my 55

[stephanie]

Well I read D12's tips on pics, but I couldn't really do any of them. So, these aren't completely representative.

[stephanie]

I don't know why that didn't work...



Okay, the file was too large. I'll have to try to fix that.

[FragOutpost]

You can reduce your filesizes by using the jpeg compression tool here - http://www.fragoutpost.com/jpeg-compression.php

[stephanie]

Thanks! I also found a program that let me darken them a bit.

[FragOutpost]

Thanks for sharing your photos. Teel us more about your tank.
How long has the system been set up? How many fish do you have and what kind? Very nice blue linkia starfish btw. What kind of lighting?

[FragOutpost]

That is a nice liverock centerpiece you have there. I like the caves in the center.

[stephanie]

Thanks. 55gal. Up for a year, but we transferred the sand and LR from a tank that was up for 3 years. Actually, it was a sweet ebay deal: we bought a 6 footer filled with sand and LR (and a clownfish, 2 damsels, and a wrasse-- we got rid of the wrasse) as well as a bunch of hardware and lights for $200. Then, for another 200 we bought the acrylic tank in the picture because we didn't have a wall that was six feet long. The acrylic came with the sump, a uv sterilizer, more powerheads and stuff and some lights. Then we gutted the 6 footer and sold it back on ebay for 350!

We changed the lighting when we built the stand...I should put up a picture of the stand...it's gorgeous, I even put on starfish and seahorse handles.

Anyway, 14k MH lights, regular old actinics (we are changing these...maybe VHO superblues, but after reading a post here we are looking into T5s) and some LED moon lights that suck (but, thanks to the great posts here I am going to find an autozone!).

Filtration: built in overflow (the location sucks, back center), water goes down through a prefilter into an ammonia filter, through bioballs, through heater, through chiller if it gets to warm, through UV sterizlizer, into main sump area with protein skimmer and activated carbon, and back up to tank. (I think...my boyfriend, Matt, deals with that stuff more than me...)

Circulation: a mag 13 (I think) pumps the sump water back into the tank and we have a splitter on the outflow so half goes left and the other half right. Then, there is a powerhead on each side that had a 360 rotator attachment and there is a small powerhead on the right hand side too.

Now that the broing part is over...

Fish:
A Clarkii Clown- Bubbles *he is a major pain and we've been trying to get him out of there forever!

A long-nosed hawkfish- Pinnochio

A yellow-tailed damsel- came with tank, no name, needs to go

Royal gramma- Lizzie (after Queen Elizabeth)

Chromis- Matt loves him, I'm impatiently waiting for him to meet his maker

Pygmie Angel (?)- Belle because she's beutiful

Dotty-back- Names Dorothy because that's my Grandma's name and everyone calls her Dotty

Watchman Goby- Paul Revere (his pistol shrimp is named "Two if by Sea"- sounds like a race horse!)

Corals:
Yellow leather: my pride and joy...had him sine he was 2 inches
A brain: I say it's a welso, Matt says it is a different kind.
Another brain: open
2 tumpets: one orange and green, one green (green one's getting fragged today!)
Bi-color xenia
Boring xenia
Several different zoos (the plan is to have the whole middle rock covered in different zoos!)
Green and beige blastos
Pink and blue blastos
Green galaxia
Tree coral
Purple Gorgonian
Hammer
Torch
A tree-coral type thing that Matt calls "Stag"...I don't know if that's what it is or if he named it that.
Green star polyps
Orange-Purple ricordia
Green ricordia
Blue and purple mushroom
Purple mushroom with bumps and a baby
Green striped mushroom
Pink birdsnest that we bought because I wanted to save it...it isn't doing fabulouse.
Suncoral- my other pride and joy.
I think that's it....It sounds like more than it looks!

Miscellaneous:
Blue linkia- named Polaris
Blue urchin- Stickybuns
Rock anenome- he needs to go
Rose or bubble tip anenome
hermit crabs and snails

Wow...props to anyone who reads this whole thing!

