OOOOOHHHHH that light is ghetto-rific!!

LOL... must be the bright red twist connectors.

looking good! Is that MH fixture setting right on the glass? If so better find some way to get a space between the glass and the light or something is gonna pop!

looks good! could use some duct tape though:wink:

you destroyed the scape! ahhh!!

It currently is sitting on the glass (well, sort of), I'm working on a fix for that... This fixture will be boxed in and hung sooner than later. I'm hoping the glass cover is okay until then... it gets warm, but not so hot that I can't keep my hand right where the MH sits for a while before it becomes too hot. If that makes any sense... but I hear ya, and that's my major concern right now.

I should note that it's not an actual MH fixture either. This fixture is made for a 300W halogen.

karazy, don't worry about the scape... when I find that piece of perfect rock, it will all work out. You'll see :wink:

FTS... Note the dominance of filamentous algae :lol:
http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/u...reef/006-3.jpg

Metal halide seems to make all the difference. More light is better! I can count at least 7 different kinds of algae on my rock that has kicked into high gear in the last week. I have lots of hair algae, seems to be the dominant species in my young reef. I have yet to secure a piece of live rock to finish the rockwork... the long island on the right is going to be broken into smaller chunks tonight, and I'll be making a phonecall about an 8 lb piece of live rock next week. I also have some further plans for a rock ledge attached to the middle filter intake, which should mask the intake a bit (it's right in the centre so it tends to draw the eye).

http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/u...reef/016-2.jpg
http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/u...reef/010-2.jpg

ghetto green! algae that is

I've been considering what to add to eat the algae... it has potential to be a food source! I'd rather not look at it as a problem... it could be in an established system, but we're sort of in flux here. I broke some rock up to make better use of it's pieces, siliconed a couple to the filter intake (a rock ledge of sorts, where I can put something invasive so it won't spread to all the rocks) to help mask it a bit. Looks pretty good I think, I'll let it get some growth on it before I get pics.

As far as something to eat the algae, I'm leaning towards a Rainford's or a Hector's Goby. I understand that filamentous algae makes up a portion of their diet... I've heard this about damsels and demoiselles also, but I don't want anything too aggressive in this tank.

I was just kidding around with the ghetto green comment. looks like most of it is macro. I found I didn't mind it as long as it wasen't GHA. I liked Halimeda in my tank because looked like a tree or bush.

I've never heard of those fish as being algae eaters, a couple snails or crabs would be better.

Hmm, now you've got me thinking about this... maybe this long algae isn't GHA. I'll have to do some more research on the subject... I have at least 7 different kinds of growth on this rock, including coralline and some green discs that come and go pretty quickly. It does grow quickly and gets quite long... single, unbranched strands... *EDIT: as it turns out, most of it was Bryopsis which branches like a foxtail. The really long strands were actually GHA...*

When I post some new pics, you may be able to tell me if it's GHA... if so, no big deal, I've been physically removing it (but something will need to be done). I'll have something in there competing for nutrients soon enough anyhow.

Aww... well, thanks for your input. Back to the drawing board on that one. I'll admit that I've read conflicting information... one website characterized these guys as sand sifters, another had them feeding on pods and filamentous algae. Still, they are nice little fish, and either way they will serve a purpose.

Anyhow, now I have a tentative stocking plan! Rather, a finalized tentative stocking plan...

2 x Pom Pom Crabs
1 x Rainford Goby
1 x Royal Gramma
A shrimp or 3 (single if Bumblebee Shrimp don't hang out together, a pair if they do... or 3 Sexy Shrimp). I may skip these.
A few Snails, haven't decided what kind yet... something that stays small, and will clean the glass (or turn the sand if the Goby isn't a sifter). I'll likely choose 2 kinds and get a pair or so of each.

Green Hair Algae (or whatever the green stuff is :mrgreen:
Mermaid's Fan
Mermaid's Wine Glass (if I can find it)
Halimeda
Other macros that I can hopefully get from Canreef members...

Various Zoanthids, Palythoas
Micromussa
Acanthastrea
Echinophyllia
A photosynthetic gorgonian (leaning towards Pseudoterogorgia, but not sure if I have enough light)
A small derasa clam (though this tank will probably get upgraded before it's ready for a clam)

So that's where I'm at right now. I'll not be adding any more rock to this tank, unless I find the perfect piece (or some falls in my lap).

