Nano Sapiens 12g - Ye Olde Mixed Reef

[Nano sapiens]

Couple quick updates (more like a bunch of mini-emergencies)

 

1. My one and only Acro, a green Milli, took a swan dive into my Rics and managed a sideways roll onto the SB. Luckily, minimal damage done. I reglued it more securly back onto the LR, but I used too much super glue and some of it ended up on the stalks. Good news is it only took a week or so for the tissue to grow back and I'm starting to see a small amount of encrusting base starting up. The color has remained a nice forest green, but I can still see some brown (going to cut back on the daily feedings once I see good encrusting growth).

 

2. Small Acan colony managed a 'half-pike, double gainer with a twist' into the middle of a Ric. I came home to see this tangled mess and it sure wasn't pretty. In case anyone is wondering, a Ric will clubber an Acan in this situation and not even show a scar. Luckily, I only lost two small Acan polyps out of a group of five.

 

Placed an order today for coral with a Vendor, which is something I don't do often, and that will just about do it for this small tank.. Pics to come...

Edited September 23, 2012 by Nano sapiens

[Nano sapiens]

Found a new, very unorthodox way to get closeups with my ancient digital camera. Enjoy the pics.

 

Purple Ricordia florida (I adjusted this pic to get the true color of the Ric, ignoring the rest):

 

 

 

Orange Ricordia yumas (Mama left Junior #2 (below) with the Floridas and migrated 8" to the back of the tank with Junior #1):

 

 

 

Florida Rics Group Shot:

 

 

'Speckled Fire & Ice' Zoanthids:

 

 

'Oxides' Zoanthids:

 

 

SPS Group Shot (Montipora setosa, Pavona varians & 'Sunset' Montipora):

 

 

Pavona and Sunset Monti about to do battle:

 

 

LE Tyree M. setosa "In the pink" ('Stunner Strips' too bright! )

 

 

Green Acropora millepora (super close-up of polyps peaking through the Super-glue):

 

[nano_tank]

On 9/8/2012 at 4:51 PM, Nano sapiens said:

'Lip 2.0':

 

Most important thing to keep in mind is that acrylic is brittle (witness my first attempt), so remember to support the piece properly when working on it. If you don't have fancy power tools, no worries, just need a few simple tools and a few 'tricks'.

 

Tools: Vice, Hacksaw, Drill (w/3/16" drill bit), Flat File, Round File

 

Started off with a piece of 14.75 x 3.5 x 3/16" acrylic. Traced the pattern for the back part and started to drill holes, being careful not to drill holes below the traced line:

 

 

Continued all the way around, keeping holes close together. Next, used the drill to take out the material in between each hole and used the hack saw to cut any vertical or horizontal lines:

 

 

To end up with this:

 

 

Grabbed a round file and filed down to the traced line:

 

 

Fit the lip onto the tank and traced the front, bowed contour:

 

 

Used the Hacksaw to cut the front contour:

 

 

 

Ignore any sharp curves as you can get these easily with a file later.

 

1-1/2 hours later...all done:

 

 

 

From what I have witnessed over many years, most fish that jump dart up the aquarium wall before launching themselves into oblivion. Having a 1" or greater lip around an open top tank can go a long way to keeping the fish where they belong...in the tank.

Awesome work as usual! I wish I had these tank lips, would have saved quite a few fish from jumping into the back chambers!

[buddythelion]

Speckled fire and ice are looking great! And great shot of those yumas, I wonder how you're getting the pics so close now?

 

And which vendor did you decide to get corals from? I'm curious.

 

Tank looks great as always.

[Nano sapiens]

Speckled fire and ice are looking great! And great shot of those yumas, I wonder how you're getting the pics so close now?

 

And which vendor did you decide to get corals from? I'm curious.

 

Tank looks great as always.

 

Thanks. I got to thinking about how to augment the zoom capability of my camera and the idea came to mind that if my eye needed a magnifying glass to see very close up, why not the camera. So, I taped a magnifying reader glass in front of the camera lens so that it is already starting out at 3X. Then just use the normal zoom settings.

 

I have an order with Vivid since they have just what I am looking for. Should be here on Wed, so stay tuned

 

I used Picasa to adjust these to 'normal' coloration. Nice editor...thanks again for the tip.

 

Lastly, I looked closely at that piece of LR that your Yuma was attached to and I see (3) additional tiny Yumas on there. I placed the piece where these little ones can get some light (and added a few other tiny 'mystery mushrooms' living in dark places in the tank) so we'll see if they all grow up.

Edited September 24, 2012 by Nano sapiens

[Gramophone]

Love your ricordea!

[Spirofucci]

Wow! Everything is sooooo purdy!

[Nano sapiens]

Love your ricordea!

 

Thanks. Nearly all the Floridas came from Coral Morpholigic (great Vendor!) and the Yumas from local sources.

[Nano sapiens]

Wow! Everything is sooooo purdy!

 

Well, thank you! The Stunner LED strips are bringing out some nice coloration.

[Nano sapiens]

Awesome work as usual! I wish I had these tank lips, would have saved quite a few fish from jumping into the back chambers!

