Venturalvn's 20 long

[venturalvn]

Got some zoa frags on the way from reefs2go.com. Seems to be a pretty well liked sponsor on this forum and they have some good prices so we'll see what these guys look like on arrival:

 

[venturalvn]

I got a purple dottyback and she is one tough customer. I thought it might be a touch and go introduction to the tank since my yellowtail damsel is king of the house, but that is far from reality. Dotty kicked him out of his cave and bosses him around all day every day. I feel kind of bad, but I know he'd do the same thing to a softer neighbor so oh well. I may add some more live rock to put another cave or two in there so they can both have a nice sleeping area.

 

[venturalvn]

I'm fighting a heavy multi type algae outbreak right now. I assume this is because I'm using dechlorinated tap to mix my water since I dont have my RODI yet. I am running phosban in the hob filter, so I only have .25-.40 phosphates for 1 day a week. But I'm also wondering if the way my flow is set up is contributing to it, mainly because of where its building up. The left side of the tank has a huge diatom outbreak on the sandbed, which is weird since it gets slightly less light than the right side. It also gets less flow, so I'm wondering if the lack of flow is causing this? Also starting to get hair algae on the inside of the middle of the arc, so again I'm wondering if the flow is contributing to this.

 

I've added a second koralia 250 to the 425 and the AC 30, so I'm having that on for half the day. Ill have to see if this cuts down on the diatom.

[venturalvn]

This algae outbreak is very frustrating. It looks like there may be a slight bit of cyano beginning to build up as well.

 

All of my parameters are at 0. I have phosphate of about .25 1 day a week when I do my water changes. Phosban reduces this to 0 within 24 hours. Light cycle is at 5 hours a day. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get rid of this algae, and what is causing it in the first place??

[markalot]

This algae outbreak is very frustrating. It looks like there may be a slight bit of cyano beginning to build up as well.

 

All of my parameters are at 0. I have phosphate of about .25 1 day a week when I do my water changes. Phosban reduces this to 0 within 24 hours. Light cycle is at 5 hours a day. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get rid of this algae, and what is causing it in the first place??

 

Non pure water. We only test for a few things and there are so many different chemicals in tap water that generally you can guarantee a bad algae outbreak. Just remember that if phosphates were really 0 everything in your tank would be dead. We lower phosphates to slow growth, and use pure water to make sure there's not something there that can help fuel it.

 

New tanks will go through the uglies, which a good cleanup crew should handle.

[venturalvn]

Switching to water store RO water until I get my RODI unit.

 

Got my frags from reefs2go. The candy apple and mellow yellow were DOA. The interior of the package was wet so I'm assuming there was a leak or two. The green and fire and ice frags are less than stellar. And the fire and ice color morph is rather bland, with a boring gray center instead of blue. I emailed them about the DOA frags today so we'll see what happens. If they replace them I'll still consider it a good deal. If not, it was very much not worth it.

 

For now, here's my newest inhabitant! Most vivid sebae clown I've seen in person. Jet black, pure white stripes, and bright yellow fins/head. Looks very pure.

 

 

 

[venturalvn]

Well I heard back from reefs2go. I got store credit for the doa frags. Unfortunately they didnt resend them, and since I got them on sale I cant even buy the same ones for the price of the credit. I guess I'll pay a little more and then pay for shipping one more time and call it a day. Not real happy but I'll chalk it up as a learning experience.

[venturalvn]

Looks like I may have to get a lid for this tank. Both my blue damsel and purple dotty have jumped out within 10 days of each other. The dotty was bullying the damsel. I added more rock to try to open add some separation and create new cave space. Then I put the sebae clown in and the dotty went on guard, which put the damsel in basically a corner of the tank 24/7. I eventually lost the damsel (literally), and then found the dotty on the floor when I came home from work the other day.

 

Fortunately everything else is doing well. Unfortunately this town...er...tank...is only big enough for the one of them. I'll have to get a goby of some sort to stay out of the way or maybe get a wrasse and a lid.

 

The zoas are showing growth and have been settled quite nicely for a while. My hammer has grown another mouth. The zoas I got from r2g are less than spectacular and I'll take that as a lesson learned. Once I got the replacement shipment from the DOAs, everything that is opening for now are small baby heads and the colors are moderate. Since all other zoas in my tank have heads the size of earbuds and colors that surprise my eyeballs, I'll have to assume it's the product not the tank.

 

If anyone has any suggestions for a cool addition to my sebae clown (or any comments at all, really), please chime in!

[AdamWest]

So i stand corrected. Your tank looks fantastic. That is one of the best scapes i've seen so far. Your corals look fantastic as well. You should totally update with more up close pics of the corals.

[venturalvn]

So i stand corrected. Your tank looks fantastic. That is one of the best scapes i've seen so far. Your corals look fantastic as well. You should totally update with more up close pics of the corals.

