My 65 Gallon Mixed Reef

[biggles]

Looks pretty good :thumbsup:

I completely hear you on the tabling colonies. Sometimes you just feel like giving them the chop! I did that with one a while ago, and have frags all spread out over both tanks. The Red one does look good though, nice pickup

The orange milli does look mighty interesting, pretty good for 5 bucks. I also like the green corallite milli . It could get interesting. Looks like the frags are ready for battle :lol:

BTW, been a bit busy, ripped apart my Monti tank

That red table is getting blasted head on by the 6095 and appears to love the high flow so far - i'm not experienced with tabling acros as they were never around when i last had a reef running so i'm hoping i have it placed correctly. Ended up with 3 frags made from base material i chopped off to make it sit somewhere near level on that sloped rock face. :thumbsup:
I much prefer to buy broken off branch tips over colonies but their not usually on offer unless the collector packs the SPS box badly.......
I took your advice on the second tank dimensions Bello and have started the stand for a 52"x36"x something deep, obviously i will now be buying the 2" yellow tang i've wanted since day one and he can go in the second tank down the track :thumbsup:
I require full piccy disclosure of what you've been up to with your monti display in your journal - you sneaky bugger ( i moved the big arch rock 4" to the right and lowered it 3" at the back to open up the 'grotto' between it and the left hand raft rock yesterday - the experience was horrific for myself and all the corals that were smashed, broken and sworn at lol.

great colors!

Thanks mate, hopefully the colors keep improving and the corals keep growing

Wont the corals sting each other in 6 months time with them being located so close to each other?

One can only hope so sahin, i can't stand displays that look like LFS SPS sale tanks - i want a very dramatic and wild look to the reef and will only help a coral out if he's getting absolutely flogged by a neighbouring acro - green acros get no help.........

 

[troubadour11]

It's still looking great Biggles. I'm will be jealous of those tabling acros. I've never seen one grown out in a system around me. I don't even know if they're in the LFS's over here very often.

I'm still learning my p's and q's on identifying corals though. So I could be staring right at a frag of one going "OOoOOoOOOoO... look at this little guy. I bet it would turn into something cool!"

Then again, I do that with about any colony I see in a store. lol

 

[sahin]

One can only hope so sahin, i can't stand displays that look like LFS SPS sale tanks - i want a very dramatic and wild look to the reef and will only help a coral out if he's getting absolutely flogged by a neighbouring acro - green acros get no help.........

Cool mate. I think then I can justify getting a few more frags for my tank. :lol2:

 

[Reef_Noob]

Congrats on a beautiful n colorful tank
This thread is a perfect example of useful and informative discussions.
And everything in a friendly warm way
Good selection on corals and would look amazing once they grow out.
Love your Mandarin.
My dream is to get a mated pair of mandarins. I had seen a pair before and it was just beautiful seeing them together and interacting. But them being picky eaters is my worry. I am on the watchout and once my tank has a high pod population il be ordering them in

 

[biggles]

It's still looking great Biggles. I'm will be jealous of those tabling acros. I've never seen one grown out in a system around me. I don't even know if they're in the LFS's over here very often.

I'm still learning my p's and q's on identifying corals though. So I could be staring right at a frag of one going "OOoOOoOOOoO... look at this little guy. I bet it would turn into something cool!"

Then again, I do that with about any colony I see in a store.

Hey Troub, thanks for the kind words mate. That table is the first one i've seen for sale in the last 4 months which is why i bought it even though i knew i would have probs integrating it into the reef. I'm looking forward to seeing it grow once it gets over the poops and settles in.
When i started my first tank i took Borneman's book - Aquarium Corals : Selection, Husbandry, and Natural History with me every time i visited the LFS and ducked out to check on stuff before buying new species i was unfamiliar with - get it if you don't have it as it's full of yummy pics with good general info on aquarium requirements of many corals.
We were all in your situation once Troub and i'm actually slightly envious of the wonder and excitement that comes when you realise you're actually keeping all these cool corals and beautiful fish in your home even though they think they're still in the ocean somewhere lol - first tank is always the most exciting due to the fear factor.......

Cool mate. I think then I can justify getting a few more frags for my tank. :lol2:

I say go for the wild look mate, it's pretty easy to shape acros growth away from each other with some selective tip pruning if things get ugly lol. That new pink colony on the raft rock beside the flat monti suddenly decided to flex its muscles last night, even though they weren't touching the monti had a 3/4" wide burn circle this morning - the acro doesn't want to friends.

Congrats on a beautiful n colorful tank
This thread is a perfect example of useful and informative discussions.
And everything in a friendly warm way
Good selection on corals and would look amazing once they grow out.
Love your Mandarin.
My dream is to get a mated pair of mandarins. I had seen a pair before and it was just beautiful seeing them together and interacting. But them being picky eaters is my worry. I am on the watchout and once my tank has a high pod population il be ordering them in

Hi Reef_Noob, thanks for nice words mate, appreciate them a lot. I try to keep things concise and to the point here but it's a losing battle with the likes of Bello and Troub constantly steering me off course......... If you wade through all our wafflings you'll find some handy info here and there and anyone's opinion is welcome - obviously if it differs to mine it'll be shot down in flames with non existent scientific data i may or may not have in my possession now or in the future.........:reading:
I had a mandarin in my last tank and love the little guys, mine hasn't put much of a dent in the pod population despite eating non stop all day and he's used to me now so getting pics is easy I've never seen a mated pair of mandarins for sale let alone in someones tank, i'd love to see pics of them hanging out together when you grab a pair - they have the coolest swimming motion and i love how they stand on their fins when eyeing off a little critter to eat.

Not a good pic but you can see how opened up the aquascape is in the 'hidden' section that you only see fully from the end or front left side, made lots of room for corals to grow out before getting into some biffo with each other, ignore the frag i dropped in the middle of the sand bed lol.

Finally did some more work on the raft rock and attached some corals, lots more room yet - the skunk has a 'thing' for the new stag which appears to be turning more red than purple but it's early days yet.

Evening shot with actinics just for a change - how can anyone not love this hobby.

 

[syedjilani]

very nice tank.

 

[Bello]

Nice update!!!

The left raft looks great! :thumbsup: Wondering what PotatoHead is upto on that stag :lol:? If that stag turns out to be red, you will have fully earned my hate!!! I'm still loving the wannabe SSC though. All in all, the raft looks perfect, and I hope you don't change anything on there :thumbsup: Fine! a piece directly opposite the wild greenie won't hurt

52"x36"x??. Settled on the height yet? I'd like 14-15, max 18 (but that's just me!). Nice and shallow, with plenty of space for tons more colonies and gorgeous top down shots. Ever kept shallow tanks Biggles? Aquascaping should be a fun challenge!

I think Yellow tangs are highly under-rated in the hobby! I'd be hard pressed to find a more suitable reef fish, in terms of colour and utility :thumbsup:

Still putting things back together in my system, a bit of a mess right now , but more of that later.....

 

[biggles]

very nice tank.

Thanks very much mate

Thanks for the thumbs up on the raft scaping Bello, i appreciate it coming from you mate. Whenever i manhandle a coral for a while trying to stick it somewhere it doesn't want to stay i see Potatohead spend the next few days crawling all over it - i think he has a thing for my skin cells lol. No movement on the stag color but the polyps are deep rusty red ( i think you're going to hate me Bello )........ I want another stag on that raft rock, a thin branching type - i've caught your stag bug Bello lol.
This 40x24x18" is shallow to me mate lol, the others were 2 ft deep. I love the 3 to 4 ratio in regards to height over width as it gives great depth perception for cool aquascaping so i'm thinking 16-18" eurobraced 52" long and 36" front to back. I'm thinking 2 x 400W radiums and 6 x 54W T5's should cover the lighting and i want to play with LED strips down the track instead of the T5's.
I'm definitely going to get a yellow tang as i've always had one, very common but that's because they're an all around great reef fish both color wise and behavior wise.
Sounds like you've had some aquascaping stress like me lol, yours sounds worse though so i take comfort in that.........

Arty farty pic.....

Emerald green porites growing underneath a rock ledge - sand is great for reflecting extra light.

