holy carp Posted November 27, 2015 Author Share Posted November 27, 2015 In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I'm adding a list here of the many questions and answers I've gotten about this tank in other posts. Thanks to all the nano-reefers for sharing their knowledge, experience, time, and interest. I couldn't have gotten this far alone, and it's a pleasure to take part in this hobby and community. The noob and wondering questions: LED recommendations for Mr. Aqua Serene 12g long Auto pods? Calling all plumbing gurus The please help and what's going on questions: Help - what's happening to my torch coral? Stored Saltwater - shelf life? Fish Fin Healing Is this how a torch coral splits/grows new heads? Chaeto FAIL - being schooled by another algae? Does this clownfish have a hangover? How do I understand my water? Bubble Algae Advice, please. Red stringy mucus growing on filter socks The what the heck is that questions: White Fuzzy extended sac balloon... Chaeto hitchhikers What is growing on my snail? and on my rotifers? Flat Worm - what kind? Another hitchhiker? Are these vermetid snails on my Astrea? New critters on glass - ID and good/bad/indifferent? Florida, Yuma, other? Is this starfish hitchhiker safe? Is this a coral? [EDIT: It's ALIVE, muahahaha] What kind of hitchhiker did I find? 3 Quote Link to comment
holy carp Posted November 29, 2015 Author Share Posted November 29, 2015 Adding another gif timelapse. This one is the purple bonsai acropora. Definitely doesn't grow as quickly as the Green Slimer. (I updated the prior timelapse post of that Green Slimer as well here) dates are roughly weekly from 8/02 - 12/13 3 Quote Link to comment
HarryPotter Posted November 29, 2015 Share Posted November 29, 2015 Nice gifs! How do you make them- is there an app? Growth looks good. I have a tiny stub of a purple bonsai acropora and it grows like a snail! Quote Link to comment
holy carp Posted November 29, 2015 Author Share Posted November 29, 2015 Nice gifs! How do you make them- is there an app? Growth looks good. I have a tiny stub of a purple bonsai acropora and it grows like a snail! Yeah, the purple bonsai seems to be doing more encrusting than extending - I'm pretty OK with that considering how small the tank is. It only has about 1.5-2" to the water surface. It seems like it may be getting a little thicker instead of taller. The green slimer is at about the same height from the surface, but you can almost see the growth from day to day. That one will be the first thing I need to trim, I assume. For the gifs, I just crop the weekly image and then use http://gifmaker.me/ It's free and I'm cheap. It's easy and I'm lazy. http://gifcreator.me is about the same, too. Quote Link to comment
holy carp Posted December 1, 2015 Author Share Posted December 1, 2015 Well, I've been running this tank since June, and I figured it's finally time to get a skimmer. I've never had a skimmer before, so I did a bit of research and had narrowed it down to the Tunze 9004 and the PLS-50 Elite, since both are small and allegedly quiet. Ended up going with the Tunze since the BRS Cyber Monday sale was compelling, and it's only 4 watts... I'm hoping that I can fit this right in the return section of my sump that has a 9" baffle, though I think I will have to cut a hole in the lid of the sump for the collection cup to stick through. Not sure yet if I'll have to trim the plastic rim of the sump. I liked the 4 watts, too. It made me wonder how much energy my tank consumes on average. So far by the specs: 12 watts for Aqua Medic DC Runner 1.2 return pump @24hrs 36 watts for Current USA Orbit Marine @~12hrs 8 watts for sump light @~10hrs 75 watts for heater - @?hrs 3 watts for aqualifter topoff @ 2-4 minutes 4 watts for this Tunze skimmer @ 24hrs I'm guessing that might work out to <50 watts on avg. Now that I've gotten myself curious, I'm going to hook up a kill-a-watt meter... (I have a feeling that the additional air conditioning to keep the room under 80 all day long in the summertime actually uses more energy than the tank does year-round.) 1 Quote Link to comment
holy carp Posted December 15, 2015 Author Share Posted December 15, 2015 Bummer... I got home from work and my peppermint shrimp was dead. At first I thought he just molted, since the body part was just a light shell, but the tail meat was still in the other end. I'm so curious what happened. He's been around for a while and has molted successfully very often. I did a weekly w/c yesterday, nothing out of the ordinary. I think it may have been about time for him to molt, but that's a tough schedule to predict. I did notice he didn't come scurrying for breakfast this morning, which was unusual. Seems like something ate his head but not the tail where all the meat is. Oddly, there seemed to be a second set of tail fins floating around, but no other parts of the shell. Now I know most people just have pepps for aiptasia - more like a CUC than a real resident. But this guy was pretty cool, swimming around upside down and never sitting still, just dancing back and forth really was a hoot. So even though he was the cheapest resident, he was cool. I could imagine the dendrophyllia finally got revenge for all that stolen food, but then I would expect the whole shrimp to be gone... RIP red shrimp. At least he was not peeled by slaves... Quote Link to comment
holy carp Posted December 21, 2015 Author Share Posted December 21, 2015 Well, I left on vacation yesterday, so will be away from the tank for 8 days. This is the first real vacation I've gotten to take since it's been stocked with some coral, so I feel like there are some risks, but hopefully most have been mitigated. I did a 5 gallon (33%) water change before leaving. I have the auto-feeder running once a day. This is a little lighter than I normally feed, but there shouldn't be any starving. I figured better to err on the lower side since I just got rid of that cyano (mostly) and no longer have that little shrimp to clean up the scraps. I fed my dendrophyllia a decent amount every day for 3 days in a row before leaving. I bumped up my 2-part to bring my dkh to around 9.0. I normally keep it between 7 and 8, and the tank seems to consume somewhere between 1.2 and 1.8 dkh per week, so I'm hoping it won't drop off too fast. I put a timer on an aqualifter for topoff running 45 seconds every 4 hours. I tested it for a few days, and I expect to keep the salinity within 0.001 Threw in a new chemipure elite for good measure. Quote Link to comment
holy carp Posted December 31, 2015 Author Share Posted December 31, 2015 For the most part, everything fared well through the vacation. There were just a few issues: Alkalinity dropped from around 9 to 6dKh, so I dosed it up for a few days before doing a water change. The sump & chaeto were full of cotton candy algae again - it's now gotten into the main display, so I've removed the chaeto and will leave the lights out in the sump for a few weeks. I haven't really had to cull that chaeto in months, and it's still only fist-sized, so I don't know if it was doing much anyway. I think the cotton candy had choked it of all light and nutrients. The cyphastrea totally browned out - I read they need low light, so I had it in a little cave where it got partial shade. It had started to brown a little before I left, so I don't think it was the chemistry change on vacation. I've moved it to the frag rack in hopes it'll color up again. It was a green base with orange/red polyps (perhaps jingle bells?). The leptoseris is showing some signs of tissue recession. Don't really know what to make of it yet. It hasn't grown in a long time, so I just don't know what it needs. The Utter Chaos zoa that was giving me trouble stayed in the shot glass and has now shrunk to a brown ball the size of a small pea. I doubt it will pull through, but who knows. I got the skimmer up and running, so hopefully between that, the chemipure, carbon, and phosguard, I'll be OK without the chaeto. Maybe I'll reintroduce it in the future. I'll probably have to start feeding the emerald crab down there in the sump, since he was living off that algae. (I don't want to put him back upstairs since he attacked and injured 2 fish so far) Here's a FTS under full actinics: Quote Link to comment
holy carp Posted January 1, 2016 Author Share Posted January 1, 2016 Oh, and how could I forget to mention - After being away 1 week, I came back to find about a dozen bubble algae balls on the skeleton of the dendrophyllia. WTF? So fast. I pulled that guy out and got to work with tweezers and h2o2. When I got home from New Year's Eve, I took a look at the tank with a loupe and found this little offender on a small bit of rubble in the sand: Well, I'm sure that's the last one... Quote Link to comment
holy carp Posted January 9, 2016 Author Share Posted January 9, 2016 New FTS - didn't clean up or remove the cover. I think the catalaphyllia keeps growing and stung my dendrophyllia. Yesterday morning it was contracted on the right side closest to the cat. Today I was looking at it closely since it still had the tentacles on the right contracted. It also looked like there was something in its mouth. Then a contracted tentacle just spontaneously fell right off the dendro while I was watching. WTF! That was very strange. I collected the fallen tentacle in a pipette. Interestingly, I have never seen the catalaphyllia's skeleton change, but the flesh seems to keep enlarging. For the time being, I pushed the dendro over an inch to the left to keep it out of the cat's range. 1 Quote Link to comment
holy carp Posted January 10, 2016 Author Share Posted January 10, 2016 I updated these timelapse gifs... Purple Bonsai Acropora 8/2/15 - 1/10/16: This guy is finally starting to show signs of growth and not just encrusting Green Slimer Acropora 8/16/15 - 1/10/16: Slimer on a rampage! I believe this guy will be the first to outgrow my little tank. It's already starting to outgrow the field of view on my camera when it's held up against the glass. I also started a new one for the JF Red Hot Setosa, though it may be a bit premature 12/13/15 - 1/10/16: This guy is really booking along considering I only glued it down a month ago. (On the last frame you can see where it grew just a bit too close to the torch euphyllia on the left. Hopefully that will heal quickly now that I've moved the torch over an extra centimeter) I'm probably going to try this with my sunset monti, an Optimus Prime acro, and my JF Spitfire Leptastrea, though they are all really slow growers so far. 4 Quote Link to comment
ninjamyst Posted January 15, 2016 Share Posted January 15, 2016 wow!! so impressed with your build. i need to get more people in here! 2 Quote Link to comment
kimberbee Posted January 15, 2016 Share Posted January 15, 2016 I like the time lapse of your corals!! I always intend to do something like that, but never keep up with pics! Quote Link to comment
teenyreef Posted January 16, 2016 Share Posted January 16, 2016 Wow nice build and I love the time lapse pictures! I always forget to try to set up a repeatable shot and wish I had done it later I'm very impressed Quote Link to comment
holy carp Posted January 16, 2016 Author Share Posted January 16, 2016 wow!! so impressed with your build. i need to get more people in here! Thanks, ninjamyst. Sometimes I feel like I'm talking to myself, ha ha. More traffic is always welcome. I like the time lapse of your corals!! I always intend to do something like that, but never keep up with pics! I didn't think of it in the beginning, so there are some gaps, but then I started making it part of my Sunday waterchange routine. While they're frags it's fun since the growth looks so dramatic. I'm still blown away every time I look at that green slimer! Wow nice build and I love the time lapse pictures! I always forget to try to set up a repeatable shot and wish I had done it later I'm very impressed Thanks, teeny. I never really did much to make it a repeatable setup WRT position or camera setting. I just try to aim the camera straight at the coral and then crop it to be a similar frame in comparison to the prior week's shot. For the Orange Montipora Setosa I'm trying to aim the focusing point at the same polyp, so we'll see if that helps in the long run. 4 Quote Link to comment
HarryPotter Posted January 16, 2016 Share Posted January 16, 2016 Green Slimer Acropora 8/16/15 - 1/10/16: WOAH thats awesome Quote Link to comment
ninjamyst Posted January 16, 2016 Share Posted January 16, 2016 Thanks, ninjamyst. Sometimes I feel like I'm talking to myself, ha ha. More traffic is always welcome. not anymore! keep up with the updates. we are all here reading =) Quote Link to comment
holy carp Posted January 16, 2016 Author Share Posted January 16, 2016 OK, then... Here's a new map for kicks: And here's a shot from the end. I'm thinking I might have to paint the inside of that plumbing cover box black instead of white... 4 Quote Link to comment
teenyreef Posted January 16, 2016 Share Posted January 16, 2016 Lenny and Bruce Jenner Love the diagram - how did you make it? 1 Quote Link to comment
holy carp Posted January 16, 2016 Author Share Posted January 16, 2016 Lenny and Bruce Jenner Love the diagram - how did you make it? I used photoshop and followed along with the first few steps in this video: http://photoshopcafe.com/sketch-photo-photoshop-tutorial then overlay a copy of the original image with a mask and color in the corals - just remember to stay within the lines. Quote Link to comment
teenyreef Posted January 16, 2016 Share Posted January 16, 2016 Nice! And thanks Quote Link to comment
Droy008 Posted January 16, 2016 Share Posted January 16, 2016 I'm liking it. The gif of that green slimer is really cool too, shows some great growth! Quote Link to comment
reeferjohn530 Posted January 16, 2016 Share Posted January 16, 2016 Great tank I'm just going to keep watching my snail for a bit longer then I'll be building my own ☺ Quote Link to comment
metrokat Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 OK, then... Here's a new map for kicks: Now can you do that with my tank? 3 Quote Link to comment
kimberbee Posted January 17, 2016 Share Posted January 17, 2016 Hah!! My little clown guy is named Lenny too! But my girl is Squiggy Quote Link to comment
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