[CUSTOM] Xytrix01

[sandlot13]

oh man, tough luck with the mantis....... i love mine to death, they are the coolest animals ever. I really like this tank a lot though, keep up the good work man.

[Xytrix01]

Ok, Update time! It's going to be mostly pictures, cuz I don't really have time to write my story out right now.

 

First the "before" shot:

 

I got this cool guy as a hitchiker on a coral from jakarta on our last order:

 

I got a few new corals, took out the xenia, and re-aranged the tank for better viewing of all the corals. The hammer was blocking views of the shrooms and the xenia was totaly covering a patch of zoas. With the new layout, everything is out in view!

 

New FTS:

 

You can see that I also broke my vow to follow this contest out fishless. I love these little clowns, and I had to get them. Here's the clowns with my new white feather duster:

 

And the other duster I picked up. You can see my orange and green acan in this pic too:

 

 

The rest of the pictures I took are a bunch of macro shots. Hope you enjoy!

 

Hammer coral:

 

Pipe organs:

 

My beige/tan/yellow zoas with one of the clowns:

 

My little orange zoas with the blue/green zoas on the left:

 

My "black" acan frag. This one used to have some red/white to it, but it has gone compleatly black now...

 

Candy acan lord:

 

Pink spot mushroom. Another hitchiker:

 

Green zoas:

 

A better shot of the orange and green acan:

 

My blue and red zoas, one of my favorites!:

 

 

Blue bottlebrush acro:

 

Orange monti:

 

Candy stripe mushrooms and white feather duster:

 

Random zoanthid hitchikers:

 

Same pic, but with the focus on the blastomusa frag I recived:

 

And lastly, the coral whom we afectionatly just call 'bush'. I can't recal what the actual name of the coral is right now. And it's not named after the president. Im sure that my coral has a much higher level of inteligent thought...

 

 

Thats all for now! I'm going to try and re-size the smaller pics to match, stupid photobucket cut down the size on only some of my pix. I also have a few stories to write up, including all night power outages and "the flood!"

 

-Justin

[tinyreef]

that shrimp's nuckin' awesome! you feed it or is it strictly a scavenger in your tank?

 

that last one looks interesting, frogspawn-ish.

[Ann]

Love the shrimp!

 

Thanks for the update, looking fantastic.

 

Best regards

 

Ann

[Xytrix01]

Placeholder post, content later....

[Xytrix01]

Final Contest Post:

 

WOW! I can't believe it's over already... simply amazing. I have had such a great time with this tank, and it has been so successful for the most part. I also enjoyed the interaction in the forums here as well. I can still remember early in the contest, I would make an update post, and when I checked back a few hours later my thread was already bumped to page 3. (With tigah still on top of page one of course! ) It really has been an enjoyable experience, so I thank you all for that.

 

Not that keeping this little tank going hasn't been a challenge. It's gone through a few mishaps, a few fish, and a few missed water changes! It has managed to survive a tank overflow, a 9 hour power outage, and my constant tinkering with the way the tank ran and looked. So overall, I would have to say that the system has run very stable for the duration of the contest.

 

On to the lists...

 

Equipment:

-2.5gal AGA glass tank custom drilled with corner overflow.

-Semi-durso style overflow

-DIY CD spindle mechanical filter box

-5gal Painters Bucket sump

-75W Ebo-Jager glass heater

-Penguin 1440 in-sump return pump

-Dual outlet 1/2"i.d. return manifold

-Maxi-jet 600 pump for skimmer

-Custom built UTR nanoskimmer

 

 

Lighting:

-60W Total Light Output. 24 watts per gallon.

-3x 20W Coralife 50/50 Screw-in Bulbs

-Custom Built Vented Hood

-Dual 1.5" PC Cooling Fans

-1x 10W Coralife 50/50 sump/fuge light

 

Livestock:

 

Corals

-Orange plate coral (Montipora Sp.)

-Euphillyia yamanensis

-Blue Zoas

-Yellow/green rim Zoas

-Orange Zoas

-Mixed Zoa branch

-Green star polyps

-Green striped mushrooms

-Pipe organ coral

-"Dolphins blue bottlebrush acropora"

-majano anenomme (still yet to become a problem)

-Policipora dominiconis(sp?)

-Green hammer

-Neon green frogspawn

-Orange/green Acanthastrea echinata

-Black/red Acanthastrea echinata

-Neon green Acanthastrea echinata

-Blue/pink Acanthastrea lordhowensis

-White feather duster

-Purple feather duster

-Green Acropora Sp.

-7x Misc. Mushrooms

-Blastomussa wellsi

-Unidentified soft polyp coral

 

Fish

-2x True percula clowns (Captive bread)

-14x blue legged hermit crabs

-3x unidentified snails

-4x Brittle stars

-1x Bumble bee snail

-1x Pistol Shrimp

 

 

 

Pictures:

Full Tank Shots

Contest Start 11-7-2005

 

First FTS with corals 11-29-05

 

12-4-2005

 

Deadline #1 FTS 1-12-2006

 

1-14-2006

 

1-28-2006

 

2-7-2006

 

2-26-2006

 

3-24-2006

 

FINAL FTS 4-1-2006

[Xytrix01]

How it works

 

Whole Setup:

 

Inside the light hood:

 

Back of hood /w fans

 

Sump and skimmer

 

Sump close-up

 

Drain and return plumbing /w splash sheild

 

 

Corner shots

 

Right side

 

Left side

 

 

 

Ok, That's everything I've got! I may post some comparison/groth shots if the threads are still open when I get home from work tomorow. It's just getting too late tonight.

 

Oh, and one more thing...

 

 

'05 is teh roxors!!!!!111!!

[nano_kev]

Dude that is freakin' awesome, nice work. You have definatley give '04 a run for their money Good luck in the voting man

[ZooGirl]

Beautiful tank! The february FTS blows me away! Gorgeous.

[Xytrix01]

Thanks, I really had a to of fun with this tank, and almost as much fun telling customers at the LFS I work at that my tank was this small. The looks on their faces are priceless!!!!

 

I'm not going to add any comparison shots, because I really don't have many good ones, and the batteries on the camera are dead anyways. So my final entry has the FTS shots, and I didn't see a need to repost my latest macro shots, as they are still on the top of this page... *shrug* So best of luck to everyone, and may the best pico win! (as long as it's an '05 tank )