Rosebud161616's 15 gallon custom built nano

[rosebud161616]

I took a video of the tank tonight. Excuse the blurriness when I zoomed in. I didn't realize just how blurry everything was getting until I watched back the video.



I took a ton of pictures that I will post as soon as I get them edited. More details to come along with the pics!

[rosebud161616]

Sorry for the delay in pictures. We went out of town for a wedding and I just didn't get the pictures edited until now. So, here are Friday's pictures:

First a few inhabitants:

I added an anemone crab a few weeks ago and he has loved hanging out with the two maxis on the front pane:





I also moved over my Ghost Pipe Shrimp from another tank quite a while back. I finally got a shot of him, even though it's pretty blurry:



I have a couple of turbos in there as well and here is one of them cleaning the mangroves:



And for some closeups:

The mangroves are really taking off now. Some of the originals are putting off leaves pretty quickly. The roots are growing like crazy. I think I will add more sand to the overflow now that there are more roots to hold the sand in place.





Tubbs Birdsnest. Notice the growth tips on it. It's starting to take off. I love birdsnests and how fast they grow. I can't wait for this guy to really grow in.



This maxi has really turned out super awesome and about doubled:



Blue Maxi. This guy has also grown a ton. I'm not exactly sure how big he is since he's always at least partially folded over. He sleeps inside the rock at night, then after the lights come on he expands out.



Orange/Green Maxi. This guy has grow some but not nearly as much as the other two. I think I may need to move the Gatsby PEs near him soon because he gets awfully close to them.



This is my favorite acan in the tank and he has really taken off. He started as 2 polyps (or 1.5 polyps) and grown into a nice mini colony:



I got this browned out Acro colony the last swap. He has been a bit of a challenge but seems to be doing better! He started receding on the lower left hand corner, but has since stopped and even started encrusting back out. I'm starting to see some blue show up on him too. I have no idea what this guy is supposed to look like, but it's fun watching to find out!




Here is the cyphastrea that I picked up at the last swap also. When I got him he was completely white with the red polyps. I'm happy to see some color coming back.



I had little faith in this dendro when I first got him in the very cold Mr. Coral order, but he has turned out great!



This is the green digi frag I got at the last swap. On the backside he had a large white patch that almost looked like monti eating nudis. However the seller promised me that it fell into another coral and was not monti eating nudi damage. After a short amount of time he is encrusting over that patch and has really colored up.





This is a very blurry pic of the Gatsby PEs but I really wanted to post it for the purpose of growth. These have really grown!



The Grandis polyps have also done very well. I have been very surprised at the speed that they have grown. I have a colony in another tank and they just doubled in size after 2 years. In this tank I started with 2 polyps and 2 babies. The one baby melted right away, but I now have 3 adults and 2 babies.





At this last swap I had picked up a superman mushroom that is very similar to the green/orange mushroom I already have. I have been so surprised to watch it slowly split. I have never seen a mushroom split so slowly and it has been really cool to watch the progress. Here are the two mushrooms:





I picked up this cactus pavona at the last swap to add something different to the tank. I had no idea how long of sweepers it got at night! It's really fun to watch after lights out. It has also been a very fast grower. I see quite a bit of encrusting happening at the base for the little time it has been in the tank.



My ric garden is still doing good. It loves to eat pellets! I have never gotten my florida rics to ever eat before, but these guys are pigs! So fun to watch!





The setosa I got at the last swap is still doing good. I haven't seen much growth, but it's still looking good.



These are the zoas I picked up several swaps ago to add some color. I don't think they have put on many polyps, but they look so much healthier than what they started with. Much bigger and I expect them to take off soon. Also in the pic is the elkhorn monti. I haven't seen much growth on him but he has more PE and color than he started with.



Now for some full tank shots in order as you walk around the tank:









That's it for the pictures! The only real changes I have made lately were to remove one of the free Mr. Coral acans (since I didn't use all the corals that I bought to get the Free acan) and the purple haze monti. The monti was receding quickly and then I found little white specks and got worried they might be monti eating nudis. I didn't want to risk it so they were removed.

