My 5.5

[Darold]

For even more information and pictures, go here:
http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/showthr ... adid=38424

 

[djconn]

Wow. Thanks for the update. Things are looking really good. I love the zoanthids especially the orange-center/green skirt ones.

So has your girlfriend been helping/observing all this with you? Is this to eventually become her tank or what?

 

[Darold]

Haha, well I think I scared her away from SW. We consider it our tank, and she/we have named two of the inhabitants. Since the Fire Shrimp hangs upside down 90% of the time, we have dubbed him "Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oy! Oy! Oy!" or just Aussie for short. The Staghorn Crab has been dubbed Ceasar due to his natural crown. I am sure we will spend hours fighting over the name of a fish if I ever put one in. She has seen every upgrade I have done, and I have explained what each one does, but she is afraid of killing something/anything. I am setting her up with an old Tequilla bottle that we will put a Betta in. Hopefully she can keep that alive.

I will be posting an update of the tank with my new fuge soon.

 

[Darold]

Click here to see the newsest pictures and a writeup about my refugium install:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthrea ... did=435840

 

[Karita]

Wow Darold, you tank looks awesome! It looks so diverse and I love all the zoanthids.
My boyfriend won't ever let me name anything because he says they'll die if i do (but i secretly do anyway) :-$

 

[Darold]

I had a cleaner shrimp for a few days, but it ended up not living long enough to get a name.

 

[Karita]

this may be a really dumb question, but what are the pink things in the lower right corner of the last picture?

 

[Darold]

Little mushrooms. Unfortunately there is only one left on the rock. The other two disappeared (Literally). I don't know where they went, but I haven't removed them, so they are still in the tank somewhere.

 

[Karita]

I got an awesome mushroom once and within a couple of days of putting it in my tank, it literally removed itself from the rock. I didn't know they could do that. As soon as it was off the rock, it died. I have no idea why it did that, but I was disappointed because it was really cool.
Here's a pic i took while it was coming off.

 

[djconn]

Any new pics Darold? How are the zoos doing?

 

[Darold]

Tanks doing great. I updated my main diary thread at the "other forum," but can post some teaser pics here.

Full Tank Shots:

With Flash

I added some new inhabitants, and even with the large bioload my nitrates are staying around 12.5. I can't seem to get them any lower, so I assume that there must be some decaying matter in my tank, or I am overfeeding.

For more info and pics, click here!

 

[Darold]

Livestock:

Aussie seems jealous I added another red thing to the tank. Here he is checking out the Red Footed Snail:

Pics of Merlin the Bicolor Pseudochromis:

The baby of the tank, a new cleaner shrimp:

The peppermints were hiding in the refugium, but I will post pics soon.

 

[djconn]

Its just amazing to me how fast you did all this Darold. Everything is looking so good and healthy. How long has everything been up and running now?

 

[Darold]

Click here for the most up to date pictures and info


Sorry, but since I am a member of so many forums, it is hard for me to post updates across all of the boards. If you click the link above, you will see how different my tank has become. I have added a 2.5g mushroom and mantis tank to the same water system that my 5.5g and refugium are on. This brings my total water volume right below 10g's now.

Everything is suprisingly healthy. Some of the star polyps and Xenia are just now begining to thrive. I think everything has been up and running for just around two months now.

 

[Darold]

Here is some of the info I have at the other end of the link. I don't like to post to other forums, but it is hard for me to update all my info on so many forums because I am constantly changing my tank. I feel I have to move at 200% because there is a high chance I will need to tear these tanks down when christmas break comes around. I want to learn and experience as much as possible before getting rid of everything.

Click here for information about how I set up this system (Posts before September 26th)

Since I was unable to edit the title of my previous diary of my 5.5g tank, I am creating this thread to accurately describe my system of tanks and their refugium.


5.5G Main Tank:

Water Movement:
AquaClear 175gph PH
Small Rio PH sending water to refugium
Return from refugium
Siphon with 2.5

Lighting
17" 2x24W JBJ Power Compact w/twin fans
One Actinic Bulb
One Florescent Bulb
All tank lights are on a timer from 11am until 11:30pm

Live Rock
Lightly stocked and mixed

Live Sand
Two inches of Carib-Sea's AragAlive extra fine grain (.5mm-1.85mm)

Macro
Small amounts of feather macro

Other
LifeGuard digital thermometer

Corals
Goniopora
Kenya Tree
Pulsing Xenia
Green Mushrooms
Wide variety of Zoo's
Multi-Colored Ricordia
Discosoma sp. Mushrooms
Two types of Green StarPolyps
Several unidentified soft coral

Fish & Mobile Inverts

Bicolor Pseudochromis
StagHorn crab
Cleaner Shrimp
Extra Large Fire Shrimp
Four small Blue Legged hermits
Snails (Turbo, Cerith, Nassarius, Red Foot)
One small black legged red toed hermit (name?)

2.5G Mantis/Mushroom Tank:

Water Movement/Filtration
Aquaclear 20 HOB filter fed via refugium
-Sponge
-Nitrate/phosphate removers (Until levels drop)
-Carbon (one day every two weeks)
Siphon with 5.5g

Lighting
Currently one 50/50 bulb
Soon to be replaced with the CoralLife 2x9w PC that is on the refugium (waiting for 2.5g glass top)

Live Rock
Mostly Branch Rock

Live Sand
Two inches of live sand directly out of an established tank (Medium/fine grain)

Macro
Green Hair Macro (carefully trimmed)

Other
DI Auto-Top Off
(planning on making it a kalk drip).

Corals
Variety of zoo's
Colored Ricordia
Unidentified soft coral
Many blue hairy Mushrooms

Fish & Mobile Inverts
Mantis Shrimp (Not identified yet)

Refugium:

Water Movement
IN - Rio PH
Out - Siphons with both 2.5g and 5.5g tanks

Lighting
2x9w CoralLife PC
(Soon to be moved to the 2.5g and replaced with different lighting)
Photoperiod: Same as the other tanks

Live Rock
None

Live Sand
3-4 inches of Carib-Sea's AragAlive extra fine Fiji Pink

Macro Algae
Grape Macro
Cheato

Fish & Mobile Inverts
Two Peppermint Shrimp
One medium hermit
Two turbo Snails

Click here for information about how I set up this system (Posts before September 26th)