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Dawn's 56 gallon natural nutrient reef.


vlangel

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2 hours ago, seabass said:

Whew, that was a close call.  Glad all is well.

Definitely, but it does not seem to be any worse for wear.  Both blennies, Barney and Betty are taking up residence in the barnacle and are eating well.  Betty is the wild child.  Every once in a while she will take off swimming up and down the glass around the tank.  She was also the one who got behind the screen.

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2018-09-26_04-48-52

A little blue but I am liking the growth and color of the coral.  I will try to get shots of the blennies some time.

I like how you can see thru the shrimp chalet to the seahorse garden.  Notice Jammies and one of the striped blennies in the background.

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Wow Dawn, this looks fantastic.   I need some more torches ... and is that a torch or a branching frog?  The green and purple look terrific, mine are all fairly dull in color.  

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There is a branching purple frogspawn with green tips closest to the seahorse tank.  Next to it is green hammer with purple tips to the right forefront of the frogspawn.  I have always had great luck with frogspawn and hammers but never with torches.  This super low tech tank is growing acans, and zoas, both of which I have struggled with in the past.  Maybe I should try another torch as I really love them.

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1 hour ago, markalot said:

Wow Dawn, this looks fantastic.   I need some more torches ... and is that a torch or a branching frog?  The green and purple look terrific, mine are all fairly dull in color.  

Thanks Mark, I am really liking this little tank.

 

There is a branching purple frogspawn with green tips closest to the seahorse tank.  Next to it is green hammer with purple tips to the right forefront of the frogspawn.  I have always had great luck with frogspawn and hammers but never with torches.  This super low tech tank is growing acans, and zoas, both of which I have struggled with in the past.  Maybe I should try another torch as I really love them.

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Linus settled in to the shrimp chalet just like he has always lived here, (after he was kicked out of the seahorse garden for harassing Delilah).  Of course he actually did live in the shrimp chalet while being QT so maybe it was like coming home.  He promptly took up residence in the barnacle which the barnacle blennies are taking issue with.  But considering that he is 3Xs their size there is not much they can do about it.  The shrimp chalet has lots of crevices and holes so I am sure they will work it all out.

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I did a WC this morning in the shrimp chalet and it is just as easy as the 5.5 gallon.  I did about 50% so it wont be the same percentage of water but about the same amount.  Since the QT has twice the volume and more rock it might still be ok.  It is actually getting less film algae on the glass so perhaps the macro algaes are really helping as well.  So far I am pleased with how this tank is going.

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I noticed yesterday that this tank was getting an oily flim on the surface of the water, probably from all the mysis.  I did not think I was feeding more than I was when it was the 5.5 g but I guess I am because I want the blennies to have enough.  I decided that I better put the prizm pro skimmer back on.  Its intake is a surface skimmer so that should take care of the oil slick.

 

Something that made me really happy was seeing Linus graze on the HA on the codium.  Linus needs the greens and I need to remove the HA, another win win.  I will just periodically remove the codium covered in HA from the seahorse garden and put it in with Linus.  I have 4 large clumps of codium so I think that is enough to keep Linus busy.  He really is an adorable fish.

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I absolutely love your scape! And the barnacle blennies are amazing. Do you have any issues with algae growing on that amazing gorg in the center. That really makes your scape pop!

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1 hour ago, Cannedfish said:

I absolutely love your scape! And the barnacle blennies are amazing. Do you have any issues with algae growing on that amazing gorg in the center. That really makes your scape pop!

Thanks Cannedfish!  Yeah, the barnacle blennies are so much fun the way they dart out for food and back into their hole all in the blink of an eye.  No the gorg in the center is corky finger, a frag fro the bigger parent gorg in the seahorse display.  Even with the low flow that this tank and the prior shrimp chalet tanks have had, algae never settles on that gorg.  They are among the easiest of all gorgs to keep.  I love it too the way its polyps flow in the current.

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I took some closer shots of the shrimp chalet QT.

 

2018-10-06_01-10-22

 

Betty telling Linus to back off!

 

2018-10-06_01-11-21

 

Linus is cleaning up the HA on the codium very nicely.

 

2018-10-06_01-13-28

 

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17 hours ago, seabass said:

Looks great.  I got to get me a corky gorg.

Thanks seabass.  Yes corky finger is a wonderful gorg because it has fairly long polyps and its easy to keep.  I really like it in both of my tanks.

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17 hours ago, Tamberav said:

Looks so fantastic and natural 🙂

Thanks Tamberav, I am honored to get such high praise from you as I very much esteem your abilities as an aquarist.  Natural is always my top goal in all my tanks.

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5 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

It looks stunning, Dawn. And I love Linus. He's so adorable!

Thank you Snow, I love Linus too.  I was disappointed that he was too aggressive to stay with the ponies but he is real cute in the QT so I am ok with it.

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53 minutes ago, kimberbee said:

What a cute tank!!

Thanks kimberbee!  I never had a nice small tank before until the CCC.  Using pico methods of big WCs has changed my experience completely.

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I did a 100% WC in the QT last night.  Its not quite as easy as it used to be, and not only because of needing more water.  Linus actually bit me when I put my hand in the tank which I did not expect.  I have had my clowns bite me in the past but never any other fish. 

 

Then there is lifting my shrimp chalet rock with all the coral on it to move into a 5 gallon bucket while I stirred the sand.  Both barnacle blennies were in the rock.  They stayed put until the rock was put back but it was worrisome.

 

I added the carbon cartridge to the skimmer because of how heavy the film on top of the water was.  The tank should look pretty good this morning all cleared up and clean.

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I just love having Linus, the linear blenny and Betty and Barney, the barnacle blennies.  They have added so much life to this tank.  I still see the blue legged hermit, the peppermint and the ghost shrimp all the time.  I have not seen Cheerleader the pom pom crab in quite a while but he is pretty secretive and he may turn up when I least expect it.

 

The coral are doing very well also.  The first zoas I got have been closed a lot but they are right next to one of the barnacle blennies's den so maybe the blenny is perching on them too often.  I am not sure how I can fix that.

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2018-10-11_03-17-13

I was trying to catch Betty and Barney but they were just too fast.  I had about 6 shots that looked exactly the same except Linus was in a different spot each time.  I finally chose this one because it was a nice action shot.

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15 hours ago, vlangel said:

The first zoas I got have been closed a lot but they are right next to one of the barnacle blennies's den so maybe the blenny is perching on them too often.  I am not sure how I can fix that.

I have a bicolor blenny that did the same.  I eventually moved the colony (2 polyps) to give it relief.  Luckily, it was on a small rock which I could pry up and re-glue in another location.

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