The Laid Back Lagoon - NEW CAMERA NEW PICTURESS

[Manbearfish]

So an update on the last couple weeks. I went through another mini diatom bloom, I think it was because of both the new lights and because I switched some rock around. That finally cleared up during the holiday weekend. I also got a handful of new additions to the tank. Before I get into the good though, we'll begin with the bad. Instead of being patient and getting my clown from an LFS I had gone ahead and gotten one from the Petco down the street from me. It had seemed fine and looked fine but lo and behold here I am a few weeks later with ich. Very fun, so my fishless adventure began last Sunday, hopefully in late august I can get some fishy life back in the tank. Then the genius that I am ordered a zoa pack last week from saltcritters as well as a flower nem from them. Everything arrived in beautiful shape on Thursday and I put everything in according to their instructions. I got the nem situated, left the powerheads off for a while and monitored it, and by Thursday night thought everything looked dandy. So I left Thursday night to spend the holiday weekend in Wisconsin (stupid idea after just adding brand new livestock) and I come back Sunday to a disintegrating blob behind my rockwork and a fat ammonia spike. All my new zoas looked fine for the most part, they were a little pissed and closed up, but my big acan colony was a skeleton. I was a little upset but not totally upset because I was beginning to feel that the big colony felt out of place in the small tank. So I cleaned my tank up, headed to my lfs, got some more water (need to invest in an ro/di) and also came home with some feather macro. So I did a big 75 percent water change, vacuumed up the sand bed, got the macros placed where I wanted them, and things looked much much better this morning. I did another large water change and I've tested my water about 3 times today and my ammonia was back in check. To celebrate I went and checked out Sho Tank, an lfs a bit further north from me, and came home with a purple gorgonian (photosynthetic), kenya tree, and a nice big pink toadstool leather/fiji leather (will post pics because im not 100% sure) and got them all situated. Also placed an order for a macro pack from reefs2go, which should be here around Wednesday. All in all I'm not too disappointed from the losses. I'm not too sure what caused the rock flower nem to go since I wasn't here, but I think it may have been because I accidentally had the lights only ramp down to 5 percent at night while I was gone which is still actually fairly bright. Idk, just speculation. Things are finally moving along though and the tank is coming together as I want it to livestock wise. Well see how this week goes! I'll try to get actual nice pictures up soon!

[Cencalfishguy56]

So an update on the last couple weeks. I went through another mini diatom bloom, I think it was because of both the new lights and because I switched some rock around. That finally cleared up during the holiday weekend. I also got a handful of new additions to the tank. Before I get into the good though, we'll begin with the bad. Instead of being patient and getting my clown from an LFS I had gone ahead and gotten one from the Petco down the street from me. It had seemed fine and looked fine but lo and behold here I am a few weeks later with ich. Very fun, so my fishless adventure began last Sunday, hopefully in late august I can get some fishy life back in the tank. Then the genius that I am ordered a zoa pack last week from saltcritters as well as a flower nem from them. Everything arrived in beautiful shape on Thursday and I put everything in according to their instructions. I got the nem situated, left the powerheads off for a while and monitored it, and by Thursday night thought everything looked dandy. So I left Thursday night to spend the holiday weekend in Wisconsin (stupid idea after just adding brand new livestock) and I come back Sunday to a disintegrating blob behind my rockwork and a fat ammonia spike. All my new zoas looked fine for the most part, they were a little pissed and closed up, but my big acan colony was a skeleton. I was a little upset but not totally upset because I was beginning to feel that the big colony felt out of place in the small tank. So I cleaned my tank up, headed to my lfs, got some more water (need to invest in an ro/di) and also came home with some feather macro. So I did a big 75 percent water change, vacuumed up the sand bed, got the macros placed where I wanted them, and things looked much much better this morning. I did another large water change and I've tested my water about 3 times today and my ammonia was back in check. To celebrate I went and checked out Sho Tank, an lfs a bit further north from me, and came home with a purple gorgonian (photosynthetic), kenya tree, and a nice big pink toadstool leather/fiji leather (will post pics because im not 100% sure) and got them all situated. Also placed an order for a macro pack from reefs2go, which should be here around Wednesday. All in all I'm not too disappointed from the losses. I'm not too sure what caused the rock flower nem to go since I wasn't here, but I think it may have been because I accidentally had the lights only ramp down to 5 percent at night while I was gone which is still actually fairly bright. Idk, just speculation. Things are finally moving along though and the tank is coming together as I want it to livestock wise. Well see how this week goes! I'll try to get actual nice pictures up soon!

