Shrimpchips' SPS nano
 

Hello CanReef!

I joined while ago and posted here and there but never introduced myself until now. I enjoy this board a lot as the discussions here actually are productive (and well, you guys actually have discussions unlike on our local big forum), and all the folks here seem like good reefers. Glad to be here, even though most of you guys are so far away!

My tank: 21 g nano tank dominated by SPS
Tank Specs:
Tank: 16 x 16 x 21 custom glass tank
Light: 6x18w T5HO Current USA Nova Extreme Pro
Sump: 10g standard tank with acrylic baffles
Skimmer: Tunze 9002
Return: Eheim 1250
ATO: Tunze Osmolator
PH: EcoTech MP-20
doser: GHL Profilux 4-channel standalone doser + Fauna Marin balling light and vodka dosing (1 ml 2 times / day)
controller: GHL Profilux plus II w/LAN

Fish: 2 Pearly jawfish, sixline wrasse, pair of true percs
Inverts: RBTA, sexy shrimp, cleaner shrimp, hermits, astreas, ceriths, trochus, nassarius, mithrax crab, gold maxima clam

Corals: Lots of SPS, a few LPS, a few zoas, a few ricordea and some softies - a mixed reef.

recent FTS:
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...TS07-07-09.jpg

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...lf07-07-09.jpg

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...en07-07-09.jpg

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...cs07-07-09.jpg

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...ma01-06-09.jpg

Beautiful..
Those ricordia are gorgeous! very jealous.

Wow thats quite the nano. In shear numbers you have more in a 20gal than I do in my 120gal!

very nice tank! How old is it? how do you like your vortech?

your blue rics are friggin sweet i wish i could find nice ones like that here.

Wow, amazing little tank. I love the dimensions! And welcome!

Thanks! I started with a 10g last September (to the day?), and quicly upgraded in December to this one.

I really like the vortech, and was one of the first purchases I had made, and I'll definitely get more for the upgrade.

Thanks - it's my latest "thing", although first and foremost I'm interested in SPS.

Yeah - it's quite full. I'm looking to thin out a few pieces, but not too many. Hopefully I'll be upgrading soon so I can start with some nice mini-colonies - I've collected a few pretty nice pieces so it's time to leave them alone to grow out (which in truth is really really hard.....)
I recently got asked to count up everything in there: 45 different SPS (colonies/frags), 7 ricordea colonies, 6 xeniids, 3 LPS, and 20+ zoa morphs - so a fair amount of variety in a small space.

Yeah, I liked the small dimensions at first - until I realized I really shot myself in to foot with lighting choices, especially since I didn't want to go MH.

I'll try to get some updated pics soon :)

Been a while since an update - a few corals were placed, things were removed, some things placed here and there. Not too much changed though.

I did get a new fish last week however. She's in QT and doing very well.

Introducing my little Centropyge potteri (Potters dwarf angelfish):
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/PB034048.jpg

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/PB034047.jpg

Sorry for the crappy pics, but in the second one you can see how nice the colours are on her.

She's in week two of qt, and so far so good. She's getting fatter and eating pellets and macroalgae, but nothing out of the water column yet. I've found that she loves to eat filamentous algae, so she gets a frag plug/rock covered in it every few days. I'll be putting some LPS and zoas in with her to see if she eats them, or if she's going to ignore them for now. Yesterday I gave her a FW dip, and today the cleaner shrimp and her are buddies, so she's finally getting the cleaning she's been wanting the last few days.

While 20g is on the small side for a centropyge (most places recommend a 30g), I think she has plenty of rock to forage off of, and the rock is mature with lots of macro algae growth on it. I'm also able to supplement with more macros (not chaeto) from the fuge, as well as offer lots of foods :)

She's small in that she's about 2.5" - a bit bigger than the (timid) six-line wrasse in the DT. I'll introduce her slowly into the DT isolating either her or the sixline and let them get used to each other first. She should ahve no issues with the jawfish and vice versa.

In terms of nipping at corals, not too worried about my zoas - she can eat them all if she wants :P LPS, I only have 3 kinds, so no big loss. If she takes a chunk of clam, no harm done. But if she's becomes a SPS nipper we may have a problem.

