Islandoftiki Posted November 20, 2011 Author Share Posted November 20, 2011 Here's a quick update for those who are following my tank: Here's a photo from today. Changes made include: Moved brain coral to the sand bed. Added a purple Rhodactis where the brain coral was (It just went in a day ago, so it's kinda pissed and not fully extended. It just sucked it's guts back in last night). Added a small iridescent blue mushroom coral (center of photo). It's also still feeling a little man-handled and hasn't fully extended yet, but looks good otherwise. Added some reddish-brown/green polyps (I haven't identified exactly what they are yet). They came on a fairly tall piece of live rock that I glued to the base rock and that gave some nice height to the right side of the tank. The red mushrooms on the left fragged nicely and are now to whole mushrooms and look very happy. My blue-green/orange Ricordia looks awesome and is fully extended. I just found my first bit of coraline algae on the glass today. Water parameters have been spot-on. I've been having some issues with flatworms that are pretty resistant to flatworm exit. They're under control, but I can't seem to get rid of them even at a fairly high dosage. None of the other inhabitants have seemed to be affected by the flatworm exit, so I'm contemplating doing a very high dosage to get rid of the last few worms. If that fails, I may have to consider a velvet sea slug, but only if I can find a couple other folks locally that have flatworms so we can rotate tanks and not starve it to death. I may add a pom pom crab if I can find one locally. Every LFS is out of them and they usually have tons. Edit: I also added one Nassarius snail who promptly buried himself in the sand and went to work. Link to comment
Islandoftiki Posted November 25, 2011 Author Share Posted November 25, 2011 New mushroom corals added, new video made: I included a very brief look at the back chamber stuff. (Filter floss, Chaeto and lighting) Link to comment
Islandoftiki Posted November 26, 2011 Author Share Posted November 26, 2011 Yesterday I added a Pom Pom shrimp (edit: crab! LOL)! I'm happy to say that so far he and the peppermint shrimp are happy to hang out together with no drama. Sorry about the goofy music, I didn't have time to find anything better. Link to comment
Islandoftiki Posted November 26, 2011 Author Share Posted November 26, 2011 crab not shrimp lol LOL, I'm gonna edit that. Too funny. Link to comment
jgilvey Posted December 8, 2011 Share Posted December 8, 2011 Great tank, and I love the videos! The pom-pom one is hilarious with that music. Wish all the pics were still intact. Link to comment
Islandoftiki Posted December 8, 2011 Author Share Posted December 8, 2011 Great tank, and I love the videos! The pom-pom one is hilarious with that music. Wish all the pics were still intact. I just recently took a bunch of photos, here are some up to date pics: Fluval Spec Pico Reef Album Enjoy! Link to comment
Islandoftiki Posted December 9, 2011 Author Share Posted December 9, 2011 Ok, so I have a temporary visitor to help me with the Flatworm Exit resistant flatworms. The owner of my local fish store personally picked out the smallest sixline wrasse he could find to help clean up my flatworms. She'll live in there until she starts to grow, and then she will be donated to a local teaching program or some other higher cause. Video: Link to comment
jgilvey Posted December 9, 2011 Share Posted December 9, 2011 That really looks cool, and the Xenia looks very happy. I want the video of you catching that sixline when the time comes. How do you take your videos and keep the pans so steady? Link to comment
Ezsharkman Posted December 9, 2011 Share Posted December 9, 2011 you do have great videos... the music makes them fun! looking great! Link to comment
Islandoftiki Posted December 9, 2011 Author Share Posted December 9, 2011 That really looks cool, and the Xenia looks very happy. I want the video of you catching that sixline when the time comes. How do you take your videos and keep the pans so steady? Oh, the joys of modern technology to make otherwise average amateur video look good... All of the videos are taken with my iPhone 4. I use an additional 6100k lamp pointed at the tank to keep the video from looking completely blue from my LED reef lights. Youtube does the rest of the magic. I upload the video to Youtube and then run it through their "Stabilize" filter and I do an "Audio Swap." They have a large selection of royalty free music that you can use at no charge. That's it. Youtube also has a bunch of other filters that you may or may not want to used depending on the situation. Also, if you're using an iPhone 4 to shoot your video, download the video directly off the phone using a USB cable then upload it to Youtube from your computer... it will be a lot less pixelated. Link to comment
jgilvey Posted December 9, 2011 Share Posted December 9, 2011 Oh, the joys of modern technology to make otherwise average amateur video look good... All of the videos are taken with my iPhone 4. I use an additional 6100k lamp pointed at the tank to keep the video from looking completely blue from my LED reef lights. Youtube does the rest of the magic. I upload the video to Youtube and then run it through their "Stabilize" filter and I do an "Audio Swap." They have a large selection of royalty free music that you can use at no charge. That's it. Youtube also has a bunch of other filters that you may or may not want to used depending on the situation. Also, if you're using an iPhone 4 to shoot your video, download the video directly off the phone using a USB cable then upload it to Youtube from your computer... it will be a lot less pixelated. Getouttahere! I do have an iPhone 4 but my videos look like they were shot by a late-period Katharine Hepburn. I'll have to try that. Link to comment