I've come to learn that a macro/coral tank can be gorgeous and easy to take care of at the sametime!

[Manbearfish]

I've come to learn that a macro/coral tank can be gorgeous and easy to take care of at the sametime!

I really hope so, I've seen some really awesome examples lately and it just gets me really excited haha

[Cencalfishguy56]

I really hope so, I've seen some really awesome examples lately and it just gets me really excited haha

Haha throw some halimedia in there and blue ochtodes the color combo is amazing, I haven't changed my 2.5 gallon tank water in weeeeeks because the macros suck up all the nutrients I only do small water changes to replenish calcium ect for the zoas and toadstool

[Manbearfish]

Haha throw some halimedia in there and blue ochtodes the color combo is amazing, I haven't changed my 2.5 gallon tank water in weeeeeks because the macros suck up all the nutrients I only do small water changes to replenish calcium ect for the zoas and toadstool

I've got halimedia, shaving brush, red grape tree, and plain red gracilaria coming in on wednesday. I really wanna try and order some blue ochtodes and some dragons breath this coming weekend maybe, well see what I can find.

[Manbearfish]

I liked this picture that I took before work really quick with my trusty Skx007 on shark mesh, tank peeks through a little bit. I really need to get a camera so I can take some actual nice pictures for you guys, I'll be looking into one in the next few weeks. For now, more poorly lit and off iphone pics

 

[Cencalfishguy56]

I liked this picture that I took before work really quick with my trusty Skx007 on shark mesh, tank peeks through a little bit. I really need to get a camera so I can take some actual nice pictures for you guys, I'll be looking into one in the next few weeks. For now, more poorly lit and off iphone pics

 

Awesome tank bro!!

[Manbearfish]

Awesome tank bro!!

Thanks man, its getting there

[Manbearfish]

Well, I tried my hardest this morning to take decent pictures with my phone and messed with the filters as much as I could until I got what looks closest to real life, its not exact, and they're definitely not Picassos but it will at least give you an idea of how things are coming along. I like my lights closer to warmer colors because I love the more natural look, they're at around 13000k right now. It looks almost as if you just dove into the ocean in person, just a slight tinge of blue.

 

New FTS

 

 

ID? Really stubby Devil's Hand? Ridge Coral? In the store it looked almost like a fiji leather, but I don't think so anymore.

 

 

The freshly awoken Zoa Garden, not too long after "sunrise"

 

 

Aaaaaaand the gorgy, wanna get some more for sure.

 

 

 

Thanks for looking

[Manbearfish]

So the yet to be determined finger leather/ridge coral looked like it was starting to bleach a little today... I've got my prime set only to like 45 percent and I'm using acclimation mode on top of it.... I've also got it sitting at the bottom of the tank so idk why its having a hard time.. For the time being I kinda shoved it under a slight ledge so its getting some shade but well have to see how it goes, I might have to dim the lights a bit more.

[Manbearfish]

So it's been about 3 months now and everything has settled in pretty nicely, I think I've finally begun to hit the natural balance with things beginning to go very smoothly. At the same time I'm not really all that happy with the size of the tank and I'm gonna #### it all up over the next few weeks to move into something bigger and more shallow . I went shopping around yesterday, hoping to maybe find a Mr. Aqua rimless 22 long, but I wound up coming home with a Deep Blue rimless 30g 24x24x12, nice and shallow. I've grown to really like the macros in my display so I'm thinking of trying to do limited rock work and continuing the Softy and Macro thing with maybe a couple showcase pieces, well see. I'm thinking of doing a deeper sand bed with maybe 2.5 inch depth at the front that will slope into 4-5 inches deep at the back of the tank where I will have a couple bigger pieces of rock, with smaller pieces scattered near the front of the display. I would like to try and incorporate some mangroves and definitely want to try some sort of seagrass, maybe halophila ovalis, well have to see, if it doesnt seem plausible maybe I'll try and use caulerpa prolifera to mimic the look. Hopefully I won't have a sexual explosion..

