20 Gallon IM Peninsula Build!

[coolblueatx]

Thanks. I heard good things about it but wasn't sure if you had modified anything to get it to work. Definitely will check it out.

 

[Robertellis30]

Here he is! In my acclimation pitcher then hiding in my rock work. He’s so itty bitty, maybe 1 1/2 inches I hope he does okay! Anyone have any care suggestions for him?

Pygmy are by far my favorite nano fish.

 

[Chrisfish]

Congratulations on your new addition, tank is beautiful!!!!

 

[PicassoClown04]

Congratulations on your new addition, tank is beautiful!!!!

I actually got my cherub a couple months ago! He’s a cute little bugger that’s for sure. I really need to update my build threads, so much has happened since these photos!

 

[Chrisfish]

I actually got my cherub a couple months ago! He’s a cute little bugger that’s for sure. I really need to update my build threads, so much has happened since these photos!

I actually got my cherub a couple months ago! He’s a cute little bugger that’s for sure. I really need to update my build threads, so much has happened since these photos!
[/QUOTE]
you are an awesome young woman, I followed your thread for your letterman jacket and all that you are involved in, your tank is beautiful and Everything that you are involved in is so inspirational to the future of the of this beautiful world!!

 

[PicassoClown04]

I actually got my cherub a couple months ago! He’s a cute little bugger that’s for sure. I really need to update my build threads, so much has happened since these photos!

you are an awesome young woman, I followed your thread for your letterman jacket and all that you are involved in, your tank is beautiful and Everything that you are involved in is so inspirational to the future of the of this beautiful world!!
[/QUOTE]
You gonna sign up to get the letterman? Sign up ends in 1 1/2 hours!! Thanks for the kind words, this hobby has changed my life and I love it, even though I had way more money before my tanks lol. 2000 gallons of DT in my house so I’m always elbow deep in a tank!

 

[Chrisfish]

you are an awesome young woman, I followed your thread for your letterman jacket and all that you are involved in, your tank is beautiful and Everything that you are involved in is so inspirational to the future of the of this beautiful world!!

You gonna sign up to get the letterman? Sign up ends in 1 1/2 hours!! Thanks for the kind words, this hobby has changed my life and I love it, even though I had way more money before my tanks lol. 2000 gallons of DT in my house so I’m always elbow deep in a tank!
[/QUOTE]
Lol no I think the top runners are the best, was just so impressed with everything your involved in. If you keep at the pace your going, money won’t be an issue, I’d imagine you’d have quite a few sponsors in the future. Your ambition will go far.

 

[PicassoClown04]

You gonna sign up to get the letterman? Sign up ends in 1 1/2 hours!! Thanks for the kind words, this hobby has changed my life and I love it, even though I had way more money before my tanks lol. 2000 gallons of DT in my house so I’m always elbow deep in a tank!

Lol no I think the top runners are the best, was just so impressed with everything your involved in. If you keep at the pace your going, money won’t be an issue, I’d imagine you’d have quite a few sponsors in the future. Your ambition will go far.
[/QUOTE]
Thanks!! I hope it takes me far! I’m loving what I’m doing, even if it is a little overwhelming at times. Being a part of this community and needing to learn all the little things it takes to make my critters happy has taken over all my free time and I like it like that. Not only has this hobby only grown my appreciation for nature’s beauty, but it’s also helped me learn what it takes to dip my toe into entrepreneurship. Buying and selling corals has really helped me learn about the market, supply and demand, and how to give quality customer service. I’ve had many repeat customers and many end up becoming my friends! Thank you for your support, and for everybody else supporting and encouraging me as well, I’d be floundering in the dark without this site and probably never would have achieved the beautiful tanks I keep today without all of the valuable info! So thank you!! I hope to become a real figure in this community in the coming years, so I can help others like y’all helped me!

 

[Chrisfish]

Lol no I think the top runners are the best, was just so impressed with everything your involved in. If you keep at the pace your going, money won’t be an issue, I’d imagine you’d have quite a few sponsors in the future. Your ambition will go far.

Thanks!! I hope it takes me far! I’m loving what I’m doing, even if it is a little overwhelming at times. Being a part of this community and needing to learn all the little things it takes to make my critters happy has taken over all my free time and I like it like that. Not only has this hobby only grown my appreciation for nature’s beauty, but it’s also helped me learn what it takes to dip my toe into entrepreneurship. Buying and selling corals has really helped me learn about the market, supply and demand, and how to give quality customer service. I’ve had many repeat customers and many end up becoming my friends! Thank you for your support, and for everybody else supporting and encouraging me as well, I’d be floundering in the dark without this site and probably never would have achieved the beautiful tanks I keep today without all of the valuable info! So thank you!! I hope to become a real figure in this community in the coming years, so I can help others like y’all helped me!
[/QUOTE]
You’ve definitely made a great impression here and I’m sure it will just keep getting better

 

[PicassoClown04]

Well y’all, this tank has come a long way. Time for an update! Not many new corals this time, just very excited about how much my current ones have grown. It’s tough to be home for shipments now that I’m back in school, great for my wallet but all thee corals online are so gorgeous!

Updated FTS

The bleached alveopora with a couple dead spots is recovering beautifully. Pretty good polyp extension on the top couple polyps, still needs some TLC but great improvement so far!

Here’s little Speck on the nem, he’s always hanging out here now! I wish my clowns would follow his example

One of my new additions, a purple tip gold cristata! My LFS (OceanLife for y’all Houston folks) had a bunch of em for super cheap so I snatched one up. I think she’s prettier than my torches

My ‘orange’ hammer. It was bleached when it came to me and it’s got some faint color now. Guy swore up and down that she was “bright, tangerine orange” but she’s lookin more peachy to me right now. It doesn’t really matter to me, I love her however she decides to turn out

Here’s some acan love! I can’t believe how much these little guys have grown, especially my red ones. That rainbow still has a special place in my heart though!

Some zoa garden shots ft. the cherub angel. Some new frags, most just growing out really pretty. A lot of the new frags are in the 45 gallon, planning on updating that thread tomorrow! Maybe tonight if the lights are still on for pictures after I finish writing this.

My red planet has returned from the dead! Gorgeous coloration now, although we still have a ways to go to achieve it’s original 100% hot pink color. It’s looking fantastic, I wouldn’t mind at all if it just decided to stay this color forever I think it’s beautiful.

Of course, gotta update y’all on the torches! Both doing great, it’s kinda hard to tell where one starts and another one ends! They look really close together in this pic but if you scroll back up to the FTS, you can see that they are actually a few inches apart

That’s it for tonight y’all! Thank you for all your support and help with the creation of this tank. Id love some feedback on things, and if you have a coral suggestion that you feel like I’m lacking please comment! I am all about mixed reefs so I want to make sure this one is as mixed as I can get it

 

[zert11797]

Wow this tank is full of beauties. Good job!

 

[PicassoClown04]

Wow this tank is full of beauties. Good job!

Thank you!

 

[samnaz]

I’d say I think you should add a gorgonian! But it looks jam packed already.

 

[PicassoClown04]

I’d say I think you should add a gorgonian! But it looks jam packed already.

I’ll put that one on the list! Hopefully I’ll be able to source a frag locally

 

[LRT]

Wow

 

[Aqua Man]

Looking great!

 

[Casket_Case]

I like how the SPS look on top of the aquascape they definitely enhance the overall look. It’s cool seeing their canopies up so high near the surface. How do you choose where to place your corals? Is there any method to it? All of them seem to fit together so well. It’s an amazing looking tank

 

[PicassoClown04]

I like how the SPS look on top of the aquascape they definitely enhance the overall look. It’s cool seeing their canopies up so high near the surface. How do you choose where to place your corals? Is there any method to it? All of them seem to fit together so well. It’s an amazing looking tank

Thank you! I put the Birdsnest and bonsai (the largest acro colonies) up there before I realized that acros didn’t absolutely have to go at the top. But then I saw that they look really cool up there and now I’ve got a couple others up there too like the red planet, Hawkins enchinata, green elkhorn, and a half-dead gold cats paw that came to me as a rehab patient (it’s getting better!). Like you noticed, the acros really add a nice silhouette and structure to the aquascape plus it’s the only real place I can let them grow pretty large since the peninsula wouldn’t allow much growth towards the glass. That Birdsnest is starting to make me nervous, it’s only about 1/2” from the surface of the water!

I’m an artist and scuba diver so I think that really influences where I put corals. I’m trying to recreate the oceans where I’ve dove (except my corals are much more colorful!) and I think seeing corals in their natural environment really helps you see what they need and I can examine the growth patterns of everything as a massive colony so I don’t get surprised when my tiny frag starts growing. The artist in me just takes care of color theory to make the tank appealing.

