I absolutely love that rock, never seen any that color before. Seems to give everything a wonderful warm hue that adds to the serenity of the tank. I can't wait to see everything filled in! I adore all the tanks you've posted, this one is sure to be just as amazing.
20 Long - New Begining
- Thread starter Mom2Many
- Start date
Eric_n_Ga
Well-Known Member
Looking good ma'am. Excited to see the progress.
Thank you for the encouragment! The rock is Walt Smith. I love the concept of why they created it. I like how light weight it is, the color and the way it locks in together easily. The thing I dont like, is that coral glue and all rocks my corals are on, stick out like a sore thumb against it, as normal rock is not that color unless covered with coraline. Overall though I am happy with it and like the look of it.
So far I am really enjoying working with this tank and deciding what corals to keep from my old system and what ones I wish to buy to add. I am hoping not to have to dose this tank. I am going to try to not over crowd this tank like I have had a habit of doing in the past.
Thank you! Right now I am trying to find everyones happy spot and right flow and lighting. Some tweeking of stuff. (I splurdged and put a Tunze 6040 in this set up so have lots of possibilities flow wise)
It has been fun to finally get my hands in the new system and get it going. The old system and the last of its contents should be gone by this weekend. Mixed feelings but I am overall very happy with the new set up and system.
Wooooww!!!! It looks fantastic!!!!!!!
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Thank you so much! As always...a work in progress!
I have been working outside in these gardens the last few weeks instead of my little coral gardens.
Here are some updated photos as to how things are going in my new 20 Long. I am very happy with it. Here is the full tank shot as of this morning after my weekly tank maintainance.
Left island (below pic) - my goniopora is finally back to its very fluffy and happy self most days. So my clowns are happy again hosting it. My riccordia in my old tank were over the top huge. When I moved them, I divided some and they are just now starting to get very full and growning again. My purple stylo is finally purpling (dont know it that is a word but there you have it) back up again and is in full fluffyness. Still making plans for the top and top/front of this island but over all very happy with this island.
Valley (below pic) - Going to possibly get a few more acans for the valley over time, if I see any I like. And the candy canes I just stuck there to fill space until I decide what to put there as I had them as extra. So still thinking about what to put there.
Right Island (below pic) - Really like this side of the tank. The balance and movement. The snow white pipe on the purple rocks. The only thing unhappy is a recently purchased frag of goni. It is down by the riccordias. To much flow or to much light I believe. I really dont have another place to move it to, so am hoping it will get used to where it is and open up soon. It has only been opening up a few millimeteres. I had a huge beautiful bouquet of dark green grandis palys in my old tank and they were nuking a whole corner so I gifted them to a friend with the understanding I could get some back in the future if I wanted any. So went over and got two heads of it a few weeks or so ago. They have bleached a lot in her tank but are slowly coloring back up again, now that they are in mine. They are very invasive, have a powerful sting to neighbors and give out some major warfare chems, so they are on there own rock and I am going to keep the colony smallish this time.
So all in all I am very happy I decided to break down my old tank and restart it. It was a long and trying process for me in many ways but well worth the time and patience to get it all moved around safely. Starting over fixed many problems I had associated with over crowding, dosing and certian things invading onto favorite corals. This new tank has become a joy to sit and look at and make plans about.
Blessings and Happy Reefing!
Here are some updated photos as to how things are going in my new 20 Long. I am very happy with it. Here is the full tank shot as of this morning after my weekly tank maintainance.
Left island (below pic) - my goniopora is finally back to its very fluffy and happy self most days. So my clowns are happy again hosting it. My riccordia in my old tank were over the top huge. When I moved them, I divided some and they are just now starting to get very full and growning again. My purple stylo is finally purpling (dont know it that is a word but there you have it) back up again and is in full fluffyness. Still making plans for the top and top/front of this island but over all very happy with this island.
Valley (below pic) - Going to possibly get a few more acans for the valley over time, if I see any I like. And the candy canes I just stuck there to fill space until I decide what to put there as I had them as extra. So still thinking about what to put there.
