2.5-gallon Sunlight Pico-Reef

[jenniebutterfly]

i hate those sponges. i had a few. got them out and flushed them

[tinyreef]

i hate those sponges. i had a few. got them out and flushed them

 

actually, my display tank is infested with them but they usually keep underneath the rocks and relatively still. not roaming around like this guy, which was also relatively sessile for the longest of time. it's only just recently he's decided to walkabout.

[tinyreef]

updates!

 

moved the tank back to the old window location. it just wasn't getting enough sunlight at the foyer/skylight location versus the window.

 

 

now that it's back in the old spot photo angles are limited again. the best/easiest view is only the side view again.

 

so far the corals have already responded to the increased sunlight and are back growing again (gsp's weren't fazed either way though). the other corals had receded a little during the month of limited sunlight in the foyer location.

 

stomatella snails are reaching epidemic proportions and bristleworms are increasing as well for some odd reason (i don't feed the tank so there's no nutrient input at all) but otherwise things seem to look well (corals and coralline are growing well).

[adinsxq]

!

[skylsdale]

Awesome...keep it up, Tiny.

[tinyreef]

gracias, adin and sky!

 

weekend updates!

 

i added some corals that were cluttering up my office nano. been meaning to do it for a couple of months and finally got off my fat butt to do it. also cleaned up the substrate a bit. the tiny "moss" coral was collecting some moss-looking hair algae so i had to hack it apart but at least it looks neater now on the left.

 

i had to slowly creep the stand and tank 90-degrees from where it normally is (butt up against the window) to get this shot. i had to be careful of splash and not to upset the corals. took 5-minutes of edging and minute pushing but i got it (the sunlight still overexposes the right side though).

added this little guy (he's in the middle in the top pic) from the office nano. he's a flowerpot frag, i.e. he's sitting in a clay flowerpot. actually, he's a sarcophyton. (of course!) he was fragged from my s. infundibuliforme but doesn't look like his mother (who is more base-only, not very toadstool/mushroom-like) right now because he's still so young. typical young sarco morphology. i do find this species to be easier to have greenish polyps than most sarcos though but i don't believe green polyps to be a species-trait.

 

top-down view of the acrylic canopy. i actually just cleaned it but the bubbling action from my UGF obviously creates a lot of splash and ejects a fair amount of organic matter onto the canopy thru the week (weekly maintenance). results of the organics is like a protein skimmer-like effect. blech! fyi, i'm not running a skimmer but i do have a Poly-Filter (cut to 1" x 0.5"), carbon, and chaetomorpha (all visible in the upper left of the picture).

[Carinya]

Still very cool. Nice addition.

[tinyreef]

thanks, carinya!

 

i hope i can post a couple of shots of a teeny tiny s. elegans i put in there (loose) in a couple of days. it's even smaller than the one already in there.

[skilter]

awesome setup, i had always thought of doing this, but i had always learned that it was best NOT to put a tank in front of a window... boy did you prove that idea wrong!

[FishNemo]

good!

[tinyreef]

thanks for the comments! yeah, i never liked the "don't put tank in sunlight" adage, especially when lighting plays such a central role in our hobby. in fact, i think it will be the difference in being able to keep a couple of more "difficult" corals in the hobby but i'm still working on that.

 

the tank's been a bit messy lately though. the corals are growing fine, it's just that i've had some nuisance algae (a black fiberous type) pick up a little speed lately. i think it's partially due to heat and low salinity though (besides my general laziness in upkeeping the cleaning). so i'm addressing those issues.

 

plus, the stomatella population explosion i've been experiencing is also playing havoc with my ca/alk levels. i've begun exporting or squishing the little buggers (not on purpose, more accidental really).

 

i'll also likely be adding some more sarco frags as i consolidate my other tanks in the coming weeks. i'll post updated pics as it goes.

