Polarcollision's Nuvo 24: March FTS

[kirbaay]

cool looking tank i agree with illuiix he needs more room to swim yellow tangs like swimming out front a lot back and forth.

[Illuiix]

cool looking tank i agree with illuiix he needs more room to swim yellow tangs like swimming out front a lot back and forth.

 

Yup. Tang police active on the crime scene.

[Polarcollision]

Alright guys. Funny video. If the tang shows physical signs of distress I'll move it to another tank. For now, it's peaceful and getting fat on the best seaweed I can buy. If I want to be completely, utterly honest with myself, I don't think it's ethical to keep *any* fish in an aquarium, no matter what the size. But I (we) do.

[Polarcollision]

 

 

Time for a tank growth update. Still feel like it's mostly frags, but they're starting to grow in a bit more. My favorite green bird is almost 4 times bigger in 3 months. It's right in front of that return nozzle so it's growing in pretty dense. That might cause flow issues to the inner portions down the road, so I was thinking about trimming it into a bonsai shape. Has anyone tried this before? I used to trim up trees, but underwater bonsai is new territory for me!

 

 

 

The little black clownfish has been in the large tank for about 2 weeks now. When it first went in, it swam right up to greet the resident orange clown. They froze in time nose to nose for a good 10 seconds and then the resident orange clown chased it off. It's been tense like that ever since. She won't let the new black clown into her precious duncan even though all it seems to want to do is be near her. It's so sad seeing it hover 6 inches away just looking at her longingly. One time they got in a pretty nasty fight, but now the orange clown is starting to swim out of her territory and nuzzle the black clown a bit. Crossing my fingers that the orange clown will accept the new one as a mate. And hopefully the black one isn't also female!

 

 

 

The blenny used to hide out under the clown's duncan, but the clown has chased it off to the other side of the tank. Now she hangs out behind the rasta colony.

 

Coral growth updates

We took a week vacation at the beginning of May. With the new growth spurts, the tank was using up a ton more alkalinity. When I got back I saw the Alk reservoir had run out and Alk fell to 4 dKH. A few coral lost tissue on growth tips and some lost a bit of color. It's now back up to 9 dKH and I guess adding amino acids and keeping it stable will get them to bounce back. Haven't lost anything yet at least.

 

All the side branches are new

 

Pink zippers and red planet

 

Forget this one's name. Ponape? tripled in size already

 

Rainbow stylophora that lost all it's color. :-( It's doubled in size though. Also being overtaken by feather duster hitchikers.

 

New watermelon chalice. Hopefully stable water will bring back the pink. It is 3 times bigger.

 

Bam bam colony taking off

 

Bubblegum monster chalice was the tiniest nub a year ago. Love the way it's growing into the rock contours

 

Is this Utter Chaos zoa? It;s next to a tricolor valida that turned all green in my tank. Weird. But pretty

 

Hyacynth bird

 

A little white and purple torch. Love the way it looks transparent. It's the newest coral addition about the size of my pinky thumbnail. Grow! Grow! Grow!

 

Cool micro zoas. Don't know what they are, but they GLOW peach at night. So pretty!

 

Clove polyps are taking over the middle rock. I love the swaying motion and pops of orange and green.

[Arkayology]

Nice colors on the zoas! Your pics are nice and sharp too which makes everything look even better.

[opaquelace]

I love the way the bubblegum chalice almost looks like Dali's melted clocks lol. Your FTS won't load all the way for me I want to see it because your collection is awesome. I love those clove polyps so much. I have the yellow tipped ones and the hulk green ones (Reef Gardener's) in my tank. I want the papaya ones so badly.

[markalot]

Awesome update. I love the little tailspots ... so much personality in such a small package.

[NanoTopia]

Those chalice's look stunning, whole tank looks great!

[Polarcollision]

Nice colors on the zoas! Your pics are nice and sharp too which makes everything look even better.

 

Thanks Ark! That means a lot coming from you. :-) Here's my first attempt at top-down shots with more zoas.

