Violinist's 20 Long - 3 Years!

[violinist]

Hmmm, just looks like a ghetto cave to me lol.

 

The damsels have a yellow belly. They actually look pretty sick under the pure actinic. The belly goes orange and the blue is a crazy glowing neon. This is the particular damsel - link.

 

Very angry tank today. Saw a nassarius snail get attacked by a hermit and the shrimp. The large clown was duking it out with the shrimp over a chunk of pellet the shrimp was eating and the fish wanted.

 

Then one of the little crabs I bought jumped out of its shell. Plenty of shells laying around to choose from, and one of his mates stole his and vacated their own. Saw two of the larger crabs mug him before dinner and then came home just now and the shrimp was finishing off what was left of him.

 

I love nature.

[violinist]

Here's a full tank shot under the actinic/pure actinic pair:

 

 

Note the black background of the tank now...

 

Chemistry day, here's the stats. Have yet to pick up a mag test kit Even had one in hand last week, but decided to pick up that candy cane instead heheh.

 

TEMP:      80FSG:        1.025PH:        8.2AM:        0NITRITE:   0NITRATE:   0PHOSPHATE: 0ALK:       107.4 (kh/ppm) / 6 DKHCALC:      460

Forgot to add one other thing I saw yesterday. Big chunk of flake food made it past the clowns and the currents carried it smack onto the face of a big paly. The paly closed up around the food, stayed shut for a few minutes then reopened. No more flake food, just a bit of a gaping paly mouth. Didn't realize these things would eat anything so large - anyone feed their zoas/palys directly? Will have to do some reading on it.

[violinist]

Ok I picked up about 5 pounds of additional LR from a local guy who has a house full of reef's. I'll snap some stills later, but one of the rocks has a really cool metallic looking shroom on it. Another is covered in gsp.

 

Here's a video showing the new scape: video

 

I managed to frag my candy cane while moving rocks around... So hey presto now I have two lol.

 

Not sure if this is 'the scape' but there are a lot of pieces to work with now (instead of 3 mongo pieces like there was before), so we'll see where it ends up.

[Guest nanoreefchris]

your tank looks awesome man nice job

[violinist]

Thanks man, it's getting there. Need to start mapping out which corals would look good where and start spending the $$$!

[Arkayology]

I like it. The two mountains is a good look.

 

What types of corals are you looking to get?

[amored]

i'm digging the new scape, and those damsels are cool! very intense colors. also, you feed silversides? no problems with waste? i feed brine and stuff flies everywhere, even with the pumps off. sigh.

[violinist]

I'd like to get a few more zoa colonis over in the zoo on the right side. Top of my buy list near term are various macro algae's, some sponges (mrcoral.com has some interesting looking sponges) and then LPS. Further out, SPS.

[nemmy]

Did i ever ask what salt you were using?

[violinist]

Using Oceanic. Thoughts?

[nemmy]

Using Oceanic. Thoughts?

 

Alk of 6 is low, but then the calcium of 460 is good.

My salt keeps getting me 390, and 9. Would like the Calcium to be a bit higher.

 

What test kits are you using for cal and alk?

[ReeferFL]

New scape looks awesome

[violinist]

Thanks reefer!

 

Alk of 6 is low, but then the calcium of 460 is good.

My salt keeps getting me 390, and 9. Would like the Calcium to be a bit higher.

 

What test kits are you using for cal and alk?

 

API for all of it.

 

Have a WC tee'd up for tomorrow. I'll retest after the tank chills for a bit.

[nemmy]

I keep putting off a mag test kit too, i really need to get on that.

My tank right now is 425 cal and 9 alk. Salifert test kits.

But my fresh mixed water is always 390 and 9

 

Loving the tank btw, ended up getting an aquablue + and actinic+ geissman bulbs

[violinist]

How do you like them? I see some fts on here, can't tell if its photoshop or real life, but they have the sickest, darkest looking purple. I'd like to get that going.

[nemmy]

How do you like them? I see some fts on here, can't tell if its photoshop or real life, but they have the sickest, darkest looking purple. I'd like to get that going.

 

Love them so far, the aquablue+ is 60% actinic and 40% white. Its about 11k and really outshines my 10k current bulbs but doesnt make the tank look all white. The actinic+ look just like my current actinic bulbs by eye but really make the corals colors pop more.

 

They are also a good step up in par from the stock bulbs, so thats a total plus!

[violinist]

Did a WC about 6 hours ago. KH is at 7 now... Still a bit on the low side, eh?

 

I have some Kent A/B (yeah Kent, but it's what I have) which I've never used. Should I dose with the buffer part? Everything is looking ok, except possibly the Xenia which is extended but not pulsing. It's a relatively new addition so I didn't give it much thought, figured it was just settling in.

[violinist]

PIcked up some sargasso from the lfs. This has been doing well in his tank for months and he was surprised when I asked if it was for sale. He also tossed in a couple of small scallops I saw in one of his frag tanks. Added a few more crabs as well. I've had no prob with crabs so far and they're fun to watch.

 

FTS

 

 

The peppermint shrimp loves one of the new rocks that has plenty of fair sized holes in it for him to hide out in.

 

 

Closer shot of the sarg

 

 

The larger scallop (about the size of a quarter). Ignore the hair. Open top tank + 2 dogs = lots of tweezer work...

 

 

The other scallop, very small.

 

 

Hitchhiker shroom that was on one of the new rocks

 

[latteslave]

Your tank is looking great! I love when people can add macros to give it a much more interesting look.

 

I would not change a thing about your rockscape - just keep doing what you are doing!

[violinist]

Apparently the small white 'scallop' is a small white clam. One of my snails knocked it down to the sand and I just saw it extending a tube (presumably its foot) out of the shell and probing the area around it...

[titos]

your tank is coming along nice

[violinist]

Thanks titos!

 

Any takers on the Alk level/need to dose? Been reading and reading the thousands of posts on it, but can't really tell if alk of 7 is worth dosing to raise.

[nick1912]

What a great start and an amazing middle, cant wait till the end.. might never be an end! Great work, you gave me some ideas.

[OClownsandNanos]

Hi Violinist,

 

Tank looks great - love the sargasso addition and the new rockwork. Everything looks so healthy and such deep color. Your wife is like my hubby . . . in the last week I can't tell you how many times he's asked when the clowns are going to be able to go in.

 

BTW, I take back what I said on my thread about the flow with the MP20. Was getting detritus settling and didn't really notice until the next day. Moved the Vortech away from the rockwork, off to the side, and am getting better flow but I've got it cranked now to 90-100% and almost think eventually I'll want a koralia nano or something on the other side. And I've only got barely 40lbs of rock in there! Surprising, and a bit daunting. Am very glad I did not go with the MP10.

[JJW]

Love your aquascaping, I am a sucker for 2 island looks and scaped my current 40G the same as yours. But when I had my 20 Long, I didn't have room for 2 islands and had to settle for a big hill.