Skimmerless 15-Gallon Mixed Reef

[Nano_Man]

You’ve just proven that at simple tank works fine just what I have been said for years . Great reef thanks for sharing

 

[Alexraptor]

Decided to take some rocks I had laying around, and expand the right-hand structure with a rock wall and placing a Tenuis frag on one of the joints. :)

My efflo continues to gain color, and is now clearly adopting a very distinct purple and green coloration! Growth has slowed, but I'm assuming that has to do with it adapting and putting more energy into pigment production.

Curious thing is that it also seems to have completey changed its feeding strategy from when I got it.

For the first 6 months or so it had very prominent axial polyps that extended at night, waving in the current. They have entirely vanished, and instead it now seems to secrete copious amounts of mucus and rely on mesenterial filaments to catch food.

I broadcast feed Ocean Nutrition Reef Pulse daily in the tank, and whenever this happens the acro turns into a fuzzy pillar!

Just a little closeup of one of my first colonies, and the very oldest coral l have. It's stuck with me through everything, good times and bad times.

 

[Alexraptor]

I got a new "surface skimmer"! :rolling-on-the-floor-laughing:



Jokes aside, he seems to be doing a real good job cleaning up coral mucus. Used to have a lot of that constantly collecting in that corner, with my tank only having a single pump. :)

 

[Alexraptor]

Another month gone by...

Unfortunately had to trim away part of the bottom of the acro, as something hat attacked/was eating away at it. Didn't want to chance a bacterial cause. Seems to have stalled growing for the moment, but it has also now nearly completed it's color transition and now boasts a pure purple/green color.

And my monti cap, Honestly I don't know when i should even start cutting it back, at this point it's starting to seriously shade my frogspawn. :face-with-tears-of-joy:

 

[Alexraptor]

Always stings when one has to prune a grand colony like this one. But alas, the frogspawn just can't keep up with the monti.

 

[JZ199]

what an awesome tank! I've been debating about starting a 10 gallon nano with my little guy, and this post has me really excited to get it started.

 

[Alexraptor]

Radical changes!

Main bulk of the colony has been growing along the watersurface for several months now. So i made the decision to cut it back, remove all the dead old growth and drop it a level. In doing so I've also freed my green monti from the red colony's shadow.

Frogspawn stems were also heavily eroded and very brittle, so I decided to cut the colony down to size.

 

[Alexraptor]

A few weeks on, plenty of new growth!

My efflo in particular has seen a dramatic change since the monti was cut back, and the flow patterns changed. A lot of new tips popping up here, and the colony has started producing axial polyps again!

Nighttime shot with the new axial polyps extended, the colony hasn't produced these for a whole year.

 

[Sump Crab]

Very nice tank

 

[Gumbies R Us]

A few weeks on, plenty of new growth!

My efflo in particular has seen a dramatic change since the monti was cut back, and the flow patterns changed. A lot of new tips popping up here, and the colony has started producing axial polyps again!

Nighttime shot with the new axial polyps extended, the colony hasn't produced these for a whole year.

Coral looks like it is doing great!

 

[Alexraptor]

Had my hands full lately with getting started on my thesis. Things are going great, though my Acro does seem to have something of an identity crisis. :grinning-face-with-smiling-eyes:

It seems to have switched gears from color to growth. And quite rapid growth as well, i might add.

 

[Alexraptor]

Green monti cap was encroaching a bit too fast on the Efflo in the past month. So I broke off the whole shelf, snapped the foot off, and swapped places. Efflo has a bit more breathing room now and hopefully time to put out more vertical growth.

I'd say the placement of the efflo is perfect for this panorama tank. :)

Lots of healthy fresh growth. Still amazes me how well a minimum-tech tank actually works. :)

And speaking of growth. My brains days in this tank are now sadly numbered. He's just simply growing too much and too fast to stay here. Actually got caught up on the skeleton with the algae magnet the other day, so I'd give it a month, two tops, before I have to move him to another tank!

Not bad comeback story, given that this was the state of it 12 years ago. :)

 

[Alexraptor]

Another couple of months gone by, and as of yesterday my precious brain is no longer denizen of this tank!

He now resides in my 25g Mandarin Tank. :)

 

[Southpawblues]

I really enjoyed reading about your journey with this tank. I’m starting a 24 gallon Reef Casa tank and also plan to go skimmerless. I appreciate the insights you have shared

 

[Alexraptor]

My efflo has been shifting colors again during the spring, and it suddenly hit me that it has now actually returned to to it's natural, wild colors!!!

Photos of wild colonies, for reference, can be found here!
http://www.coralsoftheworld.org/species_factsheets/species_factsheet_summary/acropora-efflorescens/

 

[weavertank]

Late to the thread here but…since you have had that tank up awhile how do you like your maxspect jump light?
I am starting a 15 gallon and 20 years ago I ran a 32 gallon tank on tube lights and the choices were easy back then! I am really stumped with the lighting choices.

 

[Alexraptor]

Late to the thread here but…since you have had that tank up awhile how do you like your maxspect jump light?
I am starting a 15 gallon and 20 years ago I ran a 32 gallon tank on tube lights and the choices were easy back then! I am really stumped with the lighting choices.

I like it very much, probably my favorite light so far. Although for my tank it really needed the diffusor to spread the light well and avoid creating hotspots.

Great for anything from softies and LPS all the way to SPS.

 

[SanFernandoValleyAIOReef]

So Only light , wavemaker , surface skimmer and temp control. Filtered with 30% weekly water change

 

[Alexraptor]

So Only light , wavemaker , surface skimmer and temp control. Filtered with 30% weekly water change

Actually, only light and wavermaker, filtered with 30% weekly water change. "Surface skimmer" was a joke, alluding to my emerald crab scooping scum off the water surface. :)

The room is climate controlled though. ;)

 

[SanFernandoValleyAIOReef]

Actually, only light and wavermaker, filtered with 30% weekly water change. "Surface skimmer" was a joke, alluding to my emerald crab scooping scum off the water surface. :)

The room is climate controlled though. ;)

Nice, gotta say it’s Sumpless / filterless , rather than skimmerless cos ppl might think just no skimmer instead of what’s really going on, which is more impressive