Pics- acropora in the Reefbowl and Mini75, 15 new caulastrea

[brandon4291]

Just last weekend, I attended a meeting at Craig Lampe's house here in Lubbock. There was a discussion of his densely stocked reef setup and its mechanics, as well as a frag trade and a handshake session that introduced me to several neat people. We had people from all walks discussing tank dynamics and animals, what a fun thing to have around here.
This collection of pico frags includes several species soft corals, tunicates, sps, lps, and anemones. It has taken about a year to locate each lucky find, usually dictated by my LFS stock and the pieces that break of in the dealer's tanks. Craig gave me four frags of some acropora that are absolutely not accessible around here, unless you meet someone cool enough to break you off a few branches. Here are the new frags installed, they will look very nice in about 4 months.

 

[azreefer]

AMAZING!!! Everytime I see one of your pics it makes me want to set up a tiny tank.

 

[brandon4291]

after installation, the frags will emit a fair amount of slime as they acclimate to the new water column. The systems is left running for a few hours, and then thoroughly cleaned to remove the excess slime. The next round is much less, and enough to be processed within the system.

This is a pic of the reefbowl drained, showing some Montipora at the top and some temporarily shriveled up blastomussa and euphyllia.

Craig's gift increases the biodiversity in the pico systems to a total of 18 varieties of marine life, 15 of that coral species, all living in one gallon of water. The Mini 75 holds about 30 ounces of water and still supports the same array of life as the reefbowl.
Slow acclimation of the animals, water changes after new additions, good calcium and CaCO3 supplementation, regular feeding, and good lighting appear to keep the animals healthy even in a glass vase. One year as of 10/02!!

 

[brandon4291]

The acropora in this picture is among the other tiny SPS frags in the lower center, each averaging about a half-inch in length. Just under the center caulastrea frag with two heads, a little to the left.
Surgical hemostats were used to remove and install the pieces, to minimize receeding tissue at the base. These sterile tools allow you to grip right at the base of the small frag, with little contact. super glued carefully...

In Craigs system the acropora were deep purple and red, in here they appear to be adjusting zooxanthellae to the new conditions. Sps in my systems seem to favor pink and orange tones. The purple ones have a nice purple tone, and each frag has rather long polyps. the detail is not as good with the cam I am using...

 

[brandon4291]

the system is starting to spot with coralline after its first month, and is very very densely stocked. The rear baffle refugium fills up with macroalgae every few weeks and is exported.

 

[brandon4291]

thanks tons azreefer!-- for me, tiny systems are the only affordable systems.

Hey, Safford and Thatcher Az are some of my old stomping grounds, you know that area?

Brandon M


the reefbowl was finally scraped of coralline for the first time. it wasnt too hard, just slipped some hemos around a bent razor blade and went to town. It really opened the field of view back up--it was about 60 percent covered.

 

[brandon4291]

Once again it would be neat for someone to do the math and see what the water column would be in the Mini 75... it measures 9 inches long, 4 inches tall and 3.5 inches front-to-back. The amounts of LR and LS will also need to be considered along with the displacement of the heater and powerhead (minijet 404 set on level 2)

 

[brandon4291]

a brazen attempt to introduce the cousins of the reefbowl, the planted bowl and the terrarium bowl. These little guys will have a vital role in a linked vase ecoworld, so I think they can be included in this thread just this once :twisted:

 

[brandon4291]

the terrarium uses a buried minijet 404 (is it obvious I like these for pico systems) to push water over a four inch waterfall at the top of the driftwood, where it percolates back through the substrate distributing nutrients to the ivys and ferns in the bowl. Notice the separate drainage canal at the bottom to prevent stagnation and function as a pump reservoir.

 

[tinyreef]

"brandon! you shrunk the reef, again!"

the mini75 is my 2nd fav after the femto.

extending on our last discussion of multi-level reefs, i've been thinking maybe you can link several picos together on a wall unit to simulate the various reef zones. kinda like borneman's description of his multi-environment system.

in the center could be the traditonal reef, intertidal to one side, reef crest, lagoonal, mangrove, spur & groove, the connecting pipes could be filtering raceways. 5~9 different little systems totalling a couple of gallons would make an impressive display! 8)

 

[Anonymous]

Groovy work as usual, Brandon! Make sure you take a look at my thread regarding my 2.5 reef that's still in its infancy.

 

[Anonymous]

Once again it would be neat for someone to do the math and see what the water column would be in the

well, all ya gotta do is multiply thusly
--> 9 x 4 x 3.5 = 126
--> 126/231 = .5454545gal (in this case the "/" means "divided by")
(231 = #cu."/gal)

so, by my calculations, your "tank", without its rock and denizens, is just a wee bit over 1/2 gal. that's pretty frickin' cool, a reef in a milk bottle. i've said for years that my favorite sys's were my bitty ones, but no one ever believed me! (one of my fave residents are green star polyps.)

 

[Garee1]

nice