Harmanrk's Nano jurnal

[harmanrk]

#ed_op#DIV#ed_cl#Here we go, photos to come.....#ed_op#/DIV#ed_cl#

[graphixx]

aaahhhh man that is teasing, let have some pics and a little history on the tank

[harmanrk]

Okay, Tank Background:
30 Gallon All Glass - Setup Date August 18, 2005
TetraTec 300 HOB Powerfilter
SeaClone 100 Protine Skimmer
Seio 620 Powerhead
Powersweep Powerhead
192 Watt PC Lighting 96 O3 Antic
Below are shots of the tank from Earily December
http://www.captivereefing.ws/album_pic.php?pic_id=785

Full Tank
http://www.captivereefing.ws/album_pic.php?pic_id=786

http://www.captivereefing.ws/album_pic.php?pic_id=787

December Right
http://www.captivereefing.ws/album_pic.php?pic_id=788


If there is any other background I have left out, feel free to ask.

[Tom McKenna]

looks good

[harmanrk]

Mid - Late December Update

Added some Mushrooms, and moves some things around. Two colonies of Zoas have been hit hard, and greatly reduced.

This set was taken while the Sun Coral was open. Fills in the middle of the tank nicely.
http://www.captivereefing.ws/album_pic.php?pic_id=793

Late December Center
http://www.captivereefing.ws/album_pic.php?pic_id=795

Late December Right
http://www.captivereefing.ws/album_pic.php?pic_id=794


More updates in January.

Robert

[harmanrk]

As an added bonus, here is an end on shot of the tank from the Right side looking down the ridge. In this shot you can see the small Red Mushroom.
http://www.captivereefing.ws/album_pic.php?pic_id=796

[graphixx]

looking good like the pics

[harmanrk]

http://www.captivereefing.ws/album_pic.php?pic_id=684
So long little dude, you will be missed..... :( Gone Carpet Surfing..

[Sweetpea]

I'm so sorry to hear about your loss...

[harmanrk]

Three days after the Fire Goby, the Jawfish also jumped, from the tank. :(

The Egg-create on the top of the tank, has been replaced by glass, until we can determine where to go from here.

Robert

[harmanrk]

December 31 photos for the first of the year update. The shot of the left side of the tank includes the last photo of the jawfish I ever took.

[graphixx]

looking good!!! the suncoral looks happy looks like yo have got some growth out of him!!!

[flame]

Tank is coming along nicely. Looks great

[Sweetpea]

Lookin' gooood! ;)

[addam4208283]

sorry about your loss. is the yellow head gone too?
ADAM

[harmanrk]

Yes,

Both the Goby, and the Jawfish, found their way through the egg-crate within three days.... :(

Robert

[harmanrk]

January was a difficult month.

We lost the Fire Goby, and the Jawfish, within three days of each other.

Early in the month, we got a Hammer Coral, but within two weeks, both heads died, and were torn apart by the hermits.

We lost a few Mushrooms this month as well, they just shriveled up, then vanished. Other Shrooms in the tank are doing just fine.

The Torch Coral has started to branch. I has formed three distinct mouths in the tissue around the existing mouth.

We replaced the jawfish that jumped from the tank. The new guy is bigger, and not as cute or friendly, but we are adjusting to him.

We have also been battling a problem with rising Nitrate.

Robert

[harmanrk]

February Update:

This is my first post with the new forum software, so I hope this get displayed correctly.

http://home.comcast.net/%7Erharman8677/photos/post/TankRight.JPG (http://home.comcast.net/%7Erharman8677/photos/post/TankRight.JPG)

Right Side of the tank. Green Zoas, are a little closed up after some tank maintance, and the Orange Ricordia is doing great. We have a yellow sponge growing, below and to the right of the Ric, and the Pepermint Shrimp can be seen a few inches to the right of the Ric, hanging upside-down.
http://home.comcast.net/%7Erharman8677/photos/post/TankMiddle.JPG[/URL]

Middle of the tank. Green Star, and Montiporia are growing nicely at the top of the rockwork. The Sun Coral now opens up to about 4 inches across. The Torch Coral is splitting into three heads, and they are very distinct now. The Red Mushroom is also visible.

[URL="http://home.comcast.net/%7Erharman8677/photos/post/TankLeft.JPG"]http://home.comcast.net/%7Erharman8677/photos/post/TankLeft.JPG (http://home.comcast.net/%7Erharman8677/photos/post/TankMiddle.JPG)

Left Side of the tank. The newest addition is the rock with the Green Ricordia. There are four Ric on the rock in total; two are very small frags, and a colony of brown star polyp. The Jawfish has abandoned his cave, and now lays on the sand behind the cave. The PowerSweep have completely frozen now, but is growing some wonderful coraline.

http://home.comcast.net/%7Erharman8677/photos/post/TorchCoral.JPG (http://home.comcast.net/%7Erharman8677/photos/post/TorchCoral.JPG)

Close Up of the Torch Coral. I cannot wait for it to grow some distance between the heads, so they are more visible.

http://home.comcast.net/%7Erharman8677/photos/post/SunCoral.JPG (http://home.comcast.net/%7Erharman8677/photos/post/SunCoral.JPG)