[FragOutpost]

Wow! Excellent detailed description.
I like how you name your fish. That is great.
My better-half is always naming fish and I always tell her to wait at least a week before you name it.

Why are you trying to get rid of the clown? Is it being too aggressive.
That is an excellent deal you got on your tank.
Are you having problems keeping low nitrate levels using the bioballs? You had mentioned a problem with the birdsnest. Most softies have a better tolerance to elevated nitrate levels than campared to SPS corals.

Got any photos of the stag or the sun coral?

[stephanie]

nitrates have never been a problem...I read your post on bio balls...I'm still mulling it over.

Clarkii Clown is aggressive at feeding time, but mostly the problem is that he doesn't care who he hits when he swims and he's always bumping into the corals.

The birdsnest wasn't great when we got it. I thought he was getting better, but then my urchin took him for a ride. I'm 99 percent sure that his tips are dead. I'll add a pic, maybe you can give me some advice.

Pics of sun coral and stag to follow.

The suncoral was my first coral...He's been through hell. Last summer our temp kept getting up to the nineties and he was a trooper!

The stag is new, so he's still really small. Matt thinks he's going to grow as fast as my tree coral. I got the tree coral in November. He was the size of stag and he's grown really fast.

[stephanie]

Oops...I forgot the tree coral for size comparison.

[stephanie]

Here's the tree coral. He was bigger the other day before I fragged him.He's more verticle in the tanks too. I think a wave hit him when I took the picture.

[stephanie]

Well, you really can't tell the size difference. I have to get better at picture taking. The tree (post fragging) is about 5 times as big as stag.

[FragOutpost]

So bubbles the clarkii thinks that she is the boss of the tank, eh?

The birdsnest is looking like it might not make it. Try giving it some more flow.
Where is it positioned in the tank in relation to the lights? It looks stressed and is not showing any polyp extension. How long have you had it?

Nice Sun Coral btw. There are a few people on this board who keep sun corals.

[FragOutpost]

The tree coral seems to be recovering well from when you fragged it.
When you first said stag I was thinking staghorn, but now that you post a picture I think it's close to the tree coral, possibly nephthea or capnella. Just a guess.

[stephanie]

We got it 5 days ago. On day 2 it put some polyps out, but then the urchin took it. It's about five inches from the water line, so 1 and 1/2 feet from the lights (same distance as at the store...maybe that's what went wrong in the first place). He is right in front of the overflow on a platform rock.

I think I'll try increasig his flow. I'll have to wedge his rock somewhere.

Thank you for all of you help.

So do you think more light or less?

[FragOutpost]

After you acclimate the coral to the lighting in your tank, I would eventually try to get it directly underneath one of the halides. It is always good to start new corals in the lower half of the tank and then gradually place them higher in the tank until they reach their final placement.
If it was recently extending some polyps then that's a good sign.
Good luck.

[stephanie]

I went to my not-so-local- fish store yesterday.

Here's what I got:
I pink sps that I say is a stylo, but the employee said was something that begins with an "n", a flouresent orange shroom, some green shrooms, some pink zoos, a brown stylo, a blue torte, some sort of softie that reminds me of pinecones, a pink frogspawn, a clam, and a mandarin. Not all of them would photograph.

What do you think the pink guy is?

[FragOutpost]

Congratulations on your new corals. The pink one is hard to identify. I'm not sure that it is a pink stylophora but is very hard to tell from the pic. The coralites seem to resemble more of an acro species. For your comparison purposes here is ORA's pic of a pink stylophora -

[stephanie]

well, it looks like that except it has a pink body with pinkish/purplish polyps. It's gorgeous whatever it is.

[D12monkey]

First off congrats on having such a fine tank.

Second sorry for replying so late. What are you having problems with when taking photos? May I can help you. By the way the photos of the tank came out pretty good. What kind of camera are you using?