My 65G Shallow Reef Tank

[Myka]

The green one is not plana. The echinata is a beauty! I'm jealous!

Your Anthias look really good too!

 

[mhucasey]

Nice pick ups Bulent!

 

[DiscusHeckel]

The green one is not plana. The echinata is a beauty! I'm jealous!

Your Anthias look really good too!

Thank you Mindy.

I now have to figure out how to attach the echinata to a rock. I have no space on rocks. I will have to look at what is available in my sump.

Nice pick ups Bulent!

Thanks Matt. You have the same coral in your tank. What did you use to attach it to a rock? My lfs told me not to use any putty or super glue. Instead, he suggested a rock with a large hole can be used to prop the coral up.

 

[biggles]

Your nice delicate piece is A. desalwii, they don't like high light or flow - not ever Bulent. They are touchy little buggers...........

The echi will most likely not encrust but simply settle and then grow or sometimes they die back 1/4" - 1/2" at the very base where you have glued them down. If you see stn in the week after gluing don't freak out and just watch it closely. It will stop quickly unless the new conditions are the cause.

I always super glue the base to a small flat piece of rock outside the tank and let it dry in the sump. I then check it for secure grip and add more glue if needed until i know it's rock solid - it won't make a decent base ever starting off as a branch like yours Bulent so you need to make sure the attachment will support all future growth. I then glue/putty/glue the base of the flat rock to the reef scape as it has a much larger surface area.

All three pieces are rippers Bulent, well done mate :thumbsup:

*** Sorry mate, i pasted A. willisae originally as it is between the two and i pasted the wrong one in lol.

 

[mhucasey]

Thank you Mindy.

I now have to figure out how to attach the echinata to a rock. I have no space on rocks. I will have to look at what is available in my sump.



Thanks Matt. You have the same coral in your tank. What did you use to attach it to a rock? My lfs told me not to use any putty or super glue. Instead, he suggested a rock with a large hole can be used to prop the coral up.

I used super glue. In my experience, a coral in a hole moves too much and the coral will not grow properly until it is secure.

 

[DiscusHeckel]

I used super glue. In my experience, a coral in a hole moves too much and the coral will not grow properly until it is secure.

Thanks Matt. I already bought a small bottle of super glue gel in anticipation. Thanks for the advice on placing a coral in a hole on live rock.

My Acropora speciosa/echinata seems to be growing rapidly despite being simply left in a hole. However, as you said my other corals do not settle unless they are pinned down on live rock. It is possible that those coral that do not naturally encrust live rock may be OK being just pegged loosely.

Your nice delicate piece is A. desalwii, they don't like high light or flow - not ever Bulent. They are touchy little buggers...........

The echi will most likely not encrust but simply settle and then grow or sometimes they die back 1/4" - 1/2" at the very base where you have glued them down. If you see stn in the week after gluing don't freak out and just watch it closely. It will stop quickly unless the new conditions are the cause.

I always super glue the base to a small flat piece of rock outside the tank and let it dry in the sump. I then check it for secure grip and add more glue if needed until i know it's rock solid - it won't make a decent base ever starting off as a branch like yours Bulent so you need to make sure the attachment will support all future growth. I then glue/putty/glue the base of the flat rock to the reef scape as it has a much larger surface area.

All three pieces are rippers Bulent, well done mate :thumbsup:

*** Sorry mate, i pasted A. willisae originally as it is between the two and i pasted the wrong one in lol.

Thanks Andrew. My coral shall be known as A. desalwii from this moment onwards. I have awful lot of flow in my tank, but there is one corner that receives considerably less flow than other sections of my display tank. This place should suit both the echinata and the desalwii as the light intensity is also quite low around 225 mmol/m2/sec. It sounds as if I picked the right coral to test my Acropora keeping skills. I like challenge and I hope that I will not fail.

I will place the A. hyacinthus in a high flow and high light position. I read that high light intensity may prevent the green pigmentation from appearing (source: Dana Riddle), but I do not care much about that. I will be happy if I manage to grow this little tiny frag to maturity. I will worry about pigmentation at a later date.

