I am not a contestant unofficially copying 365 challenge retired

[James.L]

i love your tank, lots of color and of course mushroom mountain !

[debbeach13]

Did a little clean up yesterday. 1 gallon WC and cleaned most of the glass with a razor blade. After I spent a few hours worried because I could only find one sexy shrimp. Eventually the other two came back out so all is good. Weeks ago I removed some blue symposium from a frag plug and put on a rock in my 20L. I placed the frag plug in here and there are some residual polyps on it. Bonus! Also found a tiny piece of pulsing Xenia. Boy those sexies love the Kenya tree. 

[debbeach13]

Good morning. About 15 minutes of sun light every morning 

[debbeach13]

Hi everyone Diver Dan here the human has asked my opinion on my living conditions. First I have not once discovered any new treasure. So there’s that disappointing fact. Even though my box of water is a little cramped it has been very comfortable for me. I have forgiven the human for the terrible mishap with my nub. I am going to continue to hang out here unless the human decides different. You never know I might be moments away from finding some jewels. I will check back in if I do.

[debbeach13]

A little write up even though I am not a contestant and my tank will not be considered.

Best Theme - I am not sure this can be considered a theme. Use only tap water with prime. I think the tank for the most part did just fine. *

Best Aquascape - Put a big rock in a small tank - DONE.

Best DYI - I made a media basket and a stand. No worries gang neither one would be award winning in any contest. 

 

I did plug the hole between the tank and filter area, I replaced the return pump with a MJ 606. No pump in the display but Diver Dan added a small amount of extra flow and who doesn't love bubbles. I used the stock light from start to finish.  This light may not have really promoted exceptional growth but I was fine with that in a pico.

 

Corals that did grow well. Pulsing xenia, GSP, clove polyps, and blue Kenya tree all about 4 times larger, The red/orange mushrooms about 100 times larger, the blue mushrooms, doubled, and the purple spotted mushrooms went from 4 to 7 so not bad. All of those corals had to be fragged. Plus I had to throw out a lot of mushrooms. The toadstool grew in the beginning but has slowed way down the last couple months. 

I had put 5 Ricordea in the tank. One disappeared and I got to watch the yellow/orange one melt away. 😞 I do still have 3 hanging in there. I got an RFA that lasted a couple months but also disappeared. It never really settled down in here and was always moving around. 

Fish I got 2 fish the same day from Petco. A shark-nose goby that was never seen after the very first night. The yellow watchmen goby AKA Young William. Who I terrorized every time I did any maintenance. He still hides when I approach the tank. Now with the tank filled in pretty well he is out an about much more and considers the entire tank his domain. 

The absolute highlight of this tank has been the sexy shrimp. My trio has kept me very entertained. I am not sure but they may have been why the RFA never settled they followed it every where and tried hosting it even when it closed up. They also roam the entire tank but just love the Kenya tree. 

I have followed a few contests now and this one provided ton's of information just like the others. The covid-19 took some contestants out of the competition and made stocking almost impossible for some. I feel bad for all the members who tried to set up tanks at work and then had to deal with lock down.  

Thank you Chris and CoralVue Hydros for this contest.

Good luck to every one that made it to the end. I hope to see a lot of these tanks continue on.

 

 

* I still do not advise any one to try this with more demanding or expensive corals. 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

43 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

A little write up even though I am not a contestant and my tank will not be considered.

Best Theme - I am not sure this can be considered a theme. Use only tap water with prime. I think the tank for the most part did just fine. *

Best Aquascape - Put a big rock in a small tank - DONE.

Best DYI - I made a media basket and a stand. No worries gang neither one would be award winning in any contest. 

 

I did plug the hole between the tank and filter area, I replaced the return pump with a MJ 606. No pump in the display but Diver Dan added a small amount of extra flow and who doesn't love bubbles. I used the stock light from start to finish.  This light may not have really promoted exceptional growth but I was fine with that in a pico.

 

Corals that did grow well. Pulsing xenia, GSP, clove polyps, and blue Kenya tree all about 4 times larger, The red/orange mushrooms about 100 times larger, the blue mushrooms, doubled, and the purple spotted mushrooms went from 4 to 7 so not bad. All of those corals had to be fragged. Plus I had to throw out a lot of mushrooms. The toadstool grew in the beginning but has slowed way down the last couple months. 

I had put 5 Ricordea in the tank. One disappeared and I got to watch the yellow/orange one melt away. 😞 I do still have 3 hanging in there. I got an RFA that lasted a couple months but also disappeared. It never really settled down in here and was always moving around. 

Fish I got 2 fish the same day from Petco. A shark-nose goby that was never seen after the very first night. The yellow watchmen goby AKA Young William. Who I terrorized every time I did any maintenance. He still hides when I approach the tank. Now with the tank filled in pretty well he is out an about much more and considers the entire tank his domain. 

The absolute highlight of this tank has been the sexy shrimp. My trio has kept me very entertained. I am not sure but they may have been why the RFA never settled they followed it every where and tried hosting it even when it closed up. They also roam the entire tank but just love the Kenya tree. 

I have followed a few contests now and this one provided ton's of information just like the others. The covid-19 took some contestants out of the competition and made stocking almost impossible for some. I feel bad for all the members who tried to set up tanks at work and then had to deal with lock down.  