 

Here's a couple pictures of the new tank next to the fusion 10 for some perspective.

 

 

I think I'm also gonna look into building a stand for it.

 

So hopefully by September I'll have a nice little lagoon set up and running with everything moved over to the bigger tank.

[Manbearfish]

Everything's starting to come together for the upgrade. I've got the scape all laid out in my head and I started putting it together inside the tank, its gonna be mostly sparse open sandbed like a lagoon with a couple anchoring bommies to break up the sand. I've got the sand sloping down from the left corner slightly and I'm gonna hopefully have it about 4 inches deep in that corner and possibly along the majority of the back wall. I've got about 30lbs of sand in the tank already and I have another 20lbs of Fiji Pink waiting to go in once I start moving it all over. Unfortunately I didn't realize the 30lbs of aragonite I ordered was sugar fine, it might be a pain in the ass but I think I'm just gonna roll with it and hopefully I won't regret it later, I'm not gonna be going insane with the flow in tank anyway. Anyway here's some pictures of the work in progress, hopefully I'll have it wet in a week or two with everything moved over.

 

 

 

[HarryPotter]

Looking great!!! Love the 12" tanks. Really cool scape as well- it's almost like Hey's

[Manbearfish]

Looking great!!! Love the 12" tanks. Really cool scape as well- it's almost like Hey's

Thanks man I really appreciate it! That's definitely a compliment for me I loved Hey's tank and loved his thoughts on bringing iwagumi style to reefing. I love clean natural looks so hopefully when its all put together I'll have pulled off what I have in my head

[HarryPotter]

Thanks man I really appreciate it! That's definitely a compliment for me I loved Hey's tank and loved his thoughts on bringing iwagumi style to reefing. I love clean natural looks so hopefully when its all put together I'll have pulled off what I have in my head

So I'm guessing keeping it simple with a clean sand bed?

 

What's the stocking plans for the large rock?

[Manbearfish]

So I'm guessing keeping it simple with a clean sand bed?

 

What's the stocking plans for the large rock?

Yeah I don't really plan on having a lot of rockwork, just in a couple select spots, I really wanna play with the negative space. Depending on how deep the sandbed winds up being once I'm finished moving everything over and adding the other bag I might plant plant a bunch of C. Prolifera in there to try and mimic seagrass because im not sure I could really do true seagrass besides maybe star grass. As far as stocking for the rock work I've kinda had a lot of fun with the softy/macro display so far so I wanna go a bit further with that. I'm thinking a medium-bigger toadstool, a bunch more of the photosynthetic gorgs, a few more species of macros, zoas, maybe a small ric garden, and maybe eventually a couple open brains as like a showcase piece. I really liked Hype's caribbean style bommie so It'l probably be something in that direction but on a bigger scale. I really want it to look like a lagoon/back reef if possible

http://reefbuilders.com/2012/08/06/seagrass-aquarium/I've been going through this over and over, this is pretty much what I want but obviously on a more cube-style space

[Manbearfish]

Without further ado, after moving stuff around and gathering equipment and letting everything settle, here is the setup of the new tank. I'm finishing up the front part of the stand but other than that its pretty much complete. I now for sure have to get an ATO because this thing evaporates a gallon of water every 2 days so that will be annoying to do myself constantly. I wish I had a better camera to show you guys because the tank looks totally awesome in person. I was completely surprised by the Skyye led, I don't plan on keeping it and its temporary til I get another prime but since the led's are so separated it has the effect of t5's almost with a really crisp wide light spread which makes the tank totally glow. I can't wait to stock this thing to the brim because the macro has actually been having trouble with nutrients from the lack of fish for the last few months. So here it is!