Acclimated and got some livestock in the tank. Hopefully not going too fast with a fish, a crab, and a Paly frag... Hopefully the poor little fish makes it... he wasn't too happy in the bag (water had cooled significantly... was sitting around 70 degrees). Paly's opened under the lights once they were in the tank (lights off wasn't for another half hour), came with a hitchhiker fanworm wrapped around one of the stalks. Emerald Crab was acclimated slower than the rest (though I did baby the fish a little more than I would normally with a 'hardy' species), and immediately started attacking algae once in the tank. So far so good... we'll see by morning what has happened.

Pics tommorrow.

Alright, my tank sucks even with livestock :lol:...
http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/u...reef/002-6.jpg

View from the computer...
http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/u...reef/004-3.jpg

And when you enter my apartment...
http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/u...reef/005-2.jpg

Green Paly...
http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/u...reef/001-5.jpg

I should thank Bayside Corals in Saskatoon for some really awesome livestock. Even if you don't see most of it :biggrin:

love the scape, but get an urchin for god sakes!

:lol:

I knew someone would say something about the GHA. I don't mind it but I would normally have done a 'harvest' when I cleaned the glass (which I did today) before taking pics.

When I was on the phone with whoever it was that sold my mom this livestock, I originally wanted a couple different kinds of snails... something that would take care of filamentous algae on the rocks, diatoms and film algae on the glass. They didn't have any snails, but did have emerald crabs... good choice, really, he's interesting and he eats the GHA (which is really only a minor problem), but his carapace is only the size of a nickel. A tiny crab like that can only eat so much algae, though I did watch him clear around 1/3 of the smaller rock island yesterday. I also fed mysis in an attempt to get the Royal Gramma interested in checking out his surroundings, instead of hiding in the back of the larger island (he ate a few pieces :biggrin: very encouraging)... I noted the emerald chowing on some leftovers, then he crawled into the island and I haven't seen him since. Hope he's okay...

And they had urchins at Bayside, but I decided I didn't want one and chose the crab instead. He'll get to it soon enough, I'm sure... I don't want the GHA gone, just controlled. It's a natural part of my system and I do like it, there's just too much of it.

Alright, so I moved stuff around in my Photobucket and now all my images are broken. Hrm... I'll get to that. Anyhow, FTS after the algae harvest...
http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/u...20reef/003.jpg

A shot of the blue legged hermit... he's changed shells again.
http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/u...20reef/004.jpg

And a shot of the emerald. I probably took 50 pics of him while I could see him, and a few of them turned out really nice...
http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/u...20reef/006.jpg

And a shot of the setup as a whole, before the algae harvest yesterday...
http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/u...reef/003-2.jpg

Thanks for looking :biggrin:

Crabs are so cool, I will watch them for hours given the chance. Harry the emerald crab went MIA a couple of months back and I suspect a Xanthid crab I see occasionally that I am too lazy to evict.

love how you have the rock balanced. amano reef style!

Yeah I really like the crab. He's super cool and fun to watch. Nameless as yet, but I'm sure someone will name him eventually. Mr. Crabs is already taken up by the hermit :lol:

That rock is truly balanced... it has a pivot point. It is also the home of all my livestock, so I have to be very careful when I have my hands in the tank since I don't want it to pivot and crush someone. But it does look very good, IMO... that's good, since there was a time when I was going to smash that rock into smaller pieces. The urge has subsided, I'm happy with the rockwork (however little of it there is). Glad others like it too :smile:

So looking very closely, I notice that what I thought were single strands of algae are actually branched like a foxtail... in other words, I have Bryopsis (and have had since the beginning). I started dosing calcium and magnesium this week (not the Kent brand though), I will also continue with physical removal. Hopefully I notice some improvement in the next couple weeks... the tank is no where near mature yet, and the infestation is localized to my rockwork. Time will tell.

I also have discovered a (1) flatworm hitchhiker on my Paly frag. I'm not worried about him yet, but if it turns out he has a bunch of friends... well, I guess I'll have to get some Flatworm Exit. I was unable to siphon the one I saw.

Hmm, so the first bad news in my tank. Not really such bad news (since neither pests are really making nuisances of themselves), but I'm hoping things don't get out of hand.

Second bad news... everything looked fine at 10 am... by noon my Royal Gramma was dead. Upon inspecting his body, I found his damaged eye sunken in and a lot of damage on that side of his face... really, I think this is what killed him. It looked like some pretty extensive abrasion, I'm surprised he was able to eat at all while he was alive.

