Been a few days without an update and A LOT has changed. I'll start from the beginning. Finished my rock structure a few weeks ago and stuck it in my main tank to try to get some good bacteria on it since I wont have a sand bed or a lot of rock.
The inspiration for my tank came from a tank I saw a few years ago, It had a large rock with some torch corals on top that formed sort of a tree and GSP growing on the bottom. The owner must have moved on to bigger and better things because The tank was never finished. I would have loved to see how it would have looked if it were to grow out.
Going off that idea, I decided to make a xenia "tree" with GSP "grass". I had considered a few options of coral for the "Tree" such as yellow polyps, zoas, and encrusting gorgonian. I choose the xenia because i feel like its growth will best resemble the tree shape I am going for, as an added bonus its fast growth should help make this end result a possibility in a relatively short time.
Here are what you all want to see, a few shots of the structure I pieced together.
You can see the acrylic rod that runs through the "trunk of the tree" which is inserted in the hole I drilled in the flat rock I posted a few days ago as a teaser.
The "branches are a mix of tonga branch and broken up marco dry rock. Everything is held together with zip-ties, acrylic rod and two part epoxy. The "branches" balance eachother out allowing the structure to stand upright on the small flat base.
Here is the official start photo showing the "tree" and the rock-mag I put in.
Im not sure if I will be keeping the rock-mag. It is nice in that it hides the powerhead but not sure how it will look when everything grows out and I still need to figure out what coral I would add on it. Maybe something blue or yellow and it could look like a cloud or the sun respectively. It will stay for now.
Here is a side view.
And here is the xenia a local Ann Arbor reefer gave to me that will go on the rock "tree".
I'm not really sure the price for this frag as It doesn't really have a stalk as the xenia pricing goes by, seems more like a mat? About 2 inches by 2 inch. Any advice on pricing would be appreciated. Was thinking somewhere between $20-$30???
The xenia has only been in the tank a few days and is already starting to grow onto the bottom glass, really amazing. Will be separating the frag into smaller pieces to place on different branches of the tree to speed up the spreading.
Hope you enjoy the update!
Nano Contest - Category: 2012 Nano Reef Contest
Synergy's 2012 12 gal Cube 
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