Old Man Sea's Marineland Profile 5.6 gallon pico reef - One Year Birthday - February FTS

[Lula_Mae]

56 minutes ago, cfaye@Delaware said:

Thank you so much for responding. I did not mean to hijack your thread but with your background I had to say something. Please keep this thread going for the marineland, I think this is an awesome tank for the foot print and price....again thank you so much.

to Nano-Reef!  There is another Marineland Portrait tank on here that is all soft corals, you might enjoy it.  Should be able to find the thread in the pico forum.  Do you have a tank thread for your little current tank?  We love to read about other's tanks and see pictures. One of my first tanks was the 1.5 gallon Tetra Water Wonders, similar to yours but smaller.

[OldManSea]

The tank continues doing well at the 6 month mark.  I still change 75% of the water every week.  The Montipora’s had not made any progress at all since I have had them (February – May).  I began going the whole Red Sea Reef Care route 3 weeks ago.  I now aim for:

 

Salinity 1.025

Calcium 450 ppm

Magnesium 1350 ppm

Alkalinity 11.5 dKH

Nitrate 1-2 ppm

Phosphate 0.08-0.12 ppm

 

As recommended for by Red Sea for mixed reefs.  The alkalinity is higher than what most folks on this site recommend but it is Red Sea's recommendation so I will stay with it a while to see how things do.  I use Reef Foundation Part A for Calcium (and strontium) and Reef Foundation B for KH, approximately 1 ml of each per day to maintain 450 and 11.5.  In theory I use Foundation C for Mg but I find that Mg stays at 1400 or so from the time I mix fresh water (Instant Ocean) so I have never added any additional.  Interestingly, while I had a horrible time controlling phosphate when this tank was set up, now it is always undetectable as is nitrate, which has always been nearly undetectable (no problem with the Red Sea test kits as my other tank always has nitrate and phosphate).  I think that phosphate was leaching from the rock initially.  I use NaNO3 and NaH2PO4 additions.  I have to add every other day or so.  I add Reef Energy A and Reef Energy B with every water change.  I also dose Coral colors A, B, C, and D with every water change.  The title component of Coral Colors A is iodine and I test for that for dosing.  I generally do not have to dose until the next water change (there is a small reduction over the week but not enough to bother dosing until the water change). 

 

I feed PhytoFeast once a week, Reef Roids once a week, and mysis shrimp once a week, each on separate days.  The mysis gets fed about 12 hours prior to water change. 

 

Since going to the Red Sea program three weeks ago each of the 3 Monti’s is showing new growth.  Pretty cool.

 

The inhabitants are doing well in general.  I think the sexy shrimp are eating zoa polyps as I have lost some (chewed about halfway down the stalk) and the sexy shrimp are alwasys on the colonies that lose polyps when they are lost.  I have read that sexy’s sometimes do this.  In this top down view you can see a small rock flower anemone near the front wall. 

 

 

This is the anemone that disappeared from the Red Sea Max a few months ago.  About 3 weeks after it disappeared I saw a tiny glob of goo on the gravel and when I scooped it out, I saw some the colors the anemone had.  I placed the goo into this tank where it sat without moving for a week, then began to organize itself into a miniature version of the missing anemone.  About half of the anemone was missing and over the next week, the two ends bent around and merged.  This left a tiny anemone compared to the original one and without any peripheral tentacles over half the edge.  Over the last 3 months, the anemone has regrown its peripheral tentacles and while it had no color in the healing area for some weeks, you can see that now it has excellent color.  For the first 6 weeks or so during its recovery it did not eat at all (at least not macro food like mysis) but over the last 6 weeks it has been consuming mysis shrimp, and is rapidly gaining size.  This recovery and the similar recovery of another rock flower in the Red Sea Max that suffered a similar injury (it was crabs, see the Red Sea Max update) makes me wonder if rock flower anemones really cannot be fragged.  These two recovered from massive injuries;  the only caveat is that in both cases, the mouth area was intact on the surviving pieces.

 

Here is a second FTS that shows near the back wall another small rock flower anemone (a single shot will not show everything since the surface area of the tank is so small that even the nanobox does not allow the camera lens to get near the center).  This one arrived

 

 

tiny and is in this tank until it gets large enough for the Rock Flower garden in the Red Sea Max.  The Duncan coral in the back left corner started with 3 heads in February.  Now it has 9.  I am going to move it to the Red Sea Max since it is too cramped in the corner here.  I have asked the lfs to order another for me for this tank.  I didn’t want to frag this one since I want to see how large it will get.  The two Acan’s in the lower right corner continue to progress.  The blue and red one started out with 3 heads in February and is now up to 10.  The red one arrived a couple of months ago and has added one head.  The red maxi mini anemone has grown some.  I don’t know how large it will get, I have read several sources that suggest that these red ones from Bali stay much smaller than other maxi mini’s.  If this is true, perhaps they are a different species?

