Jared’s 365 challenge - new uns 40c

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

We had to rehome ours, because he liked munching on SPS polyps. He ate frozen also, but just couldn’t give up that sweet, sweet hit of polyp. 

[ef4life]

24 minutes ago, NoOneLikesADryTang said:

We had to rehome ours, because he liked munching on SPS polyps. He ate frozen also, but just couldn’t give up that sweet, sweet hit of polyp. 

Hopefully mine won’t. If he does I’ll have to throw him in the frag tank which is mostly zoas. 

Speaking of sps, the big chunk of acro I put in is looking great, it’s getting a nice dark purple color, The myagi tort is doing really well and the polyps are really showing good extension lately and slowly encrusting out its base. The pc rainbow lost its pink color and the tips have started dying, if it starts getting worse I’ll have to pull it out. Not sure what happened there if it was too much light with the added reef brite strip, or it might be a spike in alkalinity, I increased the all for reef dose recently, but I cut it back down once I seen the white tips. Maybe nitrate issue
 

I ran out of my Red Sea nitrate test kit, so I tried a salifert. Way different readings. Red Sea was always at or near zero, the salifert is showing like 25+. I bought a nyos now and will be comparing them on Saturday.

[ef4life]

Top down video 

 

[debbeach13]

Looks really good. 

[ef4life]

1 hour ago, debbeach13 said:

Looks really good. 

Thank you 

[ef4life]

Uhhhh - feeding time tonight and the blenny is nowhere to be found. I’ve been keeping the screen top on ever since I lost Newman. I finally found him hiding out in the back chamber by the pump. I definitely stressed him and myself trying to get him out safely since those chambers are so small. The net I have won’t fit. I ended up draining the chambers and guiding him into one of my urine sample cups I use for frags, he wasn’t happy though. 
 

there is a gap in the screen over the rear chamber wall so I’m going to have to figure something out to block that off and keep it from happening again. 

[ECLS Reefer]

7 minutes ago, ef4life said:

Uhhhh - feeding time tonight and the blenny is nowhere to be found. I’ve been keeping the screen top on ever since I lost Newman. I finally found him hiding out in the back chamber by the pump. I definitely stressed him and myself trying to get him out safely since those chambers are so small. The net I have won’t fit. I ended up draining the chambers and guiding him into one of my urine sample cups I use for frags, he wasn’t happy though. 
 

there is a gap in the screen over the rear chamber wall so I’m going to have to figure something out to block that off and keep it from happening again. 

Poor little dude! My tank kit came with a cover for the AIO, but the tank lid itself always had gaps so I fixed that with split tubing around the rim. Haven’t had a jumper, thankfully.

[Elizabeth94]

21 minutes ago, ef4life said:

there is a gap in the screen over the rear chamber wall so I’m going to have to figure something out to block that off and keep it from happening again

I have this exact same issue with my tank. I went about a year with fish in the system and suddenly it happened with two different fish within a two or three week window. Was almost impossible to get the fish out. One stayed there for about a week until I was successful. 

One of my gobies must have post traumatic

 stress disorder now because of it. Zips around the tank like a maniac every day since. Poor thing. 
 

So frustrating I feel your pain!

[ef4life]

Little yeller loves hanging out in his acro. 

 

and Steve still spends a lot of time in his hole. After yesterday’s adventure he seems ok and back to his normal self.

 

 

and my quick fix today was some scrap closed cell foam on the travertine wall and overflow. Today I’m going to make it a little neater and glue it down and have a removable piece I can stick on top the overflow teeth.

 

[ef4life]

I did a small waterchange and cleaned the glass for tonight’s final competition photo shoot.

 

current livestock

yellow clown goby 

Tail spot blenny

halloween hermit crab

sexy shrimp (couldn’t get a picture)

Bumble bee snails

 

former livestock

Royal dottyback - Newman RIP

[ef4life]

Some tank shots.

 

current coral selection

zoas and soft coral

armor of gods

rastas

pink diamond

a few unknown zoas

green star polyps

green mushrooms

red mushroom

Ricordea Yuma 

 

lps

blue hammer

green frogspawn 

green candy canes

blue candy canes

orange fungia plate

sps

green digitata 

bubblegum digitata 

Green slimer

ora bird or paradise

electric myagi tort

garf bonsai

Unknown blue/green acro

 

 

[ef4life]

Some photos under heavy blues

[ef4life]

Final full tank shot

 

2020 - what can we say besides what a crazy year, and 2021 well it’s still too early to tell. But this friendly little competition has been a blast, one of the highlights of the past year. I was hesitant to join in originally, but I’m glad I did.

I wanted this to be a very budget and diy tank, I started with some stuff I already had and made some upgrades along the way. The diy travertine all in one chamber really worked out as good as I hoped. It’s growing coralline well and adds to the small tanks bio filter. It might even be too effective since I’ve been having to dose nitrate and phosphates.

 

my goal with this tank was to have a thriving little sps dominant reef, and its headed that way now. It was a difficult first few months, and even now some corals just haven’t done well, but as it matures the coral seems to be doing better. However, the future of this little pico is limited, I do plan on taking it down in a few months, but Plan to upgrade it into something better. Stay tuned nanoreef...

[Tired]

You have a really pretty tank, and it's interesting to see the travertine in practice. I wonder if this is the new not-quite-barebottom? It looks much nicer to my eye than blank glass. It makes the tank look a little like a display case, really, which is neat. 

[Lypto]

It's got more filtration than starboard too i'd imagine, I like it. I hope I can find a suitable travertine supply and try it out. Is it only a specific kind that can be used?

