57g Illuminata build... feedback/opinions/thoughts please!

[reeftanknewbie]

this is a great looking build. You picked out some nice equipment and did a great job on the aquascaping. I would suggest taking the damsel out as well as they are known to get aggressive and territorial with other community fish. You could always put him in the refugium below. Now would be the time before he gets established territory within the tank and before your tank is full of corals as they are fast and hard to catch.

 

[Ranlexus]

Hey any updates ?

 

[okbishop]

loks good

 

[smellslikeTUNA]

Hey any updates ?

Came home from 2weeks of holiday vacation and after leaving the tank in the hands of my sister in law I came home to only some excess algae on the glass luckily (although my hammer receeded a little I think from missing its feedings of my frozen blend). Picking up some new frags today with the gift certificates Santa brought! Will post some pics tonight

 

[yellowRubi]

hey we need new pics! :beer:

 

[smellslikeTUNA]

Got some new updates! Picked up 4 new frags recently and a GBTA last night... here's some pics

Green birdsnest with blue polyps (starting to color up more then the pic shows)


A small frag of some type of acropora I believe (it's very blue) will try to ID after it grows out a little


Here's the GBTA.. he was out for the few hours he was in the tank last night and was in the same spot this morning but when the light kicked on he crawled into the rockwork... hoping he adjusts to the tank and comes out to play soon he's beautiful ~3" across


Acan frag... ID anyone?


Also picked up a small orange/purple zoa colony (not pictured), and discovered this macroalgae growing out of my rock I think it is red grape algae.. kinda cool


I'll post a FTS later tonight to show the placement of these guys in my tank!

 

[jgalvin]

looking good, love the picture of the cat, my 3 cats pay no attention to my tank.

 

[smellslikeTUNA]

looking good, love the picture of the cat, my 3 cats pay no attention to my tank.

Thanks! did you end up sticking with the glass top? any pics?

 

[smellslikeTUNA]

new zoa colony


Better shot of the GBTA


Lola the clown, pretty sure that she has began hosting the hair algae on my overflow haha! maybe she'll make the move to the nem

 

[Seagars]

nice tank and pix

 

[jgalvin]

Thanks! did you end up sticking with the glass top? any pics?

i did buy the oceanic glass top ($39) and at the same time made a mesh top (~$20). the glass top was heavy to move on/off the tank when cleaning and more importantly the evaporated water drops were visible on the inside glass and IMO detracted from the rimless/open top. That said, i love the clear mesh, looks great on the tank, and now can finally get jumping and more expensive fish. I posted a build thread for my illuminata with the mesh top if interested in seeing how it look.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2116145&highlight=illuminata

by the way, love your rock work. I'm thinking of redoing all mine on sunday, i was going to do the two pillar route, but like the continuity of yours, i'd like to get more sand visible. I see you have your rocks leaning against the glass, any fear of breaking the glass? that would open up a lot more of the tank for me.

james

 

[smellslikeTUNA]

I thought the same thing in regards to opening up the sand with my rockwork. Really there isn't much "leaned" against the glass, only a couple rocks in the back are directly touching the glass but they really aren't creating any force against it. I tried to have everything for the most part focused, or leaning, around the overflow... guess I won't worry til I walk in to 80 gallons on the carpet

 

[londonloco]

any updates...

 

[Swayza]

That Kessil looks soooo good above the rimless tank

 

[smellslikeTUNA]

So I was just sitting and looking at the tank tonight and realized I haven't updated this page in quite some time! So I thought I'd give some updates and post some pics. Tank has been up and running for about 14 months now and the past year has definitely been a trying time. I have had my fair share or corals bleach, lost a GBTA, and a copperband butterfly (at least these are the major losses I can recall). Also had a pretty nasty battle with a dyno outbreak but have since managed to mostly get rid of it. I have pushed on with this tank and it has currently been stable with all current livestock for apprx. 3-4 months now (aside from a couple of small ricordea's I picked up a couple days ago.

Current livestock...
1x Yellow Tang
2x False perc clown fish
1x yellowtail damsel
1x sixline wrasse
2x firefish
1x Peppermint Shrimp
10x Blue Leg Hermits
1x Hairy Emerald Crab (he's currently in the refugium prison)
1x Rose Bubble Tip Anemone
Few different zoa's, rics, some xenia, and various snails (astrea, nerith, etc.)









The orange and blue ric's are new also got a new "Steel blue" ric on the other side of the tank




This Xenia has been crawling up towards the light and recently split into 2 different colonies


Pretty proud of this zoa colony


Still battling a slight diatom/dyno problem but have been aggressively running GFO through a BRS reactor for awhile now and it has definitely helped. I am also running kalk through my ATO. I'm pretty happy with everything for now but would like to upgrade my light when my wallet allows it!

 

[DaBeebalizer]

sick set up

 

[reeftanknewbie]

Rock work looks great.

 

[Ssteve]

Any updates?