melbourne Posted November 24, 2005 Author Share Posted November 24, 2005 Tank Update Added more LR rubble to mount stuff on and just finished super gluing some mats to the foam wall and rubble. Added a few more small ric frags, a gorg frag, several mushrooms, and a single paly polyp. Will take a FTS again when everything is out, but wanted to post up the new rockwork. Will wait a week or two before adding more stuff, thinking about adding in some more colorful zoas, need to frag them out from my other tanks. And adding in another frogspawn (different type) but it will be hard to find space. I am going to try a very hardy brown acro, that I've had for years - the only one I found to grow well under PC's, I have a frag in my prop tank waiting to go in we'll see how it does under 13W PC. Toad stool and purple mushroom added about a week ago Small Kenya may move to right of tank eventually Macro of one of the rics I added New mushroom Green center paly - will find better place once rockwork is finalized Candy cane polyp extension, can go about double this at night under the moonlight -Mike Link to comment
melbourne Posted November 27, 2005 Author Share Posted November 27, 2005 Thanks, Here is a FTS now that most of the mat coral (GSP/Bri)'s I glued to the foam / rubble are out now. I also took a corner shot and a series of shots to demonstrate the surge effect the Tetratec filter provides. Foam is starting to show some life - various worms and such are now making their home on the surface, dusters, etc. -Mike Corner shot Surge sequence Link to comment
icenine Posted November 27, 2005 Share Posted November 27, 2005 Looking very, very good. Nice selection of corals you've got there so far! Link to comment
melbourne Posted November 27, 2005 Author Share Posted November 27, 2005 Looking very, very good. Nice selection of corals you've got there so far! Thanks, pretty much all the corals in the tank with the exception of the frogspawn and the paly are 3rd or 4th gen aquacultured frags from my other tanks. -Mike Link to comment
tinyreef Posted November 28, 2005 Share Posted November 28, 2005 i agree with ice, very nice selection and placement. it's doubly great since they're all home-grown too! i like the surge pics as well. i had forgotten about that unit/model. is it silent? Link to comment
melbourne Posted November 28, 2005 Author Share Posted November 28, 2005 i agree with ice, very nice selection and placement. it's doubly great since they're all home-grown too! i like the surge pics as well. i had forgotten about that unit/model. is it silent? Thanks, Its a Tetratec PF150 with the integrated heater. Not silent, since it uses a bell siphon, so you get that air sucking/bubbling sound on each surge. Its a interesting HOB, really needs an ATO to work properly long term. It comes with two filter carts that you can re-use, I run one cart at a time, and use black diamond carbon. You can adjust the flow to control the surge interval, and in the pics the right nozzle is really the main surge outlet, the left is pretty much constant. -Mike Link to comment
Casabubu Posted November 28, 2005 Share Posted November 28, 2005 looks good! I was considering getting that filter for my tank, but was concerned with the amount of flow it gives off. Are the corals happy with that much flow? Link to comment
melbourne Posted November 28, 2005 Author Share Posted November 28, 2005 looks good! I was considering getting that filter for my tank, but was concerned with the amount of flow it gives off. Are the corals happy with that much flow? Thanks, Most of the corals seem to be ok with the surge flow, the frogspawn and pink xenia could use a little less flow. Since the main outlet is pointed towards the front glass, the surge gets spread across the length of the tank and down - when I had the main outlet pointed towards the corner it ended up digging out the sand. The main thing with this filter is that it takes up a lot of space on a 2.5g tank so you are limiting yourself on lighting options if you go with this HOB. -Mike Link to comment
melbourne Posted December 20, 2005 Author Share Posted December 20, 2005 Tank update Fragged large mushroom in center since it was getting too large for this tank. Left small frag on foam wall and its doing well. Larger frag has grown 2x in my other nano with the halide (pics in the members tank forum). Removed frogspawn since it wasn't doing well in the 2.5g - its recovering in the larger nano. Added few more polyps to the wall and along the base. Will add in more frags after the holidays. Not a huge amount of growth, some of the corals are slightly larger like the toadstool and mushrooms and mats (GSP/Bri). Gorgonian is doing well with good polyp extension and the current is sufficient to keep it happy. No feedings required for tank since everything is photosynth, though I'd probably get better growth if I fed at the cost of more water / filter pad changes. Overall very little maintenance to tank beyond 10 min for the weeklyish water changes. Link to comment
Casabubu Posted December 20, 2005 Share Posted December 20, 2005 Awesome! What would be really cool is if those gsp's take over the back wall. Everything is looking great. Link to comment
melbourne Posted December 20, 2005 Author Share Posted December 20, 2005 Awesome! What would be really cool is if those gsp's take over the back wall. Everything is looking great. Thanks - growth is a bit slow with just 13W PC but its happening I took a few more pics to try and document the growth in the tank as it ages. Same shots I've taken previously so there is a reference to compare to. A few new polyps have formed Pink Xenia grew slightly Large ric filled growth pic Link to comment
Rene Posted December 20, 2005 Share Posted December 20, 2005 I am so looking foward to watching this tank mature! Link to comment