I pretty much base everything off of flow, not so much light because the tank is so shallow that it doesn’t make a gigantic difference where the coral is put; I have a red dragon acro sitting on the bottom growing beautifully! Flow in a peninsula is difficult though so it’s more of a factor when I’m placing corals, like the hammers get the under wind from the powerhead that’s pointing directly at the torches. Those torches get random flow from a rotating return nozzle and the powerhead is on a pulse setting so they are blowing around like one of those inflatables outside car dealerships and are growing like crazy! The alveopora gets shelter from the rock plus it’s a little below the direct flow of the powerhead so it gets some current but not insane amounts. I’m thinking about maybe switching the direction of the powerhead so the zoas get more flow because I prefer longer skirts but idk how the torches would feel about that. On the back side of the peninsula, that rotating powerhead absolutely blasts the red planet which is encouraging massive growth and the other acros are following suit . I love the tank, and understanding exactly what’s happening in there really makes a big difference which is why I prefer risking getting stung by something rather than using gloves

 

[James Harvey]

Really a wonderful looking tank. I have a 25g that I struggle to get the growth you do. You might have said this somewhere in the thread but do you mind reviewing what % you keep your AI primes, what you dose regarding coral nutrition etc? Also, do you think the skimmer in your tank is necessary and if so, why? I am inspired by your tank to try new things.

 

[PicassoClown04]

Really a wonderful looking tank. I have a 25g that I struggle to get the growth you do. You might have said this somewhere in the thread but do you mind reviewing what % you keep your AI primes, what you dose regarding coral nutrition etc? Also, do you think the skimmer in your tank is necessary and if so, why? I am inspired by your tank to try new things.

Of course! I'd love to give you some details.

Im running 2 AI Prime HDs currently, I started with 2 regular primes and upgraded to 1 HD in May and just replaced the remaining prime with an HD in November. I havent seen much of a change in growth rate because of the light upgrades but the coloration has improved massively. Im running maximum levels of UV, Violet, Royal Blue, and Blue; 0% green, 53% red (I will explain), and 15% white. Sunrise at 7:30, Sunset at 7:40, and ramp time is 1 hr 30 mins; I used the easy set up function.
The idea for the red is that red grows macroalgae in refugiums really well. So, if red light supports plant growth it also supports nuisance algae growth (bad) but I'm controlling it with a weekly half dose of Vibrant; but it also boosts growth for my mangrove. I have recently added about 10 more mangroves (maybe a little overboard, but theyre so cool! I collected them in Galveston so I'm gussing theyre black mangroves) so I want to help them out as best I can with the red light. Before the mangrove, I had the light on 15% red just for aesthetic coloring purposes because I wanted yellow to pop the most in my tank (like that splatter hammer and some of my yellow zoas).

I exclusively dose SeaChem additives, and only these 3.

I dose directly after a water change and/or every two weeks as it becomes necessary. I follow the instructions on the bottle- 1 capful per 20 gallons- so I just dose one capful of each in quick succession.

As I mentioned earlier, Im dosing Vibrant at half the recomendation once a week to control algae growth due to the red light. It works really well to get rid of bubble/hair algae but I did notice that my xenia has completely stopped growing since I began the treatment. It still pulses rapidly and appears healthy but it does not grow, which I guess isnt the worst thing that could've happened! I tried a xenia transplant from my other tank and those xenia also stayed healthy but did not grow new stalks over the 3 months I ran the experiment.

I also do reefroids as often as I can, usually 1-2x per week. 1 pinch of reefroids into 40ish mL of tank water so the water has a light pinkish tint. I target feed via syringe with the pumps off for 15 minutes to allow the corals to eat. 1-2x per week I also take an entire cube of mysis shrimp, thaw it completely in the lid of a urine sample cup, and target feed my LPS (scolys, acans, trumpet, favia, etc. whatever is extending feeders) by taking the mysis one shrimp at a time and placing it directly into the feeder tentacles of the coral. This occurs at least 1 hour after the lights turn out and pumps are off and left off for 30 minutes to allow feeding. Sometimes I also mix 20ish mL of reefroids (as desribes above) and target feed and sps with polyps extended. I feed my torches, anemone, and duncan every day by feeding the fish them giving the leftovers to them I leave the pumps on for this. I really feel like this massively boosts the growth of the corals, my oldest scoly is so fat that it looks like a meat coral! I also noticed rapid growth from all of my acans since I started this and my trumpets are the largest I've ever seen in-person.

I do think that my skimmer is very important. Because I feed this tank so heavily I need to get rid of some of that excess nutrients so I dont have an algae explosion. I run mine so it comes out the color of tea thats been steeping for a long time, not too watery. It needs to be emptied out every 1-2 weeks and I clean the collection cup with a toothbrush every time to stop the build up of that disgusting brown/black slime on the inside. I use the eshopps nano skimmer because it fits perfectly into the AIO compartment and does a fantastic job.

If you've got any more questions about my set up/ routines with this tank I'm happy to share! Im doing a lot of unorthodox things right now and Im planning many many more in the future so please as questions if I'm doing something and you dont understand why or if youre interested in trying to replicate it