Natalia’s reefbowl: 8 years old!

[natalia_la_loca]

Ugh, been so busy. In addition to job stuff, this is what I've been working on.

 

 

It's a commission for a married couple. My partner and I painted it together. We pretty much had free rein, the only guidelines being that the client liked horses and the ocean (hence water horses and seahorses) and happy things (hence all that cheery light). The bugs and flowers and grass are a non sequitur that we added to make things a little less predictable. It's not the sort of thing I want to do all the time, but it was a fun project.

 

Fun reef nerd fact: The seahorses in this painting are portraits of Justa and Rufina, my pet seahorses from a couple of years ago. (RIP.) Of course I took a little artistic license. They were not actually purple.

 

Reefbowl is still doing fine, nothing to report except that the new ORA tricolor valida acro is already coloring up and encrusting. Pix to come after I get a few days' sleep.

[natalia_la_loca]

c'mon guys, is the painting that bad?

 

The reefbowl is doing fine. On Sunday I added a frag of neon green nephthea from a local reef club member. I have it acclimating on a magnetic frag rack. I'm also growing a frag of rastas that hopefully will one day have a new home in a certain Vase Reef They need some time to grow out though, as they were in the shade of the frogspawn and are pretty tiny at the moment.

 

Oh, and last week I finally switched to the 8 blue/4 white par38 that I ordered from Hong Kong. I covered two of the white LEDs, and it looks great in person but is much harder to photograph as Reefjar has noted!

 

Here's a pic of the reefbowl last weekend before I added the nephthea. The photo doesn't really show how the tricolor valida is encrusting, but you can see it on the green slimer.

 

Did some gardening yesterday. Found a weird potato.

[brandon429]

you could easily design tattoos and make a killin on the side.

[wow.such.chris]

I think the painting is really well done. I find the concept to be quite strange but the attention to detail is awesome, especially in the flowers, butterflies, and purple seahorses!

[natalia_la_loca]

you could easily design tattoos and make a killin on the side.

 

Ha, I've thought about doing that If I ever set up a big reef tank again, I'll finance it with tattoo designs.

 

I think the painting is really well done. I find the concept to be quite strange but the attention to detail is awesome, especially in the flowers, butterflies, and purple seahorses!

 

thank you yeah, I intentionally introduced some strange elements. I would have gotten bored otherwise. I don't usually paint cute things

[Deleted User 9]

Peace Natalia.

 

Beautiful looking Reef!! Love the way it's coming along. It's looking so lovely and so clean. Love the colors and coral choice. And I greatly appreciate the future frag. Thanks for the beautiful update. Just so you know, I'm working on a new bulb layout for a Par38 with a company I will keep disclosed for now, specifically for Vase, Jar , and Pico type Reefs. It will be out shortly and hopefully, we can get those great colors and growth from our corals that the bigger company, big name brand are using, without the expensive cost and a more realistic Spectrum and Intensity Curve Chart, for the PAR and PUR readings. I will keep all posted. Thanks for the beautiful words.

 

Much Success and Happiness.

 

Blessings All.

[Deleted User 9]

Peace Natalia.

 

Great painting!!! LOVE IT!! Thanks for sharing. I enjoy the inner reflection and thoughts, expressions and details. Absolutely nothing strange at all, about this painting to Me. Truths from within. Inspirational and absolutely, ONE OF A KIND!

 

 

Blessings All.

[natalia_la_loca]

Thank you Mary for the kind words, they are greatly appreciated I try to introduce different elements in my pictures that give people multiple ways to connect with them.

 

That's really exciting that you're working on a new par38 layout! Really look forward to seeing that. Definitely keep us posted. I know based on my experience with these other two par38s, I probably wouldn't want any more brightness than I have already. The 12-watt par38 seems to be more than enough for all the corals in this bowl, even at 12" above a glass lid and with a couple of diodes covered.

 

And I'll let you know about the rastas. It may take a while for them to gain some size and multiply a little (right now the frag is only two polyps). In fact I seem to be getting faster growth from the acros and montis in this bowl!

[natalia_la_loca]

By the way, the opae'ula shrimpbowl is still thriving with virtually no intervention from me. Once every week or so, I open the lid for a couple of hours to give it a little fresh air, and last week I scraped the glass for only the second time since setting up the bowl back in February. The center rock has a layer of dark green film algae that the shrimp and the horned nerite are feeding on. I still haven't added any food at all and don't plan to do so until they start to really deplete the film algae. I took a gif of it yesterday, but I'm having a hard time transferring it here, so I'll probably take a video later.