The display tank is looking good - noticed after a WC that the water looked slightly yellow so I changed the carbon (1 cup) and the GFO at the same time (to absorb any phosphates leached by the carbon). At the same time I refilled my Alkalinity buffer solution - 3.5 L lasted me since April or May. At this rate 1 kg will last about 1.5 years. The ca and Mg solutions aren't running anywhere near low.

So without further ado, here are a few shots from tonight:

The Jawfish:
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/PB034019.jpg

Picked this up from reef raft. used to be all brown, but the new growth is pale blue or purple, and the rest of the coral is starting to turn a lighter colour too:
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/PB034031.jpg

Since I started to do WCs regularly again (1/week, 5g) the christmas millie has really coloured up. Pink is coming back, and the lower areas are greenish! Pink, green, white/brown polyps says it's christmas time!
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/PB034024.jpg

Here's a top down of the back half of the reef wall. kinda dark, but I like the top downs, and the back half isn't one I usually take:
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/PB034023.jpg

Close up:
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/PB034026.jpg

FTS:
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/PB034060.jpg

Okay, I have a 16G custom nano but it looks nothing like that. Wow, you have a ton of corals in there. What is your mix of bulbs?

love the pearly jaw fish. one of my favorite fish's

Yeah, it's packed a bit full :D

The bulbs are only available from Current USA - I use 3 daylight (10k) and 3 actinic bulbs. Not a great selection, but the colour is pretty decent (crisp white) and the PAR numbers aren't half bad.
I heard rumors about new bulbs in development, so we'll see if that actually pans out for this fixture.

Me too. So much personality, look great and they're funny buggers too. I love seeing them rearrange their rocks around their holes, and covering up for the night is always a fun thing to see too.

That vortech must be super gentle and broad... it looks menacing in there!

Love the blue ricordia.

Fantastic nano. Great job.

Hey Canreef mods! I think its time a nano made TOTM and I vote for this one!

I actually use a combo of 70w MH and the 2 bulb version of Currents 18" T5HO light, so I know what you mean by lack of bulb options. It would be great to see some other bulbs come out for this as Nano's are big business these days.

Yeah, it looks like a fish muncher for sure! But all my fish when first put into the tank almost got sucked in by it, but since then they've leaned about the giant chop chop in the tank :p The flow is really broad - I have it on 100% reef crest, and the SPS love it. And everything else likes the flow too, even the fish.

I love the ricordea too - I have another one that's a purplish with green rim in the frag tank that I'd eventaully like to move into the DT - just have to juggle the ric mountain a bit. This one started off less power-blue, looking more dull. I passed up a big pink rim/purple with green mouth colony Saturday at BA - kinda regret it now so I'm going to go back and see if it's still there. Fingers crossed it is :)

Haha, I don't think it's anywhere near TOTM quality yet - it's not even a year old. I hope one day to get growth and colours like some of the TOTMs featured around the web though :)

Yeah, it would be nice to see some more bulbs. I think it would be a worthwhile market seeing how popular a platform it's becoming, and the money people are spending. Hopefully the European makers start cluing into the nano market - then this size I think will really take off.

I'll try to borrow my folk's DSLR camera this week for sure - hopefully I can take some better shots for you guys :)

More showing off the new baby:

Crappy actinic shot (you can see how bright it fluoresces):
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...PB244334-1.jpg

With all me lights on (white balance is turned all the way down):
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/PB244335.jpg

Tanks is progressing. I had an acro (not sure of ID) RTN partially today - it was unhappy since flow was reduced to it following the placement of a colony two weeks ago - it had withdrawn all it's polyps and today it's lost some flesh, but it stopped after I came home from the lab. Hopefully it makes it.

Besides that, growth has slowed down a bit, but colours seem to be nice. I'll have to check Ca and Alk levels again, as I haven't checked for a while, and I switched to a new batch of Alk buffer last week. Hopefully everything is fine :)

Have to start pruning soon - and clearing off my frag racks. No more vacancies anywhere on the rock, and the glass is covered too. Oh well.

Pichurs!!

