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[STOCK] tinyreef


tinyreef

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Update

 

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not much to update other than practicing more with the "new"/upgraded digicam. nikon coolpix 995 (3.34 mp) versus the old sony cybershot (2.0 mp). also using photoshop versus oem editor to crop and clean it up.

 

the top and bottom polyps in the shot above are new growth since the contest start. the corals have begun to "pick up steam" in regards to growth. i guess they're used to the tank now. the varying daylight concerns me a little though (i.e. more cloudy days this time of year). but when direct sunlight's on, it's blaring bright!

 

there's some more pics in my gallery but more test comparisons of older shots (sorry for the sizing if it's off, still learning PS). trying to get a good angle is also a challenge. i did move the tank backwards into the room/away from the window about 6" for better viewing though. i'll try and post a fts or partial later on.

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go sunlight.

nice pics

whoo-whoo-whoo!

 

thanks, i've been really trying with the pics and upgraded camera. for instance, this used to be a yellow blur in the corner. no matter what i did i couldn't get the pos camera to macro focus.

 

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i finally was able to macro it with the upgraded nikon. the sand tubes below the corals are phyllochaetopterus sp. worms.

 

the sarco's grown 6~8 polyps (or so i think/guess). and the zoos/palys(?) are the rare exotic brown-people-crappers. ooooh, aahhh, bleh.

 

anywho, go sun reefs! B)

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Nice pic, much better than before. :D I like the cute little Sarco a lot.
thanks, i like your shots too. in fact, i use one or two of them (along with some other peeps here) as desktop background.

 

zarax, i'd set up the tank empty for a week to test temps. check the highs and lows, it'll be a very significant range ime.

 

also think about how you're going to look at it. that was probably my #1 issue. the photoperiod also bites (if you work/school daytimes). post pics when you set up!

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Updates (you get more on long weekends :lol: )

 

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finally got some pics of the "satellite-dish" effect i mentioned earlier. the pic above shows the shroom around midday going for full sunlight. chopsticks to the right. :P

 

the pic below shows the shroom a little while later as the sun tracks across the sky (it's just beginning to angle to the right/west).

 

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the pic below shows a stoloniferan i've had for a while. it's identical to the "unidentified stoloniferan" delbeek/sprung wrote of in TRA II. i'm sure it's ID'd by now though. it's a very hardy coral and a very fast grower. i'm hoping it anchors down a couple of frags in its vicinity in the tank. damn those bulldozing snails!

 

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the last pic (sorry for the bandwidth hogging), is just an updated pic of the acrylic canopy. it was getting kinda scummy. :insert-pukey-emoticon: i cleaned it off and the condensate's just beginning to start beading again. there was some salt grain/creep buildup because of the organics on the canopy. :pukey-emoticon:

 

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i was in a cleaning mode anyways. did my weekly pint o' waterchange, carbon cartridge, and polyfilter swaps. also pruned some nuisance and chaeto as well.

 

things are growing pretty well. 'pods, worms, corals, even aiptasia :angry: are growing quite nicely. so far so good. i'd rate the growth rate on par with the MH lighting i run on my other tanks, perhaps a little faster than the newer of the other two tanks even. (but that gets into my belief about biotopes yada yada yada)

 

some hitchhiker corals are also doing well. a pink shroom the size of this "O" fell into the LR a month back but it's now crawled its way into view/daylight. it's now an exotic "dung-brown" from what i can see. also some hitchhiking anthelia(?) from seacrop are beginning to multiply. woo hoo!

 

you gotta love freebies! :happydance:

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Looking good, does the temp changes on the tank much during the day? - mainly thinking when it moves more towards summer. How did you bend the acrylic for the canopy?

 

-Mike

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thanks, ice! i like the macro option and flexibility the upgrade allows me. plus, the camera was just lying around at work, i had paid for it already but mktg already upgraded without me knowing.

 

yeah, snoop, i was thinking the same thing. the sunlight really drowns the pics in red/yellow. i gotta set up one of my 13W galaxy lights with actinic for pics. not sure if it would be enough though. will advise.

 

thanks, bob! i've always admired your setups so i appreciate the compliment. i'm hoping it fills out nicely too. i've been positioning and re-positioning corals keeping in mind future growth. i'm hoping things start looking grown in after 4~5 months. i figure it really won't look mature for another year though.

