Jump to content
Cultivated Reef

20xL mixed rimless - SELLING?


d9hp

Recommended Posts

These photos will hopefully serve as a baseline for growth under these LEDs. I'm seeing incredible growth from xenia, GSP, mushrooms, and the birdnest is exploding new tips in all directions. I have B-ionic and a calcium test kit on the way this week but I have NO idea what it is currently. Alk is at 10.

 

Enjoy?



Rainbow

5112134674_3cb4982a0e_b.jpg

 

Terrible picture but it does show how GREEN this bird of paradise frag is:

5112133392_5a9af0877f_b.jpg

 

Growth on the birdsnest:

5111532121_b06c11e897_b.jpg

 

This digi is actually more green in person. That lower part that shows recession is from where it was in the sand at the LFS. $5 frag:

5112132322_fdf8c118c8_b.jpg

 

Hammer waaaay out...the frog is a little pissy today?

5111530989_4e54201d55_b.jpg

 

One of the many zoas for $25...fire and ice?

5111530619_e908ff16ec_b.jpg

 

My favorite green ones and some palys he called nuclear orange? ID corrections?

I also glued some of these to the surface skimming box along with some GSP. They're in the background of the next photo

5112131036_1b13bd3947_b.jpg

 

5111522383_bdd6b6feea_b.jpg

 

Another shot of the acan. because is.

5112131986_75a3bbc4b4_b.jpg

 

The whole gang:

5112134110_7923cab5e7_b.jpg

 

Got a cleaner shrimp the other day...forgot to mention that!

5111533049_c0fd1e2cec_b.jpg

 

Impossible FTS

5112134948_a0e9573027_b.jpg

 

Nothing much else going on this week. Hopefully can afford to place an order with Mr. Coral in the coming weeks and then just let things coast through Christmas.

Link to comment
  • Replies 789
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Getting ESV B-Ionic system, calcium test kit, and phosban in the mail today. I am going to order the MP10 in the next few weeks. I'm going to test alk and ca every day for 2 weeks and log the results with the dosing I'm doing. Bought an eye dropper to get real accurate-like.

 

OOOOHHHHH SCIENCE!

Link to comment
WOW, this has turned out amazing. The overall look is inspiring.

 

Thanks man! I really am enjoying the way things are going but I wish I had saved longer and worked it out to include a sump/fuge.

 

I HATE water changes. They are extremely stressful affairs. Is the temperature just right? Salinty? PH? All my corals are out of the water for like 10 minutes. It's just terrible. I definitely envy your setup and how well thought out it is.

 

In other news, I left my AC70 filter intake all the way left (full blast) and came home to the happiest tank I've seen yet. All the SPS had polyps flopping around in the flow and ever the softies were going crazy. The frogspawn has been unhappy for a few days but it doesn't look like it's going to bite the dust or anything. May not like all the new flow. So instead of placing an order with Mr. Coral I'm saving for the MP10 I should have bought when I set this damn thing up. I hate when everyone else is right. Hate it.

 

There's going to be a frag swap/show on December 4th here in Raleigh called ReefSMART that I hear is pretty awesome for scoring some deals. You should consider coming down. It's only 2.5 hours and could save you tons of cash!

 

Anyways, I'm saving my money now.

Link to comment
I HATE water changes. They are extremely stressful affairs. Is the temperature just right? Salinty? PH? All my corals are out of the water for like 10 minutes. It's just terrible.

 

Ironically I said this right after doing a change this morning and that new cleaner shrimp died as a direct result. Bummer.

 

No more WC's > 20% unless it's an emergency. I think I'll start doing weekly 10% since all my levels are solid and I'm dosing a 2 part now.

Link to comment
igotreefermadness

Yeah thats a great rock layout. The shimmer on that tank is killer. I love the way my LEDs shimmer wouldnt trade em for the world!

Link to comment
Dang, so beautiful....... Get some tabling acros in this tank, itll look amazing...