I'll be phoning Bayside Corals today to ask them nicely to remember to tape the corners of the bags when they package their livestock. My fish would likely have lived if he hadn't stuffed himself into the bag corner for the 11 hours he was in a bag.

I'll be doing a round of tests to make sure it wasn't a parameter off. Everything else looks fine though, coral and both crabs are fine... we'll see what the tests say.

All parameters were fine the next day... 0 ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, 11 dKh, 460 ppm Ca (a little high), ~1400 ppm Mg (not exactly sure, but it's above 1350). So the fish died from another cause... all other livestock is in great shape, I've even noticed some color change on my Palys (less brown, more green).

The dosing seems to have stopped the Bryopsis in it's tracks, and it is quickly being replaced with a red filamentous algae that doesn't grow too long, or is being cropped by the emerald crab. I will likely have to continue with the physical removal for a while.

I phoned Bayside and spoke with Colby... what an awesome guy! He offered me a replacement or credit even though they don't have a livestock guarantee. I will definitely be spending at Bayside again :biggrin: We'll see what happens now. I may go fishless and just get a couple shrimp and another crab. Or I may get another Royal Gramma... this seems more likely.

My substrate had a reddish tinge to it for the past two weeks, and now has changed to a greyish color. Cyano? I dunno, I suspect so but it didn't take over everything like it seems to in other tanks. Gone now, whatever it was.

Huh, I see I haven't updated this in a while. Alright, current FTS (my thread on NR is so much more organised :lol:)...
http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/u...20reef/001.jpg

The rockwork has changed (for the last time!) because while cleaning the glass panels the last time I bumped the rock and it almost pivoted over, but stopped pretty much where it is now. It's just lightly resting on the smaller rock now, since the emerald crab is able to move it and I don't want it falling on the site of future Paly and Zoa frags. I have intentions of putting in live rock rubble and placing my frags there, for easy refragging... I've actually already done this with the green Paly frag and it has already encrusted. I don't really want them directly on my rocks... actually, I don't want any softies on my rock, maybe some blue clove polyps if I can find some. I'll make an exception for gorgonians :lol:

I seem to have won the battle with Bryopsis, which is what all that green stuff was, NOT GHA as I originally thought... I do have some red wiry-hairy stuff, but it doesn't seem to croud anything else out like the Bryopsis was doing. I have a few isolated tufts of GHA that have been cropped short and look like mounds of moss (feel like it too), thanks <insert name of emerald crab here> for keeping that stuff short. I like the fresh cut lawn look, but the 'algae forest' thing with the Bryopsis wasn't great. It would seem that Tailored Aquatics Reef Magnesium and Calcium Plus (which also has Mg and Strontium in it, along with an 'organic carbon source') together are a pretty good team.

Noting Paly color change... when I first got it...
http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/u...reef/001-5.jpg

And now...
http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/u.../004-Copy6.jpg

I have identified 3 types of macroalgae on my rocks... Acetabularia schenckii (a really small Mermaid's Wine Glass), Neomeris spp. and Enteromorpha spp. (shown below)...
http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/u.../007-Copy4.jpg

And my blue legged hermit molted and is now huge! Well, comparatively anyhow... pics of that tomorrow when I get them uploaded, I have an awesome one of him right up against the front glass. He shows less fear of things moving outside the tank now... hmm, weird. I also have one of the molt... I thought I had a dead hermit for a day or so.

Oops double post... see above :redface:

Everyone loves pics :lol:

Blue legged hermit's molt...
http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/u...reef/001-2.jpg

And the 'new skin' pic...
http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/u...reef/003-4.jpg

:biggrin:

I've seen this tank before....

:lol: No, you haven't. You had this nightmare where you live 400 miles from the nearest LFS and have a 10 gallon reef tank that is really hardcore minimalist as a result.

Hmm, starfish hitchhiker :biggrin:
http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/u...20reef/018.jpg

Some planning has been done as far as rockwork... I need more rock, but not much. I also have some further stocking plans as far as stuff from Calgary... more tomorrow, I`m tired :lol:

I'd remove the starfish off the Zoa's. I had a type of asterina that did eat Zoa's .... and with them being on your Zoa frag and your frag looking closed up...I'd get it gone! just IMO

Thank Chaloupa, I have identified him as an Asterina star. He doesn't seem to be doing any damage to the Palys but I should have removed him when I found him. Ah well, if my Palys start disappearing I'll know why at least. I've read that they are hit or miss as far as being reef safe, so I'll keep a close watch on things.