 

Thank you. I think all top-less tanks should have removable lips as a standard feature.

[jball1125]

Great shots man. Love the new rics.

[Nano sapiens]

Great shots man. Love the new rics.

 

Thanks. These are actually 'old' Rics (the orange Yuma I've had for over 10 years, the Floridas for nearly 4 years. I think they could easily out live me

[buddythelion]

Just curious, what's the maintenance for this tank?

[Nano sapiens]

Just curious, what's the maintenance for this tank?

 

5% WC (2X/wk). Vacuum SB (1X/wk with WC). Clean glass. Dismantle/clean pump every 3rd month. Dismantle/clean Hydor oscillator once a month. Remove detritus from back chamber once a month. Kalk added via the ATOs, occasional Alk supplement (Seachem Reef Builder). Few drops of Iodine a week.

[metrokat]

Macro shots look amazing. What was the unorthodox way of clicking the pictures? a waterproof case?

[Nano sapiens]

Macro shots look amazing. What was the unorthodox way of clicking the pictures? a waterproof case?

 

From a few posts up:

 

'Thanks. I got to thinking about how to augment the zoom capability of my camera and the idea came to mind that if my eye needed a magnifying glass to see very close up, why not the camera. So, I taped a magnifying reader glass in front of the camera lens so that it is already starting out at 3X. Then just use the normal zoom settings.'

 

Actually, I think I can get even closer in. Maybe give it a try this weekend

[Nano sapiens]

Got in a shipment today from VIVID:

 

ORA Red Planet

Northern Lights Granulosa

Darth Maul Paly (second time...hopefully a charm)

Hawaiian Tropic Zoanthids

 

Corals were nice and chilled in the box, but seem to have recovered (better a bit cold than too hot).

 

Just mounted them all up, so they look like crap at the moment. I'll take a few pics on the weekend

[Nano sapiens]

Here's my ORA Red Planet frag and some Hawaiian Tropic Zoas (lower left, lower right). RP is not quite what I was expecting since I've never seen one in person. This frag was a very washed out orange, but is slowly showing a bit more color after a few days, but no PE to speak of:

 

 

 

 

Northern Lights Granulosa (odd yellow/cream color with just a hint of green):

 

 

Darth Maul is a sad, shriveled up little polyp. Fingers crossed it perks up, but likely not...

 

All these frags were really chilled due to an oversized cold-pack in the styro box.

[jball1125]

Hope they get better for yous oon. My darth mauls are looking good but I have noticed zero growth from them. Funny how there can be such a difference in behavior between different color morphs.

[Nano sapiens]

Hope they get better for yous oon. My darth mauls are looking good but I have noticed zero growth from them. Funny how there can be such a difference in behavior between different color morphs.

 

Thanks. I've had one of these once before and it was very slow (one extra polyp in 4 months). I moved it a few inches and it melted, so whatever you do, don't move them.

[jball1125]

Thanks. I've had one of these once before and it was very slow (one extra polyp in 4 months). I moved it a few inches and it melted, so whatever you do, don't move them.

 

Ill keep that in mind.

[JR!]

Mine were the same way

[Nano sapiens]

Mine were the same way

 

Touchy the Darth Mauls are...

 

Mine never even opened up and only took a week to disappear. It is likely that they just got too cold in the shipping box. I am also loosing half of my Hawaiian Tropics zoas (I had initially split the colony into two groups). Odd how one group is doing fine and the other isn't, but both are only an inch away from each other.

[metrokat]

From a few posts up:

 

'Thanks. I got to thinking about how to augment the zoom capability of my camera and the idea came to mind that if my eye needed a magnifying glass to see very close up, why not the camera. So, I taped a magnifying reader glass in front of the camera lens so that it is already starting out at 3X. Then just use the normal zoom settings.'

 

Actually, I think I can get even closer in. Maybe give it a try this weekend

i like it.

[Nano sapiens]

I've been very curious to see how much PAR my (6) LED Stunner Strip setup with reflectors was putting out. I knew it had to be a decent number since I have a colored up and encrusting A. millepora (plus other Acros doing okay), a M. setosa that turned pink (typically orange in lower light) and some Rics that are sliding off their rocks looking for lower light conditions. So I cobbled together a PAR meter using an Apogee SQ-120 sensor ('electric') and a digital multimeter.

 

One of the specific things I was looking at was the percentage increase when using the Ecoxotic individual reflectors. What I ended up with was around a 25% increase in PAR (measured 5-1/2" away from the light source, just under the water surface). Unfortunately, this is quite a bit shy of the manufacturers 'double the output with reflectors' claim, but perhaps they have different testing methods that give a better result.

 

Extremes (with reflectors):

408 PAR - 3" away from lights, center of LED array

221 PAR - 5-1/2" away from lights. just under the water surface, center of LED array.

58 PAR - 17" from lights, on the sand bed, back corner

 

PAR numbers obtained for various coral locations:

 

All-in-all, not too bad for 1/4W/ea LEDs. Since the SPS and everything else is looking pretty good, I'm going to let the tank be 'as is' for a few months. If my RP doesn't color up sufficiently, then I may add a Panorama Pro for a bit more punch.