 

I love the way the bubblegum chalice almost looks like Dali's melted clocks lol. Your FTS won't load all the way for me I want to see it because your collection is awesome. I love those clove polyps so much. I have the yellow tipped ones and the hulk green ones (Reef Gardener's) in my tank. I want the papaya ones so badly.

 

I never noticed the melted clocks until you pointed it out. Have you ever visited the Dali museum in Sarasota, FL? AMAZING. AND. they have the original Disintegration of Persistence of Memory. Will the FTS load now? Sometimes imgur gets cranky. The clove polyps really are taking over that rock. I could easily pull a good size chunk off. Interested?

 

 

Awesome update. I love the little tailspots ... so much personality in such a small package.

 

They are one of the coolest little fish, aren't they?! I love the way it shimmies around the tank hunting pods and little bits of algae. When I don't get around to cleaning glass film you can even see little angle marks on the glass where it snacks.

 

Hey Mark, I have two orange monti digitalis that absolutely did not like the alk drop. Mind reminding me what you did to bring your montis back? I'm feeding reef chili and dosing brightwell CoralKolor which is trace elements. Ran out of amino acids and not sure what brand has the best reputation ATM.

 

 

Those chalice's look stunning, whole tank looks great!

 

Thanks Christine! I'm on the lookout for a bright red nub to complete the collection.

[opaquelace]

 

Thanks Ark! That means a lot coming from you. :-) Here's my first attempt at top-down shots with more zoas.

 

 

I never noticed the melted clocks until you pointed it out. Have you ever visited the Dali museum in Sarasota, FL? AMAZING. AND. they have the original Disintegration of Persistence of Memory. Will the FTS load now? Sometimes imgur gets cranky. The clove polyps really are taking over that rock. I could easily pull a good size chunk off. Interested?

 

 

 

They are one of the coolest little fish, aren't they?! I love the way it shimmies around the tank hunting pods and little bits of algae. When I don't get around to cleaning glass film you can even see little angle marks on the glass where it snacks.

 

Hey Mark, I have two orange monti digitalis that absolutely did not like the alk drop. Mind reminding me what you did to bring your montis back? I'm feeding reef chili and dosing brightwell CoralKolor which is trace elements. Ran out of amino acids and not sure what brand has the best reputation ATM.

 

 

 

Thanks Christine! I'm on the lookout for a bright red nub to complete the collection.

Maybe later in the cloves made a big purchase from glennr's coral gardens aquaculture a few days ago so I'm trying to lay off the coral buying lol. Also try AcroPower for amino acids. ReefBuilders gave it a great review and I use it and love it. Growth and coloration has been awesome.

[markalot]

I like Reef Roids and Coral Accel (Kent). Other than that just keep things stable and they should recover. It's funny but mine seem to be more sensitive to low alk than acros, but acros are more sensitive to rapidly changing alk. My vacations and low alk really sapped the color out of my digitatas but the acros showed nothing, and I raised the alk back slowly so they wouldn't freak out.

 

You need some capitata. I got mine from Reef Gardener. Kind of like digitata but, uh, more bumpy? Also spongodes seems to be indestructable and tolerate bad conditions well.

[Felicia]

Wow! Stunning. You never cease to impress me with your photography skills. I can't get over the clear, gorgeous photos you manage to get of your fish. They show off so much of their personality too

[TeamIM24]

Fantastic! I smell another tank of the month nomination in your future!

[Polarcollision]

I like Reef Roids and Coral Accel (Kent). Other than that just keep things stable and they should recover. It's funny but mine seem to be more sensitive to low alk than acros, but acros are more sensitive to rapidly changing alk. My vacations and low alk really sapped the color out of my digitatas but the acros showed nothing, and I raised the alk back slowly so they wouldn't freak out.

 

You need some capitata. I got mine from Reef Gardener. Kind of like digitata but, uh, more bumpy? Also spongodes seems to be indestructable and tolerate bad conditions well.