I should note the frag is closed up in that pic because the hermit had just spent some time crawling on them, cleaning between the polyps. They opened up really fast after that pics was taken.

EDIT: He's not on the Paly's today, I inspected :lol: So, who knows?

Calgary is awesome! You guys are really REALLY lucky! Beautiful, lots to do, and not too bad to drive (though I have avoided rush hour so far!)... actually stuff is easy to find, if you have a GPS :razz:

I've stopped at 3 LFS here, Elite, Red Coral, and Gold Aquariums... awesome stores, I saw stuff I wanted in every store (and spent 100 bucks on coral in one... a pink Paly colony, a zoa colony with fanworms (can't remember the color but the rock looked nice ;) ) and a little green brain coral. Pretty good deal, I think. I still need to buy a piece of rock that I found at one (perfect piece of rock to finish the tank), a fish, a shrimp, and some snails. I've decided a couple Trochus snails and a couple Nassarius snails would be a good addition to the CUC, and should be enough to keep the tank clean.

I will yet be shopping further... I haven't decided what else I want, but there's so much nice stuff and I need to eventually fill this tank :lol:

lets see pics of the tank with the new stuff!

Pics of the tank tomorrow... lights have been off for a while. Did some final positioning today and everything except the 'orange zoas of wonder' :wink: have opened. Whether they are PO'd because I moved them and cleaned the glass today, or because the light is too strong I'm not sure.

Pics of the mountains!

http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/u.../Banff/064.jpg

http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/u.../Banff/027.jpg

http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/u.../Banff/036.jpg

http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/u.../Banff/055.jpg

http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/u.../Banff/041.jpg

http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/u.../Banff/042.jpg

http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/u.../Banff/067.jpg

http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/u.../Banff/106.jpg

nice! the orange zoas of wonder are probably PO'd cuz you moved em. they should be fine tomorrow.

I'm not too worried, they were peeking a little at the end of the photoperiod. I'm more worried about the fishes and the brain coral, but the fishes will need some time to adjust anyhow (I expect this) and I'm not sure what a happy brain coral looks like. The brain refused mysis today, but doesn't have any signs of losing flesh or bleaching, so it is probably fine. I'll let the experts be the judge of that tomorrow :lol:

haha, that firefish does quite the disappearing act. when i bagged him up, the second i put the net in the tank he was gone. i literally could not find him anywhere.
thankfully he was out again in 20 minutes.

Yeah the firefish is rarely seen... mostly at feeding time and a while after when he comes out for bits of mysis. And then darts back in to the rock :lol:

Anyhow, without further ado... the new, improved, greatly upgraded GhettoReef!

FTS...
http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/u...20reef/144.jpg

Closeup of the green and red open brain... seems to be quite puffy today but still rejected the mysis...
http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/u...20reef/131.jpg
http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/u...20reef/137.jpg

Hector's Goby, seems to be sifting sand, eating algae (picking at the rocks anyhow, bare or not), and was relatively visible today. He's pretty entertaining, I hope he does well. He has been named Toby by my friend... I have a feeling it will stick.
http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/u...20reef/123.jpg

Pink paly rock above (I expect these will turn fluorescent pink with streaks on the disc), single green mushroom below. This mushroom was much more expanded in the store, I suspect that there is a lot more flow in my tank than the tank in the store, so it looks a lot different here than it did there... but I'm super happy with it :biggrin:
http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/u...20reef/141.jpg

This it the zoa rock that I bought at the same time as the pink palys, also quite brown but I expect changes here also... I really like this rock because it has some sponges on it (that don't seem to be rotting away and most of which was on the top side of the rock where it would have gotten some light... maybe photosynthetic?) and it HAD a whole lot of tiny fanworms on it but these may be getting preyed on by one of the crabs, since there seems to be less of them today... we'll see what happens over time.
http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/u...20reef/120.jpg
http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/u...20reef/119.jpg
http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/u...20reef/118.jpg

A couple zoa frags (one is fresh cut so it's not opening fully yet)...
http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/u...20reef/117.jpg
http://i633.photobucket.com/albums/u...20reef/116.jpg

Now I need the orange zoas to open, and the firefish to be a little more active (so I can get a picture!). And the brain coral to start eating... it worries me that it won't eat.

that green mushroom looks great in your tank.

Yeah I thought so too... hope it's happy and decides to multiply. Thanks for all your help in the store, BTW... much appreciated (and I felt sort of lost in these stores at times, being new in the hobby and all).

no problem man. must be hard not having an LFS