 

At the 6 month mark the tank is doing reasonably well.  I plan to add some additional Ricordea’s (two will arrive this week) and Acan’s to this tank since they stay compact, an important consideration with the small footprint and large vertical expanse.  I found that the sand bed was getting very dirty even though I siphon it deeply weekly so I removed about half the depth and now I don’t have any problem with accumulation of detritus.  In spite of massive weekly water changes, I found that the Montipora’s didn’t regress but not grow.  The addition of the vitamins, amino acids and other cofactors contained in the Red Sea Reef components seem to be inducing strong new growth in only 3 weeks.  A couple of additional months of observations will confirm whether this continues.  At 5 months residence the red Goniopora continues to be a spectacular coral.  It has increased its polyp number by about 25% since February.

[cfaye@Delaware]

Good show !!!! I am so glad to see the update.....Looking Good !!!! I would like to see a full tank shot in all it's glory, from the front if you please. The growth has been wonderful for the marineland. Yes full tank shot from the front Please.....

It will give me hope that it is possible. The coral in my profile picture is what I want to try and do. Maybe the only coral in tank. Keep up the excellent work, it does take time. Once again thank you for sharing....until the next update, be waiting.

[debbeach13]

Interesting write up about the anemone. Thanks for sharing that. Congratulation on all the growth you are getting. Your doing some thing right. How is Doby Gillis doing?

[OldManSea]

1 hour ago, debbeach13 said:

\ How is Doby Gillis doing?

Doby is doing very well.  He is rather photo-shy.  He will stay out if I am just looking at the tank from a distance but he/she retreats into rock cover if I am hovering close with a camera.

[cfaye@Delaware]

Hello, I hope all is well. I think we are about due for our August update. Looking forward to it. I was also looking forward to a FTS of the tank. I am working on a timeline of coral growth in my tank and right now my growth might be slow. Looking forward to any news.......

[OldManSea]

Since I have been supplementing nitrate and phosphate, and using Red Sea Reef Energy A and B and Coral Colors A, B, C, and D, the corals have been showing very intense coloration.  They were colorful before but are now they really pop – and they are growing much faster.  The monti caps are finally growing at a visible rate.  The sunset monti has roughly doubled in bulk.  I tried to keep the parameters

 

 

 

that Red Sea recommends for mixed reefs, that I mentioned last month.  However, while Ca and Mg mix up at those values, alkalinity mixes at 10.5.  When I move it to 11.5, this tank and the Red Sea Max quickly revert to 10.5.  Then they go down from there as the corals use the carbonate.  It is easy to dose to keep at 10.5 but 11.5 is a struggle and I don’t want to stress the corals so now the goal is 10.5.  I think that many folks on this site would recommend something in the range of 9.5 – 10.5 in any event.

 

I had gotten a couple of Ricordea rocks from AquaSD (lower left corner of tank) that looked different in color from the specimens I have.  However, as they have gained color in the tank for a few weeks I see that they are exactly like two of the morphs that I already have!  Hopefully I can trade them at some point.  I am sure the lfs will take them if I ask.  Too bad Seattle does not have a functional reef society.  Here is the blue morph – very nice but just more of the same.

 

 

Some other corals were received from AquaSD that went into the Red Sea Max.  AquaSD was kind enough to include a free coral shown just below.  I believe that it is a Blastomussa.

 

 

I also received several specimens from Cherry Corals.  Two of them, Acans, were placed in this tank.  The bright green one was a free specimen.  Thank you!  These images were taken 2 hours after the specimens were placed into the tank.  I have been pleased with the packaging of specimens from all the vendors so far, but the packaging by Cherry Corals was superb – each specimen was placed into a plastic cup with a hole that held the frag plug and then placed into the bag.  This way the corals did not bang around the sides of the bags.  All of them were fully open within an hour or so of unpacking.  Very upscale indeed.

