TWOLITREmedia's 75g BowFront Reef!

Done and done, thanks for the suggestion I didn't think the birdsnest being close would be an issue but I suppose anything with moving polyps could be an interesting battle.
I have see Acan's trying to eat torch coral tentacles online before haha.

 

Alright so here it is, the long awaited update!

It's been a good two weeks almost I believe since updating and much has changed and been added. The tank is basically at capacity now and I am just going to enjoy watching it grow for a year or two before moving.

I'll just get right into it, and highlight some of the new pieces as well as some that were already there!

New piece of blueish green acro /w an encrusted plug

18 by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

Brain looking juicy as ever

11 by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

My newest ad.....dun dun dun dunnnnnnnnn....a HUGE fox coral! This thing is totally amazing the amount it fluctuates from night to day. I will make sure I grab a shot at night for sure.

Final Tank Adds! by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

One of my two new anemones!

Final Tank Adds! by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

Here's the other! Both are nicely settled in and have not moved in over a week.

Final Tank Adds! by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

A horrible out of focus shot of one of the two new birdsnest!

Final Tank Adds! by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

My original birdsnest, this thing is growing quick!

Final Tank Adds! by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

Some new tealish purple mushrooms that came on a rock with a ton of pink and yellow tiny zoas! I call them the pink lemonade rock

Final Tank Adds! by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

The Bubble tip reaching out

Final Tank Adds! by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

That gonapora I grabbed a couple weeks ago is just fully extended now and looks wild!

Final Tank Adds! by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

My original neon acro and red monti

Final Tank Adds! by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

Clam seems to be making a full recovery since being moved! Super happy, thought this guy was a gonner. I think what happened was it's mantle actually was eaten by the shrimp. They were none stop on it for four days, but it seems to be growing back quickly and the clam is still very reactive.

Final Tank Adds! by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

Lobo, ric, and my new frag of favia. This favia is going to look WILD in about a year, it's a two coloured favia with neon green mouths.

Final Tank Adds! by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

Ok so I grabbed a nice big piece of red digitata and broke so many pieces off of it I was able to creat what will be a shelf of digitata branching out from my zoa garden base!

Final Tank Adds! by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

Another new piece of blue acro, this photo does no justice as its at the back of the tank and the water volume warps the photo quite a bit.

Final Tank Adds! by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

Another new awesome add is this beautiful sea pen. I don't see these often in peoples tanks and love this thing dearly. At night it completely disappears under the sand totally un seen. It's wild to watch this thing grow as the sun rises. News target feeding of phytoplan once every three days or so.

Final Tank Adds! by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

Big ol piece of green monti I grabbed!

Final Tank Adds! by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

Both clowns now spend all day and all night hosting all three anemones in the tank. This is the anemone the large clown sleeps in, and the small one sleeps in the other new white anemone. So glad they figured it out without taping pics to the tank haha

Final Tank Adds! by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

Some brand new reds birdsnest

Final Tank Adds! by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

Can't remember if I posted a shot of this orange and green acan but it's totally awesome. The colour really pops uner the AI SOL units.

Final Tank Adds! by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

Red gonapora with blue mouths fully opened now since moving it to a nice coved little area.

Final Tank Adds! by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

The lobo looking nice and floppy in it's new spot up high in the tank. May still move this guy a bit....

Final Tank Adds! by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr


Well here it is, the FULL tank shot. Below you will find the finaly livestock list.....now we watch it grow

Final Tank Adds! by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

The List:

2 Clownfish
2 Benghai Cardinals
1 FlameAngel
1 SixLine
5 BlueGreen Chromis
2 Emerald Crabs
2 Cleaner Shrimp
Big Ass Clean Up Crew
1 Open Brain
1 Lobo Frag
1 Large Ricordia /w 4 babies on it's rock
3 Anemones
1 three headed alvepora
1 four headed gonapora
1 frag of red gonapora
1 three headed frogspawn
1 red birdsnest
1 green birdsnest
1 white birdsnest
1 Large pink/Blue Lobo
Large Zoa garden with over ten different coloured zoas!
Various assorted mushrooms (Teal, Purple, Blue, Green)
3 Different pieces of Acropora
Various branches of Red digitata placed throughout the tank with a main cluster on the wall.
1 Red Monti Cap
1 Large Green Monti
1 Large Colored Feather Duster
1 Two headed white colored feather duster
1 Gigantic Fox Coral
1 Sea Pen
1 Purple/Green Torch Coral
1 Teal/Red Acan Colony
1 Orange/Green Acan colony
1 Crochea Clam
1 Frag of RedPlanet
2 Sandsifting Stars



Holy moly.....it's been a fun and intense ride for just over two months. Super happy with my results, and all my parameters are still stable. I have figured out the exact calcium and magnesium / alk consumption so dosing is easy

Thanks for all the help guys, and most of all a HUGE thanks to Don from Crazy4Coral here in Kingston for all the amazing deals and beautiful coral.

Now onto the nano en devour and focus all my time on that! I will keep this thread updated.

 

Looks fantastic.

Great Fox coral, I do not see a lot of those in the hobby anymore.

You're new Acropora looks like a Cali vs. Oregon Tortuosa.

 

Congrats on the new adds. You have a very colorful and diverse collection.

Shooting through a bowfront is the most challenging thing you attempt unless you try to shoot through a biocube corner.

