My 29g Mixed Reef

[SevTT]

My 29g Mixed Reef (updated 09-13-09, better pics)

So, here it is. I started in April of '09 -- ignore the '08 copyright notes on a few of the images; I just screwed up that batch when I processed them in photoshop and was too damned lazy to fix 'em. Same thing with the sharpening on some of them; I basically processed all these as a batch. And they're about a half-stop to a stop overexposed. I'm too lazy to re-shoot at the moment.

Don't mind the cyanobacteria. I'm planning on getting a skimmer within the next few weeks.

It's a 29g glass tank w/ a 20g long sump DIY'd to include a fuge, mag3 return pump, 2 Koralia 1 powerheads, 300W heater, 4xT5HO lighting, Apex Aquacontroller. Temp's set to 79, usually hovers between 80 and 82 during the day. Ca and Alk are maintained with Kalk, and I use Reef Crystals salt.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Very nice

 

[scarf_ace1981]

cool tank

 

[WikedTechniQuezZ]

Thats a very nice tank i liek the colour purple

 

[basiab]

How did you get that much coraline on the back in such a short time?

 

[SevTT]

How did you get that much coraline on the back in such a short time?

...I just ignored it, really -- when I first set up the tank I made a conscious decision to let whatever wanted to grow on the back grow, so long as it wasn't causing a problem. %) Coralline seems to like my tank. I supplement Ca & alk regularly with kalkwasser -- for the first few months I had a drip set up that was dripping in saturated kalk at pretty much the same rate the water was evaporating from my tank, and now I just add a bit daily until I can get my drip set up again. My tank's always had lots of free nutrients, too -- my nitrates aren't zero, certainly, but it's been a while since I've tested. Actinics are on for 12 hours, daylight for 10. I'm guessing light + Ca + Alk + available nutes, but not so much that GHA explodes = happy coralline.

 

[nemo]

Xenia at the botttom of tank. I like that landscaping. I will do the same.

 

[SevTT]

Xenia at the botttom of tank. I like that landscaping. I will do the same.

Yeah. You wanna try to corral the Xenia as much as possible; they won't generally cross sand except slowly, and pretty much any LPS or softie with a halfway decent sting will beat them back, too. If a stalk brushes up against a rock, or other hard surface, eventually it'll colonize it. If there's nothing within immediate reach, it'll tend to progress with the dominant water current; in my tank, in the front, that's right to left, so the Xenia will tend to walk right to left.

 

[SevTT]

Hrm. It's been two days since I've seen my manderin goby, and she always came out for her cyclops-eez. I'm starting to think she may have jumped and flopped somewhere hard to get to. %P

 

[SevTT]

Update

Got some new pics, some new livestock, and some slightly-rearranged rockwork and such. Holy crap have I grown a lot of coralline on the back wall in the past couple weeks.

These images may also look better if you save them and view them with something like irfanview or something else that properly parses images. I'm not sure why, but they're not displaying the same through firefox as they are through my other image programs; they're paler, faded. This is strange, since I'm viewing the same .jpg file, saved as 8-bit-per-channel sRGB jpgs, so it shouldn't be anything that firefox couldn't handle. Weird.

Some of the shots are pretty similar, but I'm trying to document individual specimens so I can compare shots and see how they grow.

As far as the tank goes, I started running purigen a week ago, and it's been cutting down on my cyano. (I haven't actually tested the nitrate levels in a while; too lazy. Going by symptoms instead.) I've also chucked a ball of phosban in the tank earlier this morning. Boy, that stuff is interesting when you hit it with water! I'm glad I rinsed it first. %) I also added six monster ceriths last week, and another three trochus snails, to replace the turbos which have mostly fallen victim to the blue-legged hermits. (And most of the blue-legged hermits have also fallen victim to the blue-legged hermits.) I got the snails from Aquahut, the sunset montipora, purple-polyp birdsnest, christmas montipora, and rainbow acans from Wingo last week, and the new frags I got today, the two acroporas and the pink birds-nest on the sandbed, from Country Critters. Watch out if you get anything from their acro tank; everything's got red bugs. So everything got a six-hour interceptor dip. That's why they're still kinda aggrivated-looking.

As far as feeding goes, I usually feed a little Formula 1 flake when I get home from work, maybe a few Formula 1 pellets, and then cyclop-eez about 3.5 hours later, shortly before the lights go out. I've started adding Selcon to the cyclop-eez (just got that today,) and sometimes I add some oyster feast or phyto to it. Sometimes I'll switch in mini-mysids. Usualy I don't bother to specifically feed the corals in the tank; I just broadcast-feed and leave the circulation pumps on. The anemone gets a chunk 'o silverside a week and whatever it else it can catch.

