My Weekend Project

[JustDavidP]

Operation Pony Corral... dun dun dun...da ..dun dun dun dun dun...

Due to rain, my baseball opening weekend was cancelled. This is what I spent my time doing. My new 26G bowfront has been stood up in the Family Room. this is where my first reef (20 gallon nano) stood four years ago. I missed having something in this spot. Soon it will be a seahorse display.

I've got 20 lbs of mixed Fiji and Tonga Branch, a 4 inch layer of sand. Caulerpa Prolifera and Halameda and a couple dead branches of monti digi as hitching posts. I'm getting more macro and LR from Skiptons soonest.

I stripped out the AGA hood (18W NO) and fit it with 32W PC Smartlite retro. I'm running a Red Sea Prism. The siphon tube was too deep in the water column, so with a little urging from a friend, I made my own DIY Skimmer Box/Tube. It works like a charm. Between the prism and the small powerhead, I'm turning 2.5X per hour. Just right for ponies me thinks...

I did a water change in my 75G and used the water for the bowfront. I also claimed the macro, some sand, and about 6 lbs of LR from the fuge. The bow is already teaming with mysid and pods.

I'm keeping it free of fish for a couple months, to build up the micro fauna. There are just a couple hermit crabs and snails that hitched on the rock. I'm not expecting a huge cycle as most of the tank contents are recycled and cycled Eventually, the ponies will be joined by Hendrix, my mandarin who, while eating frozen food, has to fight for his share in the 75G. He should fare better in the bow with the Hippocampus.

What do y'all think? Any suggestions?

Dave

[dakar]

Looking good David! We decided do do a full cycle from scratch for our corral, but going to do the same thing about the pod population by borrowing from the fuge of the big tank.

I expect in short order they'll be some collaborating to see how each of our corrals turns out :)

More details on your 'skim box'!

[JustDavidP]

Dude...tell us about your pony box... c'mon now...

And... just to show what a good sport I am.. I'll go post my skimmer tweak in the DIY.

Deal??

D

[dakar]

Not much to say about it now... the wall tank thread in the DIY forum will soon become our corral, same tank we have up on the raffling block. Just need to finsih a little trim work on the back side and add the lighting and then the rest is pretty much to be left to Angel take over from there.

Right now just sand, water, and about 100ppm ammo courtesty of a cocktail shrimp :) Looking for some nice tonga branch to add to it, and of course looking for some good wide blade type macro's to add to it. I'll seed it a bit more from the fuge, there's gazillions of pods in there now, just need to shake a few out of the 20 gallon cube of chaeto, and a fair amount of LR to borrow from.

[Reef_Angel]

Wow David! Looking Awesome! I can see you may be us out with the size of your tank, but I'm so excited about having the tank in the wall. You'll probably be able to find me in my office or standing in the hallway at any given time as I get mine going. I looked for tonga this past weekend, and the two stores I went to didn't have any. I may have to put in an order for some. I still can't believe that my seahorses are so close to being a reality for me. I really thought they would only be a dream. As our tank starts moving along, I'll be taking pictures and keeping you updated! Your tank is looking great Dave! It's getting me hyped for sure!!! :D

[JustDavidP]

Here's an updated picture. I put in more LR and macro from the sump(s) and fuge(s) I have running. Again, I'm letting this system mature for a couple months before stocking it. There are already tons of pods and mysid, but I wanted them to reach critical mass before putting in fish. I added piles of rubble to the back corners to help facilitate the pod-pulation.

I also made a feeding dish last night with a 4" branch of tonga, epoxied to a half shell of my T. Squamosa that passed in the clam crash of 04. It is going to sit in the little "lagoon" area to the right center. The current there is enough to gently move the foods in it, yet not strong enough to knock it out. The feeding dish is pretty cool in that it looks natural, yet is effecient.

Pic of the pony corral after putting in more LR and macro last night. Sorry for the salty glass, I wanted to get a shot before the timer shut down the PC's. I'll take more pics this weekend when I clean the tank up a bit.

[dakar]

Looking great! We've decided to go with primarily tonga branch for our corral... 24lb box is running around $90 from F&S... seems fair enough priced to me. Should have it middle of next week.

Have you found any places around that have some of the more cool macros? Maidens cup (think that was the name), feather capulara, you know cool stuff :)

[JustDavidP]

Well... here, in Boston Reefers Heaven... we have LOTS of macro going around.

I have Chaeto, C. Prolifera, C. Serrata, and Halameda myself.

Others have graciliaria, grape, feather etc. I'm not a fan of Caulerpa at all. Prolifera is the only one that has redeeming quality. I have the serrata (Razor) in an offline fuge only.

D

[Reef_Angel]

If anyone knows the best place to order our plants from, please let me know asap! I want to get them ordered NOW!

Do you have to much of anything you want to sell Dave? I'm falling in love with your tank. It's really looking pretty. Have you decided on the type of ponies you are going to have in your tank yet?

[Whoyah]

What is the big macro in the back left corner? Looks great.

[JustDavidP]

Sorry... I'm out of macro for now. I really stripped my fuge to get this tank going. You can tell by the diatom bloom in my reef *sigh* :( I will have some as soon as this grows in. But I can tell you are eager to get it done now.

I'm pretty sure I'm keeping Brazilians... Hippocampus Reidi. They are accessible in the Boston area as Captive Bred at some trusted LFS' and others within Boston Reefers (BRS) are breeding them too.

The macro in the top left corner is Caulerpa Prolifera. The bottom left is Halameda. The picture below also shows a new clump of Caulerpa Serrata (Razor) in the right back corner. Finally, in the center, is my new "dinner table" made from a tonga branch epoxied to a squamosa shell.

Dave

[Reef_Angel]

Everytime I see it, it looks better. Even though the changes are not HUGE! What kind of ponies are you looking at getting, and your reason for choosing them. You're the first tank we've gotten to watch go up so close to ours!

[JustDavidP]

Chances are, I'm going to get Hippocampus Reidi. Only because there are lots of folks local to me that are breeding them.

Updates: No cycle AT ALL - - introduced 12 nassarius snails, 12 scarelt hermets, 6 blue legged hermits and 12 astrea snails this weekend.

D