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Natalia's Reefbowlocalypse: all good


natalia_la_loca

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This is so awesome, I just now discovered this thread. Amazing what you have done in this little bowl!

I predict this will be BOTM as soon as it's a year old :)

News and photo dump! A few things have happened since I last posted. We had the windows of our art studio replaced, so we had to move all furniture away from the windows, including the rack holding the reefbowl. In the process of which, I came to discover how wonderfully portable my reefbowl is :)

 

However, shortly before we started moving furniture, I noticed a little water around the reefbowl. A crack? Overflow from the top? I still don't know. I inspected the bottom of the bowl during the move and didn't see any cracks, and if there is a leak, it's extremely slow. To be safe, I've purchased a spare bowl of the same size. Because the system is 6 months old, I was planning to give the sand a deep rinse anyway per Brandon's recommendation/experience, so when I move the reefbowl back into the studio, I'm going to transfer the whole system to the new bowl so as not to take any chances.

 

And as if that weren't enough, the other day my chalice decided to get territorial with my favorite acan, despite their having lived in harmony for about 5 months. I thought the rock the chalice is on was big enough not to move around, but maybe the snails are stronger than I give them credit for. Anyway, chalice 1, acan 0. Some of the baby heads of the acan survived, so with any luck they'll restore the colony. I've also moved the chalice rock further away.

 

Now the pics...last shot of lovely acan prior to chalice carnage

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The culprit. She's a mean girl...but so sexy

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The damage today...note itty bitty babies holding on

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Gorgeous bubblegum digitata frag destined for a certain vase reef with a lovely name

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Neon green nephthea looking particularly fluffy today

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OMG :wub: :wub: :wub:

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At least my other acans are happy

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Top-down FBS

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Zoa love

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Because the reefbowl isn't in the studio, here's a side view I don't normally get. It gives some idea of the crazy growth of the bubblegum digitata mother colony. Digitatas love vase reefs!

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Despite the mean-girl chalice...a pretty happy bowl.

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New page bump!
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Hey, thank you for stopping by :) I used to have (relatively) larger systems and can most definitely identify with your desire to downsize. This is my maintenance regime. Once a week, I:

 

-Turn off airline

-Target feed corals a mix of Reef Roids, Rods Food Coral Blend, and Fauna Marin Ultra Ricordea and Zoanthus + Ultra Min D

-Leave airline off 10 minutes

-Run airline 2-5 hours

-Agitate corals, rocks and substrate with turkey baster to release organic solids into water column

-Drain all water

-Treat any small patches of nuisance algae with 35% hydrogen peroxide on a paintbrush

-Scrape glass

-Refill with new saltwater

-Agitate with turkey baster again

-Drain all water

-Fill with new saltwater

 

That's it. I only do maintenance once a week, and I rarely open the bowl between water changes. I don't know why more people don't have systems like these. They are unbelievably rewarding given how easy they are to look after.

WOW THATS IT DAMN ITS SO SO EASY QuQ

I was about to quit reefing because Ive been having a hassle to maintain my 12 gal reef, and all it takes is just I guess 30 minutes on weekends to keep happy sps,zoas and acans in bowls. My 5 gal is cycling and Ill look forward to more updates and pics :)

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  • 2 weeks later...
natalia_la_loca

So it's been quite a while since I added any corals to the reefbowl. That changed last week thanks to Teenyreef :happydance:

 

These new zoas weathered 2-day USPS priority mail quite well. The first frag is searchlights, a Caribbean morph from the in-limbo-again Aquascapers. I really missed my old searchlights, which were purchased by some lucky reefer when I sold them to the LFS after breaking down the Nuvo 8 zoa garden. Hopefully they like reefbowl life.

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This is a fun watermelon morph, they remind me a little of my old "splattered melons" from Coral Gardens Aquaculture. I missed having watermelons too so it's really nice to add these to the reefbowl.

