29G bare bottom
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Yeah post #46 has a photo of the new stand, complete with door.
I ended up modding the hang on the back overflow for a herbie style drain and swapping out stands, as well as swapping out the rock for properly cooked pukani all in one go. I also painted the back glass black.
I ended up modding the hang on the back overflow for a herbie style drain and swapping out stands, as well as swapping out the rock for properly cooked pukani all in one go. I also painted the back glass black.
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I'm also digging the stylos, I want more lol.
They seem to not be particularly picky, I have three different montis (a frontosa, a capricornis and one that I'm not too sure - brown flesh, bright flourescent green polyps, forms sort of knobbly digits) and they seem about the same as far as care requirements for the most part. The Stylos are definitely easier than the Acropora, I honestly would put them somewhere around a Birdsnest or a Monti for ease of care. My tank is set up well for them so it's hard to comment on how picky they would be in a tank that isn't meticulously cleaned fairly regularly.
They seem to be pretty tolerant of changing conditions when I create detritus storms every day or two and regain polyp extension much more quickly than the acros after being disturbed. I've also seen the green Stylo eat baby brine shrimp (which was cool), the polyps are large for an SPS on that particular Stylo.
They seem to be growing quite quickly as well (other than the ORA pink stylo which while growing isn't quite as noticeable as the other two which are closer to colonies than frags.) They grow slower than my two birdsnest corals but faster than two of the three montis I have.
I've never lost a Stylophora, I've lost several acros and even a few birdsnests. They seem easy to keep at least with my set up.
For reference I keep my nitrate around 2-3 ppm, orthophosphate is typically between 0.04 and 0.16, calcium 410 ish, alkalinity I try to keep between 8 and 9 dkh, typically it sits at about 8.4. magnesium stays above 1300 ppm. Potassium I dose to keep it above 410 ppm, Iron I dose 0.05 ppm daily, I have lots of green corals which (if you are to believe red sea) consume iron to produce the green pigments, since adding the iron the greens have seemingly gotten more vivid. Same with Potassium and reds, and iodine and pinks. I test for each element weekly, and dose daily.
I do a water change whenever my nitrate is above 3 ppm, or phosphate above 0.16, or if the tank just seems dirty regardless of numbers. When doing water changes I kill everything but the light, then take the turkey baster to all the nooks and crannies in the rocks, then let everything settle for a minute or two before more carefully turkey bastering the rocks while trying not to disturb the settled detritus, I then use a small diameter hose to slowly fill (typically) 2 five gallon buckets with water slowly drawn off the bottom of the tank where all the settled detritus and fish poo is. I then throw a filter sock on the drain before starting everything back up. I remove the filter sock after about an hour once the tank clears.
I turkey baste the rocks probably every day, though I may miss a day here and there.
I fairly aggressively attack detritus as well as bio fouling on the piping and inside the overflow boxes and sump and so on.
If you do these things you will probably have success lol
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Been a while since I updated this thread; this won't be a big one as I'm sort of all tied up with my 75 gallon build, but I redid my ATO reservoir and thought it was worth sharing.
A bit of background, I built the reservoir out of acrylic, it holds 8 gallons comfortably, about 8.4 if you fill it till it overflows. I chose to brace the top with a single acrylic bar that runs across the middle, somewhat like you see in a lot of glass tanks with the black plastic trim.
This is the best photo I could find unfortunately:
The bracing worked great, but what I didn't really anticipate was the degree to which the acrylic lid was going to warp. I used 6 mm acrylic that was double layered in certain spots to try and reduce the warping but it didn't really help a whole lot, and as a result the lid never really sealed right so I got some evaporation from my reservoir (which is sort of the opposite of what you want...)
More importantly to me it was really ugly.
So I waited until there was about a gallon left in the reservoir, dumped it into a five gallon bucket, topped off the bucket with RODI and then went out into the garage to cut out the center brace and redo the brace as well as the lid.
