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Innovative Marine Aquariums

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Oh, and some more photos. Some are better than others, but at least there are a couple good ones!

 

My purple/pink/green mystery zoas are doing very well and the coloration across the colony is getting even more varied. Not too bad for a $10 frag!

 

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Turned my blasto rock to fit with the new scape better and I can see the red blastos much better from the front now and they are doing pretty well. I want to say they've been growing from a single polyp 2 years ago now?

 

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There is a pretty neat clathrina sponge growing off the back side of my acro shelf that's gotten bigger. Probably about 1.5" across:

 

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This ugly echinata is doing pretty well now that it's on the sandbed and not being shadowed by acros and beaten up by blastos. Even though I've had it for 9 years or something, I think I'm going to trade it away for a couple lord frags:

 

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Artsy shot of my leather:

 

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Following!! V jealous of your camera skills lol.

 

Curious how the Sicce Synce 2.0 has done for you? I didn't think it would be powerful enough for the 250-500gph rate recommendation when accounting for the plumbing head pressure?

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1 hour ago, pricewayne said:

Following!! V jealous of your camera skills lol.

 

Curious how the Sicce Synce 2.0 has done for you? I didn't think it would be powerful enough for the 250-500gph rate recommendation when accounting for the plumbing head pressure?

Thanks! I am liking it a lot so far. I get ~375gph with the Sicce Syncra 2.0.

 

When I was filling the tank, I found out that from where my return loc-line is to the bottom of the overflow is 5 gallons of water (+/- a few cups), so I am able to time how long it takes to fill that and it takes 48 seconds from full drain to hitting the overflow, so 375gph. The vertical head-height is only about 42" and in nano-sized pumps, the pressure is so low that 90s and 45s in a 3/4" PVC pipe aren't adding nearly as much friction pressure loss as you would get with bigger pumps or at residential water pressures. The typical "90 degree bend = 1 foot of head loss" on a pump making less than 3psi isn't accurate at all.

 

I also know that I'll never be adding a manifold for any reactors, a recirc, or anything like that, so 375gph is more than enough. If there was any chance I was going to add anything, I'd have gone for the bigger return pump and dialed it back

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  • 3 weeks later...

Well, time for another upgrade! I just ordered a pair of AI Prime 16HDs and a Bubble Magus Curve 5 Elite skimmer as an early Father's Day present. If I like them as much as everyone else seems to, I'll be adding another two Primes so each corner will have one, plus the XR30Pro in the center. I really do wish the hanging kit was included though!

 

The dry rock I added to my scape in April is maturing much faster than I expected and I didn't get too much hair algae - mostly just film algae. On some of the rocks I'm starting to see some coralline taking hold, so hopefully in another couple of months I'll be able to start gluing corals down on them.

 

All of my SPS are doing well and getting more color back and even more surprising is after more than 3 years of encrusting a huge area, my Pinky the Bear is starting to throw up new branches! Somehow, my Red Planet also survived being left out on my desk for several hours and drying out - I thought for sure it was gone but lo and behold, it's starting to grow again. I lost maybe 15% of it, but not too shabby. As my acros continue to grow, I think I overestimated how many new corals I can add to the scape. Looks like I'll only be buying maybe 3-4 more acro frags before I'm all out of room. My Yellow Tips is going on another growth tear, so hopefully I'll have the lights up before the shading causes too much damage.

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Happy early Father’s Day for sure! Those are some nice upgrades! 
Unbelievable about the Red Planet but good news. Any idea what acros you’ll pick to finish off the collection? 

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11 hours ago, SeaFurn said:

Happy early Father’s Day for sure! Those are some nice upgrades! 
Unbelievable about the Red Planet but good news. Any idea what acros you’ll pick to finish off the collection? 

Thanks! I'll probably grab a Walt Disney and a second tenuis for the smaller rock in front of my setosa, an oregon tort in the back right corner, and something branching in the back left corner. If I move somethings, I might be able to sneak one or two others, but I'm already thinking about hacking out my 2nd Austera because it's just too packed in there. Might also get rid of my big confusa since it's pretty boring!

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Took some pictures of the new SPS growth I've been getting before putting up the new lights and skimmer.

 

I love this corner of my top shelf - two acros and a monti are all battling it out for the tiny bit of space that remains. Every few months I break off the red cap hoping it'll finally get killed off but it always seems to hang on and make perfect frags. The two acros just keep stealing more and move of it's skeleton.

 

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My Yellow Tips is going on a growth tear again and is throwing off branches in all different directions. The flat center table is about 3" x 2" of solid acro skeleton. When I got it, I thought that it grew more like a tort, but apparently it likes to table a lot. No more corals underneath it anymore.

 

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The Pinky the Bear acro is finally starting to throw up some new branches after more than three years of growing a huge base with nothing but the single spindly 2" branch I originally got as vertical growth. So excited for this one! It's got new branches in two other places as well.

