Shrimpchips' SPS nano

[shrimpchips]

Been a while since an update - a few corals were placed, things were removed, some things placed here and there. Not too much changed though.

I did get a new fish last week however. She's in QT and doing very well.

Introducing my little Centropyge potteri (Potters dwarf angelfish):




Sorry for the crappy pics, but in the second one you can see how nice the colours are on her.

She's in week two of qt, and so far so good. She's getting fatter and eating pellets and macroalgae, but nothing out of the water column yet. I've found that she loves to eat filamentous algae, so she gets a frag plug/rock covered in it every few days. I'll be putting some LPS and zoas in with her to see if she eats them, or if she's going to ignore them for now. Yesterday I gave her a FW dip, and today the cleaner shrimp and her are buddies, so she's finally getting the cleaning she's been wanting the last few days.

While 20g is on the small side for a centropyge (most places recommend a 30g), I think she has plenty of rock to forage off of, and the rock is mature with lots of macro algae growth on it. I'm also able to supplement with more macros (not chaeto) from the fuge, as well as offer lots of foods

She's small in that she's about 2.5" - a bit bigger than the (timid) six-line wrasse in the DT. I'll introduce her slowly into the DT isolating either her or the sixline and let them get used to each other first. She should ahve no issues with the jawfish and vice versa.

In terms of nipping at corals, not too worried about my zoas - she can eat them all if she wants :P LPS, I only have 3 kinds, so no big loss. If she takes a chunk of clam, no harm done. But if she's becomes a SPS nipper we may have a problem.

The display tank is looking good - noticed after a WC that the water looked slightly yellow so I changed the carbon (1 cup) and the GFO at the same time (to absorb any phosphates leached by the carbon). At the same time I refilled my Alkalinity buffer solution - 3.5 L lasted me since April or May. At this rate 1 kg will last about 1.5 years. The ca and Mg solutions aren't running anywhere near low.

So without further ado, here are a few shots from tonight:

The Jawfish:


Picked this up from reef raft. used to be all brown, but the new growth is pale blue or purple, and the rest of the coral is starting to turn a lighter colour too:


Since I started to do WCs regularly again (1/week, 5g) the christmas millie has really coloured up. Pink is coming back, and the lower areas are greenish! Pink, green, white/brown polyps says it's christmas time!


Here's a top down of the back half of the reef wall. kinda dark, but I like the top downs, and the back half isn't one I usually take:


Close up:


FTS:

[mseepman]

Okay, I have a 16G custom nano but it looks nothing like that. Wow, you have a ton of corals in there. What is your mix of bulbs?

[lorenz0]

love the pearly jaw fish. one of my favorite fish's

[shrimpchips]

Originally Posted by mseepman

Okay, I have a 16G custom nano but it looks nothing like that. Wow, you have a ton of corals in there. What is your mix of bulbs?

Yeah, it's packed a bit full

The bulbs are only available from Current USA - I use 3 daylight (10k) and 3 actinic bulbs. Not a great selection, but the colour is pretty decent (crisp white) and the PAR numbers aren't half bad.
I heard rumors about new bulbs in development, so we'll see if that actually pans out for this fixture.

Originally Posted by lorenz0

love the pearly jaw fish. one of my favorite fish's

Me too. So much personality, look great and they're funny buggers too. I love seeing them rearrange their rocks around their holes, and covering up for the night is always a fun thing to see too.

[lastlight]

That vortech must be super gentle and broad... it looks menacing in there!

Love the blue ricordia.

[mseepman]

Originally Posted by shrimpchips

Yeah, it's packed a bit full

The bulbs are only available from Current USA - I use 3 daylight (10k) and 3 actinic bulbs. Not a great selection, but the colour is pretty decent (crisp white) and the PAR numbers aren't half bad.
I heard rumors about new bulbs in development, so we'll see if that actually pans out for this fixture.

I actually use a combo of 70w MH and the 2 bulb version of Currents 18" T5HO light, so I know what you mean by lack of bulb options. It would be great to see some other bulbs come out for this as Nano's are big business these days.

[shrimpchips]

Originally Posted by lastlight

That vortech must be super gentle and broad... it looks menacing in there!

Love the blue ricordia.

Yeah, it looks like a fish muncher for sure! But all my fish when first put into the tank almost got sucked in by it, but since then they've leaned about the giant chop chop in the tank The flow is really broad - I have it on 100% reef crest, and the SPS love it. And everything else likes the flow too, even the fish.

I love the ricordea too - I have another one that's a purplish with green rim in the frag tank that I'd eventaully like to move into the DT - just have to juggle the ric mountain a bit. This one started off less power-blue, looking more dull. I passed up a big pink rim/purple with green mouth colony Saturday at BA - kinda regret it now so I'm going to go back and see if it's still there. Fingers crossed it is

Originally Posted by Snaz

Fantastic nano. Great job.

Hey Canreef mods! I think its time a nano made TOTM and I vote for this one!

Haha, I don't think it's anywhere near TOTM quality yet - it's not even a year old. I hope one day to get growth and colours like some of the TOTMs featured around the web though

Originally Posted by mseepman

I actually use a combo of 70w MH and the 2 bulb version of Currents 18" T5HO light, so I know what you mean by lack of bulb options. It would be great to see some other bulbs come out for this as Nano's are big business these days.

Yeah, it would be nice to see some more bulbs. I think it would be a worthwhile market seeing how popular a platform it's becoming, and the money people are spending. Hopefully the European makers start cluing into the nano market - then this size I think will really take off.

I'll try to borrow my folk's DSLR camera this week for sure - hopefully I can take some better shots for you guys

[shrimpchips]

More showing off the new baby:

Crappy actinic shot (you can see how bright it fluoresces):


With all me lights on (white balance is turned all the way down):


Tanks is progressing. I had an acro (not sure of ID) RTN partially today - it was unhappy since flow was reduced to it following the placement of a colony two weeks ago - it had withdrawn all it's polyps and today it's lost some flesh, but it stopped after I came home from the lab. Hopefully it makes it.

Besides that, growth has slowed down a bit, but colours seem to be nice. I'll have to check Ca and Alk levels again, as I haven't checked for a while, and I switched to a new batch of Alk buffer last week. Hopefully everything is fine

Have to start pruning soon - and clearing off my frag racks. No more vacancies anywhere on the rock, and the glass is covered too. Oh well.