Chucktown ELOS NPS Mini

[pyronus]

Hey Adam,

I think the frogspawn looks kinda cool on the rocks, maybe move it to the right a little so from the right angle it looks like its mounted on to the top of the rock work.

 

So far so good if you ask me. I cant wait to see it loaded up with SPS.

[divecj5]

lolol, Love the fnf sunrise acans alot. If it were me, I would get rid of the frogspawn simply because I love to keep the back free of any sort of algae or corals. This applies to all four glass sides of the tank. There's my feedback.

 

One question though, I don't see your black ice clown!!! Where is it?

 

Ohh, and also one more thing. I spotted an aiptasia next to the pink palys. Better kill that thing asap.

 

Thanks for the feedback on the frogspawn. I go back and forth on how much I like it, dislike it, or complete indifference. I may just see how things look with the new frags and pull it or leave it based on that. The good thing is that it's mounted on a frag-mag and I can always move it behind the rock scape so you see just a hint of it through the cave.

 

The Black Ice is in there....he's just hiding up near the top-right by the overflow. Spends 99% of his/her time up there. Not really sure how to get it to start exploring and enjoying the rest of the tank. Maybe with some new "friends" it will.

 

I'll have to call you eagle-eye from now on I noticed that bastage aiptasia when I took the pic and promptly put it out of its misery a minute later. I have a syringe of lemon juice, Aiptasia X, and kalk waiting for any of this friends....

 

I think the frogspawn looks kinda cool on the rocks, maybe move it to the right a little so from the right angle it looks like its mounted on to the top of the rock work.

 

So far so good if you ask me. I cant wait to see it loaded up with SPS.

 

Thanks for the suggestion...I think I may do what you said and move it further to the right so it looks like it more naturally fits the scape.

 

I'm with you...really looking forward to the new frags. I'm slowly starting to get my itch for SPS again (oh boy)

[Deleted User 4]

Wow...thanks so much man. Really appreciate the compliment. Your current tank moved over to an ELOS would be killer . Although they are definitely on the pricey side, I paid about 1/2 retail after selling some rock, coral, and old equipment I had sitting around. Once you've been in this hobby long enough (as you know), you almost always have a couple things to help fund the next build.

 

This is honestly the first tank I've had in 6 years of reefing that I completely enjoy. I'm sure there will be some pest to crop up along the way but it just works like it should and has been really enjoyable so far and I'm just getting started with stocking it.

 

Yes, this is exactly what I did except I sold my old shoes collection in advance to fund up for this current tank setup that I have. Glad you figured it out in a conservative way ahaha. As for this hobby, I think main priority is quality and looks of the tank (Housing/outside), then corals and fish (furnitures/inside).

[divecj5]

Just curious, would it be possible to add another Ocellaris (say a Picasso) or would that cause a territorial issue with the current Black Ice that I have now? I know you're not supposed to mix/match different species so I assume it's ok. Just thought I'd ask.

 

I think the one I have now could use a friend

[pyronus]

From what I have read adding a smaller fish is usually not an issue. We're going to find out the same thing here pretty soon. My lone Ocellaris needs a friend too and they have a snowflake at the LFS that needs to come home with me.

[divecj5]

From what I have read adding a smaller fish is usually not an issue. We're going to find out the same thing here pretty soon. My lone Ocellaris needs a friend too and they have a snowflake at the LFS that needs to come home with me.

 

Sounds like we're in exactly the same boat Maybe I'll just let you go first and tell me how it goes..haha. Although I really like the Black Ice that I have now, I do miss having a pair like I did in my 20H. and it just hasn't shown a ton of interest in exploring the tank. My only reluctance in having a pair is that the ones I had previously eventually claimed the entire tank as their "territory." The male wasn't really an issue....the female on the other hand was quite the bossy thing. I actually think she was the reason why both of the orange-lined cards that I had were found dead, floating in the tank with tons of nip marks in all of their fins.

 

I might time it so that I add another clown and add another fish the size of a six-line wrasse so that they can sort themselves out while they're small and define each others' space within the tank. The only other fish that I'll likely add beyond that will be a bunch of Trimma or Eviota gobies for perching and hovering around the rock.

 

Decisions decisions......

[pyronus]

You just need to buy all territorial fish to compete with the clowns. If I get any other fish it will be some kind of wrasse or a blenny. Then they can fight it out and if I find one out harasses another well then so be it, I can always trade something in.

 

I was toying with the idea of 3 chromis instead of the 2nd clownfish also. That would put my bio load pretty high, but my skimmer is crazy big and I can barely grow the chaeto that I have in the fuge now my nutrients are seemingly so low. So I'm not really worried about that so much.