A wonderful shot of the Sun Coral, all ready to eat.

http://home.comcast.net/~rharman8677/photos/post/OrangeRic.JPG (http://home.comcast.net/%7Erharman8677/photos/post/OrangeRic.JPG)

An Interesting shot of the Orange Ricordia. The camera decided to use the flash, and it really made to colors 'Pop'

http://home.comcast.net/~rharman8677/photos/post/GreenRic.JPG (http://home.comcast.net/%7Erharman8677/photos/post/GreenRic.JPG)

In this shot, you can see the two large Green Ricordia, and the Brown Star Polyp. One of the smaller Rics can bee seen right next to the largest one. It almost appears to be attached. The Yellow Tang was watching me from the back of the tank.

Robert

[flame]

Wow looking good. Nice job

[Sweetpea]

Very Nice!:D

[harmanrk]

Did my first attempt at fragging yesterday. Took a large colony of Zoas, and used use the dremmel to score the base rock, before spliting about a third off. Both frags have fully opened today, and are looking great.

After While placing the frags back into the tank, I discovered a sea spider (Zoa eating spider). He has since found hiw wat to the water treament plant, but I an hoping I do not find any of his friends.

Pictures will be included next week with April's Update.

Robert

[harmanrk]

Here are photos of the new additions. Hope to get a full tank shot this weekend to add.

http://home.comcast.net/~rharman8677/photos/post/kenya.jpg

This is the Kenya Tree. Four stalks total. and they seem to really like their new home.

http://home.comcast.net/~rharman8677/photos/post/shroom.jpg

I really love the blue strips on this mushroom.

http://home.comcast.net/~rharman8677/photos/post/strip.jpg

This frag as a total of three of these green strip mushrooms.

http://home.comcast.net/~rharman8677/photos/post/zoas.jpg

New Zoa colony. Not really happy with the concrete-ish base, but once the coraline takes hold, you'll never notice.

Robert

[Sweetpea]

Looking good! I can't wait to see the full tank shot!

[harmanrk]

As promissed, The full tank shots.

http://home.comcast.net/~rharman8677/photos/post/MAY/fulltank.jpg

The full tank. Coraline is starting to get troublesome on the front glass.

http://home.comcast.net/~rharman8677/photos/post/MAY/tankleft.jpg

Two Mushrooms, Kenya Tree, and Zoanthids being walked on by a crab.

http://home.comcast.net/~rharman8677/photos/post/MAY/tankcenter.jpg

Kenya Tree, Torch Coral, Sun Coral, Montipoira, Green Star Polyp, Zoanthids, and Orange Ricordia.

http://home.comcast.net/~rharman8677/photos/post/MAY/tankright.jpg

Orange Ricordia, Green Ricordia, Green Strip Mushrooms, Zoanthids, and Birds Nest

Robert

[DaRkAnGeLs7]

So are you going to get the powersweep sweeping again, or just leave it as is?

[harmanrk]

The Powersweep worked for about six months. during that time, I had to pull it twice to flush the mechanicals because it had jammed. The third time, enven tha good cleaning did not work. I have manually (brute force) pointed it where i want it. I would not really recomend one, unless yoiu are comfortable with replacing it every six months.

In this hobby, the last thing we need is a high maintaniance powerhead. We all know the tanks themselves are high maintanance enough..

Robert

[harmanrk]

Added a hammer, and Split the Green Star Polyp. <Edit> Also changed out the old lights for brand new bulbs. 96W 10000K PC, and 96W O3 Antinc. <Edit>

Full Tank

http://home.comcast.net/~rharman8677/photos/post/MAY/full.jpg

Left Side of Tank

http://home.comcast.net/~rharman8677/photos/post/MAY/left.jpg

Center of Tank

http://home.comcast.net/~rharman8677/photos/post/MAY/center.jpg

Right Side of Tank

http://home.comcast.net/~rharman8677/photos/post/MAY/right.jpg


Robert

[jojo22]

Looking very nice!

[harmanrk]

Bad news....

Went on vacation for the holiday weekend. Weather turned hot. Returned home, and the house was 88 degrees, the tank was 90...

Fish look fine.
Crabs look fine.
I have not seen any snails since our return....
Zoas seem fine.
Monitporia seems fine.
Mushrooms and Rics are open very small.
GSPs barely opened yesterday.
Sun Coral polyps seem mushy, and it is producing slime. I expected four days to be a bit long between feedings, but I think, that plus the heat my have been too much....

Added ice cubes to the filter chamber, and but my topoff water in the freezer to cool it (it was 88 same as the house). Was able to get the temp down to 80 over 5 hours... Back to the green zone this morning...

Water tests show Nitrate being a little higher than normal, everything else it about normal for my tank.

Robert

[Sweetpea]

Sorry to hear about your troubles, but it does sound like you're getting things back under control... keep us posted.

[perpetual98]

Keep us posted on your temp issues. My pico over the weekend got up to 88, but there's only a couple shrooms and some zoos in there. I wasn't terribly concerned though. Restocking a pico is cheap. :)

[harmanrk]

Temp is stable now. GSP is not wanting to open again today. and the Sun coral is looking bad.... The heads are all sunken in and stuff....