 

Well, I panicked and raised it 5 dKH in 2 days. I didn't realize there was a division like that. Will have to be more careful in the future. Luckily no acros bit it, though some are not happy about it. In the last year I've filled the dosing reservoirs twice. Never even occurred to me that it would run out so quickly. live and learn, right? That orange digi gets shriveled up and mad when alk hits 7 dKH. If I get it back to health, it's definitely an indicator coral. The pink & rainbow stylophoras, too. They turn brown when it drops. The one I'm most upset about is the Hawkins echinata. I've been drooling over that coral for a year. Finally got a tiny frag and now the tips are burnt. Grr. Hope it bounces back quickly!

 

Spongeodes is truly indestructible! Survived every screw up... errr... learning experience so far. My only complaint is that it's so happy the brown polyps are almost completely covering up the gorgeous green skin. LOL Will check out capitata soon! It sounds pretty sweet!

 

Wow! Stunning. You never cease to impress me with your photography skills. I can't get over the clear, gorgeous photos you manage to get of your fish. They show off so much of their personality too

 

Thanks! Ahh - the fish are super tough to catch. Usually you need around 1/400-1/600 shutter speed to freeze quick motion, but that's not possible with my LEDs. The cycle flickr shows as a black bar at any shutter speed above 1/200. So I leave it there and open up the lens as wide as it will go. Usually I'll fire off 10 or more frames in a burst and one of them will catch something decent. The rest is just carefully color correcting. It takes a lot of time, so now you know why updates are few and far between!

 

 

Fantastic! I smell another tank of the month nomination in your future!

 

Aww, that's kind of you to say. There are a ton of tanks that should get a month in the spotlight before this one, for sure.

 

 

Maybe later in the cloves made a big purchase from glennr's coral gardens aquaculture a few days ago so I'm trying to lay off the coral buying lol. Also try AcroPower for amino acids. ReefBuilders gave it a great review and I use it and love it. Growth and coloration has been awesome.

 

Thanks for the tip - I'll check it out! Hit me up when you're a go on the cloves. I hear they'll survive 2-day shipping. Much less pricy!

[RollaJase]

Stunning, just stunning. A beautiful mix of amazing colours and pieces.

[Marine Depot]

 

 

Time for a tank growth update. Still feel like it's mostly frags, but they're starting to grow in a bit more. My favorite green bird is almost 4 times bigger in 3 months. It's right in front of that return nozzle so it's growing in pretty dense. That might cause flow issues to the inner portions down the road, so I was thinking about trimming it into a bonsai shape. Has anyone tried this before? I used to trim up trees, but underwater bonsai is new territory for me!

Hello, I am writing an article about some incredible innovative marine nuvo aquariums, I was wondering if you would be willing to let us use your aquarium in our article? we would give you credit for you hard work of course. Please let me know asap, thank you.

[Polarcollision]

 

 

 

Time for a tank growth update. Still feel like it's mostly frags, but they're starting to grow in a bit more. My favorite green bird is almost 4 times bigger in 3 months. It's right in front of that return nozzle so it's growing in pretty dense. That might cause flow issues to the inner portions down the road, so I was thinking about trimming it into a bonsai shape. Has anyone tried this before? I used to trim up trees, but underwater bonsai is new territory for me!

>Hello, I am writing an article about some incredible innovative marine nuvo aquariums, I was wondering if you would be willing to let us use your aquarium in our article? we would give you credit for you hard work of course. Please let me know asap, thank you.

 

 

Of course - that would be fantastic. Let me know if you need higher resolution images or even a full tank shot where I clean the glass. ;-)

[Illuiix]

I'm pretty sure the tang police will be on patrol once the article is in public.

 

But anyways, congrats polar! Definitely article worthy, despite the tang.

[Polarcollision]

I'm pretty sure the tang police will be on patrol once the article is in public.

 

But anyways, congrats polar! Definitely article worthy, despite the tang.

