Newbie photo of modest 29 gallon

[otrlynn]

I've been experimenting with taking photos of my 29 gallon reef tank--my first attempt at saltwater. The tank has been set up since July 07. Equipment is far from the best or biggest, but the tank is doing well. Details available to anyone interested.


http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee19/lflemming/reefcentralphoto.jpg

[Sk8r]

Bravo! great pic, really nice little reef!

[Sk8r]

I applaud the extension on the gorgonian. That's one happy specimen. And doing extraordinarily well with the zoas.

[BurntOutReefer]

very nice...I like the background aswell......fits right in....

[Tangweed]

That's very nice. You don't see that much green in a reef. I like it. It looks natural.

[Blown 346]

Make sure to feed the gorgonian on a regular basis as they are hard to keep.

The tank looks great, good work.

[mg426]

I think it pretty Nice.

[otrlynn]

Thanks all! The tank background sort of "came with" the tank when I inherited it from my teenaged son. He'd sort of let things slide when moved it and added most of what you see, besides the rock. The photo backgrounds do not seem popular now, but it seems to work. There is more Halimeda to the far right that does not appear in the photo. The zoas are always out unless the hermits have been walking on them or the hawkfish is sitting on them. There is a brittle star whose legs have grown to about 8", a feather duster, and a scissortail chromis (I think) in addition to what you can see. The gorgonians polyps are usually out when the light is on. I have been squirting a mix of shaved frozen mysis shrimp, zooplankton, and phytoplankton over it as well as the goniopora.

[BurntOutReefer]

whats the light?

[otrlynn]

Re the light: you will probably laugh. It is a Coralife 50/50 power compact 65 watts total. In order to take the picture I placed a small standard freshwater flourescent on top too. Normally it is not there. Also, contrary to most of the advice I have seen, there is a glass top on the aquarium, though there is about two inches open in back of the glass. The HOB filter's "waterfalls", as well as the skimmer bubbles seem to provide enough fresh air...

[jefnalyssa]

looks good to me

[SaltyBoG Water]

I like those zoo's alot!! i also want to see a picture of your hawkfish!

[otrlynn]

I'll see if I can get the Hawkfish to pose when I get home from work. I'm still learning how to take good photos of the tank.

[cartouche]

Very nice.... I like the natural look! Are you tempted to 'go bigger' in time?

[chrisqueenz]

Very nice so far

[Seadoc]

Very nice display. How often do you have to prune your macro algae?

[MetalReef9]

Looks nice.

[otrlynn]

See below for photos of the Hawkfish. He's a fun fish to watch--"perches" all over the tank. I also took close-ups of two zoanthids. Regarding questions above--I haven't really needed to prune the macroalgae, except when I have noted that some of the Halimeda looked sort of old and getting less bright green. I am debating leaving the Caulerpa in there after reading another recent thread regarding Caulerpa spawning in the tank and spreading toxins. I really like the way it looks and it does not seem to spread wildly--perhaps because the lighting is relatively low. Lastly, I am actually moving up a bit in tank size. My main motivation is that the tank is on an ugly, old cast iron stand left from my husband's freshwater day. Of course replacing the stand to put it on a new stand involves unloading the whole tank. I've also been a little frustrated with stacking the live rock within the narrow front-to-back width of the 29 gallon. My early Christmas present is a new 58 gallon Oceanic with a Starfire front glass. I'm not doing the sump/refugium route however. I bought a nice, closed oak stand so that I could store all the "stuff" like salt, mixing buckets, test kits etc. in the bottom. Small house--limited space. Anyway...the pictures

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee19/lflemming/0711270002.jpg

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee19/lflemming/0711270012-1.jpg

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee19/lflemming/0711270026.jpg

[otrlynn]

Tried to put in photos last time and must have done something wrong, trying again--please bear with me.

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee19/lflemming/0711270026.jpg

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee19/lflemming/0711270012.jpg

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee19/lflemming/0711270002.jpg

[otrlynn]

Bump for new pics

[TheOtherReefer]

You don't see too many tanks with crushed coral any more. Cheers!

[Seadoc]

It looks great. I am planning to setup a new tank and you got me seriously thinking about having macroalgae in the DT

[iwishtofish]

I am unable to see the picture that I assume was at the beginning of the post. Do you have a full-tank-shot?

[otrlynn]

Full tank shot for iwishtofish. I may have somehow deleted it on photobucket (still learning). I included one other tank shot. If you are contemplating macroalgae in you display, read up on it. It seems like there is a risk of Caulerpa, in particular, spawning. I may remove it when I move to my new 58. Also crushed coral is in there on the advice of the LFS when my son first set up the tank. Though it does not seem to have caused problems, I'm going with argonite sand on the next one. Need advice on shallow vs. deep sand bed.

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee19/lflemming/0711260031.jpg

http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee19/lflemming/0711260017.jpg

[MalHavoc]

Very nice. Love the halimeda. Are you feeding your gorgonian down in front, there? White polyps usually means that it's not photosynthetic and requires phytoplankton. As you've mentioned, keep an eye on the Goniopora. They tend to seem to do well for the first little while, and then tank because their long term care requirements are unknown.

[otrlynn]

I am target feeding the goniopora. Lots of info on http://www.goniopora.org/ I squirt the same mixture of shaved mysis shrimp, phytoplankton, and zooplankton toward the gorgonian as well. Actually, yesterday and today there are less open polyps on the gorgonian, don't know what else it might need. AFTER buying the goniopora, I read up and realized that they are supposed to be exceptionally hard to keep and require high light. It looks as good as when I bought it about 12 weeks ago, so maybe I can keep it going. I will have T5s on my new tank, which theoretically should be better for it.

[iwishtofish]

Beautiful, otrlynn! Thanks for the FTS. You have a knack for this!