 

Thanks drift. There's a LFS here that has a huge SPS tank and the guy that runs it LOVES deepwater acros and will frag just about anything I want so I really plan on doing a lot with them in time.

 

I love the rock scape. The overall layout looks balanced and the rocks match very well.

 

Thanks a lot! It took a few little moves to get it right and a lot of broken rocks! I think there's roughly 25lbs in there now. The right side is my biggest problem...I need suggestions!

 

 

Yeah thats a great rock layout. The shimmer on that tank is killer. I love the way my LEDs shimmer wouldnt trade em for the world!

 

Yeah I think it's hard to explain to someone that doesn't have LEDs themselves. There really just isn't anything like it. Mine reflects onto the cieling and people that visit regularly are blown away by how bright these things are! Thanks.

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

I need some suggestions on what to do with the right side of the tank. The surface skimming box for the skimmer takes up so much room that I had to make a 'sheer vertical' wall of rock to hide it. There's not much light at the point I'll be attaching corals. For tabling acros, can they be a little shaded at the base and grow out towards the light (front of the tank)

 

Any other good corals to place there? I know that NPS would obviously work but I'm not much for feeding corals daily as I'm trying to keep nutrient levels low low low.

Link to comment

Acans love the shade, they actually get better color with less light. Maybe you could just make the right side a monti cap/ digtata on top with an Acans on the sand below. That's actually kind of what I'm hoping to do with the right side of my tank.

 

I'd get that GSP off of your top rock over there and isolate it in the sand bed. It looks like you already have a digitata of some kind over on the right. Transplant your idaho grape over there and let the growout begin!

Link to comment
Acans love the shade, they actually get better color with less light. Maybe you could just make the right side a monti cap/ digtata on top with an Acans on the sand below. That's actually kind of what I'm hoping to do with the right side of my tank.

 

I'd get that GSP off of your top rock over there and isolate it in the sand bed. It looks like you already have a digitata of some kind over on the right. Transplant your idaho grape over there and let the growout begin!

 

I remember seeing that acans love the shade. The rainbow I just got wouldn't open up until I gave him some light but maybe I'll try moving him back under there tonight. I'm planning on gluing some caps to the backwall and seeing what happens. I've already got some zoas and GSP on the skimmer box and eventually I'd like to have like 15 different things just battling it out back there.

 

My biggest concern with that is I read that acans don't like too much flow so I'm not wanting to put them too close to my SPS since I'm upgrading to the MP10 in the next month or two.

 

I want to blast some SPS! That does sound like it would be awesome though!

Link to comment

I've seen monti caps glued onto a frag plug with some kind magnet setup, The frag was attached to the overflow box with the second component in the overflow.......but I like the verticle wall, and open sand bed in front of the right side.

 

I'm going to have to look into that frag swap, I'll get some specifics from you if it looks like I'll have some extra cash.

 

Sorry about the shrimp, I agree with you on 10 % weekly WCs.

Link to comment

the tank is looking great. thanks for sharing in so much detail.

 

things look healthy and happy.

 

Your build has me thinking about a "regular" 20L for my next tank. so much easier to light it when it is shallow.

Link to comment
DAMN.................... B)

 

B) Hopefully it's getting better! Thanks

 

I've seen monti caps glued onto a frag plug with some kind magnet setup, The frag was attached to the overflow box with the second component in the overflow.......but I like the verticle wall, and open sand bed in front of the right side.

 

I'm going to have to look into that frag swap, I'll get some specifics from you if it looks like I'll have some extra cash.

 

Sorry about the shrimp, I agree with you on 10 % weekly WCs.

 

That's a good idea with the magnets. If the glue doesn't work I'll give that a shot. I read online that the LFS I *used* to get that water from has a bad history of causing problems even though the TDS is zero. I'll have to get a RO/DI unit soon. First priority right now really.

 

the tank is looking great. thanks for sharing in so much detail.

 

things look healthy and happy.

