Violinist's 20 Long - 3 Years!

[HernandezJ35]

dude i hate you lol...i love your scape it makes your tank look way bigger...at first glance it looks deeper and bigger almost like a 40Br awesome job and nice score on the shrooms and feather dusters

[violinist]

That is a great looking tank. I am often jealous of the longer and shallower tanks.

 

I like the new dusters, I had considered getting a couple while I was there and just got a peppermint shrimp instead. I'll be adding dusters at some point though. They look great and are too interesting not to have.

 

Had a hard time (or MWC guy did) getting one that wasn't too firmly attached to a rock in the tank or attached to other worms. If you like them and you have the space, they have a colony of about 5 or 6 that are so wrapped together they are never going to be able to sell them as individuals. I bet you could get a hell of a deal. Plus they are different types. One's fan almost had a greenish hue. I'm sure you saw them there.

 

I'm dosing phyto so hopefully there will be enough food around for them to do well.

 

dude i hate you lol...i love your scape it makes your tank look way bigger...at first glance it looks deeper and bigger almost like a 40Br awesome job and nice score on the shrooms and feather dusters

 

 

Need to start planning out the left island. Not a lot of real estate left to play with on the sandbed and the right island is obviously the softie kingdom.

[Apoptosis]

Had a hard time (or MWC guy did) getting one that wasn't too firmly attached to a rock in the tank or attached to other worms. If you like them and you have the space, they have a colony of about 5 or 6 that are so wrapped together they are never going to be able to sell them as individuals. I bet you could get a hell of a deal. Plus they are different types. One's fan almost had a greenish hue. I'm sure you saw them there.

 

I'm dosing phyto so hopefully there will be enough food around for them to do well.

 

Ya, I saw the group that you're talking about. And I have the space. I don't want to add anyone that requires dosing just yet. I have my eye on a bubble coral

[HernandezJ35]

your making me wanna rescape my tank like right now lol...i really need to pick up a couple mp-10s for my 20L and my gf's 29g lol...how does it do in your tank?

[violinist]

your making me wanna rescape my tank like right now lol...i really need to pick up a couple mp-10s for my 20L and my gf's 29g lol...how does it do in your tank?

 

I was afraid of the flow at first to be honest. But over time I increased it and increased it. Now it's on full throttle, Reef Crest mode, and nothing complains. There is still a relatively low flow zone at the far end of the tank where I stick the mushrooms and the space between the islands is moderate where the torch and xenia are hanging out.

 

It's a winner for what I'm doing. If you were thinking of going heavy SPS or something, I think it might not be enough.

[HernandezJ35]

not to much sps just kinda mixed reef...she likes softies and lps...just waiting til we move out to setup up our big tank

[violinist]

The cool thing about it, or cool to me, is how much undertow it creates. The water doesn't just shoot out to the far end and bounce back. There's this massive surge of water pulled towards the bottom of the vortech every time it spins up. Neat stuff.

 

You may or may not have noticed over time I almost moved it further down the wall that it is mounted on. Too close to the top, it makes these whirlpools that suck a big tube of air down from the surface and then blasts the tank full of bubbles lol.

 

Only complaint is it whines as it spins up and down. Mine does at any rate, and loud enough to be heard over the skimmer. You get used to it, but still...

[HernandezJ35]

yeah but if it can replace 2 powerheads and free up visual space...i have heard some bad things about the mp10's but than again there was that post trying to scare people that owned koralias thinking they were gonna rust lol

[violinist]

The whine is the ONLY complaint, and I would certainly buy another one.

[HernandezJ35]

i need moneyz for 1 lol yeah i have heard they are awesome pumps i really wanna pick up a couple

[Arkayology]

Yay new FTS! I like where you are going with the tank. Stuff needs to grow out faster though.

[violinist]

Yeah it does. Guess I haven't really been adding many corals either though. Trying to think about what would look good mounted on that left island as far as lps/sps. Also some of the higher altitude on the right island, but that area gets blasted pretty good by the mp10.

[Arkayology]

Yeah it does. Guess I haven't really been adding many corals either though. Trying to think about what would look good mounted on that left island as far as lps/sps. Also some of the higher altitude on the right island, but that area gets blasted pretty good by the mp10.

 

You people and your fancy powerheads. Well now look where it has gotten you lol.

[violinist]

Remaining chunk of flame algae is now a pleasant memory. Torn up and then blended by the vortech.

 

The skimmer is about to get tossed out the window as well. Constant ####ing with the surface attachment and the pump sucking air.

 

It's 2010. Things shouldn't be this difficult...

[Arkayology]

Remaining chunk of flame algae is now a pleasant memory. Torn up and then blended by the vortech.

 

The skimmer is about to get tossed out the window as well. Constant ####ing with the surface attachment and the pump sucking air.

 

It's 2010. Things shouldn't be this difficult...

 

Take the pre-skim box off or get an ATO set up?

