ugly's fugly natural tank

[JamesHL88]

Love the system. Gonna go google 33 long deminsions now

[uglybuckling]

Love the system. Gonna go google 33 long deminsions now

 

It's the same cross-section as a 20 long (roughly 12x12 inches), but 48" rather than 30" in length.

 

It is my favorite tank size. I'm actually looking for one with the same 12x12 cross section, but six or even eight feet long; no luck so far. Almost certainly going to have to be a custom job if I get one of those.

 

33 longs are very tough to find where I live; I'm told they're pretty easy to get in Cali. This one was bought used from a local reef enthusiast for $20. Drilled. With a stand (which I scrapped and built my own, but still).

 

Anyway, once it is cycled, I'm going to hook it into the display (the 75g tank with 20g long 'fuge on the first few pages of this thread), which it sits right next to. Hopefully will function sort of as an algae scrubber and pod farm.

 

 

 

Aaaand also on its way from GCE:

 

Mermaid's Wine Glass

Ulva Sp.

Galaxaura Sp.

Red Gracilaria

Padina

 

That's right, Galaxaura and Acetabularia *IN THE SAME SHIPMENT, from the same vendor*

 

*happy dance*

[uglybuckling]

A few gratuitous macroalgae shots:

 

Acetabularia:

 

Galaxaura:

 

More coming; have brown scroll, red titan, red grape, dragon's breath (Halymenia), irridescent fuchea, maybe blue Ochtodes (it's sorta hanging on; last week was a bad week for shipping that stuff), Codium, Gracillaria, Ulva, and a few others.

[jedimasterben]

the hell did you get all those macros? They're AWESOME. I need a bigger tank just so I can keep more of them.

[uglybuckling]

Two orders; live-plants.com (Gulf Coast Ecosystems) and Keydiver on this forum.

[Julian_blnc]

This tank is pretty awesome, might serve as my inspiration when I upgrade.

More pictures please

[uglybuckling]

This tank is pretty awesome, might serve as my inspiration when I upgrade.

More pictures please

 

 

More coming, I promise. Gotta get a good camera for Christmas, along with some software that lets me fix the white balance. Photographing anything under LEDs is just ridiculously difficult. Maybe I'll ask Ben to teach me how, since the few pictures he takes of his stuff always look amazing.

 

 

Tank updates with no pictures are SAD SAD SAD but here's one anyway:

 

Acans in the display tank are doing quite well, showing great color and begging for food every night with inch-long tentacles. Many of the single-head ones I got from Saltcritters are up to three heads, and one that they sent me with five heads now has eleven.

 

Zoas and palys are also growing like mad; varieties are too numerous to list (probably not quite to triple digits yet, but at least halfway there). I'm not 100% thrilled with the color on some of my zoas, though. Blues, greens, whites, blacks, browns, oranges, pinks, and reds pop brilliantly and stay bright over time. Yellows also pop brilliantly, but FADE with time, to a dull brown. I cannot figure this out. Zoas aren't supposed to brown out. I didn't even know it was possible for them to brown out. I'm kind of questioning also why it is ONLY yellow that is doing this. I'm wondering about perhaps a specific trace element deficit or something in my system.

 

Rics are doing well. I have five from Saltcritters and five from keydiver. They are all happy. The three nearby mushrooms are also happy.

 

Not getting the best extension on my Sun coral, but I think it's just still mad from shipping. It came out a good bit yesterday when I did a big broadcast feed. I have a feeling it'll eventually stop being pissed off.

 

The duncan is huge. Started with two medium-sized heads; up to three large and three small heads. Over two months. Yes, I feed him every single day.

 

The hammer and frogspawn corals are also taking off, but I can't get the clownfish to host in them. I'm beginning to get the feeling that little e and pi are not the sharpest tools in the shed.

 

My SPS (all birdsnests; for me acropora is one of those "been there, done that, not going back" type of deals) are also chugging right along. I have three frags; a ponape, an ORA green, and some other weird one that looks more like a bonsai than a coral. The latter has put on about 1/4 inch on each branch and made about fifty (yes fifty!) new branches which all look like little nubbins, since I got it maybe a month ago. The ORA green has grown about a quarter of an inch as well, but has not put on any new branches. The ponape is the least impressive; a couple new branches and maaaybe 1/8 inch of growth.

 

As for the macro tank,

 

Looks like the blue ochtodes in the macro tank is going to make it. It's finally coming back enough that I'm confident calling it alive.

 

My shaving brush is going straight-up crazy. I bought one head of it from Reefs2go (the only macro I've gotten from anyone other than keydiver, Gulf Coast Ecosystems, and the one penny macro I got from reefcleaners); they sent me two heads (despite my only buying one). I now have five heads. It has been about two weeks.

 

The red dictyota did indeed eventually melt. Along with the padina from Gulf Coast Ecosystems. It was like thirty eight degrees outside when the stuff arrived, and although I brought it in instantly, it had been sitting on a cold UPS truck for awhile. No biggie though; those aren't tough macros to get hold of, like ochtodes, galaxaura, and acetabularia, which thankfully all made it and appear to be doing well.

 

I took all my mangroves out, at the suggestion of a local guy, and stuck them in fresh water to leaf out. I'll put them back when they show some growth.

 

Nutrients in the macro tank are registering zero across the board, but I still have a few diatoms. I want to give it another week or two before I hook it into the main display.