As for the echinata placement, thanks for the invaluable tip. I will follow your instructions to the letter. Thanks again for your advice.

 

[markalot]

Great pickups, can't wait to see how they do once settled in.

 

[plyle02]

Agreed, great scores!!! The anthias school is beautiful, great job Bulent!!!
Your colors are also dialed in, look forward to seeing a full display shot, to bring it all into perspective

 

[Harrison2210]

Hi Bulent, the new corals look great, I wonder if it is the same echinata I bought a couple weeks back.

I was with Mark Lawson on Saturday bought a stunning blue A.Formosa from him (it's a De Jong cultured piece you'd hate it :lmao. It really is small world we live in, anyway, he was full of praise for your tank but he did complain of having melt down from all the knowledge you imparted on him:hammer:.

Matt

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Hi Bulent, the new corals look great, I wonder if it is the same echinata I bought a couple weeks back.

I was with Mark Lawson on Saturday bought a stunning blue A.Formosa from him (it's a De Jong cultured piece you'd hate it :lmao. It really is small world we live in, anyway, he was full of praise for your tank but he did complain of having melt down from all the knowledge you imparted on him:hammer:.

Matt

Hi Matt,

When I went to Cockfields to collect my frag, there were two wild-collected Echinata colonies with blue tips. The first one had a white body and the second one had much darker body (in dark brown), which was also much larger than the first one. They looked identical corals to me. I bought the first one without fragging it further as this was the one Andrew commented on.

I cannot comment on what you really bought without seeing its picture.

Mark asked me a lot of questions about my set up. He looked intrigued. I like people who ask questions. I answered his questions to the best of my ability. It sounds as if I overloaded him :bigeyes:. I am delighted to learn from you that he liked my tank. Although he was very complimentary, I did not know if he really meant it.

Regards

Bulent

 

[this is me]

I absolutely love that shoal of anthias in an sps tank! Great work.

 

[mhucasey]

Bulent, my LFS is securing a shoal of 6 Resplendent Anthias for me

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Great pickups, can't wait to see how they do once settled in.

Thank you Mark. I have already glued two of the frags bar the desalwii to something. They are resting in my sump. I will put them in my display tank later tonight and take a photo. I am having difficulty in deciding where to place the Desalwii and how to place it after Andrew's warning about its fragility. It is still on the sand bed in a shady position. I can see its polyps when the lights are off.

Agreed, great scores!!! The anthias school is beautiful, great job Bulent!!!

Your colors are also dialed in, look forward to seeing a full display shot, to bring it all into perspective

Thank you Perry. I will take a photo asap.

I absolutely love that shoal of anthias in an sps tank! Great work.

Cheers Nick. I keep my water temperature between 27-28C. I am hoping that this will not shorten their life span.

Bulent, my LFS is securing a shoal of 6 Resplendent Anthias for me

This is an excellent news Matt. I am looking forward to seeing them in your tank. I would have thought you would need much more than six fishes in your tank. Nevertheless, this is a good start. I expect that once you have them, you will want more of them.

I add red plankton to my fishes' frozen food everyday to maintain their colours. Occasionally, I feed them with krill. Both food contain high amounts of carotene, which is good for maintaining (or enhancing) red/pink colours.

 

[reefmutt]

Beautiful new pieces, Bulent!
Can't wait to see the some of your excellent candy box top downs of the new ones, when they settle in.

 

[mhucasey]

This is an excellent news Matt. I am looking forward to seeing them in your tank. I would have thought you would need much more than six fishes in your tank. Nevertheless, this is a good start. I expect that once you have them, you will want more of them.

I add red plankton to my fishes' frozen food everyday to maintain their colours. Occasionally, I feed them with krill. Both food contain high amounts of carotene, which is good for maintaining (or enhancing) red/pink colours.

