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Today's Experiment


MrAnderson

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Soft cycle pays off well, didn't it? haha.

 

If it's growing from that spot, then you got the right condition for it. I think turtle grass/weed don't really appreciate high flow. Mine went bald with medium flow. I might be wrong about the flow issue. But is that a high flow area? I'm saying it 'cause you got monti in the tank and I assume that it is a generally high flow tank.

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Soft cycle pays off well, didn't it? haha.

 

If it's growing from that spot, then you got the right condition for it. I think turtle grass/weed don't really appreciate high flow. Mine went bald with medium flow. I might be wrong about the flow issue. But is that a high flow area? I'm saying it 'cause you got monti in the tank and I assume that it is a generally high flow tank.

 

interesting...

 

it's a high flow tank, but the return nozzle is angled up from the bottom right, so it flows across the top... and the montis.

 

where that turtle grass is is a little dead-spot. not really DEAD, but not much eddying/swaying of the macro is seen there. i guess that's why the turtle grass emerged there.

 

i want to get a bigger tank, because this one is too packed, i have a hard time cleaning the glass. it looks like crap from the outside, but once scraped it really shows off nicely. however, i can't get to certain spots, and i don;t want to disrupt the life in there rearranging, so i'm thinking about scaling up...

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I love those pics--color-wise and composition-wise they look so natural! Except for what's still visible of the frag plug, everything looks like it could have been shot in the wild. I too love the macros.

 

 

 

--Diane

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Have you tried the Nimble Nano magnet cleaner. Very thin like one is 1/4" and the next step up is 1/2" thickness inside the tank. The are made from super strong Neodymium rare earth magnets. Don't know if you have that much room but really a great cleaner. Pics are nice Mr. A. Really would like to see a FTS as the previous ones looked so good we need to see how it has progressed.

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  • 2 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...
chuckfullservice

Yes I really like the natural look ! I love the different algaes ! Nice work! I often wondered why do we let our tanks cycle the way we do . You have effectively eliminated the standard for cycling aquariums. I wonder why this topic has not come up becuase of this post???

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
MrAnderson

wow i forget about this thread for months at a time.

 

anyhow, a few update shots. not much has changed, corals growing slowly, "THE THING" is still in there (i can't even remember what we decided it was - tube anemone?), the macro cycles through, i get the fuzzy pink afros for a month or two, then turtlegrass for another month in the same spot. the Alcyonium is looking gorgeous, my original hitchiker on the Kaelini LR. i love that i kept it alive.

 

The M. spumosa hasn't been moved in 8 months, and it's neat to see how the colony grows to take advantage of the light and flow. it has encrusted all over a neighboring rock and cemented the 2 pieces of LR together. what's cool is that the neighboring encrustation is starting to plate out.

 

over time, going backwards:

 

p1000263wc2.jpg

 

reef_0051.JPG

 

158.JPG

 

1121.JPG

 

the M. peltiformis:

 

p1000266ka4.jpg

 

reef_0081.JPG

 

DSC00120.jpg

 

the Alcyonium:

 

p1000269qu4.jpg

 

reef_002.JPG

 

0101.JPG

 

i'm just letting the tank do it's own thing, not forcing things. i'm letting macros compete and the dominant ones come and go.i've pruned some growth here and there, and some b!tch kelp every now and then, but otherwise it's pretty much an abandoned child.

 

thanks for looking!

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holdorf333

Nice! I am considering doing the pico thing. LFS around here sells nice FL rock. I'd like to set it up and just let it go, no fish, just low minimal maint. and whatever comes on the rock.

 

FTS, please. :)

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  • 1 month later...

Great looking tank MrA, interesting way to cycle the tank. Maybe you just discovered a new and proven way to do it. Again great job.

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  • 3 weeks later...

some update shots, and the long-requested fts...

 

ok, i'm embarassed. let me just say a la john edwards "blah blah i've been stripped bare... you can beat me up if you want... yadda yadda". i've let this tank go, and it shows. how bad? ok, confession time.

 

i haven't done a water change since last year i think. i've put my hands in the tank maybe twice this year. i change my skimmer cup once a month if i'm lucky. the coraline has bleached in the direct light, but underneath it's still very vibrant. the corals haven't grown maybe as well as they should, but they have nonetheless. don't ask me about parameters because i haven't checked in almost a year.

 

how can i excuse my laziness? well i'd like to say it was part of the plan but it isn't. once i got so far behind in water changes and the corals still grew i figured it might actually HURT to do one. so i've skipped them pretty much permanently. this type of "regimen" in a 6 gallon tank with SPS should've been a death sentence for my corals. no one's more surprised than me that it wasn't.

 

i'm not bragging in any way because the tank isn't all that much anymore to brag about. however i thought it was worthwhile, almost a novelty... "HM!" to post these pics. i guess the SPS is getting Ca and carbonate from dissolution of aragonite. i'm not testing so don't ask.

 

anyhow, the pics:

 

the M. spumosa and [/i]M. peltiformis[/i] have grown to meet.

 

8-9-08_012.jpg

 

the Alcyonium and some turtlegrass.

 

8-9-08_009.jpg

 

the Alcyonium close up. i think it's a really pretty coral, and it's getting huge.

 

8-9-08_011.jpg

 

the turtlegrass is getting a bit out of control, but i like it:

 

8-9-08_008.jpg

 

ok... <wincing> fts:

 

8-9-08_006.jpg

 

there's color there, but it's not on lit portions of the rock. i know, it doesn't look so hot. however, i think it's interesting nonetheless.

 

i'll be breaking down this tank and mixing it with a new reef i'm setting up in lab soon. i jsut can't take care of it at home, and if it's at work i believe it will be a great source of procrastination from work. so i'll be moving the tank to lab where it will get the attention it deserves.

 

stay tuned for new lab tanks, including the coldwater setups linked in my sig.

 

thanks for looking

 

MrA

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AdriftQuasar

I don't think that's turtle grass (Thalassia testudinum), however, it does appear to be maiden's hair (Chlorodesmis spp.).

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