Pisces's Aquatic Evolution

pisces4u · Aug 17, 2009

Well, here we stand (my girlfriend and I) an eventful 5 months into our reefing adventure.

It all started with his and hers twin Aquapod 12's. A month in, I was already dreaming of a larger (but not too large) tank and fate provided me the opportunity when I returned home to a cracked Aquapod and a bunch of distressed livestock.

That same day I upgraded to a 50g breeder. All of our combined corals and critters survived the stress and moves and we've had a great 4 months of stability.

Here are pics of our 50g penninsula room divider with 3 viewable sides.

Equipment:
4x39w nova extreme (first on the upgrade list), 6 powerbrite 460nm strips, acrylic overflow, k2 & k3 for flow DIY sump with Bak Pak skimmer, refugium, ac70 as GAC reactor, filter floss, 200w heater, and return.

Started with mushrooms (my gf has a mushroom problem) and zoanthids (my addiction) and we have been gravitating towards sps.

Here are some shots of our corals and livestock.

When I run out of dosing, feeding, cleaning, and DIY projects, I like to take a lot of pictures so updates are pretty regular and photo intensive.

Thanks for reading!

underwaterfirefighter · Aug 18, 2009

Very nice! looking great. My wife started with a mushroom addiction. Now she has a chalice addiction. Now I'm going broke.

Dave

RadReef · Aug 18, 2009

Nice Tank! You got some good pictures as well.

Russellaqua · Aug 18, 2009

Very nice. The colors really pop against the black.

oceanparadise1 · Aug 18, 2009

Nice to see you finnaly took my advice arron and joined here!

Side note: I've seen this tank in person....one of the nicest looking tanks I've ever seen! And this kid is a genious when it comes to dyi sumps! Arron please post pics of ur super sump!!!!

pisces4u · Aug 18, 2009

Thanks all!

Thanks for the props Phil.

I am by no means a sump genious lol compared to some of the acrylic masters out there with their crazy sump designs.

I did start a 10g frag tank a couple months ago and my need to create more space and continuously improving water quality, I created a 10g sump for it. I wanted to incorporate many filtration methods so I packed as much as I could into a little 10g.

Here is the frag tank (10g)

And the sump (10g)

And the sump design. It incorporates mechanical and chemical filtration, LR, DSB, Miracle Mud and Caulerpa. I have also added a small HOB skimmer and have a load of mangroves arriving this week to split between the display sump and frag sump.

pisces4u · Aug 18, 2009

Well, after dealing with nitrates about 20ppm for months, I have made some modifications to the sump and seem to be making progress. Nitrates are down to 10ppm, calcium and alk are remaining stable with 2 part and aragomite top off water. I just hooked up a phosphate reactor, threw in a new batch of carbon, and 20 mangroves arrive tomorrow. I'm hoping to see even quicker growth from the acros!

Everything seems to be appreciating the improving quality so I grabbed some shots of my acros and some growth shots. Check out the polyp extension on my happy acros.

My pink milli has developed a green growth edge and a couple green tips. Maybe it's morphing into a watermelon milli. I think I saw something like that somewhere. Check out the bottom encrusting edge.

Blue tort from Henry C. One of my favorites.

Another beaut from Henry. Rich purple with green polyps, I think he said it was nana or valida.

Red Planet

ORA Bellina

My 3 greens. First one is an insanely hairy green. The skeleton doesn't resemble a milli, maybe a prostrata? The second one has very small polyps with no tentacles, even when happy. It was broken from a local show tank and the mother looks the same. The corallites face down the branches towards the tips and the polyps are on the facing edge, not on the tips of the corallites. The third is beyond me, again broken from a large mother colony locally. Branches are lime green with blue tips.

Pearlberry

Sunset monti with stunning color. One of my favorites and can't wait to see it grow in.

I'm starting to take weekly pics of the SPS to compare for growth. Here's 3 weeks growth on a small birdsnest frag.
7/27/07

8/18/09

Thanks for reading!

oceanparadise1 · Aug 18, 2009

Looking good A! your gonna have to come over some time when you get a chance and help me make my sump like that for my 55 frag tank!

pisces4u · Aug 26, 2009

Small update... 20 mangroves came in last week. I made an eggcrate rack for them and mounted 18 in the main sump and 2 in the frag sump.

I also upgraded the BakPak skimmer to a Reef Octopus which I'm pretty excited about. The difference in skimmate is shocking.

I've also been dosing Microbacter7 in preparation for possibly vodka dosing. Between that, the mangroves, and new skimmer, my nitrates have gone from 20 to 5 over the past month. I'll have to take some water in to get tested for phosphates, but I may avoid vodka dosing all together.

No pics atm but some nice ones soon. I noticed some nice growth this week and added a ORA Bellina.

revhtree · Aug 26, 2009

Tank looks great! I am liking the black sand as well!

oceanparadise1 · Aug 26, 2009

HEY bro! what octo you get???!?!? u gotta stop over and see the new frags/mini colonys i got 8 more in today! cant wait to see urs!

bamachamp92 · Aug 26, 2009

Very nice, I like the aquascaping and coral choices

pisces4u · Aug 26, 2009

nw110

I had been window shopping for skimmer upgrades and someone mentioned ARC carries them at online prices.

dbarker · Aug 26, 2009

I personally think that you and gf are right on target! Not only do you have vision but you have great taste in corals! Go forth and prosper! May your bank account be larger than your taste for new corals! Though, so far that has not been my problem! Debbie

pisces4u · Aug 26, 2009

Thanks all~

We are blessed to have 8 dedicated salt water shops within reasonable driving distance and a really awesome community of hobbyists. Not to mention all the great information and experiences available online on sites such as this!

We wouldn't be where we are today without the help of you all~