Teenyreef's IM40 Not-So-Teeny Tank - August FTS

[teenyreef]

Things have gone well since the bryopsis treatment. The fluconazole really knocked it out after a couple weeks. I'm now seeing just a little bit coming back, so I'm going to re-treat over the weekend and hopefully knock it out for good. 

 

I've ordered an up flow algae turf scrubber as an experiment. I'd like to get away from heavy carbon dosing (NoPox) and harvest algae instead. My goal is improved nutrient levels, faster growth, and better coloration. 

 

Here are a few update pictures, FTS this weekend, hopefully. 

 

The Oregon Tort is growing and getting bluer. This is one of the corals that could use better coloration, though. It still has a little too much green. 

 

The red dragon likes the new spot lower in the tank with less light. 

 

This is going to be one of my favorite spots in the tank as the corals fill in. They are still coloring up but it's going to be great 

Clockwise from top: Hawkins echinata, Walt Disney tenuis, Upscales microlados, Joe's Rainbow. There's a green elkhorn stag in the background, blue stylo and green slimer on the right, and a bit of blueberry shortcake peeking in on the left.

 

[A Little Blue]

Looks great. 

So you think Ref Dragon likes a bit less light or that it might take some time to acclimate it to more light intense spot? 

[Cannedfish]

Yeehaw!! Tank done lookin' mo' better than a fat cat on a trot line!

[mitten_reef]

I need this kind of rainbow infusion in my tank...great photos as always.  The acro growth spurts are gonna be really interesting to follow the next 3-6 months!!!   

[teenyreef]

3 hours ago, A Little Blue said:

Looks great. 

So you think Ref Dragon likes a bit less light or that it might take some time to acclimate it to more light intense spot? 

After doing some research, it seems the colors on the deep water / smooth skin acros are deeper with a little less light. When I had the dragon up top the reds were pale, and now they're much deeper. I've thought about moving the Hawkins for the same reason. 

[teenyreef]

3 hours ago, Cannedfish said:

Yeehaw!! Tank done lookin' mo' better than a fat cat on a trot line!

Well thanks, I've always wanted a reef tank that looks like a big fat catfish 

[teenyreef]

13 minutes ago, micoastreefing said:

I need this kind of rainbow infusion in my tank...great photos as always.  The acro growth spurts are gonna be really interesting to follow the next 3-6 months!!!   

Thanks! I'm really curious to see what happens. My corals always grow very slowly. Although that's not all bad in a nano, I think things would be better with a more "natural" method of nutrient export. 

[MrJDanP]

One shots look awesome though I can't wait to see the new fts!

[Christopher Marks]

Incredible progress as always @teenyreef! I’ll be curious to see the algae turn scrubber setup and how it performs for you 👍

[A Little Blue]

58 minutes ago, teenyreef said:

After doing some research, it seems the colors on the deep water / smooth skin acros are deeper with a little less light. When I had the dragon up top the reds were pale, and now they're much deeper. I've thought about moving the Hawkins for the same reason. 

Good info since I received my RD few days ago. I have also noticed the same thing with montis. Some are stressed with a lot of light and some love it at the very top. THX

[vlangel]

Your coral always look amazing to me, teeny.  I am happy to hear that the treatment worked and I hope the algal scrubber keeps the tank looking great in a more natural way.  I don't keep difficult coral but I always tend toward natural solutions when its feasible.

[teenyreef]

On 9/7/2018 at 11:41 AM, MrJDanP said:

One shots look awesome though I can't wait to see the new fts!

Thanks! No fts yet but I do have a few more pictures to upload 🙂

 

[teenyreef]

On 9/7/2018 at 11:43 AM, Christopher Marks said:

Incredible progress as always @teenyreef! I’ll be curious to see the algae turn scrubber setup and how it performs for you 👍

 

On 9/7/2018 at 12:52 PM, vlangel said:

Your coral always look amazing to me, teeny.  I am happy to hear that the treatment worked and I hope the algal scrubber keeps the tank looking great in a more natural way.  I don't keep difficult coral but I always tend toward natural solutions when its feasible.

 

I'm really curious to see how the ATS works. I've tried growing chaeto in back chambers in the 10g tank, and in a chaeto reactor in the 30g tank, but I never could get it to grow, and I'm not sure there would have been enough of it to really make much difference anyway. The ATS doesn't try to grow chaeto, and it uses both light and aeration to grow the algae really fast. It's supposed to be harvested every couple weeks. 

 

I'd really like to just have a big refugium, but that defeats the purpose of an AIO tank. But a small ATS the fits in a back chamber would be ideal if it works.

On 9/7/2018 at 12:18 PM, A Little Blue said:

Good info since I received my RD few days ago. I have also noticed the same thing with montis. Some are stressed with a lot of light and some love it at the very top. THX

I agree. In general, they seem to do well with lots of light as long as they are acclimated to it. Mine grow right up the back wall in my 10g tank and will grow right ot of the water before stopping.

[teenyreef]

A few more photos from the other day...

 

The big zoas are doing great. I removed the green and blue radioactive ones, though, as they were true palys and tend to propagate all over the tank. But the smaller zoas on the main zoa rock continue to struggle. I think I may separate them into separate rocks again, as the red ones are pretty much crowding everything else out.