melbourne Posted January 2, 2006 Author Share Posted January 2, 2006 Tank Update Added a few more frags over the holidays, still waiting on some mushrooms to attach to rubble so I can add in some different colors. Added in a few monti frags - if these do ok I'll stick in some more colorful ones and see how long they take to brown out Briarium on left wall is growing down for some reason, I thought it would have grown up towards the light - but the mat is growing down. Removed the caulestrea since it was taking up too much real estate on the top portion of the tank, I've fragged out a more appropriate sized frag of it and glued it to a reef plug, I plan on putting it on the sand bed on the right side. Added a few more zoas and a small cabbage leather frag that I attached to a bit of shell. Decided to take a few night shots under a 1 watt Coralife moonlight for something different. Not the best pics since it was dark but it does show some of the motion from the surge (the blurry corals due to motion captured by longer camera exposure) and the polyp extension on the cabbage and other corals. Added 100mL of Purigen in addition to the carbon if things look good after a week or two I'll add in a small chromis I got for free over the holidays. Link to comment
melbourne Posted January 2, 2006 Author Share Posted January 2, 2006 Pics taken now that lights are on Cabbage Cabbage Macro Various tester Montipora Digitata frags if they fair well I'll add in the more colorful digi's. Just an FYI the Miro-4 reflector / bulb is about 1-2 cm above the water line so all the SPS are really close to the light source. Tiny Candy frag More pics New Zoas Growth pics Link to comment
doncb Posted January 2, 2006 Share Posted January 2, 2006 Tank is really coming along nicely. Link to comment
sandlot13 Posted January 3, 2006 Share Posted January 3, 2006 in all reality, this tank is pretty awesome. If you can get those frags to grow significantly enough, its gonna look amazing! The foam backwall is an awesome idea, as long as it doesnt poison the tank in the long run. Keep up the good work. Where the heck do i get some amazing frags like that!?!?!? tanner g. Link to comment
melbourne Posted January 3, 2006 Author Share Posted January 3, 2006 Thanks for the compliments. The majority of the corals in the tank I grow myself. Most originally came as frags from other reefers/coral swaps. Since everything is a common / regular color morph they should be easily found anywhere there is a good concentration of reefers. They are all easily propagated and grown and in some cases (kenya tree) self frag As for the foam wall, its a bit of an experiment for me. I hope it holds out long term, since its cheap and readily available. Working on this small tank is fun, I never had to place frags with a tweezer before BTW: I just realized that my reflector is in the wrong place, so the right side of the tank is darker than it should be. I moved it to do the night shots with the LED but forgot to move it back. I'll take some pics later this week to show what it should look like with even lighting. Link to comment
fluidimagery Posted January 3, 2006 Share Posted January 3, 2006 Looks great, love the pics. Tank is starting to look a lot more Natural with the the backwall becomming more "seasoned" Link to comment
melbourne Posted January 3, 2006 Author Share Posted January 3, 2006 Thanks, hopefully I can establish coralline growth in this tank. Have never had an issue with coralline growth but it hasn't picked up yet in this tank - I'll need to do some param comparisons to my 12g nano and see what is different. FTS shot with the reflector in the correct place. The last shot I took had the PC socket blocking light to a right side of the tank. You can see a slight difference in brightness on the right side now. Old FTS for comparison, shows how important a good reflector and its position is. Also I have a red zoa frag on the bottom middle/right that hasn't opened for 2 days now - since I added a Kenya frag above it, most likely some chemical interaction between the two corals. I'll relocate the Kenya if things don't change. I'm also considering removing the float switch on the top right since it degrades from the tank view, and blocks some valuable wall space where I can mount more corals. Still deciding if its worth doing, since I'll have to manually top-off once I remove it. Link to comment
J86 Posted January 3, 2006 Share Posted January 3, 2006 STOCK CAT. WINNER: Melbourne!!!! Link to comment
Gilman Posted January 6, 2006 Share Posted January 6, 2006 OFFICIAL PICO CONTEST NEWS New Task... Read about it here... http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=75620 YOU MUST COMPLETE THE TASK! Link to comment
melbourne Posted January 6, 2006 Author Share Posted January 6, 2006 Thanks, I think I'm a long shot for the win but thanks for the support. Lots of nice tanks out there. Removed the ATO to free up some space on wall. Added a spotted mushroom frag last night, its still recovering on the upper right wall. Moved the red Zoa's to the far left corner they are now opening. Going to add in some more mushrooms and some other stuff soon. AGA 2.5 gallon reef wall Photo #1 (with new Current USA 18w 50/50 retrofit) Photo #2 - FTS Jan 06 (with old AH 13w 50/50 retrofit) [Livestock] Florida Tan Gorgonian Pink Pom Pom Xenia (Red Sea) Elongata Xenia (Silver Branch) Pink Anthelia Green Star Polyp (Long) (Briareum) Pink Star Polyp (Long) (Briareum) Brown Zoanthus (ultra rare ) Orange Zoanthus Red Zoanthus Tan Zoanthus Green Zoanthus Green Eye Zoanthus Orange Center Zoanthus Green Center Palythoa Tan Cabbage Coral (Sinularia dura) Green Ricordea Yuma Yellow Polyp (Colony zoanthus) Brown Kenya Tree (Capnella) Cream Toadstool (Sarcophyton) Cream Montipora Digitata Purple Montipora Digitata Brown Montipora Digitata Green/Blue Candy Cane (Caulastrea furcata) Blue Striped Mushroom Purple Dot Mushroom Green/Tan Mushroom (Rhodactis) Misc featherdusters 1 Cerith Snail [Equipment] 2.5 AGA glass tank Tetratec PF150 Filter Tetratec Heating Capsule AHSupply Miro-4 Reflector AHSupply 13W PC 50/50 Retrofit Hogs Hood Canopy/Base Corallife Digital Thermometer DIY ATO (currently removed) Link to comment
melbourne Posted January 6, 2006 Author Share Posted January 6, 2006 Updated pics Rics are growing / small baby ric on upper branch. Kenya - hard to photograph due to current Lime Green Zoas - don't look so hot under 13w PC, used a snail shell instead of rubble to mount, got lazy. Link to comment
tinyreef Posted January 7, 2006 Share Posted January 7, 2006 looks great! they're all growing in nicely. Link to comment
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