Dialup beware #2 tank pictures

[geoxman]

Hi everyone it has been almost 1 year since I posted pictures of my old tank and I just thought I would update. This tank was set up in Feb of last year and most everything was combined from my 29 and the old black tank

My old tank was virtually the same as the one that I have now except it had a few things that really bugged my.
1. Lack of flow-I do not like to see powerheads or cords so a PH was not an option
2.I hated my old overflow design, it left too much from the top of the tank to the water level.
3. un polished acrylic top of the aquarium
4. lighting.

So the tank is 38X38x11 all black acrylic top down view aquarium. The old one was 36x36x12 all black acrylic top down view aquarium.
With my design of the new one the water level is 1/8 of an inch from the top of the aquarium, so it almost looks like it will over flow. The old one had about 2 inches from the top rim-which i hated

The new one is lit by (2) 250 DE Helios HQI 20K bulbs and PFO HQI ballasts
The old tank had 1 400w lumenarc mini with an XM 20K SE and run on an M59.

The old tank had a mag 12 with two seio 620's that were visable as well as the plumbing, which I hated.

They new one is powered with a mag 24 and the plumbing makes it almost impossible to detect. I also am running (2) Seio 1500 which are also pretty well hidden. The best way to spot any of the flow is too look for bare spots.

The new one also has a custom overflow box built on the rear of the tank. The old one had dual internal overflows, which I hated.

Since I knew the flow was going to be great I also got rid of almost all of my ricordia that I had in the previous tank. I have a few but they never expand because of the flow.

In June I went on a reverse lighting schedule and soon after that SH*& hit the fan at work, medical, and family issues. I kept up on the maintenance, a water change once a month, feed the croals and fish, dose two part but I never saw the tank or paid any real attention to it as there were other problems to take care of. During that time I also unhooked my Octo 200 and threw in an aquac remora with a MJ 1200 because it had a drain plug and I did not want to put forth the effort of cleaning a skimmer. During that time I almost if ever was active on RC or my local club--kind of the summer blues

Around the first part of Nov I was debating on shutting everything down because I really did not give a crap and I had not seen the tank in 6-7 months. Out of the blue one day I fired it up during the day and this is pretty much what I got.

The growth was incredible and it was very visable as to what the more dominant polyps were. The Indo and the Solomon stuff had taken over almost everything in their path.

I lost many of slow growing polyps because they were over taken. I also lost a few due to being knocked to the substrate or behind rocks.

I have since pulled the skimmer.
I feed the corals the the "pappone" (sp) twice a week as well as chromaplex and SC reef plus. I dose two part and have a 35 gl fuge in the sump that is lit 24/7

Ca is always 480
Alk is 10dkh
Iodine I run high 0.08-9 mg/l
Nitrate-I never check
Mg-1450

I run carbon about 5 days out of the month.
2 weeks ago I also started dosing C--Thanks Pufferpunk!

Pictures are very hard to take because of the lights as well as the flow. I have many of corals less then 1/2 inch under the water and if I shut off the main for pictures, they would be in air and it would not make for good pictures

Good luck with your tank and it is great to see new names on this forum!

Full tank view in Sepia
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Full tank view in color
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full left view
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front left view
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right rear view



rear left
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more rear

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rear right
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[geoxman]

front left
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front down
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a few close ups which are difficult with the current






Some blues being over taken by EE they are climbing up the wall just to survive--pretty cool fight or flight






more blues


Sorry if i doubled pics. I will try and post more later.

[george albert]

sweet tank love it

[Marko9]

Holy wow. I love the specialty of your tank.

[geoxman]

a few more.
The clam being eaten by zoas

[delsol650]

Nice GEO. need to start fraggin some of those babies.. LOL

[cardgenius]

Awesome tank, love the top down. That is one big *** clam!

[geoxman]

Thanks everyone and that big clam is my skimmer!
Honda-I will not be fragging unless one is being swallowed up by another.
It was very interesting to study in what part of the tank which polyps were more aggressive. In higher flow the Solomon and Fiji were a little more dominant and in lower flow the Indo polyps were??

If you guys/gals are interested you should look at the thread started by me about Solomon zoanthids. I kept experimenting with them in my 29 and I had decent success but they never took off??

The thread was about Solomon zoanthids and I would like to thank Dr. Mac for his very astute observation and experience!! Alot of what you see in my tank are Solomon and without his advice I would not have half of the polyps that I do today.
You can also feel free to contribute as well ot start a new thread on a different region??

