Amp's 12.5 Long (Previously 356 Tube Build)

[A.m.P]

On 3/24/2021 at 1:26 AM, banasophia said:

Hope everything’s okay

Busy, crazy, but pretty fine ^_^

[A.m.P]

Something is not where it's supposed to be in this photo, compliments of a very powerful little fluff fish.

 

[A.m.P]

Howdy, figured I'd drop a quick update over here now that I've got a minute post-water changes, updated the main system earlier this week.

 

Not too much has changed since the last update, the damsel decided to flip the mystic upside down on top of the chalice, chalice is fine, the monti was toast, leaving the skeleton in there for now. Apart from that I have a fancy new weir gate to better skim the water surface (ceramic magnets and the top portion of a ziplock), and the corals got shifted-around just a touch more.

Hope everyone's been enjoying the spring weather!

 

[Murphs_Reef]

3 hours ago, A.m.P said:

Howdy, figured I'd drop a quick update over here now that I've got a minute post-water changes, updated the main system earlier this week.

 

Not too much has changed since the last update, the damsel decided to flip the mystic upside down on top of the chalice, chalice is fine, the monti was toast, leaving the skeleton in there for now. Apart from that I have a fancy new weir gate to better skim the water surface (ceramic magnets and the top portion of a ziplock), and the corals got shifted-around just a touch more.

Hope everyone's been enjoying the spring weather!

 

I am right into this rock work. It's all kinds of good. Looks like amazon river

[A.m.P]

3 minutes ago, Murphych said:

I am right into this rock work. It's all kinds of good. Looks like amazon river

Appreciate it, was honestly just trying to make something similar to the tonga branch and tall stag sps damsels like to haunt, lots of sightlines and open swimming space. But the inspiration was tree roots, I had looked at grabbing fake ones for the old 20 gallon tank when a hobbyist getting out posted some cured branch rock for sale, lucky find.

[Murphs_Reef]

Yeah I love it. I do like a planted freshwater so it kinda brings the 2 together.. which also pisses me off cause I want to do one now!!!!😱

[A.m.P]

58 minutes ago, Murphych said:

Yeah I love it. I do like a planted freshwater so it kinda brings the 2 together.. which also pisses me off cause I want to do one now!!!!😱

Lol, branch rock is awful to find right now stateside, I don't know what its' like across the puddle. My favorite thing about this isn't something you can see, it was free-standing and solid, despite being 4 or 5 pieces, before I glued it lol.

[A.m.P]

Howdy all, well the stand finally started to really fall-apart on me. Despite being chalked-up it was way out of the bubble, besides that I wanted somewhere to put the clowns since they were being a nuisance to corals (and my hands) in the breeder, and... Petco had a $-per-Gallon sale goin' on.
Long and short I threw this together and it's now running the Tuna blue on one side and the Nicrew on the Other.

 

Here's a little Time Lapse of the new system over a minute or two

Lots of activity and still has a similar shallow feel, but a bit more space for everyone.

12.5 Long Timelapse

 

[banasophia]

6 hours ago, A.m.P said:

Howdy all, well the stand finally started to really fall-apart on me. Despite being chalked-up it was way out of the bubble, besides that I wanted somewhere to put the clowns since they were being a nuisance to corals (and my hands) in the breeder, and... Petco had a $-per-Gallon sale goin' on.
Long and short I threw this together and it's now running the Tuna blue on one side and the Nicrew on the Other.

 

Here's a little Time Lapse of the new system over a minute or two

Lots of activity and still has a similar shallow feel, but a bit more space for everyone.

12.5 Long Timelapse

 

Oh wow, that’s a big change! Did something happen to the atoll tank? 

[A.m.P]

10 hours ago, banasophia said:

Oh wow, that’s a big change! Did something happen to the atoll tank? 

Well, yes and no. It's cleaned-up and stored away now, but I knew from experience that it just doesn't have the usable space or footprint for multiple damselfish. (Also I really dislike cleaning acrylic)
At the end of the day this was as much about moving the clowns out of the breeder as it was making sure the atoll didn't become a loud pop or bang in the middle of the night (because that's when everything happens).

A 20-long should house everyone just fine even though the height is largely useless, given the scape and rockwork I have, so I got rid of the extra height lol.
I also have to admit, I really prefer the palidarium-esque view of the water's surface. It has the same visual benefit of a rimless tank without having to pay more than $20.
(Also, I swear, having the air-layer with a lid on it helps insulate the tanks and keeps the temp super stable.)

Oh, Nicrew's horizontal mounting arm is also laughably-long, but the metal is nice and soft.
Now it's very short (and still not quite centered over the tank somehow, seriously they didn't think to make it fit front-to-back over a 12" span?)

