25g bonsai tank

[reefwars]

some pics plus some new additions

branching meteor shower cyphastrea

red branching meteor shower cyphastrea

blue dragon sps

sunset monti

menella sp.

neon green slimer sps

 

[reefwars]

had the flow shut off for a bit today so took some top downs , sorry but without the halide going all the shots are blue lol so lights included!!

blue steel!!!

 

[GOSKN5]

that is pretty insane.. great tank with all the colors and stuff I am sure you could look at it for hours without taking it all in... nice

 

[StephLionfish]

Love the NPS'. How do you feed them with them being upside down?

 

[reefwars]

Love the NPS'. How do you feed them with them being upside down?

i target feed them a few times a day and broadcast feed several times a day , my tank is a high nutrient system with food in the water column 24/7

over the years ive learned to increase feedings without polluting the water.

daily my 25g tank sees

3 cubes of frozen food(average)
about 2-3 cups of mixed foods(fauna marin)
daily dosings of phyto and zooplankton
vit c dosing
sometimes pellets for the fish

i keep a low bio load with just 2 fish ...a green mandarin and a copperband butterfly.


i am in the middle of an upgrade and once i upgrade the back of the bonsai tree will be sps dominant.


i wouldnt recommend my system to anyone new as it takes alot of work and there is very little room for mistakes but the pay off is well worth it


thanks and cheers!!

 

[reefwars]

that is pretty insane.. great tank with all the colors and stuff I am sure you could look at it for hours without taking it all in... nice

thank you very much , to date there are over 130 corals on 10-15lbs of rock,but sadly the tree is only half done i am about to double that with the upgrade to a larger tank in the next couple of weeks and make the back side of the tree sps dominant


believe it or not with several other tanks in the house this one gets the less amount of love, the rest are just average reeftanks but the bonsai IMO is my art project

 

[StephLionfish]

All that feeding is dedication. No wonder your corals are so beautiful

 

[reefwars]

All that feeding is dedication. No wonder your corals are so beautiful

thanks to be honest im excited to get the larger cube running and place the tree into it, then its also the switch over from mh to radions.....ive had them in the box all week and afraid to actually do the switch lol

thanks for viewing!!



new additions and pics tonight!!

 

[KafudaFish]

I am sorry to see this tank come down.

I am not much of an equipment junkie but could you list what you used on the tank please?

Why are you switching? I thought I read that you liked MH better. Is it just to try for the heck of it?

 

[reefwars]

I am sorry to see this tank come down.

I am not much of an equipment junkie but could you list what you used on the tank please?

Why are you switching? I thought I read that you liked MH better. Is it just to try for the heck of it?

the tank will still be the same looks wise,its just getting a slightly bigger cube so the new cube is 30 x 30 x 20h while the current one is 18 x 18 x 18 , i wont be doing the glass sand bed just because of the wrasses i have and want to switch over to this tank eventually......i have too many wrasses


im switching basically because now i dont have enough light to light both sides of the trees, while i do prefer halides i want to make the backside of the tree sps dominant.

when the current halide sits over the tree dead center i get no light to the bottom part of the tree on both sides, if i move it to the front then no light for the back(how it is now) and vice versa.

the plan is to add 2 x radions one in the back and one in the front....they will be adjustable so i can slide each light forward and backwards.the whole custom hanging arm will be adjusable from the stand to move up and down.

halides unfortunately make for bad top downs and they have bad spread(plus all the norm issues like heat,bulbs,color etc)

ill keep the halides on my grow tanks but the display is going to be leds....i like to think of the bonsai as my art project so i think the adjustable color programs will help with the overall look.

i run a radion on a red sea neo and love that i can program the lights with no timers and i love the different color schemes through out the day.



heres my tank info:


18 x 18 x 18 cube tank
corner overflow w/durso


plumbing is ran through the wall and into my fishroom, the tank shares a system with my growout tank.

return pump is a mag9.5

i run about 1-2 cups of high capacity gfo

i keep around 10-20lbs of liverock in the sump as i cant add any to the display



i no longer run a fuge but use to swear by them.

ats is currently off line untill the new cube is runing(no room)


the current light is a 250w mh at 20000k it is a sunpod fixture.no other supplemental lighting. lights are on at 9am and off around 9-10pm
the fixture is about 5-6" from the surface of the tank.

my tree sits at 18" tall and 17" long and 13" wide


my "sandbed is tempered glass pieces that is now growing a fair bit of coraline....i gotta say after all the "that wont works" and " thats dumb" i actually loved it and wouldnt hesitate to do it again in another fishless tank,just takes patience to grow purple and green no bio load means lower amount of harmfull ditrius.


i run 2 skimmers one for 200g and the other for 450g both pull out about a 3/4 skimmer cup of food every couple of days.......its all extra food really

total water volume not incuding sump is 100g(25 for the cube and 75 for the growtank)

my water parameters(i dont test much these days TBH)


calcium: 440
alk:8-9
mg: 1260(long time since i tested this)
phos: nil
nitrates: 10ppm ( i try to target 10ppm of nitrates always in order to stay away from ulns)
amonia: always nil

ph: i dont test for ph anymore




i vit c dose about 1000mg a day



my livestock are:

copperband buttefly
pair of harlequin shrimps
green mandarin
4 x peppermint shrimp


the only cuc i have are natural like bristle worms, brittle stars, pods.