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...hlight=Solomon

[MUCHO REEF]

Simply awesome Geo. Nothing compares to a top down. I commend you on a very nice job well done and such attention to details. BTW, excellent aquascaping. Thanks for sharing lots of details also, many will appreciate it.

A few questions for you.

1. What type of substrate are you using?

2. What's your photoperiod?

3. I love the Solomans, can you point them out as others were asking last week what they look like.?

4. What's your average growth rate? I know it's just a guess, but that's ok.

5. How far are your lights off the water surface?

6. Are you running a grounding plug?

7. Any macro algae in your fug?

8. Water source?

9. I see you didn't list your PH, is there a reason for that?

Thanks boss, again, great job.


Mucho Reef

8. What type?

9.

[angry.clownfish]

wow man, awesome flippin tank! congrats and job well done.

[geoxman]

You are like a school teacher giving me homework! I am off to dinner I will be back with my homework in a few. LOL
Thanks!
PL

[MUCHO REEF]

I grade on a curve BTW youngman, LOL,LOL,LOL

[geoxman]

Can someone PM me a program that will allow me to circle stuff in pics or send me a PM explaining how to do so? That would be greatly appreciated as I am not that computer savvy.
Thanks
PL

[korndogg091]

very nice, i love your tank.

[geoxman]

1. The middle of the tank is mostly bare bottom as the flow is too great. When I first set it up it had some crushed aragonite in it but it blew everything around and bothered me. Under the rock work and to the side walls is a 2 inch substrate of crushed aragonite. In the sump there is a 23x23 DSB of crushed aragonite.

2. Now, it is 10-8pm. when I was in my little cave I ran it from 11pm to 6am.

3. I do not know how to point them out and need a program. It will still be difficult to separate as they have all grown into each other but I can still do so.

4. Growth rate is a tough call as I did not see or pay much attention to the tank during the reverse lighting period. 6/07 to around 11/15/07. I can say that since I cut back skimming in 07/07 the growth was much better. I am no longer skimming nor am I advocating any reefer to do so but I also have a 15-18 inch clam that eats a lot of junk. Dr. Mac's response to my thread is what made my decide to cut back and I am very happy I did. HECK!!!!!!! You had a skilter on your TOTM???

5. The lights are about 12 inches from the water surface.

6. Yes.

7. A ton of cheato with a DSB and a Phos reactor and filter floss in the return.

8. A tube run on the outside of my house from the basement to the 2nd floor from my RODI connected to a float switch in the sump. It will top off as needed. The 2 part is dosed with some medical pump and works great. Mg is added twice a month.

9. 8.1 to 8.3 according to the monitor. It was always very steady with the two part but since I have started adding C I have also been adding SC buffer.

10. Did I pass?
Thanks
PL

[MUCHO REEF]

A-

If you tell us this


Extra credit

1. How often do you harvest your Cheato, and how much? This stuff grows on average, 1 inch per day.

2. What is your philosphy with a DSB in you fug?

3. Could you share what substrate you are using in the fug.

..an A+ is possible if you answer the above questions, LOL.


Teacher

[wrasseguy2]

wow wow..that is one sweet looking tank i love the little things about that...that is a job well done on that and i love the contrast in colors in your aquascaping

[geoxman]

That is one wicked looking wrasse!

1. when it starts growing out of the water and looking spindly.

2. For nutrient export since I knew eventually I would be barely skimming if none at all. I do feel that some of the stuff that is skimmed out is very beneficial for the zoanthids. Do I know what that stuff is? No. E. Borneman had a very interesting read on the MD forums about the same time as I cut back-as too what was in skim??
Any hoo The tank and the colors are doing great with out it. I also dont have much in the way of bad algae. It could be due to the clam?

3. The fuge has a 5 inch DSB of crushed aragonite mixed with Southdown, chicken feed, CC but mainly SD. It was a combination of all of my other substrates. For any one on a budget the chicken feed is very affordable and is crushed oyster shell.

4. I will go one further--in the tank
2 chromis
1 onyx polka dot clown
1 PJ cardinal
1 six line
1 SLF crab
3 emeralds
1 unknown annoying goby
snails and crabs
also in the sump a tube anenome---very mean to coral.

Thanks
PL

[Agu]

Very Nice


I applaud your desire to hide equipment. Too many tanks look like science experiments run amok.

