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Jack's 10 year old 20g Tall


jservedio

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My gold colored acan keeps coloring up really nicely. While the polyps aren't huge, the colors are crazy. I've been slightly increasing light over the last month in the hopes of getting my birdsnest to color up. It does grow fairly quickly too. Sorry for the phone-quality picture.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well this is pretty cool - my monti spongodes is making an upside down shaped cup in one of it's plates and it is actually trapping a pretty big air pocket that's been steadily growing for weeks. I wonder if I'll get anything fun growing at the air/water interface. It doesn't seem to bother the monti at all.

 

air-pocket.thumb.jpg.35474534b86dae7f0002a0a53f4216e7.jpg

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2 hours ago, Aqua Splendor said:

Uh that a nice air bubble trap!

I rarely see this, cool picture 🙂

Thanks! I see this all the time on the underside of my rocks temporarily, but never saw a coral trap air like that long term.

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Welp...Rest in Pieces little yellow acan 4 posts up. It went to war with the big echinata next door and I'd like to say it fought the good fight, but it was utterly nuked and devoured. I haven't posted an FTS in a while, so I'll get on that soon. While I've been doing what I can to control growth, the less than well thought out side of my tank (the left side, bottom half) is starting to turn into the thunderdome. I'm going to take my usual approach of letting it ride, but I have a feeling I'm not going to have any lords left in a year or two. The more well thought out stuff is all growing together like crazy and while I get little fights, they aren't the WWIII type of fights you get from echinatas.

 

I might get a fast growing encrusting coral or maybe some ricordea to replace it since it will be able to out-grow the echinata problem or at least be able to pick up and walk away.

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This is what the battleground side looks like right now. So far I've lost one big lord frag and the bottom of the stylo has taken some good damage. The favia took some damage from the pink lord a couple weeks ago, but it appears to be launching a counter strike.

 

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So now that this side of my tank is starting to turn into a warzone, I've got to act for once. This side of the tank is pretty much anchored by 4 corals: the big blasto, the big echinata, the mid-fight favia, and the big platy. I know I've got the move both the acans and the only place I've got for them is the sandbed - that's easy. However, that leaves some huge gaps open and I'm not really sure what I can possibly fill it with?

 

I've also got that stylo next to the blasto that just looks super out of place down there and I've been considering moving it up My only concern there is it obstructing the view of of my castell's banana acro, which while it is only a small frag now, will be an awesome tabler as it grows.

 

Any scape masters out there have any idea of what I can do with some of my corals, or what would look awesome between the main anchor corals? I definitely have no problem grabbing a couple new corals after the apocalypse is over.

 

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My experience after hundreds times of rescaping; Make small changes and step back for a moment to watch the result. Do this as often as needed, until you're happy with it and no longer feel the need to change anything.

 

I think this gives a much better result instead of throwing everything out and start from scratch. 😋

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3 hours ago, DNR88 said:

My experience after hundreds times of rescaping; Make small changes and step back for a moment to watch the result. Do this as often as needed, until you're happy with it and no longer feel the need to change anything.

 

I think this gives a much better result instead of throwing everything out and start from scratch. 😋

Thanks - I only plan on moving two, maybe 3 corals, which have to be moved because they will be dead in days if they don't. Those lords are about to be steamrolled just like the other one was a couple days ago. The acans are going down on the sand for sure since there is no other place. Everything else is staying exactly the same. My question is what should I put in the huge amount of space that will now be open between my 4 big LPS that will look good and be able to survive their when those big LPS occasionally go on a tear?

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Making Moves! Got rid of the giant ball of birdsnest that was in the center of my tank and it looks so much better with it gone. I bartered it away for a couple rolls of paper towels. Crazy times we live in...

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mitten_reef
On 4/1/2020 at 5:35 PM, jservedio said:

So now that this side of my tank is starting to turn into a warzone, I've got to act for once. This side of the tank is pretty much anchored by 4 corals: the big blasto, the big echinata, the mid-fight favia, and the big platy. I know I've got the move both the acans and the only place I've got for them is the sandbed - that's easy. However, that leaves some huge gaps open and I'm not really sure what I can possibly fill it with?

 

I've also got that stylo next to the blasto that just looks super out of place down there and I've been considering moving it up My only concern there is it obstructing the view of of my castell's banana acro, which while it is only a small frag now, will be an awesome tabler as it grows.

 

Any scape masters out there have any idea of what I can do with some of my corals, or what would look awesome between the main anchor corals? I definitely have no problem grabbing a couple new corals after the apocalypse is over.

 

655502081_possibleplans.thumb.jpg.8766a0434d596a0fc1fbd1cd568ac3d6.jpg

I agreed, the green stylo needs to go. 

 

As far as the opening once you removed the acans, I'd wait a month to see if you really need something else there.  for all you know the acans had been holding the other at bay, and without them, the rest might just fill in the gap themselves.  you don't want to add anything, that you may end up needing to remove later.  

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32 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

I agreed, the green stylo needs to go. 

