PT's CoralPalooza

PootyTang

Member
Thought I would post some pictures of my 29 that started up about a year ago. I had some fish in there (a couple wrasses and clowns) but extended time away meant I had to give them away. For now I'm just keeping the tank with corals and a few inverts who don't need to be fed regularly. Other than that, just trying to keep chemistry in order and making everything look nice.

The corals I have in there now are:
- branching gorgonian
- red/orange montipora
- green horn coral
- blue plating acropora
- frogspawn
- toadstool leather
- red blastomussa
- sea fan (gorgonian)
- various polyps
- red/green open brain
- Finger leather

Inverts are:
- emerald crab
- serpent star
- flame scallop
- Purple urchin
- hermits/snails

Water chemistry:
Nitrates:0
Nitrites:0
Ammonia:0
Phosphate:0
Calcium: 460 ppm
Alkalinity: 9 dKH
Specific Gravity: 1.025
Temp: 78-79

Lights: Marineland Reef Capable LEDs

Filter: Rena Xp1 with Carbon, Phosban

Powerheads:
- 2x Koralia 750
- 1x Koralia Nano


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PootyTang

Member
Thanks, the tank has been fishless for about 4 months now, it's actually kinda nice to have next to no upkeep, but it can be difficult to resist the temptation, especially when I see that my LFS has a dwarf golden moray.
 

N83259

Member
Yes, great looking tank and super sharp photos. What's your secret with the pics? And I see you have a flame scallop. Are you feeding the tank in general and anything special for the scallop in particular? Can I ask how long you've had the flame scallop in there?
 

PootyTang

Member
The pics are taken with a Canon Powershot SD780IS. I find that using the Digital Macro setting makes the pictures the most sharp, but if my subject is too far away, putting it on manual and adjusting the exposure and ISO is usually enough to get the picture I want. The pic of the green horn coral was taken by turning on the tank's blue lights only, and then setting the white balance using the sand at the bottom. The result is that everything else in the tank looks red, but it helps capture at least some of the fluorescence you get with the moonlights (I only with the LEDs came with 2 power sources so you didn't have to switch back and forth manually).
The acros are really just an experiment right now because not too many people know how they do with the new Marineland lights, so I thought that I would give it a shot and see what I could get with 2 small frags.
The flame scallop is admittedly another quasi-experiment, I know that they traditionally don't live very long in aquariums, but I did some research on what people do to have the most success with them as possible and I figure that if I can get a year out of it I'll be very pleased. The scallop was only put in the tank a few days ago though. At this point, I don't feed the tank directly with any shrimp (I tried it a few times and didn't like the big spike in nitrates, so I've stopped), but I'm target feeding (ie upstream feeding) the scallop with marine snow, and I add the Reef Plus Vitamins & Amino Acid Supplement along with some Selcon every few days. I'll keep you updated on the scallop as things progress though.
My biggest concern at this point is monitoring Calcium and Alkalinity. I had originally gone with only soft corals to reduce the maintenance, but it was too hard to resist some of the SPS and LPS that I saw, so I'm watching closely now. I'll be keeping an eye on how often I have to supplement, because there will be times when I can't treat the tank for 2-4 weeks, so I need to know that it will be ok for that long.
 

PootyTang

Member
Forgot to add this picture of the Red/Green Brain that I put in a few days ago that's finally starting to open up:

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Thought I would include a picture or two of my Water Parameter spreadsheet that I've been using; it automatically graphs all may parameters and I use it to keep track of my livestock and hardware. So far it's been helpful in identifying why I get water quality issues whenever they come up.

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N83259

Member
Thnx for the response Pootytang. Interesting stuff on the pics. I've been trying w/ a similar camera (Panasonic) in auto mode and the results are poor. Will be delving into the manual and trying some of the tricks you describe.

I've kept 2 flame scallops for a little over 3 months now. One hides wedges itself in the front of my rock structure making it easy to target feed, the other in the back of the rock where I rarely see it and can rarely target feed it. Every so often they move for no apparant reason. I'm doing marine snow too, plus DT's live phytoplankton in a mix. It seems to respond when I squirt this mix at the animal, but really have no other indicators of how it's really doing. My reading tells me it eats disolved organics, phytoplankton & bacteria. Does that jive with your understanding? I'm probably going to add a bio pellet reactor to fine tune NO3 & phos, and maybe the scallop can use the added bacteria as food as well. I'm hoping you do an update as it would be great to compare notes - I'll do the same.
 

PootyTang

Member
It seems to respond when I squirt this mix at the animal, but really have no other indicators of how it's really doing. My reading tells me it eats disolved organics, phytoplankton & bacteria. Does that jive with your understanding?

I have noticed this as well, it's a little hard to describe, but it seems to close its mantle and puff out a bit when I feed it. I think I'm going to stick with the marine snow, vitamins and selcon for now, and I'll keep you up to date on how it does.
 
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