Llj's 8G... Can't have just one

[castiel]

Congrats! I remember you setting yours up around the same time as I did.

[buddythelion]

Some of my yumas took a spill. Haha, same story as you buddy, I got things that knock stuff over all the time.

 

 

Well.. it's not like we're going to be keeping our hands out of the tank anyways right?

Speaking of... Just noticed a coral fell down again. Urrghhh!

 

Phil Your Aquarium just got some amazing yumas for good prices, and made me think of this thread. Maybe you should take a look and see if any fancy you.

 

Pictures look amazing. I wish my camera was any good!

[lljdma06]

Well.. it's not like we're going to be keeping our hands out of the tank anyways right?

Speaking of... Just noticed a coral fell down again. Urrghhh!

 

Phil Your Aquarium just got some amazing yumas for good prices, and made me think of this thread. Maybe you should take a look and see if any fancy you.

 

Pictures look amazing. I wish my camera was any good!

 

Ooooooooo, just book marked it. They are lovely.

 

Thanks, I do my best, I suck with a camera.

 

L

[buddythelion]

There's a coupon called: nanonews

You get a certain % off when you buy a min of 4 items. Pretty sweet!

[lljdma06]

There's a coupon called: nanonews

You get a certain % off when you buy a min of 4 items. Pretty sweet!

 

Oh this is dangerous.

[lljdma06]

Alright, time for a wee update. I got bogged down with school. I do work for a living. LOLOL I finally got around to attaching the sps frags I got from another hobbyist. I've been accumulating quite a few frags for the Biocube and had been storing them in this poor 8g... It was a mess!

 

This was the poor tank during the last frag acquisition...

 

 

Afterwards, Hahaha, on FB, it was called Fragamania!

 

 

This tank isn't designed for all these frags! It's my first pico, so I went invert crazy cause I love them! It features a lot of clumsy, clumsy inverts. I love them, but every 5min something would get knocked down! Or sand would get dumped on something. I took a hard look at my new Biocube and notice how gentle the CUC is in there, so...

 

I moved many of the frags to the Biocube. They were going to end up there anyway. Newbies, please don't do this. I don't run my tanks on 10% weekly water changes, I do 60% weekly water changes, sometimes adding a smaller second water change in between, so I can get away with a lot more. Much quieter now and the corals actually look happier now that they've got some peace and quiet. Was going to add a display invert or two to the Biocube, but I don't think so anymore. Maybe sexy shrimp and pompom crabs, they are quiet and don't disturb corals much. But enough about the Biocube, that update will come later, back to this tank...

 

I also had some sps frags that needed attaching. A rainbow pocillipora, a montipora undata, and a pink birdsnest. Yes, I has the sps now. Polyps are doing great and there is growth and extension, but these corals were constantly being knocked all over the place while I was trying to find the best location for them. Used glue, epoxy, got stuff all over my hands, I stink at this. But I'm happy with the results, and I made some of my own frags! Yay! propagation! Been using a 14k bulb, so I get growth. Will switch out to a 20k at around May. This tank is maturing nicely. I'm looking forward to just kicking back and watching things grow. Ok, time for pictures...

 

full tank shot

 

 

zoanthids, this was a rock I got from the lfs, it's pretty sweet, I love the colors. No clue what kind they are... I don't keep up with that stuff.

 

 

The tank from the back, zoanthid garden for sure! The front is appealing too, but this was a surprise. You don't notice the growth so much until you see the tank from the back!

 

 

You can see here where I mounted my sps. Good locations, I think. Kinda agonized over it, as they are my first sps and I want them to do well. I gotta frag that big ol' green paly soon. He's big. I think it's one of my first corals. Almost lost him to a frogspawn, but look at him now!

 

 

Views from the top.

 

 

 

I like the bare sand. I'm tempted to add a Fungia, but I don't know, with that Tiger pistol and other clumsy inverts, I'm also tempted to leave it as is, maybe some more sps that I can mount directly to the rock, as I don't think a substrate coral is a good idea.