 

As far as the opening once you removed the acans, I'd wait a month to see if you really need something else there.  for all you know the acans had been holding the other at bay, and without them, the rest might just fill in the gap themselves.  you don't want to add anything, that you may end up needing to remove later.  

I won't be getting anything for at least a few months with the way things are! The spot above the top echinata is pretty huge - it's about 5" across  and about 3" high and that echinata grows really slowly, especially now that it's so heavily shaded - I've had it for like 8 years since a small frag, and that's all it's done. Maybe something low like rics or zoas or something encrusting. I don't have any encrusting corals in the tank.

 

Glad you agree about the stylo - I didn't even want that stylo there to begin with and had it up top with the acros and montis, but it just couldn't take the light so I had to move it. It's not glued down or anything, just stuffed down into a little void. Unfortunately, I just don't have a ton of space to put it and it sort of out-grew all the places I would have put it. Maybe it'll be another coral to sell or trade for more paper towels!

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40 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

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Bringing this FTS over for ref in case others are chiming in.  can the stylo go behind the digi? or maybe even replace the birdnet?  

I actually had the stylo up there, but it's just too much light. The birdsnest is now gone (in exchange for two rolls of paper towels!) and it looks so much better now that it's open. Maybe I can peek it out kind of behind the purple cap. I can probably cut up that rock the birdsnest was on to get it flat on the sand and put it there - basically right under those purple zoas.

 

I'll mess around with it this weekend and take another FTS on Monday if you don't mind taking another look? Thank you so much for your help - having another set of eyes is incredibly helpful when I've been staring at this thing for almost a decade.

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This has been a lot of fun to read and see how the tank has evolved. Thanks for the blog. 
 

How has your Melanurus wrasse been? Would love to put one in my 20 gallon long, but not sure if he’d feel too boxed in

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1 hour ago, KMitch said:

This has been a lot of fun to read and see how the tank has evolved. Thanks for the blog. 
 

How has your Melanurus wrasse been? Would love to put one in my 20 gallon long, but not sure if he’d feel too boxed in

Honestly, 20g is way too small of a tank for a Melanurus. Mine is extremely old now (like 2 years past the upper end of his lifespan old) and when I got him he was already fully grown and was significantly smaller than any other Melanurus wrasse I had ever seen - he's only about 3.5" long and a lot less massive than my female clown. For perspective, the average sized melanurus at my LFS in their frag tank is only half as old as mine, twice his size, and at least 3-4x as massive.

 

This one sort of fell into my lap since I was only supposed to be temporarily housing this wrasse since my friend was moving and couldn't set up his tank in his new place right away. It's been almost 6 years now, he still doesn't have a tank back up, and I live half way across the country.

 

If this guy dies before I upgrade my tank at the end of this year, which is likely since he's living on borrowed time, I won't be getting another until the new tank is up.

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So I made some of the changes I was planning yesterday after procrastinating for a week and moved the green stylo that was in the front of the tank to where I had planned and took the acans out of harms way. I added a new rock for the left island and that opened up a lot of new real estate and it's pretty flat and in the sand, so I took the opportunity and moved my toadstool leather down there in the back and out of the main flow along with a ricordea that was dumped in the back of the tank. I think I am going to cover this new rock with a bunch of ricordea. Things are all super pissed off and I lost some color over the last few weeks playing around with my lighting, but at least things are still growing!

 

While I didn't go through with it yet, I am going to pull the two blastos on the tiny island in the front and place them next to the big purple blasto in the open real estate. They should all grow together and that'll be awesome.

 

However, this leaves me with a ton of open space on the left now and the sky is the limit. I considered moving my maxi-mini anemone over there in the hollow between the purple stylo and echinata, but I am a little worried about moving nems. Any ideas for what I can do in this now-open huge area? I might slide the blasto island to the left a little and slide my bowerbankii back a bit, which should take up a little of the bottom space, but I'm still left with a lot of blank canvas.

 

@mitten_reef - what do you think so far? Any ideas for the now wide-open space? Sorry for the not-great picture quality - I didn't bust out the tripod, it's blurry, and I shot in JPEG so the camera's auto saturation makes my nems look pink! I just ordered a new D5600 with the baby on the way, so the quality of my pictures should dramatically improve since I won't be using a 13 year old DSLR.

 

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mitten_reef

hard to mess with something that is already looking so nice, haha.  let's see. 

 

first thing, I'd probably move that purple stylo over to join its green friend on the other side, have a low-lying stick group there.  that'd open up the center of that rock a little more.

 

the green and the pink blasto's will fill the dark void underneath echinata, right?  the open area left by it, would be perfect for a ric garden.

 

The biggest hole to fill is the triangle between the favia, echinata, and green acro.  if you're just shuffling around, that brain-ish coral on bottom left might fill in the gap nicely (and fill that space with goniopora?).  if you're looking for something new, I'd say a chunk, or two, of euphyllia or a big duncan might fill dimensional interest a bit in that concave part of the rock, plus you don't have any branchy, flowy LPS yet.    

