Jack's 10 year old 20g Tall

[jservedio]

My super old dwarf red leg hermit happened to be right up at the front of my tank and I was able to get a super close in shot of his shell which is covered in layers and layers of life - feather dusters, worms, snails, coralline, macro algae, and lots of other algae.

 

[jservedio]

Someone asked me about my sump, so here is a little more about it. It's a standard Aqueon 10g tank with two chambers and three baffles. The main chamber is 13" wide, my baffles are 1" apart (under, over, under) and my return chamber is 5" which is just enough to fit my return pump and ATO. Here is a diagram of what's going on:

 

[Christopher Marks]

On 1/27/2020 at 9:08 AM, jservedio said:

Since the DSLR was out today, I decided it was new FTS day! Things are doing really well and it's been almost exactly a year since I've added a coral to the tank. I think I've got room for another chalice on the left side, another lord above the big echinata, and another acro in the empty stop up top, but I do like the idea of just not adding any more coral to the tank. What do you think?

 

Wow it really looks amazing! You’ve done such a great job of placing corals with nice contrasting colors, there’s a lot to explore. Now that more corals are starting to grow close to each other, I agree you could probably just let it grow out and fill in from here forward. 
 

Thanks for sharing all your great photo updates!

[jservedio]

2 hours ago, Christopher Marks said:

Wow it really looks amazing! You’ve done such a great job of placing corals with nice contrasting colors, there’s a lot to explore. Now that more corals are starting to grow close to each other, I agree you could probably just let it grow out and fill in from here forward. 
 

Thanks for sharing all your great photo updates!

 

Thanks so much Chris! I've always thought it looked really disjointed and was never super happy about it, but I'm starting to overlook it more now that it's growing in. I think the one thing I am really proud of is the fact that I haven't added a single coral between these two pictures and it is a night and day difference (I actually lost a lord frag due to my wrasse knocking it into an echinata, and that always turns out well) and only a year apart.

 

 

[aclman88]

4 hours ago, jservedio said:

Someone asked me about my sump, so here is a little more about it. It's a standard Aqueon 10g tank with two chambers and three baffles. The main chamber is 13" wide, my baffles are 1" apart (under, over, under) and my return chamber is 5" which is just enough to fit my return pump and ATO. Here is a diagram of what's going on:

 

Thanks for this!!!!

 

Did you cut the baffles yourself or did you pay to have them cut?  I am thinking of doing a similar sump but with three chambers.  Filter sock and protein skimmer, refugium, and the last would be return pump and ATO.

[jservedio]

58 minutes ago, aclman88 said:

Thanks for this!!!!

 

Did you cut the baffles yourself or did you pay to have them cut?  I am thinking of doing a similar sump but with three chambers.  Filter sock and protein skimmer, refugium, and the last would be return pump and ATO.

I cut them myself. Acrylic can be cut on a table saw, with a circular saw, an angle grinder, pretty much anything at all will cut it - I use a mini circular saw attachment for my dremel since I was in an apartment when I did it. However, that said, I wouldn't use acrylic again in a glass sump - I'd just buy non-tempered glass sheets and cut them myself. It's incredibly easy to score and break thin glass when it's just straight cuts. Plus the silicone bonds with it and it doesn't flex nearly as much.

[OldManSea]

On 1/27/2020 at 8:08 AM, jservedio said:

Since the DSLR was out today, I decided it was new FTS day! Things are doing really well and it's been almost exactly a year since I've added a coral to the tank. I think I've got room for another chalice on the left side, another lord above the big echinata, and another acro in the empty stop up top, but I do like the idea of just not adding any more coral to the tank. What do you think?

 

A really wonderful tank.  There aren’t many with corals that happy!

[jservedio]

2 hours ago, OldManSea said:

A really wonderful tank.  There aren’t many with corals that happy!

Thank you! I think after all these years they just tired of being mad at me.

[jservedio]

Got lots of growth on my stunner and the color continues to get better and better in extremely low light with as much food as it can eat. Since the glass is actually clean, I was able to get it in pretty high resolution with tons of detail and little noise.

 

[DNR88]

Great picture! What is the name of this coral?

[jservedio]

7 minutes ago, DutchNanoReefer88 said:

Great picture! What is the name of this coral?

It's a regular old Hollywood Stunner chalice. It just looks like this because I keep it in extremely low light and it gets a lot of food. It's entirely in the shade and only lit by reflection off the glass and sand. Some places will jack up the price and call it a "Mutant Stunner Chalice," but they are the same.

[jservedio]

I though my M. Amakusensis was slowing down after it's last growth spurt, but it just blew up again and got significantly bigger over the course of just a few weeks. There used to be about 1/2" between the micro and lord, but there is now a baby micro polyp on the skeleton of the lord. Hopefully it doesn't destroy the lord and they just grow together.

 

[jservedio]

My Orange Crush Echinata is almost back to it's former glory.

 

[jservedio]

Yellow tips keeps getting bigger and bigger! Just last year this was a small 1.25" frag.

 

 

Last year:

[jservedio]

While I had the DSLR out, I got a few cool shots of my clowns and the nem, always super fun to take pictures of,

 

[aclman88]

Holy cow I am just continually blown away by this tank.  It gives me hope with my 20H tank and dreams to build a nano reef.  Excellent tank!!! Definitely shows what perseverance and a ton of hard work can get you in this hobby.

[jservedio]

29 minutes ago, aclman88 said:

Holy cow I am just continually blown away by this tank.  It gives me hope with my 20H tank and dreams to build a nano reef.  Excellent tank!!! Definitely shows what perseverance and a ton of hard work can get you in this hobby.

Thanks! You are definitely right about perseverance, but I wouldn't go so far as hard work! If you've got patience, you can have a great reef. I think your 4g is off to an amazing start - with just the corals you've got in there now, in a couple of years it'll be insane.

[jservedio]

Had the DSLR out again today and got some really cool shots of my Zoas and Palys with the macro lens - I don't have a ton of Zs and Ps, but they seem to do well enough in my tank.

 

 

 

[jservedio]

Getting some crazy shapes from my montis and acros due to them encrusting over vermetid snails, fighting each other, and then encrusting over each others the dead skeletons:

 

 

 

[mitten_reef]

Firing on all cylinders. Keep it up!! Love the dSLR shots too. 

[jservedio]

2 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

Firing on all cylinders. Keep it up!! Love the dSLR shots too. 

Thanks! With a new baby on the way, I'm finally looking to upgrade my dslr to something that was made in the last decade! Also looking to get my stand built before he comes for what will be a small upgrade to a nice rimless with internal plumbing, but keeping everything else as-is.

[jservedio]

Went to feed the fish before going on vacation and my micro once again got a starfish. That's the 5th one in just a few months!

 

[jservedio]

My wrasse's eye is healing up extremely well!

[Elizabeth94]

Your corals look great, you are obviously doing something right! 

[jservedio]

Not the best picture, but the reason I only ever get my lady clown in good pictures because my clowns have have "his and hers" RBTAs that they spawn in between. This is what their sweet setup looks like, although the nems are starting to get a little out of control.

 

 

 

2 hours ago, Elizabeth94 said:

Your corals look great, you are obviously doing something right! 

Thanks a lot Elizabeth!