Mark's Nanobox Powered 40B -retired-

[Christopher Marks]

On 8/6/2017 at 9:14 AM, markalot said:

Latest FTS.  Torch has not changed, though it looks bad in this picture.  I will be removing it soon (I said that last time) since I can't make it happy.

Somehow I missed your new FTS! That's a bummer the torch coral just won't get happy, but everything else is really looking great @markalot! Such a stellar mixed reef, I loving seeing the leather coral stretching tall beside all the SPS, such a great contrast.

 

How has your summer been?

[gena]

Looks great, Mark!  Your yellow tang looks so sinister in this photo LOL.

 

by this photo I mean your latest FTS that Chris quoted above .

[markalot]

On 8/25/2017 at 5:57 PM, Christopher Marks said:

Somehow I missed your new FTS! That's a bummer the torch coral just won't get happy, but everything else is really looking great @markalot! Such a stellar mixed reef, I loving seeing the leather coral stretching tall beside all the SPS, such a great contrast.

 

How has your summer been?

 

Hi Chris, very busy with the dog bite and that same kid starting college.  Sheesh.  For the most part it's been fun though, the wife and I have even been able to bike ride almost every weekend.  

 

On 8/25/2017 at 7:46 PM, gena said:

Looks great, Mark!  Your yellow tang looks so sinister in this photo LOL.

 

by this photo I mean your latest FTS that Chris quoted above .

 

Thanks Gena!

 

This tank is in super neglect mode and yet for the most part continues to look good.  I did do one 10 gallon water change when a bunch of corals started to show stress, which cleared things up.  I suspect the big leather is polluting the tank.

 

Dosing 1 drop AF Vitality and 1 drop Pohls Extra Special daily.  The skimmer is having issue, not skimming nearly enough ... colors have improved.

 

I scraped the front glass, it was hell, took me like 45 seconds and I got my arm wet!  Might as well shoot some photos.

 

 

 

 

 

[gena]

That looks absolutely INCREDIBLE!!!!!  This is your masterpiece right here .

[Christopher Marks]

HOLY MOLY! See, this is the sweet spot for nano reefs, they can nearly go on autopilot as they mature! Thanks for sharing the new photos Mark, this continues to be one of my favorite aquariums around 

 

Keep enjoying the nice bike riding weather, I'm super jealous!

[teenyreef]

Omigosh this tank is just incredible now. I agree with Christopher, it's so nice to see just how far a nano reef can go as it matures.

[markalot]

On 8/27/2017 at 7:26 PM, gena said:

That looks absolutely INCREDIBLE!!!!!  This is your masterpiece right here .

 

On 8/27/2017 at 7:26 PM, Christopher Marks said:

HOLY MOLY! See, this is the sweet spot for nano reefs, they can nearly go on autopilot as they mature! Thanks for sharing the new photos Mark, this continues to be one of my favorite aquariums around 

 

Keep enjoying the nice bike riding weather, I'm super jealous!

 

On 8/27/2017 at 10:38 PM, teenyreef said:

Omigosh this tank is just incredible now. I agree with Christopher, it's so nice to see just how far a nano reef can go as it matures.

 

Thankyou thankyou thankyou.   Sorry it took so long to reply.

 

I had started dosing 2 part, B-Ionic cause it was on sale (I use C-Balance in the big tank).  Unfortunately it's not very potent, like half the potency of C-Balance.

 

Alk tested at 5.6.  Oops.   So what was suffering, if anything?  Stupid zoas.  lol.  SPS doing well, maybe the torch issues are due to this?  Popped it to 6.6 and will raise to 7.0 over the next few days.  Really dumb of me to let this happen yet as I've discovered too little is tolerated longer than too much.

 

Birdnest has turned a very clear pink with amazing polyp extension.  Go figure. (note apatasia farm top right  )

[vlangel]

Ha ha, you make me laugh, 'aiptasia farm!'  Mark, regardless of what you say about neglect and such, this tank is magnificent.  It is one of my favorite mixed reefs.

[markalot]

10 minutes ago, vlangel said:

Ha ha, you make me laugh, 'aiptasia farm!'  Mark, regardless of what you say about neglect and such, this tank is magnificent.  It is one of my favorite mixed reefs.

 

Thanks Dawn.   The peppermint shrimp is alive and well, and fat, but he can't get up there apparently.   I might scrape them off and let the results become food new food.

[Lula_Mae]

14 hours ago, markalot said:

 

Thanks Dawn.   The peppermint shrimp is alive and well, and fat, but he can't get up there apparently.   I might scrape them off and let the results become food new food.

Stella found out you can use a majano wand to make new aiptasia.

[Lugmos12]

This is just amazing

[markalot]

On 10/16/2017 at 9:19 PM, Lugmos12 said:

This is just amazing

 

Thanks Lugmos. 

 

 

It's still going.

 

I've been manually dosing 2 part because it fell to 5.2 KH and guess what decided to try to die?  SPS, no, LPS, no, ZOAS!  Little picky bastards.   They are coming back now that KH is back around 7, but Zoas, KH sensitive, really? 

 

 

The sexiness of this pink/purple/yellow bird is incredible,   

 

 

All the fish are doing fine, especially the little wrasse.  Over a year now and he has yet to eat anything I feed ... yet he stays fat.  It's gotta be the flatworms, which I never see anymore. Edit: I just noticed, in the FTS, zoom in, the little wrasse is just above the Red Goni.  

