40g ADA move and upgrade

[Klems]

Based on the size and thickness of that piece, a Dremel may not be able to go all the way thru...maybe try some long drill bits....but be prepared for some unwanted breakage...good thing is you can glue pieces back together and nobody would tell

 

[Chromis]

This is the general look I’m going for - minimal footprint to avoid dead spots and allow siphoning everywhere, and allow MIA zoas/mushrooms to be found again.

Also I want to transition to a mostly acropora reef similar to the photo, and keep zoas on little islands at the bottom so when they are overgrown I can easily frag them.

 

[Chromis]

Jack hammer?
It's actually beautiful as is. I have a few of those in my tanks.
Are you looking chisel the mid area to give a overhang ?

Yes - either an overhang or carve out some branches supporting the table, but I’d break up the table into islands for water flow and to keep corals from overrunning eachother. I mean we’ll see how good I am at shaping rocks, maybe this is all too ambitious

 

[Coral reefer]

Easier to just emaco several smaller rocks together imo

 

[euod]

Better yet I would call Jestersix over and call it a day
He did a couple tanks the week before in the area and the results were pretty profounding in a short period of time.

But then again, you're pretty good yourself after seeing you drilled the glass hole. I do like the idea and it will take lot of patience.

This thread is funny by the way because it's an upgrade within an upgrade? Lol

 

[Chromis]

Easier to just emaco several smaller rocks together imo

You’re probably right. With small pieces you can build up from the bottom and redo anything that doesn’t look right.

I did buy a 15# bucket of eMarco to make the base so it doesn’t tip over. And if I screw up the rock “sculpture” I can turn it to rubble and try again...

 

[Corallus]

I used a pair of bone cutters to make some pretty good holes. You end up breaking out pieces which I think looks pretty natural, but things don't always end up exactly as you planned... Having the cement to fix major mistakes is nice. Great piece of rock by the way.

 

[JVU]

I have one of those inverted cone pukani rocks around the same size as yours, with a eMarco base under the sand and I like how it looks without further holes cut in. Obviously it’s a matter of taste and what look you are going for. The pic you showed has those rocks not with additional holes cut in as far as I can see. Jester-6 did mine along with the rest of my rockscape but you could do it if you are comfortable with eMarco.


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[Wlachnit]

I like your rock. Pukani is relatively easy to work with...I would probably use a dremel with shaping bits, a drill , and some hand tools.

 

[Chromis]

I haven’t gotten very far with the pukani rock sculpture except to buy a bunch of new tools... maybe I’ll make more progress over Xmas break.

The tank is doing well, I switched to Red Sea calcium so I can dose their major trace elements in proportion per their recommendation and measure them less often. Initially using this method, I found that potassium ran a little high (Fritz salt is already high in it) and iron was still low, so I’m dosing those differently than the Red Sea guideline. I’m guessing my iron’s low because of the chaeto. I haven’t been using carbon or GFO but am keeping the chaeto growing by supplementing iron. When I wasn’t dosing iron, the chaeto would turn pale closest to the fuge light.

Latest params:

Salinity 1.025 (Milwaukee)

Red Sea test kit measurements:
Ca ~440
Mg ~1450
Alk ~10.5
Phos 0.04ppm
Nitrate 0ppm
Fe ~.05 “low”
K 440
I2 ~ 0.06 “OK”

The phosphate reduction from before might have to do with my husband finally weaning our Darwin oscillaris to pellets while I was traveling. I usually broke down and fed him frozen or flake foods after he didn’t eat any pellets with the other fish for a few days, but my husband apparently only fed pellets the whole week and that took care of it!



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[Flagg37]

Wow, I’ve never heard of a clown fish being so picky. Mine try anything they can find.

Which test kits are you using to test for k and fe?

 

[Chromis]

I use the Red Sea Pro Reef test kits.


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[Chromis]

The past month of growth on the rainbow chalice chip I picked up from the last CFM in August - maybe one new mouth? I would not notice this coral growing unless I took photos.

Nov:

Dec:

 

[kinetic]

Wow, I’ve never heard of a clown fish being so picky. Mine try anything they can find.

I've had a few clowns now, and they can be pretty picky, especially if they're not that hungry. I know which kinds of foods are their favorites (they go nuts for those), and others which are eaten just so they can survive.

They can even lose their appetite if you mix in something new they dislike. They won't even try to pick through it.

Ultimately, clowns usually won't let themselves starve and start eating whatever is available.

 

[Chromis]

My 6-line wrasse jumped out of the tank today (for good), he lasted 3 years in a rimless aquarium and I was starting to think he was different...


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[Wlachnit]

My 6-line wrasse jumped out of the tank today (for good), he lasted 3 years in a rimless aquarium and I was starting to think he was different...


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Sorry to hear that. But....Wow....3y is a long run for an uncovered tank!

 

[Chromis]

It totally messed up the stasis of the fishes... my Pygmy angel suddenly became super aggressive toward the clownfish since the wrasse jumped. Her fins are full of clownfish bites and she keeps circling their host like a shark. The last time I had a fish jump it was just after adding new fish. They are so sensitive to their little territories, apparently even taking a fish away screws then up.


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[ashburn2k]

Oh wow so much drama...


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[Chromis]

A tiny bit of progress on the “rock sculpture” - how the f- did Michelangelo carve those sculptures without any power tools?! And how did he have time to do all that other stuff?

I still have to cut some little caves here and there, and then chisel away sharp edges (pukani is crazy sharp), then maybe I can move on to the eMarco experiments

 

[Chromis]

We replaced the six line that jumped with a new tiny six line, yellow tang and firefish. This was the first time we added fish since I believe the time my daughter was born and it was fun to pick out fish together. The yellow tang is the new tank boss and the pygmy angel finally calmed down again. All are eating pellets already! I tried the frozen PE callanus someone recommended anyway, it smells terrible compared with the frozen Cyclopods and brine shrimp, but fish love it. Also turns out all the fish can handle all those food sizes (the PE callanus are sized between the brine and cyclopods) - I was pretty surprised to see a 1” six line wrasse slurp down brine shrimp alongside the yellow tang. I also set up a little net in the back (unreachable to emerald crabs) with live macro algae from my sump but the tang hasn’t shown any interest in it.