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10g Reef Islands


Sandeep

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Latest FTS (May 16, 2017)

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Time to share my latest project, my 10 gallon Reef Islands tank. It was started over 3.5 years ago and this is where we are currently:

 

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Lighting is provided by a Chinese 3 channel LED fixture on my table mount over the tank and the tank sits on a small cantilever wooden stand on my computer table.

 

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Here is what the reef islands looks like over 3.5 years ago when this project started, three of the islands came from a 5.5g and one from a 8g that I consolidated into this tank.

 

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This looks fantastic!

I really like how the islands pull your eyes up, plus they look like fun to swim between for the fish. :)

Great job!

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Wow looks great Sandeep. I cant believe 3.5 years went by so quick... I remember when you first set it up. Love the scape and your coral look super healthy.

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Yes Christopher, swapping the positions of Zoa Island and Acan Island, works well and better shows off the unusual shape of Zoa Island with its narrow base and wide head. Also the acans are enjoying their new placement better as they were getting blasted with too much flow from the AC 30 over there head, now will less flow on them on the right side of my tank they are happier.

 

Rehype, yes time really flies. I find it really enjoyable to plan a trajectory for your tank and then watch it develop over time towards that plan. I'm feeding my tank more then ever before, about 3 to 4 times a week, so have adapted a new regime of 40% water change every two weeks and running carbon in the AC30 every other week (don't want the tank stripped of nutrients by running the carbon continuously).

 

Added a new ultra acan to the top of Acan Island, it will have lots of space on top to grow.

 

Really excited about my new Cynarina that you see on the floor in the middle. One of my favorite corals. It was quite a challenge finding one at a local LFS, apparently their price has skyrocketed, so less LFS's are bringing them in these days. Just love how they bubble up when happy.

 

On Zoa island are two tiny bright yellow dendros, another one of my favorite corals. The dream is to have a large colony of heads. They eat like pigs, feeding them almost every day, but they have not developed any new heads yet, hope they do soon, its a lot of work spot feeding them every day and fending off crabs and fish for a half hour at least while they eat. Dendros can not be imported into Canada anymore, so what I got is what I will have.

 

Tank inhabitant is now one of my all time favorite nano fish, a damsel, specifically a azure damsel (yellow along the bottom and tail, bright neon blue the rest of the body. These fish are fantastic, smart, active, colorful, hardy and they never bother corals or inverts.

 

On the hardware front, got an InkBird temperature controller and I'm absolutely loving it! First of all tank temperatures are now rock steady at 26.6C (80 F), thanks to the InkBird. I'm still using the thermostat of the Eheim heater, but the InkBird provides a more precise cut off and double redundancy ensuring that my tank with never ever get fried if the heater thermostat fails and sticks. I also hate digital thermometers as their temperature readings are pretty useless, but with the InkBird, I was able to precisely calibrate its digital thermometer with my lab grade mercury thermometer. Loving the InkBird, meeting all my needs and 10 times cheaper than aquarium controllers (about $30 USD, $55 Canadian).

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Beautiful!  Your tanks are always so clean and lovely.  Were those Clarkii clowns in the earlier pictures?  The cynarina is so pretty!  Hope the dendros start taking off for you soon!

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On 2017-05-16 at 11:21 AM, Lula_Mae said:

Beautiful!  Your tanks are always so clean and lovely.  Were those Clarkii clowns in the earlier pictures?  The cynarina is so pretty!  Hope the dendros start taking off for you soon!

Those clowns belong to the Clarkii african family, they are called Allardi or Allard's clownfish.

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1 hour ago, Sandeep said:

Those clowns belong to the Clarkii african family, they are called Allardi or Allard's clownfish.

Neat, I haven't heard of those.  They certainly are beautiful!

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