I'm also a fan of allowing nature to take it's course (even though it may not have been your plan), It's a very natural looking tank as a result.

thank Dr. Mac for his very astute observation and experience!! Alot of what you see in my tank are Solomon and without his advice I would not have half of the polyps that I do today.

How about the condensed version of his observation ?

[geoxman]

Thanks AGU.

I will quote the whole thing as it as too much information to condense and is a rather quick read and very informative. Before I read what he said I was running an OCTO NW dual 150 on a 29 frag tank and just trying to make the best environment for the creatures. I was also running an Octo NW 200 on the main tank without Solomon zoanthids. In hind sight it is very easy to see why they were not thriving in my 29 frag tank.

I also found that the blues went nuts and the color was better than ever when I cut back and went to 0.

Dr.Mac's comments

"I have been to the Solomons and collected zoos there along side native collectors.

The area where they come from is in one relatively small location just a few feet from the beach in an area where raw sewage can enter the water. They are found everywhere in this location covering the rocks for miles in every direction and are only a few inches to no more than a few feet below the surface, as a matter of fact in this area there are very few found below about 5-10 feet. Large sections can be left out of the water at low tide and waves crash on the colonies constantly. The rocks in this area are covered in hair algae and other macro algae--those that get these colonies direct from the Solomons will often see the colonies are covered in silt and algae. Algae blennies are common in the area, other corals growing in this area are Acropora and Pocillopora, both not so colorful in this area.

When the zoo colonies are cut from the rock often the new exposed rock on the base is black with anaerobic bacteria and all types of worms and other critters. These colonies are held for a relatively short period prior to shipment to the US. The colonies are held in shallow tubs under diffused natural sunlight with minimal water flow.

Upon arrival in the US I always dip them in freshwater for about 10 minutes and then saltwater with Tropic Marin Pro Coral Cure. Usually on a weekly to monthly basis I will import 50-100 4-6 inch colonies. Unlike zoos colledted from other parts of the world, these colonies are sort of shaved off the rocks rather than whole chucks of rock with some zoos on it such as those shipped from Fiji or Bali. Most colonies have an assortment of pests and hitchhikers that fall off in the dips. I then keep them in a shallow vat with intense direct water flow and lots of large Turbo and other assorted snails for 1-2 weeks before doing anything further with them. This works very well in preventing fungal infections and other common problems with these zoos.

Overall, I think the Solomon Island zoos are collected and handled well and the native folks work hard to get us some awesome corals and overall do a great job. They handle lots of different types of corals in volumes, so individual care for each individual colony is not practical, but overall they do a excellent job. Having attempted collecting them myself I can tell you it is difficult. The variety of colors is incredible and blues, reds, and pinks found regularly in this area with most colonies having a mix of colors, multi colored colonies with tightly packed polyps are typical for Solomon zoos.

So, the area where Solomon zoos we get in this country are collected from is a specific shallow tidal pool with intense tropical sunlight, very intense regular wave water flow, high nutrient murky water, the colonies can often be covered in algae and there are relatively few fish in the area so some pests can be allowed to flourish in these colonies growing with tightly packed polyps. I was diving in many other areas in the Solomons and never found zoos in any other areas this leads one to believe that they do need these specific conditions to thrive in the wild.

Growing in this environment explains how hardy these corals can be, but also may explain why some don't do well in certain captive conditions. In my facility I have one SPS system and one soft coral system, the water in the SPS system is more pristine and the zoos definitely do not do as well in that system. This is an observation based upon several years and many hundreds of colonies, not specific individual pieces, ie. these corals are quite adaptable and individual colonies can do exceptionally well under a wide variety of conditions. Someone here will likely say they have some thriving zoos in their SPS dominated tank, but this may not be the general rule for these corals. Colors will fade without intense lighting IME. IMO the most ideal captive environment for these corals is a less heavily skimmed tank that is fed well regularly with very intense lighting and water flow. Definitely most of these corals are sold under the idea that they do well under less lighting and water flow, some colonies can adapt, buy IME to thrive in terms of maximum genetic potential growth and color they will not do their best under low flow and light and too pristine water quality."

Good luck and thanks
PL

[apayne]

GREAT TANK and GREAT INFO!!!! I think that is one of the most unique tanks I have seen!!!
Great job and thanks for sharing.

Aaron

[flyyyguy]

Sweetness.

Now thats what I call a zoa garden.

[RevHtree]

It truly is AWESOME! Thanks again for sharing your masterpiece with us....

[geoxman]

Thanks
Rev, flyy and apayne

[chillman]

outstanding set up.