 

Looking good, does the temp changes on the tank much during the day? - mainly thinking when it moves more towards summer. How did you bend the acrylic for the canopy?
thanks! yes, there's a very significant temp swing due to the sunlight. without a fan, it's gone as high as 88F+ from a heater stabilized night temp of 77~78F. with the fan on "low" setting the tank still gets into 83~84F range. it needs "high" setting to keep it in 78~80F range.

 

some of the issue is the limiting of the evaporative cooling. with the enclosed canopy, it gets pretty steamy (as evidenced in the pic above) so not a lot of cooling is gained by evaporation. i am expecting a much more drastic temp issues in the spring/summer just as i see with all my systems, historically speaking.

 

i had set up a cpu heatsink/fan system on my office nano before and it actually worked pretty well. i may have to do something similar for this setup. i was also thinking of downgrading back to a northern window but the cooling is something i'd like to resolve because i am planning much bigger systems (e.g. 29g, 300+, lagoon, etc...also planning on winning the lottery <sigh> ) in the future. i'd probably just go chiller with the much larger tanks/setups though.

 

i work in plastic manufacturing already (plastic injection molding) so i have access to heat guns (you can get these at grainger or mcmaster-carr, industrial supply houses). i just held the plastic (already cut to shape, luckily i still have ten fingers) with the gun, basically a industrial hair dryer (altho not the same thing-this can burn the skin off your bone!), and molded the piece as i wanted. i was careful not to overheat so it became too molten though. then i just bonded the end pieces on with methylene chloride (again, plastic mfg access).

 

thanks for all the comments! :happy:

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Tiny,

 

Your updates are such a pleasure to read. :)

 

I'm loving the new pictures too, those mushroom shots really do show it responding to the sun nicely. I have to say that my tiny red 'shroom seems to be totally indifferent to the T5 lighting on my Pico. <_<:lol:

 

Best regards

 

Ann

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Weekend Update

 

the pics this week are a bit biggish so i didn't link them in. they're in my photo album though for those interested. basically, they're just growth updates, various new polyps or body mass growth.

 

i did finally catch a couple of closeups that i had been trying to get:

 

one is of a protruding tentacle from one of the phyllochaeto worms inhabiting one of the rocks (baby sarcophyton elegans rock).

 

the other is of one of the tunicates growing in the pico. most are hidden underneath or hard to photograph. there's this one that's sitting on top of a rock. a bit difficult to make out but i think the pic caught it alright.

 

another "lucky" pic is the mystery shroom that had been lost in the bowels of the LR when i first started. it's finally showing itself on a regular basis and at least 3x the size it originally was. it's still a yucky brown though.

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btw ann, thanks for the comments. ;)

 

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i figured maybe one pic link is ok (upgrade your bandwidth :P ). this one shows easy comparison to the same colony shown on one of the posts at the top of this page.

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just wanted to add that the baby xenia just started pumping! :lol:

 

i thought they were anthelia :blush: when they first came in from seacrop as wee little babies hitchhiking with my zoanthids.

 

they were just tiny greyish nubs that i could barely make out as octocorals at all (they were about the size of this asterick " * "!).

 

another side note; my chaeto has been growing like bonkers! it's doubling its mass almost every week. i just pruned it (halved it) again, twice now in 6-weeks. i always thought of it as a slow grower but under sunlight it's showing me growth speed!

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looks gud. get mor snales
wisenheimer. <_<

 

thanks for the backhanded compliment. :P

 

i've got three astrae and 1-cerith already. they're doing pretty good so far. i'll post a fts later. maybe add another astrae, ok? i still have to figure out the snail problem i've got in the other tank though.

 

it's the damn aipts that i'm beginning to worry about. time for joe's juice or a kalk vaccination. :angry:

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Use the Joe's Juice!!!!

 

You know you really want to.....you just like the sound of it!!!

i think Joan's Juice might be marginally better marketability-wise.

 

i always thought he should change that moniker. anti-aptasia, apt-off, or something would've been better imo. most of the places i usually order from don't carry it.

 

btw gimme your rebel so i can take some real pics.

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