[Deleted User 9]

Thank you Mary for the kind words, they are greatly appreciated I try to introduce different elements in my pictures that give people multiple ways to connect with them.

 

That's really exciting that you're working on a new par38 layout! Really look forward to seeing that. Definitely keep us posted. I know based on my experience with these other two par38s, I probably wouldn't want any more brightness than I have already. The 12-watt par38 seems to be more than enough for all the corals in this bowl, even at 12" above a glass lid and with a couple of diodes covered.

 

And I'll let you know about the rastas. It may take a while for them to gain some size and multiply a little (right now the frag is only two polyps). In fact I seem to be getting faster growth from the acros and montis in this bowl!

 

Peace Natalia.

 

Thanks. As per the Rasta's, no rush at all. Happy that your SPS are taking off. Hopefully, with the new Par38s that we're working on, there won't be anymore covering of white diodes. It will only have 1 white diode. We're concentrating on the fact that these bulbs will be used on reef setups under 15", for maximum PAR and PUR. A more balanced bulb that will give off the necessary Spectrum and Intensity but also POP for the Corals and our enjoyment. I will keep you posted for sure.

 

Shrimp bowl looks FANTASTIC!!!

Much Success and Happiness...

 

Blessings All.

[YaBoyLaj]

K I'm in love with this, can't wait to see what you done its it in the future! Following

[Bayinaung]

hello, I'm not that active on this forum. Just looking around for some pico ideas and ran into your update. I'm actually shocked you have that much livestock in that little reef bowl. I'll have to read up on your maintenance routine but that is an awesome job you are doing there. congrats.

[Bayinaung]

Ok I've read through the thread. What salt are you using for this bowl?

[natalia_la_loca]

hello, I'm not that active on this forum. Just looking around for some pico ideas and ran into your update. I'm actually shocked you have that much livestock in that little reef bowl. I'll have to read up on your maintenance routine but that is an awesome job you are doing there. congrats.

 

Ok I've read through the thread. What salt are you using for this bowl?

 

Thank you, glad you like it My current maintenance routine consists of:

 

1. Target feed corals once a week with a combination of Rods Food Coral Blend, Reef Nutrition Phyto Feast and Polyp Labs Reef Roids

2. Scrape glass 1x/week

3. 100% water change once a week (sometimes twice a week if I see a little nuisance algae in there), a few hours after feeding

4. Spot treat nuisance algae with 35% hydrogen peroxide as soon as it appears (drain bowl, treat algae, rinse with new saltwater, drain, refill)

5. One drop of Korallenzucht Zeobak after each water change

 

I don't currently do any top-off because the tight lid prevents most evaporation.

 

I buy my saltwater premixed at my LFS. I believe they use a combination of Aquavitro Salinity and Tropic Marin reef salt.

[Deleted User 9]

 

 

Thank you, glad you like it My current maintenance routine consists of:

 

1. Target feed corals once a week with a combination of Rods Food Coral Blend, Reef Nutrition Phyto Feast and Polyp Labs Reef Roids

2. Scrape glass 1x/week

3. 100% water change once a week (sometimes twice a week if I see a little nuisance algae in there), a few hours after feeding

4. Spot treat nuisance algae with 35% hydrogen peroxide as soon as it appears (drain bowl, treat algae, rinse with new saltwater, drain, refill)

5. One drop of Korallenzucht Zeobak after each water change

 

I don't currently do any top-off because the tight lid prevents most evaporation.

 

I buy my saltwater premixed at my LFS. I believe they use a combination of Aquavitro Salinity and Tropic Marin reef salt.

Peace Natalia.

Hope all is well.

Just a very valuable advice!!!

 

Please check the water you receive from your LFS before using!!!

LFS can sometimes get lazy and or can give out bad, contaminated mixed water.

Please be careful!!! My friend lost his Pico Reef because his water supposedly mixed LFS

was mixed with very old R.O.D.I. membrane and they were using water with a TDS of 200!!!

Also, the large vat they were storing the water had some type of slime on the inside, which can't be seen.

Just wanted to share this.

 

Blessings All.

[Bayinaung]

Peace Natalia.

Hope all is well.

Just a very valuable advice!!!

 

Please check the water you receive from your LFS before using!!!

LFS can sometimes get lazy and or can give out bad, contaminated mixed water.

Please be careful!!! My friend lost his Pico Reef because his water supposedly mixed LFS

was mixed with very old R.O.D.I. membrane and they were using water with a TDS of 200!!!

Also, the large vat they were storing the water had some type of slime on the inside, which can't be seen.

Just wanted to share this.

 

Blessings All.

