24 MONTHS

We have come to the end of 2014 and this marks the 2nd year anniversary of me going back to reefing.

This year 2014 alone, I am quite happy with the progress made in the second half of the year after I upgraded my bigger tank to a 3 feet one. When I compared the recent photos with some past ones, I realized there were some things and corals from the past that I still love and are missing from the current aquarium. However, there isn't much space left for me to add that many more things.

So a big question that I have is what should I do in 2015? Should I finally succumb to getting a chiller and a calcium reactor? I am really not too sure at the moment although I was tempted to get the latter when I almost had the chance to go to China early this month. Or should I work on upgrading my 3 feet further to a 6 feet although space at home is a constraint and consideration or should I do a project to get a rimless tank much like the Fluval Edge Aquarium. I was sketching a customized tank but didn't manage to get it done thus far. A cliff-hanging L-shaped tank would definitely be too much. There are just too many items on my wish list for the new year but money and space are serious issues that I have to grapple with.

Fluval Edge Aquarium taken from the web

Separately, I recently read with great interest the importance of using tonga rock pieces to form the base foundation, instead of using big, fat and round pieces, to improve water circulation around the bases. It all made sense and for years, I have been using such big, fat and round rocks to pile them together into a mountain, and unknowingly created dead zones around the rocks that collected debris. 

So I finally removed the last few pieces of basal rocks from aquarium 1 over the last weekend and replaced them with two pieces of rocks that I purchased from Sea Life Aquarium. It may need a few more pieces but I am pleased with it for now. For aquarium 3, I just managed to remove a number of basal rocks that were buried in the sand today and did a rescape as shown below. I spent at least 3 hours doing it just now and am currently quite pleased with the results too.

This much I managed to achieve before the clock strikes twelve tonight! So here's wishing all an early happy and prosperous 2015!

Aquarium 1 (1 ft cube - 27 litres)
The list of livestock is as follows:

• Fishes 
• Yellow Shrimp Goby
• 2 true Percula ocellaris Clowns
• Hector Goby
• Regal Blue Tang
• 2 Green Clown Gobies
• Invertebrates 
• 3 Turbo Snails 
• Nassarius Snail
• Tuxedo Sea Urchin
• Fire Shrimp
• Corals
• LPS
• 2 Acans
• mega Blasto
• Bubble Coral
• Duncan
• Soft Corals
• Rose Bud Tip Anemone and Bud Tip Anemone
• White Tree Coral
• Orange Tree Coral
• Polyps
• Anthelia
• Zoas
• 2 rocks of Green Star Polyps
• Glove Polyps
• Mushrooms 
• a few blue Actinodiscus mushrooms
• Macroalgae
• green Caulerpa
• green cup algae
• red algae

The technical information is as follows:

• Atman HF-0600 HOB Filter
• Maxspect Razor Nano 60W (10,000K) 
• Tunze Osmolator Nano
• Boyu Cooling Fan

my first Aquarium 1 before I rescaped it on 27 Dec 14

aquarium under 100% blue lights

white tree coral

orange tree coral

the 1 inch Blue Tang and two True Percula Clowns

Yellow Shrimp Goby

Hector's Goby

the new 5 headed Duncan

Aquarium 3 (3 x 1.5 x 1.5 feet and sump - 250 litres)
I have almost used up all the real estate space of this aquarium. There isn't much room for me to add anything although occasionally some of the corals still show some stn. I am losing a beautiful purple-tipped green hammer coral because I recently turned up the speed of the wavemaker and caused days of sandstorm that covered the branches with layers after layers of sand, smothering the coral in the process and prevented it from opening fully.

I also set up a frag rack to start propagating some overgrown corals.

