MadTownMax Posted September 15, 2005 Author Share Posted September 15, 2005 Well, the growth rate wasn't quite what I expected it to be, so my tank is looking incredibly weak compared to the competition . I decided to remedy that - hopefully my additions will fill the space between now and December... -I threw caution to the wind and fragged the mushrooms and spread them around a bit. -Added some zoos i had in my other tank (my 24DX is all sps anyway, so they really didn't belong there -Added a yellow polyp rock to get some more color -And added another rock to add some more dimension to my aquascaping -Added a very small frag of baby blastos from my other tank and epoxied on a colony of candycane - again, just didn't belong in the other tank - don't need that stinging my M danae -I also put in a frag of green finger-leather "like" coral - I think in all that craziness a small frag of Acan slipped in there - don't know how that happened ... I think that's it - hopefully that will grow over and I won't have to see any more rock in a few months I've got a FTS - jus need to upload it... Link to comment
ProFlatlander15 Posted September 15, 2005 Share Posted September 15, 2005 that rock has excellent coralling growth on it, who cares about the corals? j/k... Link to comment
MadTownMax Posted September 15, 2005 Author Share Posted September 15, 2005 tnks pro - just keep Mg levels up w/ Epsom salts and then dose w/ b-ionic - stuff grows like crazy. - Link to comment
Casabubu Posted September 17, 2005 Share Posted September 17, 2005 Wow thats better! Love the green kenya tree. Link to comment
MadTownMax Posted September 21, 2005 Author Share Posted September 21, 2005 Hmm, that picture looks much darker on my work computer than it did on my computer back home - might have to bump up the brightness in my photo... Just wanted to add that I have not put any food into the tank in over two months; a 15% waterchange monthly is the only maintenence I have done (other than cleaning the glass). There are pods crawling all over the glass, so the clown goby always has a meal to eat (I've seen the goby take down pods half it's size ) The Goby's favoite new hiding spot (or should I say hunting spot) is the candycane. Link to comment
MadTownMax Posted September 23, 2005 Author Share Posted September 23, 2005 now that everything has settled-in and opened up a little... Today's Full Frontal click on the photo in my gallery for a full-screen photo Link to comment
firecrackerbob Posted September 26, 2005 Share Posted September 26, 2005 looks good...affe junge Link to comment
lwfjester Posted October 7, 2005 Share Posted October 7, 2005 Didn't see you mention it on here, but what did you end up doing with the clam? If its a sore subject, I'm sorry in advance xo Link to comment
MadTownMax Posted October 9, 2005 Author Share Posted October 9, 2005 Didn't see you mention it on here, but what did you end up doing with the clam? If its a sore subject, I'm sorry in advance xo not sore at all The clam stayed healthy for the 2 months I had it in the tank, but did not show any shell growth, so I moved it back to my 24-gallon cube and added a halide to that set-up to make sure it had the best conditions. Link to comment
MadTownMax Posted October 29, 2005 Author Share Posted October 29, 2005 Click on the images for full-screen photos Gallery Link to comment
Ann Posted November 2, 2005 Share Posted November 2, 2005 You have a great looking tank! All the corals look in tip top condition, excellent aquascaping too. Best regards Ann Link to comment
MadTownMax Posted November 9, 2005 Author Share Posted November 9, 2005 Moved things around a bit - the Caulastrea was getting dangerously close to the acan, so it traded spaces with the yellow polyps. I also moved the sinularia as during the night the longest branch was touching the acan. Moving the Sinularia really helped make more space - the tank looks larger withouth the center being dominated by the spreading branches. Out of the last three Clavularia only one is still opening as the other two are getting smothered by the blue palythoa - I have already removed two clav polyps after they were getting the same treatment, looks like I'll be removing the last of these - too bad too, I really liked them . One of the purple mushroom frags has been getting burnt by the acan, but I'm not too worried about that - they seem to have worked out their "space" . I'll snap some pictures of the changes tonight. Link to comment
Blind Tree Frog Posted November 28, 2005 Share Posted November 28, 2005 I like the one mush stuck up on the wall. Link to comment
MadTownMax Posted November 28, 2005 Author Share Posted November 28, 2005 I like the one mush stuck up on the wall. if you look closely, there's actually the original (the lowest one, streaching over the zooanthids) and 7 "babies" that it has dropped while walking away from it's original mounting spot (the piece of gravel still super-glued to the wall ) Link to comment