This bluey purple yellow tipped acro is shooting new growth tips from the underside of the front branches rather than growing upwards so i'm pretty sure it's going to table for me.

I went looking for a fish today but saw nothing whatsoever that i want. They kindly let me take a few pics of their display tank for you Bello, it's 9'x3'x30" high and the big tangs are well over a foot long, the blues are about 8-9".

The anemone is about 2 feet in diameter and that female clown is a biter lol. That yellow tang was swimming into the anemone which i found unusual.

The mushroom arch is about30" long and those fluffy green shrooms are over 4" across.

My 'wish i had one' fish - Regal angels are just too beautiful for words when you see them in person, this one is about 5" and very active and healthy as were all the fish in the store.

Little nano with one of those Kessil LED blue/white spotlights over it, the colors are way better in real life as usual - i don't think that price included the corals or the light lol.

 

[Bello]

Whew!! That's one hell of an update!!! Where do I even begin? :lol:

Let's start off with how much I hate that you could have a possibly red stag!!! How's that? But honestly, more stags please :lol:

Dimensions for the new tank sound great :thumbsup:. One thing that I should mention, given that I've recently experienced this..... a 3 feet wide tank can be incredibly irritating to access/photograph at the back end. I realized this now more than ever when redoing the monti scape :lol: I don't know how tall you are, but chances are, you're gonna need a step ladder .....But.... the depth in aquascaping more than makes up for this, as you've said. And top down's just look insane......so shallow and wide will always get my vote :thumbsup: Lighting???....I know there's no way you're gonna go all LED... hahahahha

I haven't said this recently, but you've taken some great pics with that phone, with that nutty mod :thumbsup: I'd be struggling!!

Didn't even realize that you had that emerald porites, looks pretty good, being green and all :lol:. Nah, I like it, rich deep color. The blue-yellow tip acro is VERY interesting. I didn't notice that the individual corallite tips had that same blue coloring, before. It does look like its gonna table, and naturally, to boot :thumbsup:

And finally an LFS update.... Thanks!!! I love seeing these!!

The tangs are huge, and they've got a couple of pretty neat fish. And don't even talk about the damn Regal Angel. I've tried 4 in the last 10 years..... failed miserably!!! The last one was doing well for a couple months... until....flukes. It was the smallest I'd got, and I still believe that to be the key. Small and feeding. I do hope you get one!!!... I was looking out for one myself, but with the failures as mentioned above, didn't want to be categorized as a mass murderer

The nano tank's pretty neat too.... nice goni and scoly's. And I kinda have a weak spot for sea fans. Love that delicate structure. Just wish I could get the photosynthetic ones. It'd be soo much easier.

Thanks for the update!!

 

[biggles]

So it's been 10 days since the last update and the tank is 5 months old so i finally did what i've been thinking about for a month - i removed the big ugly olive green colony from the tip of the back ledge allowing me to spin the raft a bit and move it into more light. Even though it had pink tips the vast majority was drab and annoyed me every time i looked at the tank lately as it was also growing faster than anything else which is typical. I dropped the coral into the closest LFS i visit so he'll be in someone elses tank soon.
I've discovered a problem with the new tank design as there's only 1400mm of wall space and with only 100mm or 4" between the cabinets i won't have access to the rear plumbing. Also the doorway to the spare room where i do my building has a 795mm gap so the tank needs to be about 765mm or 30" wide rather than 3ft.
I'm now going to swing it around and have a peninsula tank with the 30" panel against the wall leaving 2 ft of wall space to play with. I think 55" long is about as far as i want it to stick out - yes it grew a bit lol.

Btw Bello, that last LFS visit i posted pics of didn't include the 3 new acros i bought while i was there lol - i bet you spot the new stag pretty quickly....... everything is a bit poopy since i decided to swish up the sand bed to get any crap into the water column, just had the radium on when i took the pics as it's easier to adjust the white balance with a single light source after using the good old iphone.