Right Island (below pic) - Really like this side of the tank. The balance and movement. The snow white pipe on the purple rocks. The only thing unhappy is a recently purchased frag of goni. It is down by the riccordias. To much flow or to much light I believe. I really dont have another place to move it to, so am hoping it will get used to where it is and open up soon. It has only been opening up a few millimeteres. I had a huge beautiful bouquet of dark green grandis palys in my old tank and they were nuking a whole corner so I gifted them to a friend with the understanding I could get some back in the future if I wanted any. So went over and got two heads of it a few weeks or so ago. They have bleached a lot in her tank but are slowly coloring back up again, now that they are in mine. They are very invasive, have a powerful sting to neighbors and give out some major warfare chems, so they are on there own rock and I am going to keep the colony smallish this time.
So all in all I am very happy I decided to break down my old tank and restart it. It was a long and trying process for me in many ways but well worth the time and patience to get it all moved around safely. Starting over fixed many problems I had associated with over crowding, dosing and certian things invading onto favorite corals. This new tank has become a joy to sit and look at and make plans about. Blessings and Happy Reefing!
Attachments
It’s turning out so well! I’m so excited for it to grow in.
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Thank you, truely... I am really enjoying it.
Really racking my brain here to come up with something clever to say other than "looking good" but there it is. It really does looks good and thanks to the somewhat larger colonies you were able to bring in to the new tank, has a much more mature look vs it's actual age. What's the frag in between the white pipe and the green duncans? I'm just curious.
Thank you so much! And thank you for all of your help walking me though some of the process to get it all transfered and done!
They are two small branches off my crown of thorns bird. They lost color in the transfer and are just starting to green up a bit now. Actually most of my sps lost color moving from my old system to the new one. The purple stylo turned brown and is just now getting more purple. But my pink one just stayed nice and pink. My bird of paridise and crown of thorns lost color (turned tan) and my frag of pink pocci turned brown and is just now pinking up some. It is in the very backround inbetween the duncan and white pipe of that same picture. Even my acan got less orange and is starting to get its color back now. Even with good water parameters I still dont have all the benifitial bacteria and such up to what it was in the older very stable system. It will take many months for this tank to fully mature and get a balanced eco system going. In the mean time I am please with how things went and how things are settling in. That is part of the fun of having tanks. Tweeking our maintainance to get every coral to its best color and fluffy/fuzziest! Really though, thanks again!
Such a beautiful setup mom2many...So...Thursday was the day. I cleared my schedule. I declared it a home school holiday and had my older children watch my younger children for the day, so I could totally work on moving every thing over from my old system into the new one. The new system has been cycling for over 8 weeks now and I felt it was stable enough for the move. I gathered my dremel, glue, towels, buckets, water, supplies and said a prayer. I worked from eight in the morning untill late afternoon. By then, everything was super slimming and angry and my hands were a dried on glue covered, shriveled, mess.
The next day, I did some tweeking and moving a few things. I think I have it where I am pretty happy with it now. My duncan colony is being a drama queen and not everything is back to pre-move happy but today everying looked much better.
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I was able to use my dremel with a diamond wheel to cut through the rock just below where the large pink gonipora was attached to the rock. It took me just a minute and no flesh was harmed. It was the piece I was most worried about getting off the rock and moving. It is not back to its huge happy self but opening up some. The clowns are still snuggling it, even though it is pretty deflated.
View attachment 5793
And for this last picture...prepare yourself... and hear crickets chirping, as you see what is left of my old friend and 20 long of four years...
View attachment 5794
Good bye old tank and hello new begining...
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Certainly!...and thank you for asking and being interested!
This photo was taken this morning!
I am so happy I took the time to change out my tank and rocks. People thought I was crazy to break down and frag up my 4 year old 20 long but it was becoming a warzone of over crowded hormones! I was also tired of dosing. Changing it over to my new 20 long with new rocks, solved many issues I was having. I am enjoying this tank emensely.
Everything seems to be settling in nicely and growing. I gave my 10 gallon reef away and took my favorite things out of it and moved them into here before it went. (I am loosing the battle of the promise I made to myself, not to overcrowd this tank.) My green star polyp rock in the front is from my 10g that left, as well as the short tenticle red goni that is to the left of my large pink goni. I also added two acans and my friend gave me two very small frags off her large green cup coraly looking thing?....it is not a pagoda but maybe some kind of montipora? It is the small frag to the right of my urchin in the picture below.