 

I did get a couple of easy fish pics.

 

 

I'm also happy to report that the yellow blastos have finally recovered and have started to grow.   

 

My blue trumpets have also recovered over in the other corner, even a dead head is showing some life.  The surviving heads lower left, behind the algae that won't easily scrape off.

 

I cleaned the Gyre for the first time, it has an epic amount of algae and aptasia on it.  This also shows the Aptasia flower in the back, happily out of focus.

 

I forget the name of this ... blue/green something.  This has been a vigorous grower, look at those stalks.

 

Montis also do quite well in here, probably due to the high nutrients.

 

I tried to move my Blueberry capitata in here but the slow growing 'peaceful' blue digitata woke up, shot over, and is killing it.

 

Current dosing is as follows.

 

PhosphateRx:  1 drop weekly (this killed the blue trumpets when I did every other day)

AF Vitality (vitamins): 1 drop daily

Phols extra super duper special: 1 drop daily

AF Pro Bio S (bacteria): 1 drop daily

 

Topoff is saturated Kalk via a timed topoff.

Dosing 10ml each part of 2 part daily.

 

Other than the short daily visit (usually early mornings before the lights are on) I've been too busy to pay much attention.     

 

[markalot]

Video.  I did the shake reduction prior to uploading and I'm not sure if it looks better or worse than letting Youtube do it.

 

 

[samnaz]

The blue/green vicious grower is Sympodium

 

BTW beautifullllll photos, as always. 

[Christopher Marks]

I'm glad to see the reef is happy and well! This tank still continues to blow me away, all the layers of coral, especially the SPS. That birdsnest is unreal!

 

Thanks for updating us @markalot  

[Polarcollision]

your tank is stunning Mark. Especially the birdsnest, just love it's growth forms. Everything C. M. said, I echo. Just really nice. Photography is top notch too.

 

Since we talked about it a long while back, thought I'd mention that I finally eradicated my aptasia resurgence with - of all things - kalk paste. OK, well knock on wood, there's a tiny one that came with a new frag of zoas who's days are numbered. It played havoc with alk swings, but it was worth it in the end.

[teenyreef]

Just caught up, the video was really nice! Zoas are so funny. For "easy corals", I swear I spend more time on mine with mysterious declines and repeated dips. They'll thrive for a month and then decline. Or I move them to another tank and they do great even though the existing zoas in that tank are doing poorly.

 

I've almost stopped dosing PhosphateRx in my tanks. After several months of dosing and keeping phosphates low, they seem to stay low on their own now. I gradually tapered off the dosing and haven't done one in at least a couple weeks now.

[markalot]

9 hours ago, teenyreef said:

Just caught up, the video was really nice! Zoas are so funny. For "easy corals", I swear I spend more time on mine with mysterious declines and repeated dips. They'll thrive for a month and then decline. Or I move them to another tank and they do great even though the existing zoas in that tank are doing poorly.

 

I've almost stopped dosing PhosphateRx in my tanks. After several months of dosing and keeping phosphates low, they seem to stay low on their own now. I gradually tapered off the dosing and haven't done one in at least a couple weeks now.

 

Hi Teeny,

 

My problem is zoa eating nudis, or at least some of the problem.  They are gorgeous (well, for small ugly worms), and mostly eating the orange zoas so they carry around a bright orange coloration that looks better than the zoas.   The orange ones are still spreading even with the nudis.   I'm letting them have their way with the zoas to see what happens. 

[vlangel]

I love that pink birdsnest.  Its color is amazing and I like the growth pattern too.  The tank looks terrific as usual.

[markalot]

On 12/4/2017 at 9:27 AM, vlangel said:

I love that pink birdsnest.  Its color is amazing and I like the growth pattern too.  The tank looks terrific as usual.

 

Thanks Dawn.

 

So I bought a smaller Avast Porthole and I can actually take decent topdowns in the 40 now.  THings are looking good, but the mushrooms are taking over!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can see my custom algae and aptasia filtration system in this shot.  

 

[flatlandreefer]

I like the use of mushrooms in your aqua-scape, brings a lot of color to the tank and something you don't see a whole lot of anymore! Tank looks great!

[markalot]

On 12/10/2017 at 10:25 AM, flatlandreefer said:

I like the use of mushrooms in your aqua-scape, brings a lot of color to the tank and something you don't see a whole lot of anymore! Tank looks great!

 

Thanks.  It's not so much that I decorate with shrooms, they do that.    One of the reasons people keep shrooms out is they can easily take over, like they are here.  Cool looking, but in the end I bet only one variety survives.   I have a couple superman shrooms in my 150 that are weaklings, unfortunately, and lose to every other mushroom.  Red with bright blue dots.  If only I could get them to spread.

[markalot]

I have been manually dosing 2 caps (20ml) of each part 2 part daily.  Measured KH last night, 5.5.   Oops.   I need to be yelled at to get the doser setup on this, I've been too damn lazy.  I have the extension to the Bubble magus pump, I have the extra containers, I have the two part, I have the plastic hose, I have a dosing holder in the sump.   Really, just how lazy is that?

 

I'm afraid of seeing how much this needs daily, the 150 is at 130ml each part daily, this couldn't be over 50ml, right?

[vlangel]

Ha ha, who knows.  It seems like stuff is growing well.  I never could get the red shrooms with blue dots to compete either.

[debbeach13]

Tank looks awesome. Always enjoy your updates.