 

 

I did finally have to remove the Duncan.  I got it in February as a fresh frag with 3 heads.  It had grown to 15 heads and was stuffed into the corner.  I put it on the sand bed of the Red Sea Max where it has several inches around it and within a few hours it had opened luxuriantly (there is an image in the August update for that tank, which I will write after this one is finished).  I am eager to see what it looks like in another 6 months. 

 

You can see the two small rock flower anemones in the top down shot.  The one on the gravel is the one that was trashed by a gorilla crab in the Red Sea Max a few months ago and is now fully recovered and growing well.  In another month or two it will go back into the rock flower garden in that tank.  The other one, which came as a tiny creature, is also growing and has decided it wants to be at the highest point in the tank.  It has been there for a couple of weeks.  Not sure if it will stay there since it has been all around the tank. 

 

The small Bali red carpet anemone has climbed up the rock a bit from the gravel where it had been for several months.  It has about doubled in size.  It will be interesting to see how large it gets, some reports suggest that this (probably distinct) species stays quite small. 

 

The Cyphastrea on the back wall continues to progress.  While it shows up well in the image, visually it stays lost on the dark, back wall.  I should have chosen a yellow specimen.  I may move this one to the Red Sea Max and replace it here with a yellow specimen.

 

That’s the update, still chugging along.  The tank is doing well.  With better nutrient concentrations all the creatures are much happier.  I am pleased with the Acans, although I saw a tank last week with large, mature Acan colonies, each of which started a couple of years ago with one or two heads.  I see lots of fragging in my future if these Acan’s continue to grow well.  Take a look at the blue and red specimen in the lower right corner.  It keeps adding heads with gusto and now that those heads are getting larger, the colony is taking up significant space.  The sexy shrimp continue to annoy the heck out of the zoa’s and occasionally eat a polyp.  They also spend a lot of time on the little rock flower anemones but those don’t seem to care. 

[Lula_Mae]

11 minutes ago, OldManSea said:

Since I have been supplementing nitrate and phosphate, and using Red Sea Reef Energy A and B and Coral Colors A, B, C, and D, the corals have been showing very intense coloration.  They were colorful before but are now they really pop – and they are growing much faster.  The monti caps are finally growing at a visible rate.  The sunset monti has roughly doubled in bulk.  I tried to keep the parameters

 

 

 

that Red Sea recommends for mixed reefs, that I mentioned last month.  However, while Ca and Mg mix up at those values, alkalinity mixes at 10.5.  When I move it to 11.5, this tank and the Red Sea Max quickly revert to 10.5.  Then they go down from there as the corals use the carbonate.  It is easy to dose to keep at 10.5 but 11.5 is a struggle and I don’t want to stress the corals so now the goal is 10.5.  I think that many folks on this site would recommend something in the range of 9.5 – 10.5 in any event.

 

I had gotten a couple of Ricordea rocks from AquaSD (lower left corner of tank) that looked different in color from the specimens I have.  However, as they have gained color in the tank for a few weeks I see that they are exactly like two of the morphs that I already have!  Hopefully I can trade them at some point.  I am sure the lfs will take them if I ask.  Too bad Seattle does not have a functional reef society.  Here is the blue morph – very nice but just more of the same.

 

 

Some other corals were received from AquaSD that went into the Red Sea Max.  AquaSD was kind enough to include a free coral shown just below.  I believe that it is a Blastomussa.

 

 

I also received several specimens from Cherry Corals.  Two of them, Acans, were placed in this tank.  The bright green one was a free specimen.  Thank you!  These images were taken 2 hours after the specimens were placed into the tank.  I have been pleased with the packaging of specimens from all the vendors so far, but the packaging by Cherry Corals was superb – each specimen was placed into a plastic cup with a hole that held the frag plug and then placed into the bag.  This way the corals did not bang around the sides of the bags.  All of them were fully open within an hour or so of unpacking.  Very upscale indeed.

 

 

I did finally have to remove the Duncan.  I got it in February as a fresh frag with 3 heads.  It had grown to 15 heads and was stuffed into the corner.  I put it on the sand bed of the Red Sea Max where it has several inches around it and within a few hours it had opened luxuriantly (there is an image in the August update for that tank, which I will write after this one is finished).  I am eager to see what it looks like in another 6 months. 

 

You can see the two small rock flower anemones in the top down shot.  The one on the gravel is the one that was trashed by a gorilla crab in the Red Sea Max a few months ago and is now fully recovered and growing well.  In another month or two it will go back into the rock flower garden in that tank.  The other one, which came as a tiny creature, is also growing and has decided it wants to be at the highest point in the tank.  It has been there for a couple of weeks.  Not sure if it will stay there since it has been all around the tank. 

