Sunlight Clam Pico II (1.25g)

[travisurfer]

[Khayman]

Wow awsome shots, you even got the gills. Though it has to be said it looks like a too close porn shot . I have a clam now also. It only took less than 2 days for it to attach to it plate coral skelly.

All my freinds and local reefers are super jeious of my little tank.

 

Tinyreef you should stop by my site in a few days I will have the new pics up. I rescaped a bit. (stupid conch got stuck).

[tinyreef]

thanks, khay! the plate base you're using is awesome! like i said, i was a dunce thinking it looked so much like a plate skelly. duh, it IS a plate skeleton!

 

mid-week night update!

 

this weekend i was a bit worried about how the byssal section was looking when i snapped my last round of pics. but right afterwards (in the afternoon), the byssal section looked nice and puffy again. i now suspect it was merely re-positioning itself at the time. like i mentioned before, i think it was anchored (via byssal threads) a couple of weeks ago, i just couldn't see it and didn't want to tug at it to check.

 

now it definitely has anchored down and the timing suggests it was only re-positioning itself. (maybe because of the seasons?)

 

pic taken at night with a LED flashlight providing the lighting. cool, i didn't think it would fluoresce with that. the little flashlight's hella bright though!

 

closeup of the byssal threads. there seems to be one main anchor and a bunch of supplemental smaller threads. the surrounding flesh/tissue is now much poofier/meatier (hopefully, healthier) than the other sicky post.

 

only thing i don't like now is that it's obviously at an angle. but as usual, i'll likely just let it settle into whatever it feels is best for itself. like the baby max is still in a sideways anchoring (attached to the frag plate with the two sarco elegans). meh.

 

and now with DST, i doubt i'll be able to get any daytime pics during the week.

 

side note: the crocea is showing a 2nd layer of growth now. just starting out. the 1st layer's now fully formed (seems to start center and then to the edges). the center seems to be starting on the 2nd layer now.

 

still predominantly dosing (topping off) with kalk. an occasional two-part solution but favoring the #2 half as i've been seeing too much scale buildup. i've also been using sealab #28 as a visual guide but it's been relatively slow in dissolving. still only the one waterchange so far. i really should've done another one but too lazy.

 

thanks for reading!

[travisurfer]

awesome shots tiny

[debbeach13]

great photos and info. I continue to be delighted by this thread.

[Needreefunds]

+1 here, yes more great stuff Tiny!!

 

[travisurfer]

What's this, 4 days without an update?

[tinyreef]

What's this, 4 days without an update?

only so much you can do with clams.

 

actually, there was a very interesting event today but i couldn't get a picture in time. not sure what it was i saw on the byssal gland so i'm going to wait and see if it re-occurs. the gland does seem to expand and contract depending on the activity level/photoperiod and it seems to coincide with the 'sleep' period.

 

prodigal zoa! i lost this polyp within the rockwork earlier this week. i was surprised to see it crawled up halfway up the rockwork! ...or maybe the resident bristleworm placed it there for me. btw i fiddled with the contrast and coloring on this pic though. the typical rendering is pretty "red/yellow" due to the natural lighting.

 

the forgotten step-child of the tank, sarcophyton elegans (one of two frags).

 

the blue hue of crocea, plus "clam prints" on the glass. eww.

 

and the green hue of crocea! turn your head and suddenly it's "green"!

 

well, that's about it for this gloomy grey rainy new jersey day. bleah.

[travisurfer]

lol, awesome. clam gunk=gross

[tinyreef]

lol, awesome. clam gunk=gross

tell me about it! i was looking at the "thing" (i mentioned above) and was like "w-t-f is that?!?"

 

my mind was thinking is that part of the upper mantle extruding thru the byssus somehow? or is it some kind of parasite? (it sorta reminded me of the pearlfish/cucumber commensal relationship, especially since i was looking at the clam's "butt" )

[Noonan]

Very nice! I wonder how our NJ winter sun will treat the tank in the months ahead...

[phishroom]

and the obligatory "money shot" for weet! clam gills!

that central zone is still blanched. the lower section has colored up but the center is still pretty 'bald' (i got it like that though).

 

Best pic in the thread. Bald clam pron.

 

Keep it up.

 

Interesting to see the increase in coloration even as the days get shorter and direct lighting gets less intense.

 

Suggestion on the "Frankenstein" effect: Get some flexible black tubing from Radio Shack, Best Buy, or the audio/video section of Target, etc., and you can wrap it around your tubes. It will look a lot less like life support. Also, perhaps draping something around the entire stand could hide the rest and put more focus on the clam box.

 

Put a sexy shrimp in there and you'll turn it up to 11!

 

 

 

that central zone is still blanched. the lower section has colored up but the center is still pretty 'bald' (i got it like that though).

 

I'm pretty sure the technical term for that "center" section is the Taint.

[tinyreef]

Very nice! I wonder how our NJ winter sun will treat the tank in the months ahead...

not sure myself. i know the corals will be fine, the last tank basically had the same corals.

 

it's the clams that are the wild cards this time around. if they don't seem to be getting enough, i do have an extra 150W MH available to provide supplemental lighting though.

 

we'll see, the darkest days are just before christmas, it'll be lighter (more sunlight) from then on. so i'll see the darkest/dimmest in the upcoming month or so.

