Dawn's 56 gallon natural nutrient garden

vlangel · Feb 5, 2019

The members' tanks cycle through so fast that I need to look through a lot of pages to find my thread so I figured I would also journal it here. Here is my link:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dawns-natural-nutrient-reef-garden.546312/

I took a video featuring a lot of the critters that reside in this tank: fish, shrimp, crabs, snails, asterina stars, micro starfish and even bristleworms! Once it is uploaded I will post it here.

acer · Feb 6, 2019

very nice

Hemmdog · Feb 6, 2019

vlangel said:
The members' tanks cycle through so fast that I need to look through a lot of pages to find my thread so I figured I would also journal it here. Here is my link:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dawns-natural-nutrient-reef-garden.546312/

I took a video featuring a lot of the critters that reside in this tank: fish, shrimp, crabs, snails, asterina stars, micro starfish and even bristleworms! Once it is uploaded I will post it here.

Very cool! What’s that long blue fish you have, he’s sweet.

vlangel · Feb 6, 2019

acer said:
very nice

Thanks Ted, I like this tank because it is so easy.

vlangel · Feb 6, 2019

Hemmdog said:
Very cool! What’s that long blue fish you have, he’s sweet.

Thank you. The blue fish is a blue gudgeon dartfish. They were extremely shy for the first 2 weeks, so much so that I was afraid that they were going to perish from lack of food. Now however they come out into the water column frequently even when I am not feeding.

Dr. Dendrostein · Feb 6, 2019

vlangel said:
The members' tanks cycle through so fast that I need to look through a lot of pages to find my thread so I figured I would also journal it here. Here is my link:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dawns-natural-nutrient-reef-garden.546312/

I took a video featuring a lot of the critters that reside in this tank: fish, shrimp, crabs, snails, asterina stars, micro starfish and even bristleworms! Once it is uploaded I will post it here.

Thank you for sharing, comrade

kevinl · Feb 6, 2019

Beautiful Dawn!
The life you have in that tank is amazing!!

vlangel · Feb 6, 2019

kevinl said:
Beautiful Dawn!
The life you have in that tank is amazing!!

Thanks Kevin, I appreciate the kind words. This tank is the most fun, vibrant, stable aquarium I have ever had.

vlangel · Feb 19, 2019

I call this tank a natural nutrient tank because I intentionally run the nutrients high. Since its an aio I do not have a skimmer on it. It gets fed heavily because of the blennies and gobies needing to eat 2-3 Xs a day. I rely on the ornamental macro algaes to utilize all the nutrients in the water. Last week even I was a bit taken back when my testing showed NO3 to be 50 ppm and PO4 to be between 1-2 ppm! The tank is very clean though, so I am getting away with it because of the macros. I am cutting back a bit on the food in hopes of getting it down closer to NO3 being 20 - 30 ppm and PO4 being .5 - 1 ppm for the sake of my inverts. Macro algaes will outcompete nuisance algaes as long as the ratio of nitrates to phosphates is in the 30:1 range and there is enough carbon available.

vlangel · Feb 23, 2019

Going to LEAR was amazing. We got there about 40 minutes to an hour after it started and there was still a huge long line to get in. Fortunately it went fast.

Seeing so many beautiful coral in 1 room was overwhelming. I was not sure whether to shop around or to just buy when I deemed a coral a good price. I ended doing the latter.

I went knowing that I was going to look for ricordia, and a long polyp toadstool. I also thought different color euphyllia would be nice. Beyond that, I wasn't sure.

Well I came home with 14 new coral! It was so much fun. I did not spend more than $35 on any coral. I have 5 new ricordia/yuma/shroom, 2 new acans, 1 new gorg. I saw a very pretty acid washed BTA, (of course he chose to attach to the back of my rock on the left). He's still viewable and feedable so it's ok. And he can't hurt anything else back there. Also I saw a beautiful yellow torch and I always wanted one. There was a green tipped hammer and mine is a purple tipped hammer. And there was green pipe organ, another coral that I always wanted but never tried. On my list was a duncan frag so I had to buy that and also my long polyp toadstool. Lastly I bought those large brownish tan and white palys which I can't recall the name atm. Anyway it was a great day. The coral are in the tank and I will get pics when I can.

vlangel · Feb 23, 2019

14 new coral and the FTS does not look that different but here goes:

2019-02-23_06-24-35 by Dawn Gilson, on Flickr

Yellow torch with green tipped hammer in the backround. by Dawn Gilson, on Flickr

Green pipe organ by Dawn Gilson, on Flickr

2 new acans by Dawn Gilson, on Flickr

Acid washed bta in foreground, the long polyp toadstool is in the background all closed up. by Dawn Gilson, on Flickr

vlangel · Feb 27, 2019

I moved the pipe organ and it is much happier, and the same goes for the hammer. I moved the toadstool leather and I am much happier, and the acid washed BTA moved itself and I hope it is finally happy! All the other coral I got are doing great except the non photosynthetic gorge which has yet to open it's polyps.

vlangel · Mar 2, 2019

Last night I came home to find the non photosynthetic gorg half open. I immediately added microvert and phytofeast to the fish food. This morning the whole gorg is open which is very exciting since gorgonians really help create that natural look I am going for.

kevinl · Mar 2, 2019

vlangel · Mar 3, 2019

Orange gorg with white polyps by Dawn Gilson, on Flickr
Orange non photosynthetic gorg with white polyps. Acid washed BTA in front of it.

2019-03-03_07-28-37 by Dawn Gilson, on Flickr
Grandis and yellow hammer.

2019-03-03_07-30-18 by Dawn Gilson, on Flickr
I moved the sun polyps, the yellow whip gorg and the pink tipped hammer to this area.

March FTS by Dawn Gilson, on Flickr
March 2019 FTS

Misled · Mar 3, 2019

Beautiful stuff Dawn!!!

BIGGUN · Mar 3, 2019

I KNEW you'd like it there.

Nice tank!

vlangel · Mar 3, 2019

Misled said:
Beautiful stuff Dawn!!!

Thanks Jesse! I got some really nice coral from the LEAR frag swap and they are filling in my reef nicely. Now, I need to concentrate on keeping them alive and getting them to grow. If I can do that then this tank should be looking pretty good in a year from now.

vlangel · Mar 3, 2019

BIGGUN said:
I KNEW you'd like it there.

Nice tank!

Yes, it was so much fun! Now I am going to want to go every year, LOL! Thanks, I am enjoying it and the ease of care compared to my seahorse tank.

vlangel · Mar 3, 2019

Marmalade looking very cute as always! by Dawn Gilson, on Flickr
Marmalade is about as cute as they come!

Acans garden on retaining wall. by Dawn Gilson, on Flickr
The GCG is Jet. I have 2 of them but Piper and Jet must be feuding because they live on opposite ends of the tank!

Yellow torch, ricordia and BTA by Dawn Gilson, on Flickr
I am a sucker for any euphillia with waving tentacles in the flow! Torches have challenged me in the past but this one seems off to a good start.

Long polyp toadstool by Dawn Gilson, on Flickr
I know toadstools are a super common coral but I went to LEAR to specifically find one, particularly with long polyps.

Xenia by Dawn Gilson, on Flickr
Another super common coral but I love xenia. RIP Sebastion (Nick) gave this colony to me a year or so back and it has thrived in spite of being moved from tank to tank.

My dartfish are Spirit and Spectre but I can not tell them apart. by Dawn Gilson, on Flickr
Spirit and Spectre are such a pretty shade of blue and they add nice color to the reef.