 

The small Bali red carpet anemone has climbed up the rock a bit from the gravel where it had been for several months.  It has about doubled in size.  It will be interesting to see how large it gets, some reports suggest that this (probably distinct) species stays quite small. 

 

The Cyphastrea on the back wall continues to progress.  While it shows up well in the image, visually it stays lost on the dark, back wall.  I should have chosen a yellow specimen.  I may move this one to the Red Sea Max and replace it here with a yellow specimen.

 

That’s the update, still chugging along.  The tank is doing well.  With better nutrient concentrations all the creatures are much happier.  I am pleased with the Acans, although I saw a tank last week with large, mature Acan colonies, each of which started a couple of years ago with one or two heads.  I see lots of fragging in my future if these Acan’s continue to grow well.  Take a look at the blue and red specimen in the lower right corner.  It keeps adding heads with gusto and now that those heads are getting larger, the colony is taking up significant space.  The sexy shrimp continue to annoy the heck out of the zoa’s and occasionally eat a polyp.  They also spend a lot of time on the little rock flower anemones but those don’t seem to care. 

Tank is gorgeous!  Your blasto is a very nice, unique coloration.

[OldManSea]

43 minutes ago, Lula_Mae said:

Tank is gorgeous!  Your blasto is a very nice, unique coloration.

Thank you very much.  This little tank has given me a lot of joy.  It has been interesting getting a handle on nutrients since when it started out phosphate would go through the roof - up to 1 ppm or higher even a day after a 75% water change, but after a couple of months went to zero and has stayed there, even a week after a water change (clearly something was leaching in the beginning and then became depleted).  Nitrate has always been zero or nearly so.  Since I have been dosing to keep at 0.02 ppm phosphate and 2 ppm nitrate the inhabitants have improved enormously.  I also think the Red Sea Energy and Reef Colors are helpful but I give the phosphate and nitrate the big credit since I started them a couple of weeks sooner and saw an immediate boost in coloration and growth became noticeably better in that short time.   I also like the blasto.  It is growing a second polyp, which is on the back side so not visible in the image.  Guess I will have to get a red one as well. 

[Lula_Mae]

30 minutes ago, OldManSea said:

Thank you very much.  This little tank has given me a lot of joy.  It has been interesting getting a handle on nutrients since when it started out phosphate would go through the roof - up to 1 ppm or higher even a day after a 75% water change, but after a couple of months went to zero and has stayed there, even a week after a water change (clearly something was leaching in the beginning and then became depleted).  Nitrate has always been zero or nearly so.  Since I have been dosing to keep at 0.02 ppm phosphate and 2 ppm nitrate the inhabitants have improved enormously.  I also think the Red Sea Energy and Reef Colors are helpful but I give the phosphate and nitrate the big credit since I started them a couple of weeks sooner and saw an immediate boost in coloration and growth became noticeably better in that short time.   I also like the blasto.  It is growing a second polyp, which is on the back side so not visible in the image.  Guess I will have to get a red one as well. 

That's interesting that nitrates fell so low!  Were the rocks dry to begin with?  They may have been your phosphate culprit.  Is this the Marineland Portrait tank?  The dimensions are interesting because it's so tall.

[OldManSea]

8 hours ago, Lula_Mae said:

That's interesting that nitrates fell so low!  Were the rocks dry to begin with?  They may have been your phosphate culprit.  Is this the Marineland Portrait tank?  The dimensions are interesting because it's so tall.

This is the Marineland Portrait.  It has an interesting shape and I have several of them for killifishes and small Betta's.  Easy to scape for those but more challenging for a reef since the animals are all attached.  I do like them.

 

The rock is "Jakarta" live rock.  It had been at the lfs for about 6 months so well-cycled as he keeps his rock in four 75 gallon tanks with lighting and central filtration system dedicated to the live rock. In fact, I never really saw any ammonia and just a tiny elevation in nitrite that lasted a day or two.  On the other hand, for the second tank, I used the same kind of live rock but got it about 2 weeks after it arrived at the store - that one cycled pretty hard.  I did use CaribSea live sand so perhaps that was the source of the phosphate.  I also used that for the second tank and have never seen much phosphate, a "high" value tends to be 0.04 or so.  It was quite mysterious that there was so much and then it dropped off a cliff - along with the algae!  I even suspected the (Red Sea) kits but made my own primary standards for phosphate and nitrate and found the phosphate kit to be right on over a large range, starting at the low end of its detection ability.  I have found that the nitrate kit measures about 25% lower than actual across its entire range.  I remade the primary standard when I found this and got the same result.  I will take a look at the standard again when I have to replace the kit - another month or so as the reagents are running low.  In talking kits, I have both of the Red Sea alkalinity kits.  Each uses a different method.  One runs higher by 1 - 1.5 dKH than the other.  I trust the one that measures lower since it matches a lab grade alkalinity titration.