Robert

[lReef lKeeper]

GSP are pretty hard to kill ... i would give them a while to open back up. my temp got a little high and they closed and did not reopen for about 2 weeks but now they are growing like weeds. as for the sun coral as posted on the other thread, you might consider trying your hand a t fragging the good new heads from the rest, if nothing else you could save at least a few of them. if they all come back then you will have 2 sets of them.

[harmanrk]

Tonight the tank is getting re-landscaped. All the corals are coming out, and all the Live Rock. It will be going back in, in a diffrent arrangment, to change the look, and allow more placments for corals.

Photos as soon as the dust clears.

Robert

[harmanrk]

Here is a teaser of the new layout. The re-landscaping took about 8 hours, and a trip to the LFS to buy more LR (18 pounds more). Did some un-intended fragging, but all the corals seem to be adjusting well.

http://home.comcast.net/~rharman8677/photos/post/JuneTank.jpg

More detailed photos to come after I dry out some.

Robert

[harmanrk]

As promised, detailed shots. Most everything is responding well to the new placments.

First the new additions:

http://home.comcast.net/~rharman8677/photos/post/junetank/scooter.jpg

We added a dragonette. He loves to cliff dive. He will work his way up to the top of the rockwork, then glide back down to the sandbed.

http://home.comcast.net/~rharman8677/photos/post/junetank/zoas.jpg

Green skirts, Blue rings, and Orange centers.

Now the close ups of the tank:

http://home.comcast.net/~rharman8677/photos/post/junetank/tankright.jpg

Right side of tank. This is where most of the new LR went. Mushrooms and Zoas, plus a Favia we bought a few weeks back.

http://home.comcast.net/~rharman8677/photos/post/junetank/tankmiddle.jpg

Middle of tank. Hammer, Montiporia, GSP, plus more Mushrooms and Zoas.

http://home.comcast.net/~rharman8677/photos/post/junetank/tankleft.jpg

Left of tank. Ricordia, Mushrooms, and more Zoas. Some more GSP in there too.

Cont.

[harmanrk]

http://home.comcast.net/~rharman8677/photos/post/junetank/longtank.jpg

A diffrent shot of the tank. Looking down the reef.

Robert

[harmanrk]

Its been a little over a month since my last update. Most of te corals are responding nicly to the new rockscaping. We have had a bit of a Aspitia bloom since we added the new LR, but we now have a peppermint shrimp on te job, and we seem to be lossing about one a night, so I am hoping he keeps up the good work.

http://home.comcast.net/~rharman8677/photos/post/july/full.jpg

The full tank shot.

http://home.comcast.net/~rharman8677/photos/post/july/new.jpg

I shot of the new growth. When we reworked the tank, both of these colinies were single polyps.

http://home.comcast.net/~rharman8677/photos/post/july/zoas.jpg

There are four types of zoas in this shot. They seem to be doing so well. Sure beats the problems I was having keeping them when the contest started.

cont.

[harmanrk]

http://home.comcast.net/~rharman8677/photos/post/july/gsp.jpg

The Xenia seems to like being higher up in the tank, but at least it has not taken over like Tracy's. The GSP, started as a section about one inch, by one half inch, and it starting to spread out nicely.

http://home.comcast.net/~rharman8677/photos/post/july/knya.jpg

THe Kenys tree really likes its new home. Oh, and more zoas too.

http://home.comcast.net/~rharman8677/photos/post/july/clown.jpg

We added a clown fish. :)

One the downside we lost the tang (No sign of illness, just died over night, dont know why), and this past weekend, the jawfish jumped out. (Thats the second jawfish that has found its way through the eggcrate, I doubt we will try anothe any time soon.)

Robert

[addam4208283]

nice new addition,i am thinking about getting one of these guys for my firefish for company. sorry about the other fish. the tang looked really nice; are they a hardy fish?
ADAM

[harmanrk]

Just to keep the fun alive:

http://home.comcast.net/~rharman8677/photos/post/contest/ftank.jpg

Current shot of the full tank. The rockwork on the Right side is sinking... The new guys are building a mine under it....

http://home.comcast.net/~rharman8677/photos/post/contest/joby.jpg

Here is one of the new guys. I will update the photo when I can get a better one of him. He has a Tigger pistol shrimp doing most of the construction work....

Robert

[graphixx]

Rob, that tank is looking great. I love it. I use your plating monti as a growth ref. its doing good buddy!!!!!

[lReef lKeeper]

looking great Rob, keep up the good work !!

[mutts]

nice

[harmanrk]

An better shot of the new goby. He is a little calmer now, and I can actually photograph him...

http://home.comcast.net/~rharman8677/photos/post/contest/goby2.jpg

[seahorsedreams]

That's a nano? How big is that?

[harmanrk]

The tank? Standard 30 gallon. The upper limit for the nano contest.

The Goby is about 3.5 inches long.

[seahorsedreams]

Ah! It looks bigger than a 30. Sweet!