[FryedFish]

wow Nice job last time i saw this it was a pile of LR lol

[tinyreef]

wow Nice job last time i saw this it was a pile of LR lol

thanks! heh, yeah it started out as a couple of pieces of chalk basically. bleached bones from the LFS's toss-away bins. it's just beginning to mature though imo (about 10-months old now).

 

i just finished up some major changes. i re-added the Azoo mini-HOB with a integrated diy ATO. the top-off bucket is twice the volume of the tank. i'm uber-lazy.

 

i also just completed a massive cleanup and cleared the sand a bit from an invasive epiphytic algae (or bacteria?).

 

i'm also in the process of changing the acrylic canopy/hood to accomodate the re-installed hob. i'll get pics of all that this weekend when there's sunlight and i'm home.

 

meanwhile, i moved my hairy shroom rock from my office nano into the pico tank. some of the sea spiders that have been hanging out on that rock have hitched along (i recently confirmed that the spiders are reproducing).

 

this is about an hour after the rock was introduced into the tank (spider's circled in red). the original rock is out of the picture towards the right. those are hydroids on the left and a small palythoa on the right.

 

looks like it's starting to hunt in this picture. it took up position upside down in a small alcove on a rock.

[tinyreef]

been futzing a bit more with the tank lately so it's looking even more haggard than usual. i finally decided to remove a lot of the smaller frags and loose rocks that were just cluttering up the sandbed and killing flow imo.

 

updated rear-view (before various frags were removed), tank is in its normal position in front of the window.

 

updated front-view (after frags and rocks were removed), tank is swung out 90-degrees so i can snap a pic (window's now on the right). the room's incandescent/halogen lights are on to provide some addt'l lighting on the shadowed left side, hence the reddish effect on the left.

 

that honking big bristleworm is multiplying but i'm befuddled as to what it's eating. i haven't fed the tank/corals since april(?). but the worm's is over two inches and easily the largest motile creature in there. maybe it's eating the stomatellas who are herbivores.

 

been spending a lot of time cleaning off the invasive black epiphytic algae/bacteria. i think some of it is flow-related and some is just simple maintence, so i'm re-starting to clean regularly and tidying up the tank in general by removing the rocks and smaller frags (less clutter).

 

the corals are still growing very well, both softies and the tubiopora (lone "stony" left). the epiphytic algae was smothering some zoos so i cleaned those and moved some but otherwise, their growth has also been pretty good.

 

amphiroa sp. coralline is growing very nicely (why the tanks still sucks up ca/alk without stonys present anymore). i actually pruned some back the other day. historically, i suck at growing that coralline (my fav). so i've been quite pleased with its progress as well as significant mesophyllum sp. growth.

 

stomatellas are still epidemic. i harvested a bunch the other day for my display tank.

 

i'm using the AZoo mini filter full-time now and moved most of my filtration into it. only the chaetomorpha is in the tank now. i thought about disconnecting the UGF filter too but the flow from the azoo just wasn't enough nor chaotic enough compared to the air-bubbling.

[jeremai]

Hey - nice sarco. I want one now.

 

Pfft.

[tinyreef]

i'll send you a frag. (don't get too excited, there's an "R" in there )

 

i've forgotten which sarco i fragged that middle one from (only two possible progenitors though). i'll have to wait until it's a bit older to figure it out. there was a couple i did at the time from a couple of different mother corals and i mixed them up. small sarcos look alike.

 

for instance, the left one's mom is a s. latum. different body type (stalk dominant with irregular crown edges with yellow/beige coloration) from the two possible mothers of the center one, altho they look somewhat alike at this stage of development.

 

the center one just has its crown turned toward the front is all (sunlight from an angle) so all you see is the cap from a normally top/down viewpoint. otherwise, it's the typical mushroom/toadstool shape of a young sarco. but both possible mothers are of a different end-body type (1. stalk dominant with regular crown edge and pinkish hue, 2. vase shape with pinkish hue).

[FryedFish]

updates anytime soon?

[aquaman7]

The tank's still looking great Tiny!

