5 stack of sexy shrimp
  • I absolutely must find myself a small gorgonian colony

 

Open to ideas, here. I'm curious about NPS corals and biopellets, but I don't think there is enough dispersed bacteria to feed some of the true NPS corals.

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4c2.jpg

 

This is the dream, holy hell. This is a gorgeous tree, details:

 

"WALKING MANGROVE" trained by the late Horace F. Clay. In accordance with his philosophy, the tree is trained to stay compactly on only 50% of the pot "to keep the pot open so the Mangrove can walk." The one-of-a-kind long narrow pot was made as a gift to Horace by master potter Seizan Kataoka of Tokoname, Japan. The ukiyoe triptych is from the Horace F. Clay / Mid-Pacific Bonsai Foundation Ukiyoe Collection. < http://www.fukubonsai.com/5a9.html >

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I gots a picture!

 

The section behind the rock where the mangrove roots are is elevated in an Iwagumi-esq reference, but also provides a nice low flow area where I intend to place my Elegance coral. It's about 3 inches deep which should provide some good depth for a root system to be established.

 

qrVCTjS.png

 

I really want to add a small Chrysiptera tricincta but I'm not sure if my LFS gets any in that aren't huge. That, and I've placed an order for a trio of Trimme tevegae, my LFS had it on one of their lists recently so fingers crossed! It was pretty tempting, they brought in 5 Janss pipefish this week.

 

My leather coral is still sulking after a small rescape, so I'll get some closeups when he's happy again.

 

ddc9109b40.png

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Looking sweet, how often do you spray your mangrove?

 

when I remember! usually daily.

 

fun story, I read through Giga's guide like 3 times and missed the 'spray your mangrove' bit, so I didn't spray this tree for the first 4 months when it put out it's first 3 pairs of leaves. I only think it didn't die cus I sprouted it in freshwater

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when I remember! usually daily.

 

fun story, I read through Giga's guide like 3 times and missed the 'spray your mangrove' bit, so I didn't spray this tree for the first 4 months when it put out it's first 3 pairs of leaves. I only think it didn't die cus I sprouted it in freshwater

Lol, how much was your mangrove because i really want one :)

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I got it from mangrove.at, came to about 30 pounds with courier fees but took 2 weeks to get here and I lost one of them in shipping. I'd suggest this, it's recently available so I've not used them before, but seems good and the price is pretty decent too!

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some updated pictures!

 

The GSP and leather coral are still sulking pretty hard

 

 

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that concludes today's scheduled viewing. In other news, I found an ancient pair of Adidas 60th Anniversary Diamond Superstars I forgot I owned, brand new in the box and such, I checked eBay and found out there are only 100 pairs and they retail for US$2500 now. I'm tempted to plan an upgrade :3

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I got it from mangrove.at, came to about 30 pounds with courier fees but took 2 weeks to get here and I lost one of them in shipping. I'd suggest this, it's recently available so I've not used them before, but seems good and the price is pretty decent too!

sweet man, ty for the link :)

 

and upgrade :))))

 

i love the grass too

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hehe, the grass is an off-cut from what I put into my Chameleon's cage, I quite like it too.

 

I sorta want to do a 120-F type tank as a room divider, but at the same time I really want to see this tank through! I've made almost everything short of the heater and pump from scratch

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Everything was open and looking perky so I took a few photos/videos. I'll stitch the videos together probably later this evening. I'm worried about the Helipora as it's not opened polyps but it wasn't that way in the LFS tank, hopefully it'll perk up soonish

 

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Having everything under 10,000k light isn't the best for color but it really does look like a scene straight from the sea.

The main LED is about 12 and I've balanced it with a 3k white. I'm probably going to add another 10w LED spotlight just for extra leaf coverage, but that's tomorrow's beast.

 

I've ordered a full set of test kits, as well as the full red sea coral/reef package. I intend to run this as if it was a color-oriented zeo/ultra low free nutrient tank, but I'm going to maximise growth and health instead of color. I love the size of this tank, it's the scale of polyps and grains of sand that make it a dream to scape.

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