my first reef (10 gallons)

[jenglish]

Waiting for pics Don't make me bust out the squirrel.

[ibanez2k]

Originally Posted by jenglish

Waiting for pics Don't make me bust out the squirrel.

Hehe. I'll post pics shortly. I've neglected my display glass for a few weeks unfortunately and I've gotta clean up a bit so the pics are clear. Will try to do this evening though. Shouldn't be too difficult. *crossing fingers* Other than that the tank looks great. Hopefully I'll have pics up this evening.

[Loverotties]

Oh no! I think I hear the squirrel!

[ibanez2k]

Dangit, well, I wasn't able to get the glass cleaned up yet (had to work late). However, I still took some pictures this morning. I just took them through the top of the tank so you could see them fairly decent. Through the sides you wouldn't have been able to see very well, I'm kind of embarrased because I haven't scraped them in a few weeks now. I've been at least keeping up with the rest of the tank maintenance. Anyhow, some pics. Sorry for the quality as they were taken from the top but they are still pretty decent representations however.

This first pic is of my yellow polyp rock. This thing was INSANELY covered with hair algae for the last few months but I've finally got my nutrient levels in check and the hair algae all went away. The polyps are recovering now and looking much better than they were a few weeks ago. Also in this picture are my Ocellaris Clownfish (Stan) and my Blackbar Chromis (Houdini), they snuck in.



This is my finger leather, it's just waking up and opening up it's polyps so it's not as big as usual but it is getting big.



Here are my pulsing xenias on the rock on the far right of the tank. You can see the plug piece there that they originally came on. After the first two weeks in my tank they all melted away except for a little piece of flesh that was still on the plug. That little piece of flesh became what you see here since the previous picture from my post above in May.



This pic is of my pink birdsnest that has nearly doubled in size from the previous pic back in May. It's looking great, unfortunately my green umbrella leather you can see in the bottom right is all shrunk still this morning (I'll take a picture of it later when it's opened up more) so I'm not showcasing it this morning.



Well, thats all I've got for now. I'll post more as soon as I get the glass cleaned up and I can do some better side shots and perhaps a good FTS.

Special thanks to everyone here! I wouldn't have been able to or even have known how to get into this hobby if it weren't for you guys! This is a great online community full of some very helpful people and I would recommend it over any other site.

[cutietwo]

that looks awesome!! kudos kudos.

[Vj]

Corals look great, very nice job, your starting off much better and succesfully than i did when i first started.

What kind of lighting are you using?

[ibanez2k]

Well, I'm only using 40watts of PC lighting. I know it's not much but the corals seem to respond well since they are all pretty close to the surface and it's only a 12" deep system. I still want to upgrade my lights though. I'm thinking of perhaps turning this tank into more of a frag tank and making my new 20long that just finished cycling into my main display tank. Don't know, those are the ideas I've tossed around so far at least.

[Loverotties]

Sounds good!

[ibanez2k]

Ooooorr, maybe I'll use the 10g as a sump for my 20long. Then, when I upgrade again to an even larger tank I can use the 20long as a sump and the 10g as a fuge. Haha. I would so love a large reef tank, something in the 200 to 250 gallon range, but I need to get my family out of this tiny apartment we're in first.

[cutietwo]

wow that's big. I have a 46 and it's enough for me. However I have always liked 75's too.... Good luck w/ yours and the pics looks great!

[ibanez2k]

Originally Posted by cutietwo

wow that's big. I have a 46 and it's enough for me. However I have always liked 75's too.... Good luck w/ yours and the pics looks great!

Thanks cutietwo. Nah, that's not too big. Funny thing is I work for the city and every day I pass by a huge 250 gallon freshwater tank that is in the front lobby at City Hall. Our city attorney actually owns the tank. I've been trying so hard to convince him to go reef with it but he likes the way it is. It would be awesome as a reef though. I'd love to have a tank that size.

[ibanez2k]

OK, I got all the algae scraped off the display panels (minus a few tiny bits of coralline, ergg). Didn't get to the back panel yet unfortunately. I've gotta give the powerheads and the heater a good cleaning too. At least the tank looks alot better now though. However, I left my digital camera at the office by accident. Thankfully I have my iPhone at least so I snapped a pic with that this afternoon. When I get my actual camera tomorrow I'll take some clearer photos now that the glass is clean. Here's the phone FTS pic for now.

[AquaMan91]

wow that looks real nice!! very clean lookin~!!!