 

The clowns are awesome but they are really for the kids. I know they have a mystery wrasse at the LFS too. I'm just too indecisive and its really hard to buy fish for small tanks.

[divecj5]

You just need to buy all territorial fish to compete with the clowns. If I get any other fish it will be some kind of wrasse or a blenny. Then they can fight it out and if I find one out harasses another well then so be it, I can always trade something in.

 

I was toying with the idea of 3 chromis instead of the 2nd clownfish also.

 

The clowns are awesome but they are really for the kids.

 

That's what I was thinking as well.....I think the pair that I used to have needed a similar level of competition. The orange-lined cardinals were just too peaceful.

 

I've always thought a small school of green/blue chromis would be great as well although some can get quite large. I'm right there with you as far as the bioload is concerned....I need to put this EShopps to work. Nothing beats a tank full of awesome coral and colorful fish.

 

Ever since I started cruising reefing forums, I feel in love with the look of Rod's Onyx clowns. After learning more, the pair that he had (I think the female died ) were from brood stock from C-Quest. I was looking around Alpha Corals, which carries C-Quest stock, and there are a few Onyx/Picasso on there that are just screaming to join my tank. I think I'm going to hold off since I'm really just starting to look but it's oh so tempting, especially after watching the videos of them swimming around.

 

So many fish and so little space in our tanks

[divecj5]

Nothing quite like getting new coral for your tank. Earlier this morning I received my frags from Joey (Joe Knows Coral) and it's been a while since I've been so impressed with such attention to detail with the packing job. Each frag was double-bagged, heat sealed, and the ones that were on plugs were routed through a small, plastic measuring cup so that the "stem" was through the bottom and the frag was protected from the bag. I've seen people styrofoam frags to keep them off the bag but this was genius.

 

Also, most of the SPS frags were WAY more than I expected. He said the Hawkins had multi-branches but as you can see below, it's darn near a mini colony for my small tank.

 

Here are some quick pics after things were likely taken out of the bag and placed in the tank. On camera flash only. Can't wait to see what they look like when I get home and the lights are on. As you can tell from the pics, polyp extension was already looking great and the Cephastrea polyps were popping up already.

 

Hawkins - I can tell this is from a mature colony due to the darker bottom branches. This thing is HUGE

 

ORA Red Planet (left) / Pink Lemonade (right) - I can already tell the color on both of these are awesome. Hopefully I can keep it with the LEDs.

 

Valentine's Day and Meteor Shower Cephastrea - I popped these off their plugs and glued them to some rubble. Couldn't take the look of the plugs

 

Hopefully I can get A LOT more pictures with the lights on later but Friday Happy Hour is calling my name so pics might not be up until tomorrow morning.

 

-Adam

[Deleted User 4]

Love the new sps!!

[Quantum]

you have so much more vertical space left to work with! following.

[Needreefunds]

Awesome new additions Adam! Great to see they arrived in such good shape.

 

Best of luck with these- may they go crazy for you!

[divecj5]

Love the new sps!!

 

Thanks.

 

you have so much more vertical space left to work with! following.

 

You're telling me. I plan on staggering these frags in amongst the rock at varying heights to add some vertical interest but there's still going to be plenty of space. Once these settle in and I get a handle on where they're happy, I'm going to go on the hunt for a light- and flow-hungry frag to put at the pinnacle of the scape.

 

Awesome new additions Adam! Great to see they arrived in such good shape.

 

Best of luck with these- may they go crazy for you!

 

Thanks man. It's nice to take something out of the bag and immediately smell that healthy Acro smell That and the slime that Green/Blue Slimers produce is like noneother.

 

I really hope they settle in, get happy, and take off as well. I was encouraged by their polyp extension after only being in the tank for a few minutes. Here's to some happy, healthy, growing frags in the near-future.

[pyronus]

Corals look amazing! The Hawkins and Red Planet are hardly frags. I'm sure they will get super happy in your tank and start to grow like weeds. As for a high flow high light show piece, Strawberry Shortcake would be a pretty amazing scape topper.

[divecj5]

Corals look amazing! The Hawkins and Red Planet are hardly frags. I'm sure they will get super happy in your tank and start to grow like weeds. As for a high flow high light show piece, Strawberry Shortcake would be a pretty amazing scape topper.

 

Thanks! I agree....still can't get over the size of these "frags." I'll have to start checking out the Strawberry Shortcake. I've heard of it before and I'm sure I've seen pictures. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

All is well on the reef and all of the frags looked happy over the weekend. Most have been moved up on the rock work and seem to be adjusting. The weekend slipped away between painting, errands, and taking our son to the aquarium for the first time. We ended up buying a year pass since he was literally grinning from ear to ear the entire time...and then promptly sacked out for 2 hours in the afternoon . I have a couple of pictures that I'll be able to post later this morning. There's been another addition to the tank

 

-Adam

[gena]

Gorgeous tank, Adam. Finally had a moment to sit down and go through your entire thread. I've always been a fan of the elos mini. They are gorgeous tanks!!!! It looks great in your room too

 

Not to scare you, but time FLIES after having kids. My husband and I were just talking about that yesterday. My son will be 13 this year I swear just yesterday I was feeling sorry for him that all he could do was sit in his litttle bouncy soothing chair at 2 weeks old Every age he's gone through has been incredibly enjoyable...maybe that's why it feels like it's gone so fast!

 

Anyways....count me in as a regular follower of your thread, now that I've found it. It's beautiful!

[divecj5]

Gorgeous tank, Adam. Finally had a moment to sit down and go through your entire thread. I've always been a fan of the elos mini. They are gorgeous tanks!!!! It looks great in your room too

 

Not to scare you, but time FLIES after having kids. My husband and I were just talking about that yesterday. My son will be 13 this year I swear just yesterday I was feeling sorry for him that all he could do was sit in his litttle bouncy soothing chair at 2 weeks old Every age he's gone through has been incredibly enjoyable...maybe that's why it feels like it's gone so fast!

 

Yay!! Thanks so much for swinging by the thread and taking the time to read through things. After bouncing between tanks over the last few years, I think I'm going to be content with this one for quite a while. It's nice that we actually own this place and I don't have to immediately start worrying about moving tanks again.

 

My wife and I have already started to realize how quickly time ticks by with our little guy. It feels like yesterday that I was standing over the warming tray at the hospital...now he's charging around the house talking jibberish. It's cliche to say but we couldn't imagine living without him now

 

Just a couple of quick pics of some of the frags mounted up on the rock work. So far everything has been happy and I'm already getting back into the swing of testing params every 2-3 days. Calcium is a little elevated compared to Alk but both were in check. (560ppm Ca / 7.0dKH Alk) Just did a water change this morning so I'll check on things again Wednesday evening.

 

ORA Hawkins Echinata

 

 

Meteor Shower - Need to find a good spot for it

 

Tyree Neon Green Nepthea - Really fluoresces in person

 

ORA Red Planet - Grow baby GROW!!

 

What's this???

 

And lastly, as I mentioned on the thread last week, I've been going back and forth on the next fish to introduce to the tank. The Black Ice hasn't really ventured out and explored the tank since I set it up and I really wanted some more fish/life in the tank.

 

After seeing the beautiful specimen that IIX got from AlphaCorals, and from following them on R2R a long time ago, I started cruising their website to see what they had. Although I think that some of the Snowflake, Picasso, and other morphs are very unique, I've always liked the look of Rods and other true Onyx percs. Long story short, I e-mailed back and forth with Kris, the owner of AlphaCorals, to find out where he gets his stock from, his setups, and anything else to get a feel for his operation. He couldn't have been nicer and ultimately, he offered a deal on one of his fish that I couldn't turn down.

 

So....the newest member of the Chucktown Reef is this beautiful Premium Onyx/Picasso mix that was bred by Just Clowning Around (JCA). What's unique about these clowns is that they are from the same strain from C-Quest where Rod got his pair. For me, I like how it will further develop the dark black coloration over a majority of its body. It's pretty cool seeing the difference in body shape between this and the Black Ice.

 

 

After drip acclimating for a bit, it took to the tank like it's been its home for years and after about 2 minutes of the Black Ice chasing it around the tank, they immediately started swimming together and have pretty much been inseparable since Friday. Couldn't have been happier to see that!! Uur son goes nuts when they both swim to the front of the tank. Actually makes me wish that I would have gotten two Onyx instead of the Black Ice but I think it will be cool to see their variations as they mature.

 

 

 

I highly recommend checking out AlphaCorals if you're looking for a clown in the future. Kris has been so great to work with and was always a phone call away if I needed something. The deal didn't hurt either

 

Hopefully I can get a video in the near-future and some more pictures of the coral once they have some time to settle in. Will probably let things settle out for the next week or so and then start looking around for some more zoas/palys to add to the mix. Although I'm excited to have a mature tank chock full of coral, I'm really enjoying the journey with this tank. I'm going to enjoy the heck out of these new additions and go from there.

 

-Adam

[Deleted User 4]

Omg!! Hahah Thanks for complimenting on my picasso aah. Anyways, so you finally purchased a rod c-quest onyx from Alphacorals?? I remember that same exact clown being for sale under justclowningaround....not too long ago. I'm guessing that justclowningaround sold it to alphacorals and then alphacorals sold it to you? Anywhoo I've never seen an onyx/picasso paired up with a black ice!! Very nice clown pair....wonder how the babies will turn out to be like haha.

[divecj5]

Omg!! Hahah Thanks for complimenting on my picasso aah. Anyways, so you finally purchased a rod c-quest onyx from Alphacorals?? I remember that same exact clown being for sale under justclowningaround....not too long ago. I'm guessing that justclowningaround sold it to alphacorals and then alphacorals sold it to you? Anywhoo I've never seen an onyx/picasso paired up with a black ice!! Very nice clown pair....wonder how the babies will turn out to be like haha.

 

No problem on the compliment...your Picasso is a beauty for sure!! Would be hard to find a suitable mate for that one. Yeah, after talking to Kris, seeing the pictures (and the video of each), it wasn't too hard to sway me towards a purchase. I'm not looking to breed these two but I agree that a Black Ice / Picasso / Onyx would be pretty wild. My two false percs that I had for years started breeding before I had to sell them but I didn't have a way to properly rear them...the eggs ended up being food for something in the tank.

[Deleted User 4]

Yeah, breeding requires experience and lots of equipments/research ahah. I am quite surprised that the two clowns you have get along fairly well! Can't wait to see how your clowns turn out to be like. Haha.

 

Love your new onyx picasso!!

[pyronus]

 

Beautiful fish, I'm kind of jealous. I tried and tried to convince momma to let me buy a picasso, but she couldn't be swayed. I'm happy though. Watching a pair of clownfish is better than TV. (The tank is rapidly replacing cartoons for my 5 y/o as his primary source of entertainment.)

 

Corals are looking great too, I really cant wait to see the grow out.

 

I keep watching my corals daily to see if they have started to encrust at the base or anything I feel like I've been waiting for a year. I just want stuff to take off and grow like crazy.

[HVani]

Nice clown!

 

I love alpha corals. I'm lucky enough to be near them so I have seen the place a few times. It was really cool One of my clowns also came from Alpha corals .

[divecj5]

Beautiful fish, I'm kind of jealous. I tried and tried to convince momma to let me buy a picasso, but she couldn't be swayed. I'm happy though. Watching a pair of clownfish is better than TV. (The tank is rapidly replacing cartoons for my 5 y/o as his primary source of entertainment.)

 

Corals are looking great too, I really cant wait to see the grow out.

 

I keep watching my corals daily to see if they have started to encrust at the base or anything I feel like I've been waiting for a year. I just want stuff to take off and grow like crazy.

 

Thanks man. Yeah, it's tough justifying a pricey fish regardless of what it is. This one definitely tops out as my most expensive fish purchase. I figure it might be one of the last large-ish fish that I add so might as well swing for the fences. Like you said, it helps that our son continues to like looking at the tank more and more so he helps to justify things

 

I can't wait for the frags to settle in and start growing as well. I completely understand what you mean by looking at things daily and wondering when they will ever encrust and grow. Some of my frags in the past took off immediately where others seemed to sit there dormant for a while and then started to grow. As long as params are in check and polyp extension/color is good, I figure it will happen sooner or later. It's a lot more fun once they take off though.

 

Nice clown!

 

I love alpha corals. I'm lucky enough to be near them so I have seen the place a few times. It was really cool One of my clowns also came from Alpha corals .

 

Having Alpha Corals close by would certainly be dangerous Must have been cool to stop by his place though...can only imagine what it looks like in person.

 

Love the clowns that you have in your sig....will have to go and check out your thread in a bit.

[gena]

Wow!!!! The colors on everything are fantastic!!!!! You really have an eye for picking out nice pieces!!!! And the Onyx is gorgeous! I think the Black Ice and Onyx look great together!!!!! I wish I would have remembered Alpha Corals when I was looking to buy my clown pair. Of course, now that I think about it, I was trying to stay on the "cheap" side of fish.

 

That nepthea is too!!!!

[Needreefunds]

I can't wait for the frags to settle in and start growing as well. I completely understand what you mean by looking at things daily and wondering when they will ever encrust and grow. Some of my frags in the past took off immediately where others seemed to sit there dormant for a while and then started to grow. As long as params are in check and polyp extension/color is good, I figure it will happen sooner or later. It's a lot more fun once they take off though.

So true- I remember some time back you noted how they seem to "base out" first then really take off. I finally saw this for myself. A couple small frags- two were just plugs that the frag had been removed from- languished for months before any noted growth, but boy, once they decided "out" was enough they really do reach for the light. Makes a reefer very happy.