My other tank had very little movement or corals in it that moved. It had many large colonies of pocci, stylos and birds. Thus the need to dose so much as well. In this tank I wanted movement. I increased the flow with a Tunze 6040 on veriable pulses and put in less of the hard corals and more corals that moved and swayed. I am loving it! I also put in very few mushrooms, zoas and palys. The ones I did put in are on their own rocks and can not get onto the main rockwork easily.
This tank is now my only salt water tank in the house! Amazing as just two years ago I had over 13 fresh and salt water tanks. I am reformed.
Below is my most recent post to my youtube channel. It is a few weeks old, so not totally current but the most recent.
This photo was taken this morning!
I am so happy I took the time to change out my tank and rocks. People thought I was crazy to break down and frag up my 4 year old 20 long but it was becoming a warzone of over crowded hormones! I was also tired of dosing. Changing it over to my new 20 long with new rocks, solved many issues I was having. I am enjoying this tank emensely.
Everything seems to be settling in nicely and growing. I gave my 10 gallon reef away and took my favorite things out of it and moved them into here before it went. (I am loosing the battle of the promise I made to myself, not to overcrowd this tank.)
My green star polyp rock in the front is from my 10g that left, as well as the short tenticle red goni that is to the left of my large pink goni. I also added two acans and my friend gave me two very small frags off her large green cup coraly looking thing?....it is not a pagoda but maybe some kind of montipora? It is the small frag to the right of my urchin in the picture below.My other tank had very little movement or corals in it that moved. It had many large colonies of pocci, stylos and birds. Thus the need to dose so much as well. In this tank I wanted movement. I increased the flow with a Tunze 6040 on veriable pulses and put in less of the hard corals and more corals that moved and swayed. I am loving it! I also put in very few mushrooms, zoas and palys. The ones I did put in are on their own rocks and can not get onto the main rockwork easily.
This tank is now my only salt water tank in the house! Amazing as just two years ago I had over 13 fresh and salt water tanks.
I am reformed. Below is my most recent post to my youtube channel. It is a few weeks old, so not totally current but the most recent.
Thank you so very much! It is a work in progress.
Thank you! You are to kind!
Your very welcome! Blessings and Happy Reefing!
I clean my tank every Sunday morning while the lights are ramping up. The above FTS is of my "unhappy from the water change, and not all the way awake" corals under blue lights.
And below - the center of my tank, picture of my red goni. It just keeps getting bigger and bigger now that it is not being hosted by clowns anymore. I have to trim the green star polyps every few weeks as it tries to grow a mat across the sand to get to my main rock work.
Below picture - left side of my tank. Doing well. My red, short tenticle, red goni looks like such a friendly littel guy but can be very aggressive. It puts out sweeper arms that are five or so inches long at times. He can almost reach the green bird above him and almost reach the hammers to the left of him when the current is in his favor.
Below is the right side of my tank. My pagoda is rounding out and no longer looks like the square frag chip I origionally bought. The white pipe is really stunning during the day against the purple rockwork. I have the grandis palys on there own rock and they are quickly going to out grow it I think. In my last tank they grew into a huge bouquet that gave off such strong warfare chems that they killed everything with in five inches around them. I have them on my "Alcatraz Rock" all palys and mushrooms are on that rock.
The tank is doing really well right now. I am doing a four gallon, weekly water change on it. I am using 3/4 of my salt in Red sea pro and the other 1/4 in instant ocean. If I use red sea full strength, my "crown of thorns" birds nest coral, stars to STN. I am not having to dose this tank at all yet but do use Reef Energy a few times a week. My colors are all to my liking on everything and the coral growth is slow and steady. My riccordia are not as happy in this system as my last as there is a lot more water movement in this tank than my last one. So they dont expand as much but I see they are slowly moving to areas of thier liking so that is good. The ones that have moved are opening more fully now.
I am so grateful to God for this hobby. It is so much fun and can be very relaxing.
If you wish to see this tank in motion. Here is a like to a video posted a few weeks ago. Blessings and Happy Reefing!