Your best shots will come from shooting square in and flat against the glass.

 

I Love that big giant! Thanks for the input on the IDs I am useless when it comes to that stuff!

Thank you, I really wanted to make this tank truly a "mixed reef" environment. I absolutely learned quickly my photographic patience has never been tested more then shooting through my bowfront. I have slowly adjusted and mixed up some lens combinations with/without macro extension tubes with/without artificial light and they're getting there but will never be perfect. Shooting as flat to the panel as possible is surely the best advice for anyone struggling with this issue. I know what you mean about a cube as my nano is an 18 gallon cube and the corners are unshootable....even more so you can barely even look through the corners without feeling drunk ;-)

 

The tank looks amazing! Great job!

 

Wow TWO LITRE - very, very impressive. Is the previous owner still stopping by? I hope not, this would break his heart. How lucky are you that you got your clowns already in your nems? What kind of nems are they? the one is a sebae maybe? the other looks to be somewhat bleached - is it a bubble tip? I'm sure it will color up nicely in your healthy tank

 

Very nice! I wish my tank was wider and less tall. It's a deep tank and would rather it be not as deep. I do like wider as I like to slope my rock work instead of piling it high, but it will work out. My SPS Coral won't be as close to the light that their use to, but my 250w MH light should give them plenty of light even in the deeper water.

 

The previous owner actually stopped by yesterday and was totally blown away!

Holy moly it's been a while for an update (by my standards anyways). I've been super busy with the last couple of months of my diploma, went to NYC for a small vacation (tank fared incredibly well! Maintained by my sister :-O), and a million and one other ventures.
Ok so straight to the updates, I'll go photo by photo but first the most recent readings taken of my tank (after I got home from NYC about a week ago).

Phosphate - 0.00
Nitrate - 3ppm
Nitrite - 0ppm
Ammonia - 0ppm
pH - 7.8
Mag - 1300
Calcium - 449
Iodine - .05
Alk - 135
Temp - 78
Sal - 1.026
RO - 5 TUS

Woohoo! perfect

First thing was first when I got home, water change!

Long Awaited Tank Update 06/03/13 by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

Look at this guy, he got sick of his spot in the hole above so he rammed himself into this tatoka rock :-(

Long Awaited Tank Update 06/03/13 by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

Awesome new little mini frag of zoas!

Long Awaited Tank Update 06/03/13 by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

Another!

Long Awaited Tank Update 06/03/13 by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

One of the electric blue hermits..

Long Awaited Tank Update 06/03/13 by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

One of my faveorite pieces of all, my new red star!

Long Awaited Tank Update 06/03/13 by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

Look at this garden now :-D

Long Awaited Tank Update 06/03/13 by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

Still haven't seen these guys extend their polyps yet, but when they do it will be awesome. Sun coral! (Have them in the shady spot for a reason)

Long Awaited Tank Update 06/03/13 by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

Fox coral looking gigantic as ever

Long Awaited Tank Update 06/03/13 by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

Another one of my favorite pieces of ours is this brand new illuminated scallop. It literally sends little electric blue currents through it's "mouth" back and forth. Totally awesome to watch!

Long Awaited Tank Update 06/03/13 by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

All birdsnest growing like weeds!

Long Awaited Tank Update 06/03/13 by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

One of our two anemones swaying in the wind

Long Awaited Tank Update 06/03/13 by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

Gonapora all stretched out, this stuff looks great in it's new spot in the tank!

Long Awaited Tank Update 06/03/13 by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

My favorite acro, and my red monti growing like crazy!

Long Awaited Tank Update 06/03/13 by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

The clam has made a 100% full recovery from it's sad state about a month and a half ago....glad I didn't toss it.

Long Awaited Tank Update 06/03/13 by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

Acans

Long Awaited Tank Update 06/03/13 by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

Lobo, ric, favite, and scallop all hanging out on the sea floor....

Long Awaited Tank Update 06/03/13 by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

Tube anemone and sea pen doing they're thing...

Long Awaited Tank Update 06/03/13 by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

Torch coral looking larger than ever and the red gonapora above it growing well

Long Awaited Tank Update 06/03/13 by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

This guy was begging for a photo....

Long Awaited Tank Update 06/03/13 by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

Anemone even farther rammed in :-(

Long Awaited Tank Update 06/03/13 by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

Green monti seems to have stopped shelving out and is starting to grow upwards...cant wait to see this one in a year!

Long Awaited Tank Update 06/03/13 by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

The tips of this blue acro is going crazy

Long Awaited Tank Update 06/03/13 by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

The size of these things in the day vs night is unreal. Almost 6 times as big!

Long Awaited Tank Update 06/03/13 by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

And of course....the current full tank shot!

Long Awaited Tank Update 06/03/13 by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

On another amazingly positive note....I want to thank Don at Crazy4Coral as I was the winner of his three month ballot draw for a brand new BRS 4 stage water purification unit! This will be a welcome upgrade from my two stage RO unit and at almost a $200 price tag what a score! Thanks again Don

Long Awaited Tank Update 06/03/13 by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

:-D

Long Awaited Tank Update 06/03/13 by Emilio Ciccarelli | www.TWOLITREmedia.com, on Flickr

 

Great looking update Emilio.

Very common for nems to protect their foot that way.