Islandoftiki Posted December 9, 2011 Author Share Posted December 9, 2011 Getouttahere! I do have an iPhone 4 but my videos look like they were shot by a late-period Katharine Hepburn. I'll have to try that. Yeah, I know. My videos usually like like the camera was held by a dog sh*ting razor blades. Thank you Youtube for the Stabilize feature. No we can all make professional looking videos. Did somebody say dinner? All of the boys come out to see what smells so good. Looks like sushi is on the menu tonight. Delicious! Link to comment
Islandoftiki Posted December 13, 2011 Author Share Posted December 13, 2011 Quick update with pictures. Lots has been going on in the pico reef. The little sixline has been hard at work cleaning up the flatworms. I only see the odd one or two in there now. A couple weeks and they should be gone. My two bumpy red mushrooms are now four. One of them actually split into three. There are two baby mushrooms where he was. Below them, I filled that empty spot with a gorgeous dusty pink ricordia with a purple skirt. I just added it on Friday. The parent mushroom of the two babies detached from the rock and floated around the tank until I stabbed him with a toothpick and convinced him to attach to the rock at the back right side of the tank. The ricordea in this picture has been growing pretty well. It likes to eat meaty bits of food. I also added some beautiful red zoas on Friday. The closed ones on top are supposed to be blue, but they haven't opened yet. That bright blue mushroom below them is one of my favorites. It's kinda iridescent. I want to frag it up and make more! My green mushrooms also made a baby (the little guy left of the parent). I have three now! And these two have turned out to be a couple of hams. Total attention seekers. That's about it. Everything is going great. I've upped the water changes to twice a week while the sixline is in there, but I have the feeling it's probably not necessary. Better safe than sorry, IMO. I don't think they'll complain about good water quality! Link to comment
CarrillXXP Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 I really like your tank! You should give a small frag of sps a go! How high is your light hanging above the water line? Link to comment
Islandoftiki Posted December 30, 2011 Author Share Posted December 30, 2011 The light is about 7 to 8 inches above the water line at the moment. Things are going to change a little in the next month or two. I'm moving in with my fiance. And... I have a custom TruVu 24x10x10 tank on order that is going to take the little sixline wrasse that has done such a good job of cleaning up my flatworm problem. Yes, I bought a new tank, AC70 (being modified into a HOB fuge), lighting, and a Vortech Mp10 for this silly little fish... It's a good fish, I assure you. That said, the Fluval Spec is getting pretty full as the zoas and mushrooms are starting to take off. So, I'll probably frag some of them up to put in the new tank once I get it set up. For sure, I'll play around with something other than soft corals in the new tank as there will be room for them. Link to comment
CarrillXXP Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 Ill be tagging along! And good luck with the move man! Link to comment
Islandoftiki Posted December 30, 2011 Author Share Posted December 30, 2011 The Spec will be pretty easy to move. I moved my freshwater Spec to work by simply siphoning out a gallon of water and refilling it when I arrived at the destination. The saltwater Spec will have a few more challenges as it has a battery backup, reef keeper lite, light, etc. But it's only going 8 blocks, so it shouldn't be a huge trauma for the critters. I'm sure it will take the better part of an evening to organize everything. Link to comment
Evanski9 Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 I have a spec it was a sea horse tank. I think I'm going to do a bare bottom sps tank. I hope it turns out like yours. You do any good mods. Like plug the hole in the first chamber? Link to comment
Islandoftiki Posted January 13, 2012 Author Share Posted January 13, 2012 Here's a little update: The tank is still going great. I'm moving in with my fiance, so the tank was moved last weekend to her house. The move when smoothly and without incident. It's only 8 blocks away. A couple days later, my peppermint shrimp died, but for no obvious reason. He was doing great the night before, but was gone the next morning. Water parameters checked out just fine, so I have no idea why he died. The pom pom crab, hermit crabs and sixline wrasse are doing great. All of the corals are doing awesome. The red mushroom keeps making new mushrooms, and the green one just split from two into five. My zoas are slowly multiplying and looking great. My new Micro-Reefs.com custom 10 gallon tank is on it's way. You can now buy the same tank on their website. Here are some pictures: That's my 10 gallon tank on the left, with an 8 gallon in the middle and a four gallon on the right. Here's a picture of my tank with the light fixture they're supplying. HO T5 bulbs. Daylight, actinic and moonlight are all controllable separately. It's going to be an amazing setup with an AC70 filter/fuge with an InTank media basket. MP10 powerhead and Reef Keeper Lite controlling the heater and lighting. Link to comment
jgilvey Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 Sweet! I'll be following, I have an 8-gallon custom from Mike that he now sells too (shown above). Nice tanks! Link to comment
Islandoftiki Posted January 13, 2012 Author Share Posted January 13, 2012 Sweet! I'll be following, I have an 8-gallon custom from Mike that he now sells too (shown above). Nice tanks! This is the 8 gallon tank only 2 inches taller by my request. :-) Link to comment
Islandoftiki Posted January 13, 2012 Author Share Posted January 13, 2012 Ok, so here's a link to my new 10 Gallon tank build: http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...p;#entry3681642 Link to comment
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