Nuuze's 79G SPS Reef

[Cantonesefish]

Nuuze, is there a lot of light spilling out from the aquarium? I'm thinking of uprading to an hanging infinity fixture, but as my aquarium is in the same room as the television, I'm worried that the light would be too annoying / distracting.

 

[Nuuze]

No glare at all from the tank on the plasma display. The only glare I get on the plasma is at night from the kitchen nook ceiling fan light if its on that is behind me where I took the pic. But it's not to a point where you can't watch, just slightly.

Alessandro from Sfiligoi has also mentioned to me that the fixture is several inches too high still the last time we were exchanging emails/photos. I'm still in the process of having my arm in the tank several times a day trying to find "sweet spots" for some SPS that don't seem to be happy where they're at still. But Alessandro says that is one of the features of the Infinity XR4 to lower the fixture down until no light from the halides is shining out above the aquarium waterline. I guess whatever light that reflects off the water hits the reflectors than redirects back down to tank.

 

[Nuuze]

Here are more pieces I got two weeks ago from Norman (MrUgly)

Purple Green Vietnamensis

Red Prostrata

Sky Blue Milli

True Undata

Aquituberculata

Tubs Rice coral

 

[Nuuze]

Also I just realized from all the copying and pasting I forgot to name the Steve Tyree pieces. But I'm sure most of you can identify them.

 

[uhuru]

wow, awesome. even if these were my own I don't think I would remember all the names, LOL. Love those torts.

 

[Nuuze]

Tell me about it; I had a list for the last 6 months and I am starting to remember. I even had to go back to some and ask them again what I bought from them! After a while you'll get them. But remember their scientific names are a different story!

 

[Nuuze]

I got a reply from Norman (Mr.Ugly) saying the rice coral is not a Tubs piece. Tubs rice coral has tan polyps, but this one has purple/blue polyps. The pictured piece lost some color from dipping...I'm sure the colors will return.

 

[Nuuze]

Another piece I forgot to add from Xia.

Rainbow Monti before and after

 

[Nuuze]

Here are some of my fish...

 

[Nuuze]

And more fish...

 

[Nuuze]

Here's one of my Anthias requesting a cleaning from an Emerald crab...

Guess there's a line forming...

 

[tigerarmy40]

so what are the dimentions of your current tank? I have just ordered a braceless tank and love reading over your thread. what are you using for a skimmer and do you have a link for it? Im in the process of looking for oa skimmer that does the job but doesnt take up too much room. My tank is 36x24x24 so the sump will not be too large!

 

[Nuuze]

Hi tigerarmy40,

Here's a link to my tank setup thread:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=961293

There you can see more pics of my sump and skimmer setup. I'm using the Elos NS500 skimmer and it does a great job pulling skimmate. It runs very quiet and easy to clean and has a pretty small footprint. There's also a couple vidoes in the setup thread you can see it running. My tank measures 120x50x50h cm (47,24 x 19,69 x 19,69 h inch.) according to elosusa.com. I'm very happy with the quality and crafsmanship of Elos.

Enjoy!

 

[clownnrnd]

tank looks great, growth does'nt seem to be a problem for you at all.

Here's a pic of me after the BR system 70 raffle . Sorry buddy you could of used it as a sweet frag system. Of course that might be a bit much . Kind of like owning a 1/2mil. motor home and towing a Porsche. Well.....I don't know that that would be too much....people would just have to get over it


Chad

 

[Nuuze]

I recently got tired of the rock wall look so I redecorated a bit. Sorry for all the white frag rocks, I recently picked all those pieces from a local reefer. Pics taken under 2-250w DE 10k BLV's, enjoy!

Front

Left

Center

Right, notice how the Antias likes to take pics?

 

[Project Reef]

Although the tank is gorgeous and the actual set-up is excellent, you should really consider either upgrading or removing most of those fragments. They are just ridiculously too close to each other.

I've noticed this with an incredible number of aquariums these past few years. The situation is typical, several fragments mounted a mere inches apart from each other. Not only does this look unnatural but it's a recipe for disaster in the long run.

 

[Nuuze]

I know what you mean Project Reef. My arm is in the tank almost every other day whether its cleaning, moving around or feeding so I'm always watching closely. Most of the pieces on the sand and frag rack are temporary and will be sold or traded very soon. I'm still debating to get another tank or upgrading to a bigger one, most likely another one. Most pieces are LE and very slow growers so they won't be crashing into each other anytime soon. So what is the recipe or general radius of mounting SPS from one another that they should be mounted?

 

[Project Reef]

Generally speaking, 10 to 14" apart is a good starting point.

To be honest, I'm not too concerned about 'chemical warfare' as much as I am aesthetics and future coral deaths from corals growing into each other.

10 to 14 inches may sound like a lot at first, however it's important to remember that SPS grow almost exponentially, a 1" x 1" -> 2" x 2" -> 4" x 4" -> 8" x 8" -> 16" x 16".

It's always important to visualize what your tank will look like ahead of time, 6 months from now, 1 year from now, 2 years from now and 5 years from now. Very similar to goal setting techniques for general life applications, the same visualization method can be used for your SPS systems as well.

Beatiful large sized colonies look much more natural and aesthetically appealing that simply having dozens of smaller colonies touching each other. I know with the amount of beautiful corals available to us, it's extremely tempting to jam pack the tank with cool frags. However, if you can resist that and have the patience to wait it out, the results will be amazing.

 

[Nuuze]

Wow! 10-14" apart in my tank would be 8-12 corals. That would mean about 80 percent less corals than what I have now leaving it pretty empty.

For the most part in the last 6 months most of my SPS has grown from tiny frags to mini colonies where the still have several inches between each other but the aren't touching or stinging each other. Once they start getting close I either relocted them or move the nearby pieces or trim them to how I like them.

If they star growing out of control where they are too close to one another like you say then I totally agree with you. Then that would mean time to get rid of some or get a bigger or another tank.

But what about in nature in the ocean? Most pics of the reef I've seen in books and videos most corals seem to grow in patches butting up right againts each other in the wild. Can't I mimic a minature piece of the reef?

 

[Project Reef]

8-12 corals is PLENTY of coral for a 79 gallon reef tank once they are allowed to grow into large colonies. It'll look fantastic.
You can also utilize slow growing corals/clams such as blastomussa, favia sp., T. maxima/croceas as accent pieces in between the Acropora to help give you that fuller look. (Wow, that felt so shampoo-commercialish)

In nature you won't find 40 different species of Acropora growing together in a 4' x 2' area. Normally, you'll see a few species taking over several sq. feet or meters of an area. Regardless, comparing the amount of corals grown in the ocean to what we can and should do in our little glass boxes is apples and oranges.