Dally’s 10

[sadley77]

This makes me so sad 😕 your tank was one of my favorites on the site

[Dally]

1 hour ago, billygoat said:

Very unfortunate to hear about the crash! I was amazed to see how vibrant and lovely the tank looked in the first few photos. Here's hoping that the next round ends up even better for you 🙂

 

My new tank is smaller which means I’ll be more selective & pick only the best corals! Here’s to round two!

[Dally]

1 hour ago, sadley77 said:

This makes me so sad 😕 your tank was one of my favorites on the site

 

It made me sad too, but I know these little reefs can’t be permanent so I’m looking forward positively to the next one

[billygoat]

3 minutes ago, Dally said:

 

My new tank is smaller which means I’ll be more selective & pick only the best corals! Here’s to round two!

That's the spirit! It's great to see you so upbeat even after such a major disaster. With the knowledge and skills you've acquired, setting up a new tank is going to be a total breeze.

[Dally]

Here's a link to my new UNS 5N that I'll start journaling very soon. Just waiting for some final things to ship & we'll be good to go.

[Dally]

 

I'm so happy to say that things are back on track!

 

After the crash, I decided to let the tank do its thing for a while. I did a huge water change, moved the corals to a different tank, and turned out the lights for a couple of weeks. After a while, I decided to try my luck by putting in the duncan to see how things would go. To my surprise, it opened almost instantly and looked great. Over the next few days, I put in the corals to see how they all would react. Now everything is in and it's looking really healthy. i'm not sure what caused everything to go wrong, but it seems that it has passed.

 

During the break, I bought an RODI system. I'm interested to see how the corals react to it instead of distilled. I also bought an MP10, which seems like overkill, but I'd like to see what happens with stronger and more random flow than just from the filter.

 

I'm also eagerly waiting for my Nanobox Tide to arrive. I've been impatient but I think it will be worth it when I can get it over my tank. My Current USA LED has done its job but it doesn't flatter the colors very well and it definitely doesn't grow corals much, in my experience at least. When the Tide arrives, I'll look into getting a macro lens for my camera and some orange filters because I think macro shots show off coral in the most beautiful way.

 

I think I have pretty much all the coral in the tank that I plan on having (at least that's what we always say). Right up front is the start of an acan garden. I do know that I want to add a cyphastrea to encrust over the rock. Otherwise, I'd just like to let the current frags grow into large colonies. I might even get rid of some of the frags in right now. I just know I want as many single, large colonies that I can get. The amount of frags I had before the crash was too cramped and things always needed to be moved. 

 

I also plan on getting some dwarf cerith, nassarius snails, and blue leg hermits from Reef Cleaners. I want the members of the cleanup crew to be very small. The other hermits and snails I had before were too big and threw off the scale of the tank. I think small inverts will help the coral colonies look much larger as they grow.

 

Here's a current stock list:

Gold Aussie Torch

Gold Aussie Hammer

Toxic Marbling Hammer

Duncan

John Deere Leptastrea

Gatorade Zoas

Cherry Blasto

Orange & Purple Striped Lord

Looney Tunes Acan

Cherry Bomb Lord

Green & Purple Striped Lord

Orange Acan

Rainbow Lord

Purple Chalice with pink eyes

Mummy Eye Chalice

Green Star Polyps

Orange & Blue Rhodactis

Green Goniopora

 

2 Ocellaris Clowns "Marco & Polo"

Pom Pom Crab

Emerald Crab (on bubble algae duty)

2 Nassarius Snails

 

Well I think that's all my thoughts! Happy to be returning with good news.

[billygoat]

It's good to see things back on track! Does this mean your other system (the 5N pico) is going to be taken down, or do you plan to run both at the same time?

[Dally]

1 hour ago, billygoat said:

It's good to see things back on track! Does this mean your other system (the 5N pico) is going to be taken down, or do you plan to run both at the same time?

I think I’m leaning towards taking it down. I appreciate the simplicity of just one tank at this point of my life in college.

[debbeach13]

So glad things are returning to normal. Tank looks like it is back on track. 

[Dally]

So stoked about my Nanobox tide that arrived yesterday! The corals look amazing. I'm still working on gathering some gear to photograph the tank. Hope to have some sweet pics to share soon.

 

Thanks @DaveFason for the awesome product.

[Dally]

 

Really been enjoying the new light. The colors look just phenomenal. I'm excited to see what kind of growth the corals get as I let them turn into larger colonies. Here's some photos I just took & wanted to share!

 

Mummy Eye Chalice

 

Not sure what this chalice is called.

 

Yellow Hammer & Marbling Green Hammer

 

 

A few acans/lords from the garden

 

 

Thanks for reading! Hope to have more photos soon.

 

[DaveFason]

Tank is looking great! Keep it up. 