 

[Awibrandy]

Great looking tank you have there. Love the coral selections.:inlove:

 

[Chraddam]

Wow-you have the algae i want in my nano!!! maybe i should start adding kalk and get some powerheads...are you running MHs too?

 

[Awibrandy]

Wow-you have the algae i want in my nano!!! maybe i should start adding kalk and get some powerheads...are you running MHs too?

Carefull with what you wish for.:tongue1:

 

[SevTT]

Wow-you have the algae i want in my nano!!! maybe i should start adding kalk and get some powerheads...are you running MHs too?

Naw, 4x39W (36") T5-HOs. With individual icecap reflectors, in my ghetto, homemade hood. Coralline grew pretty well under my PCs, even. I think it's just maintaining a high Ca+/alk level with some available nutes and decent flow.

Nanos can have some problems with using Kalk, since you're limited to the amount of top-off water you use. At about 1 drop per second, with fans on in my room and an exhaust fan going or my room open to the rest of the house, that generally just about matches the rate of evaporation, and appears to be slightly more than is necessary to simply maintain kalk/alk. By all means give it a shot -- I have a thing for kalk, mostly 'cause it's elegant, simple, and is impossible to cause major problems with so long as you monitor your pH &, occasionally, your magnesium -- but a two-part solution might be better if you've got a tank much smaller than this one. I've been mixing-and-matching; I use kalk for maintenance and Seachem Reef Complete/Reef Alkalinity for adjustments when I let the kalk run dry for a few days.

 

[SevTT]

Great looking tank you have there. Love the coral selections.:inlove:

Thanks. I've put some thought into them, but a few of them just kinda happened by accident. And I'm seriously considering getting rid of that Kenya Tree -- as much as I love the look of it, I'm getting tired of it dropping frags every week.

 

[SevTT]

So, mini-update. I got my new Remora skimmer installed on Thursday, and finally got a decent nitrate test kit today. I haven't tested that in months, and was kind of afraid to, but the new Elos test says 0ppm, whoot. (Definitely not because of the skimmer; it's still breaking in, and right now I've got the effluent running into the sump 'cause when it skims it skims very wet.) I've scraped Xenia off the rear rock and secured it to frag plugs, and removed the Kenya Tree. (I have a feeling that there're going to be minitrees popping up from the attachment spot for a while.) Going to get another clam and a few nifty acro frags tomorrow, when I trade in a bunch of Kenya and Xenia frags for credit at my LFS.

Anybody want the KT?

 

[SevTT]

I did some landscaping, removed the big Kenya Tree, and moved some things around. I also gave myself an early birthday present with some expensive corals (and a clam) that I bought today; Country Critters got a big shipment in from ORA and I couldn't resist. I managed to offset about a third of the price by trading in a bunch of Xenia and Kenya Tree frags. They've also got a buttload of ORA clowns.

New frag -- Acropora Millipora. The pic doesn't do it justice.

Acropora ... tortusa? Something like that. Awesome blue color on the tips.

A better image of the rainbow acro I got a few weeks ago.

Better focus on the new clam.

My Fungia's a lot happier where it is now, slightly shaded by the rock overhang.

Another acropora I got a few weeks ago. The polyps are an electric green. A small portion of the end of the lower tip died off; I think it brushed up against something nasty, but it seems to be recovering.

The other acro I got at the same time as the last pic.

Some zoas I've had in my tank since nearly the start.

The first acro I got, showing a bit of growth...

The sunset montipora frag. (Or was it sunrise?) It's just starting to encrust the the frag plug on the bottom, and it's healing back over the area that died back when it was cut. It's also extending out a decent amount horizontally, but you can't see that easily in this pic.

Two montiporas. Notice the pale growth areas.

'Nother shot.

More zoas I've had for a while.

Palythoas that -have- been in the tank since the beginning; they started as two polyps and one smashed one on the live rock.

Mmm, fuzzy. Stylophora.

A pink birdsnest and the purple-polyped iridescent green pollicipora.

This montipora's healing up quite nicely, and greened up quite a lot, too. The healed parts haven't greened much, but it's encrusted most of the way down to the rock it's glued to.

Purple-polyped birdsnest.

Green star polyps on a clamshell. These have also been in the tank since the beginning.

Green/cyan mushroom polyp. It disappeared for weeks before I noticed that it had lodged itself well inside that crevice there.

My older, larger maxima clam.

Favia. This thing's growing quite a lot too. I think it's getting ready to start encrusting on to the rock next to it, which it's touching.

Best shot I've gotten of my Porites hermit. See the 'antennae'? The porites also seems quite happy.

A chunk of elephant-skin coral, which was the first SPS I put in my tank. Got it as a $5 chip. It's a slow grower, but I like the form.

The last piece of expensive coral I bought today.

My Xenia and a Ricordia that I've had for a while.