 

Oh, while we're on nutrients: the chaeto fuge that went totally nuts during the first couple months of this tank finally got knocked back to size; I gave away no joke eight gallons of chaeto this past weekend. I'm letting what's left grow back. I sifted through the stuff I gave away in sort of a cursory way, to try to recover my ceriths so I wouldn't have to order more; sadly I had to order more anyway. Anyway, as I was sifting through all of it, I found pods that were up to 3/4 inch long, lots of tiny bristleworms, lots of feather dusters, one mini star (who did NOT get given away; I threw him back in my fuge), one fire worm (who also did not get given away; he was thrown straight down the sink), and one aiptasia (same fate). No berghias yet. Anyway, kgoldy pimp fuge status, here I come. =)

 

Oh also I'm completely covered in dirt and have at least thirty discrete cuts, scrapes, and bruises, and will have one hellishly sore back tomorrow from lifting 6x6 inch beams, heavy floor jacks, and completely burying four concrete blocks (and then stacking four more on top of them), but anwyay, I did this:

 

 

Everything is 100% level. I'm following the directions that came with the jacks, which say to increase the tension by a half-turn a week over the course of about two months, until you reach whatever you think represents a level floor. I'm not quite there yet, mine still sags a little bit. And yes! I know they're not a permanent solution! I'm planning to use them to raise the floor back up (as suggested in the directions) over the course of a few months, and then I will build permanent supports out of more 6x6 lumber.

 

Big big BIG thank you to longpig for his help. The tank does not bounce any more when my girlfriend and I jump on the floor next to it. Granted we weigh less than 240 pounds together, but still. I can sleep better at night. And that's what is important.

[kgoldy]

Lovin the dirty dish, dude. Dig the scape. Dig the unusual macros. Nice job.

[jedimasterben]

My entire house shakes when I walk around it.

[uglybuckling]

This tank is pretty awesome, might serve as my inspiration when I upgrade.

More pictures please

 

These are taken with a suboptimal cell phone camera. I'm asking Santa for a real camera for Christmas.

 

 

 

 

[uglybuckling]

Two pics of my SPS:

 

 

 

All the new growth tips on the latter are new since purchase (moved from a dim area of a tank lit by 250W halide + actinics to a moderately-lit area under my LED rig). It is also coloring up a good bit.

[jedimasterben]

dat birdsnest

[uglybuckling]

Just picked up a 3" frag of Leng Si monti cap, a 1/2" frag of the super bright red-orange Tyree LE Monti setosa, and a 1.5" tall green stylo frag, from the same guy who sold me those three birdsnests.

 

=)

 

Edit: and the total cost was less than the price of any single one of those frags at any online retailer I can find. =)

[uglybuckling]

Not much new, everything in the big reef seems to be doing pretty well.

 

Here are some more shots of macroalgae. It has really taken off, although I have not had a free moment to do any kind of scaping. So it's just a jungle right now. Anyway, I'm about ready to hook this tank into the 75 reef. The diatom bloom is at an end and the nutrients are zero zero zero. =)

 

 

[jedimasterben]

*is jealous of your big pieces of ulva*

 

 

*and some others in there*

 

 

[metrokat]

A few gratuitous macroalgae shots:

 

Acetabularia:

 

Galaxaura:

 

More coming; have brown scroll, red titan, red grape, dragon's breath (Halymenia), irridescent fuchea, maybe blue Ochtodes (it's sorta hanging on; last week was a bad week for shipping that stuff), Codium, Gracillaria, Ulva, and a few others.

[uglybuckling]

Okay, made some labeled versions because some of these (blue ochtodes) are still very small, and although they're growing well, they're hard to see in the pictures:

 

 

[uglybuckling]

I gotta take some more pictures. Everything is so much bigger now. =P Got a pretty sweet RAW-format P&S camera coming for Christmas, so hopefully the next round of pictures will be easier than these were.

 

Also, the tank is doing great. More than I can say for myself at this point, but December will be over soon.

 

If you don't hear from me sooner, I'll catch you on the flip side.

[Veng]

You can't leave before you give us pics!

[rO.oster]

The flip side has arrived, its time you come back and participate on NR!!!!

[jedimasterben]

The flip side has arrived, its time you come back and participate on NR!!!!

[jedimasterben]

 

The flip side has arrived, its time you come back and participate on NR!!!!

[uglybuckling]

I am alive. So are my tanks--everything is growing and happy. It cracks me up to see how tiny those birdsnests were, and how white the rocks were. Current inhabitants are all the originals mentioned in this thread (2 clowns, pistol shrimp and yasha goby, six-line) plus a new yellow tang. And about twenty zillion hermits. I haven't added or pulled out much for the past several months.

The light is still working fine, and growth and colors are absolutely gorgeous with it. I did fry Milad's controller with salt creep (didn't see it til it was too late). A few knobs and a timer work fine though. Stayed up til 3am one WORK night rebuilding it. Gee, that was fun.

Currently, I've got some GHA (due to neglected water changes; see below) and am looking to possibly start carbon-dosing this tank to get rid of it.

It has been a rough few months for me (hence the neglected water changes). Thankfully the tank has come through with only the hair algae, and no loss of livestock except one (rather nice) acan. I don't know how much I'll be around in the upcoming weeks, but it might be more than I was for the past few months, anyway.

Hello everyone, glad to see you're all still here.

[jedimasterben]

SWEET JESUS, YOU'RE BACK!

[Chadf]

Just read through this for the first time. If you're still looking for a long tank 12" deep and 12" high greatlakesaquariums has a 6' for $164 and an 8' for $340. http://www.greatlakesaquariums.com/Documents/CMS_Docs/Glass-Aquarium-Custom-Options2.pdf

 

Rimless- http://www.greatlakesaquariums.com/Documents/CMS_Docs/Rimless-Aquarium-Custom-Options2.pdf