[cfaye@Delaware]

Hi, I was so happy to see you !!!! This is amazing and very beautiful to me, put a huge smile on my face, made me very, very, very happy, a huge thank you. It can be done in the marineland. The first picture was the one I was hoping for, the full front tank shot. Truly amazing, but now I have a load of newbie questions, I am sorry. I am wondering about your filter system, are you running the filter that came with the tank and did you add anything else ?? My marineland has been running for about 2 yrs, it is fresh water, the filter pump has become weak, tried cleaning, will try to order another. Just a heads up. I love that tank. I have been trying to go thru your build list to really copy it, but I do get confused on some things like lights. I need to check better, for lights, I think you are using a different tank mounted one ?? I was waiting for the full front tank shot to get the effect of the marineland, Perfect. Now I can't spell his name but Jacque Caustou Is very famous he had the underwater tv show years ago, to work on that boat is a heaven honor. So you are my mentor. Once again I'm a newbie ( noob ) and trying to follow and learn, chemicals are hard for me and testing, dosing, etc. Trying !!!! Thanks again for everything you do for the marineland. Be Blessed and have an awesome Fall......

[Weetabix7]

18 hours ago, OldManSea said:

Thank you very much.  This little tank has given me a lot of joy.  It has been interesting getting a handle on nutrients since when it started out phosphate would go through the roof - up to 1 ppm or higher even a day after a 75% water change, but after a couple of months went to zero and has stayed there, even a week after a water change (clearly something was leaching in the beginning and then became depleted).  Nitrate has always been zero or nearly so.  Since I have been dosing to keep at 0.02 ppm phosphate and 2 ppm nitrate the inhabitants have improved enormously.  I also think the Red Sea Energy and Reef Colors are helpful but I give the phosphate and nitrate the big credit since I started them a couple of weeks sooner and saw an immediate boost in coloration and growth became noticeably better in that short time.   I also like the blasto.  It is growing a second polyp, which is on the back side so not visible in the image.  Guess I will have to get a red one as well. 

 

I also find the difference in coral response very interesting after you dosed nitrate and phosphate. 

What were you using to dose those, and how did you decide how much to dose?

[OldManSea]

8 hours ago, cfaye@Delaware said:

are you running the filter that came with the tank and did you add anything else ?? My marineland has been running for about 2 yrs, it is fresh water, the filter pump has become weak, tried cleaning,

The filtering system that came with the tank was somewhat cumbersome.  I removed the media stand and placed a 1/8 inch acrylic sheet cut to the width of the back chamber that goes down to the platform that held the media stand - this forms a nice chamber.  In that I just put filter floss that goes from the platform up to the bottom of the skimming cone.  Floss is an excellent way to catch detritus.  When I change water each week I pull out the top 3 inches or so of floss and replace it.  The floss below that stays very white.  Once a month I pull out all the floss (every fourth water change) and replace all of it.  In the middle I have a heater and a bag that contains granulated carbon.  It is loosely filled, not packed.  I change that every fourth water change as well.  On the far side is the pump.  About every 6 - 8 months I replace the pump - Hydor Pico 100 (it used to be Hydor Evolution 400)  It has a flow that is said to go as high as 100 gallons per hour but none of the ones I have purchased gets that high - more like 60 gallons per hour.  I replace the pumps often (I have had some of these tanks for nearly 4 years, the majority of time as fresh water) since they do wear out quickly as you note.  I usually buy 6 at a time to make sure I always have replacements.  I should have more flow and have tried several different pumps but even the smallest I have tried creates a miniature tornado since the tank is so tall and narrow.  When I find myself annoyed about the relatively low flow and short life, I look at the pump and calm down - they are ridiculously tiny!  -but fortunately I get them from my lfs in bulk for about $12 each. 

 

I light the tank with a Nanobox Tide Mini.  Even though the tank has a small volume, because it is so deep, I have all but the white channel cranked up to max.

