90 litre (23gal) Waterbox Peninsula 25 || The Canyons Edge ||

[FailingHearts]

Ok so today on Monday April 1st 2024 at 2:05 am marks the beginning of this here journal. I will do my best to keep up with monthly updates detailing my journey into marine aquariums. Starting with a reef tank, the tank I have chosen is the 90 litre (23.77 gallon) Waterbox Peninsula 25. The total dimensions of this tank are 60 x 40 x 40cm (23.62 x 15.74 x 15.74") however, it is found the usable space is 52 x 40 x 40cm (20.47 x 15.74 x 15.74") due to 8cm (3.14") of the total length going to the built in sump. I began by sketching than inking a rough 1:1.46 scale layout of the tank, (I wished to do it in 1:1.5 but I did not have a sketch book large enough.) I chose a spot for a crocea or maxima clam, before laying out the rough positioning and shape of the rockwork based on the position of the clam and my available viewing angles. I then did some research on what corals can touch, be near each other without being or limited risk of being stung. The conclusions were unsurprisingly not definitive however, did give some useful insights. I found that the majority of people seemed to have experience in keeping octospawn, frogspawn, and hammer corals in close proximity with one another, without risk of each of these corals being stung by the other. Torches however, were more of a mixed bag leaning more towards stinging anything they come in contact with Including members of their own species. I found that Xenias, Anthelias and Leathers were pretty much harmless, opting to spread and smother corals rather than stinging, or releasing chemicals. Acans were found to be mostly peaceful only opting to sting when something encroached on its space, aside from other Acans excluding one species of Acan in particular. (I forget it's name, I shall find it later quoting this part of the text.) They should really be kept by themselves or with other Acans. A number of people suggested keeping Acans in cave openings, partially under overhangs, or at the bottom of the tank, due to their low light requirements. Blastomussa was also on the same level as the Acan corals, requiring low light and only being kept with other Blastomussa. Zoanthids were next, and they seemed to be the best candidate for keeping next to the clam, aside from the chemical bath they spew when annoyed they're mostly harmless, opting to smother others before spewing chemicals. Finally Plating Montipora was a late addition suggested by a fellow reefer. Not much research has been done as of yet, but these are arguably the coolest corals I've seen ever, with Zoanthids coming in at a close second. The late addition of the Plating Montipora led to some revision of the 1:1.46 plan with the Anthelias being moved up above the Montipora atop the cliff. (See revised plan below.)

 

The solid lines represent terrain and it's incline, whilst the large dotted lines represent structures holding up overhangs. Smaller dotted lines denote swim throughs, with or without their respective entries due to being obscured. Areas filled in with jagged or wavy lines show where the bases of overhang structures lay above the sand. Their respective inclines are not included assuming they're all relatively flat. You can see the clam amidst the largest section of the Zoanthids garden. Finally all remaining empty space is a representation of the sand in the tank, keeping in mind most of it is hidden under the overhangs. With a gap between 13cm (5.11") and 20cm (7.87") between the sand and the bottom of the overhang leaving about 18cm (7.08") to 27cm (10.62") of space above for the corals to grow. Whether this is to little or plenty of space to grow I have been unable to determine.

 

 

This herby concludes this update at 3:14am Monday April 1st 2024