[tinyreef]

updates anytime soon?

i'll try and get some pics this weekend. i can really only get decent shots (good lighting) on the weekends when i'm home and the sunlight's still shining. there's a couple of shots i'd like to get if the targets stay in-place (e.g. there's a comb jelly that's anchored itself to the glass i'd like to snap a pic of).

 

The tank's still looking great Tiny!

thanks, aquaman! but it was looking a little neglected for a while. too much nuisance algae and not enough attention from me. i almost had to tear it apart actually as the airline for the ugf got clogged with salt deposits! but i was finally able to clean it out after chipping off the coralline and wiggling the ugf apart to get to the airline.

 

i'll be cleaning up some more this weekend (hopefully) and posting some more update pics.

[aquaman7]

thanks, aquaman! but it was looking a little neglected for a while. too much nuisance algae and not enough attention from me. i almost had to tear it apart actually as the airline for the ugf got clogged with salt deposits! but i was finally able to clean it out after chipping off the coralline and wiggling the ugf apart to get to the airline.

 

i'll be cleaning up some more this weekend (hopefully) and posting some more update pics.

 

^Haha, yeah, man I think we've all been on that boat before.

 

I haven't been on NR for a few months so your tank looks good as ever to me.

So if this is when your tank looks "bad" ...those clean-shaven update pics should be pretty awesome .

[tinyreef]

well, it still isn't "clean-shaven" like aquaman was expecting (i still haven't rec'd the tweezers i'd prefer to use, grubby hands) but the shot selection/angle might be better this time around.

 

here are your weekend updates!

 

side view of the canopy

i added the azoo hob recently but disconnected the ato, the boom-like thing on the far end, again due to a flood mishap (detailed in another thread in 'general forum').

 

top view with canopy

you can see the condensation, bubble splash, and salt creep. often, the stomatellas will go "vertical" on the canopy too. i guess there's some film algae for them to pick/clean, i dunno.

 

top view without canopy

turned off the ugf and removed the canopy for a clearer shot. i still cropped out the chaeto, ugf, and hob. they're not that pretty anyways.

 

the sarcophyton on the far right is a new transfer. maaaaybe a s. cherbonnieri, maybe. young sarcos all look alike.

 

closeup of the above view

i really took this closeup for the green stoloniferans (center). i really like how they look, especially versus the pink stolons on the right and in contrast to the other corals, a very vibrant green. (tubiopora-left, eagle eyes-upper left, xenia-top, clavularia-just showing/upper right, gsp-upper right, pink stolons-right, and the green stolons-center)

[FryedFish]

thats a sweet top view XD

[drowsyfirefly]

I love your tank! Post more pictures soon--you have a lot of very lovely corals! And I imagine they are pretty dang happy too.

[drg0nzo1]

Great looking tank.

 

Sorry if this has been answered already. But is that just sitting next to a window? Or do you have something reflecting light in?

[tinyreef]

thanks for the nice comments everyone!

 

Sorry if this has been answered already. But is that just sitting next to a window? Or do you have something reflecting light in?

yes, it's just sitting next to the window, just like a houseplant would be. but you're right, it probably would be even better (more balanced growth, front & back) if there was some kind of reflector. i've been thinking about adding some actinic but that kind of ruins the experiment too.

 

here's an old shot (winter time, obviously, february) of how it's situated. not much has changed in the past year as to its placement after the first couple of weeks of the prior contest.

that fan on the left has grown quite a bit though.

 

here's another rear-view fts (also in winter, but in january), not very pretty or lit-well but it shows it in relation to the window. that's also the old canopy, it's a different canopy now (2~3 versions later).

 

as i was looking over the old pics in my gallery, i came across this old top-view (below) when the rock was still chalk-white and the first coral/zoa went in (i.e. guinea pig). it's basically the same view as the one in the other post above (edit: below/bottom), just rotated 90-degrees counter-clockwise (circa october '05). not much resemblance left other than the actual rock features.

 

Before:

 

After: