FlynHawaiian's 20G and New 20G rimless *Update 7/15*

I meant to say "hop" to it above and not "hope" to it lol......I know people have reported positive information about ibluewater I think it's called for corals as well.

 

Ah ok thank you for the help! In the downtime while the site was being upgraded I went on over and registered at R2R to fulfill my saltwater forum needs lol I found quite a few vendors over there that have a good reputation and high quality corals. And now............time for an update with pictures!

 

Well I have finally have some more pictures to add to this thread. Pretty much all coral photos though but I will throw in a shot of my new cleaner shrimp (Jacque) I picked up last weekend as well as a FTS. As of 6/1 the tank received a 4 gallon water change, cleaned the insides of the walls and the powerhead, and changed out all the filter pads. I have to say that the tank is looking the best it ever has. The water is crystal clear and the corals have just been growing like crazy!

The rimless tank only received a change in the filter pads and that's it. There won't be much in the means of an update on that tank probably till about end of June or so in the means of livestock or corals. BUT, I will should be adding a IM Aquagadget MiniMax filter media reactor, Tunze 9002 skimmer, and the A.I. Hydra 52 and mount here within the next few weeks so there will be pictures to come of all those goodies .

Again, sorry in advance for the crappy quality of these photos from my iPhone5 taken with the Lifeproof case still on. I tried turning down the blue on my Kessill so it didn't wash out the pictures too much. Also, some of the images were too large to upload so I compressed them down so hopefully that didn't compromise the quality too much.

1. Zoas (anyone got an exact ID?)
2. Torch coral (gold? Had for under just under a month and has been doing amazing)
3. Green star polyps (have been extending out a lot and looking a ton more green and purple)
4. Leather ($5 so couldn't go wrong and didn't have a leather yet)
5. Pink palys (exact ID?)
6. Xenias (within the past month have been growing like a weed finally and look super full)
7. Kenya Tree (this coral was no more than an inch and a half about a month and a half ago and it has grown a ton!)
8. Mushroom (Exact ID? Hard to tell from the picture but it is like a blue/green/purple mix)
9. Hairy green mushroom? (picked up for cheap and it doubled in size already)
10. Cleaner shrimp (He hides so much in the rock work it was hard to get a picture but seems to be doing really well)
11. FTS as of 6/1 (sorry about the glare from the Kessil )

All comments, suggestions, and questions are welcomed. Especially if anyone has an ID on the corals or any of them I may have identified wrong.

 

looking good!

 

Thank you! The aquascape looks like a mess along with the sand lol That dang pistol shrimp has moved so much sand in the little time that I have had him and has doubled in size. I refuse to cut, break, or glue any of my rocks so it's hard to get it all to stay in place. Let alone keep the sand off all the rocks and corals. The sand has been looking much cleaner and has obviously been aerated quite nicely. Anyone have any recommendations on an aquascape design I could try? Now would be a good time as the only inhabitants are the pistol shrimp, cleaner shrimp, and the mandarin dragonet. The other tankmates are in the QT for another 3 weeks.

 

what about making two islands?

 

I do like the two islands look! I wish I could get a single piece that kind of makes a "natural" looking bridge from one island to the other. I have been debating on changing the aquascape in the rimless at the moment as well. There is one big rock and some smaller ones stack around and on top of it Trying to decide if I want to spread them out more or change the shape somehow before I start stocking towards the end of this month.

 

So just a short update, this past weekend my shipment arrived from Marine Depot and my Tunze 9002 skimmer and IM Aquagadet Minimax media reactor (say that ten times fast lol) arrived. I had the equipment out of the box and put in the tank within 15-20 minutes and got everything how I liked. The media reactor now allows me to run carbon and some phosguard at the same time finally. I didn't have any running before but now I do. I will do a trial period and see how I like the phosguard and I may end up switching to GFO but we will see. The skimmer is breaking in nicely but doesn't have much to skim at the moment since the tank is empty besides the pukani rock and live sand. I could probably run the tank without a skimmer but I will have somewhat of a heavier bio-load and think it would be beneficial for multiple reasons. The tank also received a 20% water change this weekend which was the first of many. Hopefully more pictures and updates to come very soon.

 

Alright guys and gals, checking back in with another update as I have fallen slightly behind unfortunately. As of the end of June, I am happy to announce that my fish have safely returned out of the HT from being treated with ich and back into the DT and they are looking better than ever. The mandarin is the only fish I took a chance with and let stay in the tank during the fallow period. I knew it would not survive in the HT from the lack of a food source and probably stress but the mandarin is alive and doing well, just can't ever get any pictures because she is so shy! Happy to say that the fish have been back a few weeks and no signs of ich whatsoever! So from now on I will be going by "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" and QT'ing everything from here on out.

I have included pictures in this update of my purple firefish and percula clown (almost 7 years old now) and can't seem to get a picture of the mandarin or the pistol shrimp. Also, included are pictures of my corals which include previous and new additions! I recently participated in the Cherry Corals live sale back at the end of June and picked up some nice additions which include 3 different types of acans, a frogspawn, and a nice set of palys. Sorry if the pictures aren't the best and kind of washed out from the blue of the Kessil. I recently also picked up some wham'n watermelon zoas and a green stylo from the LFS. All the corals seem to be doing well and thriving. The xenias have actually split and a branch has moved to a separate rock behind what is now the mother colony. At first I didn't think I would be able to keep these cause they didn't pulse much and wouldn't always fully open. I'm not sure what changed cause my maintenance has stayed the same but these things have taken off like weeds now! The same goes for the kenya tree which I can't stop from growing and need to frag it soon because it is starting to shadow some of my other corals.

I am debating getting a Reef Octopus HOB skimmer for the tank. Anyone think this would be a good idea or not? All I have right now is a modified Aquaclear70 and I do 4-5 gallon water changes once a week that seem to keep things stable and happy at the moment. I'm just curious if a skimmer would be more beneficial or not? On the other hand I like to go by K.I.S.S. as well as "if it isn't broken, don't fix it" lol Any input on if I should do a skimmer or not would be great.

Also, I have never really been one to be interested in dosing my tank at all. I have always feared that if I did it I would end up messing up my params and everything crashing. I also do not plan on investing in dosing equipment. Any one have any suggestions on where would be a good starting point exactly on what to dose and what products to use (like calcium for example) if I were to dose by hand only a few times a week. I think dosing maybe beneficial for my corals and I can get some results but it doesn't seem like it is required just yet. Anyone can point me in the right direction on what to use and give me a little advice that would be greatly appreciated.

Unfortunately no update on my 20 cube at the moment. No inhabitants even though it is running and has an old Current USA 2 bulb T5 on it but I still need to replace that with a Hydra 52. Alright I think I have covered everything that I need to cover at the moment. Sorry for the rambling and thanks for reading if you have made it to this point. Until the next update, cheers!