DAHansen's 34G Solana

[DAHansen]

Thanks Lynn and Seahorse! Here are some pics!

Full Tank - Then Kenya Tree is Getting too big. Frag time? The "worm" in front of the red shrooms on the bottom is a trail of snail eggs on the glass. We'll see if they hatch. I'm a little worried about Chem warfare between the softies and the SPS, so I'm running carbon, purigen, and poly-pad in the back, until I get my act together and build an overflow and fuge.


Overhead Shot - It's deeper than it looks! The bright blue looking bits are an encrusting psamacora from GSellers. I don't know if it was supposed to be in three pieces (the third one fell between the rocks and should eventually grow out - it's getting light!), but it worked out well because now it can spread out from more areas.


GSELLERS CORALS (most of 'em anyway!) I have to post an edit in a few minutes because I forgot to upload the Millepora pics! No pics of the Sunrise Zoas because they were not opened up.

Eagle Eye Zoas - Still opening up.


Grape Monti Cap - It's gonna look awesome!


Orange Monti Digi - He's a little guy.


Orange Monti Cap - HUGE frag! (not the sharpest photo)


Purple Millepora! - Here's the photo I forgot to upload


"OLD" corals

Hydno's doing good and getting a little fat. I thought it would grow taller, not wider.


Pocillopora was moved more forward and a little lower in the tank. I'm hoping that more direct light will help it color up. It looks dull in person.


Green Bird's Nest (or whatever it is) - Growing great and has some macro algae growing off it's plug that I have to keep trimming.


Pink Bird's Nest is doing AWESOME - so many new little branch buds.


Shaggy little acro - It's turning from Blueish to Teal! Crazy! And it's growing well. Here it is being inspected by a scarlet hermit in it's new spot in tank center.


A Couple of Fun Shots

Close Up of Scarlet Hermit


My Black Ocellaris was VERY WELL behaved today. He didn't even TRY to bite me until I was adjusting the last coral. Maybe he didn't like swimming too close to the super glue.

Here's a photo of him playing ORCA and trying to get me through the top of the water. It's a love hate relationship we've developed. He'll actually stick his whole face out of the water and beg for food... (don't worry, he eats VERY well) :smck:



Back in a few to update with the photo of the mille!

[DAHansen]

Small update.

The Monti Cap won't stay where I put it. MORE GLUE!

More of the eagle eyes have opened up. And the Sunburst Zoa's have been opening up some.

[yungreefer2410]

very nice tank.

[lcstorc]

Thanks for the pics. Everything looks great

[GSELLERS]

the orange digi dont look too well. I got it from a fellow reefer, it never saw my water. But i hope it pulls through.

Everything else retained its color really well. the orange cap faded a bit but looks like the idaho grape darkened.....any sunburst zoo shots?

[cheeks69]

Congrats Dave, beautiful tank !

[Octoman]

Looking awesome Dave! That pink bird's nest is growing like a little weed!

[DAHansen]

Thanks everyone for the kind words. That pink bird's nest is going to take over at some point - maybe in a few months there will be inexpensive frags available!

Originally Posted by GSELLERS

the orange digi dont look too well. I got it from a fellow reefer, it never saw my water. But i hope it pulls through.

Everything else retained its color really well. the orange cap faded a bit but looks like the idaho grape darkened.....any sunburst zoo shots?

GSellers. The Orange Digi is doing a bit better - more poly extension. There's actually some polyps on the white part that I've seen come out, so I'm not sure how rough it is actually doing. I may glue it to the rock when when I get home tonight because it did look a lot better several hours later. It will be my goal to make it big and strong!

The Orange Monti Cap looks AWESOME under the blue moonlights. Each polyp flouresces. If only I can keep it attached to the rock... I think either my Ocellaris or my Royal Gramma keep moving it. I found it upside down this morning. I will likely epoxy-stick it to the rock this evening.

The Sunburst guys were opening up near the end of the day (tank's day, sunset at 10:00pm) and looking OK.

[DAHansen]

Verbal Update Only:

The Orange Monti Digi is looking MUCH better. A LOT more color and more polyps opening/extending. I guess it likes it's new home.

The Orange Monti Cap is finally secure. The Clown, Finneaus, who does not make me laugh (thank you Witfull!) tried to move it the last time I stopped by the tank and he was not able to. Huzzah! It does have a fair sized spot on it from where the mushroom was trying to eat it (clown flipped it upside down on top of the shroom.

My Tuxedo Urchin (Oliver*) took fully half of my Sunburst Zoa's and wore them like a hat for about a day. They didn't seem to mind, and they were opened pretty nicely while he was cruising the tank. The other half seem pretty happy as well. He came up to the top this afternoon and I was able to very, very carefully remove them and set them somewhere he shouldn't get to them. Hopefully they will attach shortly and then they'll be spreading out from TWO areas. Nothing else was out of place today.

The Eagle Eye zoas are doing well, even though they have been knocked over TWICE by Oliver. Tomorrow I will wear a shiny waterproof watch, and get to work on adhering them to a rock.

The purple millipora is looking good, as is everything else generally.

ALGAE - oddly, it's disappearing. I don't know why for or how, but I realized today that there is a LOT less than there used to be. Could it be the clean up crew from Reefcleaners.org? Could it be that I am a good "husband" to my little reef tank? Could it be the poly-pads, GAC, and Purigen in the back of my cube? I don't know what it is, but now I'm afraid to do a water change...

Speaking of the back chamber thing. I tried using a battery powered gravel vac to clean out the back. It did not work well, and I think I blew $24. We'll see if it works again next time I try it.

* I realized why it's important for the fish and other active animals to have names. It's very hard to not be attached to something you've named. This, in all likelyhood, has kept me from killing** my Black Ocellaris recently.

** OK, I wouldn't kill him, but he's come dangerously close a few times to being traded in on something less agressive. He has VERY sharp/pinchy teeth/mouth/jaw. What do fish have?

[DAHansen]

One more quick one - It is MATING Season for the Cerith snails. They're climbing all over each other, and they have laid about 5 Billion eggs in the last few days.

I'm hoping they will become live snails, as the atomic snail eggs never hatch

[SeahorseBT]

Great pics Dave!

[DAHansen]

Pic Update!

The Orange Monti Cap is doing well after its "incidents" at the jaws of my ocellaris. The white spot is where a mushroom tried to eat it.


The Orange Monti Digi is doing VERY well. MUCH better color and polyp extension.
BEFORE

AFTER


The Grape Monti Cap is doing fine, and has good polyp extension!


I added some base rock a few weeks ago, and apparently a spaghetti worm moved right in to one of them. Here's it's "spaghetti." (Please ignore the algae, it should be gone in a few weeks once the corraline takes over.


Sunburst Zoas - half mounted, half roaming the tank as an urchin hat.


The urchin with his hat. I have no idea WHERE he could have found that algae.


And the green encrusting stuff is doing well. I want it to encrust faster, but at least it's not receding!

[Octoman]

Very nice! I can't believe that's the same monti digi...

[DAHansen]

I have algae, what I think is Chaetomorpha Aerea or C. Antennina, growing out of the plug that my green Seriatopora (bird's nest) is on/in.

It wasn't so bothersome before, but now it is outgrowing the coral. It doesn't look like it is damaging it... yet. But I can only imagine there is a bit of competition going on.

I can probably pluck it if I don't get attacked to much by my clown fish, but other than that, I really don't see a way to get to it. I'm thinking I may break off the coral from the plug, and mount it to some rock rubble, then see about getting the plug out...

UGH...


OH, and my freaking Pistol Shrimp - we'll call him Satan - has stolen a mushroom. A BIG mushroom too! Yesterday I noticed that he had either broken the rubble it was on (there were two), or had pulled it off the rubble.

He had tucked it into a corner I can't easily reach, and I figured I would wait until this evening to get it. When I looked in the tank this morning, it was gone. I think the little dude is building a shrine or something in the back of the tank somewhere. I ALSO think he killed my Yase Hashe goby and possibly my other pistol shrimp... If there was any possibility of getting him out of there, he would go in his own tank....

[BaxReefs]

The tux urchin with the zoo hat is just over the top!