I have had bryopsis really break out in this tank as I'm sure you can see in the videos and pictures. The blue acro I got at the swap is almost completely covered in it. I did pick up a lettuce nudibranch today so hopefully that should be taken care of shortly.

[rosebud161616]

Here are a few updated shots of the tank that have been taken over the last few weeks. I have yet to get a FTS. I will continue working on that...

Barnacle Blenny (added after contest ended)


Blue Maxi Mini



Cloves:


Dendro and Black Sun Coral. The sun coral spent a few months refusing to open or eat but we finally coaxed it back and is now pigging out and growing back.


Devils Armor



Grandis


Green digi


Mangroves


Lava Chalice (added after contest ended in an almost completely bleached state)


Porcelain Crab


Sexy Shrimp in green/orange Maxi



Tricolor acro


Zoas


Maxima Clam


Coco Worm (added after contest -- birthday present from my mom)


Elkhorn monti -REALLY taken off!


Rainbow Maxi Mini


Setosa is really starting to take off


Orange Mushrooms:


Harlequin Shrimp (added after contest ended)

[rosebud161616]

Oooops here are a few more I forgot from today:

Birdsnest


Black Sun Coral


Cactus Povona


Deepwater Acro (maybe a lokani?) -- Added after contest


Mangroves


Red Planet -- The tiny nub is finally starting to do something


Orange Lined Cardinals -- The sand is really crapped up from all of the little bony bits that are left behind by the chocolate chip starfish after the harlequin shrimp is done. I need to find a way to sift these out of the sand...

[rosebud161616]

And how about some comparisons?

Cactus Pavona
5/27/11

11/6/11


Birdsnest
5/27/11

11/6/11


Devil's Armor
4/13/11

11/6/11


Elkhorn Monti
5/27/11

11/6/11


Mangroves
4/13/11

11/6/11


Setosa
5/27/11

11/6/11


Orange Mushroom
5/27/11- in the middle of spiltting

11/6/11 - now spit in 2


Grandis
3/11/11

10/19/11


Green Digi
5/27/11

10/19/11


Zoas
4/13/11

10/19/11


Deepwater Acro
This was not in this tank during the contest. I got it over a year ago as a pale colored deepwater acro of some sort. It has receded and grown back many times, but never done much of anything for me. I put him in this tank when we broke down the tank he was in previously and it is all of a sudden so happy. The color has completely changed from a very pale green (pretty much white) to a much nicer deep green with bright green polyps

This is the shot that I purchased the frag from on 9/6/10

11/6/11

[jimsflies]

Wow! Thanks for the update...you definitely earned the crown!

How many maxi minis do you have? Any issues with fish disappearing?

---------- Post added at 08:33 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:33 PM ----------

Wow! Thanks for the update...you definitely earned the crown!

How many maxi minis do you have? Any issues with fish disappearing?

[rcombs]

sweetest DIY build i have seen. love how the mangroves are incorporated in it. props on this.

[rosebud161616]

Wow! Thanks for the update...you definitely earned the crown!

How many maxi minis do you have? Any issues with fish disappearing?[COLOR="Silver"]

Thanks Jim! 5 maxi minis in there before tonight. I actually just took 2 out tonight to split and then they will go back in. One of which was the blue one, he had gotten GIANT!

No fish have disappeared so far *fingers crossed* but I have seen gashes in the orange lined cardinals. I think they have brushed up against them from time to time and they end up with burns. You can kind of see it on the side of the fish in the back right of this:



I keep going back and forth on them. I love the maxis but I would also love some blue striped pipfish in here... I don't have any other tank I'm willing to risk maxis in though, so for now they live in here.

sweetest DIY build i have seen. love how the mangroves are incorporated in it. props on this.

Thank you so much! The mangroves have grown amazingly fast for me for some reason. I'm not sure if it's because all of the water that goes through that area or just because of higher nutrients, but I'm starting to worry about them getting too big! We went out to the local coral farm just recently and I noticed that ours are now larger than theirs that they have been growing for over 2 years! Right now I'm just not thinking about them getting too big and enjoying them.

[2pairs]

WOW!
Your tank has come a long way, looks great.