Yes I agree with maritz. I know someone who had the same experience and this was a reputable shop. In their case it was low salinity and they didn't realize there was a problem with their mixing equipment (forgot what the issue was) and salinity was like 1.14. note - some LFS use hyposalinity for their fowlr tanks. but you seem like an experienced reefer so I'm sure you checked them out before hand.

 

 

Thank you, glad you like it My current maintenance routine consists of:

 

1. Target feed corals once a week with a combination of Rods Food Coral Blend, Reef Nutrition Phyto Feast and Polyp Labs Reef Roids

2. Scrape glass 1x/week

3. 100% water change once a week (sometimes twice a week if I see a little nuisance algae in there), a few hours after feeding

4. Spot treat nuisance algae with 35% hydrogen peroxide as soon as it appears (drain bowl, treat algae, rinse with new saltwater, drain, refill)

5. One drop of Korallenzucht Zeobak after each water change

 

I don't currently do any top-off because the tight lid prevents most evaporation.

 

I buy my saltwater premixed at my LFS. I believe they use a combination of Aquavitro Salinity and Tropic Marin reef salt.

 

those salts are good stuff. it's a very sensible maintenance. that little bowl has several hundred dollr worth of corals so it's worth the salt. what's the SG of the salt?

[natalia_la_loca]

Please check the water you receive from your LFS before using!!!

 

Yes I agree with maritz. I know someone who had the same experience and this was a reputable shop. In their case it was low salinity and they didn't realize there was a problem with their mixing equipment (forgot what the issue was) and salinity was like 1.14.

 

You're both right, I should do that Honestly I've been lulled into complacency because I've bought their water ever since I started reefing and have never had problems that I couldn't attribute to errors on my part. In my defense, I know my LFS tests its water regularly. But independent confirmation of test results would be far wiser than depending on somebody else not to screw up.

 

And theoretically I have the extra time to do it, because this reefbowl requires far less maintenance than either of my bigger tanks did!

 

Bayinaung, in answer to your question, the SG of my water is 1.025.

[natalia_la_loca]

Quick update: Reefbowl is doing great. Still having trouble with the wifi card on the DSLR, so it's back to crappy cellphone pix for now.

 

 

Here's the new nephthea, which is thriving in the bowl. To its right on the frag rack you can see the itty-bitty rasta frag that is slowly growing out.

 

Last but not least, here's a video of the opae'ula shrimp bowl. I can't take good photos of it lately because the shrimp almost never stop moving, presumably because of the summer temperatures.

[Deleted User 9]

Peace Natalia,

 

Thanks for the update!! Reef looking amazing and beautiful. Everything looks so healthy. Question? What is the name of that Orange Ring Palythoa or Zoanthid above the Rainbow Acans? Green Nepthea looks nice. Great coral. Always great to see your updates.

 

Much Success and Happiness.

 

Blessings All.

[natalia_la_loca]

Thanks for the update!! Reef looking amazing and beautiful. Everything looks so healthy. Question? What is the name of that Orange Ring Palythoa or Zoanthid above the Rainbow Acans? Green Nepthea looks nice. Great coral. Always great to see your updates.

 

Thank you Mary I love your updates too! The orange ring zoas were called Rings of Fire by the vendor I purchased them from about 2 1/2 years ago.

[Deleted User 9]

 

Thank you Mary I love your updates too! The orange ring zoas were called Rings of Fire by the vendor I purchased them from about 2 1/2 years ago.

Peace Natalia,

 

BTW, those pics look nice to me. Wish I could take "Crappy Pics" from my cell phone like yours.

My pics come out with the blues...

My Maritza and Mari are both such colorful Reefs, but I can't get pics like yours. I have a Samsung Note 5.

I think I have those "Ring of Fire" Zoa's or Paly's.

 

Blessings All.

[natalia_la_loca]

BTW, those pics look nice to me. Wish I could take "Crappy Pics" from my cell phone like yours.

My pics come out with the blues...

 

Can you get the "Manual" camera app for Android? It has a custom white balance setting. When taking pics with an iPhone, I use Manual to take the photo, setting the white balance at 8000K. Then I load the image into the Snapseed app and use the "Tune Image" settings to increase the warmth of the image to a rough approximation of what I see in person. It isn't perfect (the DSLR still has better white balance), but it does cancel out some of the super-saturated blues.

[brandon429]

Easy tank of the month here.

[natalia_la_loca]

haha, maybe next year after it fills out some more you're the one that truly deserves a totm. Got any update pix of your vase reef? I'd love to see how it's doing.

[natalia_la_loca]

yay, I got the wifi card on the DSLR to work again Pix from 28 June 2016: