Minibow 7 @ 2 months

[Anonymous]

Here's the scoop:

AGA 7g Minibow
32w CSL PC Retro w/ 50/50 bulb
Hagen AquaClear 200 w/ surface skimmer attachment
Visitherm 50w heater
Microjet 440 w/ Fluval Spray Bar
Little Time/Temp Digital Thermometer

10# LR
10# LS

Red Protopalythoa
Milky Way zoanthids
Cyan center/cyan skirt zoanthids
Peach center/chartreuse skirt zoanthids
Cyan center/brown skirt zoanthids
Orange center/orange skirt zoanthid
Green center/brown skirt zoanthids
Green center/yellow skirt zoanthids
Devils Hand Leather
Maroon/Bubblegum ricodea
Blue/Purple mushrooms (discosoma?)
Ultra Green frogspawn
Green Caulestrea
Greenish Montipora digitata
Tan Montipora capricornis w/ pink rim & purple polyps

3 Nerite snails + babies
2 Astrae snails
5 Nassarius snails
3 Stomatella snails + babies
2 Blue Leg hermits
1 Algae hermit
1 Lettuce Nudibranch
1 Porcelain Crab
A Plethora of Vermetid (sp?) snails
A handful of micro dusters
Two HUGE peanut worms
Misc. bristleworms, pods, etc. etc. you know the score

Full tank:

 

[Anonymous]

Pics

 

[Anonymous]

Pics

 

[Anonymous]

Hrm, interesting, learned something new.

 

[Anonymous]

My ongoing project : 70w halide. The light is on the way from LampDr on www.nano-reef.com and the hood was built by a local reefer for cost of materials (what a guy!). Going to replace my 50/50 with an actinic 03, maybe throw another 32w 03 on there, hopefully get some DIY moonlights going if I can find the time and patience. Will be using a 10k Ushio bulb for the MH.

 

[Anonymous]

Until I get a job, I won't be adding anything else to the tank other than the lighting upgrade.

My wish list for the tank is now down to:

A fish of some sort
Sexy shrimp
Another porcelain, maybe
Pink Seriatopora
Blue Tort
A small Fungia
A small open brain, not sure what genus I'm interested in
Blue zoanthids from a local reefer growing out frags

Maybe another small frag of zoanthids or ricordeas, it's going to be pretty full in there soon enough.

 

[Meloco14]

Thats pretty sweet, some of those ricordeas are amazing. Mine looks dull in comparison. That hood is awesome too. Whoever made it did a great job, and for the cost of materials only! What a deal

 

[808kb]

Sweet hood, monkey. I've got the nano cube and wanted to do the same thing. Do you have any more info on the construction? The thickness of the wood and the size of the planks you used for the bow. Did you cover the planks with a lamanate?

 

[Anonymous]

Very, very nice tank. A friend of mine here on the board has the same exact frogspawn reproduction. It's the sign of a well kept tank

FWIW, if you're interested in open brains, Trachyphyllia gets along with green M. digitata IME.

My fish suggestion: my avatar, Stonogobiops yasha

Thanks for showing us your tank,
Matt

 

[Anonymous]

Meloco14, thanks for the compliment. Those rics were free! from the same guy that built my hood. Great guy! I've actually only bought two frags, the frogspawn and the purple zoanthids. Everything else has been given to me.

808kb, the front panel is scored every 3/4" 2/3 of the way through. The front is 1/4" birch, the top and sides are 1/2" birch. No laminate. He scored the front then glued it down and clamped it. I'm in the process of painting it now. Got my halide in and am now only waiting on the bulb/reflector from HelloLights. Oh yeah, I got to get glass cut...

For the nanocube, keep an eye on MattGecko's site:

http://home.earthlink.net/~minibowcanopy/index.html

He's been building one and will be offering them for sale soon. Once he posts pics you might get some inspiration

Matt, High praise coming from the Nano moderator I actually thought about going for the Yasha Goby, but the tank will in all likelihood be up for another 4 months or so before I make a big move out of state.

Yesterday I went to one of the LFS in Baton Rouge and picked up a Firefish. Acclimated, seemed happy, I was pretty pleased. Woke up this morning, saw him in the tank, was going to feed him. Snoozed my alarm for a few hours, woke up... no fish in the tank and the cats are VERY interested in something behind the aquarium. Hmmmmmmm....

I'm really amazed that he made it out of the back. Right now I have a slightly modded MB7 canopy, I only expanded the opening on the left side to accommodate the surface skimmer attachment for the AC. Not a lot of room (+ current!) to make it out, but he must have been determined

So today I went back and got a Clark's Clownfish that I almost bought instead of the Firefish in the first place. He's acclimated happily and already has taken a shine to the frogspawn. Hopefully he doesn't have any suicidal tendecies either.....

 

[808kb]

Reefermonkey, thanks for the reply. I'll try to d.i.y., for now but can't wait for Matt to release his design so I can put in my order.

 

[shalegac]

awesome tank! How is the surface skimmer working out for you? I've been playing with the idea of getting one.

 

[Anonymous]

The surface skimmer is one of the best investments I made. It's takes up a decent amount of real estate, but it's a huge benefit. With no real instructions, it can take a minute to figure out, and it takes some tweaking to get it right, but it's a really great addition to the AquaClear.