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Keke's Macro Bowl- Instagram macro challenge accepted! (ITS TOOL TIME)


kekke1082

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I'm throwing my hat in the race! Those of you who follow @Tigahboyon Instagram may have seen the contest posted and it gave me an excuse for another (small) tank 😂 my fiance has already asked me which tank I plan to take down or move to make room for the new one but at least she is on board. 

 

 

it also gives me a chance to move one or two of the macros that I feel haven't gotten the attention they need or are getting choked out by the culerpa in my mini Macro Mansion. 

 

stay tuned! Pic for tax 

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Nano-Reno contest Entry

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Well the macro bowl is in distress 😭 I'm officially throwing my hat into the Nano-Reno contest. Not so I can win or anything just bc this little bowl needs some love! 

 

 

 

BEFORE:   

 

Macros covered in hair algae...

 

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Stand covered in my junk...🙄

 

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And just generally looking rather sad and pouty...

 

 

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this poor bowl needs love! 

 

 

 

PLANS:

 

 

 

1) The plan is to somehow find a way to rid the bowl of the hair algae,

 

 

 

2) get a magfloat bowl cleaner,

 

 

 

3) add a lid, and somehow find a way to incorporate an ATO.

 

 

 

4) If possible, I'll also change the lighting and stand.

 

 

 

These are all things I was planning to do for this bowl anyway so this contest is right in time ☺️

 

 

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Well here we are at the end of the contest 😅 here are my after pics. They won't be as impressive as anyone else's in the contest I can tell you that for sure 🤣 

 

At the start of this project I set out some lofty goals for myself. Yea none of that happened 😅. In the end I decided to mash all 3 of my currently running sw tanks into one large tank since I am in the planning stages of a very very large build and will eventually run out of time for the nanos. 

 

Well the end result is this.... Just a blank slate. 

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I cleaned this Landen 16ish gallon tank I found on the side of the road over a year ago. It has had many iterations previously with some of my freshwater fish. After much deliberation my fiance convinced me to go with this as the new tank for all my reef babies!

 

Although the contest did not go as planned, please know that I will continue to post updates as I progress with this transition. 

 

 

This was fun and got me moving! The focus of this will still be on the macros mainly but I will be looking to finally put more effort and time into growing LPS and SPS corals as practice for the future 150 gallon tank that I'll be picking up at the end of this month! 😁 

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4 minutes ago, Tigahboy said:

Nice! Looking forward to seeing your macroalgae bowl.

Thank you ☺️ I've got to go to a few more places looking for the right bowl! I'm just happy for a reason to start another tank 😅. My fiance is really the best ever. She puts up with all the tank stuff and even makes suggestions. I'm going to turn her into a fish nut like the rest of us in no time. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

https://www.instagram.com/p/CZ8TF6IAcF4/?utm_medium=copy_link

 

It's alive 🦹‍♂️(in my Dr Frankenstein voice)! Now to build a light stand 😁 I may also have to adjust the pump so that I can get some better surface agitation and flow... 

 

Pic time!! Of course it isn't done yet. There are still two or 3 other pieces of macro plus a few pieces of live rock rubble I'd like to add to the bowl. Once it's a bit more established I may also add a soft coral frag either GSP, xenia, of Kenya tree. I definitely want to keep this going far beyond the contest end date and plan to add some biota nano gobies probably only 1 or 2 species if that. Not completely sold on any specific stocking considering the volume but suggestions are most welcome and highly encouraged 😅

 

 

I cleared my home work space just to put this bowl together. It holds about 3.5 total gallons probably closer to 2.5-3 with rock and substrate, has a small 80gph micro sized pump. It fits snugly inside a 30ml mini Tupperware container (I usually use them to store dry/powdered food for my fw tanks) and there's a preset nano heater that was repurposed from a FW tank I broke down. Heater isn't pictured. 

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  • 2 months later...

So I am absolutely terrible at keeping up with the ping pong effect of my brain! This is how it's going (photo dump) 

 

 

IMG_20220302_134921_MP.thumb.jpg.8ff721400b3ff0768c7a834ef4c9cd97.jpgthis^ is about a week from the start date of the contest. I was lucky enough to find a local ish hobbyist who harvests tons of blue hypnea from her tank pretty regularly and she gave me several handfuls, it's sense died back some but I am starting to see it make a come back. ↓

 

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^ the same hobbyist also gave me a gorgeous piece of rock covered in both green and red bubble algae (yep bubble algae 😅). 

 

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then the bowl started looking a little bare after several of the macros.i moved into this bowl began to experience serious for back. They're still in the bowl but slowly coming back needless to say I placed another order from Gulf coast eco systems and got some ulva and codium. I also removed the heater from the bowl since I think it got too warm and caused my codium to melt back. Once the contest is done I'm debating between taking this bowl down or placing it next to it's freshwater twin and changing some lighting on it and adding some soft corals. 

 

Here's a pic from today as well ↓ it is in need of a water change and a lid! Other then that it's great! IMG_20220426_180923_MP.thumb.jpg.a1f73d1e6709d98d89d5caf9ee51a615.jpgIMG_20220418_194850_MP.thumb.jpg.55718f5a291c9ca2ab6789645b44f422.jpg

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  • 1 month later...

I've done a poor job of updating this thread but the contest is now over! I made it to the finals and although I did not win the competition was absolutely inspiring! I'll be resetting this bowl and possibly setting up a second bowl now that I finally have my racks! My living room is currently in a state of utter chaos as I get the racks and tanks moved into place mostly on my own. Anywho here's a photo dump of the most recent pics from the bowl

My photo abilities still have yet to improve but I've thoroughly enjoyed this bowl! It's been super low maintenance (idk if that's bc I don't do any maintenance or if it really doesn't need much 😅) but testing shows pretty much all acceptable ranges of phos, nitrate, and zero ammonia. I have not tested alk at all in the bowl and there are more bristle worms than aptasia but it's still a lot of fun to observe! When the ulva was added I didn't think it would fare well but I decided to remove the heater and so far all the macros (even the ones you can't see with the ulva all over) are doing pretty well! I do have some pest algae but that's probably from slightly elevated phosphates. Since the bowl is going to be revamped in a few weeks, I'll do a good dip and scrub the areas covered in unwanted algae. I'll be sure to update this thread once the bowl is back up to snuff! 

 

 

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  • kekke1082 changed the title to Keke's Macro Bowl- Instagram macro challenge accepted! (ITS TOOL TIME)

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