Variant's Acros n' Nems

Variant · Nov 24, 2022

One of my all time favorite fish over the years has been my blue striped tamarin wrasse (Anampses Femininus). She eats my smaller bristle worms, I have yet to see any vermetids (knock on wood), and she is just a very peaceful fish that has remained fairly small over the last ~2 years I've had her. Super thankful to have acquired such a healthy specimen that underwent my quarantine and has remained healthy and fat so far!

She loves patrolling between the two primary island structures in my acropora tank

Look at those sharp eyes as she hovers over the Squamosa!

Sadly, this fish does not eat bubble algae...

Variant · Nov 26, 2022

While not as "fancy" as my femininus wrasse, but an OG from my shallow tank days, we have my yellow eye kole tang. The kole tang is such an under appreciated tang that is not only a workhorse, but has such a unique pattern on its body with yellow/orange hues on its eyes and fins when in peak health.

Kole tang photobombing as always...

What I actually trying to get a photo of... my mini colony of paletta pink tip that I grew from a 1" frag

Variant · Dec 3, 2022

Clownfish laid eggs yet again. Here you can see the two chilling by the corner of the anemone where they laid their eggs. While I love these two for having been with me for a few years, I do miss the nice orange color on their faces that they had when smaller. The orange would have been such a nice color contrast with the blue tentacles of the anemone... Speaking of which... I'm on a hunt for another gigantea anemone, ideally green.

Variant · Dec 9, 2022

While doing my annual T5 bulb replacements, I dusted off my top down equipment and took a few pictures of the corals that have been growing over the last several months.

Did I mention I have a ton of flow in my tank?

Classic Pink Lemonade throwing out branches.

My doo-doo brown strawberry shortcake that I turned around by increasing my nutrients. Several years ago, I would have thought to lower my nutrients and/or increase light intensity to get color out. Just one of many ways my mindset as a hobbyist has changed over time.

I love tabling acroporas like this Battle Corals Aquatic Man, but they just grow so fast... This side of the colony is starting to encroach on my classic Tyree Superman tenuis.

Variant · Dec 13, 2022

Finding space has become a challenge lately in my Acropora tank. Several frags are starting to cast shadows or touch each other. It's been so bad that I even had to artificially elevate certain rock structures with a DIY acrylic platform I made using 1" acrylic rods and a 3/4" thick square platform.

A frag growing on top of coral

One of my millepora frags being shaded by my tabling acropora

Two larger frags starting to reach for each other

So little room that I've resorted to planting frags 0.5 - 1" off the sandbed...

Variant · Dec 14, 2022

I hope to find others who feel the same, but I just love acropora that are blue or have shades of blue. It may just be the corals I end up buying, but I feel like there are so many acros that are red, green and purple. One thing that inspired me early on (years ago) to get into acropora was this majestic colony of blue acropora yongei that I was in an LFS display tank. Sadly as the owner sold his shop, that tank went downhill. Wishing I kept the piece I got from them 7+ years ago...

Anyways, here are some of my blues that I have... They definitely grow on the slower than others

Oregon Blue Tort

Tyree Superman Tenuis

ORA Pearlberry (this one is in really high par and has a pale almost neon complexion)

ORA Pearlberry #2 (because the first one wasn't grow fast enough so I cut a piece off to a lower par area. It's a bit brown after having fallen off onto the sandbed for a week while I was traveling...)

Gumbies R Us · Dec 14, 2022

Variant said:
I hope to find others who feel the same, but I just love acropora that are blue or have shades of blue. It may just be the corals I end up buying, but I feel like there are so many acros that are red, green and purple. One thing that inspired me early on (years ago) to get into acropora was this majestic colony of blue acropora yongei that I was in an LFS display tank. Sadly as the owner sold his shop, that tank went downhill. Wishing I kept the piece I got from them 7+ years ago...

Anyways, here are some of my blues that I have... They definitely grow on the slower than others

Oregon Blue Tort

Tyree Superman Tenuis

ORA Pearlberry (this one is in really high par and has a pale almost neon complexion)

ORA Pearlberry #2 (because the first one wasn't grow fast enough so I cut a piece off to a lower par area. It's a bit brown after having fallen off onto the sandbed for a week while I was traveling...)

Photos look incredible, also the coral looks really good as well!!

bluegrass_reef12 · Dec 14, 2022

What equipment do you have on the gig tank? And does your Elos tank have a eurobrace on it (can’t tell from the images). Your setups are some of the most beautiful I have seen! Especially that feminus!

bluegrass_reef12 · Dec 14, 2022

What equipment do you have on the gig tank? And does your Elos tank have a eurobrace on it (can’t tell from the images). Your setups are some of the most beautiful I have seen! Especially that feminus!

Variant · Dec 15, 2022

bluegrass_reef12 said:
What equipment do you have on the gig tank? And does your Elos tank have a eurobrace on it (can’t tell from the images). Your setups are some of the most beautiful I have seen! Especially that feminus!

Thank you for the compliments! The femininus wrasse is definitely my personal favorite as I spent so much time quarantining and conditioning it versus my other fish that came from vendors who do their own QT.

The only filtration on the gig tank is the biological filtration from the rock and weekly 25% water changed. The light is a 150 watt halide and I have two nero 3 for flow. It's a pretty simple tank.

The Elos has a fake wurobrace that I added to prevent splashing water from the high water flow + glass scraping. It's one of my favorite things I added to the tank because it makes something so small like scraping algae so easy to do.

Variant · Dec 15, 2022

With permission from my SO and using my <1 yr old son as an excuse (he loves the aquariums), I got myself a series of early Christmas presents, the first to arrive being...

The folks working the Southwest Airlines counter at the airport was, to my surprise, not really surprised to hand me this box. When I asked, apparently, they get enough of these boxes on a regular basis!

acesfull44 · Dec 15, 2022

Tank is awesome, pictures are great and the Wrasse is .

Janci · Dec 19, 2022

Variant said:
Talk about life getting in the way of a decent build thread update! I had my first kid several months ago so things have been busy to say the least. But with the year quickly coming to an end, I wanted to document where I am with my tank(s) for future reference.

So my shallow reef become two tanks... an Elos 100 system which is now my acropora tank and a specimen tank to house my beloved blue gigantea. Two quick full tank shots below. Both tanks have reached a point where they're "boring" because they're on auto pilot in many ways, which is a major reason for me to bust out the old DSLR and take up photography.

Acropora Tank:

Gigantea Specimen Tank:

Both tanks look amazing.
And the close-up corals shots are outstanding.

What did Santa flew in this year?

infinite0180 · Dec 29, 2022

Hey, how do you the the Gmann Reflexx? What ballast are you running? How much was shipping to the US? Did you buy direct?

Janci · Jan 10, 2023

Variant said:
With permission from my SO and using my <1 yr old son as an excuse (he loves the aquariums), I got myself a series of early Christmas presents, the first to arrive being...

The folks working the Southwest Airlines counter at the airport was, to my surprise, not really surprised to hand me this box. When I asked, apparently, they get enough of these boxes on a regular basis!

Which fish did you get?
Love to see more!