Gen's Nuvo 20 peninsula

[gen]

Full tank from above

 

It's kind of an achievement for me to see all euphillyas finally happy at the same time. Just glued back the blue frag. I hope it will grow fast. 

Don't mind the clown, always hoping for food. 

 

The GSP is spreading nicely on the black wall. Contributes to color and competes with algae. 

 

I was inspecting the tank for baby aiptasia when I saw this guy, definitely bigger than every others small crustaceans feeding on the glass. 

 

 

[gen]

Started to remove some sand. I was still hesitant about giving it another chance, but when I saw the amount of detritus laying around...took a photo, that's the amount left in the sand after stirring things up and making a mess in the tank. 

 

I won't remove it all at once. Probably gonna do it over a few weeks. 

Corals were ecstatic with all that crap/food floating around

[gen]

I was productive yesterday, I prefigured a mixing station with the stuff laying around : a bucket, the former return pump and a small heater. 

Not especially aesthetic but it works better than what I used to do. 

 

I continued to get rid of the sand, I would say 50% or more is out of the tank now. 

The more I take out, the more confident I am about my choice for the long term. 

It's impressive to watch how many things can settle in it despite regular cleaning. 

 

 

I still have some hair algae in some spaces, espacially on coral skeletons and some rocks. However it has stopped growing on the black wall where GSP is spreading. 

Is it because of the sand (and crap) that went out of the tank? or because of the  GPS? Or both? Or something else? 

I can't know for sure. 

 

Most corals are happy, for the rest (soft or LPS) I decided to sell them. Hoping they will go to better suited tanks. Should let me some space to work on the "ugly" side of the tank. 

 

I am also proud to announce that I haven't bought anything new for a while. I hope to keep it that way and make trades for new additions rather than buying. 

 

[gen]

Quick update on the zoa garden :

• Some polyps tend to stretch toward light. Too bad they didn't do the first weeks, before I glued them. I would have separated them from the rest. 
• Rainbow incinerator polyps are enjoying their new location. They are spreading and getting bigger.
• Hair algae has been mostly eradicated on this rock thanks to the snails and hermits
• I think I still "need" two or three more morphs with differents colors to complete the current state of the garden. 

 

If everything goes right, I should sell my biggest soft corals this week (I m keeping a frag of each). 

 

[gen]

Managed to sell some corals, espacially big pieces. Still have a few and baby nem on sale. 

I'm lurking around LFS and online sites for nice frags. 

 

One or two more water changes and the tank should be bare bottom again. The level I detritus I got out of the tank today was crazy. 

I m still processing different options for rescaping (rockwork or just coral moving). I learnt patience is the way to go for this kind of things. Might also upgrade my slw-10 wavemaker for a 20 or 30. My only purpose is to get bigger waves for nems and Euphyllias. 

 

That's what the tank currently looks like. 

 

 

The hob thing is for for baby nems I'm selling, so they don't crawl back on the main rocks. 

 

Bought the sexy shrimps nearly a year ago, they are still around and looking good (the 4 of them are on the photo, well at least a part of each). 

[gen]

The sand is nearly all gone and I put back in another rock. Should help with biological filtration after an ugly phase. 

Tank is doing ok so far, still battling some aiptasia here and there. 

 

Bought some nice pieces with the money I got from selling overgrown corals and frags. 

I probably gonna have to let things go for some weeks now. Euphyllias seems to enjoy the current state. I hope the new frag will thrive as well. 

 

 

I like how dense it looks. 

[gen]

Yesterday was a bad day. 

 

My platinum clownfish, active and looking healthy all day (normal breathing, usual swimming, etc.) stayed at the bottom of the tank when I fed in the evening. 

He had no visible sign of disease or injury but he had difficulties leaving the bottom and fast breathing. 

I decided to isolate him...mainly because the damsel was displaying an agressive behavior. A fire shrimp also started to move toward him like he was already done. 

1h later it was over. I only hope he didn't suffer too much. 

 

Everything else looking happy and alive. 

 

[gen]

The remaining clown started hosting the nems. Would have loved to watch both clowns hosting, but this is already great. 

The biggest nem wandered a few days before settling in the perfect spot. 

Natural light tend to hit the tank longer this time of the year. 

[debbeach13]

That is awesome 

[gen]

Thanks! It's nice to watch him, especially after feeding time. 

 

Took 2 hours and the help of a friend, but I finally switched the cabinet under the tank. 

It was still sitting on the one I used before (and we weren't supposed to see the horrible back of the cabinet, should be facing the wall). 

 

Now it's definitely cleaner. 

 

This was an opportunity to rearrange the "control room". 

