My DIY Nanocube at work

[pookstreet]

The tank has finally recovered from several successive crash in September and October of last year. So now is the time to gets it's first introduction on Club-Zoa. To start off, here is a FTS from today. I am still in the process of moving the rest of my zoa/paly collection but the LPS collection is done and in place.

 

[pookstreet]

To give a little bit of history, the tank is ~16 gallons total volume and was made back in June/July of 2005. It's basically a "clone" of the other nanocube It has 3 compartments in the back to be used as fuge, equipment, and return.

 

[pookstreet]

It's lit by a 150W DE Ushio 20K bulb in a Hamilton Reefstar pendant. The pendant is hung from a DIY hanger made of copper tubing painted black.

 

[pookstreet]

 

[pookstreet]

This was the tank just prior to the first serious crash.

 

[pookstreet]

The crashes wiped out several nice chalice colonies and frags.

 

[pookstreet]

I also lost a couple of nice Blasto colonies and adult Dendros. Amazingly, the baby Dendros survived and they are slowly growing bigger.

 

[Azurel]

Nice tank Kenny....Did you ever find out the cause of the crash?

 

[pookstreet]

Nice tank Kenny....Did you ever find out the cause of the crash?

Thanks. I never figured out the exact cause, but probably due to excess nutrients trapped in the sandbed and in the back compartments that caused the first crash. The tank is skimmerless. Then the tank never recovered and things kept dying. At one point, everything had a slimy clearish coat on it, including the tank walls. I eventually took everything out and scrubbed it all, tank, rocks, etc. Did a ton of water changes until the tank stablized. Now I am running the tank barebottom so nothing will be trapped.

 

[pookstreet]

Are that plumbed to have a closed loop? Looks like there are bulkheads on the very back wall.

Haha......good eyes. I did have an Eheim canister running carbon on it for a while. But the foresight to drill bulkheads paid off when I added a Rubbermaid tub sump recently to increase water volume and also to grow more macros

I am still keeping the tank skimmerless b/c I have had more success keeping LPS/zoas growing faster that way. I have a filter sock in the sump to catch all the debris and the chaeto will take some nutrients out of the water.

 

[pookstreet]

Here are some new coral pix. Hope you enjoy.

Tyree Agent Orange

Acan lord

Chalice

 

[pookstreet]

Another chalice that recovered from the crash

Lone Blasto polyp left over from a colony that perished. Hoping for new babies soon

A different color morph Blasto, also only one polyp survived. It's now 1.5" across.

 

[Patwa]

very nice, Kenny!...love that last shot of the blasto

can you get a full shot of the office....just want to see where you placed the tank in relation to your desk

Zach.

 

[pookstreet]

Thanks Zach. I'll get a pic tomorrow morning when the light comes back on. It goes off at 3 in the afternoon so I can actually get some work done :toothy10:

 

[pookstreet]

More pix I took today. Yes, I do work if you must ask

Rainbow Acan with purplish mouths

War Coral

Couple of cool contrasting color morphs next to each other

 

[pookstreet]

Yet another chalice

Tyree LE Pastel War and Peace Coral. This thing is seriously bubble gum pink that I just couldn't capture in the pic. Really beautiful piece.

 

[Pazazz]

Wow thats Awsome!!! What do you do for a living Kenny?

 

[pookstreet]

LOL.......No, I am not rich at all, just lucky in finding nice stuff at affordable prices out here in SoCal and through trades. I work for a safety consulting firm and spend most of my time in the office, hence the need to have the tanks to keep me sane

 

[gflat65]

Nice stuff, Kenny. I thought you were in Ohio... Not sure where I got that from. You've got an excellent starting point after the crash with those you saved.

 

[rottface4]

Nice tank... sorry to hear about the crash. The white slime you are talking about did it look like what you would imagine elephant snot to look like?