 

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And finally, my setosa continues to grow steadily and pretty quickly. I need to find a way to kill the purple cap that is underneath it, but every time I scrape the flesh off it somehow just keeps coming back and fighting with the setosa. I really wish the setosa had a little more bite so it didn't get spanked by cap remnants!

 

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Lights and skimmer should be in by the end of next week and I hope to have them hung up before the end of the month!

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I built a custom light rack for everything and got the lights hung up. I don't like the MyAI App as much as EcoSmartLive, but for 1/4 the price, I can't really complain! The AI Prime 16HDs are fantastic, a fraction of the size of the old Radion, and put out almost as much power. I'll definitely be adding another couple in a few months if/when shading becomes an issue again. Not sure what I want to do about the wires yet to hide them.

 

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I also built a stand for the skimmer, but made it a little too tall so I'll have to shave about 3/4" off the bottom. I could probably get by with it now, but might as well do it right the first time. Once it's broken in and settled, I'll go and trim it.

 

My glass is absurdly dirty, so after I get it cleaned up I'll do a new FTS and I've got a handful of new frags as well!

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Run them up the cables over top, then meet them in the center, run those back to a plastic conduit cover/channel dead center between the posts and to the floor from there. Would look pretty clean methinks.

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20 minutes ago, A.m.P said:

Run them up the cables over top, then meet them in the center, run those back to a plastic conduit cover/channel dead center between the posts and to the floor from there. Would look pretty clean methinks.

Thanks - I like that idea a lot! That would look super clean. Maybe I'll go with box conduit and paint it the same color as the wall so you can't see it at all. I'm going to wait a few months to run them neatly since I'll be getting a couple more lights. With the extra lights, I think I'll run two conduits and run them butted up against each of the wall brackets so I can go with smaller conduits.

 

When I get the extra lights, I'm going to re-build the rack to accommodate them and I'll also route in a place to run the cables inside the rack. The one I built came out way nicer than I expected it would and I only quickly sprayed on two coats of enamel. With the new one, I'm going to build my own brackets as well and then I'll actually sand, prime, sand, spray two coats, wet sand, and do a finish coat to get a real furniture grade finish. Hopefully I'll be able to totally hide the cabling. The new hanging kits for the Primes are incredibly nice - so maybe I'll get that hardware to hang the Radion too. Probably going to be stupidly priced through....

 

Thanks for that idea!

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Well, almost at what I would call the tank's "starting point." Still dealing with some green film algae on the new rocks and back/left glass (though it is starting to clear on the left glass even though I don't clean it), but snails and actually getting up and changing the water are starting to take a nice bite out of it. Don't worry - those bubbles aren't from dinos, I left the ATO off after changing water and the pump was sucking it water for an hour.

 

The big new rock on the left is going to be my lord garden - I've got three already glued down and have another three growing out. I think I'll pick up two more and call it good. The big new rock up front on the right is going to be a zoa/paly garden and I've already got everything I need for that and they are already growing out. The Hawaiian Ding Dangs are already starting to grow onto it and next week I'll be gluing down Red People Eaters, Utter Chaos, JF Insane Rainbows, WWC Horizons, and some mandarins.

 

After that, I've got my Red Planet and Castells Banana Table to mount plus 3-4 more acros I'll be picking up this month for the middle right new rock, back right rock, and back left rock. Not sure if I am ready to give up my confusa just yet even though it's stupidly big and smothering everything. I also grabbed some meteor shower cyphastrea and a cool rainbow encrusting monti to fill in on the shaded base rock underneath my main acro rock.

 

I think within the next month or so I'll have my new reef at it's starting point, can remove the frag rack, and just let it start to fill in! The new lights are absolutely fantastic - I've got no shading and the lighting is almost as even as T5s. Another two fixtures and I think it'll be better than T5s without any of the drawbacks.

 

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I took a few quick pictures of the new corals that I got along with a few others with lots of new growth.

 

Picked up a couple of new Acan Lords to help fill out the acan island I'm putting together. The first one is 3 full polyps and 3 babies. The second is 2 polyps and 2 babies. Hope they grow pretty quickly so I can get them over on the rock in a few months! The first one is much nicer than I was able to capture in the picture because it's so small and I'm shooting from far away with a porthole which blocks the light. Once it's glued down, I'll be able to get a better picture.

 

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When I moved three lords onto the rocks, I re-mounted my orange acan and now it can spread out a little more. This thing is growing well and keeping it's insane color as it grows. Hopefully in another few months when I move my new acans to the rock, I'll move this over too.

 

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Even though it's super tiny (like 1" x 1/2"), this rainbow encrusting monti is really colorful! Hopefully it's a fast grower like all my other montis and I can get it on the rockwork soon.