[banasophia]

10 hours ago, A.m.P said:

Well, yes and no. It's cleaned-up and stored away now, but I knew from experience that it just doesn't have the usable space or footprint for multiple damselfish. (Also I really dislike cleaning acrylic)
At the end of the day this was as much about moving the clowns out of the breeder as it was making sure the atoll didn't become a loud pop or bang in the middle of the night (because that's when everything happens).

A 20-long should house everyone just fine even though the height is largely useless, given the scape and rockwork I have, so I got rid of the extra height lol.
I also have to admit, I really prefer the palidarium-esque view of the water's surface. It has the same visual benefit of a rimless tank without having to pay more than $20.
(Also, I swear, having the air-layer with a lid on it helps insulate the tanks and keeps the temp super stable.)

Oh, Nicrew's horizontal mounting arm is also laughably-long, but the metal is nice and soft.
Now it's very short (and still not quite centered over the tank somehow, seriously they didn't think to make it fit front-to-back over a 12" span?)

You could just pack that tank on up and send it to me 😬😬😁🤗

 

I really want one of those someday, or an even bigger cylindrical tank... cylindrical tanks are my favorite!

 

The new setup looks awesome though!

[A.m.P]

15 hours ago, banasophia said:

You could just pack that tank on up and send it to me 😬😬😁🤗

 

I really want one of those someday, or an even bigger cylindrical tank... cylindrical tanks are my favorite!

 

The new setup looks awesome though!

Lol, I don't think there's any way to make shipping something that large worth your while unfortunately.

[banasophia]

4 hours ago, A.m.P said:

Lol, I don't think there's any way to make shipping something that large worth your while unfortunately.

Yeah 😞 Well I did find one in stock somewhere for $500 a while back... I had considered it but I already have three tanks running so it may be a bit much... oh well 😌 

[A.m.P]

2 hours ago, banasophia said:

Yeah 😞 Well I did find one in stock somewhere for $500 a while back... I had considered it but I already have three tanks running so it may be a bit much... oh well 😌 

I can guarantee it would be less than 500 XD That's absolutely insane...

[A.m.P]

I took some quick photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[A.m.P]

These photos are worse than average, but here they are anyway lol. Hope everyone's been doing well!

 

 

 

 

 

[debbeach13]

Those pictures beat mine. Corals look good.

[A.m.P]

On 7/22/2021 at 7:13 AM, debbeach13 said:

Those pictures beat mine. Corals look good.

It's a small sensor, old too, I think the old lumia 1020 somehow manages to get more light on itself than this old M43 (granted that 1020's also been stripped down, opened up, and retrofit with a 42mm lens adapter), throw in all the despeckling from stuck pixels and not having the focus Spot-On results in blurry, somewhat washed-out shots =( 


Thank you though, love how your new system's coming together; Trumpets are fussy corals, the ones in here have been growing but never inflate like they used to (and they're only in here because they stopped inflating in the system they used to prefer)...

[A.m.P]

New Scape - I like this one quite a bit more

 

Also, Chrysophytes /shrug

 

 

 

 

[banasophia]

I love the new scape! What do you do for chrysophytes? 

[A.m.P]

2 hours ago, banasophia said:

I love the new scape! What do you do for chrysophytes? 

Honestly don't know, I've beat it twice by basically just keeping nutrients elevated and riding it out. They don't usually smother anything and only seem aggressive enough in their chemical warfare to tick off delicate sps (and I think the toadstool). Nothing eats them, but they don't usually actively kill your CuC either (can starve them out though). 
From all the reading on R2R I did a few years back it doesn't seem like any treatment in particular (including vibrant) works on all the species out there.

I honestly think mine are from overfeeding benereef on new rock, this is the third time its' happened in, more or less, the same circumstance. Considering some get dinos from overdoing it on benereef I consider this a pretty tolerable result lol...

[A.m.P]

Sorry I'm not updating as frequently, the tank's been cruising along, chrysopytes are still ugly but harmless?

 

[A.m.P]

New Scape, New FTS

[A.m.P]

The Male clown was being a little sh*t, the damsel and mocha storm just weren't getting along at all so I decided to intervene. This'll probably stick around until the clowns put on a bit more size.
Grabbed some mesh to go over all the leftover egg crate lying around, was covered in cyano within 48 hours of course, hopefully that will sort itself out or I'll need more snails.

[A.m.P]

So the tank's been chugging along, although it was heavily re-scaped and has gone through some seriously painful times. Nothing quite dead yet but nothing is really happy either. 

The short version of the story is that the basslet from my 40breeder now lives in this system by itself, the algae which the damselfish farmed is totally out of control; I've been slowly beating it via manual removal and have dosed Diflucan to finish it off (may need a double treatment).

I don't really have any update photos so instead I'll just upload some footage of the basslet with any rock, shell, or coral all day long.