ThePhilosopher's 5 gallon nano tank.

[ThePhilosopher]

thats a hammer coral and that HH is a barnacle.

 

I'm pretty sure it's a torch coral. Hammer corals seem to have differently shaped polyps. Either way, it hasn't lost any colour and it's fully extended, so I'm hoping it's happy where it is.

 

Can i get a link to where you bought you light from also is it a good light

 

Sorry, I bought the 50/50 powercompact from a local LFS and the LED bulb from a local shop which specialises in electrical equipment. There were official names on the boxes they came in, but to be honest I threw them away and can't remember the model or the website.

 

As for them being good lights, I've got yuma ricordea mushrooms and a favites coral frag which have been doing splendidly under this lighting. Can't really comment on how the new coral (presumably a torch coral) is faring underneath them since it's only been a full day in my tank.

 

So, with my current lighting on my 5 gallon tank, I'd say I have a low-light setup, possibly verging on medium-light.

[.Newman.]

Torch coral http://www.nano-reef.com/corals/?coral=7

 

hammer coral http://www.tropicalfishforum.net/photopost...o.php?photo=980

 

some species can look very similar and not as obvious as green tipped torch, vs. anchor hammer.

[ThePhilosopher]

Torch coral http://www.nano-reef.com/corals/?coral=7

 

hammer coral http://www.tropicalfishforum.net/photopost...o.php?photo=980

 

some species can look very similar and not as obvious as green tipped torch, vs. anchor hammer.

 

Come to think of it, the tips of torch coral polyps almost always look perfectly rounded while hammer coral polyps look a lot like what I have in my tank right now.

 

Well, seems like I've got myself a hammer coral. Many thanks for letting me know about this.

[.Newman.]

no prob, both are really nice corals; yours looks like a nice frag

[Cintax]

Tank looks great!

 

How's this build coming along?

[petkingdom619]

try out some duncans , one of my favorites

[ThePhilosopher]

I haven't been giving this thread much attention and I think it deserves another update. I want to take a few good pictures of the new corals and the new FTS but it seems as thought too much light is reflecting off the glass. I'll try adjusting the blinds to block out as much light as possible and get back to ye faithful fans in perhaps a few minutes.

[ThePhilosopher]

Okay. The much promised update.

Please forgive the general lack of corals. The weather is only now starting to cool down, which makes the importation of corals near impossible for all LFSs. I'm also trying not to spend too much money on this tank as I've got another freshwater tank which needs my love and various other obligations.

 

FTS:

 

Various pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

So. Recent purchases are 2 zoa frags, one of which is red and the other green. The red zoa has a blue centre that fluoresces very nicely under actinics.

 

As a kind of present for being a frequent customer (apart from all the routine discounts on equipment and tests), the nice dude at the LFS decided to break off a few palythoas from his own display tank and add them to my purchase free of charge. These things fluoresce green like crazy under actinics, but the light in my tank seems to be at around 8000k average, so I'll be adding more blue when I can.

 

Another thing I went ahead and bought is this non-photosynthetic gorgonian. It's not the prettiest gorgonian around, but it was cheap and I wanted to try out a non-photosynthetic coral before moving on to the more expensive specimens. It's a white/beige colour, depending on where the light hits it.

 

Edit: I forgot to add that a new and very small zoa/mushroom (or different coral) has attached itself to the skeleton of the dead hammer coral. I cannot get a clear picture but it looks like a promising addition.

[Akiowalt]

your yuma is stunning! Be careful when they start to drop their baby!

[ThePhilosopher]

Thank you! One small yuma ricordea decided to split and leave a very small copy of itself on the sandbed. The new one has been alive and well for over a week now, so I'll wait and see what develops.

 

Now that we're on the topic of yumas, one of mine decided to close itself up and not open fully after it "split" itself and moved a couple of inches down the rock. The other individual yumas look perfect so I'm assuming it might still be recovering from the stress of moving itself. Just an interesting observation.

[Akiowalt]

Yes. That's why I ask you must be careful. They move and drop off their baby everywhere and fight for the space. My yuma never split until shifted to my current tank. They grow pretty slow and feeding will help it. I tried with Cycloopeze.

[ThePhilosopher]

Update.

And all ye faithful people know what an update means: More livestock.

 

One main reason I'm excited for this is because I managed to find a maze coral frag. Maze brain corals had to be one of my favourite corals before I even considered marine aquaria, so here I am with one of my favourite corals. Also, I managed to finally find nassarius snails, of which I bought one, figuring that it would be more than enough for my 5 gallon. I also decided to go ahead and buy a small, pink sponge which was being sold at a very reasonable price.

 

And now for the fun stuff:

 

Maze coral frag:

 

Pink sponge:

[castiel]

Two very nice additions! The sponge looks like foam that will wash away

[ThePhilosopher]

Two very nice additions! The sponge looks like foam that will wash away

Haha thanks. Hopefully the sponge won't be washing away any time soon.

I can't wait to have the maze coral spread around.