 

Thanks for looking, I'll be giving this tank an HD and blue light treatment this weekend. So those should be nice pictures.

 

L

[lljdma06]

Ok, I've made friends in this hobby, so I asked some of them what their favorite coral was and if it was feasible to have them in any of my tanks, I'd get them and then the coral would be named after that person. It's silly, I know, but in a way, it's neat because I get to keep corals that I otherwise wouldn't normally consider, I get stuck on zoanthids a lot. I have rules, they can't get large or if they do they need to grow slow, so no Euphellia's and stuff like that.

 

First in the series...

 

Frank the Fungia, Orange short-tentacled plate coral.

 

When I first got him

 

 

He puffed up after a bit.

 

 

Very cute coral, I like it. Seems happy so far and he isn't too close to anything very bad.

 

Some random top shots of the tank, while I was doing a water change.. I was thinking the tank gets quite a bit of pop for a 14k bulb. Not too shabby. I wonder what a 20k will do?

 

 

 

 

Move a frag of gsp to this tank and actually made some more frags. The biggest issue with this tank are some pest majanos and zoa nudibranchs. Both are at controllable levels. I need to frag that big, green paly soon. Newman told me how, but let me buy goggles and better health insurance first. Hahahaha!

 

Thanks for looking.

 

L

[Monochrome5]

no Euphellia's

 

That hurts

[lljdma06]

That hurts

 

Awwwwww, no cry. Dry your tears and wipe you nose. I love Euphellias. I love them too much.

 

You know I only want to keep Euphellias if I have a large enough tank to let them expand into their full and beautiful glory. They are a beautiful coral, I just don't think they are for me in a pico situation.

 

That make you feel better?

 

L

[lljdma06]

Got some Montipora frags from another hobbyist in exchange for some Halimeda & some mushrooms.

 

These aren't undata like Newman's. Deep reddish orange. Sweetness. Will post pictures tomorrow.

 

L

[buddythelion]

Got some Montipora frags from another hobbyist in exchange for some Halimeda & some mushrooms.

 

These aren't undata like Newman's. Deep reddish orange. Sweetness. Will post pictures tomorrow.

 

L

 

Don't you just love trades? Saves on $$$ and makes you friends!

[lljdma06]

Don't you just love trades? Saves on $$$ and makes you friends!

 

And I'll get pictures up soon. I mounted them, they look nice.

 

L

[lljdma06]

Well, time for a mini update.

 

Some weird news. I can't find my Yellow watchman, nor can I find my tiger pistol shrimp. My parameters are great and corals are extended. Sps are indicators if something was dead, they'd tell me. What I did notice was unusually rapid chaeto growth this time. I was able to halve the fuge much faster than normal. Dunno what's going on. Expect the worst, hope for the best. I've got buckets of SW ready in case I see a spike.

 

Now for good news. I've been trading a lot of macro lately. Been getting some good frags for it too. My biocube is filled with zoanthids that I got for trading macro algae.

 

This tank is again serving as a temporary home to some corals. I got a new fishy for the Biocube and his kind is known for their aquascaping skills, so I thought it was best to remove most of the substrate corals and let him work. Once he gets his burrow situated, I'll move some of them back. It's mostly acans. Or not, I kind of like the look of them here. Pretty colors.

 

I picked this up at the lfs. A green stylo. In my tank right now it's sulking, cause they do. I'm sure it'll extend soon. My birdnests from the same place are already extended in my biocube.

 

 

Full tank shot, you can see how things have grown.

 

 

Where I put the stylo

 

 

Newman's pocilipora. Still kicking.

 

 

Unfortunately, we had some more bad news. Remember his beautiful acan from his pico and how he was selling it. Well, I had purchased it, but his beautiful acan arrived dead in the mail, a few months ago. I was gutted, he was gutted. Very sad as we both loved that coral. I didn't want to talk about it for a while It was that coral that started my love for acans... So in memorium.

 

Acans

 

 

 

Purty flower, gsp, and other yumas

 

 

Newman's Montipora undata, also doing extremely well and one of the montipora frags I got for my macro algae. It gets more light than that, it's just under exposed.

