My 1.5ft nano cube

[raydiative]

yup, i was lucky to get it from bro reddevil. Initially, it hid in the "caves" most of the time. But when I introduced the 2 Chromies and True Perc, all 4 of them are constantly at the surface waiting for food esp when someone goes near.

Yes you are right, my tank has 3 sided views

good catch there!

i must say that the scaping is splendid.. you've got a gift of scaping... =]

[comycus]

good catch there!

i must say that the scaping is splendid.. you've got a gift of scaping... =]

I agree... the scaping is beautiful!

[jackywongto]

I agree... the scaping is beautiful!

I was trying to picture his scape in my 1.5 ft tank and you will realise that it is really not easy to do it.

kudos... clap clap.

[comycus]

I was trying to picture his scape in my 1.5 ft tank and you will realise that it is really not easy to do it.

kudos... clap clap.

be more imaginative la haha who knows, maybe next time we will be able to support 3d photos. Can rotate the photos to see whatever view we like

btw bro whiteice, tt's Jacky's not too subtle hint tt he wants 3 FTS photos from you...

[jackywongto]

be more imaginative la haha who knows, maybe next time we will be able to support 3d photos. Can rotate the photos to see whatever view we like

btw bro whiteice, tt's Jacky's not too subtle hint tt he wants 3 FTS photos from you...

yeah fts for the 3 sides will be nice ... pics pls!

[whiteice78]

Guys, thanks for all the comments and commendation. Here are the fts for all 3 sides:

1) here's the cube in general

2) Here is the frontal fts

3) To the left, you get this view, my zoo garden. Pardon my unglam looking diy crab/mantis trap

4) To the right, you get this view. The remaining space on the top plateau is reserved for SPS, the mid to lower wall is for the chillipepper monti as well as an orange monti I intend to get in future

I know the basket looks ugly. Once the skimmer comes, it will take that place and the Cheato will most likely find it's way either to a diy refugium or a FR converted into a refugium. We shall see...

[raydiative]

very nice... bro Cedric selling chillipepper monti.. you can get from him

[whiteice78]

very nice... bro Cedric selling chillipepper monti.. you can get from him

haha, i already got from him, but it's so small, u cant see it in the pics. It's somewhere in the middle of the entire photo. He also gave me a radioactive and pink birdsnest frag to try out. I've nver tried sps but i think they are not exactly doing v well right now. Could be due to no skimmer. Latest update is the skimmer will only come in before christmas. Hope the frags can hold out till then.

[jackywongto]

any update bro?

[whiteice78]

any update bro?

The past month have been absolutely terrible for me. Sort of a mini crash happened. I lost 2 blastos, 1 radioactive frag, 1 maxima, and most of my zoos contracted zoopox. For fishes, I lost 1 true perc and the beloved flame from bro reddevils to ich.

Under the kind advice of bro cedric, I stopped stocking short for the 4 frags (1 radioactive, 1 lime green monti, 1 other monti and 1 other b/n) I got from bro Joe. And the luminious greenish/cyan blastos I could not resist from Iwarna.

On the equipment side I made changes/additions:

Lighting : - Changed to the Giesemann Nova II 150w mh thanks to bro marcovan

- Ordered 2 strips of 5 RB LEDs each from bro Sherman to supplement the Nova. Somehow, going to attach the strips onto the pendant.

Circulation: - added a Hydor K1 in addition to the nano for more flow

Filteration: - Got a used Berlin airlift skimmer as my Tunze reefpack sad to say is still not here after more than 3 months

- Addded a small ehiem internal filter filled with Rowaphos

Refugium: - Finally got my FR converted into refugium for cheato going

Quarantine: - This past month drilled into my head that a quarantine tank is a MUST esp for emergencies. Hence, I got a small pico tank complete with an internal eden 316 filter running carbon and sponge, a nano resun skimmer, a 9 watt 6500k PL clip on light and a small fan. temp can be kept at ard 27 deg. Going to add some Cheato in there as well.

Lifestock: - I made a few purchases which are currently residing in the qurantine tank. The main tank remains fishless. Residents include a flame angel, a purple tang, a jewel damsel and a mandarin.

Will try and takes pics and post when I get home.

[jackywongto]

Sorry to hear of your losses.

Press on Bro. These are typical reefing lessons which one will go through sooner or later.

Don't be too disheartened.

[jackywongto]

btw, keep me posted on the LED developements and always to keep a polyfilter for emergency purposes.

[peacemaker]

Did you manage to find out the root cause of the problem?

[digibee]

Yeah, sorry about your mini crash.

Hopefully, you learnt something from it;

and post your experience/opinion on why it crashed here so it will help me and other reefers as well.

Could it be due to overstocking or some water parameters out of hand?

Cheers!

[onizukaa]

because no skimmer and overstock?

[whiteice78]

Actually, the only thing that went wong and I suspect is the reason for the crash is i was too trigger happy with dosing KH and calcium. My KH read an astonishing 15. I did 20% water changes on alternate days for the first week, then stretch to 3-4 days for the next 2 weeks to bring my KH back to 9 presently. My calcium levels even till today is ard 480.

stocking was not an issue as my tank was rather lightly stocked. Nitrate was ard 5ppm consistently. At most I only had 1 flame, 1 perc and 2 chromis in the tank. However, I highly suspect that the ich was brought about my me introducing the 2 chromis directly into the tank w/o quarantine. The Chromis are hardy little buggers, even when they are covered with ich, they are still grabbing food. They have since recovered and in the quarantine tank along with the others.

Another factor was the prolonged period without a skimmer. Because after I got the berlin airlift to stand in for the super delayed reefpack, the condition of the corals seem to stabalize. Just my opinion though.

As for zoopox, this is a very debatable and touchy subject. My zoos were all doing quite well. However, I got this particular piece from another reefer. Came with 2 different types on the rock. The larger more common greenish paly opened up after about a day in my tank. However, the other variety never opened. I did not think much of it even after 2 weeks, still no signs of opening. untill i found many of the polyps covered with white spots. by then, I checked my other zoo colonys and discovered that zoopox had set it. I suspect that the particular piece may have been either stressed out and weakened or may already had contracted the pox thus, without a quarantine dip/bath, I had added zoopox into my maintank. Just a theory though since no one really knows how or where zoopoxs comes from. But from my experience, that was the weakest link. Lesson learnt; next time you buy zoos from anywhere, best is see the item in the tank first b4 buying and after that, dip it in furan 2 at least once before adding to your main tank.

[whiteice78]

Here are some pics of the state of my tank now.

The FTS

My converted FR

My quarantine tank, excuse the messy wires

My very crude make shift frag rack where I place most of my surviving zoos for easier access to treatment

Holy crap! look at those wires. will do cable management only after the reefpack is in

[whiteice78]

At least the GSP is starting to take root

The top of my plateau. Used to house 2 surviving zoos.

The crocea still going strong

The lumi green/cyan blasto. Note the chillipepper on the left. though surviving but still not colouring up

The radio and bn frag from bro Joe. Doing well so far

The new group of inhabitants currently in the quarantine tank

I'm facinated by this, the jewel damsel. Hope like ah beng says, in a tank of my size, it will be unlikely to reach adult colouration. It'll be a shame if the spots fade

[jackywongto]

omg... all those wires ....... lol

I'm sure your tank will be back to its former glory very soon.

[Joe_P]

Wow..

You actually bought that damsel.

BTW, nice colony of Cyphastrea decadia youn have there.

[peacemaker]

I saw it in person, and it is indeed rather unique. Hope it isn't too aggressive.

[yikai]

thre are three kinds of jewel damselfish belonging to the family Microspathodon. all of them grows to huge sizes, smallest being Microspathodon chrysurus, which grows to about 4 inches. the other two grows to 9 and 10 inches respectively. although will not reach such sizes in captivity, they will lose the spots when matured. M.chrysurus (the 4 inch adult) will still retain some of the spots..

unfortunately, your damsel will lose the spots in due time, and i do believe it is one of the 9 to 10 incher ones. its grey, unlike the two other blue counterparts from the atlantic. never the less, enjoy them now for the spots are beautiful.

and sorry to hear for your mini crash. come back stronger!

[wilsontantw]

what a superb rock scape!

very creative and practical!

[pokmingsheng]

wow..

love your QT..

looks neat and nice..

[whiteice78]

omg... all those wires ....... lol

I'm sure your tank will be back to its former glory very soon.

thanks bro, thinking of slowly stocking up again. Went to GO at 3 plus jus now which was a bad time as they were unpacking. tot of getting some of the cheaper old leftover corals to try out but couldnt even see anything as there were many boxes.