BigRok's Little Rocks

[.Newman.]

it looks nice

[Mr. Microscope]

Nice shots! Are those zoas your favorites in the tank?

[BigRok]

Thanks guys.

 

I do like the blue zoas. I have always had a thing for them since the first time I saw them.

I do like everything in my tank though. All the the zoas are nice, but harder to see at times.

[Mr. Microscope]

Blue? Do you mean your tubs or are the ones with orange skirts supposed to have blue centers?

 

Edit: oh wait, I do see they look blue in your FTS. Cool. If I use them for your banner, I can adjust the image to bring the blue to look more like they look in your FTS. If that is indeed the case, I'll show you the adjustment first before using it to make sure it's an accurate representation of their true color.

[BigRok]

Awesome, thanks man!

 

On a happier note, the brown digi that was always brown, but was supposd to be blue, is lightening up it's polyps a bit. The green one is also getting a lot more green.

 

There may be hope for these corals yet!

[Mr. Microscope]

 

Okay BigRok! Here's the banner I made. To use this, just hit reply to this message and copy and paste the code into your signature. I even have it linked for you. I think you'll have to get rid of your ticker in order for it to work. Just put the ticker into your first post if you want to keep it. Enjoy!

[BigRok]

Awesome! It looks so good!

Thanks a bunch Eric, I definately owe you a beer sometime.

[.Newman.]

this site's signature program messes up the ticker banner once you originally paste its code into the sig and save. to use the ticker you need to literally make another one and paste it in the sig everytime you add something to your sig (otherwise it wont let you add something like a Microspoce signature)

[pikemartin]

Wow you're tank looks great. Setup awsome!!!

[BigRok]

So I haven't cleaned the tank in quite a while, it looks a bit of a mess.

I don't think there's really enough of anything in this tank to support the corals growth, so I think they're stunted a little.

Also the lemon-lime acro RTN'd and fell to it's doom in the sandbed.

 

I might try to get a little more growth out of the SPS with some supplements, but due to an impending move, I think this tank will end up being transferred to my 20 long eventually. I guess we'll see how it goes.

[.Newman.]

dont give up! the part of it in your sig looks very nice, I'm sure you can revive that clean look in your tank!

[BigRok]

Yeah, I think once I move I may consider setting it back up, but I am definately allowing my 20 gallon to consume it's contents for now,and if I decide to reset it up afterwards, I'll just start fresh with a new setup.

 

Also as far as a growout period went, this tank definitely did not grow much at all!

At first, a few corals grew a good chunk, and then they coloured up, but since then, nothing has changed in at least a couple months.

 

[BigRok]

Final update for this tank as it stands.

 

With the conclusion of this contest, I feel a little blue that this tank doesn't fit very well into my space and lifestyle. I won't be completely taking it down, but I will be doing some major changes to it. The light will be changing, and I will mostly be using the tank as a frag tank which will reside on a side table in my office. Most of the livestock will be going into my 20 gallon, and some of the softies from that tank will take residence in this one.

 

I would like to thank everyone who participated in this contest, and especially those who stuck with it through to the end. Your tanks were also a big inspiration to me, and you all did an amazing job developing and implementing your ideas.

My tank ultimately ended with mixed feelings. I love the overall feel of it and I still love the scape. I am a little disappointed with the growth, but that is primarily because I didn't have all the time in the world to tend to it, and a few months in the past year were quite hectic with work and involved me out of town for extended periods of time. I also removed some of the zoanthids at the end to incorporate into the 20 gallon early. I think had I given some more attention to feedings and automated the system fully, it could have been quite succesful. The greatest challenge the last few months posed, was the inability to add anything to the system as new challenges arose. Typically I would add or change a component to offset some aspect in system. Ultimately in the end, I think my corals will do better in the 20 gallon where it's more automated and I pay more attention to the tank. The corals will also benefit from more feedings and available nutrients in that system.

 

So enough with the ranting, here are some final shots of the tank.

 

Starting with the media rack, that I don't think was really shown in my thread anywhere.

It was a very simple rack with filter floss on top, changed every week, give or take. Underneath that is a bag of carbon.

 

Here's a few shots of some of the corals.

You can see where some of them struggled and some of them did a little better.

Some of the coloration was good, and some was still fairly bland.

I also found it interesting how some corals thrived at the beginning, and then withered away, while some seemed to persevere a little better.

 

Here's a couple of shots I added in with an extra light I sat on top after my halide went out. I hadn't even seen the tank with just actinics on it, and I was stunned by the colours. Unfortunately, the picture doesn't really do it any jusitce, but here's an idea nonetheless.

 

Actinic lighting

 

Daylight lighting

 

 

Here are a couple of random shots; one of the end, and one shot showing how the tank sat in my room.

I actually enjoyed having the tank in my room barring two things. First, if the water level was even a few millimeters too low, it gurgled in a way that made it hard to sleep, and secondly, as soon as the halide kicked in, it lit the room pretty well and made it impossible to sleep in on the weekends.

 

Shot from the end

 

Corner view

 

Finally, here's my final full tank shot for the contest.

I hope everyone enjoyed my contribution to the contest, and I will surely update this thread once it gets changed over to it's new location.

 

Full tank shot

[.Newman.]

you posted that twice lol.

The tank looks great despite what you said happened.

[BigRok]

Thanks! No clue how that happened, but it's fixed now.

[BigRok]

So I have now moved the tank into my office and swapped the SPS into the 20, and put a couple other things into this tank.

Here's a couple pics so far.