Mecolds 34g nano

[mecold]

Ok, so after a hiatus, I am back into the hobby. My old tank had gotten neglected and started to go downhill fast. Not to mention it was a poorly planned eyesore. Functional yes, but ugly.

This time, I decided to plan an actual tank budget. Last time the budget was my credit limit As well as have an equipment plan. So far, I have been religous in sticking to my plan.

Details:

Tank and stand - Current-USA Solana
Light - Current-USA sunpod 150
Skimmer - Stock solana (for now)
Powerheads - 2 seio 620's
Calcium reactor - korallin 1502

Planned upgrades:

Kalk reactor
Tunze ato
Euroreef nano skimmer (if it's ever released)
controllable powerheads

Planned inhabitants:

Sps dominated with zoas (of course) and a few select lps
Fish - yellow coris wrasse, melanarus wrasse, dwarf golden eel, maybe a clown

 

[mecold]

The tank was started on 3/11/08 with rock that had been curing for 6 weeks. I haven't taken a ton of pictures other than these. First one is to illustrate the algea bloom before I added a cleaning crew. The other is an overall shot. The tanks inhabitants are 5 banded trochus and 6 "strombus grazers". I am picking up a frag or two of a few of my old zoas that I was able to save, as well as a sacrificial sps frag tomorrow.

 

[Kigs!]

Welcome back to the hobby Paul! I have some zoa frags for you whenever you're ready.

 

[mecold]

Thanks. I actually still have access to a few of the zoa that you and pazazz sent. Thankfully zoas are much hardier than acros. If I can find them in my friends tank, I will be able to get the alien explosions back too.

 

[ct_vol]

I didn't realize you had taken a break... Glad you're back though... I know that tank will be packed soon enough...

 

[Chris2222000]

Welcome Back Paul!
I too was out for a while on hiatus lol
Looking forward to see what youre gonna do with the tank
-Chris

 

[limestro]

Welcome back Paul! Keep the pics coming. =) Looking good so far. LMK when you ready I'll have some frags for you.

~Mike

 

[revhtree]

Thats a sweet/sleek tank! Glad to have you back cant wait for more.

 

[143gadgets]

Welcome back!!! When are the first corals going in? What light are u running in that sunpod?

 

[Azurel]

Looks like it is gonna be a great tank......

 

[mecold]

The tank is using a sunpod 150hqi for now. If it needs it, I will make an arm to hang a pendant from and upgrade to a 250w lumenbright.

The first corals will be added today They will be some of the old palys that I had. I think there will be some AOG, nuclear green, purple death, mohawks, armageddons, sponge bobs, and some aquatic fantaseas (?). I will also add a sps frag to see how it does.

The overall plan for the tank is to pick only my favorite corals (as if I could limit myself) and let them grow out to fill the tank.

Thanks everyone for the greeting!

Chris,
I still haven't forgot about that frag I owe you I just have had a hard time locating the PHE's. But, I promise to hook you up with something equally nice once things start growing.

 

[Chris2222000]

LOL Paul dont stress about that. Make sure and take pics I wish I would have taken pics of things when I first added them, so that I could compare growth shots.
-Chris

 

[mecold]

Well, I added 10 frags today. Once things get settled in, I will get some pics. The mohawks didn't look like they were healthy enough for fragging, so none yet. Also couldn't find the alien explosions. Maybe I can pick some more up from another local friend.

 

[MarvinsReef]

this tank should look really nice in a few months...

 

[mecold]

Just a few terrible pic of the 5 day old additions

 

[MarvinsReef]

Hi Paul.. what are the new additions?

I saw one colored stick :hammer:

and a few nice colored z's and p's...

 

[mecold]

Lets see, zoas are Armor of god, cats eye, purple death, nuclear green, rainbow paly, sponge bobs and aquatic fantaseas. The colored stick is an acropora hyacinthus that I had in my old tank. It is probably common, but I really like it. Thankfully, these frags have survived. There may be one or two other zoas in the tank that my friends got from me, but these represent most of them.

As for sps, those are coming soon I just have to pick my favorites to put in the tank. I know that there will be a pink lemonade, atlantis pink lemonade, ponape birdsnest, sunset monti, and a purple unknown in the tank for sure.

 

[mecold]

So, I decided to switch the sunpod to a 250hqi. Not that the tank "needed" me to, but for my peace of mind. everything is doing great so far. I hooked up an azoo 2 fan unit to a medusa dual stage controller that is keeping the tank temp steady at 78. Also, I added a rainbow acan enchanita from a friends tank since they are tearing their tank down in preparations for a move.

Here are the new pics:

 

[mecold]

So I have been a little lax on the updates I have added a few new acros to the tank. Also learned a lesson on using tmpcc. Do not leave your acros in the solution for an hour! I lost three acros due to such a long dip.

Enough with the negatives, here is the tank. Sorry if the pics aren't great.

1 month ago:

psellers purple mystery (like a purple monster, but nicer! From a local club member) Got the true le purple monster too, but I like this more.

Ora duncan and sunset monti (sunset is not happy from the long dip)

A sweet monti that I picked up from a lfs. Nothing special. I love it though!

 

[mecold]

This morning, I woke up to see this:

Then I saw this:

If you look close you will see the lower snail spawning:

I know this happens all of the time in others tanks, and most likely has happened in this tank as I have a ton of baby trochus snail that are growing quickly. This is the first time I have ever seen it though. Good thing to as I would have been very worried about a cloudy tank if I had not seen it happening!