 

You will be happy--I hope--to know I have someone coming this weekend to get the tang. You can stop nagging now. :-)

[Illuiix]

YES!!! MUAHAHA Lol, I'm sorry if I nagged too much, I mean I used to have a flame angel in a 8g long tank (Even worse than yours) and I didn't see anything wrong with it at the time....but as I started thinking more about the fish's mentality I started to feel bad, so glad I gave that angel away to someone with a huge tank lol. Your tang may not seem affected by the tank size now or anytime soon, but for some reason, I just feel kinda bad for the fish. Maybe if the tang was in a 30g+ with a sump, then I wouldn't mind as much but yeah, thanks man.

[Polarcollision]

YES!!! MUAHAHA Lol, I'm sorry if I nagged too much, I mean I used to have a flame angel in a 8g long tank (Even worse than yours) and I didn't see anything wrong with it at the time....but as I started thinking more about the fish's mentality I started to feel bad, so glad I gave that angel away to someone with a huge tank lol. Your tang may not seem affected by the tank size now or anytime soon, but for some reason, I just feel kinda bad for the fish. Maybe if the tang was in a 30g+ with a sump, then I wouldn't mind as much but yeah, thanks man.

 

The tang is pretty happy right now. It has 3 feet of swim space with lots of little nooks to pop in and out of. When I bought it, it had MLLE from the fish store and was about 1.5 inches. It has healed up completely under my care and is actually very peaceful in the tank-not stressed at all. But it will be getting too big soon for the tank at the rate it's growing so someone is picking it up this weekend. See - some of us really do mean it when we say we'll find it a bigger tank when it grows. It might not have survived MLLE, or at least lived disfigured, if it didn't have a stop-over with me. :-)

[Illuiix]

I agree. The tang doesn't look stressed at all in your 3 ft tank. You took very good care of it. No doubt. I'm just glad you're willing to part it out this early into a bigger tank, because many people have a hard time doing so, especially myself back then.

 

My boss back when I was working at a lfs, had a baby yellow tang in his 24g nanocube. It grew out and wasn't stressing out at all. He had it for 3 years in that nanocube. lol Tangs are like that.

This guy is able to stack multiple tangs in his I don't know how many gallon tank lol...

http://youtu.be/jv7lGLTOdDc

[Polarcollision]

I agree. The tang doesn't look stressed at all in your 3 ft tank. You took very good care of it. No doubt. I'm just glad you're willing to part it out this early into a bigger tank,

 

My boss back when I was working at a lfs, had a baby yellow tang in his 24g nanocube. It grew out and wasn't stressing out at all. He had it for 3 years in that nanocube. lol Tangs are like that.

This guy is able to stack multiple tangs in his I don't know how many gallon tank lol...

http://youtu.be/jv7lGLTOdDc

 

You can kinda get an idea of the fish size relative to the firefish. They're pretty big in that tank. At the best fish LFS in town they have blue tangs literally 1 inch long from nose to end of tail. So, so cute to see them swimming in a school.

[Illuiix]

You can kinda get an idea of the fish size relative to the firefish. They're pretty big in that tank. At the best fish LFS in town they have blue tangs literally 1 inch long from nose to end of tail. So, so cute to see them swimming in a school.

 

I agree, so are you going to be adding another fish since the yellow tang is saying bye bye?

Can't wait for the corals to grow out more. I believe you will be scoring your 2nd totm this year hehe.

[Polarcollision]

I agree, so are you going to be adding another fish since the yellow tang is saying bye bye?

Can't wait for the corals to grow out more. I believe you will be scoring your 2nd totm this year hehe.

 

I'd like to get two female mcKosker wrasses for the male. A few pages back I posted a movie showing their flashing behavior with a harem. Really interesting fish! Finding females is tough because they're not as colorful... I'm pretty big on flashers and fairy wrasses right now, but we'll see if the clowns eventually hit it off before adding anything else. The best fish store also has pellet-trained mandarins. That was the first fish I ever wanted.