~Lets see your nano aquascaping~

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6437348#post6437348 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Grizzy
s13silvia,

How is your remora? Mine stopped spitting out microbubbles after 1 1/2 days and pulls out smelly medium colored tea.

it works pretty good, but i'm gonna pick up a deltec mce600 soon :D
 
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these new angles show some of the coral growth and speciation in the half-gallon system found on pages 18-19 of this thread. A buddy of mine donated a digital camera for me to use to get some new shots, showing substantial brown ( :) ) growth over the last 5 months as well as a few places of RTN in my stony corals as I let circulation and lighting slow down due to growths and obstructions in the system. Circulation has been re-addressed, and the RTN-barren areas are now getting plated by new growth. I had originally hoped to save the coloring in my SPS frags, but in time they've gone a little brown but still holding some blue on the tips which is nice. I'll settle for any color morph as long as the specimen grows and alters it's form to suit the environment, because in my opinion that should be the base assessment of a valid reef tank...the colorings are just the finer arts once someone helps the corals thrive.
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The little plastic aquarium is a subrefugium in my refugium that houses a destructive acropora crab (the green ones) so he won't continue to ravage my ecosystem. I still like him and feed him cyclopeeze regularly, but he's relegated to the brig for a life sentence for lewd and lascivious SPS behavior :)
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Brandon, it's amazing what you've done with that tiny space. Do you think it's possible you've experienced some STN/RTN due to some of your corals competing for space. Basically a toxic war going on?

Things just seem very crammed in there.

Not a bash, just an observation,
Russ
 
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that's a very accurate observation, it's hard to work in just 2 inches of stocking space and get that many corals :) but a fair call for sure!

I think that nettling from the inhabitants could be a factor in any system's RTN issues along with the other factors of light/circulation and pathogenic lifeforms, but in this case I attribute more of it to the light/circulation simply because it's starting to regrow (after I addressed the slow output of the powerhead) and so many previous systems housed these inhabitants long-term without the RTN. As you know with RTN and nano reefs there are so many working variables I can't really say for sure why it happened, but relying on my 'purple thumb' like a gardener's intuition and their green thumb I can just 'feel' a regrowth coming on from the small observable increments so far. I have to say in some unknown way my systems (and others) reach a steady-state in terms of nettling/nematocyst usage but I can't be sure. A worthy topic for future articles for sure!
B
 
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jcopp that was my first problem as well posting pics here. What you do is this:

Go to that link or wherever your pic is hosted and right click on the pic then go to properties. Highlight and copy the address listed after the "http" part. When you are ready to post over here, write your subject matter and click in IMG button. In that space, just after the "http" address beginning, paste the rest of your pic's address so this will be the URL you are trying to reference. When you upload your response, your pics will be in the thread.

HTH
B
 
Brandon, that shot from the top is very cool. That gives me a great Idea for a nano.

6" x 12"+ x 6" high. Where 6" is the front viewable, long sides and back are black and you glue everything to the sides or fix it to sliding acrylic plates. I imagin it would have a ravine look to it. Scrap acrylic, here I come!


Some acro crabs are destructive?
 
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hey that's a terribly good idea, your are right. You could even remove the acrylic plates from time to time to keep the system absolutely scrubbed clean of detritus and the corals would plate over in time to look very matured and part of the integral system when installed. It's cool the corals will just grow to anything you glue them to huh? As you can see, my hydnophora will plate over acrylic just as easy as it will LR or coralline-encrusted surfaces. It's all in the water chemistry, though I know the books say that certain non-asexual reproductive aspects of the coral prefer natural surfaces... Thanks for stopping in Sir
B

concerning the crabs: the green hariy ones are IMO, not the white ones with a little black mask across the face. Now when I say destructive you get the age-old debate like "maybe for you, not for me" but what I am referring to is the scaling of a system and apparent damage based on certain aspects of the system at hand. A crab/shrimp/fish may have varying degrees of destruction (a subjective term sometimes) but the natural behaviors can be more or less pronounced depending on what system they are in...if your shrimps or crab tear a little SPS flesh as they forage naturally, your larger system may regrow that flesh faster with the better lighting, dosing or better system aspects of a larger reef aquarium. But in mine where space is small and growth is slower in scale when compared to a larger reef, that little tear is pronounced and very odd looking relative to the amount of coral flesh in the system. I notice a 1/2" receded area first thing, whereas it may get by the observer if they were working with a 40 gallon setup with large SPS colonies (or at least colonies larger than one branch :) )...and, it's rather subjective to attribute destructiveness to the natural behaviors of these inverts as well because the system design sets the stage for rebounding growth and a corals ability to resist stress. IMO all shrimp and crabs can be destructive to coral flesh as they do what they do, picking around for food all day. In a larger nano if a shrimp or crab is resting on a large sps colony it only closes up one portion of it, with the rest of the polyps emerged and doing their job. In my system when a sexy shrimp rests on my sps colony, the whole thing closes up so this is more stressful in my tank than it would be in a larger one. And, due to size, they are more likely to be right back on the same frag in 5 mins vs the journey to the other side of a tank in a larger nano. I'm suprised I get any SPS growth at all considering 5 months of these two sexy shrimp and the fact there's still one green crab left in the system I can't catch! I see him late at night sometimes snacking around the edges of candy coral heads, and stressing them hardcore during the process. Gimme a month, there will be two cages in the back@!
 
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I get your crabby point :)

What color should we use for the removable-coral-racks...

Another turn on the crevice-nano tank Idea woudl be to use great stuff... OK we coudl do all the methods used on larger tanks, but with the nano Greatstuff woudl be especially cool... if it worked. All those frags couldbe stuck right into the side with a plastic toothpick or something. OK, enough RC, I have a couple tanks to build :)
 
added some new coral... tank very young!

<img src="http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a309/malice229/1.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com">
 
Well lets try this again...

Well lets try this again...

First off... I see a lot of people doing feather dusters inside their nano tanks? I have been told that these only grow well with a large pod population... is this true? Does it make it into beginner tanks because they are cheap?
Now for my 20 Gallon High Nano at work...
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<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6340293#post6340293 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by brandon429
the perspective shot:

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This is also why the pico reef can support SPS growth, there is no fluctuation of salinity. The system does not evaporate and does not need topping off, in many ways it's more preferable to a larger system. Doesn't cost any chaper to stock...LFS has managed to charge me at least $400 worth of frags so far. Can anyone tell me why one can get a full colony of caulastrea for $39 dollars (say a 6-8 head colony) but LFS charge $15.00 per single head?

The black power lines from the powerhead and heater were cut and then spliced back together after running through grommets in the lid, so they wouldn't salt-creep at that exchange point. They weren't designed to run through the front like that!!!!!! It was a construction oversight in which I installed the entire reef on the wrong side of the tank dang it...there is a curve on one side meaning the glass lid has to seal on backwards now (puts the cables up front). Oh well, they have all but disappeared as I sit and look at this each day.

:beer: :bounce2: :bounce1: :dance: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Does that say it all???? I am BLOWN AWAY by this petite amazing puddle of wonder!! I've been going through the whole thread finally, and am in awe of what everyone has done. Too many to pick out and comment on. Fantastic everyone. Such inspiration...I'll post some soon of my 30cube and original 14.
 
Nano cube

Nano cube

Adding my tank to the mix.
I have a 24 gallon Nano Cube DX for approx 2.5 months.
My gf has a 12 gallon Nano Cube DX for approx 1.5 years.

The 12 gallon is stock.
I added a power head to the 24 gallon.

Right side 24 gallon cube
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Left side 24 gallon cube
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Front view 24 gallon cube
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Front view 12 gallon cube
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Thanks,
Sam
 
I'll toss my new 'cube in the mix...

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but I tried these too...

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FinalAqascape.jpg


PreliminarlyAquascape.jpg


Those are in reverse order, if that makes any sense
 
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