[ef4life]

1 hour ago, Tired said:

You have a really pretty tank, and it's interesting to see the travertine in practice. I wonder if this is the new not-quite-barebottom? It looks much nicer to my eye than blank glass. It makes the tank look a little like a display case, really, which is neat. 

Thank you. I’m not a fan of bare bottom tanks personally, but I felt like the travertine was a good compromise. 

1 hour ago, Lypto said:

It's got more filtration than starboard too i'd imagine, I like it. I hope I can find a suitable travertine supply and try it out. Is it only a specific kind that can be used?

This was just a piece of honed and filled travertine from floor and decor. Nothing special at all. I did bleach it. If I do one of these travertine tanks again I will probably give it a bath in muriatic acid first. Really no telling what’s in or on the stone. But there hasn’t been any noticeable negative effects. I’ve always wanted to do an icp test to see if there is anything of concern in the water or possibly leaching out of the stone. 

[kimberbee]

Excellent job with the tank! I'm glad your little goby is doing well, those guys are so cute!

 

Good luck in the voting!!

[ef4life]

Had a job get postponed a few days so I found myself with a few days of sleeping in late and doing stuff around the house. I decided to build out my control board/cabinet for the pico. 

I didn’t want to modify the desk at all so I made it kind of fit into the desk so it’s not removable, but the back panel with all the wiring attached can be removed quickly.
 

Cheap mdf painted white cut to size. I added the 3 outlet box to power the desk.

 

mounted stuff the the board. The WiFi power strips had the cords shortened. Ink bird heater and jebao controllers mounted. The stuff that doesn’t get removed often or ever gets secured with zip ties, the stuff the needs to be maintained like pumps and heaters etc is all secured with Velcro.

mounted under the desk. Secured with zip ties to hold in place. The Nintendo switch will call it home along with a Mac mini computer which that black thing on the lower right corner is a wall mount for it. There will also be room for a few other things/ changes as time goes on.

[ef4life]

Control boards transformation into a cabinet. Again, not wanting to modify the desk I just want simple and easy to remove if needed. 

cutting the door and frame. Clamps and a straight edge as a saw guide. 


added the side pieces. Secured them together with small steel L brackets and short screws. The desk isn’t warped FYI it’s lens distortion. The cabinet is 5.5” deep - plenty of room in there for all kinds of stuff.

front panel - I installed the l brackets on it and some blocks as spacers for the top before install.

mom using magnets to hold the door on. Used This carbide hole saw for the magnetic drill to cut a nice clean hole in the mdf, then used another bit to drill out the center for the magnets. I had some exterior painters tape that’s like plastic to protect the from epoxy mess. Regular clear 5 minute gorilla glue epoxy and a cut zip tie end to smooth out the epoxy for a flush smooth finish.

Added a couple handles and I still need to finish the trim for around the door. Maybe in the future I’ll pull it apart and paint or stain it all to match but right now I’m pretty happy with it. Still more big changes to come this year for the travertine pico

[Tired]

Ooh, look at all that organization! And even hidden organization! That's pretty cool. Sure beats my "cables kinda just wherever they wound up, temperature display on the floor where I can see it easily" thing.

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

Looks great!! 

 

What the heck is the Nintendo Switch doing in there?! 

[ef4life]

5 hours ago, Tired said:

Ooh, look at all that organization! And even hidden organization! That's pretty cool. Sure beats my "cables kinda just wherever they wound up, temperature display on the floor where I can see it easily" thing.

Yeah I was sick of the rats nest of wires. This should help so much and making changing stuff around a breeze.

4 hours ago, NoOneLikesADryTang said:

Looks great!! 

 

What the heck is the Nintendo Switch doing in there?! 

Thanks, switch is going to be hooked up to the moniter when I get it. Sadly I rarely ever play it anymore 

[Craig.]

This little reef has turned out so nicely! Can't believe I've missed it until now. Following! 🙂 

[ef4life]

36 minutes ago, Craig. said:

This little reef has turned out so nicely! Can't believe I've missed it until now. Following! 🙂 

Thank you Craig 

[ef4life]

So I had to pull a few of the sps frags out, they just were not doing well. The Ora bird of paradise is really looking good though. I have a feeling the ycg is the reason. He lived and was always perching on the sps. I did see a few times he nipped polyps on the green slimmer. He doesn’t touch the bird of paradise so I might try a green and pink birdsnest frag next. The lps is doing great and the blue candy canes are growing especially fast. I did add a 5 head frag of acan lord a few weeks back but never posted it, can see in second picture 
 

Still planning on an upgrade for this system, I’m wanting to clean up the look. I’ve learned a few things with setting up this tank and want to expand on a few ideas and make some improvements.

- First off I’m planning on going bigger, not much bigger but it will be a nano, 15-20g, really I just want a little more room for around the aquascape, I’m like a bull in a china shop and regularly bump and break coral when cleaning. New tank will be rimless and ultra clear glass. I still plan on doing the natural stone aio insert, but may not stay with travertine. 

- This tank has a problem with detritus always settling out, I’m hopefully going to reduce that in the upgrade. I’m going to be experimenting with the return lines on the bottom of the tank to Hopefully keep the bare bottom free of crud, or at least contained to one spot to easily siphon out.

- I’d like to keep this tank without a power head, I plan on going to a larger dc return pump (Im mighty jet) which can be easily controlled and have a wave type function.

- new aquascape - I really hope to bring it to the next level and push my limits and do something I haven’t done before.

- try and get this one a little more automated- setup my dosing pump for all for reef, and get the ato working. And hide it all in the control cabinet.