[CUSTOM] Icenine

[icenine]

Here we go.....

 

[icenine]

Details:

 

The canopy and base.... All handmade. I started growing the trees to make this canopy back in 1893 and formed it from the uncut oak tree using only sandpaper and when that was not available, my bare teeth.

OK, so I didn't make the base and canopy.

Matt Gecko did. He did a fantastic job too. It's all Oak (yet very slim, not bulky at all) and stained black. Mr.Gecko also wired the lighting and fans in the hood. Top notch stuff, look him up if you are in search of a custom canopy. Canopies are not part of the judging criteria, but I think the set is awesome and wanted to let everyone here know where I got it from.

 

Lighting: 36 watts total. Two 18w 50/50 pc bulbs. There are also two PC fans installed, full reflector and a splash guard. I may be adding moonlights to the canopy at some point as well.

 

Filter: aqua clear 20, only the filter media has been removed. I've added a half sock of chem pure and some bio bale to the media chamber. I know that many are convinced that bio-anything should not be part of a reef's filtration. I am not convinced of that in small systems, use it as part of the filtration for my other reef and will use it here as well.

I may be toying with the filter at some point in an attempt to alter/alternate the flow. (since I'm in the open category I can do that...)

 

Heater: 50w AGA mostly chosen because it's only 6 1/2 inches long. I hope it does not let me down.

 

Live rock: 4lbs This was actually acquired from another NR.com user and contest participant Jmorris. (though I've not seen his thread here yet, what's up with that?) Thanks again for the smooth transaction Jared! .....and PS I'm going to kick your butt here. Well maybe, Jmorris has a SPS set up in the works that is going to be fierce.

 

Substrate: Just a couple pounds of sugar sand.

 

Set up:

 

The rock for the tank was already cured, and to boot I had it sitting in a bucket with a power head, heater and some minimal lighting for about six weeks. ( I guess I could have gotten uncured rock after all) The substrate is just cheapo sugar sand from petco. I've seeded the sand bed with some of the substrate from my existing reef. In addition some of the bio bale I've placed in the media chamber was switched out with bale from my existing set up. All of this should lead to a pretty short cycle period and get some coralline seeded in there. I'll let everything run for a week or two and see how things test out. The aquascape is still a work in progress. Making sure everything is spaced properly, in the right light, flo and happy in general while looking good to me too is going to be a challenge.

Some of my live stock is already on hand, and some more is on order. My other reef can act as a holding tank till this tank is stable (I hope).

 

 

Here is a pic of the lighting and fan set up in the canopy:

 

[Travis]

Very nice man.

 

Good luck!

[melbourne]

Very nice hood. The 1 watt blue moon light looks great on a 2.5g.

[icenine]

Livestock: When I decided to set up the pico I was thinking to keep specimens that I don't have in my 15g. All SPS crossed my mind... a clam was another thought. But... I decided to (mostly) stick to things I've had some success with already. I was planning this pico set up for the office before the contest, so the reason for setting up this tank was not to be experimental or push any envelope, just to look really nice. What I am going to try to accomplish with this tank is as much variety and intensity of color as possible. Since there is only so much I'm going to be able to fit in this tank I'm going to populate it mostly with zoanthoids and palyothas. They're small, (fairly) hardy and potentially colorful. I like the bang for the buck you get from them. I'm planning on a eight or ten different types at least, I think that will look very interesting in such tight quarters.

 

I am going to try a few "new" things here though.

This tank will also contain two types of anemones (no, not aiptasia I hope), one or two varieties of LPS, a softie frag to add some motion to the tank, a mushroom (maybe a ric) and one variety of SPS (going to try a monti cap in here).

 

Snails... nass snails (a few recruits from the 15's nass army ) and an astrea or two. I doubt I'll need more than that.

The only crab that will be in this tank is a porcelain anemone crab. This guy is going to be a challenge in this small (and new) tank. One other selection that will be a challenge is going to be a tunicate (sea squirt). I know these animals are in general considered impossible to keep... but I've acquired a very interesting specimen that I'm hoping for some success with.

A big chunk of the stock for this tank is from Seacrop. (yes, I'm using the winnings from one contest to enter another.... let it ride, baby!)

[cybaix]

Two anemones in a 2.5???? They are going to sting each other and your corals to death.

 

[icenine]

Two anemones in a 2.5???? They are going to sting each other and your corals to death.

 

 

Oh, I'm sorry you misunderstood my post.

There will be two TYPES of anemones in this tank. I'll probably wind up with at least three individuals to start with...but ya know if they split I may wind up with more.

