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[CUSTOM] Ann


Ann

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Hi Ann,

 

I think it looks lovely!

 

I've just spent half an hour with a hammer and chisel trying to find the best rockwork for my tank and all I ended up with was large gravel. It's so hard finding rocks for tanks this size!

 

Good luck,

 

Ed

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Pictorial update coming tomorrow. :) I know you all said not to mess with the rockwork but I couldn't resist tinkering with it. :rolleyes::unsure:

 

There's not much else to report really. I've spent the week monitoring the temperature fluctuations and assessing how much water requires topping up each day. There's a good copepod population developing already, :happy: but I haven't seen any other hitchhikers on the rock with the exception of a couple of filter feeding Ark shells. At least there is no bad stuff. :lol: I'm really itching to get some stock in there and will probably add a single tester mushroom polyp tomorrow along with some snails, Stomatella and Dove snails from my other tanks.

 

My quickly constructed HOB filter or as I call it SB filter (that's 'Sit Behind' Filter) is still holding water which is good news. I will post more on it's design tomorrow, but don't hold your breath as it's not ground breaking by any means.

 

Till tomorrow....

 

Best regards

 

Ann

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Update time. :)

 

I have rearranged the rockwork despite you all telling me not to touch the aquascaping. :rolleyes: I couldn't say whether it looks better or worse now but I think that the water can circulate much better around the tank and the right side is not cast in shadow so much which will be better for the corals when they are eventually introduced.

 

The individual actinic and daylight tubes have been taken out and replaced with 50/50 tubes which I like a lot better, the light spread is much more even and pleasing to the eye. You'll also note from the pictures that I've been tweaking with the plumbing too. I wasn't entirely happy with having the one large-ish outlet from the pump on the top left side of the tank so I fitted a T-piece in the pipework to split it into 2 smaller outlets positioned at opposite ends of the tank.

 

My 'SB' filter is actually a small DIY glass tank that I made myself that sits directly behind the display tank. The silicone job is a bit messy and rushed as I thought at the time the entry deadline for this competition was for the 5th November. Knowing what I do now I wish that I'd taken a bit more time with it but as long as it doesn't spring a leak I can live with it. It measures a slimline 12 x 4.75 x 8 and contains the heater, circulation pump and a small fiter for carbon/polyfiter pad.

 

Here are a few FT shots:

 

fts3131105.jpg

 

fts2131105.jpg

 

fts4131105.jpg

 

A shot looking down into the SB filter:

 

fugetop.jpg

 

And finally I introduced my first tester coral yesterday, whopppeee!! It has to be the smallest mushroom polyp ever. :lol: When checking out the shot of it below note the the grains of sand around it for size reference. You'll also notice algae has started to sprout so next livestock additions will be snails and a couple of small hermit crabs.

 

shroom2131105.jpg

 

Best regards

 

Ann

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Terrific tank Ann! I really like the new rockwork and the mushroom looks really cute and tiny! It does have a look of a much bigger tank which is really cool. You did such a great job aquascaping that it has that look. I hope you'll add a clown goby or something too when the tank gets more established. I would also add some macroalgae to the HOB filter to help with the nitrates. That should help to reduce some of the algae that you seeing pop up in the tank although to be honest all new tanks go through an algae growth phase in the beginning. I'm seeing that with my new tank. Great job and cannot wait to see more pictures!

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Thanks all!

 

ecotoxlady you read my mind, I have decided to put some algae (Chaetomorpha) into the back filter. :) It means that I can put to use the daylight tube that I removed from tank earlier on this week too. Of course it also means that I'll need to make a new hood to fit in another light. Doh! That'll teach me for changing my plans at the last minute I guess. :blush:

 

Best regards

 

Ann

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The tufty algae's days are numbered.... hopefully. A pair of dwarf blue legged hermit crabs have been introduced and they are getting busy with the algae as I type. Really neat looking creatures.

 

hermit2131105.jpg

 

Best regards

 

Ann

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uk reefer, I registered on there last month. :)

 

Sooo... my teeny tiny mushroom is settling in great, perhaps by the end of the competition it'll actually be all grown up. Here's a shot of it today, the Sargassum algae to the left of it is sprouting nicely too. :lol:

 

shroom161105.jpg

 

Yesterday I added some small Dove snails to the display tank and some Chaetomorpha algae to the filter.

 

dove161105.jpg

 

chaeto161105.jpg

 

I'm hoping to add some more corals at the weekend if I can find any nice stuff, fingers crossed for me.

 

Best regards

 

Ann

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Yes, I just got some glass cut by the local glaziers and then siliconed them all together. It was surprisingly easy really. I'm not sure that I would trust myself to put together a big tank though, there'd be too much at stake. :wacko:

 

I added another coral frag from my big tank yesterday plus a little something from the LFS. I'll post some shots of them plus an updated FTS tomorrow, though to be honest there's not much changed with the tank. I don't want to bore you all with identical looking photos. :blush:

 

Best regards

 

Ann

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Just a little update for you.

 

Yesterday I added a small frag of the Bubble coral I have in my big tank. It's not really a frag rather more a piece of flesh/skeleton that has dropped off the parent coral. In the past this has happened to both a Euphyllia 'Frogspawn' and a Caulastrea coral that I have kept. Only the Euphyllia babies went on to form new colonies though so this baby bubble coral may or may not survive to adulthood. I'll have to wait and see, it's just so perfectly Pico sized that I couldn't resist giving it a go no matter what the outcome.

 

Here it is looking a bit pooped out:

 

bubble201105.jpg

 

The other coral that I added came from the LFS. It's a small Fungia sp. (or close relative anyway), not particularly colourful but I really like it anyhow. I actually went out looking for Zoanthids but they were either a boring brown colour too or the interesting ones were quite big colonies.

 

fungiaflash201105.jpg

 

The hermit crabs are doing an absolutely sterling job on the tufty algae, there's just one small patch of it left now. Of course they've also eaten some new shoots of a rather decorative algae that was sprouting out of the rocks too but it's a small price to pay to get rid of the nuisance stuff.

 

Here's another close-up shot of my tiny 'shroom showing tufty-less rocks. You'll notice that the hermits haven't touched the Sargassum algae, it must taste nasty or be too tough to consume.

 

shroom201105.jpg

 

Here's a new FTS so that you can play spot the corals. :P

 

fts201105.jpg

 

Interestingly the population of pelagic copepods in this little tank has completely exploded without any predators to munch on them. I don't know where they go during the lights on period but at night there are hundreds out swarming in the water column. I have tried to take a picture so that you can all see too, the white streaks are not bubbles but lots of pods zooming about. B)

 

copepods201105.jpg

 

On the equipment side, I've had to rig up a small fan to blow into the hood as the addition of an extra light over the 'refugium' tipped the tank temperature to the hot side. It seems to be keeping the temperatures down but it doesn't bode well for summer, I may need to ventilate the hood a bit better for then.

 

Best regards

 

Ann

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Travis, thanks a bunch! You've just made my day. :happydance:

 

I just need to get a hold of some drop dead gorgeous corals to stock my tank with and have them grow really well in the next 6 or so months of course. ;)

 

Best regards

 

Ann

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