 

It was very cool to be able to sail on the Calypso and meet Cousteau and the crew but sadly that ship when viewed close up was easily seen to be death trap.  It was very old and in poor repair.  I wonder what happened to it.  Now I will have to look it up.

 

5 hours ago, Weetabix7 said:

I also find the difference in coral response very interesting after you dosed nitrate and phosphate. 

What were you using to dose those, and how did you decide how much to dose?

I use potassium monophosphate and potassium nitrate.  I chose the potassium salts since they are not hygroscopic so make nice primary standards (and I have bottles of them reagent grade that I use in orchid culture).  Also, the potassium content of natural seawater is 380 - 400 ppm and the Instant Ocean salt I use yields about 380 ppm when mixed so adding 2 ppm or so does not change potassium concentration in a measureable fashion.  I chose the targets of 2 ppm nitrate and 0.02 ppm phosphate based on the recommendation of Red Sea in their Reef Care Program for mixed reefs and in following a number of the threads here, such as Teenyreef, my authority for everything nanoreef, in which it seems that quite a few members have targets in those ranges and all of them report much better coloration.  So I wasn't surprised at the change per se but very surprised in how fast it occurred.  I was not grasping how starved the corals were. 

 

[cfaye@Delaware]

Hello, time for the September update......

I'm not sure but I think I read that you were having trouble with one of the coral.....I hope things are going ok.......

By the looks of things everything is well in hand.......

Waiting for any kind of news esp. how the Red Sea Kits are doing. Hope you are doing well.

Standing By !!!

 

[Noinoi24]

Subscribe... 

[OldManSea]

Overall the tank is doing well in September.  However, its most important citizen (to me), the Goniopora, seems to have suffered an injury and secondary infection.  I have detailed the issue in another post “Goniopora Ill.”  I strongly suspect the sexy shrimp since they have done a good bit of damage to the zoas and montipora.  They now live at the lfs again.  I removed the goniopora from its rock and dipped it in lugol’s solution – dark enough to barely see through the bottom, and then washed and placed back in the tank.  Hopefully it will recover. 

 

Since the tank was being messed with, I decided to reorganize the ricordeas and acans.  Some of them had been on the substrate for a long time and looked untidy.  I glued the ricordeas to the rock on one side and the acans to the rock on the other. 

 

 

 

Here are some close ups of the ricordea rock, front view first and then side view.  One of the ric’s lost the substrate it was attached to.  I glued it to the rock and it slowly peeled off – twice.  You can see it on the substrate in the first shot below a less than photogenic circle of glue.  I then read that it is very difficult to directly glue ricordea to rock, the trick is for the polyp to attach to a chip and then glue that.  I will try again in a couple of weeks once it is firmly attached.

 

 

 

 

Here are some close-ups of the acan colonies, front and side.  There is room for expansion, the polyps look much fluffier up off the substrate (and without the sexy shrimp trampling all over them. 

 

 

 

 

In the FTS a new Duncan frag from Legendary Corals is visible.  I have it attached to an OceanBox Designs Frag-Solo Magnetic Grow Out Rack.  I have become quite enamored of these racks since one can add a coral to the back or side to look like another coral coming into the scene.  I have seen a number of tanks with corals glued to the sides to create this effect but wanted to be able to move or remove the coral readily – at least until it encrusts the rack and grows onto the tank glass (I should be so fortunate).  This Duncan has very short tentacles arranged into two different color groups.  It has been in the tank for two weeks and eats heartily.

 

I got a new Cyphastrea (on frag plug on the substrate) to place on the rock.  I have decided to not use this one since the newly arranged ricordeas demonstrate that I have enough orange in the tank.  I will try to find a nice bright yellow Cyphastrea instead.  The blue Cyphastrea on the back wall continues to grow well.

 

Finally, I would like to introduce Pete Plectranthias, a Geometric Pygmy Perchlet (picture above, I intended to place it following this sentence and cant figure out how to move it).  He will stay tiny and he takes on the duties vacated by Goby Dillis.  I had not seen Goby for a few weeks and when I removed all the rock to redo the corals, he/she was nowhere to be found.  Doby was quite large for his species when I acquired him and his species is short-lived so I assume that he/she died of old age.  I will add a new Goby Dillis II when I see a small specimen.  