 

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Also picked up a meteor shower cyphastrea that I've got in the shade under my acro island. Should be enough shade to keep it from getting bleached.

 

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My blastos are also growing fast again - the red blastos are getting a little tinge of pink brought out under the new lights with UV/Violet at 100%

 

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And finally, my RBTA is now big enough to fit both my clowns!

 

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mitten_reef

For the acan, I'd start scoping out a nice piece of flattish mound rock.  As long as you know the frags are "keepers", I'd mount them on that and let them grow as soon as you can, vs having them grown out on flat surface....

This one was setting instagram on fire the other day.  it's definitely a long game to get to similar point as the one below. 

 

 

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Murphs_Reef

Do you keep the tank open top all the time or so you have a lid / cover? 

 

I have a jump guard with some perspex over the top of that to keep condensation down. If I leave it open o loose 2 litres a day. 😱 Looks so much better with no cover though 

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5 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

For the acan, I'd start scoping out a nice piece of flattish mound rock.  As long as you know the frags are "keepers", I'd mount them on that and let them grow as soon as you can, vs having them grown out on flat surface....

This one was setting instagram on fire the other day.  it's definitely a long game to get to similar point as the one below. 

 

 

I've already got my flattish mounded rock ready to go! It's in between the size of the one you linked from Insta and Lizzyanns. I'm purposefully waiting for the acans to get a little bigger (like 12-15 polyps) before mounting them so I can account for their relative sizes a little better and prevent the smaller, much nicer ones from getting smothered. I also much prefer the textured look of a bunch of small mounds all growing together (kind of like the blastos) instead of what looks like a single grafted colony. I figure 10-15 polyps is a good trade off in getting a little mounding vs. waiting too long. I've currently got seven acans, but will probably get two, maybe 3 more. I also have a source for a Holy Grail locally, just waiting for it to be ready to frag!

 

I figure probably 2-3 years to get there, but with only two fish and a big skimmer, I can probably turbo charge it a bit by feeding way more than I used to.

 

I was considering putting the bowerbanki in the center, but I'm not too sure on what it'd do to the lords. I assume it'd wreck them being homophyllia, but I just couldn't find too much information and don't want to smoke one of my acans in an experiment.

 

Here's the rock I'm using:

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1 hour ago, Murphych said:

Do you keep the tank open top all the time or so you have a lid / cover? 

 

I have a jump guard with some perspex over the top of that to keep condensation down. If I leave it open o loose 2 litres a day. 😱 Looks so much better with no cover though 

I don't have a lid right now since I don't have any jumpers. Those clowns haven't jumped in 11+ years, so I doubt they'd start now. Because of Covid, I'm having a lot of trouble sourcing the fish I want (thankfully no Hawaiian fish!) in the proper order, so probably won't have one for a while. Once I get wrasses in the tank, I'll definitely have a mesh lid at least for a few years. I had a lid on my 20g for the first two years I had my wrasse and then took it off after it had become accustomed to the tank. Hoping I'll be able to do the same because I really hate lids!

 

I don't mind the extra evaporation since it's also extra oxygenation. I go through about 1 gallon of RODI per day right now, which isn't too terrible.

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Murphs_Reef

Yeah I wish I could leave the perspex off at the least but as it's still quick cool in the UK at this time of year, the windows and doors are all closed so the water ends up on the inside of the lounge window (and the wife tells me this is a step towards no tank 🤣). 

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Grabbed another really cheap Acan Lord for the island to fill in - this one is a pretty basic red one, but it's brighter than most of the other basic ones I've seen. I'll probably add this plus a standard red/light blue candycane striped lord toward the back and then hopefully a holy grail along with the other higher end ones I've got to the front. Should be a really nice mix of colors!

 

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Was also working on my equipment now that I've got the skimmer in and I think it's still pretty neat. I'm going to replace the orange juice bottles for Alk and Ca with some nice scotch bottles. I've just got to polish off the rest of the Balvenie Double Wood (I know, the horror...) and I'll be ready to switch over. Might be able to neaten up some cords, but it's infinitely better than my last sump.

 

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12 hours ago, A.m.P said:

FWIW, I love the colgate/candycane Acan, who cares if it's common, it has more contrast than allot of rainbows.

Oh I don't care about common or cheap - my favorite zoas are regular mandarins! My only issue with many of the more common LPS is that most are blue, green, purple and red, so if you place them all together, you don't get much contrast. I have so many other corals in those colors, so I really like getting fluorescent yellows, oranges, and pinks since those colors are far less common in corals and even just a few corals in those colors really, really stand out. Also, because of the contrast, they make the corals around them look more impressive even if they are more common colors.

 

I think that was the biggest weakness in my 20g. I had way too many purple and blue corals, so they just blended right in with the rock and since I placed so many similar colored corals together, they just sort of blended together with no real contrast. Definitely trying to avoid that this time around!

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