 

 

ORA pink birdsnest

 

 

Where I mounted the other montipora. And a zoanthid wall. Who can find the fire shrimp?

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

L

[Basketball Prodigy]

found it

and sucks about the shrimp and goby

[lljdma06]

found it

and sucks about the shrimp and goby

 

Well, I found the shrimp, but no goby. And it's been about 10 days since this update.

 

What's getting me is that there's been no ammonia spike. Go figure. So, since my parameters are actually rather excellent, I thought I'd try another YWG. Only this one ain't yeller!

 

She's big! From the looks of things, the females either get gray as they mature or there's a steel grey color phase as well. At any rate, she's big!!!

 

 

Just look at that face!

 

 

A distinguished profile, look that that Roman nose, that prominent jaw that says "don't mess with me Mr. Tiger pistol..."

 

 

Thanks for looking.

 

L

[lljdma06]

Shrimp and goby have found each other. Evidently the pistol shrimp likes a pushy broad.

 

 

Yeah, those are acans. The plan is to make a little acan roof over that rock ledge, perfect spot for them. It's going to look cool. Thanks for looking.

 

L

[jgpico]

Congrats on a successful hookup between the ywg and pistol shrimp. This tank looks awesome btw. I need to get a better light for my bio cube so I can start keeping some sps.

[lljdma06]

Congrats on a successful hookup between the ywg and pistol shrimp. This tank looks awesome btw. I need to get a better light for my bio cube so I can start keeping some sps.

 

Thank you... jg

 

What lighting are your running now on your cube?

 

Well there's good news and bad news... I'll start with the bad.

 

My royal gramma decided to carpet surf. I always seal the tank as a precaution for the goby and the one day I forgot to add the extra coverings to completely seal the gaps, the gramma decides to jump. I've had the whole lid off for maintenance and nothing. But this time... I'm gutted. Especially since I had just purchased the goby and another fish and things were looking like I could finally settle down with this tank and just enjoy it.

 

Now for the good news...

 

I finally got some good pictures of my grey ywg. Yep definitely not yellow. Coloring up to become quite a stunning fish, though unexpected.

 

But first, I found an ORA Spotted Mandarin. He takes mysis, pellets, and other prepared food. Lovely fish. Doesn't replace the Gramma, as they are very different, but he's cool and I'm somewhat cheered up.

 

 

Back to the ywg. The ywg with the tiger pistol, look at the size difference, you can see she's much, much larger than my previous ywg.

 

 

 

Look at that purty face!!!

 

 

Video time!

 

 

Thanks for looking. I told the lfs owner about my gramma, she's going to look for one for me so I can come see it. Who knows, I'm kinda not wanting one right now.

 

There are also plans to upgrade, which will officially take me out of the pico section here. I've got an ADA planted tank, 16g that with only minor adjustments will be a very fine upgrade for this tank. The lightiing can stay the same, it'll just be brought lower down. Upgrade the refugium to an Aquaclear 110, and I'm done. I may add more LR, but what I really want are some showcase colonies of zoanthids and sps that are larger to add to what I have.

 

L

[buddythelion]

I have no idea how you're able to run this many tanks all at once... I have a freshwater river tank and a frag tank on top of my nanocube and I already get lazy! Kudos to you!

[VeganBrian]

Looks great! Your planteds were awesome! Very well done.

[lljdma06]

I have no idea how you're able to run this many tanks all at once... I have a freshwater river tank and a frag tank on top of my nanocube and I already get lazy! Kudos to you!

 

You get a rhythm for it after a while. I'll be the first to admit though. When I have heavy grading to do or a big concert schedule, boy am I glad all my fish take pellets or in the Case of Lemmiwinks, I think he eats very large zoo plankton. I can go lax on water changes right now. This tank has a lot of coralline that I need to remove.

 

Looks great! Your planteds were awesome! Very well done.

 

Thank you. Yes, I'm taking down my last planted to convert it into a Marine tank. Yep, going all salty now. It's easier to do this in Miami.