 

Pete was introduced to the tank the day before this image was captured.  He has so far spent his time in the passageway through the rock where he is in this image, or on the ledge just above the ricordeas.  He is actually in the FTS but cannot be seen because of the blue light being of low intensity.  I did get a quick introductory candid shot using flash.  Once he becomes a ham, I will get a good shot of him.  In his lfs tank he was quite friendly.  I had seen him over the past several weeks and was surprised no one scooped him up.  I thought he was probably very expensive – last time I looked at one a few years ago they were.  However, I asked how much and the proprietor responded $12 so he/she came home.  The Geometric Pygmy Perchlet is often called the Geometric Pygmy Hawkfish since like hawkfishes Plectranthias do not have swim bladders.  Most of them are quite rare and most are not yet scientifically described.  I have seen several species at the very expensive Greenwich CT saltwater store and they all had several zero’s prior to the decimal point.

 

Finally

 

I have removed the green Blastomussa and placed it into the Red Sea Max 170 where it will accompany another Blasto there and likely a few more over time.  While we am mentioning hawkfishes, I will introduce Harvey and Hillary in the September update for that tank, which I will probably go up on Thursday.

[OldManSea]

The tank continues to mature.  Here is a FTS from the front and another from the top, taken Thanksgiving weekend.  The red goniopora is still alive but the polyps extend only

 

 

minimally during the day.  I would like to think that it will recover and I can put it back near the top of the rocks in its place of honor but time is passing with little additional improvement.  On the left side of the tank the ricordea garden is doing well.  On the right side, the acan garden has several new additions.

 

 

The most notable addition is a large polyped orange specimen from Cherry Corals.  There are other new ones from AquaSD.  The plating monti's are getting large and casting a lot

 

 

of shade.  I removed the red one, although I see a nub is regrowing.  I will likely remove the green one as well.  I really like plating monti’s but this tank is so narrow that it is difficult to include them.  I guess I will have to get the IM 10 that I keep thinking about – lots of real estate in one of those….

 

While wandering around on the Cherry Corals website (I was mostly looking at some very nice Blasto’s (see the RSM170 update)) I ran across a Cyphastrea decadia frag they call “CC Cherry Blossom.”  I was not familiar with this branching species of Cyphastrea and I had to have it! 

 

 

I am not quite sure where to place it so I placed it on the sand in front where I can consider more easily.  It is tiny, about three quarters of an inch tall.  I found images of large specimens with identical coloration on the web – breathtaking!  This species is said to be as easy as the encrusting species.  I hope so.

 

[cfaye@Delaware]

Looking very nice. The Red Sea dosing seems to be working well. The Marineland is working very well for salt water with a few upgrades.

[OldManSea]

Well, this tiny reef has now made it for just over a year.  Many of the original inhabitants are still in it and some others that grew too large

 

are still living in my Red Sea Max 170. 

 

The inhabitants I have had since the end of January 2017 include a blue/green Duncan that was placed in this tank when it had 3 heads.  It was very happy and by the time it reached 10 heads, I had to move it to the larger tank, where it now has more than 30 heads.  A Cespitularia was added at the same time as the Duncan.  It never looked right in this tank so it also moved to the larger tank where its main trunk is now more than an inch in diameter and I have to frag it every month, usually making 2-4 offspring, which grow really fast.  Tanks in my part of Puget Sound area are now saturated with them.  Finally, there was a frag of green star polyps, also fragged many times since then to keep it small, and 3 different zoa frags.  Two of those continue to look good but one suddenly declined in December and was gone within a few days.  I was traveling so did not have an opportunity to remove it and treat with hydrogen peroxide and iodine (I had a rapidly declining zoa frag in the other tank and treated with concentrated iodine for 15 minutes followed after washing with 50% hydrogen peroxide for 5 minutes.  It looked like hell for a couple of days but then rapidly recovered and looks great now with steadily increasing number of polyps 5 months later).  

 

Soon after these initial creatures, I added an ORA red goniopora from the lfs.  This coral was my pride and joy for several months and added a lot of polyps.  Then overnight it became covered with a white slime and some of the polyps liquefied.  I pulled it and treated with iodine.  It is still alive several months later and sits on the floor of the tank.  It had no polyp extension for a couple of months but for the past month, some of the polyps do extend for a few hours each day.  When I feed Reef Roids all the polyps feed even though most don't extend (you can see this sad remnant on the floor in the FTS on the right side of the image with some of the polyps extended).  I should probably discard this coral but since it was my favorite, I cant make myself part with it.  I have no idea what suddenly happened to it.  It has been hanging on and has recently shown small signs of improvement...(sure, sure)....