 

Your build has me thinking about a "regular" 20L for my next tank. so much easier to light it when it is shallow.

 

Thanks so much. I love sharing! It's good for me to follow the progress and hopefully I'll give some ideas to other people because about 95% of them I got on here anyway.

 

The tank is really cloudy as of yesterday and today. I'm not sure if its a calcium precipitation event or what since I'm dosing but I'm going to call it off for today.

 

Go for it! The 20L is a great tank! It used to be my dream when I had the 7 minibow way way back. Now I've got one!

 

In other not-so-cloudy news...I was in Greensboro yesterday and stopped at a small store on the way home. Not only did they have a great square frag tank, the prices were unheard of. Great selection...low low prices. I got a giant two head torch for $10. A strawberry stylo frag for $5 and a full encrusted BRIGHT green monti cap plug for $5. So that's $20 for three awesome corals. My euphyllia collection is complete!

 

We then stopped at a SW 'boutique' at the mall and they had a torch the same size and color for $115. We didn't even continue walking around!

 

Okay...gotta get ready for a CAROLINA HURRICANES GAME TONIGHT!

Link to comment

The clouding has subsided to an extent. I'm not entirely sure what was going on. All my parameters didn't seem to be out of wack or anything. I replaced the floss, phosban, and carbon. I also cleaned the skimmer pretty thoroughly. It's not really pulling too much out but I feed twice a day and rarely does a pellet go uneaten by the four fish in the tank.

 

Amm - 0

Trites and trates - 0

 

pH - 8.3!!!!! <<--- super pumped about that because it doesn't fluctuate much during the day

Calcium - 380

Alk - 10

Sg - 1.0245

 

I'm dosing roughly 2mL of B-ionic per day. Is this what's causing the clouding? I'd love some more input on this. Should I stop until things calm down?

 

Thanks,

Dustin

Link to comment

I upped my dose from 2-2.5mL of my 2-part to 4mL today. I haven't seen a real change in my numbers in the week that I've been dosing so I figured it was time. The clouding is completely gone. I think it has something to do with the water I used in the change. I won't do it again. No growth in a few days and BOTH the digitata frags haven't had any polyp extension in two days.

 

Doesn't look good. Bummer too, because the orange polyp one was my favorite piece in the tank. I moved it to an area of direct high flow with a bit less light to see if helps tomorrow. I'm not keeping my fingers crossed.

 

All my parameters are still in check. The nasties are all 0. pH is 8.4 at lights out tonight.

 

Calcium - 380

Alk - 10 or 11 depending on what you call yellow.

 

Hopefully they pull through...

 

The fish are doing great. I'm going to get a bangaii cardinal in the next few weeks and that's going to settle the fish list for good. I don't think it will be an issue with my feeding regimen and water changes.

Link to comment

I'd take it slowly on your changes in dosing

 

on the 30th you had cloudiness

on the 31st you were at 2mL of B-ionic w/o cloudiness

on the 1st you were back at 4mL

 

if we assume that the B-ionic is doing anything (and I think it does)

then I would keep it at 2mL for a week and see what stuff does and where water parameters go

 

if all is well, leave it alone or slowly increase it to 3mL over a week. Again, see how things go.

 

but I'm not much of a fan of dosing- I almost always opt for less vs. more when adding extra stuff to the tank as slow growth beats fast death 10 times out of 10.

Link to comment
[...]

This is my most accurate FTS to date:

5100588492_e515e3fda1_b.jpg

 

Wow. One of best 20L scape ever! B) Love the shimmer lines on the sand bed--looks better than the shimmer from my metal halide. :o

Link to comment
I'd take it slowly on your changes in dosing

 

on the 30th you had cloudiness

on the 31st you were at 2mL of B-ionic w/o cloudiness

on the 1st you were back at 4mL

 

You're correct. I need to be more patient. Back to 2.5mL today. The tank isn't cloudy and everything is going great so I'm going to assume that the water I got from the LFS was bad, which caused my shrimp to die and my digitata to get pissed off. It looks like they're going to pull through though. I moved them both to a place with tons of flow and light. Thanks for the advice. I'm taking it!