MadTownMax Posted December 1, 2005 Author Share Posted December 1, 2005 Well - I guess that's about it - I'll put up a quick summary. 6-gallon JBJ nano Cube. Water changes - 3/gallons a month using Reef Crystals (SG 1.024-1.025 via refractometer - temp ~80F via my calibrated finger) Feeding - first month - mysis, some cyclops eeze, then none for the remaining 5 months. The clown goby's stomache looked "fat" and full, plus I caught him taking down some rather large 'pods when the lights came on a few times - so I was content to leave it that way - in such a small tank, keeping nutrients low was a big concern for me. A bag of about a cup of activated carbon was exchanged between water-changes. The beginning - June 11th: I was gone most of July, but when I returned in August, I re-aquascaped a bit: August 20th The two mushrooms in the bottom of the tank were each fragged into four (4) pieces. you can see all of the green-striped mushroom frags and two of the purple mushroom frags in this next picture, - the other two purple mushroom frags had fallen behind the rocks - I was able to rescue one and put it on the return nozzle - . Additions - One more piece of rock (originally in the tank in June but removed in July) Yellow polyp rock, Green sinularia (I think), Lepastrea, Blue Ricordia Rock, and the Calustrea (candy cane). I also added some halmedia to help remove nutrients from the water. September 22nd: During the next month not much changed; I moved the two frags of green-striped mushroom to the front rock to keep them all togather and replaced them with the small frag of Acanthastrea that I had hanging out in the front of the tank in September. October 29th: During November I moved a few things around to avoid agression due to growth - although it was too late for the Clavularia - of the three original stalks that I started with (6 including small starters) this is the only one remaining - the rest were smothered by the rapidly growing palythoa - I'm hoping that I can save them, although it will take some tricky cutting. November 28th: Link to comment
MadTownMax Posted December 1, 2005 Author Share Posted December 1, 2005 Sinularia Growth: September 15th : October 28th: Blue Palythoa growth: August 17: November 30th: - yes, they're not very happy as the lights had just come on - and they have lost their bright blue coloring - the original tank they came from had halides and I suspect they need intense lighting for the blue to really show well Link to comment
ortho bill Posted December 8, 2005 Share Posted December 8, 2005 Nick, I just won the same cube in a raffle at THR's post Thanksgiving sale. I'm amazed at the minimal maintenance yours requires. What's your secret?? Did you modify the tank in any way? I was thinking of setting this up in my 4 yr. old sons bedroom. Maybe I can get the little bugger to stay in his room as opposed to squeezing inbetween mom and dad. Where did you get your frags? Your tank looks fantastic....If you recall I came to your house one day to see the 72 bow you were selling. That was 1 37G to 90G upgrade at home and one 20L to 40br upgrade at work ago..... Link to comment
MadTownMax Posted December 8, 2005 Author Share Posted December 8, 2005 Hey Bill - lol, yes that 72 bow was a 30-gallon cube, and 24-gallon JBJ ago No secret here - all the maintenence I did is posted above. The new splashguard style that JBJ used on this cube really keeps evaporation down - that helps a lot in the way of maintenence. Other than that - the low bioload meant that if I wasn't putting food in - I didn't have to do water changes to remove the nutrients. I think the key to keeping a tank this size is to be very careful about what fish you add, and then how much you feed them - keep 'em small and make sure you don't feed a lot (maybe a few times a week max if you had a larger fish - but then you should probably be doing a water change every other week) - If it's going into a 4 yr. old's room, you might want to lock the top or something - just to make sure no extra food is going in when you're not looking . I got the majority of the frags (trumpet, green zooanthids, both mushrooms) from trades with locals in the Northern Delaware and Philly area. Store bought were the Acanthastrea (from a Newark, DE LFS), the orange zooanthids and green sinularia, and green clown goby came from East Coast Aquatics, and the Lepastrea and blue ricordia came from Northeast aquatics (now under new management). The Halmedia grew out of some of my rock in my 24-gallon after I added Caribsea's Refugium substrate - I may have to get some more of this stuff b/c every time I add it to a tank I get an incredible amount of biodiversity. -Nick Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.