 

[Bello]

Now I'm left wondering where you're gonna place the new tank? I thought it would be beside the existing one? 30" width should be good, especially if it's a peninsula type. Tons of scaping options here :thumbsup:

FTS looks good, though I think you need more green in there :lol: :ape:

That's a nice looking stag, a top down shot of that raft is in order. Seems that it's in stronger lighting now. I do love that left raft, in terms of structure and corals :thumbsup:

What else did you pick up? I'm being lazy here ....and I'm also jealous, haven't had a new coral in 4 months now

 

[troubadour11]

Your reef looks like it's starting to fill in and get a little crowded. Good thing your new build is getting all planned out before you run out of room in there. :thumbsup:

I'm just getting close to finishing up my aquascape... I bet you'll be knee deep in cement, epoxy, and rubble before to long! I'll be happy to have that stage over with for now.

 

[biggles]

Hey guys, yes it is getting crowded which is why i've been downsizing some of the corals in size to make more room. Having a second larger tank will make life very easy for me as i'll be able to frag up all new pieces rather than placing them in the scape as whole colonies.
Here's the other two acros i bought, the first has a ton of potential in my eyes with fluoro polyps and a hint of purple even though it's in poor shape and the second one is insanely blue with red polyps.

Potatohead likes to get in any top down shots as you can see - he stalks me when i'm at the tank lol.

 

[Bello]

OMG Biggles!!! That second one looks utterly insane!!! This does look like a spathulata, how about you get Jason to ID it?

Sheesh, and I've been begging for a frag of one . Really beginning to loathe you!!!

 

[biggles]

Hey Bello, yeah it was a bit drab when i bought it but it brightened up within 3-4 days of hitting the tank and it really is a gob smacking vibrant color so i'm very pleased it was ignored for over a week at the LFS
I'm certain it's not a spath as i go out of my way to avoid them, they aren't uncommon to see and i don't like the thicker branching they have - they're very obvious when you see one amongst normal milli's. When i next see some in the LFS's i'll get some pics in future so you can see what i mean about spotting them easily :thumbsup: cough....they're ugly.......cough....... plus you don't have to loathe me now

Remember this table i got on May 11

18 days later and check out the growth lol - it's going nuts and the color isn't too shabby either, i think i'm going to like this one a whole lot

It gets prettier each day and has already encrusted a good 1/8" onto the epoxy i stuck it down with, it only shoots new white growth tips on the very outside rim except for the odd 'rogue' growth tip lol.

You know i've got frags of all this stuff Bello if you want to sneak out and fly over here - i even have an esky for you to carry them home in......... run it by the wife and let me know what she thinks, don't mention my name if she looks angry btw :reading:
I need to see some action on your journal soon and Troub needs to get some bloody water in the tank this year - you two are slacking off..........
I'm going to bed but but tomorrow i'll tell you how my trying to help the cleaner shrimp get a go at the clown resulted in a shattered radium bulb, a burn on the back of my hand, a shrimp that is hiding full time in his cave and to top it all off a clown that hit one of the T5 tubes and now won't take food from my hand......:facepalm:

 

[Bello]

I think the only word for that purple acro is SCORE!!!!!!... And I'm sure you've got that warm fuzzy feeling of pride inside, since it was a turd when you got it :thumbsup:

So what the hell happened?? This is one of those "DOH" moments, isn't it? I've had far too many of those than I'd like to admit . What were you trying to pull with Potatohead? Hope you have a spare/old Radium as backup.

I'm really liking the tabling acro. And despite your love for green, I think the contrast of the pinkish red and green looks awesome :thumbsup: I am concerned about tables though, having had no prior success before my latest tank. Worried about flow between branches as they get larger. Any thoughts/tips on this?

And you sir, suffer from an embarrassment of riches!!! I guess the reason I'm searching for the spats is because of well, its a noob thing I guess, but I like the PE of these and millies :lol: I kinda like the thick structure as well. I think a combination of different structured acros on one rock would look pretty neat (not really natural but neat).

I had to google what "esky" meant :lol: Gotcha, trust me, don't tempt me, or I'll be outside your door before you can grab your mosquito spray. My wife is dying to get out of the country, needs a holiday really bad. She hasn't really been anywhere since the pregnancy, so hoping that we could do maybe Maldives or something in November. Maybe sneak in something... . I do actually have some family out in Melbourne, but I really don't know when I'll visit, but don't tempt me :furious:

And, I'm almost done with the Monti tank..... for now... Was up till 4am last night adding in some blue LED's for the lighting. I realized that I really really really HATE the yellowish look. Also realized, that I don't really love Monti's much, so will throw in more acro's there :lol:

 

[troubadour11]

Potatohead likes to get in any top down shots as you can see - he stalks me when i'm at the tank lol.