Here is the finished reservoir:
The bracing is now a panel that is bonded along the entire length of the top of all sides of the reservoir, with two holes cut out; one in the center for refilling the reservoir, and one in the corner to insert the pump.
The brace is still acrylic, but it doesn't warp because it is bonded all along the circumference. It is easier to pour water in because the hole is in the middle, and is larger than it was before despite the brace being sturdier.
I addressed the warping on the lid by making the two new lids (one for each hole in the top brace) out of 0.093" polycarbonate, which doesn't have the same issue of warping when exposed to humidity.
The reservoir takes a noticeable amount more time to empty now since the lid has a much better seal, and it just looks nicer, plus the smiley face makes me smile
A bit of background, I built the reservoir out of acrylic, it holds 8 gallons comfortably, about 8.4 if you fill it till it overflows. I chose to brace the top with a single acrylic bar that runs across the middle, somewhat like you see in a lot of glass tanks with the black plastic trim.
This is the best photo I could find unfortunately:
The bracing worked great, but what I didn't really anticipate was the degree to which the acrylic lid was going to warp. I used 6 mm acrylic that was double layered in certain spots to try and reduce the warping but it didn't really help a whole lot, and as a result the lid never really sealed right so I got some evaporation from my reservoir (which is sort of the opposite of what you want...)
More importantly to me it was really ugly.
So I waited until there was about a gallon left in the reservoir, dumped it into a five gallon bucket, topped off the bucket with RODI and then went out into the garage to cut out the center brace and redo the brace as well as the lid.
Here is the finished reservoir:
The bracing is now a panel that is bonded along the entire length of the top of all sides of the reservoir, with two holes cut out; one in the center for refilling the reservoir, and one in the corner to insert the pump.
The brace is still acrylic, but it doesn't warp because it is bonded all along the circumference. It is easier to pour water in because the hole is in the middle, and is larger than it was before despite the brace being sturdier.
I addressed the warping on the lid by making the two new lids (one for each hole in the top brace) out of 0.093" polycarbonate, which doesn't have the same issue of warping when exposed to humidity.
The reservoir takes a noticeable amount more time to empty now since the lid has a much better seal, and it just looks nicer, plus the smiley face makes me smile
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You guys are funny
Nice work Sean, aside from the green guy
(Elf, Peter Pan, The Green Lantern, the list goes on…)
it really looks very professional! I need a skinny one
and don't care about evaporation really, other than making up for it in the tank.
Nice work Sean, aside from the green guy
(Elf, Peter Pan, The Green Lantern, the list goes on…)
it really looks very professional! I need a skinny one
and don't care about evaporation really, other than making up for it in the tank.
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Lol perhaps it would look more professional if I redid it but with a serious face in blue or something?
Thanks for the props, it was my first biggish acrylic project and it turned out well aside from the lid; now that I've got that figured out I'm really happy with it.
Thanks for the props, it was my first biggish acrylic project and it turned out well aside from the lid; now that I've got that figured out I'm really happy with it.
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2,240 Posts
So an update on the tank itself I guess wouldn't be a bad idea.
Everything's doing great. I've lapsed a bit on the testing which is unfortunate but when I do test everything's within a good range. Haven't lapsed at all on maintenance.
I've been changing out about 8 gallons a week, and it seems to be working out well; all the corals have great colour, so much so that I find myself staring at the tank in moderate disbelief a lot of the time.
Almost all corals are growing at a very healthy pace, I notice new growth on all corals but 1 of them every week or so; the one that isn't growing is a blue-green Acropora tenuis which has a fair amount of shadowing around its base and it's base receded to a point and then stopped, while it isn't growing or encrusting it seems stagnant (as in while it isn't growing, it isn't declining either) but it gets good healthy looking polyp extension during the day, and low to moderate polyp extension at night. It is a great blue colour with a tinge of green in the body and brownish-blue polyps, I wish it would grow but considering how well the red planet Acro is doing I really can't complain.