[Manbearfish]

So I picked up a new member of the crew Tuesday night. He was hidden all day yesterday and I thought he had already gone carpet surfing, but today he was out hanging out alll day. He's the new king of the tank and he totally knows it. I'm already in love with him.

 

And an FTS to celebrate, the coral beauty manages to avoid all pictures

[HarryPotter]

Love the 34! So cool- when the macros (& Gorgs?) grow in its going to be sweet

 

I like how you're badass and "**** the tang police" lol

[Manbearfish]

Love the 34! So cool- when the macros (& Gorgs?) grow in its going to be sweet

 

I like how you're badass and "**** the tang police" lol

 

I appreciate it man! I hope it looks awesome, I'm gonna be ordering some star grass this weekend, apparently it doesnt require a super super deep sand bed like the other sea grass species and it stays shorter so it wont overcrowd the tank and throw off the the height and that should add a lot more color and make the tank look even more natural. And yeah thats the one lone gorg, I'm gonna try and get my hands on some more.

 

As for the tang, people can say whatever they want, he's real small and my girlfriend has been begging me to get one forever, I'll hang onto him for a while and when he starts to grow out of it I'll give him to a new home that will fit his bigger size. He's got a lot of room to swim for his size and its been fun watching him zip around

[HarryPotter]

 

I appreciate it man! I hope it looks awesome, I'm gonna be ordering some star grass this weekend, apparently it doesnt require a super super deep sand bed like the other sea grass species and it stays shorter so it wont overcrowd the tank and throw off the the height and that should add a lot more color and make the tank look even more natural. And yeah thats the one lone gorg, I'm gonna try and get my hands on some more.

 

As for the tang, people can say whatever they want, he's real small and my girlfriend has been begging me to get one forever, I'll hang onto him for a while and when he starts to grow out of it I'll give him to a new home that will fit his bigger size. He's got a lot of room to swim for his size and its been fun watching him zip around

 

Ive heard awesome things about the GOrgs from kpaquatics.com

 

http://www.kpaquatics.com/product-category/gorgonians-octocorals/

 

Im also planning on getting a baby tang for my 45- it only has two clowns and not a lot of rock; I'm not worried either

[Manbearfish]

 

Ive heard awesome things about the GOrgs from kpaquatics.com

 

http://www.kpaquatics.com/product-category/gorgonians-octocorals/

 

Im also planning on getting a baby tang for my 45- it only has two clowns and not a lot of rock; I'm not worried either

Yeah dude that would be awesome, I almost wish I had gotten a Kole tang instead cuz they are one of the smaller species and would stay smaller longer but that would fill your tank out nicely, they're so active hovering all over the place. Yeah that's where I've seen people ordering theirs from on a bunch of threads, there's a pretty good lfs in the suburbs out here that has some for pretty good prices and I don't have to worry about being here to pick the package up, I'll probably check them out and see what they have and maybe place an order after that

[Manbearfish]

Good morning nano worldddd! So the tank is almost 4 months old which is awesome, and everything is going really well. We've had one sad loss, woke up in the morning and was watching everyone swim around and wake up, go to take a shower, came back to find my coral beauty dried up on the floor :/, was a bit frustrating, need to get going on a diy lid of some sort that works with the mangroves. Other than that though everything's been good and stable with nice growth. In other news, I finally got a DSLR, which means actually decent pictures, woohoo. So lets get going with those:

 

Some FTS

 

 

 

Reefscape that needs some reorganizing

 

 

Misbar Percs

 

 

Top View

 

 

Side View with caulerpa forest that needs trimming

 

[Rehype]

Looks fantastic...love the scape and macroalgae placement.

[Manbearfish]

Looks fantastic...love the scape and macroalgae placement.

I'm crying having that come from you

 

The tang rips all my red macro up and sends it all over the place and someone knocked the kenya tree down so I gotta do some reorganizing and order some more softies and macros and glue some things down. I'll post some more pics after I clean it up.