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Not all the news is good. I have to give an RIP to that beautiful bubblegum digitata frag, along with a frag of rastas. I sent them by priority mail to Mary/MVR, but the postal service appears to have completely lost them :rant: Fortunately the mother colonies of both are still doing well and receptive to further fragging.

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LOVE THOSE NEW ADDITIONS :wub:

 

I just finished my cycle in my 2.5 gal cookiejar and I cant wait to put my first corals this friday. Thanks for this wonderful inspirations Nathalie!

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  • 3 weeks later...

This tank is amazing. After finally finding the post that showed your maintenance schedule, I almost threw up, lol. I was having hell dealing with an 8 gallon that just wouldn't settle down and grow coral.. that thing had all kinds of crazy equipment on it, and I finally just let it go by the wayside and most of the coral died off. Then I see you have zero mechanical filtration, only do minor maintenance, and are having brilliant success. I'm definitely going to take what you're doing into consideration when I start my office pico. Keep us updated, this bowl is awesome!

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This tank is amazing. After finally finding the post that showed your maintenance schedule, I almost threw up, lol. I was having hell dealing with an 8 gallon that just wouldn't settle down and grow coral.. that thing had all kinds of crazy equipment on it, and I finally just let it go by the wayside and most of the coral died off. Then I see you have zero mechanical filtration, only do minor maintenance, and are having brilliant success. I'm definitely going to take what you're doing into consideration when I start my office pico. Keep us updated, this bowl is awesome!

Been there, I had a 12 gal with a mini fuge, wavemaker and fairly expensive LED lights. I also had to top off the tank and dose a bit. Clearly very hectic and time consuming specially for a college reefer me. But when I found out how easy and successful these bowls and jars are I took down my 12 gal and tried my a 2 gallon cookie jar project to test it for myself. ITS AMAZING! You can check out also my project on my sig.

 

You should definitely try one!

Just to update everyone, the Bubblegum digitata is now happily living in Maritza the vase reef

Its a miracle it survived for awhile inside the plastic bag despite the long delay of USPS:D

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natalia_la_loca

Thanks everybody :) Sorry about the delay in getting back on here, I've been really busy with home improvement projects and haven't been on a desktop computer to post pics.

 

As Hammerlover said, the bubblegum digitata frag that I sent to Maritza the Vase Reef did indeed survive after many days in USPS limbo (I think it was 8 days). Here it is in Maritza, looking absolutely lovely:

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I've cut another BGD frag, it's doing very well:

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The other big news is that I've switched the lamp to the new ABI Tuna Blue 12 watt LED, designed and tested by Mary Arroyo in collaboration with ABI. I have it hanging 16" above the water line, and thus far the corals are absolutely loving it.

 

Here's a side view of the reefbowl from the day before yesterday. The wifi card on my DSLR isn't working since I upgraded to the latest operating system on my phone, so I'm limited to Windex cellphone pics for now <_< Here you can see there are several new heads on the blastomussa, and the bubblegum digi mother colony is spreading all over the place.

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Here's a FBS from the day before yesterday. At lower right is a lovely new Duncan coral from Mary Arroyo. The new searchlights and melons are on the top rock slab and are doing really well, but they're hard to see. I've started placing more corals on their own magnetic frag plug holders in order to remove some frag-rack clutter. This makes better use of the space available and also helps prevent coral warfare. I'm thinking about moving the Mountain Dew (aka mean girl) chalice to her own magnetic holder because the cyphastrea is getting close to her and will certainly lose the battle if they make contact. Also, the damaged rainbow acan is quickly recovering and I want to avoid a repeat of their nasty encounter.

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Ah, one other interesting thing: A week and a half ago, I came home to a cloudy bowl. At first I thought something must have died, but the snails and the lone asterina star were present and accounted for, and no corals were showing necrosis. I suspect there may have been a spawning event. Whatever the cause, I let it circulate for a few hours and then did a water change.