I have two Stylophoras that are about half a mm from touching each other when they have full polyp extension so that should be interesting to watch when they continue to grow into each other and either get along or duke it out. They have both grown quite a bit, one a little more so though.
My pink ORA Stylo is doing really well, it is supposed to be a slow grower according to ORA which does seem somewhat true, but it is growing, and has lobed out quite a bit since I got it a few months ago.
Orange Leptoseris is growing and doing well in moderate light and actually quite a bit higher flow than I realized that spot had. It's nice and wrinkly
Both Seriatoporas are growing like crazy, as is my green monti cap which I may have to start fragging soon.
I have a wonderful red Montipora frontosa that I split into two parts and placed one fairly low in amongst the various Stylos and the other higher up and further to the side, both are doing well and growing fairly rapidly but the one in the center of the tank low down is growing more quickly.
Clown fish are fat and happy (not too fat), as are the snails.
I'll get around to posting some photos some time soon.
Everything's doing great. I've lapsed a bit on the testing which is unfortunate but when I do test everything's within a good range. Haven't lapsed at all on maintenance.
I've been changing out about 8 gallons a week, and it seems to be working out well; all the corals have great colour, so much so that I find myself staring at the tank in moderate disbelief a lot of the time.
Almost all corals are growing at a very healthy pace, I notice new growth on all corals but 1 of them every week or so; the one that isn't growing is a blue-green Acropora tenuis which has a fair amount of shadowing around its base and it's base receded to a point and then stopped, while it isn't growing or encrusting it seems stagnant (as in while it isn't growing, it isn't declining either) but it gets good healthy looking polyp extension during the day, and low to moderate polyp extension at night. It is a great blue colour with a tinge of green in the body and brownish-blue polyps, I wish it would grow but considering how well the red planet Acro is doing I really can't complain.
I have two Stylophoras that are about half a mm from touching each other when they have full polyp extension so that should be interesting to watch when they continue to grow into each other and either get along or duke it out. They have both grown quite a bit, one a little more so though.
My pink ORA Stylo is doing really well, it is supposed to be a slow grower according to ORA which does seem somewhat true, but it is growing, and has lobed out quite a bit since I got it a few months ago.
Orange Leptoseris is growing and doing well in moderate light and actually quite a bit higher flow than I realized that spot had. It's nice and wrinkly
Both Seriatoporas are growing like crazy, as is my green monti cap which I may have to start fragging soon.
I have a wonderful red Montipora frontosa that I split into two parts and placed one fairly low in amongst the various Stylos and the other higher up and further to the side, both are doing well and growing fairly rapidly but the one in the center of the tank low down is growing more quickly.
Clown fish are fat and happy (not too fat), as are the snails.
I'll get around to posting some photos some time soon.
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You're good. They always take a few minutes to go HD for some reason.
Haven't watched them yet...
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I see. You're right. So I just got frustrated earlier over a non issue lol.
it probably takes less resources to just get a low res version up and tell you it's published and then continue to process it for HD at a slower pace or something.
it probably takes less resources to just get a low res version up and tell you it's published and then continue to process it for HD at a slower pace or something.
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Yeah I realized I was sort of mindlessly whistling in the background after I uploaded the videos lol.
There's a 1325 gph sicce xstream in the lower left of the tank pointing horizontally across the back of the rock work, and a quiet drive mp10 in the upper right of the tank turned up one step down from max speed on nutrient export mode.
No sea cucumbers; do you mean sort of to the left and behind the green birdsnest as I zoomed in on it?
That's just a rather large turbo snail if so.
There's a 1325 gph sicce xstream in the lower left of the tank pointing horizontally across the back of the rock work, and a quiet drive mp10 in the upper right of the tank turned up one step down from max speed on nutrient export mode.
No sea cucumbers; do you mean sort of to the left and behind the green birdsnest as I zoomed in on it?
That's just a rather large turbo snail if so.
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