 

Beginning at the end of February last year, I added several ricordeas and acans, as well as a gorgonian and an Utter Chaos frag with 3 polyps.  The ricordeas and acans are still with me as well as some newer additions from August and September.  Recently, a green mushroom that was added for color grew fast and blasted two of the acans it touched - you can see them at 1 and 3 o'clock in the FTS.  The green mushroom is now in a new home.  Hopefully the acans will recover.  I had an acan in the larger tank shredded by a crab.  There was a small part of one head left.  After only a few weeks that head recovered and now the colony looks better than it did before it was attacked, so I will just feed the injured parties well and see what happens.  At the end of February a red and a green monti cap were added.  They were getting large and shading out the ricordeas so I removed the red one and manipulated 

the green one to make it less shady underneath.  I must have left a nubbin of the red one since it is now growing back.  I hate to think I will have to remove both of them but in this very narrow tank, I cant afford any shade.  I also added a monti setosa which never did well and has finally died.  Sadly, the Utter Chaos never acclimated well to this tank and they are also now gone.

 

In April I glued a light blue-with-orange mouths Cyphastrea to the back wall.  It has grown to about 6 times its initial size (the slightly thicker area at the bottom left) after a new tank setback for its first couple of months during which it turned brown and did not grow.  The color recovered over the next couple of months and it is quite vibrant now.  It may have been shocked by too bright light at first since it is near the top of this deep tank which has a Nanobox Tide Mini at very high output to light the bottom.  It is certainly used to the light now.  I have actually fragged pieces off the right side to give to interested people or it would be larger yet.

 

In January the lfs received from a hobbyist 10 Alveopora frags that were made from a colony that had gotten too large.  I bought one and placed it where the goniopora used to be. 

Hopefully it will do well.  I am told the mother colony has been here in captivity in Washington for about 4 years so it does have a track record.

 

Late in 2017 I added another encrusting Cyphastrea, an orange one.  I need to glue it as it is quite attractive and has covered its plug and mounded up on it.  I also obtained a

 

branching Cyphastrea decadia which has begun to grow a bit.  I really like this little coral.  While it looks colorful in the image it is actually a much more intense blue and the 

polyps are much redder.  I have not been able to adequately capture the colors.  Jason Fox has a similar one on his web site - looking at his image will give a better idea of the actual coloration of this one.  

 

Here are the ricordeas.  All the big ones have been in the tank for just over a year.  While the green one divided early on, now they just get bigger and bigger.  A couple of them have 4

 

mouths.  You can also see the vibrant coloration of the green monti cap.  There is another montipora visible in the top down shot at about 2 o'clock, with the green polyps.  I have had it for many months now and it is probably 3 times as massive as it was.  It is a piece from a huge mounding from display tank at the lfs.  It has done really well.  

 

That is a long-winded run down of this tank at the end of its first year.  I have three fish, Goby Dillis a small green Gobiodon goby, an ocellaris clown that was rescued from its siblings in the larger tank and which one day I may take to the lfs, and a Geometric Pygmy Hawkfish, Pete Plectranthias.  Overall I have been quite pleased.  I have run into some issues and lost a few corals but overall, for a new tank and a raw, new reefer, I have been quite happy.  I change "100%" of the water every week - that is, I squirt the rock thoroughly, then siphon down to about an inch from the medium, then fill the tank, squirt some more and empty to near the medium a second time.  This has led to great stability of parameters.  I do add a bit of nitrate and phosphate after each water change since otherwise both are essentially zero.  I used to have carbon and granulated ferric oxide but stopped using both about 6 months ago - the water changes keep everything spic-and-span.  After I stopped stripping the water the colors of the Montipora's improved dramatically.  The ricordeas and acans will be allowed to continue to grow out.  I need to figure out what to add to fill the space recently vacated by the mushroom and to add some flesh to the bare parts of the upper third of the rock.  Whatever goes there has to stay close to the rock to avoid shadowing.  Still thinking....

[debbeach13]

Happy tank birthday. Sounds like you have had a few small loses but for the most part the growth and colors are wonderful. Full tank shot looks different / better than just a few months ago. Overall very pleasing visually. I hope to see next years birthday update. Great job.

[OldManSea]

Thank you, working toward 5 years.

[Christopher Marks]

Congratulations on the first year @OldManSea! You've sculpted something truly special here, balancing such a diverse set of corals no less. I think the Cyphastrea are all my favorites, that orange one especially!

[OldManSea]

Cyphastrea have become favorites of mine as well!

[Christopher Marks]

How's your little Marineland pico reef doing these days @OldManSea?