Nebthet's 57g REEF-NEW Pix! 04-19-2011

[nebthet]

Kodak Digital camera. Not the best one, but it works.

[nebthet]

Bump for early evening people.

[nebthet]

Wow... someone must really not like my tank to remove my bump for the evening peeps. . I was just bumping it because I normally do my updates at 3am when not too many people are on.

[fewskillz]

That is a great looking Elegance. Nice clowns too. Tank videos are cool.

[nebthet]

Thanks for the compliment. I have a long way to go though before it grows out. The only livestock I want to add now is one more Bengaii cardinal and maybe 2 green chromis.

[nebthet]

Well it has been over a month without any updates. I have continued to have some highs and lows but things are all working themselves out now.

 

Lost a few heads of candy canes... but not all of them.

 

I managed to clean off some of the algae from the back of the tank.... what a pain in the arse.. I don't know how some people keep it so clean.. within a few days though the algae was growing back.

So I made an order, and got myself some Phoseguard by Seachem, the 500ml bottle. Used about 3/4 of it and put it in the AC70.

Within a week I have noticed a reduction in the bryopsis, but the hair aglae (which I have less of) is still going strong.), but I don't mind the looks of where it is in patches right now.

 

I have started dosing for Calcium and Alkalinity. I am using Kent Tech A & B, in addition to Kent Coral-Accel. The later two I am dosing 6ml each, and 10ml of the Accel.

Within the first day of using this, I noticed all my SPS seemed sooo much happier. Polyp extension noticeably imbroved and so has color.

 

The baby clowns are still doing good. They are getting a little more harassed now that I put my Koralia3 back in this tank to get more flow. I am now up to 48x.

 

Elegance is still doing nicely. My large female clown still is testing it out for hosting. Took me a month to even get some decent shots of her buried in it.

 

So to the pictures: (Note: All these shots are taken with flash so you don't get the nice flourescent colors of the corals like you otherwise would see... )

 

 

Omen is still growing and is almost the size of Jigsaw the picasso now. I would say less than half an inch difference.

As you can see though, he still hasn't developed the Onyx coloration.

 

Big Momma checking out an Asternia Star. I have 2 of these in my tank.

 

Stripes, the Bengaii Cardinal (sorry for the crappy pic.. camera focused on the green algae spots and not the fish) has gotten larger now and no longer hides from the other fish.

 

Hermit Pile

 

Green Bottlebrush, taken with flash... has been encrusting very nicely.

 

Unknown Acro front side, the polyps end out more now than they used to since starting to dose.

 

The back side of the same Acro, showing there is new growth of branches starting. woo hoo.

 

This Acro really extended it's polyps after.

 

GSP is liking it's new spot at the front right of the tank. Close up shot.

 

Coco Worm

 

Dendros and my Clam, who loves moving himself around in a semi cirlce all the time.

 

I finally got some more epoxy to put the purple digi in place.

 

I lost one stalk of Xenia, but it left some material on the live rock where it was, so I am hoping it will grow back there. The other stalks seem ok for now.

 

The MontiCap has really grown out and is shooting off to the right a little more.

 

The Elegance coral, Big, expanded and happy, even with an intruder.

 

 

 

I had been trying for a long time to get pics of her when she was testing out the elegance, but every time I even tried to move from the couch before she would stop what she was doing and come to the front of the tank looking for food.

Tonight, she didn't do that, so I took the opportunity to also get a video while I could.

 

 

 

Enjoy.

[SiLkk]

Looks good, are you taking the pics with the same Kodak as the video?

[nebthet]

Yes I am SiLkk, it is the same camera. It isn't a bad camera, but I personally like SLR's but cannot afford a Canon EOS right now. So I borrowed the Kodak from my mother the last time I saw her since she wasn't using anything and I needed something a little better than my point and click.

Speaking of which... I should get some batteries for my point and click because it takes some good actinic shots where the Kodak doesn't.

[nebthet]

Just some more pix.

 

 

 

 

Duncans are doing well.

 

Moved the pink zoas from the one rock to the front area where the other zoas are.

 

 

 

 

Profile of Runt showing him just starting the development of his tail bar.

 

Profile of Omen showing as the mid-bar develops more the black is thickening around it. Hopefully, this is the development of the Onyx coloring.

 

 

My silly baby clowns have taken to hosting some GHA for now. Thankfully they do not stay in it all the time.

 

Had a nice suprise in my tank the other day. Baby Nassarius snails. I saw two at once and then caught a pic of this one yestarday.

 

 

VID of babies hosting GHA.

 

[ap123]

Very cool progression in this tank.

BTW, one of my clowns is named Omen, too.

 

Happy New Year!

[imcosmokramer]

you haven't taken pictures all year!!

[nebthet]

Oh *GASP* No!!!! I better do that tomorrow then. I am due for a front tank shot too. Haven't taken one of those in a while. LOL.

[PBUEHH]

Big Momma checking out an Asternia Star. I have 2 of these in my tank.

 

what ever settings you used for this shot, try to replicate.

[nebthet]

Hey PBUEEH, I try to replicate with the settings as I don't normally change them, unfortunately the stupid camera I have is autofocus only so it is definately hit and miss. I am beginning to hate it. I need lotsa $$ so I can upgrade to a nice Canon EOS.

Also I noticed if the batteries on the camera are getting down the pic quality goes to the toilet.

 

AP123 ... gotta love the name Omen, especially on Onyx or B&W Clowns.