[YHSublime]

I don't know how this has blown over my radar, but stellar Fluval Edge! I setup one of these at work years ago, and it was one of my favorite tanks to date, because of the simplicity. I used to bring 5 gallons of NSW from home and do almost a 100% water change, just anemones and zoanthids! I did battle things like weird algaes and several styles of bubble algae that I didn't even know existed. I eventually put the HOB filter on wrong at a slight off angle. That led me to believe I had sprung a small leak somewhere, and I just broke everything down and got out of the hobby for a year or so. 

 

That's a really long way of saying I love what you've done with this tank! Just be wary of that GSP, once it grabs a foot hold in that small space, you'll be growing nothing else!

[Friendly]

Dally, how easy does the filter piece in the back come off the Edge?

 

and a thought as to what may have happened...lack of oxygen? if you fill it right up so that there's only that lil square of water surface exposed, it may not exchange enough and you get CO2 buildup. you did run the tank for some time though, so I would have thought that might have cropped up sooner...

[YHSublime]

18 minutes ago, Friendly said:

Dally, how easy does the filter piece in the back come off the Edge?

 

and a thought as to what may have happened...lack of oxygen? if you fill it right up so that there's only that lil square of water surface exposed, it may not exchange enough and you get CO2 buildup. you did run the tank for some time though, so I would have thought that might have cropped up sooner...

It's just a HOB filter, it sits on the lip like any other HOB would onto the rim, there's enough room for exchange. 

 

The pumps on the filters are notorious for not starting back up after power failures though, which did happen pretty frequently IME. Possible the pump could have kicked off and not on again, then gotten a jolt and gotten it moving again as if nothing had ever happened. 

[Dally]

7 hours ago, YHSublime said:

 

That's a really long way of saying I love what you've done with this tank! Just be wary of that GSP, once it grabs a foot hold in that small space, you'll be growing nothing else!

Thanks so much! I appreciate it! And I haven’t quite decided what to do with the GSP yet. I don’t know if I want to let it take over the back glass or just remove it. Still need to decide how I want it to look long term.

[Dally]

6 hours ago, Friendly said:

Dally, how easy does the filter piece in the back come off the Edge?

 

and a thought as to what may have happened...lack of oxygen? if you fill it right up so that there's only that lil square of water surface exposed, it may not exchange enough and you get CO2 buildup. you did run the tank for some time though, so I would have thought that might have cropped up sooner...

@YHSublime was right, it’s just a HOB filter. An AquaClear to be exact. Comes right off & on. The CO2 exchange is a good thought, but the tank was set up in the Edge for about 6-7 months so I’d expect that problem to arise sooner. I still have no idea what happened, but it seems it’s passed, for now at least.

[YHSublime]

11 hours ago, Dally said:

Thanks so much! I appreciate it! And I haven’t quite decided what to do with the GSP yet. I don’t know if I want to let it take over the back glass or just remove it. Still need to decide how I want it to look long term.

 

I was going to let it take over the floor of the 22. It grows exponetialy faster than I expected. Once a week I was trimming it off the sides. I can't even begin to imagine trying to get your hand through that hole with a razor for trimming! You could get a green torch or hammer with equal movement, and not have to worry about it being invasive. 

 

Are you keeping anything special in the AquaClear, any baskets? Are you running this on the stand or just as is? 

[Dally]

2 hours ago, YHSublime said:

I can't even begin to imagine trying to get your hand through that hole with a razor for trimming! You could get a green torch or hammer with equal movement, and not have to worry about it being invasive. 

 

Are you keeping anything special in the AquaClear, any baskets? Are you running this on the stand or just as is? 

I think I just want something that will encrust the rock that the GSP is on right now. Something less invasive may be a better long term plan. I’ve been thinking about cyphastrea & leptoseris. Maybe an encrusting montipora. Any opinions on those?

 

Nothing special in the aquaclear. I’ve just been buying the stock replacement sponges & carbon. It’s the only source of surface agitation otherwise I’d go without it & go natural filtration only.

[YHSublime]

9 minutes ago, Dally said:

I think I just want something that will encrust the rock that the GSP is on right now. Something less invasive may be a better long term plan. I’ve been thinking about cyphastrea & leptoseris. Maybe an encrusting montipora. Any opinions on those?

I think even with cyphastria and lepto's, you'll still have fast growth, although probably more manageable. I've seen some really nice pieces floating around of both. Maybe a nice frag of Kung Pow Monti would do the trick 😉 

[Dally]

4 hours ago, YHSublime said:

Maybe a nice frag of Kung Pow Monti would do the trick 😉 

If you were offering sending some my way then I’ll take it! 😉 

[Dally]

I'm really enjoying photographing this tank. I'd like to take better macro shots, but just can't figure it out quite yet. I'll keep updating with photos as I continue to learn.

 

 

 

 

[Dally]

Marco & Polo

 

[Friendly]

how are your clowns doing in such a small tank?

[Dally]

22 minutes ago, Friendly said:

how are your clowns doing in such a small tank?

They seem happy as far as I can tell. Never seen anything negative from them & they have lots of energy & personality. I would like to get something larger for them, preferably something in the 20-30 gallon range, but I just want to settle down somewhere before I set up something like that.