The updated list of livestock is:

• Fishes
• false Percula Clown Fish
• 2 black Clowns
• Purple Tang
• Blue-yellow Damsel
• Six Line Wrasse
• Yellow Tang
• Yellow Clown Goby
• Flame Angel
• Invertebrates
• Turbo and Nassarius snails
• red Linckia starfish
• purple Linckia starfish
• 2 Tuxedo Urchins
• 2 Cleaner Skunk Shrimps
• Fire Shrimp
• Yellow Fan Worm
• orange Sea Squirt
• Fromia starfish
• brown polyps Gorgonian
• Toadstool Leather Coral (bleached)
• Corals
• SPS
• Horn Coral
• 2 frags of green digitata
• frag of pink Pocci
• frag of Birdnest
• frag of pink Birdnest
• frag of purple digitata
• 2 frags of Fibre Optic Pocci
• frag of green Stylophora
• peach Monti cap
• green Monti cap
• frag of red digitata
• frag of sunset Monti
• frag of reverse sunset Monti
• orange Cyphastrea
• 2 green frags
• purple stag
• blue sps
• purple Birdnest
• Red Planet
• green Pocci
• maroon Pocci
• green purple Pocci
• green encrusting Monti
• yellow Birdnest
• red Millepora
• red encrusting Monti
• unknown digitata
• LPS
• 6 Acans
• Hammer Coral
• 3 Supersun Coral frags
• yellow Bubble Coral
• Octo Coral
• brown Alveopora
• green and blue Goniopora
• red Goniopora
• purple Alveopora with blue eye
• peach Hammer Coral
• Mushrooms
• orange Ricordea yuma mushrooms
• rock of blue Actinodiscus mushrooms
• red Actinodiscus mushrooms
• green Ricordea yuma mushrooms
• red mushrooms
• Soft Corals
• 2 Chilli Corals
• red Flower Rock Anemone
• 2 pink Rose Bud Tip Anemones
• green tipped anemone
• grey pulsing Xenia
• Polyps 
• purple Zoas
• Fiery Red Zoas
• green Palythoa
• 4 green Star Polyps
• 4 assorted Zoas
• Clove Polyps
• Macroalgae (in sump)
• Caulerpa
• Chaetomorpha
• red Bamboo

The technical details are:

• Jebao Marine Aqua DC-6000 return pump
• Maxspect R420R 16,000K 160W
• Reef Octopus BH1000 skimmer
• 2 Two Little Fishes Phosban Reactor running Phosban
• Cooling Fan
• Fluval 3 external filter
• MP25 and RW-8 wavemakers
• Tunze Nano Osmolator
• Marine Magic Triplet Dosing

today's FTS after rescaping

the left

the right

the left taken at an angle

the right taken at an angle

the Yellow Clown Goby

the purple Birdnest and a Pocci

this has to be the most expensive coral that I have and I hope it's worth it

the bigger black Clown bit me earlier and I had a rude shock

Aquarium 4 (39 x 32 x 41 cm with 7 cm IOS - 55 litres) 

This is one of the office aquarium which has successfully been culturing the brown Anthelia, which has crept up the front glass panel. It is an interesting aquarium that went through much changes too and recently, I just threw out all the big, fat and round rocks. Yes, I am intending to find some open pieces to rescape it to my satisfaction but meanwhile, I am allowing new strains of green macroalgae and the brown Anthelia to grow. By the way, it has only 3 fishes because earlier attempts to introduce other fishes such as the Banner Fish failed.


The updated list of livestock is:

• Fishes
• Yellow Tang
• Gold Maroon Clown Fish
• Blue-yellow Damsel Fish
• Invertebrates
• Turbo snails
• Corals
• Polyps
• Anthelia
• Zoas
• Macroalgae
• green algae
• Chaetomorpha

The technical details are:

• Green Element LED 60W (12 White 12,000K and 8 Blue 460 nm) with 2 fans

these photos were taken on 29 Dec 14

there are only 3 fishes inhabitants 

the Finger Coral is doing well

the Yellow Tang is getting fat

a gold Maroon Clown

somehow the growth of the Anthelia seemed to have slowed down

there are 2 patches that are growing up the front glass panel