 

imcosmokramer .... you know.. I have to admit, every time I see your username, I bad words come to my mind instead of what it says. I don't know why....

But without further adoo, a few pics for you.

 

Clam has really buried himself in the sand so that just his top is out.

 

Duncans are happy as ever, even butted up very close to the GSP.

 

Xenia, the stalks are doing the typical melting back and leaving their foot on the rocks to grow back.

 

The crappiest FTS I have ever taken... I will add a new one in a few days when I get new batteries.

 

Tank, along side my messy stand where my lizards are housed.

 

And my 10g that is cycling. It used to be a 25g in the kitchen, but something leaked one night, nearly caused an elecrical fire, but thankfully the sparks caused a power surge and the electricity went out long enough for me to rip the cords out of the wall.

Still not sure what leaked, but I am thinking it was the AC70 but the evidence on the back of this tank. But it isn't leaking much here.

Thankfully, I didn't loss any equiptment, especially my lights. Pulled them out in time.

 

This tank I hope to be a temporary one. I am looking for a 15g high, or better yet, 20g extra high. Same width and length, but taller. If I am lucky enough to find an AP24 or Biocube29 tank only I will switch out for that instead.

This is basically the backup home for my baby onyx clowns. If I find Big Momma getting waaaay too rough on them for my likes I am gonna move them to this tank. Some days are better than others and Omen has a nipped dorsal fin so I am keeping my eyes on them.

 

So what do you think??

[nebthet]

Ok, since there are no comments... more pix and a vid.

 

Fiddled with camera setting more.. I can get some better pix out of the preset settings rather than the manual and with no flash.

 

Bottlebrush color showing, though still subdued than is seen in person.

 

Elegance coral

 

then at night with moonlights and clown hosting.

 

Monticap showing the green and pink coloration.

moonlights

 

GSP

 

FTS at night with moonlights and ambient lighting from kitchen behind.

 

 

Clown hosting elegance under moonlights

[Catbus]

I like the pics of the big momma she's awesome!

[nebthet]

Thanks.. I really like her.. and hope that she breeds for me in the future.

[fewskillz]

Looks good! I like your tank. I just setup a 55 myself.

[nebthet]

I saw your 55g.. looks goos so far... you gonna keep it as FOWLR or possibly add a coral or two?

You have a lot of tanks though. lol...wish I had the room for that many... but I don't.

 

Thanks for the compliment on my tank. It has taken a while but things are coming a long and slowly getting the algae issue under control.. more so on the back of the glass than any where else.

[fewskillz]

Yeah, I'm going to add some softies. I have a feeling that tank will always have slightly high nitrates, so I don't want to risk anything that could be sensitive to that. I do have a lot of tanks, did you see the list I posted this afternoon?

[nebthet]

Yeah I saw the list.. that was nuts. I wish I could get away with that here, but unfortunately the apartment I am in is a house made into apartments so all 3 tenants are on one fuse panel and our bedrooms and livingrooms are all on the same curcuit. Only 2 plugs in my kitchen are on a seperate curcuit from any one elses, so when the fuse goes because too much is plugged in somewhere, my tank keeps running just fine.

 

I had a 25g in my kitchen until it decided to leak and saltwater managed to travel 3 feet horizontal and hit the electrical outlet.

It is a good thing I have a good nose and I was home. Pulled out the plugs in time so I didn't loose my lighting... and tore it down real quick and transfered stuff the next day over to the current 10g, which I want to upgrade to anything between a 15gh to 20gxh. Not fun...

 

For this new tank though I think I want to do softies as well. Put some xenia in there, my small leather frag that hasn't grown in like a year, and maybe get a kenya tree.

 

Then I am thinking of perhaps trying my hand at some acans, get a few more coco worms and clams for my bigger tank. I still have that huge space in the back with nothing in it.

[nebthet]

OK... I was going back through my pix and I realized there were a few corals I had which are officially a year old. My Duncans and Zoas which has grown nicely since I first got them so I decided to put in a month by month of the pix.

 

Duncans: Growth without direct feeding

 

Jan 2009

 

April 2009

 

May 2009

 

Aug 2009

 

Sept 2009

 

Oct 2009

 

Dec 2009

 

Jan 27, 2010

 

 

Radioactive Dragoneye Zoas

Jan 2009

 

Feb 2009

 

Aug2009

 

Sept 2009

 

Oct 2009

 

Dec 2009

 

Jan 27 2010

 

 

Also I wanted to show the growth progression of the first 4 months of the sps I got from Nematoad.

 

 

Digis

Sept 2009

 

Oct 2009

 

Dec 2009

 

Jan 27 2010

 

 

 

MontiCap

Sept 2009

 

Oct 2009

 

Nov 2009

 

Dec 2009

 

Jan 27 2010

 

 

 

Green Bottlebrush

Sept 2009

 

Oct 2009

 

Nov 2009

 

Dec 2009

 

Jan 27 2010

 

 

Then a couple various other pix I took.

 

Omen

 

Runt

 

Spot

 

Jigsaw

 

Baby nassarius snail with Purple chiton piggybacker.

 

Unknown red branching macroalgae

[fewskillz]

Thats some good growth! Looks like it's been a productive year in your reef tank. Congrats.

[nebthet]

It has been doing pretty good considering I break the tap water rule and don't have a skimmer.

Things which this year I will be slowly looking to resolve. First by getting a skimmer that doesn't put a ton of microbubbles in my system and then later on either buying a RO\DI unit or buying the water locally, but that will depend on me finding a new job.

[fewskillz]

I would get the RO unit first.