|
|
|
|
#1
02/02/2007, 09:56 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
January nTOTM - Junkitu's Mushroom House
Thanks to everyone for the great turnout this month and special thanks to Victoria for making it all happen. I feel very fortunate to have won against the stiff competiition from anguswu, 1cenine2005, duec22, and rockindacheeks. I am very excited that my little office softie tank was selected as the nTOTM for January.
WELCOME TO MUSHROOM HOUSE  Introduction: Like many folks on this site, I've kept freshwater fish on and off for most of my life. I've always admired the beautiful colors of saltwater aquariums but thought they were too hard to keep. Last April a friend of mine at work helped changed my opinion. He had decided to upgrade his 80G reef tank and offered to give me some live rock from his old setup to help get me started. Needless to say I took the plunge and have enjoyed every moment of it. Before starting, I tried to read everything that I could find on the internet about nano reefs and found many threads and pictures of beautiful tanks. Ironically, I came across 1cenine2005's tank thread 9 months ago and it inspired me to try to create a relatively moderate/low light tank with colorful soft corals and invertebrates. I started out with a ton of green mushrooms which came on the live rock and quickly added some striking color with a yellow fiji leather and some zoas. I was hooked. My tank became my obsession and I’ve been trying to continue to add more amazing color to it ever since. A good friend of mine who has been keeping larger tanks for years likened nano reefing to keeping a bonsai tree. The placement and shape of every little aspect of the tree is critical to the overall aesthetic outcome. I totally agree. I’ve found that color, shape, texture, and placement are the raw materials for a beautiful nano tank and you have to be patient in selecting the right specimens and in putting them all together. Thanks again and I hope you enjoy my tank. Here is a slideshow that shows the progression of Mushroom House over the last nine months: http://s74.photobucket.com/albums/i2...1170373984.pbw Tank Parameters Ph: 8.1 Temp: 78 - 81 degrees Farenheit Ca: 450 S.G.: 1.026 Nitrates: 0 Nitrites: 0 Ammonia: 0 Circulation: I run a Maxi-Jet 900 on the return, a Mini-Jet 606 with a HydorFlo, and a Mini-Jet 404. These pumps combined with the powerheads on my chiller and skimmer result in approximately 20X circulation. Controller: A Premium Aquatics Lighthouse controller manages my chiller, skimmer, and the dawn to dusk cycle of my lights. It also monitors my Ph and temperature. Filtration: I have a Sapphire Aquatics skimmer that runs in the right rear chamber. It is designed to fit under the Aquapod's hood and works well. The controller runs the skimmer from 8pm to 8am every night. Live rock and live sand perform the only other filtration in my system. Lighting and Photo Period: 1 x 40W Current USA Sunpod Dual Daylight (8am - 5pm) 1 x 40W Current USA Sunpod Dual Actinic (6am - 6pm) 2 Moonlights (always on) Chiller: Temperature control is an issue since my tank is at the office and HVAC system doesn't operate in the evenings or weekends. I've installed a Nanocustoms ICA chiller. The controller turns the chiller on when temps hit 81 degrees. Feeding: Spectrum and Formula 1 marine pellets (5 days/week) Kent Marine Zoe (5 days/week) Cyclopeeze (3 days/week) DT's Phytoplankton (1 day/week) Maintenance: Kent Marine Nano 2-part additive (Monday, Thrusday) 20% water change (C-Pure seawater) once a week Scrub and scrape algae once a week Top off with RO/DI as needed Here’s a shot of the color on the top shelf of my aquascape.  A closer look of the rics and coco worm on the right side.  Here’s my little zoa and paly garden. 
Last edited by junkitu; 02/02/2007 at 10:32 PM. |
|
#2
02/02/2007, 09:59 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
January nTOTM - Junkitu's Mushroom House
Livestock:
ORA B&W Clown Red Firefish Flame Angel 2 Skunk Cleaner Shrimps Orange Lace Purple Feather Duster Coco Worm Assorted Clean Up Crew My son calls this one Panda. Clownfish were always the saltwater fish that caught my eye the most and I had to have one when I started my nano.   The flame was an awesome addition to the tank. He’s been great so far with the coral and hasn’t picked on anything…yet.  The orange lace purple duster and coco worm are relatively new additions to the tank and I like the color as well as the motion that they add.  
|
|
#3
02/02/2007, 10:01 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
January nTOTM - Junkitu's Mushroom House
Coral:
Yellow fiji leather Creme colored finger leather with white polyps Devil's hand with neon green polyps Green polyped toadstool 4 varieties of florida ricordea (neon green, army green, orange and blue) Tangerine and blue yuma Green and gold yumas Blue rhodactis mushrooms Pink Hairy mushrooms Mint rhodactis mushrooms Red mushrooms Green mushrooms Blue mushrooms Hambali pulsing xenias Alien eye daisy polyps Neon green candy canes Purple rim short tentacled fungia plate Red/green open brain Assorted zoos and palys (OPE, Lemons, Blue Eye Devils, Armageddons, Tub's Blues, RPE, Dragon Eyes, Coco's Pinks, Purple Dreams, Watermelons, Terminators, Yellow Ultimates, Green Crossettes, Eagle Eyes) Sarcophyton Elegans. This was one of my first corals and has become the signature of my tank.  I’ve also added a variety of other leathers including Sarcophyton sp., Lobophytum sp., and Sinularia sp.  My tank truly is a house made of mushrooms. Here’s a pic of several varieties together: Actinodiscus sp., Rhodactis sp., and Ricordea Florida.  Rhodactis sp.  Actinodiscus sp.  Rhodactis sp.  Ricordea Yuma and Florida  Ricordea Yuma 
|
|
#4
02/02/2007, 10:05 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
January nTOTM - Junkitu's Mushroom House
I also have a few LPS to offset the softies. Here are some neon green candycanes that I grew out from a 2 headed frag: Caulastrea sp.
 Fungia Fujites  Trachyphillia sp.  One of the greatest sources of color variety in my tank are the zoas and palys: Protopalythoa sp., and Zoanthus sp.  Macro Shots: As I mentioned above, texture as well as color are really important to a beautiful tank. Here are some macro shots highlighting what I mean. Xenia sp. (pulsing)  Actinodiscus sp.  Trachyphillia sp.  Special Thanks: Behruz Dan www.AtlantisAquarium.net (Ming) www.AquariumConceptsInc.com Ultimate Aquarium (Mr. Bigs) www.UltimateFrags.com (Rommel) www.dolphinpetvillage.com If you'd like to read more about my tank and see more pics please click here. |
|
#5
02/02/2007, 10:56 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Great job!
|
|
#9
02/03/2007, 08:00 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
thats funny are you from SI? If so, check out my web site its nothing much I just do it for fun.
http://www.statenislandimages.com/
__________________
****************************** Danny |
|
#12
02/03/2007, 11:32 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Thank you all.
Quote:
 Only because I decided to go with a softie tank. Your advice has been invaluable to me EZ. Thank you. I've actually been thinking a lot about your tank as a model for my next project 
|
|
#14
02/03/2007, 04:17 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
umm what to say that hasnt already been said?
i WANT YOUR TANK! |
|
#18
02/04/2007, 03:06 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Quote:
|
|
#20
02/04/2007, 05:21 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Quote:
|
|
#25
02/06/2007, 08:40 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
I've posted the thread calling for February nTOTM contestants. Let's see those nanos and picos!
|
|
|
my tank wasn't an inspiration?
Linear Mode