Thanks! Heres a shot from when I added some macro a few days ago. Ive also added some more live rock since the pic in the OP, to both add more caves and filtration, and to fill out the look on the outsides of the scape a bit. Unfortunately the macro didnt fair too well over the weekend, which I expected the second I got it in the mail. While it was melting it was affecting my coral so ive sinced removed it, which is sad, cuz it kinda took my tank to the next level...

 

[AdamWest]

Dude the macro looks awesome you should try and see if your local LFS can get it in and then you could try getting healthier macros that have a better chance of survival.

[venturalvn]

 

A little top down shot to try to show the rock scape from a different angle and show the range of colors I have in the coral so far...and maybe to get a comment or two

 

Even though all I have are frags so far, I still feel like I'm representing a lot of color in this small tank. Hopefully over time the colonies will turn my tank into a rainbow.

 

Also not shown in that shot are some other zoas I have tucked away in the shadows. Baby heads I'm not real thrilled about, but glad just to have them survive the mailing process. Candy apple red, stargazers, fire and ice, and some plain green.

[Cubeman]

Coming along really nicely; it's a great looking tank-scape.

[venturalvn]

Coming along really nicely; it's a great looking tank-scape.

Thanks! I'll have to work on getting a new FTS up soon. I've added more corals in the past couple weeks.

 

For now heres some close ups of my favorite zoas:

 

 

[Super CatPig]

I love your rockwork. If you don't mind me asking how did you make it support itself? drilling and some kind of support? If I ever start another tank I think I want to build my rock into something interesting like this. And those are really pretty zoas. I want some bambams now

[venturalvn]

I love your rockwork. If you don't mind me asking how did you make it support itself? drilling and some kind of support? If I ever start another tank I think I want to build my rock into something interesting like this. And those are really pretty zoas. I want some bambams now

Thanks! This is actually all just stacked rock. No drilling, no ties, no pipes. My largest piece of live rock has a semi circle shaped curve, so it lent itself as a great piece to use for the middle arc.

 

The small arc to the right was a lucky break off a bigger more porous piece of rock I had. Just took a chisel (screwdriver) and a hammer to a piece of rock I had, tried to hit some key points along an arc shape, and it popped right off in perfect shape.

 

I was ready to glue/tie/drill as necessary, but got lucky and managed to find a way to get it all set up without much work. There were a few collapses in the first couole weeks, so it was sketchy, but each time I found where the weak points were I was able to twist, dig, and lock in the right angles and pieces and now its stable!

[AdamWest]

So lucky, you should have played the powerball lotto when it was at 600 million.

[venturalvn]

So lucky, you should have played the powerball lotto when it was at 600 million.

I did...

 

Had some tickets for myself and we had a few hundred at work in my work pool.

 

This was my planned rock scape, it just took some trial and error. It wasnt as lucky as it was determination.

[venturalvn]

Seems my brown hair algae has gone, and the sand is now completely clean, but now I'm getting small tufts of green hair algae in random spots.

 

The good news is the live rock higher up, closest to the lights, are starting to form numerous small patches of coralline algae. I'm hopeful it will grow quickly!

 

For the green hair algae, is it ok to scrub it off with a brush while inside the tank? Or will it just cause it to spread?

[venturalvn]

Posted a new FTS to the OP. Do you guys like the darker or more blown out pictures? Hard to find a good balance between color and blown out white when using LEDs and camera phones.

 

Anyways its kinda hard to see since I added some new live rock to fill space and add caves, but the right side arc is still there and well, and is one of my clown's favorite spots to play around in. Heres a pic to kinda show the depth a tad more:

 

And my latest LFS pickup, a bright (ultra?) green acro!

[venturalvn]

Just confirmed that I have multiple bristleworms in my tank. So far, I haven't seen any negative hitchikers!

[AdamWest]

Your tank looks awesome as alway. Like the new additions as well. Your clown probably like a little remodeling every now and then.

[NanoReefFL]

Are you satisfied with those lights? Just started a 20L reef and im debating on what lights to go with

[Angel<3Nanos]

I am so digging that scape! seriously it looks awesome!

[venturalvn]

Are you satisfied with those lights? Just started a 20L reef and im debating on what lights to go with

I am VERY satisfied with these ledtric bulbs. There's a clear difference between the full spectrum and the full spectrum plus. The full spectrum PLUS gives you a more true to light look, while the regular full spectrum is more blue balanced. The color choice comes down to personal preference, but the product itself is the best you're gonna get for the money.

I am so digging that scape! seriously it looks awesome!

Thanks! I was debating on whether or not to mess with the minimal rockwork, but eventually I just decided I needed more rock so I tried to stack it around the main shape. It's hard to get the depth of the scape in pictures, but it's actually more intricate than it looks!