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natalia_la_loca

Okay, DSLR is back online :happydance: Also, the reefbowl is now eight months old! Photo dump incoming...

 

I fragged the tricolor acropora valida. The mother colony is already healed, and the baby is looking great.

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Mean-girl chalice has a new mouth growing!

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Searchlights and morphed melons from Teenyreef :wub:

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Haven't focused on the green slimer acro in a while. It's doing a lot more encrusting than branching. You can see a little hair algae to the right--I gave it the peroxide treatment during last Friday's water change.

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The bubblegum digitata and the burnt orange digitata are duking it out a little. The bubblegum is winning.

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Top-down FBS.

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Side FBS.

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Deleted User 9

Peace Natalia,

 

Thanks for the Update...!

This Reef is looking Magnificent Indeed.

Please don't let the Corals fight.

They're both beautiful Corals.

Would like to see them continue in their beauty

Instead of one losing the battle.

Beautiful..Beautiful...Beautiful.......!

 

Much Success and Happiness.

 

Blessings All.

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natalia_la_loca

Thanks Mary :) Can you give me any suggestions on how to prevent warfare between the two montis? They are both heavily encrusted in their locations and would be hard to remove. There doesn't appear to be any chemical warfare going on, only competition for space. And they are both growing very quickly.

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Deleted User 9

Thanks Mary :) Can you give me any suggestions on how to prevent warfare between the two montis? They are both heavily encrusted in their locations and would be hard to remove. There doesn't appear to be any chemical warfare going on, only competition for space. And they are both growing very quickly.

 

Peace Natalie,

 

Since they are both encrusted and growing so well, it can be as easy as just snap them apart. Whatever stays behind on the plugs is fine and this will allow both Corals to grow without having to complete for space. It's happened here and although I didn't want to separate the 2 Corals at the time, I had to, in order to give both Corals the space for their growths. I'm sure you can find the right spot between them to snap them apart. Your Corals grow so well that in a matter of weeks, they'll back to normal and moving on. However, if you can't get in there to make that separation, then it's a matter of if you want to allow this or just snap whatever you can off, and at the very least, give both their space.

 

Blessings. All..

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How do you keep SPS alive with so little flow? Is ti daily stirrings, or just the fact that they get enough food?

 

Anyway, beautiful, I love to look at the vase.

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natalia_la_loca

How do you keep SPS alive with so little flow? Is ti daily stirrings, or just the fact that they get enough food?

 

Anyway, beautiful, I love to look at the vase.

 

Thank you, I'm glad you like it :flower: The corals actually get plenty of flow from the airline alone because it's such a small volume of water. All polyps show visible movement when the pump is on, including the SPS.

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Amazing pics Nathalie! Makes me want to add some bubblegum digitatas when my bowl is 3 months old :)

 

They are such lovely sps corals! And those zoas look amazing as well! ❤️

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natalia_la_loca

Amazing pics Nathalie! Makes me want to add some bubblegum digitatas when my bowl is 3 months old :)

 

They are such lovely sps corals! And those zoas look amazing as well! ❤️

I think any branching montipora would do well in a vase reef. The zoas are a bit more temperamental. Sometimes they thrive, other times they close for a week. But SPS just seem to grow and grow. The only exception for me has been the sunset (encrusting) montipora. Mine isn't growing at all.

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Okay, DSLR is back online :happydance: Also, the reefbowl is now eight months old! Photo dump incoming...

 

I fragged the tricolor acropora valida. The mother colony is already healed, and the baby is looking great.

30726022312_3205d835f8_z_d.jpg

 

 

 

That baby looks good! :happydance:

 

The whole bowl looks just stunning, I love seeing how everything is thriving in the bowl environment. By the way, didn't you know you can't grow SPS without T5's and a sump and dosing and a skimmer and a reactor and a refugium and a wavemaker powerhead and...

 

Oh wait, apparently you can :D

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  • natalia_la_loca changed the title to Natalia's Reefbowlocalypse: all good

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