It's been a long time since I updated this tank. Really it's been mostly taking care of itself. Unfortunately most of the sexy shrimp have died. A couple did jump / get stuck in the filter but many just disappeared. Could be fighting, could be something else. That being said there are still 3. My original plan was to attempt to raise the babies but this became a reef so quickly I let that go. They don't seem to have eggs very often but even now with just a few I do occasionally see it. Maybe I just felt like they always had eggs when I kept them in the past. Of course I had a pico tank on my desk before and these guys are in my fish room so I only look at them for a few minutes a day.
I could be wrong but the light seems to be a little more white. I really noticed it in the pictures but I have yet to determine if it's just the camera's white balance or I'm really starting to loose some blue intensity. This light was cheap and it has been running since Feb 2018.
It's not super colourful but this tank is still fun to look at, and it only has 3 things plugged in! The reason why there are 2 clown fish is I bought them in May for $15 each. They were super tiny and super cute. I'm very particular about my fish and it was a strange buy but I was just drawn to them. I have an old naked in my display and a lightning maroon in my other tank so I had no where to put them. I thought about putting them in my frag tank but that is pointless. So after more then 3 months of qt, they've moved into this nano reef. Oh all the toadstools are shedding on the day I finally get around to taking some pictures..
I really gotta trim the macro algae, but my "beautiful mess" nano reef is still doing well. The only thing I've added in months is that cespitularia but I'm still quite happy with this reef which requires very little maintenance.
While the original idea was to try and raise sexy shrimp, that never materialized but a beautiful soft coral only reef did. There are just a couple of shrimp left. They have aged out / jumped / got stuck in power filter. Eventually I plan on getting more. Since I live in the middle of nowhere I can't just walk into a store and buy a couple or I probably would have done that by now.
This is just such an easy tank to take care of. The only hassles are really the sand traps detritus like crazy. Every once in a while I'll do massive water changes to remove detritus. There is also a constant bubble algae issue, but really I don't mind removing it by hand.
I never did get an auto top off for this tank. I'm rarely away for more then a day or 2 and having to top off means I look at the tank more frequently - of course now that there are fish in here I feed it more then when it was just the sexy shrimp. I probably will have to put one on soon as I'll be gone for a few days at the end of april.
I think there is just one sexy shrimp left, but the tank is looking fantastic. When the world returns to normal I'll get more.
Don't get me wrong I've had mutant clown fish for almost a decade and a half but seeing these regular guys from the top down under white light with cespitularia under them is just beautiful