So, apparently my clownfish (in a separate 15g tank) need more rock in their diet.
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/PC164352.jpg

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/PC164349.jpg

They've been cleaning the rocks around the nem all day today. Guess later in the evening they'll spawn again.

It's been a while since they last spawned - almost 3 weeks, but from what I gather I should have expected anywhere from 9 - 20 days, so I guess it's right in between.

The last few days I was thinking that the female is getting rather, um, plump. The second pic you can clearly see how big her belly has become. maybe it's going to be a big nest.

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/PC164348.jpg

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/PC164350.jpg

EDIT: so while I was typing this up, I noticed they were swimming around differently. Sure enough, they had started to spawn.

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/PC160057.jpg
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/PC160059.jpg
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/PC160061.jpg
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/PC160062.jpg
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/PC160063.jpg

I have some stuff to raise the fry - so I just need to start up a phyto culture and hatch out some rots for them.

I also took some pictures of the main tank. I bought a Potter's angel and QT'd it for 7 weeks (the last week was since I was busy). I was worried it might not get along with the sixline and that it would nip at corals/clam. The Potter's and Sixline are getting along nicely, and no corals are being nipped. I really like the colouration of the Potters - the orange, blue and grey broken stripes are purdy.

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/PC164355.jpg

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/PC164362.jpg

Nice orange and purple and blue on the sixline too:
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/PC164363.jpg

Blue cespitularia has been growing nicely - in the last few weeks, it's spread out a bit, and looking great :)

Top half of the tank's SPS:
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/PC164365.jpg

SPS is looking a lot better now that the dosing is back in line - it got out of whack for a bit since I thought I adjusted my vodka dose down to 1 ml a day, but I had instead accidentally reduced my dosing of Ca buffer by 1 ml per dose (8 ml/day total) or to half the original dose. Things are starting to grow again - the setosa is starting to grow too!

Obligatory FTS:
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/PC164359.jpg

Wow! Tank is looking great.

Hope you can something happen with the fry! :mrgreen:

Congratulations with the clownfish laying.. Hopefully a couple of the fry will survive in the tank if they hatch by eating some of the natural phyto life in your tank. That would be a nice suprise.

And glad everything else is back in line for your SPS and the dosing regiment.

New Year's Update I
 

Happy new year folks.

Had some time over the holidays so I took some shots of the reef with the folks' DSLR - the shots are a little better than the normal grainy ones I put up :p

Let's start with some coral shots. Ever since I go the doser on track, SPS are looking hawt and showing good growth again!

Acropora panniculata:
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/CSC_2079.jpg

Blue/green Milliepora:
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/DSC_2121.jpg

Really sweet "tort" from Mike (Not sure of the species, cause I haven't bothered looking):
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/DSC_2126.jpg

Montipora setosa is growing too - there's even more growth since this shot:
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/DSC_2124.jpg

Purple Montipora capricornis growing well too - it's about 6 or 7 times the size of what it was when I got it as a frag in April:
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/DSC_2131.jpg

Another nice purple staghorn I bought as a frag from Sea U Marine:
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/DSC_2135.jpg

One of my fav corals in the tank. This was grown from an even smaller frag from Sea U Marine's display tank. Not sure if they still have this colony, but it's starting to form a very nice table with very good polyp extension.
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/DSC_2137.jpg

A fine branched acro from Reef Raft - the purple side is really nice:
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/DSC_2142.jpg

A jacquelinae, always one of my favs. My first acropora coral (third SPS though):
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/DSC_2143.jpg

Sweet blue A tenius - one of my few corals to come from and survive from Fragalot. It's starting to develop some hot pink on a few of the corallites too in the last few months:
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/DSC_2145.jpg

And you can't forget the softies. The blue cespitularia frag I got back in the summer is starting to really take off - it's popping out daughter colonies every week or so, so it's really starting to fill out. The top down is really nice and really shows the colour, and also shows off the pink polyps. Through the glass, the blue is just as sparkly (unlike purple cespitularia, which looks more pinkish through the glass).
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/DSC_2084.jpg
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/DSC_2125.jpg

And the ricordea garden. Hopefully some nice ones turn up this year so I can add more to the garden:
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/DSC_2076.jpg
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/DSC_2139.jpg

New Year's Update II
 

And you can't forget the fish!