 

Best pic in the thread. Bald clam pron.

actually, the official pic is this one:

 

Interesting to see the increase in coloration even as the days get shorter and direct lighting gets less intense.

i think some of the increased pigmentation/blue coloration is just from sunlight exposure rather than lesser photoperiod. but i'm keeping a close eye on symbiont coloration to see if there's any increase as a reaction to the lower photoperiod.

 

Suggestion on the "Frankenstein" effect: Get some flexible black tubing from Radio Shack, Best Buy, or the audio/video section of Target, etc., and you can wrap it around your tubes. It will look a lot less like life support. Also, perhaps draping something around the entire stand could hide the rest and put more focus on the clam box.

thinking about adding some elbows and such to really streamline it more but i'm afraid to muck it up...as usual. >.<

 

Put a sexy shrimp in there and you'll turn it up to 11!

too much work! i'd have to feed the tank then.

 

I'm pretty sure the technical term for that "center" section is the Taint.

i thought it was "chinrest"?

 

 

 

 

thanks for the comments!

[travisurfer]

actually, the official pic is this one:

[Lalani]

^ awesome!

[Needreefunds]

Bwaaaa!! chin rest

[tinyreef]

morning mid-week update!

 

had a school thing appt. so i snuck in a few shots. the overcast cloudy day (pic below shows it pretty well) actually helped me getting the outdoor pictures. on a typical sunny morning, the glare/reflection is simply too bright to get any pictures from outside.

 

a crappy overcast/cloudy day, but the clams and corals still like it. sorry for the reflection/glare but it's a bazillion times worst on a sunny day.

 

here's the indoor version of that same shot above. the crocea's butt-up against the glass so its mantle is flaring out like that. hey, he did it to himself.

 

closeup of the crocea from outside, he's actually a little po'd in this pic. the flashing light of the camera timer spooked him. p*ssy.

edited: photoshopped some of the yellow out. meh.

 

the crocea's coloration though has 'goldened' a bit more imo. i think this is in reaction to the lower autumn lighting (i.e. an increase in zooxanth/symbiotic algae). not sure though, jmo on the coloration versus older shots.

 

closeup of the maxima and elegans from outside. the maxima's attachment to the frag disc (that holds the two sarcos and xenia) is kicking it up in the front there. pita.

edit: added this, also photoshopped to eliminate some yellowing

 

here's another angle shot from outside. pretty crappy quality but it was coooold (24F) and i had enough.

 

thanks for reading!

[travisurfer]

You never fail to disappoint. lol, winter is coming. It snowed here on the coast this week.

[Lalani]

ARGH, tiny!!!! I just noticed the little icon at the bottom corner of your sig... and despite my doubts and better judgment, I clicked on it.........

[evilc66]

You didn't get Rick-Rolled did you?

[tinyreef]

ARGH, tiny!!!! I just noticed the little icon at the bottom corner of your sig... and despite my doubts and better judgment, I clicked on it.........

hehehehe!

 

thanks for looking! sorry for the crappy pic quality. the lighting, subjects, angle, camera, photographer, and weather aren't really conducive to great pics.

[Lalani]

You didn't get Rick-Rolled did you?

 

And tiny don't be silly, the pics are great!

[tinyreef]

thanks for the vote of confidence, lani! but this round i did photoshop the pics a little to compensate for the dominate yellow coloring from the sunlight. tried to make it look more 'white light'. meh.

 

some updated top/down views thru the acrylic viewer i had mocked up, hence the blurry sides. it's still very yellow color dominate though. *sigh*

 

^^^just to document how they're doing more than anything else at this point.

 

here's some shots of the morning sun in the background (8AMish). disregard the chiller plumbing/piping/hardware/bleh.

 

the window's dirty on the outside. gimme a break.

 

at least i finally swapped out the 'jenga block' supports.

 

now i just gotta get off my butt and do some shipping/packing stuff for someone.

 

thanks for reading!

[travisurfer]

Awesome as always tiny. Here's a thought though, you could make an acryllic box that covers the whole back part of the tank(filter and zombie cables) and then have it carry on down to the stand so that everything appears to be self-inclosed. You could do the same for the bottom part of the stand as well. Just a thought since you are good with acryllic and whatnot.

[tinyreef]

"good with acrylic?" uh, i can barely flex a bendie straw.

 

but i think i understand what you're talking about. the problem comes from getting the water back and forth/up and down. right now, i'm just using a microjet to push the chiller closed-loop thru.

 

i need a separate housing/sump/refugium to give me the space to house the microjet and return from the chiller/heater. the hob is really there more to house that entire concept than filtering or water movement.

 

if i try to move the setup underneath (i.e. a sump; which i would dearly like to, in order to clean up the "look"), i'm not sure how to safely do it without drilling or some similar feat.

 

i have been thinking about replacing the stand as you mentioned though. it just looks so fugly with water stains and antique look, which it is. >.< i've been thinking about moving the tank to another stand temporarily and re-sand/re-varnish this one. it does house the tank and chiller unit perfectly though.

 

i've also thought about replacing the hob with a newer sleeker unit. black or something more slimline to hide some of the contraptions. that AC hob is probably 10-years old. bleh.

 

do like your suggestions though. i might look around today for a black stand that's enclosed to hide everything better. the project started as a simple clean easy setup. obvisouly that's morphed and mutated to a life support setup for these clams.

 

at least they're purty.