 

[jmorris]

Oh, I'm sorry you misunderstood my post.

There will be two TYPES of anemones in this tank. I'll probably wind up with at least three individuals to start with...but ya know if they split I may wind up with more.

 

 

lol... nice.

 

Oh, and thanks for the props man... I'm hop'n you and I make the podium.

[adinsxq]

that hood is excellent.

[minimalist]

There are very few people who I actually root for in this competition and you, sir, are one of those elite. God speed, icenine.

[icenine]

God speed, icenine.

 

GRACIAS SEÑOR

[BelowH2O]

That canopy looks great! Good luck.

[icenine]

Not much to update... I got a diatome bloom pretty quick. Nothing but live rock in here yet. This next week maybe a snail or two to see how things go.

 

 

 

 

 

p.s ....auqascaping such a small tank is a real pain. This is nothing final but I think it will be similar to what I end up with, there are only so many options I have.

[minimalist]

I like it, a lot.

[icenine]

The clean up crew went this week. I'll be starting to add the rest of the livestock this coming week, at this point everything is here and being held in my 15g. I'll drop a coral or two in and see how things go but I expect to have everything in over the next two weeks. Unless Gil makes us post a pic before then, I'm going to hold off putting one up till everything is in...I've got some neat stuff for this tank.

[Ann]

That lighting canopy is the best! A very smart job indeed.

 

You have an interesting stocking list too. I'm a big fan of ascidians so I'll be watching this thread closely.

 

Best regards

 

Ann

[icenine]

I've really got my fingers crossed with the squirt... I've been interested in them for a while.. they are really fascinating, much more to them anatomy wise than you would think just looking at them. I'm making the potentially bad decision of attempting to keep the one I aquired based on just one other reefkeeper's success with keeping the same variety. That person's success (it has lived a year... that's a success as far as these things go from what I can gather.. most have a life span of weeks) was in thier own words "a shot in the dark".

If anyone has kept them, please feel free to offer me your experience.

But the ascidian, that's not the only chance I've decided to take with this tank...

[icenine]

Wow, has this been going for a month already? It's time to put up a big post with lots of pictures regarding the stock in this tank.

I was using some sand, water and biobale from my other tank to help speed things along. One thing though, the substrate I chose for this tank ( i just seeded a little from my other display), the petco cheapo sugar sand, was total crap. Sugar size grain sand was way to fine and got blown around too much by the AC 20. I Switched it out with a larger grain material from another established tank. There was a noticeable pod population at work here now and that is kinda my que that things are good to go. So in when the corals.

I've had some of the animals I'm going to use in this tank for weeks already in my 15g. Things went in at the rate of a few frags a day. I'm transferring the frags that I have been holding and a dropping few new arrivals in as well. Most of the frags came from Seacrop in addition to the new nass snails and a porcelain crab.

 

Here is a pic of the crab seconds after molting, we call him lefty but he is working on fixing that.

 

 

 

Orange and blue tunicate .... this one may be a bit of a risk, I hope I'm able to keep it fed in this tank. They have a fairly dismal record in captivity, I'm aware of that. It's been in my other reef for about a month and seems to be doing well... but that tank is more established, I'm keeping my fingers crossed now that I moved him. It's a interesting little piece and I think it will just look better in this tank. At some point I'll try to post some video of this animal..watching it inflate and deflate is rather interesting.

 

 

 

There is also a green open brain that was not going to go in this tank either, but it looks much better here than the 15 and is less of a hassle to spot feed in this shallow tank.

 

 

 

Single red blasto polyp. This is my first blasto, it's a really nice coral. That's it for the LPS.

 

 

 

 

 

Another first is an orange monti cap. This is my first sps frag and will be the only in this tank. I'm sure the lighting will be enough like so many other things keeping water quality up is going to be the imperative. It's in an area that is getting a good amount of the flow off the ac20 but of course that's not alternating at all. (I'll get a good pic of that up shortly)

 

 

For a splash of blue I'm dropping in a small blue mushroom and a small blue Florida ric.

 

 

 

 

I've got a bunch of zoas and palys in too. I managed to snatch a few polyps from my main reef in addition to the new stuff so I'm sporting about 20 morphs of zoanthoids/palythoa in here already, some just one or two polyps but should grow out nicely. I'm on the lookout for a few more choice colored small frags (2-5 polyp frags) I plan on squeezing as many as I can in here... have any you want to sell? PM me.

Here are a few pics:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[icenine]

I've also placed what is intended to be the centerpiece, one of the two types of anemones I'm keeping in this tank. An anemone, not to mention two different types in a pico? Well, yes... and I actually think I know what I'm doing here (famous last words I know).

