Aquabacs' Cadlights Artisan 50 Azooxanthellae Tank build
- Thread starter Aquabacs
- Start date
don't miss the feedings and occasional dirty ocean smell , lol
Aquabacs
New member
Right now it goes like this:
Skimmer cup is cleaned everymorning when I wake up & check the tank to make sure everthing is ok.
Water changes are now consistantly 8 gallons 2x a week (Wednesday and Saturday). If schedule permits an additional 8 gallons would be done on Saturday or carried over to Sunday. When water changes are performed the substrate is vacuumed, glass is cleand, detritis is siphoned out of the sump with a turkey baster. Salt being used is still ESV.
Tank is 90% autofed and spot fed twice in the evening with mysis (within an hour time period). There are times that I will feed Cyclop-eeze to the tank prior to feeding the mysis. It all depands on what percent of the Tubastrea is open when I am going to feed the mysis. If not enough of them are open; then I will feed cyclop-eeze & wait 30 minutes, then onto the mysis feeding.
Dry feeds of Fauna Marin Ultra Clam, MinF, SeaFan, Acan are used in the fishmate autofeeder clipped on the ledge of the tank.
In the fridge: Reef Nutrition Rotifeast, Oysterfeast, Phytofeast Live and the last is a mix of FM UltraPac, FM MinS, Cyclop-eeze, Nutrmar Ova.
2/3 of a cup of GFO is change weekly. Bulk Reef Supply regular GFO. The sponges in the GFO reactor normally have to be cleaned every 2-3 days.
Bag of FM Ultralith (about a liter) which I have had for a few years now gets shaken at night when I am feeding the mysis.
Biopellet reactor is getting 100ml of pellets a month.
Monthly, normally on the Saturday water change day, I would do the cleaning of the skimmer (body & pump) and the return pump.
That is about it...minimal time is spent on the tank.
Mike
gemini aquarius(t)
Always Learning
Wow thanks for the info! Looks like I am going to need to look into a minifridge for my room..
Aquabacs
New member
Lighting was not an issue with them but I would put them in a spot that has more moderate to low light. Dont need any unnecessary algae growth on it. What I noticed is it did well in lower flow area but they are selective, not all the same. The very thin branched with extremely small polyps would not stay open in higher flow and looked more irritated and started getting too brittle. Occasionally branches would snap off in one to two inch sections. For feeding it did well with high concentration mix of Rotifeast, MinF, Pac, MinS.
Mike
CuttleKid
New member
As promised....it has been a long time since a FTS was taken of the tank. Very simple & extremely easy to maintain with current lifestyle.
Lighting is under the Ledio Mystery Purple.
Mike
Hey Mike, What happened to all the crinoids and gorgonians?
It still looks great but I miss the look of the old display.
Aquabacs
New member
Plenty of crinoids are in there
From this angle you can see three (one on the white gorg, one all the way to the right of the top rock, and one closed up tight under the top rock below the tubastrea next to the right gorg) There are 6 of them in there. As for gorgs, I mentioned have a few personal theories of how the system should be designed around particular corals; either go with all Azoox LPS or just everything else. The current set up works well with the inhabitants that are in the tank. I want the food feed into the system to be used as effeciently as possible, having more gorgonians in the system would require some tweeking of the amount of smaller feeds added, dosing intervals & the dwell time of the feeds in the main display.
I did like the old layout of rock . With the two vortechs placed how they are & having the rockwork lower in the tank allows the feeds completely gyre aound the tank perfectly. Everything is fed in a counter clockwise vortex.
Mike
Aquabacs
New member
username in use
Sciencing Daily
The tank looks beautiful. I like the simplicity of it, and the corals selection is really nice, they all compliment each other well.
slapshot
Active member
OK thanks!! Interestingly I moved my red one to a higher flow area and it parished so I will keep this one in the same area it was doing good in. Thanks. I hope all is well with the fam!
Wow - I've never seen one placed higher up. Its truly spectacular!
Aquabacs
New member
For 10 months it was hanging upside down, expanding well, with great polyp extension and feeding response, then one day it decided to close up. When it closed, it contracted real tight,and stayed close for almost 4 months...no expansion or polyps visible. When I re-aquascaped the tank the nephthyigorgia was relocated to the top of the rock scructure, orientated vertically, and within a few days it started expanding well again. Polyps were extremely tiny and weekly they have been observed to be getting larger again. So how long until it gets back to it's old polyp size or if they get back to normal size, only time will tell.
Mike
username in use
Sciencing Daily
That's interesting. Im surprised how long it can go with no real food intake. And also that it just decided one day that it didn't like its spot anymore.
Aquabacs
New member
Never underestimate azoox corals or the behavior, it is just amazing how resilent they can be. The coral itself the whole time looked healthy, just tightly retracted. If it was on it's way out it would have dropped a piece of branch for the colony to try to continue on so in the end it was just a waiting game.
M
Aquabacs
New member
username in use
Sciencing Daily
I know they have some bounce back abilities. I got a chili from a store that had it for over a month with it never opening. Took about a week to get any polyp action, now its extended all the time and about 6" tall compared to the 1/2" lump of flesh it was when I got it.
Chili's really are a cool looking coral, and fairly hardy.
Chili's really are a cool looking coral, and fairly hardy.
Similar threads