I added a DIY (obviously, given the look) system (yellow light means it's running) which indicates when the ATO tank is nearly empty. It sits in another compartment I rarely open. 

 

 

Might not look like much, but I'm really pleased with the result. 

 

[gen]

Current state of the tank (the lens really helps with colors). 

The zoa garden is progressing slowly,  but surely. The yellow hammer tends to open and retract during the day, still haven't found out how to keep it happy. 

 

 

 

 

The gang is still complete, nearly one year after getting them. 

[Zer0]

On 3/14/2021 at 2:55 PM, gen said:

Current state of the tank (the lens really helps with colors). 

The zoa garden is progressing slowly,  but surely. The yellow hammer tends to open and retract during the day, still haven't found out how to keep it happy. 

 

 

 

 

The gang is still complete, nearly one year after getting them. 

You don’t have any issues with the hammer so close to the nems? Do they ever bother eachother?
 

Everything looks so nice! I think maybe you need some blue in that zoa garden! 

[gen]

They did, a small nem crawled up near the frogspawn. I had to separate them myself. Sold the nem, lowered the frogspawn so it could recover. 

But the bigger nems seem to avoid them. They moved around a bit and settled far enough to avoid war. 

 

Thanks! 

I think I am enjoying some sort of stability phase at the moment. 

Yeah definitely need some blue zoas (I always need more zoas). Couldn't find nice ones with a decent price. 

[gen]

Some shots from last night (late), tank lights were off. 

 

 

 

[gen]

Today I took some shots of the same coral at different hours. That reminds me why I don't always trust shots from online shops. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gen]

A fire shrimp is going through a punk phase and decided to grow hair algae on its head... 

 

[gen]

Current overall view :

 

Corals with color lens, that yellow hammer is surviving but not thriving :

 

Zoa garden still under construction 

 

[gen]

Water change today, also changed carbon and trimmed chaeto. Maintenance is easier and faster now that I let things grow :

• Around 30min a week for water change
• 5 to 10min every day to feed and observe 

That's around 1 month grow I think. It's thicker and greener than it used to be. I consider it a good thing. 

 

 

 

Earlier this week I glued my remaining corals / frags. I will take some pictures once everything is settled. 

[gen]

My tank has never looked cleaner 😁

 

 

Some things happened in my life and I started to question the current state of my tank (well I also needed to work on something to keep my mind busy). 

Half the livestock is sold, the rest is in a 27L tank waiting to go. 

 

This tank was the result of many tests, envy and compulsive buying. Right now I am considering 3 possibilities : 

• Selling it, but this kind of tank in haed to come by in France. So I might regret it. 
• Starting a freshwater system
• Restarting a reef, with all the wisdom (aka my past failures) I accumulated. 

 

[gen]

Interesting (and nasty) fact : I let the tank dry for a couple of days and wanted to clean a bit deeper the third chamber (the one that goes under the 2 first).

Just added a litre of tap water and went in with a toothbrush. 

 

This is what I got out of it. I expected some dirt, but not that much. 

 

[TatorTaco]

I just threw up a bit in my mouth.  lol. 

[gen]

So it's been more than a month since I emptied the tank. Tried to sell it with one of the prime, nobody wants it (well I may be asking too much for it, but it's not easy to get this kind of tank where I live). 

 

Anyway I decided it was a divine sign that I should keep it. 

I made a list of different style / livestock and I think I will go with : 

• Nems : I will probably focus on entacmaea quadricolor, if I do that I will try to get different colors (red, green, pink, sunburst, etc.)
• Some shrooms to had some colors
• Maybe one or two softies like a sinularia
• Clownfish : probably 2 designer
• Something that swims around

That should be easier to maintain than a mixed reef while being colorful and with movement. 

 

To complete this project, I made a list of what to get : 

• A controller / heater / fan
• An ATO
• Some glue / epoxy to make a rock structure (I have a lot of dry rocks) 
• A gyre or Nero 3 for flow : I used to have small waves with a slw10 running at 100%, I will need something stronger this time. 
• Some stuff for the stand, to make it nicer that what it currently is. 
• Time and money, obviously 

I think it should be ready around November or December this year. I won't rush this time. 

 

[gen]

Played a bit with the dry rocks I had in the garage. It didn't end up as I expected but this rockscape could probably work in the peninsula.

The more I think about it the more I m convinced a gyre type wavemaker would be great for flow. 

 

 

Tank is ready for water. 

 

Still missing a lot of equipment, which is rather a good thing, it should give the tank the time for a proper cycle. 

 

[gen]

Well this was a disaster :

The ATO failed (and evaporation was insane)

The heater failed.

The return pump was really loud.

 

It was too much too take care of. I will focus on the 27 liters tank for a while.