 

 

The "centerpiece" anemone is a an Epicystis crucifer, sometimes referred to as a flower or rock anemone. This specimen is currently about 3" in diameter when fully expanded. I believe this individual to be an adult and as such don't expect it to get much bigger than he is right now. I'm banking on the worst case scenario in terms of it's growth is that it may get to be around 4.5" which still may be manageable in this tank. I've had the good fortune to get some info on this specimen from the person that did the collecting from the wild population. These anemones don't move much but are capable of walking around till they find a happy place for themselves. They like to position themselves inside rockwork and substrate (hence the rock in the common name) and can be difficult to move from then on. They are not particularly demanding in terms of lighting and the intensity of the 36w of 50/50 PC over this 8" tank should be more than sufficient. They are also fairly hardy when it comes to water quality, but that's a relative term when it comes to anemones. Being in a pico means I am really going to have to stay on top of things. Part of my strategy for keeping this guy was to not affix any corals permanently (kept the super glue at bay) until it appeared that this animal was settled down. I wanted to be able to get the frags I had been adding to the tank out of the way or change the aquascape all together if it appeared that this guy was going to want to take over their space. After I got it acclimated (only to temp) I dropped it into a place I thought it would like. The placement turned out to be close, it took a little walk but settled into the sand bed against some rock and seemed to dig in and get a good grip on the rock. The coloration on this guy is a likely a little bleached (it came to me that way, there was widespread bleaching in the wild population this summer) and it's tentacles will turn more green in the coming weeks but the white areas are not bleaching and will stay a nice bright white.

 

Here is a pic just after he was dropped in the tank:

 

 

 

 

 

Here he is after being in the tank for a week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A macro shot of the anemone:

 

 

There are also going to be two mini carpet anemones here as well. They look a bit like tri color ricordia yuma... but they're not. These guys are very sticky, handling them briefly will clear up any questions about them being ricordia. They should stay at about the size of a quarter (perfect for this tank, a true "pico" anemone) and show nice color under these lights once they finally found a spot they like. I was concerned about moving the mini carpets from my main display to this one, they seemed to be attached rather strongly to where they were and I did not want to damage their feet getting them off the rock. So, what I wound up doing was tricking them into letting loose. I was able to move the rock they were attached to so I moved it out of the flow and out of the light. After just a couple days of that they decided to pull up stakes and find a new spot to inhabit. They actually move fairly rapidly once they get going. Once I saw them moving, it was easy to lift them of the rock and place them in the pico.

 

 

 

Here is a shot of the mini carpet being fed:

 

 

 

 

 

The two types of anemones are separated from each other.. with the tentical length on both species (or really lack of) I'm not worried about them stinging each other unless one of the carpets decide to take a walk and manages to somehow fall on top of the flower. Allopethy is a bit of a concern, but I'm just going to have to monitor things.

So yep.... I've got three honest to gosh anemones in a 2.5g pico, whoda thunk it eh?

 

 

1 porcelain anemone crab (a challenge for this tank)

2 mini carpet anemones ( Stichodactyla tapetum if you want to get specific )

1 rock/flower anemone ( Epicystis crucifer)

1 orange and purple tunicate (another challenge in this tank)

20 zoanthoid/palythoa morphs (about 200 polyps total to start) in various colors

1 green open brain

1 bright red blasto polyp

1 blue mushroom

1 blue florida ricordia

1 orange montipora cap

2 Tongan nass snails

2 black nass snails

1 rather large stomatellid snail

[jmorris]

I think you have some of the nicest livestock possible for this tank. All of it is very well suited to this size/type of tank, so no worries. THe mini carpets you have have incredable coloration, the few I have seen were much more drab... also an impressive flow anemone specimin. One last compliment: good choice on the porce. crab, great pico animals IMO. Very impressive overall.

 

I think that, with our combined efforts, '05 is going to rock the house!

 

Great work so far... keep it up.

 

Jared

[minimalist]

FTS?

[icenine]

I'll get one up this weekend. More pics will be on the way.

I'm almost never happy with a fts, there is always something closed or not looking just right.

[Ann]

My goodness, you have the nicest stock. The flower anemone is really nice, I've never seen anything like that for sale in the UK.

 

Bring on the FTS.

 

Best regards

 

Ann

[ZooGirl]

Looking great Icenine! Can't wait to see your FTS.

[phergus_25]

wow I'm in awe, or however one might spell that. I use to have a rock anemone much like that makes me want another. Where did you get the carpet anemones? But yea, the tank looks amazing great job, lookin forward to that FTS