G1v1n's Skimmerless Liverockless Reef [Winner TOTM Jan08]

[G1v1n]

Well I had to go and buy another coral worse yet, an SPS that required me to rescape the top where I keep all the SPS. Among all the trying to get everything to fit, I demolished my 2 biggest acro colonies as I tried to split the rock they were both on I think it will be for the best in the end though because it freed up the best spots for the most colourful frags I have and I can look forward to seeing them grow into nice colonies. What I didn't expect was to win TOTM just now and everyone will see a tank that looks like it has just been assembled. But it has forced me to get off my butt,borrow a better camera(still just me operating it though) and take some better pics for my journal.

Drag race past Itdepends ancora frag.

Morph corner

Arty? shot

Frag from one of the colonies I smashed

One of the acros I put in instead



New colour for my zoa field

Fragged from a local reefer


New coral has nasty sweepers

I am assuming the bicolour angel is keeping this acanth from extending because pieces in my frag tank look fine.

Clearfelled area with promising new growth

New pair of clowns my wife couldn't resist. I can't be certain but I'm going with Percula as an ID.

[PapaG]

Awesome looking tank and congrats on the TOTM win

[Rhys123]

Hey G1v1n

Congrats love the tank.

I wish I would of thought of doing what you did before we did this.



My wife would probably divorce me if I cut a 6 foot hole in it though (though it is tempting)

Cheers Steve

[G1v1n]

You could always play a marine documentary DVD and save lots of time and effort

At this point I should do a belated "the making of" post
This is the old 3fter as it was starting to get too full.

Blank wall that's just crying out for some serious surgery.

Understanding, tolerant wife doing some light dusting.

It's amazing how little coral it takes to fill a 3ft tank

This is my "purple phase" where rampant algae took over- it eventually overgrew and starved itself.

The rest is pretty much history (added new stuff, made auto topoff and dosers) but I spent today rescaping the SPS section (again) to gain more height and more usable space near the light. I have some brown frags that should be pale pink/purple if I'm nice to them.

[G1v1n]

My TOTM prize.

This will make a great upgrade to my frag tank - may even become supplemental lighting to a skylight over the display

[G1v1n]

Cheers guys
Time for an update - a few things have changed since those pics were taken such as rescaping the acro end of the tank and removing most of the large acro colonies to allow some more colourful frags I had to grow. They are coming along but it will be a while until I get that "full" look I want - I think it will be worth the wait though. Also the clarki clown was removed(gone to stud in a friends tank) because it was too territorial. The Bicolour angel also went due to it pecking slightly at corals(just enough to keep the acanthastrea from opening) and it would also bully new fish.
In their place went a pair of Percula clowns, a Blue(regal) tang, a foxface and a Solarensis wrasse. The new fish have settled in well despite my QT cracking 1.5 weeks into quarantine, causing a premature end to the Q. I was at the computer with my back to the tank when I heard it crack across the base - very lucky I suppose.
Anyway time for some pics, I'm still not happy with the quality of the pics but I think it's the best I can do with my camera.

[G1v1n]

Another interesting story - When the tank cracked and I had to add the fish and corals to the main tank I also transferred some trochus snails without acclimating them. The change in water triggered them and the 30 odd snails in the tank to spawn - there were clouds of eggs and sperm everywhere. It has happened to me before but I have many more snails this time so I was worried about spoiling the water with so much gunk so I did a waterchange after I thought they were done but that started them off again. Then I put them all in a bucket with a heater and powerhead till the next day when they had quite finished:)
Soon I'm expecting to be overrun with tiny snails again - at least the corals had a good feed.

[G1v1n]

I've been a bit slack with updating lately but here are a few pics. Everything is going fine, I've had to remove a few corals as others have grown and I've blown a t5 ballast on the light unit but that's not too bad overall for about 2 years running.










I've been having problems with fish nipping corals. First it was a bicolour angel that pecked at acans and anthelia so I traded him for a foxface because they are reportedly usually reef safe. I guess this one didn't read the same articles I did because it seemed to love biting the clams right in the middle and stopping them from opening at all. The foxface was traded for this Margined coralfish as I love butterflys and I was starting to gather aiptasia in the tank. The margin took care of the aiptasia nicely but then started on the clams too. He soon gave up on those luckily, but still likes to peck at acans, trachys anything that extends feeding tentacles. I guess the tentacles look just like aiptasia to him

I may soon have to think of another fish to replace him with.

[Rod the Reefer]

Congrats on 4th place in the 2008 TOTY.

Well done Gavin.

Rod.

[Rusty1]

Congrats Gavin. Nice to see mixed reefs polling well