 

Wow. One of best 20L scape ever! B) Love the shimmer lines on the sand bed--looks better than the shimmer from my metal halide. :o

 

Thanks! That means a lot, especially since I derived about 98% of my inspiration from tanks on this site. The shimmer is just nuts. I need to get a good video with it. Shallow tanks with this many LEDs just make for a nutty shimmer display.

 

Seeing all these shallow tanks really makes me hate my 20 high.

 

See that's crazy to me because my next tank will definitely be taller! I love the shallow for ease of light and how it looks so much bigger than it really is...but the problem is that my growth is really limited in the vertical direction. Good thing I like tabling acros! (see below...)

 

agreed: top-notch aquascaping

 

Thanks sandcruiser. Means a lot!

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

So I read some horror stories about leathers causing problems with SPS corals and I actually had like 6 kenya trees in there. Three larger ones were on a single rock and it was growing up into the monti cap (which I moved to an area of higher flow) and so I took it back today. I had a HUGE test yesterday so I treated myself to a frag from their $20 frag tank. Well they had a 4" tabling acro laying in the sand there and I honestly don't think it was supposed to be there because they had the same size/color frags in their 'prime SPS' tank and those go for like $50-60...

 

I also picked up a chip of a blue tabling acro for bringing in the Kenya. There's a huge swap on December 4th here and I hope to pick up at least one really nice SPS colony and get a wellso brain for the sand. Two clams and then just SPS and acans are the plans...



Frog and hammer growing...but slowly

5143091427_0688bf455c_z.jpg

 

More and more extension from this birds nest

5143697906_d6d802904e.jpg

 

Fed the acans some mysis last night. Gosh was that awesome! Now I know how people do it all the time. It's sweeeeeet to watch.

5143697410_1ba3e581fe.jpg

 

$10 torch frag

5143697162_12d61d0055_z.jpg

 

The new deepwater piece. The green tips are way more exaggerated in real life. Beautiful. Name?

5143090123_346010c0e2_z.jpg

 

Not the green cap that's encrusted that plug on the right. Onlt $5 last weekend. Also, you can see where I glued a small piece of the cap to the overflow box in the back where the GSP fell off. My YWG (Winston) is out front all the time now. Great fish!

5143696336_aca50d9b5f_z.jpg

 

Left side mushroom garden. The purple one on the far right has popped off two babies in the past few weeks and there's a tiny burgundy one on the glass you can barely make out.

5143694358_8de961b3f6.jpg

 

Looking down the tank at SPS rock

5143695084_77b0ff0d46_z.jpg

 

FTS without the big ass Kenya tree:

5143695456_2d9415fc8f_z.jpg

 

 

 

Thanks again for all the comments and suggestions. I'm certainly listening. I need to get an MP10 but I'm afraid that some of my lower flow corals won't have a place of refuge. I sure do like SPS though...

Link to comment

Picked up a Banggai cardinal last night. Was able to watch him/her eat in the store among about 10 others. Easy decision.

 

Ate twice today. Very interested in frozen mysis. Will update with some pictures when I get some free time.

Link to comment

The brown montipora digitata showed some ill signs today. Broke it into about 3 pieces hoping to save some part of it. The birdsnest is showing some really great growth. New tips in about 10 places.

 

Just ordered this:

31ABGRToDmL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

 

Hopefully getting the RO/DI unit tomorrow or later this week.

 

Sweet! No more crappy LFS water.

Link to comment

I don't really understand the tds meter... I totally see why you would buy an ro/di unit, but I'd pay for a refractometer and/or a pH meter before a tds, because any decent ro/di unit that isn't straight up broken will make clean fresh water.

 

IMO/IME/YMMV, etc etc

Link to comment

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recommended Discussions


×
×
  • Create New...