Thank you Chris and CoralVue Hydros for this contest.

Good luck to every one that made it to the end. I hope to see a lot of these tanks continue on.

 

 

* I still do not advise any one to try this with more demanding or expensive corals. 

 

 

 

Best of luck, Deb! 🙂

 

[debbeach13]

Thanks. I am not in the contest. I started my tank 3/6/20 and you had to enter the contest by the end of Feb. No worries I followed just for the fun of it.  

[debbeach13]

After a WC today the star fish are all over the tank. I believe I witnessed a spawning event. One star fish got up on it’s legs pushing the center disk up into the water flow and expelled something  Kind of looked like little worms. Who knows maybe it just took a huge crap. Nope it is a spawning has happened another 5 or 6 times. Young William had feast. Not sure but the sexies may have also enjoyed a free meal. Tank is a bit milky looking. 

Edited February 18, 2021 by debbeach13
added text

[SaltyGallon]

Still looking really good Deb. Diver Dan is nicely coraline-d these days! Those starfish are cool too, kind of an orange and blue banding? I've got some brittle stars but they're just the plain white variety... Multiply like rabbits though!

[debbeach13]

Added 3 sexies and a couple snails yesterday. 

[Proxo]

You still running this on tap water/prime? it's looking good.

[banasophia]

On 3/18/2021 at 2:20 PM, debbeach13 said:

Added 3 sexies and a couple snails yesterday. 

Wow what a great photo! Your mushrooms are so beautiful!! 
 

Interesting about your starfish spawning event. Have you noticed more of them in the tank since the spawning? 

[debbeach13]

Yes the tank is still tap and prime. It has been getting more difficult to get at the glass so I thinned this tank out. Just left the mushrooms on the rock and some loose. and Kenya tree. Put every coral I removed into the 10 gallon. I have not noticed an increase in those stars. I already had a pretty good population so I haven't really looked for them.

[Wingy]

Deb do you have your IM up and running now?  I have been waiting for you to get that going and get your impressions on it.

[debbeach13]

Hi Wingy. How is it going? Are you thinking about a new tank?

I still have not moved forward. Every now and then I think go to Lowes and get the wood for the stand. Then I don't. The problem is right now I have 3 tanks already running. The real holdup is that my son still hasn't picked up the empty 20L. I do not know when that might happen. When it does I am putting a bunch of the coral I have in there. He is going to have a pretty good set up from the start. Then I can take down the old 10 gallon and set up the new IM. 

[Wingy]

I am thinking about getting a new tank.  I hate the 5 gallon I have.  

[debbeach13]

Oh no. What do you hate about it? Is it just too small for all the new coral or fish you want? I haven't seen an update in awhile. I hope livestock wise every thing is OK. Is it that you want to try an AIO so there is less equipment in the tank?

[debbeach13]

Here are some photos of all 3 tanks. Lights on for about 30 minutes. The Evo 5, the 20L ramping up so really blue, and the old 10.

[Wingy]

I was thinking of going aio.  The hang on filter beats up everything from above so I have huge flow issues.  It is impossible to scrape the glass. All my zoa's perished, the Duncan heads bailed and everything is covered in algae that I can't keep up with.  The lone sexy shrimp is still alive and lives in the 'algae weeds', the GPS is growing like crazy and I have lots of pods.  

 

 

[debbeach13]

Sounds like you are ready for a bigger tank. Sorry I can not review the tank for you but I have read every thread I could find on it and every one of them the owner seems very satisfied with the quality of the tank.  I expect to fall in love with it. As with any AIO cleaning the chambers can be a little tough just because they tend to be tight. But I did notice after a couple years over half ended up going bigger still. Then again that happens all the time no matter which tank you check out.

[debbeach13]

Diver Dan here can someone help get this hermit crab off me. It used to have a blue mushroom on it’s shell. I guess it’s looking everywhere for the mushroom. 

[debbeach13]

Hi everyone Diver Dan here been a couple weeks since I checked in. Well the human picked out 14 single red mushrooms and a couple blue but I can hardly even tell in just a week. I think she should do something about the blue Kenya tree it seems to be so top heavy that is is now growing horizontally instead of vertical. 

[debbeach13]

If anyone local wants the mushroom rock let me know. It is covered with the red/orange spotted mushrooms, a few blue and a couple purple with light green strips. Also one Tonga branch rock with two BTA's or one rock with 3 BTA's.  I also have a 4 bulb T-5 24" fixture with a noisy fan (you can buy a 4 pack of fans for $35.00) and an AC 100 HOB filter. The basket was cut up so I could place the bottom like a grate over the overflow area.  All of these items are free. Local pickup only.

 

I moved Young William and the sexy shrimp to the ten gallon. I am taking down the EVO and will be selling it if I can once I clean it up.

[debbeach13]

Empty EVO and messy 10 gallon. Waiting for that star fish to crawl out of the pump.   So I will be closing this thread.

[debbeach13]

HELP!!!!
 

 

 

 

 

The human yanked my mushrooms off and I am drowning in a vinegar H2O bath with no air supply. What the fudge is going on and where the hell is Young William? If you see him

tell him I hope maybe we can hang out together again some day.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What will become of Diver Dan?