I'm glad your two new pickups are "Potatohead Approved." And that 2nd coral looks gorgeous! Loving that blue color!

And from the growth of that table you picked up, I would say it's taking to your tank quite nicely.

I need to see some action on your journal soon and Troub needs to get some bloody water in the tank this year - you two are slacking off..........
I'm going to bed but but tomorrow i'll tell you how my trying to help the cleaner shrimp get a go at the clown resulted in a shattered radium bulb, a burn on the back of my hand, a shrimp that is hiding full time in his cave and to top it all off a clown that hit one of the T5 tubes and now won't take food from my hand......

I hope all the trauma victims have recovered after the craziness that went down. Hey, did you hear that one about the clown, a shrimp, a radium, some T5's, and a Biggles?!? All joking aside, I hope the burn is better and I really hope Potatohead shows himself for some new photo ops!

Oh and as for the slacking off. You're a little right. We had some fun to get done. :beer: Then a wine tasting fundraiser event up in Santa Barbera, then some friends over for a holiday bbq (smoked ribs and tri-tip :thumbsup: YUM!) Now I've got 1 more piece I'm attaching to the rock-work today and calling it done (hopefully not just done for now).

But the good news: When our friends were over for the BBQ, he and I figured out how to run some electrical into my closet and where to drill my lines through the wall. So he's going to come back and help me get the plumbing & electric runs done during another bbq. I'm stepping on the gas now that the rock is 99.5% done :uzi:

 

[biggles]

Okay i'm going to share my bulb busting fiasco so that others may learn from it - it's highly unlikely that anyone else would think to do this but you never know..........:wildone:
So you know i hand feed the clown and the skunk shrimp (Potatohead) and the shrimp is busting to get a go at the clown so i was letting the shrimp clean the palm of my hand whilst holding a pinch of food for the clown when i thought hmmmm what if i raise my hand with Potatohead in it and tempt the clown over with the food and then they'll meet and be best buddies.......
The clown started nipping pellets from my fingers and suddenly Potatohead flies out from behind my hand and literally pounces on the clown which then shot up out of the water hitting one of the blue plus tubes and startling me enough that i snatched my hand upwards hitting the radium bulb causing the outer sleeve to crack. The shrimp took off into the rocks, the clown splashed back down and sulked, i have a burn on the back of my hand and had to swap out the radium bulb with my spare.
Everyone is happy again and things are back to normal but there will be no more attempts to 'match make' between Potatohead and the picasso :debi:

That table is directly in front of the flow from the 6095 and i have stuff all experience with them so lots of flow and lots of light is what i'm running with at the moment, it's developing heaps of new white growth tips and has good PE so hopefully it's in the right spot to thrive. The middle of the top and the base growth is greenish as you said and it does have a nice color contrast because of this I like milli's but not their hairy polyps lol - i need 'bald' milli's.
More acros and less monti's sounds like a good plan to me Bello :thumbsup:

Hey Troub, sounds like things are getting serious with your setup mate, always good to have friends over who can contribute to the reef - if they can't then just stop inviting them over......... :smokin:

As i find it difficult to make a post without a pic here's one of the SCC frag which has finally started to sprout new growth tips after months of nothing but encrusting - the two little sprouts at the back :celeb1:.

 

[Bello]

always good to have friends over who can contribute to the reef - if they can't then just stop inviting them over......... :smokin:

:lol: biggles, priceless and a hell of a story

And you just have to throw in an SSC pic outta the blue, just to rub it in eh?

I've been tearing my hair up over the last couple days with the scape, and have decided to just leave the damn thing be. Will post up a pic tomorrow on where its at, at the moment.

Also I finally picked up 4 mari's, PE is low at the moment....let's see how they go

 

[RGCEsq]

Your tank looks amazing. I love the colors. Thank you for sharing.