Black Island

[Giga]

This tank is not new but I just dramatically changed it and this is what I came up with. Still need works as equipment needs to be hidden and needs more sps. The main feature is the black mangrove I've had now for two years.Also it's skimmerless and sumpless all i have is a canister filter,heater and two maxijets(mp10's soon)-lighting is 250w 10k reeflux-Leds multi-chip on the way(pics to come).

This is the black mangrove growing in clay/mud on top of the rocks

I have a couple red mangrove as well but they will be going in another tank

You can see my vivarium in the background

crazy pneumatophore 6" growing out of the mud-don't mind the zip-tie

the tree top

The few corals I have in right now

FTS to come once I get it clean up a bit

 

[HGS]

Very specially ^^

 

[M007]

Well that's different! Tagging along......

 

[tahiriqbal]

Beautiful, how do you keep your clay/mud moist?

Tahir

 

[TRENT_G]

That's pretty cool man. I bet a Sally lightfoot would love that tank.

 

[Giga]

Very specially ^^

thank you

M007 Well that's different! Tagging along......

Yeah I love mangrove and sps and bonsai, so the only logical thing was to combine them all

. tahiriqbal Beautiful, how do you keep your clay/mud moist?

Tahir

The rock is bowls shaped on the top and goes below the water line,plus I spray the mud with a fine mist rodi infused with macro nutrients(reef safe)

. TRENT_G That's pretty cool man. I bet a Sally lightfoot would love that tank.

I thought about that but I have never had luck with crabs other then hermits.may give it a go though

 

[Patricklong]

This is wonderfully creative. Great job.

What kind of light cycle do you have to maintain for the flora?

 

[Giga]

This is wonderfully creative. Great job.

What kind of light cycle do you have to maintain for the flora?

It runs 8 hours a day

 

[Chris Lakies]

I like it!!

 

[acrolux]

nice, very cool....

 

[Reefer1225]

Looks cool!

 

[Coralman9]

Awesome , very cool I like the island look

 

[Giga]

Thank you I took so more pics last night but didn't get around to posting them. I'll post them tonight as well try and get a fts

 

[chriscobb]

Very cool and interesting.......

 

[Giga]

Forgot tot mention but the tank is 40x20x10" so long and shallow build by me DIY

 

[Giga]

update time:


Couple close ups-well best I can do with my lame camera and skills:lol:

use to but colorful sticks but with the rearrange-things either bleached or browned out or died

FTS-my stand is a little different too.Don't mind the mess and bucket things are still in dis-array

Some LED's in the mix-kessil can kiss my butt:blown: I'm making a fuull spectrum cannon for half the cost and will have a dawn dusk cycle. This is just part of the mix.

50w

60W heatsink

PWM 60w mushroom fan lol

controller

 

[Giga]

And I really love the way this shot came out!

 

[pnavarro170]

very cool

 

[REEF SMAC]

Yeh! I love that shot too.:thumbsup:

The whole setup is pretty cool. Very creative.

So you are gonna light the other end of the tank with LEDs?

Won't your mangrove shade out your tank eventually as it grows?
Or do you constantly prune it back for the whole bonsai effect?

 

[therman]

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!

I've had a tank like this in my head for years! Biggest hurdle for me was finding a mangrove with enough character to justify building a tank around it, so it never materialized.

Really impressed, I think the tank has a TON of potential!

Not sure how reef safe they'd be, but the best (and most authentic) addition would be fiddler crabs. As long as you feed them enough on land I bet they'd leave your corals alone. And of course once your mangrove grows out and you need to upgrade to a bigger system...mudskippers

Awesome tank, I'm subscribing If you don't mind me asking, where did you get your mangrove, and do you have any tips for getting such great growth out of it?

Tim