[violinist]

I have an ato. The problem isn't water level in the tank, it's amount of water that flows into the stupid box for the pump to grab it and blast it into the skimmer. If not sitting just perfectly, magically aligned to 7 stars, the flow into the cup isn't enough to keep up with the pump and it starts sucking air.

 

And the fact that the skimmer pulls up a cup of water every day is nuts.

 

The box is held onto the pump by two little thumb screws. It's just a really lame ass design. Seems like the more stuff I buy, the more I realize a lot of stuff sold in this hobby falls in the 'really lame ass design' category....

 

I'm on the edge of getting rid of it and just putting the AC70 on stuffed full of filter floss. Maybe I'll shoot a note to the maker and ask for some advice.

[violinist]

Not much new to report.

 

The feather duster which came with the shroom rock crawled across the tank last night and made a new home in 'the valley'.

 

Relocated the favia higher up on the rock. Read that the sandbed irritates them, plus it was getting a little browner than I remembered. Did some minor shuffling around of the yumas and xenia. Xenia hasn't pulsed since the day it was given to me. Need to shoot the guy a note and ask him if it ever pulsed at all. If not, I don't see the point of having it to be honest.

 

Fish'd out the last of the flame algae pieces floating around, or just about. Another piece always seems to appear just when I think I got the last of it.

 

Used my fish net to scoop off the shells and pebbles which were littering the top of the sand bed. Got a lot of it out, things look a lot cleaner.

 

Nitrates and phosphates still 0. Alk seems to be at 8 now since doing a WC with the new salt mix. Not sure I really trust this API alk test. Might pick up another just to compare.

 

Made vanity signature banner because I was bored.

 

Still battling the ####ing skimmer...

 

Going to drive past a LFS tomorrow, the one that has some tunicates I have been eyeing. I am really interested in getting them, but at the same time fearing I am pushing the limits of how many filter feeders the tank can support. There are 3 of the feather duster worms and the little freebie scallop and clam in there. All still alive and I've been dosing the phytoplankton every other day.

 

Chance it or not? Hmmm...

[HernandezJ35]

the new sig is awesome...i need some of those lol...wanna trade?

[violinist]

Picked up a Harlequin shrimp and a big chocolate chip star to feed it. Also snagged a couple cool looking zoas frags and Sissy at MWC was cool enough to frag me off a head of one of her frogspawns.

 

Pics when things are chilled out.

[HernandezJ35]

pics or it didnt happen lol jk...nice score cant wait to see the shrimp...how much was it if i may ask lol...just wondering cuz i wanna pick some up but the only local place that has em is petco and they want like $30

[violinist]

Yeah same ballpark, 26 bucks. Plus they only eat those starfish, so another 11 bucks for a big chocolate chip starfish. Guess we'll see how long that lasts before having to buy another. I cut off a chunk of leg and the shrimp is nibbling on it, the rest I threw in the freezer.

 

Also still have some of those asterinas (sp?) crawling around and I read they will munch on those as well.

 

Oh I got a Sea Squirt as well for feeding. Turkey baster wasn't quite cutting it.

[HernandezJ35]

sounds like a good deal...yeah i read like 1 leg every week or 2 depending how fast they eat or how fast it breaks down in your tank lol

[Arkayology]

Picked up a Harlequin shrimp and a big chocolate chip star to feed it. Also snagged a couple cool looking zoas frags and Sissy at MWC was cool enough to frag me off a head of one of her frogspawns.

 

Pics when things are chilled out.

 

Awesome! I hope that the shrimp takes well to your tank. VERY jealous.

[violinist]

Shrimp isn't feeling photogenic so I guess its pic will have to wait, but here are some others

 

I don't know the names of either of these, but at 14 bucks a frag I thought they were worth picking up. I think the zoa garden is just about complete at this point.

 

 

 

 

These are some older ones I've had a while. All the other zoas are growing like mad, but this frag is having some trouble. There's a hitchhiker crab I see in this area on the rare occassion, and I'm starting to think it's eating on them.

 

 

Here's part of the shroom rock I got the other week, don't think I put a picture up of them. The last couple days they've really been spreaddddding out. There's a brittle star living underneath the ones in front.

 

 

The mermaid's shaving brush is showing new growth:

 

 

Here's the new frogspawn. I'd like to get this on the left island, but not sure how to work it in. Right now it's just on the sand. Will have to see just how big it puffs up, I may have put it a bit close to the torch.

 

 

Here's the right island. I think it looks good. There's some more room to work with, but I don't know what else I'd add and whatever would need to deal with the vortech being on top of it. Open to ideas... Notice the favia has been moved up to the top there. It's started to get back to its nice bright green coloring.

 

 

The left island is a little sparse. I had planned on this being SPS-land but I'm no longer sure about getting a bunch of sps. Not in this tank anyway. Have had a hard time thinking about how to populate this side. The scape is difficult to deal with and those worms are sort of dominating. You can't even see the birds nest behind the upper right worm.

 

[HernandezJ35]

awesome looks really good man...it all looks really natural