 

I plum forgot to tell all of you that I did indeed get another fish for this tank!

 

A neon dottyback.

 

 

It is darn near impossible to get a good picture. Video was easier, especially while he was still in the bag.

 

He's doing great, very active, very fun to watch. A gentleman with the mandarin and the YWG.

 

L

[lljdma06]

Time for peeechurs for this tank too. This tank will be a year in another month and while not as glamorous as the Biocube, it's my favorite tank. I don't plan on adding anything new. I don't think the dottyback or the goby will take to another fish, so I'll leave things as they are. The harlequin shrimp has destroyed the starfish population. Oh yes, I got a harlequin shrimp. I'll need to get him chocolate chip stars now or collect asterinas again from my lfs. The dottyback eats zoa nudibranchs and other pests. I've caught him doing it, so the pest situation is much more under control. I suspect, however, that my now very large, grey YWG is now eating my crabs. I don't see them around like I used to and I'm finding empty shells. Naughty YWG. Tiger pistol is still ok, so at least the goby isn't eating him. LOLOL

 

Been a while since I did a full tank shot. Layout hasn't changed much. Switched to a 20k MH bulb in May. I've been doing a lot of performing lately and basically come down about once a week to do maintenance on the tank. Mom and sister feed it. Some corals did better than others in my absence. Birdsnest didn't do well, yet pocilliporas and stylos did really well. Lost a few acans to a blue and orange yuma that got detached and decided to only touch acans. It has subsequently been sucked down a hole by the YWG. I purchased a new stylo and pocillipora. I still need to put them in their permanent spots along with a montipora fell down that I need to reglue, but I want them to acclimate to the lighting first. I also moved the freebie acropora to this tank. I also have a pretty severe Coralline algae issue. That's what all that purple is on the glass. The back wall is nearly covered. This is after I removed about 1/3 of it. : I FINALLY ordered this yesterday, Peter, from ebay.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/180761147696?ssPag...#ht_2750wt_1159

 

Well anyway, fts

 

 

 

Just so that you know, YWG decided not to pose for pictures, neither did the harlequin shrimp nor the crabs that are left. Camera shy. The hams today are the dottyback and Bandolero, the skunk cleaner. Clifford the fire shrimp is doing very well, but he hides in the back.

 

New corals

 

 

Dottyback with the zoas, my pumpkin yuma (Purty flower) and Frank the fungia.

 

 

Bandolero

 

 

More Bandolero, but you see corals too. My other pocillipora has grown and grown... asterina starfish took down the eagle eyes to the left, until the harlequin took care of them. Now, the four that remain are growing.

 

 

Left side of the tank. Full, the green paly is way too big. He needs some serious fragging.

 

 

Another view.

 

 

Top view. Look at the flow being produced by this Aquaclear 110, which I upgraded to in May as well. This has helped the zoas, IMO. The zoas are looking great in this tank now.

 

 

Thanks for looking. Can't wait to see this tank turn a year old. It's technically my oldest tank. Ever since the 36g crashed, I've been looking at this one as sort of the tank with seniority. I want to keep this running as long as possible.

 

L

[castiel]

So you are still alive! Glad to see the tank is going well, and can't believe it is almost a year old already!

 

Hope the scraper works out for you, looks like you NEED it now! haha. That is some serious coralline growth.

[lljdma06]

So you are still alive! Glad to see the tank is going well, and can't believe it is almost a year old already!

 

Hope the scraper works out for you, looks like you NEED it now! haha. That is some serious coralline growth.

 

I can't believe it either. Best thing I ever did for that tank was upgrade to a MH. And... the dottyback. He's pretty fabulous.

 

Haha, I cannot stop the Coralline. I was going to get an urchin for it, but I think I have too many inverts, and I suspect my goby eats them anyway.

 

I'll go check out your stuff now. Shame about the picos. I miss them.

 

L

[lljdma06]

Tank is a year old today! Woooooooooo!!!!

 

Have a great day.

 

L