The holidays were particularly hard for the Potter's Angel. Out of mysis, no macros to chew on, no place to rest his head, the vodka in the water seemed to be getting to his head.
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/DSC_2101.jpg

Away from his family, surrounded by all the noise, the bone chilling cold, the icy winds and the constant threat of a giant arm coming into his home from the sky from time to time, the VorTech's propeller started to look like a mighty fine end.
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/DSC_2102.jpg

Good bye cruel world!!
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/DSC_2103.jpg

Nah, he's cool. Decided to clean the blades while I was taking shots since the vortech was off. Made sure to scare him off before starting up again. The Potter's is very well behaved, and doesn't bother the other fish. He hardly nips at things I don't want him to, with the exception being the pocillipora - so it's polyps are all withdrawn all the time, but frankly, it looks better that way. Everything else seems to be largely left alone.

Two nice shots of the little guy:
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/DSC_2179.jpg

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/DSC_2156.jpg

And not to be left out, the other members of my reef fish crew:
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/DSC_2173.jpg

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/DSC_2171.jpg


And the obligatory FTS (looks a lot better with a DSLR :p)
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/DSC_2151.jpg

Haha great storytelling there!

If anyone needs an upgrade it's YOU! Massive collection there and it all looks super nice.

Good stories are always fun :p

Yeah, I do need to upgrade - and I took another step today by getting a quote from a local tank maker :) 48 x 24 x 22 will be the next size :)

nice.. can't wait to see you fill up a new tank just like this one.

I am thinking of upgrading myself. I want to go to a 120 - 150g. I'll really have to move things around my livingroom, but it'll be worth it..

Great Montage of pictures! Fish sure seem to like the inside of Vortechs when the propellers aren't spinning.

What's happening with this tank?? Any Updates?

Wow awesome looking tank! You've done a great job! And I love the equipment setup you've chosen!

Your fish mix is sweet! And that potters (with the yellowy colours) is so cool! They look good in orange but your yellow one is saweet!

Thanks for sharing!

Chris

Not much to update here, except that my tank is CROWDED!!!!

I have 3 frag racks going to accomodate all the things I've collected in the last few months in anticipation of a tank upgrade that I've had no time for since taking a new job in January.

Frag racky goodness:
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/P4134555.jpg
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...P4134553-1.jpg
Purple cap, pearlberry (lost colour), Red planet, Hawkins echinata, icefire echinata, chili peppers monti, Cali tort (?), purple polyp-purple tip speciosa, ponape bird's nest. mmm mmm goodness.

The reef continues to do well. Growth slowed down for a bit when I forgot to refill the Alk container for 2 weeks. Also, I've switched to Reef Crystals, and everything is the same as the other salt I was using. Besides that, nothing is really different, except that everything has grown in nicely compared to January.

FTS (sorry it's overexposed):
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/CIMG2735.jpg

Bah. I just saw the picture big. I'll take a better picture tomorrow.

Wow.. you weren't kidding when you said it was getting crowded in there.
When you switch things over I can see sooo many accidental frags being made.
Your regular Xenia seems to have really taken off too.

Absolutely stunning tank! Love the 2 Pearly Jawfish, and growth...good Gawd...it's beautiful

Wow thats a crowded tank! Have you had any problems with the corals so close together?

wow, i really like this tank. your giving me idea's i shouldn't be thinking about lol

We already know you were thinking it, it was just a matter of justifying it.

Beautiful tank, it makes alot of the fullest tanks here look empty. Yet your tank doesnt look overally chaotic, still has a system going where it looks as clean as somthing that full can be.

Crowed for sure - but with the two side frag racks, the sense of depth it gives the tank makes it a lot less crowded than it actually really is.

Yeah, the pulsing xenia is taking over, but it's not jumping around so it gets to stay for the time being. When (really....when) I upgrade, I want to have a xenid 'island' which should look kind of cool.

Thanks!

Yes, there have been some issues - I've learned the hard way what corals can touch without stinging and which can't. For the most part I've let things be, but when a favourite coral gets in peril I've had to move a few.

Thanks :) It's very full - I can't wait to have a big tank to fill up!