Rimless - Zen/Bonsai 5-Gallon Setup?

[Eklikewhoa]

Sweet!

I just got my second Mini-M to pair off with my Planted Mini-M...I have been deciding on how to filter them but I think I am gonna go with a nice sized 2213 with the ADA lily pipes and then have the heater in-line.

I have the Mini-Solar on top of my planted Mini-M which I have bought supplies to mod it to a 70w MH cause I feel that the lighting is inadequate but will probably do the same for the Reef Mini-M.

[SaltwaterChris]

Looks really nice and clean

[dapellegrini]

I have to wait until the lights go out to see most of the cool critters - and thus the quality of my photos suffers quite a bit. These are either taken with a flash or with the lamp on in the room - thus the messed up colors.

Here are a couple of the Pom Poms:





The blue porcelain crab:



And the sexy shrimp:






and here are a few quick FTS with the 14k light. I am still not 100% convinced that I like this like this light more than my 13k (which was much less blue):






I also recently pulled out the rocks on the left side (the taller stack) and mashed up a whole tube of Aquamend to try and get these things to stay together - but I have a feeling I will be revisiting that in a few months... You can see some of it (the white stuff) here:




Last FTS, bottom-up w/ new light:

[Lytehouse]

I somehow found your thread as you were starting and followed with interest as I also moved from fresh to salt. Very impressive job of researching, reading, asking questions and putting together a very interesting tank with very few distractions of equipment.

Great job, Congrats.........

[dapellegrini]

Thanks!

I am still considering modding the smallest Eheim ECCO canister filter into a fuge to replace my current powerhead setup. This would be much more for aesthetic purposes than anything else. The PH combined with frequent water changes and siphoning from the surface of the tank have keep things nice and clean to this point. The move to a canister filter would be more for the idea of removing the heater and bulky powerhead out of the tank.

More if/when I tackle that one.

Thanks for looking!

[ThomasinKind]

The tank is coming along really nicely. I love the sexy shrimp.

[dapellegrini]

Well I am just about 3 months in now...

Maintenance is down to weekly water changes (between 2 and 4 gallons, removing 1 gallon at a time, replacing and repeating), and weekly or bi-weekly (that means every-other-week, right?) scraping of glass to keep it shiny.

I cracked for a Sexy Shrimp, ended up with two and they have declared open session on my Zoo's... All of my cool mini bumblebee zoos were eaten, along with a few heads of each of my other colonies. The more aggressive one later jumped out of the tank (found him dry on the carpet) and since my zoos have been doing notably better.

Anyways, I thought I would post up a bunch of shots taken with my wife's new little digital camera.

Starting with a few FTS:








Here are some different strains of Coralline Algae, or at least I think thats what all of these are. Note the lumpy ones and that last shot with the red stuff growing up off the rock kinda like a mushroom...

[dapellegrini]

The tank is overrun with Amphipods - if you look closely you can see them everywhere. I have watched them prey on smaller pod-type creatures - I hope having too many is not a problem. ???

Here are some more obvious shots of a couple:






Here is a slightly clearer picture if the two-headed feather duster:






I also have a lot of these little tiny red feather dusters, but very hard to get them clear in a picture:






Various wild, red macro algaes:

[dapellegrini]

And finally a strange new things - no clue what this might be - any thoughts???








Current inhabitants:

- 1x Scarlet Hermit Crab
- 1x Sexy Shrimp - soon to find a new home
- 1x Blue Porcelain Crab
- 2x Pom Pom Crabs
- misc Snails
- misc Zoa colonies
- 1x Orange Monti Cap
- Small Colony of Clove Polyps of some sort

I was feeding the tank with Marine Snow along with frozen mysis (just a tiny bit) for a while and I think that was causing a more than average amount of junk on the glass. I have now backed down feeding to once a week at most, the night before water change day. The Hermit Crab has molted once, as well as the Porcelain Crab and both of the Pom Poms. I am anxious to be rid of the sexy shrimp, and bummed that they are certifiable zoo killers... All of my other critters only like to come out at night.

Overall things are going quite well, the tank seems to be settling in nicely and I am enjoying it.

[Swanwillow]

do you have anything for the sexy shrimp to be in? They normally live in anemones, so that may be why they killed the zoanthids-they bugged them to death...

[dapellegrini]

^ Good question - and no. I wouldn't mind adding an anemone, if there is such a species for a tank my size... I really don't know anything about them, though I did read up quite a bit on Sexy Shrimp and it seemed that many folks have good success without offering them a host anemone. Mine tends to hang around in the macro algae or under the Monti Cap.

I really like the Sexy Shrimp and will do some research on host anenomes...

[Swanwillow]

more or less anything with long tentacles, from what I understand.

I just think that they tried to host in the zoanthids, and as they irritated the corals they started trying to help it by taking of the dieing pieces, which just farther irritated and created more dieing...

[Swanwillow]

oh, and you can look into 'rock flower' anems, they get to around 4" in diameter, and the shrimp will host in it.

[lhoy]

The yellow thing is a sponge.

Lee