 

In the top of the picture above you can see a new rock I moved in from the frag tank. It was originally from the Teenycookie Jar, and I threw it in the frag tank after breaking down the jar. Here's a close view of it - there's a blue stylo, a rainbow montipora, some blue zoas, a very dark red psammacora, and a hitchhiker blue kenya tree leather (subsequently removed). There's also a tricolor valida frag, mostly buried in the sand in the upper left. I'll probably move this rock up higher in the tank to get more light eventually.

 

Bird of paradise, probably needs to be cut back soon! The sunset monti next to it is doing well, with nice colors.

 

 

[vlangel]

11 hours ago, teenyreef said:

A few more photos from the other day...

 

The big zoas are doing great. I removed the green and blue radioactive ones, though, as they were true palys and tend to propagate all over the tank. But the smaller zoas on the main zoa rock continue to struggle. I think I may separate them into separate rocks again, as the red ones are pretty much crowding everything else out.

 

In the top of the picture above you can see a new rock I moved in from the frag tank. It was originally from the Teenycookie Jar, and I threw it in the frag tank after breaking down the jar. Here's a close view of it - there's a blue stylo, a rainbow montipora, some blue zoas, a very dark red psammacora, and a hitchhiker blue kenya tree leather (subsequently removed). There's also a tricolor valida frag, mostly buried in the sand in the upper left. I'll probably move this rock up higher in the tank to get more light eventually.

 

Bird of paradise, probably needs to be cut back soon! The sunset monti next to it is doing well, with nice colors.

 

 

Lookin' very nice!

[Reefkid88]

The BOP looks absolutely amazing !!! You rarely see them that vibrant,kudos bro. 

[mitten_reef]

14 hours ago, teenyreef said:

A few more photos from the other day...

 

The big zoas are doing great. I removed the green and blue radioactive ones, though, as they were true palys and tend to propagate all over the tank. But the smaller zoas on the main zoa rock continue to struggle. I think I may separate them into separate rocks again, as the red ones are pretty much crowding everything else out.

 

In the top of the picture above you can see a new rock I moved in from the frag tank. It was originally from the Teenycookie Jar, and I threw it in the frag tank after breaking down the jar. Here's a close view of it - there's a blue stylo, a rainbow montipora, some blue zoas, a very dark red psammacora, and a hitchhiker blue kenya tree leather (subsequently removed). There's also a tricolor valida frag, mostly buried in the sand in the upper left. I'll probably move this rock up higher in the tank to get more light eventually.

 

Bird of paradise, probably needs to be cut back soon! The sunset monti next to it is doing well, with nice colors.

 

 

Don't frag the BOP please, let her grow! The color is amazing, maybe move it if it's approaching turf war status.  

[teenyreef]

On 9/11/2018 at 11:00 AM, vlangel said:

Lookin' very nice!

Thanks, Dawn!

On 9/11/2018 at 12:20 PM, Reefkid88 said:

The BOP looks absolutely amazing !!! You rarely see them that vibrant,kudos bro. 

 

On 9/11/2018 at 2:28 PM, micoastreefing said:

Don't frag the BOP please, let her grow! The color is amazing, maybe move it if it's approaching turf war status.  

Thanks! I do love the colors on the BOP. It's a fast grower and easy to frag too. I've got one in the frag tank that's already encrusting over the plug.

[teenyreef]

The ATS arrived last Wednesday, so I've had it running for three days now. It's the DROP 1.2x from Santa Monica Filtration. Here's what it looks like with the door open:

 

The screen is to provide shade while the algae gets established. It is to be removed once things start growing. The users manual was really excellent. Very well written and extremely thorough. They claim that algae grows five to six times faster in an ATS than chaeto does in a reactor. I don't know where they got the number or how they measured it, so we'll just see how things go. But there is a lot of good information about how to adjust the illumination duration based on how the algae is growing. 

 

You can see the airline arranged in a little circle at the bottom. It has thin slits cut into it to make the bubbles go up along the white growth surfaces. Aereating the growth surfaces is supposed to be part of what makes the algae grow faster than in a reactor.

 

Even though algae isn't supposed to start growing until about the first week, I peeked after the first three days. No algae yet, just a little discoloration on the growth surfaces.

[teenyreef]

In other news, here's the September FTS and top down. Things are going really well other than the usual problems with the small zoas on the big zoa rock. I'm also please to see that almost all the fish came out for the FTS, even the green banded goby. The only one missing is the yellow clown goby.

 

2018-09-15 FTS:

 

2018-09-15 Top Down:

 

I noticed the Walt Disney tenuis is starting to grow faster, and the color is starting to change from mostly green and yellow to more blue/purple. It has a ways to go before it looks like the real thing but with the blue highlights, it's starting to get really pretty.

 

[mitten_reef]

Looking wonderful as always. The WD is coming along nicely. 

[A Little Blue]

I like a lot!!👍👍👍👍

[specore]

So jealous of all the thriving zoas!

[YHSublime]

How are you running the Algae Scrubber? I'm wanting to add one to my tank but can't figure out a good solution on a nano sized tank. Also, my WD is pulling the same colors, BUT not branching nicely like yours!

[DaveFason]

Looks great John! A few of the corals are really coming along nicely.