with the high nutrient system and low biolaod i have an abundance of amphipods,iso pods, copepods and mysid shrimp.....this is the reason for the mandarin and butterfly.



the tree is mostly zoanthid dominated but house an aray of sps,lps and nps corals as well.


most of if not all the corals in here are collector corals or sought after pieces. the latets count of corals was 130+ and im only half decorated(front only) the other side will be sps dominant and im not sure of the filler coral yet maybe rics


it seems like a lot to take in but its really a basic system, im not too big on dosing small tanks so i do large water chaanges of average maybe 40% a week and that keeps my at par

i use instant ocean for salt...have for ever

i saturate my water column with food all day long , it sees ALOT of food and alot of this food gets skimmed out so def wasted but untill i can set up a live food station this is how it is lol


thanks and cheers guys!

 

[reefwars]

where the bonsai tree is 18"h and the tank now is 18"h corals in the upper part of the tank are extremely close to the halide at the farthest point maybe 10-12" from the bulb but most are 6-8" from the bulb......thats alot of light!!!

 

[KafudaFish]

Thank you for the description of the nuts and bolts of the system. I hope you do a build in the reef discussion section.


Do you have an estimate of the number of corals when you are "done"?

 

[reefwars]

Thank you for the description of the nuts and bolts of the system. I hope you do a build in the reef discussion section.


Do you have an estimate of the number of corals when you are "done"?

well the sps side is going to be a bit more spaced out for chemical reasons, and im still in the air about what to use as filler coral.

ive been thinking about doing 4 different gardens in each of the corners of the new tank, maybe tube anemones,rics,plates and polyps.......ill have to wait untill its actually set up. i try to picture it when im looking at the new tank lol

 

[Spirofucci]

Looking forward to the new build!!!!

 

[reefwars]

Looking forward to the new build!!!!

me too as last night i picked up a bunch of sps colonies,calices,favias rics and acans pllus alot of zoos from a freind who needed to shut his large system down .

this upgrade cant come fast enough lol basically me and the girlfriend are moving into a new place and this will be set up by the time we move(at the end of the month)



heres a quick shot of my sand bed , keep in mind i have a couple fragtanks and growout tanks running but have no room to hold these corals.


left side:

center:

right side:

looking down the side of the tank:

fts lol

sorry.....my tank needs to be cleaned and livestock list updated alot has been added lately lol

 

[reefwars]

video:

http://s924.photobucket.com/albums/ad85/reefwars/25g bonzai tree tank/?action=view&current=041-3.mp4

 

[reefwars]

not from the bonsai tank but i was in a picture mood;P

and looky what i got back after so long lol

 

[reefwars]

pics!!

 

[reefwars]

here goes nothing, current livestock list of things i know thers a lot with either no id or im forgetting lol..........upgrade to happen soon, the tank is slowly acclimating to the leds now


current livestock list:

chocolate mint favia
reverse aussie prism favia
toxic favia
bubble gum favia
rainbow favia
xmas favia
dragon soul favia
riddler
hollywood stunner
cotton candy
water melon
aussie alien eye
aussie duncans
golden scroll coral
neon green candy canes
tequilla sunrise blasto
neon green center blasto
fuzzy mushrooms
pink star polyps
metor shower cyphstrea
confused war coral
korky finger gorg
poker star monti
sunset monti
teal center candy canes
red center acan
red ricordia
hydnophora
blue eyed goniopora
pipe organ
red planet
ssc
blue polyp mille
hulh acro
blue dragon
pps
green slimer
branching cyphastrea (meteor)
branching cyphastrea ( red)
yellow polyp gorgonian
blueberry gorgonian
black suncorals
yellow suncorals
orange carnation
purple with green splatters tube anemone


zoas

toxic revenge
captain america
darth mauls(gone but another frag on the way lol)
tyree space monsters
orange explosions
purple people eaters(melted)
red poeple eaters
magicians
blood red people eaters
soul reavers(melted)
blue agave(being reborn hopefully lol)
desert storm
jokers
fruit loops
la lakers
water melons
nuclear greens
purple deaths
armor of god
sour apples
valentines day massacres
pink mohawks
gold mohawks
flaming suns
goblins
hhrc
pink elephants
purple elephants
lunar eclipse
aussie lunar eclipse
candy apple redds
green people eaters(bit the dust)
dark knight palys
yelloow jackets
blue riddler pe
sunny d's
mean greens
milky ways
molten lava
raptors rainbow
dragon paly
radioactive dragon eyes
blue eyed girls
lanterns
white eye paly
horizons
dragons fire
tubbs blue
bam bam red
purple hornets( 2 types)




as for fish im way overstocked right now as i took in a friends set up and im still feeling them all out, once i move and the new cube is set up the fish can go to the other tanks.

bartlett anthias
pj cardinal x 3
green mandarin
scooter
copperband butterfly
moorish idol


fire shrimp x 1
cleaner shrimp x 1
harlequin shrimp x 2
peppermint shrimp x 12

 

[reefwars]