[ryan13mt]

Any updates? By any chance are you from malta?

[ThePhilosopher]

 

It has come to my attention that this thread really needs an update. Fortunately for me, I've been constantly striving to improve things in the tank. Improvements include anything from a whole rearrangement of live-rock to the introduction of livestock.

 

@ryan13mt Let me begin by saying that I am, indeed, from Malta and that I am so sorry I did not reply to you earlier. Truth be told, I just couldn't be bothered to check my thread because of other priorities and your post consequentially went unnoticed by me. I will attempt to contact you via PM.

 

 

Starting off with actual tank business, I went ahead and bought a porcelain crab, mainly because I finally managed to find one that was for sale and also because I was certain that I could keep it alive and healthy. After much deliberation with a friend, I decided to name the crab Commander Crustacean for no reason other than that I liked its alliterative sound. Unfortunately, Commander Crustacean's activity level falls somewhere between that of a rock and a featherduster, meaning that he does move around as much as I would have expected him to.

 

 

Viewers should also notice the addition of a few more corals and that of a featherduster, who I have affectionately named Twiggy.

 

 

At one point in time, I supposed it would be a good idea to add a few asterina starfish to the tank, which I did despite being warned by my LFS. I ended up removing what I believe to be all of them after they started devouring parts of my coralline algae. The starfish are currently living in a plastic container placed inside the tank, where they assumedly feed on algae that grows inside the container.

 

I am happy to announce that my dove snails are now parents and that there are currently around five smaller dove snails running around the tank and keeping it clean. The hammer coral that almost died off due to the summer heat has made a full recovery, and I expect that it should more than double in size after this summer is over (assuming that an extended power outage or some other unfortunate event does not destabilise the tank's parameters).

[Fall0n]

@ryan13mt Let me begin by saying that I am, indeed, from Malta and that I am so sorry I did not reply to you earlier. Truth be told, I just couldn't be bothered to check my thread because of other priorities and your post consequentially went unnoticed by me. I will attempt to contact you via PM.

NIce looking Nano! Speaking of Malta, I'll be heading there this coming December.

[ThePhilosopher]

NIce looking Nano! Speaking of Malta, I'll be heading there this coming December.

Thank you! You'll be missing out on the sun and beaches in December, but I can assure you that there's still a whole lot to see and do.

[ThePhilosopher]

A little update for my audience. Commander Crustacean, the porcelain crab, decided to moult a couple of days ago, to my initial shock and dismay. I did the (perhaps common) mistake of thinking that the crab had just died. It was only when I picked up the moult that I noticed it for what it really was, while the actual crab was hiding in a crevice.

 

 

[wiskey]

that molt is insane!

[ThePhilosopher]

that molt is insane!

It looks a lot like a live crab, doesn't it? I especially like how little spots of coralline algae were growing on it. I'll try to get clearer pictures of that soon.

[Aqualara]

That molt is awesome. I hope you intend to keep it! It looks so cool

 

I'm loving the tank, but for some reason, that rock in the back right that you've recently added hasn't grown on me. I loved the shape of the 'scape before.

 

how's that sponge doing?

[GrantM3]

Should submerge it into a resin

[ThePhilosopher]

That molt is awesome. I hope you intend to keep it! It looks so cool

 

I'm loving the tank, but for some reason, that rock in the back right that you've recently added hasn't grown on me. I loved the shape of the 'scape before.

 

how's that sponge doing?

I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to keep that moult. It's definitely staying in the little section of my shelf dedicated to interesting items of a biological nature. Maybe I can do a little featurette on that soon.

 

I think I understand what you mean about not liking the position of that one specific rock. Coincidentally, I decided to shift a rock around yesterday which I think would give the tank a more open feeling. The main reason I did not like the old aquascape is that it did not allow enough space for all my corals to grow. I intend on adding even more corals in the near and distant future, so I'd like to ensure I have space for them.

 

The sponge is very slow growing, but I'm happy as long as it's growing, as compared to dying or just plain not doing anything at all. I'll look into feeding sponges, but I'm not sure much can be done.

 

Should submerge it into a resin

 

I honestly never thought about this. I will look into methods of preserving moults and other deceased but interesting specimens, but this sounds like a splendid idea. I regret to inform you that I clumsily tore a leg off the moult while handling it due to not knowing how fragile it really is, but it's nothing that can't be tidily fixed with some glue.

[ThePhilosopher]

No news, unfortunately. Just showing off my corals for those of you visiting this thread. I should be heading to my LFS for a couple of new corals and possibly sexy shrimp this week, so expect an update soon.

 

 

Non-photosynthetic gorgonian (spot-fed with cyclops once a week):

 

GSP to the right and a small segment of the finger leather coral to the left (GSP seems to be getting greener as it adapts to its new home):

 

Yuma ricordea (this particular coral was a dull, pale green colour when I first bought it. It only started showing hues of pink up until a few weeks ago):

 

My prized favites frag (pending relocation; taking growth and aggressiveness into consideration):