Thanks for the tip - I'd love more but at 40 dollars a fish I had to pick a reasonable amount. The tank overall will have 9 chromis, 2 Hutchii Anthias, a Powder blue tang, a Grey Headed wrasse, 3 clownfish, 1 leopard wrasse, a mandarin, and a dragonette PLUS the 6 Resplendent Anthias. Its a good start

 

[DiscusHeckel]

I was with Mark Lawson on Saturday bought a stunning blue A.Formosa from him (it’s a De Jong cultured piece you’d hate it :lmao.

Matt

I am afraid of AEFW and Montipora eating nudibranches. Because of this fear, I just cannot get any mari-cultured/aqua-cultured Acropora colonies or even wild-collected Acropora colonies anywhere. The fear is almost at paranoia levels. When I see fellow reefers collecting wonderful Acropora colonies I envy them and I envy you. I hope I will be able to overcome my fears one day. Until then, I am going to get only small frags that I can properly inspect thoroughly without resorting to chemical dips.

Beautiful new pieces, Bulent!
Can't wait to see the some of your excellent candy box top downs of the new ones, when they settle in.

Thank you Matt. I will do my best. Thanks for the encouragement.

Thanks for the tip - I'd love more but at 40 dollars a fish I had to pick a reasonable amount. The tank overall will have 9 chromis, 2 Hutchii Anthias, a Powder blue tang, a Grey Headed wrasse, 3 clownfish, 1 leopard wrasse, a mandarin, and a dragonette PLUS the 6 Resplendent Anthias. Its a good start

You are right about the cost implications Matt. I forgot all about it. In my case, I used some of my store credit from my frag sale to buy them. An alternative would have been to purchase even more FM salts or Rowa kalk :hammer:. My lfs sells resplendid anthias for about £23 per fish or 6 for £130. Hence, they are slightly cheaper over here, which is quite unusual because everything else is very expensive in this country. Would you believe that I import Seachem Matrix carbon through Amazon.com. It is 50% cheaper?

 

[mhucasey]

You are right about the cost implications Matt. I forgot all about it. In my case, I did not pay any money for my fish because I used some of my store credit from my frag sale to buy them. An alternative would have been to purchase even more FM salts or Rowa kalk :hammer:. My lfs sells resplendid anthias for about £23 per fish or 6 for £130. Hence, they are slightly cheaper over here, which is quite unusual because everything else is very expensive in this country. Would you believe that I import Seachem Matrix carbon through Amazon.com. It is 50% cheaper?

My LFS knows their fish, and get good quality fish and stand behind them, so they are a bit more expensive than the Ghetto Fish store in the same area. I don't mind paying a bit more for that. I also have an almost 100 dollar credit so I wont have to pay the whole amount at least.

 

[DiscusHeckel]

I glued my Ice fire Echinata to a piece of rock as per Andrew's suggestions, but used the skeleton of a dead Acanthastrea coral, which I managed to kill in the past. I thought its craters in the skeleton would provide better holding of the glue. It did not work in the first attempt and then I managed to glue the coral in place in my second attempt. In hindsight, using a dead coral skeleton was mistake because it topples if big snails push it hard. A completely flat rock, which I have in my sump, would have been a better choice, but I could not be bothered to cut it to size.

The coral has started to show polyp extension. There is no sign of any STN at the base, but I am carefully watching it. It is in a low light position at the moment. Its colouration is moving in the right direction. I will gradually move it towards a brighter spot, but intend to keep it on the sand bed and let it grow towards the light.

 

[markalot]

That's a very pretty coral, I hope it does well!

 

[biggles]

That echi is looking great Bulent. They always pale on the branches as they expel the zoa levels normally present in the ocean if conditions are 'icefire' friendly :thumbsup:
As long as you don't increase light drastically and it has PE at least during lights out i'd move it to wherever you want mate. It should have good PE 24/7 after a few weeks of settling in and if you never see day time PE and have no nippers it's in too much light.

The branches appear to be very pale red with a blue wash over the red color as it transitions to very pale cream which looks stark white from a few feet away. It's a weird color to describe but i wonder if you know what i'm trying to describe Bulent.

Really pleased it's doing well for you mate