 

one last thought, if the entire left island is well connected, I'd rotate it 5-10 degree so the echinata peeks out just a bit more, and the acro overhang is not so side-to-side.    

 

idk, thoughts?  

 

 

 

 

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First of all - thank you so much for taking the time to write this, I really, really appreciate it. It's incredibly helpful. It's been looking pretty good lately, but it's got so much room for improvement. When I picked my corals (everything on the left), I just picked what looked like cool frags and glued them haphazardly. The right side was in my pico, so that was very carefully thought out from the beginning. It's why the bottom left looks bad and the right looks awesome.

1 hour ago, mitten_reef said:

first thing, I'd probably move that purple stylo over to join its green friend on the other side, have a low-lying stick group there.  that'd open up the center of that rock a little more.

I love this idea! I was kicking myself for mounting the green stylo a little low, but because of that I now have a nice flat area above the green stylo and behind the purple cap it would fit perfectly. I'll have to chisel it off since it's actually quite a bit bigger than it looks - it's mostly grown backward and around the left side of the left island and you only see two tiny lobes from the front. It'll also save it from continually getting it's ass kicked.

 

1 hour ago, mitten_reef said:

the green and the pink blasto's will fill the dark void underneath echinata, right?  the open area left by it, would be perfect for a ric garden.

They should fill it in pretty nicely, I'll have a little bit of space above them where the acans were. I think I'm going to put some zoas there to take up the space. I've got two frags that have been floating around in the sand in the back of the tank that I can put there, nothing new required. And hell yes to the ric garden! Flow them from where the blastos are now up over and between the platygyra and favia and down the other side. That would look awesome.

 

1 hour ago, mitten_reef said:

The biggest hole to fill is the triangle between the favia, echinata, and green acro.  if you're just shuffling around, that brain-ish coral on bottom left might fill in the gap nicely (and fill that space with goniopora?).  if you're looking for something new, I'd say a chunk, or two, of euphyllia or a big duncan might fill dimensional interest a bit in that concave part of the rock, plus you don't have any branchy, flowy LPS yet.    

Yeah that concave part of the rock is a tricky thing to fill, especially since it's so close to the acros. I think a flowy LPS coral would be tough there since it's getting a ton of flow right there since the MP10 basically aims right for it (to keep the nems in line). The platygyra definitely wouldn't fit there - it's not actually flat and is like 1/4 ball shaped and very well encrusted. That unfortunately has to stay, though I could probably cut the back of rock it was on so it doesn't jut out so far.

 

I am considering punting on that void and just dropping a setosa on the right side of it directly above the echinata and with the stylo gone putting another acro there - maybe a hawkins echinata or suharsonoi but aim it more at a 45 degree angle out and much higher up that corner. Then just filling in with some really nice palys/zoas since I've got a local guy with hundreds to choose from.

 

I could also not buy anything and put my 2 mini-maxis in that void with the stylo gone, but that requires moving a really nice nem and it may spread out more in lower light, especially as it gets shaded by the sticks above.

maxi-mini-dslr2.thumb.jpg.37f6477197e21ef817a07bd7b22b91f9.jpg

 

 

With everything else moved around, I should be able to rotate the left island a tiny bit. It's only made of 2 rocks and they are fused together with the green acro and purple monti, so they aren't going to fall down.

 

Again, thanks so much for the help!!!

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mitten_reef
14 minutes ago, jservedio said:

 

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Again, thanks so much for the help!!!

You're very welcome.  honestly, beyond the stylo and blasto move, everything else, I'd let the tank sit for a week, just to see if any other ideas spark in your mind.  But overall, sounds like you have a solid game plan for now.    

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1 minute ago, mitten_reef said:

You're very welcome.  honestly, beyond the stylo and blasto move, everything else, I'd let the tank sit for a week, just to see if any other ideas spark in your mind.  But overall, sounds like you have a solid game plan for now.    

I was definitely going to let it sit for a month or two after the blasto and stylo move until after the baby comes. With that stylo gone, it would give me room for an acro I've been thinking about for 6 years that was my favorite, but I ended up losing during my treatment of AEFW way back when. No idea if it was a suharsonoi, lokani, subglara, etc. but it sure was pretty and I had it for a couple years. It'll motivate me to try and source it if I've got a big open spot for it staring at me. Plus, I've got a big 4" circle on the top shelf behind the big tort that would fit another acro very nicely, so I can at least save on the shipping!

 

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What is your camera setup? I know you said you h wanted to upgrade, but up currents pics are incredible. Btw congrats on the new baby! Is this your first?

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2 hours ago, aclman88 said:

What is your camera setup? I know you said you h wanted to upgrade, but up currents pics are incredible. Btw congrats on the new baby! Is this your first?

I've got a Nikon d40x that I picked up in 2007 as a refurb. 95% of the pictures in my tank are with a 40mm prime on janky portable tripod. Turn off the pumps, stop down the aperture, and use the timer. New camera should make things much, much easier.

 

Thanks, andYes! First baby. Of course the nursery is under the sea theme.

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